V 



2* FAMILY HERBAL 



England, but not common. It grows in woods, 

 and has beaiiitiful purple and yellow flowers. 

 It is a foot high. The leaves are oval and 

 heart-fashioned, deeply indented at the edges, 

 and of a dusky green. The stalks which pro- 

 duce the flowers, are weak, brittle^ and gene- 

 rally crooked ; the flowers stand in a kind of very 

 loose spike, ten or a dozen upon the top ; they 

 arC' small, but Ycry singular and conspicuous ; 

 they are purple on the back with a red edge, and 

 yellow in the middle. The root is fibrous and 

 creeping. 



It was an opinion with the old writers, that 

 this plant produced no flowers ; but the occa- 

 sion is easily known. When it stands exposed to 

 sun, it seldom does flower ; we see that in gardeni 

 where it is planted in such situations, for it will 

 ttand many years without flowering ; but our 

 woods favour it, being dark and damp : the old 

 people saw it in warmer climates, and under an 

 unfavourable exposure. They called it from this 

 circuiri^tance, as well as from its virtues, by a 

 name^ which^ expressed being barren and fruit 

 less. 



The people in the north giro milk in which 

 the roots have been boiled, to the females of the 

 domestic animals when they are running after 

 the males, and they say it has the certain effect 

 of stopping the natural emotions. Plain sense 

 leads these sort of people to' many things. They 

 liave from this been taught to give it to young wo- 

 men of robust habits, subject to Tiolent hysteric 

 complaints, and I am assured with great success ; 

 they give the decoction of the root made strong 

 and sweetened. 'Twas a coarse allusion that led 

 them to the practice, but it succeeds in cases that 

 foil all the parade of common practice. It is said 



that, if they take it in too large quantity, it rcn- 



