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GARDEN ORACHE

(ATRIPLEX HORTENSIS)

Garden Arrach

Called also Orach, and Arage; it is cultivated for domestic uses.

PLACE: [Native to Central Asia and the Caucasus. Now grown as an ornamental.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the government of the Moon; in quality cold and moist like unto her. [If eaten] it softens and loosens the [stool], and fortifies the expulsive faculty. The herb, whether it be bruised and applied to the throat, or boiled, and in like manner applied, it matters not much, it is excellently good for swellings in the throat: the best way, I suppose, is to boil it, apply the herb outwardly: the decoction of it, besides, is an excellent remedy for the yellow jaundice.

MODERN USES: Perhaps well-known in the English kitchen garden in Culpeper’s day, garden orache was introduced to Europe from western Asia by 1548, but was seldom used two hundred years later, as it had been replaced by spinach. Garden orache is sometimes grown as an ornamental, or the seed is used in birdseed mixes. It has escaped, becoming a weed. Not used in herbal medicine.

 

GARLIC

(ALLIUM SATIVUM)

Garlick

The offensiveness of the breath of him that hath eaten Garlick, will lead you by the nose to the knowledge hereof, and (instead of a description) direct you to the place where it grows in gardens, which kinds are the best, and most physical.

PLACE: [Only known in gardens, garlic has evolved over seven thousand years of cultivation and does not occur in the wild. Its closest wild relatives are found in Central Asia, where garlic may have originated.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Mars owns this herb. This was anciently accounted the poor man’s treacle, it being a remedy for all diseases and hurts (except those which itself breed). It provokes urine, and women’s courses, helps the biting of mad dogs and other venomous creatures, kills worms in children, cuts and voids tough phlegm, purges the head, helps the lethargy, is a good preservative against, and a remedy for any plague, sore, or foul ulcers; takes away spots and blemishes in the skin, eases pains in the ears, ripens and breaks imposthumes [abscesses], or other swellings. And for all those diseases the onions are as effectual. But the Garlick hath some more peculiar virtues besides the former, viz. it hath a special quality to discuss inconveniences coming by corrupt agues or mineral vapours; or by drinking corrupt and stinking waters; as also by taking wolf-bane, henbane, hemlock, or other poisonous and dangerous herbs. It is also held good in hydropick diseases, the jaundice, falling sickness, cramps, convulsions, the piles or hemorrhoids, or other cold diseases. Many authors quote many diseases this is good for; but conceal its vices. Its heat is very vehement, and all vehement hot things send up but ill-favored vapours to the brain. In choleric men it will add fuel to the fire; in men oppressed by melancholy, it will attenuate the humour, and send up strong fancies, and as many strange visions to the head; therefore let it be taken inwardly with great moderation; outwardly you may make bolder with it.

MODERN USES: Today garlic is used to reduce the risks associated with cardiovascular disease including lowering low-density lipoproteins, cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. It is considered a blood thinner, thereby increasing blood flow. Various garlic preparations have been evaluated in dozens of controlled clinical studies with positive results. Garlic is used for the supportive management and prevention of age-dependent vascular disease such as atherosclerosis. CAUTION: Due to its blood-thinning effects, garlic should not be consumed before surgery, or with certain medications. Consult your medical professional.

 

GARLIC MUSTARD

(ALLIARIA PETIOLATA)

Sauce-Alone, Jack-by-the-Hedge-Side

DESCRIPTION: The lower leaves of this are rounder than those that grow towards the top. The flowers are white. The plant, or any part thereof, being bruised, smells of garlic, but more pleasantly, and tastes somewhat hot and sharp, almost like unto rocket.

PLACE: It grows in fields in many places. [Found throughout Europe. Naturalized and rapidly spreading in North America, where it is becoming a serious invasive alien, choking out both native prairies in the West and those in open wood in the eastern United States. Global warming increases its spread because its seeds germinate earlier than native plants, thus crowding out natives before they have a chance to grow.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is an herb of Mercury. This is eaten by many country people as a sauce to their salt fish, and helps well to digest the crudities and other corrupt humours engendered thereby. It warms also the stomach, and causes digestion. The juice thereof boiled with honey is accounted to be as good as hedge mustard for the cough, to cut and expectorate the tough phlegm. The seed bruised and boiled in wine, is a singularly good remedy for the wind colic, or the stone, being drank warm: It is also given to women troubled with the mother, both to drink, and the seed put into a cloth, and applied while it is warm, is of singularly good use. The leaves also, or the seed boiled, is good to be used in clysters to ease the pains of the stone. The green leaves are held to be good to heal the ulcers in the legs.

MODERN USES: Used as a folk medicine as described by Culpeper. As the name “garlic mustard” implies, this member of the mustard family combines chemical constituents found in both garlic and mustards, leading to a peppery, strong garlic flavor. This chemical combination defends the plant against a broad range of enemies, even killing soil bacteria and fungi beneficial to native plants. Garlic mustard is a one-species wrecking crew for native plants in open fields and woodlands. It is built to survive and multiply. Used in small amounts as flavoring, or in times of famine as a broth. CAUTION: Contains cyanide; avoid eating uncooked leaves or consuming large quantities.

 

GENTIAN

(GENTIANELLA AMARELLA; SYN. GENTIANA AMARELLA)

Felwort, or Baldmony

It is confessed that Gentian, which is most used amongst us, is brought over from beyond sea, yet we have two sorts of it growing frequently in our nation, which, besides the reasons so frequently alleged why English herbs should be fittest for English bodies, has been proved by the experience of diverse physicians, to be not a wit inferior in virtue to that which comes from beyond sea, therefore be pleased to take the description of them as follows.

DESCRIPTION: The greater of the two [felwort (Gentianella amarella)] hath many small long roots thrust down deep into the ground, and abiding all the Winter. The stalks are sometimes two feet high; the flowers are long and hollow, of a purple colour, ending in fine corners. The smaller sort [field gentian (Gentianella campestris)], grows up, not a foot high; on the tops of these stalks grow diverse perfect blue flowers.

PLACE: [Gentianella amarella occurs in diverse habitats throughout most of Europe. Gentianella campestris is widespread in central and northern Europe.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: They are under the dominion of Mars, and one of the principal herbs he is ruler of. They resist putrefactions, poison, and a surer remedy cannot be found to prevent the pestilence than it is; it strengthens the stomach exceedingly, helps digestion, comforts the heart, and preserves it against faintings and swoonings. The powder of the dry roots helps the biting of mad dogs and venomous beasts, opens obstructions of the liver, and restores an appetite for their meat to such as have lost it. The herb steeped in wine, and the wine drank, refreshes such as be over-weary with traveling, and grow lame in their joints, either by cold or evil lodgings; it helps stitches, and griping pains in the sides. It is an admirable remedy to kill the worms, by taking half a dram of the powder in a morning in any convenient liquor; the same is excellently good to be taken inwardly for the king’s evil [unusual swelling of lymph nodes or scrofula]. It helps agues of all sorts, and the yellow jaundice, as also the bots in cattle; when kine [cows] are bitten on the udder by any venomous beast, do but stroke the place with the decoction of any of these, and it will instantly heal them.

MODERN USES: In keeping with his purpose to promote herbs of the English countryside for English readers, Culpeper dismisses gentian “from beyond the sea”—the yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea) of the Alps—in favor of the five blue-flowered English species of Gentiana. The roots of many, if not all, Gentiana species contain compounds such as gentipricroside and amarogentin, which set the standard for extreme bitterness taste values. Thus, the roots of various gentians stimulate saliva and gastric juice and are used as a bitter digestive stimulant for lack of appetite, anorexia, and dyspepsia, and as a tonic to the gastrointestinal system.

 

GERMANDER

(TEUCRIUM CHAMAEDRYS)

DESCRIPTION: Common Germander has small and somewhat round leaves. The flowers stand[ing] at the tops [are] of a deep purple colour. [Commonly grown in herb gardens as a short evergreen woody hedge, it originates from and is found throughout much of north-central Europe to south-central Russia.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is a most prevalent herb of Mercury, and strengthens the brain and apprehension exceedingly when weak, and relieves them when drooping. It is most effectual against the poison of all serpents, being drank in wine, and the bruised herb outwardly applied; used with honey, it cleanses old and foul ulcers. It is likewise good for the pains in the sides and cramps. It is also good against all diseases of the brain, as continual head-ache, falling-sickness, melancholy, drowsiness and dullness of the spirits, convulsions and palsies. A dram of the seed taken in powder purges by urine, and is good against the yellow jaundice. The juice of the leaves dropped into the ears kills the worms in them. The tops thereof, when they are in flowers, steeped twenty-four hours in a draught of white wine, and drank, kills the worms in the belly.

MODERN USES: A longtime folk use of germander was to treat obesity. It was even approved for that purpose in France until the early 1990s, when over two dozen cases of acute hepatitis, including one fatality, occurred in women who had used germander products for weight loss. This incident resulted in a ban on the sale of the herb in France and elsewhere. It was also used as a traditional remedy for mild diarrhea and as an oral analgesic. CAUTION: Don’t ingest due to confirmed liver toxicity. Avoid.

 

GOLDENROD

(SOLIDAGO VIRGAUREA)

DESCRIPTION: This rises up two feet high, and sometimes more, having thereon many narrow and long dark green leaves, with diverse small yellow flowers.

PLACE: [Found in open woodlands, fields, meadows, rocky cliffs, and hedgerows throughout most of Europe, extending into East Asia.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Venus claims the herb, and therefore to be sure it respects beauty lost. Arnoldus de Villa Nova commends it much against the stone in the kidneys, and to provoke urine in abundance, whereby also the gravel and stone may be voided. The decoction of the herb, green or dry, or the distilled water thereof, is very effectual for inward bruises, as also to be outwardly applied, it stays bleeding in any part of the body, and of wounds. It is a sovereign wound herb, inferior to none, both for the inward and outward hurts; green wounds, old sores and ulcers, are quickly cured therewith. It also is of especial use in all lotions for sores or ulcers in the mouth, throat, or private parts of man or woman. The decoction also helps to fasten the teeth that are loose in the gums.

MODERN USES: European goldenrod increases diuresis and blood flow to the kidneys without stimulating the loss of sodium and chloride. Used in modern phytomedicine in the treatment of kidney and bladder inflammation, urinary calculi, and kidney gravel, and in the supportive treatment of urinary tract infections. It is considered diuretic, antispasmodic, and anti-inflammatory. CAUTION: Topical products may cause contact dermatitis. Other allergies are possible.

 

GOOSEBERRY

(RIBES UVA-CRISPA; SYN. RIBES GROSSULARIA)

PLACE: [Found in hedges, open woods, and scrub-land. Native to most of Europe; naturalized in the northeastern United States and the Canadian Maritime Provinces.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: They are under the dominion of Venus. The berries, while they are unripe, being scalded or baked, are good to stir up a fainting or decayed appetite, especially such whose stomachs are afflicted by choleric humours. They are excellently good to stay longings of women with child. You may keep them preserved with sugar all the yearlong. The decoction of the leaves cools hot swellings and inflammations; as also St. Anthony’s fire. The ripe Gooseberries being eaten, are an excellent remedy to allay the violent heat both of the stomach and liver. The young and tender leaves break the stone, and expel gravel both from the kidneys and bladder.

MODERN USES: Gooseberries are mostly eaten as a food. The seed oil of the related shrub black currant (Ribes nigrum) is a rich source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an essential fatty acid from dietary sources. GLA-containing seed oils have been suggested for possible clinical use in treating premenstrual syndrome (PMS), atopic eczema, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and various problems associated with diabetes, among other conditions.

 

GOOSEFOOT, STINKING

(CHENOPODIUM VULVARIA)

Arrach, Wild and Stinking

DESCRIPTION: This has small, almost round leaves, a little pointed and, of a dusky mealy colour, growing on the slender stalks and branches that spread on the ground, with small flowers set with the leaves. It smells like rotten fish, or something worse.

PLACE: It grows usually upon dunghills, [disturbed soils, and wastelands. Native in most of Europe and naturalized in North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Stinking Arrach is used as a remedy to women pained, and almost strangled with the mother, by smelling to it; but inwardly taken there is no better remedy under the moon for that disease. I would be large in commendation of this herb, were I but eloquent. It is an herb under the dominion of Venus, and under the sign Scorpio; it is common almost upon every dunghill. The works of God are freely given to man, his medicines are common and cheap, and easily found. I commend it for a universal medicine for the womb, and such a medicine as will easily, safely, and speedily cure any disease thereof, as the fits of the mother, dislocation, or falling out thereof; cools the womb being over-heated. And let me tell you this, and I will tell you the truth, heat of the womb is one of the greatest causes of hard labour in child-birth. It makes barren women fruitful. It cleanseth the womb if it be foul, and strengthens it exceedingly; it provokes the terms if they be stopped, and stops them if they flow immoderately; you can desire no good to your womb, but this herb will affect it; therefore if you love children, if you love health, if you love ease, keep a syrup always by you, made of the juice of this herb, and sugar (or honey, if it be to cleanse the womb), and let such as be rich keep it for their poor neighbors; and bestow it as freely as I bestow my studies upon them, or else let them look to answer it another day, when the Lord shall come to make inquisition for blood.

MODERN USES: A quaint historical relic. Useful for the entertainment value of Culpeper’s charm of phrase.

Writing in 1777, English botanist William Curtis (1746–99) states: “There is some difficulty in ascertaining several of the plants of this genus, but that difficulty cannot be alleged against the present species, as it is at all times, both fresh and dried, discoverable by its smell alone; the whole plant, if ever so slightly bruised betwixt the thumb and fingers, communicating a very permanently disagreeable odor, resembling, in the opinion of most person, stale salt fish” (Flora Londinensis Vol. 5).

 

GORSE

(ULEX EUROPAEUS)

The Furze Bush

It is as well known by this name, as it is in some counties by the name of Gorz or Whins, that I shall not need to write any description thereof, my intent being to teach my countrymen what they know not, rather than to tell them again of that which is generally known before.

PLACE: They are known to grow on dry barren heaths, and other waste, gravelly or sandy grounds. [Native to western Europe; naturalized in western North America and temperate South America, and considered a noxious weed that is prone to catch fire.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Mars owns the herb. They are hot and dry, and open obstructions of the liver and spleen. A decoction made with the flowers thereof hath been found effectual against the jaundice, as also to provoke urine, and cleanse the kidneys from gravel or stone.

MODERN USES: Gorse itself is rarely used as a medicinal plant. However, a specific lectin extracted from the seeds is used as a diagnostic tool in blood tests to identify antigens on human red blood cells, serving as a biomarker for screening the presence of cancer cells.

 

GRAPE VINE

(VITIS VINIFERA)

PLACE: [Wine is believed to have originated in the Caucasus, the ancestral home of the grapevine, at least seven thousand years ago. Over thousands of years, grapes spread throughout Europe and wherever they would grow in the world. There are more than eight thousand varieties of grapes.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The leaves of the English vine being boiled, makes a good lotion for sore mouths; being boiled with barley meal into a poultice, it cools inflammations of wounds; the dropping of the vine, when it is cut in the Spring, which country people call Tears, being boiled in a syrup, with sugar, and taken inwardly, is excellent to stay women’s longings after everything they see, which is a disease many women with child are subject to. The decoction of Vine leaves in white wine doth the like. Also the tears of the Vine, drank two or three spoonfuls at a time, breaks the stone in the bladder. This is a good remedy, and it is discreetly done, to kill a Vine to cure a man, but the salt of the leaves are held to be better. The ashes of the burnt branches will make teeth that are as black as a coal, to be as white as snow, if you but every morning rub them with it. It is a most gallant Tree of the Sun, very sympathetically with the body of men, and that is the reason spirit of wine is the greatest cordial among all vegetables.

MODERN USES: Culpeper celebrates the spirit of wine as the greatest cordial. Little has changed in attitudes toward wine. Aside from the well-known antioxidant benefits of red wine, an extract of grapeseed has also been shown to have strong antioxidant activity. The extracts are used to prevent or treat peripheral venous insufficiency, reducing a tendency to bruising and varicosities. The extract is anti-inflammatory and of potential value in improving skin damage due to ultraviolet radiation.

 

GROMWELL

(LITHOSPERMUM OFFICINALE)

Gromel

DESCRIPTION: The greater Gromwell [Lithospermum purpureocaeruleum] grows up with slender hard and hairy stalks, with hairy dark green leaves thereon. At the joints, come forth blue flowers.

The smaller wild Gromwell [Lithospermum arvense] sends forth diverse upright hard branched stalks, two or three feet high, at every one of which grow small, long, hard, and rough leaves; among which come forth small white flowers. The garden or common Gromwell [Lithospermum officinale] has diverse upright, slender, woody, hairy stalks, and white flowers.

PLACE: The two first grow wild in barren or untilled places, and by the wayside in many places [in Europe and Asia; occasionally naturalized in eastern North America].

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The herb belongs to Dame Venus; thus if Mars cause the cholic or stone, as usually he doth, if in Virgo, this is your cure. These are accounted to be of as singular force as any herb or seed whatsoever, to break the stone and to void it, and the gravel either in the kidneys or bladder, as also to provoke urine being stopped, and to help strangury [painful, frequent urination]. The seed is of greatest use, being bruised and boiled in white wine or in broth, or the like, or the powder of the seed taken therein. The herb itself, (when the seed is not to be had) either boiled, or the juice thereof drank, is effectual to all the purposes aforesaid, but is not so powerful or speedy.

MODERN USES: As gromwell seeds were thought to resemble kidney stones, the doctrine of signatures—in which a plant part was thought to resemble an organ of the body—dictated that the herb be used to treat urinary calculi and gravel. Not used today. CAUTION: Like coltsfoot, gromwell contains liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can cause veno-occlusive disease of the liver; therefore, the herb is no longer considered safe to use.

 

GROUND ELDER

(AEGOPODIUM PODAGRARIA)

Gout-Wort, or Herb Gerrard

DESCRIPTION: It is a low herb, seldom rising half a yard high, having sundry leaves standing on brownish green stalks by three, snipped about, and of a strong unpleasant savour: The umbels of the flowers are white.

PLACE: It grows by hedge and wall-sides, and often in the border and corner of fields, and in gardens also. [Originally brought to monasteries from the European continent, ground elder is now a widespread weed of wastelands in eastern North America and Australia.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Saturn rules it. Neither is it to be supposed Goutwort hath its name for nothing but upon experiment to heal the gout and sciatica; as also joint-aches, and other cold griefs. The very bearing of it about one eases the pains of the gout, and defends him that bears it from the disease.

MODERN USES: Young ground elder leaves have been used as a vegetable. Considered diuretic, mildly sedative, and anti-inflammatory, the fresh roots and leaves have long been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of gout, both internally as a tincture and externally as a poultice. The herb has also been used for sciatica. One laboratory study evaluated the potential of the tincture to potentiate the effect of the prescription drug metformin in type 2 diabetes. Laboratory models from another study show a tendency to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, but the results are preliminary and inconclusive. The species name podagraria honors its use for treatment of podagra—gout pain in the big toe.

 

GROUND IVY

(GLECHOMA HEDERACEA)

Alehoof

DESCRIPTION: This well-known herb lies, spreads and creeps upon the ground, shoots forth roots, at the corners of tender jointed stalks, set with two round leaves at every joint somewhat hairy, crumpled and unevenly dented about the edges [from which] come, long flowers of a blueish purple colour, with small white spots upon the lips.

PLACE: It is commonly found [in lawns, edges of fields, and hedges], and other waste grounds, [throughout Europe and North America].

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is an herb of Venus, and therefore cures the diseases she causes by sympathy, and those of Mars by antipathy; you may usually find it all the yearlong except the year be extremely frosty; it is quick, sharp, and bitter in taste, and is thereby found to be hot and dry; a singular herb for all inward wounds, exulcerated [sore, inflamed] lungs, or other parts, either by itself, or boiled with other the like herbs; and being drank, in a short time it eases all griping pains, windy and choleric humours in the stomach, spleen or belly; helps the yellow jaundice, by opening the stoppings of the gall and liver, and melancholy, by opening the stoppings of the spleen; expels venom or poison, and also the plague; it provokes urine and women’s courses; the decoction of it in wine drank for some time together, procures ease to them that are troubled with the sciatica, or hip-gout: as also the gout in hands, knees or feet; if you put to the decoction some honey and a little burnt alum, it is excellently good to gargle any sore mouth or throat, and to wash the sores and ulcers in the private parts of man or woman; it speedily helps fresh wounds, being bruised and bound thereto. The juice of it boiled with a little honey and verdigris, doth wonderfully cleanse fistulas, ulcers, and stays the spreading or eating of cancers and ulcers; it helps the itch, scabs, wheals, and other breakings out in any part of the body. The juice dropped into the ears helps the noise and singing of them, and helps the hearing which is decayed. It is good to [add to a barrel of] new drink, for it will clarify it in a night, that it will be the fitter to be drank the next morning; or if any drink be thick with removing, or any other accident, it will do the like in a few hours.

MODERN USE: Ground ivy leaves were traditionally used to flavor and clarify beer, hence the name “alehoof.” In traditional Chinese medicine, ground ivy is used in prescriptions for gallstones, edema, abscesses, diabetes, inflammation, and jaundice. Used for chronic bronchial catarrh as a mild expectorant and astringent. CAUTION: May cause labored breathing and throat irritation in livestock; similar side effects are also reported for humans, along with gastrointestinal or kidney irritation. Little used today. Lack of clinical and safety data but well-studied chemistry.

 

GROUND PINE

(AJUGA CHAMAEPITYS)

Chamepitys

DESCRIPTION: Our common Ground Pine grows low, with slender, small, long, narrow, greyish, or whitish leaves, smelling somewhat strong, like unto rosin: The flowers are small, and of a pale yellow colour.

PLACE: [Found in chalky soils throughout most of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Mars owns the herb. The decoction of Ground Pine drank, doth wonderfully prevail against the strangury, or any inward pains arising from the diseases of the kidneys and urine, and is especially good for all obstructions of the liver and spleen, and gently opens the body; for which purpose they were wont in former times to make pills with the powder thereof, and the pulp of figs. It marvelously helps all the diseases of the mother, inwardly or outwardly applied, procuring women’s courses, and expelling the dead child and after-birth; yea, it is so powerful upon those feminine parts, that it is utterly forbidden for women with child, for it will cause abortion or delivery before the time. The decoction of the herb in wine taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, or both, for some time together, is also effectual in all pains and diseases of the joints, as gouts, cramps, palsies, sciatica, and aches. It helps also all diseases of the brain, proceeding of cold and phlegmatic humours and distillations, as also for the falling sickness. It is a special remedy for the poison of the aconites, and other poisonous herbs, as also against the stinging of any venomous creature. It is a good remedy for a cold cough, especially in the beginning. For all the purposes aforesaid, the herb being tunned up in new drink and drank, is almost as effectual, but far more acceptable to weak and dainty stomachs. The distilled water of the herb hath the same effects, but more weakly. The green herb, or the decoction thereof, being applied, dissolves the hardness of women’s breasts, and all other hard swellings in any other part of the body. The green herb also applied, or the juice thereof with some honey, not only cleanses putrid, stinking, foul, and malignant ulcers and sores of all sorts, but heals and solders up the lips of green wounds in any part also. Let pregnant women forbear, for it works violently upon the feminine part.

MODERN USES: Ground pine is traditionally used as a diuretic and emmenagogue for the treatment of urinary disease. In the Middle East, it has been used for rheumatism, gout, jaundice, inflammation, fever, and joint pain. It has confirmed antioxidant activity and possibly toxic effects against cancer cells from the iridoids contained in the leaves and flowers. CAUTION: As Culpeper warns, avoid during pregnancy, as well as during breastfeading. A little-used herb of unknown toxicity; best to avoid use.

 

GROUNDSEL

(SENECIO VULGARIS)

DESCRIPTION: Our common Groundsel [is] set with long and somewhat narrow green leaves, cut in on the edges, somewhat like the oak-leaves. At the tops of the branches stand many small green heads, out of which grow several small, yellow threads or thumbs, which are the flowers.

PLACE: They grow almost everywhere, as well on tops of walls, as at the foot amongst rubbish and untilled grounds, but especially in gardens. [In so many words, Culpeper tells us it’s a weed. An annual weed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: [Groundsel] is Venus’s mistress-piece, and is as gallant and universal a medicine for all diseases coming of heat, in what part of the body so ever they be, as the sun shines upon; it is very safe and friendly to the body of man: yet causes vomiting if the stomach be afflicted; if not, purging: and it doth it with more gentleness than can be expected; it is moist, and something cold withal, thereby causing expulsion, and repressing the heat caused by the motion of the internal parts in purges and vomits. Lay by our learned receipts; take so much Senna, so much Scammony, so much Colocynthis, so much infusion of Crocus Metallorum, &c. this herb alone preserved in a syrup, in a distilled water, or in an ointment, shall do the deed for you in all hot diseases, and, shall do it, 1, Safely; 2, Speedily.

The decoction of this herb (saith Dioscorides) made with wine, and drank, helps the pains of the stomach, proceeding of choler [bile], (which it may well do by a vomit) as daily experience shews. The juice thereof taken in drink, or the decoction of it in ale, gently performs the same. It is good against the jaundice and falling sickness, being taken in wine; as also against difficulty of making water. It provokes urine, expels gravel in the kidneys; a dram thereof given in oxymel, after some walking or stirring of the body. It helps also the sciatica, griping of the belly, the cholic, defects of the liver, and provokes women’s courses. The fresh herb boiled and made into a poultice, applied to the breasts of women that are swollen with pain and heat, as also the private parts of man or woman, the seat or fundament, or the arteries, joints, and sinews, when they are inflamed and swollen, doth much ease them; and used with some salt, helps to dissolve knots or kernels in any part of the body. The juice of the herb, or as (Dioscorides saith) the leaves and flowers, with some fine Frankincense in powder, used in wounds of the body, nerves or sinews, doth singularly help to heal them. The distilled water of the herb performs well all the aforesaid cures, but especially for inflammations or watering of the eyes, by reason of the defluxion of rheum [watery discharge] unto them.

MODERN USES: As a successful invasive weed, common groundsel has evolved a chemical defense against predation: liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are found throughout the plant. It was formerly used by herbalists to expel worms, induce sweating for fevers, and as a diuretic. It was also considered purgative, and the young leaves were eaten for scurvy. Despite the virtues extolled by Culpepper, it is no longer used in herbal treatments. CAUTION: Like coltsfoot and comfrey, groundsel contains liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can cause veno-occlusive disease of the liver; therefore, the herb is no longer considered safe for use. Avoid.