80 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



England, and more particularly on limestone, but is by 

 no means common. Its leaves have a dense covering of 

 silky hair, and were at one time, in rustic surgery, em- 

 ployed in the place of lint for dressing wounds. The 

 plant is a very common one on the Continent, and our 

 native herbalists doubtless desired, if possible, to find 

 similar virtues in an allied and more common British 

 plant ; and we are told many ways of applying the hedge 

 stachys in the healing arts. One authority tells us that 

 this plant, " stamped with vinegar and applied in 

 manner of a pultis, taketh away wens and hard swellings, 

 and inflammations of the kernels under the eares and 

 iawes;" and it would appear to affect the mind no less 

 powerfully than the body, for we are told that the dis- 

 tilled water of the flowers " is vsed to make the heart 

 merry, to make a good colour in the face, and to make 

 the vitall spirits more fresh and liuely." It is " singular 

 commended" by many other old writers, but into their 

 precepts and practice in the matter our limited space 

 altogether forbids us to go. 



