FAMILY HERBAL. 305 



apothecaries saxifrage seed. It is diuretic, and 

 good against the gravel. The roots are best fresh, 

 and the best way of giving them is in decoction. 



Meadow Saxifrage. Scseli pralense 



A wild plant also, but though known by the 

 same English name with the other, very different 

 in form and flower. It grows to more than two 

 feet in height. The stalks are round, deeply stri- 

 ated, of a dark green colour, and considerably 

 branched. The leaves are large, but they are di- 

 vided into a multitude of fine narrow segments. 

 The flowers stand at the tops of the stalks in little 

 umbels or round clusters, and they are small and 

 yellow. The root is brown, long, and slender, and 

 is of an aromatic and acrid taste. 



The root is used : it is best fresh taken up. 

 Given in a strong infusion, it works powerfully 

 by urine, and brings away gravel. It aiso eases 

 those colics, which are owing to the same 

 cause. 



Scabious. Scabiosa. 



A common wild plant in our corn uVitK dis- 

 tinguished by its tall round stalks, and round blue 

 (lowers. It grows to three feet in height. The 

 leaves rise principally from the root, and they lie 

 spread upon the ground. They are oblong, and 

 irregularly divided at the edges; they are of a 

 pale green, hairy, and rough to the touch. The 

 stalks are round, upright, hairy, of the same pale 

 green, colour, and they have a (ew leaves on them, 

 placed two at a joint ; these are more deeply 

 divided than those on the ground. The flowers 

 stand at the tops of thu branches, they are of 



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