FAMILY HERBAL. 147 



them stand together in a kind of spike. The whole 

 plant has little taste. 



The juice expressed from this plant is excellent 

 against the scurvy. It opens obstructions of the 

 viscera, and is good against the jaundice, and all 

 other diseases arising from obstructions. 



Furze Bush. Genista sntnosa. 



A wild bush, upon our heaths and by road 

 sides, too common to need much description. The 

 stem is thick, tough, and of a whitish colour, cover- 

 ed with fragments of an irregular kind. The bran- 

 ches are extremely numerous, and spread in such 

 a manner, that when the plant is left to itself, it 

 forms a kind of globular or semi-globular tuft 

 upon the ground. The thorns are very numerous 

 and very sharp ; they stand, as it were, one upon 

 another. The leaves are little, and of a pale green, 

 and they fall off so quickly, that for a great part of 

 the year we see the shrub without any. The flow- 

 ers are yellow and beautiful, and the seeds are con- 

 tained in pods. The root spreads a great way, 

 and is not easily got up, when the shrub has once 

 thoroughly fixed itself. Every piece of it left in 

 will senc' up a new plant. 



The root and the seeds are used, but neither 

 much. The seeds dried and powdered are astrin- 

 gent, and a proper ingredient in electuaries, among 

 other things of that intention. The bark of the 

 root is used fresh taken up, and is to be given in 

 infusion : It works by urine, and is good against 

 the gravel ; but we have so many better things of 

 our own growth for the same purpose, that it is 

 scarce worth while to meddle with it ; it loses its 

 virtues by drying. 



