Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

8* FAMILY HERBAL.
large berry, black when it is ripe,
and in it are two
seeds, which are what we call coffee ; they are
whitish, and of a disagreeable taste when raw.
Coffee helps digestion, and dispels wind : and it
works gently by mine. The best way of faking it
is as we commonly drink it, and there are constitu-
tions for which it is very proper.
Sea Colewort, ou Sea Bindweed. Soldanella.
A PRETTY wild plant that we have on the
and that deserves to be
sea coasts, in many places ,-
much more known than it is as a medicine. The
stalks are a foot long, but weak and unable to support
themselves upright. They are round and
green or : purplish the leaves are roundish, but
shaped a little heart fashioned at the bottom ; thev
stand upon long foot-stalks, and are of a shining
green. The flowers are Targe and red, they are of
the shape of a bell ; the roots are white and small,
a milky juice flows from the plant when any part of
it is broken ; especially from the root.
The whole plant is to be gathered fresh when
about flowering, and boiled in ale with some nutmeg
and a clove or two, and taken in quantities
proportioned to the person's strength ; it is a strong
purge, and it sometimes operates also bv urine, but
there is no harm in that. It is fittest for country
pei-p'e of robust constitutions, but it will cure
dropsies and rheumatism. Nay I have known a
clap cured on a country fellow, by only two
doses of it. The juice which oozes from the
st;iJk and roots may be saved, it hardens into
a substance like scammony, and is an eycellent
purge