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Slender Honewort

Description. This is a species of the stone parsley a weak plant, of two feet and a half in height; the stalk is brown, and very slender, supporting itself by leaning against the bushes, among which it grows; the leaves are of a very fine green; the flowers are small and white, and the seeds are of an olive brown.

Place. It is a native of damp thickets, and hedges with moist bottoms. Time. It flowers in July.

Government and virtues. This little plant is under the dominion of Venus in the sign Cancer; and is excellent to allay swellings, which, in the country, are called hones, from which the herb doubtless derived its name. The leaves are to be used fresh gathered, and beat in a marble mortar with a kind of paste. They are then to be laid on a swelling that is red, painful, and threatens to have bad consequences, and they disperse. This application should be frequently renewed. It is good for disorders in the skin, and even in the king's evil. The corn honewort possesses still more virtue.