SOME MEDICINAL WILDINGS 



inee of- the chemist who distils and extracts a 

 multitude of medicines from the herbs of the field, 

 will call attention to a few of those plants growing 

 wild whose reputation for the relief of some simple 

 disorders appears well grounded. At any rate they 

 are harmless. 



Such medicinal wildings may be classed under two 

 principal heads: those occurring also in Europe or 

 Asia, or naturalized here from the Old World, their 

 uses therefore being part of the white race's tra- 

 ditional knowledge ; and those indigenous plants that 

 found place in the medical practice of the Indians, 

 from whom we have got a hint of their value. 



In the former class one of the best known is 

 Yarrow or Milfoil {Achillea Millefolium, L.), a per- 

 ennial herb a foot or two high, of the Composite 

 family, with flat-topped clusters of small, usually 

 white-rayed flower-heads, and finely dissected leaves. 

 It is found throughout the United States and much 

 of Canada in various soils and situations, and was 

 said by Fremont to be one of the commonest of plants 

 observed during the whole of one of his transconti- 

 nental journeys. The entire plant above ground 

 may be dried and an infusion of it (a pint of boiling 

 water poured upon a handful) may be administered 

 for a run-down condition or a disordered digestion, 



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