FAMILY HERBAL. 57 



The flowers are small and white, and the fruit is 

 a berry, altogether like our ba^ -berries, and of the 

 bigness of a large pea. The wood of the free is 

 white or a little reddish, and veined with black, 

 af>d smells of the camphire. The leaves also, when 

 they are bruised, suiell of camphire ; and the fruit 

 most nf all. 



The only product of this tree, used in medicine, 

 is the resm called camphire ; and this is not a natu- 

 ral, but a sort of chemical preparation. They cut^ 

 the wood to pieces and put it into a sort of subli- 

 ming vessel with an earthen head full of straw. 

 They make fire underneath, and the camphire rises 

 in form of a white meal, and is found among the 

 straw. This is refined afterwards, and becomes 

 the camphire we use. 



It is sudoriiSc and works by urine ; it also pro- 

 motes the menses, and is good in disorders of th« 

 bladder. 



White Gampioi^. Lychnis Jlore alho. 



A COMMON wild plant in our hedges and dry 

 pastures, with hairy leaves, and white flowers. It 

 grows to a foot and a half high : the stalks are round 

 and hairy ; tlie leaves are of an oval form, and also 

 hairy; and they grow two at every joint : they are 

 of a dusky green, and are not indented about the 

 edges. The flowers are moderately large, and 

 white ; they grow in a kind of small clusters on 

 the tops of the branches, and each has its separate 



foot-stalk. 



This is a plant not much regarded for its virtues, 

 but it deserves notice ; the country people o^ather 



a.ces. and 2"ive them in the 



the flowers in some 



whites and other weaknesses with 



I 



