Red Behen
Description. It grows to a foot in height; the stalks are naked, and the flowers red, and, in their disposition, they somewhat resemble lavender. About the bottoms of the stalks stand clusters of large and broad leaves, rounded at the ends, of a deep green colour, and fattish substance: these rise immediately from the root, and the stalks grow up among them. The stalks are very tough, and strong, and branched, and of a paler green; the root is long and reddish.
Place. A common wild plant about our sea-coasts, and a very pretty one. Virtues. The people in Essex cure themselves of purgings, and of overflowings of the menses, with an infusion of this root; and it is a very great medicine, though little known. It is to be gathered as soon as the young leaves appear, cleaned and dried; it may be taken in powder, half a drachm for a dose. These are not the white and red behen roots of the old writers on physic, but they are better.