Important: Safety Warning
This page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Wormwood
Descrription. This very useful plant grows to about a yard high; the stalk is of a pale green, tongh, upright, and divided wildly into many branches; the leaves are of a pale green on both sides, divided into a multitude of parts, and they feel soft to the touch, but make the fingers bitter. The flowers are very numerous, small, chaffy, hang down, and of a pale olive colour at first; but, after standing a while, they grow brownish.
Place. This is a perennial weed, which nature scatters every where. Farm yards and dry waste grounds are full of it.
Time. They blow in June and July.
Government and virtues. This is a martial herb, and is governed by Mars. This is the strongest; the Sea Wormwood is the second in bitterness, and the Roman joins a great deal of aromatic flavour, with but a little bitterness; therefore, to acquire and enjoy the full powers they possess, they must be separately known and well distinguished, for each kind has its particular virtues. The two first grow wild in our country; the third is frequent in the physic gardens, and may always be had, but, as not a native, is not particularly considered here. The common Wormwood, here described, is very excellent in weakness of the stomach; and, far beyond the common knowledge, is powerful against the gout and gravel. The leaves are commonly used, but the flowery tops are the right part.