Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

93 FAMILY HERBAL.
and sharp. Cresses eaten in quantity are Yery good
against the scurvy. The seeds open obstructions.
Water Cress. Nasturtium aquaticum.
A WILD plant common with us in ditches, and
shallow rivers. It is a foot high, the stalks are
round, thick, but not very upright, of a pale green,
and much branched ; the leaves are of a fresh and
bright green, divided in a winged
manner and ob-
tuse ; the flowers are small and white, and there is
generally seen a kind of spike of the flowers and
seeds at the top of the stalks.
The leaves are used ; they may be eaten in the
manner of garden cress, and are full as pleasant,
and they are excellent against the scurvy. The
juice expressed from them has the same virtue, and
works also powerfully by urine, and opens ob-
structions.
Sciatica Cress. Iberis,
A PRETTY wild plant, but not frequent in all
parts of the kingdom. It is a foot high. The
stalk is round, firm, and upright ; of a pale green
colour. The leaves are small, longish,
and of a
pale green also ; and the flowers stand at the tops
of the branches, into which the stalk divides in its
upper part ; they
are white and little. The leaves
that grow immediately from the root, are four
inches ; long narrow and serrated about the edges,
and of a deep green.
The leaves are used ; they are recommended
are to be
greatly in the sciatica or hip-gout ; they
applied externally, and repeated as they grow dry.
The bestwav is to beat them with a little lard. It