298 FAMILY HERBAL. 



Wood Sage. Salvia agrcstis. 



A wild plant, common in woods and hedges, 

 with leaves like sage, and spikes of small flowers. 

 It grows two feet and a half high. The stalk is 

 square, firm, slender, and upright. The leaves 

 stand two at each joint : they are somewhat shorter 

 and broader than those of sage, of a green colour, 

 and serrated about the edges. The flowers are 

 numerous, and very small : they stand in long 

 spikes, and are of a greenish yellow colour, with 

 some red threads in them. The plant has a singu- 

 lar smell, with something of the garlic flavour, but 

 that not strong. 



The tops are to be used fresh. Made into an in- 

 fusion, they promote urine and the menses : the 

 juice of them drank for a continuance, is excellent 

 against rhumatic pains. 



Salep plant. Orchis orientalis. 



A very pretty plant, of the nature of our 

 common rVchis, native of the East, but growing to 

 a greater height and producing larger roots than 

 with lis, though it seems very nearly allied to what 

 avc call the tall female orchis, with large flowers, 

 which is frequent in our meadows. It grows in 

 damp ground, and is a foot high. The stalk is 

 round, jucy, and tender. The leaves are eight 

 inches long, and not an inch broad, of a dark green 

 colour, and also juicy. The flowers stand at the 

 tops of the stalk, in a spike of two inches long : 

 they are moderately large, and of a pale red colour. 

 The root is composed of two roundish bodies, of the 

 bigness of a pidgeon's egg, and of a white colour, 

 rtith some fibres 



WV use the root, which we receive dry from 



