ii2 $efo=(£nglairtis ftartttrs. 



Net, being very long and fpreading abroad under the 

 upper cruft of [59] the Earth, fweet in tafte, but withal 

 afh-ingent, much hunted after by our Swine: The Scotch- 

 men that are in New-England have told me that it grows 

 in Scotland. 



For Fluxes. 



The People boyl the tender tops in Moloffes Beer, and in 

 PofTets for Fluxes, for which it is excellent. 



Sarfaparilia, a Plant not yet fufficiently known by the 

 Englijli : Some fay it is a kind of Bind Weed', we have, 

 in New-England two Plants, that go under the name of 

 Sarfaparilia: the one not above a foot in height without 

 Thorns, the other having the fame Leaf, but is a fhrub as 

 high as a Goofe Berry BufJi, and full of fharp Thorns; 

 this I efteem as the right, by the fhape and favour of* the 

 Roots, but rather by the effects anfwerable to that we 

 have from other parts of the World; It groweth upon 

 dry Sandy banks by the Sea fide, and upon the banks of 

 Rivers, fo far as the Salt water flowes ; and within Land 

 up in the Country, as fome have reported. 1 



the country," may very well be what has long been called sweet-fern in New 

 England, — Comptonia asplenifolia (L-) Ait. ; still used in " molasses beer," 

 and medicinal in the way mentioned. — Emerson, Trees and Shrubs of Mass., 

 p. 226. 



1 See Josselyn's Voyages, p. 77. The first of the two plants which the author 

 mentions here is probably Aralia nudicatilis, L. (wild sarsaparilla) ; and the 

 other, A. hisfida, Michx. The last, which is what is spoken of in the Voyages, 

 has been recommended for medicinal properties by Prof. Peck. — Wood and 

 Backe, Disfcns., p. 116. 



