CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

BLUE SIMSON

Description. The flowers of this plant stand separate, one above another, alternately; they grow in a cylindric cup, with awl-shaped scales, placed erect, and the rays are narrow. The leaves are of a dull dead green, and grow upon a ruddy, firm, dry, stalk. The flowers are of a purplish blue, and never spread wide open, but the rays always stand upright.

Place. This is a perennial: native of our high dry grounds; a strange plant that appears twice a year, and wears two different faces.

Time. In April we see it weak, lying on the ground, and scarce six inches high; in August and September it flowers a second time, and is then robust, upright, about ten inches high, and carries larger flowers.

Government and virtues. Mars governs this plant. It is a sharp acid plant. Some administer it for disorders of the breast, where the complaint arises from a tough phlegm. Yet it is one of those things that should be cautiously tampered with.