52 FAMILY HERBAL: 



leaves upon them. On the top of each stands 

 a spike of flowers, of a pale reddish colour; 

 the whole does not rise to more than eight inches 

 in height. These appear in March. When they 

 are dead, the leaves grow up ; these are roundish, 

 green on the upper side, and whitish underneath, 

 of a vast bigness, and stand singly upon hollowed 

 foot-stalks, of a purplish, whitish, or greenish co- 

 lour; thev are often two feet broad. The root 

 is white and long, it creeps under the surface of the 

 ground. 



The root, is the part, used ; it is praised very 

 highly, as a remedy in pestilential fevers ; hut, 

 whether it deserves that praise or not, it is a good 

 diuretic, and excellent in the gravel. 



Bur-reed. Sparganium. 



A COMMON water plant, with leaves like 

 flags, and rough heads of seeds : It is two or three 

 feet high. The stalks are round, green, thick, 

 and upright. The leaves are very long and nar- 

 row, sharp at the edges, and with a sharp ridge 

 on the back along the middle ; thev are of a pale 

 green, and look fresh and beautiful. The flowers 

 are inconsiderable and yellowish : they stand in a 

 kind of circular tufts about the upper parts of the 

 stalk : lower down stand the rough fruits called 

 burs, from whence the plant obtained its name ; 

 they are of the bigness of a large nut meg, green and 

 rough. The root is composed of a quantity of 

 while fibres. 



The unripe fruit is used : thev are aslringcut, 

 and good against fluxes of the bellv, and bleed- 

 ings of all kinds: the best way of giving them 

 is infused in a rough red wine, with a little cin- 

 iiamini. They use them in some parts of England 



