r?2i5 FAMILY HERBAL. 



ana against heat of urine ; it is also a little a»- 



tnngent. The grain is eaten also as barley. 



F- 



Milkwort. Polygala. 



A COMMON little plant upon our heaths, and 

 in drjpasturesj with numerous leaves and blue or 

 white flowers> (for this is a variety and caused by 

 accidents) disposed in loose spikes. The root is 

 long, and divided into several parts, the stalks arc 

 very numerous, and very much branched, they are 

 slender and weak, and they spread themselves upon 

 the ground^ forming a little green tuft. There is 

 great variety in the appearance of the plant, beside 

 what has been already named in the colour of the 

 flower ; nor is that indeed the only variation there: 

 so that it has been^ divided into two or three kinds 

 by some writers, but as all these will rise from the 

 same seed, and only are owing to the soil and 

 exposure, the plant is without doubt the same in 

 every appearance, and its virtues are the same 

 in which ever state it is taken. When it grows in 

 barren places, the stalks are not more than three 

 or four inches in length, and the leaves are very 

 numerous, short, and of an oval figure. The flow- 

 ers are in [this case small and blue, sometimes 

 whitish, striated with blue, and sometimes in-^ 

 tirely white. When the plant grows in a some- 

 what more favourable soil, the leaves are oblong, 

 and narrow, pointed at the ends, and of a beautiful ^ 

 green, the stalks are five or six inches long, and 

 the flowers in Uhis case are commonly blue, and 

 this is the most ordinary state of the plant. When 

 it grows in very favourable places^ as upon the 

 damp side of a hill, where there are springs, and 

 among the tall grass, then its leaves are longer, its 



stalks more robust and naore upright, and its flower? 



