Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

FAMILY HERBAL. 185
liquor our poor people drink under that name, is
only malt spirit* and oil of turpentine.
Ivy. Hedera.
A very common shrub, crawling about old
trees, or upon old walls ; it sometimes runs upon
the ground for want of such support, but then it
rarely bears any fruit. The trunk is thick, brown,
and covered with a peculiar roughness. The
branches are numerous and brittle The leaves
have a strange variety of shapes, oblong, angular,
cornered, or divided. The flowers stand in little
round clusters, and they are small and inconsiderable :
they are succeeded by large berries. The leaves
upon the young shoots that bear the flowers are al-
ways oblong ; those on the trunk are angulated.
They are all of a deep glossy green.
The leaves and berries are both used, but neither
much. A decoction of the leaves destroys
vermin in children's heads, and heals the soreness
that attends them. The berries are purging ; an
infusion of them will often work also by vomit,
but there is no harm in this :
they are an excellent
remedy in rheumatism?, and pains of all kind*, and,
it is said, have cured dropsies ; but this is perhaps
going too far.
The ivy
in the warm countries sweats out a kind
of resin, which has been used externally at some
times, on various occasions * but at this time,
quite unknown in practice.
K.
Kidney Wort. Umbilicus veneris.
'
it is
A very singular plant, which grows on old
b b