BEGGAR LICE.
The virtues of this plant has never, to my knowledge, been thoroughly understood. As a nervine in all female difficulties, and a valuable medicine when used for any derangement in the monthly courses, it has not many equals; it will remove pain immediately, and quiet the nerves.
Directions.—Take a handful of the flowers and leaves, and half the quantity of tanzy; make a good strong tea, and take a quantity on going to bed, if you can; if not, take it, but do not go out in the cold. The best time is bed time.
SINGLE-CELLED BERRY.
Grows in hedges, and along the road sides, in almost every part of America; flowers in July and August; the berry contains three irregular shaped seeds.
Medical Virtues.—A decoction of the berries and roots, has been found most efficacious in curing dropsies.
Preparation.—Boil two ounces of the dry root, in two quarts of rain water, down to one half, and strain the liquor. In dropsy, a gill of the decoction must be taken morning and night. A gill of the juice made from the inner, or green bark, works powerfully, both upwards and downwards, and has frequently cured dropsies. One ounce of the inner bark, dried, and one ounce of the dry roots, may be boiled in four quarts of rain water, down to two quarts; a teacupful, taken three times a day, works powerfully as a diuretic, and is an excellent remedy in suppression of the urine.
DRAGON’S CLAW, OR FEVER ROOT.
This is a newly discovered plant, known to but few botanists in the United States. It rises six or seven feet; the leaves grow in a cluster from the root to the top; blossoms, yellow; roots, small and black, about the size of cloves, and very tender, very much resembling the claws of an animal, and so full of nitre that the powder of the root, if kept in the open air, will liquify.
History.—This plant grows upon mountains and the sides of hills, in the Genesee country, and about Albany: the leaves ovate, and are two or three inches long.