it^'AMILY HERBAL. 3 



m 



bright green colour ! it is thick and fleshy, and 

 has no ribs or veins. The stalk on which it stands 

 rises from a root composed of small fibres, and 

 ii3 four inches or more high. The spike rises to 

 about the same height above it ; and the tongue 

 or seed-vessel is notchied on each side. The whole 

 plant is buried among the grass, and must be 

 sought in April and May, for it dies ofTsoon after ; 

 nnd nothing is seen of it till the next season. 



It is a fine cooling herb, and an excellent 

 ointment is made from it. The leaves are to be 

 chopped to pieces, and four pounds of them are 

 to be put into three pounds of suet and one pint 



of oil melted together. The whole is to be boiled 

 till the herb is a little crisp, and then the ointment 

 is to be strained off: it will be of a beautiful green. 

 Some give the juice of the plants or the powder 



of the dried leaves, inwardly in wounds ; but this 

 is trifling. 



Acrimony. Agrimonia. 



A COMMON English plant : It flowers in the 

 midst of summer. It grows to a foot or more 

 in height ; the leaves are winged, and the flow- 

 ers are yellow. The root is perennial ; the leaves 

 are hairy, of a pale green, and notched at the 

 edges ; the stalk is single, firm^ and round ; 

 the flowers stand in a long spike ; they are small 

 and numerous, and the seed-vessels which sue* 

 ceed thera are rough like burs. The plant is com- 

 inon about hedg 



The leaves are used fresh or dried : thev h 



o 



been recommended in the jaundice ; but they are 

 found by eJsperience to be good in the diabetes 

 and incontinence of urine. The plant is also one 



B 2 



