CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

WATER PLANTAIN

Description. This has a thick tufty fibrous and perennial root; the leaves are supported on long, hollowed, weak, spungy leaf-stalks; they are large, broad, oblong, blunt at the end, entire on the edges, smooth on the surface, of a fresh green colour, and marked with large longitudinal ribs, in the manner of common plantain; to which, however, this plant is not in the least degree allied. The stem only bears the flowers: it is naked, thick, smooth, three or four feet high, and furnished with a great many branches, which surround it at small distances, in a regular manner, like whorls. The flowers are supported on long fruit-stalks, which rise from these branches; they are not very large, but very numerouse and white.