FAMILY HERBAL. 321 



The fruit is only used, and we sometimes see it at 

 the druggists ; if the present practice encouraged 

 it we might have it common enough : and it is one 

 of those drugs which we neglect, while we are 

 fond of such as do not deserve the distinction. It is 

 an excellent medicine against coldness of the stomach, 

 colics, and those head-achs which arise from indi- 

 gestion. It also works powerfully by urine ; and with 

 it possesses all the virtues of aniseed and many 

 others ; and even in a very superior degree : it has 

 not its disagreeable flavour. An oil drawn 

 from it by distillation, is sweet and excellent ; it has 

 all the virtues of our oil of aniseed, but not its dis- 

 agreeable taste, and it does not congeal like it in cold 

 weather. 



Staves-Acre. Staphis agria. 



A very pretty plant, native of Italy, and kept 

 in our gardens. It is two feet and a half high. 

 The stalk is round, thick, firm, and upright, and 

 a little hairy. The leaves are of a roundish figure 

 but divided deeply into seven parts, and these serrated 

 at the edges ; they are large, and of a deep green, 

 and stand on long foot-stalks. The flowers are of a 

 deep blue, large^ and very like the flowers of 

 lark -spur : they grow in a spike at the tops of the 

 stalks ; the seed-vessels are notched, and the seeds 

 rough. 



The seeds are used. Some venture te give them 

 inwardly in small doses against the rheumatism, and 

 the venereal disease. They operate by vomit and 

 stool, and bring a great quantity of water from the 

 mouth. The powder of them is most used to kill 

 vermin, by sprinkling it on children's heads that have 

 been kept uncleanly. 



