FAMILY HERBAL. 39 



high ; the leaves are broad and beautiful, and 

 the flowers grow in a thick spike or ear, at the 

 top of the stalks, and are of a bright red colour. 

 There me immediately from the root a number 

 of large and beautiful leaves, long, broad, and 

 of a fine green colour. The stalks on which they 

 stand, have also a rim of the leaf running down, 

 them ; the stalks are round, firm, and erect, of 

 a pale green, and have two or three leaves, like 

 the others, but smaller, on them, placed at dis- 

 tances. The spike of the flowers is as long, 

 and as thick as a man's thumb : the root is thick 

 and contorted, blackish oil the outside, and red 

 within. 



If we minded our own herbs, we should need 

 fewer medicines from abroad. The root of bis- 

 tort is one of the best astringents in the world : 

 not violent, but sure. The time of gathering it 

 is in March, when the leaves begin to shoot. 

 String several of them on a line, and Set them 

 dry in the shade. The powder or decoction of 

 them, will stop all fluxes of the belly, and is one 

 of the safest remedies known for overflowings of 

 the menses. They are also good in a diabetes. 

 The use of thi-s root may be obtained without 

 danger till it effects a perfect cure. 



Bitter-Sweet. Solatium lignosum. 



A COMMON wild plant, with weak, but 

 woody stalks, that runs among our hedge.-, and 

 bears bunches of very pretty blue flowers in 'sum- 

 mer, and in autumn red berries. The stalks 

 run to ten feet in length, but they cannot sup- 

 port themselves upright : they are of a bluish 

 colour, and, when broken, have a very disagree- 

 able smell like rotten eggs. The leaves are oval, 



