Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition

Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition
    & 

MEDICINAL PLANTS
in Folk Tradition
  
 & 
8
David E. Allen
&
Gabrielle Hatfield
Timber Press
Portland • Cambridge
The authors and publisher cannot accept any responsibility for
any situation or problems which could arise from experimentation
with any of the remedies mentioned in this book.
Copyright © 2004 by David E. Allen and Gabrielle Hatfield.

Colour photographs © 2004 by Deni Bown.
All rights reserved.
Page 2, Sanicula europaea, sanicle (Brunfels 1530, fig. 80).
Map, page 33, by Jamie Quinn and Elanor McBay, The Drawing Office,
Department of Geography, University College London.
Published in 2004 by
Timber Press, Inc. Timber Press

The Haseltine Building 2 Station Road
133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450 Swavesey
Portland, Oregon 97204-3527, U.S.A. Cambridge CB4 5QJ, U.K.
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Printed in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Allen, David E.
Medicinal plants in folk tradition : an ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland / David E.
Allen and Gabrielle Hatfield.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-88192-638-8 (hardcover)
1. Ethnobotany—Great Britain. 2. Ethnobotany—Ireland. 3. Medicinal plants—
Great Britain. 4. Medicinal plants—Ireland. 5. Traditional medicine—Great Britain.
6. Traditional medicine—Ireland. I. Hatfield, Gabrielle. II. Title.
GN585.G7 A45 2004
581.6'34'0941—dc22
2003019706
A Catalogue record for this book is also available from the British Library.
To Clare and John,
with love
8
Contents
8
Preface 11
CHAPTER 1 Herbs Without the Herbals: Retracing a Lost Tradition 15
CHAPTER 2 Introduction to the Compendium of Uses 31

Geographical Areas 31
Records 34
Plant Names 36
Names of Ailments 37
CHAPTER 3 Bryophytes, Lichens, Algae and Fungi 39

Bryophytes 39
Lichens 41
Algae 43
Fungi 48
CHAPTER 4 Pteridophytes and Conifers 54

Pteridophytes 54
Conifers 64
CHAPTER 5 Water-lilies, Buttercups and Poppies 69

Nymphaeaceae 69
Ranunculaceae 70
Berberidaceae 76
Papaveraceae 77
Fumariaceae 80
6
CHAPTER 6 Elms to Docks 83
Ulmaceae 83
Cannabaceae 84
Urticaceae 84
Myricaceae 86
Fagaceae 87
Betulaceae 88
Aizoaceae 89
Chenopodiaceae 90
Portulacaceae 90
Caryophyllaceae 91
Polygonaceae 94
Plumbaginaceae 100
CHAPTER 7 St John’s-worts to Primulas 103

Clusiaceae 103
Tiliaceae 106
Malvaceae 107
Droseraceae 110
Cistaceae 111
Violaceae 111
Cucurbitaceae 113
Salicaceae 114
Brassicaceae 116
Empetraceae 121
Ericaceae 121
Primulaceae 124
CHAPTER 8 Currants, Succulents and Roses 133

Grossulariaceae 133
Crassulaceae 134
Saxifragaceae 139
Rosaceae 140
7
8 Contents
CHAPTER 9 Legumes, Spurges and Geraniums 160

Fabaceae 160
Lythraceae 164
Thymelaeaceae 164
Onagraceae 165
Viscaceae 166
Celastraceae 167
Aquifoliaceae 168
Buxaceae 168
Euphorbiaceae 169
Rhamnaceae 171
Linaceae 172
Polygalaceae 173
Oxalidaceae 173
Geraniaceae 174
CHAPTER 10 Ivy and Umbellifers 179

Araliaceae 179
Apiaceae 181
CHAPTER 11 Gentians and Nightshades 194

Gentianaceae 194
Apocynaceae 196
Solanaceae 196
Convolvulaceae 200
Cuscutaceae 200
Menyanthaceae 201
CHAPTER 12 Comfrey, Vervain and Mints 206

Boraginaceae 206
Verbenaceae 211
Lamiaceae 212
CHAPTER 13 Plantains, Figworts, Foxglove and Speedwells 245

Callitrichaceae 245
Plantaginaceae 245
Oleaceae 248
Scrophulariaceae 250
Orobanchaceae 262
Lentibulariaceae 263
Contents 9
CHAPTER 14 Bedstraws, Valerian and Scabious 267

Rubiaceae 267
Caprifoliaceae 270
Valerianaceae 274
Dipsacaceae 275
CHAPTER 15 Daisies 280

Asteraceae 280
CHAPTER 16 Pondweeds, Grasses, Lilies and Orchids 319

Alismataceae 319
Potamogetonaceae 320
Araceae 320
Lemnaceae 322
Juncaceae 322
Cyperaceae 322
Poaceae 323
Typhaceae 325
Liliaceae 325
Iridaceae 331
Dioscoreaceae 333
Orchidaceae 333
CHAPTER 17 Distribution Patterns of Folk Medicinal Uses 337
Appendix Veterinary Remedies 348
Reference Sources 363
Index of Folk Uses 379
Index of Scientific Names 409
Index of Vernacular Names 417
Colour plates on pages 225–236

Preface
8
S o many people for so many years have been collecting and reporting the
herbal remedies used by country folk that it must seem surprising that the
resulting mass of data has not been brought together long since and surveyed
overall. Certainly, it seemed surprising to the two of us, as interlopers from
the world of botany. For more than a century and a half, records of where in
Britain and Ireland each species of wild plant is known to occur (or have
occurred) have been sedulously logged and published. So well established is
this tradition that the regular disciplined effort that sustains it has come to be
taken for granted. Unfortunately, the study of folklore failed to attract indi-
viduals with the necessary time and inclination to perform a similar service
for records of plant use, and the magnitude of that task has increased with the
passage of time.
The problem is not so much the quantity of the information that exists as
its scattered nature. Much of it is in rare, privately published, often ephemeral
printed sources, many of them concerned only peripherally with folk medi-
cine. There are hardly any libraries that combine the necessary open access to
their shelves with a sufficiently representative collection of seemingly relevant
titles to allow research to be concentrated in just a single place. Worse,
though, there is even more material remaining unpublished than has found
its way into print, and extracting that in repositories that happen to be distant
can be costly in time and money, especially when repeated visits are required.
Doubtful plant identifications and obscure or vaguely described ailments, to
say nothing of the Celtic languages, are further difficulties that may have to be
wrestled with even after a productive source has been located.
Fortunately, the full arduousness of the undertaking that has culminated
11
12 Preface
in Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland was

not apparent at the outset, or it might well not have been attempted at all. Nor
was it apparent at that time, now more than sixteen years ago, that other
research and administrative commitments would shortly intervene and
reduce it to a part-time activity and one with a far longer timescale than orig-
inally envisaged. To those who have assisted with the project in one way or
another and have had so long to wait to see the fruits of that assistance in
print, we can but apologise and thank them for their patience.
Among those to whom we are indebted more particularly, Sylvia Reynolds
must be mentioned first and foremost. One of Ireland’s leading field bota-
nists, she could not have been a more appropriate choice for the lengthy and
onerous task of sifting for herbal remedies the many volumes constituting
the Schools’ Manuscript Collection of the Department of Irish Folklore, Uni-
versity College Dublin. The key importance to the project of that source,
without compare in its size and comprehensive geographical coverage, is
abundantly clear in the following pages, and we are indebted to the head of
department for his kind permission to publish data from it. Several past stu-
dents of the department have similarly granted us permission to cite records
drawn from their undergraduate essays and postgraduate theses. Both those
and the Schools’ Manuscript Collection proved to contain numerous prob-
lematical names in Irish, and we are further indebted to Mrs Reynolds and to
Dr Nicolas Williams of Trinity College, University of Dublin, for the trouble
they went to in seeking to identify the plants and ailments in question.
For generously giving us access to two other major manuscript collec-
tions, and granting permission to cite records contained in them, we also
wish to thank Roy Vickery and Dr Anne E. Williams most warmly. The latter’s
data rectified what would have otherwise been a serious dearth of Welsh
information. The survey from which those data come,‘Folk Medicine in Liv-
ing Memory in Wales, 1977–89’, was carried out under the auspices of the
then Welsh Folk Museum (now the Museum of Welsh Life), one of the sec-
tions of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, whose permission to
publish these records is also gratefully acknowledged. Vickery’s personal files
of data on folklore, obtained in large part from correspondents, yielded many
useful extra records, some of which have appeared in the periodical he
founded and edits, Plant-lore Notes and News.
Professor J. D. A. Widdowson, Director of the Centre for English Cultural
Tradition and Language (now the National Centre for English Cultural Tra-
dition) of the University of Sheffield, similarly welcomed scrutiny of that
Preface 13
institution’s extensive files and kindly granted permission for data to be taken
and published from some of the undergraduate theses they contain. Three
individual items of special importance came to our notice in the archives of
the Folklore Society in London, the Manx National Heritage Library in Dou-
glas and the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin. We would like to thank Dr
Larch Garrad and Miss Maura Scannell for their help in the last two connec-
tions, respectively, as well as in correspondence on Manx and Irish herbal
use more generally. We are also grateful to the three institutions for permis-
sion to cite records from the manuscripts in question.
Four authorities on different groups of cryptogamic plants were kind
enough to remedy our defective knowledge in those areas: Dr Francis Rose
and Professor Mark Seaward provided useful leads on the herbal uses of
lichens; Francis Rose and Professor Roy Watling identified the likeliest species
concerned in particular cases, and Roy Watling and Jenny Moore were pri-
marily instrumental in supplying the world distributions of the fungi and
seaweeds, respectively. And we thank Dr Barrie Juniper for guidance on the
taxonomy and distribution of apple species. D.E.A.’s colleagues in the then
Academic Unit of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (now
the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College
London), in particular Professor Vivian Nutton and Dr Andrew Wear, were
similarly helpful in identifying some of the obscurer ailments.
We both owe a deep debt to the Wellcome Trust for grant support of this
work at different periods. Its imperium in imperio, the Wellcome Institute for
the History of Medicine (as it was known until more recently), provided an
ideal base and academic environment for D.E.A. throughout the years that
the book has been in preparation, for which he is no less grateful. The Uni-
versity of East Anglia’s Centre for East Anglian Studies similarly provided not
only a base for G.H. for the duration of the research on the country remedies
of that region, one of the foundation stones of this book, but also a support-
ive environment for what would otherwise have been a solitary endeavour.
The library of the Folklore Society has proved of the greatest assistance to
D.E.A. during the years it has been housed in the D. M. S. Watson Library of
University College London, so conveniently close to the Wellcome Building.
Similarly, G.H. would like to pay tribute to the rich resources of the Norfolk
Record Office and (until its untimely destruction by fire in 1994) the Local
Studies Collection of Norwich Central Library.
For the illustrations we have the specialist skill of the photographers of
the Wellcome Trust’s Medical Photographic Library to thank, including Chris
14 Preface
Carter for the photographs of the authors. Those from medieval German
herbals are reproduced from volumes in the magnificent collection of those
in the Wellcome Library for the History and Public Understanding of Med-
icine. Hans Weiditz was the illustrator of the Brunfels (1530) herbal; Albrecht
Meyer, the Fuchs (1543) herbal; and Emily Margaret Wood, the Green (1902)
flora, whose drawings are reproduced here. We warmly thank Deni Bown for
generously providing the colour photographs. The locating of information
for the map of British and Irish county boundaries prior to the 1974 U.K.
local government reorganisation came at the end of a very long search, for it
turned out that libraries have thoughtlessly disposed of their atlases with
maps of counties as they were before that period. The one that appears here
is based on one produced for A Reader’s Guide to the Place-names of the
United Kingdom, edited by Jeffrey Spittal and John Field (1990), and we are
grateful to the first-named editor and Shaun Tyas of Paul Watkins Publishing
for permission to adapt it for our use.
Finally, Sylvia Reynolds and Roy Vickery placed us still further in their
debt by reading the text in draft and making numerous helpful comments. We
are no less grateful to Elizabeth Platts for also undertaking that major task.
We cannot close without thanking in the warmest terms the staff of Tim-
ber Press for unfailing helpfulness throughout the period of our association.
It has been a great comfort to have a botanist for an editor and to know that
our queries would receive answers from a background of publishing exper-
tise combined with a wide knowledge of the two subjects that come together
in ethnobotany. We also thank our spouses for their understanding and
patience during the very long period the compiling and writing of the book
has occupied our attention—and Clare more particularly for the key part
she has played in the chain of communications.
G.H. would like to take this opportunity to thank D.E.A. publicly for his
generosity in sharing with her what was originally his own project, and for
allowing her to co-author this book, of which the lion’s share of work was his.
CHAPTER 1
Herbs Without the Herbals:

Retracing a Lost Tradition
8
Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland arose

out of a conviction, arrived at by each of the authors independently, that the
history of Western medicine as usually recounted suffers from a serious dis-
tortion as far as the use of herbal remedies is concerned. Written on the
assumption that it is only through the study of surviving texts that the med-
ical practices of the past can be reconstructed, that history has been con-
ceived in terms of tracing the gradual diffusion of written knowledge from
the ancient civilisations around the shores of the Mediterranean. Because
the texts were originally written in Greek or Latin (though many had been
preserved in Arabic), it was the practices of the Classical world, seen through
these texts, on which historians concentrated. The story of the rise of West-
ern medicine has been carried forward through the herbals of the Dark Ages
to the eventual selective filtering of that received body of learning and its cul-
mination, after various false turnings, in the professional practices of today.
That version has two major flaws. The first is that it overlooks the fact
that the herbal expertise of the Classical world was based primarily on the
flora of the Mediterranean basin and its vicinity. The Greeks and Romans
had little or no knowledge of what grew in the colder and wetter parts of
Europe and probably saw few if any of the plants restricted to those different
climates. Away from the Mediterranean, their herbals consequently had at
best only a limited relevance, a fact which their successors were for many cen-
turies in no position to realise.
The second major flaw in that standard version of the history of Western
medicine is that it ignores the traditional use of local plant remedies on which
15
16 Herbs Without the Herbals
the main mass of people depended for everyday first aid. Mostly illiterate and
with a herbal repertory built up over the generations by trial and error, they
neither knew nor cared about the Classical authorities. As their knowledge
was transmitted by word of mouth, it is almost unrepresented in the written
record until the nineteenth century.
Although it can be assumed that Greek and Roman colonists took their
herbal knowledge wherever they went, the extent to which it became incor-
porated into the ordinary domestic practices of those among whom they set-
tled is very hard to determine. In the colder parts of Europe many Mediter-
ranean plants would have been difficult or impossible to cultivate. The raw
material for those remedies would therefore have had to be imported in dried
form if it was to be available at all. Imports, however, by reason of the distance
they had to be brought and the risks they had to survive, would have been
costly and available only to the relatively well-off. On the outer reaches of
the Empire the proportion of their herbal heritage that the Romans would
have had access to was small, their pharmacopoeia bearing little resemblance
to its native Mediterranean richness in that respect. To make up for this defi-
ciency, borrowing from the locals is likely to have taken place. Unfortunately,
archaeological excavation throws little light on the extent of this. One purely
medicinal plant of presumptively Roman introduction, the greater celandine,
Chelidonium majus, has been detected in settlement remains of that period in
two places in the south of England and Wales; of the many other species that
have been identified from Romano-British levels, though, there is none
whose presence can be attributed unequivocally to therapeutic use.
After the Romans left Britain, the medical practices they had introduced
were perpetuated by the early Christian Church. A reminder of how much
further within the British Isles that alien Romanised culture was later dif-
fused is provided by the lingering presence down to this day of elecampane,
Inula helenium, around early monastic sites in Ireland and on islets off the
Irish and Manx coasts.1 This plant is probably a native of central Asia, and
had the dual attraction of being a subsistence food as well as a source of med-
icine. It owed its spread across Europe entirely to human favour, and once
planted, it could indefinitely survive the competition of natural vegetation
and grazing by animals.
A second influx of alien herbs, or at least novel uses of herbs already pres-
ent, is perhaps attributable to the waves of Germanic immigrants who settled
in Britain, especially in England, in the post-Roman era. The one Anglo-
Saxon medical text written in the vernacular that survives, known to scholars
  Herbs Without the Herbals 17
as Leechbook III,2 provides evidence of a northern European herbal tradition

substantially distinct from that of the Romans and presumably independent
in its origins. But how far did that tradition retain a discrete identity once
transported to a country with its own well-rooted body of herbal knowledge?
That solitary text could have been an attempt to set down ‘best practice’ in the
eyes of just a conservative minority, and its prescriptions may not be repre-
sentative of the behaviour of Anglo-Saxon society more generally. It may
even be a treasured relic of a time before that immigrant tradition had begun
to lose its coherence—or conceivably before that immigration had even taken
place. If plant remains unearthed in Denmark3 are anything to go by, at least
by the Viking Age herbal cultures on both sides of the North Sea had much in
common, and species of known Roman origin such as greater celandine had
been to all appearances assimilated.
However great or small that northern influence may have been, it was
essentially southwards, to the legacy of Rome, that the monasteries looked in
the following centuries. Classical texts copied and recopied and copied yet
again, frequently undergoing corruption in the process, increasingly filled
their libraries. The herbs were crudely depicted and all too briefly described—
if described at all—and were hopefully matched as far as possible with plants
growing locally. Literacy, a near-monopoly of the monks, had become largely
identified with the ability to translate and imbibe the writings of Classical
authors, that body of ancient wisdom and experience deemed superior to any
contemporary equivalent. Literacy at the same time conferred upon its pos-
sessors a privileged apartness, an apartness which could be placed at risk by
giving credence to practices and beliefs unsanctioned by Classical authority.
Among these were the remedies that the unlettered peasantry derived from
plants that grew around them in the wild.
The eventual advent of herbals with illustrations painted or etched direct
from nature improved matters only slightly. They were still accessible only to
the few, as rare as they were expensive and with texts normally in Latin. John
Gerard’s much-celebrated Herball of 1597 was exceptional in this latter
respect. It seems to have been intended by its barber-surgeon author to serve
also as a practical guide for those fellow members of the lowlier ranks of the
medical fraternity who were not above going into the fields and woods in
search of their own raw material. From his personal knowledge, Gerard gave
directions to particular places in England where some of the scarcer herbs
could be found. What he did not make clear, though, and possibly did not
realise, was that almost exactly half the plants covered in his work cannot be
found in the wild in Britain—and many were probably not even available in
the best-stocked of the country’s physic gardens at that period. Either Gerard
or his publisher could not resist trying to appeal to an international reader-
ship, for by re-using a set of woodcuts made for a previous Dutch herbal the
work was given a spuriously pan-European appearance that was at odds with
its England-oriented text. Gerard’s own contributions to field botany are
overlaid by the customary farrago of Classical lore topped up with the asser-
tions of a miscellany of later learned authors. Consequently, the work
emerges as an awkward hybrid between a pioneer field manual and a run-of-
the-mill encyclopaedia for fellow practitioners. For all its promise of opening
up herbal expertise to a now much-enlarged literate lay public, Gerard’s vol-
ume was still emphatically a work by a member of the medical profession,
addressed to fellow professionals. Only rarely are there patronizing mentions
of ‘the common people’ or ‘the country people’ and of certain remedies used
by them. And that attitude was shared by leading non-medical authors even
of the stature of John Ray. Science was still struggling to free itself from folk
beliefs, and those who wished to be seen as serious students had to distance
themselves from anything redolent of older ways of thinking.
The herbals indeed were trebly misleading. They reflected the general
conspiracy of silence among the learned about the extent and efficacy of folk
medicine; they gave indiscriminate endorsement to just about every alleged
plant virtue that had ever appeared in print; and they were written largely in
obliviousness of the differences imposed by geography which make the flora
of one region dissimilar from that of another. Until the seventeenth century,
at the earliest, the natural distributions of Europe’s indigenous plants were lit-
tle known. The same was true of the range in climate and soil types that each
plant could tolerate. It was natural, as well as very convenient, to assume that
most of Europe had inherited the same broad legacy of natural herbal wealth.
The Columbian rediscovery of the New World and the opening up of
trade with the Indies were to alter the picture profoundly, though not wholly
for the better. The great influx of new drugs that resulted from this trade fur-
ther widened the gulf between learned practitioners and the majority of the
people—three-fifths as far as England was concerned—who continued to
live in rural isolation, away from even the smallest settlement worthy of being
called a town. The very fact that these remedies were novel and came from far
away allowed premium prices to be charged, leaving them way out of general
reach. As John Parkinson tartly observed in his 1640 Theatrum Botanicum,
‘Men more willingly spend their cost on strange things fetch from farre, than
upon their owne hombred and country plants.’4 Most people did not have
this choice; they had to use their own home-bred remedies or nothing.
By the seventeenth century a few were questioning the advisability of tak-
ing such profoundly alien remedies. The poet George Herbert warned the
country parson and his wife to steer clear of the ‘outlandish gums’ of the city
and seek their remedies in their gardens and fields,‘for home-bred medicines
are both more easy for the parsons purse, and more familiar for all mens
bodyes.’5 In such protests an element of national pride is detectable as well.
William Coles in The Art of Simpling held the maidenhair of Britain, Adi-
antum capillus-veneris ?, ‘never a whit inferior to the Assyrian’, just as ‘our
Gentian is as good as that which is brought from beyond sea’ and ‘our Angel-
ica . . . as that of Norway and Ireland [Iceland?]’.6 Some believed that the
rearrangement of nature caused by importing plants was going against Divine
intention. This point was well made in an‘advertisement’ inserted by Thomas
Johnson (1636) by way of a postscript to his edition of Gerard’s Herball:
I verily believe that the divine Providence had a care in bestowing

plants in each part of the earth, fitting and convenient to the fore-
knowne necessities of the future inhabitants; and if wee throughly
knew the vertues of these, we needed no Indian nor American drugges.7
Johnson could be accused of self-interest in advancing this view since his

uniquely extensive first-hand knowledge of Britain’s native flora was now in
danger of being rendered obsolete. However, his opinion was probably hon-
estly held.
Ironically, the discovery of such an unsuspected diversity of valuable
plant-based drugs in distant parts of the world eventually led to the notion
that Britain’s own little-known hinterland might have something of the same
kind to offer as well. To this extent the alien influx had a beneficial side effect.
Folk medicine was at last to be taken seriously in progressive learned quarters.
The first sign of this major change of heart was the dispatching in 1695 of
Martin Martin on a general research inspection of Scotland’s Western Isles. A
resident of that region as factor to the laird of Macleod, Martin owed this
commission to some leading figures in the then-burgeoning Scottish Enlight-
enment in Edinburgh, one of whom, Archibald Pitcairne, ensured that
enquiring about remedies in use was included in the brief. Martin’s consci-
entious, refreshingly non-judgemental coverage of that aspect in his subse-
quent report is outstanding in its value today, not just on account of its early
date but also because most of the remedies he came across appear to have
fallen into disuse during the following century. In 1772 the Rev. John Light-
foot, who accompanied the non-botanical Thomas Pennant on his tour of
much the same region, came back with a much more slender haul, confirm-
ing Martin’s information in only one or two respects (though admittedly,
medicine was not his primary interest). Though there were to be no compa-
rably ambitious expeditions in which the noting of folk remedies was a sig-
nificant feature, the precedent had been set for making at least some mention
of these in the many accounts of gentlemen’s tours to various parts of Britain
that thereafter became a publishing vogue.
Meanwhile on the international scene it was becoming increasingly fash-
ionable in medical circles to investigate some of the long-disdained herbs of
the backwoods, in the hope that there might after all be at least a kernel of
truth in their claims to cure. Advances in chemical knowledge provided a
spur to this. In 1746, bemoaning that so few of his fellow practitioners ‘now
know the common virtues of our own herbs’, a Sheffield physician, Thomas
Short, published a treatise expressly for their benefit on those herbal species
‘generally to be found in the fields or gardens in Great-Britain’.8 Yet it was
not a member of that profession at all but a country parson, the Rev. Thomas
Stone, who ten years later brought to medical attention the properties of a
species of willow, Salix alba, and opened up the path that would lead even-
tually to the multi-purpose aspirin. It is ironic, too, that this discovery and the
even more epoch-making one by William Withering that followed twenty
years later were both made in the English Midlands, virtually on the back-
doorstep of the College of Physicians. Withering’s confirming of the folk rep-
utation long enjoyed by the foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, as a remedy for heart
trouble was an historic addition to the armoury of orthodox medicine. And
it could not have been achieved had Withering not been alert to the possibil-
ity already and possessed the necessary training and insight for the lengthy
series of experiments that transformed a hunch into proof. He might not
have made the discovery in the first place had he not taken up botany as a
leisure pursuit some five or six years earlier. Just as important in this context
is the fact that the three-volume, widely bought manual on Britain’s flower-
ing plants that he went on to produce had observations on their medical
potential as one of its notable features.
Thanks particularly to Withering, and to the fashionable interest in
botany among the cultivated classes at that period, at least some mention of
the folk usage of appropriate species became de rigueur in published cata-
logues of the wild flora. Several of those had doctors for their authors—and
not always for reasons that one might suppose. Flora Sarisburiensis, for
instance, was produced by the head of the Salisbury Infirmary, Henry Smith,
from a notion that was unashamedly economic: ‘Every saving of expensive
medicines in hospital practice is in these days important, and particularly so
when an equally efficacious and much cheaper [one] can be introduced.’9
There were substitutes to be had for free in the countryside round about, and
the primary purpose of his book was to stimulate their collection by enabling
some of the more useful ones to be identified.
That favourable trend was massively reinforced by the Apothecaries’ Act
of 1815, which required all medical students wishing to be licenced to prac-
tise in England or Wales—and thus comprising many graduates of Scottish
medical schools as well—to pass an exam that included a test of herbal
knowledge. The act established botany firmly within the medical curricu-
lum and for at least a generation afterwards produced a good many practi-
tioners who retained that subject as a hobby, especially if they went to live in
a country area. Some of these naturally made a note of the rustic remedies
they encountered, resulting in local lists of exceptional value because of their
above-average botanical precision. The publications of Dr George Johnston
on Berwickshire are doubly valuable in view of the shortage of herbal infor-
mation for the whole of lowland Scotland. Several of his counterparts in rural
Ireland, where folk cures were particularly prominent, also made noteworthy
contributions—as indeed country doctors have continued to do, in Britain as
well, long after the disappearance of botany from the medical curricula.
The second half of the nineteenth century saw a complementary surge of
lay interest in what till then had passed under the name of ‘popular antiqui-
ties’, part of a wider antiquarianism that had led up to the Romantic Move-
ment and been boosted by that. By 1846 that interest was sufficiently wide-
spread and distinctive to have ‘folk-lore’ coined for it.10 The field collecting of
the folklorists in the decades that followed was unsystematic and rarely
informed by much botanical knowledge, but it served to show that the num-
ber of remedies still surviving, if only in the memories of the aged, was very
much greater than generally supposed. Unfortunately, though, there were no
moves to collate all the data for Britain and Ireland, as Hewett Cottrell Wat-
son and his imitators were doing so impressively in several branches of nat-
ural history. Thus the mass of information collected was deprived of effect by
remaining fragmentary and, too often, by being published obscurely. It was
not until the 1930s, and then only in Ireland, that the first large-scale sys-
tematic survey at a national level was carried out.
Long after that nineteenth-century ample harvest of herbal data had been
gathered, historians continued to dismiss folk medicine as having little or no
relevance to the rise of the Western medical tradition. Many were reluctant to
accept that in a highly developed country like Britain it consisted of anything
other than cultural detritus. As late as the 1960s, Charles Singer, a much-
respected authority, dismissed it as ‘usually medieval or renaissance medi-
cine misunderstood’.11 A more general reason why historians largely ignored
it was that, being an oral tradition, it has left next to nothing in the way of
documentary evidence for scholars to study. Until the advent of oral history,
following the spread of tape recorders, the belief that the past could be safely
reconstructed only from written records had the force of gospel. Till then, his-
torians were happy to leave cross-questioning of the illiterate to folklorists
and anthropologists. For the same reasons, glimpses of folk medicine avail-
able in such sources as folk tales, ballads and proverbs received little serious
attention from them either.
Yet even among folklorists, interest in herbal remedies has been margin-
alised. Compared with the tales, rituals and superstitions that form the staple
of their study, herbs and their uses are a discordantly down-to-earth matter,
a kind of primitive science, more akin perhaps to folk life—that separate
study of such practical matters as farming methods and the layout of cot-
tages. Lack of botanical knowledge among folklorists has been a further rea-
son for their neglecting this area, for it is awkward to make enquiries about
herbal remedies unless one can recognise by name the plants concerned.
Until all the scraps of folk medical information collected in the ways
described have been collated and presented as a whole, it will be impossible
to convince historians or other scholars of their worth and importance. The
main aim of this book is to provide such a corpus. The body of information
that has resulted is so substantial, and involves such a high proportion of our
native flora, that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that it represents a full-scale
tradition of its own. In order for so much to have survived, this tradition
must have retained its own identity, existing alongside the learned medical
tradition of the literate population but keeping its basic essence.
It is highly likely that some form of medicine existed in this part of
Europe from the time of its first inhabitants. All known primitive peoples
possess a mixture of rituals and natural therapies to cope with injury and
pain, those pressing realities on a par with hunger and death. Even apes have
been observed eating particular leaves for their apparent therapeutic effect.
By the time the Romans settled in Britain, one or more medical systems of
considerable sophistication and stability were probably already established

and would have been highly resistant to alien traditions. The more remote
parts of Britain and Ireland have remained out of contact with towns and
cities until the eighteenth or nineteenth century at the earliest and would
have proved largely impenetrable by new ideas. Such was the degree of isola-
tion of many smaller islands in particular that few had any resident medical
practitioner even in the mid-Victorian period. In such areas, where the
inhabitants had to be medically self-reliant, ancestral practices had an espe-
cially good chance of surviving, particularly if, like the herbal ones, they met
compelling needs and seemed to have a basis in more than superstition.
To present a picture of a solid mass of herbal lore coming down unal-
tered from prehistoric times would, however, be unrealistic. Unquestionably,
over the years much modification must have taken place. Irrespective of the
infiltration of alien remedies from outside sources, particularly through the
influence of the Church, there would have been processes at work internally
that continually brought about change. Many folk cures remain the treasured
property of individual families, or of individual ‘wise men’ and ‘wise women’.
They are passed on by word and deed from one generation to the next, but
when a supply of suitable successors dies out, that line of knowledge is lost.
There may in addition have been elements of secrecy involved. This was par-
ticularly the case where an individual set him or herself up as a local healer
and made a living from dispensing cures. Even where no material rewards
were involved, there may have been a strong motivation for women in par-
ticular to keep very quiet about their knowledge or risk being branded as
witches. A less important factor inducing secrecy was the conviction that the
power to cure certain ailments would be lost if communicated to someone
else. In the sphere of wart-charming this belief persists to this day. However,
it is probable that within a community much herbal knowledge was shared
despite not being written down.
Even though innately conservative, folk medicine would have changed
and evolved over the years, replacing older remedies with newly discovered
ones or remedies borrowed from other sources.As learned medicine extended
its sway, interchange between the two traditions must surely have increased.
By the thirteenth century, for instance, it had been received into the depths of
Carmarthenshire by the physicians of Myddvai12 and taken to Scotland’s
Western Isles by the no less renowned Beaton dynasty in the sixteenth.13 This
interchange must have accelerated as populations grew, mobility increased
and there was less reluctance to try the unfamiliar. Nicholas Culpeper’s Lon-
don Dispensatory of 1649, William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine of 1769 and

other books that sought to break the secrecy cultivated by the physicians and
make the best-available medical guidance accessible to the populace in gen-
eral may well have furthered the process. Information probably moved in
both directions, from country to city and vice versa. Robert Boyle produced
his Medicinal Experiments of 1692 ‘chiefly for the use of those that live in the
Country, in Places where Physicians are scarce, if at all to be had, especially by
Poor People’; John Wesley’s more famous Primitive Physic of 1747 was writ-
ten expressly from that motive, too. By the eighteenth century the itinerant
chapman with his stock of books that so often included a herbal had become
a familiar figure in rural areas. The long-established trade of gathering herbs
from the wild for sale in city markets or to apothecaries and druggists also
began to expand to such proportions that it constituted a major threat to the
local survival of some plant species as well as a serious nuisance to the own-
ers of the land on which they grew.
The influences for change within folk medicine were gathering pace. As
land enclosure led to increased rural poverty and migration to cities and
towns, communities and their traditions were fragmented. Massive emigra-
tions to North America increased this fragmentation, especially of the rural
traditions of Scotland and Ireland. For the Irish, the physical severance from
country ways that resulted was so abrupt and wholesale that their traditional
herbal lore must inevitably have been largely forgotten. The Scots, on the
other hand, had some chance of preserving their traditional herbal remedies
in rural eastern Canada, where the native flora was fairly similar to the one
they had left behind. The early colonists in North America had taken a selec-
tion of herbs along with them, but because many of them came from urban
Britain, that selection could have been drawn only in part at best from the
folk medical tradition.
Even before the nineteenth century, British folk medicine had lost much
of its diversity. The folk uses of many plants recorded by sixteenth- and sev-
enteenth-century writers were not heard of again. If so much had been lost so
early, then what was lost subsequently must have been great indeed.
Yet the story has not been entirely one of loss. Uses of the more versatile
herbs have proliferated, though on what scale it is hard to tell with such
incomplete records. Additional herbs were also brought into service. Two
that were demonstrably recruited since 1860 feature in the following pages:
pineapple-weed, Matricaria discoidea, and Hottentot-fig, Carpobrotus edulis
and C. acinaciformis, natives respectively of north-eastern Asia and South
Africa which are known to have joined the wild flora of these islands some-
time after.
Such gains apart, however, the period since 1800 can hardly have been
kind to the folk tradition as far as Britain has been concerned (with Ireland
it has been a different matter). The eighteenth-century wave of new respect
for folk medicine as a repository of potential extra weapons in the armoury
of learned medicine failed to last. So many alternatives of proven value
poured in from all around the globe that searching so close to home no longer
seemed worth the effort. Though professional herbalism was sent under-
ground by legislation secured by the orthodox medical community, it soon
enjoyed a resurgence in the guise of physiomedicalism, a re-import from
North America (along with some North American plant usage). That was
too alien a development, however, to affect folk tradition significantly. Rus-
tic remedies consequently disappeared once again into obscurity, becoming
survivals from the past to be appreciated by the learned merely for their
quaintness. The national health services, providing free treatments of appar-
ent reliability and potency, finally brought to a rapid end what remained of a
living tradition.
The main purpose of Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of

Britain & Ireland is to demonstrate that a large enough body of evidence has
survived to show that the folk medical tradition was impressively wide in its
botanical reach and equally impressive in the range of ailments it treated.
Many of the plants recorded within this tradition, even some of them that
were used over wide areas, do not appear in the herbals. This lends strong
support to the idea that the rural tradition retained much of its autonomy
through the centuries and was substantially self-sufficient.
Folk medicine had, of course, its limitations. The complaints treated on
the whole were necessarily relatively minor: coughs, colds, burns, skin com-
plaints, aches and pains, the staple of today’s doctor’s consulting room. Some
of its exponents could heal broken limbs, some would even treat tumours,
but few went as far as surgery. For all its limitations, however, folk medicine
does not deserve all the contempt heaped upon it by followers of learned
medicine. It probably did less harm overall, and may even have been more
effective, than all their bleeding and purging.
However, the effectiveness or otherwise of folk medicine is not a prof-
itable area for discussion. Hardly any of its remedies have yet been subjected
to randomised double-blind trials, the only testing method recognised by
the medical profession today as conclusive. Most of the claims made for them
will remain unproven until more work is done or new approaches formu-
lated. On the whole, those claims are in any case hardly extravagant ones. At
a common-sense level, who will want to disbelieve that members of the mint
family, the Lamiaceae, contain substances that ease coughing, for example?
Or how can anyone reasonably question that such a readily observable effect
as an increased flow of urine resulting from eating the leaves of dandelions
(Taraxacum officinale) or the young tops of broom (Cytisus scoparius)? But as
the detailed practical instructions for gathering and preparing the remedies
have in many cases been lost, misinterpretations can and do arise. Herbs
boiled for too long or stored in the wrong conditions can lose their potency.
Individual plants within a species may vary in their chemical constituents
with the type of environment, the season and even the time of day. Most spe-
cies have genetically distinct populations as well, another source of chemical
variation.
Patients, too, have their individual reactions: where some are hypersensi-
tive, others may be immune. Some medicines, particularly herbal ones, work
too subtly and slowly to convince the impatient of their effectiveness and are
discontinued prematurely. Many minor illnesses are self-limiting, and the
results of any treatment may in these cases be irrelevant. Symptoms can come
and go regardless of any cures claimed for them; warts, for example, may
eventually disappear with or without any intervention. Above all, there is the
placebo effect: faith in the treatment itself may help effect a cure, especially if
it includes a prescribed element of ritual, such as reciting a familiar prayer
backwards or wearing some substance in a bag about one’s person.
Because of all these uncertainties, deliberately little is said about this
aspect in these pages. That a remedy is mentioned should not be taken as
endorsement of its effectiveness. Similarly, the mention of a particular ail-
ment does not imply any judgement as to the accuracy of the diagnosis; it is
merely what the person relating or recording it supposed it to be. Given the
looseness of folk terminology, attempting to bring that into line with mod-
ern medical usage is too full of pitfalls to be a sensible procedure in most
cases. An exception has been made for obsolete terms that have unambiguous
modern equivalents: ‘chincough’ has been translated into whooping cough
(pertussis), for instance, and ‘St Anthony’s fire’ into erysipelas.
Plant identifications are a further major source of uncertainties. Users of
country remedies do not make such fine distinctions as botanists, so related
species that look broadly similar—most of the St John’s-worts (Hypericum),
for instance—tend to pass as all one and the same. That is unlikely to matter
unless beneath the outward similarity there are substantial differences in
chemical potency, as could well be the case with willows (Salix) or mints of
the genus Mentha, for example; information on that score, however, is at pre-
sent mainly lacking. More seriously, in the lowlier and more obscure sections
of the plant world, separation of species is by and large not attempted and
nothing more enlightening than ‘grass’ or ‘moss’ too often features in the folk
medicine records. But this last may be just as much the fault of the collectors
of folk remedies themselves, unskilled as so many of them are in field botany.
That also helps to explain why there is so much tedious repetition in the
records of remedies so common that they must surely be well known already
(such as the use of dock leaves for stings). It is far easier to note down those
than probe for ones involving plants unfamiliar to the collector.
It is vernacular names, though, that cause most problems. These can bear
little or no relation to the ones used in books for the plants in question, and
they may be peculiar just to a single area or even a single household. The
same name can be shared by several plants that are unrelated. Conversely,
one species may have accumulated a large number of country names down
the centuries; for the red campion (Silene dioica) more than sixty English-lan-
guage ones have been recorded from Britain and Ireland, and the Celtic lan-
guages could produce still more.
A problem special to a primarily oral study is the mishearing of names,
especially if they are ones unfamiliar to the enquirer. This may account for the
existence of some that have defeated all attempts to identify the plant referred
to—they are perhaps just ghosts, without any substance in the first place.
Mishearings are all the more likely to occur when enquirers are unfamiliar
not only with the name but with the local accent or even the language in
which it is told to them. Many of the names borne by plants in Ireland or the
Scottish Highlands are Gaelic ones that have been garbled in the process of
being written down, like so many of the place-names there. Gaelic speakers,
equipped to recognise sounds that may have occasioned misunderstandings
in transmission, have fortunately proved able to supply identifications in the
case of many records which would otherwise have had to be omitted from
this work.
Inherent in this field of study there is also an altogether more fundamen-
tal difficulty. The more developed a country becomes, the ever less obvious
the distinction that remains between its folk medicine in the sense of the
aboriginal, underlying layer of folk medicine practices and beliefs and the
increasingly hybrid entity superimposed on that, the product of multiple

intrusive influences. The difficulty is exactly comparable with that faced by
botanists in trying to distinguish pristine vegetation from that altered by
humans, often unintentionally and in some cases so subtly that only an expert
eye can detect the manipulation that has occurred. Just as there is the great-
est likelihood of pristine vegetation surviving in remote places, so one looks
to similar areas to find folk culture at its least contaminated. Collectors of
folk medicine have naturally concentrated on such areas, and they have
indeed proved rich in herbal lore. In the nineteenth century much collecting
was done in the Shetlands and the Isle of Man, while Hebridean lore is well
represented in the records from a range of periods. In addition, large-scale
primary surveys of Wales and the greater part of Ireland within living mem-
ory have made outstandingly valuable contributions to our knowledge of
folk herbal medicine. Between them, these provide a good comparative basis
for reconstructing the salient features of the plant-based therapies that for-
merly reigned more or less unchallenged in the north and west of the British
Isles. In turn, these data provide a means of disentangling what is putatively
indigenous from what is seemingly intrusive from other cultures and sectors
of society.
Outside that belt of presumptively minimal contact, the disentangling
becomes much more difficult. The problems arise not only from the length of
time over which different traditions have mingled but also from the ambigu-
ity of the very term folk. For some this is synonymous with the practices of the
least-educated layer of the rural population, practices which have been passed
down largely or wholly by word of mouth. For others it embraces the equiv-
alent social layer in the towns and cities as well. Still others seem to equate the
term with any system outside the bounds of orthodox, official medicine,
sweeping into that capacious category commercial herbalism of every kind
and every degree of sophistication, including imports like Thomsonianism
and, ultimately, even homoeopathy. Michael Moloney’s Irish Ethno-botany
of 1919 is an example of the third kind. Despite its title, the temptingly long
list of remedies turns out on close examination to be an only partly differen-
tiated mélange drawn from herb-based systems of a variety of kinds, for which
reason it needs to be approached with great caution (the more so as it includes
some obviously erroneous plant identifications as well). Unfortunately, many
other published lists conceal their suspected hybrid character more success-
fully. Much information derived from learned medicine, in however an indi-
rect and attenuated form, has been unwittingly incorporated as a result into
published accounts of ostensibly folk usage. That process has been so wide-
spread that the two traditions are now inextricably and irremediably mixed in
the literature. All that it is possible to do is to indicate instances where, on the
balance of probability, a particular record appears to belong to one tradition
rather than the other. This has accordingly been done in the pages that follow.
In cases where the folk credentials of a species as a whole seem doubtful, this
has been indicated by introducing the text of the entry with‘(Folk credentials
questionable)’ or ‘(Folk credentials lacking)’. In other instances, reservations
are expressed in the body of the text. The same course has been followed
wherever a plant identification is judged either wrong or at least open to ques-
tion, and if a species as a whole is judged to have been misidentified, the text
of its entry is introduced with ‘(Identification dubious)’, ‘(Name ambiguity
suspected)’ or something similar.
Because so much that has appeared on paper about the use of plants for
medicine has been written in ignorance of these different ways in which ‘folk’
has been understood and the composite character of the term as a result, very
little of the printed literature is safe to draw upon for reconstruction of the
folk tradition. The herbals have to be firmly disregarded except in so far as
they explicitly identify a few uses as those of the rustic or unlettered. For the
same reason, the remarkable number of household books of remedies that
survive in the countries’ archives have regretfully had to be set aside, too. A
high proportion of the remedies these contain are probably folk ones, and it
may eventually be possible to identify which those are; attaining the level of
expertise necessary for that still lies in the future, though.
Besides steering clear of so much of the published literature, it has also
seemed advisable to treat very circumspectly information relating to herbs
grown in gardens, even if they are cottage gardens. In many cases the herbs
may have been transplanted from the wild, so their use is little different from
going out into the countryside to collect them as required. In many more
cases, though, such plants will have originated exclusively from cultivated
stocks and probably owe their presence to recommendations in the herbals.
Some of the best-known garden herbs do not feature in these pages in view
of this.
Finally, deliberately little or nothing has been said about the marked
revival of interest in the therapeutic potential of wild plants that has taken
place in the West from World War II onwards. It is difficult to open a news-
paper these days without being reminded that roughly half the world’s phar-
maceutical products in use today are plant-derived. Yet most of this recent
wave of research has focused on the floras of the tropics. The herbal potential
of Europe and other temperate regions has been relatively neglected, per-
haps in the belief that it can have little more to offer after so many centuries
of empirical use. But if we assume that over the millennia the users of coun-
try remedies have experimented with all the wild plants around them, we
would probably be wrong. There is a notable lack of folk remedies drawn
from some groups of common plants, such as the legumes (the Fabaceae).
Perhaps a plant needed some tangible scent or taste to encourage experimen-
tation. Those groups omitted from the folk record may have been rejected as
inactive or may simply not have been tried at all. There is still much to be
learned from native plant medicines of Britain and Ireland, and it is hoped
that this book may provide some leads to further remedies worthy of closer
investigation.
Notes
1. Praeger, 155; Webb & Scannell, 110; 8. Short 1746, ix
L. S. Garrad, in litt. 9. Smith, 8 verso
2. Cockayne 1864–6; Grattan & Singer 10. Dorson, 1
1952 11. Singer, i, xlvii
3. Robinson 1994 12. Williams ab Ithel; Turner & Turner
4. Parkinson, 947 1983
5. Herbert, 82 13. Anon. 1906; MacFarlane; Comrie, i,
6. Coles 1656, 52 23–4
7. Johnson 1636, unnumbered last page
CHAPTER 2
Introduction to the
Compendium of Uses
8
The compendium in the following chapters lists all the folk medical uses
traced for plants growing wild in Britain, Ireland or the Isle of Man. Some
domestic uses, such as in pest control and cosmetics, are also included. Vet-
erinary uses are the subject of a more concise list in the Appendix. Though
fungi have been shown to be more animal than vegetable, and lichens as part-
fungi share that character in some measure, they have traditionally been
regarded as plants, for which reason it seemed appropriate to include them.
Excluded from coverage are (i) the Channel Islands, which though part of
the British Isles in the strict geographical sense have inherited very different,
essentially French folk traditions, (ii) all uses identified with Romany or other
more recent immigrant peoples with folk herbal traditions based on floras
substantially or wholly different from those of Britain and Ireland, and (iii)
all uses of plants not accepted as indigenous to those two islands or not estab-
lished in them in the wild in sufficient enduring quantity to have been capa-
ble of serving as genuinely folk herbs (which thus excludes a high proportion
of plants that feature in medieval and early modern herbals).
Geographical Areas
As far as the evidence permits, records are cited in terms of counties, the
smallest administrative unit to which the greatest number of records can be
tied. As far as Britain is concerned, though, the counties for the purposes of
Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland are the
ones that preceded the radical changes that accompanied the local govern-
31
32 Geographical Areas
ment reorganisation of 1974, as they were the ones obtaining (with only
minor boundary adjustments) throughout all but a tiny part of the period to
which the records in the following pages relate. Note that the -shire ending
was at one time borne by some English counties, such as Devon and Dorset,
but latterly fell into disuse. Though the Irish county boundaries also under-
went numerous adjustments in 1898, none of those was sizeable enough to
have affected the assignment of the records in this book. An exception has had
to be allowed for certain records from the Lake District and its environs that
have failed to distinguish between the different components of Cumberland,
Westmorland and the isolated part of Lancashire sometimes distinguished as
Furness; for these, the post-1974 ‘Cumbria’ has had to do duty instead. Excep-
tions have also been made for (i) island groups, such as Scilly, that enjoy a dis-
tinctiveness even though formally part of a county and (ii) individual islands
of the far-extending Hebrides in view of the great differences in size and loca-
tion of these.
‘The border’ in Irish contexts refers to the political line separating the six
counties constituting the U.K. portion of the province of Ulster from the Irish
Republic. ‘The Borders’ is a vague term for the physical borderland between
England and Scotland. East Anglia is a collective term for the counties of Nor-
folk and Suffolk only, an area broadly coterminous with the one-time Anglo-
Saxon kingdom of this name, strictly speaking, but commonly used in a
vaguer and broader sense. Eastern Counties is East Anglia in the strict sense
plus the several counties immediately to the west and south of those. Gallo-
way is a collective term for Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. South
Wales refers to the southernmost Welsh counties of Monmouthshire (now
Gwent), Glamorganshire and Carmarthenshire. For records regarded as lack-
ing that specificity, the vaguer ‘southern Wales’ has been used.
Some records exist just for a city or for a well-marked topographical
region, such as the Fens of East Anglia, that cannot be identified with one
county alone, and there is no alternative but to repeat those designations.
Particularly regrettable is the use of an undifferentiated ‘Highlands’ for a large
proportion of the records from the vast northern half of Scotland, a term
which may or may not embrace the Inner and Outer Hebrides (alias the
Western Isles) as well. More vaguely still, ‘the north [of Britain]’ may be all
that one is told; but that is thankfully rare.
To save space, the ‘Co.’ conventionally employed before the names of
many Irish counties has been omitted, except in the case of Co. Dublin, in
order to avoid confusion with Dublin city.
UNITED KINGDOM Wales ISLE OF MAN Scotland
England 33 Shropshire 41 Monmouthshire 54 Isle of Man 55 Wigtownshire
1 Cornwall 34 Cheshire 42 Glamorganshire 56 Kirkcudbrightshire
2 Devon 35 Lancashire 43 Carmarthenshire 57 Dumfriesshire
3 Somerset 36a Yorkshire (West Riding) 44 Pembrokeshire 58 Roxburghshire
4 Dorset 36b Yorkshire (East Riding) 45 Cardiganshire 59 Selkirkshire
5 Wiltshire 36c Yorkshire (North Riding) 46 Brecknockshire 60 Berwickshire
6 Hampshire 37 Co. Durham 47 Radnorshire 87 61 East Lothian
7 Isle of Wight 38 Westmorland 48 Montgomeryshire 62 Midlothian
8 Sussex 39 Cumberland 49 Merionethshire 63 Peeblesshire
9 Surrey 40 Northumberland 50 Caernarvonshire
86 64 West Lothian
10 Kent 51 Anglesey 65 Lanarkshire
11 Middlesex (from 1963, London) 52 Denbighshire 66 Ayrshire
12 Essex 53 Flintshire 67 Bute
13 Hertfordshire 68 Renfrewshire
14 Buckinghamshire 85 69 Dumbartonshire
15 Berkshire 84 70 Stirlingshire
16 Oxfordshire 71 Clackmannanshire
17 Gloucestershire 72 Kinross-shire
18 Herefordshire 83 73 Fife
19 Worcestershire 81 80 74 Argyllshire
79 78
20 Warwickshire 75 Perthshire
21 Northamptonshire 82 76 Angus (formerly Forfarshire)
77
22 Bedfordshire 77 Kincardine(shire)
76 78 Aberdeenshire
23 Huntingdonshire
75
24 Cambridgeshire 79 Banffshire
25 Suffolk 74 71 72 73 80 Moray (formerly Elginshire)
26 Norfolk 69 70 81 Nairn
64 61 82 Inverness-shire
27 Lincolnshire 62
68 60
28 Rutland 65 63 83 Ross and Cromarty
59 84 Sutherland
29 Leicestershire 66 58
30 Nottinghamshire 67 85 Caithness
57 40
31 Derbyshire 86 Orkney
94 88 56
32 Staffordshire 55 87 Shetland (or Zetland)
89
39 37
92
38 0 km 100
93
91 90 54 36c 0 miles 60
103 97
95 N
104 96 36b
98
102 36a
101
99 35
100
105 53
106 109
108 51 34 27
52 31 30
107 50
116 110
49 32
112 26
115 29 28
117 113 48 33
111 23
20 21 24
119 114 45 47 25
19
18 22
118
43 46 16 14
44 17 13 12
41
42 11
15
Northern Ireland 96 Co. Cavan 108 Co. Kildare
5 9 10
88 Co. Derry 97 Co. Monaghan 109 Co. Dublin
3 6
89 Co. Antrim 98 Co. Louth 110 Co. Wicklow 8
90 Co. Down 99 Co. Meath 111 Co. Wexford
4
2
91 Co. Armagh 100 Co. Westmeath 112 Co. Carlow
7
92 Co. Tyrone 101 Co. Longford 113 Co. Kilkenny 1
93 Co. Fermanagh 102 Co. Roscommon
103 Co. Sligo
REPUBLIC OF 104 Co. Mayo

IRELAND 105 Co. Galway 114 Co. Waterford 117 Co. Limerick
94 Co. Donegal 106 Co. Offaly 115 Co. Tipperary 118 Co. Cork
95 Co. Leitrim 107 Co. Laois 116 Co. Clare 119 Co. Kerry
Pre-1974 counties of Britain and Ireland

34 Geographical Areas
‘Ulster’ has been used in the records loosely and variously. All or just a
part or parts of that Irish province may be meant, or it may be shorthand for
just the six counties that constitute the U.K. portion. For this reason, unless
the province is clearly intended, that word is placed in quotation marks
throughout the book.
GEOGRAPHICAL ORDER OF RECORDS

In the case of that majority of plants with entries containing records from
both Britain and Ireland, normally the British records are cited en bloc first
and approximately from south to north in turn. The Irish ones are normally
grouped together in a separate paragraph and are cited in reverse order, from
north to south, to reflect that island’s greater proximity to Scotland and the
marked cultural affinities between the two. Overall, the order is thus spirally
anticlockwise.
The separation of the Irish records makes it possible to tell at a glance
which of the two islands has yielded the greater range of recorded uses traced
(though not necessarily the greater volume of use, an aspect on which, as on
all quantitative ones, little information exists or can safely be deduced). The
separation also serves as a reminder of the limited comparability of the Irish
and the British records by reason of the much greater completeness of the
Irish ones geographically. A further justification is the substantial degree of
autonomy that Irish folk medicine seems to have enjoyed, a matter discussed
in more detail in Chapter 17.
Records
Any statement, published or unpublished, regarding a use for one of the pur-
poses with which Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain
& Ireland is concerned is treated as ‘a record’. A reference is given for the
source of each, individually cited in the text as a number referring to the Notes
at the end of that chapter, and to a particular page in cases where the state-
ment could otherwise be found only with difficulty. There is much unac-
knowledged repetition of records in the literature and in such cases only the
original source is given in so far as that has proved traceable; in surprisingly
few instances seemingly independent records have been found for a particu-
lar use in a particular area, in which case references to clearly different sources
appear against the same number.
  Introduction 35
Records differ greatly in their degree of precision. Very few, and those
mostly in works of a general character, are entirely unspecific either geo-
graphically or about the use or uses to which the plant in question has been
put (though even if a medicinal use is mentioned, that may be in unhelp-
fully vague terms). Records collected in more recent years by those versed in
‘best practice’ as folklorists represent the opposite extreme in normally iden-
tifying the informant, his or her location down to the level of a village or
parish, and the date when the information was gathered Most records, how-
ever, probably even including a majority of these latter ones, rest on oral
statements unchecked by first-hand observation by whoever noted them
down, who in any case may not have had sufficient botanical knowledge for
that purpose or not have sought it from someone who had. A plant familiar
to the informant may be known to him or her by a name that rightly belongs
to some other one, or by a name peculiar to just the one family or commu-
nity. Mishearing of names, too, can easily occur. Anomalous records must
often have arisen from such causes, but they seldom betray their untrust-
worthy character and there is no alternative but to take them at face value.
A further weakness special to a study of the present kind is that a use
mentioned by an informant may have been learned of in some quite differ-
ent area, perhaps even a different country, from where he or she was living at
the time the information was communicated, but without that being made
clear. This must be a particular risk with records from towns and cities, where
people are liable to call on their memory of an earlier rural period in their life.
Though the great majority of folk records come from those living in country
areas, fortunately, many even of them may have lived in other counties or
regions for periods. Usually, though, such an experience is likely to have been
within the same region, so the attribution of a record to just the one county
may be relatively unimportant in such cases.
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN NOTES

The following abbreviations for frequently cited sources of records are used
in the Notes at the end of each chapter:
CECTL Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language,

University of Sheffield
IFC S Irish Folklore Commission, Schools’ Survey
PLNN Plant-lore Notes and News
36 Plant Names
Plant Names
The scientific names of flowering plants and ferns are those of the list by Kent
(1992) and its supplements or, in the case of plants not in that, those of the
New Flora of the British Isles (Stace 1997). Similarly for those of the lower
plants, the most authoritative publications have been followed.
For vernacular names, the nearest to a standard list of the English ones of
British and Irish flowering plants and ferns is that sponsored by the Botani-
cal Society of the British Isles (Dony et al. 1986), which has been adhered to,
and extended to many species not included in that work, by Stace (1997).
This is now in general use, at least for scientific publications. It has been
thought advisable to make it the basis for the purposes of Medicinal Plants in
Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland, too, for the number of
vernacular names on record is bewilderingly large (cf. Grigson 1955) and
different ones enjoy currency in different circles and different areas. Where
names other than those of the standard list as extended by Stace have been
used particularly widely, however, they have been added for ease of reference,
as also have some in the Celtic languages that are encountered especially fre-
quently in the folklore records. In these instances the name in the standard list
is the one that appears first. For other than flowering plants and ferns, the ver-
nacular name most in use in the latest handbooks has been followed.
SEQUENCE OF FAMILIES AND SPECIES

For the flowering plants, the Cronquist classification as used in the publica-
tions by Kent and Stace has been followed. The hierarchy of superorders
(-iflorae) and orders (-ales) under which families (-aceae) are grouped in the
modified version of the Cronquist classification of Stace (1997, xxv–xxvii)
has provided a means of avoiding an otherwise unacceptably unwieldy ref-
erencing system. The need to provide a source reference for each individual
record requires so many superscript numbers that, if these were to be in a
single sequential series, they would run to more digits than would be practi-
cable. The systematic list of plants has accordingly been divided into chapters,
each with its separate, self-contained sequence of numbered references to
the Notes at the end of each one. Conveniently, the Cronquist classification
groups the flowering plant families recognised into a series of affinity clusters
and subclusters. As many families are not represented among the plants with
folk uses recorded in this book, those that are can be grouped in such a way
that twelve subdivisions not too dissimilar in size emerge. The rest of the
  Introduction 37
plants covered can be grouped in two further ones to produce fourteen sec-
tions (Chapters 3–16) in all:
Nonvascular plants
Chapter 3 bryophytes, lichens, algae and fungi
Vascular plants
Chapter 4 pteridophytes and conifers
Flowering plants: dicotyledons
Chapter 5 Magnoliiflorae: Nymphaeales to Papaverales (water-
lilies, buttercups and poppies)
Chapter 6 Hamameliflorae and Caryophylliflorae: Urticales to
Plumbaginales (elms to docks)
Chapter 7 Dilleniiflorae: Theales to Primulales (St John’s-worts to
primulas)
Chapter 8 Rosiflorae: Rosales (currants, succulents and roses)
Chapter 9 Rosiflorae: Fabales to Geraniales (legumes, spurges and
geraniums)
Chapter 10 Rosiflorae: Apiales (ivy and umbellifers)
Chapter 11 Asteriflorae: Gentianales and Solanales (gentians and
nightshades)
Chapter 12 Asteriflorae: Lamiales (comfrey, vervain and mints)
Chapter 13 Asteriflorae: Callitrichales to Scrophulariales (plantains,
figworts, foxglove and speedwells)
Chapter 14 Asteriflorae: Rubiales and Dipsacales (bedstraws, valer-
ian and scabious)
Chapter 15 Asteriflorae: Asterales (daisies)
Flowering plants: monocotyledons
Chapter 16 Alismatiflorae to Liliiflorae: Alismatales to Orchidales
(pondweeds, grasses, lilies and orchids)
Names of Ailments
The restriction of folk medicine mainly to surface complaints is reflected in
a comparatively limited set of terms, non-technical in character but doubt-
less commonly deceptive in an unreal broadness. Most, however, refer to
everyday complaints that are reasonably unambiguous. The only sensible
course has seemed to be to repeat the terms as they appear in the records
38 Names of Ailments
themselves, confining attempts at translation to those that are archaic and

have a recognised modern synonym.
All too often, unfortunately, folk records have been mediated through
practitioners of official medicine or pharmacy, who have placed their own
sophisticated interpretations on the ailments in question when reporting
them. This may well have led to an element of distortion. Allegedly folk
records of complaints such as diabetes sound particularly suspicious, though
it is always possible that a genuinely folk remedy has been used before or after
diagnosis by a physician.
MODE OF USE
Many records extend to details, sometimes quite elaborate, of how a partic-
ular remedy is or has been prepared and applied. For reasons of space it has
only been possible to include these in the following pages in a few cases. Read-
ers seeking information on this aspect may find following up the reference to
the source of the record is well rewarded.
CHAPTER 3
Bryophytes, Lichens,
Algae and Fungi
8
The non-vascular plants include the bryophytes (liverworts and mosses) and
organisms that are not truly plants but that have traditionally been treated as
plants: lichens (associations of fungi and algae), algae and fungi.
Bryophytes
LIVERWORTS
Marchantia polymorpha Linnaeus
liverwort
cosmopolitan
‘Liverwort’ or, in some areas, ‘liver-grass’, commonly assumed to refer to
Marchantia polymorpha, has, as the name indicates, enjoyed an age-old rep-
utation, propagated in herbals, as a remedy for liver complaints. The only
allegedly folk record of that use traced, however, is from Lincolnshire.1 In
Berwickshire these plants were valued instead as a cure for colds and con-
sumption, for ‘a binding at the heart’ and as a diuretic for dropsy.2
In Shetland a plant known as ‘dead man’s liver’ and popularly supposed
to be a lichen—though in fact a liverwort, according to a local botanist—
served at one time as a remedy for asthma.3
MOSSES
Sphagnum Linnaeus
bog-moss
arctic to subtropical zones of the northern and southern hemispheres
39
40 Fontinalis antipyretica
Fontinalis antipyretica Hedwig

willow moss
disjunct circumpolar
Apart from a record of ‘river moss’ (presumably the aquatic species Fonti-
nalis antipyretica, which can grow in dense bunches) from Limerick, used
there to staunch bleeding,4 Sphagnum is the only kind of moss which seems
to have been separately distinguished in folk medicine. The abundant
remains of S. palustre Linnaeus accompanying a skeleton in a Bronze Age
grave in Fife have been interpreted as packing for a wound,5 but that may be
fanciful; certainly, though, the absorbency of bog-moss has been widely val-
ued in the Highlands for such purposes as menstrual bleeding and as a fore-
runner of the disposable nappy.6 Fomentations of warm water in which this
moss has been simmered have also been popular there as a rub for sore feet,
while in Somerset a treatment for sore eyes has been to bathe them with sea-
water and dry them with it.7
In Ireland the mildly antiseptic property of Sphagnum has been well
appreciated: the moss has either been simply left on wounds or sores after
first being washed, as in Westmeath,8 or clay has been plastered over it as an
added protection, as in Devon.9 In Offaly10 and at least one other part of Ire-
land11 a treatment for a sprain has been to pack this plant tightly round the
limb affected, in Limerick12 a dressing with it is one accepted answer to a
rash, and in that county13 and Louth14 it has also been applied to burns.
In one or two other cases a habitat detail with a record of ‘moss’ in the
collective sense may allow the species most probably involved to be surmised.
Thus in Norfolk a kind used for insect bites and stings has been taken from
the tiles on roofs,15 and a popular home remedy for a nosebleed in parts of
Ireland has been to sniff up moss (or lichen?) collected off tree-trunks and
dried.16 But it is anyone’s guess which kind has been used for staunching
bleeding in records from a wide spread of Irish counties (most, if not all,
Sphagnum again?), or for easing a pain in the leg in Limerick,17 or for the
decoction applied to boils that fail to respond to other treatment, which at
least one Londoner has found successful on following the advice of ‘an old
man’.18
  Bryophytes, Lichens, Algae and Fungi 41
Lichens
CLADONIACEAE
Cladonia chlorophaea (Floerke ex Sommerfeldt) Sprengel,
in the broad sense
chalice-moss, cup-moss, Our Lady’s chalice
northern and southern temperate, alpine and polar regions
An old whooping-cough remedy, recommended in some of the herbals and
still in John Quincy’s day ‘mightily in vogue among the good wives’ though
largely ignored by official medicine,19 Cladonia chlorophaea has continued
into more or less contemporary folk medicine in Britain in two Welsh coun-
ties (Merionethshire and Denbighshire) under the name cwpanau pas.20
In Ireland, this lichen, boiled in new milk, has had the same role in
Waterford.21
PARMELIACEAE
Parmelia Acharius
crotal
northern and southern temperate zones
Parmelia omphalodes (Linnaeus) Acharius, abundant in the upland and rock-
ier regions of the British Isles, is the species most commonly used for the
brown dyes colloquially known by their English spelling as ‘crottle’. Familiar
though that use is, lichens of this genus have also attracted some applications
in folk medicine as well. In the Highlands they were traditionally sprinkled on
stockings at the start of a journey to prevent the feet becoming inflamed.22
The fiasgag nan creag, a name translating as ‘rock lichen’ but not further iden-
tified, was probably one of these; it was used for healing sores.23
In Ireland it was as a cure for a bad sore under the chin that crotal found
one of its uses in Donegal,24 where it has also been valued for burns and
cuts.25 In Kerry, on the other hand, crotal has been one of several herbs put
into a carragheen-like (referring to Chondrus crispus or Mastocarpus stellatus)
soup given to invalids to drink.26
Usnea Dillenius ex Adanson

beard lichen
northern and southern temperate zones
Usnea has traditionally had a reputation for curing diseases of the scalp,
allegedly for no better reason than that its appearance recalls a head of long
42 Usnea
hair (and it is still sold in the best chemist shops as an ingredient in anti-
dandruff shampoos). The only unambiguously folk record traced, however,
is a treatment in Ireland for sore eyes: in Leitrim the ‘greyish mossy substance’
growing on the blackthorn trunks is presumably U. subfloridana Stirton,
which commonly grows on the twigs of that tree. It was mixed with tobacco
and butter, boiled and then cooled before being applied as a lotion.27
Perhaps an Usnea species was also the mysterious ‘brighten’, a lichen
known by that name in the New Forest in Hampshire and recommended
there for use on weak eyes at one time.28
PELTIGERACEAE
Peltigera aphthosa (Linnaeus) Willdenow
sea-green lichen
northern and southern temperate and alpine zones
As its specific name indicates, the widespread and formerly more common
Peltigera aphthosa was regarded as specific for that fungus infection of the
mouth and tongue, especially found in children, known to learned medicine
as aphthae and colloquially as ‘the thrush’. The sole evidence traced of this
lichen’s use in folk medicine is provided by Withering, according to whom
‘the common people’ in his day made an infusion of it in milk and gave it to
children afflicted with that complaint. He added that in large doses it caused
purging and vomiting and was effective against intestinal worms.29
Peltigera canina (Linnaeus) Willdenow, in the broad sense

dog lichen, liverwort lichen, ash-coloured liverwort
cosmopolitan
With fruit-bodies resembling dogs’ teeth, Peltigera canina was long regarded
as a supposedly certain specific antidote to the bite of a rabid dog or of result-
ing hydrophobia. The lichen is said to have been still in widespread use for that
in the early nineteenth century in the Snowdonia area of Caernarvonshire,
where it was dried, reduced to a black powder and mixed with black pepper.30
LOBARIACEAE
Lobaria pulmonaria (Linnaeus) Hoffman
tree lungwort, lungs of oak, lung lichen
nearly circumboreal in northern hemisphere, south to Korea, Mexico
and Canaries; South Africa
A frequent species on old oaks, Lobaria pulmonaria was recommended in the
herbals from the fifteenth century onwards for lung complaints, allegedly
because it has an irregular pitted surface superficially resembling that human
organ (but that explanation could well be fanciful). Whether or not from that
source, it became highly rated as a remedy for consumption. In the New For-
est in Hampshire in the mid-nineteenth century it was still being collected
and an infusion of it extensively drunk for that ailment.31 The plant similarly
persisted in use in the Highlands.32 Sold today by herbalists primarily for
asthma and bladder complaints and as a bitter tonic to promote appetite, its
mucilaginous character has also made it attractive as a soothing syrup.
According to one Irish source,33 a very common lichen in Sligo variously
known there as ‘tree lungwort’, ‘hazel rag’ or ‘crottles’ has been used locally as
a cure for piles. That sounds like a conflation of more than one kind and per-
haps refers more particularly to Parmelia species, which have been put to
related purposes.
Xanthoria parietina (Linnaeus) Th. Fries

cosmopolitan
As in the case of the mosses, there has predictably been a measure of vague-
ness in folk medicine about the kinds of lichens used, and sometimes people
can get no further than ‘a leaf called lichen which grows in mossy fields’, in the
words of one Kilkenny informant.34 In that particular one, as it happens, the
plant in question was mentioned as boiled in milk and drunk for yellow jaun-
dice, which suggests Xanthoria parietina, a species common throughout the
British Isles which, allegedly on account of its bright yellow colour, is known
to have had a reputation for curing that ailment. In the case of dub-cosac, on
the other hand, a lichen considered good for heart trouble in the Clare-
Galway borderland,35 there is no such clue to its identity.
Algae
Algae comprise a variety of quite distantly related organisms that have been
recognised as belonging to a number of separate divisions. The algae included
here are Nostoc, a blue-green alga that is more closely related to bacteria, and
red, green and brown algae of the divisions Rhodophycota, Chlorophycota
and Chromophycota, respectively.
Nostoc commune Vaucher

cosmopolitan
(Folk credentials questionable) There has been a widespread European folk
44 Nostoc commune
belief that jelly-like masses that appear on the ground after rain are the
remains of shooting stars fallen to earth and, as such, possess special medic-
inal potency. Known as ‘star-shot’, ‘star-jelly’ or ‘star-fall’n’, these were appar-
ently most often either Nostoc commune, a member of the blue-green algae
(or cyanobacteria) fairly common in bare dry places, or a gelatinous fungus
of the genus Tremella36 (q.v.). While there is reliable evidence that the latter
has featured in British Isles folk medicine, records attributable to Nostoc are
less certain. The most probable comes from Skye: ‘a jelly-like shiny stuff . . . a
kind of lichen or mould which grew on the rocks at the burn mouth’ and, in
accordance with a recipe passed down in one family from a ‘wise woman’
ancestor, was brewed (but not boiled) and given for puerperal fever.37
In Ireland the ‘green slime’ from the top of stagnant water which has been
applied to burns in Meath38 is presumably some other member of the blue-
green algae.
RED ALGAE
Chondrus crispus Stackhouse
colder northern Atlantic
Mastocarpus stellatus (Stackhouse) Guiry

Gigartina stellata (Stackhouse) Batten
Irish moss, carragheen
colder northern Atlantic
Chondrus crispus and Mastocarpus stellatus, both generally distributed around
the British Isles, are very similar in appearance, often grow together and are
not distinguished by present-day harvesters of Irish moss. Extensively col-
lected for eating and the source of a former teetotal beverage (‘Sobriety’),
they have been popular in the coastal counties of Ireland as folk cures for
colds, coughs, sore throats and chest and lung ailments (including tubercu-
losis). The plants were boiled in milk or water, strained and drunk hot. They
have also been used for burns in Leitrim39 and for kidney trouble in Cavan.40
British folk uses of Irish moss have been recorded much more scantily, for
different purposes and apparently only from the Hebrides: for poulticing a
sore stomach in South Uist41 and as a rub for tired feet in Skye.42
Palmaria palmata (Linnaeus) Kuntze

Rhodymenia palmata (Linnaeus) Greville
dulse, dillisk, duileasc, crannach, creathnach
colder northern Atlantic, Arctic
Eaten raw, fresh or dried, or cooked like spinach, Palmaria palmata has long
held a place in Scottish and Irish folk medicine as a protection against ill-
health in general. In Orkney there was once a saying, ‘he who eats the dulse
[of a local rocky creek] . . . will escape all maladies except Black Death’.43 A
soup of it, taken at least three times a week, was popular in the Highlands as
a means of purifying the blood.44 It was eaten in Berwickshire45 and Skye46
for the same purpose. In the Highlands and Western Isles it has also been
regarded as one of the best cures for indigestion and stomach disorders.47
Indeed, few other plants were recorded by early observers as used for such
a range of ailments. From Ireland a physician in Kilkenny reported to John
Ray in 1696 that it was esteemed effective against both worms and scurvy48
and was eaten to sweeten the breath, while his contemporary Martin Martin
learned of its use in Skye for constipation, scurvy, poor vision, migraine,
colic, the stone, worms and stomach pain. Martin also found that the people
of Skye shared with those of Edinburgh the belief that, when fresh, it removes
the afterbirth safely and easily.49 Two later visitors to Skye confirmed and
added to Martin’s information: James Robertson in 1768 noted that the
inhabitants dissolved a bladder stone by drinking a dilute solution of the
ashes of a seaweed50 (which he left unidentified but which was doubtless
this), and Lightfoot in 1772 learned that it was sometimes employed to pro-
mote a sweat in cases of fever.51
In Ireland in more recent times, dulse has been used in the Aran Islands
for worming children,52 while in Mayo it has been chewed and its juice drunk
to ease a sore throat.53
Porphyra umbilicalis (Linnaeus) Kützing

purple laver, slake, sloke, slouk, sloucan
Arctic, northern Atlantic south to Canaries, Mediterranean,
northern Pacific
Species of the genus Porphyra, perhaps more particularly P. umbilicalis, have
been eaten extensively in Ireland, Scotland and Wales but records of their use
in folk medicine are rare, surprisingly. In eighteenth-century Cornwall,
William Borlase was informed that three spoonfuls of the juice, taken every
morning, fasting, for three weeks had proved very effective against cancers.
One cure of breast cancer was claimed to be due to that alone, but it is unclear
which medical tradition, the folk or the learned one, was being referred to.54
We can be sure, however, that it is as a folk cure that sleabhcán has won a fol-
lowing in the Aran Islands for easing indigestion.55 Similarly, Martin Martin
46 Porphyra umbilicalis
found it being boiled and given to the cows on Skye to clear up their spring-
time costiveness.56
GREEN ALGAE
Ulva lactuca Linnaeus
sea lettuce, green laver
northern and southern Atlantic, northern Pacific
Enteromorpha Link
northern Atlantic, Arctic, northern Pacific
Cladophora Kützing
cosmopolitan
(Identification dubious) A kind of seaweed known as linarich and described
as ‘a very thin small green plant, about 8–12 inches long’, growing on stones,
shells or bare sand, was noted by Martin Martin in 1695 in use on the
Hebridean islands of Skye and Lingay for healing the wounds made by a blis-
tering plaster, for ‘drawing up’ the tonsils and for poulticing the temples and
forehead, to dry up a runny nose, ease migraine or induce sleep in cases of
fever.57 A few years later Lightfoot attributed to Ulva lactuca a poulticing func-
tion in the ‘Western Isles’ in the words used by Martin of linarich, strongly
suggestive of an unacknowledged repeat of the latter’s information.58 It is pos-
sible that Lightfoot did personally see U. lactuca being applied in this manner
and thus solved the identity of linarich; other authors, however, have thought
some species of Enteromorpha or Cladophora best fits Martin’s description.
‘Sea lettuce’ described by the informant as variously green, brown and
dark red in colour—which could apply only in part to Ulva lactuca, even if
the name were correctly applied—has been stewed in sea-water on the Essex
coast and the resulting liquid used to ease the pain of bunions and arthritis in
the feet.59
BROWN ALGAE
Fucus vesiculosus Linnaeus
bladder wrack, lady wrack, button seaweed, sea-wrack,
bubbling wrack
northern Atlantic, Arctic
The jelly-like mucilage contained in the swollen vesicles (or pneumatocysts)
of Fucus vesiculosus is an age-old embrocation in coastal areas for rheuma-
tism, bruised limbs and sprains. In Britain it has been recorded from Corn-
wall,60 Somerset,61 Essex,62 Cumbria63 and Angus.64 It was boiled into an oily
lotion and rubbed in or simply placed hot against the skin or, more simply
still, put in a bath of hot sea-water. The relaxing effect has been valued in
Yorkshire fishing villages especially as a cure for bow legs in small children;
the fresh fronds and sliced vesicles together with equal parts of water and gin
or rum were placed in a corked bottle for a week and then applied as a rub.65
Another unusual use for the plant was encountered by Martin Martin in 1695
in Jura in the Inner Hebrides: steam from the boiled plant was inhaled to
cure a stitch after a fever.66
Irish records of the standard use as an embrocation are known from as
many and as scattered coastal counties as in Britain. As it was this kind of
seaweed specifically that was valued in Londonderry67 for ‘weak feet’ and in
Leitrim68 for sore or sweaty ones, it was presumably the unnamed one too
that has been prized for easing swollen legs in Galway.69 A less orthodox prac-
tice recorded from Donegal has been to suck the mucilage out of the vesicles
and swallow it to cure a sore throat.70 In official medicine the mucilage was
also applied to throats—but externally, as a poultice for glandular swellings.
Pelvetia canaliculata (Linnaeus) Decaisne & Thuret

channelled wrack
Atlantic coasts of Europe
Carefully distinguished in Gaelic as feamain chìrein, Pelvetia canaliculata was
held to contain more potash than any other local seaweed and consequently
was much used in the Highlands and Western Isles for poulticing and other
medical purposes.71 Boiled in sea-water and bandaged on hot, it was partic-
ularly used for easing rheumaticky knees.72
In Ireland’s Aran Islands, besides being employed as a general prophy-
lactic, this species also served to worm children.73
Laminaria digitata (Hudson) Lamouroux

Laminaria hyperborea (Gunnerus) Foslei
tangle
colder northern Atlantic, Arctic
Laminaria digitata and L. hyperborea are very similar and unlikely to have
been distinguished for folk medicine purposes. The records traced are exclu-
sively from the Scottish Western Isles. Martin Martin in 1695 found tangle
valued there as a cure for loss of appetite, boiled with butter74; in South Uist
48 Laminaria
it has been shredded, chewed and swallowed for constipation75 and in Skye it
has been eaten to purify the blood.76
Four unidentified seaweeds are
‘Seafog’, a cure for paralysis in Leitrim, used as a wash three times a day
either on its own or in combination with bladder wrack.77
‘Red-fog’, found by Martin Martin in 1695 being boiled on Jura with blad-
der wrack and then inhaled to cure a stitch after a fever.78
Luireach, a ‘filmy, skin-like form of seaweed’, baked strips of which bound
over the swelling were an ancient cure for goitre in the Highlands.79
‘Sleek’, a long, thin hairy seaweed common on the coast of Fife and
employed there to poultice sprains, rheumatism, etc.80 This is not a
recorded use of sloke (Porphyra spp.) and the name could belong to
some other alga.
Fungi
Fungi include a wide variety of organisms actually more closely related to
animals than to true plants. The fungi included here belong to the classes
Hymenomycetes (mushrooms), Gasteromycetes (puffballs) and Pyreno-
mycetes (powdery mildews and related fungi).
HYMENOMYCETES
Agaricus campestris Linnaeus ex Fries
field mushroom
northern and southern temperate zones and Caribbean; possibly
introduced into many parts of southern hemisphere
Though the word mushroom has doubtless always been applied loosely, for
most people it more particularly refers to Agaricus campestris, the one tradi-
tionally most sought after and collected for cooking. Unexpectedly, though,
only a single instance has been traced of what is fairly unambiguously this
being employed in the British Isles as a folk medicine—in Norfolk, where it
has been stewed in milk to soothe cancer of the throat.81
Fomes fomentarius (Fries) Kickx

tinder fungus
circumboreal on birch, extending south to North Africa on beech
Phellinus igniarius (Fries) Quélet

willow fomes
circumpolar and northern temperate zone
Of the two related species that have shared the names ‘touchwood’ or ‘funk’
down the centuries, Fomes fomentarius is the more likely to have been the
one used in Suffolk ‘since time immemorial’ to staunch bleeding and cure
slight wounds,82 as it is said to have grown on oaks, which this species favours,
whereas Phellinus igniarius tends to occur on other deciduous trees, espe-
cially willows. On the other hand, the former is rare in England, and the lat-
ter common. The hard outer part was cut off and the soft inner substance
hammered to soften it further.83
Phellinus pomaceus (Fries) Maire

northern temperate zone and where Prunus is cultivated
The very hard fruit-bodies of Phellinus pomaceus, a fungus of fruit trees of the
rose family, formerly enjoyed a reputation in West Sussex villages for poul-
ticing facial swelling. Before being applied, they first had to be ground down
on a nutmeg grater and then heated in the oven.84
Piptoporus betulinus (Bulliard ex Fries) P. Karsten

birch bracket
circumboreal
In Sussex, pieces of Piptoporus betulinus, a common fungus of birches, were
slowly steamed in tins to produce a charcoal valued as an antiseptic and dis-
infectant.85 Regular strips of the thick, elastic flesh were also cut and kept
there whenever required for staunching bleeding (in the same way as puff-
balls); with a hole punched in the middle, they were found to make very com-
fortable corn pads.86 Perhaps these are the ‘mushroom slices’ reputed to cure
corns in Galway when applied to them on three successive nights.87
Fistulina hepatica Schaeffer ex Fries

poor man’s beefsteak
northern temperate zone, Caribbean, mountains of subtropical
India; introduced (?) into Australia
The botanist William Sherard,during his brief residence in north-eastern Ire-
land in 1690–4, found the local peasants searching out a certain fungus from
the clefts of rotten oaks and using it to heal old ulcers, laying a portion on the
sore.In his edition of Ray’s Synopsis, Dillenius was able to provide a sufficiently
good description of it, under the pre-Linnaean name Fungus cariaceus querci-
nus haematodes,88 to leave little doubt that this was the species in question.89
50 Tremella mesenterica
Tremella mesenterica Retzius ex Hooker

jelly fungus, yellow brain-fungus
Arctic and northern temperate region, Caribbean, North Africa,
Australasia, Falkland Islands
The early Anglesey botanist Hugh Davies insisted that the gelatinous mass
known in those parts under the name ‘star-shot’, which he had found very
effective when rubbed on chilblains, was a species of Tremella and not, as
then usually assumed, the blue-green alga Nostoc commune 90 (q.v.).
Auricularia auricula-judae (Bulliard ex Fries) Wettstein

ear fungus
northern temperate zone, Caribbean
The very common Auricularia auricula-judae, a fungus of dead or moribund
trees, almost wholly on elder in Europe (though on a wider range in North
America), once enjoyed a reputation for easing sore throats, coughs and
hoarseness when boiled in water to a jelly-like consistency. It was warmly
recommended by Gerard and other authors of herbals. The only allegedly
folk records of its use, however, are from the Highlands, as a gargle for sore
throats,91 and from the north-western part of central Ireland, where it has
been boiled in milk as a cure for jaundice.92
GASTEROMYCETES
Bovista nigrescens (Persoon) Persoon; and other Lycoperdaceae
puffball, bolfer, fuzzball, blind man’s buff, devil’s snuffbox
Europe, Middle East, East Africa
The spores and the absorbent inner tissue of various members of the family
Lycoperdaceae share a well-founded reputation for effectiveness in staunch-
ing all but the most profuse forms of bleeding. This reputation is not only
common to much of Europe, but on the evidence of an archaeological find is
also probably very ancient. At Skara Brae in Orkney, the best-preserved pre-
historic village in northern Europe, in undisturbed layers of a midden which
yielded a calibrated radiocarbon date of 1750–2130 .., ten mature fruit-
bodies of one of these species, Bovista nigrescens, were excavated from a sin-
gle trench in 1972–3. So many in one spot strongly pointed to collection for
a purpose, and as they are inedible when mature, it is most unlikely that it had
been for food.93 According to John Parkinson, country surgeons in seven-
teenth-century England were often in the practice of stringing up skeins of
puffballs to use, when required, for stopping up a wound94; and till only very
recently many farmers and cottagers in, for example, Norfolk95 and Sussex96
anticipated accidents by doing the same.
Apart from their deployment against bleeding, records of which can be
found from most parts of the British Isles, puffballs have been valued in
Britain for burns in East Anglia,97 for warts in Cumbria,98 for piles in the
Highlands99 and for carbuncles in Suffolk.100 To that list Parkinson could
have added chapped heels and any chafing of the skin.101 In Norfolk the
spores have even been held to prevent tetanus.102
In comparison, Ireland has yielded far fewer records of such lesser uses.
The one for burns is known from Fermanagh.103 One for chilblains in Wick-
low104 has apparently no British counterpart.
PYRENOMYCETES
Claviceps purpurea (Fries ex Fries) Tulasne & C. Tulasne, in the
broad sense
ergot
northern temperate zone, wherever rye is cultivated
More than fifty compounds have been isolated from the microfungus Clav-
iceps purpurea, which attacks the inflorescences of numerous grass genera
the world over, besides those of the cereals on which its poisonous action is
most notorious. One or more have long been known to have the effect of
bringing on uterine contractions in pregnant women of a sufficient severity
to expel the foetus. Ergot derivatives have consequently long been is use offi-
cially for inducing or speeding labour and inhibiting postpartum bleeding as
well as unofficially for procuring abortions. Though only a solitary folk
record of the latter (in Norfolk105) has been traced, it may well have been a
widespread practice down the centuries.
Daldinia concentrica (Bolton ex Fries) Cesati & De Notaris

cramp balls, King Alfred’s cakes
the least common member of a cosmopolitan species complex
The hard, hemispherical, black or dark brown fruit-bodies produced by the
common fungus Daldinia concentrica on the dead parts of ash trees were at
one time in use on the Surrey-Sussex border to ward off cramp by being car-
ried about the person.106 That sounds more like a superstition than a gen-
uinely medical practice, however.
52 Notes
Notes
1. Woodruffe-Peacock 41. Shaw, 48
2. Johnston 1853, 263–4 42. Martin, 237
3. Tait 43. Neill, 25
4. IFC S 485: 53 44. Beith
5. Darwin, 11; Dickson & Dickson, 79, 45. Johnston 1829–31, ii, 228
226 46. Folk-lore, 34 (1923), 91
6. Beith 47. Beith; Shaw, 48
7. Tongue 48. Lankester, 305
8. IFC S 736: 22 49. Martin, 223, 226, 229, 230
9. St Clair 50. Henderson & Dickson, 93
10. IFC S 811: 64 51. Lightfoot, ii, 935
11. Logan, 124 52. Ó hEithir
12. IFC S 506: 229 53. IFC S 93: 233
13. IFC S 483: 89 54. Borlase 1758, 236
14. IFC S 658: 275 55. Ó hEithir
15. Hatfield MS 56. Martin, 229
16. Wilson 57. Martin, 145, 203, 225
17. IFC S 484: 30 58. Lightfoot, ii, 972
18. PLNN, no. 7 (1989), 32 59. Hatfield, 46 and MS
19. Quincy, 227 60. Macpherson MS
20. Williams MS 61. Gifford, xxxix
21. IFC S 654: 245; 655: 150, 267 62. Hatfield MS
22. Cameron; MacFarlane 63. Freethy, 82
23. Carmichael, vi, 72 64. Hatfield MS
24. McGlinchey, 85 65. Quelch, 38
25. IFC S 1112: 54 66. Martin, 267
26. IFC S 476: 217 67. Moore MS
27. IFC S 226: 569 68. IFC S 190: 171
28. Wise, 176 69. IFC S 5: 163
29. Withering 1787–92, 718 70. IFC S 1090: 439
30. Trevelyan, 314 71. Carmichael, ii, 276: McDonald
31. Wise, 176; de Crespigny & 72. Beith
Hutchinson, 106 73. Ó Síocháin
32. Cameron 74. Martin
33. Wood-Martin 75. Shaw, 48
34. IFC S 862: 376 76. Folk-lore, 34 (1923), 91
35. Gregory, 7–8 77. IFC S 190: 170, 172
36. Belcher & Swale 78. Martin, 267
37. Swire, 63 79. Macdonald
38. IFC S 690: 40 80. Simpkins
39. Vickery 1995, 60 81. Hatfield, 26
40. Maloney 82. Warner
83. Withering 1787–92, 767 95. Hatfield, 32

84. Swanton 96. Swanton
85. Swanton 97. Evans 1966, 90
86. Swanton; Sussex County Magazine, 98. Newman & Wilson
no. 6 (1932), 709 99. Beith
87. IFC S 22: 119 100. Hatfield MS
88. Dillenius, 25 101. Parkinson, 1324
89. R. Watling, in litt. 102. Wigby, 67
90. Davies 1813, 117 103. Glassie, 308
91. Beith 104. McClafferty
92. Logan, 47 105. Hatfield, 20
93. Watling; Watling & Seaward 106. Swanton
94. Parkinson, 1324
CHAPTER 4
Pteridophytes and
Conifers
8
Pteridophytes
Pteridophytes consist of a number of not very closely related plants some-
times referred to as ‘fern allies’, comprising clubmosses and horsetails, of the
families Lycopodiaceae and Equisetaceae, respectively; adder’s-tongue and
moonworts, of the unusual fern family Ophioglossaceae; as well as true ferns
of which members of the following families are included here: Osmundaceae,
Adiantaceae, Polypodiaceae, Dennstaedtiaceae, Aspleniaceae, Woodsiaceae,
Dryopteridaceae and Blechnaceae.
LYCOPODIACEAE
Huperzia selago (Linnaeus) Bernhardi ex Schrank & C. Martius
Lycopodium selago Linnaeus
fir clubmoss
northern temperate zone
Huperzia selago and Lycopodium clavatum are the only two of the seven spe-
cies in the family Lycopodiaceae native to the British Isles to have been cred-
ibly distinguished in the folk medicine records. Not only is H. selago the most
widely distributed, but a related Huperzia species long used in Chinese med-
icine has been found to produce a substance, huperzine A, with the power to
block a brain enzyme. Huperzia selago, known in both the Scottish Highlands
and Western Isles as garbhag an t’slèibhe and valued there, as in Scandinavia,
as a powerful emetic, was well known to be dangerous if taken in anything but
a small dose, being said to induce giddiness and convulsions1 or (as reported
in Skye in 1768) causing a pregnant woman to abort.2
54
  Pteridophytes and Conifers 55
At the same time, as its specific name indicates, Huperzia selago was
widely identified with a herb recorded by Pliny the Elder in his Natural His-
tory (Book 24, Section 62) as valued by the druids of Gaul for its ‘smoke’,
which they held to be efficacious for eye ailments. Although some authors3
have held that Pliny’s selago was much more probably a kind of juniper, there
are records from the Highlands4 and Cornwall5 of the use of ‘club-moss’ as an
allegedly folk medicine for treating the eyes. In both those areas, though, this
use was either as a fomentation or in an ointment rubbed on the eyelids:
‘smoke’, i.e. the spores, does not feature. Certain ritual prescribed for collect-
ing and preparing clubmoss for this particular purpose could be evidence
that this is a genuine survival in folk tradition; equally, though, the use could
have been taken over, maybe in the distant past, from Classical medicine via
the herbals.
Strengthening the likelihood that use for the eyes is an import from the
learned tradition is the fact that other uses traced in the folk records are for
quite unrelated ailments: as an emetic, an emmenagogue and a skin tonic in
the Highlands,6 and for ‘any sickness’ in the Outer Hebrides.7
Lycopodium clavatum Linnaeus

stag’s-horn clubmoss
temperate zones, tropical mountains
A herb featuring in two Cardiganshire uses, for ‘the back’ (which sometimes
refers to a kidney complaint) and for a cold or sore throat respectively, has
been botanically identified as Lycopodium clavatum.8
EQUISETACEAE
Equisetum Linnaeus
horsetail
cosmopolitan except Australasia
As the recommendation of Equisetum as a vulnerary goes back to Galen in
Classical medicine, its status in the folk records would look more suspicious
were it not for the impressive concentration of those in parts of Britain that
were heavily settled from Scandinavia. Only in the Highlands and/or Western
Isles,9 and the Isle of Man,10 moreover, do one or more species of this genus
feature for staunching the flow of blood (apparently because the minutely
rough surface of these plants stimulates clotting). In Yorkshire, equisetums
have served as a wash to a bad back,11 in the Shetlands as an indigestion rem-
edy12 and in the Isle of Man also as a diuretic.13
56 Ophioglossum vulgatum
OPHIOGLOSSACEAE
Ophioglossum vulgatum Linnaeus
adder’s-tongue
northern temperate zone, North Africa
Perhaps because of a fancied resemblance of Ophioglossum vulgatum to a
hooded snake preparing to strike, it has had a reputation for curing adder
bites. Large quantities were gathered in the mid-nineteenth century in Sussex
and the counties round London14, 15 and also in Devon16 for inclusion with
various other herbs in a then very popular potion,‘Adder’s-spear Ointment’,
employed for that purpose. However, that geographical distribution and the
large scale of the gathering suggest a commercial impetus behind this, and
even if it had genuinely a folk origin, the potion may have been a late import
and not indigenous to Britain at all. Similarly, because so many of the herbals
long recommended the fronds for healing wounds and cuts, it is hard to feel
confident that the plant’s use for that purpose in Lincolnshire17 (other
records18–20 are unlocalised as well as vague or ambiguous) was other than a
borrowing from that source. However, in Oxfordshire21 and perhaps some
other areas22 a tea made from the fronds has been drunk as a spring tonic
and that may well have a purer pedigree.
Botrychium lunaria (Linnaeus) Swartz

moonwort
Arctic and northern temperate zone, Australasia
Despite the magical powers widely credited to Botrychium lunaria, there
appears to be only a solitary record of its use in British folk medicine—and
that an early one. John Ray in his Catalogus Angliae cites his medical friend
Walter Needham as the source of the information that the Welsh considered
an ointment of this, when well rubbed into the region of the kidneys, an infal-
lible cure for dysentery.23 Needham had practised in Shrewsbury and may
have learned of this from friends or patients from across the Welsh border (he
also told Ray of a herbal use of rowan, Sorbus aucuparia).
OSMUNDACEAE
Osmunda regalis Linnaeus
royal fern, bog-onion
all continents except Australasia
The most striking and distinctive of the ferns native to the British Isles,
Osmunda regalis seems to have substituted as the standard cure for sprains,
dislocations and bruises in those boggier parts of the north and west from
which Symphytum officinale (comfrey), elsewhere used for those, is largely
or wholly absent. Its rhizomes, like those of comfrey, contain an astringent
mucilage with an apparently similar soothing and relaxing effect. These were
collected from young plants, chopped up, steeped in water and the resulting
liquid bathed on the injured joint or other part. This use is on record in
Britain from Cumberland,24 Westmoreland and Furness,25 the Scottish High-
lands26 and Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides.27
Osmunda regalis, royal fern (Bock 1556, p. 206)

58 Osmunda regalis
Ireland has experience of that use, too, in the neighbouring counties of

Limerick28 and Clare,29 but the plant has been further valued there in (uniden-
tified) parts as a cure for rickets30 (presumably because of its reputation for
healing bone troubles) and in Galway for easing rheumatism and sciatica.31
But despite an assertion by the leading mid-Victorian authority on ferns
that it ‘is much used as a rustic vulnerary’,32 no localised folk records of its
application to bleeding have been uncovered.
ADIANTACEAE
Adiantum capillus-veneris Linnaeus
maidenhair fern
almost worldwide in tropical and temperate zones
The only convincing evidence that Adiantum capillus-veneris has truly been
a folk herb in Britain or Ireland comes from the latter’s remote Aran Islands,
where it is sufficiently frequent in the wild for its dried fronds to have been
used to make a tea.33 Elsewhere, though, this fern is surely too scarce for wild
populations of it to have been credibly drawn on medicinally, at least in
recent centuries. The vernacular name is shared by several other, more com-
mon plants, especially the somewhat similar spleenwort Asplenium tri-
chomanes, which those enthused by the praise heaped on ‘maidenhair’ by the
herbals and by physicians presumably used instead.
POLYPODIACEAE
Polypodium vulgare Linnaeus, in the broad sense
polypody
northern temperate zone, South Africa
Polypodium vulgare is one of a number of herbs whose uses have magico-
religious overtones. In early eighteenth-century Ireland a careful distinction
was made between the epiphytic‘polypody of the oak’and the supposedly dif-
ferent kind to be found so commonly there on walls,the former rated so much
the more effective that, given the scarcity of Irish woodland by then, it was
having to be imported.34 More than a century later the belief still lingered there
in the Aran Islands that the rhizomes had to be pulled at the time of the new
moon and buried in porridge overnight before being potent medicinally.35
It is from Ireland that most of the few folk records come, doubtless in
reflection of the plant’s greater profusion there overall. Those records, as also
in Britain, are for very diverse uses, and the ailments treated seem largely
determined by whether the rhizomes or the fronds were utilised. An infu-

sion of the rhizomes was valued as a mild laxative in Classical medicine, and
it was perhaps from that source that it persisted in use into the last century in
Donegal,36 just as in adjacent Londonderry37 a decoction of the fronds, much
favoured in official herbalism for coughs and colds, lingered on as a mixture
with liquorice for remedying the severer kinds of those and asthma. Both
parts of the plant, however, feature in a marked cluster of records from
Cavan,38 spilling across into Leitrim,39 for application to burns or scalds.
In Britain the rhizomes are said to have persisted in use for an unspecified
Polypodium vulgare, polypody

(Fuchs 1543, fig. 334)
60 Polypodium vulgare
ailment in ‘some parts of England’.40 In the Highlands they have served as

the source of a snuff taken to alleviate catarrh.41 The only record traced of the
use of the fronds is from Herefordshire, where they had to be bearing spores
if they were to be effective for whooping cough.42
DENNSTAEDTIACEAE
Pteridium aquilinum (Linnaeus) Kuhn
bracken
cosmopolitan except temperate South America
(Identity as a folk herb questionable) Though ‘fern’ more often than not
means Pteridium aquilinum when used by non-botanists, when that word is
met with in folk medicine it apparently refers to other species in most if not
all cases. Even John Lightfoot’s eighteenth-century report, cited by many later
authors, that the country people in Scotland reckoned a bed of ‘bracken’ a
sovereign remedy for rickets in children43 has to be treated with reserve, for
it is suspicious in that the ability to cure rickets was attributed to Osmunda
regalis (royal fern) in Ireland. Though allegedly used in Classical medicine
and recommended in herbals,44 P. aquilinum is poisonous to humans as well
as farm animals, often containing cyanide and also now known to be car-
cinogenic.
ASPLENIACEAE
Phyllitis scolopendrium (Linnaeus) Newman
Asplenium scolopendrium Linnaeus
hart’s-tongue; fox-tongue, cow’s-tongue (Ireland)
Europe, Macaronesia, west-central Asia, Japan, North America
As with Polypodium vulgare and Osmunda regalis, the greater prevalence of
Phyllitis scolopendrium in the west of the British Isles explains why the records
of its use are predominantly from there. In those from England and Scot-
land, ailments treated by it have been diverse: in Devon45 and the Hebrides46
colds and pulmonary congestion, in Wiltshire warts47 and in the Isle of Wight
to cool erysipetaloid eruptions on the legs.48 The last may perhaps have
involved the same plaster as James Robertson found being applied in Ross-
shire in 1767 ‘to extract an animalcule which nestling in their legs or other
places produces exquisite pain’.49
In Ireland, in sharp contrast, the plant has enjoyed a very wide use for one
quite different purpose: as an ointment made from the boiled fronds for
soothing burns and scalds. The only records of that traced for certain from
Britain are from south-eastern Wales.50 In those two regions it would appear
to have shared the role of Umbilicus rupestris (navelwort) in standing in for
Sempervivum tectorum (house-leek, sengreen) as the pre-eminent salve for
burns. Its use in Donegal51 for soothing insect stings, in Wexford52 for dog
bites and in Limerick53 for ringworm are doubtless variations on that, but the
same can hardly be true of its application to warts54 in Meath, where it has also
been the main ingredient in a remedy for jaundice,55 or asthma in Wexford.56
Phyllitis scolopendrium,
hart’s-tongue (Fuchs
1543, fig. 165)
62 Asplenium trichomanes
Asplenium trichomanes Linnaeus

maidenhair spleenwort
temperate zones, tropical mountains
Long and widely promoted by learned authors, Asplenium trichomanes must
be regarded as doubtfully an age-old member of the folk medicine repertory.
Its principal use, for severe coughs and chest complaints, certainly goes back
at least to the seventeenth century in certain of the Inner Hebrides,57 but a
lack of evidence to justify its Gaelic name of lus na seilg58 suggests that pre-
scribing it for that supposed malfunctioning of the spleen was a borrowing
from the herbals or learned medicine, while use of it in Cumbria as a hair
tonic59 may be late and idiosyncratic.
In Ireland a cough cure known as ‘maidenhair’ once popular among
country people in Londonderry60 was presumably this, as also an ingredient
under that name boiled with honeysuckle and oatmeal into a concoction
taken for dysentery in Cavan.61
Asplenium ruta-muraria Linnaeus

wall-rue
Eurasia, eastern North America
Like Asplenium trichomanes, and for the same reason, the membership of A.
ruta-muraria in the folk tradition is problematical. Moreover, a plant so wide-
spread could be expected to have left more evidence of its use had it been
much prized, yet only a solitary record has been traced for Britain and that
not a certain one: a plant abundant on walls in Skye and believed to be this
from the verbal description was held to be effective there in drawing the ‘fire’
from the skin in cases of erysipelas.62
In Ireland it has been identified as a ‘herb of the seven gifts’, valued in
Tipperary for its ability to cure seven diseases,63 and possibly it was also the
‘wall fern’ employed in Kilkenny for kidney trouble.64 That it was boiled in
milk and taken for epilepsy in Cavan,65 however, is seemingly more certain.
WOODSIACEAE
Athyrium filix-femina (Linnaeus) Roth
lady-fern
northern temperate zone, southern Asian mountains, tropical America
(Identification dubious) ‘Female fern’, a remedy for burns and scalds in Wick-
low,66 has been taken to be Athyrium filix-femina,67 but the propensity of folk
taxonomy for he-and-she herb pairs lacking in any modern scientific ratio-
nale renders such an assumption unsafe.
DRYOPTERIDACEAE
Dryopteris filix-mas (Linnaeus) Schott, in the broad sense
male-fern
Europe, temperate Asia, North America
Because male-fern (in the old aggregate sense) was recommended as a vermi-
fuge by all the leading Classical writers, it is hard to be sure of the genuineness
of its place in the folk repertory as the cure for tapeworm par excellence. It is
Dryopteris filix-mas,
male-fern (Fuchs
1543, fig. 338)
64 Dryopteris filix-mas
nevertheless suggestive that the numerous records for that are all from the
‘Celtic fringe’ and that it has been used in Ireland for other ailments as well:
for burns in Waterford,68 shingles in Tipperary69 and erysipelas in Limer-
ick.70 Greatly confusing the picture, however, was the extensive publicity for
its use produced by two papers in the Edinburgh Monthly Medical Journal in
1852–3 (‘On the treatment of Tape-worm by the Male Shield Fern’), which
brought to notice a more reliable method of exploiting the plant—by soak-
ing the fresh rhizomes in ether—and thereafter gave it respectability in offi-
cial medical circles.71 The powerful anthelminthic properties attributed to
the rhizomes certainly have a well-attested clinical basis but their use is
regarded today as dangerous.
BLECHNACEAE
Blechnum spicant (Linnaeus) Roth
hard-fern
Europe, Japan, western North America
Despite the distinctiveness of its fronds, Blechnum spicant has been encoun-
tered only once in the folk use records—and that as merely one of eight ingre-
dients in a juice drunk for a cough after a fever in Mayo.72 Though employed
by midwives in the Faeroe Islands in the eighteenth century to staunch bleed-
ing in childbirth,73 it would appear not to have found favour in the British
Isles, at least in more recent times, as a specific.
Conifers
Conifers are seed plants but, unlike in the true flowering plants, the seeds are
borne on cones rather than in fruits. Conifers included here are pines,
junipers and yews, of the families Pinaceae, Cupressaceae and Taxaceae,
respectively.
PINACEAE
Pinus sylvestris Linnaeus
Scots pine
Europe, temperate Asia; introduced into North America and
New Zealand
Reduced now to a few fragments from its one-time prevalence in the Scottish
Highlands, the native populations of the tree Pinus sylvestris cannot have
helped but decline in use proportionately as a source of folk remedies. Relics

of that use that have been recorded there are the consumption of the astrin-
gent bark as a remedy for fevers74 and, in the Badenoch district of Inverness-
shire, the making of a plaster for boils and sores from the resin mixed with
beeswax and hog’s lard.75 Extensive pinewoods of considerably long standing,
even though probably all planted originally, are to be found in East Anglia,
and within living memory a child suffering from a polio-like illness was taken
to those in Norfolk to breathe in the fragrance, which was believed to have a
therapeutic effect.76 A child is likewise on record as having been taken to the
coast in Wales in order to sniff ‘the pines’ there for an hour or two daily.77
Pinus species have enjoyed a reputation as bronchial cleansants since Classi-
cal times, and these cases are presumably a distant echo of that—as has been
the use of the young shoots for a cough medicine, recorded from Essex.78
Ireland shares only with Essex79 evidence of the resin’s having been
employed also as a vulnerary: to stop a cut finger bleeding in Wicklow80 and,
though with the introduced larch (Larix decidua Miller) apparently standing
in for a pine, in Limerick81 too. Some part of the tree is known to have been
applied also in Galway for the mysterious fanmadh.82
CUPRESSACEAE
Juniperus communis Linnaeus  
juniper, savin
Arctic and northern temperate zone
In the guise of the drink distilled from the berries (though an infusion made
from the whole plant is an alternative that has had its followers), members of
the genus Juniperus have long enjoyed a reputation as abortifacients. This
use has been dubiously ascribed to the Doctrine of Signatures, on the argu-
ment that a plant so often conspicuously sterile itself must have been placed
on this earth for human beings to have the benefit of the special property
that that implied. Widely known as savin, a name which strictly speaking
belongs to a related species native to other parts of Europe, J. sabina Linnaeus
(which is more potent and toxic), the use of J. communis for this particular
purpose is doubtless as ancient as it has been widespread—though much
under-reported by folklorists. In Somerset83 and Lincolnshire,84 indeed, it is
only from suggestive vernacular names that have been employed for it that it
can be inferred that it has had some popularity there. In Norfolk85 and Gallo-
way,86 on the other hand, the evidence for that is more direct. Though drink-
66 Juniperus communis
ing an infusion was normally deemed sufficient, the Pitt Rivers Museum in
Oxford has in its collections sprigs of the plant which a local woman was
found in 1914 wearing in her boots for nine days, in the belief that as the feet
became hot the ‘savin’ soaks through the stockings into the feet and thence
into the bloodstream87—a practice analogous to the wearing of Urtica dioica
(nettle) in socks as a male contraceptive.88 Giving birth ‘under the savin tree’
was once a euphemism in Lothian for an abortion or a miscarriage,89 and
there are similar allusions in a number of both English and Scottish ballads.
That the records are all from England and Lowland Scotland may or may not
reflect reality; it seems probable, however, that use for this purpose in Ire-
land has always been rare or over wide areas even non-existent.
That juniper has had acknowledged value in folk medicine in other direc-
tions may have served to cloak its use for ‘improper purposes’. The berries, for
example, had a reputation as diuretic and caused the herb to be resorted to for
dropsy and kidney ailments, a use reported from Hampshire90 and the High-
lands.91 A liniment made from the berries or two or three drops of the oil
taken on a lump of sugar also served to ease rheumatism and backache in
Devon,92 Somerset93 and Norfolk,94 its use for teething infants in the High-
lands95 being perhaps of similar origin.
Another, certainly ancient use of juniper (for this was recommended by
Hippocrates) was as a fumigant. The green branches, and in some cases the
berries, too, were burnt to purify the air in sick-rooms or to prevent an infec-
tion from spreading, a practice recorded from as far apart as Devon96 and
Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides.97 In Devon, people in contact with a conta-
gious disease are known to have chewed the berries as an extra precaution.98
In common with other herbs held in especially high esteem, the plant has
also attracted a miscellany of apparently more restricted uses: for indiges-
tion in Somerset,99 for skin disorders such as psoriasis in the Westmoreland
Pennines100 and for epilepsy101 and snakebites102 in the Highlands.
In Ireland the juice of the berries has been a traditional diuretic,103
brought to bear specifically on dropsy in Cavan.104 In Donegal a concoction
of them has also been favoured as a stimulant or cleanser of the system.105
And the gathering of them in their white unripe state (caora aitinn), for bot-
tling in whiskey and keeping on hand for ‘ailments’, is even the subject of a
special tradition, reserved for the last Sunday in July, among children on Achill
Island and the neighbouring Corraun Peninsula, on the coast of Mayo.106
TAXACEAE
Taxus baccata Linnaeus
yew
Europe, mountains of central Asia and North Africa, close allies else-
where in northern temperate zone; introduced into New Zealand
Various explanations have been put forward to explain the custom of plant-
ing Taxus baccata in churchyards, some more convincing than others, but it
appears to have been generally overlooked that there might be some natural
property of the species itself which caused it to be valued more directly in
connection with death. In ‘some parts of England’ there was a practice in the
early nineteenth century of sponging corpses immediately after decease with
an infusion of fresh yew leaves, which was claimed to preserve the body from
putrefaction for many weeks.107
In Britain the only other recorded uses of this tree appear to have been in
Lincolnshire, where its twigs were steeped in tea and the resulting liquid
drunk to remedy trouble with the kidneys,108 and in unstated areas an infu-
sion was given as an abortifacient by midwives—with at least one death to its
discredit.109
Ireland, too, has supplied only a solitary localised record: an application
to ringworm in Kildare.110
Notes
1. Lightfoot, ii, 689 11. Vickery MSS
2. Henderson & Dickson, 93 12. Jamieson
3. e.g. Anon., Phytologist, n.s. 3 (1859), 13. Quayle, 70
202–12 14. Phytologist, 4 (1853), 976
4. Carmichael ii, 298; Pratt 1859, 128 15. Pratt 1859, 122; Britten 1881b, 182
5. Hunt, 415, who identifies the spe- 16. Phytologist, 4 (1853), 976
cies used there as Lycopodiella inun- 17. Gutch & Peacock
data (Linnaeus) Holub, but that 18. Pratt 1859, 122
may be merely a guess. Though now 19. Folkard, 207
rare in Cornwall, this was probably 20. Lightfoot, 652
the commonest clubmoss there 21. ‘E.C.’
formerly. 22. Hole, 14
6. Beith 23. Ray 1670, 199
7. McDonald, 136 24. Hodgson, 371
8. Williams MS 25. Phytologist, 5 (1854), 30
9. Beith 26. Macdonald
10. Quayle, 70 27. McNeill
68 Notes
28. IFC S 506: 229 70. IFC S 512: 523

29. Logan, 124; IFC S 593: 43 71. Lindsay
30. Page, 22 72. IFC S 132: 97
31. IFC S 50: 458 73. Svabo
32. Moore 1855, 35 74. Beith
33. Ó hEithir 75. McCutcheon
34. Threlkeld 76. Hatfield MS
35. Journal of Botany, 11 (1873), 339 77. Vickery 1995
36. Hart 1898, 380 78. Hatfield MS
37. Moore MS 79. Hatfield MS
38. Maloney; IFC S 968: 183, 223; 969: 24 80. IFC S 921: 26
39. IFC S 266: 481 81. IFC S 505: 148
40. Johnson 1862 82. IFC S 21: 12
41. Beith 83. Grigson
42. Newman 1844, 112 84. Woodruffe-Peacock
43. Lightfoot, 661 85. Taylor 1929, 118
44. Rymer 86. Mactaggart, 418
45. Collyns 87. PLNN, no. 36 (1994), 172
46. Martin, 228; McNeill 88. Macpherson MS
47. Whitlock 1976, 164 89. Mabey, 27
48. Broomfield, 634 90. Hatfield MS
49. Henderson & Dickson, 56 91. Beith
50. Phytologist, 1 (1843), 521, 583, 589 92. Lafont
51. IFC S 1090: 275 93. Palmer 1976, 115
52. IFC S 897: 82 94. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 45); Wigby, 67
53. IFC S 499: 201 95. Polson, 33
54. IFC S 689: 100 96. Lafont
55. IFC S 710: 43 97. McNeill
56. IFC S 876: 239 98. Lafont
57. Martin, 228; McNeill 99. Tongue
58. Cameron 100. Duncan & Robson, 71
59. Freethy, 91 101. Carmichael, iv, 268
60. Moore MS 102. Beith
61. Maloney 103. Logan, 38
62. Folk-lore, 34 (1923), 90 104. Maloney
63. IFC S 572: 91, 297 105. McGlinchey, 83
64. IFC S 861: 212 106. MacNeill, 191–2
65. Maloney 107. Rootsey
67. McClafferty 109. Taylor 1848, 790
68. IFC S 637: 21 110. IFC S 780: 129
69. IFC S 572: 70
CHAPTER 5
Water-lilies, Buttercups
and Poppies
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Nymphaeales

(Nymphaeaceae, water-lilies), Ranunculales (Ranunculaceae, buttercups;
Berberidaceae, barberries) and Papaverales (Papaveraceae, poppies; Fumari-
aceae, fumitories) are included in this chapter.
NYMPHAEACEAE
Nymphaea alba Linnaeus
white water-lily
Europe; introduced into Australasia
Nuphar luteum (Linnaeus) Smith

yellow water-lily
Europe, northern Asia, North Africa, subspecies or allied species in
North America; introduced into New Zealand
The Scots Gaelic name duilleaga-bhàite, ‘drowned leaf ’, is ascribed in dictio-
naries1 to water-lilies, but the healing herb bearing that name on the Inner
Hebridean island of Colonsay, when sent to a botanist for identification, was
found to be bog pondweed, Potamogeton polygonifolius.2 Although the sim-
ilar name in Irish Gaelic, applied to plants used for a cure in Waterford,3 has
also been assumed to refer to water-lilies, such familiar plants would surely
not have had to be described to informants in Limerick as a ‘green leaf that
grows on the top of water in the bog’,4 a description that fits bog pondweed
better than anything else, even though the ‘green leaf ’ in question was a corn
69
70 Nymphaea and Nuphar
cure—a use for water-lily roots according to a recipe written on the back of
an early eighteenth-century account at Inverary Castle in Argyllshire.5 A fur-
ther complication is that bog pondweed in its turn may have been confused
in part with marsh pennywort, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, for that seems the like-
liest possessor of the ‘penny leaves that are got in the bog’ mentioned by two
other Limerick informants6; they used them, however, for putting on burns,
which, suspiciously, was the principal application of the pondweed on Colon-
say7 (as it has also been in parts of Wales8). What have also been recorded as
water-lily roots were more recently used in Cavan to staunch bleeding or
applied as a poultice for ‘drawing’ a boil.9 The roots of yellow water-lily,
Nuphar luteum, evidently possess some chemical potency, for William With-
ering10 claimed that, when rubbed with milk, they are effective against cock-
roaches and crickets. The likeliest inference would seem to be that both
pondweeds and water-lilies were utilised herbally, perhaps in different
regions and for on the whole different purposes, but failure to draw a clear
distinction has led to some confusion.
RANUNCULACEAE
Caltha palustris Linnaeus  
marsh-marigold, kingcup; mayflower (northern half of Ireland)
arctic and temperate Eurasia, North America
Although John Parkinson in his comprehensive seventeenth-century herbal
could find no evidence of the use of Caltha palustris medicinally, its flowers
are reputed to have been much valued for such purposes in Ireland for-
merly.11 In Meath they are known to have been boiled into a posset or a soup
and the contents drunk for heart ailments—perhaps on ‘sympathetic’
grounds, as the heart-shape of the leaves was stressed to the informant.12 The
fleshiness of these, as one might expect, was also an attraction: in Roscom-
mon, three were plucked and one at a time stewed and then tied hot on a
bandage to a boil.13
Helleborus foetidus Linnaeus

stinking hellebore, setterwort
western and southern Europe
Though mainly used for cattle and horses, Helleborus foetidus was widely
grown in cottage gardens or (as Gilbert White observed at Selborne in Hamp-
shire) gathered in the wild and the powdered leaves administered to children
troubled with worms. But it was so violent a purge that Parkinson14 consid-
  Water-lilies, Buttercups and Poppies 71
ered only country folk had bodies robust enough to stand its strength. Fatal-
ities are even recorded. In one such case, in Wiltshire, it had been mistaken for
the less toxic green hellebore, H. viridis.15
Helleborus viridis Linnaeus

green hellebore, bear’s-foot
western and central Europe
(Folk credentials questionable) If the very few records
of Helleborus viridis in folk use rest on correct identi-
fications, it was even more exclusively a veterinary
herb than setterwort, H. foetidus. Thomas Johnson, in
his 1633 edition of Gerard’s Herball, mentions that an
infusion of the leaves was believed to be prophylactic
against smallpox and other contagions, but whether
that extended into the folk repertory is not clear.
Anemone nemorosa Linnaeus

wood anemone
northern temperate zone of Europe and western Asia;
introduced into eastern Canada, New Zealand
Too many misadventures with the toxic Anemone
nemorosa in village medicine16 appear to have largely
eliminated it from the folk repertory. The only British
record traced is an eighteenth-century one of its use as a blis-
tering plaster in Ross-shire.17
Irish records are almost as rare: there is an
unlocalised one of its application to wounds as a
plaster,18 and in the Clare-Galway border district
the leaves were laid on the head to ameliorate a
headache.19
All these uses echo those of buttercups (Ran-
unculus spp.), reflecting the shared properties of
anemonin.
Ranunculus acris Linnaeus

meadow buttercup (buttercups in general:
crowfoot, eagle’s-foot, fearbán)
arctic and temperate Eurasia, Greenland, Ranunculus acris,
Aleutian Islands; introduced into other meadow buttercup
temperate regions (Brunfels 1530, p. 123)
72 Ranunculus bulbosus
Ranunculus bulbosus Linnaeus

bulbous buttercup
Europe, Middle East, North Africa; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
The acrid properties of the two common grassland species Ranunculus acris
and R. bulbosus (which are unlikely to have been distinguished from one
another) are shared by most other British Isles members of the genus, with
the result that they featured in folk use almost as widely as lesser spearwort,
R. flammula Linnaeus, for their power to raise blisters and to act as a counter-
irritant for all rheumatic afflictions in the same way as nettles. Records of
that use are specially frequent in the Highlands and Western Isles in the eigh-
teenth century, but that doubtless only reflects the fact that it persisted there
longest—later ones occur scattered across the English and Irish lowlands. All
three species similarly acted as a remedy for toothache and for headaches,
though more rarely and the latter records are wholly Irish.20 Again, chewing
the leaf, or rubbing the affected portion with one, acted as a strong counter-
irritant.
One or both of the acrid grassland species have also attracted an impres-
sive diversity of other uses. Marginally the most widespread of these has been
as a wart cure but, surprisingly, the British records for that are all from the far
south of England only: Devon21 Somerset,22 Sussex23 and Middlesex.24 This
cure, however, is a ‘regular’ in herbals back to Pliny, and that distribution
possibly betrays an inheritance solely from the medicines of the books.
Related to that use was presumably the Highland one of applying a buttercup
poultice to a swelling on the sole of the foot.25 Other ailments for which these
plants have been valued are skin troubles in England (Cornwall,26 Dorset27)
and bleeding from cuts and wounds in Scotland (Berwickshire,28 the High-
lands29).
In common with that other yellow-flowered herb with an age-old repu-
tation for curing eye troubles, greater celandine (Chelidonium majus), the
creeping buttercup, Ranunculus repens Linnaeus, has been identified as the
species widely renowned in parts of Cornwall as the ‘kenning herb’, from its
use as an ointment for healing the eye ulcers known as ‘kennings’.30 No doubt
it was carefully picked out because it was known to be non-caustic, unlike its
similar-looking relatives. Surprisingly, though, it was apparently not that but
the species known to its user(s) as ‘meadow crowfoot’ that has been favoured
for inflamed eyes in Norfolk.31
Irish uses seem to have been largely different. Apart from a repeat of the
southern English cure for warts in Louth,32 those recorded include for heart-
burn (Clare,33 Limerick34), kidney trouble (Meath35), hydrophobia (the
north-western Midlands),36 mumps or swollen glands (the Aran Islands37)—
but in this case only after boiling the juice to allay the possibility of blistering—
and consumption or suppurating tuberculosis (the western border counties,38
Galway39). The acrid species have also shared with the non-acrid Ranunculus
repens popularity only there as a jaundice cure (Antrim,40 Carlow41).
Ranunculus aquatilis Linnaeus, in the broad sense

water-crowfoot
Eurasia, North Africa, North America; introduced into Australasia,
South America
(Identification questionable) A herb known in Manx as lus y vuc awin, ‘the
river pig wort’, and used for scalds was identified as Ranunculus aquatilis by a
local collector competent in botany,42 but the species found in the Isle of Man
to which the name in a collective sense would have been applied occur there
almost exclusively in ponds, which puts the identification in doubt; the float-
ing pondweed Potamogeton natans, a known scald herb, seems more likely.
Thomas Pennant reported that in the Highlands,‘the water ranunculus is
used instead of cantharides to raise blisters’.43 Although at least one later
author44 has assumed he intended by that the standard blister herb, lesser
spearwort, Ranunculus flammula, possibly he was referring to the ‘crowfoot
of the moor’ which his predecessor Martin Martin had been told in Skye was
found the more effective there for that purpose (and used as well to alleviate
sciatica).45 Perhaps that was R. hederaceus, though it is one of Skye’s rarer
plants.
Ranunculus hederaceus Linnaeus

ivy-leaved crowfoot
western Europe
Ranunculus hederaceus was identified botanically as (at least in part) the
‘peabar uisgi’, which, pounded between stones, formed a main ingredient in
poultices applied to scrofula on Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides.46 As men-
tioned above, one or other of the caustic species of buttercup is on record as
having been in wide use in part of northern Ireland for suppurating tuber-
culosis; possibly this less common relative had been found in the Hebrides to
be more efficacious.
74 Ranunculus ficaria
Ranunculus ficaria Linnaeus

Ficaria verna Hudson
lesser celandine, pilewort, pileweed
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America, Australasia
Though the corms of Ranunculus bulbosus are also on record as cures for
piles, in Cornwall47 and Antrim48 that has been pre-eminently the role in
European folk medicine of the roots and axillary bulbils of lesser celandine,
R. ficaria, a use recorded from many and widely separate parts of the British
Isles. Extensions of this have been their application to small lumps in
women’s breasts in the Highlands49 (for which purpose the roots were usually
placed under the arms), to corns on Colonsay50 and to warts in Hereford-
shire.51 Less expected is the use of the petals (in Cumbria)52 or the leaves (in
Ranunculus ficaria, lesser celandine (Brunfels 1530, p. 215)

Kent)53 for cleaning teeth. In Norfolk an infusion of the flowers has even
been used for treating sore eyes accompanying measles,54 possibly out of mis-
take for the greater celandine at some time in the past.
A herb with parts used for suggestively similar-looking afflictions has
inevitably acquired a reputation as one of the classic examples of the Doc-
trine of Signatures. As in other cases, however, that may well be merely a post-
hoc rationalisation, for a decoction of the roots, applied with very hot com-
presses or as a mild ointment, has earned medical respect as an excellent
remedy for haemorrhoids in its own right.
Myosurus minimus Linnaeus

mousetail
southern half of Europe, North Africa, south-western Asia, North
America, Australasia
There is a solitary, seventeenth-century record of the use of Myosurus min-
imus, a further acrid member of the buttercup family: ‘the country people in
some [unspecified] places of this land applied it not only to nose-bleeds, by
bruising the leaves and putting them up the nose, but also to staunch heavy-
bleeding wounds and heal them.’55 The identification is borne out by a wood-
cut of the plant, which was formerly frequent on field margins subject to
winter flooding. It is on record north to Yorkshire in England.
Aquilegia vulgaris Linnaeus

columbine
southern and central Europe, North Africa, temperate Asia;
introduced into North America, Australasia
(Folk credentials questionable) Though Aquilegia vulgaris has plausibly been
claimed as indigenous in limestone thickets in Donegal,56 it must surely have
been too rare in that county to have served as a wild source for the use of the
leaves there to poultice swellings, at least at the time of the one record for
that.57 The plant has long been grown in cottage gardens and, once intro-
duced, reproduces very freely.
Thalictrum flavum Linnaeus

common meadow-rue
Europe, temperate Asia
The roots of all species of the genus Thalictrum, especially T. flavum, are
known to be powerful laxatives, earning the collective name ‘false rhubarb’. It
is the ‘tops’, however, which feature in the sole record of its use for this pur-
pose which has been encountered: in Buckinghamshire, boiled in ale.58
76 Thalictrum minus
Thalictrum minus Linnaeus

lesser meadow-rue
Eurasia, Alaska; introduced into New Zealand
Widespread round the coast of Scotland, especially in the calcareous coastal
grassland of its north and west known as machair, and on sand dunes, Thalic-
trum minus evidently substituted there for the more southerly T. flavum.
Known as rú beag, it was valued in the Highlands primarily as a purge,59
sometimes taken expressly to kill parasitic worms.60 James Robertson on his
1768 tour found a decoction in use by women in Skye and Mull for obstruc-
tion of the menses.61 On Colonsay, on the other hand, it was said to have
been a remedy for rheumatism.62
BERBERIDACEAE
Berberis vulgaris Linnaeus
barberry
Europe; introduced into eastern North America, New Zealand
The use of parts of the shrub Berberis vulgaris, usually a decoction of the yel-
low inner bark, as a cure for jaundice, of which there are records from all over
Britain and Ireland, has been so deeply and widely entrenched in medicine
both learned and unlearned that it is impossible to be sure how far, if at all, it
held a place in the folk tradition independent of herbals and their readers.
Though it often grows far from habitations, even sometimes in the hedges of
ancient drove roads, the best botanical opinion now is that it is doubtfully
native anywhere in the British Isles, but presumptively bird-sown in all cases
from planted stock, perhaps over a very long period. In Cornwall, where, as
in some other parts of England, it is or was well known and widespread
enough to have acquired the name ‘jaundice tree’, it used to be frequently
planted in gardens and shrubberies expressly for herbal use.63 Nevertheless,
it seems likely that in lowland areas, particularly in England, it was grown
and escaping from cultivation well back into the monastic period.
One of the very few members of the flora of the British Isles to have been
drawn on emphatically for one ailment above all others, barberry has even so
been utilised here and there for other purposes as well: in Devon as an ingre-
dient in a herbal mixture given to consumptives,64 in Lincolnshire for gall
stones65 and in the Highlands for a form of indigestion accompanied by bil-
ious vomiting known as ‘the boil’.66
PAPAVERACEAE
Papaver Linnaeus
poppy
northern temperate zone; introduced into Australasia
Not only was no distinction apparently drawn in folk medicine between the
various red-flowered Papaver species of cornfields, but the name is also used
as shorthand for opium poppy, P. somniferum Linnaeus, as well as for the
product extracted from that. All have soporific and painkilling properties,
but opium is not present in significant amounts in the European cornfield
species. Though there is archaeological evidence that P. somniferum was in
Britain at least by the Bronze Age (though under what circumstances is not
clear), it does not appear to have been grown extensively here as a commer-
cial crop until the nineteenth century and even then it was latterly widely
abandoned as unprofitable, as Asian imports rendered opium so cheap that
it could be bought over the counter for as little as twopence.
In the fen country of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, where ‘ague’ (in
part malaria) was historically endemic and still prevalent well into the Victo-
rian era, a presumably age-old dependence there on the local cornfield spe-
cies as the source of ‘poppy tea’, the standard treatment for both ‘ague’ and
rheumatism, at some point mutated into a general adoption of Papaver som-
niferum instead. A patch of the favoured white-flowered form of that became
a feature of cottage gardens throughout the region, enabling consumption to
be raised so much that for several months of the year the Fenland people
were largely drugged with opium, a fact to which their stunted physique was
commonly attributed.67 The capsules, gathered green, might be boiled in
beer as an alternative to the tea.68
Though the cornfield species are only mildly narcotic, it can probably be
safely assumed that the recorded folk uses of ‘poppies’ were mostly if not
wholly shared by them as well, either before the advent of Papaver somni-
ferum or as an inferior stand-in for that or for opium itself. Any or all, but lat-
terly the cultivated plant in particular, appear to have been drawn on as a
means of calming babies, during teething or when fevered or otherwise frac-
tious (Norfolk,69 Isle of Man,70 South Uist in the Outer Hebrides71), either by
macerating the petals in the milk for the baby’s bottle or dipping the rubber
teat in the seeds. This was doubtless a once widespread practice in rural areas
which enjoyed a recrudescence, or maybe independent development, in the
cities when opium took over there from gin, its notorious predecessor in that
function.
78 Papaver
Cornfield poppies have served as a soporific in the Isle of Man72 and the
Scottish Lowlands.73 However, they feature in the folk records much more
often in their painkilling role. In Britain this has included treatment of tooth-
ache in Sussex,74 earache in Somerset75 and neuralgia in Montgomeryshire.76
In Norfolk77 wild poppies (Papaver rhoeas Linnaeus) have been known as
‘headache flowers’, the seeds being chewed there as a hangover cure. Poppies
have been widely believed in Britain to be a cause of headaches as well. In
Essex78 fomentations have been applied to swollen glands and other inflam-
mations, while in Dorset79 the plants have been the source of an eye lotion.
Ireland’s array of these subsidiary uses has been strikingly similar:
toothache in Cavan,80 Westmeath81 and Co. Dublin,82 earache in Tipperary,83
neuralgia in Wicklow,84 an ingredient in a mixture specifically for mumps in
Tipperary85 and a role as an eye lotion in ‘Ulster’.86 Only in the records for
Wicklow have applications additional to those been uncovered: a cure for
warts87 and a syrup for coughs.88
Glaucium flavum Crantz

yellow horned-poppy
western and southern Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa;
All parts of Glaucium flavum, like Chelidonium majus, exude a corrosive latex,
which has predictably attracted some folk usage.Despite its wide distribution
on coastal shingle, however, all but one of the records are from south-western
England.The exception is Cumbria,89 where the leaves were made into a poul-
tice for bruises. In Dorset and Hampshire,90 however, it was the root that was
used for that purpose,whence its local names,probablyAnglo-Saxon in origin,
‘squat’(a bruise in West Country dialect) or‘squatmore’.91 In the Isles of Scilly,
however, the root had quite a different reputation: for the removal of pains in
the breast, stomach and intestines as well as for disorders of the lungs. It was
used to that end either as an emetic,in which case the root was scraped or sliced
upwards, or as a purge, in which case the slicing had to be downwards.92
Chelidonium majus Linnaeus

greater celandine
Europe, north Asia; introduced into North America, New Zealand
Chelidonium majus has no claim to native status in the British Isles and is in
fact normally found lingering in hedges in the vicinity of houses, so only
marginally even ranks as a member of the wild flora; but it has been in Britain
certainly since Roman times (as attested by finds in excavations in Dorset
and Monmouthshire) and become so widely incorporated into folk use that
it would be invidious to exclude it from mention.
Like other herbs with a highly corrosive latex, this plant has traditionally
been used for warts above all (as recommended in several herbals and as
reflected in various vernacular names) and very widely for corns, as in Som-
Chelidonium majus,
greater celandine
(Fuchs 1543, fig. 496)
80 Chelidonium majus
erset93 and Gloucestershire.94 As an astringent it has found favour for remov-

ing wrinkles (East Riding of Yorkshire95) and suntan and freckles (unlocal-
ised).96 More drastic has been its role as an acrid spring purgative and kidney
stimulant in the Isle of Man97 and for treating cancer of the liver in Suf-
folk98—it was formerly much used for cancer in Russia. In Classical medicine,
however, the main use of the latex seems to have been as an eye ointment, in
deference to a myth that female swallows restored the sight of their young
with it (whence the subsidiary name ‘swallow-wort’). In unskilled hands that
must always have been most dangerous, yet records from areas as widely sep-
arate as Sutherland,99 Norfolk100 and especially Devon101 and Cornwall102
(whence ‘kenning herb’ there) point to a once-frequent adherence to that
belief; in Glamorgan, indeed, it has even been used for removing a cataract
(one Welsh name of the plant is llym llygaid, ‘sharp eyes’).103 William Wither-
ing noted that, when diluted with milk, the juice does indeed consume the
white opaque spots on the eye familiarly known as kennings and opined,
‘there is no doubt but a medicine of such activity will one day be converted to
more important purposes.’104
The combination of yellow flowers and yellow juice has predictably
brought greater celandine some currency as a jaundice cure as well. Though
less popular than barberry (Berberis vulgaris), it has seemingly had quite a fol-
lowing for that even so, with records from the Isle of Wight,105 Norfolk106
and Berwickshire107 as far as Britain is concerned.
Ireland can match that last use with records from Cavan,108 Westmeath109
and Cork.110 In Westmeath it has additionally been used for eczema,111 but
otherwise applications of the plant feature noticeably more scantily than in
Britain, probably reflecting a much slighter presence historically in that other
island.
FUMARIACEAE
Fumaria Linnaeus
fumitory
temperate Asia, North Africa, Macaronesia; introduced into North
and South America, Australasia
Fumaria was an astringent mainly in use for cosmetic purposes. Made into an
infusion and mixed with milk and/or water, it had a high reputation in cer-
tain English country areas,112 including Wiltshire,113 Norfolk114 and Suf-
folk,115 for clearing the complexion of blemishes and cleansing the skin. A
quite different application comes from far-off Orkney, where the juice was
given to children to rid them of intestinal worms.116
Ireland has had at least one different use for the plant, too: in Cavan it was
burnt and the smoke inhaled as a cure for stomach trouble.117 Both the scien-
tific and vernacular names are derived from fumus, the Latin word for smoke,
so that is presumably an ancient practice, possibly even well pre-Classical.
Notes
1. for instance, Cameron 32. IFC S 672: 260
2. McNeill 33. IFC S 589: 15, 62
3. IFC S 636: 191 34. IFC S 484: 41–2
4. IFC S 524: 11 35. Farrelly MS
5. Beith 36. Logan, 12
6. IFC S 483: 329, 369 37. Ó hEithir
7. McNeill 38. Barbour
8. for references, see under 39. IFC S 60: 302
Potamogeton 40. Vickery MSS
9. Maloney 41. IFC S 903: 448
10. Withering 1787–92, 321 42. Kermode MS
11. Sargent 43. Pennant 1776, ii, 43
12. IFC S 710: 49 44. Johnston 1853, 28 footnote
13. IFC S 250: 35 45. Martin, 225
14. Parkinson, 216 46. McNeill
15. Wiltshire Family History Society 47. Macpherson MS
Journal, 46 (1992), 6 48. Vickery MSS
16. Pratt 1857, 33 49. Beith
17. Henderson & Dickson, 45 50. McNeill
18. Wood-Martin, 200 51. CECTL MSS
19. Gregory, 12 52. Freethy, 80
20. IFC S 968: 225; 959: 77; Logan, 51; 53. Pratt 1850–7
Maloney 54. Hatfield, 43
21. Friend 1883–4, ii, 368 55. Parkinson, 501
22. Tongue 56. Hart 1898
23. A. Allen, 178 57. IFC S 1075: 139
24. Vickery MSS 58. Henslow
25. Carmichael, ii, 280 59. MacFarlane
26. PLNN, no. 26 (1992), 118 60. Beith
27. Vickery 1995 61. Henderson & Dickson, 80, 93
28. Johnston 1853, 27 62. McNeill
29. Carmichael, ii, 280 63. Davey, 17
30. Polwhele 1816, ii, 607; Davey, 10, 23 64. Lafont, 6, 70
31. Bardswell 65. Woodruffe-Peacock
82 Notes
66. Beith 92. Borlase 1756; Notes and Queries,

67. Porter 1974, 52 10 (1854), 181
68. Newman 1945 93. Tongue
69. Hatfield, 40, 55, appendix 94. Palmer 1994, 122
70. Fargher 95. Vickery MSS
71. Beith 96. Tynan & Maitland
72. Morrison 97. Quayle, 69
73. Simpson, 159 98. Taylor 1929, 118
74. A. Allen, 43 99. Henderson & Dickson, 37
75. Tongue 100. Haggard
76. Evans 1940 101. Briggs 1872, 1880; Lafont
77. Hatfield, 40, 61 102. Davey, 23
78. Macpherson MS 103. Williams MS
79. Dacombe 104. Withering 1878–92, 316
80. Maloney 105. Broomfield, 26
81. IFC S 736: 22, 24 106. Taylor 1929, 119
82. IFC S 788: 145 107. Johnston 1853, 31
83. IFC S 571: 208 108. Maloney
84. McClafferty 109. IFC S 736: 136
85. IFC S 571: 208 110. IFC S 385: 55
86. St Clair, 79 111. IFC S 736: 136
87. IFC S 571: 208 112. Black, 230; Quelch, 89
88. IFC S 512: 523 113. Dartnell & Goddard, 55
89. Freethy, 45 114. de Castre
90. John Aubrey, in litt. to John Ray, 115. Withering 1787–92, 752
5 Aug. 1691 (Lankester, 238) 116. Spence
91. Grigson 117. Maloney
CHAPTER 6
Elms to Docks
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Urticales (Ulma-

ceae, elms; Cannabaceae, hemp and hop; Urticaceae, nettles), Myricales
(Myricaceae, bog-myrtles), Fagales (Fagaceae, beeches and oaks; Betulaceae,
birches), Caryophyllales (Aizoaceae, dew-plants; Chenopodiaceae, goose-
foots; Portulacaceae, blinks; Caryophyllaceae, pinks), Polygonales (Polygona-
ceae, knotweeds) and Plumbaginales (Plumbaginaceae, thrifts) are included
in this chapter.
ULMACEAE
Ulmus glabra Hudson
wych elm
Europe, northern and western Asia; introduced into North
America
As the records for ‘elm’ remedies are almost exclusively Irish, it is probably
safe to assume that it is to Ulmus glabra that they mainly and perhaps even
wholly relate. For this is the only species accepted as indigenous in Ireland,
where pollen evidence suggests that it was extremely widespread at earlier
periods.
The commonest use appears to have been for scalds and burns. Caleb
Threlkeld in 1726 identified the ‘common elm’ as the source of a slimy decoc-
tion of the inner bark which he found country people in the north of Ire-
land applying as a salve.1 It was still in currency for that purpose, or remem-
bered as such, in the 1930s in a band of counties stretching from Leitrim to
Wexford. The mucilage has also been valued since Classical times for skin
83
84 Ulmus glabra
troubles in general; this, too, was a use formerly widespread in rural Ireland2
which survived till more recently at least in Tipperary.3 Like that of comfrey
(Symphytum officinale) and royal fern (Osmunda regalis), the mucilage was
also found effective for easing swellings and so had a reputation for curing
sprains in Offaly4 and Co. Dublin5 as well as across the sea in Galloway.6 The
leaves were sometimes employed instead of the bark for swellings and inflam-
mation.7 Other, unrelated uses recorded have been to staunch bleeding in
Cavan,8 to cure jaundice in Kilkenny9 and to counteract ‘evils’ (ulcers, cancer
and the like) in Limerick.10
By contrast, the tree seems to have hardly featured at all in English folk
medicine. Apart from an elm wood tea drunk for eczema in Hampshire,11
the sole record traced is from the valley of the Upper Thames in Wiltshire,
where for a cold or sore throat villagers stripped off the inner bark from young
wands and either chewed that raw or boiled it down into a jelly eaten cold.12
CANNABACEAE
Humulus lupulus Linnaeus
hop
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Opinions differ on whether Humulus lupulus is anywhere indigenous in the
British Isles, but its pollen has been reported from deposits of prehistoric date,
and though readily running into wild habitats from cultivation, it may be a
genuine relic in fenny areas. Even so it must be considered doubtful whether
any of the recorded folk uses of the plant antedate its cultivation as a crop.
Almost all those records are Irish. Apparently, Ireland alone has appreci-
ated the alleged sedative effect of one or more of the plant’s constituents. It
has been used in Co. Dublin13 and Clare14 for calming the nerves and in Lim-
erick as an antidote to insomnia.15
More intriguing is a practice reported from an unidentified part of Eng-
land (the New Forest?): cleansing and curing ulcers and obstinate sores by
means of a bread poultice on to which hops have been thickly sprinkled.16
URTICACEAE
Urtica dioica Linnaeus
common nettle
temperate regions worldwide
  Elms to Docks 85
Urtica urens Linnaeus

small nettle
Eurasia, North Africa; intro-
duced into other temperate
regions
With the possible exception of dande-
lions, elder and docks, no plants
have featured so extensively in folk
medicine in the British Isles as nettles.
Although there are one or two records
for the more vicious small nettle,
Urtica urens, almost always it
and U. dioica have not been dis-
criminated and they are accord-
ingly treated here together.
Of a total of 311 localised records,
almost two-thirds (194) are accounted for
by use as a spring tonic to cleanse the blood
of impurities (and thus of boils, pimples,
sores of various kinds and clouded eyes).
‘Three nettles in May keeps all diseases
away’, at least for the rest of the year, was
once a widely quoted rhyme, firmly
believed in. Some of the 76 records for
rashes perhaps really belong in that cate-
gory, too, but no fewer than 60 of these are rep-
resented by the practice of drinking nettle tea
to help clear measles rash, which is apparently
peculiar to Ireland and there largely restricted to
the border counties and the north-western
quadrant.
The two other major uses are as a counter-
irritant for rheumatic complaints (48 records),
which dates back at least to Roman times, and
for colds, coughs and lung trouble (29
records, 9 of them for consumption specif-
ically). These exhibit no marked geograph- Urtica dioica, common nettle
ical patterns in their occurrence. (Brunfels 1530, p. 151)
86 Urtica
Of the numerous ailments which crop up in the records much less com-
monly, two clearly owe their presence to the plant’s astringent effect: bleed-
ing, especially from the nose, and stomach upsets and diarrhoea (7 and 4
records, respectively). Three records of use as a skin-cleansing cosmetic
belong here, too. Conviction that the plants are rich in iron have led to their
being eaten for anaemia (5 records), while valuing of them for reducing
swellings (7 records) has produced a particular targeting of mumps. Their
claimed sedative property has also called forth a use for insomnia and ‘nerves’
(4 records), while by contrast the undoubted stimulus to the circulation
imparted by the stings has encouraged their application to paralysed limbs
and for heart trouble. Other uses for which, like these last, no more than three
or four records at most have come to light include for jaundice, headaches,
insect stings, dandruff, swollen glands (especially goitre), dropsy, ringworm,
indigestion, ear infections, high blood pressure, shingles, piles, worms,
epilepsy, cramp and corns. There is also a solitary record of the use of nettles
to keep away flies.
Parietaria judaica Linnaeus

P. diffusa Mertens & Koch
pellitory-of-the-wall
western and southern Europe, North Africa; introduced into North
(Folk credentials questionable) Though frequent in the British Isles and
accepted as indigenous on cliffs, rocks and steep hedgebanks, Parietaria
judaica also occurs widely in places associated with human activity. Both it
and the related P. officinalis Linnaeus were once much valued for their diu-
retic action and consequently applied to dropsy and gravel complaints, but it
is suspicious that the few records of folk use are virtually all, Irish17 as well as
English,18 of use in the relatively sophisticated form of inclusion in ‘cock-
tails’ with various other standard diuretic herbs. That it is really a relic of the
learned tradition in its entirety seems likeliest on the evidence.
MYRICACEAE
Myrica gale Linnaeus
bog-myrtle, sweet gale, bog sally, black sallow, roid, roideog, reileòg
Eurasia, North America
Like bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), essentially a plant of the peaty areas of
the west, Myrica gale has enjoyed semi-sacred status in Irish lore and might
have been expected to have occupied an equally central place medicinally,

for lack of phytochemical efficacy does not seem to have been a barrier to
the use of other herbal species lucky enough to have acquired a magico-
religious halo. However, its role has been mainly the humdrum one of an
insecticide: either to repel fleas and other insects, especially by being put in
beds and linen (Caernarvonshire,19 Isle of Man,20 Galloway,21 Islay and
Jura22) or to destroy internal worms (most of the foregoing with the addition
of the Highlands23 and Western Isles24 more generally). Despite the lengthy
history of use for these purposes, the more recent, short-lived exploitation of
the plant commercially as a midge repellent, under the fitting brand name
Myrica, only came about through someone’s chancing to notice in Scotland
that midges avoid areas where this plant is plentiful.25
Two additional uses have been recorded in Britain: as an emetic in Caer-
narvonshire26 and, combined with other herbs, as an inhalant to clear a
blocked nose or sinuses in Cumbria.27
Ireland can add to those uses kidney trouble in Donegal,28 measles in
Sligo29 and sore throats in Kildare.30
FAGACEAE
Fagus sylvatica Linnaeus
beech
Europe
Despite the prevalence of Fagus sylvatica in southern England, only one
undoubted record of the use of this tree has been met with in the British folk
literature: an infusion of the buds taken for boils or piles in Gloucestershire.31
An Irish record from Meath32 was probably a mishearing of birch, known to
have been used there for the ailment in question.
Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Lieblein

sessile oak
Europe
Quercus robur Linnaeus

pedunculate oak
Europe, Caucasus; introduced into Canada, New Zealand
The bark, leaves and acorns of both the native oaks, Quercus petraea and Q.
robur, are rich in tannin and have therefore come into use for their astringent
property. Despite the presence of both throughout the British Isles, records of
88 Quercus robur
the trees’ use in folk medicine are predominantly Irish. These have all involved
exploitation of the bark. Collected in spring from branches four to five years
old, dried, chopped up and then boiled, this has been valued as a gargle for
sore throats in Sligo33 and Tipperary,34 to counter diarrhoea in Meath35 and
for adding to a hot bath for sore or excessively perspiring feet (Donegal,36
Meath,37 Kilkenny38) or a sprained ankle (Offaly39). Because of its drying and
constricting effect, the same decoction has found use for ulcers in Meath40
and Sligo,41 and for toothache and neuralgia in Wicklow.42 It has also been
deployed against pin-worms in Meath.43 But for ringworm a decoction of
six of the leaves has been the preferred treatment in Offaly.44
In Britain the properties of oaks have been valued noticeably more
sparsely and for fewer though broadly similar ailments: for rheumatism in
Essex,45 diarrhoea in Suffolk46 and sore throats in the Highlands.47 That Suf-
folk use, though, has been unusual in involving a powder made from the
acorns.
BETULACEAE
Betula pendula Roth
silver birch
Europe, western Asia, Morocco; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Betula pubescens Ehrhart

downy birch
Eurasia, Greenland; introduced into the rest of North America
Birch trees (Betula pendula and B. pubescens) have had two quite distinct
roles in non-veterinary folk medicine, depending on whether the sap or the
bark was utilised. The former has traditionally been prized over much of
Europe for a tonic wine made from it, a tradition reflected in records in Brit-
ain from Lincolnshire48 and the Highlands.49 At least some of these British
users have rated the wine highly as a treatment for rheumatism.50 The
method used to extract the liquid was to make an incision three to four inches
wide in the trunk and funnel the resulting ooze through a hollowed-out piece
of elder or a straw into a collecting container, limiting the procedure to just
a day or two at most in order not to tap the tree to the point of exhaustion.
Use of the bark, on the other hand, appears to have been exclusive to Ire-
land, where it was considered effective for eczema; there are records of this
from Meath,51 Cork52 and Kerry.53
Alnus glutinosa (Linnaeus) Gaertner  3

alder
Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced into eastern
North America
Because of the similarity in their names, elder (Sambucus spp.) is apparently
sometimes misrecorded as alder (Alnus glutinosa) by folklore collectors. To
judge from the ailments mentioned in such cases, two of the only four records
have resulted from confusions on this score. No such ambiguity, however, is
attached to one for the Somerset-Dorset border,54 for in that case it was
explicitly a decoction of the ripe cones that was drunk daily as a cure for gout.
And in a Norfolk instance, too, the informant was quite definite that it was the
leaves of this tree, not that of elder, which were lightly crushed and laid on
burns; the locality in question is in any case one in which alders are plentiful.55
Corylus avellana Linnaeus

hazel
Europe, Asia Minor; introduced into North America
A tree so widespread and once even much commoner (to judge from the pro-
fusion of its pollen in subfossil peats), and with a semi-sacred status besides,
might have been expected to have given rise to a wide range of medicinal
uses. Only three folk records have been encountered for Corylus avellana,
however, and those all Irish: the ash from a burnt hazel stick was put on burns
in Monaghan,56 the bark was applied to boils and cuts in Kerry57 and in that
county also some unspecified part of the tree has formed a treatment for
varicose veins.58
AIZOACEAE
Carpobrotus edulis (Linnaeus) N. E. Brown
Carpobrotus acinaciformis (Linnaeus) L. Bolus
Hottentot-fig
South Africa; introduced into warmer temperate regions
Introduced into gardens from South Africa, species of the genus Carpobrotus
have escaped and become naturalised so plentifully in the far south-west of
Britain that in that relatively brief period they have acquired not only a new
vernacular name locally (‘Sally-me-handsome’, a corruption of Mesembry-
anthemum, the generic name formerly in use) but also earned the right to be
included in this account of the utilising of the wild flora for medicinal pur-
90 Carpobrotus
poses, contemporary though that utilising is, for in the Isles of Scilly the juice
of the fleshy leaves is rubbed on to sunburn.59
CHENOPODIACEAE
Chenopodium album Linnaeus
fat-hen
Assuming Chenopodium album was the plant known there as ‘lambs’ quar-
ters’—one of the alternative vernacular names of this species—a decoction of
its stems was till relatively recently drunk in Co. Dublin for rheumatism.60
Though now treated as a weed and generally disregarded, it was formerly val-
ued as a nutritious food along with nettles and dandelions. It was, for exam-
ple, added to soup in spring in Ayrshire,61 perhaps semi-medicinally.
Undoubtedly present in the British Isles in prehistoric times, that it was ever
a native is open to question, however.
Salicornia europaea Linnaeus, in the broad sense

glasswort, marsh samphire
western Europe, North Africa, North America
Better known, like Chenopodium album, as a source of food, the gathering of
Salicornia europaea from the saltmarshes of Norfolk has extended to its use
there as an ointment for cracked hands and skin troubles more generally.62 It
has also been consumed in that county as a spring tonic.63
PORTULACACEAE
Montia fontana Linnaeus
blinks
A plant known in the Highlands as fliodh Moire, identified as ‘marsh chick-
weed’ and described as growing in pools and puddles,64 was presumably
Montia fontana. Its applications—heated and then placed on a festering hand
or foot, and as a treatment for rheumatism—are ones for which common
chickweed (Stellaria media) has been valued pre-eminently. In the Badenoch
district of Inverness-shire65 a distinction was carefully made between the
chickweed of gardens and a kind growing on the moors, the latter regarded
as superior. Only blinks, appears to fit this combination of features: it could
be mistaken for chickweed, and, unlike that, is characteristic of moorland
seepages.
CARYOPHYLLACEAE
Honckenya peploides (Linnaeus) Ehrhart
sea sandwort
Arctic and northern temperate zone
According to one of John Aubrey’s correspondents in 1695, Honckenya
peploides was one of several antiscorbutic herbs gathered in the northern
parts of Orkney.66
Stellaria media (Linnaeus) Villars

common chickweed, fliodh
cosmopolitan weed
Perhaps because of their very commonness as weeds and therefore ready
availability, Stellaria media and groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) are alike in hav-
ing been employed for an impressive diversity of ailments, many of them the
same ones. Chickweed, though, is remarkable for the very limited number of
ways in which it has been applied. By far the commonest of those is in the
form of a mat, as a hot and relaxing poultice. The reason why that so pre-
dominates is that it has been used on a quite disproportionately extensive
scale for just one particular purpose: to reduce swellings, including those of
sprains and mumps, and other forms of inflammation. The heavy concen-
tration on that class of ailments, moreover, has been almost peculiar to Ire-
land, thus distorting matters even further. Out of sixty-eight records of use
for that purpose in the British Isles as a whole, the only ones that are other
than Irish are from Gloucestershire,67 Berwickshire68 and Orkney.69
In Britain, and England in particular, it is boils, abscesses and ulcers,
rather, to which chickweed has been applied as a poultice: in Dorset,70 Som-
erset,71 Gloucestershire,72 Norfolk73 and the Highlands.74 In Suffolk75 ‘sore
legs’ (leg ulcers?) have been similarly treated, and in the Isle of Man,76 bruises.
But whereas in Sussex77 poulticing has been employed for rheumatism, in
Inverness-shire78 that and stiff joints, as also chilblains and rashes, have
received the plant’s benefits in the form of an ointment, while for sore eyes in
Devon79 and Somerset,80 and eczema in Yorkshire,81 that has been replaced in
turn by a lotion. In Skye,82 to procure sleep after a fever, the feet and knees
were bathed with a chickweed wash preparatory to a warm poultice being
placed on the neck and between the shoulders. A tea, though, has been found
a sufficient remedy for insomnia in the Highlands,83 and a rheumatism cure
in Essex84 has taken that form, too, while for ‘water problems’ in Durham85
and for slimming in the Highlands86 a variation on that has been to drink a
92 Stellaria media
decoction of the plant. A yet further approach is to eat the boiled leaves: to
cleanse the system and improve the complexion in Northumberland87 and,
mixed with those of comfrey (Symphytum officinale), as a tonic and a treat-
ment for diabetes in Liverpool.88
Though Ireland stands so sharply apart from Britain in that compara-
tively enormous use, especially in the border counties, of chickweed poultices
for treating swellings and inflammation, a wide variety of subsidiary appli-
cations has occurred in both countries, some of them the same ones and
employed to a similar extent. Seemingly special to Ireland, though, has been
the treating of six afflictions not found mentioned in the records from Brit-
ain: sores (Louth,89 Kildare,90 Galway,91 Kilkenny92), coughs and sore throats
(Mayo,93 the Aran Islands94 and, mixed with elecampane, Limerick95), cuts
(Offaly,96 Tipperary97), jaundice (Galway98), burns (Donegal99) and colic
(Cork100).
Stellaria holostea Linnaeus

greater stitchwort
Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa; introduced into North
America, New Zealand
Stellaria holostea has traditionally had the reputation of relieving stitches and
other muscular pains, whence the vernacular name. As recently as the 1930s,
children in Somerset chewed the flowers for that purpose.101 Under a Welsh
name translating as ‘herb for shingles’ it is still in use in Caernarvonshire for
that in a mixture with wood sage and navelwort.102 But whether tùrsairean,
a herb valued in the Highlands for a swollen breast, has correctly been iden-
tified as ‘stitchwort’103 must be considered doubtful, as that is an ailment for
which chickweed (S. media) has pre-eminently been used.
In Ireland the same chewing of the flowers for stitches has been noted, and
in the south of that country it has also been boiled down with sugar candy as
a remedy for whooping cough under a name recorded as thang-a-naun.104
Spergula arvensis Linnaeus

corn spurrey
almost cosmopolitan weed
The only certain record of Spergula arvensis in folk medicine is John Parkin-
son’s generalised 1640 statement:‘the country people in divers places say that
they have had good experience’ of speedily healing a cut by bruising the plant
and then laying it on.105 It is odd that there have been no later reports by
folklorists of this use. One of the plant’s vernacular names in Ulster is
grangore or glengore, which, being Scots for syphilis, may imply a one-time
venereal reputation.106
Lychnis flos-cuculi Linnaeus

ragged-robin
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America, New Zealand
(Error suspected) As ragged-robin is also one of the vernacular names of red
campion (Silene dioica), which is associated with snakes in western Wales
folk beliefs to the extent that it bears a name, blodwyn neidr, ‘snake flower’ in
Welsh,107 the solitary record of Lychnis flos-cuculi in the folk medicine liter-
ature, an ointment made from it used for snakebites in Cardiganshire,108 may
probably safely be presumed to belong to that.
Agrostemma githago Linnaeus

corncockle
most temperate regions worldwide
(Error suspected) Two Wicklow records109 of Agrostemma githago are surely
misattributions of ‘cockle’, a common alternative name of burdock (Arctium).
The species does not appear to have had a place in folk medicine in the British
Isles.
Silene otites (Linnaeus) Wibel

Spanish catchfly
southern and central Europe, western Asia
(Error involved) John Ray, in his Historia Plantarum in 1695 (i, 1895), was
misled (through being sent a specimen of the wrong plant) into identifying as
Silene otites a herb known on Newmarket Heath in Suffolk as‘star of the earth’
and renowned there at that period for curing the bites of mad dogs,as reported
to him by Hans Sloane in 1687.110 It was later shown conclusively that the plant
with this reputation was in fact buck’s-horn plantain (Plantago coronopus).111
Silene dioica (Linnaeus) Clairville

Lychnis dioica Linnaeus
red campion
Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced into North
Despite its general distribution throughout much of the British Isles, the only
certain records traced of Silene dioica in folk medicine are exclusively south-
ern English: the corrosive juice has been used for warts in Sussex,112 for corns
in Gloucestershire113 and for both of those purposes in Somerset.114 An oint-
94 Silene dioica
ment made for snakebites used in Cardiganshire, however, was probably

made from this and not ragged-robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi).
POLYGONACEAE
Persicaria bistorta (Linnaeus) Sampaio
bistort
northern and central Europe, mountains of southern Europe,
south-western and central Asia
With a root rich in tannin and a powerful astringent, Persicaria bistorta might
have been expected to feature in folk medicine at least as widely as its popu-
larity for soup and spring puddings, though the latter also had a reputation
for purifying the blood.115 In Cumbria a tea made from it has been recorded
as a headache cure116 and it has also been used there as a vermicide.117 In the
Highlands it was valued for urinary complaints118 and there is an unlocalised
record (‘in country places’) of its use for toothache.119 That is all. But what is
the explanation of its subsequent discovery in cemeteries in both urban and
rural areas in various parts of England and Scotland? Was it introduced into
these to ensure a supply for the puddings connected with Easter, or because
of some obscure medicinal belief, such as the one recorded in some of the six-
teenth-century herbals, that it could aid conception?
Persicaria maculosa Gray

Polygonum persicaria Linnaeus
redshank
northern temperate zone; introduced into Australasia
Persicaria lapathifolia (Linnaeus) Gray

pale persicaria
northern temperate zone, Australia; introduced into North America
Oddly, the records for the folk use of the common weeds Persicaria maculosa
and P. lapathifolia are exclusively Irish. A plant which from the verbal descrip-
tion is clearly one or the other has been used in Limerick to stop bleeding—
on the strength of a belief that the blotch on the leaves is a drop of Christ’s
blood.120 The name bloodweed has been recorded in Donegal as borne by a
plant identified botanically as P. lapathifolia,121 which suggests the same usage
there as well; but whether this was also the ‘bloodweed’ similarly used in Tip-
perary122 is uncertain, as that name has been given to a range of herbs alleg-
edly with styptic properties. The joints of one or the other have also been
recorded from an unspecific part of Ireland as eaten for a malady known as
brios bronn,123 perhaps the same as the briose brún, a name for a lameness in
cattle apparently resulting from phosphorus deficiency.
Persicaria hydropiper (Linnaeus) Spach

water pepper
northern temperate zone, Australia; introduced into New Zealand
(Folk credentials questionable) The claim of Persicaria hydropiper to a place
in the folk medicine repertory rests almost entirely on the assertion of just
one author124 whose data are unlocalised but appear to be based on first-
hand information. According to this source,‘country people’ (in Kent?) used
the leaves for toothache; a stimulant plaster made from it also substituted for
mustard poultices, while yet another practice was to lay the leaves on the skin
to remove the blackness of bruises. It is possible, though, that most if not all
these were derived from the learned tradition, in which the equating of this
species with the hudropeperi of Dioscorides led to its being prescribed for a
wide variety of ailments. The same could be said of Borlase’s remark in his
Natural History of Cornwall that ‘arsesmart’ (a widely used name for this plant
in south-western England), when distilled ‘has been found better for gravelly
complaints than a great variety of drugs taken . . . to little purpose.’125
Polygonum aviculare Linnaeus, in the broad sense

knotgrass
Eurasia, North Africa, North America; introduced into South
There is just one folk record of the use of the common plant Polygonum avic-
ulare: in Somerset to staunch a nosebleed by rubbing it into the nostrils.126 Its
astringency gave it a reputation among the ancient writers as a styptic, but the
equal availability for such purposes of the more readily obtained and more
easily recognised yarrow (Achillea millefolium) doubtless caused the latter to
be the normal stand-by.
Rumex acetosa Linnaeus

common sorrel, cuckoo sorrel, sour-dock, cow sorrel, red sorrel
Europe, temperate Asia, North America; introduced into New Zealand
There is considerable confusion between Rumex acetosa and wood-sorrel
(Oxalis acetosella) in the folk records, especially in Ireland; but in at least one
instance127 the two are carefully distinguished by separate names and it would
seem that ‘cuckoo sorrel’ normally denotes R. acetosa (which of the two is
the much more often seen bearing so-called ‘cuckoo spit’, the excretion of
Hemiptera insect species).
96 Rumex acetosa
As with nettles (Urtica) and burdock (Arctium), one of the functions of

sorrel has been to cleanse the blood of impurities and thereby clear up spots.
To that end the juice has been drunk in
the Isle of Man128 and Berwick-
shire.129 Rather similarly, the leaves
have been eaten as a cure for scurvy
in the Isle of Man,130 Orkney131 and
Shetland132—and the Faeroe Islands,133 too, a
distribution thus seemingly Viking in origin. As a cooling
herb the plant served in the Highlands as a digestive134
and an appetiser135; its leaves were eaten by consump-
tives and infusions drunk by the fevered136; it has also
enjoyed a reputation there for curing minor wounds and
bruises.137 A more esoteric reason for eating the leaves
in Cumbria has been the belief that this relieved
epilepsy.138 The Isle of Man seems to have been alone in
making use of the roots, to stimulate the kidneys.139
Ireland has shared most of these applications. It
has been drunk to cleanse the system in Wicklow140
and Carlow,141 to help the kidneys and cool fevers in
Clare142 and, mixed with thistle tops and plantain
heads, to cure consumption in Kildare143; similarly, the
leaves have healed sores and bruises in Sligo144 and Lim-
erick145 and staunched bleeding in Wicklow146 and
Cavan.147 Other uses, though, emerge only from
the Irish records. The leaves, in some cases crum-
bled and boiled first, have served in six of the
south-eastern counties to poultice boils,
septic sores and the pustules of chicken-
pox. Much more locally, the plant has
been employed for jaundice and sore
throat in Cavan,148 cancer in ‘Ulster’,149
burns in Meath,150 warts in Water-
ford,151 heart trouble in Tipperary
(mixed with dandelions, Taraxacum)152
Rumex acetosa, common sorrel and anaemia in some part of the coun-
(Fuchs 1543, fig. 262) try unidentified.153
Rumex hydrolapathum Hudson

water dock
western and southern Europe
With its very astringent roots, Rumex hydrolapathum formerly had a reputa-
tion as a cure for scurvy, especially when the gums had become spongy and
black. In one district in Londonderry, where it grew in quantity, country doc-
tors would come to gather it.154 On the river Erne in adjoining Donegal, on
the other hand, it was rated ‘a grand blood purifier, as good as bogbean and
burdock’.155
Those two Irish records stand on the authority of able botanists in each
case, but elsewhere there may have been confusion with butterbur (Petasites
hybridus), which is similarly valued for its roots and has been known as ‘water
docken’ in Cumberland.156 Perhaps it was that, and not Rumex hydrolap-
athum, whose root juice was drunk for colds and asthma in Cavan157 (a
known use of butterbur) or employed for cleaning the teeth in the High-
lands, where R. hydrolapathum is very rare?158 On the other hand, perhaps R.
hydrolapathum was the ‘bloodwort’, a name borne by the plant in Cheshire,159
whose roots were boiled in Wicklow and the liquid rubbed on parts pained by
rheumatism and on mouth ulcers?160
Rumex crispus Linnaeus

curled dock
Europe, Africa; introduced into other continents
In Ireland, as ‘yellow dock’, one of its commoner alternative names, Rumex
crispus is on record in folk use from Sligo,161 Cavan162 and Wexford.163 In the
last of these,the juice was squeezed out of the leaves and put on to a cloth which
was then tied round a stone-bruise. In Cavan a decoction of the roots (which
have been proved to have purgative properties) was drunk for constipation
and liver trouble, and in Sligo for liver trouble, skin diseases and rheumatism.
Rumex conglomeratus Murray

clustered dock
Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa; introduced into North America
A decoction of a plant distinguished as ‘narrow-leaved dock’, presumably
either Rumex conglomeratus or R. crispus, is on record from one village in
Norfolk as a claimed cancer cure. The growth was steeped in the liquid and
then poulticed.164
98 Rumex obtusifolius
Rumex obtusifolius Linnaeus

broad-leaved dock
western and central Europe; introduced into North America,
Australasia
Probably the most general practice in all of folk medicine, occurring through-
out the British Isles, is rubbing a dock leaf on to the skin to ease a sting. For
such a purpose, the wide leaves of Rumex obtusifolius most obviously sug-
gest themselves, though they may be merely a quick and easy stand-in for the
more onerous but more certainly efficient practice of poulticing the sting
with the pulped root, sometimes every few hours, as in the Badenoch dis-
trict of Inverness-shire.165 In the case of most other uses, however, there has
probably been no consistent distinction drawn between it and the no less
common and generally distributed R. crispus; ‘dock’ or (less often) ‘common
dock’ may refer to either or both.
‘Dock’ in this more general sense has been used for all the ailments
appearing in records of a particular species, but predictably to a greater
extent. The complaints to emerge from the records with the next highest inci-
dence after stings are burns and scalds, though only if the British Isles are
taken as a whole—the records traced from Britain alone are restricted just to
Cornwall,166 Pembrokeshire167 and South Uist in the Outer Hebrides168 (in
other words the westernmost fringe). Third in popularity in Britain is apply-
ing a leaf to staunch bleeding from a cut, as a second-best to one from a plan-
tain, near-universally favoured for that. That has been recorded from Essex,169
some part of Wales,170 the Isle of Man171 and Shetland.172 That use in Essex
has involved soaking the leaf in brandy first, seemingly for lack of the petals
of Madonna lilies (Lilium candidum Linnaeus) which have been so widely
used, mixed with brandy, for the same purpose in many parts of the Eastern
Counties (or with whisky in Scotland or wine in the Mediterranean).
The leaves, roots and even seeds of docks have had many other applica-
tions besides just those. Most simply, the leaves have been used to absorb
moisture, as that of perspiring feet in the South Riding of Yorkshire,173 or
when heated to alleviate headaches in Norfolk174 or the pain of rheumatism
on the Dorset-Somerset border.175 Slightly more advanced has been the use
of either the leaves or the roots as dressings for sores of a variety of kinds,
ranging from stone-bruises on the arms of Oxfordshire quarrymen176 to
chapped thighs in Norfolk177 and galled feet in Herefordshire178 and Suf-
folk.179 In Essex, one step further, the seeds have been boiled for drawing the
pus from a wound or a boil.180 Docks have also been popular for rashes, but
whereas in Somerset181 it has been deemed sufficient just to rub a leaf on one,
elsewhere drinking an infusion made from the roots has been the preferred
cure for those. In Merseyside,182 for example, erysipelas has been treated with
this infusion, and in Cornwall183 it has been mixed with bramble juice and,
with a suitable incantation, poured on the part of the body afflicted with
shingles. Similarly, whereas in Hampshire184 it has been the leaves that, mixed
with lard, have produced an ointment for piles, elsewhere drinking a liquid
processed from the roots has been regarded as a curative tonic: for cleansing
the blood in Essex,185 Oxfordshire186 and Ayrshire187 and for keeping scurvy
away in the Highlands.188 Still further uses of the plants have been for warts
in Norfolk189 and for obesity as well as anaemia in the Isle of Man.190
Ireland has not lagged behind in appreciating this range of virtues. Appar-
ently peculiar to it has been the drinking of a decoction of the seeds for
coughs of all kinds, colds and bronchitis. Records of this are virtually con-
fined to the border counties (if veterinary uses for those purposes are added
in, seven of them are represented in all). Similarly not met with in the records
for Britain is the drinking of a decoction of the roots for liver trouble
(Cavan,191 Meath192) and jaundice (Monaghan,193 Limerick194), and, in Wex-
ford,195 bathing cancerous sores in that liquid. Further ailments for which
docks seem to have been employed in Ireland alone are heart trouble in
Cavan196 and corns in Limerick.197 On the other hand, staunching bleeding
with a leaf, though recorded from five widely separated counties (in one of
them in combination with the dung of asses198) appears scarcely more wide-
spread than the even more scattered records suggest that it has been in Brit-
ain. The two countries are also alike in the small use made of the leaves for
alleviating rheumatism (Louth,199 Westmeath200) or headaches (Kildare201).
In some places, particular potency has been ascribed to the whitish, slimy
sheath at the base of an unfurling leaf. In Donegal202 this was selected for
poulticing ringworm, in Longford203 for rubbing on a sting and elsewhere
in Ireland204 has constituted a remedy for ‘a sore mouth’ (chapped lips?). A
marginal echo of the belief in Britain was the binding of the sheath over
wounds in Shetland.205
Rumex palustris Smith

marsh dock
Europe, temperate Asia
There is a record from the marshland area of Norfolk of the use of the roots
of a type of dock expressly named ‘marsh dock’, i.e. Rumex palustris (and
100 Rumex palustris
‘with their feet in the water’) as recently as the 1940s for bathing rashes, sun-
burn and the like.206
PLUMBAGINACEAE
Armeria maritima (Miller) Willdenow
thrift, sea pink
northern hemisphere; introduced into New Zealand
Though Armeria maritima is a common plant round most of the coasts of the
British Isles, the only records of its use in folk medicine seem to be confined
to the Orkney Islands and to South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. In the former,
the thick, tuberous roots were sliced and boiled in sweet milk to produce a
drink known as ‘Arby’, highly prized up to c. 1700 as a remedy for tuberculo-
sis.207 John Aubrey was also told by a medical correspondent that a cure for
the ague in Orkney included drinking an infusion in which this plant was
one of several herbal ingredients.208 In South Uist, a sailor’s remedy for a
hangover was to boil a bunch of these plants complete with their roots and
drink the liquid slowly when cooled.209 The roots at least evidently contain a
compound which induces heavy sweating.
Notes
1. Threlkeld 21. Mactaggart, 217
2. Purdon 22. Lightfoot, ii, 614; Vickery 1995
3. IFC S 530: 51, 121 23. Johnson 1862
4. IFC S 811: 64 24. Goodrich-Freer, 206; Shaw, 50;
5. IFC S 787: 368 Henderson & Dickson, 80; McNeill
6. Mactaggart, 18 25. Independent, 5 Aug. 1994
7. Ó Súilleabháin, 312 26. Pennant 1784, ii, 155
8. Maloney 27. Freethy, 125
9. IFC S 850: 56 28. McGlinchey, 84
10. IFC S 512: 445 29. IFC S 171: 46
11. Beddington & Christy, 212 30. IFC S 771: 151
12. Williams 1922, 275 31. Palmer 1994, 122
13. IFC S 787: 37 32. IFC S 689: 103
14. IFC S 617: 333 33. IFC S 157: 314
15. IFC S 484: 41–2 34. IFC S 571: 239
16. Quelch, 99 35. IFC S 710: 48
17. Moore MS; Logan, 38 36. McGlinchey, 84
18. Vickery MSS (Co. Durham) 37. Farrelly MS
19. Pennant 1784, ii, 155 38. IFC S 850: 166
20. Paton, 46 39. IFC S 811: 65
40. Farrelly MS 83. Beith

41. IFC S 157: 314 84. Newman & Wilson
42. McClafferty 85. Vickery MSS
43. Farrelly MS 86. Beith
44. IFC S 800: 219 87. Hutchinson
45. Hatfield, 46 88. Hatfield MS
46. Emerson, 91; Taylor MS (Hatfield, 89. IFC S 657: 217
36); Jobson 1959, 144 90. IFC S 771: 170
47. Beith 91. IFC S 22: 402
48. Woodruffe-Peacock 92. IFC S 850: 78
49. Beith; A. Allen 93. IFC S 138: 465
50. PLNN, no. 37 (1994), 177 94. Ó hEithir
51. IFC S 710: 47 95. IFC S 521: 150
52. IFC S 385: 55 96. IFC S 812: 440
53. IFC S 475: 207 97. IFC S 550: 278
54. PLNN, no. 14 (1990), 63 98. IFC S 60: 302
55. Hatfield, 23 99. IFC S 1090: 283
56. IFC S 932: 242 100. IFC S 287: 180
57. IFC S 475: 207 101. PLNN, no. 9 (1989), 39
58. IFC S 476: 91 102. Williams MS
59. Vickery 1995 103. Carmichael, vi, 143
60. IFC S 787: 52 104. Sargent
61. Hatfield MS 105. Parkinson, 562
62. Hatfield, 48 106. PLNN, no. 23 (1992), 108
63. Hatfield, appendix 107. Vickery 1995
64. Carmichael, vi, 75, 102 108. Jones 1930, 144
65. McCutcheon 109. McClafferty
66. Buchanan-Brown, 472 110. Lankester, 194
67. Palmer 1994, 122 111. Steward 1739; Britten 1881a, 255
68. Johnston 1853 112. A. Allen
69. Spence; Leask, 78 113. Palmer 1994, 122
70. Dacombe 114. Tongue
71. Tongue 115. Vickery 1995
72. Palmer 1994, 122 116. Newman & Wilson
73. Hatfield, 33 117. Short 1746, 124
74. Beith 118. Beith
75. Jobson 1959, 144 119. Pratt 1850–7
76. Fargher 120. IFC S 498: 313
77. Arthur, 45 121. Hart 1898
78. Vickery 1995 122. IFC S 572: 92
79. Wright, 243 123. Ó Súilleabháin, 310
80. Tongue 124. Pratt 1850–7
81. PlantLife (Autumn 1997), 21 125. Borlase 1758, 229
82. Martin, 223 126. Tongue
102 Notes
127. IFC S 519: 115 169. Hatfield, 32

128. Quayle, 69 170. Hatfield MS
129. Vickery MSS 171. Vickery 1995
130. Fargher 172. Jamieson
131. Buchanan-Brown, 472 173. CECTL MSS
132. Monteith, 77 174. Hatfield, 39
133. Jóhansen 175. Vickery MSS
134. Carmichael, 123 176. ‘E.C.’
135. Beith 177. Hatfield, 48
136. Beith 178. Jones-Baker, 101
137. Beith 179. Jobson 1959, 144
138. Newman & Wilson 180. Hatfield, 32
139. Fargher 181. Tongue
140. Ó Cléirigh 182. PLNN, no. 56 (1998), 269
141. IFC S 904: 474 183. Courtney, 154
142. IFC S 617: 335 184. Mabey, 111
143. IFC S 780: 243 185. Hatfield, 32
144. IFC S 157: 174 186. ‘E.C.’
145. IFC S 489: 169 187. Hatfield MS
146. IFC S 920: 74 188. Beith
147. Maloney 189. PLNN, no. 49 (1997), 239
148. Maloney 190. Quayle, 68
149. Egan 191. Maloney
150. IFC S 710: 42 192. IFC S 710: 49
151. IFC S 655: 266 193. IFC S 932: 239, 312
152. IFC S 550: 280 194. IFC S 482: 344
153. Ó Súilleabháin, 309 195. IFC S 897: 236
154. Moore MS 196. Maloney
155. Hart 1898, 388 197. IFC S 488: 286
156. Britten & Holland 198. IFC S 269: 105
157. Maloney 199. IFC S 657: 217
158. Beith 200. IFC S 736: 137
161. IFC S 157: 314 203. PLNN, no. 22 (1991), 101
162. Maloney 204. Ó Súilleabháin, 314
163. IFC S 897: 81 205. Jamieson
164. Taylor 1929, 118 206. Hatfield, 50
165. McCutcheon 207. Wallace; Neill, 59 footnote
166. Hunt, 413 208. Buchanan-Brown, 472
167. Vickery MSS 209. Shaw, 50
168. Shaw, 48
CHAPTER 7
St John’s-worts to
Primulas
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Theales (Clusi-

aceae, St John’s-worts), Malvales (Tiliaceae, lime trees; Malvaceae, mallows),
Nepenthales (Droseraceae, sundews), Violales (Cistaceae, rock-roses; Viola-
ceae, violets; Cucurbitaceae, squashes), Salicales (Salicaceae, willows and
poplars), Capparales (Brassicaceae, cresses), Ericales (Empetraceae, crow-
berries; Ericaceae, heaths) and Primulales (Primulaceae, primroses) are
included in this chapter.
CLUSIACEAE
Hypericum androsaemum Linnaeus
tutsan
western and southern Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa;
introduced into New Zealand
Medieval herbalists identified Hypericum androsaemum with the agnus cas-
tus of Pliny and it acquired its French-derived vernacular name tutsan (tout-
saine, ‘all-heal’) in tribute to its supposed medicinal virtues. It is therefore
hard to be sure whether its few appearances in the folk repertory are alto-
gether innocent of that reputation in learned physic. In Buckinghamshire
the pounded leaves were mixed with lard to produce an ointment for dress-
ing cuts and wounds,1 but in northern Wales, in both Merionethshire and
Denbighshire, the plant’s name in Welsh betrays that it was once a remedy for
carbuncles.2
The lard ointment also features in the Irish records, from parts of Ulster3
(including Londonderry 4) and from Leitrim.5 In the latter the plant went
103
104 Hypericum androsaemum
under the name ‘touch-and-heal’ and was employed ‘to prevent a mark’ more
especially.
Hypericum perforatum Linnaeus; and other species: H. tetrapterum

Fries, H. humifusum Linnaeus, H. pulchrum Linnaeus, H. elodes
Linnaeus
St John’s-wort
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Macaronesia; introduced into
Australasia, North America
In contrast to tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum), which is sufficiently differ-
ent in appearance to have probably always enjoyed a place of its own in folk
medicine, the five other species of the genus Hypericum that have been iden-
tified botanically as in use in Britain or Ireland are on record for such broadly
similar purposes as to suggest that no distinction has been made between
them. They are therefore treated here as if they constituted a single entity. It
is nevertheless worth noting that whereas ‘St John’s-wort’ over much of low-
land England is H. perforatum, in the regions to the north and west that name
is borne largely or wholly by its more slender relation, H. pulchrum. The
magico-religious status accorded to the latter has been in no way inferior and
may in those regions antedate the arrival of Christianity which was respon-
sible for the association of these plants with St John.6 Though the range of
ailments for which H. pulchrum is on record as having been used is consid-
erably smaller, that may merely reflect the much greater exposure H. perfora-
tum has had over the centuries to the learned tradition.
The principal cluster of applications that St John’s wort—in the collective
sense—has had as a folk herb has arisen from its astringency and its resulting
power to staunch bleeding from scratches and more serious wounds. Hyperi-
cum perforatum has been employed for these purposes in Somerset7 and Kent,8
and H. pulchrum in the Isle of Man9 and the Highlands (in Glen Roy under a
Gaelic name translating as bloodwort).10 In the Isle of Man, H. pulchrum has
also shared with H. humifusum a role in curing stomach upsets, the name
lusni-chiolg, ‘intestine herb’, having been applied to both alike.11 An infusion
of ‘St John’s-wort’ (species unstated) has also served as an old rustic remedy,
in an unidentified part of England, for enuresis in children or the aged.12
Curiously, the property of St John’s-wort which has lately won it much
publicity, its mild antidepressant action, features very little in the folk records
of the British Isles—seemingly only in the Isle of Man, where Hypericum pul-
chrum has been widely in use for low spirits, nervousness13 and as a general
tonic,14 and in the Highlands, where the herb was allegedly used by St
  St John’s-worts to Primulas 105
Columba, applied as a pad under the armpit or in the groin, to restore the
sanity of a young shepherd after long hours alone on the hillsides. This leg-
end gave rise to the Gaelic name translating as ‘St Columba’s oxterful’.15 The
plants’ value for this purpose was trumpeted in the herbals—John Gerard
recommended them for melancholia—and, despite the major place they have
occupied in Germany allegedly as a folk cure, it may be that this particular use
is wholly a legacy of the learned tradition and not truly a folk one at all.
Hypericum perforatum, St John’s-wort (Fuchs 1543, fig. 476)

106 Hypericum perforatum
Considering how generally disseminated an antidepressant could be

expected to have been had this property been appreciated, that the rarity of
that use in the British Isles records is real seems to be borne out by the con-
siderable range of still further purposes for which St John’s-wort has been
employed. The most salient of those is for healing fractures and sprains—in
the manner of comfrey (Symphytum officinale) and royal fern (Osmunda
regalis); Hypericum perforatum has been used for those in Somerset,16 H. pul-
chrum in the Highlands17 and, mixed with goldenrod and heath speedwell, on
Skye.18 When cut and bruised, a resin-like substance can be extracted and
has been applied as a protective coating to various afflictions as well: to burns
in Somerset,19 to bed sores in Norfolk20 and the Westmoreland Pennines.21
Probably related is its use for warts (Norfolk,22 Wiltshire23). More surprising
is the plants’ serving as an infusion for coughs or catarrh in Somerset24 and
Fife,25 and even more, in the first of those counties to make hair grow.26
In Ireland the main emphasis seems again to have been on the astrin-
gency. In 1697 John Ray was informed by a medical correspondent in Tip-
perary that under the Gaelic name birin yarragh, ‘dysentery herb’, a plant the
latter was able to identify as Hypericum elodes was employed by the native
Irish as a cure for diarrhoea. The correspondent had experimented with it
himself, boiling it in milk, and claimed to have found it a highly effective
astringent for fluxes in general.27 Hypericum elodes, specifically, has also been
recorded in use for diarrhoea in cows in Donegal,28 so it may well be that it
has a stronger potency in that direction than its British and Irish relatives. On
the other hand, the member of the genus employed to staunch bleeding from
wounds in Londonderry was identified by a botanist as another wet-ground
species, H. tetrapterum.29 Two further, but vague, Irish records of uses of St
John’s-wort in the collective sense have been to cure ‘gravel’ in ‘Ulster’30 and
jaundice in some part of the country left unspecified.31
TILIACEAE
Tilia cordata Miller
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America
Tilia ×europaea Linnaeus

lime
horticultural
An infusion of lime-tree flowers has been drunk for insomnia in Somerset32
and for a headache in Norfolk.33 Presumably the two native species, Tilia cor-
data and T. platyphyllos Scopoli, have been too scarce in recent centuries to
have been drawn on for this purpose, and the hybrids between them, T.
×europaea, so generally planted, have necessarily stood in.
MALVACEAE
Malva sylvestris Linnaeus
mallow, hock
Europe, North Africa; introduced into North America, Australasia
Lavatera arborea Linnaeus

tree-mallow
southern and south-western Europe, North Africa; introduced into
North America, Australasia
Althaea officinalis Linnaeus  4

marsh-mallow
central and southern Europe, western Asia, North
Africa; introduced into North America
Malva sylvestris, Lavatera arborea and Althaea
officinalis are all mucilaginous in different
degrees and have been utilised since ancient
times more or less interchangeably, depending
on which of them happened to grow most
conveniently to hand. The common
mallow, M. sylvestris, much the most
generally distributed, is widely mis-
called ‘marsh-mallow’, a name which
properly belongs to A. officinalis, a
relatively scarce plant of saltmarshes
(though formerly much grown in cot-
tage gardens). Tree-mallow, L. arborea, is
similarly a coastal species but also very
restricted in its range. These two last
would doubtless have been preferred
to M. sylvestris on account of their
greater robustness and thicker leaves
but over much of the British Isles Malva sylvestris,
would not have been available and mallow (Green 1902, fig. 112)
108 Malva, Lavatera and Althaea
M. sylvestris would have had to be accepted as an inferior substitute. Sugges-

tively, in the Isle of Man, where tree-mallow occurs locally in quantity, the
common mallow bore a name in Manx showing that it was regarded as
merely a small version of that.
Whether Malva sylvestris itself was available prehistorically, however, is a
matter of doubt, for everywhere in the British Isles it seems a follower of
humans and seldom if ever occurs in the kinds of habitat which might give it
a claim to be considered indigenous. Possibly some at least of its presence is
the result of its introduction at different times expressly for medicinal pur-
poses, for mallow held a prominent place in the learned tradition as well as in
the folk one. In the Roman levels of a site excavated near Glasgow, about ..
150, pollen clusters of this species have been found unaccompanied by any of
its seeds, suggesting that the flowers (and maybe other parts, which, unlike
those, leave no remains) were utilised medicinally34 in obedience to Pliny,
who recommended a daily dose of the plant. Though mainly used for other
purposes, at least in the folk medicine of the British Isles, there is a record
from Norfolk of the fruits being chewed by children as a laxative,35 while in
three English counties (Wiltshire,36 Hampshire,37 Durham38) mallow has
been in repute as a general cleansant of the system. Both of those uses may be
dim echoes of Roman (or even pre-Roman) doctoring.
The Malvaceae have been prized in folk medicine for two applications
far above all others, one of them general, the other more specific. Of 153
records logged in this study for the three species in question, these two uses
account for 57 and 40, respectively. The general application was (and fre-
quently still is) as a soothing poultice for sores, cuts, bruises, ulcers, boils,
skin complaints and inflammation of any kind as well as to soften and dis-
perse swellings. including those in mumps and swollen glands. In Radnor-
shire39 a ‘marsh-mallow’ poultice has been held to be a certain cure for a limb
that has become infected, while in Lincolnshire40 Malva sylvestris has been
found so helpful in cases of blood-poisoning that it has been planted in gar-
dens as a stand-by. Usually the leaves, but sometimes the roots or even the
flowers, were pounded and mixed with lard or goose grease to produce an
ointment known in some areas as ‘marsh-mallow salve’. Intriguingly, species
of the family native to Africa are extensively used for this same purpose in
tribal medicine there—like the ability of plantain (Plantago) leaves to staunch
bleeding, this is evidently another group of plants valued for a particular
healing property in widely separated parts of the world, perhaps as a result of
quite independent discoveries. In the British Isles, mallow poultices feature in
the folk records from most parts of Britain and Ireland with the conspicuous
exception of the Scottish Highlands and most of Wales—from which all the
species have probably been absent historically.
To a striking extent the main uses to which mallows have been put and the
relative frequencies of those uses parallel those recorded for comfrey (Sym-
phytum officinale). This strongly suggests that the two have served as alterna-
tives, the mallows standing in for comfrey in areas where that much less gen-
erally distributed plant is rare or absent. Not only have both been valued for
treating swellings (pre-eminently for sprains in the case of comfrey), but they
have both been widely used as well, if to nothing like the same extent, for two
other purposes. The more important of these, accounting for the 40 mallow
records, is as a demulcent for coughs, colds, sore throats, asthma and chest
troubles—chewed or sucked or infused and either drunk or gargled in the
case of mallows. The other is for easing rheumatism, stiff joints or backache,
though that category of complaints might equally well be subsumed within
the main one of poulticed inflammation.
Other ailments against which mallows have been deployed in Britain
include sore or strained eyes (Cornwall,41 Somerset,42 Gloucestershire43),
varicose veins (those second two counties again), toothache and teething
(Devon,44 Caernarvonshire45), kidney and urinary troubles (Devon,46 Lin-
colnshire,47 Yorkshire48), dysentery (Devon,49 Isle of Man50), corns (Nor-
folk51), gripes in children (unlocalised52) and gonorrhoea (Devon53).
Ireland departs from the general patterns in one very major respect. The
practice of bathing a sprain or, much more rarely, a fracture with the liquid
produced from boiling the leaves or roots receives at least seven times as many
mentions in the records from there as in those from Britain, accounting for
not far short of a third of all the records from the British Isles for the uses of
poultices for swellings. Inexplicably, that application of mallows to sprains is
strongly concentrated in Leinster, which is one part of Ireland in which these
plants might have been expected to have been supplanted by comfrey for that
purpose had the latter been a comparatively late introduction by settlers from
England. That matters are not that simple is further shown by the use in
Louth of a poultice of both (as if to be on the safe side) and by the fact that in
the records for the western county of Limerick54 mallow has been found
mentioned only once but comfrey no fewer then twelve times. The impres-
sion that Malva sylvestris, rather, could have been the latecomer and not com-
frey, as one might at first suppose, is supported further by the comparative
paucity of Irish records for most of the rarer purposes for which mallows
110 Malva, Lavatera and Althaea
have been reported in use in Britain. Of these, only urinary complaints have
been found recorded as a use from as many counties (Londonderry,55 Cavan,56
Westmeath57) as in Britain. Otherwise the Irish records have yielded only
warts (Waterford58) and the cleansing of the system (Kerry59).
Malva moschata Linnaeus

musk-mallow
Europe, North Africa; introduced into North America, New Zealand
(Name ambiguity suspected) A statement by David Moore, in his report on
the botany of Londonderry,60 that Malva moschata was generally mistaken
there for the ‘true marsh mallow’ appears to have been a slip for M. sylvestris.
The ailments to which he says it was applied are ones recorded from other
Irish counties for the latter.
DROSERACEAE
Drosera Linnaeus
sundew
‘Our Englishmen nowadays set very much by it, and holde that it is good for
consumptions and swouning, and faintness of the harte, but I have no sure
experience of this, nether have I red of anye olde writer what vertues it hath,
wherefore I dare promise nothing if it.’ So wrote William Turner in the six-
teenth century in his Herball, without, unfortunately, leaving it quite clear
that the uses he mentions were folk ones (as he seems to imply by saying he
had encountered them in no written work). If indeed they were, though, they
would appear to have disappeared without trace, for the only English use
found recorded in recent times for Drosera has been for warts, in the North
Riding of Yorkshire.61 The juice is so acrid that just a droplet or two will burn
off one of those, according to William Withering,62 writing perhaps from
first-hand experience. Presumably it was because of this acridity that sun-
dew was valued in the Highlands for ridding the hair of lice.63
In Ireland, on the other hand, the plants have enjoyed a reputation in
places if not for consumption at least for whooping cough and asthma. For
the former, the leaves were boiled in milk (sometimes that of asses, for pref-
erence64), and that was given to the children to swallow, a procedure followed
also when sundew served there, too, as a jaundice remedy—only in that case
the drinking had to continue for ten days or more.65 For asthma the leaves
were chopped up finely and the juice squeezed out and bottled, a few drops
being drunk when needed.66 These last two are recorded from the area just
south-west of the border, whereas it has been down south in Limerick67 that
the plants, known there as the ‘Blessed Virgin’s chalice’, have had one at least
of their local clusters of popularity as a treatment for whooping cough.
CISTACEAE
Helianthemum nummularium (Linnaeus) Miller
H. chamaecistus Miller
rock-rose
Europe, south-western Asia
(Name ambiguity) ‘Rock Rose’ features in a list of supposedly wild plants
utilised for folk medicine in Limerick.68 All the species of the family Cista-
ceae, however, are very rare in Ireland and unknown in that particular county.
Unless one of the garden species was being alluded to, presumably some
member of the genus Rosa was known by that name.
VIOLACEAE
Viola odorata Linnaeus  5
sweet violet
Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa, Macaronesia; introduced
into North America, Australasia
Though at least some of the species in the same section of the genus Viola are
known to share the same properties, ‘violet’ has probably done duty in folk
medicine for all of them indiscriminately—when it has not been intended for
butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris), which was often known, confusingly, as ‘bog
violet’. Sweet violet, V. odorata, seems to have been the one normally singled
out, if only because it was conveniently at hand in cottage gardens, cultivated
for its scent—and once introduced, very difficult to eliminate.
The well-attested power of that scent to induce faintness or giddiness in
people with a particular constitutional susceptibility to it, or when made into
‘violet balls’ to revive them, has probably been well known since very early
times: the use of a decoction of the plant or a compress of it to ease a
headache certainly goes back at least to the Dark Ages in the learned tradition
and may be even older in the folk one, if the fact that its use is on record from
the Highlands69 is indicative of ancient survival. Against that, though, is the
suspicious lack of any evidence of this elsewhere in Britain other than some
part of the south-western Midlands, where dried flowers have been made
112 Viola odorata
into a pudding and eaten to cure ‘giddyness of the head’.70 The flowers,
indeed, feature in the folk medicine records only exceptionally, the sole other
instance traced being an Isle of Man one.71 There they have been made into
a soothing syrup, which is also sedative and mildly laxative.
The most widespread folk application of violets has been for cancerous
tumours, either on their own or in combination with other herbs, either
externally or internally, either by crushing the fresh leaves and laying them on
as a poultice or eating them or drinking an infusion. That this is recorded
predominantly from southern England (Somerset,72 Dorset,73 Kent,74 Glou-
cestershire,75 Oxfordshire,76 Norfolk77) and otherwise in Britain only from
Wales (unlocalised78) could be indicative of a borrowing from the learned
tradition; on the other hand, that distribution does coincide suggestively with
the part of Britain in which sweet violet is most plentiful as a presumed
native, which could equally be evidence of a usage that is autochthonous. In
two of these same counties (Oxfordshire,79 Norfolk80) a poultice of the leaves
has also been valued for treating an ulcer. The plants’ astringency has led to
their being applied to skin problems and as a beauty lotion in the Highlands81
and presumably explains their use on stings, as a counter-irritant, in Dorset.82
Records from Ireland are markedly more restricted. The use for tumours
is known there also (Westmeath,83 Tipperary84); otherwise a poultice of the
leaves for boils in Meath85 and a decoction of them for ‘a pain in the head’ in
Limerick86 are the sole remedies that have been noted.
The one folk record that could credibly refer to the common dog-violet,
Viola riviniana Reichenbach, rather than to the sweet violet, is the one brought
back by Martin Martin from his visit to Skye in 1695: boiled in whey, it made
a ‘refreshing drink for such as are ill of fevers’ under the name dail-chuach.87
Viola tricolor Linnaeus

wild pansy, heart’s-ease
Europe, parts of Asia; introduced into North America, North Africa,
New Zealand
(Name ambiguity suspected) The name heart’s-ease was generally applied
in Ireland to self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)88 and all records almost certainly
apply to that. A claim in Limerick89 that ‘wild pansies’ produced a salve used
for cuts and deeper wounds, an application otherwise unrecorded in folk
medicine for any Viola species, probably arose from confusion with self-heal,
too: that is a purpose for which that herb was particularly widely used.
CUCURBITACEAE
Bryonia dioica Jacquin
Bryonia cretica subsp. dioica (Jacquin) Tutin
white bryony
central and southern Europe, western Asia, North Africa;
introduced into North America, New Zealand
Because of its thick root, which grows deep in the ground, Bryonia dioica was
popularly identified with mandrake (Mandragora spp.) by country folk, a
Bryonia dioica, white

bryony (Bock 1556,
p. 311)
114 Bryonia dioica
belief which must by definition have come from learned medicine. The name
still lingers on—or modified to ‘English mandrake’ by those wise to the con-
fusion. A variant of the belief, surviving in the Fens of East Anglia90 if not
elsewhere, was that mandrake occurred in two forms, one of which was this
species and the other the vaguely similar black bryony (Tamus communis).
This notion came from the early herbals, whose authors took these species to
be respectively the ampelos leuke and ampelos agria described by Dioscorides.
As in similar cases in folk taxonomy where species were paired—one was
assumed to be the expression of the male principle in nature, the other of the
female one—mandrake had the reputation, preserved in the Forest of Dean in
Gloucestershire,91 of being a powerful aphrodisiac and a procurer of fertility.
This found reflection medically in the restriction of the‘male’ kind to the ail-
ments of women and mares and of the ‘female’ one to those of men and stal-
lions.92 As the embodiment of the female principle, white bryony exerted the
greater power, an assumption given added credence by the greater violence of
its action (for which reason its use was reserved on the whole for animals). Its
acrid juice is so strongly purgative and blistering that it can cause gastritis,
and as few as a dozen of the berries may lead to death. As far as human beings
were concerned, it was a herb to be used only with extreme caution: Dorset
folk were therefore daring in taking it as a substitute for castor oil.93 Indeed,
the only other record of its application to a human ailment seems to be an
unlocalised one for gout, reported by John Aubrey to John Ray in 1691: sup-
posedly, an old woman had cured that after many years by employing the leaf
of ‘wild vine’ (botanically identified as B. dioica).94 People in Norfolk were
surely sensible to close with the plant’s powers no further than carrying a
piece of the root in their pocket as an antidote to rheumatism.95
SALICACEAE
Populus alba Linnaeus
white poplar
eastern Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced into other
temperate regions
(Folk credentials questionable) Although at least some of the poplars, includ-
ing the native aspen (Populus tremula Linnaeus), resemble willows in having
salicin in their bark, P. alba is the only member of the genus, an introduced
species, for which records have been found in the folk medicine literature of
the British Isles. They relate to north-eastern Somerset, where an infusion of
the bark was held to be good for fevers and for relieving night sweats and
indigestion.96 This can only have been a comparatively late use and may well
have come from the written tradition.
Salix Linnaeus
willow, sallow, sallies
almost worldwide except Australasia and East Indies
Salix repens Linnaeus

Europe, western and central Asia
Because of a common failure by druggists no less than folklore collectors to
distinguish between the species—let alone the hybrids—in the admittedly
taxonomically difficult genus Salix, it is necessary for the most part to discuss
these plants here only in a collective sense. Most if not all the taxa found wild
in the British Isles, however, are probably similar phytochemically, with bark
rich in tannin as well as in the all-important compound salicin.
The story is often repeated of the accidental discovery c. 1757 by a parson
in the north of Oxfordshire, the Rev. Edward Stone, of the powerfully astrin-
gent property of the bark of white willow (Salix alba Linnaeus), which, he
found, made it highly effective against ‘agues’ (including malaria) and other
fevers.97 Stone has consequently received the credit, and rightly, for first alert-
ing the medical profession to this property and for thus starting science on
the road which eventually led to the isolation of salicin and its clinical appli-
cation, most notably in the form of aspirin, in the nineteenth century. How-
ever, those who relate the story are at fault in not pointing out to their read-
ers that Stone had been plentifully anticipated in folk medicine in parts of the
world as far apart as Burma (Myanmar), Africa and North America as well as
Europe at least as early as biblical times. Before learned medicine adopted its
disdainful attitude to folk tradition, knowledge of the effectiveness of wil-
low ‘juice’ in allaying fevers was leaking up from that basic substratum into
the late medieval literature and the syncretistic repertory of the physicians of
Myddvai in south-western Wales.
The apparently age-old practice in folk medicine of drinking the bitter
infusion known as willow-bark tea as a means of relieving fever, surviving
into relatively recent years in Sussex98 and the Fens of East Anglia,99 has been
attributed to a naive theory that because these trees grow in damp places they
must be good for ailments caused by damp conditions. That explanation,
however, must surely be fanciful in view of the large number of other plants
characteristic of damp habitats which might equally well have been chosen
for the purposes in question. There may be significance in the fact that the
116 Salix
only records for drinking that infusion are from the south-eastern quarter of
England—more widespread, alternative ways of ingesting the plant, at any
rate for other afflictions for which aspirin would now be customary, are
chewing the bark or a twig or sucking the leaves, for rheumatism in Surrey100
and Herefordshire,101 for arthritis in Norfolk102 and for a headache or hang-
over in Norfolk103 and Lincolnshire.104
Willows have also attracted a variety of applications in Britain arising
from their astringency: staunching bleeding as well as reducing dandruff in
Cumbria105 and, combined with a soaking in vinegar, removing warts in
Wiltshire106 and corns in Norfolk.107
Ireland can boast at least one record of an aspirin-like use: the leaves of
what a botanist found to be creeping willow (Salix repens) have been much
prized for ‘pains in the head’ in one glen in Donegal.108 Ireland has also
known one use as an ‘astringent’: for diarrhoea in Leitrim109 and Cork.110
But mixing the ashes with some fatty substance to produce an ointment has
enabled the virtues of ‘sallies’ to be extended to further and different kinds of
conditions in that country: to ringworm in Westmeath,111 erysipelas in
Laois112 and baldness in Galway113; it was doubtless the way in which the blos-
som of ‘weeping willow’ (strictly speaking the planted species S. babylonica
Linnaeus, but usually hybrids of that) was used on burns in Tipperary, too.114
BRASSICACEAE
Sisymbrium officinale (Linnaeus) Scopoli
hedge mustard
and South America, South Africa, Australasia
(Folk credentials lacking) An ancient remedy for coughs, chest complaints
and particularly hoarseness, Sisymbrium officinale appears to be unrecorded
in any unambiguously folk context. Essentially a weed of waste places, the
species is very doubtfully native in the British Isles and may indeed be only a
relatively recent incomer. ‘Blue eye’, recorded as a jaundice remedy in Wick-
low,115 has been ascribed to it but must surely belong there to germander
speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys).
Descurainia sophia (Linnaeus) Webb ex Prantl

Sisymbrium sophia Linnaeus
flixweed
Eurasia, North Africa; introduced into North and South America,
New Zealand
(Folk credentials lacking) The remains of the once popular medicinal herb
Descurainia sophia have been detected in a Romano-British deposit,116 but in
the absence of any records for it in the folk literature, that occurrence seems
safely attributable to an alien import by Roman settlers or Roman commerce.
Alliaria petiolata (M. Bieberstein) Cavara & Grande

garlic mustard, hedge garlic, Jack-by-the-hedge, sauce alone
As its vernacular names indicate, Alliaria petiolata functioned as an alterna-
tive to garlic. Though that was chiefly in cooking, its leaves also substituted for
garlic’s medicinally by being applied externally to sore throats in Kent (?)117
and chewed for sore gums and mouth ulcers in Norfolk.118 Rubbing the leaves
on the feet was a cure for cramp in Somerset.119 More surprising, though,
has been its use for wounds (again in Kent?).120
The prevalence of ramsons, otherwise wild garlic (Allium ursinum), in
the west of the British Isles, would explain the restriction of these records to
the south-eastern quarter of England, to which this hedge plant may for-
merly have been mainly restricted. There has been a find of it in a Romano-
British deposit.121
Erysimum cheiranthoides Linnaeus

treacle mustard
Europe, north Asia, North Africa; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Under the name ‘English wormseed’ in the seventeenth century, Erysimum
cheiranthoides was still ‘much used by the country people where it groweth to
kill the wormes in children, the seede being a little bruised and given in drinke
or any other way.’122 Rather over a century later, William Withering made an
assertion to the same effect, though possibly just repeating the statement of
that predecessor.123 Curiously, though, no more recent records of this plant’s
use in folk medicine have been discovered.
Barbarea vulgaris R. Brown; and perhaps also B. intermedia Boreau

(western and south-western Europe; introduced into Australasia)
winter-cress
Eurasia, North Africa; introduced into North America, Australasia
(Folk credentials questionable) ‘I had it shown to me as a secret cure of a sore
leg, and nourished in the garden as a rare plant after it had done the feat.’
118 Barbarea vulgaris
Thus Threlkeld wrote in 1726 of his experience in and around Dublin. The
species involved could have been either the native Barbarea vulgaris or the
introduced B. intermedia (which appears to have been a widespread cottage
garden herb in the west of the British Isles). That no record of any more cer-
tainly folk use of this common herb has been found suggests that Threlkeld’s
informant took the idea from some learned source.
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum (Linnaeus) Hayek, in the broad sense

Nasturtium officinale R. Brown
water-cress; biolar
western and central Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced
into North America, Australasia, etc.
Although Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum is so familiar a plant and so widely
common, it appears to have been curiously little-used in Britain, and espe-
cially England, as a folk remedy, to judge from the paucity of records: as a
tonic and general cleanser of the system in Norfolk124 and the Highlands,125
to allay fevers by cooling the blood in the Isle of Man126 and (once exten-
sively) the Highlands,127 to act as an antiscorbutic (it is less bitter than scurvy-
grass, Cochlearia spp.) in Mull and in the Inner Hebrides128 and to correct
barrenness among Highland women.129 There is also an unlocalised record of
its use as a wart cure.130
In Ireland, by contrast, this has occupied a central place in the folk reper-
tory, and in two main ways, both on record from a goodly scattering of at
least nine counties: as a purifying tonic and as a remedy for colds, coughs
and chest complaints. Other, much more minor applications, all apparently
unrecorded from Britain, have been to stomach trouble (Cavan,131 Kildare,132
Tipperary133), kidney ailments (Cavan,134 Limerick,135 Wicklow136) heart
trouble (Donegal,137 Sligo,138 Longford,139 Westmeath140), rashes (Mayo,141
Galway,142 Clare143), rheumatism (Cavan,144 Roscommon145), cuts (Mona-
ghan146), scrofula (‘Ulster’147), swellings (Roscommon148) and sore eyes
(Louth149). Though most frequently eaten raw, the plant has frequently been
boiled instead, even though that allegedly weakens its efficacy.
Cardamine pratensis Linnaeus

cuckooflower, lady’s-smock
Europe, north Asia, North America; introduced into New Zealand
Cardamine pratensis shared with mistletoe (Viscum album) a reputation for
nervous afflictions, though by comparison with mistletoe apparently only a
minor one. Claims by physicians that the flowering tops have powerful anti-
spasmodic properties which are helpful in cases of hysteria, epilepsy and St

Vitus’ dance appear in the learned medical literature from the time of John
Ray onwards, but evidence that this was also (and maybe originally) a folk
remedy seems to be limited to the Highlands150 and to one nineteenth-cen-
tury author’s sweeping assertion that ‘the belief in their good effect in such
cases is certainly very widely spread among the peasantry’151 (of Great Brit-
ain, by implication). Had that been true, more records would surely have
been picked up by folk collectors? As it is, the only other ones traced have
been for other purposes: in the Highlands152 to allay fevers and in Glouces-
tershire153 to ease persistent headaches.
Erophila verna (Linnaeus) de Candolle, in the broad sense

Draba verna Linnaeus
whitlowgrass
(Folk credentials questionable) The use of Erophila verna as a cure for whit-
lows in Essex154 in the 1920s may well have been inspired by a reading of the
herbals. The lack of other and earlier records looks suspicious.
Cochlearia officinalis Linnaeus

north-western and central Europe; introduced into North America
Cochlearia anglica Linnaeus

scurvy-grass
north-western Europe
As the vernacular name scurvy-grass advertises, Cochlearia was valued, in
both folk and learned medicine, as an antiscorbutic par excellence, being par-
ticularly rich, as we now know, in vitamin C. John Parkinson in his 1640 herbal
said the kind he knew as ‘Dutch Scurvey-grass’, i.e. C. anglica, was the more
effective and the more frequently used for this purpose than the saltier ‘Eng-
lish Scurvy-grass’, i.e. C. officinalis.155 That was a distinction probably too sub-
tle, however, to have arisen within the folk tradition; such folk records as have
been found of the use of these plants for scurvy all come in any case from the
far north and west of the British Isles, where C. officinalis predominates. That
the herb was also once valued for this purpose in the Faeroe Islands156 suggests
that its popularity in their neighbour, the Shetlands,157 as a cure for skin com-
plaints was an extension of use for scorbutic sores more specifically. The cus-
tom in Kent158 of taking a daily draught of the drink in spring, as a means of
cleansing the system, was clearly part of the same family of uses.
When Martin Martin visited Skye in 1695, however, he noted this herb in
120 Cochlearia
favour only for colic, constipation and stitches; scurvy finds no mention.159
Almost a century later, John Lightfoot in his turn was able to report it as
esteemed in the Highlands only as a stomachic.160 Other Highland records
have been similarly unconnected with scurvy: as a poultice for cramps and
boils161 and for taking away water from the eyes.162
In Ireland, unlike Britain, scurvy-grass has also been found effective for
cuts. On one of the islets off the coast of Donegal an ointment was made
from it for that purpose.163
Capsella bursa-pastoris (Linnaeus) Medikus

shepherd’s-purse
cosmopolitan weed
The astringency possessed by the very common weed Capsella bursa-pastoris
(probably a native of Asia) has led it to be valued for stopping bleeding and
for excessive menstrual discharge, uses which feature in the folk records from
the Highlands164, 165 and Essex,166 respectively. A related function in the Isle
of Man is as a cure for diarrhoea.167
For Ireland, however, as so often, applications seem to have been quite
different: in Limerick it has been drunk as a tea or chewed for kidney trou-
ble,168 and there is a record of its use for rickets that has yet to be pinpointed
geographically.169
Lepidium latifolium Linnaeus

dittander
Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa; introduced into
North America
‘The women of Bury [St Edmunds] in Suffolk doe usually give the juice
thereof in ale to drinke to women with child to procure them a speedy deliv-
ery in travail’. This seventeenth-century report170 by John Parkinson is the
only known claim Lepidium latifolium has to be considered a possible folk
herb. His contemporary, John Ray, despite his East Anglian background,
could do no more than repeat the report without comment.171
Sinapis arvensis Linnaeus

charlock
Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced into other continents
Sinapis arvensis and its fellow weed of cultivated ground, wild radish (Ra-
phanus raphanistrum),were drawn on in the Shetlands to keep scurvy at bay.172
In Ireland, if it is rightly identified as the ‘corn kale’ (which might equally
be wild turnip, Brassica rapa Linnaeus), its juice was drunk in Limerick as a
spring tonic to keep the system free of diseases for the rest of the year.173 In the
area just south-west of the border a preparation of the flowers was the usual
cure for jaundice.174
Raphanus raphanistrum Linnaeus

wild radish
Europe, North Africa, Japan; introduced into North and South
See under charlock, Sinapis arvensis, preceding.
EMPETRACEAE
Empetrum nigrum Linnaeus
crowberry
Eurasia, North America
A locally abundant plant of moors, at one time regarded as a berry-bearing
form of heather (‘Erica baccifera’), Empetrum nigrum was found in use in the
Inner Hebrides by Martin Martin in 1695 as a cure for insomnia, a little of it
boiled in water and applied to the crown and temples.175 It was presumably
the ‘kind of heath’ claimed by a later author to be in use for the same purpose
in ‘the Highlands’,176 but the description of its application is so similar that
the record may be an unacknowledged repeat of Martin’s. Another record
from the Inner Hebrides, from Colonsay, credits its juice with the power to
heal sores that are festering.177
ERICACEAE
Daboecia cantabrica (Hudson) K. Koch
St Dabeoc’s heath
south-western Europe; introduced into New Zealand
On his visit to the west of Ireland in 1700, when he added Daboecia cantabrica
to the list of the wild plants of the British Isles, Edward Llwyd learned that on
the moors of Mayo and Galway the women sometimes carried a sprig of it on
them as a preservative against some mishap which, as ill luck would have it,
is written only partly legibly in the letter in question.178 Of possible alterna-
tive readings,‘incontinence’ seems most likely, for other kinds of heath are on
record as in folk use for similar-sounding trouble.
122 Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Linnaeus) Sprengel  6

bearberry
northern Eurasia and North America, and mountains to their south
(Folk credentials questionable) Featured in the older herbals, Arctostaphylos
uva-ursi enjoyed a revival in eighteenth-century official medicine on being
found effective against urinary problems (the result of containing arbutin, it
has turned out). In the Highlands,179 where it is specially frequent, the berries
are credibly stated to have been ‘used medicinally’ but it is unclear whether
this antedated the demand for the herb by physicians and apothecaries.
Calluna vulgaris (Linnaeus) Hull  7

heather, ling
Europe, Morocco, Azores; possibly native to eastern North America;
Erica tetralix Linnaeus  8

cross-leaved heath
northern and western Europe; introduced into eastern North America
Erica cinerea Linnaeus

bell heather
western Europe, Madeira; introduced into eastern North America,
New Zealand
The three common heath species in the British Isles (Calluna vulgaris, Erica
tetralix and E. cinerea), let alone the rarer ones, are rarely if ever distinguished
in the folk records. As the three are readily told apart at a glance, this has
probably been due less to taxonomic myopia than because they were assumed
to share the same medicinal virtues.
Considered a panacea in the Shetlands in the early eighteenth century,180
‘heather’ does indeed seem to have had a rather wide range of applications.
Several of these, though, may have had a common derivation: faith in a relax-
ing or mildly soporific effect. In the Highlands,181 for example, it has been
valued for countering insomnia and soothing ‘nerves’ but also as a treatment
for consumption. On the other hand, its employment for rheumatism
(recorded in Britain from Cumbria182) is allegedly because of a muscle-ton-
ing property, while its astringency has clearly prompted its use for stomach
upsets and diarrhoea (Cumbria,183 too). A reputation as a diuretic has also
made it a remedy in Dorset for ailments of a urological nature.184
In Ireland, the recorded uses of ‘heather’ are much the same: for a weak
heart in Clare185; coughs in Wicklow186 and asthma in Tipperary187; rheuma-

tism in Cavan188 and ‘a bad stomach’ in Limerick.189 Employment for heart-
burn in Cavan190 seems to be the only one not known from Britain.
For most purposes a tea was brewed from the young ‘tops’ or the flowers,
but for heartburn the ‘tops’ were chewed and the juice swallowed, while in
Limerick it was the seeds that were boiled, and in the Highlands a mat of the
plant with which the temples were poulticed for insomnia.
Vaccinium oxycoccos Linnaeus

cranberry
northern Eurasia, northern half of North America
Once a common plant in the Fens of East Anglia before they were so largely
drained, Vaccinium oxycoccos has been credibly suggested191 as the identity of
the ‘fen-berries’ or ‘marsh whortles’ said by Thomas Moffet in the seven-
teenth century to be in use in the Isle of Ely as an ‘astringent’.192
Vaccinium vitis-idaea Linnaeus

cowberry
arctic and northern Eurasia, mountains of southern Europe, North
America
In Cumbria193 the leaves of Vaccinium vitis-idaea were one of the ingredi-
ents in a concoction that produced an inhalant for a blocked nose or sinuses.
It is unexpected that this often abundant moorland species seems to be other-
wise absent from the folk medicine records.
Vaccinium myrtillus Linnaeus

bilberry, blaeberry, fraughan
northern Eurasia, mountains of southern Europe; introduced into
North America
The uses of the popular food-for-free Vaccinium myrtillus bear some simi-
larity to those of ‘heather’, especially on account of its shared astringency.
‘Blaeberry tea’ has been widely valued in north-western Scotland for dis-
solving kidney stones and countering other ailments of the urinary tract.194
There, too, but perhaps at one time much more widely still, in both the High-
lands195 and the Western Isles from Arran196 at least north to Skye,197 its
berries seem to have rivalled tormentil (Potentilla erecta) as a treatment for
diarrhoea. A further reputation enjoyed in the Highlands198 was for its power
to soothe pain, recalling the application of ‘heather’ to rheumatism. Yet again
like ‘heather’ it has been found useful against symptoms accompanying colds:
124 Vaccinium myrtillus
in Wales199 for poulticing a sore throat and in Cumbria200 as an ingredient in

an infusion helping to produce an inhalant.
In Ireland the focus has mainly been on the plant’s ability as a diuretic to
deal with kidney trouble (Wicklow,201 Kilkenny202) and gravel stones (county
unspecified203). It has also been employed there against jaundice in Cavan,204
asthma in Carlow205 (together with broom), measles in Monaghan206 (to-
gether with nettles) and as an antidote to pain in Wexford.207
PRIMULACEAE
Primula vulgaris Hudson  9
primrose
western and southern Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa; introduced
into North America, New Zealand
Perhaps because it is the commoner of the two and much the more generally
distributed throughout the British Isles, the primrose, Primula vulgaris, has
had three uses which particularly stand out in the folk records, whereas the
cowslip (P. veris) has had only one. One of those three uses is predominantly
English: made into an ointment to heal cuts, bruises, chapped hands or chil-
blains (Devon,208 Dorset,209 Hampshire,210 Cumbria,211 the Highlands212)
or, combined with bramble tops, to clear up spots and sores on the face
(Dorset213). That sounds like the ointment smeared on ringworm in Suf-
folk,214 while a record from the Outer Hebridean island of Bernera of an
application of the leaves to cure persistent boils on the legs215 perhaps belongs
in this category, too. Another group of uses, less prominent and more scat-
tered, presumably comes from the plant’s reputation as a relaxant. In Devon,
drinking the juice has been the way to restore your voice should you lose it,
and eating the raw leaves a remedy for arthritis.216 In Suffolk a primrose snuff
has been taken for migraine217 (and in Cardiganshire, too, if a use with the
leaves of betony recorded in an old household recipe book218 was really a folk
one). Doubtless for this reason, too, drinking the juice has been reckoned in
Wales a sound treatment for madness219 and a decoction of the leaves
believed by many to help a failing memory.220
Except for records from Suffolk221 and the Highlands222 a primrose salve
for burns appears to be exclusively Irish, while Ireland is evidently also alone
in having valued the plant for jaundice. These are the other two main uses of
the plant overall and the records for both are, curiously, all from that coun-
try’s central belt. In Ireland, as a remedy for burns, the plant is combined
with other herbs rather more often than it is employed on its own. In further
sharp contrast to Britain, the only Irish record picked up of an application to
cuts is one from Laois—and that merely as one of three ingredients, along
with elder bark and ivy juice223; however, the root, chopped up and fried with
lard, has served as a skin ointment in Westmeath224 and the leaves have had
a place in a poultice for erysipelas in Donegal.225 More equally shared with
Britain has been appreciation of the plant’s relaxing property: toothache has
been eased in Co. Dublin by rubbing with a leaf for about two minutes226
and the juice drunk in Carlow to counter a pain in the stomach,227 while in
Cork a tea of both cowslips and primroses has doubtless been a doubly sure
remedy for insomnia.228
Primula veris Linnaeus

cowslip
Europe, temperate Asia; introduced into North America
The role of Primula veris seems to have been mostly as a second-best: used for
much the same ailments as the primrose (P. vulgaris), it is on record from
some areas where the other is apparently not, despite the primrose being
much the more generally distributed and in most regions much the more
plentiful. A particularly striking anomaly is that the records for cowslip as a
jaundice remedy are all English (Dorset,229 Norfolk230) whereas the more
numerous ones for that in the case of the primrose are all Irish. In that
instance it seems the primrose has been second-best, the Irish forced to have
recourse to that because of the great scarcity of the cowslip in large parts of
that country (though widespread on the limy soils of its midlands).
Special to the cowslip, at least in Britain, has been its role as a folk cos-
metic (the leaves and stalk avoided because those can seriously irritate certain
skins). The plant is said to have enjoyed a great vogue in that capacity in the
Highlands up to the eighteenth century,231 and there are records also from
Devon,232 Wiltshire233 and (perhaps) Kent.234 Special to the cowslip, too, is its
use for coughs in Norfolk235 and to banish ‘decline’ (presumably tuberculo-
sis) in South Wales, in parts of which there was once a well-known rhyme to
that effect.236 Otherwise the cowslip’s recorded repertory echoes that of the
primrose: insomnia in Devon237 and Derbyshire,238 wounds in Dorset,239
backache in Wiltshire240 and to ‘strengthen the senses’ in South Wales,241 this
last recalling the use of primrose in Lincolnshire to help a failing memory.
Ireland’s chief distinction is the cowslip’s wide popularity there for coun-
tering insomnia, with records from Cavan,242 Co. Dublin,243 Clare,244 Lim-
126 Primula veris
erick245 and—combined with primroses, a unique use of those for this pur-
pose—Cork.246 With two exceptions the other uses traced for the plant in
the records find no reflection in the British ones: to give goodness to the
blood in Co. Dublin247 and to cure dropsy in Limerick248 and palsy in Lim-
erick249 and Wexford250 (so popular for that in the last as to have locally
acquired the name palsywort).
An ointment made in Wicklow251 for wrinkles and spots,however,sounds
too like the British cosmetic to be claimed as purely Irish, while if ‘strengthen-
ing the senses’embraced curing deafness, then that is the other exception. But
whereas in South Wales the senses were strengthened simply by drinking
cowslip tea or wine, the remedy for deafness recorded from several parts of
Ireland was both different and elaborate.Best known from a classic description
by Oscar Wilde’s mother,252 this required bruising the flowers,leaves and roots,
pressing them in a cloth,adding honey to the liquid extracted and then putting
a few drops of that into the nostrils as well as the ears while the patient lay
prone. After a while the patient turned face upwards, bearing away ‘whatever
obstructives lay on the brain’. A later record of a deafness remedy from Mayo253
repeats Lady Wilde’s description so faithfully as to suggest a straight parroting
of that, but another from Cork254 is more convincingly independent.
Lysimachia nemorum Linnaeus

yellow pimpernel
western and central Europe, Caucasus
The flowers of Lysimachia nemorum have been boiled in Cavan as a cure for
gallstones.255 Otherwise the only record is from an untrustworthy source
that, allegedly in Ireland somewhere, the plant has been used in conjunction
with tormentil (Potentilla erecta) as a hypnotic for insomnia.256 It may well be
that it shares with cowslips (Primula veris) a soporific effect.
Lysimachia vulgaris Linnaeus

yellow loosestrife
temperate Eurasia; introduced into North America, Australasia
(Folk credentials questionable) A herb recommended by ‘the Irish Aescu-
lapius’, the druid Diancecht (fl. 487 B.C.), for poulticing a sore throat has been
identified, on unknown grounds, as ‘yellow baywort’,257 a name which more
probably belongs to Lysimachia vulgaris than any other. Though well enough
distributed in both Britain and Ireland to be a likely plant to have had some
place in folk medicine, it clearly cannot be admitted as a member on such
evidence.
Anagallis arvensis Linnaeus

scarlet pimpernel
worldwide except tropics
Though a common weed over much of the British Isles and seemingly native
in coastal habitats here and there (mostly in the far west), the records for
Anagallis arvensis as a folk medicine are oddly restricted geographically, with
a marked concentration in the south-west of Britain, albeit in use for a diver-
sity of ailments there. This may well be a relic of the older cultural layer of
that region associated with the speakers of the Cymric branch of Celtic. In
Wales the plant allegedly had a magical aura, with a reputation for keeping
away melancholy, to which end an infusion of it was once widely drunk.258
Certainly ‘pimpernel’ features with impressive prominence in the recipes of
the medieval physicians of Myddvai in Carmarthenshire, which may in this
Anagallis arvensis, scarlet pimpernel

(Fuchs 1543, fig. 8)
128 Anagallis arvensis
case have been drawing on local folk usage (they recommended it for fevers,
abdominal complaints, profuse menstruation and festering swellings); it is
impossible to be sure, however, that it was this species they understood by this
name. Indeed, paucity of the records for folk uses of A. arvensis and the
absence of any focus in these on one ailment above all others hardly give the
impression of a herb that was particularly highly valued. Two of the records
are for an application for which numerous other species have been rated as
effective and might equally well have served, namely the healing of warts
(Somerset,259 Sussex260). The plant is known to have a powerful diuretic
property, and perhaps it was for that that an infusion of the plant was drunk
as an ‘alterative’ (as determined by a medical practitioner) by cottagers in
early nineteenth-century Devon.261 Someone more recently found to be
using this plant in Devon, however, was doing so to soothe stings and against
sore eyes.262 Possibly it came into its own more particularly as a counter-irri-
tant, like nettles: in Glamorgan it was once a remedy for the bites of dogs and
snakes, applied to the wound with a cloth.263 In keeping with this general
elusiveness, the one source which claims it as much prized in the Highlands
fails to mention for what it was used there.264
Ireland has yielded very few records, by contrast. They add one further
ailment for which this plant has been used: chronic or muscular rheuma-
tism, in ‘some places’ in Ulster (?).265 They also provide the sole certain evi-
dence of advantage being taken of the diuretic property mentioned above, for
in Sligo an infusion has been drunk for kidney trouble.266
Samolus valerandi Linnaeus

brookweed
cosmopolitan
Even had it not been a relatively uncommon species and mostly maritime, a
combination of factors likely to have deterred herbal use, the extreme bitter-
ness of Samolus valerandi would probably have repelled would-be exploiters,
too. Not surprisingly, the sole folk use of it traced was as an external applica-
tion, for eye troubles. The user in question, an Englishman living in Wales,
knew the plant by the name kenningwort (from the ulcers popularly termed
kennings) and had earned a reputation for achieving remarkable cures with
it.267 As ‘kenning herb’ was one of the names borne by greater celandine (Che-
lidonium majus) in Cornwall,268 advertising that plant’s similar function
there, it would be tempting to postulate a misidentification did not the record
stand on the authority of someone known to have been a competent field
botanist. So sure indeed was the latter that it was this species being referred
to (pointed out to him by a local farmer) that he was led to suggest that Lin-
naeus and others may have been right after all in supposing it to be the mys-
terious samolus mentioned by Pliny the Elder—despite the fact that it was
specifically as a veterinary cure that that was described by the Roman author
as much in use by the druids of Gaul.269 While almost certainly unaware of
the evidence supporting the claims of brookweed to herbal status, some later
authors270 have asserted that in some country parts of Britain this species is
still considered a certain remedy for a particular disease of pigs (one of the
two kinds of animals specified by Pliny). The source(s) of those assertions
were, however, not disclosed, and even supposing they were correct, the prob-
ability is that brookweed was adopted as a cure for the disease in question
merely because it was the plant bearing Samolus as part of its scientific name.
It is too much to hope that the identity of the herb Pliny intended by that
name will ever be established, and for the reasons rehearsed above unlikely
that that was brookweed.
Notes
1. Hardwicke’s Science-gossip (1866), 83 24. Tongue
2. Williams MS 25. Simpkins, 133
3. Purdon 26. Tongue
4. Moore MS 27. Lankester, 319
5. IFC S 200: 75 28. Hart 1898, 381
6. Grigson; Vickery 1981 29. Moore MS
7. Tongue 30. Egan
8. Pratt 1850–7 31. Sargent
9. Quayle, 69 32. Tongue
10. Beith 33. Hatfield, 39
11. Moore 1898; Paton MS 34. Knights et al.; Dickson
12. Quelch, 142 35. Hatfield, 28
13. Moore 1898 36. Wright, 239
14. Paton; Quayle, 69 37. Wright, 239
15. Beith, 40 38. Vickery MSS
16. Tongue 39. Howse, 206
17. Carmichael, iv, 208 40. Rudkin, 203
18. Martin, 230 41. Vickery MSS
19. Tongue 42. Tongue
20. Taylor MS 43. Lafont
21. Duncan & Robson, 63 44. Lafont
22. PLNN, no. 18 (1991), 84 45. PLNN, no. 43 (1996), 209
23. Whitlock 1976, 164 46. Collyns
130 Notes
47. Woodruffe-Peacock 91. Palmer 1994, 122

48. Vickery MSS 92. Rudkin
49. Collyns 93. Dacombe
50. Quayle, 69 94. Lankester, 238
51. Hatfield MS 95. Taylor 1929, 117
52. Quincy, 112 96. Tongue
53. Collyns 97. Stone
54. IFC S 657: 160 98. A. Allen
55. Moore MS 99. Porter 1964, 9; 1974, 52
56. Maloney 100. CECTL MSS
57. IFC S 747: 186, 187 101. CECTL MSS
58. IFC S 637: 142 102. Hatfield, 46
59. IFC S 476: 91 103. Vickery MSS
60. Moore MS 104. Hatfield, 40
61. Vickery MSS 105. Freethy, 133
62. Withering 1787–92, 191 106. Whitlock 1976, 164
63. Carmichael, vi, 77 107. Wigby, 65; Hatfield 53
64. Ó Súilleabháin, 315 108. Hart 1898, 370
65. Logan, 47 109. IFC S 226: 22
66. Logan, 26 110. IFC S 385: 55
67. IFC S 512: 115; 513: 558 111. IFC S 736: 22, 24
68. IFC S 485: 191 112. Roe, 33
69. Beith 113. Logan, 116
70. Hughes, 95 114. IFC S 572: 71
71. Garrad 1985, 17 115. McClafferty
72. Tongue 116. Godwin
73. Dacombe 117. Pratt 1850–7
74. Vickery 1995 118. Hatfield, 52
75. Palmer 1994, 122 119. Tongue
76. Hole 120. Pratt 1850–7
77. Hatfield, 26 121. Godwin
78. Trevelyan 122. Parkinson, 870
79. ‘E.C.’; Hole 123. Withering 1787–92, 400
80. Hatfield MS 124. Hatfield MS
82. Dacombe 126. Fargher
83. IFC S 747: 387 127. MacFarlane
84. IFC S 560: 378 128. Vickery 1995
85. IFC S 710: 49 129. Carmichael, iv, 203
86. IFC S 500: 74 130. Dyer 1889, 295
87. Martin, 223 131. Maloney
88. Hart 1898, 377 132. IFC S 777: 173
89. IFC S 484: 41 133. IFC S 571: 167
90. Randell, 86 134. Maloney
135. IFC S 521: 149 179. Pratt 1850–7

136. IFC S 921: 90 180. Monteith, 25
137. McGlinchey, 86 181. Beith
138. IFC S 170: 203, 259 182. Freethy, 124
139. IFC S 770: 63 183. Freethy, 124
140. IFC S 736: 389 184. Vickery MSS
141. IFC S 93: 347 185. IFC S 601: 183
142. IFC S 59: 369 186. IFC S 920: 69, 71, 72
143. IFC S 616: 78 187. IFC S 550: 288
144. IFC S 975: 27 188. Maloney
145. IFC S 251: 173 189. IFC S 480: 197
146. IFC S 960: 211 190. Maloney
147. Egan 191. IFC S 920: 69, 71, 72
148. IFC S 268: 230 192. Moffet
149. IFC S 658: 135 193. Freethy, 125
150. Beith 194. Beith; McNeill
151. Johnson 1862 195. Pennant 1776, ii, 42
152. MacFarlane 196. Lightfoot, 201
153. Hopkins, 80 197. Martin, 192
154. Hatfield, 35 198. MacFarlane
155. Parkinson, 286 199. Trevelyan
156. Jóhansen 200. Freethy, 125
157. Martin, 378; Hibbert, 541 201. IFC S 914: 554, 555
158. Pratt 1850–7 202. IFC S 907: 212
159. Martin, 226, 229, 230 203. Ó Súilleabháin, 312
160. Lightfoot, 343 204. Maloney
161. Beith 205. IFC S 838: 245
162. Carmichael, vi, 105 206. IFC S 932: 239
163. Sullivan & Stelfox 207. IFC S 897: 153
164. Beith 208. Transactions of the Devonshire
165. Polson Association for the Advancement of
166. Hatfield, appendix Science, Literature, and Art, 103
167. Vickery 1995, 352 (1971), 269
168. IFC S 523: 268 209. Dacombe
169. Ó Súilleabháin, 313 210. Beddington & Christy, 212
170. Parkinson, 855 211. Freethy, 87
171. Ray 1690, 287 212. Beith
172. Tait 213. Dacombe
173. IFC S 504: 279 214. Vickery 1995
174. Logan, 46 215. Beith
175. Martin, 224 216. Lafont, 69
176. Polson, 34 217. Jobson 1967, 60
177. McNeill 218. Jones 1996
178. Campbell 219. Tynan & Maitland
132 Notes
220. Notes and Queries, ser. 8, 7 (1895), 86 246. IFC S 337: 77

221. Taylor 1929, 118 247. IFC S 794: 418
222. Beith 248. IFC S 498: 81, 313
223. IFC S 826: 62 249. IFC S 491: 40; 498: 127
224. IFC S 746: 57, 64 250. IFC S 897: 217
225. McGlinchey, 83 251. McClafferty
226. IFC S 788: 92 252. Wilde, 42; Wood-Martin, 187
227. IFC S 903: 625 253. IFC S 138: 168
228. IFC S 337: 77 254. IFC S 287: 180
229. Vickery 1995, 93 255. Maloney
230. Taylor 1929, 119 256. Moloney
231. MacFarlane 257. Maloney
232. Lafont 258. Trevelyan, 97
233. Whitlock 1992, 106 259. Tongue
234. Pratt 1850–7 260. A. Allen, 178
235. Hatfield, 30 261. Collyns
236. Trevelyan, 91 262. Vickery 1995
237. Lafont 263. Trevelyan, 313
238. Hatfield MS 264. Carmichael, vi, 70
239. Dacombe 265. Purdon
240. Whitlock 1992, 106 266. IFC S 170: 258
241. Trevelyan, 97 267. Rootsey, 92
242. Maloney 268. Davey, 23
243. IFC S 794: 36 269. Pliny, book 24, section 63
244. IFC S 617: 333 270. Pratt 1850–7; Johnson 1862
245. IFC S 510: 96
CHAPTER 8
Currants, Succulents
and Roses
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the order Rosales and families Grossu-

lariaceae (currants), Crassulaceae (stonecrops), Saxifragaceae (saxifrages)
and Rosaceae (roses) are included in this chapter.
GROSSULARIACEAE
Ribes rubrum Linnaeus
red currant
western Europe; introduced elsewhere
Ribes nigrum Linnaeus

black currant
northern Europe and Asia, and mountains to their south; introduced
elsewhere
Ireland has supplied the sole record of the herbal use expressly of ‘wild cur-
rant’: in Cavan the leaf of that has been rubbed on parts affected by ringworm.1
Whichever of the two species, Ribes rubrum or R. nigrum was meant—and it
could have been either or both—‘wild’ must have meant merely bird-sown
among native vegetation from some cultivated source.Chance,isolated bushes
that spring up in this way have been traditionally regarded with a certain awe,
as their origin seems mysterious, and that alone would be sufficient to account
for a preference for wild-growing currants for medicinal purposes.
Though both black and red currants are very rarely found far from habi-
tations in Ireland, that is less true of Britain. The much lengthier history of
fruit-growing in the latter accounts for that in large part, but there is weighty
botanical authority for the view that both species are also indigenous there in
133
134 Ribes
certain habitats, especially fens and wet woods. Even if that view is correct,
however, the plants were probably always too scarce to have constituted a
ready-enough source for medicine, a secondary use of them which would
almost certainly have had to wait until they were grown for food.
While it is strictly speaking irrelevant to the theme of this book to cover
folk medicine from plants in cultivation, there would seem to be a marginal
case for making an exception in this instance. However, apart from a tea made
from the dried leaves of either species used in East Anglia as a weaker alterna-
tive to the (more usual) one made from raspberry leaves for easing labour in
childbirth,2 it is black currant juice, from the fresh or jellied fruit, for coughs,
colds and chest complaints that monopolises the folk records. That those
records are from many parts of England but almost wholly from there is
doubtless merely a reflection of the comparative incidence of fruit-growing—
at any rate in the past.
CRASSULACEAE
Umbilicus rupestris (Salisbury) Dandy
Cotyledon umbilicus-veneris Linnaeus, in part
navelwort, wall pennywort, pennyleaf
southern and south-western Europe, North Africa, Macaronesia
Sempervivum tectorum Linnaeus

house-leek, sengreen
horticultural
It is convenient to consider Umbilicus rupestris and Sempervivum tectorum
together, for the range of ailments to which their fleshy leaves have been
applied is so broadly similar that they must surely have stood in for one
another to no small extent. Umbilicus is rather tightly restricted to the west of
the British Isles, where it is an abundant and unquestioned native. Semper-
vivum, on the other hand, is a sterile cultivar or hybrid of a mountain plant of
central Europe, capable only of vegetative propagation and thus entirely
dependent on deliberate introduction by humans; consequently, in the British
Isles it is confined exclusively to the walls and especially roofs of old buildings,
clinging on as a relic of long-forgotten introductions and for the most part
sufficiently ignored and self-sustaining to be ranked as ‘wild’ by field bota-
nists. A plant with strong magico-religious associations, allegedly sacred to
the sky god and generally said to owe its presence to having been planted on
roofs to protect houses from lightning bolts, Sempervivum may nevertheless
  Currants, Succulents and Roses 135
have been treasured as much, if not more, for employment as a medicine. At

what period or periods it was brought over from continental Europe can only
be guessed at—as the common vernacular name for it, sengreen, is its Anglo-
Saxon one (and the plant features in the Lacnunga as an ingredient in a cough
medicine2a), the post-Roman invasions rather suggest themselves, but ear-
lier and possibly even much earlier importations cannot be ruled out. Cer-
tainly it is no latecoming usurper of the place in folk medicine presumptively
occupied previously by Umbilicus, for not only has its use in rural Wales and
Ireland and even the Highlands been widespread and to all appearances
deeply established, but it even bears names of its own in the Gaelic languages.
Because the folk uses recorded for Umbilicus are not found outside the
western areas where that species abounds, those for Sempervivum, the range
of which is not determined climatically, predictably far out-
number them; those for the latter are in fact twice as
numerous, and perhaps partly thanks to its magical rep-
utation they also extend to a greater diversity of ailments.
The one outstanding difference between the two is the
very much greater popularity of Sempervivum as a
treatment for sore eyes. That constitutes indeed the
single greatest use of the plant by a very wide margin,
accounting for 41 of the 147 records traced. Most of
those 41 are from a wide spread of Irish counties, but in
proportion to their area Wales and south-west-
ernmost England are also well represented. By
contrast, Umbilicus has been recorded in
use for the eyes solely from some unspeci-
fied part(s) of Wales3 as far as Britain is
concerned (but that use did not feature in
a more recent field survey4 of Welsh folk
medicine in which this herb emerged
prominently in connection with other
ailments). Sempervivum also has a
monopoly of the relatively few records of
treating earache or deafness with drops
ofthejuiceandfortheapplication of
the leaves to staunch bleeding—
both of which emerge as British Umbilicus rupestris, navelwort
rather than Irish practices, the former (Green 1902, fig. 214)
136 Umbilicus and Sempervivum
very markedly so and particularly characteristic of southern Wales (Brec-

knockshire, Glamorgan and Carmarthenshire5) though reported also from
Oxfordshire,6 Norfolk7 and the Highlands.8 Peculiar to Sempervivum as well
is its employment for cancerous growths, a use for which the only records
traced are from two of the Eastern Counties, Essex9 and Cambridgeshire.10
These exceptions apart, both plants have been valued in the main for
soothing and healing soreness of the skin, whatever its cause, and as a treat-
ment for various kinds of eruptions on it. The leaf might be applied as a poul-
tice or reduced to a form in which it could be mixed with cream or fat and
turned into an ointment. In both it has been corns, warts, burns and chil-
blains that have received this attention most frequently; but when the records
for those uses are compared geographically, the surprising
fact emerges that Sempervivum and Umbilicus are
almost exactly mirror images of one
another: the eleven counties in
which Umbilicus has been em-
ployed for burns, for instance, are
almost an entirely different set
from the nine in which that use has
been recorded for Sempervivum. While this lends
support to the idea that the two functioned as
stand-ins for one another, the pattern exhibited by
that standing-in has evidently been extremely
complex. In only two cases are the distributions neat
and suggestive. The records of the use of Umbili-
cus for corns—the single commonest affliction
for which that plant features (19 records out of
80)—are mostly from the northern half of
Wales11 and the rest from the south-
eastern corner of Ireland (Wicklow,12
Wexford,13 Carlow,14 Cork15). And
similarly, Umbilicus is on record for
chilblains in four south-eastern Irish
counties (Tipperary,16 Carlow,17
Wexford,18 Wicklow19), the two
Welsh counties (Pembroke-
Sempervivum tectorum, shire,20 Cardiganshire21) fac-
house-leek (Green 1902, fig. 218) ing the second two of those,
and more distantly, Devon.22 Could these two distribution patterns be the
legacy of population movement between Wales and Ireland?
Nowhere in the British Isles does there seem to have been such high
regard for the virtues of Umbilicus as the Isle of Man—according to one
source23 it was esteemed throughout the island as late as 1860—but neither
corns nor chilblains feature among the ailments for which is has been
recorded there; instead, only bruises,24 scalds,25 felons26 and erysipelas27 find
mention (though it may also have been the lus-ny-imleig valued for a womb
ulcer28). Intriguingly, the inclusion of Umbilicus among the nine or ten ingre-
dients in a special poultice for erysipelas29 was shared by the island with
Donegal.30 In Skye,31 where that plant was also valued for erysipelas, it was
used in the belief that it drew out the ‘fire’ from the affliction.
As is usually the case with folk herbs enjoying a strong reputation for
effectiveness for certain purposes, these two have also attracted to themselves
a tail of miscellaneous other uses. Sempervivum is on record in Britain for
insect and nettle stings in Kent32 and Gloucestershire,33 croup in Norfolk,34
asthma in Lincolnshire35 and fevers in the Highlands.36 The only singleton for
Britain produced by Umbilicus, on the other hand, is a record as a treatment
for epilepsy in some unspecified part of the west of England37; though attrib-
uted to ‘herb doctors’, that record may have been derived from reports in the
medical press a decade earlier by a general practitioner in Poole, Dorset, of a
dramatic improvement in that affliction brought about by the juice of this
plant.38 Its use had been suggested to the general practitioner in question by
someone who had read of this in a magazine article, which in turn presum-
ably drew on a folk medicine source.
Surprisingly, the sole uses exclusive to Ireland in terms of the records
traced are confined to that same miscellaneous tail. Surprisingly, too, though
Umbilicus is by far the more plentiful of the two plants in that country, the
Irish uses of that for which only single records have been turned up—for
tuberculosis in Wicklow39 and jaundice in Waterford40—are outnumbered by
their Sempervivum equivalents: for headaches in Roscommon,41 for worms as
well as kidney trouble in Cavan42 and as an abortifacient in Mayo.43 Though
Sempervivum has yielded the only Irish records of its employment for cuts
(Cavan,44 Carlow45), Umbilicus beats that with the only ones for its applica-
tion to sore eyes (Leitrim,46 Wicklow47) and as an earache cure (Mayo48). But
as a treatment for lumps and swellings, Sempervivum not only has a monop-
oly of the records traced for Ireland but a widely scattered distribution in
that role as well (Londonderry,49 Leitrim,50 Wicklow,51 Carlow52).
138 Sedum telephium
Sedum telephium Linnaeus

Hylotelephium telephium (Linnaeus) Ohba
orpine, live-long
(Folk credentials questionable) Primarily a divinatory as a folk herb, Sedum
telephium seems likely to have owed its medicinal uses in the British Isles en-
tirely to the learned tradition of the books. Once widely grown in cottage
gardens in England and southern Scotland as a wound plant (under the name
‘orpies’ or ‘orpy-leaves’),53 its recommendation to James Robertson in 1767
by a gardener in the remoteness of
Sutherland as a remedy for the
bite of a mad dog or an adder54 is
the closest to a hint of an alterna-
tive origin that has been discov-
ered. In so far as the species can be
considered a member of the native
flora—and that only in Britain—
it has probably always been too
scarce to be drawn on in the wild
for cures.
Sedum acre Linnaeus

biting stonecrop, wall pepper
Europe, north and western
Asia, North Africa;
introduced into North
The juice of Sedum acre has been
more recently used in Norfolk to
treat dermatitis55 and has served
in the past in Cardiganshire as an
ointment for shingles.56
In Ireland a decoction of a
plant known simply as stonecrop
(a name which could apply to sev-
eral species), said to grow on walls
in one case and on thatched roofs
Sedum acre, biting stonecrop
in another, has been recorded
(Bock 1556, p. 143)
from Cavan,57 Leitrim58 and Wex-
ford59 as a remedy for ridding the system of worms. It has also been valued in
Westmeath for kidney trouble.60
Sedum anglicum Hudson

English stonecrop
Atlantic Europe, Morocco
A plant abounding in Colonsay,an island of the Inner Hebrides,and once there
pounded with groundsel to produce a mixture to reduce swellings ‘especially
on horses’ (but perhaps on people, too?) was botanically identified as Sedum
anglicum.61 It perhaps stood in for house-leek (Sempervivum tectorum) there.
SAXIFRAGACEAE
Saxifraga ×urbium D. A. Webb
Londonpride
horticultural
In Carlow the often well-naturalised garden hybrid Saxifraga ×urbium was a
speciality cure of a local healer in 1928. Mixed with salt and rubbed on a rup-
ture, it gradually reduced the swelling, it was claimed.62
Saxifraga granulata Linnaeus

meadow saxifrage
(Folk credentials questionable) A plant bearing a Gaelic name identified in
some dictionaries with Saxifraga granulata has been used as a decoction for
kidney troubles in Westmeath.63 The species was widely recommended in
the learned tradition for treating gravel and stones (allegedly because of the
resemblance of the root to those), but it is too great a rarity in Ireland, ac-
cepted as native only in the vicinity of Dublin, to make a very credible folk
herb there. The record more probably relates to parsley-piert (Aphanes arven-
sis), a much more widespread Irish plant with a folk reputation for relieving
similar ailments.
Chrysosplenium Linnaeus
golden-saxifrage
(Folk credentials questionable) According to an eighteenth-century physi-
cian in Nottinghamshire,64 ‘an ointment made from this [Chrysosplenium
sp.] has been kept a secret among some glass-makers, who had experienced
its virtues in curing burns by hot metal.’ It is not clear whether this statement
140 Chrysosplenium
was referring to a local use or whether the information was second-hand,

taken from some printed source, possibly even a German one (for the author
was an immigrant from Germany).
ROSACEAE
Filipendula ulmaria (Linnaeus) Maximowicz
Spiraea filipendula Linnaeus, F. hexapetala Gilibert
meadowsweet
arctic and temperate Europe, temperate Asia; introduced into
eastern North America
Like willows, Filipendula ulmaria contains salicylate (it is the one from which
salicylic acid was first made in 1835). It has been widely employed for the
same range of complaints for which today we would use aspirin, and many
claim it is free from aspirin’s side effects. Back in 1691, John Aubrey wrote to
John Ray about a woman in Bedfordshire who was achieving ‘great cures’
with the plant for agues and fevers, with the addition of some green wheat.65
There are more recent records of its use for fevers, coughs, colds, sore throats
or headaches in Devon,66 Somerset,67 the Highlands and/or Western Isles,68
and South Uist in the Outer Hebrides.69 But it has enjoyed a reputation for
more then just those: for treating burning or itching eyes in Devon,70 as a
tonic in Devon also71 (and in Nottinghamshire, too, to judge from the name
‘Old Man’s Pepper’ recorded for it from there72), for curing diarrhoea,‘stom-
ach cold’ and pains in general in Somerset,73 relieving sunburn or reducing
freckles in Norfolk74 and easing nervousness in the Isle of Man.75
In Ireland some of those uses are on record, too: for colds in Cavan,76 for
diarrhoea there77 and in Cork,78 as a seasonal tonic in Louth79 and for ner-
vousness in Westmeath.80 But apparently peculiar to Ireland is a reputation
for dropsy and kidney trouble in Cavan81 and Sligo,82 and for jaundice in
children in Limerick.83 In ‘Ulster’ alone a decoction of the plant seems to
have been recorded as a drink for those with a tendency to scrofula.84
Rubus idaeus Linnaeus

raspberry
northern and central Eurasia, North America
An infusion of the leaves of Rubus idaeus drunk regularly during pregnancy
to allay labour pain is recorded from many parts of England as well as from
the Highlands.85 Probably an age-old remedy, it has more recently received
respect in official medicine and by the 1940s was in general use in one of the
maternity hospitals in Worcestershire, preliminary tests having appeared to

confirm the belief that the compound then called fragarine relaxes the womb
muscles.86 In the Highlands,87 however, and more generally in folk medicine,
the belief is that it strengthens them. Modern pharmacology, though, is indi-
cating a story that, as so often with herbal remedies, is turning out to be much
more complicated than at first supposed. Among raspberry’s active con-
stituents are a smooth muscle relaxant as well as at least two smooth muscle
stimulants.88 To further complicate the picture, it seems that the Worcester-
shire hospital studies may even have used the wrong plant, strawberry, in
their study (hence the name fragarine, from Fragaria, the botanical name for
strawberry).89 This is one of many instances highlighting the need for co-
operation between historians of folklore, pharmacognocists and medical
practitioners.
Other traditional uses for raspberry include its use both for procuring
abortion in Cambridgeshire during early pregnancy90 and, in the Sheffield
area of Yorkshire, preventing miscarriages, increasing the flow of maternal
milk and, unsurprisingly, helping painful menstruation.91 In the Black Coun-
try of Staffordshire92 on the other hand, it is for preventing morning sickness
that it has acquired a reputation. That is more likely to have come from the
astringent properties that raspberry leaves share with those of blackberries
and strawberries, which has made them an alternative remedy for diarrhoea
in Suffolk,93 southernYorkshire94 and Westmoreland.95 Paradoxically, though,
it is for curing constipation that they have been prized in Dorset.96
Raspberry leaf tea has also enjoyed a strong following in some areas for
alleviating fevers, coughs, colds and sore throats (Wiltshire,97 Norfolk,98
South Riding of Yorkshire99); that aspirin-like usage presumably also ac-
counts for its presence in a Yorkshire remedy for arthritis100 and in a Devon
one for consumption.101 Another group of ailments for which raspberry has
been valued in Devon is kidney stones and gravel, but for that it was a daily
dose of the jam dissolved in a glass of gin and water that was rated effec-
tive.102 Yorkshire’s particularly wide range of uses has even included as a wash
for sore eyes.103
Irish records, however, are strikingly scarce by comparison. Only a single
one has been traced of the use of the plant in childbirth, and that a relatively
recent one from Antrim,104 but reticence on the part of adults about such
matters could well explain their apparently total absence in that connection
even from the very extensive Schools Survey of 1937–8. But even raspberry
leaf tea has been little-known there, if the solitary record for that from Lim-
142 Rubus idaeus
erick105 (for easing sore throats) is anything to go by. Yet raspberries certainly
grow wild in Ireland quite widely and are accepted as native in at least upland
areas there.
Rubus fruticosus Linnaeus, in the aggregate sense  

blackberry, bramble; briar (in Ireland)
Europe, North Africa, Macaronesia, North America; introduced
into Australasia
The leaves (or roots) of Rubus fruticosus have enjoyed the same reputation as
that of raspberry and black currant for an astringency that has made them
valuable against diarrhoea (Devon,106 Essex,107 Fife108) and coughs, colds, sore
throats or asthma (Devon,109 Somerset,110 Hertfordshire,111 Lincolnshire,112
southern Yorkshire,113 the Highlands114). Also prominent, but apparently
almost exclusive to the south-west of England, has been their application to
skin disorders in the widest sense, from shingles (Cornwall,115 Devon116) and
boils (Cornwall117) to spots and sores on the face (Dorset118) and burns and
scalds (Cornwall,119 Wiltshire,120 Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides121). In the
Chiltern Hills122 and East Anglia,123 cancers have been treated with a black-
berry poultice. In Sussex a thorn in the finger was drawn out by moistening
a leaf and leaving it on as a plaster for an hour or two,124 in Devon an infusion
of the leaves is still in currency as a tonic,125 in Dorset chewing the tip of a
shoot has been reputed an excellent cure for heartburn,126 while in the Isle of
Man the boiled leaves have soothed sore eyes.127
In Ireland much the most widespread use of the blackberry has been for
staunching diarrhoea (and for that in cattle, too). All the other applications
feature in the records only marginally by comparison: for cuts in Offaly128
and Louth,129 as a tonic in Limerick130 and Cork,131 for ulcers in Limerick,132
burns in Louth,133 kidney trouble in Kerry,134 swellings in Wicklow,135 indi-
gestion in Carlow136 and sore, swollen or sweaty feet in Leitrim.137
Potentilla anserina Linnaeus

Argentina anserina (Linnaeus) Rydberg
silverweed, goosegrass, wild tansy
northern half of Eurasia, North and South America, Australia
Of the few recorded uses of the mild ‘astringent’, Potentilla anserina, two are
of interest for their lengthy continuity. One was as a cosmetic by young
women, to cleanse the skin of spots, pimples, freckles or suntan—observed in
an unstated part of England (probably the Bristol area) by the foreign bota-
nists Pierre Pena and Matthias de l’Obel in the sixteenth century138 and still
current around the start of the nineteenth century in the Highlands,139 where
it was steeped in buttermilk. In Leicestershire it was used specifically to
remove the disfiguring marks left by smallpox.140 The other, no less time-
honoured practice has been to wear the leaves in shoes or other footwear to
prevent over-sweating leading to soreness, hence the names ‘traveller’s joy’
and ‘chafe grass’. In addition to pilgrims,141 carriers in eighteenth-century
Nottinghamshire142 and schoolboys in nineteenth-century southern York-
Potentilla anserina, silverweed

(Fuchs 1543, fig. 351)
144 Potentilla anserina
shire143 resorted to this, and it survived in rural parts of the Eastern Counties
till the 1940s at least.144 Similarly, the bruised leaves, mixed with salt and vine-
gar, were applied to the soles to allay the heat in fevers. Far away in Shetland,
however, the plant has been found in use only for digestive complaints.145
In Ireland the plant has had very different applications: in Londonderry
(as mashcoms) to staunch diarrhoea or bleeding piles,146 on the Clare-Galway
border for heart trouble147 and in Co. Dublin ‘for a man’s health’—whatever
that meant.148
Potentilla erecta (Linnaeus) Raeuschel

tormentil,149 aert bark, tormenting root
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Azores, Labrador
With the thickest roots, with a higher proportion of tannin in them, Potentilla
erecta was the native species of the genus much the most widely employed as
an ‘astringent’ (though because of its powerful effect it needed to be used
with discretion). Pre-eminently a plant of acid, heathy ground, its records as
a medicinal plant are correspondingly largely from the north and west of the
British Isles, where it has served as the principal cure for diarrhoea above all,
though also for cuts in Cumbria.150 For its stimulating effect, on the other
hand, it has been valued as a tonic in Norfolk151 and Shetland,152 for fevers in
Devon153 and as a gargle for enlarged tonsils and throat trouble in Norfolk.154
In South Uist in the Outer Hebrides it was a multi-purpose herb, curing any
suppurating sore, a corn or even indigestion.155 In the Highlands it has been
an antidote for worms,156 in Perthshire a lotion for sunburn157 and in Glou-
cestershire an alternative to silverweed (P. anserina) and blackberry (Rubus
fruticosus) as a balm for the feet.158
In Ireland the lesser uses recorded are fewer but similar: for cuts in
Cavan,159 for obstructions or other trouble in the liver in ‘Ulster’160 and for
burns and scalds in some unspecified county (or counties).161
Potentilla reptans Linnaeus

creeping cinquefoil
Europe, North Africa, western Asia; introduced into North and
South America, Australasia
Potentilla reptans has owed its place in folk medicine to its being mistaken for
the more potent tormentil (P. erecta)162 or being used in its stead in regions
with little or no acid ground suitable for that. In Gloucestershire it was one of
three ingredients in a tea much drunk as a remedy for‘red rash’(erysipelas?),163
while in Essex a tea made wholly from it has been esteemed as a digestive.164
In Ireland it has been recorded as much valued for ‘ague’ in Cavan.165
Fragaria vesca Linnaeus  

wild strawberry
Europe, western and central Asia, Macaronesia, eastern North
America; introduced elsewhere
Another ‘astringent’, Fragaria vesca resembles silverweed (Potentilla anserina)
in having been valued as a cosmetic: in Cornwall girls rubbed their faces with
Potentilla erecta, tormentil

(Fuchs 1543, fig. 144)
146 Fragaria vesca
its leaves to improve their complexions, a use reflected in a folk song fragment
in Cornish collected in 1698.166
Ireland has produced the only other record of a non-veterinary use: from
Antrim, of a belief that excessive ardour can be cooled with strawberry-leaf
tea167; but the leaves for that may have come from a garden species and not
this native one.
Geum urbanum Linnaeus  

herb-Bennet, wood avens
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Australia; introduced into
North America, New Zealand
Though long a prominent member of the learned repertory, the widespread,
easily distinguished and readily accessible Geum urbanum, in places an inex-
tinguishable garden weed, was almost completely neglected in British and
Irish folk medicine, if the near-absence of records for it is a fair reflection of
the reality. For Britain there is just an isolated record from Bedfordshire of the
use of ‘green benet’, which has been identified as this species. The plant was
stewed with vinegar and, when cold, used to soothe sore eyes.168
Assuming it is correctly identified as the‘evans’ employed for kidney trou-
ble in Cavan,169 that is the only reliable record traced from Ireland, similarly.
The species does receive mention in another Irish source, as in use for chills,170
but in that case the record is neither localised nor unambiguously a folk one.
Agrimonia eupatoria Linnaeus

agrimony
into North America
Agrimonia procera Wallroth

fragrant agrimony
Europe
Though Agrimonia eupatoria is a common plant of the lowlands and its pop-
ularity as a medicine goes back at least to Galen and Pliny, it may resemble
house-leek (Sempervivum tectorum) in having been taken over for herbal use
in the British Isles from an intrusive tradition: its seeds have been detected in
Norse levels at York and it also features in the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. That
the records of its folk use come preponderantly from areas in the west par-
ticularly associated with Norse settlement is therefore suspicious.
Principally taken in the form of a tea, as a mild tonic and stimulant, Agri-
monia eupatoria is one of several herbs to have gained a reputation as a gen-

eral prophylactic and purifier of the system. As such it is on record as having
been drunk, on its own or combined with other herbs, in many parts of Eng-
land as well as south-eastern Scotland. It has also been valued more specifi-
cally as a treatment for sore throats and the heavier kinds of colds and
Agrimonia eupatoria,
agrimony (Fuchs 1543,
fig. 135)
148 Agrimonia
coughs—in Devon,171 Gloucestershire172 and Suffolk173—as well as for var-

ious rheumatic complaints in three of the Eastern Counties,174 the East Rid-
ing of Yorkshire,175 Cumbria176 and Montgomeryshire.177 In the last of these,
though, the ‘backache’ for which use of a poultice of the herb is recorded may
have been a misnomer for kidney pain (as have proved to be the case in some
other instances178): a weak infusion of the dried leaves has long had a place in
folk medicine, too, for chronic disorders of the liver, kidneys and bladder.
Employed (as recommended by Galen) for liver complaints in Norfolk179
and the Highlands180 and for jaundice in Norfolk181 and the Isle of Man,182 it
has been applied to kidney trouble unambiguously in Pembrokeshire,183
Worcestershire184 and Caernarvonshire.185 But despite John Quincy’s asser-
tion in 1718 that ‘the country people use the herb bruis’d, or its juice, in con-
tusions and fresh wounds’,186 that use has not been encountered among the
localised folk records and may therefore have become rare or extinct. The
same applies, at least in Britain, to a claim a century later that agrimony was
a favourite application to ulcers ‘in some rural districts’.187
Ireland has had echoes of those uses for colds and liver complaints (both
in Clare188) and jaundice (in Londonderry189), while the plant’s diuretic effect
has led to its use to treat enuresis in children in Wicklow.190 In Londonderry
it was also much used at one time in cases of scurvy and sometimes for old
ulcers, too.191 Hard to understand, though, is a botanist’s report that agri-
mony was popular in Donegal192 for treating sore eyes, for eyebright (Euphra-
sia officinalis), so generally favoured for that elsewhere, can surely never have
been scarce in that county?
There is evidence that the rarer species, the fragrant agrimony, Agrimonia
procera, may often have been preferred. In the Isle of Man it is the only one
occurring as an obvious relic of herbal use.193
Sanguisorba minor Scopoli

Poterium sanguisorba Linnaeus
salad burnet
central and southern Europe, Caucasus, North Africa; introduced
(Folk credentials questionable) As the allusion to blood in the scientific name
indicates, Sanguisorba minor had a place in the written tradition as a wound
plant. That only a solitary record of an allegedly folk use for that purpose (in
Sussex194) has been traced makes it look unlikely that this was a genuine
member of that rival repertory.
Alchemilla vulgaris Linnaeus, in the broad sense

lady’s-mantle
Europe, northern and western Asia, eastern North America,
Australia; introduced into New Zealand
Like several other herbs, Alchemilla vulgaris is not a single entity but (in this
case) a composite of a number of distinct microspecies which reproduce
Alchemilla vulgaris, lady’s-mantle (Green 1902, fig. 189)

150 Alchemilla vulgaris
asexually. Most of these are characteristic of upland hay-meadows, a habitat

in which some are considerably plentiful. Upper Teesdale, in the Pennines,
has more of the different kinds than anywhere else in the British Isles, three
of which have distributions there so strongly associated with human activity
as to suggest they were introduced at some period in the past, either inten-
tionally for medicinal purposes or accidentally as weeds.195 No English
records of the use of lady’s-mantle in folk medicine, however, have been
traced: indeed the sole British ones are from the Highlands, where they were
in use for sores and wounds.196
Rather, it is Ireland that seems to have made use of these herbs very
largely. The mysterious, dew-like appearance of the expressed juice evidently
gave them there a semi-magical reputation,197 though they presumably pos-
sessed some demonstrable styptic action quite apart from that to have proved
popular for cuts and nosebleeds in Londonderry198 and, especially, Wick-
low,199 and perhaps a diuretic one, too, to have recommended themselves for
kidney trouble in Cavan200 and Kerry.201 Other applications recorded are for
burns and scalds in Cavan,202 for ‘incurable diseases’ in Galway203 and for
sore heads (impetigo?) under the name ‘thrush ointment’ in Kildare.204
Aphanes arvensis Linnaeus, in the broad sense

parsley-piert
As its former name ‘parsley breakstone’ advertised, drinking a decoction of
Aphanes arvensis was once much in favour for countering gravel in the kid-
neys or bladder—for example among the poor in Bristol, as noticed by two
foreign botanists in 1571, who expressed surprise that the plant was never-
theless not well known to the herbalists.205 Half a century later, Thomas John-
son found it being brought in from the countryside by herb women for sale
under that name in London’s Cheapside.206 That a Herefordshire name for
the plant at much the same period was ‘colickwort’207—colic being a term
used for the pain caused by a kidney stone—strengthens the impression that
its use for that complaint was well established at the folk level, as does the
further fact that a name in Irish, minéan Merr (for Muire?), has survived for
it in that same connection in Westmeath.208 The only other evidence of its
persistence in folk use in Ireland into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
seems to be from Londonderry,209 and in England records of a similar age,
still as ‘parsley breakstone’, have been traced only from Suffolk210 and Birm-
ingham.211 Cities feature too much in this account for there not to be some
suspicion that that may nevertheless be a herbal use originally derived from
the learned tradition. Against that is parsley-piert’s alter ego as ‘bowel-hive
grass’, a name equally indicative of the ailment at which it has been also tar-
geted specifically: inflammation of the bowels or groin in children. A localised
record of the plant in use for that is known from Berwickshire.212
Rosa Linnaeus
wild rose
northern temperate and subtropical zones; introduced into
Australasia
It is hard to believe that treating colds and sore throats with rose-hip syrup213
and cuts with the crushed leaves in Essex214 can be the sole English records of
the use of the common and familiar roses in folk medicine; nothing else, how-
ever, has been traced. A herbal mixture employed in the Highlands to poultice
erysipelas has been recorded as including a decoction of the wood and leaves
of roses,215 but that may have arisen through common figwort’s (Scrophu-
laria nodosa) being so generally known in folk parlance as ‘the rose’, for, sus-
piciously, it is the latter that has been a remedy for erysipelas in Donegal.216
In Ireland, wild roses and brambles are too commonly called ‘briars’
interchangeably to allow any appearances of that word in the folk medicine
records to be referred with confidence to either. In Donegal, however, the
juice of a plant expressly named as rós has been a cough cure.217
Rosa rubiginosa Linnaeus

sweet-briar
Readily told from other wild roses by its distinctive scent and widely grown
in cottage gardens for that, Rosa rubiginosa has been recorded from Long-
ford as taken as a decoction for jaundice.218 It is possible that the bushes that
served as that source were wild ones, but if so they would only have been
derived from gardens in that particular county. The species is considered a
possible native in some other parts of Ireland, however.
Prunus spinosa Linnaeus

blackthorn, sloe
Europe, south-western Asia; introduced into North America, Australia
A geographical curiosity thrown up by Prunus spinosa is the restriction of its
widespread use for warts virtually to the southern half of England (Dorset,219
152 Prunus spinosa
Herefordshire,220 Buckinghamshire,221 Essex,222 Suffolk,223 Norfolk,224 Cam-

bridgeshire225) despite the tree’s general distribution through much of the
British Isles. The sole non-English record for that ailment is from Denbigh-
shire.226
The strong astringency of the berries and inner bark has also made the
plant an alternative to tormentil (Potentilla erecta) or blackberry (Rubus fru-
Prunus spinosa, blackthorn (Fuchs 1543, fig. 227)

ticosus) for countering diarrhoea, in Cornwall,227 Dorset,228 Hertfordshire,229

Leicestershire230 and if ‘internal disorders’ is a euphemism for that at least in
part, in Sussex,231 Northamptonshire232 and Lancashire,233 too. That same
property could explain the making of a jelly from the berries for treating ‘a
relaxed throat’ in the Isle of Man.234 Paradoxically, though, the tree has also
been credited with a relaxing effect: in Wiltshire an infusion of the inner bark
has been drunk for piles,235 and in the Highlands the flowers have provided
a laxative.236
A third group of complaints for which blackthorn has been valued com-
prises coughs (Norfolk,237 Denbighshire ‘and elsewhere’238), sore throats
(Norfolk239) and fevers (the Highlands240). In Suffolk, sloe wine has also been
esteemed as a cure for colic,241 and in Anglesey the berries and leaves have
been chewed to lower blood pressure.242
Irish records are inexplicably scarce. The antidiarrhoea use widely
recorded in England is known also from ‘Ulster’, but there as an infusion
made from the thorns.243 In Cavan, sloe gin has been reckoned good for the
kidneys,244 while in Tipperary a decoction of the bark has been given as a
daily dose to children troubled with worms.245
Prunus avium (Linnaeus) Linnaeus

wild cherry, gean
Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Though the naturalised morello cherry (Prunus cerasus Linnaeus) is now-
adays as widespread as the native species and tends not to be distinguished
from it by non-botanists, of the two, only P. avium would have been available
in earlier times for use in folk medicine. As its scientific name implies, P.
avium is also sometimes called ‘bird cherry’, a name which more properly
belongs to another native species, the more northern P. padus Linnaeus.
Though P. padus has been exploited for medicine in Fennoscandia, the sole
folk remedy using it in the British Isles that has been traced is a veterinary one.
The only use of Prunus avium in folk medicine seems to have been for
colds or coughs, for which records have been traced from three widely sepa-
rated areas: Norfolk246 and the Highlands247 in Britain, and Mayo248 in Ire-
land. The record from the Highlands, though, sounds suspiciously like a
learned rather than a strictly folk use in that it involved dissolving the gum (as
recommended by Dioscorides) in wine, which was hardly a liquid to be found
in the average croft.
154 Malus sylvestris
Malus sylvestris (Linnaeus) Miller

crab apple
Only where a record specifically mentions crab apple (or ‘crab’) in the generic
sense can it be taken to relate to apple trees of the kind most likely to be native
to the British Isles and thus alone available before the sweet cultivated kinds
were introduced (though that was well before Roman times, according to the
latest authoritative opinion). Of such records there are only three, and two of
them Irish: one a vague and unlocalised one of the use with buttermilk for a
relaxed throat and hoarseness,249 the other from Sligo of a treatment for
internal cancer250 (boiling the leaves and drinking the juice). The sole British
record involved the juice, too: for bruises in Suffolk.251
More often, the kind of apple is not identified, leaving it to be assumed
that any variety will serve (including those of the cultivated and introduced
Malus pumila Miller). Not all apples with small, sour fruits are the true crab
apple (M. sylvestris), and forms or derivatives of M. pumila may have some-
times stood in for that in folk usage. However, as it is the acid juice that is
valued for some of the purposes featuring in folk medicine, a preference in
these cases for kinds possessing that in the fullest and most powerful degree
can be inferred. William Withering found what country people called ‘ver-
juice’ was used extensively on recent sprains252 (but unfortunately failed to
say in which part of England that was). In the East Riding of Yorkshire a piece
of the fruit rubbed on a wart is reputed to turn it black and eventually cause
it to drop off,253 so strong is the astringency.
No less prized for their ability to soothe have been hot poultices of rotten
apples. Applied to ‘any sore places’ in Norfolk,254 these have been a treatment
for earache in Wiltshire,255 small boils in the East Riding of Yorkshire256 and
‘rheumatism in the eye’ in some area(s) unspecified.257 According to this last
source, decoctions of the flowers or fruit were also once used by young
women as an astringent cosmetic. The sole record that can be added to that
list is an application in Antrim to chilblained toes.258
Sorbus aucuparia Linnaeus

rowan, mountain ash
Europe, south-western Asia, Morocco; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
As a tree with much magico-religious lore attached to it in the Gaelic-speak-
ing parts of the British Isles (in the uplands of which it is also commonest),
Sorbus aucuparia has predictably been deployed against a variety of ail-

ments—though not nearly as widely as one might have expected. In seven-
teenth-century Wales the berries were eaten for scurvy,259 in the eighteenth
century a purge was derived from the bark in Moray260 and in the nineteenth
century some unstated part of the tree was valued in Aberdeenshire for
toothache.261 A gargle made from the boiled berries262 is on record from the
Highlands as well.
Ireland’s greater tradition of utilising the bark of trees for medicinal pur-
poses finds reflection in the boiling of that for a cough cure in Louth263 and
its inclusion in a herbal mixture taken for ‘the evil’ (i.e. scrofula) in Sligo.264
In Cavan the leaves have served as a poultice for sore eyes, and the berries
have been eaten raw as a cleansing tonic for the blood265; the berries, too,
have been eaten in ‘Ulster’ to rid the body of worms.266
Crataegus monogyna Jacquin  

hawthorn, quick, mayflower, whitethorn
Australasia
Crataegus laevigata (Poiret) de Candolle

C. oxycanthoides Thuillier
midland hawthorn
western and central Europe; introduced into North America
Like the rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) and elder (Sambucus nigra), fellow trees
bearing sprays of white blossom, hawthorns have had strong magico-reli-
gious associations down the millennia, associations which have hung on in
rural Ireland till relatively recent years. Today, by far the commoner of the two
species native to the British Isles, Crataegus monogyna may formerly have
been the rarer in southern England, for its degree of interfertility with the
midland hawthorn, C. laevigata, is so great that it must once have been iso-
lated from it ecologically in order to have survived as a separate species. Bio-
metric studies have shown that present-day hawthorn populations consist
of an admixture of the two to a much greater extent than previously sus-
pected, the product not only of hybridisation in the wild but probably also of
much planting in the past of nursery stock of hybrid origin. Crataegus laevi-
gata is essentially a woodland plant of clay soils, while C. monogyna was prob-
ably originally confined to open scrub on limestone and chalk, and to fens.
Crataegus laevigata seems the more likely to have attracted awe, for it is the
only one reliably in flower on Old May Day in southern England and alleg-
156 Crataegus
edly the only one with blossoms emitting a powerful odour of rotting flesh.267
Distinguishing between the species, however, has probably always been a feat
confined to botanists—in folk culture all hawthorns were doubtless regarded
as belonging to a single entity.
Compared with the tree’s prominence in folk beliefs its role in folk med-
icine appears to have been but slight. Both the flowers and the berries have
enjoyed a reputation as a heart tonic in Devon268 and the Isle of Man,269 while
in the Highlands270 hawthorn tea has been drunk as a ‘balancer’ for either
high or low blood pressure. In the Isle of Man271 and the Highlands,272 too,
the plant has provided a remedy for sore throats. In Derbyshire an infusion
of the leaves served to extract thorns and splinters273 and in East Anglia a
decoction of them substituted for those of raspberries (Rubus idaeus) to ease
labour in childbirth.274
The sole Irish records picked up are both from Leitrim: as a toothache
cure275 (involving steeping the bark in black tea and holding the liquid in the
mouth for a few minutes) and as an ingredient in a remedy for burns.276
Notes
1. Maloney 21. Williams MS
2. Newman & Newman, 186 22. Lafont, 66; PLNN, no. 61 (1999),
2a. Cockayne 1864–6; Grattan & 289
Singer 1952 23. Phytologist, n.s. 4 (1860), 167
3. Johnson 1862 24. Fargher
4. Williams MS 25. Roeder
5. Williams MS 26. Roeder
6. ‘E.C.’ 27. Roeder
7. Hatfield MS 28. Moore 1898
8. Beith 29. Roeder
9. Hatfield MS 30. McGlinchey, 83
10. Porter 1974, 47 31. MacCulloch, 90
11. Williams MS 32. Pratt 1850–7
13. IFC S 897: 217 34. Taylor 1929, 119
15. IFC S 338: 223 36. Beith
16. IFC S 572: 70 37. Johnson 1862
17. IFC S 903: 624 38. Salter
18. IFC S 898: 82, 85 39. McClafferty
19. IFC S 925: 6 40. IFC S 655: 265
20. Williams MS 41. IFC S 268: 118
42. Maloney 86. Whitehouse

43. Vickery 1985 87. Beith
44. Maloney 88. Newall, 226
45. IFC S 904: 256 89. Newman 1948
47. IFC S 921: 69, 89 91. Vickery 1995
48. IFC S 138: 168 92. CECTL MSS
49. Moore MS 93. Chamberlain 1981, 214
50. IFC S 190: 342 94. Vickery 1995
51. McClafferty 95. Wright, 243
52. IFC S 903: 624 96. Dacombe
53. Johnston 1853 97. Whitlock 1976, 167
54. Henderson & Dickson, 94 98. Hatfield MS
55. Hatfield, 50 99. Vickery 1995
56. Williams MS 100. Vickery MSS
57. Maloney 101. Lafont
58. IFC S 225: 360 102. Lafont
59. IFC S 888: 294 103. Vickery 1995
61. McNeill 105. IFC S 524: 10
62. O’Toole 106. Lafont
64. Deering, 199 108. Simpkins, 411
65. Lankester, 238 109. Lafont
66. Lafont 110. Tongue
67. Tongue 111. Ellis, 366
68. Beith 112. Gutch & Peacock
69. Beith 113. Vickery MSS
70. Lafont 114. Beith
71. Lafont 115. Courtney, 154
72. Grigson 116. Lafont
73. Palmer 1976, 113 117. Baker
74. Hatfield, 50 118. Dacombe
75. Fargher 119. Hunt, 413; Davey, 143; Hole, 65
76. Maloney 120. Whitlock 1992, 105
77. Maloney 121. McNeill
78. IFC S 385: 55 122. D. Hart-Davis, in litt. Feb. 2000
79. IFC S 637: 216 123. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 77)
80. IFC S 736: 137 124. Arthur, 45
82. IFC S 157: 314 126. Dacombe
83. IFC S 504: 279, 376 127. Fargher
84. Egan 128. Barbour
85. Beith 129. IFC S 672: 211
158 Notes
130. IFC S 522: 197 168. English Folklore Survey, 195

131. IFC S 385: 54 169. Maloney
132. IFC S 505: 148 170. Moloney
133. IFC S 672: 211 171. Collyns; Lafont, 6, 70
135. McClafferty 173. Jobson 1967, 57
136. IFC S 907: 208 174. Newman & Wilson; Parson MS;
137. IFC S 190: 169, 171, 172 Harland, 82
138. Pena & de l’Obel, 308 175. Vickery MSS
139. Pratt 1852, i, 32 176. Newman & Wilson
140. Bethell; Friend 1883–4, ii, 371 177. Evans 1940
141. North Western Naturalist, n.s. 2 178. Williams MS
(1954), 322 179. Taylor MS (Hatfield, appendix)
142. Deering, 162 180. Beith
143. North Western Naturalist, 14 181. Hatfield, 42
(1939), 217 182. Fargher
144. Newman 1945 183. Williams MS
145. Jamieson 184. Archer, xiii
146. Moore MS 185. Williams MS
147. Gregory 186. Quincy, 121
148. Colgan 1904, 301 187. Johnson 1862
149. strongly accented on the second 188. IFC S 617: 334
syllable (Scottish Naturalist, 1 189. Moore MS
(1871), 54) 190. McClafferty
150. Freethy, 127 191. Moore MS
151. Norfolk and Norwich Notes and 192. Hart 1898, 365
Queries, vol. 1 (answer to query 193. Allen 1986, 117
544) 194. A. Allen, 185
152. Jamieson; Vickery 1995 195. Bradshaw
153. Bray, i, 274 196. Beith
154. Pigott 197. Meehan, 207–8
155. Shaw, 47–8 198. Moore MS
156. Beith 199. IFC S 920: 69, 71, 76
157. Barrington, 103 200. Maloney
158. Vickery MSS 201. IFC S 413: 228
159. Maloney 202. Maloney
160. Egan 203. IFC S 5: 163
161. Ó Súilleabháin, 310 204. IFC S 771: 171
162. Moore MS 205. Pena & de l’Obel, 324
163. Britten & Holland, 559 206. Johnson 1633, preface
164. Newman & Wilson 207. Merrett, 92
165. Maloney 208. IFC S 736: 389
166. Deane & Shaw 209. Moore MS
167. Vickery MSS 210. Jobson 1959, 144
211. Vickery MSS 243. Buckley

212. Johnston 1853 244. Maloney
213. Vickery MSS 245. IFC S 571: 8
214. Hatfield MS 246. Hatfield, 30, 89
216. McGlinchey, 83 248. IFC S 93: 528
217. IFC S 1043: 71 249. Moloney
218. IFC S 752: 10 250. IFC S 171: 47
219. Udal 1922, 260 251. Emerson
220. CECTL MSS 252. Withering 1787–92, 296
221. Vickery MSS 253. Vickery MSS
222. Newman & Wilson 254. Hatfield, 52
223. Glyde, 175 255. Macpherson MS
224. Hatfield MS 256. Gutch, 69
225. Parson MS 257. Hole, 18
226. Hardwicke’s Science-gossip (1872), 258. Vickery MSS
282–3 259. Ray 1670, 290
227. Vickery MSS 260. Pennant 1771, 311
228. Vickery MSS 261. Phytologist, n.s. 2 (1858), 415
229. Ellis, 359 262. Beith
230. Wright, 243 263. IFC S 672: 76
231. Friend 1883–4, ii, 372 264. IFC S 171: 53
232. Friend 1883–4, i, 185 265. Maloney
233. Hardwicke’s Science-gossip (1882), 266. Egan
164 267. Allen 1980
234. Fargher 268. Lafont
235. Macpherson MS 269. Quayle, 70
237. Hatfield, 30, 89 271. Quayle, 70
238. Friend 1883–4, ii, 372 272. Beith
239. Hatfield, 29 273. Vickery MSS
240. Beith 274. Newman & Wilson
241. Folk-lore, 35 (1924), 356 275. IFC S 191: 91
CHAPTER 9
Legumes, Spurges and

Geraniums
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Fabales (Faba-

ceae, legumes), Myrtales (Lythraceae, loosestrifes; Thymelaeaceae, mezere-
ons; Onagraceae, willowherbs), Santalales (Viscaceae, mistletoes), Celastrales
(Celastraceae, spindles; Aquifoliaceae, hollies), Euphorbiales (Buxaceae,
boxes; Euphorbiaceae, spurges), Rhamnales (Rhamnaceae, buckthorns),
Linales (Linaceae, flaxes), Polygalales (Polygalaceae, milkworts) and Gera-
niales (Oxalidaceae, wood-sorrels; Geraniaceae, crane’s-bills) are included
in this chapter.
FABACEAE
Anthyllis vulneraria Linnaeus
kidney vetch
Europe, North Africa; introduced into North America, Australasia
(Folk credentials questionable) Despite a reputation throughout Europe as a
vulnerary, the only allegedly folk use traced of Anthyllis vulneraria has been
in the Highlands, where, under two alternative Gaelic names, it is said to have
been used in the past for cuts and bruises.1 Caleb Threlkeld observed it being
sold in markets in eighteenth-century Ireland, under the name ‘stench’.2 This
rarity of records for a species so widespread in the British Isles and locally
quite plentiful makes it likely that it was a borrowing from herbals.
Lotus corniculatus Linnaeus

bird’s-foot-trefoil
Europe, Asia, mountains of North and East Africa; introduced
160
  Legumes, Spurges and Geraniums 161
Another ancient wound herb like Anthyllis vulneraria, Lotus corniculatus also
features hardly at all in the folk records despite its prevalence as a plant of the
British Isles. That the only record of use—as an eyewash—comes from South
Uist in the Outer Hebrides,3 however, makes it a more convincing candidate
for genuine folk status.
Lathyrus linifolius (Reichard) Bässler

L. montanus Bernhardi
bitter-vetch
Europe
Under the name carmele, a contraction of the Gaelic corra-meille (and no
connection with caramel), dried root tubers of Lathyrus linifolius have had an
age-old reputation in the Highlands and Western Isles for their property of
allaying the pangs of hunger on long journeys, if chewed at frequent inter-
vals.4 Martin Martin5 and James Robertson6 also found a deep-rooted belief
in Skye and Mull, respectively, that if chewed before drinking strong liquor,
they prevented intoxication. A cure for diseases of the breast and lungs7 as
well as for indigestion8 was further credited to the tubers. They were found to
keep for many years, and a supply was often laid in for future use.
In Ireland, interestingly, knowledge of the plant’s value extended to Done-
gal, where in the mid-nineteenth century it had some renown as making ‘an
excellent stomach drink’.9 A ‘vetch’ from which a decoction of the roots has
been used as a rub for backache in Wicklow10 is as likely to have been this
plant, too, as any of the species of Vicia.
Trifolium dubium Sibthorp

lesser trefoil
Europe; introduced into North and Central America, Australasia
Trifolium repens Linnaeus

white clover
Europe, north and western Asia, North Africa; introduced into North
and South America, eastern Asia, South Africa, Australasia
(Folk credentials questionable) Studies by botanists11 have shown that the
plant most often identified as the mythical seamróg is the lesser trefoil, Tri-
folium dubium, or, rather less often, white clover, T. repens. It may be that
both these species are phytochemically inert. Nevertheless, one or the other
is most likely to have been the ‘shamrock’ recorded in use in folk medicine for
coughs in Kerry,12 liver ailments in Cavan13 and toothache (for which it was
smoked in a pipe) in the Isle of Man.14
162 Trifolium pratense
Trifolium pratense Linnaeus

red clover
Europe, western and central Asia, North Africa; introduced into
North and South America, South Africa, Australasia
As so frequently seems to be the case, the uses of Trifolium pratense attributed
to ‘country people’ by one of the early writers do not find reflection in the
more recent folk records.According to John Parkinson,‘in many places’at the
time he wrote (1640) the juice was applied to adder bites and to clear the eyes
of any film beginning to grow over them or to soothe them when hot and
bloodshot.15 He makes no mention of coughs and colds, for which the plant
has since been used in mixtures with other herbs in Norfolk16 and Cumbria.17
In the latter it has also been applied to rashes, in the form of a lotion produced
by infusing the flowers and leaves.18 Further, if this is what has been recorded
simply as‘clover’, a tea made from it has been drunk in Caernarvonshire for the
nerves19 and the leaves chewed in the Isle of Man to relieve toothache.20
In Ireland the plant’s role as a cough remedy is more widely recorded than
in Britain—from Cavan,21 Wicklow,22 Clare23 and Kerry24—but exclusive to
that country is the application of the leaves to bee stings in Offaly25 and the
drinking of an infusion of the flowering tops for cancer in Wicklow26 and
for stomach cancer specifically in Meath.27
Cytisus scoparius (Linnaeus) Link

Sarothamnus scoparius (Linnaeus) Wimmer ex Koch
broom
western and central Europe, Macaronesia; introduced into North
Cytisus scoparius is one of the few herbs employed in folk medicine with gen-
eral and emphatic confidence for one particular property: containing
sparteine, a very powerful diuretic which triples renal elimination, an infu-
sion or decoction of the young green ‘tops’ has been recorded from most
parts of the British Isles as in use for dropsy and kidney ailments of all kinds.
In modern herbalism the plant is used to slow and regulate the heart rate,
but no evidence of that has been found in the folk records, by contrast.
Instead, the only other uses in folk medicine which emerge at all widely are
for rheumatic complaints (Essex28 and Cumbria,29 though predominantly
Irish) and as a purgative, for liver troubles (Herefordshire,30 Isle of Man31),
jaundice (Norfolk32) and piles (Devon33). The Isle of Man has seemingly been
unique in employing the plant for swellings34 and to procure an abortion35 as
an alternative to gin.
Ireland’s employment of the ‘tops’ for rheumatic complaints is on record

from Leitrim,36 Westmeath,37 Co. Dublin,38 Wicklow39 and Limerick,40 while
a use for neuralgia in Kilkenny41 is clearly cognate. But though the plant has
featured as a liver remedy only from unspecified part of Ulster,42 the country
has made up for that with a remarkable diversity of other minor applications
apparently exclusive to itself: for coughs and colds in Mayo43 and Roscom-
mon44 or, combined with bilberry tufts, for asthma in Carlow45; for abscesses
in Cavan46 and boils in Carlow47; for erysipelas in Wexford48 and rashes in
Tipperary49; and for sprains in Kildare,50 heartburn in Wicklow51 and
toothache in Carlow again.52 Broom tips also anciently took the place occupied
by juniper in the Scottish Highlands, being burnt as a fumigant.53 An intrigu-
ing sidelight is the belief,reported from Cornwall54 and Donegal,55 that broom
was one of those plants with a‘he-kind’ and a‘she-kind’, each held to be more
potent (as a diuretic) if taken by the opposite sex. In other cases, separate and
even quite unrelated species have been the recipients of this taxonomic twin-
ning,but information is lacking on whether the distinction was made between
broom and some other plant (dyer’s greenweed, Genista tinctoria Linnaeus,
perhaps) or merely between different growth states of broom itself.
Ulex gallii Planchon

western gorse
south-western Atlantic Europe
Ulex europaeus Linnaeus

gorse, furze
Atlantic Europe; introduced widely elsewhere
The recorded uses of gorse in folk medicine all come from those parts of the
west of the British Isles where Ulex gallii is the only one certainly native and
where U. europaeus, the common one over much of England, bears a name in
Gaelic or Welsh indicative of comparatively recent introduction, for hedging
and forage.
Apart from a veterinary use in the Isle of Man, the records come from
Ireland without exception. The principal application there has been for
coughs, colds, sore throats and hoarseness (Down,56 Londonderry,57 Done-
gal,58 Wicklow,59 Waterford60), including consumption (Limerick61). In Lon-
donderry,62 Wicklow63 and Kilkenny64 it has also featured as a tonic, espe-
cially for cleansing or ‘increasing’ the blood, while in parts of Ulster65 and in
Wicklow66 and Wexford67 it has been favoured for heartburn or hiccups. In
Cavan68 and Limerick69 decoctions of the flowers or ‘tops’ have been given for
164 Ulex
jaundice and in Cavan70 for heart trouble, while in parts of Ulster71 it has
been applied to ringworm and dermatitis and in Meath (with daisy roots)
for a whitlow72 or a swelling.73 Widely employed for ridding livestock of
worms, that use has also been extended to children in Antrim74 and Sligo.75
LYTHRACEAE
Lythrum salicaria Linnaeus
purple-loosestrife
Europe, temperate Asia, North Africa, Australia; introduced into
North America
Lythrum salicaria is another plant for which the evidence as a folk remedy is
wholly Irish. Though the Gaelic name in general use for it in the west and
south-west of Ireland76 translates as ‘wound herb’, the present study bears
out the experience of Michael Moloney that that finds no reflection in the
folk records of recent centuries. Other Lythrum species in other parts of the
world are, however, known to be wound plants, so that purple-loosestrife
once served that purpose is not unlikely. As an ‘astringent’, though, there are
generalised statements in the literature that it was popular among the Irish
peasantry for curing diarrhoea,77 and Caleb Threlkeld in 1726 recorded that
a preparation of it cured a patient of his of a seemingly fatal case of dysentery.
That no mentions of this common and conspicuous plant were picked up in
an extensive trawl of the Irish Schools Survey of 1937–8 is therefore very sur-
prising. Could use of it really have died out in the course of the previous hun-
dred years?
THYMELAEACEAE
Daphne mezereum Linnaeus
mezereon
Europe, temperate western Asia; introduced into North America
(Folk credentials questionable) The berries of a plant known as ‘mazeerie’
are recorded as eaten in Lincolnshire as a cure for piles,78 but as those of
Daphne mezereum are highly poisonous the record must surely belong to D.
laureola. The true mezereon—a name of Arabic origin, probably current only
in the written and learned tradition—has undoubtedly been grown in cottage
gardens, but as a wild plant it has probably always been much too rare ever to
have had a place in the unwritten tradition.
Daphne laureola Linnaeus

spurge-laurel, wood-laurel
western and southern Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, Azores;
Described by William Withering as ‘a brisk and rather severe purgative’,79
Daphne laureola finds a mention in Chaucer as a cottage garden laxative and
what is probably a Lincolnshire use in that capacity is mentioned under D.
mezereum, preceding. In the West Riding of Yorkshire ‘the poor people’ in
the eighteenth century employed D. laureola as a vomit.80 In Herefordshire,
on the other hand, it was mixed with mistletoe and given for epilepsy.81 No
records have been found of any seemingly true folk uses, however, of the pur-
poses for which the druggists are said to have most valued it, namely as a
horse medicine and as a cure for venereal disease and both benign and malig-
nant cancers. The herb collectors, who often sold it as ‘mezereon’,82 are
described as scouring woods in Berkshire83 and Sussex84 for its roots in the
first half of the nineteenth century and greatly reducing its large populations
there as a result. While that shows that it existed as a wild plant in England in
sufficient abundance locally to have constituted a potential member of the
unwritten herbal tradition (unlike D. mezereum), the available evidence
makes it look more likely that its use was wholly a product of the learned
works and their followers.
ONAGRACEAE
Epilobium Linnaeus
willowherb
temperate zones
(Name ambiguity suspected) The Rev. Hilderic Friend85 records having heard
‘the small Epilobium’—whatever species he understood by that—called ‘eye-
bright’ in Somerset. That could imply that it has substituted for Euphrasia
officinalis as an eyewash; alternatively, it may have been merely an erroneous
transfer of the vernacular name.
Circaea lutetiana Linnaeus

enchanter’s-nightshade
Europe, western and central Asia, North Africa, North America
Though Circaea lutetiana features in the Anglo-Saxon herbals as a plant of
semi-magical potency, its sole use in British folk medicine appears to have
been in the Highlands (where it could have been C. ×intermedia Ehrhart, its
166 Circaea lutetiana
widespread hybrid with the rare C. alpina Linnaeus) as an aphrodisiac, given

by girls to their lovers without their knowing. The plant was claimed, when
placed in water, to make it bubble.86
VISCACEAE
Viscum album Linnaeus
mistletoe
Europe, central Asia, Japan, North Africa; introduced into
North America
Formerly in great repute, Viscum album ‘is now very much disregarded; and
indeed its sensible qualities promise but little. Some remains of Druidical
Viscum album, mistletoe (Bock

1556, p. 358)
superstition probably gave birth to its medical fame.’87 So wrote the otherwise
enlightened William Withering, dismissively. Attitudes now, however, are
very different, and mistletoe is taken increasingly seriously by present-day
medical science as an important source of therapeutic chemicals, both actual
and potential. Even those Druidical superstitions hardly deserved Wither-
ing’s contempt, for Viscum was one of three herbs mentioned by Pliny the
Elder in his Natural History as held in high esteem by the contemporary
Gauls—and, as it was a plant well known to the Romans, there can hardly be
doubt about its identity. Pliny says the Druids believed it an antidote for all
poisons and called it ‘all heal’, and that has survived as one of its vernacular
names in both Wales and Scotland.
Since ancient times it has been known that the plant produces a substance
which has a relaxing effect on the nervous system. That is the property that
finds principal reflection in the folk records (naturally concentrated in the
southern half of England, the only part of the British Isles in which mistletoe
occurs in any quantity). Employment in that connection ranges from con-
trolling the involuntary muscle contractions characteristic of chorea (‘St
Vitus’ dance’) in Wiltshire,88 Hampshire,89 Sussex,90 Gloucestershire91 and
Lincolnshire92 and those of epilepsy in Suffolk,93 Herefordshire94 and Lin-
colnshire,95 to calming hysteria in Herefordshire96 and heart palpitation in
Inverness-shire.97 Because of the control the plant is believed to exert over
blood pressure as well, there is also a contemporary Essex record of eating a
leaf daily to guard against a stroke.98
A secondary use of mistletoe in the more distant past has been for fevers,
a practice surviving into the eighteenth century in Moray.99 Relics of that
presumably are its deployment against measles (to bring out the spots) in
Somerset100 and whooping cough in Norfolk.101
In Ireland the plant has enjoyed a reputation in Cavan102 and Meath103 for
soothing the nerves in general, and in Limerick104 and Cork105 for palliating
epilepsy and hysteria specifically.
CELASTRACEAE
Euonymus europaeus Linnaeus
spindle
Europe, western Asia; introduced into New Zealand
One of the vernacular names for Euonymus europaeus, ‘louseberries’, recorded
from Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Cumbria, is a relic of the once wide-
spread decoction of the leaves or bark or powder employed against head lice
168 Euonymus europaeus
in children. Though mentioned by several other earlier writers, a record from

Cumbria106 is the only localised one that has been encountered in the folk
literature.
A tea made from the bark has been a jaundice remedy in Essex,107 but
that sounds suspiciously like a carry-over from learned medicine, in which
the plant has had a reputation for curing liver ailments.
AQUIFOLIACEAE
Ilex aquifolium Linnaeus  
holly
New Zealand
Though the tree Ilex aquifolium is common over much of the British Isles, its
recorded use in folk medicine is very largely confined to central and southern
England, and to one affliction mainly: chilblains. By beating those with a
sprig of holly till they bled, it was believed that the circulation was improved
(or, as an Oxfordshire theory had it, it let the chilled blood out).108 For the
same reason that was the way to relieve arthritis or rheumatism, people main-
tained in Somerset.109 But if the rationale of applying a counter-irritant was
considered to dictate too painful a procedure, chilblains could equally well be
treated with an ointment made from mixing lard with the powdered berries
(Wiltshire,110 Essex111), or rheumatism relieved with an infusion of the leaves
(in Devon).112 A whooping-cough cure in Hampshire involved drinking new
milk out of a cup made from the wood of the variegated variety of the tree.113
The Irish peasantry disregarded chilblains, it would seem. Instead, holly
leaves were applied to burns in Meath,114 and a stiff neck cured in Water-
ford115 by beating it with a sprig from the tree.
BUXACEAE
Buxus sempervirens Linnaeus
box
southern Europe, North Africa; introduced into North America
and elsewhere
(Folk credentials questionable) It has become accepted in more recent years
that boxwoods on steep chalk or limestone slopes here and there in southern
England today are native and not the product of ancient introduction, as for-
merly assumed. Potentially, therefore, they could have served as a source for
medicinal use. Buxus sempervirens has been grown so widely as an orna-

mental, though, that the leaves in the case of the only folk records traced, for
ridding the body of worms (human bodies in Suffolk,116 horses’ in Dorset117)
are likely to have been taken from bushes ready to hand, for which reason
this cannot be classed on present evidence as a wild herb.
EUPHORBIACEAE
Mercurialis perennis Linnaeus
dog’s mercury
Europe, south-western Asia, Algeria
Records of Mercurialis perennis in the folk medicine lit-
erature must mainly belong to good-King-Henry
(Chenopodium bonus-henricus Linnaeus), a for-
merly widely grown vegetable which was com-
monly known as ‘mercury’ at one time. Dog’s
mercury is highly acrid and for that reason
unlikely to have been used for the healing pur-
poses specified. If the botanist John Light-
foot was correctly informed, however,
it was the species that the inhabi-
tants of Skye took to induce saliva-
tion, under the name lus-glen-
Bracadale.118 Though very local on
that island today, the ease and per-
sistence with which the plant spreads
tend to make for abundance wherever it
occurs and it could thus have been present in
sufficient quantity to be used herbally. Good-
King-Henry, moreover, is not on record from
Skye. It is nevertheless possible that dog’s mer-
cury was used there in all innocence in error
for its harmless namesake.
Euphorbia helioscopia Linnaeus

sun spurge, wartweed
Europe, central Asia, North Africa; Euphorbia helioscopia,
introduced into North America, sun spurge (Fuchs
Australasia 1543, fig. 465)
170 Euphorbia
Euphorbia peplus Linnaeus

petty spurge, wartweed
Europe, north-western Asia, North Africa, Azores; introduced into
Euphorbia hyberna Linnaeus

Irish spurge
south-western Europe
Euphorbia paralias Linnaeus

sea spurge
southern and Atlantic Europe, Siberia, North Africa; introduced into
North America, Australia
Euphorbia lathyrus Linnaeus

caper spurge
southern and central Europe, Morocco, Azores (status doubtful);
Euphorbia amygdaloides Linnaeus

wood spurge
central and southern Europe, Algeria; introduced into
New Zealand
The corrosive milky juice of several of the species of the genus Euphorbia
found in the British Isles is credited well-nigh universally with the ability to
remove warts. Sun spurge (E. helioscopia) is the one most often cited in that
connection, but petty spurge (E. peplus), the commoner as a garden weed, has
probably often substituted for it. In southern and western Ireland, Irish
spurge (E. hyberna) enjoyed a reputation as the most efficacious for the pur-
pose,119 in Scilly sea spurge (E. paralias) is known to have served instead,120
while in north-eastern England121 caper spurge (E. lathyrus) and in Limer-
ick122 some species surely misidentified as wood spurge (E. amygdaloides)
have been yet further alternatives. In general, though, the species resorted to
was probably immaterial; whichever happened to be handy was used. The
one exception may have been E. hyberna, for a medical correspondent of John
Ray’s, writing from Tipperary in 1697, reported that the root of that was
sometimes boiled in Ireland to produce a purge but was liable to give rise to
severe convulsions followed by early death.123 By the nineteenth century it
seems to have become accepted that it was suitable for giving only to live-
stock for that purpose and its use for human beings was confined to practi-
cal joking: one man in Galway who was dosed with it ‘ran up and down the
street like a madman, and swelled so big that his friends had to bind him
round with hay-ropes lest he shall burst.’124
Horseplay also found a use for Euphorbia helioscopia in the Isle of Man,125
but in that case arising out of a different property of the juice: the ability to
make the head of the penis swell. As an aid to sexual excitement this was suf-
ficiently well known to have given rise to a name for the plant in Manx
descriptive of the effect, and that ‘Saturday-night-pepper’ was one of the
names borne by spurge in Wiltshire126 suggests that it may have had this role
in many other areas as well.
Like the Irish, the Manx also knew of the purgative power of spurges127;
another of the plants’ names in their language identified it as a herb for uri-
nary purposes, too.128 Contrariwise, in at least one part of Ireland Euphorbia
hyberna has enjoyed a reputation as an infallible cure for diarrhoea.129 In
north-eastern Scotland E. helioscopia was employed against ringworm,130
while in Lincolnshire131 and (perhaps) Kent132 the plant served to poultice
adder bites and other venomous wounds. More unexpected is the infusion
made from it in Northumberland and drunk twice daily to relieve the pain of
rheumatism.133
RHAMNACEAE
Rhamnus cathartica Linnaeus
buckthorn
Europe, western Asia, north-western Africa; introduced into
North America
Though Rhamnus cathartica was once a standard purge for constipation,
especially in children, even the supposedly mild dose of twenty berries acted
so violently and produced such intensive griping pain that from the eigh-
teenth century onwards, physicians advised against its use. Nevertheless, the
berries were still collected in the Chilterns for druggists as late as the 1880s.134
Though it was plentiful and accessible enough to have formed part of the
folklore repertory, the virtual absence of records from the folk literature sug-
gests that its use was either derived from learned medicine or abandoned so
early that memory of it had become forgotten—at any rate as a human rem-
edy: it is on record as one for cattle in Ireland.
172 Frangula alnus
Frangula alnus Miller

alder buckthorn
Europe, north Asia, north-western Africa; introduced into
North America
(Folk credentials questionable) According to John Gerard, ‘divers countri-
men’ among his sixteenth-century contemporaries used an infusion of the
inner bark of Frangula alnus as a purge and emetic.135 But it is unclear
whether by those words he meant the folk whom elsewhere he carefully dis-
tinguishes as ‘the country people’, the followers of practices to which he
tended to refer only rarely and then merely on account of their quaintness.
LINACEAE
Linum catharticum Linnaeus
fairy flax, purging flax
Europe, south-western Asia; introduced into North America
Evidence of Linum catharticum, a well-known purge and emetic, has been
excavated from deposits in Britain as early as the Late Bronze Age, invariably
from sites associated with cultivation. This may or may not indicate medici-
nal use; there are, however, folk records from widely scattered and remote
parts of the British Isles to suggest that its history as a purge goes back a very
long way. In the Celtic-speaking regions it has also enjoyed a reputation as a
cure for menstrual irregularities: in the Highlands, where it bore a name to
that effect in Gaelic, this was apparently its principal use136; it is also indi-
cated with greater or lesser explicitness from the Isle of Man137 and Skye.138
Its very power as a purge, evacuating ‘viscid and watery humours from the
most remote lodgments’, was why it commended itself to ‘the common peo-
ple’ for rheumatism as well, according to John Quincy, who nevertheless rated
it ‘only for very robust strong constitutions’.139 There are more recent but,
regrettably, unlocalised British records for its use for that purpose, too.140
Ireland supplies one further application: for urinary complaints in
Cavan.141
Radiola linoides Roth

allseed
Europe, temperate Asia, Macaronesia, mountains of East Africa
(Name confusion suspected) A herb recorded in use in the Isle of Man for
ruptures has been referred to Radiola linoides.142 However, it is too rare on
that island for the identification to be credible, and it is unlikely to have been
cultivated.
POLYGALACEAE
Polygala vulgaris Linnaeus  
common milkwort
Australasia
Polygala serpyllifolia Hose

heath milkwort
New Zealand
(Folk credentials questionable) Hopefully identified as the ‘polygala’ (much
milk) of Classical authors, Polygala serpyllifolia and P. vulgaris were in con-
sequence so particularly commended in the medieval herbals to nursing
mothers for promoting the flow of milk after childbirth that their presence in
the unwritten tradition seems doubtful at best. The near-absence of ostensi-
bly folk records of that use is indeed suspicious, the sole one, from Norfolk,143
being of a relatively recent date. Though it has been suggested that a herb
used in the Isle of Man which bore a name translating as nipplewort144 may
have been P. serpyllifolia or P. vulgaris (both widespread there), that identifi-
cation is by no means certain. It is true that species of Polygala have been
known in the vernacular as ‘milkwort’ in the north of England and the Bor-
ders,145 but that name could have been taken from the herbals; it is not nec-
essarily evidence of a one-time widespread use for that same purpose quite
independent of learned medicine. It is further suspicious that a herb valued
for the ability of its ‘milk’ to cure warts, which must surely be spurge (Euphor-
bia), has also borne that name in parts of England, particularly the Eastern
Counties.146 It was doubtless spurge, too, that was the ‘milkwort’ recorded as
used in some part(s) of Wales for slight bites by dogs, cats and ‘venomous
animals’,147 for that is one of the subsidiary applications featuring in the folk
records for E. helioscopia.
OXALIDACEAE
Oxalis acetosella Linnaeus
wood-sorrel
Europe, northern and central Asia, allied species in North America
Because of its frequent confusion with ‘cuckoo sorrel’, which seems to have
been normally Rumex acetosa, as well as its long-standing competition with
Trifolium species for the honour of being the ‘shamrock’ of Irish legend, folk
174 Oxalis acetosella
records of Oxalis acetosella need to be sifted with more than ordinary care.
Luckily, in some cases‘wood-sorrel’ is named specifically, while in others that
this species was doubtless the one intended can be deduced from the medic-
inal application mentioned. The possibility remains, however, that because of
the similarity of their vernacular names, some transferring of applications
between this and R. acetosa has taken place over the centuries in all innocence.
Even after excluding records likely to belong to other species, we are still
left with a suspicious-looking pattern made up of applications recorded
mostly from a single area only: to bruises just in Devon,148 for instance. How-
ever, because the identity of the herbs recorded as employed in remedies in
the island of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides was checked by a botanist
allegedly in all cases, it may be safe to accept that it was this plant that formed
a main ingredient in plasters applied to scrofula there.149 But though several
authors have repeated the respective statements of the botanist John Light-
foot and his companion Thomas Pennant that a whey or tea of it was
employed to allay the heat of fevers in Arran,150 those two did not set eyes on
the herb in question, which could therefore have been something else.
In Ireland ‘wood-sorrel’ explicitly has been recorded in use for diarrhoea
in Mayo151 and Wicklow,152 as a blood tonic in Cavan,153 as a heart tonic in
Wicklow154 and for countering palsy in Limerick.155 Because clovers have
been brought to bear on cancers in other parts of Ireland, it is probably also
safe to assume that it was this plant, with its clover-like leaves, and not Rumex
acetosa that was eaten for stomach cancer in some unstated part of ‘Ulster’.156
GERANIACEAE
Geranium pratense Linnaeus
meadow crane’s-bill
northern and central Eurasia; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
(Folk credentials questionable) The astringency shared with other members
of the genus by Geranium pratense brought great repute to a country herb
doctor in early-Victorian Berwickshire for its effectiveness against diarrhoea,
especially in teething children.157 That this is the sole record traced of this
widespread and conspicuous English plant makes it likely that it belongs to the
learned tradition rather than to the oral folk one. Significantly, the species was
strongly recommended as a vulnerary in the 1542 herbal of Leonhard Fuchs.
Geranium robertianum Linnaeus

herb-Robert, (foetid) crane’s-bill, bloodwort, red Roger;
crobh dearg (Irish)
Europe, southern temperate Asia, North Africa, Macaronesia;
introduced into North and South America, New Zealand
Formerly known to every owner of cattle in Ireland as the standard remedy for
red-water fever, a disease of farm animals especially prevalent in that country,
Geranium robertianum,
herb-Robert (Fuchs 1543,
fig. 115)
176 Geranium robertianum
the consequent familiarity of Geranium robertianum gave it a particularly

strong following there for human ailments as well. Foremost of those was kid-
ney trouble, to judge from the number of records for that, which are Irish
exclusively: from Cavan,158 Meath,159 the Aran Islands,160 Limerick,161 Car-
low,162 Kerry163 and, if ‘pain in the back’, as so often, meant that, in Water-
ford,164 too. Similarly an Irish monopoly, it appears, has been using the plant
to ease sore throats and coughs of all kinds (Wicklow,165 Carlow,166 Limer-
ick167). Almost as much of an Irish speciality, too, rather surprisingly given
herb-Robert’s recommendation as a vulnerary in the early herbals, has been
the prizing of it for staunching bleeding; but in this case the restriction of
records mainly to eastern coast counties (Down,168 Cavan,169 Meath,170 Wick-
low171) possibly hints at a tradition imported from Britain. Other, more
localised applications in Ireland have been for rheumatic pains172 and for a
gripe in the stomach173 in Tipperary, for gravel in Londonderry174 and urinary
retention in the Aran Islands,175 and for gallstones176 and diabetes177 (the plant
allegedly lowers the blood sugar level) in parts of the country left unspecified.
In sharp contrast, skin troubles, including skin cancer and especially
erysipelas, appear to feature in the records only in Britain: in Devon,178 ‘South
Wales’,179 Gloucestershire,180 Yorkshire181 and various parts of the High-
lands.182 In several of these areas that finds reflection in a vernacular name.
Otherwise, Britain has no roles for this plant that appear to be at all wide-
spread. This residue includes gout in Devon183 and ‘North Wales’,184 and
stomach upsets in Devon185 and the Isle of Man.186 In this last, further uses
have been for mouth sores and inflammation187 and as a wash for the com-
plexion.188 The Highlands,189 though, have produced the sole British coun-
terpart of the widespread Irish reputation the plant has had for staunching
bleeding. Finally, in one part of Gloucestershire a belief has been recorded
that the two sides of the leaf have different therapeutic functions: one draws
out the injurious matter, the other heals.190
Notes
1. MacFarlane 9. Hart 1898, 370
2. Threlkeld 10. McClafferty
3. Shaw, 49 11. Colgan 1892; Nelson
4. Pennant 1774, 310; Grant 12. IFC S 476: 91
5. Martin, 226 13. Maloney
6. Henderson & Dickson, 80 14. Moore 1898
7. Lightfoot, 389; Pennant 1774, 310 15. Parkinson, 1112
8. Martin, 226 16. Bardswell
17. Freethy, 112 61. IFC S 523: 272

18. Freethy, 112 62. Lucas, 185
20. Gill, 298 64. IFC S 861: 212
21. Maloney 65. St Clair
22. McClafferty 66. Lucas, 185; McClafferty
23. IFC S 617: 333 67. Lucas, 185
24. IFC S 476: 91 68. Maloney
25. IFC S 812: 441 69. IFC S 500: 76
26. McClafferty 70. Maloney
27. IFC S 710: 49 71. St Clair
28. Newman & Wilson 72. IFC S 710: 43–4
29. Newman & Wilson; Freethy, 123 73. Lucas, 185
30. Jones-Baker, 101 74. Vickery 1995
31. Moore 1898 75. Lucas, 185
32. Folk-lore, 36 (1925), 257 76. Colgan 1911
33. Woodbine, Autumn 1992 77. Johnson 1862; Henslow
34. Moore 1898 78. Rudkin
35. Fargher 79. Withering 1787–92, 233
36. IFC S 191: 95 80. Anon. in Watson 1775, 737
37. IFC S 737: 107 81. Bull
38. IFC S 787: 52 82. Garner, 368
39. McClafferty 83. Lousley, 208
40. IFC S 483: 207; 512: 97 84. Bromfield
41. IFC S 907: 212 85. Friend 1883–4, ii, 363
42. Egan 86. Carmichael, vi, 102
43. IFC S 137: 135 87. Withering 1787–92, 609
44. IFC S 269: 254 88. Macpherson MS
45. IFC S 903: 297 89. Fernie, 320
46. Maloney 90. Arthur, 45
47. IFC S 907: 299 91. Palmer 1994, 122
48. IFC S 903: 298 92. Gutch & Peacock, 120
49. IFC S 571: 7 93. Jobson 1959, 144
50. IFC S 771: 241 94. Bull, 335 footnote
51. McClafferty 95. Woodruffe-Peacock
52. IFC S 903: 297 96. Bull, 335 footnote
53. Moloney 97. Beith
54. Davey, 111 98. Hatfield, 91
56. St Clair 100. PLNN, no. 24 (1992), 112
57. Lucas, 185 101. Haggard, 16
58. IFC S 1043: 71 102. Maloney
60. Lucas, 185 104. IFC S 484: 43
178 Notes
105. IFC S 385: 55 148. Lafont

106. Freethy, 100 149. McNeill
107. Hatfield, 42 150. Lightfoot, 238; Pennant 1774, 175
108. ‘E.C.’ 151. Vickery MSS
109. Tongue 152. IFC S 920: 75
110. Whitlock 1976, 167 153. Maloney
111. Hatfield, 27 154. McClafferty
112. Lafont 155. IFC S 524: 5
113. Notes and Queries, ser. 1, 4 (1851), 156. Egan
227 157. Johnston 1849
114. IFC S 690: 39 158. IFC S 975: 27
115. IFC S 637: 21 159. Farrelly MS
116. Jobson 1959, 144 160. Ó hEithir
117. PLNN, no. 23 (1992), 103 161. IFC S 482: 155
118. Lightfoot, ii, 621 162. IFC S 907: 299
119. Sargent 163. IFC S 412: 96
120. PLNN, no. 27 (1992), 123 164. IFC S 655: 150, 267, 353, 355
121. Vickery MSS 165. McClafferty
122. IFC S 498: 127 166. IFC S 907: 268
123. Lankester, 319 167. IFC S 483: 21, 330, 369
124. Hart 1873 168. Barbour
125. PLNN, no. 6 (1989), 25 169. Maloney
126. Dartnell & Goddard 170. IFC S 710: 49
127. Moore 1898 171. IFC S 914: 549
128. Kermode MS 172. IFC S 572: 89
129. Logan, 33 173. IFC S 550: 279
130. Gregor, 47 174. Moore MS
131. Britten & Holland, 274 175. Ó hEithir
132. Pratt 1850–7 176. Logan, 38
133. Vickery MSS 177. Moloney; Ó Súilleabháin, 311
134. Boulger 178. Lafont
135. Gerard, 1287 179. Hardwicke’s Science-gossip (1869),
136. Beith 191
137. Fargher 180. Britten & Holland
138. Henderson & Dickson, 93 181. Britten & Holland
139. Quincy, 175 182. Gregor, 47; Polson, 32; MacFarlane;
140. Pratt 1850–7; Johnson 1862 McCutcheon; Beith
142. Henderson & Dickson, 93 184. Pratt 1850–7
143. Hatfield, 89 185. Lafont
144. Moore 1898 186. Quayle, 69
145. Britten & Holland 187. Moore 1898
146. Newman & Wilson; Taylor 1929; 188. Paton
Parson MS 189. Cameron
147. Trevelyan, 314 190. Palmer 1994, 122
CHAPTER 10
Ivy and
Umbellifers
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the order Apiales and families Araliaceae

(ivies) and Apiaceae (parsleys) are included in this chapter.
ARALIACEAE
Hedera helix Linnaeus
ivy
western and central Europe, south-western Asia; introduced into
Few other herbs have been resorted to so generally—virtually throughout
the British Isles—for one ailment in particular as Hedera helix has been for
corns (or, much more rarely, bunions or verrucas). Usually the leaves were
soaked in vinegar to soften them and then bound on as a poultice; less often,
they were boiled and the resulting liquid rubbed in; more simply still, the
leaves were worn inside a sock. Reputedly, the corn dropped off in a matter of
days, without any pain.
The reputation for curing corns extended to warts (Essex,1 Somerset2)
and ‘cold sores’ or tetters (Berwickshire3), and from those it seems to have
been a logical progression to skin disorders of a variety of kinds, of which
British examples are rashes in Dorset4 and ringworm in Berwickshire.5 A
special treatment in that connection has been the placing of a cap made from
the leaves on the head of a child with eczema, apparently exclusive to parts of
Scotland (Fife,6 Colonsay7 in the Inner Hebrides) and even more parts of Ire-
land. A remarkably similar distribution to that is shown by the records for
treating burns and scalds with ointment made from the boiled leaves mixed
179
180 Hedera helix
with fat, but in this case the Scottish instances (Ayrshire,8 the Highlands9)
are joined by one from Devon.10 Other uses which seem to have been pre-
dominantly Irish likewise crop up in the English records just here and there:
the plant’s reputed ability to staunch bleeding has led to its inclusion in an
ointment for suppurating wounds in Herefordshire,11 while as a treatment
for inflammation it has found an outlet in Devon in the form of an infusion
of the leaves and berries taken for mumps.12 Irish faith in the berries as a cure
for aches and pains is reflected by their being valued in Gloucestershire as
very good for the nerves,13 just as Ireland’s valuing of the plant for coughs and
colds is seemingly echoed in a belief in Shropshire that an infallible remedy
for whooping cough is to drink from cups made from its wood.14
Ivy has either been more especially an Irish herb or its former uses have
persisted there more obstinately than in Britain. No fewer than five of the
plant’s principal recorded uses—for corns, burns, eczema in children, inflam-
mation and cuts—are known from many more counties in Ireland; more-
over, except in the case of the last, the distribution of which seems to be con-
fined to the country’s central belt, the records are so widely spread as to
suggest that they were more or less general in the not-too-distant past. In
addition, ivy would seem to have been brought to bear on a considerably
wider range of ailments than in Britain. Uniquely Irish, apparently, has been
as a treatment for boils and abscesses: recorded from Cavan,15 Longford,16
Wicklow17 and Limerick18 as well as from Monaghan, where one side of a
heated leaf was relied on to draw out the pus and the other to do the healing,19
a procedure known from Donegal20 and Leitrim21 but applied there to
extracting thorns from fingers. A boiled leaf also poulticed chilblains in
Meath22 and Wicklow,23 bad sprains in Donegal24 and warts in Laois.25 In
Waterford,26 on the other hand, a leaf had its outer skin scraped off and
applied to sore lips. So great was the plant’s reputation for healing skin dis-
orders that its use extended to ringworm in Leitrim,27 measles in Tipperary28
and skin cancer in the region east of Sligo.29
That the berries were eaten in Offaly and its neighbours30 for aches and
pains hints at an action akin to aspirin, which could account for the plant’s
popularity in Wicklow31 and Kerry32 for easing coughs and colds or, in
another part of the country,33 for clearing the chest in bronchitis. It could
also account for the use of an extract of the leaves in Wexford34 and Limer-
ick35 for back pain, though that could mean kidney trouble, for which the
plant has also had its value in Roscommon36 and for both that and jaundice
in Cavan.37
  Ivy and Umbellifers 181
In one application alone, and that a minor one, does Ireland seem to have
been overtaken by Britain: the procuring of an infusion from the leaves as a
lotion for sore eyes. Records of this have been traced only from Limerick,38 but
in Britain it is known from as far apart as Hampshire,39 Suffolk40 and Fife.41
Finally, there is a use of particular interest of which only a solitary record
has come to light: a preparation of the leaves drunk as an abortifacient. This
was a practice well known at one time to women in a village in (?) Wiltshire.42
APIACEAE
Hydrocotyle vulgaris Linnaeus
marsh pennywort
Europe, North Africa
(Identification uncertain) Hydrocotyle vulgaris seems the likeliest identity of
the plant whose ‘penny leaves that are got in the bog’ were rated by two Lim-
erick informants as excellent for dressing a burn.43 Bog pondweed (Pota-
mogeton natans), however, must also be considered a possibility.
Sanicula europaea Linnaeus 

sanicle
Europe, southern, central and eastern Asia, Africa
An ancient panacea, Sanicula europaea was praised so highly in the old
herbals that its folk use cannot escape suspicion of being wholly derived from
the written tradition. John Parkinson in his Theatrum of 1640 says the coun-
try folk applied an ointment made from it to their hands ‘when they are chapt
by the winde’, but the uses recorded in the more recent folk literature mostly
reflect the haemostatic property claimed for the plant. It seems to have
enjoyed a particularly wide vogue in the Highlands44 for healing infected
wounds (as well as ulcers45), while the curing of haemorrhages and dysentery
(as well as bruises and fractures) has been claimed for it in the Isle of Man.46
In Ireland, similarly, it has been valued for bleeding piles in parts of Lon-
donderry.47 In Donegal, however, the authority on that county’s flora found
it much prized as a treatment for consumption.48
Eryngium maritimum Linnaeus

sea-holly
coasts of temperate Europe; introduced into North America
The name eryngo, by which herbalists mainly understood Eryngium cam-
pestre Linnaeus, a species of mainland Europe very rare in Britain, was shared
182 Eryngium maritimum
by the common E. maritimum of sandy shores, and at least some of the

virtues claimed for the bitter root of the other were attributed to this one as
well. The roots had to be dug from a depth of six feet or more, were then
peeled, boiled and cut into slivers which were twisted like barley sugar and
covered in a very strong syrup. The resulting ‘eryngo-root’, for which the town
of Colchester enjoyed a particular reputation for centuries, was much prized
for coughs and colds49 as well as, in popular lore, as an aphrodisiac. Physicians
thought highly of it as a tonic, too.
The plant was recorded by Roderic O’Flaherty as in use medicinally in
1684 in the remoteness of the Aran Islands, where it was still employed in
the 1920s to rid children of worms and as a general prophylactic.50 In the
formerly hardly less remote Isle of Man, the root was also valued for its anti-
irritant property,51 and ear infections treated with juice squeezed from the
leaves.52 Yet the prominent place the species occupied in learned medicine
together with the lack of records of putative folk use elsewhere in the British
Isles make it more probable than not that even in those areas it owed its pres-
ence in the healing repertory to the written tradition originally.
Anthriscus sylvestris (Linnaeus) Hoffman

cow parsley
Europe, north Asia, North and East Africa; introduced into
North America
Several wild species with umbels of white flowers and similarly finely cut
leaves have traditionally been called ‘parsley’ in combination with one prefix
or another (and shared other vernacular names as well, including ‘keck’,
‘Queen Anne’s lace’ and even ‘hemlock’). Anthriscus sylvestris is by far the
commonest of them, at any rate in England—in the north and west of the
British Isles it tends to be much scarcer—though its abundance may have
come about only in recent centuries, as a consequence of the multiplication
of roadside verges.
Whether or not records for ‘wild parsley’ or ‘hedge parsley’ belong to
Anthriscus sylvestris, one or more herbs passing under those names have at
any rate enjoyed a reputation in Gloucestershire (in the recipe book of a
barely literate farmer53) and the Isle of Man54 as a cure for kidney or bladder
stones or gravel. As that was one of the virtues also credited to the parsley of
gardens (Petroselinum crispum (Miller) Nyman ex A. W. Hill), however, the
exploitation of the wild relative(s) may merely have been a carry-over from
the cultivated species. More convincingly folk in origin was the use of a ‘wild
parsley’ known as tath lus in the Outer Hebrides, where, especially in Eriskay,
a preparation of that was once valued by women crofters as a sedative.55
Anthriscus sylvestris is known to occur in those islands, though very sparsely.
In Ireland ‘wild parsley’ is similarly on record from Cavan56 and West-
meath57 as a remedy for kidney trouble. In the case of Westmeath, garden
parsley has also served as a source of the preparation in question.
Scandix pecten-veneris Linnaeus

shepherd’s-needle
central and southern Europe, western Asia; introduced into North
and South America, North and South Africa, Australasia
A plant known as ‘Adam’s needle’, one of the alternative names recorded for
Scandix pecten-veneris, has been used in Tipperary for toothache.58
Myrrhis odorata (Linnaeus) Scopoli  

sweet cicely
upland Europe; introduced (?) into Chile
A contemporary use of Myrrhis odorata for coughs is known in Suffolk.58a
There is one veterinary record, from Teesdale, also.
Smyrnium olusatrum Linnaeus

Alexanders
south-western and southern Europe, Canary Islands
Once widely eaten as a vegetable as an alternative to celery and common in
many coastal areas, mainly in the west, Smyrnium olusatrum enjoyed a repu-
tation, especially among seafarers, of ‘clearing’ the blood and preventing
scurvy. Crews of ships used to put ashore in Anglesey specially in order to
gather it.59 On the Isle of Portland in Dorset it was known as ‘helrut’, credibly
assumed to be a corruption of heal-root.60 It was perhaps as a relic of its con-
sumption for this general prophylactic purpose that the remains of the plant
have turned up in a level of Roman age in South Wales.
Two more specific uses of it have been recorded, however. On one of the
islands in the Outer Hebrides a broth made from lamb in which this and
lovage had been boiled was reckoned to be good for consumptives.61 And in
the Isle of Man, where it was known as lus-ny-ollee and is still used by veteri-
nary doctors there for animals with sore mouths,62 it at one time came in
handy as well when people had toothache.63
184 Conopodium majus
Conopodium majus (Gouan) Loret

pignut
south-western and Atlantic Europe
Well-known for its nut-like roots, Conopodium majus has been employed in
the Isle of Man as a diuretic.64
In Ireland the plant has been valued in Donegal for cleansing the blood.65
A tea substitute has been made from it in Fermanagh, but whether that was
a medicinal use in unclear.66
Pimpinella saxifraga Linnaeus

burnet-saxifrage
Europe; introduced into North America
Although the acrid root of Pimpinella saxifraga once had the reputation,
when chewed, of promoting the flow of saliva, causing it to be used for
toothache and as a gargle, while its astringency made it popular for cleansing
the skin of freckles, one assertion that these were long-established practices
of ‘country people’67 (in England) is left no less ambiguous in other sources.68
The only specific, allegedly folk record traced is from Aberdeenshire, where
James Robertson in 1768 was told it was a cure for indigestion pains.69 Most
probably this was a legacy of learned medicine.
Sium latifolium Linnaeus

greater water-parsnip
temperate Europe
(Name confusion) ‘Water parsnip’ has been referred to Sium latifolium in
one Irish list,70 but clearly in error for hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe
crocata), for which that has been in use as an alternative name.
Crithmum maritimum Linnaeus  

rock samphire
Atlantic and southern Europe, Black Sea, North Africa, Macaronesia
In Cornwall Crithmum maritimum was once ‘thought to help digestion’ when
pickled.71
Oenanthe fistulosa Linnaeus

tubular water-dropwort
Europe, south-western Asia, north-western Africa
An infusion of the plant known to the informant as ‘water fennel’ has been
recorded from Wicklow as a treatment for rheumatism.72 That strictly speak-
ing is the book name of the related species Oenanthe fluviatilis (Babington)
Coleman, which is, however, very rare in the county in question, where O. fis-
tulosa on the other hand is locally common.
Oenanthe crocata Linnaeus

hemlock water-dropwort
south-western Europe, Morocco
There are numerous reports scattered throughout the medico-botanical liter-
ature of people mistaking the extremely poisonous Oenanthe crocata for wild
celery or parsnips and dying within just an hour or two. In the west of the
British Isles, where it is common, the local country people would normally
have learned from childhood to leave it strictly alone; the fatalities have typi-
cally been of incomers unaware of the
plant’s identity and danger—for ex-
ample, a group of French prisoners of
war on parole in Pembrokeshire.73 The
poison resides in the dark, viscous resin
and may act on the heart and nervous
system simultaneously.
Unexpectedly, despite the seemingly
total avoidance of deadly night-
shade (Atropa belladonna), both
Oenanthe crocata and the true
hemlock (Conium maculatum)
have been utilised in folk medi-
cine, though presumably always
with great caution and for ex-
ternal application only. Of the
sole two records traced of the
use of O. crocata outside Ireland, however,
one dates from as far back as the early
eighteenth century, when under
the name ‘five-fingered root’ the
plant is said to have been exten-
sively employed for poulticing
the severer kinds of ‘felons’.74
The other is from the Isle of
Man, where it has been prized,
apparently down to a more recent Oenanthe crocata, hemlock water-
period, as a treatment for skin cancers.75 dropwort (Green 1902, fig. 266)
186 Oenanthe crocata
That Manx use has found fuller expression in Ireland, where only a plant
of such virulence has apparently been rated an effective-enough weapon to
deploy against tumours. As late as the 1840s it was still frequently used for
those in Cork and other southern counties,76 and if those were the ‘external
swellings’ known under the name ‘tahow’, in Londonderry also.77 The ‘water
parsnip’ and ‘water hemlock’ reported more recently to have been applied in
Ireland to scrofulous swellings in the neck78 sound like this plant, too. It is
probably also the‘water parsnip’that has been reckoned to cure boils in Cork.79
Foeniculum vulgare Miller

fennel
South Europe, North Africa; introduced into most temperate regions
(Folk credentials questionable) Well naturalised in parts of the British Isles,
especially near coasts, Foeniculum vulgare may conceivably be native but is
more probably wholly derived from cultivation. Only four records have been
traced of its use in folk medicine, and that two of those also involve the cul-
tivated sage strongly suggests that this has been a garden herb exclusively.
Silaum silaus (Linnaeus) Schinz & Thellung

pepper-saxifrage
northern and western Europe, western Siberia
‘English saxifrage’ (as he called it) ‘our English women phisitians have in
great use . . . against the stone’, wrote John Gerard.80 Half a century later, John
Parkinson strengthened the claim of Silaum silaus as a folk herb by describ-
ing it as ‘much used by country people’ to help break and expel the stone,
provoke urine and expel wind and colic as well as ‘much given to sucking
children for the frets, as women call it, which is winde in their bodies and
stomackes.’81 There are no localised records for it, however, nor any of more
recent date in the folk literature. This rather suggests that herb women had
taken it up from learned sources.
Meum athamanticum Jacquin

spignel, baldmoney
Dubiously identified with a herb featured by Dioscorides, Meum athaman-
ticum became familiar as ‘meu’ to apothecaries, among whom its aromatic
and acrid roots had a reputation as a cure for flatulence. Latterly, the wild
populations of the plant in the Pennines were raided, to the point of near-
extinction, when snuff became fashionable and the roots were in demand
for a scent for that.82
Hiding behind those herbalists’ uses, however, may be some more purely
folk ones. The curious alternative vernacular name which the species bears in
Britain has been explained away as denoting that the plant was sacred to the
god Balder, but in fact it appears to be a euphemism of the books for ‘bawd-
money’, the version which seems to feature invariably in the folklore records.
Could that be hinting at the use as an abortifacient for which ‘Baudminnie’
is said to have enjoyed a reputation in Galloway?83 Disappointingly, other
early Scottish records, from the Highlands84 and Aberdeenshire,85 respec-
tively, are only of the chewing of the roots for flatulence; that the plant bore
the name in the Highlands of ‘micken’,86 however, may possibly be evidence
that that use is an ancient one there, independent of the lore of the learned.
Conium maculatum Linnaeus  

hemlock
Europe, western and central Asia, North and East Africa, Canary
Islands; introduced into North and South America, Australasia
Although most white umbelliferous plants are commonly miscalled ‘hem-
lock’ and in the south of Scotland that name has been applied especially to
wild angelica (Angelica sylvestris) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium),
the true plant is sufficiently distinctive by reason of its spotted stems to be
readily recognisable by anyone interested in applying it medicinally. It seems
safe to assume that specialists in herbal treatments, however unlettered, were
normally sure of its identity, whatever the misnomers perpetrated by the
uninformed. However, an extra layer of uncertainty is caused by the greater
prevalence in the west of the British Isles of the even more poisonous Oenan-
the crocata, which though quite different in appearance has ‘hemlock’ in its
vernacular names and has had similar medical applications. The plant
recorded under that name in the Aran Islands as used for poulticing what
was either scrofula or abscesses has been referred to Conium maculatum with-
out question,87 yet botanists have noted that species there only once and the
record is much more likely to belong to O. crocata, therefore.
The true hemlock is known as a macrofossil from Roman sites in Wales,
and that fact taken together with its well-known use in Classical medicine
and presence in the Anglo-Saxon herbals suggest that it has had many cen-
turies to infiltrate any older, indigenous tradition of its use that may have
existed here. Much of its distribution as a wild plant in the British Isles today
may indeed be a legacy of its cultivation for medicinal purposes. The situa-
tion, though, has been complicated by the trumpeting of hemlock juice as a
cure for cancer in the mid-eighteenth century by the much-respected Vien-
188 Conium maculatum
nese physician Anton Storck, which despite much scepticism in higher med-
ical circles in Britain following ambiguous reports of its efficacy (suspected
by William Withering to have resulted at least in part from using the wrong
plant88) led to some percolating of the remedy downwards. Though the
orthodox treatment took the form of swallowing pills made from a decoction
of the leaves, a blacksmith in Cornwall is on record as having believed he had
cured himself of a cancer by drinking immense quantities just of the juice
over a period of three years.89 The normal practice in folk medicine, however,
seems to have been the less daring one of poulticing external cancers with
the leaves (as in Suffolk90 and Angus91), which was merely a version of the
hemlock poultice in widespread use for sores and swelling more generally
(as in Cambridgeshire,92 Berwickshire93 and the Isle of Man94). In the Isle of
Man95 and the Highlands,96 though, cases of a drastic and much more painful
alternative are known that involved extracting a tumour by its roots by means
of a plaster—provided that was done at an early stage. It was no doubt the
plant’s particular virulence that also caused it to be combined with penny-
royal (Mentha pulegium) and rue (the wholly cultivated Ruta graveolens Lin-
naeus) in a pill given at one time in the Cambridgeshire Fens for the purpose
of inducing abortions.97
In Ireland, on the other hand, though hemlock poultices have been sim-
ilarly in widespread use, especially in the north of the country,98 for treating
swellings and bad sores of all kinds, no records have been traced of their being
applied to cancers. They have, however, been valued there additionally for
rheumatism (Wicklow99), burns (Kilkenny,100 Limerick101) and—unless
‘hemlock’ in this case refers to hogweed—wounds.102 Quite unrelated to any
of the foregoing, though, has been the reputation the plant has enjoyed in
certain (unspecified) parts of Ireland as a means of curing giddiness.103
Apium graveolens Linnaeus

wild celery, smallage
central and southern Europe, southern Asia, North and South Africa,
South America; introduced into other temperate regions
In Ireland the exceptional quantity in which the mainly scarce Apium grave-
olens of coastal marshes occurs in Co. Dublin has earned it a particularly
wide and various use in that county as a medicine: above all for ‘felons’ and
rashes,104 but also for rheumatism,105 boils106 and for cleansing the blood of
impurities.107 It has also been favoured for rheumatism in Wicklow108 next
door. Similarly, its presence round the Shannon mouth has allowed it to be
utilised in Limerick, too, for poulticing boils and abscesses.109 Someone in

Wicklow who valued it for kidney trouble,110 though, may have learned of the
diuretic property for which the related A. nodiflorum (Linnaeus) Lagasca
(fool’s water-cress, marshwort) has been exploited in Italy.
The only British records traced are from Devon, where a healer reput-
edly cured bad burns and infected breasts with a decoction of the plant
applied as a plaster,111 and from Essex, where a tea or decoction of the fruits
or an infusion has been drunk for rheumatism.112
Petroselinum segetum (Linnaeus) Koch

corn parsley, honewort
western and southern Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, Canary Islands
A maidservant observed c. 1620 by John Goodyer gathering Petroselinum
segetum in a field in Hampshire told him she had learned during her upbring-
ing in the Isle of Wight of its effectiveness in treating a chronic swelling on the
cheek then known as a ‘hone’. A handful of the pounded leaves was put in
half a pint or more of beer, which was then strained and drunk for two weeks
after fasting.113 This is the only known record.
Ligusticum scoticum Linnaeus

lovage
northern Europe, eastern North America
A speciality of the Western Isles of Scotland, sionnas or shunnis in Gaelic,
Ligusticum scoticum was once much valued there especially for diseases of
cattle and sheep. Eaten raw first thing in the morning, it was also believed to
preserve a person from infection for the rest of the day114; the root was reck-
oned good for flatulence115 and the plant had a reputation (like celery) as an
aphrodisiac.116 On Lingay in the Outer Hebrides it was boiled with Alexan-
ders (Smyrnium olusatrum) in a lamb broth and drunk ‘against consump-
tions’.117 In the Faeroe Islands it had a further use as a sedative,118 but of that
no Scottish record has been traced.
Angelica sylvestris Linnaeus

wild angelica
Europe, northern and south-western Asia; introduced into Canada
Less rich in active properties than garden angelica (Angelica archangelica Lin-
naeus), the common native counterpart, A. sylvestris, may have served as a
poor man’s stand-in for that. Considering how strongly garden angelica was
recommended in the herbals and official medicine, however, folk records for
190 Angelica sylvestris
the wild plant are surprisingly few, yet surprisingly various: for lung and chest
complaints in Londonderry,119 for rheumatism120 and corns121 in Norfolk
and as a spring tonic (under the name ‘horse pepper’) in Suffolk.122 But was
it really so neglected in the north and west or has its presence in the records
from there lay hidden behind unidentified names?
Peucedanum ostruthium (Linnaeus) Koch

masterwort
central and southern Europe; introduced into temperate regions
(Folk credentials questionable) Though undoubtedly a relic of deliberate
introduction (from southern Europe), Peucedanum ostruthium has been
around so long—its seeds have been detected in a rath in an excavated ring-
fort in Antrim dated about .. 850–950—and under the name felon-grass
it has achieved such a wide presence in hill farms, more especially in the Pen-
nines, that it should not pass entirely without notice. Mainly a veterinary
herb, its bitter acrid juice has been prized by country people in Kent (?) for
toothache.123 In the Isle of Man it shared with ribwort plantain (Plantago
lanceolata) the name slan lus, ‘healing plant’.124
Heracleum sphondylium Linnaeus

hogweed
Europe, western and northern Asia, north-western Africa; introduced
Though often called ‘wild parsnip’ (a name shared with elecampane, Inula
helenium, and restricted by botanists to Pastinaca sativa Linnaeus) and, more
vaguely,‘hemlock’, Heracleum sphondylium can safely be accepted as correctly
identified in the folk records by virtue of bearing a name special to itself both
in Irish Gaelic and Manx. In the Isle of Man, where it is common (at any rate
today), the seeds and roots have been boiled and the liquid drunk for jaundice
and other liver troubles.125 In Norfolk, on the other hand, hogweed juice has
featured as a wart cure,126 while in Mull, in the Inner Hebrides, James Robert-
son in 1768 found the tender shoots, stripped of their outer skin, enjoyed a
reputation as a digestive.127
That this is the ‘wild hemlock’ whose pollen has been used in Essex128 like
puffball spores to staunch cuts slow to stop bleeding is seemingly confirmed
by a record of that same use in Tipperary (under the plant’s Gaelic name).129
The only other Irish record traced, however, is a vague one from Westmeath:
the drinking of a preparation of the plant for some unidentified sickness.130
Daucus carota Linnaeus

wild carrot
Eurasia, North Africa; introduced into most other temperate and
many tropical regions
Contrary to what one might expect, the folk records on the whole carefully
distinguish wild Daucus carota from the cultivated plants in this particular
instance. This may be because the wild plant has been found to be the more
efficacious for some ailments at least. The majority of uses reported show
that it has been valued pre-eminently as a diuretic, for treating dropsy, gravel
or kidney complaints (Dorset,131 Somerset,132 Berwickshire133). As it was the
fruitlets that were usually employed to that end (though a decoction of its
rootstock was an alternative), that was presumably the unspecified function
they have performed ‘medicinally’ in the Isle of Man as well.134 More localised
has been the making of a poultice from the mashed and boiled rootstocks
for applying to wounds and malignant, especially cancerous sores: in Britain
apparently confined to the Highlands,135 where, mixed with oatmeal, it has
been a favourite remedy for ‘lung disease’, too.136 In Dorset, on the other
hand, a traditional treatment for a burn has been to douche that in cold water
first to stop the pain and then apply scrapings from the rootstock to prevent
a blister forming and hasten the healing process.137
Irish records for the diuretic uses come from Co. Dublin,138 Cork139 and
Kerry,140 while the carrot poultice just described has been applied to sores
and wounds in Antrim,141 and in cases of earache in some part(s) of the
country left unspecified.142
Notes
1. Newman & Wilson 13. Gibbs, 57
2. Tongue 14. Notes and Queries, ser. 1, 7 (1853),
3. Johnston 1853 128
4. Hole, 207 15. Maloney
5. Johnston 1853 16. IFC S 751: 118
6. Simpkins, 411 17. McClafferty
7. McNeill 18. IFC S 505: 148
8. Hatfield MS 19. IFC S 932: 239; 960: 211, 283
9. Lightfoot, 1094; Beith 20. IFC S 1099: 224
10. Lafont 21. IFC S 226: 484
11. Vickery MSS 22. IFC S 690: 41, 114
12. Lafont 23. IFC S 920: 79
192 Notes
24. IFC S 1099: 224 66. Glassie, 308

25. IFC S 825: 72 67. Pratt 1850–7
26. IFC S 654: 244; 655: 268 68. e.g. Withering 1787–92, 184
27. IFC S 191: 90 69. Henderson & Dickson, 155, 166
28. IFC S 571: 357 70. Moloney
29. Logan, 81 71. Borlase 1758, 232
30. Barbour 72. McClafferty
31. IFC S 920: 70 73. Watson 1746, 228
32. IFC S 476: 460 74. Watson 1746, 228
33. Logan, 81 75. Fargher
34. IFC S 898: 82 76. Pickells
35. IFC S 510: 95 77. Moore MS
36. IFC S 250: 273 78. Moloney
37. Maloney 79. IFC S 385: 80
38. IFC S 504: 18, 133 80. Gerard, 890
39. Beddington & Christy, 22 81. Parkinson, 908
40. Jobson 1967, 59 82. Edmondson
41. Simpkins, 411 83. Mactaggart, 50
42. Humphries & Hopwood, 317 84. Lightfoot, 1095
43. IFC S 483: 329, 369 85. Henderson & Dickson, 155, 166
44. Grant, 313; Beith 86. Lightfoot, 1095
45. MacFarlane 87. Ó hEithir; IFC S 1: 196
46. Quayle, 70 88. Withering 1787–92, 161–3
47. Moore MS 89. Polwhele 1816, 76
48. Hart 1898, 387 90. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 24)
49. Essex Naturalist, 1 (1887), 30–3 91. Gardiner
50. Ó Síocháin 92. Porter 1974, 43
51. Garrad 1985, 44 93. Johnston 1853
52. Fargher 94. Fargher
53. Gloucestershire Record Office, MS 95. Gill, 188
P218.MI.1 96. Carmichael, ii, 257, 266; iv, 201
54. Fargher 97. Porter 1969, 11
55. Goodrich-Freer, 206 98. Moore MS; Hart, 378; Maloney;
56. Maloney Foster 1951, 61; etc.
57. IFC S 747: 386 99. IFC S 920: 73
58. IFC S 530: 192 100. IFC S 849: 319
58a. PLNN, no. 77 (2003), 378 101. IFC S 484: 92
59. Quelch, 200 102. Ó Súilleabháin, 311
60. Barnes, 71 103. Barbour
61. Martin, 145 104. IFC S 787: 53, 102, etc.
62. Garrad 1985 105. IFC S 787: 279
63. Moore 1898 106. IFC S 787: 283, 364
64. Fargher 107. IFC S 786: 204
65. IFC S 1098: 138 108. McClafferty
109. IFC S 523: 130, 133, 166 126. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 57)
110. McClafferty 127. Henderson & Dickson, 80
111. Lafont, 83 128. Hatfield MS
112. Newman & Wilson 129. IFC S 550: 272
113. Johnson 1633, 1018; Gunther, 53 130. IFC S 746: 456
114. Dillenius, 114 131. Phytologist, 3 (1848), 264
115. Martin, 226; Lightfoot, 160 132. Falconer
116. Beith 133. Johnston 1853
117. Martin, 145 134. Paton
118. Svabo 135. Pennant 1776, ii, 42
119. Moore MS 136. Beith
120. Hatfield, 46 137. Vickery 1995
121. Hatfield MS 138. IFC S 794: 36
122. Hatfield, 56 139. IFC S 385: 55
123. Pratt 1850–7 140. IFC S 476: 91
124. Kermode MS 141. Vickery MSS
125. Fargher 142. Wilson
CHAPTER 11
Gentians and
Nightshades
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Gentianales

(Gentianaceae, gentians; Apocynaceae, periwinkles) and Solanales (Solana-
ceae, nightshades; Convolvulaceae, bindweeds; Cuscutaceae, dodders; Men-
yanthaceae, bogbeans) are included in this chapter.
GENTIANACEAE
Centaurium erythraea Rafn
C. umbellatum of authors, C. minus of authors
centaury
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Azores; introduced into North
Less liable to upset the digestion than most vegetable bitters and so a prefer-
able alternative to ‘gentian’ (under which name, or as ‘red gentian’, it has
passed in some areas), Centaurium erythraea has been recorded very widely
in the British Isles for use as a tonic. Like most tonics it has sometimes been
prized for ‘cleansing the blood’ (hence the name bloodwort recorded for it in
Shropshire1) or ‘strengthening the nerves’ (in the Isle of Scilly2 and in South
Uist in the Outer Hebrides3), while in the Highlands it has had the special role
of promoting appetite in tubercular patients.4
Centaury has also enjoyed some subsidiary popularity as an indigestion
remedy (Yorkshire,5 Lancashire,6 Cumberland,7 the Highlands8) and as a cure
for biliousness (Isle of Man9). In Cardiganshire,10 on the other hand, it has
been used for kidney trouble, and in the Highlands11 and Outer Hebrides12
for colic. That heavy emphasis overall on righting and stimulating the system
194
  Gentians and Nightshades 195
seems sharply at variance with a lingering

reputation in the Outer Hebrides13 for also
staunching haemorrhages; but the plant
was recommended as a wound healer by
Classical writers, and a large quantity of its
charred remains has been excavated from a
Roman army hospital on the Rhine.14
Irish departures from service as a tonic are
fewer by comparison. Louth15 completes a pre-
dominantly Irish Sea focus of centaury’s use for
indigestion, ‘Ulster’16 has known it as a cough
remedy, while in Wicklow17 it has been rated
excellent for the liver (perhaps the biliousness
for which it has been valued by the Manx, in
whose language it had a name translating as
‘jaundice herb’18).
Gentianella campestris (Linnaeus)

Boerner
field gentian
northern and western Europe
Just as centaury stood in for ‘gentian’ (nor-
mally the eastern European species Gen-
tiana lutea Linnaeus) in British Isles folk
medicine, so in areas where centaury is
absent the most widespread of the native
Gentianella species, G. campestris, which tol-
erates colder climates, stood in for that in turn,
its properties being very similar. Thus in
Orkney, where it is common, it had a three-
fold value as a tonic, a remedy for gravel
and a cure for jaundice,19 while in Shet-
land it was used for digestive com-
plaints.20 Up in the Pennines bordering
Cumbria, where centaury does not pen-
etrate above the valleys, field gentian has
similarly served as a digestive as well as
Centaurium erythraea,
being drunk ‘to kill germs’.21
centaury (Fuchs 1543, fig. 217)
196 Vinca
APOCYNACEAE
Vinca major Linnaeus
greater periwinkle
southern Europe, North Africa;introduced into North America
and elsewhere
Vinca minor Linnaeus  

lesser periwinkle
Alien plants which have run into the wilds from gardens and become well
naturalised in places, Vinca major and V. minor have acquired uses in folk
medicine to an extent that implies a lengthy history. Discovered in more recent
years to contain beneficial alkaloids, not only were they much recommended
in the herbals but in the hills of western Dorset they have acquired a name,‘St
Candida’s Eyes’, associating them with a medieval healer of local fame.22
A more widespread name, cutfinger, proclaims the healing properties
contained in the leaves, which when crushed or infused or included in an
ointment have been applied to minor cuts and sores of various kinds in
Devon,23 Oxfordshire,24 Cambridgeshire25 and Lincolnshire,26 to bruises and
persistent skin irritations in the Highlands,27 to boils in Oxfordshire28 and to
nosebleeds there, too, and in Devon.29 The leaves also have a sedative effect
when chewed or otherwise consumed, making them valued in Devon for
nervous disorders, hysteria and to sufferers from nightmares30 and for
toothache in Oxfordshire.31 The roots, too, have been brought to bear on
colic in the Cambridgeshire Fens.32 More esoterically, periwinkles even had
a reputation for keeping away cramp: in Somerset a decoction of the stems
was drunk to that end,33 in Lincolnshire a piece of the plant was inserted
between the bedclothes and the mattress,34 while in Devon the method was
to wind the stem around any part of the body.35
SOLANACEAE
Lycium barbarum Linnaeus
L. halimifolium Miller
Duke of Argyll’s teaplant
south-eastern Europe, western Asia; introduced into other
temperate regions
There is a record from Warwickshire36 of the stems of the sometimes natu-
ralised garden escape Lycium barbarum being used, as an alternative to those
of elder (Sambucus nigra), for the necklace placed round infants’ necks when
teething (for more on which see under henbane, Hyoscyamus niger).
Atropa belladonna Linnaeus

deadly nightshade
central and southern Europe, western Asia, North Africa;
(Name confusion suspected) The handful of records for folk uses allegedly of
Atropa belladonna almost certainly belong to Solanum dulcamara, which so
generally and confusingly shares its name among the non-botanical. The
total lack of any convincing ones for the plant truly so called, by no means
rare in the chalky areas of England, suggests that its notoriously ultra-poiso-
nous character (three berries are sufficient to kill a child) firmly excluded it
from the folk repertory. Though other poisonous species such as hemlock
(Conium maculatum) were harnessed to some extent for healing purposes,
this one alone would seem to have been accepted as prohibitively dangerous
to handle or experiment with.
Hyoscyamus niger Linnaeus  

henbane
Australasia
A mostly scarce plant of usually fleeting appearances after long periods of
dormancy, Hyoscyamus niger has often been dismissed as wholly a relic in the
British Isles of its past herbal use; but a good case can be made for consider-
ing it native on beaches, one of quite a number of species adapted to that
open habitat as ‘strand casuals’. ‘Experience has shown that the wild seaside
herb . . . is more effective than the product of cultivation’,37 so it may even be
distinct genetically. As one of the most ancient of herbs, traceable back in
written records to the Babylonians and in prehistoric levels in Britain to the
Early Neolithic, it is likely to have been prized in antiquity so highly as to
form an exception to the general rule that in order to be utilised by humans
a plant had to be plentiful, at least locally.
Containing alkaloids which have a hypnotic as well as sedative effect, hen-
bane’s place in medicine was probably long subordinate to its value as a hal-
lucinogen taken to induce trances and visions; though an archaeological find
in Fife has been interpreted as indicative of that, conclusive evidence of such
a use in Britain or Ireland is lacking.38 The plant’s name in Welsh has been
interpreted as signifying an ability to prevent or cure faintness,39 and a prepa-
198 Hyoscyamus niger
ration once used in that country is said to have had a reputation for curing
any mental trouble.40 But the main function in folk medicine at least in more
recent centuries has evidently been as a painkiller: relieving the pain of
inflamed wounds and stomach-ache in Sussex,41 but there and elsewhere
(Kent (?),42 Hertfordshire,43 Norfolk44) toothache, too. A special practice in
this last connection was the stringing of a necklace of beads cut from a hen-
bane root round the neck of a teething infant. Though the only records traced
of that are from Devon45 and Sussex,46 the dried berries of ‘nightshade’ have
been used for the same purpose in Norfolk,47 and other plants such as elder
in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire have been drawn on for these neck-
laces, too;‘Verona root’, made from imported orris (Iris ×germanica Linnaeus
or allied taxa), was even sold for them by herbalists, ready-made, at one
period. What were regarded as the most potent parts of these plants and cer-
tain other members of the Solanaceae had the reputation of giving off fumes
with a sedative effect. It was because of that effect that henbane was also given
to women in childbirth, to bring relief in the form of ‘twilight sleep’, a prac-
tice on record from Wiltshire48 but probably quite widespread.
It may have been primarily for this last reason that an infusion of the
leaves has been given to children with whooping cough in Cavan, the county
from which the only other Irish use traced, the drinking of the juice ‘for the
nerves’, has been recorded as well.49
Solanum dulcamara Linnaeus

bittersweet, woody nightshade
Eurasia, North Africa; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Solanum dulcamara shares with other members of the Solanaceae alkaloids
which affect the nervous system to a potentially dangerous degree, but instead
of being used like henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) to treat mental disorders, its
function in folk medicine in that particular direction appears to have been
restricted to serving as a sedative to counter sleeplessness, as implied by one
of its Gaelic names in Ireland50 (and actually recorded as a use from Cavan51).
In common with periwinkles (Vinca), the plant has a mildly narcotic prop-
erty, and at one time in Cumberland schoolboys kept a stock of the twigs in
their pockets and copied the tobacco chewing of their elders.52
The main use of this common plant, though, was for fingers inflamed by
the cold. ‘Divers countrie people doe use the berries bruised and laid to the
finger that hath a felon thereon to cure it’, wrote John Parkinson in the sev-
enteenth century,53 and in several English counties ‘felon-wort’ and ‘felon-

wood’, names it shares with masterwort (Peucedanum ostruthium), have per-
sisted in currency down to more recent years. In Essex,54 Warwickshire55 and
Oxfordshire56 the juice was mixed with lard to produce an ointment valued
for chilblains—an allied complaint.
In Ireland a herb recorded in Limerick as ‘guinea goul’ and clearly this
from the description has been used for cuts that have festered.57 In the Isle of
Man a decoction made from bittersweet was said to be effective in healing
inward bruises58; boiled in a pint of beer, the plant has also enjoyed a reputa-
tion there as a strengthening tonic.59 Each of these uses could be ascribed to
its claimed ability to cleanse the system of impurities (hence its popularity in
official medicine for skin diseases, rheumatism and gout), but how is its use
in Kerry60 for inducing blistering to be explained?
Datura stramonium Linnaeus  

thorn-apple
near-cosmopolitan weed
Like henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), Datura stramonium also appears unex-
pectedly after lying long dormant, especially in hot summers, and is no less
dangerous for its violent action on the nervous system; it differs, though, in
having no claim to be considered indigenous to the British Isles. It seems in
fact to have been introduced from the East and reputedly owes much of its
European dispersal to gypsies. The name Datura is of Sanskrit origin, and
related species are popular in India as intoxicants.
Probably because East Anglia experiences the hottest temperatures in
Britain it is from there that almost all the few records of the plant’s use in
folk medicine have come. The most interesting of these is an ointment made
from boiling the juice in pork fat which was applied by a village herb woman
in Norfolk c. 1920 to burns, scalds and inflammation in general61—exactly
the same recipe as for a cure recommended more than three centuries earlier
by John Gerard, who instanced the perfect healing it had achieved of a seri-
ous lightning burn suffered by a merchant’s wife at Colchester in Essex.62 It
is also in Essex that the soporific fumes given off by the plant’s juice (like that
of henbane) have been harnessed as a pain-reliever, with vinegar added to
make doubly sure.63 Norfolk, too, is one county where the practice of smok-
ing the dried leaves (or seeds) to relieve asthma, introduced into Britain by
General Gent in 1802 and formerly widespread, has persisted at the folk level
down to the twentieth century.64
200 Calystegia soldanella
CONVOLVULACEAE
Calystegia soldanella (Linnaeus) R. Brown
sea bindweed
coasts of west and southern Europe, Asia, North Africa, North and
South America, Australasia
On the coasts of Sussex,65 Hampshire66 and the Isle of Wight,67 Calystegia
soldanella was known as scurvy-grass and either supplemented or stood in for
Cochlearia officinalis in countering that once-common ailment. According to
another author, ‘the inhabitants of our coasts’ (which from the context
appears to refer to those of Norfolk) used to gather the young shoots and
pickle these for employment as a gentle purge.68
Calystegia sepium (Linnaeus) R. Brown

hedge bindweed
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, North America, Australasia
The acrid roots of Calystegia sepium are much more violently purgative than
those of C. soldanella, but despite their drastic action their use for that pur-
pose in parts of the British Isles was for long not wholly displaced in remoter
areas by its preferred relation, scammony (C. scammonia Linnaeus), imported
from the Levant. In Northamptonshire‘the poor people’ were still boiling the
roots in ale as a purge as late as the 1830s.69 However, the failure of folklore
collectors to pick up mentions of that use of the plant and that it featured in
herbals back to Dioscorides suggest that it originated in the written tradition.
There are nevertheless two records that seem likely to have had more
spontaneous sources. One is as a wart cure in Leicestershire,70 the other as a
remedy for kidney trouble in Fermanagh—if it is indeed the plant known
locally in the latter county as ‘the tormentor’ (‘because it spreads its grip and
chokes the plant’).71 In either case the species in question could equally well
be the field bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis Linnaeus, which is known to be
powerfully purgative, too, while the Fermanagh record might also belong to
black-bindweed, Fallopia convolvulus (Linnaeus) A. Löve.
CUSCUTACEAE
Cuscuta europaea Linnaeus
greater dodder
New Zealand
(Misinterpreted statement) A statement by Matthias de l’Obel,72 that he had
seen this species growing abundantly in Somerset and that it was effective as
a diuretic, was misread by John Parkinson73 as implying that that herbal use
was a speciality of the region.
Cuscuta epithymum (Linnaeus) Linnaeus

dodder
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America, South Africa,
Australasia
‘Hairweed’, a name recorded for Cuscuta epithymum in three of the Eastern
Counties of England, was added to nettle tea in the Fens of East Anglia and
given to children whenever their mother detected signs of scurvy between
their fingers.74 The plant was recommended in herbals as a purge for ‘ague’
and the intention may have been to cleanse the system of the impurities sus-
pected of being responsible.
MENYANTHACEAE
Menyanthes trifoliata Linnaeus
bogbean, báchrán
Europe, northern and central Asia, Morocco, North America
Wherever Menyanthes trifoliata occurs in any quantity, mainly in the boggy
regions of the north and west of the British Isles, it has constituted one of
the staples of the folk repertory and in some parts has been the most prized
herb of all. Its intense bitterness has led it to be used as a substitute for hops
in brewing or for adulterating beer, and it was probably in that connection
that large quantities of the plant’s pressed leaves and stems found round some
of the ancient Irish raths are thought to have been deposited.75 Whether or
not that interpretation is correct, it is highly likely that bogbean was in favour
for medicine as well at the same period.
Except in Wales the plant has predominantly served in Britain as a tonic,
like the various imported bitters that have largely replaced it, while in the
course of revitalising the system also resolving digestive problems (Cumbria,76
Berwickshire,77 Shetland,78 Isle of Man79). As an ‘astringent’ it has banished
headaches in the Outer Hebrides80 and stopped loose bowels in Colonsay in
the Inner Hebrides81 and the Highlands,82 while in the last83 and in Shetland84
to the north it has been rated a cure for jaundice—so much so in Shetland
that it bore a name there from the Old Norse word for that affliction.85
A second cluster of ailments for which bogbean has been widely used is
rheumatism and the like. Though Scottish records for that seem to be lacking
202 Menyanthes trifoliata
and English ones limited—Sussex,86 Kent (?),87 Hertfordshire88 and, as one of

five ingredients in a mixture, the East Riding of Yorkshire89—in Wales it has
been recorded from at least six of its counties90 with a marked peak in Den-
bighshire,91 and that total would rise to nine if one could be sure that by
‘backache’ people meant this, too. Confusingly, though, ‘backache’ is some-
times a synonym of kidney trouble—which is bogbean’s other principal
application in Wales, known from five counties there but apparently nowhere
else in Britain.92
As it ‘helps to open up the tubes’, bogbean has been a natural choice in
Lewis in the Outer Hebrides for asthma93 and elsewhere in Scotland for per-
sistent coughs (Argyllshire94) and pulmonary tuberculosis (the Highlands95),
while in the nearby Isle of Man it has been favoured for fevers.96 More exclu-
Menyanthes trifoliata, bogbean

(Green 1902, fig. 424)
sively Scottish has been the use of a decoction of the root for easing the pain
of a stomach ulcer in the Highlands,97 the plant’s application as a poultice to
the sores of scrofula in Orkney98 and to those caused on the necks of fisher-
men in the Highlands by the friction of nets and ropes,99 and a conviction in
Lewis that the ribbed side of the leaf was good for drawing pus from a septic
wound and the smooth side for healing it100 (a property elsewhere ascribed
to the leaves of other species, in particular, plantains).
The Irish pattern is broadly similar. Records of the use of bogbean,
though, come largely from Ulster, showing a marked concentration in Done-
gal,101 where in one area every household used to collect the roots in spring,
‘when the blood gets out of order’, and boil them with treacle and sulphur102;
and as in Britain that reputation for cleansing the system has extended to the
clearing up of boils and skin troubles (Londonderry,103 Donegal,104 Louth,105
Clare,106 Limerick107) and assisting the digestion (Antrim,108 Louth109). Sim-
ilarly, as an ‘astringent’ it has been valued for stomach upsets (Leitrim,110
Roscommon,111 Kerry112) though held to have the reverse effect in Tyrone113
by ending constipation, while in Clare114 and Cork115 it is not clear in what
way it assisted ‘liver trouble’ or how it cured jaundice in Wicklow.116 One dif-
ference from England and especially Scotland, on the other hand, has been
the wide valuing of bogbean juice for rheumatism and allied afflictions, the
Irish records for which match the Welsh ones in the number of counties from
which they have been traced—with an Ulster-tilted distribution in this case,
too. More extremely, Ireland has a wider scatter of records than Wales of use
for kidney trouble (Cavan,117 Monaghan,118 Clare,119 Limerick,120 Cork121)
just as it greatly outstrips England and Wales in the extent to which the plant
has been applied to the heavier kinds of coughs and colds (Donegal,122
Cavan,123 Louth,124 Sligo,125 Mayo126). But in heart disease (Mayo127) and its
relation, dropsy (Louth128), Ireland’s seeming lead is but a bare one.
Notes
1. Britten & Holland 9. Moore 1898; Fargher
2. Vickery 1995 10. Williams MS
3. Shaw, 50 11. Grant
4. Beith 12. McDonald, 239; Carmichael, vi, 123
5. Barbour 13. McDonald, 239; Carmichael, vi, 123
6. Taylor 1901, unpag. 14. Majno
7. Hodgson, 209 15. IFC S 657: 217, 248
8. Beith 16. Purdon
204 Notes
17. McClafferty 61. Wigby, 65; Hatfield, 23

18. Moore 1898; Fargher 62. Gerard, 278
19. Spence 63. Hatfield, 40
20. Jamieson 64. Hatfield MS
21. Duncan & Robson, 65 65. Johnson 1633, 839
22. Duddridge 66. Johnson 1633, 839
23. Baker, 52 67. Townsend, 218
24. Britten & Holland, 139 68. Bryant, 63
25. Porter 1969, 87; 1974, 46 69. Anon. (c. 1830), i, 60
26. Woodruffe-Peacock 70. Palmer 1985, 72
27. Beith 71. Glassie, 308
28. Britten & Holland, 139; ‘E.C.’ 72. de l’Obel, 233
29. Lafont 73. Parkinson, 11
30. Lafont 74. Randell, 84
31. Baker, 52 75. Sullivan, ccclxxiv
32. Porter 1969, 79 76. Wright, 239
33. Tongue 77. Johnston 1829–31, i, 56
34. Woodruffe-Peacock; Rudkin, 202 78. Jamieson
35. Lafont 79. Quayle, 69
36. Bloom, 26 80. McDonald, 171; Shaw, 47
37. White, 444 81. McNeill
38. Sherratt; Long et al. 82. Lightfoot, 1093; Hooker, 91; Grant
39. Cameron 83. Beith
40. Trevelyan 84. Beith
41. A. Allen, 83 85. Tait
42. Pratt 1850–7 86. Arthur, 42
43. Ellis, 209 87. Pratt 1850–7
44. Wigby, 65 88. Ellis, 331
45. Wright, 248 89. Vickery 1995
46. A. Allen, 83 90. Vickery 1995; Williams MS
47. Taylor 1929, 127 91. Williams MS
48. Whitlock 1992, 109 92. Williams MS
49. Maloney 93. Beith
50. Moloney 94. Fairweather
51. Maloney 95. Beith; Murray, appendix, iv
52. Hodgson, 222 96. Quayle, 69
53. Parkinson, 350 97. Beith
54. Hatfield, 27 98. Spence; Leask, 80
55. Bloom, 25 99. Beith
56. ‘E.C.’ 100. Beith
57. IFC S 505: 117 101. Hart 1898, 368; IFC S 1043: 71;
58. Moore 1898 1090: 282; 1098: 25, 130
59. Fargher 102. McGlinchey, 84
60. IFC S 412: 98 103. Moore MS
104. IFC S 1121: 354 117. Maloney

105. IFC S 657: 160 118. IFC S 932: 239
106. IFC S 617: 334 119. IFC S 589: 62
107. IFC S 484: 43 120. IFC S 484: 41
108. Vickery MSS 121. IFC S 313: 213
109. IFC S 657: 216 122. IFC S 1090: 125
110. IFC S 190: 168, 176 123. Maloney
111. IFC S 250: 273 124. IFC S 657: 216
112. IFC S 413: 227 125. IFC S 157: 254
113. PLNN, no. 11 (1990), 50 126. IFC S 132: 98
114. IFC S 617: 334 127. IFC S 132: 37
115. IFC S 385: 55 128. IFC S 657: 216
116. McClafferty
CHAPTER 12
Comfrey, Vervain
and Mints
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the order Lamiales and families Boragi-

naceae (borages),Verbenaceae (vervains) and Lamiaceae (mints) are included
in this chapter.
BORAGINACEAE
Lithospermum officinale Linnaeus
common gromwell
Identified with a herb recommended by Dioscorides as a cure for the stone,
the hard-coated seeds of Lithospermum officinale became popular in that
connection when plants supposed to reveal their utility through their form
(the Doctrine of Signatures) were boosted in the herbals. There is a record of
this use from the eastern Yorkshire moors dating from as late as 1897.1
In Ireland the plant was one of four herbs credited with that same virtue
which went into a decoction drunk for gravel in several parts of the country
half a century earlier.2 While that, too, sounds like a legacy from written med-
icine, a record from Meath3—a region in which Lithospermum officinale was
at one time locally abundant—of ‘grumble seed’, ‘which grows along the
Boyne River’, being collected and boiled for kidney trouble may have more
merit as a relic of the folk tradition.
A probable misidentification of this species as ‘eyeseed’ in Essex is dis-
cussed under wild clary (Salvia verbenaca).
206
  Comfrey, Vervain and Mints 207
Echium vulgare Linnaeus

viper’s-bugloss
Europe, Asia Minor; introduced into North America, Australasia
An infusion of the leaves of Echium vulgare has been drunk in Somerset as a
cure for a headache.4
Pulmonaria officinalis Linnaeus  

lungwort
northern and central Europe, Caucasus; introduced into western
Europe, North America
(Folk credentials questionable) Two members of the genus Pulmonaria are
accepted as native in England, but both are too limited in their range to have
been likely candidates for herbal use. That function has been served by the
introduced P. officinalis, which is very widely grown in gardens and often
naturalised on banks and in woods. Commonly dismissed as merely another
of the plants supposed to reveal their utility through their form (the Doctrine
of Signatures), the spots on its leaves supposedly having prompted its appli-
cation to spots on the lungs, the plant does in fact contain active principles
which are claimed in alternative medicine circles to be genuinely beneficial
for respiratory complaints. Folk records of its use for pulmonary tuberculo-
sis in Hampshire5 and Norfolk6 may thus not be the products of credulity, as
usually imagined—though the sources in these cases were more probably
cottage gardens than colonies of the plant growing wild. Alternatively, the
records may refer to the lichen Lobaria pulmonaria, which is sometimes called
‘lungwort’, too.
In Ireland, ‘lungwort’ was one of the names borne by mullein (Verbas-
cum thapsus), to which Irish records can safely be referred.
Symphytum officinale Linnaeus

common comfrey
Another of the chief stand-bys in the folk repertory, very widely known about
and still frequently used, Symphytum officinale is nevertheless a rarity, and
almost certainly not native, over most of the north and west of the British
Isles as well as in East Anglia. Two colour forms occur, one reddish, the other
white-flowered, each on the whole with different distributions. Populations
containing both are almost confined to the Thames Valley and to five of the
southernmost counties of England from Sussex to Devon.7 Two of these, Sus-
sex8 and Dorset,9 are also among the three counties (the third is Shropshire10)
208 Symphytum officinale
from which records have been traced of a presumably age-old belief that the
reddish form must be used for healing men and the white one for healing
women if success is to be assured (a gender distinction similar to that
recorded for the two bryonies and several other
‘paired’ plants as well).
By far the commonest use of comfrey, re-
corded from most parts of the British Isles—
except apparently the southern half of Wales—
has been for treating injuries to limbs and
ligaments, in particular, sprains (twice as
often mentioned as fractures). Identified with
a herb mentioned by Dioscorides, whose name
for it passed into Latin as Symphytum, grow-
together-plant, the plant is rich in allantoin,
which promotes healing in connective
tissues through the proliferation of
new cells. Not for nothing was it
widely known as ‘knitbone’, a name
which still lingers on in places.
Various parts of the plant yield a
strongly astringent oily juice, but for
treating injuries the roots are most
often preferred. The usual process is
to clean, peel, pound or grate and boil
these, in order to extract a thick paste
which is then applied like plaster of Paris.
Alternatively, the leaves and/or stem are
heated and put on as a poultice. A third,
much rarer method is to mix the juice
with lard and rub the ointment in. Of
141 records traced from the British
Isles as a whole for uses of comfrey for non-
veterinary therapeutic purposes, no fewer
than 60 are accounted for by sprains and
fractures. But records for swellings of other
kinds as well as for bruises and internal bleed-
Symphytum officinale, common ing are perhaps logically combined with
comfrey (Brunfels 1530, p. 76) those, in which case 85, or well over half,
would fall into that category. The 56 records remaining can be classified for
the most part into four broad groups: rheumatism and allied complaints
(which the leaves have a reputation for relieving, though at the cost of large
blisters); nasal and bronchial infections; boils; and wounds and cuts.
In Britain none of these four subsidiary categories of use seems to be on
record from Scotland, where comfrey probably never grew wild in earlier
times, though in the nearby Isle of Man a decoction of roots and stems has
been drunk to get rid of phlegm11 and the leaves bound on cuts to first draw
foreign matter out and then heal them.12 The English records traced for the
application of the plant to colds and the like, however, are all from the south-
ern half of the country (Devon,13 Gloucestershire,14 Norfolk15), though those
for treating the rheumatism group (Devon,16 Suffolk,17 Caernarvonshire18)
and for poulticing boils (Norfolk,19 Shropshire,20 Lancashire21) are more
scattered, while the applying of an ointment made from the root to open
wounds appears to be peculiarly East Anglian (Essex and Norfolk22). Apart
from those, the only more minor use noted in Britain has been for leg ulcers
(Norfolk,23 Westmoreland24).
Ireland’s speciality among the four subsidiary categories is applying the
plant to wounds and cuts. Records have been picked up for that from seven
counties there, all but two of them along the mid-western coast. The Irish
records for treating colds and the like come from rather more counties than
in England (Cavan,25 Meath,26 Sligo,27 Wexford,28 Kerry29) and the same is
true of the poulticing of boils (Cavan,30 Mayo,31 Kilkenny,32 Kerry33), but
comfrey’s use for rheumatism has been noted only from Sligo.34 As so often,
though, doubtless as a result of the more intensive investigation to which Ire-
land has been subjected, especially in the 1930s, that country has yielded a
greater range of rare, minor applications: to toothache in Kilkenny,35 kidney
trouble in Tipperary36 and warts and all manner of skin complaints in Lim-
erick.37 There is also an Irish record of the juice being rubbed into the face to
improve the complexion38; like other astringent herbs this one had a role as
a cosmetic as well, even if a tiny one apparently.
Symphytum tuberosum Linnaeus

tuberous comfrey
central and southern Europe, Asia Minor; introduced into North
America
There is a record of Symphytum tuberosum from Aberdeenshire, where S. offi-
cinale is much the scarcer of the two species, being valued for fractures, too.39
210 Anchusa arvensis
Anchusa arvensis (Linnaeus) M. Bieberstein

Lycopsis arvensis Linnaeus
bugloss
(Name confusion suspected) A herb described by Dioscorides under the
name Anchusa, which means ‘ox-tongue’ in Greek, has been identified with
various plants with rough and prickly leaves. The bugloss which occurs in
light cultivated soils across much of the British Isles, A. arvensis, is a likely
plant to have attracted herbal use, but the one or two records in the folk lit-
erature ascribed to that lack botanical authentication and could equally well
belong to other species. In Ireland, the similar name boglus has also been
applied too variously for any certainties.
Myosotis Linnaeus
forget-me-not
temperate regions of the northern and southern hemispheres
The name Myosotis in Latin translates as ‘mouse-ear’, a name which has gen-
erally been in herbal use for Pilosella officinarum (mouse-ear hawkweed), a
favourite folk remedy for coughs. In view of that possible source of confusion
and that only two records ascribed to a species of Myosotis have been traced
in the folklore literature (Devon,40 Kent41), and those both also of use for
coughs (and other chest complaints in the former case), there must be some
slight suspicion whether the identifications were correct. However, all the
members of this genus are mucilaginous and astringent, like comfrey, and
some at least have featured in official medicine, so the records can perhaps
receive the benefit of the doubt.
Cynoglossum officinale Linnaeus

hound’s-tongue
northern and central Europe, Asia; introduced into North America
Widespread in the south-eastern third of England, Cynoglossum officinale
becomes essentially a maritime plant as it thins out northwards and west-
wards—as along the eastern coast of Ireland, where it is locally frequent. The
one localised Irish record from within that range (Portrane, Co. Dublin42)
seems likely to have involved the use of wild specimens; juice was rubbed on
the arm rashes locally known as felons. Two other Irish records, however, are
from counties in which the species is unknown outside gardens: in Mona-
ghan it has been valued for coughs43 and in Limerick its leaves have supplied
a hot dressing for burns.44 At one time it was also used in parts of Ireland by
‘country herb-doctors’ as a remedy for both external and internal cancers.45

The plant certainly had a reputation in book medicine as a cure for skin trou-
bles of various kinds, but a claim46 that a name it has borne in Suffolk,‘scald-
head’, is a reference to that may be taking things too far.
VERBENACEAE
Verbena officinalis Linnaeus
vervain
Australasia
For some unknown reason the not very conspicuous and rather scarce Ver-
bena officinalis was credited with exceptional magico-religious potency,
including as a divinatory, in parts of pre-Christian Europe. Belief in its pow-
ers seems to have survived into more recent times, especially strongly in Wales
and the Isle of Man, leaving behind a legacy at least in the latter of ostensibly
medicinal uses which are doubtless rooted in a reputation for countering
adverse influences of all kinds. Some authors47 have identified it as the plant
known under the Manx name yn lus, ‘the herb’, but others hold that that cor-
rectly belongs to motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), the ‘gender twin’ in the
island of V. officinalis and known there as ‘she-vervain’.48
There is nevertheless a sound phytochemical basis for some of the heal-
ing virtues attributed to vervain, for it contains a bitter principle, verbenaline,
which has an action resembling that of quinine. For that reason the plant has
been valued in the Isle of Man49 for allaying fevers and in Gloucestershire50
drunk as a strengthening tonic. A further internal use, also reported from
Gloucestershire, has been as a vermifuge.51 Probably more often, though,
application has been external. ‘Many country people’, wrote John Quincy in
1718, ‘pretend to get great feats with it in agues, by applying it to the wrist in
the form of a cataplasm [i.e. plaster]; and also to cure gouty pains and
swellings with it, used in the same manner.’52 More recent such records are for
wounds in Sussex,53 sunburn in Norfolk54 and as an eye lotion in Hereford-
shire.55 Reportedly, the plant has also been used widely in England for sores.56
Ireland has produced the only certain mention (and that an unlocalised
one57) of the wearing in a bag around the body of some portion of this plant
as a remedy for scrofula, for which it was at one time held in particularly high
repute; this may well have been the bag, though, that children were given to
wear in Sussex to cure them of some unidentified sickness.58 As vervain has
212 Verbena officinalis
no claim to be considered indigenous in Ireland, it is not surprising that only

one other record of its use there has been traced: for allaying fever in Cavan.59
LAMIACEAE
Stachys officinalis (Linnaeus) Trevisan
Betonica officinalis Linnaeus
betony
Europe, Caucasus, Algeria; introduced into North America
Like vervain, Stachys officinalis, too, seems to have owed much of its popu-
larity as a medicinal herb to magico-religious associations underlying its use.
It was early identified with a plant known to the Romans as betonica and
described by Pliny the Elder as much in use by barbarian peoples as a nerve
tonic and a cure for drunkenness and hangovers; no less questionably, a herb
prominent in Anglo-Saxon lore was identified with it, too. To add to the con-
fusion, another popular herb, common speedwell (Veronica officinalis), was
known as betonica Pauli and, to judge from some of the purposes to which
that species has been put according to the folk records, may have sometimes
passed as betony as well. To the settlers in New England, betony on the other
hand was a species of lousewort, Pedicularis canadensis Linnaeus, while in
Ireland the name has been widely applied to bugle (Ajuga reptans).
Again like vervain, though, Stachys officinalis does possess some chemical
potency: the roots are purgative and emetic, the leaves are reputed to act as an
intoxicant, and alkaloids which the plant shares with yarrow give it the same
wound-healing properties as that. Nevertheless, those virtues may not have
been enough to warrant its being accorded such a high degree of reverence.
Nor do they make it safe to assume that where‘betony’is mentioned in the folk
records it is necessarily this species that is intended nor, for that matter, that it
is the same plant in all cases. Those mentions all the same do show a reason-
able consistency—and except for one ambiguous Irish one60 are all from the
southern half of Britain, the only part of the British Isles where S. officinalis is
plentiful enough to have been able to meet any continuing herbal demand.
In only two counties (Wiltshire,61 Sussex62) have records been traced of
‘betony’ in use for wounds. So highly was it valued in Sussex for this pur-
pose, and even more for burns, that it gave rise to the saying there: ‘Sell your
coat and buy betony.’63 Like other bitter ‘astringents’, though, the plant or
plants bearing that name have principally served as a tonic, an infusion of
the leaves being drunk as a tea. In Shropshire64 that has been more specifically
for purifying the blood, in Cumbria65 for curing indigestion and in Somer-
set66 for driving away a headache. Though household recipe books rank as
folk records in the true sense only in part, a migraine remedy extracted c.
1800 from one in Cardiganshire is worthy of mention in that last connec-
tion: block the nostrils each day of the week with a mixture made from
‘betony’ leaves and primrose roots.67 Finally, if it really was Stachys officinalis
which existed in sufficient quantity in part of Kent for ‘large bundles’ to be
hung up in cottages for winter use, the plant had a further use there as a drink
for coughs and colds,68 presumably because it cleared the nasal passages.
Stachys sylvatica Linnaeus

hedge woundwort
western and southern Europe, mountains of western and central
Asia; introduced into North America, New Zealand
Stachys palustris Linnaeus

marsh woundwort
Europe, temperate Asia, North America; introduced into
New Zealand
Stachys ×ambigua Smith

hybrid woundwort
‘Woundwort’ has probably always been applied interchangeably to both
Stachys sylvatica and S. palustris, and to the hybrid between them, S. ×ambigua,
as well. Though only botanists would normally be expected to distinguish
hybrids, the one in this case occurs widely in some parts of Britain, especially
the far north and west, in the absence of one or both parents even though it
is normally—though by no means invariably—sterile. It is difficult to see
how it could have attained an independent distribution which extends in the
Hebrides to many remote parts without helping hands; elsewhere in the
north of Scotland, for example, close observation does indeed leave the
impression that in places it owes its origin to gardens instead of spontaneous
crossing in the wild,69 for noticeably more often than the parents it is found
round houses and farmyards. Its presence in a cave in Rum has even led to the
suggestion that it was introduced there and elsewhere in that region during
the Bronze Age or later ‘for medicinal or other purposes’.70 The implication
is that its hybrid character was recognised and that the plant was deliberately
selected for propagation. That may have been for consumption as a vege-
table—in the nineteenth century a Dr Joseph Houlton was awarded a medal
214 Stachys
by the Society of Arts for demonstrating the palatability of the roots of S.

palustris.71 Hybrids that are more or less sterile tend to compensate for that
with a greater profuseness in their vegetative parts than either parent spe-
cies. Alternatively, or additionally, the plant may have been wanted as a med-
icine, in which case the belief may have been that the compensation for steril-
ity was greater chemical potency.
It was presumably either the hybrid or Stachys palustris that was the ‘all-
heal’ found by Martin Martin72 in use in Lewis in the Outer Hebrides150 as an
ingredient in an ointment applied to green wounds. Wounds indeed appear
always to have been the premier function of this herbal trio: the name borne by
them collectively in Welsh translates as‘woundwort’, it is the one use reported
from the Highlands,73 while John Gerard in his Herball cites a case from Kent
that plainly counts as a folk one, too.74 In places today the plants still continue
to be prized for their remarkable healing power. The leaves have been used for
poulticing boils and carbuncles in Essex and so bringing them to a head.75
In Ireland that reputation for curing wounds has similarly persisted here
and there,76 for example in Wicklow77 and Galway.78 The use of the leaves for
dressed sores has also been reported from Westmeath.79
Ballota nigra Linnaeus

black horehound
Europe, south-western Asia, Morocco, Azores; introduced into
In common with many other members of the mint family, Ballota nigra has
had some use for colds, coughs, asthma and chest complaints. Except for
Leicestershire80—where, puzzlingly, it was reportedly called ‘lound’s wound-
wort’ (surely a corruption, or mishearing, of ‘clown’s woundwort’, John
Gerard’s name for Stachys palustris?)—all the British records come from the
Scottish Lowlands (Berwickshire,81 Dumfriesshire,82 Fife83), a distribution
suggesting it has stood in there for some more warmth-demanding, less
‘rough’ alternative, perhaps white horehound (Marrubium vulgare). As B.
nigra does not appear to occur in natural habitats anywhere in the British
Isles except possibly the western Midlands (where it is represented by a dis-
tinct, woollier variety), its history as a folk herb is likely to have been a rela-
tively short one, doubtless as a spill-over from book medicine.
The same remarks appertain to the only two Irish records traced (Lon-
donderry,84 Cavan85), for the same complaints as in Britain.
Leonurus cardiaca Linnaeus

motherwort
Europe; introduced into North America, New Zealand
A scarcely naturalised, cottage garden herb, reputedly introduced into Britain
in the Middle Ages, Leonurus cardiaca features in folk medicine records
apparently uniquely in the Isle of Man. There it has formed a ‘gender pair’
with vervain (Verbena officinalis),86 regarded as the counterpart of that as a
general protective against female ills, more particularly those associated with
the womb and menstruation. It was grown in Manx gardens as a tonic at least
to the 1940s.87 Its similarity in appearance to that other long-venerated
‘mother’ plant, mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), suggests that it may have
become a stand-in for that.
Lamium album Linnaeus  

white dead-nettle, archangel
Europe, Himalaya, Japan; introduced into North America, New Zealand
Though so common and generally distributed in much of England, Lamium
album appears to be unknown in natural habitats in the British Isles and has
long lain under suspicion of having anciently been introduced, perhaps for
food (it was at one time eaten extensively by peasants in Sweden). In Co.
Dublin its distribution closely coincides with the known sites of early Nor-
man settlements, while in parts of Wales an association with Roman way-
stations has been postulated. It must be considered doubtful whether it was
available for use anywhere in the British Isles prehistorically.
The few records suggest that the species has never enjoyed much popu-
larity in the British Isles as a folk medicine. The ailments for which it has
been used, moreover, are curiously diverse: skin complaints in Norfolk88 and
one region of north-western Eire89 (where mixed with mutton suet it has
been made into an ointment for treating eczema in adults), arthritis or sciat-
ica in Norfolk90 and Dumfriesshire,91 bleeding and deep cuts in Somerset92
and South Uist in the Outer Hebrides—and in this last also, sore feet and
toothache.93 None of these corresponds to uses for which the plant is recom-
mended in at least some current books of herbal cures.
Lamium purpureum Linnaeus

red dead-nettle
An infusion of Lamium purpureum, in a quart of wine, has been drunk in
216 Lamium purpureum
Essex as a treatment for piles94 (and elsewhere in East Anglia it features as a

cure for certain diseases of poultry95).
In Ireland, on the other hand, a decoction of the roots has been taken in
Meath to bring out the rash in cases of measles,96 while in Kerry an infusion
has been drunk for headaches.97 As similar uses are on record for betony
(Stachys officinalis), perhaps Lamium purpureum has served there merely as
a stand-in for that.
Marrubium vulgare Linnaeus

white horehound
Europe, western and central Asia, North Africa, Macaronesia;
Dubiously identified with herbs featured in Classical and Anglo-Saxon
herbals, Marrubium vulgare has long been favoured in both book and folk
medicine as a remedy for sore throats, hoarseness, colds, coughs of all kinds,
bronchitis and asthma, for which there are records from many parts of
Britain and particularly Ireland. However, the species is unknown as a macro-
fossil from any pre-Roman site in the British Isles (or indeed from any pre-
medieval one elsewhere in Europe) and it seems likely to have been a late
addition to the folk repertory.
‘Haryhound’ was widely made into a beer and drunk as a spring tonic in
East Anglia till the early twentieth century.98 In the Fenland district of Cam-
bridgeshire, expectant mothers used to drink an especially strong mixture of
it with rue (Ruta graveolens, nowhere wild in the British Isles) if they wanted
to delay a birth.99 In Cumbria, by contrast, it has been valued for nosebleeds.100
That tonic of East Anglia has also been recorded from the opposite end of
the British Isles, in the Aran Islands.101 In other, unspecified parts of Ireland
an infusion of the plant is said to have been a common remedy for earache or
a headache,102 while in Cavan a preparation has had the reputation of clean-
ing out the valves of the heart, and a tea has been drunk for rheumatism.103
Scutellaria galericulata Linnaeus

skullcap
Europe, northern and western Asia, Algeria, North America
(Folk credentials questionable) Prized in medieval herbalism for all disorders
of the nervous system, the only alleged folk records of Scutellaria galericulata
may in fact have come from that. Assertions that the plant continues ‘in gen-
eral use’ in the Eastern Counties104 have been found to be supported by a sin-
gle localised record only from Norfolk,105 where it has been used for insomnia.
Teucrium scorodonia Linnaeus

wood sage, wild sage, mountain sage, heath sage
southern, western and central Europe; introduced into North America
Mainly a plant of the acid soils of the north and west of the British Isles, Teu-
crium scorodonia seems to have featured as a folk herb only very marginally
in England. A tea made from it in Hampshire has been drunk for swellings,
Marrubium
vulgare, white
horehound (Fuchs
1543, fig. 335)
218 Teucrium scorodonia
‘bad stomachs’ and biliousness,106 but more usually it has served to counter
rheumatism, as in one district of Gloucestershire107 and two counties in
Wales (Pembrokeshire and Flintshire108). It has been used as a purifying tonic
in Wiltshire,109 Merionethshire110 and the Isle of Man.111 Like other members
of the Lamiaceae, this species has the production of sweating as its most obvi-
ous property and the majority of its recorded applications reflect that.
Though those records come principally from Ireland, they include the easing
of ‘a sore head’ (presumably a headache) with a plaster made from the plant
in the Highlands.112 But that can hardly be why wood sage has been used for
shingles in Caernarvonshire,113 St Vitus’ dance in Denbighshire,114 jaundice
in Orkney (as reflected in the plant’s name there in Old Norse)115 and dysen-
tery in the Isle of Man.116
Though Ireland has echoed that limited use for rheumatism (Cork117
and, assuming ‘mountain sedge’ was a mishearing for this, Mayo118), it is as a
cure for colds and coughs, including those of tuberculosis, that the plant has
predominantly featured there (‘Ulster’,119 Mayo,120 Co. Dublin,121 Wicklow122
and other unspecified areas of the country123). That it also has a relaxing
effect could explain a subsidiary popularity in Ireland for such varied trou-
bles as colic, gripe, indigestion,124 palpitations125 and—in Cork—sprains126
and ‘a pain near the heart’.127
Particularly striking is the extent to which wood sage has been employed
in combination with other herbs. The Welsh cure for shingles already men-
tioned, for example, also involves navelwort and greater stitchwort128; as a
cure for tuberculosis in Wicklow it has been mixed with thyme and honey-
suckle129; in Wexford it has shared with equal parts of chickweed the role of
poulticing boils and ulcers130; while in Mayo it was merely one of eight ingre-
dients in a juice taken for coughing after a fever.131 Was this because it was
typically seen as fulfilling a supporting role, in need of a boost from some
other source if it was to overcome the more deep-seated complaints? Yet some
people do seem to have had great faith in its effectiveness even if utilised
alone: according to one Mayo informant, indeed, it ‘can cure every disease.’132
Teucrium scordium Linnaeus

water germander
southern, western and central Europe, western Asia
Locally abundant in the Cambridgeshire Fens until the eighteenth century, as
‘English treacle’ Teucrium scordium was said by John Ray to have been in use
by women ‘very frequently’ two centuries earlier in a decoction to suppress
menstruation.133 Smelling powerfully like garlic, it was also used ‘by the peas-
antry’ as a vermicide, according to a later source.134 In both cases, though, it
is left ambiguous whether it was specifically Cambridgeshire that was referred
to. No other mentions of the plant have been traced in the folklore literature
of Britain.
Ajuga reptans Linnaeus

bugle
There is one British record, from Sussex,135 of the ostensibly folk use of Ajuga
reptans for wounds, a purpose for which it was anciently valued on account
of its considerable astringency.
Two Irish records add support to that. In the early nineteenth century,
country people in Londonderry are said to have applied the juice to bruises
as those were at the stage of turning black.136 And in Sligo—if, as seems likely,
glas-na-coille was a mishearing of glasnair choille (the name in Irish)—it sup-
plied till much later a cure for whitlows reckoned infallible.137
Nepeta cataria Linnaeus

cat-mint
Europe, western and central Asia; introduced into North America,
South Africa
(Confusion suspected) A herb boiled in Meath to drive out a cold by induc-
ing sweating has been recorded as Nepeta cataria138; however, no other men-
tion of the species in the folklore literature has been traced, and as it is a rar-
ish plant in Ireland and not accepted as indigenous there, there must be an
element of doubt. Possibly it was a mishearing of ‘calamint’ (Clinopodium
ascendens), another herb used for colds and said to have been formerly drunk
as a tea in parts of Ireland.139
Glechoma hederacea Linnaeus

ground-ivy, robin-run-in-the-hedge
Europe, north and western Asia; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
‘Women of our northern parts, especially about Wales and Cheshire’, wrote
John Gerard in his Herball,140 put pieces of Glechoma hederacea in their ale to
clear the head of ‘rheumatic humour flowing from the brain’—hence its
names of ‘ale-hoof’ or‘tun-hoof’. By the time John Ray wrote, nearly a century
220 Glechoma hederacea
later,141 that custom had gradually disappeared, following the arrival of hops
(Humulus lupulus); he accepted, however, that the herb had the power to clear
the brain, usually within twenty-four hours. Many subsequent authors have
attested to its action on the mucous membranes, which have caused it to be
extensively prescribed and used for cleansing the system as a whole as well
as, more specifically, as an expectorant or inhalant for colds, coughs and res-
piratory complaints in general. Records of its folk use for this last purpose
Glechoma hederacea,
ground-ivy (Fuchs
1543, fig. 503)
are very widely spread but especially frequent from the‘Celtic’ west. A natural
follow-on from the reputation for clearing the head has been to bring that
property to bear on deafness (reported from Lincolnshire142) and, of course,
headaches, too. The method of administering it for the latter is not mentioned
in the one unlocalised Irish record,143 but in the case of a seventeenth-century
one from Staffordshire the juice was put up the nostrils,144 while in the High-
lands the dried leaves have been made into a snuff.145 Predictably, the eyes
have been seen to benefit, too. The deriving of an eye lotion from the plant evi-
dently goes back a very long way, for it features among the recipes of the physi-
cians of Myddvai in thirteenth-century Carmarthenshire; more recent
records come from Dorset146 and Warwickshire.147
Ground-ivy’s more broadly cleansing action has caused its second most
widespread use, as a purifying tonic. Whereas its records as a cold cure show
a preponderantly ‘Celtic’ distribution, by contrast they come noticeably much
more from the southern half of England: Devon,148 Dorset,149 Wiltshire,150
Berkshire and Oxfordshire,151 Kent152 and Warwickshire.153 In this last area,
the plant was boiled with the young shoots of nettles to produce a very bitter
drink known as ‘gill tea’, which children were made to drink on nine succes-
sive days every spring. Like other purifying herbs, this one has been credited,
too, with clearing up skin complaints of a variety of kinds—in Devon154 and
Gloucestershire155 as far as Britain is concerned.
The plant further enjoyed a reputation, if a more minor one, for healing
externally. In Cornwall, wounds and lesser cuts have been bound with its
fresh leaves, a secondary function of which has been to draw out thorns and
splinters.156 It has been valued for wounds in Caernarvonshire,157 too, and for
adder bites in the Highlands.158 And no doubt its claimed success with lard as
an ointment for corns in Suffolk159 belongs in this category, too.
Ireland’s share of these lesser uses extends from clearing up skin com-
plaints (Westmeath,160 Limerick,161 Cork162), flushing out the kidneys (Kil-
kenny,163 Tipperary164), stimulating menstruation in cases of chlorosis
(‘Ulster’165), healing sores and blisters (Louth166) and making ulcers disap-
pear (Westmeath,167 Wexford168).
Prunella vulgaris Linnaeus

self-heal; ceannbhan beg, heart’s-ease (Ireland)
Europe, temperate Asia, North Africa; introduced into North
An Irish herb par excellence—despite being common over most of the British
222 Prunella vulgaris
Isles—Prunella vulgaris has had three principal but distinct functions in folk
medicine: to staunch bleeding, to ease respiratory complaints and to treat
heart trouble. For the first of those the plant was once highly valued in official
medicine as well, but by the eighteenth century it largely fell into disuse and
has lingered on only in country areas: the Weald of Kent (where charcoal burn-
ers applied it to cuts and bruises as recently as World War II169), Suffolk,170
Prunella vulgaris, self-heal (Fuchs

1543, fig. 352)
Gloucestershire171 and the Highlands172 as far as Britain is concerned. The

second function, as a treatment for colds and respiratory problems, was
reportedly popular c. 1700 in several parts of Wales173 and is on record more
recently from two remote areas where dying usages are likely to linger longest:
the Pennines of Westmoreland174 and the island of Colonsay in the Inner Heb-
rides.175 (Elsewhere in the Hebrides a tea made from self-heal and tansy (Tana-
cetum vulgare) was once drunk for cooling the blood.176) For the third main
function of the plant, however, no records at all from Britain have been traced.
Ireland seems to have had little interest in self-heal’s ability to staunch
bleeding, at any rate in more recent times, and the three counties from which
that action is recorded (Londonderry,177 Co. Dublin,178 Cork179) are suspi-
ciously ones containing large centres of population, suggesting a late arrival.
One of John Ray’s correspondents, a physician in Kilkenny accustomed to
that use of the plant elsewhere, was surprised to find that Irish herb doctors
instead gave it frequently, boiled in a posset,‘in all sorts of common continual
fevers, some also in intermittent ones’.180 It has persisted as a cure for ailments
of that type in at least Donegal,181 Cavan,182 the Aran Islands183 and Wick-
low,184 but it is in the more particular guise of a remedy for easing tubercular
coughs that it features in the later records, with a marked concentration—
and striking frequency—in the counties of the centre: Kildare (especially),185
Laois,186 Carlow187 and Offaly.188 If this is the plant known there as ‘pusey’, it
is on record for that from Fermanagh, too.189 There was a saying in those
parts that you could tell whether a person had this fever-like illness, known
there under the name mionnérach, by rubbing the plant in the hand and see-
ing if a froth developed.
The third main function of the plant, as a heart remedy, appears to have
been exclusively Irish, recorded especially along the western coast (Done-
gal,190 Sligo,191 Clare Island off Mayo,192 Limerick193) but also farther east
(Cavan,194 Kildare195). In that capacity it has variously borne the names of
cailleach’s tea196 and ceann de dohosaig.197 A presumably related use, in some
unspecified part of Eire,198 has been for a sudden stroke (or poc).
That medicinal uses of self-heal in Ireland have acquired some accretions
of special ritual strengthens the impression that the history of the plant in that
country is especially deep-rooted. Not surprisingly, therefore, it has attracted
some further applications there of a more marginal kind: in Kildare199 and
Wicklow200 to rid children of worms, in Londonderry201 and Wexford202 as a
treatment for piles, in Meath203 as a cure for eczema, in Carlow204 as a remedy
for ‘a pain in the back’ (renal colic?) and in Cavan205 for ‘weak blood’.
224 Clinopodium ascendens
Clinopodium ascendens (Jordan) Sampaio

Calamintha ascendens Jordan, Calamintha sylvatica subsp. ascendens
(Jordan) P. W. Ball
common calamint
western and southern Europe, North Africa; introduced into
North America
(Folk credentials questionable) There is one vague statement206 that the aro-
matic Clinopodium ascendens was in frequent use as a herbal tea in parts of
Ireland in the early nineteenth century, leaving it unclear whether that was for
medicinal purposes (it has been drunk for colds quite widely elsewhere). The
species is accepted as a native of that country, occurring there in some quan-
tity in limestone districts, so it is a likely one to have been exploited.
Origanum vulgare Linnaeus

marjoram
Europe, northern and western Asia, North Africa; introduced into
Though the native version, Origanum vulgare, of this well-known pot-herb is
locally common in the British Isles on chalk and limestone and its varied
medicinal virtues have been much publicised in the literature, folk records of
its use are curiously almost wanting. In Kent (?) it was at one time gathered
in large quantities in autumn. Some was made into a tea for drinking imme-
diately as a prophylactic and the rest hung up in bunches to dry for winter
use.207 On the Isle of Portland in Dorset it has the reputation of relieving
headaches208 and in ‘Ulster’ a decoction has been drunk to counter indiges-
tion and acidity.209 Otherwise it appears to have been essentially a remedy
for horses. That pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) was widely known as ‘organ’,
presumably a corruption of Origanum, suggests that the latter largely took its
place at least in English folk medicine.
Thymus Linnaeus
thyme
northern Eurasia; introduced into North America
Like so many other members of the mint family, Thymus has been one of
many possible alternatives used for treating coughs and respiratory ailments
(including tuberculosis). British records for this usage come from Devon,210
Somerset,211 Suffolk212 and the Highlands.213 The most important reason for
drinking thyme tea, though, has been to calm the nerves: the plant is a well-
known sedative. Once drunk almost universally in remote parts of Scotland,
Plate 1. Juniperus communis, juniper Plate 2. Caltha palustris, marsh-marigold
(Cupressaceae) (Ranunculaceae)
Plate 3. Alnus glutinosa, alder (Betulaceae)
225
Plate 4. Althaea officinalis, marsh-mallow Plate 5. Viola odorata, sweet violet
(Malvaceae) (Violaceae)
Plate 6. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, bearberry (Ericaceae)
226
Plate 7. Calluna vulgaris, heather (Ericaceae)
Plate 8. Erica tetralix, cross-leaved heath Plate 9. Primula vulgaris, primrose

(Ericaceae) (Primulaceae)
227
Plate 10. Rubus fruticosus, blackberry (Rosaceae)
Plate 11. Fragaria vesca, wild strawberry Plate 12. Geum urbanum, herb-Bennet
(Rosaceae) (Rosaceae)
228
Plate 13. Crataegus monogyna , hawthorn (Rosaceae)
Plate 14. Ilex aquifolium, holly (Aquifoliaceae)
229
Plate 15. Polygala vulgaris, common milkwort (Polygalaceae)
Plate 16. Myrrhis odorata, sweet cicely (Apiaceae)
230
Plate 17. Crithmum maritimum, rock samphire (Apiaceae)
Plate 18. Conium maculatum, hemlock (Apiaceae)
231
Plate 19. Vinca minor, lesser periwinkle (Apocynaceae)
Plate 20. Hyoscyamus niger, henbane Plate 21. Datura stramonium, thorn-apple
(Solanaceae) (Solanaceae)
232
Plate 22. Pulmonaria officinalis, lungwort (Boraginaceae)
Plate 23. Lamium album, white dead-nettle (Lamiaceae)
233
Plate 24. Scrophularia nodosa, common figwort
(Scrophulariaceae)
Plate 25. Veronica beccabunga, brooklime

(Scrophulariaceae)
234
Plate 26. Dipsacus fullonum, wild teasel Plate 27. Silybum marianum, milk thistle
(Dipsacaceae) (Asteraceae)
Plate 28. Acorus calamus, sweet flag

(Araceae)
235
Plate 30. Dactylorhiza maculata subsp.
Plate 29. Allium ursinum, ramsons ericetorum, heath spotted-orchid
(Liliaceae) (Orchidaceae)
PLATE 31 FPO
Plate 31. Orchis mascula, early-purple orchid (Orchidaceae)
236
both there214 and in Suffolk215 that infusion also had the supposed extra
virtue of preventing bad dreams. But whereas in Suffolk it has additionally
been a specific for headache,216 in Wiltshire it has been looked upon as a wart
cure, boiled in urine with pepper and nitre,217 while from Cumbria there is a
record of a mixed bunch of nettle, dock and thyme leaves being applied to
lumbago as a counter-irritant switch.218
The Irish uses are similar but records of them noticeably less widespread,
with a marked concentration in the south-east: in Wexford219 the infusion has
been drunk both to counter respiratory troubles and as a sedative to calm the
nerves or induce deeper sleep, though in Wicklow220 a tuberculosis cure has
taken the form of an infusion mixed with honeysuckle and wild sage instead.
In Limerick, headaches were banished by sniffing the plant plucked fresh.221
Mentha Linnaeus
mint
Old World temperate regions
Mentha aquatica Linnaeus

water mint
Europe, south-western Asia, North and South Africa, Madeira;
introduced into North America
Mentha ×piperita Linnaeus

peppermint
horticultural
Mentha spicata Linnaeus

spearmint
horticultural
Except for pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), the members of the genus Men-
tha, if distinguished at all in the folk literature, have borne their vernacular
names interchangeably and have been used medicinally for such a broadly
similar range of ailments that it is appropriate to discuss them together. Most
records probably relate to the native water mint (M. aquatica), the common
species of wet places. That is widely known also as ‘water peppermint’ or ‘wild
peppermint’, names rarely relating to the true peppermint (M. ×piperita),
which is a garden hybrid, originating in England in the seventeenth century.
Though spearmint (M. spicata) is probably always distinguished correctly,
only two folk records of that have been found, while the solitary one for ‘horse
mint’ cannot confidently be ascribed to any of the species or hybrids now
238 Mentha
recognised by taxonomists. Until grown as pot-herbs, some of which have

crept out of gardens and become naturalised in the wild, ‘mint’ doubtless
denoted a single wild entity for all practical purposes.
Like so many other members of the family Lamiaceae, mint has found
its principal use in countering colds and coughs—though, curiously, the
British records for that are all from the southern half of England: Dorset,222
Wiltshire,223 Warwickshire,224 Suffolk,225 and Norfolk.226 A secondary focus
has been on the digestive system, as a cure for constipation, stomach-ache or
inflammation of the appendix (Kent,227 Norfolk228), perhaps also the ‘stom-
ach trouble’ reported from Gloucestershire229 and even the ‘heart complaints’
for which ‘horse mint’ has been commended in Lincolnshire230 if those are
‘heartburn’ at least in part. But ‘a pain in the side after jaundice’, recorded
from the Highlands,231 must belong in a separate category, as clearly does a
tradition persisting in rural Somerset232 and the mining communities of
Fife233 of relieving ‘curdled milk’ in nursing mothers by applying a hot ‘pep-
permint’ or spearmint compress to the breasts. The same applies to rubbing
the gums with the leaves to ease the pain of toothache in Wiltshire.234
Ireland’s uses have been similar, but the two leading ones in Britain have
exchanged their places there: indigestion and stomach pain have been the
main troubles remedied (Cavan,235 Limerick,236 Cork237 and unlocalised
records238) whereas the only cold cure traced is a record from Co. Dublin—
where it was eaten raw239—and the only cough cure is represented by a
spearmint syrup made with water-cress and honeysuckle for whooping
cough in Cork.240 In the last county a decoction has also been drunk for
headaches,241 while deafness has been treated there by squeezing the juice
from nine plants and pouring a thimbleful into the relevant ear.242 Other
Irish applications have been to jaundice in Limerick,243 measles in Cavan244
and nettle stings (as a counter-irritant) in Co. Dublin.245 In some unspecified
part of the country a bunch tied to the wrist or worn elsewhere about the
person has also been held to ward off infection.246
Mentha pulegium Linnaeus

pennyroyal (pennyroyal of North America is a quite different plant,
Hedeoma pulegioides (Linnaeus) Persoon), organ, hop marjoram
central and southern Europe, North Africa, Macaronesia; introduced
into North and South America, Australasia
The name pennyroyal is a corrupted translation of the Latin pulegium
regium, under which the herbals propagated the belief that Mentha pulegium
was the plant recommended by Classical writers as a flea repellent. In defer-

ence to that, posies of the plant were at one time frequently kept in cottages
in Devon247 and no doubt elsewhere. The Classical authors, however, also
praised this plant as useful to ‘bring away the afterbirth’ and pennyroyal has
consequently enjoyed a secondary, apparently much more
widespread reputation as an abortifacient—and the
plant does indeed harbour a toxic chemical, pulegone.
Though records of its use for that purpose predictably
feature but rarely in the folk literature and the hand-
ful that have been traced are mostly from the east
of England (Essex,248 Cambridgeshire,249 Nor-
folk,250 Lancashire,251 Yorkshire252), there is con-
siderable evidence to suggest that it has been one of
the most popular solutions for unwanted preg-
nancies down through the years and continued in
currency more or less down to the present. An
associated use, more freely reported, has been for
menstrual obstruction (Dorset,253 Suffolk,254
Norfolk,255 Lancashire256).
In its non-clandestine roles, however,
pennyroyal has principally served as just
another mint, sharing with so many
other members of the Lamiaceae an
obvious ability to clear the nasal and
bronchial passages. In that capacity it has
evidently been preferred to the wild mar-
joram (Origanum vulgare), which has a
similar scent, and usurped its Latin name
Origanum in the corrupted forms of ‘organy’
and ‘organ(s)’. Under the last name a tea
made from it has been drunk very ex-
tensively in Cornwall257 and par-
ticularly Devon258 at least since
the seventeenth century,259
either as a refreshing pick-
me-up or, mixed with honey,
for colds and the like. It was Mentha pulegium, pennyroyal (Brunfels
traditionally taken out to har- 1530, p. 227)
240 Mentha pulegium
vesters in the fields and also used by sailors to sweeten their drinking water
when at sea.260 Beyond this south-western headquarters its recorded use for
these particular purposes has extended to Wiltshire,261 Wexford262 and (in an
infusion with bramble roots) the Highlands.263 In Gloucestershire264 also it
has been drunk to cure flatulence, and in Wales, as coludd-lys, to open the
bowels.265
Miscellaneous uses, unrelated to any of the foregoing, have been for
cramp in Devon266 and, mixed with barley-meal, as a dressing on burns in the
Isle of Man.267 The sole Irish one is as a corn cure in Wexford.268
Though now a scarce plant, only in the New Forest to be found in quan-
tity still, pennyroyal was allegedly once much more plentiful in lowland Eng-
land. Requiring short turf, it was characteristic of village greens and ponds
frequented by farm geese, both habitats much exposed to modern changes. A
marked association of the older records with the wide verges of old roads
that may have been ancient trackways has been noted.
Salvia verbenaca Linnaeus

S. horminoides Pourret
wild clary
southern and western Europe, Algeria; introduced into North
The seeds of some Salvia species have a seed coat which, when soaked in
water or melted by the warmth and moisture of the eyeball, becomes jelly-like
and adheres to any foreign body, enabling it to be extracted with the mini-
mum of pain. ‘Clary’ is allegedly a corruption of ‘clear-eye’.
Though other foreign or cultivated species were normally recommended
in official medicine for this purpose, the native English Salvia verbenaca
attracted some use for it as well, under the name ‘eyeseed’. There are definite
records of that from Oxfordshire and Denbighshire269 and a more doubtful
one from Lincolnshire270; it also seems more likely than gromwell (as
claimed271) to be the ‘eyeseed’ used in Essex, in precisely the same way.
An infusion of the plant formerly drunk as a tea in Berwickshire has pro-
voked the suggestion that it was anciently grown there (and elsewhere?) med-
icinally.272 If so, perhaps that was for sprains, for which a plant known as
‘eyeseeds’ and queried as this species, was at one time used in the Louth dis-
trict of Lincolnshire.273
Notes
1. Barbour 44. IFC S 524: 8
2. Moore MS 45. Wood-Martin, 185
3. IFC S 630: 39 46. Grigson
4. Tongue 47. e.g. Roeder; Moore 1898
5. Wright, 241 48. Garrad 1976 and in litt.
6. Taylor 1929 49. Moore 1898
7. Perring 50. Roberts
8. Payne, 92 footnote 51. Roberts
9. Folk-lore Record, 6 (1888), 116 52. Quincy, 133
10. Burne, 190; Wright, 243 53. A. Allen, 185
11. Quayle, 69; Fargher 54. Hatfield, 50
12. Killip, 135 55. Vickery MSS
13. Briggs 1880 56. Wright, 247
14. Ibbott, 11 57. Moloney
15. Hatfield, 30 58. Latham, 38
16. Vickery MSS 59. Maloney
17. Hatfield, appendix 60. Moore MS
18. Vickery MSS 61. Whitlock 1992, 103
19. Hatfield MS 62. A. Allen, 185
20. Hayward 63. Whitlock 1992, 103
21. Hatfield MS 64. Hayward, 230
22. Hatfield, 33 65. Newman & Wilson
23. Hatfield, 52 66. Tongue
24. Vickery MSS 67. Jones 1996, 89
25. Maloney 68. Pratt 1850–7
26. IFC S 710: 48 69. R. C. Palmer, in litt.
27. IFC S 157: 295, 314 70. Harrison
28. Barbour 71. Kirby, 60
29. IFC S 475: 207 72. Martin, 94
30. Maloney 73. Cameron
31. Vickery MSS 74. Gerard, 852
33. Logan, 61 76. Moloney
35. IFC S 850: 113 78. IFC S 21: 11
36. IFC S 550: 288 79. IFC S 736: 191
37. IFC S 505: 117 80. Bethell
38. Logan, 77 81. Johnston 1853, 162
39. Murray 82. CECTL MSS
40. Lafont 83. Simpkins, 133
41. Pratt 1850–7 84. Moore MS
42. Colgan 1904, 309 85. Maloney
43. IFC S 931: 303 86. Larch S. Garrad, in litt.
242 Notes
87. North Western Naturalist, 18 130. IFC S 897: 238

(1944), 168 131. IFC S 132: 97
89. Logan, 73 133. Ray 1670, 67
90. Hatfield MS 134. Johnson 1862, 205
91. CECTL MSS 135. A. Allen, 185
92. Tongue 136. Moore MS
93. Shaw, 48, 49 137. IFC S 170: 256
94. Hatfield, 45 138. Farrelly MS
95. Hatfield, appendix 139. Farrelly MS
96. IFC S 717: 352 140. Gerard, 707
97. IFC S 413: 228 141. Ray 1670, 161
98. Randell, 87; Hatfield, 55 142. Woodruffe-Peacock
99. Porter 1969, 10 143. Wilson
100. Newman & Wilson 144. Ray 1690, 281
101. Ó hEithir 145. Beith
102. Wilson 146. Dacombe
103. Maloney 147. PLNN, no. 32 (1993), 147
104. Newman 1945; 1948, 150 148. Lafont
105. Hatfield MS 149. Dacombe
106. Beddington & Christy, 212 150. Macpherson MS
107. Riddelsdell et al., 398 151. Vickery 1995
108. Williams MS 152. Pratt 1850–7
109. Macpherson MS 153. Wright, 239
110. Williams MS 154. Lafont
111. Fargher 155. Britten & Holland
112. Carmichael, vi, 114 156. Deane & Shaw
113. Williams MS 157. Williams MS
114. Vickery 1995, 404 158. MacFarlane
115. Spence; Leask, 71 159. Hatfield, 53
116. Moore 1898 160. IFC S 736: 170
117. IFC S 386: 118 161. IFC S 524: 83
118. IFC S 138: 466 162. IFC S 385: 55
119. Purdon 163. IFC S 850: 114
120. Colgan 1911; IFC S 93: 32; 132: 97 164. Vickery MSS
121. Egan 165. Barbour
123. Wood-Martin, 177; Wilson 167. IFC S 736: 137
124. Moloney; Ó Súilleabháin, 310 168. IFC S 897: 236
125. Wood-Martin, 177 169. Mabey, 317
126. IFC S 287: 67 170. Jobson 1967, 60
127. IFC S 286: 56 171. Hopkins, 80
128. Williams MS 172. Beith
129. McClafferty 173. Lankester, 372
174. Duncan & Robson, 69 215. Jobson 1959, 32

175. McNeill 216. Jobson 1959, 32
176. Swire, 76 217. Whitlock 1976, 164
177. Moore MS 218. PLNN, no. 54 (1998), 261
178. IFC S 795: 124 219. IFC S 897: 239
180. Lankester, 372 221. IFC S 524: 30
181. IFC S 1090: 241, 274 222. Dacombe
183. Ó hEithir (as Eriophorum) 224. Vickery MSS
184. McClafferty 225. Kightly, 222; Folk-lore, 35 (1924),
185. IFC S 781: 3, 11, 51, 79, 108 356
186. IFC S 837: 56, 130 226. Hatfield, 8, 30
187. IFC S 907: 414 227. Vickery MSS
188. IFC S 800: 53 228. Hatfield, 72, 88
189. Glassie, 308 229. Knight, 182
190. Hart 1898, 377, 379; Vickery MSS 230. Woodruffe-Peacock
191. IFC S 170: 258 231. Beith
192. Colgan 1911 232. Tongue
193. IFC S 484: 41 233. Simpkins, 411
194. IFC S 969: 225 234. Macpherson MS
195. IFC S 771: 241 235. Maloney
196. Moloney 236. IFC S 504: 136
197. Vickery MSS 237. IFC S 287: 180
198. Ó Súilleabháin, 314 238. Wood-Martin, 220; Sargent
199. Journal of the County Kildare 239. IFC S 787: 282
Archaeological Society, 16 (1983–4), 240. IFC S 385: 286
379 241. IFC S 287: 67
200. McClafferty (as Eriophorum); IFC S 242. IFC S 287: 180
908: 98 243. IFC S 512: 407, 523
201. Moore MS 244. Maloney
202. IFC S 888: 108 245. IFC S 787: 336
203. IFC S 710: 49 246. Sargent
204. IFC S 907: 414, 415 247. Lafont
205. Maloney 248. Hatfield, 20
206. Moore MS 249. Porter 1969, 10
207. Pratt 1850–7 250. Hatfield, 17
208. Vickery MSS 251. Vickery 1995
209. Egan 252. Vickery 1995
210. Vickery MSS 253. Dacombe
211. Tongue 254. Jobson 1959, 144
212. Chamberlain 1981, 257 255. Hatfield MS
213. MacFarlane 256. Vickery 1995
214. Cameron; Beith 257. Davey; Wright, 241
244 Notes
258. Briggs 1880; Wright, 241; Lafont 267. Fargher; Garrad 1984
259. Parkinson, 30 268. IFC S 897: 81
260. Lafont 269. Gardeners’ Chronicle (1871: I), 45,
261. Macpherson MS 106
262. IFC S 897: 263 270. Britten & Holland, 172
263. Beith 271. Gepp, 45
264. Vickery 1995 272. Johnston 1853, 159
265. Cameron 273. Woodruffe-Peacock
266. Lafont
CHAPTER 13
Plantains, Figworts, Foxglove

and Speedwells
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Callitrichales

(Callitrichaceae, water-starworts), Plantaginales (Plantaginaceae, plantains)
and Scrophulariales (Oleaceae, the ash family; Scrophulariaceae, figworts;
Orobanchaceae, broomrapes; Lentibulariaceae, bladderworts) are included
in this chapter.
CALLITRICHACEAE
Callitriche stagnalis Scopoli
common water-starwort
Europe, North Africa, North America; introduced into Australasia
A plant identified botanically as Callitriche stagnalis was found to be an ingre-
dient, along with chamomile and ragwort, in plasters used to promote the
formation of pus in wounds in the island of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides
in the late nineteenth century.1 Possibly it had been used in mistake for some
similar-looking herb.
PLANTAGINACEAE
Plantago coronopus Linnaeus
buck’s-horn plantain
western and central Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Azores;
Though Plantago coronopus has shared in the Isle of Man2 the reputation of
the genus more generally for staunching cuts and wounds, as P. maritima
Linnaeus has in Cork,3 it at one time acquired very special fame as an antidote
245
246 Plantago coronopus
to the bites of rabid dogs and resulting hydrophobia, under the name ‘star-of-
the-earth’. Though the recorded uses of the latter seem to have been veteri-
nary, it could well have been used when humans were bitten, too.
Plantago coronopus,
buck’s-horn plantain
(Fuchs 1543, fig. 252).
  Plantains, Figworts, Foxglove and Speedwells 247
Plantago lanceolata Linnaeus

ribwort plantain, rib-grass, slánlus, St Patrick’s leaf
Europe, northern and central Asia; cosmopolitan weed
Plantago major Linnaeus

greater plantain, St Patrick’s leaf
Europe, northern and central Asia;
cosmopolitan weed
The commonest species of plantain in the British
Isles, both for the most part followers of human
activity but probably indigenous in marshes
(Plantago major) and in sea-cliff sward (P. lance-
olata), these two have naturally been the nor-
mal choices for the purpose for which this genus
is renowned in many parts of the world (includ-
ing Sikkim and Peru): the ability to stop bleed-
ing from an external injury in a matter of min-
utes. Usually it is found sufficient for just a fresh
leaf to be crushed (or chewed) for enough of the
healing chemicals to be released, but to treat
severer haemorrhages the whole plant has some-
times been boiled; alternatively, an ointment
has been produced and applied. The two spe-
cies seem to have been used throughout
the British Isles for this primary purpose,
and interchangeably.
In Britain that famed effectiveness
has led the leaves to be applied as
well to rashes (Somerset4) and
soreness from any rubbing (South
Uist in the Hebrides5 and elsewhere
in Scotland6), piles (Devon7) and
burns (Devon,8 Shetland9). Cred-
ited with antiseptic properties10 and
the ability to prevent festering, they
have been valued further for treating
varicose veins (Montgomeryshire11) and
for drawing the pus out of an infected Plantago major, greater plantain
wound or swelling (Gloucestershire,12 (Brunfels 1530, p. 23)
248 Plantago
the Inner13 and Outer Hebrides,14 Orkney15). A reputation for also alleviat-
ing pain has encouraged a use for all kinds of stings, too, mostly in southern
England (Devon,16 Dorset,17 Somerset,18 Kent (?),19 Bedfordshire,20 the Fens
of East Anglia21) but in the Highlands22 as well. A still further use, recorded
from Denbighshire,23 is as a tonic, mixed with yarrow and nettles.
Ireland is distinctive for the wide presence there (Longford,24 Leitrim,25
Mayo,26 Tipperary27) of a belief—common to several other plants—that one
side of the leaf does the drawing out of septic matter from a wound and the
other the healing, a belief recorded apparently only from the Outer
Hebrides28 in Britain. More exclusively Irish has been drinking plantain juice
for a cough (Monaghan,29 Mayo,30 Laois31). While the two countries have
yielded similar numbers of similarly scattered records for applying the leaves
to burns (Monaghan,32 Limerick,33 Tipperary34) and to drawing pus out of
boils, wounds or swellings (Donegal,35 Laois,36 Tipperary37), Ireland seems to
have found other uses for the leaves unknown, or at any rate untraced, in
Britain: lumps and swellings (Monaghan,38 Clare-Galway borderland39),
pimples (Laois40), chapped hands or legs (Limerick,41 Tipperary42), corns
(Longford43), warts (Westmeath44), headaches (Meath,45 Cavan46) and gout
(Cavan47). The sole records for some internal uses are Irish, too: drinking the
boiled juice for liver trouble (Cavan48) or jaundice (Laois49) and putting it
into the milk of children that are delicate (Tipperary50). Even ‘sore eyes’ have
had their share of attention (Galway,51 Limerick52) though it is unclear—as
also in the case of a record from the Highlands53—whether that meant styes
or merely the result of straining.
OLEACEAE
Fraxinus excelsior Linnaeus
ash
New Zealand
Another tree traditionally believed to exude special power from its every part,
Fraxinus excelsior has been valued for one healing purpose at least which
seems to betray a magico-religious origin: as an antidote for the bites of ven-
omous snakes. That this is based on superstition rather than anything else is
shown by the fact that the cure, or the power to avert such bites in the first
place, is attributed to the wearing of a collar woven out of ash twigs or to the
carrying of an ‘ash-stick’. Records of its use in those ways for people and/or
dogs have been traced from Cornwall,54 Devon,55 Dorset,56 ‘Wales’57 and Gal-
loway58—all areas where adders occur in particular numbers. In Moray59 in
the north of Scotland, soaking the affected limb in a preparation of the leaves
and buds was a more down-to-earth alternative. That that belief is not only
ancient but was once Europe-wide is shown by its presence in the Norse sagas
as well as the writings of Pliny the Elder.
Though healing powers attributed to any plant with a magical aura are
ipso facto suspect, it is nevertheless possible that some chemical property of
the sap does have a genuinely beneficial effect. Before the advent of quinine
(from Cinchona spp.), the bark was popular in learned medicine for allaying
fevers, and although no reflection of that particular use has been found in the
folk records, they do contain other applications that are clearly cognate. One
is a cure for earache (or deafness or tinnitus or even a headache), recorded
from Sussex60 and a chain of Irish counties, which involves heating a twig or
young sapling in the fire, catching on a spoon the liquid that emerges and
putting that hot into the ear, normally on cotton wool (or presumably a puff-
ball before that product was invented). The sap has been similarly extracted
to put on warts in Devon61 and Leicestershire62 or on an aching tooth in the
Highlands.63
Apart from the buds, which are a slimming remedy in Gloucestershire,64
and the seeds, reputedly an aphrodisiac in Devon,65 it is the leaves that have
otherwise been used. Reputed to purge, these have been valued in Glouces-
tershire for eliminating ‘gravel’.66
It is in Ireland, though, that the leaves have been pre-eminently valued
herbally: boiled or laid on fresh, they have been a remedy for rheumatism
and its allies (Roscommon,67 Meath,68 Co. Dublin,69 Laois,70 Wexford,71
Waterford,72 Cork,73 Kerry74) or for gout (Cavan,75 Cork76). More compact,
and more intriguing, is the distribution pattern displayed by the records for
the earache cure described above. All those traced come from the eastern
province of Leinster (Westmeath,77 Co. Dublin,78 Kildare,79 Offaly,80 Wick-
low,81 Wexford82) and thus perhaps have a Norse origin as the explanation.
Ireland’s greater valuing of the tree is further shown by a wider range of minor
uses recorded for it: for ringworm in Down83 and Antrim84 (by enveloping
the affected part in the smoke from smouldering twigs), for heartburn in
Meath85 and for burns in Kilkenny (by boiling the bark in linseed oil).86 Even
England’s application to warts has echoes in Westmeath87 and Co. Dublin.88
250 Ligustrum vulgare
Ligustrum vulgare Linnaeus

privet
western, central and southern Europe, North Africa; introduced
A decoction of the berries of Ligustrum vulgare, which contain a potentially
dangerous glycoside, has been recorded in more recent years as a home rem-
edy for mumps in Wiltshire.89
In unspecified parts of Ireland, though, a similar decoction is said to have
enjoyed great popularity for earache, while an infusion has been drunk for
sore throats.90 In Kildare, on the other hand, anyone following advice to chew
the leaves to heal a sore lip has been carefully warned against swallowing the
juice.91
All the records leave it unclear whether the native Ligustrum vulgare or the
cultivated L. ovalifolium Hasskarl is the species resorted to. They could be
expected to be more numerous, and from earlier periods, had the former
been used.
SCROPHULARIACEAE
Verbascum thapsus Linnaeus
great mullein; Mary’s candle (Ireland)
Europe, temperate Asia; introduced into North America, Australasia
The favourite remedy for pulmonary tuberculosis in Ireland throughout
recorded history and doubtless long before, known from virtually every part
of that country, has been to boil the woolly leaves of Verbascum thapsus in
milk, strain the thick, mucilaginous liquid produced by that and then drink
it warm, twice daily.92 So valued has this plant been there both for that and for
coughs and colds more generally, sore throats, catarrh, bronchitis and asthma
that it was formerly often grown in cottage gardens, sometimes on a consid-
erable scale. Advertisements were placed in newspapers, offering it for sale,
and it was available even in the best chemists’ shops in Dublin.
Though species of Verbascum have been used for lung and chest com-
plaints over much of Europe at least since Classical times, very curiously that
heavy Irish use is not matched in the records from elsewhere in the British
Isles. Such English ones as have been traced are all from the south-east (Sus-
sex,93 Buckinghamshire,94 Norfolk95 and the Eastern Counties more gener-
ally96) and it would appear not even to have been a member at all of the Welsh
or Scottish folk repertories.
In so far as great mullein has had

additional, minor uses, the records
are again Irish almost wholly. In
unspecified parts of Ulster a decoc-
tion has been taken for diarrhoea and,
mixed with other herbs, for cramp and for liver
and kidney ailments, while a leaf roasted be-
tween dock leaves and moistened with spittle
has been a treatment for boils.97 The leaves have
also predictably found favour as a poultice: in
parts of Ireland for ‘running sores’,98 in Meath
for bee stings99 and in Westmeath for
goitre.100 In Kerry, though, it was the
water in which the plant had been boiled
that was rubbed into the body to ease
doctor-resistant ‘pains’ (a word
most often denoting rheuma-
tism in the rural areas of Ire-
land).101
Verbascum lychnitis
Linnaeus
white mullein
southern half of Europe,
western Siberia,
Morocco; intro-
duced into North
America
(Name confusion suspected) If the
plant known under the name ‘white mul-
lein’ in Wiltshire is correctly taken to be
Verbascum lychnitis, its juice has been
used there as a wart cure.102 However,
there are no certain botanical records
for it from that county and perhaps the
white leaves of V. thapsus have made Verbascum thapsus, great mullein
that ‘white mullein’ locally. (Fuchs 1543, fig. 485)
252 Scrophularia nodosa
Scrophularia nodosa Linnaeus  

common figwort, rose noble, brown(s)wort; fothrom (Irish)
Europe, temperate western and central Asia, allied species in North
America; introduced into New Zealand
Like great mullein (Verbascum thapsus), the far less conspicuous Scrophu-
laria nodosa, with a rank smell and bitter-tasting leaves (as William Wither-
ing noted), has been outstandingly and preponderantly an Irish herb. Known
in Ireland as ‘queen of herbs’, the consort of the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea),
it was a plant of ancient veneration there, its usual name in Gaelic, fothrom,
being a corruption of faoi trom, ‘under elder’: just as mistletoe partook of
the magical properties of the oak by growing on that, so this was believed to
have special power through thriving in the shade of that other sacred tree. Just
like mistletoe, too, it was supposed to lose power if allowed to touch the
ground once picked.
A name borne by any of the figworts in Devon,‘poor man’s salve’,103 indi-
cates one way in which these plants, and more specially Scrophularia nodosa,
were used: the roots, which in S. nodosa are swollen and knobby, were ground
into a powder and mixed with lard to produce an ointment applied to piles
and skin troubles of all kinds. More often, though, the roots or leaves, or some-
times the berries or seeds, were boiled and the liquid drunk—either as the
standard kind of tonic held to clear the blood of impurities, including boils
and rashes (Donegal,104 Monaghan,105 Cavan,106 Co. Dublin,107 Tipperary108),
or as yet one further cure for bronchial ailments, sore throats, coughs and
consumption (Donegal,109 Cavan,110 Meath,111 Waterford112). In Kilkenny,113
on the other hand, sore throats were rubbed with the ointment and perhaps
that is also how goitre in Waterford114 has been treated with the plant.
Alternatively, one of the leaves might be applied as a poultice: to sprains
or other swellings in Donegal,115 Londonderry116 and Leitrim117 (particu-
larly extensively in the latter two), to burns in Leitrim118 and Mayo,119 to
wounds and cuts in Mayo120 and, mixed with moss and herb-Robert, in
Wicklow.121 For poulticing erysipelas in Donegal, however, it was not a leaf
but the ground-up root that was used as one of several ingredients.122
We are not told which part of the plant went into a herbal cocktail drunk
at one time in Ulster for the liver and kidneys,123 nor which has been
employed in Donegal for liver trouble124 nor in Cavan for stomach ail-
ments125; nor can we be sure what the ‘pains’ were for which it was valued in
Waterford‘long ago’126 unless they belonged to that‘any class of sudden pains’
for which a leaf or a stem was dipped in Easter water in Kilkenny127 and then
rubbed on the part of the body affected. Frustrating in a different way is the
failure to specify in which part of Ireland the plant has been used for a sudden
stroke128 or believed to have the yet further property of producing a copious
flow of the menses129 (though that was presumably the basis for the practice
in Londonderry of giving rose noble to cows to help clear the afterbirth130).
British use of this herb has been very slight by comparison and apparently
restricted to the leaves alone: for poulticing skin eruptions, abscesses or ulcers
in Devon131 and wounds in Surrey—as testified by the name ‘cut finger leaves’
recorded for it there.132 And it was presumably through its employment for
such purposes that the plant earned a name in Welsh that translates as ‘good
leaf ’.133
Scrophularia auriculata Linnaeus

S. aquatica of authors
water figwort, water betony
western and southern Europe, north-western Africa, Azores;
Though in English counties as far apart as Sussex, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire
and Yorkshire134 Scrophularia auriculata has suggestively had the supposedly
all-healing betony as one of its local names, it seems doubtful whether it was
consistently distinguished for herbal purposes from S. nodosa. In Ireland, at
any rate, both have passed as ‘rose noble’,135 and although in Cornwall136 and
Devon137 there is a long tradition of singling out S. auriculata as a dressing for
ulcers (and in Devon for cuts as well), ulcers are one of the ailments for which
S. nodosa has been recorded in use in that same corner of the country138—
though maybe uncritically. On the other hand it is expressly the leaves of
‘water bitney’ that have been sought out in Oxfordshire, a county in which
both species are present in quantity, for tying round festering fingers.139 In the
Cambridgeshire Fens, again it was leaves of ‘water bitney’—‘from the river’—
that were used to poultice sore heels and chapped and gathered toes.140 It
thus seems possible that in England, in contrast to Ireland, it was S. auriculata
that on the whole was the primary recipient of folk attention.
Linaria vulgaris Miller

common toadflax
Only two folk records of Linaria vulgaris have been traced, both from south-
ern England: in Sussex it has served as a wart plant141 and in Gloucestershire
it has been mixed with yarrow leaves in a poultice to ease pain, staunch bleed-
254 Linaria vulgaris
ing and induce sleep.142 Though frequent to common over much of the Brit-
ish Isles at least since the time of William Turner, it tends to occupy only late-
created habitats and has the suspect look of a slow-spreading invader from
the Continent. That so conspicuous and easily distinguished a plant scarcely
features as a folk herb in the British Isles, even though long established in
official medicine, adds strength to that suspicion.
Digitalis purpurea Linnaeus

foxglove, fairy fingers, fairy thimble, throatwort, floppy dock;
lus mór (Irish and Scots Gaelic)
western Europe, Morocco; introduced into North America,
Australasia and elsewhere
The story of William Withering’s testing of the therapeutic value of the old
folk herb Digitalis purpurea and its subsequent adoption by official medi-
cine has been recounted many times, particularly in more recent years. Not
only was it a landmark in the gradual reawakening to the possible genuine-
ness of many long-derided country remedies, but Withering’s ten years of
patient experimenting with the plant’s properties and his pioneering devel-
opment of the technique of dose titration have earned him acclaim as the
founder of clinical pharmacology. The story, however, often underplays the
extent to which species of foxglove had already been recommended for var-
ious purposes by earlier writers, including the authors of the most widely
read English herbals (though not of the Classical texts143). Medieval Irish
monks are even known to have valued the plant as a diuretic to cure dropsy,
the particular action which caught Withering’s attention in 1775,144 when
he was introduced to an old family recipe handed down from that of a Shrop-
shire herb woman and, thanks to his recently acquired expertise as a field
botanist, identified which of the score or so ingredients in that ‘cocktail’ was
producing the effect in question. Withering’s interest was confined strictly
to the plant’s diuretic action and its ability to slow the pulse rate, the latter
which eventually brought it into general use for treating heart failure. It is
now known that about a dozen different glycosides are present in Digitalis
species but that the content of them varies through the year and in different
parts of the plant, the root having the least.
Considering how well known its violent and even fatal action was, it is
surprising that foxglove has been used as extensively as it has been in both the
written and unwritten traditions, and for a considerable range of ailments. In
Scotland the older legal records contain numerous cases of children’s deaths
caused by drinking an infusion of the plant,145 and it had a reputation in

English villages for causing alarming illnesses if recklessly used for treating
colds.146 In Orkney the observation that foxgloves proved deadly poisonous
to geese caused them to be shunned for human remedies entirely.147
In Ireland, too, the generality of folk practitioners avoided prescribing
the plant for internal use,148 at any rate latterly (by which time its dangers
had probably become more widely known).
Heart troubles feature in the folk records as the single most widespread
use, if the British and Irish ones are combined. While it is possible that this
usage partly antedates the publicity given to the treatment for that complaint
Digitalis purpurea, foxglove

(Green 1902, fig. 463)
256 Digitalis purpurea
stemming from Withering’s work, a post-Withering acquisition from learned

medicine seems more probable. The very scattered distribution of the folk
records traced, in Britain and Ireland alike, lends support to that (just
Devon,149 Shropshire150 and the Scottish lowlands151 as far as the British ones
are concerned). As a diuretic, though, valued for dropsy or gravel, the plant’s
credentials as a folk medicine of much longer standing are more convincing,
with British records from Oxfordshire,152 Shropshire,153 Yorkshire154 and the
Highlands.155
In the later herbals,foxglove is recommended as a remedy for tuberculosis
pre-eminently, but of its use for that in folk medicine only a single record (an
Irish one) has been discovered. The herbals also make much mention of its
value for the tubercular condition of the glands known as scrofula, but folk
records of that,too,are no less conspicuous by their absence.Instead,the plant
seems to have served for the most part as an all-purpose salve: for bruises,espe-
cially when festering,in the Isle of Man,156 to bring boils to a head there,too,157
and in the Highlands158 for skin complaints of various kinds as well as in the
Isle of Man159 and Devon,160 for cuts and wounds in Montgomeryshire,161 for
lumps and swellings in Inverness-shire162 and for burns and scalds in Eriskay
in the Outer Hebrides.163 In Gloucestershire within living memory, large fox-
glove leaves have been placed on the breasts to dry up milk at weaning.164
A further quite widespread use—though much less in evidence in Britain
(Kent (?),165 Fife166)—has been for colds, sore throats and fevers. This was the
standard function of foxglove tea, though a broth sometimes took the place
of that. Some of the sore throats, however, may really have been diphtheria,
cases of which in Inverness-shire are known to have been treated with a hot
poultice (made from the pulped roots) placed on the neck—a treatment
reserved there, too, for ‘bad knees’ (presumably rheumatism).167 In the days
when fever victims were assailed with purges and emetics a decoction of the
foxglove, notorious for the violence of its effects, was found in use for this
purpose in the Somerset Levels in the sixteenth century by Matthias de l’O-
bel 168 and still persisted in that county and Devon nearly three centuries
later.169 To remove pains following a fever, the inhabitants of Skye also at one
time found a foxglove poultice useful.170 But it was presumably because it
was seen as dangerous to expose children to its properties too directly that the
preferred treatment for those suffering from scarlet fever, at least in Shrop-
shire, was for them to wear the leaves in their shoes for a year.171
The compounds which this plant contains not only affect the heart but
can powerfully influence the nervous system, too. In Derbyshire, according to
Withering’s son, women ‘of the poorer class’ used to drink large amounts of
foxglove tea as a cheap form of intoxication.172
A herb so patently poisonous has predictably been deployed against pests
as well. In the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire the practice has survived of
boiling the plant to produce a disinfectant wash for the walls of houses, to rid
them of insects and the like.173
Ireland has shared about the same set of uses in varying degrees. While
the plant features in the records more widely there as a remedy for heart trou-
ble, apart from Sligo174 and Cavan175 the counties concerned form a notice-
able cluster along the eastern coast (Co. Dublin,176 Wicklow,177 Wexford178),
possibly indicative of post-Withering intrusion by learned medicine. As one
general practitioner with an experience stretching back many years in the
region just south-west of the border never encountered any use for this pur-
pose at all,179 it may be that those records from Sligo and Cavan are merely
recent intrusions, too. Even for use as a diuretic, the sole Irish record traced
is from ‘Ulster’ (unlocalised but probably one or more rural areas180), which
is one further reason for considering the knowledge of, or at any rate valuing,
of these particular actions of the plants to be of no great age in this country.
In Ireland, too, as in Britain, the foxglove has failed to make headway
against alternative remedies for tuberculosis (the sole record traced of use
for that is a Limerick one181), and it is either as an all-purpose salve or as a
cough cure that it seems to have featured almost exclusively. In the first of
those roles it has been applied to skin complaints in Donegal182 and Limer-
ick,183 wounds in Cork,184 lumps and swellings in Carlow185 and Wexford,186
sprains in Kilkenny,187 burns in Limerick,188 old ulcers in Londonderry189
and festering stone-bruises in Donegal.190 In the second role, as a tea, the
plant has outdone Britain, with records from twice as many counties (Mon-
aghan,191 Mayo,192 Limerick,193 Wexford194). But only Limerick, once again,
has produced an instance of its use as a repellent: pieces of foxglove were
there at one time strewn around to kill rats and mice.195
Veronica serpyllifolia Linnaeus

thyme-leaved speedwell
Europe, temperate Asia, North Africa, Macaronesia; introduced into
North and South America, New Zealand
(Misidentification suspected) According to one far from reliable source,196
Veronica serpyllifolia is the herb known in Gaelic as luibh a treatha and the
classic Irish remedy for whooping cough. Confusion with the similarly small-
leaved V. officinalis seems probable.
258 Veronica officinalis
Veronica officinalis Linnaeus

heath speedwell
Europe, Asia Minor, Azores, Australia (?), eastern North America;
John Gerard in his Herball197 described and figured Veronica officinalis as the
herb long esteemed in Wales for great healing virtues under the name
‘fluellen’. That identification may or may not have been correct, but he imme-
diately confused matters by extending that name to the two British species of
Kickxia (to which it has mainly been applied in books since) and to other
members of the genus Veronica as well. If he had been correct, one would
expect numerous Welsh folk uses of this species to have persisted in the folk
records down to recent times. However, only a single mention of any speed-
well valued there medicinally has been met with: as a cure for piles and
impetigo, in some unstated part of the country and without indication of
the species.198
Although Veronica officinalis, as the specific name implies, was the speed-
well focused on by official medicine as the possessor of a range of healing
properties (and its folk use in Romania for treating stomach ulcers appears to
have had its efficacy confirmed as well founded by experiments199), it fea-
tures too rarely in the Scottish and Irish folk records—and seemingly not at
all in those for England—to be accepted as a wholly convincing member of
the unwritten tradition in the British Isles, as opposed to being a late requi-
sition from book-based lore. That a tea made from this species has been
drunk for gouty and rheumatic complaints in Angus200 is suspiciously simi-
lar to a recommendation that appears in books. It is hard to believe that it was
really the plant intended by Martin Martin as betonica Pauli (a name for V.
officinalis in the herbals) which he reported accompanied goldenrod and St
John’s-wort in an ointment made in Skye for treating fractures,201 for such a
use seems at odds with the other claimed virtues of this species.
The Irish evidence is only a little better. That the plant has been employed
for colds in one district of Donegal stands safely on the authority of an expe-
rienced botanist202; in the adjoining county of Londonderry, however,
another botanist found the country people mistook germander speedwell
for this species, using that for asthma and lung complaints.203 Another Irish
source claims Veronica species in general have been used in (unspecified)
parts of the country for coughs from chest troubles of all kinds204—and V.
officinalis is the one which in Germany has enjoyed a reputation for pul-
monary tuberculosis. But that it was once used in Ireland by nursing moth-
ers for sore nipples is an assertion based merely on a translation of a Gaelic

name identified with this species.205
Veronica chamaedrys Linnaeus

germander speedwell, cat’s-eye,
bird’s-eye
Europe, northern and western Asia;
introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Veronica chamaedrys has been so particu-
larly mentioned in the folk records as a remedy
for two ailments almost exclusively that it seems
safe to assume that ‘speedwell’ is intended for this
in instances where just that name is given in either of
those connections.
One of those ailments is tired or strained eyes. The
records traced of the use of a lotion for that are all from the
southern half of England: Cornwall,206 Somerset,207 Suf-
folk208 and Norfolk.209 In some areas, this use was appar-
ently so deeply entrenched that the plant was known as
‘eyebright’,210 a name normally borne by Euphrasia species
(with which speedwell was combined in the decoction
recorded from Somerset211).
In sharp contrast, the records of use for the other ailment,
jaundice, are Irish exclusively: Cavan,212 Longford,213
Offaly,214 Wicklow,215 Tipperary,216 Limerick217 and Kerry218
—mostly around the fringes of the central plain. The leaves
and stems in these cases were boiled and the resulting liquid
drunk, with milk and sugar sometimes added. According to
one Kerry informant, after drinking this twice daily the jaun-
dice will disappear after the ninth day; but if the yellow
colour of the skin turns to black, the
cure has no effect.219
If this was ‘cat-eye’, the plant
has performed the further ser-
vice in Limerick, pounded and Veronica chamaedrys,
boiled in milk, of healing the germander speedwell
‘falling sickness’, i.e. epilepsy.220 (Fuchs 1543, fig. 501)
260 Veronica beccabunga
Veronica beccabunga Linnaeus  

brooklime
Europe, temperate Asia, North Africa; introduced into North America
Mainly Irish as a folk herb, Veronica beccabunga has shared with V. officinalis
a reputation for easing colds and coughs (Wicklow,221 Limerick,222 Clare223)
or as an expectorant (the Belfast area224), but in other ways its use has dis-
played a pattern markedly different from other speedwells. Valued as a
diuretic, it has treated kidney and urinary troubles in ‘Ulster’,225 Wicklow226
and Clare,227 while it has served as a ‘spring juice’ for cleansing the system of
impurities and curing scurvy in Clare228 and Cork229 and been applied to
wounds in Londonderry.230 But the famous eighteenth-century doctress of
Macroom in Co. Cork, Mrs Elizabeth Pearson, whose renowned cure for
scrofula based on this plant made her such a fortune that she was able to buy
a house in the most fashionable part of London,231 would appear to have
been alone in the folk community in prescribing it for that.
Outside Ireland the use for colds seems to have been reported solely from
the Isle of Man,232 but the very few British records are, curiously, almost all
either unlocalised or unattributable to a county with certainty. The plant has
been valued for healing ‘bad legs’ (leg ulcers produced by scurvy?) in Hamp-
shire233 and perhaps also in Devon,234 applied to fresh wounds in, probably,
Norfolk,235 and in at least some part of the country people are said to have
placed the bruised leaves on burns.236
Melampyrum pratense Linnaeus

cow-wheat
Europe, western Asia
(Name ambiguity) Conceivably Melampyrum pratense was the plant known
as ‘golden wheat’ recorded as boiled in Cavan for kidney ailments.237
Euphrasia officinalis Linnaeus, in the broad sense

eyebright
northern temperate zone; introduced into New Zealand
Euphrasia officinalis seems a unique instance of a well-known and widely
used herb which has apparently been valued in folk medicine for one purpose
only: to remedy eye troubles (of just about every kind short of blindness).
That the mildly astringent juice does act at least as a comforting lotion
appears well attested, though physicians learned to advise against its use
because of its danger if that was done to excess. An ancient remedy, recorded
from much of Europe and almost every part of the British Isles, it normally
took the form of application to the eyes direct, but in Shropshire it has long
been customary to trust to the drinking of a tea made from the plant to
achieve the same purpose.238
Though ‘eyebright’ has been recorded as a jaundice cure in Cavan,239 the
record in question probably arose through the sharing of that name by ger-
Euphrasia officinalis, eyebright

(Green 1902, fig. 476)
262 Euphrasia officinalis
mander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys), a known jaundice herb (including

in that county.)
Pedicularis palustris Linnaeus

marsh lousewort, red rattle
northern and central Europe, Caucasus, North America
In the second half of the eighteenth century the Rev. Dr John Walker visited
Jura in the course of a fact-finding survey of the Hebrides. A remarkable
number of its inhabitants, he found, were crippled for life by a disease
allegedly caused by a reddish worm, about an inch in length, which lodged
under the skin of the knees or the ankles, causing intense pain. The affliction
was known in Gaelic as the fillan (under which name cases were recorded
from elsewhere in the Hebrides and western Highlands by other early
authors). The only known cure as far as he could ascertain was derived from
the root of a local plant: pounded and mixed with the marrow of beef bones
or goat tallow, this was applied on a hot poultice to the part affected. An expe-
rienced botanist who became professor of natural history at Edinburgh Uni-
versity, Walker identified the plant as Pedicularis palustris,240 which is now
known to contain a glycoside poisonous to insects. Thomas Pennant, who
had had a session with Walker three years before his second Scottish tour in
1772, asked further about the worm when he, too, visited Jura. Pennant was
able to add that it was ‘small as a thread’, caused redness and moved quickly
from one part of the body to another; the only cure mentioned to him, how-
ever, was a poultice of cheese and honey.241
The only other record traced of the plant’s use in the British Isles is also
from the Highlands, where its flowers are said to have been used to procure
a cosmetic.242
OROBANCHACEAE
Lathraea squamaria Linnaeus
toothwort
Europe, western Asia
According to John Gerard, country women in England in his day called Lath-
raea squamaria ‘lungwort’ and used it against ‘the cough’ (presumably pul-
monary tuberculosis) and other lung troubles.243 No other record has been
traced of the plant’s presence in folk medicine in either Britain or Ireland.
LENTIBULARIACEAE
Pinguicula vulgaris Linnaeus
common butterwort, bog violet
Europe, northern Asia, Morocco, North America
Repeatedly referred to in the literature, from the eighteenth century onwards,
as a folk medicine in use for cattle, the butter-like juice of Pinguicula vulgaris
had its uses for human afflictions as well. According to John Parkinson, ‘the
country people that live where it groweth’ applied it to hands chapped by the
wind (‘felons’), while in Wales the poorer sorts of people made it not only
into a syrup with which to purge themselves and their children, but also
mixed it with butter to produce an ointment rated excellent for obstructions
of the liver.244 Similarly there is a nineteenth-century record, apparently from
Kent,245 of the use of the juice for skin irritations caused by the wind, also of
the crushed leaves as a village remedy for bruises. More recently still, an infu-
sion has been drunk in the uplands of Westmoreland in the belief that this
helps to procure a smoother skin.246 Unexpectedly, though this is a wide-
spread plant of bogs, it does not seem to have featured as a folk medicine, at
any rate for people, in either Ireland or Scotland.
Notes
1. McNeill 20. Vickery MSS
2. Moore 1898 21. Randell, 87
3. Sargent 22. Beith
4. Tongue 23. Williams MS
5. Shaw, 49 24. Vickery 1995
7. Lafont 26. IFC S 133: 94
8. Lafont 27. IFC S 550: 274; 572: 90
9. Tait 28. Goodrich-Freer, 205
10. Lafont 29. IFC S 932: 240, 312
11. Evans 1940 30. IFC S 132: 97
12. Palmer 1994, 122 31. IFC S 837: 128
13. McNeill 32. IFC S 932: 217
14. Goodrich-Freer, 205 33. IFC S 498: 383
15. Spence; Leask, 75 34. IFC S 572: 90
16. Lafont 35. IFC S 1043: 269
18. Tongue 37. IFC S 550: 274
19. Pratt 1850–7 38. IFC S 932: 311
264 Notes
39. Gregory 83. Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

40. IFC S 837: 125 (ex Vickery MSS)
41. IFC S 484: 219 84. Vickery 1995
42. IFC S 572: 69 85. IFC S 689: 103
43. IFC S 752: 223 86. IFC S 862: 376
44. IFC S 736: 190 87. IFC S 737: 405
45. IFC S 690: 114 88. IFC S 787: 215
46. Maloney 89. Macpherson MS
47. Maloney 90. Wilson
48. Maloney 91. IFC S 775: 83
49. IFC S 857: 118 92. Quinlan 1883a
50. IFC S 571: 208; 572: 298 93. A. Allen, 46
51. IFC S 22: 509 94. Hardwicke’s Science-gossip (1866),
52. IFC S 485: 237 83
53. Pennant 1776, ii, 42 95. Bardswell; Hatfield, 30
54. Spooner, 195 96. Newman 1945, 356
55. Bray, i, 95: Gordon, 184; Lafont 97. Egan
56. Vickery 1995 98. Moloney
57. Mabey, 328 99. Farrelly MS
58. MacKerlie, 305 100. IFC S 737: 480
59. Pennant 1771, 290 101. IFC S 413: 205
60. Arthur, 42 102. Whitlock 1976, 164
61. Lafont 103. Britten & Holland
62. Dyer 1889, 295 104. IFC S 1098: 130
63. Pennant 1776, ii, 43 105. IFC S 932: 241, 312; 960: 212, 282
64. Gibbs 106. Maloney
65. Lafont 107. IFC S 786: 181, 204; 787: 53, etc.
66. Gibbs 108. Barbour
67. IFC S 250: 35 109. IFC S 1098: 130
68. IFC S 690: 41 110. Maloney
69. IFC S 787: 37 111. IFC S 710: 42
70. IFC S 825: 94 112. IFC S 654: 242
71. IFC S 897: 82 113. IFC S 850: 166
72. IFC S 654: 89 114. IFC S 654: 290
73. IFC S 385: 54 115. Hart 1898, 385
74. IFC S 476: 91 116. Hart 1898, 385
75. Maloney 117. IFC S 190: 167–71
76. IFC S 385: 54 118. IFC S 190: 112
77. IFC S 736: 22, 24, 171; 746: 554 119. IFC S 93: 528
78. IFC S 787: 216, 219 120. IFC S 93: 528
79. IFC S 771: 149 121. IFC S 914: 549
80. PLNN, no. 4 (1988), 14 122. McGlinchey, 83
81. McClafferty 123. Egan
82. IFC S 888: 232 124. IFC S 1098: 130
125. Maloney 168. de l’Obel, 308

126. IFC S 655: 356 169. Bray, i, 317
127. IFC S 849: 315 170. Martin, 224
128. Ó Súilleabháin, 314 171. Vickery 1995
129. Purdon 172. Withering 1830
130. Moore MS 173. Hopkins, 52; Palmer 1994, 122
131. Lafont 174. IFC S 157: 253
132. Britten & Holland 175. Maloney
133. Johnson 1862 176. IFC S 787: 281
134. Britten & Holland; PLNN, no. 56 177. IFC S 913: 64
(1998), 269 178. IFC S 898: 87
135. Hart 1898, 385 179. Logan, 28
136. Couch, 174; Davey, 325 180. Egan
137. PLNN, no. 2 (1988), 3 181. IFC S 485: 191
138. Lafont 182. IFC S 1098: 64
139. PLNN, no. 2 (1998), 3 183. IFC S 504: 135
140. Marshall 1967, 221 184. IFC S 1128: 26
141. A. Allen, 178 185. IFC S 907: 176
142. Ibbott, 64 186. IFC S 897: 234
143. Groves & Bisset 187. IFC S 850: 114
144. Withering 1785 188. IFC S 491: 255
145. Dalyell, 113 189. Moore MS
146. Pratt 1857, 24 190. McGlinchey, 84
147. Leask, 79 191. IFC S 932: 311
148. Moloney 192. IFC S 138: 314
149. Vickery MSS 193. IFC S 498: 128
150. Hayward 194. IFC S 888: 294
151. Simpson, 159 195. IFC S 483: 256
152. Withering 1785, 9–10 196. Moloney
153. Withering 1785, 9–10 197. Gerard, 504
154. Withering 1785, 9–10 198. Jones 1930, 143
155. Polson, 32; Beith 199. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 13
156. Fargher (1985), 157–63
157. Fargher 200. Gardiner
158. Polson, 32; Beith 201. Martin, 230
159. Fargher; Polson, 34; Beith 202. Hart 1898, 370
160. Lafont 203. Moore MS
161. Davies 1938 204. Moloney
162. Polson, 32; Beith 205. Moloney
163. McDonald, 171 206. Macpherson MS
164. Hatfield MS 207. Tongue
165. Pratt 1857, 24 208. Chamberlain 1981, 217
166. Simpkins, 133 209. Hatfield MS
167. Beith 210. Friend 1883–4, ii, 363
266 Notes
211. Tongue 229. IFC S 385: 56

212. IFC S 993: 19 230. Moore MS
213. PLNN, no. 22 (1991), 101 231. ‘Ó Clara’, 35
214. IFC S 290: 159 232. Fargher
215. McClafferty 233. Yonge, 226
216. IFC S 530: 300b 234. Friend 1882
217. IFC S 489: 91; 491: 255; 524: 255 235. Bryant, 117
218. IFC S 412: 97; 413: 228 236. Johnson 1862
219. IFC S 413: 228 237. Maloney
220. IFC S 512: 446 238. Hayward
221. Ó Cléirigh 239. Maloney
222. IFC S 483: 84 240. McKay, 116, 238
223. IFC S 601: 183 241. Pennant 1774, 215
224. Barbour 242. Cameron
225. Egan 243. Gerard, 1388
226. IFC S 921: 90 244. Parkinson, 534
227. IFC S 617: 334 245. Pratt 1850–7
228. IFC S 617: 334 246. Freethy, 128
CHAPTER 14
Bedstraws, Valerian and

Scabious
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Rubiales (Rubi-

aceae, bedstraws) and Dipsacales (Caprifoliaceae, honeysuckles; Valeri-
anaceae, valerians; Dipsacaceae, teasels) are included in this chapter.
RUBIACEAE
Galium odoratum (Linnaeus) Scopoli
Asperula odorata Linnaeus
woodruff
Europe, Siberia, North Africa; introduced into North America
Bruising the fresh leaves of Galium odoratum and applying them to wounds
and cuts was a very common practice of country people in seventeenth-
century England1 and was recorded in use in Norfolk as late as 1911.2 Other-
wise woodruff seems to have featured in folk medicine only as a tea made
from the dried leaves and drunk for feverish colds and lung infections—and
only in the Highlands, where that function was reflected in its name in
Gaelic.3
Galium palustre Linnaeus, in the broad sense

marsh bedstraw
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, North America
A plant of muddy streams known as gairgean (or geirgein) in either South
Uist or Eriskay of the Outer Hebrides, of which a preparation has been
applied there externally for dropsy, has been identified as Galium palustre.4
267
268 Galium verum
Galium verum Linnaeus

lady’s bedstraw
Though common over much of the British Isles and a herb much in favour in
other European countries, especially for its ability to staunch bleeding, Gal-
ium verum appears to have had no place in folk medicine in Britain and Ire-
land except as a veterinary one. However, its use persists in Berkshire,5 if not
elsewhere, as a deterrent of moths, dried and placed in drawers.
Galium saxatile Linnaeus

heath bedstraw
western and central Europe, Newfoundland
The name llysiau’r eyr, shingles plant, reported from Cardiganshire and
attributed to woodruff (Galium odoratum) in the University of Wales dic-
tionary of the Welsh language, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, has been conclu-
sively established as G. saxatile: two informants, in Denbighshire and Angle-
sey, respectively, still using it today for shingles, pointed it out, thus enabling
the identification to be clinched by the National Museum of Wales.6
Galium saxatile also features in an Isle of Man list as a remedy used there for
nosebleeds,7 which suggests that it shares the styptic property of lady’s bed-
straw; alternatively, the record may have been referred to the wrong species.
Galium aparine Linnaeus

cleavers, goosegrass, Robin-run-in-the-hedge, catchweed
Europe, northern and western Asia; introduced into North America
and elsewhere
The very common Galium aparine, largely scorned by learned medicine over
the years, has enjoyed an impressively diverse and widely scattered number of
uses in its folk counterpart, though none with any particular pre-eminence or
marked geographical clustering. Principally it has served as a spring tonic,
either on its own or mixed with nettles and/or other plants, with the tradi-
tional reputation of herbal tonics of cleansing the system of impurities
(Essex,8 Norfolk,9 Montgomeryshire10) and for skin complaints such as pso-
riasis (Norfolk11). A special use which may belong in that same category is to
counteract scurvy. After a Dublin hospital physician had published a note in
the British Medical Journal in 1883 reporting the beneficial effects of mullein
for tuberculosis patients, he received letters from ‘several parts’ of the British
Isles recommending him to test on his patients similarly the claims made for
goosegrass as a cure for chronic ulcers.12 It is unclear whether that knowledge
  Bedstraws, Valerian and Scabious 269
was derived from the herbals (in which the plant was recommended for this
purpose) or folk sources; if the latter, disappointingly little evidence of those
has proved traceable, records of that use having been located only from
Devon,13 Norfolk14 and somewhere in Ulster.15
The next most widely reported applications in Britain are for colds
(Devon,16 Dorset (?),17 Berwickshire18) and cuts and wounds (Essex,19 Nor-
Galium aparine, cleavers (Fuchs

1543, fig. 28)
270 Galium aparine
folk20), the second of which in ‘some English country districts’ unspecified

has extended to drinking the juice mixed with wine as a remedy for the bites
of adders.21 Single records only have been met with of applications to can-
cerous tumours (Devon22), boils (Somerset23), rheumatism (Essex24) and
warts (South Riding of Yorkshire25).
Ireland’s uses have been largely different but even more diverse. While
tumours have similarly been among those (Londonderry26 and some part of
the country unspecified27), unlike Britain it has produced records for burns
(Westmeath,28 Wicklow29), whooping cough (unlocalised30), swellings
(Wicklow31), inflammation of the bowels in children (Donegal32), stomach-
ache (Limerick33) and ‘softening the joints’ (Tipperary34). Though this plant
has had a reputation in learned medicine as a diuretic, the sole hint of that
traced in the folk record is its mixing with crane’s-bill (Geranium sp.) in a
preparation drunk for kidney trouble in Kerry.35
So lengthy a tail of miscellaneous uses with an apparently very restricted
distribution is normally characteristic of herbs with a much more salient
presence in the folk records. It may be that this species was once much more
prominent in that repertory but lost that place over the centuries to other
plants whose effectiveness was more readily apparent. An alternative expla-
nation could lie in its strictly seasonal character as a remedy, for it is effective
for healing only in the spring; other reputed cures would therefore have had
to be resorted to at other seasons.
CAPRIFOLIACEAE
Sambucus nigra Linnaeus
elder
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Azores; introduced into
North America
Sambucus nigra rivals only docks, nettles and dandelions in prominence and
diversity of use as a folk herb. Some of that it may owe to its former magico-
religious status as a tree redolent of special powers, but it does also seem to
possess some genuine therapeutic effects.
Of the total of 159 records traced, just under half are accounted for by the
four leading uses. Much the commonest of these, with 32 records, is for colds
and respiratory troubles (the liquid from the boiled flowers induces sweating
and the berries are rich in vitamin C); but whereas that is found mostly in the
southern half of England, the 14 records for burns or scalds and the 12 for
swellings and inflammation are preponderantly Irish. The 16 for skin sores
and related complaints such as erysipelas and ringworm on the other hand
exhibit no particular geographical pattern, and the same is true of cuts (8),
rheumatism (7), warts (7), boils (6) and use as a cosmetic (6).
The lesser uses are intriguingly diverse but have been much the same in
Britain and Ireland. Britain’s uses have included treatment for insect bites
and stings (Somerset,36 Norfolk,37 Isle of Man38), nettle stings (Devon,39
Sambucus nigra, elder

(Fuchs 1543, fig. 36)
272 Sambucus nigra
Somerset40), dropsy and kidney trouble (Cambridgeshire,41 Berwickshire,42

Fife43), toothache (Devon,44 ‘South Wales’,45 Gloucestershire46), gout (Nor-
folk,47 Cumbria48), sprains (Gloucestershire,49 Berwickshire50), eye troubles
(Hampshire,51 Orkney52), constipation (Devon,53 the Highlands54), jaundice
(Herefordshire55), measles (Suffolk56), tonsillitis (Devon57) and piles (Sus-
sex58). A wine made from the flowers has also been widely drunk as prophy-
laxis in Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire, and in the former’s Forest of
Dean is remembered as a cure-all which was taken for a day or two before
calling a medical practitioner—for if it failed to clear up the trouble in ques-
tion, then it could only be that something serious was afoot.59
Ireland has yielded records from up to three counties for all the above
ailments in the list above except insect bites, sprains, constipation, measles,
tonsillitis and piles. Epilepsy (Cavan,60 Cork61) and indigestion (Sligo,62 Car-
low63) are the only two noted that are additional.
Sambucus ebulus Linnaeus

dwarf elder
central and southern Europe, western Asia; introduced into North
America, Madeira
(Folk credentials questionable) Much rarer than Sambucus nigra and reput-
edly with similar but stronger properties, S. ebulus does not appear to set
good seed in the British Isles, depending for its persistence on adventitious
shoots. It presumably therefore owes its presence where it occurs in the British
Isles to deliberate introduction, though it is possible that it was fertile at some
hotter period in the past. The name danewort long applied to it in many
places and an apparent association with prehistoric sites have occasioned fre-
quent suggestions in the literature that it was brought across from the Euro-
pean mainland by one or more waves of early invaders for some specific util-
itarian purpose. According to John Parkinson,64 though, it owes that name
merely to its strong purging effect: those who took it medicinally were spoken
of as ‘troubled with the Danes’. Certainly it was a herb well known to the
Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and consequently recommended in herbals.
Curiously, although the populations of the plant in Berkshire are on
record as having been heavily raided by herb collectors early in the nine-
teenth century (on account of its popularity for treating dropsy),65 the only
records traced of actual folk uses are from remote areas where it must always
have been extremely scarce or even non-existent in the wild. In Aberdeenshire
it was noted by James Robertson on his 1768 tour as in use for plasters for dis-
pelling tumours,66 and in Londonderry—the sole Irish record—it was
allegedly sometimes employed for dropsy and rheumatic pains in the early
nineteenth century.67 All the evidence seems to indicate that this was late,
book-derived medicine.
Viburnum lantana Linnaeus

wayfaring-tree
central and southern Europe, northern Asia Minor, north-western
Africa; introduced into North America
There is one Suffolk record of the leaves of Viburnum lantana being used for
making ‘an excellent gargle’.68
Lonicera periclymenum Linnaeus

honeysuckle
western and central Europe, Morocco; introduced into
North America
In a somewhat ambiguous statement, probably rightly interpreted by a later
author69 as referring to ‘the common people’ of England, John Parkinson70
poured scorn on a deep-rooted practice of employing the leaves and flowers
of Lonicera periclymenum for gargles and for lotions for inflammations of
the mouth or ‘the privy parts of men and women’. By these he clearly meant
that fungus infection known as thrush, which most characteristically attacks
the lining of the mouth and tongue, especially in infants, or the vagina, espe-
cially in pregnancy. And this is in fact the ailment which features in the folk
records as the one for which honeysuckle has, by a small margin, been most
widely used—though those records are Irish exclusively (from Sligo,71 the
Aran Islands,72 Wicklow73 and Wexford,74 on the assumption that ‘sore
mouth’ in two of those counties refers to this; on the other hand ‘a cold bro-
ken out on the lips’, recorded from Monaghan,75 sounds more like herpes).
Some of the other uses recorded in Ireland echo those of the elder tree:
jaundice in Cavan76 and (especially) Leitrim,77 consumption or whooping
cough—mixed with other herbs—in Wicklow78 and Cork,79 burns in Louth80
and erysipelas in Donegal.81
The many fewer British records are partly for similar complaints: asthma
and/or bronchitis in Norfolk82 and the Highlands83 is clearly similar to the
Irish remedy for coughs, and an infusion drunk to cure a headache in those
same two areas84 is no doubt cognate; but the same cannot be said of the
emergency remedy for adder bites in Devon,85 the cure for stings in Hamp-
shire86 or the wash for removing freckles or soothing sunburn known from
the Highlands.87
274 Lonicera caprifolium
Lonicera caprifolium Linnaeus

goat-leaf honeysuckle
central and southern Europe, Asia Minor; introduced into western
Europe, North America
In parts of southern Devon the blossoms of the non-native Lonicera capri-
folium have been drunk as an infusion for asthma,88 evidently as an alterna-
tive to those of L. periclymenum. But they are more likely to have been
obtained from gardens than from naturalised bushes.
VALERIANACEAE
Valeriana officinalis Linnaeus
valerian
most of Europe, temperate Asia; introduced into North America
Though the roots of the common valerian, Valeriana officinalis, have been
valued as the source of a nerve relaxant since ancient times and an extract has
become fashionable in alternative medicine as a sedative, no undoubted folk
records of the plant’s use for that purpose have been traced. Nor does William
Withering’s89 recommendation of it as a laxative find any reflection in them
either—other than for cows in the Hebrides.90 Similarly, its reputation today
of reducing the ill effects of alcohol appears to have no parallel in folk
medicine.
As a folk herb, Valeriana officinalis has principally fulfilled two quite other
functions in the British Isles: as yet another tonic to stimulate and cleanse
the system (Suffolk,91 Gloucestershire92) and to staunch bleeding from
wounds and other cuts (Sussex93) or heal a festering finger (Wiltshire,94
Gloucestershire95). In Wiltshire the marsh valerian, V. dioica Linnaeus, has
also been recorded as bearing the name cut-finger-leaf, but doubtless the two
species have passed as one and the same in the eyes of country people. A slight
variant of that name borne in Hampshire96 by a plant whose leaves have been
used there for binding wounds has been attributed, however, rightly or
wrongly, to the garden valerian or ‘setwall’, V. pyrenaica Linnaeus. That attri-
bution may have been influenced by the passage John Gerard has about ‘set-
wall’ in his Herball 97:
The dry roote . . . is put into counterpoisons and medicines preserva-

tive against the pestilence . . . ; whereupon it hath beene had (and is to
this day among the poore people of our northerne parts) in such ven-
eration among them, that no brothes, pottage, or physicall meates are
worth anything, if setwall were not at one end: whereupon some

woman poet or other hath made these verses:
They that will have their heale

Must put setwall in their keale.
It is used in slight cuts, wounds, and small hurts.
Valeriana pyrenaica lingers on as a naturalised plant in northern country

areas, and it seems likely that following its introduction into the British Isles
it partly displaced V. officinalis as a wound plant.
One or two minor uses of Valeriana officinalis have been recorded in
Britain in addition: for indigestion in Skye and South Uist in the Inner
Hebrides98 and for barrenness in the Highlands.99 Though said to have been
held in high repute in Wales at one time for its healing as well as magical
powers,100 no more specific Welsh records have been traced. Maybe that was
one of ‘the countries of this land’ that Parkinson had in mind in reporting
that this plant was generally called ‘the poor man’s remedy’; a decoction of its
root drunk if cold after sweating, troubled with colic or wind or ‘otherwise
distempered’, or its leaves bruised and applied to a cut or to draw out a thorn
or splinter.101
Irish records are far fewer and have been traced only from the north: in
Donegal102 and Londonderry103 for cleansing the system and in London-
derry as a wound plant—both as in Britain—but in Cavan104 for such unre-
lated purposes as sore eyes, liver trouble and tuberculosis.
DIPSACACEAE
Dipsacus fullonum Linnaeus  
wild teasel
Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa, Canary Islands
According to a deep-seated folk belief going back at least to Pliny the Elder,
the rain-water or dew collecting in the natural cup between the connate leaves
of Dipsacus fullonum (known as the ‘bath of Venus’ or the ‘lip of Venus’) had
certain healing properties. Sundew and lady’s-mantle, similarly endowed
with droplets of moisture of mysterious origin, were treated with special
respect for much the same reason. Teasel’s version of ‘holy water’ was thought
particularly beneficial when used as an eye lotion (Somerset,105 Sussex,106
Denbighshire107) but it is also recorded as used in Wales for ridding the com-
plexion of freckles.108
276 Dipsacus fullonum
The heads of the plant were formerly in demand as well in ‘various parts
of England’109 (and sold in London in Covent Garden market110) as a certain
cure for the ague. Three, five or seven—note the magical odd numbers—of
the thin ‘worms’ found in these in the autumn were sealed up in a quill or a
bag and worn against the pit of the stomach or some other part of the person.
More mundane than those two uses was boiling the root and applying it to
abscesses (in Suffolk111) or to warts (in Wiltshire112). The absence of records
from Scotland or Ireland is noteworthy.
Knautia arvensis (Linnaeus) Coulter

Scabiosa arvensis Linnaeus
field scabious
Europe, western Siberia
Two records of the use of ‘scabious’ in Essex, as an infusion for rheumatism113
and as a decoction sat over to cure piles,114 seem more likely to belong to
Knautia arvensis than Succisa pratensis on distributional grounds.
Succisa pratensis Moench

Scabiosa succisa Linnaeus
devil’s-bit scabious
Europe, western Siberia, North Africa
A common plant of the acid soils of the west of the British Isles, Succisa
pratensis has been widely valued there for the properties of its root. At least
part of this use may have been magico-religious, for the peculiarly truncated
shape of the root is supposed to have suggested the notion that this was the
product of some malign influence (hence the vernacular name), for which
reason it was recommended for the scaly eruptions known as ‘devils’ bites’. It
was still in use precisely for those in the Rossendale Valley in south-eastern
Lancashire well into the nineteenth century,115 doubtless by those who took
the herbals as gospel.
It is tempting to ascribe to that same superstition the reserving of this
plant in Somerset specifically for bites by dogs—but in fact it has a seem-
ingly well-founded reputation as an antiseptic. The wound caused by those
bites was bathed with water in which devil’s-bit had been steeped, then cov-
ered with the leaves to check the bleeding and initiate healing.116 The plant
has accordingly been favoured for sores of all kinds, of which British exam-
ples include sore throats117 and bruises118 in the Isle of Man and, if the use for
scurvy reported from there is correctly interpreted, scorbutic sores in Shet-
land.119 ‘The itch’, which this plant has relieved in the Highlands,120 must
surely have been scabies (hence ‘scabious’), too. If devil’s-bit also has an
aspirin-like effect, that could explain its use for rheumatism in the Isle of
Man121 and for toothache in the Highlands,122 afflictions which were per-
haps among the ‘all manner of ailments’ this plant is said to have been
employed against in Cornwall.123
Succisa pratensis, devil’s-bit scabious (Fuchs 1543, fig. 408)

278 Succisa pratensis
The Irish uses have shared the same dominant theme:‘sores such as boils’
in Mayo124 and—assuming this was meena madar, ‘a nice little blue flower’—
running sores on the Clare-Galway border.125 If the ‘evil’ it helped to assuage
in Sligo126 was a reference to the king’s evil, i.e. scrofula (tuberculosis of the
glands), then that belongs in that category, too.
Notes
1. Parkinson, 563 35. IFC S 412: 96
2. Bardswell 36. Tongue
3. Cameron; Beith 37. Hatfield MS
4. McDonald, 134; Goodrich-Freer, 38. Moore 1898
206 39. Vickery MSS; Lafont
5. Vickery 1995 40. Tongue
6. Williams MS 41. Porter 1969, 80
7. Fargher 42. Johnston 1853
8. Hatfield, 56 43. Vickery MSS
9. Harland; Hatfield 56, 87 44. Lafont
10. Evans 1940 45. Trevelyan, 315
11. Hatfield, 88 46. Gibbs, 57
12. Quinlan 1883b 47. Wigby, 65; Hatfield, appendix
13. Lafont 48. Freethy, 79
14. Hatfield, 77, 88 49. Vickery MSS
15. Hatfield MS 50. Johnston 1853
16. Lafont 51. Yonge, 218
17. Quelch, 64 52. Leask, 72
18. Johnston 1853 53. Lafont
19. Hatfield, 33, 88 54. Beith
20. Hatfield, appendix 55. Leather, 80
21. Hole, 12 56. Folk-lore, 35 (1924), 356; Jobson
22. Lafont 1959, 144
23. Tongue 57. Lafont
24. Newman & Wilson 58. Vickery 1995
25. CECTL MSS 59. PLNN, no. 37 (1994), 181–2
26. Hart 1898, 384 60. Maloney
27. Moloney 61. IFC S 385: 55
28. IFC S 747: 187 62. IFC S 170: 256
30. Wright, 252; Ó hEithir MS 64. Parkinson, 210
31. IFC S 914: 322 65. Lousley
32. Hart 1898, 379 66. Henderson & Dickson, 155
33. IFC S 482: 357 67. Moore MS
34. IFC S 550: 282 68. Chamberlain 1981, 253
69. Deering, 46 99. Carmichael, iv, 203

70. Parkinson, 1461 100. Trevelyan
71. IFC S 170: 256 101. Parkinson, 124
72. Ó hEithir 102. Hart 1898, 380
73. McClafferty 103. Moore MS
74. IFC S 876: 240 104. Maloney
75. IFC S 932: 240 105. Vickery 1995
76. IFC S 800: 122; 992: 29 106. Latham, 45
77. IFC S 190: 167, 168, 170 107. Mabey, 353
78. McClafferty 108. Trevelyan
79. IFC S 385: 286 109. Dyer 1880, 21
80. IFC S 672: 210 110. Cullum MS
81. McGlinchey, 83 111. Jobson 1959, 144
82. Hatfield, appendix 112. Whitlock 1976, 164
83. Beith 113. Newman & Wilson
84. Hatfield, 39; Beith 114. Hatfield, 43, appendix
85. Lafont 115. Notes and Queries, ser. 9, 4 (1899),
86. Eyre, 75 98
87. Beith 116. Tongue
88. Lafont 117. Paton
89. Withering 1787–92, 21 118. Moore 1898
90. McDonald, 248 119. Jamieson
91. Chamberlain 1981, 203 120. Beith
92. Palmer 1994, 122 121. Fargher
93. Vickery 1995 122. Pennant 1776, ii, 43
94. Dartnell & Goddard, 39 123. Deane & Shaw
95. Vickery 1995; Wright, 246 124. IFC S 138: 465
96. Wright, 243 125. Gregory
97. Gerard, 919 126. IFC S 171: 53
98. McDonald, 248
CHAPTER 15
Daisies
8
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the order Asterales and family Asteraceae

(thistles, daisies and the like) are included in this chapter.
ASTERACEAE
Carlina vulgaris Linnaeus
carline thistle
Europe, Asia Minor, Siberia; introduced into North America
In Limerick a preparation from Carlina vulgaris has been rubbed into the
skin for a disease described as spreading over the body.1
Arctium Linnaeus
burdock, cockle; crádán (Ireland); meac-an-dogh (Highlands and
Western Isles); bollan-dhoo (Manx)
Europe, Caucasus, North Africa; introduced into North America,
Australasia
Arctium is another example of a well-known and widely popular herb—
strictly speaking herbs, for more than one species is involved—with one prin-
cipal use and an impressive diversity of other subsidiary ones as well. That
principal one, mainly via a decoction of the roots, has been and still is as a
forceful cleanser of the system and consequent eliminator of boils and skin
complaints. In that it resembles sarsaparilla, the tropical drug to which bur-
dock was even rated superior by some eighteenth-century physicians, accord-
ing to William Withering. Unexpectedly, though—if the records traced accu-
rately reflect its distribution—that use has been restricted in Britain just to
extreme south-western England (Cornwall,2 Devon3) and parts of Scotland
280
  Daisies 281
(Berwickshire,4 Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides5) together with the Isle of

Man,6 a pattern suggestive of overspills from Ireland, where the use has been
markedly widespread (see below). Though it might be supposed that cleans-
ing the system has extended to treating rheumatic complaints, as has been the
case with some other herbs, the very different distribution of records for
those (Montgomeryshire,7 Suffolk,8 East Riding of Yorkshire 9) lends no sup-
port to such an assumption. Nor is there any apparent connection, similarly,
Arctium lappa Linnaeus, greater

burdock (Fuchs 1543, fig. 40)
282 Arctium
between any of the other uses of burdock recorded from Britain: for jaundice
(South Uist in the Outer Hebrides10), urinary complaints (Berwickshire11),
inflammatory tumours (‘much in use amongst the country people’ for those,
according to John Quincy in 171812), allaying nervousness (Isle of Man13)
and, by application of a poultice of the bruised leaves to the soles of the feet,
such other conditions as epilepsy, hysteria and convulsions (the ‘west of Eng-
land’14 and other (?) unspecified rural areas15).
In Ireland the plant’s predominance as a cleansing herb has been particu-
larly pronounced, with a bunching of records in Leinster. Otherwise, as in
Britain, its applications have been very various and some of them different
ones: for instance, for burns (Meath,16 Wicklow17), cuts (Cavan18), flatulence
(Donegal19) and to poultice boils (Sligo20). An ancient Irish remedy for scro-
fula,21 the glandular swellings it has more recently been deployed against,22
may be the same as Quincy’s inflammatory tumours, however. And Ireland
has shared with Britain that same special cure for convulsions (Louth23) as
well as the uses for nervousness (Meath24), jaundice (Donegal25), rheumatism
(Londonderry,26 Cavan,27 Limerick28),colds and respiratory trouble (Cavan,29
Mayo30) and, as a powerful diuretic, dropsy and kidney and urinary com-
plaints (Ulster,31 Cavan,32 Wicklow33).
Cirsium arvense (Linnaeus) Scopoli

creeping thistle
Eurasia, North Africa; introduced into North America, Australasia
Silybum marianum (Linnaeus) Gaertner  

milk thistle, blessed thistle, lady’s thistle, speckled thistle
southern Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa; introduced into
western and central Europe, North and South America, Australasia
Because of the vagueness with which the name thistle has been applied in
folk medicine, it is difficult in most cases to be at all sure to which particular
species any one record relates. Any valued for a milky juice applied as a wart
cure (sometimes known as ‘milk thistle’, ‘soft thistle’ or ‘soft white thistle’) is
almost certainly one of the sow-thistles (Sonchus spp.), and all records for
that use are therefore listed under that genus. One or more other kinds seem
to have been well known as a specific for whooping cough, boiled in new
milk, just in one tight group of counties in the north-eastern corner of what
is now the Irish Republic: Cavan,34 Monaghan35 and above all Louth.36
Though recorded under some names which could refer to various species,
such as ‘larger kind of thistle’, ‘white thistle’, ‘crisp thistle’ and ‘bracket thistle’,
  Daisies 283
others—‘blessed thistle’, ‘lady’s thistle’ and ‘speckled thistle’—are indicative

of Silybum marianum, even though that is quite rare in Ireland and certainly
introduced. If that identification is correct, possibly the sole source of it for
herbal medicine was cottage gardens, in which case these records do not
rightly belong in this book. ‘Blessed thistle’ has also been used for loss of
appetite in Meath.37 That name originally referred in learned medicine to
the southern European Cnicus benedictus Linnaeus, also known as ‘holy this-
tle’, which was recommended in herbals for colds. That could account for a
record from Cavan38 of ‘holly thistle’ as a cure for those.
That leaves a residue of records which may belong to one or more of the
very common wild, purple-flowered thistles such as Cirsium arvense and C.
vulgare (Savi) Tenore. The ‘Scotch thistle’ or ‘bull thistle’ still employed for
kidney infection in Donegal39 is presumably one of those. But the identity of
the species employed as a wound plant in Co. Dublin40 and Limerick41 is
quite uncertain, and the same applies to the one whose tops, mixed with plan-
tain and sorrel, have yielded a juice drunk for tuberculosis in Kildare.42
Whatever their identity, records for true thistles thus seem to be Irish
almost exclusively. The sole exception is a thistle tea drunk in the Highlands
to dispel depression.43
Serratula tinctoria Linnaeus

saw-wort
northern and central Europe, Siberia, Algeria; introduced into
North America
There is just one record, from Sussex, for Serratula tinctoria as a wound
plant.44 The species is still locally frequent in that county and thus plentiful
enough to be utilised herbally.
Centaurea cyanus Linnaeus

cornflower, bluebottle
south-eastern Europe; introduced into the rest of Europe, south-
western Asia, North Africa, North America, Australasia
There is an apparently long-standing East Anglian tradition of collecting the
heads of the once common cornfield weed Centaurea cyanus, bruising and
distilling them in water, and dropping the liquid into the eyes, to cure them of
inflammation or merely clear those of the elderly enough to make wearing
glasses unnecessary (hence ‘break spectacles water’). There is a recipe to this
effect in a late seventeenth-century Suffolk household book which has sur-
vived in a Norwich church.45 The practice is referred to rather grudgingly by
284 Centaurea cyanus
John Gerard46 and, though mentioned in at least one later herbal, seems more
likely to have been a folk use adopted by official medicine than vice versa. Lend-
ing support to that is a twentieth-century Essex record of boiling the flowers
with chamomile heads and applying the mixture as a compress to tired eyes.47
Centaurea nigra Linnaeus

common knapweed, hardheads; blackheads, blackbuttons
(Ireland)
western Europe; introduced into North America, Australasia
As a medicinal herb almost exclusively Irish, the common Centaurea nigra
has been used in that country principally for jaundice and liver trouble
(Ulster,48 Cavan,49 Offaly,50 Laois,51 Wicklow52), the decoction of its roots in
milk rivalling dandelion as a treatment for that. That it has also been valued
as a cleansing tonic is suggested by its reputation for removing boils in Lim-
erick53 and—significantly, if drunk in a mixture with bur-
dock—for curing scurvy in Wicklow.54 On the Clare-Gal-
way border the same preparation has been drunk
for ‘pains in the bones’ (presumably
rheumatism or osteoarthritis),55 while in
Donegal a much-favoured remedy local-
ly for ‘the decline’ (presumably tubercu-
losis) was seven stalks of this, seven of
‘fairy lint’ (purging flax, Linum catharti-
cum) and seven of maidenhair,
pounded together and mixed with
seven noggins of water drawn
from a place where three streams
meet56; it may well also be the ‘but-
tonweed’ of which an infusion has
been drunk in Kerry for asthma.57 It is
possible that more Irish records are hid-
den within the numerous ones for plan-
tain, for both that and knapweed have been
known as ‘blackheads’ in Co. Dublin,58 Done-
gal59 and no doubt other counties, too.
The only British use recorded that
is certainly the same as any of the Irish
Centaurea nigra, common ones is a reputation for boils in Mont-
knapweed (Green 1902, fig. 354) gomeryshire60; this plant may, how-
  Daisies 285
ever, be the ‘horse knaps’ that has found favour for rheumatism in Furness.61
Peculiar to Essex, apparently, is an infusion drunk as a digestive.62 In the Isle
of Man the one-time name lus-y-cramman-dhoo hints at a medicinal use but
what that was has never been ascertained.63
Lapsana communis Linnaeus

nipplewort
Under Gaelic names translating as ‘good leaf ’ and ‘breast leaf ’, Lapsana com-
munis has had the special function in the Highlands of allaying the soreness
of the nipples of nursing mothers64 (a function alleged to have been per-
formed in Ireland by heath speedwell, Veronica officinalis65). This may also
have been the purpose left undisclosed—on grounds of delicacy?—by the
mid-nineteenth-century author who knew the plant featured at that time in
village medicine in ‘parts of England’.66 Yet the fact that John Parkinson was
led to coin the name nipplewort only on learning of its use for this same par-
ticular purpose in Prussia67 seems to suggest that it had no vernacular name
in English before that, which suggests in turn that the use may merely have
been a late infiltration into the folk repertory of Britain.
That in Ireland Lapsana communis has apparently been recorded only as
an application to cuts, bruises or burns (Wexford,68 Tipperary 69) could be
evidence in support of that possibility. On the other hand, a use for the breast
may well not have been revealed to the male or child enquirers responsible for
most of the Irish folk records.
Hypochaeris maculata Linnaeus

spotted cat’s-ear
northern and central Europe
In one district in theYorkshire Pennines in the eighteenth century,Hypochaeris
maculata was believed a cure for‘tetters’and other skin complaints—because
of its spotted leaves, it has been (perhaps fancifully) suggested.70
Sonchus arvensis Linnaeus

perennial sow-thistle
Europe, western Asia; introduced into other continents
Sonchus asper (Linnaeus) Hill

prickly sow-thistle
cosmopolitan
286 Sonchus
Sonchus oleraceus Linnaeus

smooth sow-thistle
cosmopolitan
Sonchus arvensis, S. asper and S. oleraceus, three common weeds of cultiva-
tion, have doubtless not been differentiated in folk medicine, the only record
of herbal use attributable to one of them specifically being the result of a Lin-
colnshire user pointing out S. arvensis to a botanist.71 Probably all three share
much the same properties, in particular the white juice that has given rise to
the names ‘milkweed’, ‘milkwort’ and ‘milk thistle’ in England and Ireland
alike and been widely applied to warts in both countries. In Wales, however,
where the plants’ association with pigs seems to have been particularly strong,
with even a magical tinge, they are said to have been reserved for applying to
Sonchus oleraceus,
smooth sow-thistle
(Green 1902, fig. 376)
  Daisies 287
a gash made by the hoof or teeth of a hog.72 Also, to the seventeenth-century

English antiquarian John Aubrey we owe an unlocalised record of the use of
the heads for relieving cramp.73
The Irish records have yielded only one additional use: for burns in
Westmeath.74
Mycelis muralis (Linnaeus) Dumortier

wall lettuce
Europe, Asia Minor, north-western Africa; introduced into North
According to the Dublin botanist Caleb Threlkeld, writing in 1726,‘the poor
people’ in Ireland boiled Mycelis muralis in a posset to take against fevers.
Taraxacum officinale Weber, in the broad sense

dandelion
Eurasia; introduced into North America, Australasia
Vying with elder and nettles as the wild plant drawn on most widely and
heavily in the British Isles for folk medicine, dandelion also rivals the docks
in the extent to which it is used and known for one purpose in particular: in
this case for promoting the flow of urine and thus assisting kidney and asso-
ciated troubles in general. Renowned all over Europe for that diuretic effect,
Taraxacum officinale features in the folk records too near-universally for log-
ging of those in terms of individual counties to serve any useful purpose.
Even with that group of ailments set aside, there still remain 333 British
and Irish records traced for dandelion’s numerous other uses. Chief among
those, by a big margin, accounting for almost exactly one-quarter of that
total, is the plant’s application to warts, a practice known from most parts of
both countries. After that in popularity of use come coughs, colds and respi-
ratory troubles (55 records). All the remaining leading uses are mainly or
wholly Irish except for the plant’s service as a tonic to ‘cleanse the blood’ and
purge the system of skin complaints and boils; the combined total of 38
records for that include several from southern English counties and parts of
Scotland. Britain’s share of the large number of minor applications is also
markedly smaller than Ireland’s. These include indigestion in Dorset75 and
Essex,76 corns in Devon,77 stings in Somerset,78 scarlet fever in Leicester-
shire,79 lip cancer in Norfolk,80 ulcers in Argyllshire81 and internal pains in
general in the Highlands.82
Ireland’s use of the dandelion has been markedly more diverse than
Britain’s. The two countries’ combined total of 55 records for coughs, colds
288 Taraxacum officinale
and respiratory troubles includes a large number for ‘consumption’, all 25 for
the last of these Irish. If the British and Irish records for application to liver
trouble (24) and jaundice (22) are added together, those constitute the fourth
largest ailment overall—and the majority of them are Irish. So are most of
those for use as a cleansing tonic (38 records jointly), for stomach pains or
upsets (24) and for rheumatism (19). Heart trouble, however, seems an ex-
clusively Irish affliction as far as the use of dandelion is concerned, and the 21
records are noticeably numerous along
the western coast from Leitrim to Limer-
ick. Finally, in the long‘tail’ of much more
minor applications, normal in the case of
most widely used folk herbs, Ireland ap-
pears to have had a monopoly with re-
gard to cuts (Cavan,83 Wicklow,84 Limer-
ick,85 Kerry86), nervousness (Cavan,87
Wicklow,88 Limerick89), thrush (Co. Dub-
lin,90 Carlow,91 Limerick92), sprains and
swellings (Kildare,93 Limerick94), weak or
broken bones (Limerick,95 Kerry96),head-
aches (Cavan,97 Limerick98), diabetes
(Kilkenny99), sore eyes (Roscommon100),
external cancers (Carlow101), anaemia
(specific record untraced102) and—the
ultimate cure—‘every disease’ (Tipper-
ary103). Rather curiously, the only ones
with Irish records to complement Brit-
ish ones are for indigestion (Donegal,104
Carlow105) and corns (Co. Dublin106).
Uniquely Irish also is the wide reputation
dandelions are said to have once enjoyed
in parts of the country for easing tooth-
ache, allegedly because their much-
toothed leaves were held to be a signa-
ture.107 Another belief associated with the
leaves, recorded from Limerick, was that
to be effective as a tonic those with a
Taraxacum officinale, dandelion (Bock white vein had to be eaten by a man and
1556, p. 100) those with a red one by a woman.108
  Daisies 289
Pilosella officinarum F. W. Schultz & Schultz ‘Bipontinus’

Hieracium pilosella Linnaeus
mouse-ear hawkweed
temperate and subarctic Europe, western Asia; introduced into
Usually known simply as ‘mouse-ear’ and a cause of the misattribution of
records to mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium spp.) or forget-me-not (the
generic name of which, Myosotis, has the same meaning), Pilosella offici-
Pilosella officinarum,
mouse-ear hawk-
weed (Fuchs 1543,
fig. 343)
290 Pilosella officinarum
narum has been a widely favoured herb for coughs, especially whooping
cough, and throat infections in parts of England (Hampshire,109 Kent,110 Suf-
folk,111 Staffordshire112) and the Isle of Man.113 A specially Manx herb, it has
been used in that island, too, as a diuretic114 as well as to ‘draw’ splinters and
promote ‘healing pus’.115 The name ‘felon herb’ recorded in Cornwall116 hints
at one further use.
Almost all those have been Irish uses also: for whooping cough in
Meath117 and Limerick,118 for urinary trouble in Roscommon,119 West-
meath120 and Wicklow,121 and as a salve for burns (Wicklow122), whitlows
(Meath123) and other sores (Cavan124).
The concentration of records in the Isle of Man and the Irish counties on
either side of Dublin may possibly have some significance.
Hieracium Linnaeus
hawkweed
mainly arctic, alpine and temperate regions of the northern
hemisphere; introduced into New Zealand
As Pilosella officinarum seems to have been known in general as ‘mouse-ear’,
without the addition of ‘hawkweed’ so favoured by book authors, it can prob-
ably be safely taken that the plant recorded under the latter name as in use in
‘Ireland’ (part unspecified) as a jaundice remedy125 was one or more of the
numerous asexual microspecies of Hieracium. That the complaint is not
among the folk uses traced for mouse-ear adds strength to that assumption.
Filago vulgaris Lamarck

F. germanica Linnaeus, not Hudson
common cudweed
central and southern Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Canary
Islands; introduced into North America, New Zealand
Anaphalis margaritacea (Linnaeus) Bentham

American cudweed, pearly everlasting
North America; introduced into Europe
Under the name Centunculus (a generic name long used by botanists for the
minuscule plant now called Anagallis minima (Linnaeus) E. H. L. Krause),
William Turner described a herb ‘thought to be good for chafinge of anye
man’s flesh with goynge or rydinge’, for which reason it was known in his
native Northumberland, he wrote, as ‘Chaf[e]weed’ and in Yorkshire as ‘cud-
weed’.126 Though some authors127 have argued that he must have been refer-
ring to heath cudweed (Gnaphalium sylvaticum Linnaeus), as he separately
  Daisies 291
mentioned the species now known as Filago vulgaris under a different name,
others128 have assumed he meant the latter nonetheless. Matters have not been
helped by the fact that John Gerard129 chose to illustrate what he called ‘Eng-
lish cudweede’with a figure of what is unambiguously G. sylvaticum—though
it is apparent from the text that he understood by ‘cudweed’ and ‘chaffweed’
various Filago and Gnaphalium species in just a vague, collective sense.130
Fortunately, Matthias de l’Obel in 1576 was a model of clarity by com-
parison: his figure is undoubtedly Filago vulgaris, which he says the common
people in the west of England pound, steep in oil and boil for use on spots,
bruises, cuts and lacerations.131 By the west of England he doubtless meant
the neighbourhood of Bristol, where he practised medicine on first arriving
as an immigrant, and Gnaphalium sylvaticum is much too scarce in that part
of the country to have served as a herbal source.
Though the use of the plant appears to have died out in England a century
or so after de l’Obel wrote (John Parkinson in 1640 merely paraphrases his
words), Filago vulgaris has borne a name in Manx, lus ny croshey, which has
been interpreted as implying a herbal application of some (unknown)
kind.132 At the same time ‘cudweed’ can be short for the American cudweed
or pearly everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea, a garden plant which is on
record as smoked like tobacco for a cough or headache in Suffolk.133 This
was probably the ‘cudweed’ reported from Wexford in the 1930s as a whoop-
ing-cough cure.134
Antennaria dioica (Linnaeus) Gaertner

mountain everlasting, cat’s-ear, cat’s-foot
northern and central Europe, northern and western Asia,
North America
‘A plant that grows wild named cat’s-ear’ when chewed and mixed with cob-
webs has been used in Clare for staunching bleeding from cuts.135 Anten-
naria dioica has a reputation as astringent and styptic, and happens to occur
particularly frequently in the calcareous turf of the Burren for which that
county is botanically renowned.
Inula helenium Linnaeus

elecampane, wild parsnip, horseheal, scabwort
central Asia; introduced into Europe, western Asia, Japan, North
Inula helenium falls into the same category as greater celandine (Chelido-
nium majus): an ancient herb largely fallen into disuse but lingering on stub-
292 Inula helenium
bornly in semi-wild conditions. Probably a native of central Asia, it was much

valued by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and, serving for food as well as
medicine, was evidently a favourite subsistence plant of early Christian times,
as in Ireland it is found on some of the islets off the coasts as well as on and
around ancient monastic sites more generally. Its ability to survive grazing by
sheep probably accounts for this remarkable persistence.
Inula helenium, elecampane (Bock 1556, p. 65)

  Daisies 293
A veterinary medicine as much as a human one, the plant’s roots contain

a white starchy powder extracted by boiling, which has been drunk in par-
ticular for lung and chest complaints, pulmonary tuberculosis, whooping
cough and asthma (Norfolk,136 Orkney137 and the Isle of Man138 as far as
Britain is concerned). Wounds (in Sussex139) and toothache (in Cheshire140)
are further ailments for which there are British records.
In Ireland the lung and chest application has similarly been the main one
(Cavan,141 Wexford142 and doubtless—as the cough cure obtained from mea-
can uilian or ‘wild parsnip’—Clare143 and Limerick,144 too).
Pulicaria dysenterica (Linnaeus) Bernhardi

common fleabane
Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa; introduced into New Zealand
(Folk credentials questionable) A plant of the herbals, hopefully identified by
their authors with one celebrated in Classical times for insecticidal properties,
Pulicaria dysenterica enjoyed a vogue for that purpose in what seem to have
been relatively sophisticated circles and the only two allegedly folk records
sound suspiciously like hand-downs from book learning. In Devon it was
recommended to be gathered and dried for burning every morning in rooms
to rid them of flies,145 and in Sussex it was one of four strewing herbs princi-
pally employed to keep away fleas.145a That those records are both from
southernmost England, despite the plant’s wide distribution elsewhere in the
British Isles, supports the impression that it was at best a marginal interloper
as far as the folk tradition was concerned. Tansy, mugwort and the worm-
woods have amply served the same purpose instead.
Solidago virgaurea Linnaeus

goldenrod
Eurasia; introduced into New Zealand
In learned medicine long popular as a wound herb, Solidago virgaurea has lin-
gered on in use for that purpose in Sussex,146 the East Riding of Yorkshire147
and the Hebrides.148 Martin Martin, to whom we owe our knowledge of its
survival in the last-named, recorded it as an ingredient in two different oint-
ments, one combined with ‘all-heal’ (Stachys spp.?) and applied to wounds in
Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the other smeared in Skye on fractures at the
stage of healing when splints could be removed.149
In Ireland, however, the ailments for which this common plant has been
recorded in use are very different from those, so much so as to suggest that
not only was it never a wound herb there (perhaps purple-loosestrife,
294 Solidago virgaurea
Lythrum salicaria, took its place?) but the treatment of wounds may never
have been one of its functions in the British Isles folk repertory in its pristine
state. In Cavan,150 where herbal uses are known with particular complete-
ness, only heart trouble, stomach upsets and kidney problems feature in the
records. Stomach upsets are the function of the plant in Cork,151 too. In
Louth, on the other hand, its leaves have been boiled as a remedy for colds,152
and it may be because that use extended to pulmonary tuberculosis that an
infusion was drunk in Londonderry for the spitting of blood.153 In other
parts of Ulster, though, its reputation, and that a well-known one, was merely
for curing flatulence.154
Bellis perennis Linnaeus

daisy
Considering its near-ubiquity, it is striking that Bellis perennis has featured as
a folk herb only to a limited extent. Though William Turner knew it in his
native Northumberland as ‘banwort’, ‘because it helpeth bones to knyt
againe’155 (a statement repeated by Caleb Threlkeld who, though raised in
Cumberland, was probably merely parroting Turner), no further mention of
that use has been discovered. Instead, as far as Britain is concerned, its func-
tions subsequently seem to have been limited to serving as an ointment—
either alone or combined with other herbs—for burns (Hampshire156) or
cuts and bruises (the Highlands and Western Isles157), or as an infusion made
from the flower-heads drunk for coughs and colds (Wiltshire158) or eye trou-
bles (the Highlands159). But simply eating the flower-heads, for curing boils
(Devon,160 Dorset161) or toothache (Cumbria162), sounds like a procedure
based on magic rather than on any supposed chemical influence: two of them
sufficed for toothache, but at least in Dorset seven or nine, those magic-laden
numbers, were required to heal a boil and had to be picked from plants grow-
ing close enough to be covered with one foot.
The plant is also on record in Ireland as an ointment for burns and as an
eye lotion but in both cases much more widely: from at least six counties,
but entirely different ones in the case of each and with no apparent geo-
graphical patterns. As a cure for coughs and colds, however, records have
been noted only from Cavan163 and Mayo,164 though it has been used in
Roscommon165 for headaches. A treatment for boils is known from Wexford
but of a down-to-earth kind, involving boiling pieces with soap and sugar in
a tin until the mixture turns black.166 Cavan similarly appears to have been
  Daisies 295
unique in finding a use for stomach and/or liver complaints.167

It is especially in applying this plant to skin troubles,
though, that Ireland differs most from Britain. Broadly
classifiable under that head are records for ringworm
from Leitrim,168 whitlows169 and chilblains170 from
Meath, ‘blasts’ (facial swellings) from Carlow171 and
erysipelas from Donegal.172
Tanacetum vulgare Linnaeus

tansy
Europe, Siberia; introduced into North
Though convincingly a native of beaches and
riversides in other parts of north-western
Europe, Tanacetum vulgare may owe its pres-
ence in the British Isles wholly to human influ-
ence and perhaps in large part to former culti-
vation for herbal purposes. Significantly, its
Gaelic name, recorded as early as 1698 from
Skye, translates as ‘French herb’. With proper-
ties similar to wormwood, its primary use
through the centuries and over
much of Europe has been as a repel-
lent: either drunk as an infusion to
purge the system of intestinal
worms (for which its effectiveness is
well attested) or strewn about in the
fresh state to keep away any nox-
ious insects and even mice. Records
of the former practice in Britain have
been traced from Lincolnshire,173 Skye174 and Orkney,175
and of the latter from South Wales,176 the East Riding of
Yorkshire,177 Berwickshire178 and the Highlands179—
in other words, curiously, their known distributions
do not overlap. In the days when it was believed that
infections were transmitted by inhaling them,
some of Orkney’s inhabitants so trusted in the Tanacetum vulgare, tansy
plant’s effectiveness that they made a habit of (Brunfels 1530, p. 250)
296 Tanacetum vulgare
carrying a piece of it between their upper lip and their nose.180 Similarly, to
keep at bay the influence of the ‘miasma’ arising from the ground that was
supposed to give rise to ague, country folk in Hampshire181 and Sussex182
took the precaution of lining their boots with pieces of the plant.
A toxic oil powerful enough to rid the system of worms and other para-
sites would have commended itself as an abortifacient, too, if taken in a quan-
tity large enough, and the plant is on record as used for that purpose in Wilt-
shire,183 Gloucestershire184 and the Cambridgeshire Fens.185 In all three of
those, however, it also had a reputation for aiding conception, presumably
because of a separate relaxing effect. Such an effect could explain the drink-
ing of tansy tea to counter palpitations in Gloucestershire,186 rheumatism
and indigestion in Essex187 and period pains in Norfolk.188 In the ‘north of
England’ where an alternative was to apply a hot compress of the plant to the
seat of any rheumatic pain, drinking that tea three times a day was held to
clear the system of any tendency to gout189; it was as an antidote to gout that
the plant was once much used in Scotland also190 (though possibly on the
recommendation of John Gerard’s Herball, as a decoction of the root).
Ireland’s uses seem to have been broadly similar but more thinly spread.
As a vermicidal purge it has featured in Londonderry191 and Louth192 (and
for veterinary purposes in further counties, too); in ‘Ulster’, where it was
extensively grown in cottage gardens, it was valued as an emmenagogue of
much power193 as well as for indigestion and pains in the joints, these last
relieved by being bathed with the product of boiling the leaves in salted
water194; in the Aran Islands the juice has been drunk for fevers195 and in
some unspecified parts the plant is said to have shared that northern British
popularity for gout.196 Cavan is alone idiosyncratic in having yielded records
as a jaundice cure and as an application to cuts.197 That tansy is predomi-
nantly a herb of Ulster may be evidence for its having been introduced pri-
marily from Scotland.
Seriphidium maritimum (Linnaeus) Poljakov

Artemisia maritima Linnaeus
sea wormwood
Europe, south-western and central Asia
Though Seriphidium maritimum has properties similar to the two Artemisia
species (of which more below), its effects were found to be weaker and so led
to its recommendation by village doctresses in preference to its inland coun-
terpart for ridding children of worms.198 Apothecaries also gave it priority
  Daisies 297
over the commoner plant because its less bitter taste gave it more ‘consumer
appeal’.199 Once collected along the Sussex coast200 on a commercial scale,
the name ‘savin’, by which some people knew it, suggests that, by borrowing
that from juniper, the ‘deleterious purposes too generally known’ for which
that collecting was said to take place201 may have been as an abortifacient at
least in part. In the south of Scotland, though, it was to treat fevers and con-
sumption that the peasants apparently primarily favoured it: Lanarkshire
and Galloway folk tales tell of its being recommended by mermaids,202 as if to
underline that only the maritime plant would do. Another use, reported from
Essex, was to rub one’s forehead with a handful of it to cure a headache.203
Artemisia vulgaris Linnaeus

mugwort, muggons
A common component of the tundra vegetation that clothed the British Isles
at the termination of the Ice Age, Artemisia vulgaris has lingered on in other
parts of northern Europe as a member of the natural vegetation of the drift
lines at or above the level of high-water spring tides (like tansy). In Britain
and Ireland, however, it appears in modern times to have been confined
exclusively to man-made habitats, especially dry waste ground, on which it is
common throughout the lowlands. Like other nitrophiles, it may have
acquired this weed status even as early as Mesolithic times and is likely to
have been available for exploitation for several millennia at least. The medico-
magical potency with which this visually unprepossessing plant has been
credited through much of Eurasia and the strikingly similar beliefs associated
with it in different regions of that landmass indeed suggest that it may be
one of the oldest herbs known to mankind.204 Sacred to thunder gods, its
power to ward off evil influences was believed to be greatest on Midsummer
Eve, the time of year when light and heat were rated their most intense. In that
role it has rivalled, and probably preceded, St John’s-wort and attained a par-
ticularly exalted status in the Isle of Man, where the custom was revived c.
1924 of wearing a sprig of it on Tynwald Day, when the island’s ancient par-
liament is traditionally convened for an open-air proclamation of each year’s
new laws.
Why, though, did it attract such an extraordinarily widespread and tena-
cious faith in its efficacy? It is only slightly aromatic and its flowers are incon-
spicuous. It is, however, narcotic and was probably once a favourite divina-
tory, a use which is known to have persisted into more recent times in East
298 Artemisia vulgaris
Prussia. The practice of smoking the dried leaves as a substitute for tobacco,
general among country lads in Berkshire till late in the nineteenth century
(under the name ‘docko’205), may well be a relic of that, for unlike colt’s-foot
it appears to have had no medical justifications attached to it. As the plant
shares with tansy and the wormwoods vermicidal properties, that it may have
been used like them to purge the system of internal parasites is another pos-
sibility. If so, however, those two rivals must have usurped such former pop-
ularity as it may have enjoyed for that, for no mentions of such an application
have been found. (An eighteenth-century record from Moray of its use as a
purge, boiled in whey,206 does not indicate the purpose of the purging.) And
though ‘mugwort’ means midge-herb, it seems to have been rated much infe-
rior to those others for keeping away insects, too—records of its serving that
function have been traced from Devon,207 Sussex208 and Berwickshire209
alone.
A further well-attested property of the plant is its ability to restore men-
strual flow, ease delivery and cleanse the womb, for which functions it was
once highly valued by midwives and nurses. Not for nothing is the genus
named after the Greek goddess Artemis, the patron of maternity and child-
birth, for since ancient times mugwort has been the female plant above all
others, the mater herbarum or herba matrum. It may indeed be on account of
the similarity of its leaves that motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) acquired,
through misidentification, a comparable degree of respect in the Isle of Man
under the name ‘she-vervain’. Though long valued in official medicine in
cases of difficult parturition, mugwort features in the folk records in this and
allied connections much less than expected but has probably suffered, like
abortifacients in general, from a degree of reticence on the part of both col-
lectors and informants. Only Northamptonshire,210 the Highlands,211 and
Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides212 appear to have yielded information, the last
two in the guise of liath-lus, a Gaelic name identified213 with Artemisia vul-
garis. Tansy’s comparable role has already been referred to above.
In common with tansy once again (and wormwood, too) mugwort has
also enjoyed a reputation for easing colds, heavy coughs and especially con-
sumption (Cornwall,214 South Wales,215 ‘Scotland’,216 Londonderry217) as
well as sciatica (Cumbria218). With wormwood it seems to have served as a
digestive interchangeably (Berwickshire,219 the Highlands220) and as a
diuretic like the other two it was once eaten as a vegetable in Devon in order
to dissolve ‘the stone’.221 Finally, it is said to have shared in Ireland worm-
wood’s apparently rare use there as a treatment for epilepsy.222
  Daisies 299
Artemisia absinthium Linnaeus

wormwood
temperate Eurasia; introduced into North and South America,
New Zealand
In contrast to mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), another favourite of Classical
medicine, A. absinthium, is everywhere an obvious cottage garden herb that
has slipped out here and there into the wilds and in no part of the British
Artemisia absinthium,
wormwood (Fuchs
1543, fig. 1)
300 Artemisia absinthium
Isles is it anything like so common. It can only have been introduced for pur-
poses for which that long-standing counterpart had shown itself inadequate.
Wormwood’s main use has been as a digestive and for curing stomach
upsets. This is outstandingly true of Wales, where it has been found fulfilling
that function in every county—to an extent that it emerges as one of the most
widely used of all contemporary herbal medicines in the rural parts of that
country.223 It has also found favour for the same purpose in Essex,224 Derby-
shire,225 Berwickshire226 and Orkney227—a curious scatter of counties which
may merely be the fragments of a distribution formerly more general.
Only slightly less widespread has been wormwood’s popularity as an
insecticide (Wiltshire,228 Sussex,229 Suffolk,230 parts of Wales231), which has
considerably outstripped its deployment against intestinal worms (northern
Wales,232 Inverness-shire,233 Orkney234). When taken internally, though, it
has been well recognised as having risks: too large a dose (more than a table-
spoonful in the case of adults) causes vomiting and pain.235 In ‘some parts of
rural England’ it has also served as a disinfectant: in one house with cases of
scarlet fever the floor of the bedroom was washed with a strong decoction
made from the achenes.236
The plant has also been valued almost as much as a tonic and purifier of
the system (Essex,237 Montgomeryshire,238 Flintshire,239 Cheshire,240 Ork-
ney241) and for rheumatic complaints (Essex,242 Norfolk,243 Pembroke-
shire244). The exceptional strength of its following in Wales has found further
reflection there in its use for colds in Pembrokeshire,245 kidney trouble in
Montgomeryshire246 and—perhaps the same thing—colic (in combination
with syrup of elderberries) in ‘South Wales’,247 while as a narcotic it has served
as a cure for insomnia in Cardiganshire.248 Finally, a decoction of the plant
has been taken for diabetes in the Isle of Man.249
The near-absence of Irish records for wormwood (and mugwort, too) is
hard to explain. The sole ones traced are as a remedy for stomach pains in
Mayo250 and as an insecticide251 and a cure for epilepsy (by pouring the juice
into the sufferer’s mouth) in unidentified parts of the country.252
Achillea ptarmica Linnaeus

sneezewort
Europe, south-western Asia, Siberia; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Despite its English name, no folk records of the use of Achillea ptarmica for
colds have been discovered, though it allegedly promoted the flow of saliva
and has been claimed effective therefore against toothache.253 An infusion
  Daisies 301
made from the flowers and leaves was once a popular drink in Orkney, but
apparently purely as a refreshment.254 The sole medicinal records consist of
boiling the juice for stomach trouble in the Highlands255 and employing the
plant as a specific for ‘wild fire’ (allegedly urticaria in this case) in one district
in Donegal.256
Achillea millefolium Linnaeus

yarrow
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America,
Australasia
Long and very widely known—in many parts of the world—for its haemo-
static properties, Achillea millefolium has been primarily valued for altering
blood flow in a variety of beneficial ways.
Of the total of 125 records traced of the
use of yarrow in British or Irish folk
medicine, 47, or rather more than a
third, come broadly into that cat-
egory. The greatest number of
these (16) are for staunching
bleeding from wounds, cuts,
scratches or sores, usually by
means of an ointment but sometimes by
merely applying the fresh leaves as a poul-
tice. Familiar to the Romans and doubtless
for millennia before them, this func-
tion of the plant is reflected in the
names it bears in Welsh and Gaelic
as well as such English ones as ‘sol-
diers’ woundwort’ and ‘carpenter’s
grass’. These names imply a once
more general use than that limited
number of records suggests. Other, more
specialised applications of this property of
the plant are for stopping nosebleeds (10
records, more particularly Welsh and Scottish and
noticeably non-Irish), reducing high blood pressure
(Gloucestershire,257 Carmarthenshire258),
for uterine haemorrhaging (Devon259) and Achillea millefolium, yarrow
cramp (Somerset—solved there by wearing (Green 1902, fig. 320)
302 Achillea millefolium
a leaf inside the shoes260). If put up the nostrils, as John Ray observed,261 the
leaves can also provoke a nosebleed and by thus reducing congestion in the
blood vessels relieve migraine and headache, a practice recorded from Kent
(?)262 and Norfolk263 as far as Britain is concerned. Similarly, by chewing the
leaves or smoking them in a pipe, toothache can be made to disappear, but
that essentially Irish remedy has apparently extended eastwards only to the
Isle of Man.264
With a reputation as well for opening the pores and inducing sweating,
yarrow has also been widely valued for coughs, heavy colds, bronchitis,
asthma, fevers and catarrh (25 records). As with so many other cold-curing
herbs, it has been hardly less in demand as a treatment for rheumatic com-
plaints (21 records, mostly Irish) and probably for the same reason it has
enjoyed popularity in some areas as a stimulating tonic, countering depres-
sion and cleansing the system (13 records, including, noticeably, from three
areas of heavy Norse settlement (Isle of Man,265 Orkney,266 Shetland267).
Other, minor applications recorded from Britain include for kidney trou-
ble in Pembrokeshire,268 to improve an oily complexion and to help children
to sleep in Gloucestershire,269 to cystitis270 and measles in Norfolk,271 to rid
children of intestinal worms inYorkshire’s North Riding272 and, not altogether
surprisingly in view of this versatility, to ‘all diseases’ in the Isle of Man.273
Ireland has made up for that apparently rare use of the plant for stopping
nosebleeds by a disproportionately wide popularity for inducing them as a
cure for migraine and headaches (Cavan,274 Mayo,275 Carlow,276 Limerick277),
while as a toothache remedy yarrow has been even more emphatically Irish
(those same counties plus Offaly278). Though known in parts of the country
as the ‘herb of the seven cures’, its repertory has clearly extended well beyond
that limited, clearly magical number of lesser applications as well: for kidney
trouble in ‘Ulster’279 and Tipperary,280 jaundice and sore eyes in Cavan,281
boils in Cork282 and—echoing the optimism among the Manx—‘all pains’ in
Co. Dublin.283
Chamaemelum nobile (Linnaeus) Allioni

Anthemis nobilis Linnaeus
chamomile
south-western Europe, north-western Africa, Azores; introduced
Sometimes called ‘Roman chamomile’ or ‘English chamomile’ to distinguish
it from ‘German chamomile’ (Matricaria recutita Linnaeus, which as a field
weed or a crop has stood in for it medicinally in many parts of Europe but has
  Daisies 303
apparently never featured in the British Isles as a folk cure), Chamaemelum

nobile has a strongly south-western distribution in both Britain and Ireland
in so far as it appears to be a native. It has a secondary area of frequency in
Ulster but is absent from Scotland
and most of northern England ex-
cept where introduced. Though suf-
ficiently abundant in part of that
native range to have met medicinal
demand locally—William Borlase
reported it in eighteenth-century
Cornwall as ‘transplanted into gar-
dens, for a strengthening emetic
tea’284—extensive folk use in many
other areas implies that its source
was largely or wholly cottage gar-
dens, at any rate in later centuries.
In other words, this can have been a
wild herb only to a relatively limited
extent, and latterly it may even have
become a semi-commercial one.
The greatest number of folk uses
recorded for the plants are as a relax-
ant: for soothing the stomach (Dev-
on,285 Wiltshire,286 Essex,287 Glou-
cestershire,288 Nottinghamshire,289
the Highlands290); easing nervous
pains in the head,teeth or ears (Wilt-
shire,291 Essex,292 Warwickshire,293
Norfolk294) or period pains (Dor-
set295) or those accompanying pleu-
risy (Hertfordshire296); and induc-
ing sleep or preventing nightmares
(Norfolk297).
A secondary focus has been on
colds, coughs of all kinds and sore
throats. The treatment of these has
usually taken the form of drinking Chamaemelum nobile, chamomile
a hot infusion of the flowers or (Bock 1556, p. 56)
304 Chamaemelum nobile
inhaling just the steam from that (Norfolk,298 Glamorgan, Montgom-

eryshire299), though for asthma in Norfolk300 the plant was smoked and no
more than the dew shaken from the flowers was once reckoned enough in
South Wales to cure tuberculosis.301
The flowers have also been employed in the form of an infusion to poul-
tice swellings and inflammation (Suffolk,302 Orkney303) or infused and
applied as a wash to sore or tired eyes (Norfolk304); mixed with cream they
have served as an ointment for boils, too (Brecknockshire305), though whether
that was the treatment for abscesses recorded for some part of Yorkshire306 is
unclear. In Kent an infusion was drunk at one time as a regular morning
tonic,307 while a recent discovery made in Suffolk is that the oil from the
flower-heads appears to mitigate psoriasis.308
Ireland’s spread of records for the two main uses of the plant equals
Britain’s: it is known as a relaxant from ‘Ulster’,309 Cavan,310 Westmeath,311
Co. Dublin312 and Limerick,313 as a painkiller from Cavan,314 Co. Dublin,315
Limerick316 and Cork317 and as a soporific from Wicklow.318 While it has
been less favoured than in Britain for colds and the like, with records traced
for use for those from Cavan319 and Carlow320 only, it has been applied
markedly more widely in Ireland to swellings and inflammation (London-
derry,321 Sligo,322 Laois,323 Co. Dublin,324 Wicklow325) or boils (Cavan,326
Cork327); boils, moreover, seem to have been poulticed with the plant’s
flower-heads whereas the ointment for those recorded from Wales has had a
parallel only as an application to whitlows on fingers in Westmeath,328 so far
as has been traced. A jaundice cure reported from Cork,329 however, involv-
ing boiling the plant in wine or porter and drinking the liquid over a period
of ten days, would appear to be uniquely Irish.
Anthemis arvensis Linnaeus

corn chamomile
Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa; introduced elsewhere
(Name confusion) Anthemis arvensis is specifically named in one printed
source as the chamomile on Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides used with other
herbs in poultices for promoting suppuration and drunk as an infusion for
strengthening the stomach. That the recorder describes it as a perennial and
flowering in late summer, however, shows that it must have been
Chamaemelum nobile, which happens to be anomalously widespread on that
island, as the legacy of introduction for a lawn.330
  Daisies 305
Anthemis cotula Linnaeus

stinking chamomile
Europe, northern and western Asia; introduced elsewhere
(Folk credentials questionable) ‘Some of our English housewives call it Iron
Wort, and make an unguent for old sores’, John Josselyn recorded in seven-
teenth-century New England.331 Anthemis cotula was a sufficiently abundant
cornfield weed in southern Britain in medieval times to have acquired an
Anglo-Saxon name, but though long notorious for blistering the hands of
harvesters and reputedly a powerful insect repellent, published assertions
that it was used in folk medicine332 are too unspecific to be accepted without
fuller evidence.
Chrysanthemum segetum Linnaeus

corn marigold
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North Africa, North and
South America
(Folk credentials questionable) Folk records of the use of marigolds proba-
bly relate to the common garden plant, Calendula officinalis Linnaeus, rather
than to the once common cornfield weed Chrysanthemum segetum. Suspi-
ciously, though a decoction drunk as a cure for measles in Wicklow has been
attributed to the wild plant,333 comparable drinks feature for that among the
uses of ‘marigolds’ (which are more likely to have been the garden plant) in
Norfolk334 and Montgomeryshire.335 The cornfield weed has passed simply as
‘marigold’ in parts of the north of England, but elsewhere it has tended to
have at least ‘wild’ or ‘field’ preceding that.
Leucanthemum vulgare Lamarck

Chrysanthemum leucanthemum Linnaeus
ox-eye daisy
Europe, Siberia; introduced into North America, Australasia
Though found over much of the British Isles, Leucanthemum vulgare appears,
curiously, to have been recorded as a folk herb only from the Highlands and
limited areas of Ireland. Some of the recorded uses are shared with the ordi-
nary daisy, Bellis perennis, for which this large-flowered relative may have
served in part as an alternative; for others, however, it seems to have been
targeted specifically.
In the Highlands a tea made from the plant has been drunk for asthma,
while the juice has been not only mixed with honey as a cough cure but applied
306 Leucanthemum vulgare
to wounds as well.336 The Gaelic name has been interpreted as implying a one-
time widespread use for scrofula,337 though that is perhaps questionable.
In Ireland the boiled juice has similarly been applied for coughs, more
especially tubercular ones, in the Aran Islands in the remoteness of Galway
Bay, where this species was looked upon as the ‘female’ version of chamo-
mile (Chamaemelum nobile).338 Both there and in Limerick339 sore eyes were
also bathed with the cooled boiled juice. In Tyrone and Monaghan, on the
other hand, a tea formerly much drunk there (to ward off a chill) was made
from an infusion of the ray florets.340
Matricaria discoidea de Candolle

M. matricaroides (Lessing) Porter, in part; M. suaveolens (Pursh)
Buchenau
pineapple weed
north-eastern Asia; introduced into Europe, North and South
Under the Welsh name pe-felen, Matricaria discoidea is on record as used in
Caernarvonshire some time before World War II for a leaf poultice in a case
of severe boils on the neck (which it was seemingly successful in clearing
up).341 As this alien is not known to have reached the British Isles before
1869—though for long now a common weed of barish places—this is a rare
instance of a folk use of demonstrably recent origin. The species was pre-
sumably standing in for Chamaemelum nobile, which is recorded from several
counties, one of them Welsh, as the source of an ointment for boils.
Senecio aquaticus Hill

water ragwort; buachalán (Ireland)
western and central Europe; introduced into New Zealand
Senecio jacobaea Linnaeus

ragwort, ragweed; buachalán (Ireland)
Australasia
Unexpectedly, ragwort emerges from the folk records as almost wholly an
Irish herb. Both Senecio aquaticus and S. jacobaea occur there in abundance
and hybridise with each other so extensively that it is surprising that in Tip-
perary what is manifestly S. aquaticus from the habitat description has
acquired a name of its own in Irish Gaelic (translating as ‘fisherman’s rag-
wort’) and been preferred to S. jacobaea at least for use on cuts.342 That dif-
  Daisies 307
ferentiation may well have come about, though, merely through the fact that
S. aquaticus has the more succulent basal leaves, making it more suitable for
poultices (as observed on Clare Island, off the Galway coast).343 More usu-
ally, rather than distinguishing between these two species, the folk tendency
has been to make a distinction between plants with flowers on the one hand
and plants displaying just a leaf rosette on the other. In the west of Ireland and
the Hebrides one of these was considered to be ‘male’ ragwort and the other
‘female’—but accounts differ as to which was which. In Skye, the‘female’kind
was the one selected for healing women’s breasts when swollen,344 in keeping
with that folk belief, so often recorded elsewhere, that many herbs exist as gen-
der pairs and cure effectively only if applied to the ills of the appropriate sex.
Those who subscribe to the belief that many of the practices of folk med-
icine were given direction by plant characters supposed to reveal the plant’s
utility through their form (the Doctrine of Signatures) may consider that
ragwort with its yellow flowers has been used more for jaundice than for any-
thing else lends support to that. If so, however, it is hard to see why the records
traced for that use should be from Ireland only: ‘Ulster’,345 Cavan,346 Sligo,347
Leitrim,348 Westmeath,349 Meath,350 Mayo,351 Wicklow,352 Limerick353 and
Tipperary.354
Less widespread but apparently more frequent locally is ragwort’s popu-
larity for colds, coughs and especially sore throats (Cavan,355 Sligo,356
Meath,357 Clare,358 Limerick359). Use for cuts, sores and inflammation of var-
ious kinds matches that but with a more southerly distribution (Mayo,360
Wicklow,361 Wexford,362 Waterford,363 Tipperary364); application to burns or
scalds (Sligo,365 Westmeath366) could be regarded as a special subcategory of
that, however, as could the poulticing of boils or abscesses (Fermanagh,367
Cavan368).
Ragwort has also been valued, but less widely, for rheumatic complaints
(Ulster,369 Clare,370 Limerick371) and for sprains or swollen joints (‘Ulster’,372
Cavan,373 Wicklow,374 Kilkenny375). Dropsy (in Cavan376), measles (in
Sligo377), bowel hives in children (in Antrim378), warts and nettle stings (in
Limerick379) are further ailments for which it has had devotees, too.
The curiously rare records from Britain seem to be limited to Scotland
apart from a solitary one of rheumatism treatment from Hampshire.380 In
the Inner Hebrides, as in Skye381 and Colonsay,382 the first year’s growth or a
barren form of the plant was at one time cut into pieces, mixed with butter
and (sometimes with other herbs) applied as a warm plaster to bring a boil to
a head and ‘draw’ it quickly and without pain. In the Hebrides there has also
308 Senecio
existed a firm belief that the smell of the plant, especially while green and
flowerless, deters rats and mice383 and in Uist, if not elsewhere, corn stacks
were frequently layered with it.384
Senecio vulgaris Linnaeus

groundsel
Eurasia; introduced widely elsewhere
Very common as a weed of cultivation but with clearly native populations
on coastal sand dunes, Senecio vulgaris once proclaimed its principal value
Senecio vulgaris, groundsel (Brunfels 1530, p. 120)

  Daisies 309
medicinally in the name it bore in Old English: ‘groundsel’ meant pus-

absorber.385 A minor virtue of its close relation, ragwort, the ability to draw
matter out of wounds, blisters, boils and the like has been for this species its
pre-eminent function, recorded from various parts of Ireland and most parts
of Britain. In Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire that reputation extends
even to the extraction of thorns.386
No other uses of the plant come near that in popularity. In Britain, those
have included healing inflammation, bruises and swellings when applied
externally (Norfolk,387 Berwickshire,388 Aberdeenshire,389 the Highlands,390
Colonsay in the Hebrides,391 Isle of Man392) as well as chapped hands when
made into a lotion (Devon,393 Norfolk,394 the Highlands395); teething in
infants, by including the juice in their milk (Suffolk,396 Norfolk397); curing
ague, by wearing a handful of the pulped plant in a bag against the bare breast
or stomach and thereby inducing powerful vomiting some hours afterwards
(Cornwall,398 Isle of Man,399 Edinburgh400); allaying rheumatism, especially
by soaking the feet in a preparation (Fens of East Anglia,401 the Highlands402);
as a diuretic (Devon403) and as a wart cure (Essex404).
Ireland’s subsidiary uses have been about as numerous—but almost all of
them different: applied as a hot poultice to the face to ease toothache (Gal-
way405 and some other unspecified area406), taken as a tonic to cleanse the
blood (Limerick407) and to staunch nosebleeds by drinking the juice mixed
with water and a drop of turpentine (Offaly408). Before the advent of castor
oil, a sprig or two added to babies’ milk and that given to them once boiled
and strained also seems to have been peculiarly Irish, though information is
lacking on how widespread that was.409 Only the use for chapped hands
(‘felons’) in Co. Dublin410 and as a diuretic for removing gravel in Done-
gal411 have counterparts in the records traced from Britain.
Tussilago farfara Linnaeus

colt’s-foot
Europe, northern and western Asia, North Africa; introduced into
Tussilago farfara is the age-old folk cure for coughs par excellence. The prop-
erties which cause it to be valued for those have recommended it as well for
colds, catarrh, sore throats and lung and chest complaints, and for some at
least of those it has been recorded from most parts of the British Isles. Soak-
ing the leaves (more rarely, the roots) in water specifically for asthma has also
been a widespread practice, reported from areas in Britain as far apart as
310 Tussilago farfara
Herefordshire,412 Suffolk,413 Fife414 and the Highlands.415 In Oxfordshire,416

on the other hand, the plant’s reputation has extended to that of a blood puri-
fier, while an ointment made from the roots, with other ingredients added,
was once in great repute for curing sprains and all swellings of the joints in
Roxburghshire.417
Ireland has shared that use for asthma, with records from a similarly scat-
tered set of counties (Antrim,418 Wicklow,419 Tipperary,420 Cork421), but for
Tussilago farfara, colt’s-foot (Bock 1556, p. 158)

  Daisies 311
children the leaves, instead of being smoked, were boiled in milk.422 The oint-
ment for swellings once popular on the Scottish border was also much
employed in ‘Ulster’423 in the past. Britain has apparently had no counterpart,
though, to the valuing of the plant for earache in Wicklow424 and neuralgia in
Limerick.425
Petasites hybridus (Linnaeus) P. Gaertner, Meyer & Scherbius

butterbur, thunder-dock, wild rhubarb
Europe, northern and western Asia; introduced into North America
An odd feature of Petasites hybridus is that the male and female plants are
very different in appearance and, in Britain at least, have very different dis-
tributions, the females restricted mainly to the northern half of England, the
males found much more widely. Preferential planting of the male seems the
only way to account for this, but evidence of that has yet to be discovered.
Beekeepers may have valued the male for the profusion of its flowers, it has
been suggested, or farmers may have found the greater vegetative vigour
resulting from its not setting seed produced larger leaves in which to pack
butter.426 That it may have had some special role in folk medicine is clearly
another possibility. The bitter, very resinous root of butterbur was at one time
valued for its sweat-inducing action (like that of thrift) and caused it to be
used extensively for plague and fevers, bringing it the name Pestilenzwurz in
German. If the roots of the male plant gained a reputation as the more effec-
tive, that might have been the one chosen for cultivating (or even importing
from the Continent). In one Cornish village a tradition persisted that the but-
terbur owed its presence in the churchyard to having sprung from the graves
of the victims of an especially severe outbreak of plague in which this herb
proved its worth.427 As that is only one of two records traced in the folklore lit-
erature (the other from the Highlands428) of the employment of the species
for that purpose in Britain or Ireland, the far-fetched explanation to account
for the plant’s presence suggests that it was a use that was unfamiliar.
It is in quite other connections, rather, that butterbur features in the folk
records. Suggestively, three of those are from the region to which the female
plant is mainly restricted: Durham, as a treatment for spots and sores,429
Berwickshire, for white swellings on the knees,430 and Roxburghshire, for
scurvy.431 Elsewhere in Britain the species has been valued for shingles in
Cornwall432 (but combined with brambles), rheumatism in Somerset433 and
dropsy in the Highlands.434
312 Petasites hybridus
The sole Irish records traced (Mayo,435 Limerick436) are both, as in Som-
erset, as a rheumatism treatment.
Eupatorium cannabinum Linnaeus

hemp-agrimony
(Folk credentials questionable) Eupatorium cannabinum was so widely rec-
ommended in the books that its apparent absence from the Irish folk records
Petasites hybridus, butterbur (Bock 1556, p. 157)

  Daisies 313
and near-absence from the British ones leads one to suspect that, except in the
case of a veterinary use mentioned by John Parkinson in 1640,437 it may have
been wholly borrowed from the learned tradition—and that despite the fact
that Dutch peasants are known to have taken a preparation of the plant as an
alterative and antiscorbutic,438 and Belgian ones as a cure for jaundice.439
John Lightfoot described it as a rough medicine sometimes favoured by ‘the
lower classes of people’ (for jaundice and dropsy)440 but left it unclear
whether that statement was referring to Britain. More persuasively, a poultice
of the leaves saved from amputation the severely poisoned arm of a Cornish
fisherman in the 1930s, a remedy later copied with claimed success by a Mid-
dlesex acquaintance of his to extract pus from boils.441 Because that was a
function of the plant popularised by the influential Dutch physician Her-
man Boerhaave, however, even in that case an element of doubt must attach
to the folk credentials of the remedy.
Notes
1. IFC S 485: 191 26. Moore MS
2. Deane & Shaw 27. IFC S 657: 248
3. Collyns 28. IFC S 524: 119
4. Johnston 1853, 129 29. IFC S 657: 248
5. McNeill 30. IFC S 132: 97; 137: 135
6. Moore 1898 31. Egan
7. Davies1938, 167 32. IFC S 657: 248
8. Jobson 1967, 57 33. IFC S 914: 555
9. Vickery MSS 34. Maloney
10. Carmichael, ii, 349 35. Ó hEithir MS
11. Johnston 1853, 129 36. IFC S 672: 205, 206, 210, 258, 259;
12. Quincy, 156 673: 155
13. Moore 1898 37. Farrelly MS
14. Quelch, 50 38. Maloney
15. Johnson 1862 39. Vickery MSS
16. IFC S 710: 43 40. IFC S 786: 116
18. IFC S 657: 248 42. IFC S 780: 243
20. IFC S 157: 463 44. A. Allen, 185
21. Wilde, 34 45. Hatfield, 28
22. Moloney 46. Gerard, 166
23. IFC S 657: 216 47. Hatfield, 27
24. IFC S 710: 49 48. Egan
25. IFC S 1043: 265 49. Maloney
314 Notes
50. IFC S 820: 277 95. IFC S 484: 41
51. IFC S 825: 60, 94, 117 96. IFC S 412: 194
53. IFC S 523: 271 98. IFC S 480: 374
55. Gregory 100. IFC S 268: 63
56. McGlinchey, 87 101. IFC S 904: 454
57. IFC S 412: 107 102. Ó Súilleabháin, 311
58. Colgan 1904 103. IFC S 550: 274
59. Hart 1898 104. IFC S 1090: 274
60. Davies 1938 105. IFC S 907: 209
61. Newman & Wilson 106. IFC S 797: 13
62. Newman & Wilson 107. Sargent
63. Moore 1898 108. IFC S 519: 230
64. MacFarlane 109. Vickery 1995
65. Moloney 110. Vickery 1995
66. Pratt 1850–7 111. Evans 1969, 88
67. Britten & Holland, 354 112. Hackwood, 150
68. IFC S 888: 108 113. Morrison; Paton MS
69. IFC S 571: 149, 170 114. Moore 1898
70. Withering 1787–92, 859 115. Garrad MS
71. Woodruffe-Peacock 116. Couch, 177
72. Trevelyan, 91 117. IFC S 710: 48
73. Buchanan-Brown, 339 118. IFC S 510: 95
74. IFC S 747: 187 119. IFC S 250: 62, 223, 237
76. Newman & Wilson 121. McClafferty
77. Lafont 122. McClafferty
78. Tongue 123. IFC S 689: 261
79. Bethell 124. Maloney
80. Hatfield, 25 125. Sargent
81. Fairweather 126. Turner 1568, part 1, 119
82. Macdonald 127. e.g. Britten & Holland, 96
83. Maloney 128. e.g. Ray 1690, 279
84. IFC S 921: 12 129. Gerard, 515
85. IFC S 481: 48; 483: 84 130. Britten & Holland, 136
86. IFC S 413: 226 131. de l’Obel 1576, 255
87. Maloney 132. Paton
88. IFC S 913: 64 133. Jobson 1967, 59
89. IFC S 484: 220 134. IFC S 897: 238
90. IFC S 794: 35 135. IFC S 601: 51
91. IFC S 907: 368 136. Bardswell; Taylor MS (Hatfield, 29)
92. IFC S 491: 57 137. Neill, 12; Spence; Leask, 72
93. IFC S 771: 173 138. Garrad 1976
94. IFC S 483: 271 139. A. Allen, 185
  Daisies 315
140. Wright, 248 182. Latham, 39; Quelch, 153

142. IFC S 888: 109 184. Palmer 1994, 122
143. IFC S 22: 238; 617: 78 185. Porter 1969, 10
144. IFC S 497: 132 186. Palmer 1994, 122
145. Hewett, 66 187. Newman & Wilson
145a. A. Allen, 185 188. Hatfield, appendix
146. A. Allen, 185 189. Quelch, 152
147. CECTL MSS (Vickery 1995) 190. Pratt 1850–7
148. Martin, 94, 230 191. Moore MS
149. Martin, 94, 230 192. Synnott
150. Maloney 193. Purdon
151. IFC S 385: 55 194. Egan
152. IFC S 672: 257 195. IFC S 1: 195
153. Moore MS 196. Moloney
154. Purdon 197. Maloney
155. Turner 1568, part 1, 78 198. Johnston 1853, 129
156. Vickery MSS 199. Parkinson, 101, 104
157. McNeill: Beith 200. A. Allen, 183
158. Whitlock 1992, 106 201. Hardwicke’s Science-gossip (1875),
159. Pennant 1776, ii, 42 34
160. Lafont, 32 202. Mason, 558
161. Rawlence 203. Newman & Wilson
162. Newman & Wilson 204. Armstrong
163. Maloney 205. Druce
164. IFC S 132: 97 206. Pennant 1771, 311
165. IFC S 269: 105 207. Lafont
166. IFC S 897: 93 208. A. Allen
167. Maloney 209. Johnston 1853
169. IFC S 710: 43 211. Carmichael, vi, 83
170. IFC S 690: 41 212. McDonald, 151
171. IFC S 907: 156 213. Cameron
172. McGlinchey, 83 214. Deane & Shaw
173. Taylor MS (Hatfield, appendix) 215. Trevelyan, 91
174. Martin, 226 216. Wright, 241
175. Spence 217. Moore MS
176. informant in a television interview, 218. Short 1746
Sept. 1993 219. Johnston 1829–31, i, 181
177. Woodward, 25–6, 103 220. Beith
178. Johnston 1853 221. Lafont
179. Carmichael, iv, 120 222. Moloney
180. Leask, 77 223. Williams MS
181. Boase, 126 224. Newman & Wilson
316 Notes
225. CECTL MSS 269. Ibbott, 64

226. Johnston 1829–31, i, 181 270. Hatfield MS
227. Spence 271. Hatfield, 43
228. Whitlock 1992, 115 272. Blakeborough, 134
229. A. Allen, 72, 74 273. Fargher
230. Hatfield, appendix 274. Maloney
231. Williams MS 275. IFC S 137: 210
232. Williams MS 276. IFC S 908: 133
233. McCutcheon 277. IFC S 498: 314
234. Spence; Firth, 96; Leask, 78 278. IFC S 820: 212, 225
235. McCutcheon 279. Egan
236. Quelch, 164 280. IFC S 550: 274
238. Evans 1940 282. IFC S 286: 25
240. Wright, 239 284. Borlase 1758, 229
241. Spence 285. Collyns
242. Newman & Wilson 286. Whitlock 1992, 105
243. Harland, 83 287. Newman & Wilson
244. Williams MS 288. Gibbs, 57; Palmer 1994, 123
245. Williams MS 289. Vickery MSS
246. Williams MS 290. MacFarlane
247. Trevelyan, 315 291. Whitlock 1992, 105
248. Williams MS 292. Newman & Wilson
249. Fargher 293. Vickery MSS
250. IFC S 93: 528 294. Bardswell
251. Moloney 295. Dacombe
252. Wood-Martin, 188 296. Ellis, 317
253. Pratt 1850–7 297. Bardswell
254. Spence 298. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 28)
255. Beith 299. Williams MS
256. Hart 1898 300. Bardswell
257. Ibbott, 64 301. Trevelyan, 315
258. Williams MS 302. Jobson 1959, 144
259. Collyns 303. Spence
260. Tongue 304. Hatfield, 37
261. Ray 1690, 290 305. Williams MS
262. Pratt 1850–7 306. Vickery MSS
263. Bardswell 307. Pratt 1850–7
264. Fargher 308. Hatfield, 87
265. Paton 309. Egan
266. Neill, 28 310. IFC S 933: 154
267. Tait 311. IFC S 736: 137
268. Williams MS 312. IFC S 795: 191
  Daisies 317
313. IFC S 523: 169 356. IFC S 158: 120

314. Maloney 357. IFC S 690: 39; 710: 48
315. IFC S 795: 191 358. IFC S 589: 62
316. IFC S 485: 56 359. IFC S 497: 371; 504: 27, 135; 521:
317. IFC S 287: 67; 1128: 26 149
318. IFC S 914: 322 360. IFC S 132: 98
319. IFC S 933: 154 361. IFC S 914: 283, 553
320. IFC S 907: 267 362. IFC S 897: 238
321. Moore MS 363. IFC S 636: 191, 355
322. IFC S 170: 259 364. IFC S 550: 284
323. IFC S 825: 74 365. IFC S 170: 256
324. IFC S 795: 191 366. IFC S 746: 456
325. IFC S 920: 69 367. Barbour
326. Maloney 368. Maloney
327. IFC S 337: 77 369. Egan
328. IFC S 736: 22, 23 370. IFC S 616: 48
329. IFC S 287: 180 371. IFC S 522: 197
330. McNeill; R. L. Gulliver, oral infor- 372. Egan
mation 373. Maloney
331. Josselyn 374. McClafferty
332. e.g. Pratt 1850–7; Cameron 375. IFC S 849: 315
333. McClafferty 376. Maloney
334. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 42) 377. IFC S 170: 196
335. Evans 1940 378. Vickery MSS
336. Beith 379. IFC S 504: 27
337. Cameron 380. Kingsley
338. Ó hEithir 381. Martin, 231
339. IFC S 484: 220 382. McNeill
340. Hart 1898, 373 383. Carmichael, iv, 120
341. PLNN, no. 6 (1999), 289 384. Carmichael, vi, 25
342. IFC S 572: 297 385. Palmer 1904, 34
343. Colgan 1911 386. Williams MS
344. Martin, 231 387. Pigott
345. Purdon 388. Johnston 1853, 129 footnote
346. Maloney 389. Henderson & Dickson, 155
347. IFC S 171: 337 390. Beith
348. IFC S 226: 506 391. McNeill
349. IFC S 746: 238, 456; 747: 30 392. Fargher
351. IFC S 132: 37 394. Bardswell
352. IFC S 888: 202; 920: 70 395. Beith
353. IFC S 485: 52 396. Jobson 1967, 58
354. IFC S 550: 275 397. Wigby, 65; Hatfield, appendix
355. Maloney 398. Deane & Shaw
318 Notes
399. Moore 1898 421. IFC S 287: 180

400. Stedman 422. Logan, 26
401. Randell, 86 423. Purdon
402. Cameron, 56 footnote 424. McClafferty
403. Lafont 425. IFC S 506: 743
404. Newman & Wilson 426. Walters
405. IFC S 60: 302 427. Polwhele 1816, 69
406. Sargent 428. Beith
407. IFC S 481: 143; 483: 369 429. Vickery 1995
408. IFC S 820: 173 430. Johnston 1853, 129
409. Moloney 431. Johnston 1853, 129
410. IFC S 787: 367 432. Folk-lore, 19 (1887), 200
411. McGlinchey, 84 433. Palmer 1976, 115
412. Jones-Baker, 101 434. Beith
413. Jobson 1959, 144 435. IFC S 138: 100
414. Simpkins, 133 436. IFC S 499: 201
415. Beith 437. Parkinson, 597
416. ‘E.C.’ 438. Withering 1787–92, 502
417. Johnston 1853, 129 439. Ray 1670, 332
418. Vickery MSS 440. Lightfoot, 464
419. McClafferty 441. PLNN, no. 66 (2001), 313
420. IFC S 550: 274
CHAPTER 16
Pondweeds, Grasses,
Lilies and Orchids
8
Monocotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Alismatales

(Alismataceae, water-plantains), Najadales (Potamogetonaceae, pondweeds),
Arales (Araceae, arums; Lemnaceae, duckweeds), Juncales (Juncaceae,
rushes), Cyperales (Cyperaceae, sedges; Poaceae, grasses), Typhales (Typha-
ceae, reedmaces), Liliales (Liliaceae, lilies; Iridaceae, irises; Dioscoreaceae,
yams) and Orchidales (Orchidaceae, orchids) are included in this chapter.
ALISMATACEAE
Sagittaria sagittifolia Linnaeus
arrowhead
temperate Eurasia
In Devon a cupful of tea made of nine leaves of Sagittaria sagittifolia to a pint
of boiled water was reckoned a good strengthening medicine, if taken every
day in spring and autumn.1
Alisma plantago-aquatica Linnaeus, in the broad sense

water-plantain
Eurasia, North Africa; introduced into west North America,
Australasia
Though a highly valued folk herb in other parts of the world, Alisma plantago-
aquatica appears to have had only a marginal presence in that capacity in the
British Isles—and that only in Ireland. Apart from an unlocalised record of its
use in the latter for a sore mouth,2 its juice has had a reputation in London-
derry as able to stop the spitting of blood.3
319
320 Potamogeton
POTAMOGETONACEAE
Potamogeton natans Linnaeus
broad-leaved pondweed
Potamogeton polygonifolius Pourret

bog pondweed
Europe, north-western Africa, eastern North America
Both common, Potamogeton natans and P. polygonifolius have been used,
doubtless interchangeably, for healing burns and scalds—either by simply
placing a relay of leaves on them or by boiling the leaves in cream and apply-
ing the product as an ointment. In two counties in south-eastern Wales
(Monmouthshire,4 Brecknockshire5) the plant in question, known as dail
llosg[y]tân, fire-burn leaves, has been botanically identified as P. natans. In the
island of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides, where the waters by contrast are all
acid and peaty, duilleaga-bhàite, drowned-leaf, proved to be P. polygonifolius,
that member of the genus abundant there.6
The ‘broad leaf from the pond’ formerly placed on burns in the Lleyn
Peninsula of Caernarvonshire7 seems likely to have been Potamogeton natans,
too, while P. polygonifolius is suggested by the ‘penny leaves that are got in
the bog’ rated very highly in Limerick for the same purpose8—though marsh
pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris) is a more dubious candidate for the latter.
ARACEAE
Acorus calamus Linnaeus  
sweet flag
southern Asia, Africa; introduced into Europe, North America
In Britain, as elsewhere in Europe, the populations of Acorus calamus are ster-
ile triploids and accepted as wholly introduced. The rhizome contains a gly-
coside, acorin, and has been valued medicinally since Classical times. Well
established in the wild by 1668 in Norfolk, the only part of the British Isles
where the plant has been abundant, it was long prized there by the country
folk as a remedy for ‘ague’ (credibly, in this marshy county, benign tertiary
malaria rather than other kinds of fever in this instance).9 The rhizome was
cut into pieces, dried and then ground into a powder.
  Pondweeds, Grasses, Lilies and Orchids 321
Arum maculatum Linnaeus

lords-and-ladies, cuckoo-pint
Europe, North Africa
Though Arum maculatum, a common plant of hedge bottoms, is danger-
ously poisonous, rich in compounds capable of causing death, the acrid juice
of the berries has been valued as a wart cure in Worcestershire.10 The acrid-
ity, however, is lost when the fresh root is reduced to powder and in that form
it has constituted a highly rated remedy for rheumatism in Devon.11 Success
has also been claimed in Somerset for poulticing abscess swellings with (the
leaves of ?) the plant.12
The sole Irish record traced comes from Wexford, where the powder from
the root placed under the tongue and swallowed with the saliva has been held
to relieve ‘palsy’.13
Arum maculatum, lords-and-ladies (Brunfels 1530, p. 56)

322 Lemna minor
LEMNACEAE
Lemna minor Linnaeus; and other species
duckweed
cosmopolitan except for polar regions and tropics
Allegedly once a cure in the Highlands for headaches and inflammation,14 a
record of Lemna minor in Leitrim to bathe a swelling15 may be confirmatory
evidence of that. In Cavan,16 however, and in some other unidentified part of
Ireland17 the plant’s value has been as a tonic to cleanse the system. ‘Duck’s
weed’ was also formerly a popular healing herb in Lewis in the Outer Heb-
rides for some unspecified purpose.18
JUNCACEAE
Juncus inflexus Linnaeus
hard rush
Europe, western and central Asia, Macaronesia, northern and
southern Africa, Java; introduced into eastern North America,
Australasia
It may or may not have been mere chance that it was Juncus inflexus that
proved to be in use in parts of Ulster at one time for jaundice.19 Usually, folk
records refer only to ‘rushes’ unspecifically. In various parts of Ireland, those
have been burnt and the ashes put to service: as a cure for ringworm in
Offaly20 and Waterford21 or, mixed with lard and made into an ointment
applied to ‘wildfire’—presumably shingles—in Westmeath,22 or to the pus-
tules of chickenpox, to prevent scarring, in some other, unidentified area.23
The sole British record traced of a medical use of ‘rushes’ is as a wart cure
in Cheshire.24
CYPERACEAE
Eriophorum angustifolium Honckeney
cottongrass
northern and central Europe, Siberia, North America
(Name confusion) The misattribution to Eriophorum angustifolium of the
Irish Gaelic name for self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) has led to erroneous records
of its use in Wicklow25 and, probably from the same cause, in the Aran
Islands, too.26
POACEAE
‘Grass’ in a vague, generic sense features here and there in the folk medicine
records, especially the Irish ones: stuffed in shoes to remedy corns in Ros-
common,27 used to bandage severe cuts in Waterford28 or staunch a haemor-
rhage in Tipperary29 or, torn up for the roots, a source of a rheumatism cure
in Kerry.30 Though other records are more specific, they are scarcely more
helpful. All that we are told of a wart cure in Hampshire’s New Forest is that
it was a preparation of ‘a certain kind of grass’.31 Even a name is not neces-
sarily any advance: What, for example, is ‘cough grass’, employed for colds in
Limerick?32 ‘Cough’ seems unlikely to have been a slip for ‘couch’, for colds are
not one of the ailments for which Elytrigia repens is known to have been used.
In some cases, however, the kind of grass in question can be pinned down to
a particular species with more or less certainty.
Briza media Linnaeus

quaking-grass
Europe, temperate Asia; introduced into eastern North America
(Misidentification suspected) Briza media has been recorded as used in Kirk-
cudbrightshire for some unspecified medicinal purpose under the unlikely-
sounding name ‘mountain flax’33—which ordinarily belongs to Linum
catharticum and raises the suspicion that some mix-up in identification may
have occurred. There can hardly be any doubt, though, that it was this that
enjoyed the reputation in the East Riding of Yorkshire of keeping away mice,
to which end bunches of it were dried and hung up on the mantelpieces.34
The claims of this to be Ireland’s mysterious ‘hungry grass’ are discussed
under Agrostis stolonifera, following.
Agrostis stolonifera Linnaeus

A. alba Linnaeus
creeping bent, fiorin grass
Europe, central and eastern Asia, North Africa; introduced into
North America and elsewhere
Irish folklore collectors have been much exercised over the identity of the
feargorta(ch) or fairgurtha, variously described as ‘a long blade of grass’ which
‘grows up through whins’35 and ‘a peculiar grass that grows on the moun-
tains’36 (both of Connemara and Kerry) and said to be the cause, once
stepped on, of violent hunger, abnormal craving and—by the more scientif-
ically inclined—diabetes. In Monaghan it has been used in combination with
324 Agrostis stolonifera
the roots of other herbs for a particular kind of sore like a boil occurring on
fingers and toes.37 At least one authority38 has plumped for quaking-grass
(Briza media) as the solution of the mystery, but that could hardly be con-
sidered a species of mountains. It has been widely overlooked, however, that
one of Ireland’s finest field botanists had fear gorta pointed out to him, in
Tyrone, and found that it was the common Agrostis stolonifera.39 It does not
necessarily follow, though, that the name has been applied consistently, and
it also remains to be demonstrated that creeping bent is capable of produc-
ing the bodily effects described.
Phleum pratense Linnaeus

timothy
Europe, northern Asia, Algeria; introduced into North America and
elsewhere.
A use of Phleum pratense recorded from Waterford40 involved placing a leaf
round a cut on a finger to keep the cloth from adhering to the wound.
Elytrigia repens (Linnaeus) Desvaux ex Nevski

Agropyron repens (Linnaeus) P. Beauverd, Elymus repens
(Linnaeus) Gould
common couch, twitch, squitch-grass, scutch-grass, dog-grass,
foul-grass
Europe, Siberia, North Africa; introduced into North America
Renowned since Classical times for its claimed efficacy against disorders of
the kidney and genitourinary infections, an infusion derived from the bruised
rhizomes of Elytrigia repens enjoyed such sustained popularity for those pur-
poses in learned medicine that it was no doubt from that source that it
acquired its scattered following for them in the folk tradition in the British
Isles, too. There are British records from Essex and Norfolk.41
Irish records are more widespread: from ‘Ulster’,42 Cavan,43 Kilkenny44
and Waterford.45
Phragmites australis (Cavanilles) Trinius ex Steudel

P. communis Trinius
common reed
cosmopolitan
Martin Martin, in the course of his Hebridean travels in 1695, learned of a
cough cure in Lewis in the Outer Hebrides made from boiling together the
roots of reeds and of nettles and leaving the liquid to ferment by adding yeast
to it.46
TYPHACEAE
Typha latifolia Linnaeus
great reedmace
most of northern hemisphere, South America
Supplying a toothache remedy in an unidentified part of Ireland,47 Typha
latifolia was once also in high repute as a cure for epilepsy in the south-west-
ern Highlands, under a Gaelic name translating as ‘fairy wives’ spindle’. Evi-
dently more of a charm, though, than a medicine, it was held to be most
potent if gathered at Midsummer midnight (with a prescribed ritual) before
being wrapped in a shroud—for keeping a dead stem and root of the plant in
‘dead-clothes’ ensured freedom from every ailment for the rest of one’s life.48
LILIACEAE
Narthecium ossifragum (Linnaeus) Hudson
bog asphodel
Atlantic Europe, allied species in North America
Under the name limerik, Narthecium ossifragum was formerly used in Shet-
land as a substitute for ‘saffron’ (see the following), standing in for that med-
icinally as well as a dye.49
Colchicum autumnale Linnaeus

meadow saffron
central and south-eastern Europe; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Crocus sativus Linnaeus

saffron crocus
horticultural
Crocus vernus (Linnaeus) Hill

spring crocus
south-eastern Europe; introduced into North America
The word saffron is a potential source of much confusion. Most Irish folk
cures apparently mean by it sheep droppings, records of it as an abortifacient
are based on mishearings of ‘savin’, i.e. juniper,50 and even when correctly
applied herbally it can mean any of three species: the saffron crocus (Crocus
sativus, of the family Iridaceae), once extensively grown as a crop in East
Anglia, the spring crocus (C. vernus), anciently a stand-in for that in the
326 Colchicum and Crocus
bleaker north of England and surviving there today in one or two meadows,
and meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale), alone accepted as native. The
main English populations of this last species, east of the Severn estuary, have
been raided down the years to supply the druggists, but that it was often used
instead of Crocus sativus for the saffron cakes eaten in Essex for rheumatism
(imparting a different colour and taste)51 suggests that it may have enjoyed a
more purely folk following as well. Possibly it was also the source of the saf-
fron tea formerly much given in Norfolk to children to bring out sweating in
fevers or the spots in cases of measles.52
It was for measles, too, that ‘saffron’ was used in one of only two instances
traced in the Irish folk records (Tipperary53) that are explicitly herbal. In the
other (Carlow54) the plant was boiled in milk and drunk for jaundice. These
two counties fall within the area in which meadow saffron is accepted as
native in Ireland. But that Colchicum autumnale is poisonous even after being
boiled would imply that, if indeed it did have a place in the folk repertory, it
must have been used only with great discretion.
Convallaria majalis Linnaeus

lily-of-the-valley
Europe, north-eastern Asia; introduced into North America
(Folk credentials questionable) No less poisonous than Colchicum autum-
nale, containing glycosides which in small amounts both purge and slow the
heartbeat and in larger ones cause convulsions and even death, Convallaria
majalis has probably always been too scarce in the wild in Britain to be
utilised from that source herbally even if it was not avoided as too dangerous.
Two Irish records (Antrim,55 Cavan56) of its use for heart trouble must surely
be borrowings from the learned tradition, but binding a leaf on to a cut or
abrasion to ‘draw’ or otherwise heal it (Gloucestershire,57 Cambridgeshire58)
sounds like genuine folk applications even though garden-based.
Polygonatum multiflorum (Linnaeus) Allioni

Solomon’s-seal
Europe, temperate Asia to Japan; introduced into North America
Polygonatum ×hybridum Bruegger

horticultural
In Hampshire, where Polygonatum multiflorum is commoner than anywhere
else in Britain and an indicator of ancient woodland,‘the vulgar sort of peo-
ple’, according to John Gerard, were in his day in the habit of drinking a
decoction of the powdered root, or applying it as a poultice, to heal broken
bones.59 No later record of that use has been traced; instead, the crushed
roots have been valued mostly for drawing the blackness out of a bruise
(Kent,60 Gloucestershire,61 East Anglia,62 Cumbria63) or for removing suntan,
freckles or spots on the face (Hampshire,64 Norfolk65). The plant has also
been credited with an astringent property which has won it favour in Sussex
as an application to wounds66 and in Cumbria, under the name ‘vagabond’s
friend’, to sores.67
Away from south-eastern and south-central England and
southern Wales, Polygonatum multiflorum is regarded
as probably only a naturalised introduction, a
status which is shared more generally by the
Solomon’s-seal more often grown in gardens,
P. ×hybridum. Those uses in Cumbria are thus
likely to have been based on plants imported
from farther south or derived from books.
That same explanation must hold,
too, for the only record traced from
Ireland: a one-time popularity in‘Ulster’
of a decoction of this herb for staunching
haemorrhages and diarrhoea.68 No spe-
cies of this genus are accepted as other
than introduced in that region of the
country.
Paris quadrifolia Linnaeus

herb Paris
Europe, Siberia
(Folk credentials questionable) An important herb in tradi-
tional medicine in Asia and recommended in later European
herbals, Paris quadrifolia would surely have
been too scarce in English woods to have
sustained any use here
based on native popula-
tions. A claim that it has
been applied in Sussex69
to wounds is credible
only if knowledge of its
healing potential was taken Polygonatum multiflorum, Solomon’s-seal
from books. (Fuchs 1543, fig. 332)
328 Hyacinthoides nonscripta
Hyacinthoides nonscripta (Linnaeus) Chouard ex Rothmaler

Endymion nonscriptus (Linnaeus) Garcke
bluebell
Atlantic Europe; introduced into North America, New Zealand
It would be remarkable if so abundant and conspicuous a member of the
flora of the British Isles as Hyacinthoides nonscripta had not had its sticky
juice put to some medicinal purposes at least. That only two folk records that
have been traced of the use of that, however, both Irish—boiled for throat ail-
ments in Cavan70 and applied to whitlows in Monaghan71—suggests that it
has largely been found ineffective.
In Inverness-shire, though, the roots when chopped, fried and applied as
a plaster at one time had a reputation for promoting suppuration speedily.72
Allium ursinum Linnaeus  

ramsons, wild garlic
Europe, Asia Minor
Allium ursinum occurs in such profusion in much of the west of the British
Isles that, as the folk records suggest, many there have probably always been
content to gather it from the wild: transplanting it to the garden would bring
only a marginal gain in convenience. Outside that region, though, gardens are
likely to have been the usual source.
Predominantly Irish as a folk medicine and invested there with a sprin-
kling of semi-magical beliefs indicative of ancient usage, ramsons has a rep-
utation as a preventative of infection as well as a source of cures. A west-of-
England saying ran,‘Eat leeks in Lide [March] and ramsins in May, and all the
year after physitians may play’.73 More specifically,‘nine diseases shiver before
the garlic’, it was held in Sligo, where faith in the plant’s ability to ward off ill-
ness was still so widespread at the time of the 1918 influenza pandemic that
many carried a piece around with them in a pocket.74 That practice was not
as far-fetched as it may sound, for one of the traditional, if less usual, ways of
bringing garlic to bear on a cough or a cold has been to wear strips of the
leaves under the soles of the feet, and in Lincolnshire,75 Galway76 and Clare,77
if not elsewhere, that has extended to walking around with them inside one’s
shoes or socks. Mostly, though, the plant is either eaten raw or boiled (usually
in milk) and the liquid then rubbed into the skin.
The prolonged burning sensation left by the juice has naturally made this
plant an age-old favourite for treating ailments most obviously responsive to
that. Straightforward applications externally, however, seem to have been

very much an Irish speciality: for easing toothache (all 11 records out of the
total of 112 logged for uses of every kind in Britain and/or Ireland), rheuma-
tism (‘Ulster’,78 Tipperary 79), the inflamed sores on the fingers popularly
known as felons (Wicklow 80) and the poulticing of mumps and swellings
round the neck (Galway 81). The herb is more effective, though, if crushed or
chewed and digested, for that releases a substance called allicin which has
been found to act against micro-organisms. That would seem to justify the
beliefs in parts of Ireland (Cavan,82 Louth,83 Laois,84 Tipperary85) that garlic
purifies the blood, cures boils (Kilkenny 86) and heals sore eyes (Kilkenny
also87). It must also justify in part the plant’s popularity for chest and lung
infections, which together with sore throats, colds and coughs of every kind
account form by far the largest number (75) of uses—if the 9 relating to
asthma are included in that broad category as well. On the other hand, that
explanation will hardly do for the mainly Irish conviction that garlic is good
for indigestion and stomach-ache (Clare,88 Tipperary,89 Cork90), nor for its
use to counter intestinal worms in Roscommon91 or warts and corns in
Offaly,92 or to alleviate measles in Mayo.93 But because allicin has been dis-
covered also to lower cholesterol, and more particularly the low-density
lipoprotein, a persistent belief in the Aran Islands94 that the plant is effective
against blood clots has now received impressive confirmation.
There can be no surprise that the recommendation of garlic by Dios-
corides for the bites of snakes finds no reflection in Ireland, though it has
found some in Cheshire (as ‘churl’s treacle’).95 This use may well have come
through the herbals, but that seems less likely as regards knowledge of the
plant’s action as a diuretic. Early travellers in the Hebrides found an infusion
of the leaves of wild garlic being drunk there extensively for gravel or the
stone: Martin Martin encountered this in Skye and Harris,96 and John Light-
foot in Arran,97 Thomas Pennant adding that the potion was taken in the
latter in brandy.98 There is a more recent record of employment for kidney
trouble in Shetland,99 too. Yet nothing under that head has turned up in the
Irish records, contrary to what one might have supposed—even though the
Highlands have shared with Ireland that faith in the plant’s power to purify
the blood and in its ability to clear infected matter from wounds.100 The
British also seem to have applied it externally much less widely than the Irish,
aching joints and bruised limbs in Cumbria101 alone falling into that category.
330 Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii
Allium ampeloprasum Linnaeus var. babingtonii (Borrer) Syme

wild leek
south-western England, western Ireland
In the west of Ireland Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii shares the name
‘wild garlic’ with A. ursinum and has doubtless shared some of the uses of
that there, too. It has been identified botanically as the plant applied under
that name to a cattle disease in Donegal.102
Allium oleraceum Linnaeus

field garlic
Europe to Caucasus; introduced into North America, Australia
In Devon the young shoots of both Allium oleraceum and A. vineale at one
time enjoyed a reputation among agricultural labourers of acting on the
kidneys to cure gravel103 (a use found recorded only from Scotland in the
case of A. ursinum).
Allium vineale Linnaeus

wild onion, crow garlic
In the New Forest in Hampshire, where Allium vineale largely replaces A.
ursinum, a woman claimed to have cured herself of tuberculosis by living on
a diet of this plant, bread, spring water and little else.104 The dried bulbs
crushed to a powder and then worn on a flannel inside a shoe have also fea-
tured as a cold cure in Warwickshire.105
Narcissus Linnaeus
daffodil
As no records of folk uses of the wild daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus
Linnaeus, have been traced from those parts of England and Wales where,
alone in the British Isles, that is accepted as native, it can only have been gar-
den or naturalised examples of one or other of the numerous cultivated spe-
cies or hybrids that have been employed in Donegal as an emetic106 and in
some unidentified part of Ireland made into hot fomentations to cure
colds,107 uses which can hardly have had any lengthy history. The same applies
to a veterinary use of the Spanish daffodil, N. pseudonarcissus subsp. major,
recorded from Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides.
Ruscus aculeatus Linnaeus

butcher’s-broom
central and southern Europe, Azores
The reputation of the diuretic action of Ruscus aculeatus, and its consequent
recommendation for kidney and urinary complaints, can be traced back
through the herbals to Dioscorides. That would be reason enough to suspect
the few instances in which this species has been traced in the folk medicine
records represent no more than borrowings from the learned tradition.
Heightening that suspicion is the fact that, with only one exception, none of
those records comes from areas where the plant is accepted as native. The
exception is Devon, where an infusion was made from the leaves and stems,
which were chopped and dried. This potion was drunk for jaundice as well.108
It contrasts with the Classical recommendation of a decoction of the rhi-
zomes and may therefore be of genuinely folk origin. That the plant’s use in
the county may go back a long way is perhaps given added credence by the
fact that the its prickly leaves have also stood in there for those of holly as a
painful means of healing chilblains.109 On the other hand, the seeming lack
of records from anywhere farther east in England, especially from Hamp-
shire, where the plant is locally common in woods and hedgerows, does not
help that case.
It is damning, moreover, that all the other folk records are from Ireland.
That those should be relatively widespread in a country in which the species
is not considered native has a parallel in the case of barberry (Berberis vul-
garis). The standard use as a diuretic is known from Cavan110 and Galway,111
and there is a third, unlocalised record for that as well.112 In Down, on the
other hand, the preparation has been applied as a poultice in cases of
dropsy.113
IRIDACEAE
In addition to Iris the family Iridaceae includes Crocus, but records for that
genus are given under the discussion of Colchicum autumnale, included above
under Liliaceae.
Iris pseudacorus Linnaeus

yellow iris, yellow flag, flagger; feileastram (Ireland)
Australasia
The highly acrid rhizomes of Iris pseudacorus are strongly purgative and were
in use c. 1700 in Skye for enemas.114 A more prevalent use for the plant in
northern Scotland, however, has been for colds,115 throat inflammations116
and, in particular, toothache. As originally reported by the Rev. John Stuart
from Mull and certain parts of the Highlands, a teaspoonful of the juice was
332 Iris pseudacorus
poured into both nostrils, producing a copious flow of mucus and saliva
which often effected a cure.117 Alternatively, as in Orkney,118 the liquid itself
was snorted up the nose. For toothache in Argyllshire, on the other hand, the
rhizome itself was chopped up and chewed119—a practice frowned on in
Orkney, where it was held to cause stammering120—but elsewhere (as also in
Ireland) a piece was kept against the particular tooth affected.
None of these applications appears to be on record from southern Britain.
Instead, it has been for kidney trouble that the plant has been valued in Cardi-
ganshire,121 while in Sussex it has featured in a list of wound plants,122 and in
Kent (?) an ointment made from the flowers served as a popular village cos-
metic in the early nineteenth century.123
The Irish, however, have shared to some extent (Wicklow,124 Galway,125
Kerry126) that Scots faith in the plant’s effectiveness against toothache and
have also used it for mumps (Meath,127 Offaly128). Apparently unique,
though, is a record from the area just south of western Ulster of the inclusion
of these yellow flowers in a mixture taken there for jaundice.129
Iris foetidissima Linnaeus

stinking iris, gladdon, gladwin
western and central Europe, North Africa; introduced into
Popular as a purge since Anglo-Saxon times, Iris foetidissima was still in use
for that purpose in England as late as the early nineteenth century. William
Turner found that in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset it was locally known as
‘spurgewort’ for that reason130; John Gerard knew it only as a Somerset rem-
edy,131 but by the time of John Parkinson it was described as a herb of ‘many
of our country people in many places’.132 Those who found the traditional
decoction of the sliced rhizome acted too violently drank instead an infu-
sion of the bitter leaves in ale. This latter method was in favour in the south
of England at the time when the last reports were published.133 By the twen-
tieth century, however, the country folk of Somerset had apparently shifted to
using the rhizome only for cramp,134 while in the Isle of Man the plant was
valued as a diuretic.135
That purging tradition has seemingly been absent (or died out) from Ire-
land, where this plant is much scarcer and not considered native. Instead, in
‘several parts’ of that country in the nineteenth century, ‘gladum’ or ‘glading
root’ was esteemed for dropsy (as in Tyrone136) and for applying to fresh
wounds.137 By the 1930s, however, the Irish country people talked of it mainly
if not solely as a treatment for mumps or a throat swollen from other causes.
The remedy involved heating the leaves or their stalks and then tying them
round the neck. Records of this have been traced from four counties in the
vicinity of Dublin as well as from Roscommon,138 Galway139 and Kilkenny.140
Such widespread knowledge of one particular application seems indicative
either of a relatively recent origin and spread or of considerable antiquity.
The latter explanation seems more likely in view of the fact that one infor-
mant knew of a special ritual with which the plant had to be gathered for use
for this purpose.141
DIOSCOREACEAE
Tamus communis Linnaeus
black bryony
southern and western Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa
In common with its ‘gender pair’, white bryony (Bryonia dioica), Tamus com-
munis has had a history of being misidentified as, or mischievously substi-
tuted for, the true mandrake plant (Mandragora spp.) on account of its large
taproot and has owed to that mistake a reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac.
Lincolnshire is one county where that belief has been found surviving.142
More generally, though, black bryony has had a role in folk medicine in its
own right, under the name oxberry. The fresh rhizome, scraped and sliced,
has enjoyed at least a regional popularity (Wiltshire,143 Worcestershire,144
Herefordshire,145 Shropshire146) as an acrid, counter-irritant plaster for
rheumatism and gout, while the juice of the berries, preferably after a soak-
ing in gin or brandy, has been valued in parallel for rubbing on chilblains
(Devon,147 the Isle of Wight,148 Wiltshire,149 Worcestershire150). Both berries
and rhizome have also been used in the Isle of Wight to remove skin dis-
colouring caused by bruises, suntan and the like.151
In Ireland the plant is restricted to just one small area in the west and is
unlikely to have been utilised there—unless indeed it owes its very presence
to ancient introduction medicinally.
ORCHIDACEAE
Listera ovata (Linnaeus) R. Brown
common twayblade
Europe, Siberia
Listera ovata has featured in a Sussex list of wound cures.152 It has also been
identified with the dà-dhuilleach, a principal ingredient in salep, a well-
334 Listera ovata
known Highlands remedy for soothing stomach and bowel irritation.153 The
plant’s very wide, if rather sparse, distribution throughout the British Isles
would make that feasible.
Platanthera chlorantha (Custer) Reichenbach

greater butterfly-orchid
Europe, Siberia
An ointment of a delicate green colour was at one time made in Dorset from
Platanthera chlorantha and applied to ulcers.154
Dactylorhiza purpurella (Stephenson & T. A. Stephenson) Soó

northern marsh-orchid
Dactylorhiza maculata (Linnaeus) Soó subsp. ericetorum

(E. F. Linton) P. F. Hunt & Summerhayes  
heath spotted-orchid
Orchis mascula (Linnaeus) Linnaeus  

early-purple orchid
Europe, northern and western Asia, North Africa
A decoction of the testicle-like roots of purple-spiked species belonging to
Dactylorhiza or Orchis has enjoyed an age-old reputation as a love-philtre,
with an allegedly aphrodisiac effect on women. If there is a case for believing
that there was a Doctrine of Signatures, this would seem the most persuasive
example. The plant in Galloway credited with this power, known there as
dodjell reepan and as ‘rocket-juice’,155 has been identified botanically as one or
more of the marsh-orchids156 (of which D. purpurella is the most likely
there). Its counterpart in Wicklow, however, mogra-myra—apparently a cor-
ruption of an old Irish name—has been referred by a folklorist with botani-
cal expertise to O. mascula.157 Probably because this latter is the species usu-
ally cited in books in this connection, at least one other Irish author158 has
settled for the same identity; it has also been taken to be the orchid species
which was once highly valued in the Highlands for soothing, or providing a
protective lining to, the alimentary canal.159 It is certainly sufficiently wide-
spread and locally plentiful in Scotland and Ireland for that assumption to be
made. On the other hand, an orchid used in the Highlands as a poultice for
‘drawing’ thorns or splinters has been identified as one of the spotted-
orchids, which in that geographical context is most likely to be D. maculata
subsp. ericetorum, the common one there of wet, heathy ground and bogs.
The majority of those recording the use as a love-charm, however, have
attributed it just to ‘orchids’ generically.
Notes
1. Friend 1882 38. Cameron
2. Ó Súilleabháin, 314 39. Hart 1898
3. Moore MS 40. IFC S 636: 133
4. Phytologist, 1 (1843), 583 41. Hatfield, 41
5. Williams MS (Welsh Folk Museum 42. Purdon
tape no. 6571B) 43. Maloney
6. McNeill 44. IFC S 850: 113
7. Anne E. Williams, in litt. 45. IFC S 654: 242; 655: 175
8. IFC S 483: 329, 369 46. Martin, 93
9. Pratt 1850–7; Johnson 1862 47. Ó Súilleabháin, 314
10. Chamberlain 1882 48. Stewart, 110
11. Collyns 49. Tait
12. Tongue 50. PLNN, no. 36 (1994), 172
13. IFC S 897: 235 51. Newman & Wilson
14. Cameron 52. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 42)
15. IFC S 226: 22 53. IFC S 550: 283
16. Maloney 54. IFC S 907: 267
17. Wilde, 28 55. Harris
18. Parman 56. Maloney
19. Barbour 57. Palmer 1994, 122
20. IFC S 812: 440 58. PLNN, no. 9 (1989), 40
21. IFC S 655: 150, 267 59. Gerard, 758
22. IFC S 737: 107 60. Pratt 1850–7
23. Logan, 76 61. Gibbs, 57
24. Baker, 57 62. Porter 1974, 46
25. McClafferty 63. PLNN, no. 46 (1996), 223
26. Ó hEithir 64. Read, 305
27. IFC S 251: 173 65. Harland
28. IFC S 654: 89 66. A. Allen, 185
29. IFC S 512: 523; 572: 70 67. Wright, 247
30. IFC S 476: 91 68. Purdon
31. de Crespigny & Hutchinson, 106 69. A. Allen, 185
32. IFC S 484: 42 70. Maloney
33. Scottish Naturalist, 1 (1871), 54 71. IFC S 931: 304
34. Robinson 1876, 202 72. Henderson & Dickson, 33
35. IFC S 932: 32 73. Wright, 238
36. Folk-lore Record, 4 (1881), 96–125 74. IFC S 170: 47, 205, 257
37. IFC S 931: 26 75. Taylor MS (Hatfield, 30)
336 Notes
76. IFC S 5: 163 118. Spence; Leask, 79

77. IFC S 617: 222 119. Black, 203
78. Egan 120. Leask, 79
80. IFC S 914: 284 122. A. Allen, 185
81. IFC S 21: 248; 59: 217 123. Pratt 1850–7
82. Maloney 124. McClafferty
83. IFC S 672: 211 125. IFC S 60: 44
84. IFC S 826: 22 126. IFC S 412: 286
85. IFC S 550: 288 127. IFC S 690: 42
86. IFC S 862: 151 128. IFC S 811: 63
87. IFC S 849: 82 129. Logan, 46
88. IFC S 601: 51 130. Turner 1568, part 2, 171 verso
89. IFC S 550: 100 131. Gerard, 54
90. IFC S 287: 67 132. Parkinson, 259
91. IFC S 250: 273 133. Banks; Pratt 1850–7
92. IFC S 820: 176; 821: 4 134. Tongue
93. IFC S 132: 37 135. Cregeen
94. Ó hEithir 136. Hardwicke’s Science-gossip (1877), 46
95. Wright, 240 137. Moore MS
96. Martin, 117, 225 138. IFC S 268: 230
97. Lightfoot, 180 139. IFC S 21: 216, 248; 60: 46, 50, 51
98. Pennant 1774, 175 140. IFC S 849: 84
99. Jamieson 141. IFC S 849: 84
100. Beith 142. Woodruffe-Peacock; Rudkin
101. Freethy, 82 143. Whitlock 1992, 104
102. Hart 1898, 367 144. Phytologist, n.s. 5 (1861), 159
103. Collyns 145. Phytologist, n.s. 5 (1861), 159
104. de Baïracli-Levy, 66 146. Phytologist, n.s. 5 (1861), 159
105. Bloom, 29 147. Friend 1882
106. Hart 1898, 372 148. Phytologist, 3 (1849), 893
107. Wilson 149. Whitlock 1992, 104
108. Lafont 150. English Dialect Dictionary
109. Lafont 151. Bromfield
110. Maloney 152. A. Allen, 185
111. Logan, 38 153. Beith, 232
112. Purdon 154. Udal 1889, 31
113. Vickery 1995 155. Mactaggart, 174–5
114. Martin, 231 156. Britten & Holland
115. MacFarlane 157. Kinahan, 117
116. Lightfoot, 1078 158. Moloney
117. Lightfoot, 1078 159. Beith
CHAPTER 17
Distribution Patterns of
Folk Medicinal Uses
8
Because the records of folk uses are for the most part so fragmentary, chrono-
logically as well as spatially, and in particular largely lacking for sizeable areas
of England and Scotland (in contrast to Ireland), distribution patterns of the
degree of completeness to which botanists or epidemiologists are accustomed
are too much to hope for. That very incompleteness means that some of the
patterns that have emerged in the foregoing pages may well be illusory, des-
tined to dissolve if and when additional records accumulate. This important
caveat needs to be borne in mind throughout what follows.
It also needs to be stressed that a herbal tradition based on plants available
in the wild will to a large extent have been shaped by the natural ranges of the
plant species concerned. The distribution patterns exhibited by many folk
remedies are thus products at one remove of those factors of climate or ter-
rain that set more or less strict limits to where the species can occur in the
quantity necessary to enable them to be exploited herbally. Outside those
limits the species are likely to have been too scarce, at least in more recent
times, to be reliably on hand whenever needed and to justify the effort
required to search for them. Though that restriction imposed by nature can
be overridden in many cases by taking the plants from the wild and growing
them domestically, cottage gardens tend to be relatively tiny and congested,
with food plants necessarily accorded priority; moreover, the same adverse
factors that render a herb scarce in the wild can make it resistant to attempts
to bring it into cultivation successfully.
The majority of the distribution patterns that emerge from the data, how-
ever, do not coincide, even very roughly, with the natural ranges of the spe-
cies concerned. Many herbal plants are to be found in some degree of plenty
337
338 Distribution Patterns
over much or all of both Britain and Ireland, yet if the records of their use for
therapeutic purposes are broadly representative of the whole, in many
areas—and some of those very extensive ones—their potential has been
ignored. Some herbs will have failed to penetrate some areas fully suited to
them because an alternative with a similar action was well established there
already; others may have gained favour through being sponsored by a par-
ticular forceful individual or dominant social group; still others may be the
legacy of some past wave of incomers, their utilisation preserved by mere
habit down through the centuries since.
Some of these patterns are relatively limited in their extent; others, how-
ever, can be traced across some major portion of either Ireland or Britain. It
is tempting to assume that a wide distribution is indicative of considerable
age, but such an assumption may be misplaced: we have no means of know-
ing how rapidly in the past herbal novelties were able to spread. Rural socie-
ties tend to be extremely retentive of the practices they are used to, but a
demonstrably more effective cure for an ailment possessed by a neighbour-
ing, more sophisticated culture has probably always had the power to break
down resistance, especially at times of crisis, when an epidemic occurs that
exposes the ineffectiveness of a tried-and-tested nostrum and the helpless-
ness of those whose healing knowledge had hitherto been regarded as infal-
lible.
In some cases it is just one particular application of a herb, out of the full
range of its recorded functions, that has thrown up a pattern worthy of note.
One or two of these patterns are fully as clear-cut, in a stark all-or-nothing
type of occurrence, as any displayed at the level of the herb as a whole. Thus
as a remedy for skin troubles, Geranium robertianum (herb-Robert) has
emerged as exclusively British, whereas as a treatment for coughs or as a cure
for kidney complaints it has come to light as equally exclusively Irish. Veron-
ica chamaedrys (germander speedwell), similarly, features mainly as a cure for
jaundice in the Irish records, yet its British records are wholly as an eye lotion
and wholly from the south of England at that. Iris foetidissima (stinking iris)
has been widely recorded in Ireland as in use for mumps or a swollen throat,
whereas in the older English records it receives mention only as a purge. Sam-
bucus nigra (common elder) provides a fourth, less extreme example. Though
one of the most widely used of all British and Irish folk herbs and applied to
a great variety of ailments, its flowers or berries have been looked to for ame-
liorating colds and the like in numerous counties and other areas in Scot-
land, Wales and especially England but in relatively very few in Ireland. Con-
  Distribution Patterns 339
trariwise, this tree’s employment in a salve for burns or scalds has been
recorded very widely in Ireland but scarcely at all in Britain.
An alternative form in which countrywide contrasts are found is diago-
nally: between Ireland plus Scotland on the one hand and England (plus in
some cases Wales) on the other. Three herbs exhibit this pattern, each in
rather different ways. In Potentilla anserina (silverweed) the dichotomy is a
wholesale one, embracing all the recorded uses; in Iris pseudacorus (yellow
iris) it is between just a single use (for toothache) in the north and west and
several uses in the south and east; while in Glechoma hederacea (ground-ivy)
just two uses out of a diversity of known ones constitute the polar opposites:
it is a cold cure in the ‘Celtic’ countries (that useful term popularly employed
in a non-linguistic sense to cover Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man
and Cornwall) and a tonic in central and southern England.
That use of Iris pseudacorus to ease toothache is one of quite a number of
instances of therapeutic properties that would otherwise be wholly Irish
extending across to the Western Isles and/or Highlands of Scotland. Others
are the valuing of Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum (water-cress) and Asple-
nium trichomanes (maidenhair spleenwort) for feverish complaints, and
Senecio jacobaea (common ragwort) for drawing boils and the like. In addi-
tion, Ireland and that stretch of Scotland appear to have had more or less
exclusive monopolies of several plants as herbs: Leucanthemum vulgare
(oxeye daisy), Lathyrus linifolius (bitter-vetch), Lemna species (duckweed),
Sphagnum species (bog-moss), Parmelia species (the lichens generically
known as crotal)—and Palmaria palmata (dulse), and Chondrus crispus and
Mastocarpus stellatus (Irish moss) among the seaweeds. Most if not all these
range far more widely in the British Isles as a whole and can be found else-
where in them in at least comparable quantities, so a general similarity in the
natural environment can hardly stand up as an explanation for that shared
legacy of use. That the pattern is the result of cultural links, going back per-
haps many centuries, does seem more likely; and that likelihood is strength-
ened by the fact that it is in just its northernmost counties of Donegal and
Londonderry—in so far as the records traced go—that Ireland has shared
with either northern or western Scotland faith in the healing powers of Asple-
nium trichomanes and Lathyrus linifolius.
Cultural links, too, rather than floristic or environmental affinities must
surely be the explanation for certain uses being common to Ireland and the
‘Celtic fringe’ of Britain as a whole. For how else are we to account for the
restriction of records for applying Rumex species (docks) to burns or scalds
to seven widely separated Irish counties and in Britain only to three of its
westernmost extremities (Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, Scotland’s Outer Heb-
rides)? Though no other use exhibits this pattern with such precision, there
are several more that broadly approximate to it: the pondweeds Potamogeton
natans and/or P. polygonifolius for burns, Linum catharticum (fairy flax) for
menstrual irregularity and species of Arctium (burdock) as a purifying tonic.
Other plants such as Sorbus aucuparia (rowan), Myrica gale (bog-myrtle),
Rumex acetosa (common sorrel) and the Lycopodiaceae (clubmosses) are
broadly ‘Celtic fringe’ across the full range of their herbal functions, but
except in the case of R. acetosa those are ones restricted to Ireland and north
and west Britain already by habitat and climate requirements.
Neither environmental determinants nor cultural links, however, seem
capable of explaining why both Wales and the south-west of England stand
well apart in certain respects not only from the rest of the ‘Celtic fringe’ but
from other parts of the British Isles as a whole. Apparently peculiar to Corn-
wall and Devon, for example, has been the very extensive drinking of ‘organ
tea’ made from Mentha pulegium (pennyroyal), partly just as a refreshment
but mostly to clear the nasal and bronchial passages whenever colds or related
complaints occur. Though a plant rather specialised in its habitat demands,
this species of mint formerly grew naturally in much of lowland England, so
it is hard to understand how it came to be preferred over other members of
the mint family that have a similar therapeutic property so widely and so
persistently in just that one corner of the country. No less hard to explain is
the seeming near-restriction of the herbal use of Anagallis arvensis (scarlet
pimpernel), a plant far more common and generally distributed than M.
pulegium, to that same corner of England (and to some extent the neigh-
bouring parts of Wales as well). Even more inexplicable is the uniquely wide
range of uses to which the multitudinous microspecies of Rubus fruticosus
(blackberry) have been put in that region—one of them, the application of
the leaves to skin complaints, seemingly unrecorded anywhere else. Yet those
plants are no more nor less ubiquitous in the West Country than in most
other lowland areas of England, Wales and Ireland, nor is there any evidence
that any of the microspecies special to that region are particularly endowed
with properties that make them more rewarding for herbal purposes than
elsewhere. Why, too, is it virtually only on the stony beaches of England’s
south-west that another widespread plant, Glaucium flavum (yellow horned-
poppy), has been sought out for the putative healing power of its latex? Are
what we confronted with in cases such as these the relics of uses that origi-
nated in the particular area in question but subsequently failed to spread

much more widely, perhaps as a result of poor communications? Or are they
the relics of once much more general uses that, through the accidents of time,
have chanced to survive only peripherally?
Wales seems to owe its distinctiveness in part to a tradition of herb culti-
vation in which there has been a strong preference for certain introduced
species at the expense of native ones. Only that could explain why the alien
Artemisia absinthium (wormwood) has been found in use there so exception-
ally widely and for a markedly greater variety of ailments than elsewhere—
and why another foreign import, more strictly confined to gardens, Tanace-
tum parthenium (Linnaeus) Schultz ‘Bipontinus’ (feverfew), has attracted
folk applications there, too, that are sharply different from those recorded
for it elsewhere in Britain and in Ireland. The Welsh, though, are hardly likely
to have taken into cultivation the unquestionably indigenous Menyanthes
trifoliata (bogbean), that favourite bitter of the entire ‘Celtic fringe’, and some
other explanation is needed to account for their esteeming that for rheuma-
tism to a particularly wide extent while showing a singular lack of interest in
it as a tonic and digestive in marked contrast to their fellow ‘Celts’ elsewhere
in the British Isles.
A particularly suggestive distribution pattern is to be found among the
many records and uses of Umbilicus rupestris (navelwort), a common and very
widespread plant of western Britain and Ireland. Only in the south-eastern
corner of the latter and in the south-western corner of Wales, directly oppo-
site, does that appear to have been recorded as supplying a treatment for chil-
blains. In those same two areas, but some way beyond them as well, the plant
has served as a corn cure, too. It is tempting to look to the Irish settlement of
Dyfed in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. as the explanation in this case.
In the same way it is tempting to ascribe to past Norse influence a number
of herbal practices for which records have been traced only—and otherwise
inexplicably—from areas where that influence is known to have been partic-
ularly long-lasting and pronounced. Apparently in the Hebrides and Shetland
alone has Allium ursinum (ramsons) been brought to bear on urinary-cum-
kidney troubles; only from the Hebrides and the Isle of Man have records
emerged for the application of one or more species of Equisetum (horsetails)
to bleeding; only in Orkney and the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist
does that near-ubiquitous decorator of maritime turf, Armeria maritima
(thrift), appear to have had a herbal role at all. Similarly, it seems to have been
only in the Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland and (even more tellingly) the Faeroe
Islands as well that the fleshy leaves of Rumex acetosa (common sorrel) have
been eaten to counter scurvy, and only in that same quarter plus the High-
lands, Sligo and Pembrokeshire that the even fleshier Cochlearia officinalis
(scurvy-grass), the more usual weapon in Europe against this sickness, has
apparently been reported in use, too. Again, it is from the Isle of Man, Orkney
and Shetland that a noticeably disproportionate number of the records come
for the taking of a tonic made from Achillea millefolium (yarrow) to lift the
spirits from depression.
Much more resistant to any explanation, cultural or environmental, is
the seeming restriction just to England of a number of remedies obtained
from plants that occur commonly over much of both Britain and Ireland in
the wild. Thus it is only from a wide scatter of English counties, almost all in
the southern half of the country, that the prickly leaves of Ilex aquifolium
(holly) appear to have featured as a painful cure for chilblains. It is also as a
treatment for chilblains and the like that Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet)
has yielded records from England alone. Could it be that the English have
traditionally found it especially hard to bear that particular torment of the
flesh—or is it one to which their climate (or diet?) has made them more than
ordinarily prone? A further geographical oddity is the pattern of the records
that have survived for the wearing of pieces of Potentilla anserina (silver-
weed) in footwear to prevent or ease sore feet: all are from the eastern stretch
of England between London and Yorkshire. Was this a practice that arose
somewhere within that area and then gradually spread through it over the
years (for the records go back nearly three centuries)? Or was it a once much
more general use that has merely chanced to linger on in just this portion of
its range?
There are other plants that are common in Britain and Ireland alike that
in certain of their medicinal roles appear to have featured in the southern
half of England mainly or even wholly. Among these are Glechoma hederacea
(ground-ivy) as a tonic, species of Ranunculus (buttercups), Prunus spinosa
(blackthorn) and Silene dioica (red campion) as cures for warts, Veronica
chamaedrys (germander speedwell) as an eye lotion, species of Plantago
(plantains) as soothers of stings and species of Salix (willows) in their
aspirin-like functions. Restriction to southern England is easier to under-
stand in the case of Viscum album (mistletoe), for it is only in parts of there
that this long-valued herb occurs naturally in the British Isles in any quantity;
yet why have the virtues of Calystegia soldanella (sea bindweed) apparently
remained unappreciated elsewhere, and why should the tradition of using
quite a range of plants as a teething necklace for babies have been exclusively
English, too?
Unsurprisingly, it is between Britain and Ireland that the greatest number of

differences are to be found. For millennia the two have been isolated from
each other by geography in a far more thoroughgoing way than Wales has
been from England or the northern half of Scotland from the parts of Britain
to its south. For much of that time, too, Ireland has enjoyed a substantial
degree of cultural autonomy. The Irish flora lacks a third of Britain’s species,
principally on account of its greater distance from the European mainland
and its much more limited upland terrain. Basically, though, the Irish flora is
similar to Britain’s. This has not prevented the two countries diverging very
considerably in the ways in which they have exploited the natural botanical
heritage for therapeutic purposes. Ireland’s lengthier history of poverty and,
especially in the west, greater remoteness from the Classical herbal tradition
introduced to England by the Romans and subsequently perpetuated and
widely diffused there have compelled in this respect a self-sufficiency that
has been both more extensive and longer-lasting.
At the same time that comparative freedom from Continental influence
must not be exaggerated. More records have proved forthcoming from Ire-
land than from Britain of the herbal use of two plants, Berberis vulgaris (bar-
berry) and Ruscus aculeatus (butcher’s-broom), that are not accepted by bot-
anists as other than human introductions in the former. The impressively
wide scatter of those Irish records can only therefore be the product of monk-
ish or later usage.
Even if a plant features on the list of unquestioned Irish natives, it does
not follow that any or of all the medicinal purposes to which it may have
been put are themselves Irish in origin. Remedies on record largely or wholly
from the area around Dublin—such as those described for Pilosella offici-
narum (mouse-ear hawkweed)—particularly invite suspicion in this con-
nection. At the same time some distribution patterns that appear suspicious
may have quite innocent explanations. Thus all the records traced of the use
of Rumex acetosa (common sorrel) to poultice boils and other septic sores are
from the south-eastern counties, seemingly pointing to an infiltration of that
use from Wales or England, yet no evidence has been found that that has ever
been one of the functions of this plant in either of those countries. Alien
influences, though, do not all have to come from those quarters of the com-
pass. There are records from six Irish counties, all of them in Leinster, of a
cure for earache or a headache involving dropping into the ear sap from a
twig of Fraxinus excelsior heated in a fire. This tree, the ash, was prominent in
Norse mythology and, if that remedy had other than an Irish origin, it seems
more likely to have come from northern Europe, directly or indirectly, than
been devised in one or other of the neighbours immediately to the east.
Only two native flowering plants that are common on both sides of the
Irish Sea appear to have had major roles as herbs in Ireland yet no herbal role
whatever in Britain. These are Caltha palustris (marsh-marigold) and Ulex
gallii (western gorse); Ireland’s other gorse, the much taller U. europaeus, is
apparently a late introduction but has doubtless come to share the folk atten-
tions of its fellow species. It may be more than coincidence that these bear
golden yellow flowers very conspicuously, which would make them prime
choices for magico-religious rituals in which that colour had some special
significance (and from which its use could have carried over into the medic-
inal sphere). Perhaps lending support to that notion is that the shrubby coun-
terpart of the Ulex species, Cytisus scoparius (broom), while not similarly
exclusive to Ireland as a herbal remedy, appears to have been applied to a
markedly wider range of ailments there than in Britain. It may be more than
coincidence, too, that in contrast to the wide medicinal use made of Prunus
spinosa (blackthorn) in England and Wales, particularly in the form of juice
from its sloes, that tree features in the Irish records anomalously slightly. Was
that because of the malignant power with which that and its counterpart,
Crataegus monogyna (whitethorn), were at one time in Ireland so widely and
emphatically credited?
But if there are hardly any widely used Irish herbs that appear to have
had no history in Britain of any medicinal function at all, there are quite a
number that the two countries have shared that have had at least one appli-
cation seemingly exclusive to Ireland. Apart from the three extreme cases of
Geranium robertianum, Veronica chamaedrys and Iris foetidissima, mentioned
earlier, in which Britain has reciprocated with an application equally exclu-
sive to itself, these include
Betula (birch) bark for eczema

Fraxinus excelsior (ash) leaves for rheumatism
Lonicera periclymenum (honeysuckle) for ‘thrush’
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal) for heart trouble
Quercus (oak) bark for sore feet
Rumex (dock) roots for jaundice and liver trouble
Sedum acre (biting stonecrop) for intestinal worms
Senecio jacobaea (common ragwort) for jaundice

Stellaria media (common chickweed) for cuts or sores and for coughs
or sore throats
Symphytum officinale (common comfrey) for burns and scalds
Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) for consumption and heart trouble
Teucrium scorodonia (wood sage) for colds and coughs
One or two further applications that come into this Ireland-only category
have distribution patterns that are sufficiently intriguing to call for some spe-
cial comment. The most remarkable is that of the drinking of a tea made
from Urtica dioica (common nettle) to bring out the rash in measles. For this
there is a striking density of records in the far north-western corner of the
country and in a band extending eastwards along both sides of the present-
day border, yet none has been traced from anywhere else. Could it be that
there was a measles epidemic in that region at some time in the past, possibly
even in the fairly distant past, in the course of which this tea was found to
have such an effect and thereafter gained an enduring reputation for it
locally? The one thing that is certain is that a special abundance of the herbal
plant in question cannot be responsible for the intense localisation of the
use, for the common nettle occurs almost everywhere on suitable terrain
throughout Britain and Ireland below a certain altitude.
The relative remoteness of that north-western corner of Ireland has tended
to leave it culturally rather self-contained and one where old practices have
persisted on a perhaps more than ordinarily extensive scale. That is doubtless
why the records of three other folk medical applications rise to a marked peak
in the same region: a cold cure made from the boiled seeds of Rumex species
(docks), a tonic from Menyanthes trifoliata (bogbean) for cleansing the system
of impurities, and a poultice for sprains and other swellings from that spe-
cially Irish herb, Scrophularia nodosa (common figwort).
That region is by no means the only part of Ireland to have had a herbal
use seemingly largely or wholly exclusive to it. Prunella vulgaris (self-heal), for
example, though common and more or less countrywide in its distribution
botanically, appears to have been used for easing tubercular coughs uniquely
in the British Isles in a group of counties in Ireland’s centre, in three or four
of which the records rise to a more than proportional frequency. That, again,
has the look of a remedy that originated in that area at some past point in
time, proceeded to acquire an extensive and faithful following, but failed to
spread further—perhaps, similarly, as the result of a measure of socioeco-
nomic isolation.
Another speciality of that same central belt is the valuing of Primula vul-
garis (primrose) as a treatment for jaundice. Yet that is the part of Ireland
where that plant is at its most scarce, on account of the high lime content of
the soils, and yet, paradoxically, where its sister species, P. veris (cowslip),
which is preferred to the other as a jaundice cure elsewhere, attains its great-
est Irish plenty. No less difficult to account for is the marked concentration
along that country’s western coast of the records for the employment of
Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) for heart trouble as well as for tuberculosis.
Equally hard to explain is the restriction to the three adjacent border coun-
ties of Cavan, Monaghan and Louth of the records for boiling ‘thistles’
(apparently Silybum marianum) in milk as a remedy for whooping cough.
More unexpected than any of those, however, is the chequer-board pat-
tern revealed by studying in tandem the distributions of their recorded use in
folk medicine of two herbs not previously thought of as being in any way
associated. Though these are alike in having foliage of a kind that botanists
term ‘fleshy’, one of them, Umbilicus rupestris (navelwort), is unquestionably
a native whereas the other, Sempervivum tectorum (house-leek), is equally
unquestionably an ancient introduction, for it is apparently always sterile
and is believed to have originated in central Europe, perhaps as a hybrid; it
has also been widely known by an alternative name, sengreen, that appears to
be Anglo-Saxon in origin. When the overall herbal distributions of these two
are compared in detail, they turn out to be mirror images of one another:
where one county has seemingly specialised in the Umbilicus species, a neigh-
bour of that has seemingly chosen the Sempervivum—and presumably
instead. Because the Umbilicus can flourish only in the wetter climate of the
western half of the British Isles, there was a vacant niche in the east for a herb
of vaguely similar character (though not appearance) and credited with sim-
ilar healing properties. But the Sempervivum had the edge in also being cred-
ited with magico-religious power, and after its introduction from the Euro-
pean mainland (presumably by post-Roman Germanic immigrants) it was
evidently taken far and wide into the territory of the Umbilicus. The age-old
attachment to the Umbilicus species in the west, though, must have been suf-
ficiently deep to prevent a total replacement occurring. Closer analysis may
one day demonstrate that it has been in those parts of Ireland where English
penetration has been longest and most pronounced that the Sempervivum
attained its principal distribution.
The greater completeness of the Irish records geographically and the
greater scale on which reliance on folk medicinal herbs has persisted in that
country till very recently have the results that regional peculiarities are easier
to detect there and less likely to be the product of accidental bias in coverage.
For the same reasons it is more probable than not that the extent of Irish dis-
tinctiveness identified in the foregoing paragraphs is a reasonable approxi-
mation to reality. That distinctiveness might have been considerably greater,
indeed, had it not been for the massive movements of population from Ire-
land into Britain in the course of the past two centuries. These have made it
impossible to tell how far the numerous mainly Irish uses that have been
recorded in Britain are merely late transfers from one country to the other or
whether they constitute the fragments of distributions that were genuinely
common to the two previously. The more rural a record, however, the more
likely it is to belong in the second of these categories, for that immigration has
been very heavily concentrated in the larger towns and cities.
The superior quality of the Irish folk records may partly, but only partly,
account for the rather large number of plants that are widely plentiful mem-
bers of the native flora of both Ireland and Britain yet as medicinal herbs
emerge as Irish in the main. These include Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum
(water-cress), Alchemilla vulgaris in the broad sense (lady’s-mantle), Hedera
helix (ivy), Verbascum thapsus (great mullein), Veronica beccabunga (brook-
lime), Centaurea nigra (common knapweed), Allium ursinum (ramsons) and
the genera Polypodium (polypodies) and Juncus (rushes). The bark of trees as
a source of remedies turns out to be a predominantly Irish trait, too. In the
case of H. helix not only are the majority of the records for the principal uses
of that particularly popular medicinal plant Irish ones, but in Ireland it has
been noted in use for a considerably wider range of afflictions. There is a
strongly Irish tilt, similarly, to the distribution of just certain applications of
herbs that overall, across the British Isles as a whole, are more evenly spread:
of that of Primula vulgaris (primrose) and Phyllitis scolopendrium (hart’s-
tongue) in so far as they have been applied to burns or scalds, of Primula
veris (cowslip) when brought to bear on insomnia, of Stellaria media (chick-
weed) as a cure for swellings, Taraxacum officinale (dandelion) for jaundice
or liver trouble, and Geranium robertianum (herb-Robert) for bleeding. In all
of these cases the patterns that have emerged in this study may be no more
than accidental, the product of the comparative insufficiency, or at any rate
much greater patchiness, of the British data. Equally, though, they may reflect
reality. Only when much fuller information for Britain becomes available
will the uncertainties on this score have a chance of being resolved.
APPENDIX
Veterinary Remedies
8
Considerably more than a hundred different herbs are on record as having

been used in Britain or Ireland to treat ailments of animals. Almost all are
ones that have been applied in one or both countries to human ailments as
well—though not necessarily the same ones. Many of the afflictions that ani-
mals suffer from are common to humanity, too, and it is only to be expected
that remedies tried and tested on them will have been shared. Even if the vet-
erinary ailments are not ones ordinarily met with in human beings, it is
equally predictable that herbs credited with effectiveness against a particu-
larly wide range of human ills will have come into play in the veterinary area
as well. By no means all the main multi-purpose stand-bys, however, feature
in the list that follows: noteworthy absentees include Arctium (burdock),
Centaurium erythraea (centaury), Chamaemelum nobile (chamomile), Prim-
ula vulgaris (primrose), Prunella vulgaris (self-heal) and Valeriana officinalis
(valerian); even the outstandingly versatile Sempervivum tectorum (house-
leek) can claim a place only marginally. The failure of such herbs to appear in
the records could merely be a result of the very much more limited number
of veterinary remedies that have been recorded, given that the primary inter-
est of folklore collectors is in what people do to or believe about themselves.
Yet it is quite likely that these non-appearances are not accidental and that the
herbs in question have been tried over the centuries but found wanting. In
some cases they may simply have been rejected as just too mild, for animals
have traditionally been regarded as having stronger constitutions than
human beings and therefore able to endure, and perhaps indeed requiring,
potions of a more drastic character.
348
Unlike human ailments, many veterinary ones are not generally familiar.
Those that feature most prominently in the list that follows are
blackhead. A disease of the liver and caecum in turkeys, caused by a proto-

zoan parasite carried by earthworms.
black-leg. Clostridial myositis, a quickly fatal, soil-borne bacterial infection
of ruminants (mainly cattle) characterised by swellings and often severe
lameness. Traditional ‘black-leg land’ tends to be periodically flooded
or poor-quality moors.
botts. Inflammation of the digestive tract in horses resulting from infection
by larvae of the botfly.
farcy. A contagious bacterial disease of horses and donkeys characterised by
nasal mucus (‘horse’ cold) and swellings under the jaw which develop
discharging abscesses.
fluke (otherwise ‘rot’). A sometimes fatal infestation of ruminants with
parasitic flatworms, following ingestion of the snails that act as inter-
mediate host.
foul (otherwise ‘scald’). Interdigital necrobacillosis, severe lameness in
cattle caused by swelling of bacterial origin in the cleft of the hoof.
gapes. Infestation of young birds by nematode worms in the bronchial
tubes and trachea, causing frequent gasping.
laminitis. Acutely painful inflammation of the vascular tissues of horses’
hooves.
mastitis (formerly ‘garget’). Acute inflammation of the mammary gland,
usually the result of bacterial infection; widely known as ‘felon’ in
eastern Ulster, as ‘start’ in Leinster and Munster, and as ‘blast’ in east
Leinster (Doherty, 45).
pip. A fatal disease of young birds, reputedly the result of a worm in the
windpipe, characterised by thick mucus in the mouth and throat.
red-water fever (otherwise ‘red disease’, ‘blood murrain’ or ‘red murrain’).
A disease of cattle and sheep caused by a tick-borne protozoan parasite
which attacks the red blood corpuscles, turning the urine red or black-
ish. Particularly occurs in moorland areas and especially prevalent in
Ireland, where records of ‘the murrain’, marked with a dagger (†) in the
list that follows, normally refer to this.
sheep scab (properly, psoroptic mange). A serious contagious disease
caused by a species of mite, the bites of which raise itching scabs that
drop off with the wool.
350 Veterinary Remedies
strangles. A commonly fatal, highly contagious bacterial infection of the

lymph glands round the neck and jaw of horses, typically characterised
by monstrous swelling followed by a necklace of discharging abscesses.
white scour. Severe whitish diarrhoea and progressive emaciation in cattle,
especially young calves, sometimes the result of a contagious bacterial
disease, sometimes a dietary disorder.
As the records are too few and scattered to yield distribution patterns other
than very exceptionally, a simple listing—by scientific names in alphabetical
sequence (under vascular plants, algae and fungi) for ease of reference—has
to do duty in this instance for substantive entries species by species. An aster-
isk (*) indicates a species not among records of human ailments.
VASCULAR PLANTS
Achillea millefolium, yarrow (figure on page 301). Red-water fever
(Caernarvonshire,1 in mixtures in Merionethshire2 and Cavan3);
diarrhoea in rabbits (Norfolk4).
Agrimonia eupatoria (figure on page 147), A. procera, agrimony. Cuts in
horses and cattle (Norfolk5).
Alchemilla spp., lady’s-mantle. ‘Moorl’, unidentified cattle ailment
(Donegal6), probably a version of the name used in Ulster for red-water
fever (cf. Doherty, 43).
Allium ursinum, ramsons (Plate 29). ‘Hoose’, worm-induced lung disease
in calves (Cavan7); coughs in horses and cattle (four Irish counties);
worms (six Irish counties); ringworm in calves (Mayo8); farcy
(Wicklow9); black-leg (twelve Irish counties, normally by binding a piece
into a slit in the tail); fits in dogs (Galway,10 Carlow,11 Limerick12);
canine distemper (Norfolk, in a mixture13); pip (four Irish counties).
Anemone nemorosa, wood anemone. Sheep scab (Wicklow14).
Angelica sylvestris, wild angelica. Black-leg (Sutherland15).
Anthriscus sylvestris, cow parsley. Laminitis in a pony (Norfolk, combined
with Sambucus nigra16).
*Arrhenatherum elatius (Linnaeus) P. Beauverd ex J. S. & C. Presl, false oat-
grass (Poaceae). Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced into
North America and Australia. Variety bulbosum (Wildenow) St Amans
(onion couch). White ‘scale’ on eyes of dogs and horses (Londonderry17).
Artemisia absinthium, wormwood (figure on page 299). Cuts on cows’
udders (Carmarthenshire, in a mixture18).
Artemisia vulgaris, mugwort. Gangrene in horses (Donegal19).

Berberis vulgaris, barberry. Jaundice in cattle (Ireland, unlocalised20).
Bryonia dioica, white bryony (figure on page 113). Tonic for pigs (Fens of
East Anglia21); to add gloss to horses’ coats (Oxfordshire,22 Norfolk,23
Lincolnshire24).
Capsella bursa-pastoris (Linnaeus) Medikus, shepherd’s-purse. Cosmo-
politan weed. Diarrhoea in calves (Isle of Man25).
Chelidonium majus, greater celandine (figure on page 79). Warts in cattle
(Ireland, unlocalised26).
Cirsium spp., thistles. To staunch bleeding in cattle or horses after lancing
(Limerick27).
Cirsium vulgare, spear thistle. ‘Sick cattle’ (Wexford28).
Conium maculatum, hemlock (Plate 18). Fluke (Louth29); sheep scab (Kil-
dare, in a mixture30); cuts (Tipperary31), sore breasts (Kilkenny, com-
bined with Malva32; Carlow33), swollen feet (Mayo34), farcy (London-
derry35)—all in horses; swellings in ‘animals’ (‘Ulster’36). Some of these
may be Anthriscus sylvestris or even Heracleum sphondylium.
Conopodium majus, pignut. To lower urine flow in horses (Isle of Man37).
Corylus avellana, hazel. Adder bites (Glamorgan, in a mixture38).
Crataegus monogyna, hawthorn (Plate 13). Diarrhoea in bullocks
(Longford39).
Cytisus scoparius, broom. Dropsy in sheep (Suffolk40); worms or botts (five
Irish counties); gravel (Sligo41) and broken wind (Co. Dublin42)
in horses; fits in dogs (Louth43).
Daphne laureola, spurge-laurel. Purge for horses (Isle of Man44); to add
gloss to horses’ coats (Hampshire45).
Daucus carota, wild carrot. ‘Diseases in horses’ (Carlow46).
Digitalis purpurea, foxglove (figure on page 255). Sheep scab (Berwick-
shire, in a mixture47; Isle of Man48); eczema in ‘livestock’ (Somerset49);
mange or fleas in dogs (Gloucestershire50); strangles (Cumbria51);
red-water fever (Merionethshire, in a mixture52).
Dryopteris filix-mas, male-fern (figure on page 63). Red-water fever
(Cavan,53 Laois,54 Tipperary55); fluke (four Irish counties). ‘Fern’ for
white scour (Cavan56) and kidney disease in horses (Limerick57) may
be this or Pteridium aquilinum.
Euonymus europaeus, spindle. Fleas and lice in dogs (unlocalised58).
Eupatorium cannabinum, hemp-agrimony. Cough in cattle ‘and other
beasts’ (England, unlocalised59).
Euphorbia spp., spurges. Black-leg (Cavan60).

Euphorbia hyberna, Irish spurge. Purge for horses and cattle (Galway61).
Euphrasia officinalis, eyebright (figure on page 261). Red-water fever
(Donegal62).
Filago vulgaris, common cudweed. Red-water fever (unlocalised63).
Filipendula ulmaria, meadowsweet. Diarrhoea in calves (Armagh64).
Fragaria vesca, wild strawberry (Plate 11). Red-water fever (Cavan65);
constipation in rabbits and guinea pigs (Cambridgeshire66).
Fraxinus excelsior, ash. Adder bites (Dorset,67 Galloway68).
Fumaria spp., fumitory. Worms in foals (Orkney69).
Galium aparine, cleavers (figure on page 269). Ringworm in dogs
(Norfolk70); to increase sperm in a stallion (Norfolk71).
Galium verum, lady’s bedstraw. Fits in dogs (Westmeath72).
Gentianella campestris, field gentian. Rickets-like disease in cattle enforc-
ing crouching, known as the chrùbain, nowadays attributed to phospho-
rus deficiency (Highlands73); to bring on oestrus in cows (Shetland74).
Geranium robertianum, herb-Robert (figure on page 175). Red-water fever
(throughout Ireland); worms in horses and cattle (Limerick75); ‘dry-
murrain’, i.e. constipation (Waterford76); diarrhoea in calves (Limer-
ick77); tuberculosis in dogs (Ireland, unlocalised—root tied to leg78).
Glechoma hederacea, ground-ivy (figure on page 220). Kidney trouble in
cattle (Kilkenny79); white specks on eyes of horses (Kent80); ‘pink eye’
in sheep (East Riding of Yorkshire81).
Hedera helix, ivy. Eye trouble in cows and sheep (four Irish counties); warts
in cattle (Kildare82); fluke (Longford83); expelling afterbirth (Hamp-
shire,84 Norfolk,85 Limerick86); digestive troubles in goats (Norfolk87);
loss of appetite in ruminants (Somerset,88 Norfolk89); ‘start’, i.e. mastitis,
in cattle (Cavan90); pain in sheep (Offaly91); ‘sick’ animals (Aran
Islands,92 Wicklow93).
Helleborus foetidus, stinking hellebore. Foot-and-mouth disease (Leices-
tershire94); mastitis in calves (Norfolk95); draining ‘bad humours’ from
ruminants by ‘settering’ or ‘felling’, involving insertion of this in open
wound made in ear, dewlap or above forelegs (England, unlocalised96;
Cumbria97).
Helleborus viridis, green hellebore. Swollen udder in cows (Cumberland98);
to add gloss to a horse’s coat (Suffolk99).
Heracleum sphondylium, hogweed. Winter rheumatism in cows (Ireland,
unlocalised100).
Huperzia selago, fir clubmoss. Lice in cows and pigs (England, unlocal-
ised101); perhaps also the unspecified clubmoss applied to ‘some cattle
diseases’ in Orkney.102.
Hypericum elodes, marsh St John’s-wort. Diarrhoea in cows (Donegal103).
Hypericum pulchrum, slender St John’s-wort. Red-water fever
(Donegal104).
Inula helenium, elecampane (figure on page 292). Horse tonic (Isle of
Man105); lameness in horses (Shropshire106); hydrophobia (Glamor-
gan107).
Iris pseudacorus, yellow iris. To increase flow of urine in a horse (Cardigan-
shire108).
Juniperus communis, juniper (Plate 1). Botts and worms (‘Wales’ and
Cumbria,109 Galloway110); tonic for horses (Lincolnshire,111 East
Anglia112).
Lamium purpureum, red dead-nettle. Blackhead (Suffolk113); gapes
(Norfolk, in a combination114).
Lemna spp., duckweed. Diarrhoea in ‘animals’ (Wicklow115).
Ligusticum scoticum, lovage. Cough in sheep (Skye116); purge for cattle
(Skye, sometimes with Sedum rosea117; Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides118).
Linaria vulgaris, common toadflax. ‘Drooping’ in birds (Sussex119).
Linum catharticum, fairy flax. Purge for cows (Isle of Man120).
Lonicera periclymenum, honeysuckle. Farcy (Tipperary,121 Limerick122).
Lotus corniculatus, common bird’s-foot-trefoil. Cut legs of horses
(Somerset123).
Malva sylvestris, common mallow (figure on page 107). Sore, swollen or
‘flagged’ udders of cows (Cavan,124 Wicklow,125 Limerick126); cattle scabs
and sores in general (Wicklow127); sprains in animals (Dorset,128 Rad-
norshire129); swelling under jaw in cattle at start of winter (Cork130); to
prevent cattle disease (Devon131); sore breast on a horse (Kilkenny, com-
bined with Conium maculatum132). Records for ‘marsh-mallow’ assumed
to refer to this and not Althaea officinalis.
Mentha spp., ‘peppermint’. Fits in dogs and pigs (Leitrim133).
Menyanthes trifoliata, bogbean (figure on page 202). Bovine tuberculosis
(Kent,134 Orkney135); purge for calves (South Uist in the Outer
Hebrides136); settling stomach in calves (Fife137); removing afterbirth
from cows (Leitrim138); ‘pine’, i.e. trace-element deficiency (Doherty, 46)
in cattle and sheep (Mayo139); cattle disease called ‘darn’ (Highlands140).
Myrica gale, bog-myrtle. Red-water fever and collar sores on horses

(Mayo141); fluke in calves (Leitrim142); fits in dogs, and worms (West-
meath143); gravel in horses (Mayo144); appetiser for horses (Limerick145).
Myrrhis odorata, sweet cicely (Plate 16). Inducing flow of milk in cows
(Teesdale146).
*Narcissus pseudonarcissus Linnaeus subsp. major (Curtis) Baker, Spanish
daffodil. South-western Europe; introduced elsewhere. Worms (Colon-
say in the Inner Hebrides147).
Oenanthe crocata, hemlock water-dropwort (figure on page 185). Saddle
galls (Cumberland148); ‘foul’ (Westmoreland149).
Ophioglossum vulgatum, adder’s-tongue. Inflamed ulcers of cows (Surrey
and Sussex150).
Origanum vulgare, marjoram. Stitches and pains in horses (Highlands151).
Oxalis acetosella, wood-sorrel. Ticks and lice in sheep (Wicklow152).
Peucedanum ostruthium, masterwort. Tonic for sick cattle and to induce
milk in cows (Teesdale153); sore udders of cows (Cumberland154).
‘Fellon-grass’, a name recorded for this in Cumbria and Roxburghshire
and assumed to be applied to the cold-induced skin sores on cows
known as felons,155 seems more probably a corruption of ‘felling-girse’, a
name in that region of Helleborus species once used there for ‘felling’.
Pinguicula vulgaris, common butterwort. Chapped udders of cows (West
Riding of Yorkshire156); cattle bitten ‘by any venomous worm’ (York-
shire157).
Plantago spp., plantain. Cuts on legs of horses (Somerset158).
Plantago coronopus, buck’s-horn plantain (figure on page 246). Bites by
rabid dogs (Cornwall, in a mixture159; Norfolk,160 Suffolk161).
Plantago lanceolata, ribwort plantain. Coughs in wild birds (Devon162).
Polygonum aviculare, knotgrass. Swine fever (Kilkenny, as ‘pigroot’163—
most likely this—widely known in England by similar names).
Potentilla erecta, tormentil (figure on page 145). Diarrhoea in cattle and
horses (Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides,164 Orkney,165 Donegal,166 Wick-
low167) and in cats (Isle of Man168); red-water fever (Londonderry169);
white scour (Cavan170); braxy, a fatal bacterial infection of sheep, and
‘louping ill’, acute encephalitis in sheep resulting from a tick-borne virus,
characterised by leaps and jerks (Berwickshire171).
Potentilla reptans, creeping cinquefoil. Diarrhoea in kittens (Isle of
Man172).
Primula veris, cowslip. Coughs in cattle (Cumbria, in combination with

Symphytum173).
Primula vulgaris, primrose (Plate 9). Bites by rabid dogs (Cornwall, in a
mixture174).
Prunus padus, bird cherry. ‘Certain diseases in cattle’ (parts of the High-
lands175).
Prunus spinosa, blackthorn (figure on page 152). Diarrhoea in ‘animals’
(Wicklow176).
*Puccinellia maritima (Hudson) Parlatore, common saltmarsh-grass
(Poaceae). Coasts of western Europe, north-eastern Asia, North America.
Mild purge for cattle (Donegal177).
Quercus petraea, Q. robur, oak. Harness sores on horses (Donegal,178
Cavan179); cuts on horses (Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides180); diarrhoea
in cattle (Norfolk,181 Cavan182).
Ranunculus spp., buttercup, including records for ‘crowfoot’. Black-leg
(Cavan183); red-water fever (†Limerick,184 †Wicklow185).
Ranunculus flammula, lesser spearwort. To raise blisters on ponies
(Somerset186).
Rhamnus cathartica, buckthorn. ‘Dry murrain’ in cattle (Mayo187).
Rubus fruticosus, bramble (Plate 10). Diarrhoea in cattle (four Irish coun-
ties) and goats (Norfolk188); ‘hide-bound’ cattle (Berwickshire189);
thrush in horses (Norfolk190); purge for rabbits and guinea pigs (Cam-
bridgeshire191); ‘pod belly’ in rabbits (Norfolk192); pip (Meath193).
Rumex spp., dock. Coughs in horses and cattle (Monaghan,194 Louth,195
Longford196); farcy (Louth,197 Kilkenny198); to wrap greasy fetlocks in
horses (Norfolk199); sheep scab (Isle of Man200); nettle stings in dogs
(Hampshire201).
Salix alba, white willow. Pip (Ireland, unlocalised202).
Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder. Ulcerated udders and teats of cows
(Louth203); to improve horses’ coats (Isle of Wight204).
Sambucus nigra, elder (figure on page 271). Sore teats in cows (Dorset205);
cuts on cows’ udders (Carmarthenshire, in a mixture206); foot-rot in
sheep (Norfolk207); ‘to dose pigs’ (Longford208); coughs in wild birds
(Devon209); laminitis in ponies (Norfolk, combined with Anthriscus
sylvestris210).
Samolus valerandi, brookweed. ‘Any malady affecting swine’ (England,
unlocalised211).
Sanicula europaea, sanicle (frontispiece). Gapes in young pheasants

(Donegal212).
Scrophularia nodosa, common figwort (Plate 24). Scab in pigs (England,
unlocalised213); farcy (Ireland, unlocalised214); expulsion of afterbirth in
cows (Londonderry 215); red-water fever (Wicklow, combined with Stel-
laria media216).
Scutellaria galericulata, skullcap. Distemper in dogs (Norfolk, in a
mixture217).
Sedum acre, biting stonecrop (figure on page 138). Worms in ‘animals’
(Cavan,218 Longford219).
Sedum anglicum, English stonecrop. Swellings on horses (Colonsay in the
Inner Hebrides, combined with Senecio vulgaris 220).
*Sedum rosea (Linnaeus) Scopoli, roseroot. Arctic and mountains of north-
ern temperate zone. Purge for calves (Skye, combined with Ligusticum221).
Sempervivum tectorum, house-leek (figure on page 136). Diarrhoea in
cattle (Wicklow222); expulsion of afterbirth in cows (Mayo223); cuts or
sores in ‘any animal’ (Montgomeryshire224); ‘windgall’, distension of ten-
don sheaths round fetlock in horses (Cumbria225).
Senecio aquaticus, S. jacobaea, ragwort. ‘Staggers’, neuromuscular affliction
of horses characterised by stumbling (England, unlocalised226); wounded
or broken horse’s leg (Cork227); cuts on ‘animals’ (Tipperary228); gripes in
horses (Norfolk229); windgall (see preceding entry) (Cavan230); ‘blasts’,
inflammation caused by wind (Wicklow, in a mixture231); red-water fever
(Wicklow232); gapes (Limerick233).
Senecio vulgaris, groundsel (figure on page 308). Purge for cows (Isle of
Man234); cuts on cows’ udders (Carmarthenshire, in a mixture235); red-
water fever (†Wicklow, in a mixture236); black-leg (Wicklow 237); botts
(England, unlocalised238); tonsillitis in horses (Norfolk239); ‘festilow’, sore
eruption between ears and shoulders in horses (Devon240); swellings on
horses (Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides, combined with Sedum
anglicum241); aperient in birds (Isle of Man242); pip (Limerick243).
*Silene vulgaris Garcke, bladder campion. Europe, temperate Asia and North
Africa; introduced into Australasia. To make a cow desire a bull (England,
unlocalised, as ‘Spatling Poppy’244).
Smyrnium olusatrum, Alexanders. Mouth sores in cattle (Isle of Man245).
Solanum dulcamara, bittersweet. For pigs ‘whenever badly’ (Lincoln-
shire246).
Sorbus aucuparia, rowan. Strangles (Limerick247—smoke of burnt wood

inhaled).
Stellaria media, chickweed. Red-water fever (†Wicklow, combined with
Scrophularia nodosa248); black-leg (Cavan249); moulting in cagebirds
(Ireland, unlocalised250); convulsions in pigs (Leitrim251); pip (Sligo252);
gapes (Norfolk,253 Cavan254).
Symphytum officinale, common comfrey (figure on page 208). Sprains and
broken legs (Limerick255); swellings in horses (Limerick256); swollen
udders of cows (Monaghan,257 Meath258); sore feet in ‘animals’ (Long-
ford259); swine fever (Leitrim260); diarrhoea in cattle (Cavan region261);
‘blood scour’ (Limerick262); coughs in cows (Cumbria, combined with
Primula veris263); digestive problems in horses and poultry (Norfolk264);
tonic for horses and geese (Norfolk265); tonic for pigs (Fens of East
Anglia266).
*Symphytum ×uplandicum Nyman, Russian comfrey. Caucasus?; widely
introduced elsewhere. Foot-and-mouth disease (England, unlocal-
ised267).
Tamus communis, black bryony. Barrenness in cows (Cheshire268); stimu-
lant for mares (Lincolnshire269); tonic for pigs (Fens of East Anglia270);
stiff joints of animals, especially of pigs lame from an unidentified dis-
ease called ‘broyant’ (Montgomeryshire271).
Tanacetum vulgare, tansy (figure on page 295). Red-water fever (South Uist
in the Outer Hebrides,272 †Kerry273); worms in horses (Galway274); pip
(Cork275); adder bites (Glamorgan, in a mixture276).
Taraxacum officinale, dandelion (figure on page 288). Fluke in calves
(Limerick277); black-leg (Cavan278); diarrhoea in calves (Limerick279);
cowpox (Roscommon280); pain in horses (Offaly281); pip (Co. Dublin282);
‘pine’ (see entry for Menyanthes trifoliata) in turkeys (Limerick283).
Taxus baccata, yew. To make horses’ coats shine (Montgomeryshire284—
the ‘dust’ given in tiny quantities).
Teucrium scorodonia, wood sage. Worms in horses (Skye285); mastitis
(Hampshire286); sore udders of cows (three counties of north-western
Wales287); blindness in cows and sheep (Skye and Harris in Heb-
rides288—juice put into ears).
Thymus spp., thyme. Unspecified ailment(s) of ponies (Hampshire289).
Trifolium pratense, red clover. Sore tongue in cattle (Tipperary290); fever in
heifers (Monmouthshire291).
Ulex spp., gorse. Worms (Isle of Man,292 six Irish counties); botts (Mona-
ghan293); coughs in cattle (Cavan294); pains in horses (Galway295);
swellings (Meath296).
Ulmus glabra, wych elm. Expulsion of afterbirth in cows (Berwickshire297).
Umbilicus rupestris, navelwort (figure on page 135). Expulsion of after-
birth in cows (Mayo,298 Wicklow299); sore udders of cows (Merioneth-
shire300); ‘sick cattle’ (Kerry301); saddle galls on horses (Isle of Man302);
scruff on legs of a horse (Wicklow303).
Urtica dioica, common nettle (figure on page 85). Red-water fever
(Kerry304); ‘teart’, deficiency disease in cattle (Colonsay in the Inner
Hebrides305); tonic for pigs, goats and rabbits (Norfolk306); to ensure
pregnancy in a mare that has been served (Norfolk307); blackhead
(Norfolk308); pip (Tipperary309).
Valeriana officinalis, common valerian. Distemper in dogs (Norfolk, in a
mixture310).
Verbascum thapsus, great mullein (figure on page 251). Bovine tubercu-
losis (Kent311); diarrhoea in cattle (England, unlocalised312); sores on
‘animals’ (Co. Dublin313).
Veronica spp., speedwell. Worms (Isle of Man314).
Viscum album, mistletoe (figure on page 166). Barrenness in cows (Isle of
Man315); expulsion of afterbirth in cows (Essex,316 Herefordshire317);
purge for sheep, and a gentle tonic for ewes after lambing
(Herefordshire318).
ALGAE
*Characeae, stoneworts. ‘Gaa’, obscure disease of cattle supposedly of bilious
origin (Shetland319).
Pelvetia canaliculata, channelled wrack. ‘Dry disease’ in cows (South Uist
in the Outer Hebrides320).
Porphyra spp., slake. Spring purge for cows (Skye321).
FUNGI
Lycoperdaceae, puffballs. Collar and saddle sores on horses, and to staunch
bleeding in cattle when polled (Wicklow322).
Tremella spp., jelly fungus. Purge for cattle (Skye323).
Notes
2. Williams MS 44. Garrad 1985, 41
3. IFC S 969: 28 45. Hampshire Review, no. 1 (1949), 42
4. Hatfield, appendix 46. IFC S 907: 414
5. Hatfield, appendix 47. Johnston 1853
6. Hart 1898, 380 48. Quayle, 93
7. IFC S 993: 70 49. Tongue
8. IFC S 93: 132, 156 50. Hopkins, 52; Palmer 1994, 122
9. IFC S 913: 96 51. Rollinson, 77
11. IFC S 907: 30 53. Maloney
12. IFC S 524: 14 54. IFC S 826: 31
13. Hatfield MS 55. Vickery MSS
14. IFC S 920: 71 56. Maloney
15. Henderson & Dickson, 55 57. IFC S 519: 115
17. Moore MS 59. Parkinson, 597
18. Williams MS 60. Maloney
19. IFC S 1090: 437 61. Hart 1873
20. Moloney 62. Hart 1898, 381
21. Randell, 86 63. Withering 1787–92
22. Vickery MSS 64. PLNN, no. 57 (1998), 274
23. Hatfield MS; PLNN, no. 8 (1989), 36 65. IFC S 993: 125
24. Rudkin; Baker 66. Vickery MSS
25. Vickery 1995 67. Vickery 1995
26. ‘Jude’, 11 68. MacKerlie, 305
27. IFC S 483: 300 69. Spence
28. IFC S 903: 464 70. Hatfield, appendix
29. IFC S 672: 257 71. Hatfield, 87
30. IFC S 771: 51 72. IFC S 736: 191
31. IFC S 550: 274 73. Cameron; MacFarlane
32. IFC S 850: 114 74. Vickery 1995
33. IFC S 903: 464 75. IFC S 510: 291
34. IFC S 138: 314 76. IFC S 637: 7
35. Moore MS 77. IFC S 509: 410
36. Foster, 61 78. Wood-Martin
37. Fargher 79. IFC S 850: 114
38. Folk-lore, 7 (1896), 89 80. Pratt 1850–7
39. PLNN, no. 22 (1991), 101 81. Woodward, 83
40. Cullum MS 82. IFC S 771: 9
41. IFC S 170: 196 83. IFC S 762: 158
42. IFC S 794: 442 84. de Baïracli-Levy, 125
360 Notes
85. Taylor MS; Hatfield, appendix 127. IFC S 920: 71

86. IFC S 512: 98 128. Dacombe
87. Hatfield MS 129. Vickery 1995
88. Palmer 1994, 111 130. IFC S 385: 57
89. Hatfield, 79, appendix 131. Lafont
90. Maloney 132. IFC S 850: 114
91. IFC S 812: 441 133. IFC S 226: 22
92. IFC S 1: 196 134. Gerard, 630
93. McClafferty 135. Spence
94. Tuckwell, 57 136. Shaw, 50
95. Britten & Holland 137. Simpkins, 132
96. Turner 1568, part 1, 161; Parkinson, 138. IFC S 226: 25
216; Coles, 110 139. IFC S 133: 339
97. Duncan & Robson, 62; Rollinson, 76 140. Hooker
98. Hodgson 141. IFC S 92: 132
99. Evans 1969 142. IFC S 226: 482
100. PLNN, no. 55 (1998), 265 143. IFC S 747: 51
101. Withering 1787–92 144. IFC S 1337: 134
102. Pratt 1859, 125 145. IFC S 523: 272
103. Hart 1898, 381 146. Botanical Locality Record Club
104. Hart 1898, 365 Report for 1875, 141
105. Garrad 1985, 17 147. McNeill
106. Mabey, 364 148. Threlkeld
107. Trevelyan, 314 149. Withering 1796, 302
108. Williams MS 150. Britten, 182
109. Ray 1670, 183 151. MacFarlane
110. Mactaggart, 418 152. McClafferty
111. Woodruffe-Peacock 153. Botanical Locality Record Club
112. Kightly, 61 Report for 1875, 141
113. Hatfield, appendix 154. Hodgson
114. Hatfield, appendix 155. Britten & Holland
115. McClafferty 156. Gerard, 646; de l’Écluse, 311
116. Martin, 226 157. Gerard, 646
117. Henderson & Dickson, 94; Pennant 158. Tongue
1774, 310 159. Gentleman’s Magazine, 5 (1735),
118. Goodrich-Freer, 206 619
119. Pratt 1850–7 160. de Grey, 160
120. Fargher 161. Steward 1739
122. IFC S 512: 523 163. IFC S 849: 322
123. Tongue 164. McNeill
124. Maloney 165. Elaine R. Bullard, in litt., 1989
125. IFC S 914: 322 166. Hart 1898
168. Fargher 212. Hart 1898, 387

169. Moore MS 213. Withering 1787–92
170. Maloney 214. Moloney
171. Johnston 1853 215. Moore MS
172. Vickery 1995 216. McClafferty
173. Freethy, 73 217. Hatfield MS
174. Gentleman’s Magazine, 5 (1735), 619 218. Maloney
175. Carmichael, ii, 290 219. IFC S 752: 23
176. McClafferty 220. McNeill
177. Hart 1898, 382 221. Henderson & Dickson, 94
178. IFC S 825: 217, 1075: 135 222. McClafferty
179. Maloney 223. Vickery 1985
180. McNeill 224. Kightly, 224
181. Hatfield, 79 225. Duncan & Robson, 65
182. IFC S 993: 137 226. Gerard, 219; Parkinson, 671
183. Maloney 227. IFC S 386: 117
184. IFC S 483: 369 228. IFC S 572: 297
185. McClafferty 229. Hatfield MS
186. Tongue 230. Ó Súilleabháin, 315
187. Vickery MSS 231. McClafferty
188. Hatfield MS 232. McClafferty
189. Johnston 1853 233. IFC S 484: 92
190. Hatfield, appendix 234. Moore 1898
191. Vickery MSS 235. Williams MS
192. Hatfield, appendix 236. McClafferty
193. IFC S 710: 41 237. IFC S 914: 322
194. IFC S 932: 311 238. Ray 1670, 281
195. IFC S 657: 217 239. Hatfield, 77
196. IFC S 163: 265 240. Lafont
197. IFC S 658: 138 241. McNeill
198. IFC S 861: 212 242. Moore 1898
200. Moore 1898 244. Lisle, ii, 106
201. Mabey, 111 245. Moore 1898, wrongly ascribed to
202. Moloney Aegopodium podagraria; Kermode
203. Synnott MS
204. Broomfield 246. Woodruffe-Peacock
205. Dacombe 247. IFC S 524: 34
206. Williams MS 248. McClafferty
208. PLNN, no. 20 (1991), 91 250. Moloney
209. Vickery MSS 251. IFC S 226: 391
210. Hatfield, appendix 252. IFC S 158: 120
211. Pratt 1850–7 253. Hatfield, appendix
362 Notes
254. Maloney 289. de Baïracli-Levy, 130

255. IFC S 482: 60; 515: 148; 524: 82 290. IFC S 572: 71
256. IFC S 483: 368 291. Hughes, 144
257. IFC S 932: 217 292. Moore 1898
258. Farrelly MS 293. IFC S 932: 220
259. IFC S 762: 158 294. Maloney
260. Logan, 173 295. IFC S 59: 88
261. Maloney; Logan, 170 296. Lucas, 185
262. IFC S 520: 15; 521: 149 297. Johnston 1853
263. Freethy, 73 298. Vickery MSS
264. Hatfield, 54 299. McClafferty
265. Hatfield MS 300. Williams MS
266. Randell, 90 301. IFC S 476: 89, 90
267. Quelch, 74 302. Vickery 1995
268. Britten & Holland, 364 303. McClafferty
269. Rudkin 304. IFC S 412: 197
270. Randell, 86 305. McNeill
271. Britten & Holland, 516 306. Hatfield, appendix
272. Shaw, 50 307. Hatfield, 61
273. IFC S 413: 228 308. Hatfield MS
274. IFC S 22: 224 309. IFC S 530: 192
276. Folk-lore, 7 (1896), 89 311. Gerard, 630
277. IFC S 482: 358 312. Parkinson, 63
278. Maloney 313. IFC S 787: 278
279. IFC S 499: 298 314. Fargher
280. IFC S 250: 273 315. Fargher
281. IFC S 812: 441 316. Vickery 1995
282. IFC S 795: 110 317. Bull
283. IFC S 483: 209 318. Bull
284. Kightly, 61 319. Tait
285. Martin, 227 320. Shaw, 50
286. de Baïracli-Levy, 130 321. Martin, 229
287. Williams MS 322. McClafferty
288. Martin, 227 323. Henderson & Dickson, 94
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data for every county but in different proportions: the larger counties were
covered more fully and Co. Limerick most fully of all. A list of the volumes
searched can be provided by the authors on request. Arising out of that work,
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Index of Folk Uses
8
abortion Scrophularia nodosa, 253, 356
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 Sempervivum tectorum, 356
Claviceps purpurea, 51 Ulmus glabra, 358
Conium maculatum, 187 Umbilicus rupestris, 358
Cytisus scoparius, 162 Viscum album, 358
Hedera helix, 181 agues
Juniperus communis, 65–6 Acorus calamus, 320
Mentha pulegium, 188, 239 Armeria maritima, 100
Meum athamanticum, 187 Dipsacus fullonum, 276
Rubus idaeus, 141 Filipendula ulmaria, 140
Sempervivum tectorum, 137 Papaver spp., 77
Seriphidium maritimum, 297 Potentilla reptans, 144
Tanacetum vulgare, 296 Salix spp., 115
Taxus baccata, 67 Senecio vulgaris, 309
abscesses (see also farcy; strangles) Tanacetum vulgare, 296
Apium graveolens, 189 Verbena officinalis, 211
Arum maculatum, 321 alimentary canal, to soothe
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Orchis mascula, 334
Cytisus scoparius, 163 anaemia
Dipsacus fullonum, 276 Rumex acetosa, 96
Hedera helix, 180 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
Oenanthe crocata? 187 Taraxacum officinale, 288
Scrophularia nodosa, 253 Urtica spp., 86
Stellaria media, 91 anticontagion
aches, unspecified Allium ursinum, 328
Hedera helix, 180 Helleborus viridis, 71
acidity Ligusticum scoticum, 189
Origanum vulgare, 224 Malvaceae, 353
afterbirth, to expel Mentha spp., 238
Hedera helix, 352 antiseptic
Menyanthes trifoliata, 353 Gentianella campestris, 195
Palmaria palmata, 45 Piptoporus betulinus, 49
379
380 Index of Folk Uses
aperient, see purging Verbascum thapsus, 250

aphrodisiac Veronica officinalis, 258
Bryonia dioica, 114, 333 backache (see also kidney trouble)
Circaea lutetiana, 166 Agrimonia eupatoria, 148
Dactylorhiza spp., 334 Hedera helix, 180
Eryngium maritimum, 182 Juniperus communis, 66
Fraxinus excelsior, 249 Lathyrus linifolius, 161
Ligusticum scoticum, 189 Lycopodium clavatum, 55
Orchis mascula, 334 Malvaceae, 109
Tamus communis, 333, 357 Menyanthes trifoliata, 202
appendix, inflammation of Primula veris, 125
Mentha spp., 238 Prunella vulgaris, 223
appetite, to stimulate baldness
Centaurium erythraea, 194 Salix spp., 116
Hedera helix, 352 barrenness (see also conception, to aid)
Laminaria spp., 47 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Myrica gale, 354 Tamus communis, 357
Rumex acetosa, 96 Valeriana officinalis, 275
Silybum marianum? 283 Viscum album, 358
ardour, excessive bed sores
Fragaria vesca, 146 Hypericum spp., 106
arthritis, see rheumatism biliousness
asthma Centaurium erythraea, 194
Achillea millefolium, 302 Teucrium scorodonia, 218
Allium ursinum, 329 bites, of adders
Ballota nigra, 214 Allium ursinum, 329
Calluna vulgaris, 123 Anagallis arvensis, 128
Centaurea nigra, 284 Corylus avellana, 351
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Euphorbia helioscopia, 171, 173
Cytisus scoparius, 163 Fraxinus excelsior, 248, 352
Datura stramonium, 199 Galium aparine, 270
Drosera spp., 110 Glechoma hederacea, 221
Erica spp., 123 Juniperus comunis, 66
Inula helenium, 293 Lonicera periclymenum, 273
Leucanthemum vulgare, 305 Ophioglossum vulgatum, 56
Lonicera caprifolium, 274 Sedum telephium, 138
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Silene dioica? 93
Malva sylvestris, 109 Tanacetum vulgare, 357
Marchantia polymorpha, 39 Trifolium pratense, 162
Marrubium vulgare, 216 bites, of dogs
Menyanthes trifoliata, 137, 202 Anagallis arvensis, 128
Petasites hybridus? 311 Euphorbia helioscopia, 173
Phyllitis scolopendrium, 61 Phyllitis scolopendrium, 61
Polypodium vulgare, 59 Plantago coronopus, 93, 246, 354
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Primula vulgaris, 355
Rumex hydrolapathum? 97 Sedum telephium, 138
Sempervivum tectorum, 137 Succisa pratensis, 276
Tussilago farfara, 309, 310 bites, of insects
Vaccinium myrtillus, 124 ‘moss’, 40
Sambucus nigra, 271 Potentilla anserina, 144

bites, of other animals Prunella vulgaris, 222, 223
Pinguicula vulgaris, 354 Ranunculus spp., 71–2
blackhead Rumex acetosa, 96
Lamium purpureum, 353 Rumex obtusifolius, 98, 99
Urtica spp., 358 Salix spp., 116
black-leg Sanicula europaea, 181
Allium ursinum, 350 Sempervivum tectorum, 135
Angelica sylvestris, 350 Sphagnum spp.? 40
Euphorbia spp., 352 Succisa pratensis, 276
Ranunculus spp., 355 Symphytum officinale, 208
Senecio vulgaris, 356 Ulmus glabra, 84
Stellaria media, 357 Urtica spp., 86
Taraxacum officinale, 357 Valeriana officinalis, 274
bladder stones bleeding, uterine
Anthriscus sylvestris? 182 Achillea millefolium, 301
Palmaria palmata, 45 blindness
blasts (facial swellings) Teucrium scorodonia, 357
Bellis perennis, 295 blistering, to induce
Senecio aquaticus, 356 Anemone nemorosa, 71
Senecio jacobaea, 356 Ranunculus spp., 72
bleeding, to staunch (see also nosebleeds) Solanum dulcamara, 199
Achillea millefolium, 95, 301 blisters
Antennaria dioica, 291 Glechoma hederacea, 221
Capsella bursa-pastoris, 120 linarich, 46
Centaurium erythraea, 195 blood, cooling the
Cirsium spp., 351 Prunella vulgaris, 223
Equisetum spp., 55, 341 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Fontinalis antipyretica, 40 Tanacetum vulgare, 223
Geranium robertianum, 176, 347 blood, to purify (see also cleansing of
Hedera helix, 180 system)
Heracleum sphondylium, 190 Allium ursinum, 329
Hypericum spp., 104 Apium graveolens, 188
Hypericum tetrapterum, 106 Arctium spp., 96
Lamium album, 215 Centaurium erythraea, 194
Larix decidua, 65 Conopodium majus, 184
Linaria vulgaris, 253–4 Laminaria spp., 48
Lycoperdaceae, 50 Menyanthes trifoliata, 203
Malvaceae, 108 Palmaria palmata, 45
Myosurus minimus, 75 Persicaria bistorta, 94
Nuphar luteum, 70 Rumex acetosa, 96
Osmunda regalis, 58 Rumex hydrolapathum, 97
Persicaria lapathifolia, 95 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
Persicaria maculosa, 95 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
Pinus sylvestris, 65 Senecio vulgaris, 309
Piptoporus betulinus, 49 Sorbus aucuparia, 155
Plantago spp., 245 Stachys officinalis, 213
Poaceae: ‘grass’, 323 Taraxacum officinale, 287
Polygonatum multiflorum, 327 Tussilago farfara, 310
blood, to purify (continued) Nuphar luteum, 70

Ulex spp., 163 Oenanthe crocata? 186
Urtica spp., 96 Pinus sylvestris, 65
blood, to stop spitting of Primula vulgaris, 124
Alisma plantago-aquatica, 319 Rubus fruticosus, 142
Solidago virgaurea, 294 Rumex acetosa, 96
blood, tonic for Rumex obtusifolius, 98
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Sambucus nigra, 271
Oxalis acetosella, 174 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
Primula veris, 126 Senecio jacobaea, 307, 309, 339
Prunella vulgaris, 223 Stachys spp., 214
Sorbus aucuparia, 155 Stellaria media, 91
Ulex spp., 163 Succisa pratensis, 278
blood clots Symphytum officinale, 209
Allium ursinum, 329 Taraxacum officinale, 287
blood-poisoning Teucrium scorodonia, 218
Eupatorium cannabinum, 313 Urtica spp., 85
Malvaceae, 108 Verbascum thapsus, 251
blood pressure Vinca spp., 196
Achillea millefolium, 301 Viola odorata, 112
Crataegus spp., 156 bones, broken; see fractures
Prunus spinosa, 153 botts
Urtica spp., 86 Cytisus scoparius, 351
Viscum album, 167 Juniperus communis, 353
blood scour Senecio vulgaris, 356
Symphytum officinale, 357 Ulex spp., 358
‘boil, the’ bowel and stomach irritation
Berberis vulgaris, 76 Aphanes arvensis, 151
boils Galium aparine, 270
Achillea millefolium, 302 Listera ovata, 334
Allium ursinum, 329 Senecio jacobaea, 307
Apium graveolens, 188, 189 bow legs
Arctium spp., 280, 282 Fucus vesiculosus, 47
Bellis perennis, 294 braxy
Caltha palustris, 70 Potentilla erecta, 354
Centaurea nigra, 284 breasts, cuts on
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Sambucus nigra, 355
Cochlearia officinalis, 120 breasts, infected
Corylus avellana, 89 Apium graveolens, 189
Cytisus scoparius, 163 breasts, lump in
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Ranunculus ficaria, 74
Fagus sylvatica, 87 breasts, pains in
Galium aparine, 270 Glaucium flavum, 78
Hedera helix, 180 breasts, sore
Malvaceae, 108 Conium maculatum, 351, 353
Malus spp., 154 Malvaceae, 353
Matricaria discoidea, 306 Sambucus nigra, 355
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Teucrium scorodonia, 357
‘moss’, 40
breasts, swollen Tamus communis, 333

Malvaceae, 353 Umbilicus rupestris, 137
Senecio jacobaea, 307 Vinca spp., 196
Stellaria holostea, 92 bunions
Symphytum officinale, 357 Hedera helix, 179
breath, to sweeten burns and scalds
Palmaria palmata, 45 Alchemilla vulgaris, 150
brios bronn Alnus glutinosa, 89
Persicaria lapathifolia, 94–5 Apium graveolens, 189
Persicaria maculosa, 94–5 Arctium spp., 282
bronchitis Bellis perennis, 294
Achillea millefolium, 302 Chondrus crispus, 44
Hedera helix, 180 Chrysosplenium spp., 139
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Conium maculatum, 188
Marrubium vulgare, 216 Corylus avellana, 89
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Crataegus spp., 156
Scrophularia nodosa, 252 Cynoglossum officinale, 210
Symphytum officinale, 209 Datura stramonium, 199
Verbascum thapsus, 250 Daucus carota, 191
bruises Digitalis purpurea, 256, 257
Agrimonia eupatoria, 148 Dryopteris filix-mas, 64
Ajuga reptans, 219 ‘female fern’, 62
Allium ursinum, 329 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Anthyllis vulneraria, 160 Galium aparine, 270
Bellis perennis, 294 Hedera helix, 179, 180
Digitalis purpurea, 256, 257 Hydrocotyle vulgaris, 70
Filago vulgaris, 291 Hypericum spp., 106
Fucus vesiculosus, 47 Ilex aquifolium, 168
Glaucium flavum, 78 Lapsana communis, 285
Lapsana communis, 285 Lonicera periclymenum, 273
Malus sylvestris, 154 Lycoperdaceae, 51
Malvaceae, 108 Mastocarpus stellatus, 44
Osmunda regalis, 57 Mentha pulegium, 240
Oxalis acetosella? 174 Nuphar luteum, 70
Persicaria hydropiper, 94 Parmelia spp., 41
Pinguicula vulgaris, 263 Phyllitis scolopendrium, 61, 347
Polygonatum multiflorum, 327 Pilosella officinarum, 290
Primula vulgaris, 124 Plantago spp., 247, 248
Prunella vulgaris, 222 Polypodium vulgare, 59
Rumex acetosa, 96 Potamogeton natans, 340
Rumex crispus, 97 Potamogeton polygonifolius, 69–70, 340
Rumex obtusifolius, 98 Potentilla erecta, 144
Sanicula europaea, 181 Primula vulgaris, 124, 125, 347
Sempervivum tectorum, 137 Rubus fruticosus, 142
Senecio vulgaris, 309 Rumex acetosa, 96
Solanum dulcamara, 199 Rumex obtusifolius, 98
Stellaria media, 91 Salix babylonica, 116
Succisa pratensis, 276 Sambucus nigra, 270, 329
Symphytum officinale, 57, 208 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
burns and scalds (continued) chaps

Sempervivum tectorum, 61, 136, 137 Lycoperdaceae, 51
Senecio jacobaea, 307 Pinguicula vulgaris, 263, 354
Sonchus spp., 287 Plantago spp., 248
Sphagnum, 40 Primula vulgaris, 124
Stachys officinalis, 212 Rumex obtusifolius, 98
Stellaria media, 92 Sanicula europaea, 181
Symphytum officinale, 345 Scrophularia auriculata, 253
Ulmus glabra, 83 Senecio vulgaris, 309
Umbilicus rupestris, 61, 136, 137 chest complaints (see also respiratory
Veronica beccabunga, 260 complaints)
cancers Allium ursinum, 329
Agaricus campestris, 48 Angelica sylvestris, 190
Arctium spp., 282 Asplenium trichomanes, 62
Chelidonium majus, 80 Ballota nigra, 214
Conium maculatum, 188 Chondrus crispus, 44
Cynoglossum officinale, 211 Hedera helix, 180
Daucus carota, 191 Inula helenium, 293
Galium aparine, 270 Lathyrus linifolius, 161
Geranium robertianum, 176 Malva sylvestris, 109
Hedera helix, 180 Mastocarpus stellatus, 44
Malus sylvestris, 154 Myosotis spp.? 210
Oenanthe crocata, 185, 186 Ribes nigrum, 134
Oxalis acetosella, 174 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Porphyra umbilicalis, 45 Tussilago farfara, 309
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Verbascum thapsus, 250
Rumex acetosa, 96 Veronica officinalis, 258
Rumex conglomeratus, 97 chickenpox
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Rumex acetosa, 96
Sempervivum tectorum, 136 chilblains
Taraxacum officinale, 287, 288 Bellis perennis, 295
Trifolium pratense, 162 Hedera helix, 180
Viola odorata, 112 Ilex aquifolium, 168, 342
carbuncles Lycoperdaceae, 51
Hypericum androsaemum, 103 Malus spp., 154
Lycoperdaceae, 51 Primula vulgaris, 124
Stachys spp., 214 Ruscus aculeatus, 331
cataract Sempervivum tectorum, 136
Chelidonium majus, 80 Solanum dulcamara, 199, 342
catarrh (see also congestion, nasal) Stellaria media, 91
Achillea millefolium, 302 Tamus communis, 333
Hypericum spp. 106 Tremella mesenterica, 50
Polypodium vulgare, 60 Umbilicus rupestris, 136
Tussilago farfara, 309 childbirth, to ease labour in
Verbascum thapsus, 250 Artemisia vulgaris, 298
chafing Crataegus spp., 156
Filago vulgaris, 291 Hyoscyamus niger, 198
Lycoperdaceae, 51 Ribes nigrum, 134
Rubus idaeus, 140, 141, 156
childbirth, to speed contractions in Filipendula ulmaria, 140

Claviceps purpurea, 51 Galium aparine, 269
Lepidium latifolium, 120 Galium odoratum, 267
childbirth, to staunch bleeding in Glechoma hederacea, 221, 339
Claviceps purpurea, 51 Hedera helix, 180
chills Iris pseudacorus, 331
Geum urbanum, 146 Lycopodium clavatum, 55
Leucanthemum vulgare, 306 Malva sylvestris, 109
chlorosis Marchantia polymorpha, 39
Glechoma hederacea, 221 Marrubium vulgare, 216
chorea, see St Vitus’ dance Mastocarpus stellatus, 44
chrùbain Mentha pulegium, 239
Gentianella campestris, 352 Mentha spp., 238
cleansing of system (see also blood, to Menyanthes trifoliata, 203
purify; blood, tonic) Narcissus spp., 330
Achillea millefolium, 302 Nepeta cataria, 219
Agrimonia spp., 147 Petasites hybridus? 311
Arctium spp., 280, 282, 340 Phyllitis scolopendrium, 60
Artemisia absinthium, 300 Poaceae: ‘cough grass’, 323
Centaurea nigra, 284 Polypodium vulgare, 59
Centaurium erythraea, 194 Prunella vulgaris, 223
Cochlearia officinalis, 119 Prunus avium, 153
Galium aparine, 268 Ribes nigrum, 134
Glechoma hederacea, 221 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Juniperus communis, 66 Rosa spp., 151
Lemna minor, 322 Rubus fruticosus, 142
Malvaceae, 108, 110 Rubus idaeus, 141
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118 Rumex hydrolapathum? 97
Rumex acetosa, 96 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
Solanum dulcamara, 199 Sambucus nigra, 270, 338
Taraxacum officinale, 288 Senecio spp., 307
Valeriana officinalis, 274, 275 Solidago virgaurea, 294
Veronica beccabunga, 260 Stachys officinalis, 213
colds Symphytum officinale, 209
Achillea millefolium, 302 Taraxacum officinale, 287
Agrimonia eupatoria, 147, 148 Teucrium scorodonia, 218
Allium ursinum, 328, 329 Trifolium pratense, 162
Allium vineale, 330 Tussilago farfara, 309
Arctium spp., 282 Ulex spp., 163
Artemisia absinthium, 300, 350 Ulmus glabra, 84
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 Urtica spp., 85
Ballota nigra, 214 Vaccinium myrtillus, 123
Bellis perennis, 294 Verbascum thapsus, 250
Chamaemelum nobile, 303, 304 Veronica beccabunga, 260
Chondrus crispus, 44 Veronica officinalis, 258, 260
Clinopodium ascendens, 219, 224 cold sores
Cytisus scoparius, 163 Hedera helix, 179
Digitalis purpurea, 255, 256 Hypochaeris maculata, 285
Eryngium maritimum, 182 Lonicera periclymenum, 273
colic Marrubium vulgare, 216

Aphanes arvensis, 150 Urtica dioica, 66
Artemisia absinthium, 300 contusions, see bruises
Centaurium erythraea, 194 convulsions, to treat
Cochlearia officinalis, 120 Arctium spp., 282
Palmaria palmata, 45 Stellaria media, 357
Prunus spinosa, 153 corns
Silaum silaus, 186 Allium ursinum, 329
Stellaria media, 92 Angelica sylvestris, 190
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Chelidonium majus, 79
Valeriana officinalis? 275 Glechoma hederacea, 221
Vinca spp., 196 Hedera helix, 179, 180
complexion, improving Malva sylvestris, 109
Achillea millefolium, 302 Mentha pulegium, 240
Fragaria vesca, 146 Piptoporus betulinus, 49
Fumaria spp., 80 Plantago spp., 248
Geranium robertianum, 176 Poaceae: ‘grass’, 323
Pinguicula vulgaris, 263 Potentilla erecta, 144
Stellaria media, 92 Ranunculus ficaria, 74
Symphytum officinale, 209 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
conception, to aid Salix spp., 116
Tanacetum vulgare, 296 Sempervivum tectorum, 136
congestion, bronchial Silene dioica, 93
Mentha pulegium, 239 Taraxacum officinale, 287, 288
Pinus sp., 65 Umbilicus rupestris, 136
congestion, nasal Urtica spp., 86
Achillea millefolium, 302 cosmetics, unspecified
Mentha pulegium, 239 Iris pseudacorus, 332
Myrica gale, 87 Malus spp., 154
Stachys officinalis, 213 Pedicularis palustris, 262
Vaccinium vitis-idaea, 123 Potentilla anserina, 142, 145
constipation (see also purging) Primula veris, 125
Cochlearia officinalis, 120 Sambucus nigra, 271
Fragaria vesca, 352 Urtica spp., 86
Geranium robertianum, 352 Viola odorata, 112
Laminaria spp., 48 coughs (see also tuberculosis; whooping
Mentha spp., 238 cough)
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Achillea millefolium, 302
Palmaria palmata, 45 Agrimonia spp., 148
Porphyra umbilicalis, 46 Allium ursinum, 328, 329, 350
Rhamnus cathartica, 171 Anaphalis margaritacea, 291
Rubus fruticosus, 355 Artemisia vulgaris, 298
Rubus idaeus, 141 Asplenium trichomanes, 62
Rumex crispus, 97 Ballota nigra, 214
Sambucus nigra, 272 Bellis perennis, 294
consumption, see tuberculosis, pul- Blechnum spicant, 64
monary Calluna vulgaris, 123
contraception Centaurium erythraea, 195
Juniperus communis, 66 Chamaemelum nobile, 303
Chondrus crispus, 44 Trifolium pratense, 162

Cynoglossum officinale, 210 Trifolium dubium, 161
Cytisus scoparius, 163 Trifolium repens, 161
Digitalis purpurea, 257 Tussilago farfara, 309–11
Erica spp., 123 Ulex spp., 163
Eryngium maritimum, 182 Urtica spp., 85
Eupatorium cannabinum, 351 Verbascum thapsus, 250
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 Veronica beccabunga, 260
Geranium robertianum, 176, 238 Veronica officinalis, 258, 260
Glechoma hederacea, 220 cowpox
Hedera helix, 180 Taraxacum officinale, 357
Hypericum spp., 106 cramp
Inula helenium, 92, 293 Achillea millefolium, 301
Leucanthemum vulgare, 305, 306 Alliaria petiolata, 117
Ligusticum scoticum, 353 Cochlearia officinalis, 120
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Daldinia concentrica, 51
Malva sylvestris, 109 Iris foetidissima, 332
Marrubium vulgare, 216 Mentha pulegium, 240
Mastocarpus stellatus, 44 Sonchus spp., 287
Mentha spp., 238 Urtica spp., 86
Menyanthes trifoliata, 202, 203 Verbascum thapsus, 251
Myosotis spp.? 210 Vinca spp., 196
Papaver spp., 78 croup
Phragmites australis, 324 Sempervivum tectorum, 137
Pilosella officinarum, 210, 290 cuts and wounds
Pinus sylvestris, 65 Achillea millefolium, 301
Plantago spp., 247, 248, 354 Agrimonia eupatoria, 148, 350
Polgonatum multiflorum, 327 Ajuga reptans, 219
Polypodium vulgare, 59 Alchemilla vulgaris, 150
Primula veris, 125, 355, 357 Alliaria petiolata, 117
Prunella vulgaris, 223, 345 Anemone nemorosa, 71
Prunus avium, 153 Antennaria dioica, 291
Prunus spinosa, 153 Anthyllis vulneraria, 160
Ribes nigrum, 134 Arctium spp., 282
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118 Artemisia absinthium, 350
Rosa spp., 151 Bellis perennis, 294
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Cirsium spp., 283
Rubus idaeus, 141 Cochlearia officinalis, 120
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Conium maculatum, 188
Sambucus nigra, 355 Convallaria majalis, 326
Scrophularia nodosa, 252 Corylus avellana, 89
Senecio spp., 307 Daucus carota, 191
Sorbus aucuparia, 155 Digitalis purpurea, 256, 257
Stachys officinalis, 213 Filago vulgaris, 291
Stellaria media, 92, 345 Fomes fomentarius, 49
Symphytum officinale, 357 Galium aparine, 269
Taraxacum officinale, 287 Galium odoratum, 267
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Glechoma hederacea, 221
Thymus spp., 224 Hedera helix, 180
cuts and wounds (continued) Verbena officinalis, 211

Hypericum androsaemum, 103 Veronica beccabunga, 260
Inula helenium, 293 Vinca spp., 196
Iris pseudacorus, 332 Viola tricolor, 112
Lamium album, 215 cystitis
Lapsana communis, 285 Achillea millefolium, 302
Leucanthemum vulgare, 306 dandruff
Listera ovata, 333 Salix spp., 116
Lotus corniculatus, 353 Urtica spp., 86
Malvaceae, 108 ‘darn’
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Menyanthes trifoliata, 353
Ophioglossum vulgatum, 56 deafness
Parmelia spp., 41 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Phellinus igniarius, 49 Glechoma hederacea, 221
Phleum pratense, 324 Mentha spp., 238
Pinus sylvestris, 65 Primula veris, 126
Plantago spp., 354 Sempervivum tectorum, 135
Poaceae: ‘grass’, 323 depression
Potentilla erecta, 144 Achillea millefolium, 302, 342
Primula veris, 125 Anagallis arvensis, 127
Primula vulgaris, 124, 125 Cirsium spp., 283
Prunella vulgaris, 222 Hypericum pulchrum, 104
Quercus spp., 355 dermatitis, see rashes
Ranunculus spp., 72 diabetes
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Rosa spp., 151 Geranium robertianum, 176
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Stellaria media, 92
Rumex acetosa, 96 Symphytum officinale, 92
Rumex obtusifolius, 98, 99 Taraxacum officinale, 288
Sambucus nigra, 271 diarrhoea (see also dysentery)
Scrophularia auriculata, 253 Achillea millefolium, 350
Scrophularia nodosa, 252, 253 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Sedum telephium, 138 Calluna vulgaris, 122
Sempervivum tectorum, 137, 356 Capsella bursa-pastoris, 120, 351
Senecio aquaticus, 306, 356 Crataegus monogyna, 351
Senecio jacobaea, 306, 307, 309, 356 Erica spp., 122
Senecio vulgaris, 356 Euphorbia hyberna, 171
Solanum dulcamara, 199 Filipendula ulmaria, 140, 352
Solidago virgaurea, 293 Fumaria spp., 81
Sonchus spp., 287 Geranium pratense, 174
Spergula arvensis, 92 Geranium robertianum, 176, 352
Sphagnum spp., 40 Hypericum elodes, 106, 353
Stachys sp., 212, 214 Hypericum humifusum, 104
Stellaria media, 92, 345 Hypericum pulchrum, 104
Symphytum officinale, 209, 355 Lemna spp., 353
Tanacetum vulgare, 296 Lythrum salicaria, 164
Taraxacum officinale, 288 Menyanthes trifoliata, 201, 203
Valeriana dioica, 274 Oxalis acetosella, 174
Valeriana officinalis, 275 Polygonatum multiflorum, 327
Potentilla anserina, 144 dry disease, in cattle

Potentilla erecta, 123, 144, 152, 354 Pelvetia canaliculata, 358
Potentilla reptans, 354 dry murrain
Prunus spinosa, 153, 355 Rhamnus cathartica, 355
Quercus spp., 88, 355 dysentery (see also diarrhoea)
Rubus fruticosus, 142, 153, 355 Asplenium trichomanes, 62
Rubus idaeus, 141 Botrychium lunaria, 56
Salix spp., 116 Hypericum elodes, 106
Sempervivum tectorum, 356 Lythrum salicaria, 164
Solidago virgaurea, 294 Malvaceae, 109
Symphytum officinale, 357 Sanicula europaea, 181
Taraxacum officinale, 288, 357 Teucrium scorodonia, 218
Urtica spp., 96 earache
Vaccinium myrtillus, 123 Chamaemelum nobile, 303
Verbascum thapsus, 250, 358 Daucus carota, 191
diphtheria Fraxinus excelsior, 249, 344
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Ligustrum vulgare, 250
disinfectant Malus spp., 154
Artemisia absinthium, 300 Marrubium vulgare, 216
Digitalis purpurea, 257 Papaver spp., 78
Piptoporus betulinus, 49 Sempervivum tectorum, 135, 137
distemper Tussilago farfara, 311
Allium ursinum, 350 Umbilicus rupestris, 137
Scutellaria galericulata, 356 ear infections
Valeriana officinalis, 358 Eryngium maritimum, 182
diuretic, see urine, to increase flow of Urtica spp., 86
drinking water, to sweeten eczema
Mentha pulegium, 240 Betula spp., 88, 344
‘drooping’, in birds Chelidonium majus, 80
Linaria vulgaris, 353 Digitalis purpurea, 351
dropsy Hedera helix, 179, 180
Arctium spp., 282 Lamium album, 215
Cytisus scoparius, 162 Prunella vulgaris, 223
Daucus carota, 191 Stellaria media, 91
Digitalis purpurea, 254, 255, 257 Ulmus glabra, 84
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 emetic
Galium palustre, 267 Chamaemelum nobile, 303
Iris foetidissima, 332 Daphne laureola, 165
Juniperus communis, 66 Frangula alnus, 172
Marchantia polymorpha, 39 Glaucium flavum, 78
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Huperzia selago, 54, 55
Parietaria judaica, 86 Linum catharticum, 172
Petasites hybridus, 311 Myrica gale, 87
Primula veris, 126 Narcissus spp., 330
Ruscus aculeatus, 331 emmenagogue, see menstrual obstruction
Sambucus nigra, 272 enemas
Senecio jacobaea, 307 Iris pseudacorus, 331
Urtica spp., 86 enuresis
Agrimonia eupatoria, 148
epilepsy (see also fits) Epilobium sp., 165

Arctium spp., 282 Euphrasia officinalis, 260
Artemisia absinthium, 300 Filipendula ulmaria, 140
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 Geum urbanum, 146
Asplenium ruta-muraria, 62 Glechoma hederacea, 221, 352
Daphne laureola, 165 Hedera helix, 181, 352
Hypericum sp., 104 Huperzia selago, 54
Juniperus communis, 66 Leucanthemum vulgare, 306
Rumex acetosa, 96 Lotus corniculatus, 161
Sambucus nigra, 272 Malus sp., 154
Typha latifolia, 325 Malvaceae, 109
Umbilicus rupestris, 137 Papaver spp., 78
Urtica spp., 86 Plantago spp., 248
Veronica chamaedrys? 259 Ranunculus acris, 72
Viscum album, 167 Ranunculus repens, 72
erysipelas Ranunculus ficaria, 75
Asplenium ruta-muraria, 62 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Bellis perennis, 295 Rubus fruticosus, 142
Cytisus scoparius, 163 Rubus idaeus, 141
Dryopteris filix-mas, 64 Salvia verbenaca, 240
Geranium robertianum, 176 Sambucus nigra, 272
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Samolus valerandi, 128
Potentilla reptans, 144 Sempervivum tectorum, 135, 137
Primula vulgaris, 125 Sorbus aucuparia, 155
Rosa spp., 151 Sphagnum spp., 40
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Stellaria media, 91
Salix spp., 116 Taraxacum officinale, 288
Sambucus nigra, 271 Trifolium pratense, 162
Scrophularia nodosa, 151, 252 Umbilicus rupestris, 135, 137
Sempervivum tectorum, 137 Urtica spp., 85
Umbilicus rupestris, 137 Usnea spp., 42
‘evils’ Valeriana officinalis, 275
Ulmus glabra, 84 Verbena officinalis, 211
expectorant Veronica chamaedrys, 259, 338, 342
Glechoma hederacea, 220 faintness
Veronica beccabunga, 260 Drosera spp., 110
eye troubles (see also cataract) Hyoscyamus niger, 197
Achillea millefolium, 302 fanmadh
Agrimonia eupatoria, 148 Pinus sylvestris, 65
Allium ursinum, 329 farcy
Anagallis arvensis, 128 Allium ursinum, 350
Arrhenatherum elatius var. bulbosum, Conium maculatum, 351
350 Lonicera periclymenum, 353
Bellis perennis, 294 Rumex spp., 355
Centaurea cyanus, 283 Scrophularia nodosa, 356
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 feet, sore or swollen
Chelidonium majus, 72, 80, 128 Conium maculatum, 351
Cochlearia officinalis, 120 Fucus vesiculosus, 47
Dipsacus fullonum, 275 Lamium album, 215
Parmelia omphalodes, 41 Mycelis muralis, 287

Potentilla anserina, 143, 342 Oxalis acetosella? 174
Quercus spp., 88 Palmaria palmata, 45
Rubus fruticosus, 142, 144 Papaver spp., 77
Rumex obtusifolius, 98 Pinus sylvestris, 65
Scrophularia auriculata, 253 Populus alba, 114
Sphagnum spp., 40 Potentilla anserina, 144
Symphytum officinale, 357 Potentilla erecta, 144
feet, sweaty Prunella vulgaris, 223
Fucus vesiculosus, 47 Prunus spinosa, 153
Potentilla anserina, 143 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118,
Quercus spp., 88 339
Rumex fruticosus, 142 Rubus idaeus, 141
Rumex obtusifolius, 98 Rumex acetosa, 96
feet, tired Salix spp., 115
Chondrus crispus, 44 Sempervivum tectorum, 137
Mastocarpus stellatus, 44 Seriphidium maritimum, 297
Potentilla erecta, 144 Tanacetum vulgare, 296
‘felling’ or ‘settering’ of livestock Trifolium pratense, 357
Helleborus foetidus, 352 Umbilicus rupestris, 137
felons (see also whitlows) Verbena officinalis, 211
Allium ursinum, 329 Viscum album, 167
Apium graveolens, 188 fillan
Cynoglossum officinale, 210 Pedicularis palustris, 262
Oenanthe crocata, 185 fits (see also epilepsy)
Pilosella officinarum, 290 Allium ursinum, 350
Pinguicula vulgaris, 263 Cytisus scoparius, 351
Sempervivum tectorum, 137 Galium verum, 352
Senecio vulgaris, 309 Mentha spp., 353
Solanum dulcamara, 198, 199 Myrica gale, 354
Umbilicus, 137 flatulence
festering Arctium spp., 282
Digitalis purpurea, 256, 257 Ligusticum scoticum, 189
Empetrum nigrum, 121 Mentha pulegium, 240
Montia fontana, 90 Meum athamanticum, 187
Plantago spp., 247 Silaum silaus, 186
Scrophularia auriculata, 253 Solidago virgaurea, 294
Solanum dulcamara, 199 fleas
Stellaria media, 90 Digitalis purpurea, 351
Valeriana officinalis, 274 Euonymus europaeus, 351
festilow Pulicaria dysenterica, 293
Senecio vulgaris, 356 fluke
fever (see also agues; puerperal fever; Conium maculatum, 351
scarlet fever; swine fever) Dryopteris filix-mas, 351
Achillea millefolium, 302 Hedera helix, 352
Cardamine pratensis, 119 Myrica gale, 354
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Taraxacum officinale, 357
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 fluxes, see bleeding; diarrhoea;
Menyanthes trifoliata, 202 dysentery
foot-and-mouth disease giddiness

Helleborus foetidus, 352 Conium maculatum, 188
Symphytum ×uplandicum, 357 Viola odorata, 112
foot-rot, in sheep glands, swollen (see also scrofula;
Sambucus nigra, 355 strangles; swellings)
‘foul’ Malvaceae, 108
Oenanthe crocata, 354 Papaver spp., 78
fractures Ranunculus spp., 73
Hypericum sp.? 106 Urtica spp., 86
Malvaceae, 109 goitre
Polygonatum multiflorum, 326–7 ‘luireach’, 48
Sanicula europaea, 181 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
Senecio spp., 356 Urtica spp., 86
Solidago virgaurea? 293 Verbascum thapsus, 251
Symphytum officinale, 208, 357 gonorrhoea
Symphytum tuberosum, 209 Malvaceae, 109
Taraxacum officinale, 288 gout
Veronica officinalis? 358 Alnus glutinosa, 89
freckles, removal of Bryonia dioica, 114
Chelidonium majus, 80 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Dipsacus fullonum, 275 Geranium robertianum, 176
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 Plantago spp., 248
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Sambucus nigra, 272
Pimpinella saxifraga, 184 Tamus communis, 333
Polygonatum multiflorum, 327 Tanacetum vulgare, 296
Potentilla anserina, 142 Verbena officinalis, 211
frets (wind in infants) Veronica officinalis, 258
Silaum silaus, 186 gravel
fumigating Allium oleraceum, 330
Cytisus scoparius, 163 Allium ursinum, 329
Juniperus communis, 66 Anthriscus sylvestris? 182
‘gaa’ Aphanes arvensis, 139, 150
Characeae, 358 Artemisia vulgaris, 298
gallstones Cytisus scoparius, 351
Berberis vulgaris, 76 Daucus carota, 191
Geranium robertianum, 176 Digitalis purpurea, 256
Lysimachia nemorum, 126 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
gangrene Gentianella campestris, 195
Artemisia vulgaris, 351 Geranium robertianum, 176
gapes, in poultry Hypericum spp., 106
Lamium purpureum, 353 Lithospermum officinale, 206
Sanicula europaea, 356 Myrica gale, 354
Senecio aquaticus, jacobaea, 356 Parietaria judaica, 86
Stellaria media, 357 Rubus idaeus, 141
garget, see mastitis Senecio vulgaris, 309
gargling, see throats, sore Vaccinium myrtillus, 124
gathering, see festering gripes, see stomach-aches
germs, to kill; see disinfectant gums, sore
Alliaria petiolata, 117
haemorrhages, see bleeding Thymus spp., 237

haemorrhoids, see piles Tilia ×europaea, 106
hair growth, to promote (see also baldness) Urtica spp., 86
Hypericum spp., 106 Viola odorata, 111, 112
hair tonic, including gloss on horses’ coats heartburn (see also indigestion)
Asplenium trichomanes, 62 Calluna vulgaris, 123
Bryonia dioica, 351 Cytisus scoparius, 163
Daphne laureola, 351 Erica spp., 123
Helleborus viridis, 352 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Sambucus ebulus, 355 Ranunculus spp., 73
hands, cracked Rubus fruticosus, 142
Salicornia europaea, 90 Ulex spp., 163
hangovers heart tonic
Armeria maritima, 100 Calluna vulgaris, 122–3
Papaver spp., 78 Crataegus spp., 156
Salix spp., 116 Erica spp., 122–3
head, to clear Marrubium vulgare, 216
Glechoma hederacea, 219, 220 Oxalis acetosella, 174
head, sore (see also headache) heart trouble (see also palpitations)
Alchemilla vulgaris, 150 Caltha palustris, 70
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Convallaria majalis, 326
headaches (see also migraine) Digitalis purpurea, 20, 254, 255, 257
Achillea millefolium, 302 dub-cosac (a lichen), 43
Anaphalis margaritacea, 291 Marchantia polymorpha, 39
Anemone nemorosa, 71 Mentha spp., 238
Bellis perennis, 294 Menyanthes trifoliata, 203
Cardamine pratensis, 119 Potentilla anserina, 144
Chamaemelum nobile, 303 Prunella vulgaris, 222, 223, 344
Echium vulgare, 207 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 Rumex acetosa, 96
Fraxinus excelsior, 249 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
Glechoma hederacea, 221 Solidago virgaurea, 294
Lamium purpureum, 216 Taraxacum officinale, 96, 288, 345, 346
Lemna minor, 322 Teucrium scorodonia, 218
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Ulex spp., 164
Marrubium vulgare, 216 Urtica spp., 86
Mentha spp., 238 hiccups
Menyanthes trifoliata, 201 Ulex spp., 163
Origanum vulgare, 224 hives, see bowel and stomach irritation
Persicaria bistorta, 94 hoarseness
Plantago spp., 248 Malus sylvestris, 154
Ranunculus spp., 72 Marrubium vulgare, 216
Rumex obtusifolius, 98, 99 Primula vulgaris, 124
Salix spp., 116 Ulex spp., 163
Sempervivum tectorum, 137 hones (chronic swellings in cheeks)
Seriphidium maritimum, 297 Petroselinum segetum, 189
Stachys officinalis, 213 ‘hoose’
Taraxacum officinale, 288 Allium ursinum, 350
Teucrium scorodonia, 218
hunger, allaying pangs of infection, to protect from

Lathyrus linifolius, 161 Tanacetum vulgare, 296
hydrophobia inflammation
Inula helenium, 353 Aphanes arvensis, 151
Peltigera canina, 42 Chamaemelum nobile, 304
Plantago coronopus, 246 Datura stramonium, 199
Ranunculus spp., 73 Galium aparine, 270
hysteria Geranium robertianum, 176
Arctium spp., 282 Hedera helix, 180
Vinca spp., 196 Lemna minor, 322
Viscum album, 167 Lonicera periclymenum, 273
impetigo Malvaceae, 108
Veronica sp., 258 Sambucus nigra, 270
incontinence Senecio jacobaea, 307
Daboecia cantabrica, 121 Senecio vulgaris, 309
indigestion (see also heartburn) Stellaria media, 91, 92
Allium ursinum, 329 Ulmus glabra, 84
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 inhaling
Artemisia absinthium, 300 Chamaemelum nobile, 304
Berberis vulgaris, 76 Fucus vesiculosus, 47
Centaurium erythraea, 194, 195 Fumaria, 81
Centaurea nigra, 285 Glechoma hederacea, 220
Chamaemelum nobile, 303 Myrica gale, 87
Equisetum spp., 55 ‘red-fog’, 48
Gentianella campestris, 195 Vaccinium myrtillus, 124
Hedera helix, 352 Vaccinium vitis-idaea, 123
Heracleum sphondylium, 190 insects, killing or repelling (see also fleas;
Juniperus communis, 66 lice)
Lathyrus linifolius, 161 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Mentha spp., 238 Artemisia vulgaris, 298
Menyanthes trifoliata, 201, 203 Digitalis purpurea, 257
Origanum vulgare, 224 Galium verum, 268
Palmaria palmata, 45 Myrica gale, 87
Pimpinella saxifraga, 184 Tanacetum vulgare, 295
Populus alba, 115 Urtica spp., 86
Porphyra umbilicalis, 45 insomnia
Potentilla anserina, 144 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Potentilla erecta, 144 Calluna vulgaris, 123
Potentilla reptans, 144 Empetrum nigrum, 121
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Erica spp., 123
Sambucus nigra, 272 Humulus lupulus, 84
Stachys officinalis, 213 Lysimachia nemorum, 126
Tanacetum vulgare, 296 Primula veris, 125, 126
Taraxacum officinale, 287, 288 Primula vulgaris, 125, 126, 347
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Scutellaria galericulata, 216
Urtica spp., 86 Solanum dulcamara, 198
Valeriana officinalis, 275 Stellaria media, 91
infected cuts or wounds Tilia ×europaea, 106
Sanicula europaea, 181 Urtica spp., 86
intoxication, preventing Xanthoria parietina, 43

Lathyrus linifolius, 161 joints, to soften; see stiffness
jaundice joints, swollen
Achillea millefolium, 302 Tussilago farfara, 310
Agrimonia eupatoria, 148 kennings, see eye troubles
Arctium spp., 282 kidney stimulant (see also urine, to
Auricularia auricula-judae, 50 increase flow of)
Berberis vulgaris, 76, 80, 351 Chelidonium majus, 80
Centaurea nigra, 284 Rumex acetosa, 96
Centaurium erythraea, 195 kidney stones
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Allium ursinum, 329
Chelidonium majus, 80 Anthriscus sylvestris? 182
Colchicum autumnale, 326 Aphanes arvensis, 139, 150–1
Cytisus scoparius, 162 Palmaria palmata, 45
Drosera spp., 110 Rubus idaeus, 141
Euonymus europaeus, 168 Silaum silaus, 186
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 Vaccinium myrtillus, 123
Gentianella campestris, 195 kidney trouble
Hedera helix, 180 Achillea millefolium, 302
Heracleum sphondylium, 190 Agrimonia eupatoria, 148
Hieracium spp., 290 Alchemilla vulgaris, 150
Hypericum spp., 106 Allium ursinum, 329, 341
Iris pseudacorus, 332 Anagallis arvensis, 128
Juncus inflexus, 322 Anthriscus sylvestris? 183
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Apium graveolens, 189
Mentha spp., 238 Arctium spp., 282
Menyanthes trifoliata, 201, 203 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Phyllitis scolopendrium, 61 Asplenium ruta-muraria? 62
Plantago spp., 248 Calystegia sepium, 200
Primula veris, 125, 346 Capsella bursa-pastoris, 120
Primula vulgaris, 124, 346 Centaurium erythraea, 194
Ranunculus spp., 73 Chondrus crispus, 44
Rosa rubiginosa, 151 Cirsium spp., 283
Rumex acetosa, 96 Cytisus scoparius, 162
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Daucus carota, 191
Ruscus aculeatus, 331 Dryopteris filix-mas? 351
Sambucus nigra, 272 Elytrigia repens, 324
Senecio jacobaea, 307, 345 Filipendula ulmaria, 140
Sinapis arvensis, 121 Galium aparine, 270
Stellaria media, 92 Geranium robertianum, 176, 238
Tanacetum vulgare, 296 Geum urbanum, 146
Taraxacum officinale, 288, 347 Glechoma hederacea, 352
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Hedera helix, 180
Ulex spp., 164 Iris pseudacorus, 332
Ulmus glabra, 84 Juniperus communis, 66
Umbilicus rupestris, 137 Lithospermum officinale, 206
Urtica spp., 86 Malvaceae, 109
Vaccinium myrtillus, 124 Mastocarpus stellatus, 44
Veronica chamaedrys, 116, 259, 262, 338 Melampyrum pratense, 260
kidney trouble (continued) Marchantia polymorpha, 39

Menyanthes trifoliata, 202, 203 Menyanthes trifoliata, 203
Myrica gale, 87 Pinguicula vulgaris, 263
Prunus spinosa, 153 Plantago spp., 248
Ranunculus spp., 73 Potentilla erecta, 144
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118 Rumex crispus, 97
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
Ruscus aculeatus, 331 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
Sambucus nigra, 272 Taraxacum officinale, 288, 347
Saxifraga granulata, 139 Trifolium dubium, 161
Scrophularia nodosa, 252 Trifolium repens, 161
Sedum acre, 139 Valeriana officinalis, 275
Sempervivum tectorum, 137 Verbascum thapsus, 251
Solidago virgaurea, 294 louping ill
Taraxacum officinale, 287 lumbago
Taxus baccata, 67 Thymus spp., 237
Vaccinium myrtillus, 124 lumps, see swellings
Verbascum thapsus, 251 lung complaints (see also respiratory
Veronica beccabunga, 260 complaints; tuberculosis, pulmonary)
lameness Allium ursinum, 329
Inula helenium, 353 Angelica sylvestris, 190
Polygonum lapathifolia, 95 Chondrus crispus, 44
laminitis Daucus carota, 191
Anthriscus sylvestris, 350, 355 Galium odoratum, 267
Sambucus nigra, 355 Glaucium flavum, 78
laxative, see purging Inula helenium, 293
leg, pain in a Lathraea squamaria, 262
‘moss’, 40 Lathyrus linifolius, 161
legs, sore Lobaria pulmonaria, 43
Phyllitis scolopendrium, 60 Mastocarpus stellatus, 44
Stellaria media, 91 Phyllitis scolopendrium, 60
Veronica beccabunga, 260 Taraxacum officinale, 287
lice Tussilago farfara, 309
Drosera spp., 110 Urtica spp., 85
Euonymus europaeus, 167, 351 Verbascum thapsus, 250
Huperzia selago, 353 Veronica officinalis, 258
Oxalis acetosella, 354 madness
lip, sore Primula vulgaris, 124
Hedera helix, 180 mange
Ligustrum vulgare, 250 Digitalis purpurea, 351
Rumex obtusifolius, 98 mastitis
liver complaints Hedera helix, 352
Agrimonia spp., 148 Helleborus foetidus, 352
Bellis perennis, 295 Teucrium scorodonia, 357
Centaurea nigra, 284 measles
Centaurium erythraea, 195 Achillea millefolium, 302
Cytisus scoparius, 162, 163 Allium ursinum, 329
Heracleum sphondylium, 190 Colchicum autumnale, 326
Crocus vernus, 326 morning sickness

Hedera helix, 180 Rubus idaeus, 141
Lamium purpureum, 216 moulting, in cagebirds
Mentha spp., 238 Stellaria media, 357
Myrica gale, 87 mouth, sore (see also thrush; ulcers)
Sambucus nigra, 272 Alisma plantago-aquatica, 319
Senecio jacobaea, 307 Alliaria petiolata, 117
Urtica spp., 85, 345 Geranium robertianum, 176
Vaccinium myrtillus, 124 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
Viscum album, 167 Smyrnium olusatrum, 356
melancholia, see depression mumps
memory, failing Allium ursinum, 329
Primula veris, 125 Hedera helix, 180
Primula vulgaris, 124, 125 Iris foetidissima, 332, 338
menstrual bleeding, to absorb Iris pseudacorus, 332
Sphagnum spp., 40 Ligustrum vulgare, 250
menstrual irregularity Malvaceae, 108
Linum catharticum, 172, 340 Papaver spp., 78
menstrual obstruction Ranunculus spp., 73
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 Stellaria media, 91
Huperzia selago, 55 Urtica spp., 86
Mentha pulegium, 239 muscular pain
Scrophularia nodosa, 253 Stellaria holostea, 92
Tanacetum vulgare, 296 nasal infections
Thalictrum minus, 76 Symphytum officinale, 209
menstruation, excessive nerves, nervousness
Capsella bursa-pastoris, 120 Arctium spp., 282
menstruation, painful; see period pain Calluna vulgaris, 110
menstruation, to suppress Cardamine pratensis, 118
Teucrium scordium, 218–9 Centaurium erythraea, 194
mental disorders Chamaemelum nobile, 303
Hyoscyamus niger, 198 Erica spp., 110
migraine Filipendula ulmaria, 140
Achillea millefolium, 302 Hedera helix, 180
Cladophora spp., 46 Humulus lupulus, 84
Palmaria palmata, 45 Hyoscyamus niger, 198
Primula vulgaris, 124 Hypericum pulchrum, 104
Stachys officinalis, 213 Taraxacum officinale, 288
milk, maternal, to dry up Thymus spp., 224
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Trifolium pratense, 162
milk, maternal, to increase flow of Urtica spp., 86
Polygala spp., 173 Vinca spp., 196
Rubus idaeus, 141 Viscum album, 118, 167
milk, maternal, to relieve congestion of neuralgia
Mentha spp., 238 Cytisus scoparius, 163
miscarriage, to prevent Papaver spp., 78
Rubus idaeus, 141 Quercus spp., 88
‘moorl’ Tussilago farfara, 311
Alchemilla spp., 350
nightmares, to prevent period pain

Chamaemelum nobile, 303 Chamaemelum nobile, 303
Thymus spp., 237 Rubus idaeus, 141
Vinca spp., 196 Tanacetum vulgare, 296
nipples, sore (of nursing mothers) phlegm, to remove
Lapsana communis, 285 Symphytum officinale, 209
Veronica officinalis? 259, 285 piles
nose, blocked; see congestion, nasal Cytisus scoparius, 162
nose, runny Daphne mezereum, 164
linarich, 46 Fagus sylvatica, 87
nosebleed, to induce a Knautia arvensis, 276
Achillea millefolium, 302 Lamium purpureum, 216
nosebleed, to staunch a Lobaria pulmonaria, 43
Alchemilla vulgaris, 301, 302 Lycoperdaceae, 51
Galium saxatile, 268 Plantago spp., 247
Marrubium vulgare, 216 Potentilla anserina, 144
‘moss’, 40 Prunella vulgaris, 223
Myosurus minimus, 75 Prunus spinosa, 153
Polygonum aviculare, 95 Ranunculus ficaria, 74
Senecio vulgaris, 309 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
Urtica spp., 86 Sambucus nigra, 272
Vinca spp., 196 Sanicula europaea, 181
obesity (see also slimming) Scrophularia nodosa, 252
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Urtica spp., 86
oestrus, to bring on Veronica sp., 258
Gentianella campestris, 352 pimples
pain, period; see period pain Plantago spp., 248
pain, unspecified Potentilla anserina, 142
Achillea millefolium, 302 Urtica spp., 85
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 ‘pine’, in livestock
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Menyanthes trifoliata, 353, 357
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 Taraxacum officinale, 357
Hedera helix, 180 pip, in poultry
Linaria vulgaris, 253 Allium ursinum, 350
Plantago spp., 248 Rubus fruticosus, 355
Scrophularia nodosa, 252 Salix alba, 355
Taraxacum officinale, 287, 357 Senecio vulgaris, 356
Vaccinium myrtillus, 123, 124 Stellaria media, 357
palpitations Tanacetum vulgare, 357
Tanacetum vulgare, 296 Taraxacum officinale, 357
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Urtica spp., 358
Viscum album, 167 plague
palsy Petasites hybridus, 311
Arum maculatum, 321 pleurisy
Oxalis acetosella, 174 Chamaemelum nobile, 303
Primula veris, 126 pod belly, in rabbits
paralysis Rubus fruticosus, 355
‘seafog’, 48 poisons, antidote to
Urtica spp., 86 Valeriana officinalis, 274
poliomyelitis-like illness Valeriana officinalis, 274

Pinus sylvestris, 65 Viscum album, 358
pregnancy, to ensure pus, to draw out
Urtica dioica, 358 Allium ursinum, 329
prophylactic, general Eupatorium cannabinum, 313
Agrimonia spp., 147 Geranium robertianum, 276
Eryngium maritimum, 182 Hedera helix, 180
Origanum vulgare, 224 Menyanthes trifoliata, 203
Palmaria palmata, 45 Plantago spp., 247, 248
Pelvetia canaliculata, 47 Rumex obtusifolius, 98
Sambucus nigra, 272 Senecio vulgaris, 309
Smyrnium olusatrum, 183 pus, to promote formation of (suppura-
psoriasis tion)
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Callitriche stagnalis, 245
Galium aparine, 268 Hyacinthoides nonscripta, 328
Juniperus communis, 66 Pilosella officinarum, 290
puerperal fever putrefaction, of corpses, to prevent
Nostoc commune, 44 Taxus baccata, 67
purging (see also constipation) rashes (see also measles)
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 Apium graveolens, 188
Bryonia dioica, 114 Cytisus scoparius, 163
Calystegia sepium, 200 Hedera helix, 179
Calystegia soldanella, 200 Plantago spp., 247
Chelidonium majus, 80 Potentilla reptans, 144
Cuscuta epithymum, 201 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Cytisus scoparius, 162 Rumex obtusifolius, 98–9
Daphne laureola, 165, 351 Rumex palustris, 100
Euphorbia hyberna, 170, 352 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
Frangula alnus, 172 Sedum acre, 138
Glaucium flavum, 78 Sphagnum spp., 40
Iris foetidissima, 332 Stellaria media, 91
Iris pseudacorus, 331 Trifolium pratense, 162
Ligusticum scoticum, 353, 356 Ulex spp., 164
Linum catharticum, 172, 353 Urtica spp., 85
Malva sylvestris, 108 rats and mice, to repel
Mentha pulegium, 240 Digitalis purpurea, 257
Menyanthes trifoliata, 353 Senecio jacobaea, 308
Pinguicula vulgaris, 263 Tanacetum vulgare, 295
Polypodium vulgare, 59 red-water fever
Porphyra spp., 358 Achillea millefolium, 350
Prunus spinosa, 153 Alchemilla spp., 350
Rhamnus cathartica, 171 Digitalis purpurea, 351
Rubus fruticosus, 355 Dryopteris filix-mas, 351
Sambucus nigra, 309, 355 Euphrasia officinalis, 352
Senecio vulgaris, 356 Filago vulgaris, 352
Sorbus aucuparia, 155 Fragaria vesca, 352
Thalictrum flavum, 75 Geranium robertianum, 175, 352
Thalictrum minus, 76 Hypericum pulchrum, 353
Tremella spp., 358 Myrica gale, 354
red-water fever (continued) Knautia arvensis, 276

Potentilla erecta, 354 Lamium album, 215
Ranunculus spp., 355 Linum catharticum, 172
Scrophularia nodosa, 356, 357 Malvaceae, 109
Senecio aquaticus, 356 Marrubium vulgare, 216
Senecio jacobaea, 356 Menyanthes trifoliata, 201–2, 203
Senecio vulgaris, 356 Montia fontana, 90
Stellaria media, 356, 357 Oenanthe fistulosa? 184
Tanacetum vulgare, 357 Osmunda regalis, 58
Urtica dioica, 358 Papaver spp., 77
relaxant Pelvetia canaliculata, 47
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Petasites hybridus, 311, 312
respiratory complaints, generally or Poaceae: ‘grass’, 323
unspecified Primula vulgaris, 124
Arctium spp., 282 Quercus spp., 88
Glechoma hederacea, 221 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Prunella vulgaris, 222 Rubus idaeus, 141
Pulmonaria officinalis, 207 Rumex crispus, 97
Sambucus nigra, 270 Rumex hydrolapathum? 97
Taraxacum officinale, 287 Rumex obtusifolius, 98, 99
Thymus spp., 224, 237 Salix spp., 116
rheumatism Sambucus nigra, 271
Achillea millefolium, 302 Senecio jacobaea, 307
Agrimonia eupatoria, 148 Senecio vulgaris, 309
Allium ursinum, 329 ‘sleek’, 48
Anagallis arvensis, 128 Stellaria media, 90, 91
Angelica sylvestris, 190 Succisa pratensis, 277
Apium graveolens, 188, 189 Symphytum officinale, 209
Arctium spp., 281, 282 Tamus communis, 333
Artemisia absinthium, 300 Tanacetum vulgare, 296
Arum maculatum, 321 Taraxacum officinale, 288
Betula spp., 88 Teucrium scorodonia, 218
Bryonia dioica, 114 Thalictrum minus, 76
Calluna vulgaris, 122, 123 Urtica spp., 85
Centaurea nigra, 284 Verbascum thapsus, 251
Chenopodium album, 90 rickets
Colchicum autumnale, 326 Capsella bursa-pastoris, 120
Conium maculatum, 188 Osmunda regalis, 58, 60
Cytisus scoparius, 162, 163 ringworm
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Allium ursinum, 350
Erica spp., 122, 123 Bellis perennis, 295
Euphorbia helioscopia, 171 Euphorbia helioscopia, 171
Fraxinus excelsior, 249 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Fucus vesiculosus, 46–7 Galium aparine, 352
Galium aparine, 270 Hedera helix, 179, 180
Geranium robertianum, 176 Phyllitis scolopendrium, 61
Heracleum sphondylium, 352 Primula vulgaris, 124
Ilex aquifolium, 168 Quercus spp., 88
Juniperus communis, 66 Ribes nigrum, 133
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Oenanthe crocata? 187

‘rushes’, 322 Oxalis acetosella, 174
Salix spp., 166 Ranunculus hederaceus, 73
Sambucus nigra, 271 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Taxus baccata, 67 Sorbus aucuparia, 155
Ulex spp., 164 Succisa pratensis? 278
Urtica spp., 86 Verbena officinalis, 211
ruptures Veronica beccabunga, 260
Saxifraga ×urbium, 139 scruff
St Vitus’ dance Umbilicus rupestris, 358
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 scurvy
Viscum album, 167 Agrimonia eupatoria, 148
salivation, to promote Calystegia soldanella, 200
Mercurialis perennis, 169 Centaurea nigra, 284
sanity, to restore Cochlearia anglica, 119
Hypericum pulchrum, 105 Cochlearia officinalis, 119, 342
scab, in pigs Cuscuta epithymum, 201
Scrophularia nodosa, 356 Galium aparine, 268
scab, sheep Honckenya peploides, 91
Anemone nemorosa, 350 Palmaria palmata, 45
Conium maculatum, 351 Petasites hybridus, 311
Digitalis purpurea, 351 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Rumex spp., 355 Rumex acetosa, 96
scabies Rumex hydrolapathum, 97
Succisa pratensis, 276–7 Rumex obtusifolius, 99
scalds, see burns and scalds Sinapis arvensis, 120
scar, to prevent a Smyrnium olusatrum, 183
Hypericum androsaemum, 104 Sorbus aucuparia, 155
‘rushes’, 322 Succisa pratensis, 276
scar, to remove a Veronica beccabunga, 260
Potentilla anserina, 143 sedation
scarlet fever Achillea millefolium, 302
Artemisia absinthium, 300 Anthriscus sylvestris, 183
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Chamaemelum nobile, 303, 304
Taraxacum officinale, 287 Cladophora spp., 46
sciatica Erica spp., 122
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 Humulus lupulus, 84
Lamium album, 215 Ligusticum scoticum, 189
Osmunda regalis, 58 Linaria vulgaris, 254
Ranunculus sp., 73 Papaver spp., 77, 78
scour, white Solanum dulcamara, 198
Dryopteris filix-mas? 351 Stellaria media, 91
Potentilla erecta, 354 Thymus spp., 237
scratches, see cuts Urtica spp., 86
scrofula Vinca spp., 196
Arctium spp., 282 Viola odorata, 112
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 Viscum album, 167
Leucanthemum vulgare? 306 semen, to increase
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Galium aparine, 352
‘settering’ or ‘felling’ of livestock Salicornia europaea, 90

Helleborus foetidus, 352 Sambucus nigra, 270
sexual arousal Scrophularia nodosa, 252, 253
Euphorbia helioscopia, 171 Sempervivum tectorum, 136
Silene vulgaris, 356 Succisa pratensis, 276
shingles Symphytum officinale, 209
Dryopteris filix-mas, 64 Taraxacum officinale, 287
Galium saxatile, 268 Ulmus glabra, 83–4
Petasites hybridus, 311 Umbilicus rupestris, 136
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Vinca spp., 196
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Viola odorata, 112
‘rushes’. 322 sleep, to induce; see sedation
Sedum acre, 138 slimming
Stellaria holostea, 92 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Teucrium scorodonia, 92, 218 Stellaria media, 91
Umbilicus rupestris, 92 smallpox
Urtica spp., 86 Helleborus viridis, 71
sinuses, blocked sores, generally or unspecified
Myrica gale, 87 Achillea millefolium, 301
Vaccinium vitis-idaea, 123 Alchemilla vulgaris, 150
skin, to smoothen Conium maculatum, 188
Pinguicula vulgaris, 263 Daucus carota, 191
skin cleansant Empetrum nigrum, 121
Fumaria spp., 80 Geranium robertianum, 176
Potentilla anserina, 142 Glechoma hederacea, 221
Urtica spp., 86 Humulus lupulus, 84
skin tonic Malvaceae, 108, 353
Huperzia selago, 55 Parmelia sp., 41
skin troubles, unspecified Petasites hybridus, 311
Arctium spp., 280 Pilosella officinarum, 290
Bellis perennis, 295 Pinus sylvestris, 65
Carlina vulgaris, 280 Polygonatum multiflorum, 327
Cochlearia spp., 119 Potentila erecta, 144
Cynoglossum officinale, 211 Primula vulgaris, 124
Digitalis purpurea, 256, 257 Rubus fruticosus, 142
Galium aparine, 268 Rumex acetosa, 96
Geranium robertianum, 176, 238 Rumex obtusifolius, 98
Glechoma hederacea, 221 Sempervivum tectorum, 356
Hedera helix, 179 Senecio jacobaea, 307
Hypochaeris maculata, 285 Smyrnium olusatrum, 356
Juniperus communis, 66 Sphagnum spp., 40
Lamium album, 215 Stachys spp., 214
Malvaceae, 108 Stellaria media, 93, 345
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Succisa pratensis, 276, 278
Pinguicula vulgaris, 263 Umbilicus rupestris, 358
Primula vulgaris, 125 Urtica spp., 85
Ranunculus spp., 72 Verbascum thapsus, 251, 358
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Verbena officinalis, 211
Rumex crispus, 97 Vinca spp., 196
sores, friction (including saddle galls) stiffness

Hypericum perforatum, 106 Galium aparine, 270
Lycoperdaceae, 358 Ilex aquifolium, 168
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Malvaceae, 109
Myrica gale, 354 Stellaria media, 91
Plantago spp., 247 Tamus communis, 357
Quercus spp., 355 stimulant
Rumex obtusifolius, 98 Agrimonia eupatoria, 146
Stachys spp., 214 Persicaria hydropiper, 95
Umbilicus rupestris, 358 Tamus communis, 357
splinters, drawing out; see thorns stings
spots Anagallis arvensis, 128
Arctium spp., 96 Lonicera periclymenum, 273
Filago vulgaris, 291 Mentha spp., 238
Petasites hybridus, 311 ‘moss’, 40
Polygonatum multiflorum, 327 Phyllitis scolopendrium, 61
Potentilla anserina, 142 Plantago spp., 248
Primula veris, 126 Rumex spp., 98
Primula vulgaris, 124 Sambucus nigra, 271
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Sempervivum tectorum, 137
Rumex acetosa, 96 Senecio jacobaea, 307
Urtica spp., 96 Taraxacum officinale, 287
sprains and dislocations Trifolium pratense, 162
Cytisus scoparius, 163 Umbilicus rupestris, 137
Digitalis purpurea, 257 Urtica spp., 86
Fucus vesiculosus, 47 Verbascum thapsus, 251
Hedera helix, 180 Viola odorata, 112
Hypericum perforatum, 106 stitches
Hypericum pulchrum, 106 Cochlearia officinalis, 120
Malus sylvestris, 154 Fucus vesiculosus, 47
Malvaceae, 109, 353 Origanum vulgare, 354
Osmunda regalis, 56–8, 84 ‘red-fog’, 48
Quercus spp., 88 Stellaria holostea, 92
Salvia verbenaca, 240 stomach, to calm or strengthen
Sambucus nigra, 272 Chamaemelum nobile, 303
Scrophularia nodosa, 252, 345 Cochlearia officinalis, 120
Senecio jacobaea, 307 Lathyrus linifolius, 161
‘sleek’, 48 Menyanthes trifoliata, 353
Sphagnum spp., 40 Palmaria palmata, 45
Stellaria media, 91 stomach-ache
Symphytum officinale, 57, 208, 357 Allium ursinum, 329
Taraxacum officinale, 288 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Chondrus crispus, 44
Tussilago farfara, 310 Galium aparine, 270
Ulmus glabra, 84 Geranium robertianum, 176
staggers Glaucium flavum, 78
Senecio aquaticus, 356 Hyoscyamus niger, 198
Senecio jacobaea, 356 Malvaceae, 109
Mastocarpus stellatus, 44
stomach-ache (continued) Cytisus scoparius, 162

Mentha spp., 238 Digitalis purpurea, 256, 257
Palmaria palmata, 45 Fucus vesiculosus, 47
Primula vulgaris, 125 Galium aparine, 270
Senecio jacobaea, 356 Helleborus viridis, 352
Taraxacum officinale, 288 Lemna minor, 322
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Malvaceae, 109, 353
stomach ailments, unspecified Oenanthe crocata, 186
Bellis perennis, 295 Petasites hybridus, 311
Calluna vulgaris, 123 Phellinus pomaceus, 49
Erica spp., 123 Plantago spp., 248
Mentha spp., 238 Ranunculus spp., 72
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Scrophularia nodosa, 252 Rubus fruticosus, 142
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Sambucus ebulus, 272
stomach upsets, see diarrhoea Sambucus nigra, 270
strangles Scrophularia nodosa, 252, 345
Digitalis purpurea, 351 Sedum anglicum, 139, 356
Sorbus aucuparia, 357 Sempervivum tectorum, 137
stroke Senecio vulgaris, 309
Prunella vulgaris, 223 Stellaria media, 91, 92, 347
Scrophularia nodosa, 253 Symphytum officinale, 84, 208, 357
sunburn Taraxacum officinale, 288
Carpobrotus spp., 90 Teucrium scorodonia, 217
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 Tussilago farfara, 310, 311
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Ulex spp., 164
Potentilla erecta, 144 Ulmus glabra, 84
Rumex palustris, 100 Urtica spp., 86
Verbena officinalis, 211 Verbena officinalis, 211
suntan, removal of swine fever
Chelidonium majus, 80 Polygonum aviculare, 354
Polygonatum multiflorum, 327 Symphytum officinale, 357
Potentilla anserina, 142 syphilis
Tamus communis, 333 Spergula arvensis? 93
sweating, to induce tapeworm
Achillea millefolium, 302 Dryopteris filix-mas, 64
Armeria maritima, 100 ‘teart’, in cattle
Colchicum autumnale? 326 Urtica dioica, 358
Nepeta cataria, 219 teeth, to clean
Palmaria palmata, 45 Petasites hybridus? 97
Sambucus nigra, 270 Ranunculus ficaria, 75
sweating, night, to relieve Rumex hydrolapathum? 97
Populus alba, 114 teething
swellings (see also blasts; hones; mumps; Hyoscyamus niger, 198
sprains) Juniperus communis, 66
Allium ursinum, 329 Lycium barbarum, 197
Aquilegia vulgaris, 75 Malvaceae, 109
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Papaver spp., 77
Conium maculatum, 188 Sambucus nigra, 197
Senecio vulgaris, 309 Vaccinium myrtillus, 124

tetanus, to prevent Verbascum thapsus, 250
Lycoperdaceae, 51 Viburnum lantana, 273
tetters, see cold sores throat ailments
thorns and splinters, drawing out Hyacinthoides nonscripta, 328
Crataegus spp., 156 Iris foetidissima, 332
Glechoma hederacea, 221 Iris pseudacorus, 331
Hedera helix, 180 Malus sylvestris, 154
Orchis mascula, 334 Pilosella officinarum, 290
Pilosella officinarum, 290 Potentilla erecta, 144
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Prunus spinosa, 153
Senecio vulgaris, 309 thrush
Valeriana officinalis? 275 Lonicera periclymenum, 273, 344
throat, sore Peltigera aphthosa, 42
Agrimonia eupatoria, 147 Rubus fruticosus, 355
Alliaria petiolata, 117 Taraxacum officinale, 288
Allium ursinum, 329 ticks
Auricularia auricula-judae, 50 Oxalis acetosella, 354
Chamaemelum nobile, 303 tinnitus
Chondrus crispus, 44 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Crataegus spp., 156 tongue, sore
Digitalis purpurea, 256 Trifolium pratense, 357
Filipendula ulmaria, 140 tonic (see also blood, purifying; blood,
Fucus vesiculosus, 47 tonic for; heart tonic; skin tonic)
Geranium robertianum, 176 Achillea millefolium, 302
Ligustrum vulgare, 250 Agrimonia spp., 146
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Angelica sylvestris, 190
Lycopodium clavatum, 55 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Lysimachia vulgaris, 136 Betula spp., 88
Malvaceae, 109 Bryonia dioica, 351
Marrubium vulgare, 216 Centaurium erythraea, 194
Mastocarpus stellatus, 44 Chamaemelum nobile, 304
Myrica gale, 87 Filipendula ulmaria, 140
Palmaria palmata, 45 Galium aparine, 268
Pimpinella saxifraga, 184 Gentianella campestris, 195
Prunus spinosa, 153 Glechoma hederacea, 221, 339, 342
Quercus spp., 88 Hypericum pulchrum, 104
Rosa spp., 151 Inula helenium, 353
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Juniperus communis, 353
Rubus idaeus, 141, 142 Leonurus cardiaca, 215
Rumex acetosa, 96 Menyanthes trifoliata, 201, 345
Scrophularia nodosa, 252 Ophioglossum vulgatum, 56
Senecio jacobaea, 307 Plantago spp., 248
Sorbus aucuparia, 155 Potentilla erecta, 144
Stellaria media, 92, 345 Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118
Succisa pratensis, 276 Rubus fruticosus, 142
Tussilago farfara, 309 Rumex spp., 99
Ulex spp., 163 Salicornia europaea, 90
Ulmus glabra, 84 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
tonic (continued) Symphytum officinale, 209

Senecio vulgaris, 309 Taraxacum officinale, 288
Sinapis arvensis, 121 Trifolium dubium, 161
Solanum dulcamara, 199 Trifolium pratense, 162
Stachys officinalis, 212 Trifolium repens, 161
Stellaria media, 92 Typha latifolia, 325
Symphytum officinale, 357 Vinca spp., 196
Tamus communis, 357 tuberculosis, pulmonary
Taraxacum officinale, 287 Allium vineale, 330
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 Armeria maritima, 100
Ulex spp., 163 Artemisia vulgaris, 298
Urtica spp., 85, 358 Berberis vulgaris, 76
Valeriana officinalis, 274 Calluna vulgaris, 122
Verbena officinalis, 211 Centaurea nigra, 284
Viscum album, 358 Chamaemelum nobile, 304
tonsillitis Chondrus crispus, 44
Cladophora spp., 46 Cirsium spp., 283
Potentilla erecta, 144 Digitalis purpurea, 256, 257
Sambucus nigra, 272 Erica spp., 122
Senecio vulgaris, 356 Geranium robertianum, 352
toothache Inula helenium, 293
Achillea millefolium, 302 Lathraea squamaria, 262
Achillea ptarmica, 300 Leucanthemum vulgare, 306
Allium ursinum, 329 Ligusticum scoticum, 189
Bellis perennis, 294 Lobaria polmonaria, 43
Chamaemelum nobile, 303 Lonicera periclymenum, 273
Crataegus spp., 156 Marchantia polymorpha, 39
Cytisus scoparius, 163 Mastocarpus stellatus, 44
Fraxinus excelsior, 249 Menyanthes trifoliata, 202, 353
Hyoscyamus niger, 198 Primula veris, 125
Inula helenium, 293 Prunella vulgaris, 223, 345
Iris pseudacorus, 331, 332, 339 Pulmonaria officinalis, 207
Lamium album, 215 Ranunculus spp., 73
Malvaceae, 109 Rubus idaeus, 141
Mentha spp., 238 Rumex acetosa, 96
Papaver spp., 78 Sanicula europaea, 181
Persicaria bistorta, 94 Scrophularia nodosa, 252
Peucedanum ostruthium, 190 Seriphidium maritimum, 297
Pimpinella saxifraga, 184 Smyrnium olusatrum, 183
Persicaria hydropiper, 95 Solidago virgaurea, 294
Primula vulgaris, 125 Taraxacum officinale, 287, 345, 346
Quercus spp., 88 Teucrium scorodonia, 218
Ranunculus spp., 72 Thymus spp., 224, 237
Sambucus nigra, 272 Ulex spp., 163
Scandix pecten-veneris, 183 Umbilicus rupestris, 137
Senecio vulgaris, 309 Urtica spp., 85
Smyrnium olusatrum, 183 Valeriana officinalis, 275
Sorbus aucuparia, 155 Verbascum thapsus, 250, 358
Succisa pratensis, 277 tumours, see cancers
udders, see breasts Conopodium majus, 184

ulcers Cytisus scoparius, 26, 162
Agrimonia spp., 148 Daucus carota, 191
Alliaria petiolata, 117 Equisetum spp., 55
Digitalis purpurea, 257 Geranium robertianum, 176
Fistulina hepatica, 49 Glechoma hederacea, 221
Galium aparine, 268, 269 Iris foetidissima, 332
Glechoma hederacea, 221 Juniperus communis, 66
Humulus lupulus, 84 Pilosella officinarum, 290
Malvaceae, 108 Rumex acetosa, 96
Menyanthes trifoliata, 203 Ruscus aculeatus, 331
Ophioglossum vulgatum, 354 Senecio vulgaris, 309
Platanthera chlorantha, 334 Silaum silaus, 186
Quercus spp., 88 Taraxacum officinale, 26, 287
Ranunculus spp., 72 urological complaints
Rubus fruticosus, 142 Calluna vulgaris, 122
Rumex hydrolapathum? 97 Erica spp., 122
Sambucus ebulus, 355 urtication
Sanicula europaea, 181 Urtica spp., 86
Scrophularia auriculata, 253 varicose veins
Scrophularia nodosa, 253 Corylus avellana, 89
Stellaria media, 91 Malvaceae, 109
Symphytum officinale, 209 Plantago spp., 247
Taraxacum officinale, 287 venereal disease (see also gonorrhoea;
Teucrium scorodonia, 218 syphilis)
Umbilicus rupestris, 137 Daphne laureola, 165
Viola odorata, 112 Spergula arvensis, 93
urinary trouble (see also cystitis; enuresis; verrucas
gravel) Hedera helix, 179
Agrimonia eupatoria, 148 vomit, see emetic
Arctium spp., 282 warts
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, 122 Allium ursinum, 329
Elytrigia repens, 324 Anagallis arvensis, 128
Euphorbia spp., 171 Arum maculatum, 321
Linum catharticum, 172 Calystegia sepium, 200
Malvaceae, 109, 110 Chelidonium majus, 79, 351
Persicaria bistorta, 94 Dipsacus fullonum, 276
Pilosella officinarum, 290 Drosera spp., 110
Ruscus aculeatus, 331 Euphorbia spp., 171, 173
Stellaria media, 91 Fraxinus excelsior, 249
Vaccinium myrtillus, 123 Galium aparine, 270
Veronica beccabunga, 260 Hedera helix, 179, 180, 352
urine, absorbing Heracleum sphondylium, 190
Sphagnum spp., 40 Hypericum spp., 106
urine, to decrease flow of Linaria vulgaris, 253
Conopodium majus, 351 Lycoperdaceae, 51
urine, to increase flow of Malus sylvestris, 154
Anagallis arvensis, 128 Malvaceae, 110
Artemisia vulgaris, 298 Papaver spp., 78
warts (continued) Stellaria holostea, 92

Phyllitis scolopendrium, 61 Viscum album, 167
Plantago spp., 248 wind, see flatulence
Poaceae: ‘grass’, 323 windgall
Prunus spinosa, 151, 342 Sempervivum tectorum, 356
Ranunculus ficaria, 74 Senecio aquaticus, 356
Ranunculus spp., 72, 73, 342 Senecio jacobaea, 356
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118 worms, intestinal
Rumex acetosa, 96 Achillea millefolium, 302
Rumex obtusifolius, 99 Allium ursinum, 329, 350
‘rushes’, 322 Artemisia absinthium, 300
Salix spp., 116 Artemisia vulgaris, 298
Sambucus nigra, 271 Buxus sempervirens, 169
Sempervivum tectorum, 136 Cytisus scoparius, 351
Senecio jacobaea, 307 Eryngium maritimum, 182
Senecio vulgaris, 309 Erysimum cheiranthoides, 117
Silene dioica, 93, 342 Fumaria spp., 81, 352
Sonchus spp., 286 Geranium robertianum, 352
Symphytum officinale, 209 Helleborus foetidus, 70
Taraxacum officinale, 287 Juniperus communis, 353
Thymus spp., 237 Myrica gale, 87
Umbilicus rupestris, 136 Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp. major,
Verbascum lychnitis, 251 354
water problems, see urinary trouble Palmaria palmata, 45
whitlows (see also felons) Peltigera aphthosa, 42
Ajuga reptans, 219 Pelvetia canaliculata, 47
Bellis perennis, 164, 295 Persicaria bistorta, 94
Chamaemelum nobile, 304 Potentilla erecta, 144
Erophila verna, 119 Prunella vulgaris, 223
Hyacinthoides nonscripta, 328 Prunus spinosa, 153
Pilosella officinarum, 290 Quercus spp., 88
Ulex spp., 164 Sedum acre, 139, 356
whooping cough Sempervivum tectorum, 137
Anaphalis margaritacea? 291 Seriphidium maritimum, 296
Cladonia chlorophaea, 41 Sorbus aucuparia, 155
Drosera spp., 110, 111 Tanacetum vulgare, 295, 296, 357
Galium aparine, 270 Teucrium scorodonia, 219, 357
Hedera helix, 180 Thalictrum minus, 76
Hyoscyamus niger, 198 Ulex spp., 164
Ilex aquifolium, 168 Urtica spp., 86
Inula helenium, 293 Verbena officinalis, 211
Lonicera periclymenum, 273 Veronica spp., 358
Mentha spp., 238 wounds, see cuts
Pilosella officinarum, 290 wrinkles, removal of
Polypodium vulgare, 60 Chelidonium majus, 80
Silybum marianum? 282 Primula veris, 126
Index of Scientific Names
8
Achillea millefolium, 95, 301, 342, 350 Anemone nemorosa, 71, 350
Achillea ptarmica, 300 Angelica archangelica, 189
Acorus calamus, 320, Plate 28 Angelica sylvestris, 187, 189
Adiantaceae, 58 Antennaria dioica, 291
Adiantum capillus-veneris, 19, 58 Anthemis arvensis, 304
Agaricus campestris, 48 Anthemis cotula, 305
Agrimonia eupatoria, 146–7, 350 Anthemis nobilis, see Chamaemelum
Agrimonia procera, 146–8, 350 nobile, 302–4, 306, 348
Agropyron repens, see Elytrigia repens, 323, Anthriscus sylvestris, 182–3, 350, 351, 355
324 Anthyllis vulneraria, 160, 161
Agrostemma githago, 93 Aphanes arvensis, 139, 150
Agrostis alba, see A. stolonifera, 323–4 Apiaceae, 181
Agrostis stolonifera, 323–4 Apium graveolens, 188
Aizoaceae, 89 Apium nodiflorum, 189
Ajuga reptans, 212, 219 Apocynaceae, 196
Alchemilla vulgaris, 149–50, 347, 350 Aquilegia vulgaris, 75
Alisma plantago-aquatica, 319 Araceae, 320
Alismataceae, 319 Araliaceae, 179
Alliaceae (Allium, Liliaceae), 325 Arctium, 93, 96, 280–2, 340, 348
Alliaria petiolata, 117 Arctium lappa, 281
Allium ampeloprasum, var. babingtonii, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, 122, Plate 6
330 Argentina anserina, see Potentilla anse-
Allium oleraceum, 330 rina, 142–4, 145, 339, 342
Allium ursinum, 117, 328, 330, 341, 347, Armeria maritima, 100
350, Plate 29 Arrhenatherum elatius var. bulbosus, 350
Allium vineale, 33 Artemisia, 297; see also Seriphidium
Alnus glutinosa, 89, Plate 3 Artemisia absinthium, 299, 341, 350
Althaea officinalis, 10, 352, Plate 4 Artemisia maritima, see Seriphidium mar-
Amaryllidaceae (Narcissus, Liliaceae), 330 itimum, 296
Anagallis arvensis, 127–8, 340 Artemisia vulgaris, 215, 297–9, 351
Anaphalis margaritacea, 2 Arum maculatum, 321
Anchusa arvensis, 210 Asparagaceae (Ruscus, Liliaceae), 330, 343
409
410 Index of Scientific Names
Asperula odorata, see Galium odoratum, Calystegia sepium, 200

267, 268 Calystegia soldanella, 200, 342
Aspleniaceae, 60 Cannabaceae, 84
Asplenium ruta-muraria, 62 Caprifoliaceae, 270
Asplenium scolopendrium, see Phyllitis Capsella bursa-pastoris, 120
scolopendrium, 60–1, 347 Cardamine pratensis, 118
Asplenium trichomanes, 62, 339 Carlina vulgaris, 280
Asteraceae, 280 Carpobrotus acinaciformis, 24, 89
Athyriaceae, see Woodsiaceae, 62 Carpobrotus edulis, 24, 89
Athyrium filix-femina, 62 Caryophyllaceae, 91
Atropa belladonna, 185, 197 Celastraceae, 1
Auricularia auricula-judae, 50 Centaurea cyanus, 283
Ballota nigra, 214 Centaurea nigra, 284–5
Barbarea intermedia, 117–8 Centaurium erythraea, 194–5, 348
Barbarea vulgaris, 117–8 Centaurium minus, see C. erythraea,
Bellis perennis, 294, 305 194–5, 348
Berberidaceae, 76 Centaurium umbellatum, see C. erythraea,
Berberis vulgaris, 76, 80, 331, 343, 351 194–5, 348
Betonica officinalis, see Stachys officinalis, Cerastium spp., 289
212–13 Chamaemelum nobile, 302–4, 306, 348
Betula, 344 Characeae, 358
Betulaceae, 88 Chelidonium majus, 16, 72, 78–80, 128,
Betula pendula, 88 291, 350
Betula pubescens, 88 Chenopodiaceae, 90
Blechnaceae, 64 Chenopodium album, 90
Blechnum spicant, 64 Chenopodium bonus-henricus, 169
Boraginaceae, 206 Chlorophycota, 43
Botrychium lunaria, 56 Chondrus crispus, 41, 44, 339
Bovista nigrescens, 50 Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, see
Brassicaceae, 115 Leucanthemum vulgare, 305, 339
Brassica rapa, 121 Chrysanthemum segetum, 305
Briza media, 323, 324 Chrysosplenium, 139
Brunella, see Prunella Circaea alpina, 166
Bryonia cretica subsp. dioica, see B. dioica, Circaea ×intermedia, 165
113–4, 333, 350 Circaea lutetiana, 165
Bryonia dioica, 113–4, 333, 350 Cirsium, 351
Bryophyta, 39 Cirsium arvense, 282–3
Buxaceae, 16 Cirsium vulgare, 283, 351
Buxus sempervirens, 168–9 Cistaceae, 111
Calamintha ascendens, see Clinopodium Cladoniaceae, 41
ascendens, 219, 224 Cladonia chlorophaea, 41
Calamintha sylvatica, See Clinopodium Cladophora, 46
ascendens, 219, 224 Claviceps purpurea, 51
Calendula officinalis, 305 Clinopodium ascendens, 219, 224
Callitrichaceae, 245 Clusiaceae, 103
Callitriche stagnalis, 245 Cnicus benedictus, 283
Calluna vulgaris, 122, Plate 7 Cochlearia, 118
Caltha palustris, 70, 344, Plate 2 Cochlearia anglica, 119
Calystegia scammonia, 200 Cochlearia officinalis, 119, 200, 342
Colchicaceae (Colchicum, Liliaceae), 325 Dryopteridaceae, 63

Colchicum autumnale, 325–6 Dryopteris filix-mas, 63–4, 351
Compositae, see Asteraceae, 280 Echium vulgare, 207
Conium maculatum, 185, 187, 197, 351, Elymus repens, see Elytrigia repens, 323,
353, Plate 18 324
Conopodium majus, 184, 351 Elytrigia repens, 323, 324
Convallariaceae (Convallaria, Polygona- Empetraceae, 12
tum; Liliaceae), 326 Empetrum nigrum, 121
Convallaria majalis, 326 Endymion nonscriptus, see Hyacinthoides
Convolvulaceae, 20 nonscripta, 328
Convolvulus arvensis, 200 Enteromorpha, 46
Corylus avellana, 89, 351 Epilobium, 165
Cotyledon umbilicus-veneris, see Umbilicus Equisetaceae, 55
Crassulaceae, 134 Equisetum, 55, 341
Crataegus laevigata, 155 ‘Erica baccifera’, see Empetrum nigrum, 121
Crataegus monogyna, 155, 344, 351, Plate Ericaceae, 121
13 Erica cinerea, 122
Crataegus oxycanthoides, see C. laevigata, Erica tetralix, 122, Plate 8
155 Eriophorum angustifolium, 322
Crithmum maritimum, 184, Plate 17 Erophila verna, 119
Crocus sativus, 325–6 Eryngium maritimum, 181–2
Crocus vernus, 325 Erysimum cheiranthoides, 117
Cruciferae, see Brassicaceae, 116 Euonymus europaeus, 167, 351
Cucurbitaceae, 113 Eupatorium cannabinum, 312, 351
Cupressaceae, 65 Euphorbia, 352
Cuscutaceae, 200 Euphorbia amygdaloides, 170
Cuscuta epithymum, 201 Euphorbiaceae, 169
Cuscuta europaea, 200 Euphorbia helioscopia, 169–71, 173
Cynoglossum officinale, 210 Euphorbia hyberna, 170, 171, 352
Cyperaceae, 322 Euphorbia lathyrus, 170
Cytisus scoparius, 26, 162, 344, 351 Euphorbia paralias, 170
Daboecia cantabrica, 121 Euphorbia peplus, 170
Dactylorchis, see Dactylorhiza Euphrasia officinalis, 148, 165, 260–2, 352
Dactylorhiza maculata subsp. ericetorum, Fabaceae, 160
334–5, Plate 30 Fagaceae, 87
Dactylorhiza purpurella, 334 Fagus sylvatica, 87
Daldinia concentrica, 51 Fallopia convolvulus, 200
Daphne laureola, 164–5, 351 Ficaria, see Ranunculus
Daphne mezereum, 164–5 Filago germanica, see F. vulgaris, 290–1,
Datura stramonium, 199, Plate 21 352
Daucus carota, 191, 351 Filago vulgaris, 290–1, 352
Dennstaedtiaceae, 60 Filipendula hexapetala, see F. ulmaria, 140,
Descurainia sophia, 116 352
Digitalis purpurea, 20, 254–7, 351 Filipendula ulmaria, 140, 352
Dioscoreaceae, 333 Fistulina hepatica, 49
Dipsacaceae, 275 Foeniculum vulgare, 186
Dipsacus fullonum, 275, Plate 26 Fomes fomentarius, 48–9
Drosera, 110 Fontinalis antipyretica, 40
Droseraceae, 110 Fragaria, 141
Fragaria vesca, 145, 352, Plate 11 Hydrocotyle vulgaris, 70, 181, 320
Frangula alnus, 172 Hylotelephium telephium, see Sedum tele-
Fraxinus excelsior, 248, 344, 352 phium, 138
Fucus vesiculosus, 46 Hymenomycetes, 48
Fumaria, 81, 352 Hyoscyamus niger, 197, 198, 199, Plate 20
Fumariaceae, 81 Hypericaceae, see Clusiaceae, 103
Galium aparine, 268–70, 352 Hypericum, 26
Galium odoratum, 267, 268 Hypericum androsaemum, 103, 104
Galium palustre, 267 Hypericum elodes, 104, 106, 353
Galium saxatile, 268 Hypericum humifusum, 104
Galium verum, 268, 352 Hypericum perforatum, 104–6
Gasteromycetes, 50 Hypericum pulchrum, 104, 106, 353
Genista tinctoria, 163 Hypericum tetrapterum, 104
Gentiana, 195; see also Gentianella Hypochaeris maculata, 285
Gentianaceae, 194 Ilex aquifolium, 168, 342, Plate 14
Gentiana lutea, 195 Inula helenium, 16, 190, 291–2, 353
Gentianella campestris, 195, 352 Iridaceae, 325, 331
Geraniaceae, 174 Iris foetidissima, 332, 338, 344
Geranium, 270 Iris ×germanica, 198
Geranium pratense, 174 Iris pseudacorus, 332, 339
Geranium robertianum, 175–6, 338, 344, Juncaceae, 322
347, 352 Juncus, 347
Geum urbanum, 146, Plate 12 Juncus inflexus, 322
Gigartina stellata, see Mastocarpus stella- Juniperus communis, 65, 353, Plate 1
tus, 41, 44, 339 Juniperus sabina, 65
Glaucium flavum, 78, 340 Kickxia, see under Veronica officinalis, 258
Glechoma hederacea, 219–21, 339, 342, 352 Knautia arvensis, 276
Gnaphalium sylvaticum, 290–1 Labiatae, see Lamiaceae, 212
Gramineae, see Poaceae, 323 Lamiaceae, 212
Grossulariaceae, 133 Laminaria digitata, 47
Guttiferae, see Clusiaceae, 103 Laminaria hyperborea, 47
Hedeoma pulegioides, 238 Lamium album, 215, Plate 23
Hedera helix, 179, 347, 352 Lamium purpureum, 215–6, 353
Helianthemum chamaecistus, see H. num- Lapsana communis, 285
mularium, 111 Larix decidua, 65
Helianthemum nummularium, 111 Lastrea, see Dryopteris
Helleborus foetidus, 70–1, 352 Lathraea squamaria, 262
Helleborus viridis, 71, 352 Lathyrus linifolius, 161, 339
Hepaticae, 39 Lathyrus montanus, see L. linifolius, 161,
Heracleum sphondylium, 187, 190, 351, 352 339
Hieracium, 290 Lavatera arborea, 107
Hieracium pilosella, see Pilosella offici- Leguminosae, see Fabaceae, 160
narum, 210, 289–90, 343 Lemnaceae, 322
Honckenya peploides, 91 Lemna minor, 322
Humulus lupulus, 84 Lemna spp., 339, 353
Huperzia selago, 54–5, 353 Lentibulariaceae, 263
Hyacinthaceae (Hyacinthoides, Liliaceae), Leonurus cardiaca, 211, 215, 298
328 Lepidium latifolium, 120
Hyacinthoides nonscripta, 328 Leucanthemum vulgare, 305, 339
Ligusticum scoticum, 189, 353, 356 Mentha aquatica, 237

Ligustrum ovalifolium, 250 Mentha ×piperita, 237
Ligustrum vulgare, 250 Mentha pulegium, 188, 224, 237, 238–40,
Liliaceae, 325 340
Lilium candidum, 98 Mentha spicata, 237
Linaceae, 172 Menyanthaceae, 201
Linaria vulgaris, 253, 353 Menyanthes trifoliata, 86, 201–3, 341, 345,
Linum catharticum, 172, 284, 323, 340, 353 353, 357
Listera ovata, 333 Mercurialis perennis, 169
Lithospermum officinale, 206 Mesembryanthemum, see Carpobrotus
Lobariaceae, 42 Meum athamanticum, 186
Lobaria pulmonaria, 42 Montia fontana, 190
Lonicera caprifolium, 274 Musci, 39
Lonicera periclymenum, 273, 274, 344, 353 Mycelis muralis, 287
Lotus corniculatus, 160, 353 Myosotis, 210, 289
Lychnis, 93; see also Silene Myosurus minimus, 75
Lychnis dioica, see Silene dioica, 27, 93, 32 Myricaceae, 86
Lychnis flos-cuculi, 93, 94 Myrica gale, 86, 340, 354
Lycium barbarum, 196 Myrrhis odorata, 183, 354, Plate 16
Lycium halimifolium, see L. barbarum, 196 Narcissus, 330
Lycoperdaceae, 358 Narcissus pseudonarcissus, 330, 354
Lycopodiaceae, 54 Narthecium ossifragum, 325
Lycopodium clavatum, 54, 55 Nasturtium, see Rorippa
Lycopodium selago, see Huperzia selago, Nepeta cataria, 219
54–5, 353 Nostoc commune, 43–4
Lycopsis arvensis, see Anchusa arvensis, 210 Nuphar luteum, 69–70
Lysimachia nemorum, 126 Nymphaea alba, 69
Lysimachia vulgaris, 126 Nymphaeaceae, 69
Lythraceae, 164 Oenanthe crocata, 184, 185–6, 187, 354
Lythrum salicaria, 164, 294 Oenanthe fistulosa, 184
Malus pumila, 154 Oenanthe fluviatilis, 184
Malus sylvestris, 110, 154 Oleaceae, 248
Malvaceae, 107 Onagraceae, 165
Malva moschata, 110 Ophioglossaceae, 56
Malva sylvestris, 107–9, 353 Ophioglossum vulgatum, 56, 354
Mandragora, 113, 333 Orchidaceae, 333
Marchantia polymorpha, 39 Orchis, 334; see also Dactylorhiza
Marrubium vulgare, 214, 216, 217 Orchis mascula, 334, Plate 31
Mastocarpus stellatus, 41, 44, 339 Origanum vulgare, 224, 239, 354
Matricaria discoidea, 24, 306 Orobanchaceae, 262
Matricaria matricarioides, see M. discoidea, Osmundaceae, 56
24, 306 Osmunda regalis, 56–8, 60, 84
Matricaria recutita, 302 Oxalidaceae, 173
Matricaria suaveolens, see M. discoidea, 24, Oxalis acetosella, 95, 173–4, 354
306 Oxycoccus, see Vaccinium
Melampyrum pratense, 260 Palmaria palmata, 44–5, 339
Melanthiaceae (Narthecium, Liliaceae), Papaver, 77–8
325 Papaveraceae, 77
Mentha, 27, 237, 353 Papaver rhoeas, 78
Papaver somniferum, 77 Polygonatum multiflorum, 326–7

Papilionaceae, see Fabaceae, 160 Polygonum, 95; see also Persicaria
Parietaria diffusa, see P. judaica, 86 Polygonum aviculare, 95, 354
Parietaria judaica, 86 Polygonum persicaria, see Persicaria macu-
Parietaria officinalis, 86 losa, 94
Paris quadrifolia, 327 Polypodiaceae, 58
Parmelia, 41, 43, 339 Polypodium vulgare, 58–60, 347
Parmeliaceae, 41 Populus alba, 114
Pastinaca sativa, 190 Populus tremula, 114
Pedicularis canadensis, 212 Porphyra, 358
Pedicularis palustris, 262 Porphyra umbilicalis, 45–6, 48
Peltigeraceae, 42 Portulacaceae, 90
Peltigera aphthosa, 42 Potamogetonaceae, 320
Peltigera canina, 42 Potamogeton natans, 73, 181, 320, 340
Pelvetia canaliculata, 47, 358 Potamogeton polygonifolius, 69, 320, 340
Persicaria bistorta, 94 Potentilla anserina, 142–4, 145, 339, 342
Persicaria hydropiper, 95 Potentilla erecta, 123, 126, 144, 145, 152,
Persicaria lapathifolia, 94 354
Persicaria maculosa, 94 Potentilla reptans, 123, 126, 144, 152, 354
Petasites hybridus, 97, 311, 312 Poterium sanguisorba, see Sanguisorba
Petroselinum crispum, 182 minor, 148
Petroselinum segetum, 189 Primulaceae, 124
Peucedanum ostruthium, 190, 199, 354 Primula veris, 124–5, 126, 346, 347, 355,
Phellinus igniarius, 49 357
Phellinus pomaceus, 49 Primula vulgaris, 124–5, 346, 347, 348,
Phleum pratense, 324 355, Plate 9
Phragmites australis, 324 Prunella vulgaris, 112, 221–3, 322, 344,
Phragmites communis, see P. australis, 324 345, 348
Phyllitis scolopendrium, 60–1, 347 Prunus avium, 153
Pilosella officinarum, 210, 289–90, 343 Prunus cerasus, 153
Pimpinella saxifraga, 184 Prunus padus, 153, 355
Pinaceae, 64 Prunus spinosa, 151–3, 342, 344, 355
Pinguicula vulgaris, 111, 263, 354 Pteridium aquilinum, 60, 351
Pinus sylvestris, 64–5 Puccinellia maritima, 355
Piptoporus betulinus, 49 Pulicaria dysenterica, 293
Plantaginaceae, 245 Pulmonaria officinalis, 207, Plate 22
Plantago, 342, 354 Pyrenomycetes, 51
Plantago coronopus, 93, 245–6, 354 Quercus, 344
Plantago lanceolata, 190, 247, 354 Quercus petraea, 87, 355
Plantago major, 247–8 Quercus robur, 87, 355
Plantago maritima, 245 Radiola linoides, 172
Platanthera chlorantha, 334 Ranunculaceae, 70
Plumbaginaceae, 100 Ranunculus, 71, 342, 355
Poaceae, 323 Ranunculus acris, 71, 72
Polygalaceae, 173 Ranunculus aquatilis, 73
Polygala serpyllifolia, 173 Ranunculus bulbosus, 72, 74
Polygala vulgaris, 173, Plate 15 Ranunculus ficaria, 74–5
Polygonaceae, 94 Ranunculus flammula, 73, 355
Polygonatum ×hybridum, 326–7 Ranunculus hederaceus, 73
Ranunculus repens, 72, 73 Scandix pecten-veneris, 183

Raphanus raphanistrum, 120, 121 Scilla, see Hyacinthoides
Rhamnaceae, 171 Scolopendrium, see Phyllitis scolopen-
Rhamnus cathartica, 171, 355 drium, 60–1, 347
Rhodophycota, 43 Scrophularia aquatica, see S. auriculata,
Rhodymenia, see Palmaria 253
Ribes nigrum, 133 Scrophularia auriculata, 253
Ribes rubrum, 133 Scrophulariaceae, 250
Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, 118, 339, Scrophularia nodosa, 151, 252–3, 345, 356,
347 357, Plate 24
Rosa, 111, 151 Scutellaria galericulata, 216, 356
Rosaceae, 140 Sedum acre, 138–9, 344, 356
Rosa rubiginosa, 151 Sedum anglicum, 139, 356
Rubiaceae, 267 Sedum rosea, 353, 356
Rubus fruticosus, 142, 144, 152–3, 340, 355, Sedum telephium, 138
Plate 10 Sempervivum tectorum, 61, 134–7, 139,
Rubus idaeus, 140, 156 346, 348, 356
Rumex, 339, 344, 345, 355 Senecio aquatilis, 306–7, 356
Rumex acetosa, 95–6, 173–4, 340, 342, 343 Senecio jacobaea, 306, 339, 345, 356
Rumex conglomeratus, 97 Senecio vulgaris, 91, 308, 356
Rumex crispus, 97, 98 Seriphidium maritimum, 296
Rumex hydrolapathum, 97 Serratula tinctoria, 283
Rumex obtusifolius, 98 Silaum silaus, 186
Rumex palustris, 99 Silene dioica, 27, 93, 32
Ruscus aculeatus, 330, 343 Silene otites, 93
Ruta graveolens, 188, 216 Silene vulgaris, 356
Sagittaria sagittifolia, 319 Silybum marianum, 282–3, 346, Plate 27
Salicaceae, 114 Sinapis arvensis, 120–1
Salicornia europaea, 90 Sisymbrium officinale, 116
Salix, 27, 115, 342 Sisymbrium sophia, see Descurainia
Salix alba, 20, 115, 355 sophia, 116
Salix babylonica, 116 Sium latifolium, 184
Salix repens, 115–16 Smyrnium olusatrum, 183, 189, 356
Salvia horminoides, see S. verbenaca, 206, Solanaceae, 196
240 Solanum dulcamara, 197, 198, 342, 356
Salvia verbenaca, 206, 240 Solidago virgaurea, 293
Sambucus, 89 Sonchus, 282
Sambucus ebulus, 272, 355 Sonchus arvensis, 286
Sambucus nigra, 197, 270–2, 338, 355 Sonchus asper, 286
Samolus valerandi, 128–9, 355 Sonchus oleraceus, 286–7
Sanguisorba minor, 148 Sorbus aucuparia, 56, 154, 340, 357
Sanicula europaea, 2, 181, 356 Spergula arvensis, 92
Sarothamnus, see Cytisus Sphagnum, 39, 40, 339
Saxifragaceae, 139 Spiraea filipendula, see Filipendula
Saxifraga granulata, 139 ulmaria, 140, 352
Saxifraga ×urbium, 139 Stachys ×ambigua, 213
Scabiosa arvensis, see Knautia arvensis, 276 Stachys officinalis, 212–13
Scabiosa succisa, see Succisa pratensis, Stachys palustris, 213–14
276–8 Stachys sylvatica, 213
Stellaria holostea, 92 Ulva lactuca, 46

Stellaria media, 90, 91, 345, 347, 356, 357 Umbelliferae, see Apiaceae, 181
Succisa pratensis, 276–8 Umbilicus rupestris, 61, 134–7, 341, 346,
Symphytum officinale, 57, 84, 92, 207–9, 358
345, 355, 357 Urticaceae, 84
Symphytum tuberosum, 209 Urtica dioica, 66, 84, 85, 96, 345, 358
Symphytum ×uplandicum, 357 Urtica urens, 85–6
Tamus communis, 114, 333, 357 Usnea, 41–2
Tanacetum vulgare, 223, 295, 357 Usnea subfloridana, 42
Taraxacum officinale, 26, 96, 287–8, 345, Vaccinium myrtillus, 123
346, 347, 357 Vaccinium oxycoccos, 123
Taxaceae, 67 Vaccinium vitis-idaea, 123
Taxus baccata, 67, 357 Valerianaceae, 274
Teucrium scordium, 218, 345, 357 Valeriana dioica, 274
Teucrium scorodonia, 217 Valeriana officinalis, 274–5, 348, 358
Thalictrum flavum, 75–6 Valeriana pyrenaica, 274
Thalictrum minus, 76 Verbascum lychnitis, 251
Thymelaeaceae, 164 Verbascum thapsus, 207, 250–1, 347, 358
Thymus, 224, 357 Verbenaceae, 211
Tiliaceae, 106 Verbena officinalis, 211, 215
Tilia cordata, 106 Veronica, 358
Tilia ×europaea, 106–7 Veronica beccabunga, 260, 347, Plate 25
Tilia platyphyllos, 107 Veronica chamaedrys, 116, 259, 262, 338,
Tremella, 358 342, 344
Tremella mesenterica, 44, 50 Veronica officinalis, 212, 257, 258, 260
Trifolium, 173 Veronica serpyllifolia, 257
Trifolium dubium, 161 Viburnum lantana, 273
Trifolium pratense, 162, 357 Vinca, 198
Trifolium repens, 161 Vinca major, 196
Trilliaceae (Paris, Liliaceae), 327 Vinca minor, 196, Plate 19
Tussilago farfara, 309–11 Violaceae, 111
Typhaceae, 325 Viola odorata, 111, Plate 5
Typha latifolia, 325 Viola riviniana, 112
Ulex, 358 Viola tricolor, 112
Ulex europaeus, 163, 344 Viscaceae, 166
Ulex gallii, 163, 344 Viscum album, 118, 166–7, 342, 358
Ulmaceae, 83 Woodsiaceae, 62
Ulmus glabra, 83, 358 Xanthoria parietina, 43
Index of Vernacular Names
8
Adam’s needle (Scandix pecten-veneris), apple (Malus pumila), 154
183 crab (M. sylvestris), 154
adder’s-tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum), archangel (Lamium album), 215, Plate 23
56, 354 arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia), 319
aert bark (Potentilla erecta), 123, 126, 144, arsesmart (Persicaria hydropiper), 95
145, 152, 354 arum family (Araceae), 320
agnus castus (Hypericum androsaemum), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), 248, 344, 352
103, 104 ash family (Oleaceae), 248
agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria), 146–7, aspen (Populus tremula), 114
350 asphodel, bog (Narthecium ossifragum),
fragrant (A. procera), 146–8, 350 325
alder (Alnus glutinosa), 89, Plate 3 avens, wood (Geum urbanum), 146, Plate
ale-hoof (Glechoma hederacea), 219–21, 12
339, 342, 352 báchrán (Menyanthes trifoliata), 86,
Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum), 183, 201–3, 341, 345, 353, 357
189, 356 baldmoney (Meum athamanticum), 186
algae, 43 banwort (Bellis perennis), 294, 305
all-heal (Hypericum androsaemum), 103, barberry (Berberis vulgaris), 76, 80, 331,
104; (Stachys ×ambigua), 213; (S. 343, 351
palustris), 213–4 barberry family (Berberidaceae), 76
all heal (Viscum album), 118, 166–7, 342, bath of Venus (Dipsacus fullonum), 275,
358 Plate 26
allseed (Radiola linoides), 172 baudminnie (Meum athamanticum), 186
ampelos agria (Tamus communis), 114, bawd-money (Meum athamanticum), 186
333, 357 baywort, yellow (Lysimachia vulgaris), 126
ampelos leuke (Bryonia dioica), 113–4, bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), 122,
333, 351 Plate 6
anemone, wood (Anemone nemorosa), 71, bear’s-foot (Helleborus foetidus), 70–1, 352
350 bedstraw
angelica heath (Galium saxatile), 268
garden (Angelica archangelica), 189 lady’s (Galium verum), 268, 352
wild (Angelica sylvestris), 187, 189, 350 marsh (Galium palustre), 267
417
418 Index of Vernacular Names
bedstraw family (Rubiaceae), 267 blinks family (Portulacaceae), 90

beech (Fagus sylvatica), 87 blodwyn neidr (Silene dioica), 27, 93, 342
beech family (Fagaceae), 87 bloodweed (Persicaria lapathifolia), 94
benet, green (Geum urbanum), 146, Plate bloodwort (Centaurium erythraea),
12 194–5, 348; (Geranium robertianum),
bent, creeping (Agrostis stolonifera), 323–4 175–6, 338, 344, 347, 352; (Rumex
betony (Ajuga reptans), 212, 219; (Pedicu- hydrolapathum), 97
laris canadensis), 212; (Stachys offici- bluebell (Hyacinthoides nonscripta), 328
nalis), 212–3 bluebottle (Centaurea cyanus), 283
water (Scrophularia auriculata), 253 blue eye (Veronica chamaedrys), 116, 259,
bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), 123 262, 338, 342, 344
bindweed bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), 86,
black- (Fallopia convolvulus), 200 201–3, 341, 345, 352, 357
field (Convolvulus arvensis), 200 bogbean family (Menyanthaceae), 201
hedge (Calystegia sepium), 200 boglus (Anchusa arvensis and other spe-
sea (Calystegia soldanella), 200, 342 cies), 210
bindweed family (Convolvulaceae), 200 bog-moss (Sphagnum), 39, 40, 339
biolar (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum), bog-myrtle (Myrica gale), 86, 340, 354
118, 339, 347 bog-myrtle family (Myricaceae), 86
birch bog-onion, wild (Osmunda regalis), 56–8,
downy (Betula pubescens), 88 60, 84
silver (Betula pendula), 88 bog-sally (Myrica gale), 86, 340, 354
birch bracket (Piptoporus betulinus), 49 bog-violet (Pinguicula vulgaris), 111, 263,
birch family (Betulaceae), 88 354
bird’s-eye (Veronica chamaedrys), 116, 259, bolfer (Bovista nigrescens), 50
262, 338, 342, 344 bollan-dhoo (Arctium spp.), 93, 96, 280–1,
bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), 340, 348
160, 353 borage family (Boraginaceae), 206
birin yarragh (Hypericum elodes), 104, 106, bowel-hive grass (Aphanes arvensis), 139,
353 150
bistort (Persicaria bistorta), 94 box (Buxus sempervirens), 168–9
bitney, water (Scrophularia auriculata), box family (Buxaceae), 168
253 bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), 60, 351
bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara), 197, brain-fungus, yellow (Tremella mesenter-
198, 342, 356 ica), 44, 50
bitter-vetch (Lathyrus linifolius), 161, 339 bramble (Rubus fruticosus), 142, 144,
blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), 142, 144, 152–3, 340, 355, Plate 10
152–3, 340, 355, Plate 10 breast leaf (Lapsana communis), 285
blackbuttons (Centaurea nigra), 284–5, briar (Rubus fruticosus), 142, 144, 152–3,
347 340, 35, Plate 10
blackheads (Centaurea nigra), 284–5, 347; brighten (Usnea spp.?), 41–2
(Plantago spp.), 342, 354 brios bronn (briose brún?) (Persicaria lap-
blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), 151–3, 342, athifolia or P. maculosa), 94
344, 355 brooklime (Veronica beccabunga), 260,
bladderwort family (Lentibulariaceae), 263 347, Plate 25
blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), 123 brookweed (Samolus valerandi), 128–9,
Blessed Virgin’s chalice (Drosera), 110 355
blind man’s buff (Bovista nigrescens), 50 broom (Cytisus scoparius), 26, 162, 344,
blinks (Montia fontana), 190 351
broomrape family (Orobanchaceae), 262 catchfly, Spanish (Silene otites), 93

brown(s)wort (Scrophularia nodosa), 151, catchweed (Galium aparine), 268–70, 352
252–3, 345, 356, 357, Plate 24 cat-mint (Nepeta cataria), 219
bryony cat’s-ear (Antennaria dioica), 291
black (Tamus communis), 114, 333, 357 spotted (Hypochaeris maculata), 285
white (Bryonia dioica), 113–4, 333, 351 cat’s-eye (Veronica chamaedrys), 116, 259,
buachalán (Senecio aquaticus), 306–7, 356; 262, 338, 342, 344
(S. jacobaea), 306, 339, 345, 356 cat’s-foot (Antennaria dioica), 291
buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), 171, 355 ceannbhan beg (Prunella vulgaris), 112,
alder (Frangula alnus), 172 221–3, 322, 344, 345, 348
buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae), 171 ceann de dohosaig (Prunella vulgaris), 112,
bugle (Ajuga reptans), 212, 219 221–3, 322, 344, 345, 348
bugloss (Anchusa arvensis), 210 celandine
viper’s- (Echium vulgare), 207 greater (Chelidonium majus), 16, 72,
burdock (Arctium spp.), 93, 96, 280–2, 78–80, 128, 291, 351
340, 348 lesser (Ranunculus ficaria), 74–5
greater (A. lappa), 281 celery, wild (Apium graveolens), 188
burnet, salad (Sanguisorba minor), 148 centaury (Centaurium erythraea), 194–5,
burnet-saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifraga), 348
184 chafe grass (Potentilla anserina), 142–4,
butcher’s-broom (Ruscus aculeatus), 330, 145, 339, 342
343 chaf[e]weed (Filago vulgaris), 290–1
butterbur (Petasites hybridus), 97, 311, 312 chalice-moss (Cladonia chlorophaea), 41
buttercup chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile),
bulbous (Ranunculus bulbosus), 72, 74 302–4, 306, 348
creeping (Ranunculus repens), 72, 73 corn (Anthemis arvensis), 304
meadow (Ranunculus acris), 71, 72 English (C. nobile), 302–4, 306, 348
buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), 70 German (Matricaria recutita), 302
butterfly-orchid, greater (Platanthera chlo- Roman (C. nobile), 302–4, 306, 348
rantha), 334 stinking (Anthemis cotula), 305
butterwort, common (Pinguicula vul- charlock (Sinapis arvensis), 120–1
garis), 111, 263, 354 cherry
button seaweed (Fucus vesiculosus), 46 bird (Prunus avium), 153; (P. padus),
buttonweed (Centaurea nigra), 284–5, 347 153, 355
cailleach’s tea (Prunella vulgaris), 112, morello (Prunus cerasus), 153
221–3, 322, 344, 345, 348 wild (Prunus avium), 153
caiserbhán (Taraxacum spp.), 26, 96, chickweed
287–8, 345, 346, 347, 357 common (Stellaria media), 90, 91, 345,
calamint, common (Clinopodium ascen- 347, 356, 357
dens), 219, 224 marsh (Montia fontana), 190
campion churl’s treacle (Allium ursinum), 117, 328,
bladder (Silene vulgaris), 356 330, 341, 347, 350, Plate 29
red (Silene dioica), 27, 93, 342 cinquefoil, creeping (Potentilla reptans),
carmele (Lathyrus linifolius), 161, 339 144, 354
carpenter’s grass (Achillea millefolium), 95, clary, wild (Salvia verbenaca), 206, 240
301, 342, 350 cleavers (Galium aparine), 268–70, 352
carragheen (Chondrus crispus, Mastocarpus clover (Trifolium), 173
stellatus), 41, 44, 339 red (T. pratense), 162, 357
carrot, wild (Daucus carota), 191, 351 white (T. repens), 161
clubmoss crannach, creathnach (Palmaria palmata),

fir (Huperzia selago), 54–5, 353 44–5, 339
stag’s-horn (Lycopodium clavatum), 54, cress family (Brassicaceae), 116
55 crobh dearg (Geranium robertianum),
clubmoss family (Lycopodiaceae), 54 175–6, 338, 344, 347, 352
cnádan (Arctium spp.), 93, 96, 280–1, 340, crocus
348 saffron (Crocus sativus), 325–6
cockle (Arctium spp.), 93, 96, 280–1, 340, spring (Crocus vernus), 325
348 crotal or crottle (Parmelia omphalodes),
colickwort (Aphanes arvensis), 139, 150 41, 43, 339
colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara), 309–11 crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), 121
coludd-lys (Mentha pulegium), 188, 224, crowberry family (Empetraceae), 121
237, 238–40, 340 crowfoot (Ranunculus acris), 71, 72
columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris), 75 ivy-leaved (R. hederaceus), 73
comfrey water- (R. aquatilis), 73
common (Symphytum officinale), 57, cuckoo-flower (Cardamine pratensis), 118
84, 92, 207–9, 345, 355, 357 cuckoo-pint (Arum maculatum), 321
Russian (Symphytum ×uplandicum), cudweed
357 American (Anaphalis margaritacea),
tuberous (Symphytum tuberosum), 209 290–1
corncockle (Agrostemma githago), 93 common (Filago vulgaris), 290–1, 352
cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), 283 English (Gnaphalium sylvaticum),
corn kale (Brassica rapa), 121; (Sinapis 290–1
arvensis), 120–1 heath (Gnaphalium sylvaticum), 290–1
corra-meille (Lathyrus linifolius), 161, 339 cup-moss (Cladonia chlorophaea), 41
cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium), currant
322 black (Ribes nigrum), 133
couch red (Ribes rubrum), 133
common (Elytrigia repens), 323, 324 currant family (Grossulariaceae), 133
onion (Arrhenatherum elatius var. bul- cutfinger (Vinca minor), 196, Plate 19; (V.
bosum), 350 major), 196
cough grass (unidentified grass), 323 cut-finger-leaf (Valeriana dioica), 274
cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), 123 cwpanau pas (Cladonia chlorophaea), 41
cowslip (Primula veris), 124–5, 126, 346, dà-dhuilleach (Listera ovata), 333
347, 355, 357 daffodil (Narcissus spp.), 330
cow’s-tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium), Spanish (N. pseudonarcissus subsp.
60–1, 347 major), 330, 354
cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense), 260 dail-chuach (Viola riviniana), 112
crádán (Arctium spp.), 93, 96, 280–1, 340, dail llosg[y]tân (Potamogeton natans), 73,
348 181, 320, 340
cramp balls (Daldinia concentrica), 51 daisy (Bellis perennis), 294, 305
cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), 123 ox-eye (Leucanthemum vulgare), 305,
crane’s-bill (Geranium robertianum), 339
175–6, 338, 344, 347, 352 daisy family (Asteraceae), 280
foetid (G. robertianum), 175–6, 338, dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), 26, 96,
344, 347, 352 287–8, 345, 346, 347, 357
meadow (G. pratense), 174 danewort (Sambucus ebulus), 272, 355
crane’s-bill family (Geraniaceae), 174 dead man’s liver (Marchantia poly-
morpha?), 39
dead-nettle elder (Sambucus nigra), 197, 270–2, 338,

red (Lamium purpureum), 215–16, 353 355
white (Lamium album), 215, Plate 23 dwarf (S. ebulus), 272, 355
devil’s snuffbox (Bovista nigrescens), 50 elecampane (Inula helenium), 16, 190,
dew-plant family (Aizoaceae), 89 291–2, 353
dillisk (Palmaria palmata), 44–5, 339 elm, wych (Ulmus glabra), 83, 358
dittander (Lepidium latifolium), 120 elm family (Ulmaceae), 83
dock enchanter’s-nightshade (Circaea lute-
broad-leaved (Rumex obtusifolius), 98 tiana), 165
clustered (Rumex conglomeratus), 97 ergot (Claviceps purpurea), 51
common (Rumex crispus), 97, 98; (R. eryngo(-root) (Eryngium campestre, E.
obtusifolius), 98 maritimum), 181–2
curled (Rumex crispus), 97, 98 evans (Geum urbanum), 146, Plate 12
floppy (Digitalis purpurea), 20, 254–7, everlasting
351 mountain (Antennaria dioica), 291
great water (Rumex hydrolapathum), 97 pearly (Anaphalis margaritacea), 290–1
marsh (Rumex palustris), 99 eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis), 148, 165,
narrow-leaved (Rumex conglomeratus), 260–2, 352; (Veronica chamaedrys),
97; (R. crispus), 97, 98 116, 259, 262, 338, 342, 344
yellow (Rumex crispus), 97, 98 eyeseed(s) (Salvia verbenaca), 206, 240
docken, water (Petasites hybridus), 97, 311, fairgurtha (Agrostis stolonifera), 323–4
312 fairy fingers (Digitalis purpurea), 20,
docko (Artemisia vulgaris), 215, 297–9, 254–7, 351
351 fairy lint (Linum catharticum), 172, 284,
dodder (Cuscuta epithymum), 201 323, 340, 353
greater (C, europaea), 200 fairy thimble (Digitalis purpurea), 20,
dodder family (Cuscutaceae), 200 254–7, 351
dodjell reepan (Dactylorhiza purpurella), fairy wives’ spindle (Typha latifolia), 325
334 fat-hen (Chenopodium album), 90
dog-grass (Elytrigia repens), 323, 324 feamain chìrein (Pelvetia canaliculata), 47,
dog-rose (Rosa spp.), 111, 151 358
dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis), 169 fearbán (Ranunculus spp.), 71, 342, 355
dog-violet, common (Viola riviniana), feargorta(ch) (Agrostis stolonifera), 323–4
112 feileastram (Iris pseudacorus), 332, 339
dub-cosac (Xanthoria?), 43 fellon-grass (Peucedanum ostruthium),
duck’s weed or duckweed (Lemna minor), 190, 199, 354
322 felon herb (Pilosella officinarum), 210,
duckweed family (Lemnaceae), 322 289–90, 343
duileasc (Palmaria palmata), 44–5, 339 felon-wood or felon-wort (Peucedanum
duilleaga-bhàite (Nymphaea sp. or Nuphar ostruthium), 190, 199, 354; (Solanum
sp.), 69–70; (Potamogeton polygoni- dulcamara), 197, 198, 342, 356
folius), 69, 320, 340 fen-berries (Vaccinium oxycoccos), 123
dulse (Palmaria palmata), 44–5, 339 fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), 186
dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria), 163 fern
dysentery herb (Hypericum elodes), 104, female (Athyrium filix-femina), 62
106, 353 hard (Blechnum spicant), 64
eagle’s-foot (Ranunculus acris), 71, 72 lady- (Athyrium filix-femina), 62
ear fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae), 50 maidenhair (Adiantum capillus-veneris),
19, 58
fern (continued) funk (Fomes fomentarius), 48–9; (Phelli-

male- (Dryopteris filix-mas), 63–4, 351 nus igniarius), 49
royal (Osmunda regalis), 56–8, 60, 84 furze, see gorse
wall (Asplenium ruta-muraria), 62 fuzzball (Bovista nigrescens), 50
fiasgag nan creag (Parmelia spp.?), 41, 43, gairgean (Galium palustre), 267
339 garbhag an t’slèibhe (Huperzia selago),
figwort 54–5, 353
common (Scrophularia nodosa), 151, garlic
252–3, 345, 356, 357, Plate 24 crow (Allium vineale), 330
water (Scrophularia auriculata), 253 field (Allium oleraceum), 330
figwort family (Scrophulariaceae), 250 hedge (Alliaria petiolata), 117
fiorin grass (Agrostis stolonifera), 323–4 wild (Allium ursinum), 117, 328, 330,
five-fingered root (Oenanthe crocata), 341, 347, 350, Plate 29; (A. ampelopra-
184, 185–6, 187, 354 sum var. babingtonii), 330
flag, yellow (Iris pseudacorus), 332, 339 gean (Prunus avium), 153
flagger (Iris pseudacorus), 332, 339 geirgein (Galium palustre), 267
flax gentian
fairy (Linum catharticum), 172, 284, red (Centaurium erythraea), 194–5, 348
323, 340, 353 field (Gentianella campestris), 195, 352
mountain (Briza media), 323, 324; gentian family (Gentianaceae), 194
(Linum catharticum), 172, 284, 323, germander, water (Teucrium scordium),
340, 353 218, 345, 357
purging (Linum catharticum), 172, 284, gladdon (Iris foetidissima), 332, 338, 344
323, 340, 353 glading root or gladum (Iris foetidissima),
flax family (Linaceae), 172 332, 338, 344
fleabane, common (Pulicaria dysenterica), gladwin (Iris foetidissima), 332, 338, 344
293 glasnair choille or glas-na-coille? (Ajuga
fliodh (Stellaria media), 90, 91, 345, 347, reptans), 212, 219
356, 357 glasswort (Salicornia europaea), 90
fliodh Moire (Montia fontana), 190 glengore (Spergula arvensis), 92
flixweed (Descurainia sophia), 116–17 goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea), 293
fluellen (Veronica officinalis), 212, 257, golden-saxifrage (Chrysosplenium), 139
258, 260, 285 golden wheat (Melampyrum pratense),
fool’s water-cress (Apium nodiflorum), 260
189 good-King-Henry (Chenopodium bonus-
forget-me-not (Myosotis), 210, 289 henricus), 169
fothrom (Scrophularia nodosa), 151, good leaf (Lapsana communis), 285;
252–3, 345, 356, 357, Plate 24 (Scrophularia nodosa), 151, 252–3,
foul-grass (Elytrigia repens), 323, 324 345, 356, 357, Plate 24
foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), 20, 254–7, goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae), 90
351 goosegrass (Galium aparine), 268–70,
fox-tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium), 352; (Potentilla anserina), 142–4, 145,
60–1, 347 339, 342
fraughan (Vaccinium myrtillus), 123 gorse (Ulex europaeus), 163, 344
French herb (Tanacetum vulgare), 223, western (U. gallii), 163, 344
295, 357 grangore (Spergula arvensis), 92
fumitory (Fumaria), 80, 352 grass family (Poaceae), 323
fumitory family (Fumariaceae), 80 gromwell, common (Lithospermum offici-
fungi, 48 nale), 206
ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea), 219–21, herb-Bennet (Geum urbanum), 146, Plate

339, 342, 352 12
groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), 91, 308, 356 herb of the seven cures (Achillea mille-
grumble seed (Lithospermum officinale), folium), 95, 301, 342, 350
206 herb of the seven gifts (Asplenium ruta-
guinea goul (Solanum dulcamara), 197, muraria), 62
198, 342, 356 herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia), 327
hairweed (Cuscuta epithymum), 201 herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum),
hardheads (Centaurea nigra), 284–5, 347 175–6, 338, 344, 347, 352
hart’s-tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium), hock (Althaea officinalis), 10, 352, Plate 4;
60–1, 347 (Lavatera arborea), 107; (Malva
haryhound (Marrubium vulgare), 214, sylvestris), 107–9, 353
216, 217 hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), 187,
hawkweed (Hieracium), 290 190, 351, 352
hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), 155, holly (Ilex aquifolium), 168, 342, Plate 14
344, 351, Plate 13 holly family (Aquifoliaceae), 168
midland (C. laevigata), 155 honewort (Petroselinum segetum), 189
hazel (Corylus avellana), 89, 351 honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum),
hazel rag (Parmelia spp.?), 41, 43, 339 273, 274, 344, 353
headache flower (Papaver rhoeas), 78 goat-leaf (L. caprifolium), 274
heart’s-ease (Prunella vulgaris), 112, honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), 270
221–3, 322, 344, 345, 348; (Viola tri- hop (Humulus lupulus), 84
color), 112 hop family (Cannabaceae), 84
heath horehound
cross-leaved (Erica tetralix), 122, Plate 8 black (Ballota nigra), 214
St Dabeoc’s (Daboecia cantabrica), 121 white (Marrubium vulgare), 214, 216,
heather (Calluna vulgaris), 122, Plate 7 217
bell (Erica cinerea), 122 horned-poppy, yellow (Glaucium flavum),
heath family (Ericaceae), 121 78, 340
hellebore horseheal (Inula helenium), 16, 190,
green (Helleborus foetidus), 70–1, 352 291–2, 353
stinking (Helleborus foetidus), 70–1, 352 horse knaps (Centaurea nigra?), 284–5,
helrut (Smyrnium olusatrum), 183, 189, 347
356 horse pepper (Angelica sylvestris), 187,
hemlock (Angelica sylvestris), 187, 189, 189, 350
350; (Anthriscus sylvestris), 182–3, 350, horsetail (Equisetum spp.), 55, 341
351, 355; (Conium maculatum), 185, horsetail family (Equisetaceae), 55
187, 197, 351, 353, Plate 18 Hottentot-fig (Carpobrotus acinaci-
water (Oenanthe crocata), 184, 185–6, formis), 24, 89; (C. edulis), 24, 89
187, 354 hound’s-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale),
wild (Heracleum sphondylium), 187, 210
190, 351, 352 house-leek (Sempervivum tectorum), 61,
hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium 134–7, 139, 346, 348, 356
cannabinum), 312, 351 hudropeperi (Persicaria hydropiper), 95
hemp family (Cannabaceae), 84 hungry grass (Agrostis stolonifera), 323–4
henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), 197, 198, iris
199, Plate 20 stinking (Iris foetidissima), 332, 338,
herb, the (Leonurus cardiaca), 211, 215, 344
298; (Verbena officinalis), 211, 215 yellow (Iris pseudacorus), 332, 339
iris family (Iridaceae), 331 liverwort (Peltigera canina), 42

Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), 41, 44, 339; lung (Lobaria pulmonaria), 42
(Mastocarpus stellatus), 41, 44, 339 sea-green (Peltigera aphthosa), 42
iron wort (Anthemis cotula), 305 lily, Madonna (Lilium candidum), 98
ivy (Hedera helix), 179, 347, 352 lily family (Liliaceae), 325
ground- (Glechoma hederacea), lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis),
219–21, 339, 342, 352 326
ivy family (Araliaceae), 179 limerik (Narthecium ossifragum), 325
Jack-by-the-hedge (Alliaria petiolata), 117 lime (Tilia cordata), 106; (T. ×europaea),
jaundice herb (Centaurium erythraea), 106–7
194–5, 348 lime tree family (Tiliaceae), 106
jaundice tree (Berberis vulgaris), 76, 80, linarich (Ulva lactuca?), 46
331, 343, 351 ling, see heather
jelly fungus (Tremella mesenterica), 44, 50 lip of Venus (Dipsacus fullonum), 275,
juniper (Juniperus communis), 65, 353, Plate 26
Plate 1 live-long (Sedum telephium), 138
juniper family (Cupressaceae), 65 liver-grass (Marchantia polymorpha), 39
keck (Anthriscus sylvestris), 182–3, 350, liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha), 39
351, 355 ash-coloured (Peltigera canina), 42
kenning herb (Chelidonium majus), 16, llym llygaid (Chelidonium majus), 16, 72,
72, 78–80, 128, 291, 351 78–80, 128, 291, 351
kenningwort (Samolus valerandi), 128–9, llysiau’r eyr (Galium saxatile), 268
355 Londonpride (Saxifraga ×urbium), 139
King Alfred’s cakes (Daldinia concentrica), loosestrife
51 purple- (Lythrum salicaria), 164, 294
kingcup (Caltha palustris), 70, 344, Plate 2 yellow (Lysimachia vulgaris), 126
knapweed, common (Centaurea nigra), loosestrife family (Lythraceae), 164
284–5, 347 lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum), 321
knitbone (Symphytum officinale), 57, 84, lound’s woundwort (Ballota nigra), 214
92, 207–9, 345, 355, 357 louseberries (Euonymus europaeus), 167,
knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare), 95, 354 351
knotweed family (Polygonaceae), 94 lousewort, marsh (Pedicularis palustris),
lady’s-mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris), 262
149–50, 347, 350 lovage (Ligusticum scoticum), 189, 353,
lady’s-smock (Cardamine pratensis), 118 356
lambs’ quarters (Chenopodium album), 90 luibh a treatha (Veronica serpyllifolia?),
larch (Larix decidua), 65 257
laver luireach (unidentified seaweed), 48
green (Ulva lactuca), 46 lungs of oak (Lobaria pulmonaria), 42
purple (Porphyra umbilicalis), 45–6, 48 lungwort (Lathraea squamaria), 262;
leek, wild (Allium ampeloprasum var. (Pulmonaria officinalis), 207, Plate 22;
babingtonii), 330 (Verbascum thapsus), 207, 250–1, 347,
legume family (Fabaceae), 160 358
lettuce, wall (Mycelis muralis), 287 tree (Lobaria pulmonaria), 42;
liath-lus (Artemisia vulgaris), 215, 297–9, (Parmelia spp.?), 41, 43, 339
351 lus, liath- (Artemisia vulgaris), 215, 297–9,
lichen 351
beard (Usnea spp.), 41–2 lus, yn (Leonurus cardiaca), 211, 215, 298;
dog (Peltigera canina), 42 (Verbena officinalis), 211, 215
lus mór (Digitalis purpurea), 20, 254–7, mashcoms (Potentilla anserina), 142–4,
351 145, 339, 342
lus-glen-Bracadale (Mercurialis perennis), masterwort (Peucedanum ostruthium),
169 190, 199, 354
lus na seilg (Asplenium trichomanes), 62, mayflower (Caltha palustris), 70, 344,
339 Plate 2; (Crataegus monogyna), 155,
lus-ni-chiolg (Hypericum humifusum), 344, 351, Plate 13
104; (H. pulchrum), 104, 106, 353 meac-an-dogh (Arctium spp.), 93, 96,
lus ny croshey (Filago vulgaris), 290–1, 352 280–1, 30, 348
lus-ny-imleig (Umbilicus rupestris), 61, meadow-rue
134–7, 341, 346, 358 common (Thalictrum flavum), 75–6
lus-ny-ollee (Smyrnium olusatrum), 183, lesser (Thalictrum minus), 76
189, 356 meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), 140,
lus-y-cramman-dhoo (Centaurea nigra), 352
284–5, 347 meena madar (Succisa pratensis), 276–8
lus y vuc awin (Potamogeton natans), 73, mercury (Chenopodium bonus-henricus),
181, 320, 340; (Ranunculus aquatilis), 169
73 meu (Meum athamanticum), 186
maidenhair (Adiantum capillus-veneris), mezereon (Daphne laureola), 164–5, 351;
19, 58 (D. mezereum), 164–5
male-fern (Dryopteris filix-mas), 63–4, mezereon family (Thymelaeaceae), 164
351 micken (Meum athamanticum), 186
mallow milkweed (Sonchus asper), 285, 286; (S.
common (Malva sylvestris), 107–9, 353 oleraceus), 285, 286
musk- (Malva moschata), 110 milkwort (Sonchus asper), 285, 286; (S.
marsh- (Althaea officinalis), 107, 353, oleraceus), 285, 286
Plate 4 common (Polygala vulgaris), 173, Plate
tree- (Lavatera arborea), 107 15
mallow family (Malvaceae), 107 heath (Polygala serpyllifolia), 173
mandrake (Mandragora spp.), 113, 333 milkwort family (Polygalaceae), 173
English (Bryonia dioica), 113–14, 333, minéan Merr (Aphanes arvensis), 139, 150
351 mint (Mentha)
marigold (Calendula officinalis), 305 horse (Mentha sp.), 237
corn (Chrysanthemum segetum), 305 water (M. aquatica), 237
field (Chrysanthemum segetum), 305 mint family (Lamiaceae), 212
marsh- (Caltha palustris), 70, 344, Plate mistletoe (Viscum album), 118, 166–7,
2 342, 358
wild (Chrysanthemum segetum), 305 mistletoe family (Viscaceae), 166
marjoram (Origanum vulgare), 224, 239, mogra-myra (Orchis mascula), 334, Plate
354 31
hop (Mentha pulegium), 188, 224, 237, moonwort (Botrychium lunaria), 56
238–40, 340 moss (Sphagnum), 39, 40, 339
marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris), 70, river (Fontinalis antipyretica), 40
344, Plate 2 motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), 211,
marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella), 215, 298
334 mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia), 56, 154,
marshwort (Apium nodiflorum), 189 340, 357
Mary’s candle (Verbascum thapsus), 207, mouse-ear (chickweed) (Cerastium spp.),
250–1, 347, 358 289
mouse-ear (hawkweed) (Pilosella offici- oxberry (Tamus communis), 114, 333, 357
narum), 210, 289–90, 343 palsywort (Primula veris), 124–5, 126,
mousetail (Myosurus minimus), 75 346, 347, 355, 357
muggons (Artemisia vulgaris), 215, 297–9, pansy, wild (Viola tricolor), 112
351 parsley
mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), 215, 297–9, corn (Petroselinum segetum), 189
351 cow (Anthriscus sylvestris), 182–3, 350,
mullein 351, 355
great (Verbascum thapsus), 207, 250–1, garden (Petroselinum crispum), 182
347, 358 hedge (Anthriscus sylvestris), 182–3,
white (Verbascum lychnitis), 251 350, 351, 355
mushroom, field (Agaricus campestris), 48 wild (Anthriscus sylvestris), 182–3, 350,
mustard 351, 355
garlic (Alliaria petiolata), 117 parsley breakstone (Aphanes arvensis),
hedge (Sisymbrium officinale), 116 139, 150
treacle (Erysimum cheiranthoides), 117 parsley family (Apiaceae), 181
navelwort (Umbilicus rupestris), 61, parsley-piert (Aphanes arvensis), 139, 150
134–7, 341, 346, 358 parsnip
nettle water (Oenanthe crocata), 184, 185–6,
common (Urtica dioica), 66, 84, 85, 96, 187, 354
345, 358 wild (Anthriscus sylvestris), 182–3, 350,
small (Urtica urens), 85–6 351, 355; (Heracleum sphondylium),
nettle family (Urticaceae), 84 187, 190, 351, 352; (Inula helenium),
nightshade 16, 190, 291–2, 353; (Pastinaca
deadly (Atropa belladonna), 185, 197 sativa), 190
woody (Solanum dulcamara), 197, 198, pe-felen (Matricaria discoidea), 24, 306
342, 356 pellitory-of-the-wall (Parietaria judaica),
nightshade family (Solanaceae), 196 86
nipplewort (Lapsana communis), 285 pennyleaf (Umbilicus rupestris), 61,
oak 134–7, 341, 346, 358
pedunculate (Quercus robur), 87, 355 pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides), 238;
sessile (Quercus petraea), 87, 355 (Mentha pulegium), 188, 224, 237,
oak family (Fagaceae), 87 238–40, 340
old man’s pepper (Filipendula ulmaria), pennywort
140, 352 marsh (Hydrocotyle vulgaris), 70, 181,
onion 320
bog- (Osmunda regalis), 56–8, 60, 84 wall (Umbilicus rupestris), 61, 134–7,
wild (Allium vineale), 330 341, 346, 358
orchid, early-purple (Orchis mascula), peppermint
334, Plate 31; see also marsh-orchid, water (Mentha aquatica), 237
spotted-orchid wild (Mentha aquatica), 237
orchid family (Orchidaceae), 333 pepper-saxifrage (Silaum silaus), 186
organ(s) or organy (Mentha pulegium), perennial sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis),
188, 224, 237, 238–40, 340 285, 286
orpine, orpies or orpy-leaves (Sedum periwinkle
telephium), 138 greater (Vinca major), 196
orris (Iris ×germanica), 198 lesser (Vinca minor), 196, Plate 19
Our Lady’s chalice (Cladonia periwinkle family (Apocynaceae), 196
chlorophaea), 41 persicaria, pale (Persicaria lapathifolia), 94
Pestilenzwurz (Petasites hybridus), 97, 311, pusey (Prunella vulgaris), 112, 221–3, 322,
312 344, 345, 348
pignut (Conopodium majus), 184, 351 quaking-grass (Briza media), 323, 324
pigroot (Polygonum aviculare), 95, 354 Queen Anne’s lace (Anthriscus sylvestris),
pileweed (Ranunculus ficaria), 74–5 182–3, 350, 351, 355
pilewort (Ranunculus ficaria), 74–5 queen of herbs (Scrophularia nodosa),
pimpernel 151, 252–3, 345, 356, 357, Plate 24
scarlet (Anagallis arvensis), 127–8, 340 quick (Crataegus monogyna), 155, 344,
yellow (Lysimachia nemorum), 126 351, Plate 13
pine, Scots (Pinus sylvestris), 64–5 radish, wild (Raphanus raphanistrum),
pineapple-weed (Matricaria discoidea), 120, 121
24, 306 ragged-Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi), 93, 94;
pine family (Pinaceae), 64 (Silene dioica), 27, 93, 342
pink family (Caryophyllaceae), 91 ragweed (Senecio jacobaea), 306, 339, 345,
plantain 356
buck’s-horn (Plantago coronopus), 93, ragwort
245–6, 354 common (Senecio jacobaea), 306, 339,
greater (Plantago major), 247–8 345, 356
ribwort (Plantago lanceolata), 190, 247, fisherman’s (Senecio aquaticus), 306–7,
354 356
water- (Alisma plantago-aquatica), 319 marsh (Senecio aquaticus), 306–7, 356
plantain family (Plantaginaceae), 245 ramsons (Allium ursinum), 117, 328, 330,
polypody (Polypodium vulgare), 58–60, 341, 347, 350, Plate 29
347 raspberry (Rubus idaeus), 140, 156
pondweed red-fog (unidentified seaweed), 48
bog (Potamogeton polygonifolius), 69, red rattle (Pedicularis palustris), 262
320, 340 red Roger (Geranium robertianum),
broad-leaved (Potamogeton natans), 73, 175–7, 338, 344, 347, 352
181, 320, 340 redshank (Persicaria maculosa), 94
pondweed family (Potamogetonaceae), reed, common (Phragmites australis), 324
320 reedmace, great (Typha latifolia), 325
poor man’s beefsteak (Fistulina hepatica), reedmace family (Typhaceae), 325
49 reileòg (Myrica gale), 86, 340, 354
poor man’s salve (Scrophularia spp.), 151, rhubarb
252–3, 345, 356, 357, Plate 24 false (Thalictrum spp.), 75–6
poplar, white (Populus alba), 114 wild (Petasites hybridus), 97, 311, 312
poplar family (Salicaceae), 114 rib-grass (Plantago lanceolata), 190, 247,
poppy 354
opium (Papaver somniferum), 77 river moss (Fontinalis antipyretica), 40
spatling (Silene vulgaris), 356 Robin-run-in-the-hedge (Galium
yellow horned- (Glaucium flavum), 78, aparine), 268–70, 352; (Glechoma
340 hederacea), 219–21, 339, 342, 352
poppy family (Papaveraceae), 77 rocket-juice (Dactylorhiza purpurella),
primrose (Primula vulgaris), 124–5, 346, 334
347, 348, 355, Plate 9 rock-rose (Helianthemum nummula-
primrose family (Primulaceae), 124 rium), 111
privet (Ligustrum vulgare), 250 rock-rose family (Cistaceae), 111
puffball (Bovista nigrescens), 50 roid or roideog (Myrica gale), 86, 340, 354
puffball family (Lycoperdaceae), 50 rós (Rosa spp.), 111, 151
rose, wild (Rosa spp.), 111, 151 saw-wort (Serratula tinctoria), 283
rose family (Rosaceae), 140 saxifrage
rose noble (Scrophularia auriculata), 253; burnet- (Pimpinella saxifraga), 184
(S. nodosa), 151, 252–3, 345, 356, 357, English (Silaum silaus), 186
Plate 24 golden- (Chrysosplenium), 139
roseroot (Sedum rosea), 353, 356 meadow (Saxifraga granulata), 139
rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), 56, 154, 340, saxifrage family (Saxifragaceae), 139
357 scabious
rú beag (Thalictrum minus), 76 devil’s-bit (Succisa pratensis), 276–8
rush, hard (Juncus inflexus), 322 field (Knautia arvensis), 276
rush family (Juncaceae), 322 scabwort (Inula helenium), 16, 190, 291–2,
saffron (Crocus vernus), 325 353
meadow (Colchicum autumnale), 325–6 scald head (Cynoglossum officinale), 210
sage scammony (Convolvulus scammonia), 200
heath (Teucrium scorodonia), 217 scurvy-grass (Calystegia soldanella), 200,
mountain (Teucrium scorodonia), 217 342; (Cochlearia anglica), 119;
wild (Teucrium scorodonia), 217 (Cochlearia officinalis), 119, 200, 342
wood (Teucrium scorodonia), 217 Dutch (Cochlearia anglica), 119
St Candida’s eyes (Vinca minor, Vinca English (Cochlearia officinalis), 119, 200,
major), 196, Plate 19 342
St Columba’s oxterful (Hypericum spp.), scutch-grass (Elytrigia repens), 323, 324
105 seafog (unidentified seaweed), 48
St John’s-wort (Hypericum elodes), 104, sea-holly (Eryngium maritimum), 181–2
106, 353; (H. humifusum), 104; (H. sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca), 46
perforatum), 104–6; (H. pulchrum), seamróg (Trifolium dubium), 161; (T.
104, 106, 353; (H. tetrapterum), 104 repens), 161
St John’s-wort family (Clusiaceae), 103 sea pink (Armeria maritima), 100, 341
St Patrick’s leaf (Plantago major), 247–8; sedge family (Cyperaceae), 322
(P. lanceolata), 190, 247, 354 self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), 112, 221–3,
sallow (Salix spp.), 20, 27, 115, 116, 342, 322, 344, 345, 348
355 sengreen (Sempervivum tectorum), 61,
black (Myrica gale), 86, 340, 354 134–7, 139, 346, 348, 356
sally (Salix spp.), 20, 27, 115, 116, 342, 355 setterwort (Helleborus foetidus), 70–1, 352
Sally-my-handsome (Carpobrotus acinaci- setwall (Valeriana pyrenaica), 274
formis), 24, 89; (C. edulis), 24, 89 shamrock (Trifolium dubium), 161; (T.
saltmarsh-grass, common (Puccinellia repens), 161
maritima), 355 shepherd’s needle (Scandix pecten-veneris),
samphire 183
marsh (Salicornia europaea), 90 shepherd’s-purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris),
rock (Crithmum maritimum), 184, Plate 120, 351
17 she-vervain (Leonurus cardiaca), 211, 215,
sandwort, sea (Honckenya peploides), 91 298
sanicle (Sanicula europaea), 2, 181, 356 shunnis (Ligusticum scoticum), 189, 353,
Saturday-night-pepper (Euphorbia helio- 356
scopia), 169–71, 173 silverweed (Potentilla anserina), 142–4,
sauce alone (Alliaria petiolata), 117 145, 339, 342
savin (Juniperus communis), 65, 353, Plate sionnas (Ligusticum scoticum), 189, 353,
1; (J. sabina), 65; (Seriphidium mari- 356
timum), 296 skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata), 216, 356
slake (Porphyra umbilicalis), 45–6, 48 spindle family (Celastraceae), 167

slan lus (Peucedanum ostruthium), 190, spleenwort, maidenhair (Asplenium tri-
199, 354 chomanes), 62, 339
slánlus (Plantago lanceolata), 190, 247, spotted-orchid, heath (Dactylorhiza mac-
354 ulata), 334–5, Plate 30
sleabhcán (Porphyra umbilicalis), 45–6, 48 spurge
sleek (unidentified seaweed), 48 caper (Euphorbia lathyris), 170
sloe (Prunus spinosa), 151–3, 342, 344, Irish (Euphorbia hyberna), 170, 171,
355 352
sloke (Porphyra umbilicalis), 45–6, 48 petty (Euphorbia peplus), 170
sloucan (Porphyra umbilicalis), 45–6, 48 sea (Euphorbia paralias), 170
slouk (Porphyra umbilicalis), 45–6, 48 sun (Euphorbia helioscopia), 169–71,
smallage (Apium graveolens), 188 173
snake flower (Lychnis flos-cuculi), 93, 94 wood (Euphorbia amygdaloides), 170
sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica), 300 spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), 169
soldiers’ woundwort (Achillea spurge-laurel (Daphne laureola), 164–5,
millefolium), 95, 301, 342, 350 351
Solomon’s-seal (Polygonatum spurgewort (Iris foetidissima), 332, 338,
×hybridum), 326–7; (P. multiflorum), 344
326–7 spurrey, corn (Spergula arvensis), 92
sorrel squash family (Cucurbitaceae), 113
common (Rumex acetosa), 95–6, 173–4, squat (Glaucium flavum), 78, 340
340, 342, 343 squatmore (Glaucium flavum), 78, 340
cow (Rumex acetosa), 95–6, 173–4, 340, squitch-grass (Elytrigia repens), 323, 324
342, 343 star-fall’n (Nostoc commune), 43–4;
cuckoo (Rumex acetosa), 95–6, 173–4, (Tremella spp.), 358
340, 342, 343 star-jelly (Nostoc commune), 43–4;
red (Rumex acetosa), 95–6, 173–4, 340, (Tremella spp.), 358
342, 343 star-of-the-earth (Plantago coronopus),
sour-dock (Rumex acetosa), 95–6, 173–4, 93, 245–6, 354
340, 342, 343 star-shot (Nostoc commune), 43–4;
sow-thistle (Sonchus spp.), 282 (Tremella spp.), 358
perennial (S. arvensis), 285, 286 stench (Anthyllis vulneraria), 160, 161
prickly (S. asper), 285, 286 stitchwort, greater (Stellaria holostea), 92
smooth (S. oleraceus), 286–7 stonecrop
spearmint (Mentha spicata), 237 biting (Sedum acre), 138–9, 344, 356
spearwort, lesser (Ranunculus flammula), English (Sedum anglicum), 139, 356
73, 355 stonecrop family (Crassulaceae), 134
speedwell stonewort family (Characeae), 358
common (Veronica officinalis), 212, strawberry, wild (Fragaria vesca), 142,
257, 258, 260, 285 352, Plate 11
germander (Veronica chamaedrys), 116, sundew (Drosera spp.), 110
259, 262, 338, 342, 344 sundew family (Droseraceae), 110
heath (Veronica officinalis), 212, 257, swallow-wort (Chelidonium majus), 16,
258, 260, 285 72, 78–80, 128, 291, 351
thyme-leaved (Veronica serpyllifolia), sweet-briar (Rosa rubiginosa), 151
257 sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata), 183, 354,
spignel (Meum athamanticum), 186 Plate 16
spindle (Euonymus europaeus), 167, 351 sweet-flag (Acorus calamus), 320, Plate 28
sweet gale (Myrica gale), 86, 340, 354 toothwort (Lathraea squamaria), 262
tangle (Laminaria digitata, L. hyperborea), tormentil (Potentilla erecta), 123, 126,
47 144, 145, 152, 354
tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), 223, 295, 357 tormenting root (Potentilla erecta), 123,
wild (Potentilla anserina), 142–4, 145, 126, 144, 145, 152, 354
339, 342 tormentor, the (Calystegia sepium), 200;
tath lus (Anthriscus sylvestris), 182–3, 350, (Convolvulus arvensis), 200
351, 355 touch-and-heal (Hypericum androsae-
teaplant, Duke of Argyll’s (Lycium bar- mum), 103, 104
barum), 196 touchwood (Fomes fomentarius), 48–9;
teasel, wild (Dipsacus fullonum), 275, (Phellinus igniarius), 49
Plate 26 tout-saine (Hypericum androsaemum),
teasel family (Dipsacaceae), 275 103, 104
thang-a-naun (Stellaria holostea), 92 traveller’s joy (Potentilla anserina), 142–4,
thistle (see also sow-thistle) 145, 339, 342
blessed (Cnicus benedictus), 283; (Sily- treacle, English (Teucrium scordium), 218,
bum marianum), 282–3, 346, Plate 27 345, 357
bracket (Cirsium spp.), 282, 283, 351 trefoil, lesser (Trifolium dubium), 161
bull (Cirsium arvense), 282–3; (C. vul- tun-hoof (Glechoma hederacea), 219–21,
gare), 283, 351 339, 342, 352
carline (Carlina vulgaris), 280 tùrsairean (Stellaria holostea?), 92
creeping (Cirsium arvense), 282–3 tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum), 103,
crisp (Cirsium spp.), 282, 283, 351 104
holy (Cnicus benedictus), 283 twayblade, common (Listera ovata), 333
lady’s (Silybum marianum), 282–3, 346, twitch (Elytrigia repens), 323, 324
Plate 27 vagabond’s friend (Polygonatum
milk (Silybum marianum), 282–3, 346, ×hybridum, P. multiflorum), 326–7
Plate 27; (Sonchus asper), 285, 286; valerian
(Sonchus oleraceus), 286–7 common (Valeriana officinalis), 274–5,
Scotch (Cirsium arvense), 282–3; (C. 348, 358
vulgare), 283, 351 garden (Valeriana pyrenaica), 274
soft (white) (Sonchus spp.), 282, 285, marsh (Valeriana dioica), 274
286 valerian family (Valerianaceae), 274
speckled (Silybum marianum), 282–3, verjuice (Malus spp.), 154
346, Plate 27 Verona root (Iris ×germanica), 198
thistle family (Asteraceae), 280 vervain (Verbena officinalis), 211, 215
thorn-apple (Datura stramonium), 199, vervain family (Verbenaceae), 211
Plate 21 vetch, kidney (Anthyllis vulneraria), 160,
thrift (Armeria maritima), 100, 341 161
thrift family (Plumbaginaceae), 100 vine, wild (Bryonia dioica), 113–14, 333,
throatwort (Digitalis purpurea), 20, 351
254–7, 351 violet
thunder-dock (Petasites hybridus), 97, bog (Pinguicula vulgaris), 111, 263, 354
311, 312 dog- (Viola riviniana), 112
thyme (Thymus spp.), 224, 357 sweet (Viola odorata), 111, Plate 5
timothy (Phleum pratense), 324 violet family (Violaceae), 111
tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius), 48–9 viper’s-bugloss (Echium vulgare), 207
toadflax, common (Linaria vulgaris), 253, wall pepper (Sedum acre), 138–9, 344, 356
353 wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria), 62
wartweed (Euphorbia helioscopia), willow family (Salicaceae), 114

169–71, 173; (E. peplus), 170 willow fomes (Phellinus igniarius), 49
water-cress (Rorippa nasturtium- willowherb (Epilobium spp.), 165
aquaticum), 118, 339, 347 willowherb family (Onagraceae), 165
water-crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis), 73 winter-cress (Barbarea vulgaris, B. inter-
water-dropwort media), 117–18
hemlock (Oenanthe crocata), 184, wood avens (Geum urbanum), 146, Plate
185–6, 187, 354 12
tubular (Oenanthe fistulosa), 184 woodbine (Lonicera periclymenum), 273,
water fennel (Oenanthe fistulosa, O. fluvi- 274, 344, 353
atilis), 184 wood-laurel (Daphne laureola), 164–5, 351
water germander (Teucrium scordium), woodruff (Galium odoratum), 267, 268
218, 345, 357 wood-sage (Teucrium scorodonia), 217
water-lily wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), 95, 173–4,
white (Nymphaea alba), 69 354
yellow (Nuphar luteum), 69–70 wood-sorrel family (Oxalidaceae), 173
water-lily family (Nymphaeaceae), 69 wormseed, English (Erysimum cheiran-
water mint (Mentha aquatica), 237 thoides), 117
water-parsnip, greater (Sium latifolium), wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), 299,
184 341, 350
water-pepper (Persicaria hydropiper), 95 sea (Seriphidium maritimum), 296
water-plantain (Alisma plantago- wound herb (Lythrum salicaria), 164, 294
aquatica), 319 woundwort
water-plantain family (Alismataceae), 319 clown’s (Stachys palustris), 213–14
water ragwort (Senecio aquaticus), 306–7, hedge (Stachys sylvatica), 213
356 hybrid (Stachys ×ambigua), 213
water-starwort, common (Callitriche marsh (Stachys palustris), 213–14
stagnalis), 245 wrack
water-starwort family (Callitrichaceae), bladder (Fucus vesiculosus), 46
245 bubbling (Fucus vesiculosus), 46
wayfaring-tree (Viburnum lantana), 273 channelled (Pelvetia canaliculata), 47,
whitethorn (Crataegus monogyna), 155, 358
344, 351, Plate 13 lady (Fucus vesiculosus), 46
whitlowgrass (Erophila verna), 119 sea- (Fucus vesiculosus), 46
whortles, marsh (Vaccinium oxycoccos), yam family (Dioscoreaceae), 333
123 yarrow (Achillea millefolium), 95, 301, 342,
willow-moss (Fontinalis antipyretica), 40 350
willow (Salix spp.), 27, 115, 342, 355 yew (Taxus baccata), 67, 357
creeping (S. repens), 115–16 yew family (Taxaceae), 67
weeping (S. babylonica), 116 yn lus (Leonurus cardiaca), 211, 215, 298;
white (S. alba), 20, 115, 355 (Verbena officinalis), 211, 215

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Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition

    & 

Copyright © 2004 by David E. Allen and Gabrielle Hatfield.

Page 2, Sanicula europaea, sanicle (Brunfels 1530, fig. 80).

Timber Press, Inc. Timber Press

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CHAPTER 1 Herbs Without the Herbals: Retracing a Lost Tradition 15

CHAPTER 2 Introduction to the Compendium of Uses 31

CHAPTER 3 Bryophytes, Lichens, Algae and Fungi 39

CHAPTER 4 Pteridophytes and Conifers 54

CHAPTER 5 Water-lilies, Buttercups and Poppies 69

CHAPTER 7 St John’s-worts to Primulas 103

CHAPTER 8 Currants, Succulents and Roses 133

CHAPTER 9 Legumes, Spurges and Geraniums 160

CHAPTER 10 Ivy and Umbellifers 179

CHAPTER 11 Gentians and Nightshades 194

CHAPTER 12 Comfrey, Vervain and Mints 206

CHAPTER 13 Plantains, Figworts, Foxglove and Speedwells 245

CHAPTER 14 Bedstraws, Valerian and Scabious 267

CHAPTER 15 Daisies 280

CHAPTER 16 Pondweeds, Grasses, Lilies and Orchids 319

CHAPTER 17 Distribution Patterns of Folk Medicinal Uses 337

Appendix Veterinary Remedies 348

Reference Sources 363

Index of Folk Uses 379

Index of Scientific Names 409

Index of Vernacular Names 417

Colour plates on pages 225–236

in Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland was

Herbs Without the Herbals:

Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland arose

as Leechbook III,2 provides evidence of a northern European herbal tradition

I verily believe that the divine Providence had a care in bestowing

Johnson could be accused of self-interest in advancing this view since his

considerable sophistication and stability were probably already established

don Dispensatory of 1649, William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine of 1769 and

The main purpose of Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of

increasingly hybrid entity superimposed on that, the product of multiple

REPUBLIC OF 104 Co. Mayo

Pre-1974 counties of Britain and Ireland

GEOGRAPHICAL ORDER OF RECORDS

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN NOTES

CECTL Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language,

SEQUENCE OF FAMILIES AND SPECIES

themselves, confining attempts at translation to those that are archaic and

Fontinalis antipyretica Hedwig

Usnea Dillenius ex Adanson

Peltigera canina (Linnaeus) Willdenow, in the broad sense

Xanthoria parietina (Linnaeus) Th. Fries

Nostoc commune Vaucher

Mastocarpus stellatus (Stackhouse) Guiry

Palmaria palmata (Linnaeus) Kuntze

Porphyra umbilicalis (Linnaeus) Kützing

Pelvetia canaliculata (Linnaeus) Decaisne & Thuret

Laminaria digitata (Hudson) Lamouroux

Four unidentified seaweeds are

Fomes fomentarius (Fries) Kickx

Phellinus igniarius (Fries) Quélet

Phellinus pomaceus (Fries) Maire

Piptoporus betulinus (Bulliard ex Fries) P. Karsten