100 FAMILY HERBAL. 



The whole plant is to be gathered whe-n begin- 

 ning to flower, and dried. A strong decoction of 

 it is a good restringent. and styptic ; it stops pur- 

 gings, even when there are bloody stools ; and 

 overflowings of the menses. 



Crow-foot. Ranuculus. 



A COMMON wild plant. There are several 

 sorts of it, but the kind used in medicine is that 

 most common in meadows, and called the common 

 creeping crowfoot. It grows a foot or more high ; 

 the stalks are firm, thick, branched, and of a pale 

 green ; but they seldom stand quite upright. The 

 leaves on them are few, and divided into narrow 

 segments ; the flowers are yellow, of the breadth 

 of a shilling, and of a fine shining colour ; they 

 stand at the tops of all the branches ; the leaves 

 which rise from the root are large, divided in a 

 threefold manner, and often spotted with white. 



Some are so rash as to mix a few leaves of this 

 among salad, but it is very wrong ; the plant is 

 caustic and poisonous. They are excellent applied 

 externally in palsies and apoplexies ; for they act 

 quicker thancantharides in raising blisters, and are 

 more felt. It is a wonder they are not more used 

 fur this purpose ; but we are at present so fmid 

 of foreign medicines, that these things are not 

 minded. 



There are two oilier kinds of crow-foot distin- 

 guished as poisons ; though all of them are, with 

 some .degree of justice, branded with this name : 

 but the two most pernicious kinds are that called 

 spearwort, which has long, narrow, and undivided 

 leaves ; and that with very small flowers, and leaves 

 somewhat like the divisions of those of smallage. 

 These both grow in watry places. 



