HEARTSEASE. Viola tricolor. N.O. Violaceae.
Synonym : Wild Pansy.
Habitat : Cultivated fields.
Features : Stem short, square, smooth, branched. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, crenate. Flowers in June, petals of differing sizes, usually wholly yellow but occasionally purple upper petals with dark stripes on lower ; single, violet-like flower to each flower stalk. Three carpel fruit.
Part used : Herb.
Action : Diaphoretic, diuretic.
The mildness of action makes it applicable in infantile skin eruptions, for which the ounce to pint infusion is given in doses according to age.
It has been said that the medicine will ward off asth- matic and epileptic convulsions, but there would appear to be no reliable confirmation of this. The claim may have originated with Culpeper, who writes, concerning Heartsease : "The spirit of it is excellently good for the convulsions in children, as also for falling sickness, and a gallant remedy for the inflammations of the lungs and breast, pleurisy, scabs, itch, etc." HOLY THISTLE. Carbenia benedicta. N.O. Compositae.
Synonym : Carduus benedictus, Blessed Thistle.
Features : Thomas Johnson, in his edition of Gerard's Herbal, published in 1636, gives us the following description of this member of the familiar thistle family : "The stalks of Carduus benedictus are round, rough and pliable, and being parted into diverse branches, do lie flat on the ground ; the leaves are jagged round about and full of harmless prickles in the edges ; the heads on the top of the stalks are set with and environed with sharp prickling leaves, out of which standeth a yellow flower ; the seed is long and set with hairs at the top like a beard ; the root is white and parted into strings ; the whole herb, leaves and stalks, and also the heads, are covered with a thin down." Action : Although more popular among the old herbalists than among those of to-day, Holy Thistle is still valued for its tonic, stimulant and diaphoretic pro- perties.
Mainly used in digestive troubles, the 1 ounce to 1 pint infusion, given warm in wineglass doses several times daily, is also found capable of breaking up obstinate colds. As it is held to stimulate the mammary glands, the infusion has been given with the object of promoting the secretion of milk.
Tilke is enthusiastic in his praise of the herb : "I have found it such a clarifier of the blood, that by drinking an infusion once or twice a day, sweeted with honey, instead of tea, it would be a perfect cure for the headache, or what is commonly called the meagrims." The same writer recommends it as a salad "instead of watercresses." The medicinal use of Holy Thistle goes back far beyond the days of Tilke, or even Johnson. William Turner, Domestic Physician to the Lord Protector Somerset in the reign of King Edward VI, in his Herbal published 1568, agrees with Tilke that the herb is "very good for the headache and the megram." HOPS. Humulus lupulus. N.O. Urticaceae.
Habitat : Extensively farmed for the brewing industry, and is found growing wild in hedges and open woods.
Features : Stem rough, very long, will twist round any adjacent support. Leaves in pairs, stalked, rough, serrate, cordate, three- or five-lobed. Flowers or catkins (more correctly called strobiles) consist of membranous scales, yellowish-green, roundish, reticulate-veined, nearly half-inch long, curving over each other. These are the fertile flowers which are used medicinally and industrially.
Action : Tonic, diuretic.
As a tonic in prescriptions for debility, nervous dyspepsia, and general atony. Although usually given in combination with other herbs, the ounce to pint infusion of hops taken thrice daily makes quite a good tonic medicine for those feeling "run-down." Lying on a pillow stuffed with hops is an old-fashioned way of dealing with insomnia.
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