8* FAMILY HERBAL. 



large berry, black when it is ripe, and in it are two 

 seeds, which are what we call coffee ; they are 

 whitish, and of a disagreeable taste when raw. 



Coffee helps digestion, and dispels wind : and it 

 works gently by mine. The best way of faking it 

 is as we commonly drink it, and there are constitu- 

 tions for which it is very proper. 



Sea Colewort, ou Sea Bindweed. Soldanella. 



A PRETTY wild plant that we have on the 

 sea coasts, in many places ,- and that deserves to be 

 much more known than it is as a medicine. The 

 stalks are a foot long, but weak and unable to sup- 

 port themselves upright. They are round and 

 green or purplish : the leaves are roundish, but 

 shaped a little heart fashioned at the bottom ; thev 

 stand upon long foot-stalks, and are of a shining 

 green. The flowers are Targe and red, they are of 

 the shape of a bell ; the roots are white and small, 

 a milky juice flows from the plant when any part of 

 it is broken ; especially from the root. 



The whole plant is to be gathered fresh when 

 about flowering, and boiled in ale with some nut- 

 meg and a clove or two, and taken in quantities 

 proportioned to the person's strength ; it is a strong 

 purge, and it sometimes operates also bv urine, but 

 there is no harm in that. It is fittest for country 

 pei-p'e of robust constitutions, but it will cure 

 dropsies and rheumatism. Nay I have known a 

 clap cured on a country fellow, by only two 

 doses of it. The juice which oozes from the 

 st;iJk and roots may be saved, it hardens into 

 a substance like scammony, and is an eycellent 

 purge 



