Angelica.
ANGELICA ATROPURPUREA, L. Masterwort. From Canada to Carolina. The root has a strong smell, when fresh it is a poison, the juice is acrid and blisters the lips; the Indians of Canada use it for suicide (A deadly Angelica? I doubt that. -Henriette). But when dry, it loses its virulence, and becomes a warm aromatic, similar to lovage. Cutler says the stems are candied in New England.
ANGELICA LUCIDA, L. Angelic root, Belly-ache root. Nendo of the Virginian Indians. White root of the Southern tribes. Equivalent of Ginseng and officinal Angelica. Root like Ginseng, taste similar (I really doubt that one. -Henriette), smell like aniseed. Highly valued by the Southern Indians, and cultivated by them: used as a carminative, and in cookery. This root is said to give the excellent flavor to Virginia hams and pork, when hogs feed on it. It is bitterish, subacrid, fragrant and aromatic, stomachic and tonic, useful in cholics, hysterics, menstrual suppressions, chlorosis, anorexia, &c. The powdered seeds kill lice. Schoepf and Henry mention the A. sylvestris as American, which is erroneous, they meant this spectes. Henry adds that it is sialagogue and repellent, useful to disperse tumors, and the root an antidote against yellow fever, chewed when visiting the sick. The Missouri tribes call it Lagonihah, and mix it with tobacco to smoke; they also eat it, but it often produces indigestion.
