Home › Contents › The Jacinth, or Hyacinth

The Jacinth, or Hyacinth

Description. The common Spring plant our children gather with their cowslips and May flowers, and call blue-bells. The root is white and roundish; the leaves are narrow and long, like grass, but of a deep green colour, and smooth surface; the stalks are round, upright, and smooth; they have no leaves on them. The flowers are large, and of a beautiful blue; they are hollow, oblong, and turn up at the rim. The root is the part used.

Virtues. It abounds in a slimy juice, but it is to be dried, and this must be done carefully; the decoction of it operates well by urine, and the powder is balsamic, and somewhat styptic. It is not enough known: there is hardly a more powerful remedy for the whites.