PLANT "CURES"

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 97, 22 October 1934, Page 11

PLANT "CURES"

"If ihy tooth do continually ache and throb, take the root of the Dwarf Thistle, wash it well with clear water and chew well the juices from it." Such cures were commonly known and practised in rural England to within a hundred years ago.

Dried, and then steeped in sour wine or vinegar, wild thyme was used as a cold compress —and the liquid used for bathing—in the case of severe headaches and fevers. Oil of roses improved it. The roots of the common butterbur wore ground and the drink made from them used for fevers and plague. St. John's wort, camomile, betony, and dandelion wero similarly used. Tea made from dried mullein loaves were drunk as a, cure for coughs and colds, and the root was chewed for toothache. Common mallow tea was for sore throats and inflammation, and as a wash for falling hair, while a poultice of mallow eased the stings of wasps and brought out thorns and splinters. Powdered privet made a wash and a poultice for burns and scalds, ulcers, and festering. Valerian, kidney vetch, periwinkle, self-heal, and a number of other plants wero used for staunching and binding wounds. Wild arum roots supplied tho starch, which stiffened the ruffs of Elizabethan England and the collars of the Puritan days. Pillows of dried clover flowers were used for the sleepless; clover beds for fever and plague. The old name for coltsfoot was coughwort a drink made from the leaves, preferably mixed with elder-flowers, was held good for all bronchial troubles. Elder-flower tea was a remedy for many complaints, including rheumatism. Elder-flower wine was a medicinal tonic whose virtues included the restoring of a lovely complexion.