CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

WHORTLE

Description. The red Whortle is a small shrub, with slender purplish branches. The leaves are roundish and of a dark green, obtuse at the end, and not at all serrated at the edges. The flowers are greenish, with a tinge of red; the berries are round, red, and well tasted.

Place. This species of the bilberry-bush is common in our northern counties on boggy ground.

Time. It flowers in May.

Virtues. The bark of the root is somewhat warm and dry, opens obstructions of the liver and spleen, and helps the jaundice. The unripe fruit is drying and binding, useful in all kinds of fluxes, and very good for inflammations in the mouth and throat. The ripe fruit is cooling, and somewhat loosening, good to allay the heat of burning fevers; it is grateful to the stomach, and creates an appetite.