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330 FAMILY HERBAL. 



tliey are broad, roundish, and of a decpgreen colour ; 

 they are of a fleshy substance, and stand each on 

 a separate foi;t-stalk of three or four inchet long* 

 The flowers are small, and of a very bright white ; 

 they stand in a kind of loose spike on the tons of 

 the stalks. The root is composed of a quantity ol 

 thick whitish fibres. 



The leaves arc used. A decoction of them with 

 a piece of cinnamon, and a little red wine, is giver 

 against the overflowingii of the menses, bloody stool8> 

 and all haemorrhages, and against ulcers in the 

 urinary passages, and bloody urine. 



WoAD. Glastunu 



A PLANT cultivated in fields, in many parts 



of England, for the use of ihe dyers, and com- 

 monly met with in places near those where it was 

 sown, as if a wild plant ; but it is not properly a 

 native of our country. It is a tall, erect, and hand- 

 some plant ; the stalk is round, thick, firm, upright, 

 and four feet high ; but it is usually so eovered 

 with the leaves, that scarce any part of it is to b« 

 »cen naked. The leaves arc long and of a consider- 

 able breadth. They arc large at the base, where 

 iix^"^ grow to the stalk, without any foot-stalks ; 

 and narrower all the way to the point. They are 

 of abluish greea colour, and the whole plant '\§ 

 covered with them, so the top has a pretty aspect. 

 The flowers arc little and ycUow ; they stand in 

 great numbers about the tops of the stalks, which 

 are divided into a multitude of &mall branches; 

 and they are succeeded by small seed vessels. The 

 root is long and thick. 



Although the dyers arc the people who pay 

 most regard to woad, and for whose use it is cul* 



tivated, it ha^ virtues that demand for it a gr«ai 



