The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-08-28
Medicinal Qualities Of Some Weeds.


If it 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
i 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 Shem.
were in great demand. and the good
housewives and mothers learned to be
very s<illful, 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. Bat except in remote country
| places, where they seldom drop old
customs. these simple medicines have
gone quite out of fashion, and now-a-
days people when they are i'll send for
physician, take Just what he gives
them and pay him a tremendous fee,
when at the same time they do not
| dream that they are often receiving
from him as simple remedy as their
great-grandmothers took years aud
years ago, for the very same disease
! only the name has been changed in
these later days. For instance, if you
90 into drug store and look among
the long row of labeled bottles, YOU
will find one marked TGrarae1tbl. Now
this is hard Latin name. and perhaps
you have Eo idea what it means. You
will find it to be q very old friend of
yours, perhaps the very eommOneSt in
the lane where You walk every day
the ddpdeHOn! Another fanciful label
is TuSSildg0 ferfdrd, which is nothing
more nor less than 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 a brilliant
yellow, the rays As line and slender as
hairs. From the time of Hippocrates
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
dSIuIId llC OOllOu VI llC lCdNCSs
wrapped in a RAG in q 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 Glycyrrii=G glabra, a very
lard name that botaniSts have given to
this simple plant-but botanists are
fond of hard names! IA
The DjgitaiiS that exercises such Z
dangerous influence over man, i'm
pedng 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 skirting the woods
in whose shade and GOODNESS it de-
lights.
WhowOuld have thought that NGbaiHS
Akbus was only the common white let
tuce, or that HydraStiS Cd0ade1asiS 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. an
gelica and others, do not seem 10 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-nettle, the very diSagreeable, sting
=, Good for. bipor hrrt n
be rooted up whenever it IS found; but
if this poor, despised plant can caHSe
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 rs n hOme, or OF
the beautiful lace~that has been made
from its iibreS, you would not regard 1t
as entirely useless s-but now we are
only speaking of the medical properties
of the plant. t.
You have taken a severe cold. and as
YOU 20 llDillC dIOu2 tlIO itii's NhO'o ~
ever O.cur to yOu that several remedies
are growing close beside you? 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 mallow. All country children have
PLAYED with the seeds of the mallOw,
and call them ''cheeses." There arc
several kinds, but the marsh mallow is
the one mostly used. Then there is the
pretty plant so valuable for iniiamma-
ton of the skin, called Poor Robin,
or ssHerb-robert, which is nothing
raore than the Wild gerauium. We all
know it, for it grows everywhere, under
- bush, high up on a wall, in the lane,
or hidden away in the woOdsL The
small flowers are pink, and the leaves,
which have a very strong smell, turn
red in the autumn. aud are OF great
benefit in cases of inlammation--COr.
N Y Observer,