Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

FAMILY HERBAL. 113
mercury, distinguished like this poisonous kind,
'
into male and female, he says, that the male kind
' conduces to the generation of boys, and the female
c
of girls.' Such is the matter, that a superiority
in one of these authors over the
him to add to his book : such
other, qualified
are the English
books that are extant upon this ; subject and such
the direction offered to the charitable, confounding
eatable herbs with poisons. This has been one
great reason of writing the present book, that there
may be one guide and direction at least, to be depended
upnn ; and this ifs author has thought pro-
per to say at large upon
the immediate occasion,
rather than in a preface ; because there it must
have been accompanied with a needless repetition,
and perhaps would not have been observed by many..
who may have recourse to the book.
Dog Tooth. Dens caninus.
A VERY pretty little plant, with two broad
leaves and a large drooping flower ; common in
Italy and Germany, and frequent in our gardens.
It is five or six inches high. The stalk is round,
slender, weak, and greenish towards the top ; often
white at the bottom. The leaves stand a little
height above the ground : they are oblong, somewhat
broad, of a beautiful green, not at ail dented
at the edges, and blunt at the end : they inclose
the stalk at the base. The flower is large and white,
but with a tinge of reddish; it hangs down, and
is long, hollow, and very elegant. The root is
roundish, and has some fibres growing from its
bottom ; it is full of a slimy juice.
The fresh gathered roots are used ; for they dry
very ill, and generally lose their virtues entirely.
They are good against worms in child ion, ar.d ;;.'>;