Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure Part 29

This tea has been found efficacious for quieting hard coughs and for relieving hoa.r.s.eness.

The flowers easily ferment, and being so fragrant may be used for making wine: likewise a fine flavoured brandy has been distilled from them. The fruit contains an oily substance, and has been proposed, when roasted, as a domestic subst.i.tute for chocolate. The sap may be procured by making incisions in the trunk, and branches.

The flowers are sedative, and anti-spasmodic. Fenelon decorates his enchanted Isle of Calypso with flowering Lime trees. Hoffman says _Tilioe ad mille usus petendoe_.

The inner bark furnishes a soft mucilage, which may be applied externally with healing effect to burns, scalds, and inflammatory swellings. Gerard taught, "that the flowers are commended by divers persons against pain of the head proceeding from a cold cause; against dizziness, apoplexy, and the falling sickness; and not only the flowers, but the distilled water thereof." [318] Hoffman knew a case of chronic epilepsy recovered by a use of the flowers in infusion drunk as tea. Such, indeed, was the former exalted anti-epileptic reputation of the Lime Tree, that epileptic persons sitting under its shade were reported to be cured.

A famous "Lind" or Lime Tree, which grew in his ancestral place, gave to the celebrated Linnaeus his significant name. The well-known street, _unter den Lnden_ in Berlin, is a favourite resort, because of its pleasant, balmy shade; and when Heine lay beneath the Lindens, he "thought his own sweet nothing-at-all thoughts."

The wood of the Lime Tree is preferred before every other wood fur masterly carving. Grinling Gibbons executed his best and most noted work in this material; and the finely-cut details still remain sharp, delicate, and beautiful.

Chemically, the Linden flowers contain a particular light, fragrant, volatile oil, which is soluble in alcohol. They are used in warm baths with much success to allay nervous irritability; or a strong infusion of them is administered by enema for the same purpose.

LIQUORICE, English (_Leguminous_).

The common Liquorice plant, a native of the warmer European countries, was first cultivated in Britain about 1562, in Turner's time. It has been chiefly grown at Pontefract (Pomfret) in Yorks.h.i.+re, Worksop in Nottinghams.h.i.+re, and G.o.dalming in Surrey; whilst at the present time it is produced abundantly at Mitcham, near London, and the roots are dug up after a three years' growth, to be supplied to the shops. The use of the Liquorice plant was first learnt by the h.e.l.lenes from the Scythians; and the root was named _adipson_, being thought from the time of Theophrastus to [319] powerfully extinguish thirst. But Dr. Cullen says his experience has not confirmed this as a true effect of chewing the root. When lightly boiled in a little water it yields all its sweetness, together with some mucilage.

A favourite pastime of school boys at the beginning of the present century, was to carry in the pocket a small phial of water containing bits of this "Spanish juice," and to shake it continually so as to make a solution, valued the more the darker and thicker it became.

The juice is commonly employed as a pectoral in coughs or hoa.r.s.eness, when thickened to the consistence of a lozenge, or to that of a solid ma.s.s, which hardens in the form of a stick. It is also added to nauseous medicines, for masking their taste. Towards obtaining this juice the underground stem or root of the plant is the part employed.

The search of Diogenes for an honest man was scarcely more difficult than would be that of an average person for genuine Liquorice; since the juice is adulterated to any extent, and there is no definite standard of purity for this article so commonly used.

Potato starch, miller's sweepings mixed with sugar, and any kind of rubbish are added to it.

In China, the roots of _Glycyrrhiza echinata _and _Glycyrrhiza glabra_, are used in a variety of medicinal preparations as possessing tonic, alterative, and expectorant properties, and as a mild aperient. Thereto are attributed rejuvenating and highly nutritive qualities. English Liquorice root occurs in pieces three or four inches long, and about as thick as a finger.

The extract of Liquorice must be prepared from the _dried_ root, else it cannot be strained bright, and would be liable to fermentation. Chemically, the root [320] contains a special kind of sugar, glycyrrhizine, a demulcent starch, asparagin, phosphate and malate of lime and magnesia, a resinous oil, alb.u.men, and woody fibre. Old Fuller says concerning Nottingham, "This county affordeth the first and best Liquorice in England: great is the use thereof in physick. A stick of the same is commonly the spoon prescribed to patients to use in any Loaches. If (as the men of oeneas were forced to eat their own trenchers), these chance to eat their spoons, their danger is none at all." The Loach, or Lingence, from _ekleigma_, a substance licked-up, has become our modern lozenge. Extract of Liquorice is largely imported as "Spanish" or "Italian" juice, the Solazzi juice being most esteemed, which comes in cylindrical or flattened rolls, enveloped in bay leaves; but the pipe Liquorice of the sweetstuff shops is adulterated. Pontefract lozenges are made of refined Liquorice, and are justly popular. The sugar of Liquorice may be safely taken by diabetic patients.

Officinally, the root and stolons (underground stems) of the _Glycyrrhiza glabra_ (smooth) are variously employed; for making an extract, for mixing with linseed in a tea, for combination with powdered senna, sugar, and fennel, to form a favourite mild laxative medicine, known as "Compound Liquorice Powder," and for other uses. The solid juice is put into porter and stout, because giving sweetness, thickness, and blackness to those beverages, without making them fermentative; but Liquorice, like gum, supplies scant aliment to the body. Black Liquorice is employed in the manufacture of tobacco, for smoking and chewing.

The Rest Harrow (_Ononis arvensis_), a troublesome weed, very common in our ploughed fields, has a root [321] which affords a sweet viscid juice, and hence it is popularly known as "Wild Liquorice."

This is a leguminous plant, called also "Ground Furze," which is a favourite food of the donkey, and therefore gets its botanical t.i.tle from the Greek word _onos_, an a.s.s. Its long and thickly matted roots will arrest the progress of the harrow, or plough. Medicinally, the plant has been given with success to subdue delirium. It is obnoxious to snakes, and they will not come near it.

Other appellations of the herb are Cammock, Stinking Tommy, _Arrete boeuf_, _Remora aratri_, _Resta bovis_, and Land Whin (which from the Latin _guindolum_, signifies a kind of cherry). The plant was formerly much extolled for obviating stone in the bladder.

It is seen to be covered with spines; and a tradition exists that it was the Rest harrow which furnished the crown of thorns plaited by the Roman soldiers at the crucifixion of our Saviour. This plant has been long-used as a culinary vegetable, its young shoots being boiled, or taken in salad, or pickled.

The French know it as _Bugrane_, beloved by goats, and the chief delight of donkeys, who rejoice to roll themselves amid its p.r.i.c.kles.

Simon Pauli _ne connait pas de meilleur remede contre le calcul des reins, et de la vessie_. "_Anjourdhui l'arr ete boeuf est a peu pres abandonne_." "_On y reviendra!_" The plant contains "ononin," a chemical glucoside, which is demulcent to the urinary organs.

Its botanical name of _Glycyrrhiza_ comes from the Greek words, _glukus_, "sweet," and _riza_, "a root." English Liquorice root, when dried, is commercially used in two forms, the peeled and the unpeeled. By far and away the best lozenges are those of our [322]

boyhood, still attributed to one "Smith," in the Borough of London.

MALLOWS.

All the Mallows (_Malvaceoe_) to the number of a thousand, agree in containing mucilage freely, and in possessing no unwholesome properties.

Their family name "Mallow" is derived from the Greek _mala.s.sein_, "to soften," as alluding to the demulcent qualities of these mucilaginous plants. The Common Mallow is a well-known roadside plant, with large downy leaves, and streaked trumpet-shaped purple flowers, which later on furnish round b.u.t.ton-like seeds, known to the rustics as "pickcheeses" in Norfolk and elsewhere, whilst beloved by schoolboys, because of their nutty flavour, and called by them "Bread and Cheese."

Clare tells playfully of the fairies, borne by mice at a gallop:--

"In chariots lolling at their ease, Made of whate'er their fancies please, With wheels at hand of Mallow seeds, Which childish sport had strung as beads."

And recalls the time when he sat as a boy:--

"Picking from Mallows, sport to please, The crumpled seed we called a cheese."

Both this plant and its twin sister, the Marsh Mallow (_Althoea hibiscus_, from _altho_, to cure), possess medicinal virtues, which ent.i.tle them to take rank as curative Herbal Simples. The Suss.e.x peasant knows the Common Mallow as "Maller," so that "aller and maller" means with him Alehoof (Ground Ivy) and Mallow. Pliny said: "Whosoever shall take a spoonful of the [323] Mallows shall that day be free from all diseases that may come to him."

This plant is often named "Round Dock," and was formerly called "Hock Herb": our Hollyhock being of the Mallow tribe, and first brought to us from China. Pythagoras held _Malvoe folium sanctissimum_; and we read of Epimenides in _Plato_, "at his Mallows and Asphodels." The Romans esteemed the plant _in deliciis_ among their dainties, and placed it of old as the first dish at their tables. The laxative properties of the Mallow, both as regards its emollient leaves, and its _radix altheoe efficacior_, were told of by Cicero and Horace.

The _Marsh Mallow_ grows wild abundantly in many parts of England, especially in marshes near the sea coast. It gets its generic name _althoea_, from the Greek _althos_, "a remedy," because exercising so many curative virtues. Its old appellations were _Vismalva_, _Bismalva_, _Malvaviscus_, being twice as medicinally efficacious as the ordinary Mallow (_Sylvestris_).

Virgil in one of his eclogues teaches how to coax goats with the Marsh Mallow:--

"Haedorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco."

The root is sweet and very mucilaginous when chewed, containing more than half its weight of saccharine viscous mucilage. It is, therefore, emollient, demulcent, pain-soothing, and lubricating; serving to subdue heat and irritation, whilst, if applied externally, diminis.h.i.+ng the painful soreness of inflamed parts. It is, for these reasons, much employed in domestic poultices, and in decoction as a medicine for pulmonary catarrhs, hoa.r.s.eness, and irritative diarrhoea or dysentery. Also the decoction acts well as a bland soothing collyrium for [324] bathing inflamed eyes. Gerard says: "The leaves be with good effect mixed with fomentations and poultices against pains of the sides, of the stone, and of the bladder; also in a bath they serve to take away any manner of pain."

The mucilaginous matter with which the Marsh Mallow abounds is the medicinal part of the plant; the roots of the Common Mallow being useless to yield it for such purposes, whilst those of the Marsh Mallow are of singular efficacy. A decoction of Marsh Mallow is made by adding five pints of water to a quarter-of-a-pound of the dried root, then boiling down to three pints, and straining through calico. Also Marsh Mallow ointment is a popular remedy, especially for mollifying heat, and hence it was thought invaluable by those who had to undergo the ordeal of holding red hot iron in their hands, to rapidly test their moral integrity. The sap of the Marsh Mallow was combined together with seeds of Fleabane, and the white of an hen's egg, to make a paste which was so adhesive that the hands when coated with it were safe from harm through holding for a few moments the glowing iron.

French druggists prepare a famous medicinal sweet-meat, known as _Pate de gimauve_ from the root of the Marsh Mallow. In Palestine, the plant is employed by the poor to eke out their food; thus we read in the book of Job (chap. x.x.x. ver. 4), "Who cut up Mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat."

In France, the young tops and tender leaves of the Marsh Mallow are added to spring salads, as stimulating the kidneys healthily, for which purpose is likewise prepared a syrup of Marsh Mallows (_Syrupus Althoeus_) from the roots with cold water, to which the [325] sugar is afterwards added. The leaves, flowers, and roots, are employed for making ptisans. In Devons.h.i.+re, this plant is termed by the farmers, "Meshmellish," also "Drunkards," because growing close by the water; and in the West of England, "Bulls-eyes"; whilst being known in Somerset as "Bull Flowers" (pool flowers). The root of the Marsh Mallow contains starch, mucilage, pectin, oil, sugar, asparagin, phosphate of lime, glutinous matter and cellulose. An infusion made with cold water takes up the mucilage, sugar, and asparagin, then the hot water dissolves the starch.

The flowers were used formerly on May-day by country people for strewing before their doors, and weaving into garlands.

The Geranium is said to have been originally a Mallow. Mahomet having washed his s.h.i.+rt while on a journey, hung it on a Mallow to dry, and the plant became therefore promoted to be a Geranium.

Most probably, the modern French _Pate de gimauve_ contains actually nothing of the plant or its const.i.tuents; but the root is given in France to infants, on which they may try their teeth during dent.i.tion, much as Orris root is used elsewhere.

The laxative quality of the common Mallow was mentioned by Martial:--

"Exoneraturas ventrem mihi villica malvas Attulit, et varias quas habet hortus opes."

The Musk Mallow (_Malva moschata_) is another common variety of this plant, which emits from its leaves a faint musky odour, especially in warm weather, or when they are drawn lightly through the hand. Its virtues are similar in kind, but less powerful in degree, to those of the Marsh Mallow.

[326] MARIGOLD.

In the _Grete Herball_ this plant was called Mary Gowles. Three varieties of the Marigold exercise medicinal virtues which const.i.tute them Herbal Simples of a useful nature--the Corn Marigold (_Chrysanthemum segetum_), found in our cornfields; the cultivated garden Marigold (_Calendula officinalis_); and the Marsh Marigold (_Caltha pal.u.s.tris_), growing in moist gra.s.s lands, and popularly known as "Mareblobs."

The Corn Marigold, a Composite flower, called also Bigold, and the Yellow Oxeye, grows freely, though locally, in English cornfields, its brilliant yellow flowers contrasting handsomely with adjacent Scarlet-hued Poppies and Bluebottles (_Centaurea cya.n.u.s_). It is also named Buddle or Boodle, from _buidel_, a purse, because it bears _gools_ or _goldins_, representing gold coins, in the form of the flat, round, brightly yellow blossoms, which were formerly known, too, as _Ruddes_ (red flowers). The botanical t.i.tle of the species, _Chrysanthemum segetum_, signifies "golden flower."

Hill named this Marigold, "the husbandman's dyall." In common with the larger Oxeye Daisy (_Chrysanthemum leucanthemum_) it has proved of late very successful in checking the night sweats of pulmonary consumption. A tincture and an infusion of the herb have been made; from five to ten drops of the former being given for a dose, and from two to three tablespoonfuls of the latter.