FAMILY HERBAL. 171 



T 



^li€ edges^ of a rough surface, and white colour. 

 The flowers are white, and the points of their cups 

 -are prickly. 



The best part of the plant for medicinal use, is 

 the tops of the young shoots ; a decoction of these 

 made very strong, and boiled into thin syrup with 

 honey, is excellent against coughs, hoarsenesses 

 •^f long standing, and all disorders of the lungs. 

 The same decoction if taken in large doses, and 



for a continuance, promotes the menses, and opens 

 all obstructions. 



Black Horekound. BaUote. 



A COMMON wild plant, of a disagreeable 

 -smell, thence also called by some stinkius: hore- 

 hound. The stalks are square, the leaves grow 

 two at every joint, and are broad, short, and of 

 «. blackish greeA colourj but in shape not unlike 

 Ihose of the white kind. The flowers stand in 

 clusters round the stalk at the joints, as in the 



other, but they are red. The whole plant has a 

 dismal aspect. The root is fibrous. 



The plant is to be used fresh and dried, and 

 it lias more virtue tliau most imagine. . It is to be 

 given in the form of tea ; it promotes the menses, 

 and is superior to most things as a remedy in hyste- 

 ric cases, faintingSj convulsions^ and low spirit- 

 €dnes3, and all the train of those disorders. 



_^^ Horsetail. Equhetum segetale. 



A COMMON, and yet very singular wild plant, 

 frequent in our corn-fields, and composed of 

 branches only, without leaves ; there are also many 

 other kinds of horsetail. It is a foot or more ia 



Jjeight, and is extremely branched ; the stalk if 



