^85 FxVMILY HERBAL. 



4 



The Dog Rose, or Wild Rose. Cj/noshatus, sivc 



rosa sylvestris. 



A COMMON bush in our hedges. The stalks 

 or stems are rounds woody, and very prickly. The 

 leaves are composed each of several ;5maller; these 

 standin pairs on a rib^ with an odd one at the end ; 

 and they are small, onlon<^, of a bright glossy, green 

 colour, and regularly indented at the edges. The 

 flowers are single, large, and very beautiful : there 

 is sometliing simple and elegant in their aspect that 

 pleases many, more than all the double roses raised 

 by culture. They*are white, but with a blush of 

 red, and very beautiful. The fruit that follows 

 these is the common hip, red, oblong, and contain- 

 ing a grea.t quantity of hairy seeds^ 



The fruit is the only part used ; the pulp is sepa- 

 rated fiom the skins and seeds, and beat up into a 

 conserve with sugar ; this is a pleasant medicine^ 

 and is of some efficacy against coughs. 



Though this is the only part that is used, it is not 

 the only that deserves to be. The flowers, gather- 

 ed in the bud and dried, arc an excellent astringent, 

 made more powerful than the red roses that are com- 

 monly dried for this purpose. A tea, made strong' 

 of these dried buds, and some of thera* given with 

 ittwiceaday in powder, is an excellent medicine 

 for overflowings of the menses; it seldom fails to 

 effect a cure. The seeds separated from the fruit, 

 dried and powdered, work by urine, and are good 



against the gravel, but they do not work very 

 powerfully. 



Upon the branches of this shrub, there grow a 

 kind of spungy fibrous tuffs, of a greep or redish 

 colour, they are called bedeguar. They are caus- 

 ed bv the Mjounds made by insects in tlie stalks, 

 as the galls arc produced upon (he oak. They are 



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