126 OULPEPIR'S COMPLETE HEEBAL. 



gun-burnings ; your best way to use it externally is to mix 

 it with vinegar : an ointment of it is held to be good in 

 wounds and ulcers ; it consumes cankers, and that flesh 

 growiug in the nose which they call polypus : also the 

 distilled water being dropped into the eyes takes away 

 spots there, or the pin and web, and mends dimness of 

 sight ; it is excellent good against pestilence and poison 

 Pliny and Dioscorides affirm, that no serpent will meddlr 

 with him that carries the herb about him. 



DB.OFWORT.—{0e7ianthe Fistulosa, et Crocata.) 



Descrtp. — The roots of Dropwort consist of a greai 

 number of oval glandules fastened together by slender 

 strings, from which spring several long, narrow, and as 

 it were pinnated leaves, whose pinnae are serrated, and 

 not much unlike the smaller burnet saxifrage leaves : the 

 stalks grow to be about a foot high, having but few leaves 

 thereon, but on their tops a pretty many flowers in form 

 of an umbel, which are white within, and reddish on 

 the outside, made of six leaves, with a great number of 

 yellowish stamina in the middle ; which are succeeded by 

 several flattish seeds growing in a head together. 



Place. — It grows in chalky grounds, 



Ti7ne. — It flowers in June and July ; the root being 

 chiefly used. 



Government and Virtues. — Pimpernel Dropwort, {Spircea 

 FiUpendula,} which some have described as a lesser species 

 of the filipendula, differs in nothing, according to their 

 own account, from this, but in size, and is evidently a 

 variety. They are accounted under Venus. Dropwort, 

 especially the root, is counted diuretic, and good iot the 

 stone, gravel, and stoppage of urine. 



DUCK'S-MEAT, or DUCKWEED.— (i^rw PoZiwrrw.) 



Called also Water Lentils. 



This is so well known to swim on the tops of standing 

 waters, as ponds, pools, and ditches, that it is needless 

 further to describe it. 



Oovemment and Virtues. — Cancer claims the herb, and 

 the Moon will be lady of it : a word is enough to a wise 

 man. It is eff'ectual to help inflammations and St. An- 

 thony's fire, as also the gout, either applied by itself or 

 in a poultice with barley meal. The distilled water is 

 highly esteemed by some against all inward inflammationa 



