Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

FAMILY HERBAL 135
applied outwardly to swellings with success, tbey
soften and give ease while the matter is forming
within.
Figwort. Scrophidaria,
A tall and regular growing wild plant, with
small deep purple flowers. It grows four feet
high, and is common in our woods and ditches,
where there is little water ; there is another kind
of it in wet places, called also water betony, which
is to be distinguished from it bv the round indent-
ings of the leaves : it also grows in water, or
just
by it : the right figwort only loves shade and
dampness,
but not absolute wet. The stalk is
square, upright, hollow, and very firm ; the leaves
stand two at each joint, opposite one to the other ;
they are large, broad at the base, narrow at the
point, and sharply indented ; they stand on long
foot-stalks, and they have the shape of the nettle
leaf, but they are perfectly smooth, and of a
shining colour ; they are sometimes green,
but often
brown, as is also the whole plant. The flowers are
very small and gaping,
their colour is a blackish
purple. The root is
long, white, and full of
little tubercles, it spreads a great way under the
surface.
The juice of the fresh gathered root is an excellent
sweetener of the blood taken in small doses, and
for a long time together. The fresh roots bruised
and applied externally, are said also to be excellent
for the evil. They cool and give eaee in the piles,
applied as a pultice.
Fir Tree, bibles.
A wy.D tree ia Germany, and many other parts