ACHILLEA, milfoil, in botany, so call ed from Achilles who is supposed to have acquired some knowledge of botany front his master Chiron, and to have used this plant for,the cure of NI ounds and ulcers ; a genustf the Syrigenesia Polygantia Su perthin cla.ss of plants, and of the natural order of Comp °sit x.Discoiclex. There are 27 species, of which the most remarkable are the ptarrnica, or sneezelyort, At. grow ing wild in all the temperate parts of Eu rope, fiat Ind in Britain, not uncommonly in meadows, by the sides of ditches, on the bal*.s of corn liaids, in moist woods and shady places. The shoots are put into salads, and the roots, baling hot and biting, are used for the.tooth-ache, whence the plant has been called bastard pellitory, and, on account of the form of the "leaf, goose-tongue : the powder of the dried leaves, used as snufl; provoke's sneezing, whence the name : in Siberia, a decoction Of the whole herb is said to be successfidly used in internal hemorrhages: of this plant there is a variety with double flowers, call ed batchelor's buttons; it flowers in July and August, and makes a tolerable ap pearance ; and the millefolium, common M. or yarrow ; abundant in pastures and by the sides of roads, floweringfrom June to September mixed instead of hops by the inhabitants of Dalecarlia in their ale, in order to give it an inebriating quality recommended by Anderson, in his Essays on Agriculture, for cultivation, though thought to be a noxious weed in pastures : the bruised herb, fresh, is recommended by Linnxiis as au excellent vulnerary and styptic, and by foreign physicians in he morrhages, and thought by Dr. Hill to be excellent in dysenteries, when adminis tered in the form of a strong decoction. An ointment is made of it for the piles, and for the scab in slteep ; and an essen. tial oil is extracted from the flowers; but it is not used in the present practice. ACURA S, or SAror.e-Ptrie, in botany-, a genus of the Hexandria Alonogynia class, and of the natural order of Dumo sm. There are four species, viz. The
mammosa, or mamme sapota, otherwise called nippled S. or-Aineriean marrne lade ; growing in America to the height of thirty or forty feet, with leaves a foot long, and three inches broad in the mid dle, cream-coloured flowers, and large oval fruit, containing a thick, luscious pulp, called natural marmelade. This tree is planted for the fruit in Jamaica, Barba does, Cuba, midmost of the West India is lands, and was cultivated here by Mr. Mil ler in 1739. Of this there is a variety call ed the bully, or nisberry bully-tree, be cause it is the tallest of all the trees in the woods : it is esteemed one of the best timber trees in Jamaica. 2. The sapota, which grow s to the height of sixty or se venty feet, without knots or branches, and bezu-s a round, yellow fruit, bigger than a quince, which smells well, and is of an a greeable taste. It is common at Panama, and some other places in the Spanish West Indies, but not to be found in many of the English settlements. lt wa.s culti vated here by Mr. Miller in 1739. 3. The dissecta, or cloven,flowered S. cultivated in Malabar for the fruit, which is of tire form and size of an olive, having a pulp of a sweetish acid flavour. Its leaves are used for cataplasms to tumours, bruiaed and boiled with the root of curcuma and the leaves of ginger; supposed to be a native of the Philippine islands, and pro bably growing in China, and found by Forster flowering in September, in the island 'of Tongatabu. 4. The salicifolia, or white willow S. called in Jamaica the white-bully-tree, or galimeta wood, which supplies good timber. The bark of the sapota and mammosa is very astringent, and is called cortex jamaicentris. This WaS once supposed to be the true Jesuits bark, but its effects on the negroes has been pernicious. These trees cannot be pre served in England but with great care and much heat.