ANGELICA, in botany, a genus of the Pentandria Digynia class of plants, the ge neral umbel of which is roundish and mul. tiple ; the partial umbel, while in flower, is perfectly globose ; the general involu crum is composed of either three or five leaves ; the partial involucrum is small, and composed of eight leaves; the proper perianthium is small and quinquedentate; the general corolla is uniform; the single flowers consist each of five deciduous, lanceolated, and slightly crooked petals ; the fruit is naked, roundish, angular, and separable into two parts : the seeds are two, of an oval figure, plain on one side, and convex or striated on the other.
All the sorts may be increased by seeds. The common angelica delights in a moist soil, in which the seeds should be sown soon after they are ripe ; and when the plants are about six inches high, they should be transplanted at a large distance, about three feet asunder, on the sides of ditches or pools of water. In the second year they will flower, and their stems may be cut down in May, and heads will be put out from the sides of the roots, and thus they may be continued for three or four years ; but if they have been permit ted to seed, their roots would perish soon after.—The stalks ofgarden angelica were formerly blanched, and eaten as celery. The young shoots are in great esteem amongthc Laplanders. In Norway, bread is sometimes made of the roots. The gar deners near London, who have ditches of of water in their gardens, propagate great quantities of this plant, which they sell to the confectioners, who make a: sweet meat with the tender stalks cut in May. Bohemia and Spain are supposed to pro duce the best : the College of London, formerly directed the roots brought from Spain only to be kept in the shops. -Lin tutus, however, assures us, that the plant proves most vigorous on its native north ern mountains, and gives a decided pre ference to the root dug here, either early in the spring or late in the autumn. The roots of angelica are one of the principal aromatics of Europe an growth, though not much regarded in the present practice.
They have a fragrant agreeable smell, and a bitterish pungent taste ; on being chew ed they are first sweetish, afterwards acrid, and leaven glowing heat in the mouth and fauces, which continue for some time. The stalk, leaves, and seeds, appear to possess the same qualities, though in an inferior degree. Dr. Lewis says, that on wou ndi ng the fresh root early in thespring, it yields, from the inner part of the bark, an unctuous, yellowish, odorous juice, which, gently exsiccated, retains its fra grance, and proves an elegant, aromatic, gummy, resin. Rectified spirit extracts the whole of the virtues of the root ; wa ter but very little; and, in distillation with the latter, a small portion of very pungent essential oil. may be obtained. The Lap landers extol the utility of angelica, not only as food but as medicine. For coughs, hoarseness, and other disorders of the breast, they eat the stalks, roasted in hot ashes ; they also boil the tender flowers in dairy milk, till it attains the consistence of an extract ; and they use this to pro mote perspiration in catarrhal fevers, and to strengthen the stomach in diarrhoea, &c. According to the explanations of Sir John Pringle, the herb is antiseptic, but the efficacy of the leaves is soon lost by drying them. The seeds also, which come near est to the roots, can scarce be kept till the spring after they are gathered, without the loss of their vegetative power, as well as a diminution of their medicinal virtue. These are the only parts of the plant which are ordered by the London College, and that only in compound spirit ofanisced. The aromatic quality of the root is more considerable than that of any other but many other simples surpass angelica in aromatic and carminative powers; it is sel dom employed in the present practice. All the parts of the wild angelica are simi lar in quality to those of the former spe cies, but rather weaker, and the former may be more easily procured. Cows, goats, and swine, eat it, but horses refuse it.