FAMILY HERBAL 277 



bottom. The head is small, not larger than a horse 

 bean, and the seeds are small, and of a dark colour. 

 The whole plant is full of a bitter yellowish juice, 

 which runs out when it is any where broken, and has 

 something of the smell of opium. 



The flowers are used. A syrup is made from 

 tliem by pouring as much boiling water on them 

 as will just wet them, and after a night's standing, 

 straining it olF and adding twice its weight of 

 sugar : this is the famous syrup of red poppies. 

 It gently promotes sleep. It is a much weaker 

 medicine than the diacodium. It is greatly recom- 

 mended in pleurisies and fevers ; but this upon no 

 good foundation. It is very wrong to depend upon 

 such medicines : it prevents having recourse to 

 better. 



Primrose. Primula "ccris. 



A very pretty, and very common spring plant 

 The leaves r.rc long, considerably broad, of a 

 pale green, and wrinkled on the surface : they grow 

 immediately from the root in considerable numbers. 

 The stalks which support the (lowers are single, 

 slender, four or five inches high, a little hairy, 

 and have no leaves on them : one flower stands 

 at the top of each, and is large, white, and beautiful, 

 with a yellow spot in the middle. The root is fibrous 

 and whitish. 



The root is used. The juice of it snuffed up the 

 nose occasions sneezing, and is a good remedy against 

 the hcad-aeh. The dried root powdered, has the 

 *ame effect, but not so powerfully. 



Privet. Ligustrum. 



A little wild shrub in our hedges. It 



