VINE.
The fruit of the Vine (Vitis vinifera) has already been treated of here under the heading "Grapes," as employed medicinally whether for the purgation of the bilious—being then taken crude, and scarcely ripe,—or for imparting fat and bodily warmth in wasting disease by eating the luscious and richly-saccharine berries.
It should be added that the fumes exhaled from the wine-presses whilst the juice is fermenting, prove highly beneficial as a restorative for weakly and delicate young persons (an example which might be followed perhaps at our home breweries).
Consumptive patients are sent with this view to the Gironde, where the vapour from the wine vats is more stimulating and curative than in Burgundy. Young girls who suffer from atrophy are first made to stand for some hours daily in the sheds when the wine pressing is going forward. After a while, as they become less weak, they are directed to jump into the wine press, where, with the vintagers and labourers they skip about and inhale the fumes of the fermenting juice, until they sometimes become intoxicated, and even senseless. This effect passes off after one or two trials, and the girls return to their labour with renewed strength and heightened colour, hopeful, joyous, and robust. The [589] vats of the famous Chateau d'yquem are the most celebrated of all for the wondrous cures they have effected even in cases considered past human aid.
VIOLET.
The Wild violet or Pansy (Viola tricolor) is found commonly throughout Great Britain on banks and in hilly pastures, from whence it has come to be cultivated in our gardens.
Viola, a corruption of "Ion," is a name extended by old writers to several other different plants. But the true indigenous representative of the Violet tribe is our Wild Pansy, or Paunce, or Pance, or Heart's ease; called also "John of my Pink," "Gentleman John," "Meet her i' th' entry; kiss her i' th' buttery" (the longest plant name in the English language), and "Love in idleness."
"A little Western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it—'Love in idleness.'"
From its coquettishly half hiding its face, as well as from some fancied picture in the throat of the corolla it has received various other amatory designations, such as "cuddle me to you," "tittle my fancy," "jump up and kiss me," and "garden gate": also it is called "Flamy," because its colours are seen in the flame of burning wood, and Flame Flower.
The term "heart's ease" has signified a cordial which is comforting to the heart. But the fact is that Pansies, "pretty little Puritans," produce anything but heart's ease if eaten, and their roots provoke sickness so speedily that these are sometimes employed as an emetic.
Dr. Johnson derived the word Pansy from Panacea, [590] as curing
all diseases; but this was a mistake, The true derivation is from the
French pensee, "thoughts," as Shakespeare knew, when making
Ophelia say: "There is pansies—that's for thoughts."
From its three colours it has been called the herb Trinity. A medicinal tincture is made (H.) from the Viola tricolor with spirit of wine, using the entire plant. Hahnemann found that the Pansy violet, when taken by provers, served to induce cutaneous eruptions, or to aggravate them, and he reasoned out the curative action of the plant in small diluted doses for the cure of these symptoms, when occurring as disease.
"For milk crust and scald head," says Dr. Hughes (Brighton)—the plague of children, "I have rarely needed any other medicine than this Viola tricolor; and I have more than once given it in recent impetigo (pustular eczema) for adults, with very satisfactory effects." For the first of these maladies the tincture should be given in doses of from three to six drops, to a child of from two to six or eight years, three times a day in water.
Again, "for curing scalled (from scall, a shell) head in children, a small handful of the fresh plant, or half a drachm of the dried herb, boiled for two hours in milk, is to be taken each night and morning; also a bread poultice made with this decoction should be applied to the affected part.
"During the first eight days the eruption increases, and the urine, when the medicine succeeds, has a nauseous odour like that of the cat, which presently passes off; then, as the use of the plant is continued, the scabs disappear, and the skin recovers its natural clean condition."
The root of the Viola tricolor has similar properties [591] to that of Ipecacuanha, and is often used beneficially as a substitute by country doctors. An infusion thereof is admirable for the dysentery of young children. It loves a mixture of chalk in the soil where it grows.
The Pansy contains an active chemical principle, "violin," resin, mucilage, sugar, and the other ordinary constituents of plants. When bruised the plant, and especially its root, smells like peach kernels, or prussic acid. It acts as a slight laxative: and "the distilled water of the flowers" says Gerard—"cureth the French disease."
The Germans style the Pansy Stief-mutter, because figuratively the mother-in-law appears in the flower predominant in purple velvet, and her own two daughters gay in purple and yellow, whilst the two poor little Cinderellas, more soberly and scantily attired, are squeezed in between. Again, another fable says, with respect to the five petals and the five sepals of the Pansy, two of which petals are plain in colour, whilst each has a single sepal, the three other petals being gay of hue, one of these (the largest of all) having two sepals; that the Pansy represents a family of husband, wife, and four daughters, two of the latter being step-children of the wife.
The plain petals are the step-children, with only one chair; the two small gay petals are the daughters, with a chair each; and the large gay petal is the wife, with two chairs. To find the father, one must strip away the petals until the stamens and pistils are bare. These then bear a fanciful resemblance to an old man with a flannel wrapper about his neck, having his shoulders upraised, and his feet in a bath tub. The French also call the Pansy "The Step-mother."
The chemical principle, "violin," contained in the [592] flowering Wild Pansy resembles emetin in action. If the dried plant is given medicinally, from ten to sixty grains may be taken as a dose, in infusion.
The Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) is well known for its delicious fragrance of perfume when growing in our woods, pastures, and hedge banks. The odour of its petals is lost in drying, but a pleasant syrup is made from the flowers which is a suitable laxative for children.
A conserve, called "violet sugar," prepared from the flowers, has proved of excellent use in consumption. This conserve was made in the time of Charles the Second, being named "Violet plate." Also, the Sweet Violet is thought to possess admirable virtues as a cosmetic. Lightfoot gives a translation from a Highland recipe in Gaelic, for its use in this capacity, rendered thus: "Anoint thy face with goat's milk in which violets have been infused, and there is not a young prince upon earth who will not be charmed with thy beauty."
There is a legend that Mahomet once compared the excellence of Violet perfume above all other sweet odours to himself above all the rest of creation: it refreshes in summer by its coolness, and revives in winter by its warmth.
The Syrup of Sweet Violets should be made as follows: To one pound of sweet violet flowers freshly picked, add two-and-a-half pints of boiling water: infuse these for twenty-four hours in a glazed china vessel, then pour off the liquid, and strain it gently through muslin; afterwards add double its weight of the finest loaf sugar, and make it into a syrup, but without letting it boil.
Violets are cultivated largely at Stratford-on-Avon for the purpose of making the syrup, which when mixed with almond oil, is a capital laxative for children, [593] and will help to soothe irritative coughs, or to relieve a sore throat.
The flowers have been commended for the cure of epilepsy and nervous disorders; they are laxative when eaten in a salad. The seeds are diuretic, and will correct gravel. The Sweet Violet contains the chemical principle "violin" in all its parts. A medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the entire fresh plant with proof spirit. It acts usefully for a spasmodic cough, with hard breathing; also for rheumatism of the wrists especially the right one.
This Violet is highly esteemed likewise in Syria, chiefly because of its being chosen for making the violet sugar used in sherbet. That which is drunk by the Grand Signior himself is compounded of sweet violets, and sugar.
From the flower may be pleasantly contrived a pretty miniature bird, by carefully removing the calyx and corolla, leaving only the stamens and pistil attached to the receptacle; then the stigma forms the bead and neck, whilst the anthers make a golden breast, and their tongues appear like a pair of green wings.
Mademoiselle Clarion, a noted French actress, had a nosegay of violets sent her every morning of the season for thirty years; and to enhance the value of the gift, she stripped off the petals every evening, being passionately devoted to the flower, and took them in an infusion as tea.
Pliny recommended a garland of sweet violets as a cure for headache. The Romans made wine of the flowers; and Napoleon the Great claimed the Violet as par excellence his own, for which reason he was often styled, Le pere du violette. This floral association took date from the time of his exile to Elba. The Emperor's return was alluded to among his adherents by a pass [594] word, "Aimez vous la Violette? Eh, bien! reparaitra au printemps."
The scentless Dog Violet (Viola canina) is likewise mildly laxative, and possesses the virtues of the Viola odorata in a lesser degree.
The Water Violet is "feather foil" (Hottonia palustris).
VIPER'S BUGLOSS.
The Simpler's passing consideration should be given to this tall handsome English herb which grows frequently in gravel pits, and on walls. It belongs to the Borage tribe (see page 60), and, in common with the Lungwort (Pulmonaria), the Comfrey, and the ordinary Bugloss, abounds in a soft mucilaginous saline juice. This is demulcent to the chest, or to the urinary passages, being also slightly laxative. Bees favour the said plants, which are rich in honey. Each herb goes by the rustic name of "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," because bearing spires of tricoloured flowers, blue, purple, and red. The Viper's Bugloss is called botanically Echium, having been formerly considered antidotal to the bite of (Echis) a viper: and its seed was thought to resemble the reptile's head: wherefore such a curative virtue became attributed to it after the doctrine of signatures. "In Echio, herba contra viperarum morsus celeberrima, natura semen viperinis capitibus simile procreavit." Similarly the Lungwort (or Jerusalem Cowslip), because of its spotted leaves, was held to be a remedy for diseased lungs. This rarely grows wild, but it is of frequent cultivation in cottage gardens, bearing also the rustic name, "Soldiers and Sailors," "To-day and to-morrow," and "Virgin Mary." From either of these herbs a fomentation of the flowers, or a decoction of the whole bruised plant, may be employed with benefit locally to sore or raw surfaces: [595] whilst an infusion made with three drams of the dried herb to a pint of boiling water will be good in feverish pulmonary catarrh. By our ancestors viper broth was thought to be highly invigorating: and vipers cooked like eels were given to patients suffering from ulcers. The Sardinians still take them in soup. Marvellous powers were supposed to be acquired by the Druids through their possession of a viper's egg, laid in the air, and caught before reaching the earth. All herbs of the Borage order are indifferently "of force and virtue to drive away sorrow and pensiveness of the mind: also to comfort and strengthen the heart." With respect to the Comfrey (see page 120), quite recently the President of the Irish College of Surgeons has reported the gradual disappearance of a growth ("malignant, sarcomatous, twice recurrent, and of a bad type"), since steadily applying poultices of this root to the tumour. "I know nothing," says Professor Thomson, "of the effects of Comfrey root: but the fact that this growth has simply disappeared is one of the greatest surprises and puzzles I have met with."
WALLFLOWER.
The Wallflower, or Handfiower (Cheiranthus cheiri), or Wall-gilliflower, has been cultivated in this country almost from time immemorial, for its fragrance and bright colouring. It is found wild in France, Switzerland, and Spain, as the Keiri or Wallstock. Formerly this flower was carried in the hand at classic festivals. Herrick, in 1647, gave a more romantic origin to the name Wallflower:—
"Why this flower is now called so
List, sweet maids, and you shall know:
Understand this wilding was
Once a bright and bonny lad
[596] Who a sprightly springal loved,
And to have it fully proved
Up she got upon a wall
Tempting to slide down withal:
But the silken twist untied,
So she fell: and, bruised, she died.
Love, in pity of the deed,
And such luckless eager speed,
Turned her to this plant we call
Now the 'Floweret of the Wall.'"
It is the only British species belonging to the Cruciferous order of plants, and flourishes best on the walls of old buildings, flowering nearly all the summer, though scantily supplied with moisture. We may presume it was one of the earliest cultivated flowers in English gardens, as it is discovered on the most ancient houses.
Turner, an early writer on Plants, calls it Wallgelouer, or "Hartisease;" and by Spencer it was termed Cherisaunce, as meaning a cordial to the heart, this being really the herb to which the name Heart's-ease was originally given. By rustics it is known also as the "Beeflower."
But the common Stock likewise bore the appellation, "Gilliflower": and the probability is, there was in old days, as Cotgrave suggests, a popular medicine or food "for the passions of the heart," called "gariofile," from the cloves which it contained, the Latin for a clove being caryophyllum. Hence it came about that the Wallflower, the Pansy, and the Stock, by virtue of their cordial qualities, were alike called Gilliflowers, or Heart's-ease.
There are two varieties of the cultivated Wallflower, the Yellow and the Red; those of a deep colour growing on old rockeries and similar places, are often termed [597] Bloody Warriors, and Bleeding Heart. The double Wallflower has been produced for more than two centuries. If the flowers are steeped in oil for some weeks, they contribute thereto a stimulating warming property useful for friction to limbs which are rheumatic, or neuralgic. Gerard suggests that the "oyle of Wallflowers is good for use to annoint a paralyticke." An infusion of the flowers, made with boiling water, will relieve the headache of debility, and is cordial in nervous disorders, by taking a small wine-glassful immediately, and repeating it every half-hour whilst required. The aromatic volatile principles of the flowers are caryophyllin and eugenol. "This Wallflower," adds Gerard, "and the Stock Gilliflower are used by certain empiricks and quack salvers about love and lust,—matters which for modesty I omit."
WALNUT.
The Walnut tree is known of aspect to most persons throughout Great Britain as of stately handsome culture, having many spreading branches covered with a silvery grey bark, which is smooth when young, though thick and cracked when old.
The flowers occur in long, hanging, inconspicuous spikes or catkins, of a brownish green colour.
This tree is a native of Asia Minor, but is largely grown in England. The Greeks called it "Karuon," and the Latins "Nux." Its botanical title is Juglans regia, a corruption of glans, the acorn, jovis, of Jupiter, or the "royal nut of Jupiter," food fit for the Gods! Its fruit is also named Ban nut, or Ball nut, and Welsh nut, or Walnut— the word Wal, or Welsh, being Teutonic for "stranger." "As for the timber," said Fuller, "it may be termed the English Shittim Wood."
[598] The London Society of Apothecaries has directed that the unripe fruit of the Walnut should be used pharmaceutically on account of its worm-destroying virtues.
It is remarkable that no insects will prey on the leaves of this tree. In good seasons the produce of nuts is weighty enough to pay the rent of the land occupied by the trees.
The vinegar of the pickled fruit makes a very useful gargle for sore throats, even when slightly ulcerated: and the green husks, or early buds of the blossom, being dried to powder, serve in some places for pepper.
The kernel of the nut (or the part of the inside taken at dessert) affords an oil which does not congeal by cold, and which painters find very useful on such account.
This oil has proved useful when applied externally for troublesome skin diseases of the leprous type. Indeed, the Walnut has been justly termed vegetable arsenic, because of its curative virtues in eczema, and other obstinately diseased conditions of the skin.
The tincture when made (H.) from the rind of the green fruit and the fresh leaves, with spirit of wine, and given in material doses, will determine in a sound person a burning itching eruption of the skin, of an eczematous character, lasting a long time, and leaving the parts which have been affected afterwards blue and swollen. Reasoning from which it has been found that the tincture, in a reduced form, and of a diminished strength, proves admirably curative of eczema, impetigo, and ecthyma.
The unripe fruit is laxative, and of beneficial use in thrush, and in ulcerative sore throat. The leaves are said to be anti-syphilitic: likewise the green husk, and unripe shell. Obstinate ulcers may be cured with sugar well moistened in a strong decoction of the leaves.
[599] Well kept, kiln-dried Walnuts, of some age, are better digested than newer fruit; in contrast to old gherkins, about which it has been humorously said, "avoid stale Q-cumbers: they will W-up." In many parts of Germany the peasants literally subsist on Walnuts for several months together; and a young farmer before he marries has to own a certain number of flourishing Walnut trees.
The bark or yellow skin which clothes the inner nut is a notable remedy for colic, being given when dried and powdered, in a dose of thirty or forty grains mixed with some carminative water; and the same powder will help to expel worms.
According to the Salernitan maxim, if the fruit of the Walnut be eaten after fish, the digestion of the latter is promoted:—
Post pisces nux sit: post carnes case us esto.
Or,
"Take Welsh nuts after fish: take cheese after flesh meat."
But with some persons coughing is excited by eating Walnuts.
The roots, leaves, and rind yield a brown dye which is supposed to contain iodine, and which gipsies employ for staining their skins. It also serves to turn the hair black. A custom prevails (says a Latin sentence) among certain country folk to thrash the nuts out of their husks while still on the trees, so that they may grow more abundantly the following year. In allusion to which practice the lines run thus:—
"Nux, asinus, mulier, simili sunt lege ligata;
Haec trieo nil fructus faciunt si verbera cessant."
"A woman, a donkey, a walnut tree—
The more you beat them, the better they be."
[600] It is a fact, that by acting in this way, the barren ends of the branches are knocked off, and fresh fruit-bearing twigs spring out at each side in their stead.
Walnut cake, after expressing out the oil from the kernels, is a good food for cattle, these kernels being the crumpled cotyledons or seed leaves. They contain oil, mucilage, albumen, mineral matter, cellulose, and water.
The rook has a most abiding affection for Walnuts. As soon as there is any fruit on the trees worth eating, this bird finds it out, and brings it to the ground, choosing only those nuts which are soft enough for him to penetrate.
Ovid has left a charming little poem, Nucis Elegia—the plaint of the Walnut tree—because beaten with sticks and pelted with stones, in return for the generosity with which it bestows on mankind its fair produce.
A valuable medicinal Spirit is distilled by druggists from the fruit of the Walnut. It is an admirable remedy for spasmodic indigestion, and to relieve the morning sickness of pregnancy. A teaspoonful of the spirit (Spiritus nucis juglandis) may be given with half a wine-glassful of water every hour or two, for most forms of sickness, and the dose may be increased if necessary.
"Nucin," or "juglon," is the active chemical principle of the several parts of the tree and its fruit.
The leaves, when slightly rubbed, emit a rich aromatic odour, which renders them proof against the attacks of insects. Qualities of this odoriferous sort commended the tree to King Solomon, whose "garden of nuts" was clearly one of Walnuts, according to the Hebrew word eghoz. The longevity of the tree is very great. There is at Balaclava, in the Crimea, a Walnut tree believed to be a thousand years old.
[601] The shade of the Walnut tree was held by the Romans to be baneful, but the nuts were thought propitious, and favourable to marriage as a symbol of fecundity. The ceremony of throwing nuts, for which boys scrambled at a wedding, was of Athenian origin:—
"Let the air with Hymen ring
Hymen! Io! Hymen sing!
Soon the nuts will now be flung:
Soon the wanton verses sung."
—Catullus.
In Italy this is known as the "Witches tree." It is hostile to the oak.
The leaves of the American Black Walnut tree, which grows naturally in Virginia, are of the highest curative value for scrofulous diseases and for strumous eruptions. Chronic, indolent sores have been healed by these after every other remedy has failed. The parts should be washed several times a day with a strong decoction of the leaves, and an infusion of the same should be taken internally; also of the extract made from the leaves, four grains in a pill each night and morning. For such purposes the leaves of our English Walnut are almost equally efficacious. To make an infusion one ounce should be used to twelve ounces of boiling water. For a syrup mix eight grains of the extract with an ounce of simple syrup: and give one teaspoonful of this twice a day with water. Also apply to any sore some of the powdered leaves on lint soaked in the decoction. For scrofulous joints, or glands, this treatment is invaluable. A green English Walnut, boiled in syrup and preserved in the same, is an excellent homely remedy for constipation. It will be noticed that the fruit becomes black by boiling. The Chinese put the raw kernels into their tea to give it a flavour.
[602] By the Romans Walnuts were scattered among the people when a marriage was celebrated, as an intimation that the wedded couple henceforth abandoned the frivolities of youth.
The "titmouse" walnut produces very delicate fruit, rich in oil, and with thin shells, so that the little creatures can pierce the husks and shells while the fruit is still on the bough.
Nuts of various kinds, being charged with carbon and oil, are highly nutritious, but on account of this oil abounding, they are not readily digested by some persons. In Southern Europe, the Chestnut is a staple article of food, The title "nut" signifies a hard round lump, from nodus, a knot.
Leigh Hunt wrote meaningly of the "inexorably hard cocoa nut— milky at heart." In Devonshire a plentiful crop of hazel nuts is believed to portend an unhealthy year:—
"Many nits (nuts)
Many pits (graves)."
When eating almonds and raisins at dessert we get the nitrogenous food of the nuts with the saccharine nourishment of the grapes.
WART-WORT, OR WART-WEED.
This name has been commonly applied to the Petty Spurge, or to the Sun Spurge, a familiar little weed growing abundantly in English gardens, with umbels of a golden green colour which "turn towards the sun." Its stem and leaves yield, when wounded, an acrid milky juice which is popularly applied for destroying warts, and corns. But our Greater Celandine (see page 92) or Swallow-wort is better known abroad as the Wart-wort: and its sap is widely given in Russia for the cure, not only of [603] warts, but likewise of cancerous outgrowths, whether occurring on the skin surface, or assailing membranes inside the body. Conclusive evidence has been adduced of cancerous disease within the gullet and the stomach—as well as on the external skin—being healed by this herb. Its sap, or juice, contains chemically, "chelidonine," and "sanguinarine," which latter principle (obtained heretofore from the Canadian "blood root"), is of long established repute for repressing fungoid granulations of indolent ulcers, when powdered over them, and of quickly advancing their cure. Each principle exercises a narcotic influence on the nervous system, and will, thereby, relieve spasmodic coughs. Healthy provers have taken the fresh juice of the Greater Celandine in doses of from twenty to two hundred drops, at repeated intervals; the results of the larger portions being drastic purgation, with persistent nervous torpor, and with an outbreak on the skin of irritating, sore, itching eruptions. In some of the provers active inflammatory congestion of the right lung ensued, with turgidity of the liver. The root beaten into a conserve with sugar will operate by stool, and by urine. For cancerous excrescences from five to ten drops of the fresh juice, or of the mother tincture (H.) should be given steadily three times a day, this quantity being reduced if it should move the bowels too freely. Some of the sap, or tincture, should be also used outwardly as a lotion, either by itself, or diluted with an equal quantity of cold water.
WATER PLANTS (Other).
(Water Dropwort, Water Lily, Water Pepper.)
The Water Dropwort—Hemlock (oenanthe crocata) is an umbelliferous plant, frequent in our marshes and ditches. [604] It is named from oinos, wine, and anthos, a flower, because its blossoms have a vinous smell. A medicinal tincture is made (H.) from the ripe fruit.
The leaves look like Celery, and the roots like parsnips. A country name of this plant is Dead-tongue, from its paralyzing effects on the organs of the voice. Of eight lads who were poisoned by eating the root, says Mr. Vaughan, five died before morning, not one of them having spoken a word. Other names are Horsebane, from its being thought in Sweden to cause in horses a kind of palsy; (due, as Linnaeus thought, to an insect, curculio paraplecticus, which breeds in the stem); and Five-fingered-root, from its five leaflets. The roots contain a poisonous, milky juice, which becomes yellow on exposure to the air, and which exudes from all parts of the plant when wounded. It will be readily seen that because of so virulent a nature the plant is too dangerous for use as a Herbal Simple, though the juice has been known to cure obstinate and severe skin disease. It yields an acrid emetic principle. The root is sometimes applied by country folk to whitlows, but this has proved an unsafe proceeding. The plant has a pleasant odour. Its leaves have been mistaken for Parsley, and its root for the Skirret.
The OEnanthe Phellandrium (Water Fennel) is a variety of the same species, but with finer leaves. Pliny gave the seeds, twenty grains for a dose, against stone, and disorders of the bladder. Also they have been commended for cancer.
In this country Water Lilies, or Pond Lilies, comprise the White Water Lily—a large native flower inhabiting clear pools and slow rivers—and the Yellow Water Lily, frequent in rivers and ditches, with a yellow, globose flower smelling like brandy, so that it is called "Brandy [605] bottle" in Norfolk and other parts. Its root and stalks contain much tannin.
This latter Yellow Lily (Nuphar lutea) possesses medicinal virtues against diarrhoea, such as is aggravated in the morning, and against sexual weakness. A tincture is made (H.) from the whole plant with spirit of wine. The second title, lutea, signifies growing in the mud; whilst the large white Water Lily is called Nymphoea, from occurring in the supposed haunts of the nymphs: and Flatter-dock.
The root stocks of the Yellow Water Lily, when bruised, and infused in milk, will destroy beetles and cockroaches. The smoke of the same when burnt will get rid of crickets.
The small Yellow Pond Lily bears the name of Candock, from the shape of its seed vessel, like that of a silver can or flagon, and this perhaps has likewise to do with the appellations, "Brandy bottle" and "Water can:" which latter may be given because of the half unfolded leaves floating on the water like cans.
The root of the larger white Water Lily is acrid, and will redden the skill if the juice is applied thereto.
An Ointment may be made with this juice to stimulate the scalp so as to prevent falling out of the hair. The root contains tannin and mucilage, it is therefore astringent and demulcent. Also the expressed juice from the fresh leaves of this white Water Lily, the "one sinless flower," if used as a head wash, will preserve the hair.
"Oh, destinee des choses d'ici bas! Descendre des austerities du
Cloitre dans l'officine Cancaniere du perruquier!"
Dutch boys are said to be extremely careful about plucking or handling the Water Lily, for, if a boy fall [606] with the flowers in his possession, he is thought to immediately become subject to fits.
The Water Pepper (Polygonum Hydropiper) or Arsmart, Grows abundantly by the sides of lakes and ditches in Great Britain. It bears a vulgar English name signifying the irritation which it causes when applied to the fundament; and its French sobriquet, Culrage, conveys the same meaning:—
"An erbe is the cause of all this rage,
In our tongue called Culrage."
The plant is further known to rustics as Cyderach, or Ciderage, and as Red-knees, from its red angular points. It possesses an acrid, biting taste, somewhat like that of the Peppermint, which resides in the glandular dots sprinkled about its surface, and which is lost in drying. Fleas will not come into rooms where this herb is kept. It is called also "lake weed." A tradition says that the plant when placed under the saddle will enable a horse to travel for some long time without becoming hungry or thirsty. The Scythians knew this herb (Hippice) to be useful for such a purpose.
The Water Pepper has its virtues first taught by a beggar of Savoy. It is admirable against syphilis, and to arrest sexual losses: being long adored because "healing the original sin."
Farriers use it for curing proud flesh in the sores of animals, and when applied to the human skin, the leaves will serve the purpose of a mustard poultice. Also, a piece of the plant may be chewed to relieve toothache, as well as to cure small ulcers of thrush in the mouth, and pimples on the tongue.
The expressed juice of the freshly-gathered plant has been found very useful in jaundice. From one to three [607] tablespoonfuls may be taken for a dose. A hot decoction made from the whole herb (Water Persicaria) has a sheet soaked in it as an American remedy for cholera, the patient being wrapped therein immediately when seized. This herb, together with the Thuja Occidentalis (Arbor vitoe) makes the Anti-venereo of Count Mattaei.
Another Polygonum, the great Bistort, or Snakeweed, and
Adderswort, is a common wild plant in the northern parts of Great
Britain, having bent or crooked roots, which are difficult to be
extirpated, and are strongly astringent.
This Bistort, "twice twisted," on account of its snake-like root, was at one time called Serpentaria, Columbrina, and Dracunculus.
It has been thought to be the Oxylapathum Britannicum and Limonium of the ancients.
The dose of the root in substance is from twenty to sixty grains. In the North of England the plant is known as Easter Giant, and its young shoots are eaten in herb pudding. About Manchester they are substituted for greens, under the name of Passion's dock. The root may be employed both externally as a poultice, and inwardly as a decoction, when an astringent is needed. It is most useful for a spongy state of the gums, attended with looseness of the teeth.
This plant grows in moist meadows, but is not common. Its roots are reddish of colour inside.
The Bistort contains starch, and much tannin; likewise its rhizome (crooked root) furnishes gallic acid. The decoction is to be made with an ounce of the bruised root boiled in a pint of water; one tablespoonful of this may be given every two hours in passive bleedings, and for simple diarrhoea. Other names for the [608] plant are Osterick, and Twice writhen (bis tort), Red legs, and Man giant, from the French mangeant, eatable.
WHITETHORN. (See "Hawthorn," page 245.)
WHORTLEBERRY. (See "Bilberry," page 52.)
WOODRUFF.
Concerning the Sweet Woodruff (Asperula odorata), it is a favourite little plant growing commonly in our woods and gardens, with a pleasant smell which, like the good deeds of the worthiest persons, delights by its fragrance most after death. This herb is of the Rubiaceous order, and gets its botanical name from the Latin asper, rough, in allusion to the rough leaves possessed by its species.
It may be readily recognised by its small white flowers set on a slender stalk, with narrow leaves growing round it in successive whorls, just as in the Cleaver (Goosegrass), which belongs to the same order.
The name Woodruffe has been whimsically spelt Woodderowffe, thus:—
Double U, double O, double D, E
R, O, double U, double F, E.
Its terminal syllable, "ruff," is derived from rofe, a wheel,—with the diminutive rouelle, a little wheel or rowel, like that of an ancient spur,—which the verticillate leaves of this herb closely resemble. They serve to remind us also of good Queen Bess, and of the high, starched, old-fashioned ruff which she is shown to wear [609] in her portraits. Therefore, the plant is known as Woodrowel.
When freshly gathered, it has but little odour, but when dried it exhales a delightful and lasting aroma, like the scent of meadow grass, or of peach blossoms.
A fragrant and exhilarating tea may be made from the leaves and blossoms of the sweet Woodruffe, and this is found to be of service in correcting sluggishness of the liver. "When it is desired," says Mr. Johns, "to preserve the leaves merely for their scent, the stem should be cut through just below and above a joint, and the leaves pressed in such a way as not to destroy their star-like arrangement."
Gerard tells us: "The flowers are of a very sweet smell, as is the rest of the herb, which, being made up into garlands or bundles, and hanged up in houses, in the heat of summer, doth very well attemper the air, cool and make fresh the place, to the delight and comfort of such as are therein."
The agreeable odour of this sweet Woodruffe is due to a chemical principle named "coumarin," which powerfully affects the brain; and the plant further contains citric, malic, and rubichloric acids, together with some tannic acid.
Another species of the same genus is the Squinancy Woodruff (Asperula cynanchica), so called from the Greek cynanche, which means quinsy, because an excellent gargle may be made from this herb for the troublesome throat affection here specified, and for any severe sore throat. Quinsy is called cynanche, from the Greek words, kuon, a dog, and ancho, to strangle, because the distressed patient is compelled by the swollen state of his highly inflamed throat, to gasp with his mouth open like a choking dog.
[610] This plant is found growing in dry pastures, especially on a chalky or limestone soil, but it is not common; it has very narrow leaves, and tufts of lilac flowers.
Reverting to the Sweet Woodruff, the dried herb may be kept amongst linen, like lavender, to preserve it from insects.
She—"Fresh Woodruff soaks
To brew cool drink, and keep away the moth."
—A. Austin, Poet Laureate.
It was formerly employed for strewing churches, littering chambers, and stuffing beds. Withering declares that its strongly aromatic flowers make an infusion which far exceeds even the choice teas of China. The powdered leaves are mixed with fancy snuffs, because of their enduring fragrance.
WOODSORRELL (See also "Docks.")
This elegant little herb, called also French Sorrel, Rabbits' food, Shamrock, and Wood Sour (Oxalis acetosella), is abundant throughout our woods, and in other moist, shady places. It belongs to the natural order of Geraniums, and bears the provincial names of Sour trefoil, Cuckoo's bread, or Gowk's-meat, and Stubwort (from growing about the stubs of hewn trees). Its botanical title is got from the Greek word oxus, sharp, or acid, because of its penetrating sour taste. This is due to the acid oxalate of potash which it contains abundantly, in common with the Dock Sorrel, and the Garden Rhubarb.
By reason of this chemical salt being present in combination with less leafy matter than in the other plants which are akin to it, the Wood Sorrel makes a lighter and more palatable salad.
In olden days the Monks named this pretty little [611] woodland plant Alleluia, because it blossoms between Easter and Whitsuntide, when the Psalms—from the 113th to the 117th, inclusive—which end with the aspiration, "Hallelujah!" were sung.
St. Patrick is said to have shown on the ternate leaf of the Wood
Sorrel to his rude audience the possibility of a Trinity in Unity.
The herb has been long popular as a Simple for making a fever drink, which is thought to be somewhat sedative to the heart, and for helping to cure scurvy. Also, it has proved useful against intermittent fever.
Towards assisting to digest, by their free acid, the immature fibre of young flesh meats, the Wood Sorrel leaves are commonly eaten as a dressing with veal, and lamb. But too habitual use of such a salad or sauce has led to the formation of gouty crystals (oxalate of lime) in the urine, with considerable irritation of the kidneys. Externally, the bruised leaves are of excellent service for cleansing and stimulating foul sores and ulcers, being first macerated in a Cabbage leaf with warmth.
This familiar harbinger of Spring, with its three delicate leaflets on a long stalk, and its tiny white flowers, having purple veins like those of the Wood Anemone, bears the fanciful name of Fairy-bells in Welsh districts.
Fra Angelico placed the claret-stained flowers in the foreground of his pictures representing the Crucifixion. After the doctrine of signatures, because of its shape like a heart, the leaf of the Wood Sorrel was formerly esteemed as a cordial medicine. It was called in Latin Panis Cuculi, meaning the "Cuckoo's bread and cheese." The leaves, when bruised, make with sugar a capital conserve which is refreshing to a fevered stomach, or, if boiled in milk, they form an agreeable sub-acid whey. [612] Twenty pounds of the fresh plant will yield four ounces of the oxalate of potash, commonly known as salt of lemons or salt of sorrel, which is often used for taking ink stains out of linen. Francus, an old classical author, concluded by experiment that the herb is of value (cordis vires reparare) to recruit the energies of the heart, and (anginum abigere) to dispel the quinsy. Its infusion makes an excellent anti-putrescent gargle. There is also a yellow variety of the Wood Sorrel.
WORMWOOD.
The common Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) has been partly considered here together with Mugwort, to which it is closely allied. It is a Composite herb of frequent growth on waste ground, being a bushy plant with silky stems, and collections of numerous small heads of dull yellow flowers. The name Wormwood is from wehren, to keep off—mought, a maggot or moth; and absinthium, from-a-negative—psinthos, delight, in allusion to the very bitter taste.
The whole plant is of an aromatic smell and bitter flavour. The flowers, when dried and powdered, destroy worms more effectually than worm seed, whilst the leaves resist putrefaction and help to make capital antiseptic fomentations.
Wormwood tea, or the powdered herb in small doses, mixed in a little soup, will serve to relieve bilious melancholia, and will help to disperse the yellow hue of jaundice from the skin.
This herb was formerly thought to possess the power of dispelling demons, and was thus associated with the ceremonials of St. John's Eve, owning the name, on the Continent, of St. John's Herb, or St. John's Girdle. Both it, and the Mugwort were dedicated to Diana: [613] and Venus gave thereof (Ambrose) to AEneas. It bears the provincial name "old woman." The smell of common Wormwood is very refreshing, and its reviving qualities in heated Courts are almost equal to a change of air.
Dioscorides declared it a preventive of intoxication, and a remedy for the ill-effects of any such excess; for which reason the poculum absinthiacum was a favourite beverage.
Gerard says: "The plant voideth away the worms, not only taken inwardly, but applied outwardly; it withstandeth all putrefactions, and is good against the stinking breath." It keepeth garments also from the moths—A tineis tutam reddit qua conditur arcam (Macer); and Dr. W. Bulleyne says "it keepeth clothes from moths and wormes." This is the great preventive used by cloth manufacturers. "Furthermore," adds Gerard, "taken in wine it is good against the biting of the shrew mouse, and of the sea dragon. It may be applied against the Squincie, or inflammation of the throat, with honey and water: likewise, after the same manner, to dim eyes, and mattery ears."
The characteristic odour of the plant is due to a volatile oil which consists mainly of absinthol; and the intensely bitter taste resides in "absinthin."
The plant also contains tannin, resin, starch, succinic, malic, and acetic acids, with nitrate of potash, and other salts. In some districts it is popularly called "green ginger."
Wormwood is of benefit for strengthless flatulent indigestion. An infusion may be made of an ounce of the dried plant to a pint of boiling water, and given in doses of from one to two tablespoonfuls three times during the day.
[614] This infusion with a few drops of the essential oil will prevent the hair from falling off.
Absinthe, a liqueur concocted from Wormwood, is used largely in France, and the medical verdict pronounced there about its effects shows that it exercises through the pneumogastric nerve a painful sensation, which has been taken for that of extreme hunger. This feeling goes off quickly if a little alcohol is given, though it is aggravated by coffee, whilst an excessive use of absinthe from day to day is not slow in producing serious symptoms: the stomach ceases to perform its duty, there is an irritative reaction in the brain, and the effects of blind drunkenness come on after each debauch. The French Military call absinthe un perroquet. The daily taking even for a short while only of a watery infusion of Wormwood shows its bad effects by a general languor, with obscurities of the sight, giddiness, want of appetite, and painful indigestion.
When indulged-in as an appetiser by connoisseurs, absinthe, the "fairy with the green eyes," is modified by admixture with anisette, noted as an "agreeable and bronchitis-palliating" liqueur.
As a result of his experiments on animals, Dr. Maignan has come to the conclusion that absinthe (Wormwood) determines tremblings, dulness of thought, and epileptiform convulsions,—symptoms which alcohol alone will not produce. Hence it may be inferred that absinthe contains really a narcotic poison which should prevent its being employed as a liqueur, or as a homely medicament, to any excess.
Dogs are given to eat the Wormwood as a remedy for their ailments. Its medicinal and curative uses have been already partly discussed, together with those of Mugwort.
[615] WOUNDWORT.
The Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) is a common Labiate plant in our hedges and woods, branched and hairy, with whorls of small dull purple flowers on a spike two feet high or more. There are other varieties of the herb, such as the Marsh (March) Woundwort, the Corn Woundwort, and the Downy Woundwort.
The Hedge Woundwort was named by Gerard, Clown's all heal, or the Husbandman's Woundwort, because a countryman who had cut his hand to the bone with a scythe, healed the wound in seven days with this plant.
It is called by some the Hedge Dead Nettle, from its nettle-like leaves, and the place of its growth.
"The leaves," says Gerard, "stampt (pounded) with hog's grease, and applied unto green wounds in the manner of a poultice, heal them in such short time and such absolute manner, that it is hard for anyone that hath not had the experience thereof to believe. For instance, a deep and grievous wound in the breast with a dagger, and two others in the abdomen (or nether belly), so that the fat commonly named the caul, issued forth, the which mortal wounds, by God's permission, and the virtues of this herb, I perfectly cured within twenty days—for the which the name of God be praised."
The name Stachys given to this herb, is from the Greek stakos, a bunch, because of the arrangement of the flowers. It contains a volatile oil, and a bitter principle undetermined.
The Stachys Germanica (Downy Woundwort) is so called from its soft, downy leaves having been employed instead of lint as a surgical dressing to wounds. The plant grows on a chalky soil in Bedfordshire, [616] Berkshire, and Oxfordshire: being named also "Lamb's Ear."
This Stachys lanata (Woolly Woundwort) is known as Saviour's blanket, in Sussex; also in Devonshire and Somersetshire, as Mouse's ear, Donkey's ear, and Lamb's tongue.
The Knights' Water Woundwort (Statiotes aloides) was supposed from its blade-like leaves, acting on the doctrine of signatures, to heal sword wounds.
YARROW.
The Yarrow, from hiera, holy herb (Achillea millefolium), or Milfoil, is so called from the very numerous fine segments of its leaves. It is a Composite plant very common on waysides and in pastures throughout Britain.
The name Achillea has been bestowed thereupon because the Greek warrior, Achilles, is said to have disclosed its virtues which he had been taught by Chiron, the Centaur. This herb is the _Stratiotes chiliophullos _of the Greek botanists, by whom it was valued as an excellent astringent and vulnerary. But Gerard supposes it may have been the Achillea millefolium nobile, which grows with a thick root and longer leaves, on a fat and fruitful soil, a stranger in England, "and the very same with which Achilles cured the wounds of his soldiers." But, he adds, "the virtues of each sort of Milfoil are set to be both alike."
The flowers of the Common Yarrow or Nosebleed are white or pink; those of the Nobile are yellow.
The popular name of Nosebleed has been given to the Yarrow because the hairy filaments of the leaves, when put up the nose, provoke an exudation of blood, and will thus afford relief to headache, caused by a passive fulness of the vessels. Parkinson says "if it be [617] pat into the nose, assuredly it will stay the bleeding of it," which mast be the' effect of action according to similars. Or if using Yarrow in the same way as a love charm, the following lines were repeated:—
"Green arrow! green arrow!
You bear a white blow;
If my love love me
My nose will bleed now."
The leaves have a somewhat fragrant smell, and a bitterish taste. The odour of the flowers, when rubbed between the fingers, is aromatic. In consequence of this pungent, volatile principle, the herb has proved useful in hysteria, flatulence, heartburn, colic, and epilepsy; also, it is employed in Norway for the cure of rheumatism, and sometimes chewed for toothache.
Yarrow is one of the few aboriginal English plants, having held the primitive title, Gearwe. Greek botanists seem to have known the identical species which we now possess, and to have used it against haemorrhagic losses. It yields, chemically, a dark-green volatile oil, and achilleic acid, which is said to be identical with aconitic acid; also resin, tannin, gum; and earthy ash consisting of nitrates, phosphates, and chlorides of potash and lime.
For preparing an infusion of the plant, half an ounce should be boiled down in half a pint of water to six ounces; one tablespoonful for a dose.
Sir John Hill says the best way of giving Yarrow is in a strong decoction of the whole plant. A hot infusion of the herb taken freely on going to bed at night seldom fails to make short work of a cold.
A medicinal tincture (H.) is prepared from the whole plant with spirit of wine. This, when employed in a diluted form of the first or third decimal strength, and [618] in small doses of from five to ten drops in a tablespoonful of cold water, will act admirably in arresting nocturnal losses in the male; likewise bleeding from the lungs, the kidneys, or the nose, especially in florid, hectic subjects. It has been found by healthy provers that stronger, and larger doses of any preparation of the herb will induce or aggravate one or another of these bleedings.
The fresh juice of the plant may be had, a dessert-spoonful three times in the day; or of the volatile essential oil, from three to five drops for a dose. These medicines greatly stimulate and promote the appetite. "For ague," says Parkinson, "drink a decoction of the herb warm before the fit, and so for two or three fits together."
Externally, a strong decoction of the leaves has been used as an injection into the nostrils to stay bleeding from the nose. It is similarly of service for piles, and for female floodings, because exerting a special local action on the organs within the middle trunk. The bruised herb, or an ointment made from it, is applied by rustics to heal fresh cuts and contusions.
Even in ancient times it was famous as a topical remedy for piles. It is further of benefit for sore nipples as a lotion, and for a relaxed sore throat as a gargle: also as a hair wash.
The leaves were applied in former days as a poultice to wounds; and because of its healing and astringent virtues when so used, the plant gained the names Sanguinary, Thousand leaf, Old Man's pepper, Soldiers' Woundwort. Other local names for it are Staunch grass, Carpenters' weed, and Bloodwort: also, "Old Man's Mustard," "Bad Man's Plaything," and "Devil's Plaything." In Gloucestershire and some other parts, the double-flowered Yarrow is brought to a wedding by [619] bridesmaids as "seven years' love." In Cheshire, children draw the herb across the face to produce a tingling sensation, and they call it "Devil's nettle."
Culpeper spoke of the same as a profitable herb in cramps, and therefore called Militaris.
Yarrow, worn in a little bag over the stomach, was the secret (confided to Boyle) of a great lord against ague. A famous physician had used it with strange efficacy.
Similarly a charmed packet containing dried Yarrow has been credited with bringing success to its bearer, if at the same time he were admitted to the knowledge of a traditional secret (only whispered to the initiated) that this was the first herb our Saviour had put into His hand when a child.
Again, Elspeth Reoch, in 1616, when tried for witchcraft, acknowledged to having employed the Yarrow in her incantations. She "plucked one herbe called Meleflower, sitting on her right knee, and pulling it betwixt the mid-finger and thumbe, and saying: In nominee Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti." The Meleflower is the Achilloea Ptarmica or Sneezewort.
By the plant so gathered, she was enabled to cure distempers, and to impart the faculty of prediction.
YEW.
Although the Yew—a Conifer—which is so thoroughly English a tree, is known to be highly poisonous as regards its leaves to the humans subject, and as concerning its loppings or half-dead branches, to oxen, horses, and asses, yet a medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the young shoots, which has distinct and curative uses. Both the Yew and the Ivy were called abiga, because [620] causing abortion. From which word when corrupted was formed iua; and under this latter name, says Dr. Prior, the Ivy and the Yew became inextricably mixed up.
Moreover, the red berries, or their coloured fleshy cups, are not poisonous when taken in moderation, but rejecting the seeds.
Gerard says: "When I was yong, and went to schoole, divers of my school-fellows and likewise myself, did eat our fils of the berries of this tree, and have not only slept under the shadow thereof, but among the branches also, without any hurt at all, and that not one time, but many times."
Yet Leo Grindon says, much more recently: "Though the juice and pulp of the sweet and viscid berries are not harmful, still the seeds of the Yew, and the leaves are deadly poison."
In the Herbal of 1578, Lyte tells us the Yew is altogether venomous, and against man's nature. "Such as do but only sleep under the shadow thereof become sick, and sometimes they die;" and, "the extract of yew is used by ignorant apothecaries to the great peril and danger of the poor diseased people."
The Yew tree (Taxus baccata) occurs in mountainous woods and rocky glens about Britain, but is rare as of native growth. Its name, Taxus, is a corruption of toxos, an arrow, since arrows in the old time were poisoned with the juice of yew.
The tree was planted frequently by our forefathers in churchyards, because of its value in the manufacture of bows. It is exceedingly long lived, and often attains great magnitude of girth.
A ghastly superstition was attached to the Yew when thus growing in a churchyard, that it would prey upon [621] the dead bodies lying beneath its sombre shade. So Tennyson writes (In Memoriam):—
"Old Yew! which graspest at the stones
That name the underlying dead,
Thy fibres net the dreamless head,
Thy roots are wrapped about the bones."
The juice of the tree and of its leaves is a rapidly fatal poison, the symptoms corresponding in a very remarkable way with those which follow the bites of venomous snakes.
No known poison but the Yew produces the lazar-like ulcerations upon the body, on which Marlowe lays such stress—(Jew of Malta):—
"In few, the blood of Hydra—Herne's bane,
The juice of Hebron, and Cocytus' breath,
And all the poisons of the Stygian pool."
The witches in Macbeth include it in their accursed brew:—
"Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and Slips of Yew."
The Yew tree is called "Hebon" by Spencer, and "Jew of Malta" by other writers of Shakespeare's time. The leaves are bitter, nauseous, and acrid. The succulent covering of the fruit is soft and slimy, mawkishly sweet, and mucilaginous. The leaves have a dangerous effect on the circulation of the heart, and when taken with any freedom are as fatal as the Foxglove.
Before the new Shakespeare Society, 1882, it was contended and proved to the satisfaction of the Society, that "the cursed Hebena," the "leperous distilment poured into the chambers of mine ears," told of, so pathetically, by the sad ghost of Hamlet's father, was the [622] poison of the Yew, and identical with Marlow[e]'s juice of Hebron.
Ray mentions that a gardener employed in clipping a Yew tree at Pisa, could not proceed with his work for more than half-an-hour at a time without being seized with a violent pain in the head. Nevertheless, deer, sheep, and goats can eat the foliage with impunity.
The fresh leaves were administered to three children near
Manchester for worms. Yawning and listlessness came on, and the
eldest vomited a little, but neither of them complained of any pain.
They all died within a few hours of each other.
Because being then green, on the Sunday next before Easter, the branches of the Yew tree have been used as a substitute for the Palms which symbolise the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
The symptoms induced by provings of the leaves and juice in toxic quantities, have been sick headache, with giddiness, feeble, faltering pulse, coldness of the extremities, diarrhoea, and general prostration. So that for this combination of symptoms, as in severe biliousness, or as in the auditory vertigo of Meniere's disease, small doses of the diluted tincture are found to give prompt and effectual relief. The leaves contain a volatile oil, tannin, and a bitter principle "taxina," which is also furnished by the seeds. An extract of Yew has been pronounced a useful narcotic by more than one physician of repute: and in some parts of Germany a decoction of the wood is a well-known remedy against hydrophobia.
A jelly prepared from the berries has been given for chronic bronchitis, and the leaves have been used for epilepsy; likewise they have been taken by ignorant persons to induce abortion, but with serious injury to the experimenter. In some rural districts the berries [623] are known as "Snots"; whilst the wood and roots are "Wire thorn."
By an old statute of Edward the First, trees were required to be placed in churchyards to defend the church from high winds, the clergy being allowed to cut them down for repairing the chancel when necessary. Perhaps, partly for this reason, the Yew was commonly planted by the side of a newly-built church. That its wood was certainly employed for making bows, we learn from Shakespeare:—
"Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal Yew against thy state."
It was "double-fatal," because the leaves and fruit seeds are poisonous, and the bows made from its branches, as well as arrows armed with its deadly juice, were instruments of death.
Against the maladies which have been specified as indicating the tincture of Yew for their cure, from five to ten drops of the third decimal tincture should be given, with a spoonful of water, every two, three, or four hours, whilst required. In Switzerland the Yew is known as William's tree, in memory of Tell. Formerly the name was spelt "Eugh," "Yeugh," and "Ewgh."
Spenser says:—
"The Eugh—obedient to the bender's will."
In olden times the Olitory, or Herb-garden, formed an important annex to all demesnes having any pretensions to completeness, and was under "My Lady's" [624] special charge. In fact, the culture and preparing of Simples formed a part of every lady's education. "My Lord's" retainers and tenants, when out of sorts, were treated with these wholesome remedies, and were directed to find in Simples the cure for all ordinary ailments.
Good George Herbert, of Country Parson celebrity, taught, 1620:— "In the knowledge of Simples, wherein the manifold wisdom of God is wonderfully to be seen, one thing should be carefully observed, which is, to know what herbs may be used instead of drugs of the same nature, and to make the garden the shop; for, home-bred medicines are both more easy for the Parson's purse, and more familiar for all men's bodies. So where the Apothecary useth either for loosing, Rhubarb, or for binding, Bole Armena; the Parson useth Damask, or White Roses for the one, and Plantain, Shepherd's Purse, or Knotgrass for the other: and that with better success. As for Spices, he doth not only prefer home-bred things before them, but condemns them for vanities, and so shuts them out of his family, esteeming that there is no spice comparable of herbs to Rosemary, Thyme, Savory, Mints: and of seeds to Fennel and Carraway. Accordingly for salves his wife seeks not the city, but prefers her garden and fields, before all outlandish gums. And, surely, Hyssop, Valerian, Mercury, Adder's tongue, Yarrow, Melilot, and St. John's Wort, made into a salve, and Elder, Camomile, Mallows, Comphrey, and Smallage, made into a poultice have done great, and rare cures!"
[625] INDEX.
AGE, Old, to Promote.
Agrimony, Hemp . . . 19
Apples . . . 27-31
Chamomile . . . 86
Chervil . . . 101
Cider . . . 81
Elder . . . 168
Fennel . . . 182
Fig . . . 196
Honey . . . 258
Lemon . . . 303
Mountain Ash . . . 350
Oat drink . . . 397
Orchis Salep . . . 405
Sage . . . 490
Sago . . . 155
Sea Holly (Eryngo) . . . 499
Sugar . . . 257
AGUE, and Intermittent Fever.
Agrimony, Hemp . . . 19
Chestnut, Horse . . . 102
Cinquefoil, Creeping . . . 515
Cloves oil . . . 396
Feverfew . . . 193
Flag, Sweet . . . 202
Lemon . . . 302
Mercury, Dog's . . . 332
Nettle . . . 385
Parsley seed . . . 409
Parsnip, Wild . . . 414
Plantain, Ribwort . . . 435
Rush, sweet-scented . . . 480
Sage . . . 492
Skullcap, Greater . . . 517
Sunflower . . . 547-549
Verbena-vervain . . . 588
Woodsorrel . . . 611
Yarrow . . . 618
ALBUMINURIA, see URINE.
ANEURISM of Heart.
Club moss . . . 115
ANTISEPTIC and Germ Destroying.
Agrimony . . . 19
Angelica . . . 24
Camphor . . . 338
Carrot . . . 88
Centaury . . . 97
Cinnamon bark . . . 390
Clove . . . 395
Currant, Red, juice . . . 138
Elecampane . . . 173
Garlic . . . 215
Hop . . . 266
Juniper . . . 294
Mountain Ash jelly . . . 350
Mustard flour . . . 377
Onion tribe . . . 211
Orange . . . 403
Peppermint . . . 340
Rosemary . . . 473
Rue . . . 478
Sage . . . 490
Sorrel . . . 161
Tamarind . . . 551
Tansy . . . 554
Tar . . . 582
Thistle, Sow . . . 558
—Carline . . . 558
Thymol . . . 563
Tomato . . . 569
Wormwood . . . 355,612
[626] APPETITE, to Improve.
Asafetida (Garlic) . . . 220
Lettuce . . . 309
Orange . . . 403
Parsnip . . . 414
Samphire . . . 497
Sorrel . . . 161
Yarrow . . . 618
ASTHMA.
Anise . . . 26
Bee propolis . . . 260
Cabbage, Red . . . 75
Coltsfoot (to smoke) . . . 118
Elder . . . 166
Elecampane candy . . . 173
Garlic . . . 215
Horehound, white . . . 267
Hyssop . . . 278
Mace . . . 395
Mullein . . . 361
Mustard, Hedge . . . 382
Nettle . . . 387
Onion tincture . . . 212
Pine, yellow (pillow) . . . 577
Primrose, Evening (with diarrhoea) . . . 450
Rosemary, wild (gouty) . . . 475
Sow Thistle . . . 559
Speedwell . . . 528
Vernal grass (Hay) . . . 241
ATROPHY and Wasting.
Acorn (of children) . . . 16
Daisy (from youthful indiscretions) . . . 144
Dandelion . . . 151
Iceland Moss . . . 501
Truffle . . . 371
Vine (of young women) . . . 588
BACK, Injury to Spine.
Saint John's Wort . . . 289
BILIOUS Disorders, and Jaundice.
Agrimony . . . 18
Apple (sluggish liver) . . . 27
Asparagus . . . 37
Barberry . . . 42
Carrot . . . 89
Celandine, Greater . . . 99, 603
Chickweed . . . 106
Cinquefoil, Creeping . . . 516
Dandelion . . . 149
Egg . . . 150
Flag, blue (bilious sickness) . . . 199
Gooseberry, red . . . 225
Grape cure . . . 239, 588
Hemp Agrimony . . . 20
Hop . . . 264
Hyssop, Hedge . . . 280
Ivy cup (spleen congested) . . . 282
Knapweed . . . 296
Lemon juice . . . 301
Lime . . . 317
Marigold . . . 327
Mullein (with megrims) . . . 361
Orach . . . 229
Orange . . . 402
Parsnip, wild . . . 414
Radish tincture . . . 487
Samphire (spleen congested) . . . 498
Spindle . . . 531
Spleenwort fern . . . 190
Strawberry . . . 539
Succory (melancholy) . . . 541
Tamarind . . . 551
Thistle, Blessed . . . 558
—Milk . . . 557
Toadflax . . . 567
Tomato . . . 571
Water Pepper (with sore fundament) . . . 606
Woodruff . . . 609
Wormwood (with melancholy) . . . 612
Yew (severe) . . . 622
BLADDER, see Urine.
BLEEDING.
Acorn . . . 17
Agaric, Oak (amadou) . . . 370
[627] Bistort, great . . . 607
Bramble . . . 54
Burnet Saxifrage . . . 431
Cinnamon (from bowels) . . . 392
Comfrey . . . 120
Fern, Hart's tongue . . . 187
Goosegrass . . . 233
John's Wort, Saint . . . 288
Lavender, Sea (from kidney) . . . 300
Lemon . . . 303
Mistletoe (from womb) . . . 348
Moss, Iceland (from lungs) . . . 500
Nettle, White . . . 386
Periwinkle, Lesser . . . 428
Plantain, Water . . . 436
Puff-ball . . . 366
Quince . . . 454
Saffron (from nose) . . . 489
Sanicle . . . 509
Shepherd's Purse . . . 514
Sloe . . . 518
Strawberry (root and leaf) . . . 537
Tormentil . . . 573
Turpentine (from lungs, or kidneys) . . . 577
Yarrow (from nose) . . . 618
BLOODLESSNESS.
Marigold, Marsh . . . 330
BOILS.
Daisy . . . 144
Dock . . . 159
Fig . . . 196
Groundsel . . . 245
Honey . . . 259
Parsley, Stone . . . 413
Radish (carbuncle) . . . 457
BOWELS and Stomach.
CATARRH—
Grape . . . 239
Quince seed . . . 452
BRAIN.
TO STRENGTHEN—
Apple . . . 27
Balm . . . 41
Cress . . . 127
Oat . . . 154
Rosemary . . . 470
Sage . . . 491
CONGESTION OF—
Darnel (active) . . . 243
Lettuce, wild . . . 311
Saffron . . . 488
ANGRY EXCITABILITY—
Cat Mint . . . 345
BREAST.
CANCER OF—
Goosegrass . . . 233
Marjoram . . . 332
Parsley . . . 411
SWOLLEN WITH MILK—
Parsley leaves . . . 409
Yarrow (sore nipples) . . . 618
BRONCHITIS.
RECENT CATARRH—
Daffodil (children) . . . 143
Eyebright . . . 176
Fig . . . 197
Flax, Linseed . . . 263
Yarrow . . . 617
CHRONIC—
Angelica . . . 24
Anise (of children) . . . 25
Coltsfoot . . . 119
Elecampane . . . 174
Garlic . . . 215
Ginger . . . 392
Horehound, white . . . 267
Hyssop . . . 278
Ivy, Ground . . . 284
Mace . . . 395
Moon Daisy . . . 147
Mustard, white . . . 381
Onion . . . 210
Radish . . . 456
Rue compress . . . 477
[628] Sow Thistle (wheezy) . . . 559
Sundew . . . 544
Tar . . . 581
Turpentine . . . 577
Yew . . . 622