The Book of Herbs - Rosalind Northcote (snow like ashes series txt) 📗
- Author: Rosalind Northcote
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The virtues of the pimpernel.
This most popular plant, amongst other uses, is put into poultices. Bacon mentions it as a weather prophet. “There is a small red flower in the stubble-fields, which country people call the wincopipe, which if it open in the morning, you may be sure of a fine day to follow.”[96] The virtues of Betony are set forth by the “Poor Phytologist,” and he is quite right in saying that it was once esteemed a most sovereign remedy for all troubles connected with the brain. It was, in fact, so far extolled that an adage was once current:--
“Sell your coat and buy betony.”
In Italy there are two modern sayings, one a pious aspiration, “May you have more virtues than Betony”; and the other an allusion, “Known as well as Betony.” Though the reputation of this plant has quite withered, that of horehound is in a more flourishing state, and it is still, I believe, considered of real use for coughs. Violet leaves are now becoming a fashionable remedy in the hands of amateur doctors, who prescribe them for cancer. In the Highlands, it is said, they were used for the complexion, and a recipe is translated from the Gælic, “Anoint thy face with goat’s milk in which violets have been infused, and there is not a young prince on earth who will not be charmed with thy beauty.” The Greater Celandine was once dedicated to the sun, and it is still recommended as being good for the eyes, though not by members of the faculty. The following advice was given me by an old Cornish woman, but I am almost sure the flower she spoke of was the Lesser Celandine. This probably arose from a confusion of the two flowers, as I have never heard or seen the Lesser Celandine elsewhere commended for this purpose. “Take celandines and pound them with salt. Put them on some rag, and lay it on the inside of the wrist on the side of whichever eye is bad. Change the flowers twice a day, and go on applying them till the eye is well. Put enough alum to curdle it, into some scalded milk. Bathe the eyes with the liquid and apply the curds to the place.”
[96] “Natural History.” Cent. IX.
Green Oil made after the following recipe has often proved beneficial for slight burns and scalds, and smells much nicer than the boracic ointment usually ordered for such injuries. It is also recommended for fresh wounds and bruises. “Take equal quantities of sage, camomile, wormwood and marsh-mallows, pick them clean and put them into sweet oil and as much of it as will cover the herbs; if a quart add a quarter of a pound of sugar, and so on in proportion. Let them stand a week without stirring, then put them into the sun for a fortnight, stir them every day. Strain them with a strong cloth very hard, and set it on a slow fire with some red rose-buds and the young tops of lavender, let them simmer on a slow fire for two hours, strain off the oil, and put to it a gill of brandy. (If some hog’s lard be poured upon the herbs, they will keep and make an excellent poultice for any kind of sore.)
The oil should be applied immediately to any kind of bruise or burn. It will prevent all inflammation and heal the wound. The time to begin making it is when the herbs are in full vigour, which depends much on the season being early; in general the middle of May is about the time, as the rose-buds and lavender would not be ready sooner than the middle of June.
Mrs Milne Home gives the ingredients of the Tisane de Sept Fleurs, which, she says, is often prescribed by French doctors for colds and sleeplessness—
“Bouillon blanc. Mullein. Tilleul. Lime. Violette. Violet. Coquelicot. Poppy. Pied de chat. Tussilago. Guimauve. Mallow. Mauve. Another sort of mallow.”I think Mauve means mallow, Guimauve, marsh-mallow. Beyond these simples that I have mentioned as being in popular use, various English plants and herbs are used not much (if at all) by country people, but by medical men, and a few of those included in the British Pharmacopœia may be remarked on here.
Hops are used in the form of Infusum Lupuli. They have long had the reputation of inducing sleep, and George III. slept on a hop-pillow. To prevent the hops crackling (and producing exactly the opposite effect) it is advised that a little alcohol should be sprinkled on them. To eat poppy-seed was thought a safe means of bringing drowsiness. “But,” says Dr Primrose (about 1640), “Opium is now brought into use, the rest [of soporifics] being layd aside. Yet the people doe abhorre from the use thereof and avoyd it as present poyson, when notwithstanding being rightly prepared, and administered in a convenient dose, it is a very harmlesse and wholesome medicament. The Ancients indeed thought it to bee poyson, but that is onely when it is taken in too great a quantity.” One wonders what experiences “the people” went through to learn this terror of the drug! Gerarde and Parkinson both commend it as a medicine that “mitigateth all kinde of paines,” but say that it must be used with great caution. Browne refers to the poppy’s power of soothing.
Poppy and mandragoras,
With like simples not a few
Hang for ever drops of dew.
Where flows Lèthe without coil,
Softly like a stream of oil.
Hie thee, thither, gentle Sleep.”
In The Inner Temple Masque.
It is from the seed of the White Poppy (Papaver somniferum) that opium is prepared, and that procured from poppies grown in England is quite as good, and often purer, than opium imported from the East. The first poppies that were cultivated in this country for the purpose were grown by Mr John Ball of Williton about 1794. Timbs quotes: “‘Cowley Plantarium. In old time the seed of the white poppy parched was served up as a dessert.’ By this we are reminded that white poppy seeds are eaten to this day upon bread made exclusively for Jews. The ‘twist’ bread is generally prepared by brushing over the outside upper crust with egg and sprinkling upon it the seeds.” In Germany, Mond-kuchen, a kind of pastry in which poppy seeds are mixed,
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