Cruciferae is a very extensive natural order of dicotyledonous plants, consisting of herbs which all have flowers with six stamens, two of which are short, and four sepals and petals, the spreading limbs of which form a Maltese cross, whence their name. The fruit is a pod with a membranous placenta dividing it into two cells. The mustard, water-cress, turnip, cabbage, scurvy-grass, radish, horse-radish, etc, belong to this family. They have nearly all a volatile acridity dispersed through every part, from which they have their peculiar odour and sharp taste, and their stimulant and antiscorbutic qualities. None are really poisonous. Some are found in our gardens because of their beauty or fragrance, as the wallflower, stock, candytuft, etc. Research Cruciferae
Grass (Graminaceae) is an extensive family of endogenous plants comprising about 250 genera and 4500 species. The roots are fibrous; the stem is usually cylindrical and jointed varying length from a few centimetres to 30 metres in the case of the bamboo, (in the sugar-cane the stem is solid, but porous), and coated with silex; leaves, one to each node or joint, with a sheathing petiole; spikelets terminal, panicled, racemose, or spiked; flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous, destitute of true calyx or corolla, surrounded by a double set of bracts, the outer constituting the glumes, the inner the paleoe; stamens hypogynous, three or six; filaments long and flaccid; anthers versatile; ovary solitary, simple, with two (rarely three) styles, one-celled, with a single ovule; fruit known as a caryopsis, the seed and the pericarp being inseparable from each other.. The family includes many of the most valuable pasture-plants, all those which yield corn and the sugar-cane. The nutritious herbage and farinaceous seed furnished by many of them render them of incalculable importance, while the stems and leaves are useful for various textile and other purposes.
The more important divisions of the natural order of grasses are: (1) Panicaceoe, including the Paniceoe (millet, fundi, Guinea grass); the Andropogoneoe (sugar-cane, dhurra, lemon-grass) ; the Rottboellieoe (gama-grass); etc. (2) Phalarideoe (maize, Job's tears, canary-grass, foxtail-grass, soft-grass, Timothy grass). (3) Poaceoe, including the Oryzeoe (rice); Stipeoe (feather-grass, esparto); Agrosteoe (bent-grass); Aveneoe (oats, vernal grass); Festuceoe (fescue, meadow-grass, manna-grass, teff, cock's-foot grass, tussac grass, dog's-tail grass); Bambtiseoe (bamboo); Hordeoe (wheat, barley, rye, spelt, rye-grass, lyme-grass).
In its popular use the term grasses is chiefly applied to the pasture grasses as distinct from the cereals, etc. but it is also applied to some herbs, which are not in any strict sense grasses at all, e.g. rib-grass, scurvy and whitlow grass. After the culture of herbage and forage plants became an important branch of husbandry, it became customary to call the clovers, trefoils, sainfoin, and other flowering plants grown as fodder, artificial grasses, by way of distinction from the grasses proper, which were termed natural grasses. Of the pasture grasses, some thrive in meadows, others in marshes, on upland fields, or on bleak hills, and they by no means grow indiscriminately. Indeed the species of grass will often indicate the quality of the soil; thus, Holcus, Dactylis, and Bromus are found on sterile land, Festuca and Alopecurus on a better soil, Poa and Cynosurus are only found in the best pasture land. Research Grass
Scurvy grass (Cochlearia) is a genus of herbaceous plants belonging to the family Cruciferae. They are characterised by their fruit, which is a globose, two-valved pouch, the valves not flattened. The common scurvy grass (Cochlearia officinalis) is an abundant sea-shore plant with heart-shaped root leaves and rectangular stem leaves, bearing large corymbs of white flowers in May. Research Scurvy Grass
Sir Gilbert Blane was a Scottish physician. He was born in 1749 in Ayrshire and died in 1834. He was educated at Edinburgh University, but took the decree of MD at Glasgow. He was private physician to Admiral Rodney, and then physician to the fleet in the West Indies, in which position he introduced the use of lime-juice and other means of preventing scurvy among sailors. He wrote 'Elements of Medical Logic'. Research Gilbert Blane
Thomas Beddoes was an English physician and author. He was born in 1760 and died in 1808. He was educated at Oxford, London, and Edinburgh. After taking his doctor's degree and visiting Paris, he was appointed professor of chemistry at Oxford. There he published some excellent chemical treatises, and Observations on the Calculus, Sea-scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, and Fever.
His expressed sympathy with the French revolutionists led to his retirement from his professorship in 1792, soon after which he published his Observations on the Nature of Demonstrative Evidence, and the exceedingly popular History of Isaac Jenkins. In 1794 he married a sister of Maria Edgeworth; and in 1798, with the pecuniary aid of Wedgwood, opened a pneumatic institution for curing phthisical and other diseases by inhalation of gases. It speedily became an ordinary hospital, but was noteworthy as connected with the discovery of the properties of nitrous oxide, and as having been superintended by the young Humphry Davy. Beddoes' essays on Consumption (1779) and on Fever (1807), and his Hygeia (3 volumes 1807) had a high contemporary repute. Research Thomas Beddoes
Pellagra (commonly known as Mal de la Rosa, Mal Rosso, Alpine Scurvy, Asturian Rose, or Psilosis Pigmentosa) is a non-contagious disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid or niacin) in the diet, common among people where maize is the staple food, but also among poor peoples in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Pellagra is generally endemic and slowly evolves. It is characterised by burning or itching often followed by scaling of the skin, inflammation of the tongue and mouth, diarrhoea, and manic depression. In particular, patients exhibit a rash around the neck which resembles a rosary, from whence pellagra obtains its popular names. The symptoms usually reoccur each year in the same season, usually during the spring but sometimes autumn. The first authentic case of pellagra in Great Britain was reported in 1866, a second in 1906 and a third in 1909. In 1914 the first case in Canada was reported, and in 1920 an outbreak was reported in Nanking, China. During the Great War many Turkish troops and Armenian refugees developed the disease. Research Pellagra
Scurvy (scorbutus) is a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. It is characterised by anaemia, great weakness, spongy and swollen gums, and haemorrhages. In recent times scurvy was thought to be caused by a lack of fresh animal and vegetable food. Scurvy was very common in ships and in armies. Lime juice was the first effective preventative agent introduced into the navy in the early 19th century and made compulsory in the British mercantile marine in 1867. Research Scurvy
Aerated water (soda water) is a solution of carbonic acid in water. It was discovered by Priestly and suggested as a prevention of scurvy, a paper being presented to the Admiralty in 1773. Certainly sailors drank aerated water on board ship as a bottle was found from the Royal George which sank in 1780.
Some mineral waters are naturally aerated, as Vichy, Apollinaris, Rosbach, etc; others especially, such as are used for medicinal purposes, are frequently aerated to render them more palatable and exhilarating. Water simply aerated, or aerated and flavoured with lemonade or fruit syrups, is largely used, especially in summer, as a refreshing beverage. There are numerous varieties of apparatus for manufacturing aerated waters. Around 1905 an easily worked, portable apparatus, called a gazogene, was sold by which these waters could be cheaply produced at home, the gas being generated by bicarbonate of soda and tartaric acid. The essential parts of an aerated water machine are a generator, in which the gas is produced, a vessel containing the water to be impregnated, and an apparatus for forcing the gas into the water. This last may be effected by force-pumps or by the high pressure of the impregnating gas itself. The quantity of gas with which the water is charged is usually equal to a pressure of five atmospheres. Research Aerated Water
Grog is a nautical term for rum and water. It derived its name from admiral Edward Vernon who wore grogram breeches and was hence called 'Old Grog'. In 1745, in an effort to combatdrunkenness and scurvy, he ordered his sailors to dilute their rum with water and add lemon juice and sugar, and hence the mixture became known as grog. Research Grog
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Cruciferae
