Читать книгу Madame Young's Guide to Health - Amelia Young - Страница 98

Table of Contents

The stalk is erect, tapering, and is four feet in hight; leaves large, oval, shady, wrinkled and veined, growing on short winged foot-stalks, downy underneath; the lacteas attendant on the flower stalks are small, spear shaped and sessile; the flowers, always on one side, are purple, bell shaped, marked internally with little dark colored spots, placed in whitish rings, and long hairs defend the entrance of the tube, hence no insects ever approach this flower. The flower stalks vary in length; at first they depend like the flowers, afterwards becoming erect, when they elevate a two-celled capsule, containing many blackish seeds.

This most elegant plant is raised in gardens, and is an exotic plant; flowers in July, and seeds in September. It would take a small volume to describe all the virtues which different authors have ascribed to its various qualities; however, as it is a dangerous medicine in the hands of the unskilful, I will give a few descriptions of its qualities, with directions how it may be used with safety in families.

Preparation.—Take of the dried bruised leaves of fox glove four ounces, powder of masterwort root one ounce, leaves of rue and wormwood, each, two ounces, elecampane and comfrey root bruised, each, two ounces, lungwort and wild cherry tree bark, each, one ounce; put all the ingredients into a new gallon earthen pot, and pour one gallon of boiling rain water on them; cover the pot and set it near the fire, on hot ashes, for twelve hours; after which strain the liquor through a linen cloth and add four quarts of honey, and let it stand near the fire twelve hours longer; then strain the liquor and put it in bottles for use. In all consumptive and asthmatic complaints, the patient may take a tablespoonful of this balsam three or four times a day, in a tea cupful of the following tea: put one ounce of skunk cabbage root and half an ounce of wild cherry tree bark in a tea pot, and pour boiling water on it, and use it daily; the dose may be increased from a tablespoonful to a wine glass full three times a day.