FAMILY HERBAL. )47 



X 



tliem stand together in a kind of spike. The whole 



plaift has little taste. 



The juice expressed from this plant, is excellent 

 against' the scurvy. It opens obstructions of the 

 viscera^ and is ij-ood ag-aiust the jaundice^ and all 



other diseases arising from 



The Furze Bush, Clenista sDinosa, 



m 

 w 



I 



' A Y^ ll^^ busily upon our Iieaths and by road 

 sides, too common to need much description. The 

 stem is thick, tongb, and of a whitish colour, cover- 

 ed with fragments of an irregular kind. The bran- 

 ches are extreme Ij numerous, and spread in such 

 a manner^ that when the plant is left to itself, it 

 forms a kind of globular ojr semi-globular tuft 

 upon the ground. The thorns are lerj nurr^erous 

 and very sharp ; they stand as it were ore upon 

 another. The leaves are little, and of a pale green^ 

 ind they fall off so quickly^ that for a great part of 

 the year, we see the shrub without any. The flow-* 

 ers are yellow and beautiful, and the seeds arc con- 

 tained in pods. The root spreads a great way^ 

 and is not easily got up, when the shrub has one 



th 

 will 



Every piece of it left in» 



The root and the seeds are used, but neither 

 much. The seeds dried and powdered are astrin- 

 gent and a proper ingredient in electuaries, among 

 other things of that intention. The bark of the 

 root is used fresh taken up, and is to be given iu 

 infusiim : It works by urine, and is good against 

 the gravel ; but we have so manj^ better things of 

 ftur own growth for the same purpose, that it is 

 scarce worth while to meddle with it; it loses its 



Tirtues by drying. 



