^ 



FAMILY HERBAL. 59 



green, and stand upon long foot-stalks; they are 

 broad at the base, and sharp at the point, and all 

 the way indented very sharply at the edges. They 

 are hairy and rough to the touch. The flowers 

 grow ten or a dozen together at the top of every 

 branch ; they are very iargc and of a beautiful 

 blue colour, hollow and divided into several parts 

 at the extremity. If the soil be poor, the lowers 

 will vary in their colour to a pale blue, reddish, or 

 white, but the plant is still the same. 



Tl>€ fresh tops, with the buds of the flowers 

 upon them, contain most virtue, but the dried 

 leaves may be used. An infusion of them sharp- 

 ened with a few drops of spirit of vitriol^ and 

 sweetened with honey, is an excellent medicine 

 for sore throats, used by way of a gargle. The 

 plant is so famous^for this virtue., that one of its 

 common English names is throat-wort : if the 

 medicine be swallowed, there is no harm in it ; but, 

 in the use of every thing in this w ay, it is best to 

 spit the liquor out together with the foulnesses 

 which it may have washed from the affected parts. 



The Caper Shrub. Capparis. 



A COMMON shrub in France and Italy, and 

 kept in our gardens. The pickles which Nve know- 

 under the name of capers, are made of the buds of 

 the flowers, but the part to be used iii medicine is 



the bark of the roots. 



(The shrub grows to no great height ; the 

 branches are weak, and ill able to support them- 

 selves, thej are tough and prickly : the Jeaves stand 

 irregularly, and are of an oval or roundish figure j 

 the thorns are hooked like those of the bramble ; 

 the flowers, when full opened, are purplish and 



very pretty ; the fruit is roundish. 



