Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

04 FAMILY HERBAL.
Purple Loosestrife. Lysimachia purpurea.
A wild plant,
ditches and rivers,
that decorates the sides of
and would be an ornament to
our gardens.
It grows to three feet high, and is
very regular ; the stalk is square, hairy, and gene-
rally
of a reddish colour. The leaves stand two
at each joint, and they are long and narrow ; of a
dusky green, and a little rough. The (lowers stand
in cry long spikes at the tops of the stalks, and
art large, and of a strong purple colour. The spikes
are often a foot or more in length
little and brown.
The seed is very
The leaves are need.
fresh wounds, and an
They are a fine balsam for
ointment is to be made of
them boiled in lard, which is also
cooling and detersive,
but it is not of a fine green colour.
Yellow Loosestrife. Lysimachia lutca.
A wild plant not uncommon in our watery
places, but for its beauty, very worthy a place in
our gardens.
If it were brought from America., it
would be called one of the most elegant plants in
the world. It is four feet high, the stalks are rigid,
firm, upright, and very regular in their : growth a
little hairy and towards the ; tops divided into several
brandies. The leaves are as long as one3 finger,
and an inch and half broad in the middle, and small
at each end ; they are a little hairy, and of a yellowish
green. The (lowers are large and of a beautiful
yellow, they grow several together on the tops of
the branches. The seed-vessels are full of small
seeds.
The root dried and given in powder, is good
ugainst the whites, and against bloody fluxes, over-
flowings of the menses, and purging- ; it is astrm-