CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

FELLWORT

Description. A species approaching gentian, for which it is often taken by the common herbalists. The root is small, long, brown, and divided, and has a bitter taste. The stalks are of a brownish colour, rigid, firm, straight, a little branced, and from three to eight or ten inches high. The leaves are pretty near to one another: they are of a dusky green, and the flowers are blue. The seed is small and brown.

Place. It is common in hilly pastures.

Time. It flowers in April and May.

Government and virtues. It is like gentian, under the dominion of Mars, and a very good stomachic, but inferior to that great kind, the foreign gentian. The country people use it as an ingredient in making bitters, mixing it with orange peel, steeped in wine.