Arrowhead, Squaws Toes, and Other Things 133 



that my hoeing was supposed to stimulate into growth. It 

 grows on the margins of the marsh and in many other places 

 in the world. It was known to the early Romans and to the 

 Greeks. Let me quote parts of Gerard's description in his 

 seventeenth century Herball: 



Of Bitter-sweet, or wooddy Nightshade. 



Bitter-sweet bringeth forth wooddy stalks as doth the Vine, parted 

 into many slender creeping branches, by which it climeth and taketh 

 hold of hedges and shrubs next unto it. The barke of the oldest stalks 

 are rough and whitish, of the colour of ashes, with the outward rind 

 of a bright green colour, but the yonger branches are green as are 

 the leaves: the wood brittle, having in it a spongie pith: it is clad with 

 long leaves, smooth, sharp pointed, lesser than those of the Bind- 

 weed. At the lower part of the same leaves doth grow on either side 

 one smal or lesser leafe like unto two eares. The floures be small, and 

 somewhat clustered together, consisting of five little leaves apiece of a 

 perfect blew colour, with a certain pricke or yellow pointal in the 

 middle: which being past, there do come in place faire berries more 

 long than round, at the first green, but very red when they be ripe; of 

 a sweet taste at the first, but after very unpleasant, of a strong favor, 

 growing together in clusters like burnished coral. The root is of a 

 mean bignesse, and full of strings. . . . 



The leaves come forth in the spring, the flours in July, the berries 

 are ripe in August. . . . 



The decoction of the leaves is reported to remove the stoppings of 

 the liver and gall, and to be drunke with good successe against the 

 yellow jaundise. 



The juice is good for those that have fallen from high places, and 

 have been thereby bruised, or dry-beaten: for it is thought to dissolve 

 the bloud congealed or cluttered any where in the intrals, and to heale 

 the hurt places. 



Tragus teacheth to make a decoction of wine, with the wood 

 [of the plant] finely sliced and cut into smal pieces: which he re- 

 porteth to purge gently . . . those that have the Dropsie or jaundice. . . . 



The plant is still used to some extent for rheumatism and 

 skin diseases, and for poulticing abcesses or felons, which 

 value is indicated by one of the early names for this plant, 

 felonwort. No plant in our marsh is so persistent: I have 

 recorded it as blooming in May and, soon after, I noticed 



