RUDOLPHINE TABLES. [KErl.sm, in Bross Div.] RUE (Rita grareolea.), a plant, native of the south of Europe, intermediate between a herb and a shrub, of a peculiar' yellowish green colour. Every part of it is marked by transparent dote, filled with volatile oil. The leaves and immature fruits are officinal. and owe their virtue to the volatile oil and a bitter extractive. The odour is peculiar, strong, and penetrating; the taste intensely bitter, aromatic, and stimulating. One hundred parts of the fresh herb dry into twenty-two parts. The quantity of oil obtained by distillation with water varies much according to the period of growth when it is col lected. Thirty pounds of the fresh herb before flowering scarcely yield one drachm, while twelve pounds with the fruits almost ripe yield nearly one ounce. Rue possesses powerful, stimulant, anti spasmodic, and tonic properties. The careless handling of the fresh plant sometimes causes rubefaction and vesication, and its improper employment internally has produced serious results. When judi ciously used, it is very serviceable in hysteria and other convulsive disorders ; but its incautious administration by nurses to infants should be guarded against.
Oil of rue obtained from the fresh herb is green, from the dried herb yellow. It has the peculiar odour of rue, and a bitterish, acrid, mrdamum-like taste. Its specific gravity is 0111. It does not redden litmus-paper. The oil met with in commerce is rarely genuine, being an artificial compound of oil of turpentine with petroleum and oil of rue.
The pollen of the flowers produces inflammation of the skin, and any of it received into the eyes causes violent lachrymation and other painful effects.
Rue is frequently cultivated as an ornamental plant, for which its curiously cut leaves, their glaucous hue, and the profusion of fine dark yellow flowers appearing for several months in succession, adapt it exceedingly well. It may be increased by seeds, slips, or cuttings. The seed should be aown in March, and when the young plants are two or three inches high they should be put out in nursery rowa ; but propagating by slips or cuttings is hest, especially for continuing varieties, of which there are three or four.