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Squinancy Woodruffe

Names. Called also Woodrow and Woodrowel.

Description. The stalks of Woodruffe seldom grow above a foot high, square and slender, and but little branched, having seven or eight long green leaves, growing in a circle at every joint, broader than cleavers, but with little or no roughness; the flowers grow on the tops of the stalks in small umbels of little single-leaved white flowers, spread like a bell, of a sweet smell; each of which is succeeded by two round roughish seed, less than those of cleavers. The root is small, slender, and creeping under the upper surface of the earth. Time. It flowers in May.

Place. It grows in woods and copses.

Government and virtues. Mars rules it. The green herb should be used. In this state the Germans put it into their wine as we do borage and burnet, as a great cordial, and comforter of the spirit. It is therefore good in the jaundice, and all diseases of the stomach and liver, opening obstructions, and causing an appetite. The country folks bruise it and apply it to fresh wounds and cuts.