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WALLFLOWER

(ERYSIMUM CHEIRANTHOIDES)

Winter Gilli-Flower

The garden kind are so well known that they need no description.

DESCRIPTION: The common single Wallflowers, which grow wild abroad, have small, long, narrow, dark green leaves, woody stalks, which bear at the tops diverse single yellow four-petaled flowers [with] a very sweet scent [often flowering in winter].

PLACE: It grows upon old stone walls. [Found throughout Europe and Asia; a weed in North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The Moon rules them. Galen, in his seventh book of simple medicines, saith, That the yellow Wallflowers work more powerfully than any of the other kinds, and are therefore of more use. It cleanses the blood, and fretteth the liver and kidneys from obstructions, provokes women’s courses; helps the hardness and pain of the mother, and of spleen also; stays inflammations and swellings, comforts and strengthens any weak part, or out of joint; helps to cleanse the eyes from mistiness or films upon them, and to cleanse the filthy ulcers in the mouth, or any other part, and is a singular remedy for the gout, and all aches and pains in the joints and sinews. A conserve made of the flowers, is used for a remedy both for the apoplexy and palsy.

MODERN USES: Wallflower is seldom used today, except by practitioners in China for cardiac diseases, edema, and dyspepsia. Contains various potentially toxic cardiac glycosides. CAUTION: Only used by licensed practitioners in highly controlled dosages due to heart-affecting glycosides.

 

WALNUT

(JUGLANS REGIA)

It is so well known, that it needs no description.

PLACE: [Introduced from southeast Europe and western Asia; commonly planted and naturalized in wild places throughout Europe and China.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This is also a plant of the Sun. Let the fruit of it be gathered accordingly, which you shall find to be of most virtues while they are green, before they have shells. The bark of the Tree doth bind and dry very much, and the leaves are much of the same temperature; but the leaves when they are older, are heating and drying in the second degree, and harder of digestion than when they are fresh, which, by reason of their sweetness, are more pleasing, and better digesting in the stomach. Taken with sweet wine, they move the belly downwards, but being old, they grieve the stomach; and in hot bodies cause the choler [bile] to abound and the headache, and are an enemy to those that have the cough. [They] are less hurtful to those that have a colder stomach, and are said to kill the broad worms in the belly or stomach. If they be taken with onions, salt, and honey, they help the biting of a mad dog, or the venom or infectious poison of any beast, etc. Caias Pompeius found in the treasury of Mithridates, king of Pontus, when he was overthrown, a scroll of his own hand writing, containing a medicine against any poison or infection; which is this; Take two dry walnuts, and as many good figs, and twenty leaves of rue, bruised and beaten together with two or three corns of salt and twenty juniper berries, which take every morning fasting, preserves from danger of poison, and infection that day it is taken. The juice of the green husks boiled with honey is an excellent gargle for sore mouths, or the heat and inflammations in the throat and stomach. The kernels, when they grow old, are more oily, and therefore not fit to be eaten, but are then used to heal the wounds of the sinews, gangrenes, and carbuncles. The said kernels being burned, are very astringent, and will stay lasks [diarrhea] and women’s courses, being taken in red wine, and stay the falling of the hair, and make it fair, being anointed with oil and wine. The green husks will do the like, being used in the same manner. The kernels beaten with rue and wine, being applied, help the quinsy; and bruised with some honey, and applied to the ears, ease the pains and inflammation of them. A piece of the green husks put into a hollow tooth, eases the pain. The oil that is pressed out of the kernels, is very profitable, taken inwardly like oil of almonds, to help the cholic, and to expel wind very effectually; an ounce or two thereof may be taken at any time. The young green nuts taken before they be half ripe, and preserved with sugar, are of good use for those that have weak stomachs, or defluctions thereon. The distilled water of the green husks, before they be half ripe, is of excellent use to cool the heat of agues [malaria], being drank an ounce or two at a time: as also to resist the infection of the plague, if some of the same be also applied to the sores thereof. The same also cools the heat of green wounds and old ulcers, and heals them, being bathed therewith. The distilled water of the green husks being ripe, when they are shelled from the nuts, and drank with a little vinegar, is good for the place, so as before the taking thereof a vein be opened. The said water is very good against the quinsy, being gargled and bathed therewith, and wonderfully helps deafness, the noise, and other pains in the ears. The distilled water of the young green leaves in the end of May, performs a singular cure on foul running ulcers and sores, to be bathed, with wet cloths or sponges applied to them every morning.

MODERN USES: Green and dried walnut husks are considered strong antifungals. Traditionally, the leaves of the European walnut are used for the treatment of skin inflammation, chronic eczema, and excessive perspiration, especially of the hands and feet. Walnut leaf decoction is applied as a topical dressing to treat scalp itching, dandruff, and superficial burns. Walnuts themselves are a well-known food with high manganese content. CAUTION: Walnut hulls can cause staining of the skin and contact dermatitis. Some individuals may be allergic to walnuts.

 

WATER CHESTNUTS

(TRAPA NATANS)

Water-Caltrops

DESCRIPTION: As for the greater sort of Water Chestnuts it is not found here [in England], or very rarely. [Widely grown and cultivated in tropical and subtropical Asia and Africa, as well as temperate regions of southern Europe. Introduced in North America in the late nineteenth century; naturalized in some parts of New England.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: They are under the dominion of the Moon, and being made into a poultice, are excellently good for hot inflammations, swellings, cankers, sore mouths and throats, being washed with the decoction; it cleanses and strengthens the neck and throat, and helps those swellings which, when people have, they say the almonds of the ears are fallen down. It is excellently good for the rankness of the gums, a safe and present remedy for the king’s evil. They are excellent for the stone and gravel, especially the nuts, being dried. They also resist poison, and biting of venomous beasts.

MODERN USES: Better associated with Asian cuisines, the fleshy fruit of water chestnut, an aquatic annual, has been used as food in Europe since Neolithic times. In Ayurvedic medicine, water chestnut is used as a diuretic, nutrient, astringent, and cooling food and medicine. Science confirms mild analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and microbial activity.

 

WATERCRESS

(NASTURTIUM OFFICINALE; SYN. RORIPPA NASTURTIUM-AQUATICUM)

Water Cresses

DESCRIPTION: The whole plant abides green in the winter, and tastes somewhat hot and sharp.

PLACE: [Watercress] grows, for the most part, in [shallow] standing waters, yet sometimes in small rivulets of running water, [flowering and going to seed by late spring. Native to most of Europe, North Africa, and central Asia; widely naturalized in North America and South America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is an herb under the dominion of the Moon. They are more powerful against the scurvy, and to cleanse the blood and humours, than Brooklime is, and serve in all the other uses in which Brooklime is available, as to break the stone, and provoke urine and woman’s courses. The decoction thereof cleanses ulcers, by washing them. The leaves bruised, or the juice, is good, to be applied to the face or other parts troubled with freckles, pimples, spots, or the like, at night, and washed away in the morning. The juice mixed with vinegar, and the forepart of the head bathed therewith, is very good for those that are dull and drowsy, or have the lethargy.

Watercress pottage is a good remedy to cleanse the blood in the spring, and help headaches, and consume the gross humours winter has left behind; those that would live in health, may use it if they please; if they will not, I cannot help it. If any not fancy pottage, they may eat the herb as a salad.

MODERN USES: Watercress is an early spring green used fresh or, less frequently, dried. As a folk medicine it is used as a diuretic and spring tonic as well as in preparations to increase bile flow. The essential oil in watercress leaves contains organosulfur compounds, typical of the mustard family, which give a biting, piquant flavor. These compounds are also responsible for biological activity including antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial effects. CAUTION: Watercress may uptake heavy metals or toxins from polluted waters.

 

WATER FIGWORT

(SCROPHULARIA AURICULATA)

Water Betony

DESCRIPTION: [It] rises up with square, hard, greenish stalks, sometimes brown. The flowers are many, set at the tops of the stalks and branches, being round-bellied and open at the brims, the uppermost being like a hood, and the lowermost like a hip hanging down, of a dark red colour.

PLACE: It grows by the ditch side, brooks and other water-courses [in western Europe].

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Water Betony is an herb of Jupiter in Cancer, and is appropriated more to wounds and hurts in the breast than Wood Betony, which follows: It is an excellent remedy for sick hogs. It is of a cleansing quality. The leaves bruised and applied are effectual for all old and filthy ulcers; and especially if the juice of the leaves be boiled with a little honey, and dipped therein, and the sores dressed therewith; as also for bruises and hurts, whether inward or outward. The distilled water of the leaves is used for the same purpose; as also to bathe the face and hands spotted or blemished, or discoloured by sun burning.

I confess I do not much fancy distilled waters, I mean such waters as are distilled cold; some virtues of the herb they may haply have (it were a strange thing else;) but this I am confident of, that being distilled in a pewter still, as the vulgar and apish fashion is, both chemical oil and salt is left behind unless you burn them, and then all is spoiled, water and all, which was good for as little as can be, by such a distillation.

MODERN USES: Water betony is used externally as a poultice on cuts and wounds. Seldom used.

 

WATER LILY

(NYMPHAEA ALBA)

Of these there are two principally noted kinds, viz. the White (Nymphaea alba) and the Yellow (Nuphar lutea).

DESCRIPTION: The White Lily has very large and thick dark green leaves lying on the water, that arise from a great, thick, round, and long tuberous black root spongy or loose. The yellow kind is little different from the former, save only that it has fewer leaves on the flowers. The root of both is somewhat sweet in taste.

PLACE: [They are found growing in ponds and lakes throughout Europe, northeast Africa, and the Middle East. Naturalized in western temperate South America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The herb is under the dominion of the Moon, and therefore cools and moistens. The leaves and flowers of the Water Lilies are cold and moist, but the roots and seeds are cold and dry; the leaves do cool all inflammations, both outward and inward heat of agues [malaria]; and so doth the flowers also, either by the syrup or conserve; the syrup helps much to procure rest, and to settle the brain of frantic persons, by cooling the hot distemperature of the head. The seed as well as the root is effectual to stay fluxes of blood or humours, either of wounds or of the belly; but the roots are most used, and more effectual to cool, bind, and restrain all fluxes in man or woman. The root is likewise very good for those whose urine is hot and sharp, to be boiled in wine and water, and the decoction drank. The distilled water of the flowers is very effectual for all the diseases aforesaid, both inwardly taken, and outwardly applied; and is much commended to take away freckles, spots, sunburn, and morphew [skin blemishes] from the face, or other parts of the body. The oil made of the flowers, as oil of Roses is made, is profitably used to cool hot tumours, and to ease the pains, and help the sores.

MODERN USES: In folk medicine, the large, spongy roots of dried water lily are used as an astringent and demulcent for dysentery. Water lily was described as an aphrodisiac in ancient times, but by the nineteenth century was thought of as an anaphrodisiac to reduce sexual desire. The fresh root is acrid. Experimentally, extracts have shown potential antiviral activity. Components of the leaves are antioxidant, liver protective, and have anxiolytic activity. Yellow water lily was used similarly. CAUTION: The fresh plant can be irritating. The root may concentrate heavy metals and pollutants from contaminated water.

 

WATER PEPPER

(PERSICARIA HYDROPIPER; SYN. POLYGONUM HYDROPIPER)

Arssmart

The hot Arssmart is called also Water-pepper, or Culrage.

DESCRIPTION: This has broad leaves set at the great red joint of the stalks; with semicircular blackish marks on them, usually either blueish or whitish.

PLACE: It grows in watery places, ditches, and the like, which for the most part are dry in summer. [Native to most of Europe and Asia; a naturalized weed throughout North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: That which is hot and biting, is under the dominion of Mars, but Saturn, challenges the other, as appears by that leaden coloured spot he hath placed upon the leaf.

It is of a cooling and drying quality, and very effectual for putrefied ulcers in man or beast, to kill worms, and cleanse the putrefied places. The juice thereof dropped in, or otherwise applied, consumes all colds, swellings, and dissolveth the congealed blood of bruises by strokes, falls, etc. A piece of the root, or some of the seeds bruised, and held to an aching tooth, takes away the pain. The leaves bruised and laid to the joint that has a felon thereon, takes it away. The juice destroys worms in the ears, being dropped into them; if the hot Arssmart be strewed in a chamber, it will soon kill all the fleas. A good handful of the hot biting Arssmart put under a horse’s saddle, will make him travel the better, although he were half tired before. The mild Arssmart is good against all imposthumes [abscesses] and inflammations at the beginning, and to heal green wounds.

MODERN USES: Water pepper is widely used as a folk medicine in China, Eastern Europe, India, and Japan as a diuretic and for the treatment of menstrual irregularities. Studies have found antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and pain-relieving activities. It is a promising research subject for pain-blocking activity and the inhibition of cellular obesity pathways. CAUTION: Associated with toxicity at high doses.

 

WHEAT

(TRITICUM AESTIVUM)

All the several kinds thereof are so well known unto almost all people, that it is all together needless to write a description thereof.

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: This is under Venus. Dioscorides saith, that to eat the corn of green Wheat is hurtful to the stomach, and breeds worms. Pliny saith, That the corn of Wheat, roasted upon an iron pan, and eaten, are a present remedy for those that are chilled with cold. The oil pressed from wheat heals all tetters and ringworms, being used warm. Matthiolus commends the same to be put into hollow ulcers to heal them up, and it is good for chops in the hands and feet, and to make rugged skin smooth. The green corns of Wheat being chewed, and applied to the place bitten by a mad dog, heals it; slices of Wheat bread soaked in red rose water, and applied to the eyes that are hot, red, and inflamed, or blood-shotten, helps them. Hot bread applied for an hour, at times, for three days together, perfectly heals the kernels in the throat, commonly called the king’s evil [unusual swelling of lymph nodes or scrofula]. The said meal boiled in vinegar, helps the shrinking of the sinews, saith Pliny; and mixed with vinegar, and boiled together, heals all freckles, spots and pimples on the face. Wheat flour, mixed with the yolk of an egg, honey, and turpentine, doth draw, cleanse and heal any boil, plague, sore, or foul ulcer. The bran of Wheat meal steeped in sharp vinegar, and bound in a linen cloth, and rubbed on those places that have the scurf, morphew [skin blemishes], scabs or leprosy, will take them away, the body being first well purged. The decoction of the bran of Wheat or barley is of good use to bathe those places that are bursten by a rupture; and the said bran boiled in good vinegar, and applied to swollen breasts, helps them, and stays all inflammations. It helps also the biting of vipers (which I take to be no other than our English adder) and all other venomous creatures. The leaves of Wheat meal applied with some salt, take away hardness of the skin, warts, and hard knots in the flesh. Wafers put in water, and drank, stays the lask [diarrhea] and bloody flux [dysentery], and are profitably used both inwardly and outwardly for the ruptures in children. Boiled in water unto a thick jelly, and taken, it stays spitting of blood; and boiled with mint and butter, it helps the hoarseness of the throat.

MODERN USES: Wheat is one of the first grains cultivated by humans thousands of years ago and is still responsible for up to 20 percent of calories consumed worldwide. Wheat germ oil, which is high in vitamin E, is used as a supplement to reduce inflammation and improve circulation to the extremities. Today, a major health concern with consuming wheat is the protein gluten, to which many individuals have allergic hypersensitive reactions. Wheatgrass—the young, green first-growth leaves—and wheatgrass juice are consumed as a health food. CAUTION: Avoid in cases of known intolerances or allergies to wheat, including, but not limited to, widely recognized gluten intolerances.

 

WILLOW

(SALIX ALBA AND OTHER SALIX SPP.)

The Willow Tree

These are so well known that they need no description. I shall therefore only shew you the virtues thereof.

PLACE: [Willows usually grow in moist or wet soils along the edge of ponds or low areas in fields. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The Moon owns it. Both the leaves, bark, and the seed, are used to stanch bleeding of wounds, and at mouth and nose, spitting of blood, and other fluxes of blood in man or woman, and to stay vomiting, and provocation thereunto, if the decoction of them in wine be drank. The leaves bruised and boiled in wine, and drank, stays the heat of lust in man or woman, and quite extinguishes it, if it be long used. Water that is gathered from the Willow, when it flowers, the bark being slit, and a vessel fitting to receive it, is very good for redness and dimness of sight, or films that grow over the eyes, and stay the rheums [watery discharge] that fall into them; to provoke urine, being stopped, if it be drank; to clear the face and skin from spots and discolourings. Galen saith, the flowers have an admirable faculty in drying up humours, being a medicine without any sharpness or corrosion; you may boil them in white wine, and drink as much as you will, so you drink not yourself drunk. The bark works the same effect, if used in the same manner, and the tree hath always a bark upon it, though not always flowers. The burnt ashes of the bark being mixed with vinegar, takes away warts, corns, and superfluous flesh, being applied to the place. The decoction of the leaves or bark in wine, takes away scurf and dandruff by washing the place with it. It is a fine cool tree, the boughs of which are very convenient to be placed in the chamber of one sick of a fever.

MODERN USES: Willow has been used for at least two thousand years to treat inflammation, reduce fevers, thin the blood, and treat mild pain. Willow species contain salicylic acid; a derivative of that, acetylsalicylic acid, has pain-relieving, fever-reducing and anti-inflammatory compounds and is known today as aspirin. Willow bark itself is a traditional medicine used for minor pain from headaches, colds, joint pain, and fever associated with colds. CAUTION: Avoid use with prescription blood thinners. Some people have allergies to salicylates. Avoid use during pregnancy and lactation. Speak to your medical professional before using if on an aspiring regimen.

 

WINTERGREEN

(PYROLA ROTUNDIFOLIA)

DESCRIPTION: This sends forth seven, eight, or nine leaves, every one standing upon a long foot stalk, bearing at the top many small white sweet-smelling flowers, laid open like a star.

PLACE: It grows seldom in fields, but frequent in the woods northwards. [Circumboreal in Europe, Asia, and North America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Wintergreen is under the dominion of Saturn, and is a singularly good wound herb, and an especial remedy for healing green wounds speedily, the green leaves being bruised and applied, or the juice of them. A salve made of the green herb stamped, or the juice boiled with hog’s lard, or with salad oil and wax, and some turpentine added to it, is a sovereign salve, and highly extolled by the Germans, who use it to heal all manner of wounds and sores. The herb boiled in wine and water, and given to drink to them that have any inward ulcers in their kidneys, or neck of the bladder, doth wonderfully help them. It stays all fluxes, as the lask [diarrhea], bloody fluxes [dysentery], women’s courses, and bleeding of wounds, and takes away any inflammations rising upon pains of the heart; it is no less helpful for foul ulcers hard to be cured; as also for cankers or fistulas. The distilled water of the herb effectually performs the same things.

MODERN USES: Culpeper’s wintergreen is most widely used as an Asian folk medicine, and scientists in China, Japan, and Korea have studied it for novel antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic compounds. In traditional Chinese medicine, preparations of the herb have been used for neuralgia, gastrointestinal bleeding, high blood pressure, arthritis, and rheumatism. In northern China it is consumed as a beverage tea. CAUTION: Not to be confused with the wintergreen-flavored North American herb known as wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), which contains toxic methyl salicylate.

 

WOAD

(ISATIS TINCTORIA)

DESCRIPTION: It hath diverse large leaves, long, and somewhat blue. From leaves rises up a lusty stalk, three or four feet high; at the top it spreads diverse branches, [with] very pretty, little yellow flowers.

PLACE: [Cultivated as a dye plant throughout Europe, but declining due to less frequent cultivation. Found scattered throughout much of Europe, the Middle East, and much of central Asia and South Asia.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is a cold and dry plant of Saturn. Some people affirm the plant to be destructive to bees, and fluxes them, which, if it be, I cannot help it. However, if any bees be diseased thereby, the cure is, to set urine by them, but set it in a vessel, that they cannot drown themselves, which may be remedied, if you put pieces of cork in it.

The herb is so drying and binding, that it is not fit to be given inwardly. An ointment made thereof stanches bleeding. A plaster made thereof, and applied to the region of the spleen which lies on the left side, takes away the hardness and pains thereof. The ointment is excellently good in such ulcers as abound with moisture, and takes away the corroding and fretting humours: It cools inflammations, quenches St. Anthony’s fire, and stays defluxion of the blood to any part of the body.

MODERN USES: Woad leaf extracts are used in ointments (particularly in China) for inflammatory dermatitis, allergic skin reactions, and edema; it has antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, immunostimulatory, and astringent activity. Also used to stop bleeding for wounds, ulcers, and hemorrhoids and to resolve skin growths. The root is more often used than the aboveground parts. Pharmacological activities are attributed to a combination of components in the plant, including alkaloids, polysaccharides and indigo-like dye components.

 

WOOD ANEMONE

(ANEMONE NEMOROSA; SYN. ANEMONOIDES NEMOROSA)

Anemone

Called also Windflower, because they say the flowers never open but when the wind blows. Pliny is my author; if it be not so, blame him. The seed also (if it bears any) flies away with the wind.

PLACE: [Wood anemone is perennial that blooms in early spring. Native to open grasslands, hedgerows, and woods in most of Europe and Turkey. Numerous cultivars are grown in gardens.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: It is under the dominion of Mars, being supposed to be a kind of Crow-foot. The leaves provoke the terms mightily, being boiled, and the decoction drank. The body being bathed with the decoction of them, cures the leprosy. And when all is done, let physicians prate what they please, all the pills in the dispensatory purge not the head like to hot things held in the mouth. Being made into an ointment, [it] is excellently good to cleanse malignant and corroding ulcers.

MODERN USES: Wood anemone is seldom if ever used today. When fresh, this and other anemones and buttercups contain the irritant protoanemonin, which may cause immediate irritancy and can lead to blistering and chemical burns, both internally and externally. Once dried or heated, the protoanemonin in the leaves becomes less toxic, but still irritating anemonin. The leaves are used to deter ants.

 

WOOD SAGE

(TEUCRIUM SCORODONIA)

Sage-leaved Germander, Wood Germander

DESCRIPTION: Wood-sage rises up with square hoary stalks, two feet high, with two leaves set at every joint, and a little [crinkled] about the edges. The flowers [are] on a slender like spike, and are of a pale and whitish colour.

PLACE: It grows in woods, and by wood-sides. [Occurs throughout most of western Europe; naturalized in eastern Canada.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The herb is under Venus. The decoction of the Wood Sage provokes urine and women’s courses: It also provokes sweat, digests humours, and discusses swellings and nodes in the flesh, and is therefore thought to be good against the French pox [syphilis]. The decoction of the green herb, made with wine, is a safe and sure remedy for those who by falls, bruises, or blows, suspect some vein to be inwardly broken, to disperse and void the congealed blood, and to consolidate the veins. The drink used inwardly, and the herb used outwardly, is good for such as are inwardly or outwardly bursten, and is found to be a sure remedy for the palsy. The juice of the herb, or the powder thereof dried, is good for moist ulcers and sores in the legs, and other parts, to dry them, and cause them to heal more speedily. It is no less effectual also in green wounds, to be used upon any occasion.

MODERN USES: Wood sage is seldom used today except as a folk medicine. The extremely bitter leaves have a fragrance likened to hops and were once used in the English countryside as a flavoring for beer. Little research has been done, but it has confirmed antibacterial activity. It is a folk medicine for the treatment of mastitis in cows. Formerly used for colds, fever, inflammation, and menstrual disorders. CAUTION: Of unknown toxicity. Other species of Teucrium are known to cause severe kidney disease.

 

WOOD SORREL

(OXALIS ACETOSELLA)

DESCRIPTION: This grows upon the ground, having a number of leaves coming from the root made of three leaves, like a trefoil, but broad at the ends, and cut in the middle, of a yellowish green colour, of a fine sour relish, and yielding a juice which will turn red when it is clarified, and makes a most dainty clear syrup. Among these leaves rise up a flower at the top, consisting of five small pointed [petals], star-fashion, of a white colour

PLACE: It grows in many places of our land, in [moist, shaded] woods [in most of Europe, east to Japan].

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: Venus owns it. Wood Sorrel serves to all the purposes that the other Sorrels do, and is more effectual in hindering putrefaction of blood, and ulcers in the mouth and body, and to quench thirst, to strengthen a weak stomach, to procure an appetite, to stay vomiting, and very excellent in any contagious sickness or pestilential fevers. The syrup made of the juice, is effectual in all the cases aforesaid, and so is the distilled water of the herb. Sponges or linen cloths wet in the juice and applied outwardly to any hot swelling or inflammations, doth much cool and help them. The same juice taken and gargled in the mouth, and after it is spit forth, taken afresh, doth wonderfully help a foul stinking canker or ulcer therein. It is singularly good to heal wounds, or to stay the bleeding of thrusts or scabs in the body.

MODERN USES: Little used today, wood sorrel and other Oxalis species are of interest to wild food enthusiasts for the sour leaves, which are used sparingly for flavoring. In Poland, the leaves are nibbled as a children’s snack and used as a green for flavoring soups. Considered antioxidant, wood sorrel contains oxalic acid and potassium oxalate, which gives it its sour taste. An ointment made from the herb is used topically to treat a recently acknowleged medical condition: “broken heart syndrome” (BHS). The ointment is massaged into the abdomen for BHS-induced nervous digestive disturbances. Used topically for wound-healing and the treatment of cuts in various Asian cultures.

 

WORMWOOD

(ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM)

DESCRIPTION: Common Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) I shall not describe, for every boy that can eat an egg knows it.

PLACE: [A widespread plant of wastelands and roadsides. Cultivated in herb gardens since ancient times. Found throughout Europe, Asia, northern Africa; widely naturalized in Australia, North America, and South America.]

GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES: The seeds of the common Wormwood are prevalent, to expel worms in children, or people of ripe age; of both some are weak, some are strong. Let such as are strong take the common Wormwood, for the others will do but little good. It provokes urine, helps surfeits, or swellings in the belly; it causes appetite to meat, because Mars rules the attractive faculty in man: The sun never shone upon a better herb for the yellow jaundice than this. Why should men cry out so much upon Mars for an infortunate, (or Saturn either?). Did God make creatures to do the creation a mischief? This herb testifies, that Mars is willing to cure all diseases he causes; the truth is, Mars loves no cowards, nor Saturn fools, nor I neither. Besides all this, Wormwood provokes the terms. I would willingly teach astrologers, and make them physicians (if I knew how) for they are most fitting for the calling; if you will not believe me, ask Dr. Hippocrates, and Dr. Galen, a couple of gentlemen that our college of physicians keep to vapour with, not to follow. Whereby, my brethren, the astrologers may know by a penny how a shilling is coined. As for the college of physicians, they are too stately to college or too proud to continue. They say a mouse is under the dominion of the Moon, and that is the reason they feed in the night; the house of the Moon is Cancer; rats are of the same nature with mice, but they are a little bigger; Mars receives his fall in Cancer, ergo, Wormwood being an herb of Mars, is a present remedy for the biting of rats and mice. Mix a little Wormwood, an herb of Mars, with your ink, neither rats nor mice touch the paper written with it, and then Mars is a preserver.

Mushrooms (I cannot give them the title of Herba, Frutex, or Arbor) are under the dominion of Saturn, (and take one time with another, they do as much harm as good) if any have poisoned himself by eating them, Wormwood, an herb of Mars, cures him, because Mars is exalted in Capricorn, the house of Saturn, and this it doth by sympathy, as it did the other by antipathy. Wheals, pushes, black and blue spots, coming either by bruises or beatings. Wormwood, an herb of Mars, (as bad you love him, and as you hate him) will not break your head, but he will give you a plaister. If he do but teach you to know yourselves, his courtesy is greater than his discourtesy. Mars eradicates all diseases in the throat by his herbs (for Wormwood is one).

The eyes are under the Luminaries; the right eye of a man, and the left eye of a woman the Sun claims dominion over: the left eye of a man, and the right eye of a woman, are privileges of the Moon. Wormwood, an herb of Mars cures both; what belongs to the Sun by sympathy, because he is exalted in his house; but what belongs to the Moon by antipathy, because he hath his fall in hers. Suppose a man be bitten or stung by a martial creature, imagine a wasp, a hornet, a scorpion, Wormwood, an herb of Mars, gives you a present cure.

I was once in the Tower and viewed the wardrobe, and there was a great many fine clothes: (I can give them no other title, for I was never either linen or woolen draper) yet as brave as they looked, my opinion was that the moths might consume them. Moths are under the dominion of Mars; this herb Wormwood being laid among clothes, will make a moth scorn to meddle with the clothes, as much as a lion scorns to meddle with a mouse, or an eagle with a fly.

A poor silly countryman hath got an ague, and cannot go about his business: he wishes he had it not, and so do I; but I will tell him a remedy, whereby he shall prevent it. Take the herb of Mars, Wormwood, and if infortunes will do good, what will fortunes do? Some think the lungs are under Jupiter; and if the lungs then the breath; and though sometimes a man gets a stinking breath. Give me thy leave by sympathy to cure this poor man with drinking a draught of Wormwood beer every morning. The Moon was weak the other day, and she gave a man two terrible mischiefs, a dull brain and a weak sight; Mars laid by his sword, and comes to her; Sister Moon, said he, this man hath angered thee, but I beseech thee take notice he is but a fool; prithee be patient, I will with my herb wormwood cure him of both infirmities by antipathy, for thou knows thou and I cannot agree; with that the Moon began to quarrel. Mars (not delighting much in women’s tongues) went away, and did it whether she would or no.

He that reads this, and understands what he reads, hath a jewel of more worth than a diamond; he that understands it not, is as little fit to give physic. There lies a key in these words which will unlock, (if it be turned by a wise hand) the cabinet of physic. I have delivered it as plain as I [dare]; it is not only upon Wormwood as I wrote, but upon all plants, trees, and herbs; he that understands it not, is unfit (in my opinion) to give physic. This shall live when I am dead. And thus I leave it to the world, not caring a farthing whether they like it or dislike it. The grave equals all men, and therefore shall equal me with all princes; until which time the eternal Providence is over me. Then the ill tongue of a prating fellow, or one that hath more tongue than wit, or more proud than honest, shall never trouble me. Wisdom is justified by her children. And so much for Wormwood.

MODERN USES: Wormwood, as the name implies, was once regarded as a primary treatment for expelling worms. The extremely bitter leaves are traditionally nibbled as a digestive stimulant. They contain a potentially toxic compound, thujone, once thought to be responsible for the supposed psychoactive effects of absinthe, a liquor that is flavored with the flowers and leaves of the plant. Banned in most Western countries in the early twentieth century, by 2007, absinthe (with thujone removed) was again legally produced and sold around the world. CAUTION: Contains toxic thujone. Avoid use during pregnancy and lactation, and if taking anticonvulsants.