30 FAMILY HERBAL. 



tempered from the wound, and the stone never 

 ripens in it, but it takes this singular form. 



It is an excellent astringent. It is of the na- 

 ture of the galls of the oak, but less violently 

 binding. It is good in all purgings and bloody 

 fluxes, and against the overflowing of the menses. 



Bear's-Breecii. Acanthus. 



A VERY beautiful plant, native of Italv, 

 and some other warm parts of Europe, and kept 

 in our gardens. It grows a yard high ; the 

 stalk is thick, round, and fleshy ; the leaves 

 grow from the root, and are a foot long, four 

 itxhes broad, very beautifully notched at the 

 edges, and of a dark glossy green. The flowers 

 stand in a kind of thick short spike at the top 

 of the stalks, intermixed with small leaves ; these 

 flowers are large, white, and gaping. The whole 

 plant, when in flower, makes a very beautiful 

 appearance. The root creeps. 



This plant is not so much known in medicine 

 as it deserves. The root being cut in slices and 

 boiled in water, makes an excellent diuretic de- 

 coclion. It was a great medicine with an eminent 

 apothecary of Peterborough, and he gave more 

 relief with it in the gravel and stone, than any 

 other medicine would afford. 



Bear's-foot. HeUeborus niger. 



A LOW and singular plant, but not without 

 its beauty : it is a native of many parts of 

 Europe, but we have it only in gardens ; the 

 leaves are lar^-e ; each rises from the root -ingly, 

 on a foot-Ftalk of six inches loner, and is di- 

 vided into nine purts like lingers mi a hand : 



