FAMILY HERBAL. 145 



The leaves, they say, are narrow, and of a pale 

 green : hut as to the flower and fruit, they are 

 silent. Some say it is thorny. 



All that we use is the dry resin, which is of a 

 yellowish white colour, and bitterish resinous taste, 

 and strong smell. Our druggists keep this. What 

 ever tree produces this, it is a noble balsam ; dis- 

 solved in the yolk of an egg, and made into an emul- 

 sion with barley-water, it will do good in con- 

 sumptions, when almost all other things fail 

 It were w 7 ell if the common trifling practice in that 

 fatal disorder would give way to the use of this 

 great medicine. 



French Mercury. Mercurialis mas ct fcamlna 



A wild plant, but not very frequent in Eng 

 land, conspicuous for little else than that it has 

 the male flowers on some plants, and the female 

 flowers on others, in the manner of spinage, hemp, 

 and some others, as lias been explained already 

 under the article date-tree. It grows ten inches 

 high The stalks are angular, green, thick, but 

 not firm, and stand but moderately upright. The 

 leaves are oblong, broadest in the middle, sharp 

 at the point, serrated at the edges, and of a deep 

 green colour. The female plants produce two 

 seeds growing together at the top of a little spike. 

 The male produce only one spike of dusty flowers, 

 without any seeds or fruit at all. But people com- 

 monly mistake the matter, and call the female the 

 male. 



A decoction of the fresh gathered plant purges 

 a little, and works by urine ; it is cooling, and 

 good for hot constitutions and over fulness. The 

 dried herb is used in decoctions for clysters.. 



