Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

246 FAMILYHERBAL.
The is nutmeg an excellent it
spice, strengthens
the stomach, and assists It
digestion.
will stop
vomitings, and is good against
the colic. When
roasted before the fire, and mixed with a small quan-
tity of rhubarb, it is the best of all remedies against
purging*.
O.
Oak. Quercus.
A noble and stately tree, native of our coun-
try, and no where growing to so great perfection.
It is very tall, and though irregular in the dispo-
sition of its branches, that very irregularity has its
beauty ; the trunk is very
thick the branches are
;
also thick, and often crooked : the bark is brown and
rough : the leaves are large, oblong, broad, and
deeply cut in at the edges, and they are of a shining
green. The flowers arc inconsiderable. The fruit
is the acorn, well known.
the oak, not as fruit, but
an insect.
Galls are produced upon
from the wounds made by
The bark of the oak is a very powerful astrin-
gent ; it stops purgings, and overflowings of the
menses, given in powder ; a decoction of it is excellent
for the falling down of the uvula, or as it
is called the falling down of the palate of the mouth.
Whenever a very powerful astringent is required,
oak bark demands the preference over every thing :
if it were brought from the East Indies,
held inestimable.
Scarlet Oak. Ilex.
it would be
A shrub not much regarded or its own account,
but from the insect called kcrmes, which
j