An Ointment may be made with this juice to stimulate
An Ointment may be made with this juice to stimulate the scalp so as to prevent falling out of the hair. The root contains tannin and mucilage, it is therefore astringent and demulcent. Also the expressed juice from the fresh leaves of this white Water Lily, the “one sinless flower,” if used as a head wash, will preserve the hair.
“Oh, destinee des choses d’ici bas! Descendre des austerities du Cloitre dans l’officine Cancaniere du perruquier!”
Dutch boys are said to be extremely careful about plucking or handling the Water Lily, for, if a boy fall [606] with the flowers in his possession, he is thought to immediately become subject to fits.
The Water Pepper (_Polygonum Hydropiper_) or Arsmart, Grows abundantly by the sides of lakes and ditches in Great Britain. It bears a vulgar English name signifying the irritation which it causes when applied to the fundament; and its French sobriquet, _Culrage_, conveys the same meaning:–
“An erbe is the cause of all this rage, In our tongue called Culrage.”
The plant is further known to rustics as Cyderach, or Ciderage, and as Red-knees, from its red angular points. It possesses an acrid, biting taste, somewhat like that of the Peppermint, which resides in the glandular dots sprinkled about its surface, and which is lost in drying. Fleas will not come into rooms where this herb is kept. It is called also “lake weed.” A tradition says that the plant when placed under the saddle will enable a horse to travel for some long time without becoming hungry or thirsty. The Scythians knew this herb (_Hippice_) to be useful for such a purpose.
The Water Pepper has its virtues first taught by a beggar of Savoy. It is admirable against syphilis, and to arrest sexual losses: being long adored because “healing the original sin.”
Farriers use it for curing proud flesh in the sores of animals, and when applied to the human skin, the leaves will serve the purpose of a mustard poultice. Also, a piece of the plant may be chewed to relieve toothache, as well as to cure small ulcers of thrush in the mouth, and pimples on the tongue.
The expressed juice of the freshly-gathered plant has been found very useful in jaundice. From one to three [607] tablespoonfuls may be taken for a dose. A hot decoction made from the whole herb (Water Persicaria) has a sheet soaked in it as an American remedy for cholera, the patient being wrapped therein immediately when seized. This herb, together with the _Thuja Occidentalis_ (_Arbor vitoe_) makes the _Anti-venereo_ of Count Mattaei.
Another Polygonum, the great Bistort, or Snakeweed, and Adderswort, is a common wild plant in the northern parts of Great Britain, having bent or crooked roots, which are difficult to be extirpated, and are strongly astringent.
This Bistort, “twice twisted,” on account of its snake-like root, was at one time called _Serpentaria_, _Columbrina_, and _Dracunculus_.
It has been thought to be the _Oxylapathum Britannicum_ and _Limonium_ of the ancients.
The dose of the root in substance is from twenty to sixty grains. In the North of England the plant is known as Easter Giant, and its young shoots are eaten in herb pudding. About Manchester they are substituted for greens, under the name of Passion’s dock. The root may be employed both externally as a poultice, and inwardly as a decoction, when an astringent is needed. It is most useful for a spongy state of the gums, attended with looseness of the teeth.
