134 FAMILY HERBAL. 



riot much used, but I have known a jaundice cured 

 by it, taken in the beginning. 



Feverfew. Matricaria. 



A co31mos wild plant, with divided leaves, 

 and a multitude of small flowers like daisies ; it 

 grows about farmers' yards. The stalk is round, 

 hollow, upright, branched, and striated, and grows 

 two feet high. The leaves are large, div'ded into 

 many smail ones, and those roundish and indented ; 

 they are of a yellowish green colour, and particular 

 smell. The flowers stand about the tops of the 

 stalks ; they are small, white round the edges, and 

 yellowish in the middle. The root is white, little, 

 and inconsiderable. 



The whole plant is to be used ; it is best fresh, 

 but it preserves some virtue dried ; it is to be given 

 in *ea, and it is excellent against hysteric disorders ; 

 it promotes the menses. 



Fig-tree. Ficus. 



A shrub sufficiently known in our gardens. The 

 trunk is thick, but irregular, and the branches, which 

 are very numerous, grow without any sort of order. 

 The leaves are very large, and of a deep blackish 

 green, broad, divided deeply at the edges, and full 

 of a milky juice. The flowers are contained within 

 the fruit. The fig-tree produces fruit twice in the 

 year ; the first set in spring, the second towards 

 September, but these last never ripen with us. The 

 dried figs of the grocers are the fruit of the same tree 

 in Spain and Portugal, but they grow larger there, 

 and ripen better. 



Our own fige arc wholesome fruit, and they are 



