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THE 
JuLy 17, 1875.] 
GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
. 
SUTTONS' 
CHOICE STRAINS 
FLORISTS! FLOWERS, 
OST FREE. 
The Finest Strain of Calceolaria. 
SUTTONS’ SUPERB CALCEOLARIA. 
anes Anna seii has респ most grec selected from 
the very 'The plants are com- 
pact in habit, with beautiful green pe id a profusion of 
e The flowers are large, perfect in ewe. and n 
ry shade of brilliant colour.—Price 2s, per 
and o 
cwm ый sem 
From А. E. RUSSELL, Esg., Dalnabreck, N.B., Yuly xo. 
* My HODIE tne trom yos Mom of last year are par- 
ticularly fine, o , and very fine in colour." 
The Finest Strain of Primula. 
SUTTONS’ SUPERB PRIMULA, 
splendid strain, which has heen carefully selected from the 
a fringed flowers "ux good colour, Habit robust, with 
bloom thrown well above the foliage. Red, white, or mixed, 
2s. 6d. per packet, post free 
From WALTER EDWARDS, Esq., Wellington, Somerset, 
Fan. 21, 1875. 
“A more beautiful strain of Primulas than I have had this 
winter, from the seed you supplied me with last spring, I never 
saw." 
The Finest Strain of Cineraria. 
iei nd SUPERB CINERARIA. 
be found unequalled by any in cultivation, the seed 
having been saved from the finest named varieties sonly. Price 
28. 62. per packet, post free 
From Mr. A. ALLERTON, Coleman's Prittlewell, May 8, 1875. 
* Our Cin 
Surpass any I saw at the Botanic Gardens yesterday. 
The Finest Strain of Cyclamen. 
“Spee PRIZE CYCLAMEN, 
The following varieties have been ret d ут опе 
of the finest strains in ҮТ and, as n bloom 
from November till arch, are Perder or decorating the 
conservatory or ый ы during the winter months. The 
flowers also are extremely valuable for bouquets, as as they retain 
| mum for a considerable period when kept in water. 
BUM, pure w ROSEUM ALBUM, white 
MARGINATUS 1o tose, edged | апа ге 
R RUBRUM, bright crimson. 
OSEUAM. то d carmine. | PURPUREUM, purple. 
Price 55. the Collection, post free. 
From ЧҮ, H. Me ters, Esq., — Lodge, 
Cheltenham, Feb 1 
| ль Cyclamens I had from you did autumn have given me 
6 Ereat satisfaction,” 
Cn) 
|. THE [QUEEN'S SEEDSMEN, READING, 
this year, from your seed, are dd far 
of his little finger, and for two idis a eu 
grinding and grunching, so that he felt some- 
Ad 
GS 
SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1875. 
ENGLISH WOUND-HERBS. 
i; the works of the old herbalists, besides 
the pseudo- scientific or systematic classifi- 
e similar in their-effects were usually 
A oll in the popular mind. Shakespeare 
oe. an example, which shows - this asso- 
ciation was in his time, when in 
Alls p» that Ends Well Lafeu i “ They 
are not salad-herbs, they are  nose-herbs," 
z.é., esteemed for their smell ; and wound-herbs 
was a term applied in like manner to such 
plants as deemed “soverain” for their 
healing properties. 
A glance at the list of * vertues" assigned by 
the herbal writers to every plant, will show that 
among them the EN of wounds holds a very 
prominent place. It-is not our intention at 
р 
blished as to demand more general recognition, 
or at any rate further investigation. These 
are the Comfrey (Symphytum officinale), the 
Clown's Woundwort (Stachys palustris), and the 
Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)—the last-named 
being the only one the merits of which are 
usually recognised in medical works, and that 
not as regarding any healing properties pos- 
sessed by the plant. 
Taking these plants in the order in which 
we have placedt 
very well authenticated accounts of the bene- 
ficial employment of the Comfrey. Mr. Rootsey, 
in the Zransactions of the Medico-Botanical 
Society of London for 1832 and 1833, speaks of 
a workman of his acquaintance who, having 
broken his leg, was confined to his room for 
four years, and his case was at length despaired 
of. He was at last recommended to apply 
Comfrey externally as a poultice ; splinters of 
bone were brought away, and in a few weeks he 
was able to walk. He subsequently employed 
the plant in four other serious cases, aud with 
success in each. The old names of the 
plant—such as Consolida, Consound, Knitback, 
Backwort, and Bruisewort—sufficiently indicate 
the esteem in which it was held. Gerarde speaks 
of its *clammie and gluing moisture," which 
chiefly resides in the roots; these, he says, 
* bruised and laid to in the manner of a plaister, 
heale all fresh and greene woundes, and are so 
glutenative that [they] wil sodder or glew 
. Cockayne, in the interesting preface to his 
Saxon Leechdoms gives another instance of the 
beneficial employment of Comfrey. He says 
times quite wrong in himself. One day he saw 
r. —— go by, and told him; he said, 
see there that Comfrey—take a piece of the - 
of it, and сеа it, and put it to your finger, and 
wrap it up. The man did so, and in four days 
his finger was well This story struck me the 
more since i Comfrey is the confirma of the 
middle ages and the ep$vrov of the Greeks, 
em above, we shall find several | 
both which names seem to attribute to the 
h 
forms an сони bandage for fractures of all 
kinds. 
Our second wound-herb, Stachys sylvatica, i is 
largely employed in rustic practice in some 
parts of South Buckinghamshire, where it is 
known by the singular and inexplicable name of 
Cow's Weather-wind, the “i” being long, as in 
wine. An old woman was in the habit of 
making an ointment in which this plant was the 
principal ingredient, which had the reputation 
of healing wounds and cuts, whether slight or 
serious, and this reputation was certainly not 
undeserved. Gerarde gives us afquaint account 
of the employment of our other 
British species, S 
eing 
in Kent about a pacient,” he says, “it chanced 
. that a very poor man, in mowing of Peason, did 
cut his leg with the sieth, wherin he made a 
wound to the bones, and withal very large and 
wide, and also with great effusion of blood, 
The poor man crept unto this herbe, which he 
bruised in his hands, and tied a great quantitie 
of it unto the' wound with a peece of his shirt, 
out resting one day untill he was perfectly hole, 
which was accomplished in a fewe daies by this 
herbe stamped with a little hog's greace, and 
so laid upon in maner of a pultis, which did, as 
it were, glewe or soder thelips of the wounde 
togither, and heaWe it according to the first in- 
tention (as we tearme it), that is, without draw- 
ing or bringing the wounde to suppuration or 
matter, which was fully performed in seaven 
daies, that would have required fortie daies with 
balsam it 
himselfe; a clownish answer, I confesse, with- 
out thanks for my goode will, whereupon I have 
named it Clowne's Woundwort.” Gerarde goes 
on to narrate various cures which he himself 
afterwards worked with t 
if we deduct a certain p 
remains a considerable amount of testimony 9 
the usefulness of the plant in such cases 
cannot be set aside, and should induce : a fair 
trial of bu merits. 77 rape udo 
“уе of the Valerian are well-known 
and thoroughly recognised in our Pharma- 
сеіаѕ ; but its healing properties, with which 
only we are now concerned, are not so generally 
understood. And yet they were fully appreciated 
by our ancestors. Gerarde says that in his 
time the poor people in the North of England 
thought it almost a necessary se in og er 
to * broths, pottage, or physicall meats ;" and 
Parkinson tells us that “ it is generally called in 
the countries of this land the Poore Man’s 
MET to take the decoction of this root and 
e it, when by taking cold after sweating, 
or pesto das their bodies, they be troubled 
© 
any or splinter a 
Gerarde, indeed, gives us a rhyme mede by 
* some woman poet or other "— 
“ They that would have their heale 
Must pat Setewall in their keale"— 
Setwall being an old name for the V. alerian. 
Coles Adam in Eden gives simi 
toits use. In coun 
popular remedy for cuts, and is 
or Heal-all, or, as in i LE B 
try districts it ìs a e | 
