324. CHELIDONIUM majus. GREAT CELANDINE. The Leaves and Juice.—This is an excellent medicine in the jaundice; it is also good against all obstructions of the viscera, and, if continued a time, will do great service against the scurvy. The juice also is used successfully for sore eyes, removing warts, &c. It should be used fresh, for it loses the greatest part of its virtue in drying.
325. CHENOPODIUM olidum. STINKING GOOSEFOOT. The Leaves.—Its smell has gained it the character of an excellent anti-hysteric; and this is the only use it is applied to. Tournefort recommends a spiritous tincture, others a decoction in water, and others a conserve of the leaves, as of wonderful efficacy in uterine disorders.
326. CHRYSANTHEMUM Leucanthemum. OX-EYE DAISY. The Leaves.—Geoffroy relates that the herb, gathered before the flowers have come forth, and boiled in water, imparts an acrid taste, penetrating and subtile like pepper; and that this decoction is an excellent vulnerary and diuretic.
327. CISTUS ladanifetus. GUM CISTUS.—The gum labdanum is procured from this shrub, and is its only produce used in medicine. This is an exudation from the leaves and twigs in the manner of manna, more than of any thing else. They get it off by drawing a parcel of leather thongs over the shrubs. It is not much used, but it is a good cephalic.—Hill's Herbal, p. 72.
328. CLEMATIS recta. UPRIGHT VIRGIN'S BOWER.—The whole plant is extremely acrid. It was useful for Dr. Stoerck to employ the leaves and flowers in ulcers and cancers, as well as an extract prepared from the former; yet the preparation which he chiefly recommended was an infusion of two or three drams of the leaves in a pint of boiling water, of which he gave four ounces three times a-day, while the powdered leaves were applied as an escharotic to the ulcers.—Wood-ville's Med. Bot. p. 481.
329. COCHLEARIA Coronopus. SWINES-CRESS.—This is an excellent diuretic, safe and yet very powerful. The juice may be taken; and it is good for the jaundice, and against all inward obstructions, and against the scurvy: the leaves may also be eaten as sallet, or dried and given in decoction.—Hill's Hebal, p. 105.
330. CONVALLARIA Polygonatum. SOLOMON'S SEAL. The Root.—The root has several joints, with some flat circular depressions, supposed to resemble the stamp of a seal. It has a sweetish mucilaginous taste. As to its virtues, practitioners do not now expect any considerable ones from it, and pay very little regard to the vulnerary qualities which it was formerly celebrated for. It is used by pugilists to remove the black appearance occasioned from extravasated blood, and for curing bruises on the face, particularly black-eyes obtained by boxing.
331. CONVALLARIA majalis. MAY LILY. The Roots and Flowers.—The roots of this abound with a soft mucilage, and hence they have been used externally in emollient and maturating cataplasms: they were an ingredient in the suppurating cataplasm of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia. Those of the wild plant are very bitter: dried, they are said to prove a gentle errhine; as also are the flowers.
332. CONVOLVULUS sepium. BIND-WEED.—The poor people use the root of this plant fresh gathered and boiled in ale as a cathartic; and it is found generally to answer that purpose. It would, however, nauseate a delicate stomach; but for people of strong constitutions there is not a better medicine.
333. CUSCUTA europaea. DODDER. The whole plant gathered green is to be boiled in water with a little ginger and allspice, and this decoction operates as a cathartic; it also opens obstructions of the liver, and is good in the jaundice and many other disorders arising from the like cause.—Hill's Herbal.