The Stachys Germanica (Downy Woundwort) is so called from its soft, downy leaves having been employed instead of lint as a surgical dressing to wounds. The plant grows on a chalky soil in Bedfordshire, [616] Berkshire, and Oxfordshire: being named also "Lamb's Ear."
This Stachys lanata (Woolly Woundwort) is known as Saviour's blanket, in Sussex; also in Devonshire and Somersetshire, as Mouse's ear, Donkey's ear, and Lamb's tongue.
The Knights' Water Woundwort (Statiotes aloides) was supposed from its blade-like leaves, acting on the doctrine of signatures, to heal sword wounds.
YARROW.
The Yarrow, from hiera, holy herb (Achillea millefolium), or Milfoil, is so called from the very numerous fine segments of its leaves. It is a Composite plant very common on waysides and in pastures throughout Britain.
The name Achillea has been bestowed thereupon because the Greek warrior, Achilles, is said to have disclosed its virtues which he had been taught by Chiron, the Centaur. This herb is the _Stratiotes chiliophullos _of the Greek botanists, by whom it was valued as an excellent astringent and vulnerary. But Gerard supposes it may have been the Achillea millefolium nobile, which grows with a thick root and longer leaves, on a fat and fruitful soil, a stranger in England, "and the very same with which Achilles cured the wounds of his soldiers." But, he adds, "the virtues of each sort of Milfoil are set to be both alike."
The flowers of the Common Yarrow or Nosebleed are white or pink; those of the Nobile are yellow.
The popular name of Nosebleed has been given to the Yarrow because the hairy filaments of the leaves, when put up the nose, provoke an exudation of blood, and will thus afford relief to headache, caused by a passive fulness of the vessels. Parkinson says "if it be [617] pat into the nose, assuredly it will stay the bleeding of it," which mast be the' effect of action according to similars. Or if using Yarrow in the same way as a love charm, the following lines were repeated:—
"Green arrow! green arrow!
You bear a white blow;
If my love love me
My nose will bleed now."
The leaves have a somewhat fragrant smell, and a bitterish taste. The odour of the flowers, when rubbed between the fingers, is aromatic. In consequence of this pungent, volatile principle, the herb has proved useful in hysteria, flatulence, heartburn, colic, and epilepsy; also, it is employed in Norway for the cure of rheumatism, and sometimes chewed for toothache.