Dutch boys are said to be extremely careful about plucking or handling the Water Lily, for, if a boy fall [606] with the flowers in his possession, he is thought to immediately become subject to fits.
The Water Pepper (Polygonum Hydropiper) or Arsmart, Grows abundantly by the sides of lakes and ditches in Great Britain. It bears a vulgar English name signifying the irritation which it causes when applied to the fundament; and its French sobriquet, Culrage, conveys the same meaning:—
"An erbe is the cause of all this rage,
In our tongue called Culrage."
The plant is further known to rustics as Cyderach, or Ciderage, and as Red-knees, from its red angular points. It possesses an acrid, biting taste, somewhat like that of the Peppermint, which resides in the glandular dots sprinkled about its surface, and which is lost in drying. Fleas will not come into rooms where this herb is kept. It is called also "lake weed." A tradition says that the plant when placed under the saddle will enable a horse to travel for some long time without becoming hungry or thirsty. The Scythians knew this herb (Hippice) to be useful for such a purpose.
The Water Pepper has its virtues first taught by a beggar of Savoy. It is admirable against syphilis, and to arrest sexual losses: being long adored because "healing the original sin."
Farriers use it for curing proud flesh in the sores of animals, and when applied to the human skin, the leaves will serve the purpose of a mustard poultice. Also, a piece of the plant may be chewed to relieve toothache, as well as to cure small ulcers of thrush in the mouth, and pimples on the tongue.
The expressed juice of the freshly-gathered plant has been found very useful in jaundice. From one to three [607] tablespoonfuls may be taken for a dose. A hot decoction made from the whole herb (Water Persicaria) has a sheet soaked in it as an American remedy for cholera, the patient being wrapped therein immediately when seized. This herb, together with the Thuja Occidentalis (Arbor vitoe) makes the Anti-venereo of Count Mattaei.
Another Polygonum, the great Bistort, or Snakeweed, and
Adderswort, is a common wild plant in the northern parts of Great
Britain, having bent or crooked roots, which are difficult to be
extirpated, and are strongly astringent.
This Bistort, "twice twisted," on account of its snake-like root, was at one time called Serpentaria, Columbrina, and Dracunculus.
It has been thought to be the Oxylapathum Britannicum and Limonium of the ancients.