Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

FAMILY HERBAL. 365
tinctures of the shops, but it docs very well alone ;
boiling water poured upon it, stand till it is cold then strained
and
off,
suffered to
is an excellent
medicine to cause an appetite. Put into white
wine, it also gives a pleasant bitter flavour, the same virtues.
with
Roman Wormwood. Absyntlxium Romanum. ,
A VERY delicate plant of the wormwood kind,
native of the warmer parts of Europe, but kept
in our gardens. It is two fttct and a half high ;
the stalk is round, smooth, hard, upright, of
a browish colour, and somewhat woody. The
leaves stand irregularly on it, and they are small
and divided into very fine segments : they are
more like the leaves of the common southernwood
in figure, than those of either of the other
wormwoods. The flowers are little and brown,
like those of common wormwood, but vastly
smaller ; they are very numerous, and stand at
the tops of the stalks in a kind of long and thick
spikes. The root is creeping and spreading, and
composed of fibres. The whole plant has a bitter
taste, but not at all like that of wormwood, extremely
aromatic and pleasing. The flowers are
very bitter, and have little of this aromatic flavour.
The fresh tops are used, and the whole plant
dried. It is excellent to strengthen the stomach;
hut that is not ail its virtue. The juice of the fresh
tops is good against obstructions of the liver
and spleen, and has been known singly to cure the
jaundice.