14 FAMILY HERBAL. 



gathered and bruised, will sometimes restore Hie 

 speech at once ; and a continued use of them goes 

 a great way toward a cure. It is also good in 

 scorbutic cases, and in all inward obstruction?. 

 Some dry and powder it, but it then loses almost all 

 its virtue. 



Arsmart or Water-pepper. Persicaria Uretis. 



A common wild herb, neglected, but of great 

 virtues. It grows every where about ditches, and 

 in watery places. It is a foot and a half high ; the 

 stalks are weak, green or reddish, and jointed. The 

 leaves are long and narrow, like those of the peach 

 tree, of a bright green, not spotted, and even at the 

 edges. The flowers stand at the tops of the stalks in 

 slender spikes, of a greenish white. As there are 

 several other kinds of arsmart, and most of them 

 different from this in their nature and qualities, great 

 care is to be taken to gather the right. It must have 

 no spot upon the middle of the leaf. There is 

 another common kind of arsmart with such a spot, 

 and with thicker stalks, and thick pikes of reddish 

 ilowers, which has none of its virtue. 



The right arsmart is an excellent medicine in 

 obstructions of urine, in the gravel and stone : and 

 in the jaundice and beginning of dropsies it has done 

 great cures. The juice of the fresh gathered plant 

 is the best way of giving it. Outwardly it is good 

 to cleanse old ulcers. 



Artichoke Cinara. 



The root of the common artichoke, or harlichoke, 

 cultivated for our tnbles, is an excellent medicine. 

 The plant itself is of the thistle-kind, and its 



