Family Herbal - Electric Scotland

FAMILY HERBAL. 39
high ; the leaves are broad and beautiful, and
the flowers grow in a thick spike or ear, at the
top of the stalks, and are of a bright red colour.
There me immediately from the root a number
of large and beautiful leaves, long, broad, and
of a fine green colour. The stalks on which they
stand, have also a rim of the leaf running down,
them ; the stalks are round, firm, and erect, of
a pale green, and have two or three leaves, like
the others, but smaller, on them, placed at dis-
tances. The spike of the flowers is
and as thick as a man's thumb : the root
as
is
long,
thick
and contorted, blackish oil the outside, and red
within.
If we minded our own herbs, we should need
fewer medicines from abroad. The root of bis-
tort is one of the best astringents in the world :
not violent, but sure. The time of gathering it
is in March, when the leaves begin to shoot.
String several of them on a line, and Set them
dry in the shade. The powder or decoction of
them, will stop all fluxes of the belly, and is one
of the safest remedies known for overflowings of
the menses.
The use of
They are also in good a diabetes.
thi-s root may be obtained without
danger till it effects a perfect cure.
Bitter-Sweet. Solatium lignosum.
A COMMON wild plant, with weak, but
woody stalks, that runs among our hedge.-, and
bears bunches of very pretty blue flowers in 'sum-
mer, and in autumn red berries. The stalks
run to ten feet in
length, but they cannot sup-
are of a bluish
port themselves upright : they
colour, and, when broken, have a very disagreeable
smell like rotten eggs. The leaves are oval,