Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

186 FAMILY HERBAL.
walla in some parts of England It is
eight inches
a cluster of
high, and is distinguished at sight by
round leaves which grow about the stalk. The
root is roundish, and its fibres grow from the bottom.
The leaves stand on longish and thick foot-stalks,
which are, except in the lowest of all, inserted not
at the edges of the leaf 5 but in the middle : these
are round, thick, fleshy,
and indented about the
edges. The stalk which bears the flowers is round,
thick, a*nd, towards the top, divided into two or three
branches ; on these grow the flowers, in a kind of
spikes : they are oblong, hollowish, and of a greenish
white colour.
The leaves are the part used. Externally, they
are cooling, and good against pains. They are
applied bruised to the piles, with great success.
The juice of them, taken inwardly, operates Jry
urine, and is excellent against stranguries, and good
in the gravel, and inflammations of the liver and
spleen.
Knap-weed. Jacca.
A very common wild plant, with dark-coloured
longish leaves, and purple flowers, like those of
thistles. It is two feet high. The stalks are
roundish, but ribbed : they are of a pale colour,
very firm and strong, upright, and divided into
branches. The leaves are long, and of the same
breadth : those winch grow immediately from the
root, are but little jagged or cut at the edges :
those which stand upon the stalk, are more so.
The flowers are large ; they stand in scaly heads,
one of which is placed at the top of every branch :
and at a distance, they have something of the ap-
pearance of the flowers of thistles, but when exlunined
nearer, they
are more like these of the blue