270 FAMILY HERBAL. 



the middle one, but all run length-ways, like that 

 from the base of the leaf toward the point. The 

 stalks grow a foot high, their lower half is naked, 

 and their upper part thick set, first with small 

 and inconsiderable flowers, of a greenish white 

 colour, and afterwards with seeds which are brown 

 and small. 



This is one of those common plants, which have 

 so much virtue, that nature seems to have made 

 them common for universal benefit. The whole 

 plant is to he used, and it is best fresh. A de- 

 coction of it in water is excellent against overflow- 

 ings of the menses, violent purgings with bloody 

 stools and vomiting of blood, the bleeding of the 

 piles, ar.d all other such disorders. The seeds 

 beaten to a powder, are good against the whites. 



There is a broad leaved plantain with short flow- 

 ery spikes, and hairy leaves, this has full as much 

 virtue as the kind already described: the narrow 

 leaved plantain has less, but of the same kind. 



Plowman's Spikenard. Baccharis monspeliensium, 



A TALL robust wild plant with broad roug T 

 leaves, and numerous small yellowish flowc 

 frequent by road-sides, and in dry pastures. T 

 plant grows three feet high. The stalks arc rou 

 thick, upright, and a little hairy. The leaves 

 large, broad from the root, and narrower on 

 vtalk ; they are blunt at the points, and a little 

 dented at the edges. The flowers grow on U. 

 tops of the branches, spreading out into a large 

 head from a single stem ; they are little and yellow : 

 } he seeds have down fixed to them. The root is 

 brown and woody ; the whole plant has a fragrant 

 and aromatic smell. 



The leaves and tops given in decoction, are good 



