St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-10-04
Medicinal Qualities Of Seine Weeds.

| III 1t has been your good fortune to be
in the country this summer, | dare say
you have passed through some lane or
by-way, day after day, without knowing
in the least how many plants are grow
ing all about YOU, of use in one way or
another. even those you may look upon
as rubbish. or worthless weeds, and
only cumberers of the ground.
Many years ago we had not as many
doctors as we have now The roads
were bad, and people lived at great
distances. 1t was then that herbs or
''simples," as they used to call them,
were in great demand, and the good
| housewives anu mothers learned to be
very skiilful, in cases of sickness, in
the art of making healing drinks and
ointments, W! ich were of great efficacy.
And what do you think they were made
| of? Why, only the simple wild flowers
or roots that grew all around their very
| doors. But except in remote country
| places. where they seldom drop old
| customs. these simple medicines have
gone quite out of fashion, and nova
days people when they are i'll send for
| a physician, take just what he gives
them and pay him tremendous fee,
when at the same time they do not
dream that they are often receiving
from him rs simple a remedy as their
great -grandmethcrs took years and
years ago, for the very same disease
only the name has been changed in
these later days. For Instance, if YOU
60 into a drug store and look among
the long row of labeled bottles, YOU
will find one marked Iarasacum. Now
this is hard Latin name, and perha ps
You have 10 idea what it means. You
will find it to be q very old friend of
yours, perhaps the very commonest in
the lane where You walk every day
the dGnieitoR. Another fanciful label
Is TnSs'tago tcrtnrd, which is nothing
more nor less than coltsfoo:,-so called
from the form and size of the leaves.
which are round and large as the palm
of the hsnd-a marguerite of brilliant
yellow, the RAYS rs fine aud slender as
hairs. From the time of Hippocratss
this flower has been supposed to have
salutary influence on the lungs, and
has long been employed to soothe ir-
ritation of the air passages in cases of
asthma. The cotton of the leaves.
wrapped in rag in solution Of salt
petre and dried in the sun, made an ex-
cel!ent finder in past times, when we
had no lucifer matches.
Licorice is another of the plants
which is Gtgcyyrai-n gt1brn, very
bard name that botanists have given to
this simple plant-but botanists are
fond of hard names!
The DiJjtalis that exercises such
dangerous influence over man, inn
peding the circulation of the blood,
and which no animal ever touches, is
the foxglove with its stem of rose-col-
Ored flowers, tiger-spotted, and white
within, abundantly skirtipg the woods
in whose shade and GOODNESS it lie.
lights.
Whowould have thought that Ndbulus
dlbus was only the common white let
tuce, or that Hydrns'is CGnadensis was
the little lilac colored flower of the col
chicum which enamels the meadows in
the autumn, coming without leaves or
supports2
Many plants such as hoarhound, an-
gelica and Others, do not seem to be
recognized as plants at all. They are
sweet stuff! Hoarhound, with its many |
stalks cubit high, covered over with a |
thin white down, is cultivated for the
sake of the extract, and made into can
dies and other forms. While the pep
permint, with its pretty purple flowers.
is sold to the druggists, and distilled
for oil. We are all apt to look upon
the nettle, the very disagreeable, sting
ing plant, as good for nothing. but to
be rooted up whenever it is found; but
if this poor, despised plant can cause
pain by its sting, it can also relieve
pain. for if you were to make drink,
by boiling its roots in water, it would
entirely remove the irritation of the
skin, caused by that painful complaint,
the ''nettle rash, while the fresh juice
will take away the marks of bruiSe;
and if we were to go on and tell how
many insects make their meal off the
ncttle, and live On it as home, or of
the beautiful lace that has been made
from its fibres, you would not regard it
as entirely useless-but now we are
only speaking Of the medical properties
Of the plant.
You have taken 4 severe cold. and as
you 60 home along the lane. does it
ever occur to You that several remedies
IRE growing close beside you? Take
he white hoarhound. which. from its
usefulness, has in many small places
ound its way from the lane to the herb
bed; or. if You like another remedy,
here is the little cup moss, growing SO
RELY all about you; or still another,
he mallow. All country children have
played with the seeds of the mallow,
md call them ..cheeses." There are
everal kinds, but the marsh mallow is
he one mostly used. Then there is the
'retty plant so valuable for infamma-
ion of the skin, called '.Poor Robin"
r ''Herb-ro5ert, which is nothing
nore than the wild geranium. We all
now it, for it grows everywhere, under i,
bush, high up on wall, in the lane.
r hidden away in the woods! The
mall flowers are pink. and the leaves. j.
,hich have very strong smell. turn
I'd in the autumn. and are of greas Z
enefit in cases of Inflammation. -Las.
!, Z. CJserrer-