e
jaundice which is of long continuance." He advises an ointment
made from the plant stampt with lard for certain skin eruptions, and
a decoction made with four drachms of the herb in eight ounces of
boiling water. The bruised leaves are useful externally for curing
blotches on the face, and for piles.

An old distich says of the Toadflax as compared with the
Larkspur:--

"Esula lactescit: sine lacte Linaria crescit;"

or,

"Larkspur with milk doth flow:
Toadflax without milk doth grow,"

(alluding to the dry nature of the toadflax). To which the Hereditary
Marshal of Hesse added the following line:--

"Esoula nil nobis, sed dat linaria _taurum_,"

implying that the herb was of old valued for its good effects when
applied externally to piles as an ointment, a fomentation, or a
poultice, each being made from the leaves and the flowers. The
originator of this ointment was a Dr. Wolph, physician to the
Landgrave of Hesse, who only divulged its formula on the prince
promising to give him _a fat ox_ annually for the discovery.

TOMATO (or LOVE APPLE).

Though only of recent introduction as a common vegetable in this
country, and though grown chiefly [568] under glass for the table in
England, yet the Tomato is so abundantly imported, and so
extensively used by all classes now-a-days throughout the British
Isles that it may fairly take consideration for whatever claims it can
advance as a curative Simple. Imported early in the present century
from South America it remained for a while an exclusive luxury
produced for the rich like pine apples and melons. But gradually
since then the Tomato has steadily acquired an increasing
popularity, and now large crops of the profitable fruit are brought
from Bordeaux and the Channel Islands, to meet the demands of our
English markets. Much of the favour which has become attached to
this ruddy, polished, attractive-looking fruit is due to a widespread
impression that it is good for the liver, and a preventive of
biliousness. Nevertheless, rumours have also gone abroad that
habitual Tomato-eaters are especially liable to cancerous disease in
this, or that organ.

Belonging to the Solanums the Tomato (_Lycopersicum_) is a plant
of Mexican origin. Its brilliant fruit was first known as _Mala
oethiopica_, or the Apples of the Moors, and bearing the Italian
designation _Pomi dei Mori_. This name was presently corrupted in
the French to _Pommes d'amour_; and