04 FAMILY HERBAL. 



Purple Loosestrife. Lysimachia purpurea. 



A wild plant, that decorates the sides of 

 ditches and rivers, and would be an ornament to 

 our gardens. It grows to three feet high, and is 

 very regular ; the stalk is square, hairy, and gene- 

 rally of a reddish colour. The leaves stand two 

 at each joint, and they are long and narrow ; of a 

 dusky green, and a little rough. The (lowers stand 

 in cry long spikes at the tops of the stalks, and 

 art large, and of a strong purple colour. The spikes 

 are often a foot or more in length The seed is very 

 little and brown. 



The leaves are need. They are a fine balsam for 

 fresh wounds, and an ointment is to be made of 

 them boiled in lard, which is also cooling and detersive, 

 but it is not of a fine green colour. 



Yellow Loosestrife. Lysimachia lutca. 



A wild plant not uncommon in our watery 

 places, but for its beauty, very worthy a place in 

 our gardens. If it were brought from America., it 

 would be called one of the most elegant plants in 

 the world. It is four feet high, the stalks are rigid, 

 firm, upright, and very regular in their growth : a 

 little hairy ; and towards the tops divided into several 

 brandies. The leaves are as long as one3 finger, 

 and an inch and half broad in the middle, and small 

 at each end ; they are a little hairy, and of a yellow- 

 ish green. The (lowers are large and of a beautiful 

 yellow, they grow several together on the tops of 

 the branches. The seed-vessels are full of small 

 seeds. 



The root dried and given in powder, is good 

 ugainst the whites, and against bloody fluxes, over- 

 flowings of the menses, and purging- ; it is astrm- 



