Family herbal. 97 



tinder hedges, and in uncultivated places : thers 

 are many kinds of it, but that which has most vir - 

 tue, is the kind called herb robert ; this is a pretty 

 and regularly growing plant. The stalks are a 

 foot long, but they seldom stand quite upright ; 

 ^hey are round, branched, and jointed, and are often 

 red, as is frequently the whole plant : the leaves are 

 large, and divided into a great number of parts, 

 and they stand upon long foot-stalks, two at every 

 joint. The flowers are moderately large, and of 

 a bright red, they are very conspicuous and pretty; 

 the fruit that follows is long and slender, and has 

 some resemblance of the long beak of a bird, whence 

 the name. 



The whole plant is to be gathered root and all, 

 and dried for use ; it is a most excellent astringent : 

 Scarce any plant is equal to it. It may be given 

 dried and powdered, or in decoction. It stops 

 overflowings of the menses, bloody stools, and all 

 other bleedings. 



it is to be observed that nature eems to have 

 set her stamp upon several herbs which have the 

 virtue to stop bleedings. This and the tusan, the 

 two best remedies the fields afford for outward and 

 inward bleedings, become all over as red as blood 

 at a certain season. 



The Garden Cress, Nasturtium hor ien.se, 



A COMMON garden plant, raised for sallads. It 

 h two feci high: the stalk is round and firm, and 

 of a bluish green ; the leaves are divided into seg- 

 ments, and the flowers are small and white ; but 

 the full grown plant is not seen at our tables ; wc 

 eat only the leaves rising immediately from the root. 

 Tiit^e are laiv.e, finely divided, of a bright green, 



q 



