Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

163 FAMILY HERBAL.
Hart's Tongue. Phyllitis. Lingua cervina
A wild plant of the fern kind, that is, con-
sisting only of leaves, without a stalk, the flowers
and seeds being borne on the backs of them. But
it has no resemblance to the ordinary ferns in its
aspect. Each leaf of hart's is tongue a separate
plant, but there rise many from the same root.
The foot-stalk is five inches
long, the leaf an inch
and a quarter broad, largest at the bottom, and
smaller to the
top, usually simple, but sometimes
divided into two or more parts at the end. It is of
a beautiful green at the upper side, somewhat paler
underneath, and the foot-stalk runs all along its
middle in the form of a very large rib. The seed-ves-
scis are disposed in long brown streaks on each side
of this rib, on the under part of the leaf, and they are
more conspicuous than in most of the fem kind.
The plant grows in old wells, and in dark ditches,
and is all green the year.
It is not much used, but deserves to be more
Known. It is an excellent astringent;
of the plant, taken in small quantities,
the juice
and for a
continuance of time, opens obstructions of the liver
and spleen, and will cure many of the most obstinate
chronic distempers.
Hartwort. Seseli.
A tall, robust, and handsome plant, native
of the Alps, but kept in our gardens. It grows
five or six feel in height : the stalk is round, thick,
striated, and hollow, very firm and upright, and
but little branched. The leaves are very large,
and they are divided into a great number of parts,
by fives and bv threes ; they are of a yellowish
green. The flowers are small and white, but they