ii2 $efo^n<jlantis Eartttes. 
Net, being very long and fpreading abroad under the 
upper cruft of [59] the Earth, fweet in tafte, but withal 
aftringent, 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 MoloJjTes Beer, and in 
Poffets for Fluxes, for which it is excellent. 
Sarfaparilia, a Plant not yet fufficiently known by the 
EngliJJi : 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 BuJ7i, 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 Howes ; 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, — Comfitonia asflenifolia (L.) Ait. ; still used in " molasses beer," 
and medicinal in the way mentioned. — Emerson, Trees a?id 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 nudicaulis, L. (wild sarsaparilla) ; and the 
other, A. hispida, Michx. The last, which is what is spoken of in the Voyages, 
has been recommended for medicinal properties by Prof. Peck. — Wood and 
Bache, Dispens., p. 116. 
