lied as a remedy; but this idea does
not seem of probable correctness. Frowde tells us "the constant
irritation of his festering legs made his terrible temper still more
dreadful. Warned of his approaching dissolution; and consumed
with the death-thirst, he called for a cup of white wine, and, turning
to one of his attendants; cried, 'All is lost!'--and these were his
last words." The substantive title, _Henricus_, is more likely derived
from "heinrich," an elf or goblin, as indicating certain magical
virtues in the herb.

It is further known as English Marquery, or Mercury, and _Tota bona_;
or, Allgood, the latter from a conceit of the rustics that it will
cure all hurts; "wherefore the leaves are now a constant plaster
among them for every green wound." It bears small flowers of
sepals only, and is grown by cottagers as a pot herb. The young
shoots peeled and boiled may be eaten as asparagus, and are gently
laxative. The leaves are often made into broth, being applied also
externally by country folk to heal old ulcers; and the roots are given
to sheep having a cough.

Both here and in Germany this Goosefoot is used for feeding
poultry, and it has hence acquired the sobriquet of Fat-hen.

The term, English Mercury, has been given because of its excellent
remedial qualities against indigestion, and bears out the proverb:
"Be thou sick or whole, put [229] Mercury in thy koole." Poultices
made from the herb are applied to cleanse and heal chronic sores,
which, as Gerard teaches, "they do scour and mundify." Certain
writers associate it with our _good_ King Henry the Sixth. There is
made in America, from an allied plant, the oak-leaved Goosefoot
(_Chenopodium glaucum_), or from the aphis which infests it, a
medicinal tincture used for expelling round worms.

The Stinking Goosefoot, called therefore, _Vulvaria_, and _Garosmus_,
grows often on roadsides in England, and is known as Dog's
Orach. It is of a dull, glaucous, or greyish-green aspect, and
invested with a greasy mealiness which when touched exhales a
very odious and enduring smell like that of stale salt fish, this being
particularly attractive to dogs, though swine refuse the plant. It has
been found very useful in hysteria, the leaves being made into a
conserve with sugar; or Dr. Fuller's famous _Electuarium
hystericum_ may be compounded by adding forty-eight drops of oil
of amber (_Oleum succini_) to four ounces of the conserve. Then a
piece of the size of