XII. 
WILD PLANTS : THEIR ATTRIBUTES AND NAMES. 
By E. G. Lloyd, Hon. Sec. 
Head at Watford , 1 6th March , 1886. 
Abridged. 
Blowers, and more particularly wild flowers, have, from time 
immemorial, furnished a theme for the poet; pleasure and attraction 
for the student of nature; and the source of cure, or alleviation, for 
many of the ills that man is heir to. The old herbalists maintained 
the existence of what they called the Doctrine of Signatures, and 
affirmed that thereby the medicinal uses of a plant were sometimes 
plainly visible from some part in its external appearance resembling 
something connected with that which it would cure ; thus, the 
leaves of the St.-John’s-wort being full of perforations, signified 
that it was good for perforations of the body, or wounds; on the 
spotted and blotched leaves of Pulmonaria were traced a resem¬ 
blance to the lungs, hence it was used for diseases of the lungs, and 
was named lungwort; the Canterbury-bell, from its throat-like 
corolla, was supposed to be a cure for sore throat, and was named 
throatwort; the corolla of Prunella vulgaris was thought to resemble 
a bill-hook, and to be good for wounds caused by that tool, and the 
plant was therefore known as hook-heal. 
Formerly in every village there were herbalists or old women 
who professed to know the qualities and virtues of the wild plants.. 
In their hands the silver-weed was good for sciatica, ague, or 
rheumatism ; borage cured fevers, venom of serpents, jaundice, 
consumption, and sore throat; the scarlet poppy was good for 
pleurisy; the arum or cuckoo-pint was a sovereign remedy for the 
plague ; the violet cured inflammation of the eyes; the periwinkle 
made an admirable ointment for the skin ; the cowslip cured palsy, 
and was efficacious in cases of “ false apparitions, ” convulsions, 
cramps, and vertigo; the bugle cured all sorts of body wounds; 
the pimpernel drew splinters out of the flesh, and was efficacious 
in disorders of the brain; shepherd’s-purse was “ the poor man’s 
parmaceti ” and cured bruises; toad-flax yielded an infusion good 
for inflamed eyes ; the lady’s-smock strengthened the heart; sorrel 
was good for reducing corpulence; the scabious was excellent in 
cases of skin disease; the earth-nut cured cough ; the self-heal or 
carpenter's herb healed flesh-wounds ; English sage was used as an 
ointment for the eyes ; chickweed was good for cramp ; the forget- 
me-not was a remedy for scorpion stings; house-leek cured freckles; 
and so on almost every plant that grows might be enumerated. 
In more modern and scientific medicine, both in the allopathic and 
homoeopathic pharmacopoeia, many of the most important drugs 
are prepared from well-known plants, such as opium, laudanum, 
and morphia from the poppy tribe; digitalis from the foxglove ; 
belladonna from the deadly nightshade; aconite from the monks¬ 
hood ; taraxacum from the dandelion ; podophyllin from the thorn- 
apple ; calendula from a marigold; and pulsatilla from an anemone. 
