OF SUNDRY HERBS 139 



will be a tincture produced of which a tablespoon should be 

 taken in half a gill of water. Sir John Hill, The British 

 Herbal, 1772. 



YARROW 



" I rose early in the morning yesterday, 

 I plucked yarrow for the horoscope of thy tale 

 In the hope that I might see the desire of my heart. 

 Ochone there was seen her back towards me." 



An old " raum " sung in the Hebrides. 



The old song quoted above refers to the story of a certain 

 bard who fell in love with a girl in Stornoway, who married 

 another. He was always conjuring up her image, and every 

 Wednesday he composed a song to her till he pined away and 

 became so small that his father had to carry him in a creel 

 on his back. Yarrow from time immemorial has been used 

 in incantations and by witches, and in the seventeenth century 

 a witch was tried for using it. Yarrow is an aboriginal 

 English plant, and by many country people is still accounted 

 one of the most valuable of our British herbs, and they still 

 drink the old Yarrow tea for colds and rheumatism. 



YARROW TEA. On a large handful of the roots, leaves and 

 flowers of yarrow pour one pint of boiling water. 



