CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

BULBIFEROUS TOOTHWORT

Description. The root is thick, and of an irregular figure, and runs obliquely under the surface. The first leaves are oblong, narrow, undivided, and of a pale green; they have short foot stalks, and rise in little tufts. The stalk is round, slender, upright,and a pale green, not at all branched, and is a foot and a half high. The leaves are placed alternately on it from the bottom to the top, and they resemble those from the root; they have short foot-stalks; and they are long, narrow, sharp-pointed, a little undulated at the edges, and of a pale green. The flowers stand in a short spike at the top of the stalk, and, as the top usually droops, they commonly hang all on one side; they are large and white with a fainter or deeper blush of purple.

Place. It is common in all the southern parts of Europe in shady situation; and it has been found in some places in England, thriving very well among bushes in open situations.

Time. It flowers in July and August.

Government and virtues. It is under Mars, and is accounted a good vulnerary; but this seems an opinion not sufficiently founded. The taste is acrid, and almost caustic. Som recommend it as good to stop all kinds of fluxes and hæmorrhages: helps to consolidate wounds, fractures and ruptures, especially the root, which preserved in sugar, is commended by Mathiolus as of great service against the fluor Albus. A cataplasm of the root is good to take away black and blue marks arising from contusions.