Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

FAMILY HERBAL. 325
The root is used dried, or infused in vinegar or
wine, and that afterwards made into a syrup with
honey. These three preparations are called the
wine of squills, vinegar of squills, and oxymel
of squills; they are all good against asthmas,
and difficulty of breathing. The oxymel is most
given for this purpose ; the vinegar causes vomit-
ing, and cleanses the stomach ; the wine of squills
works by urine, and is good against the jaundice and
dropsy.
Starwort. Aster aliens
A common wild plant, in many parts of Europe
and in the Grecian islands, but not here : we
have it in gardens. It is a foot and half high.
The stalk is round, hairy, and branched ; the
leaves are oblong, moderately broad, and rounded
at the ends, and of a dusky green. The flowers
arc yellow and large ; they resemble the marigold ;
it is singular that there stand some leaves under
this flower disposed into rays like a star ; the root is
long.
The fresh- leaves are used ; and that only exter-
nally. Bruised, and laid on as a pultice, they are a
cure for buboes, and other hard swellings. The plant
is called also ingunialis, from its peculiar effect in dis-
sipating buboes of the groin.
Star Thistle. Calcitrapa.
A wild plant on our heaths, but not very
common. It is two feet high, and extremely
branched ; the stalks are round, hard, and whitish.
The principal leaves rise from the root, and are
disposed in a circular manner on the ground.
They are
oblong, and divided along the sides