The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-11-08
Medicinal Qualities Of Some Weeds.

Cleveland Leader.
Medicinal Qualities Of Some Weeds.
If it has been your good fortune to be
in the country this summer, L 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, aad
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 and mothers learned to be
very skiilful, in cases of sickness, in
the art of making healing drinks and
ointments, which 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
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 as simple remedy rs their
great-grandmothers took years and
years ago, for the very same disease
only the name has been changed in
these later days. For instance, if you
90 into a drug store and look among
the long row of labeled bottles, you
will find one marked Tdraracum. Now
this is hard Latin name, and perha ps
you have TO 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 dandetioa! Another fanciful label
is Tussitago terfara, which is nothing
more nor less thap coltsfoot,--so called
from the form and size of the leaves.
which are round and large as the palm
of the hand-a marguerite of brilliant
yellow, the rays as fine and slender as
hairs. From the time of Hippocrates
this flower has been supposed to have
a 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 a rag in solution of salt
petre and dried in the sun, made an ex-
cellent finder in past times, when we
had no lucifer matches.
Licorice is another of the plants
which is Glycyrrhiza glabrd, a very
hard name that botanists have given to
this simple plant-but botanists are
fond of hard names!
The Digitalis that exercises such
dangerous influence over man, i'm
peding the circulation of the blood,
and which no animal ever touches, is
the f0xglOve with its stem of rose-col-
0red flowers, tiger-spotted. and white
within, abundantly skirting the woods
in whose shade and GOODNESS it de-
lights.
Who would have thought that NabuIus
AIbus was only the common white let
tuce, or that Hydrastis Canadensis was
the little lilac -colored flower OF the col
chicum which enamels the meadows in
the autumn, coming without leaves or
supports?
Many plants such as hoarhound, am
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
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 ncttle, 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 ii 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 II we were to go on and tell how
many insects make their meal off the
ncttle, and live On it as q 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 = severe cold, and as
you go home along the lane, does it
ever occur to you that several remedies
are growing close beside youP Take
the white hoarhound, which, from its
usefulness. has in many small places
found its way from the lane to the herb
bed; or, if you like another remedy,
there is the little cup moss, growing so
freely all about you; or still another,
the maliow. All country children have
played with the seeds of the mallow,
and call them s'cheeses." There are
several kinds, but the marsh mallow is
the one mostly used. Then there ia the
pretty plant so valuable for inflamma-
ton of the skin, called poor Robin"
or 'Herb-robert, which is nothing
more than the wild geranium. We all
know it. for it grows everywhere, under
. hr1o s<~I. - L.