of our rivers and ditches,
getting its name from the Celtic _alos_, water, and being called also
the greater Thrumwort, from thrum, the warp end of a weaver's web.
The root and leaves contain an acrid juice, dispersed by heat, which
is of service for irritability of the bladder. After [436] the root is
boiled so as to dissipate this medicinal juice it makes an edible
starchy vegetable.

This plant is commonly classed with the Plantains because its leaves
resemble theirs; but in general characteristics and qualities it more
properly belongs to the _Ranunculaceoe_.

Its fresh leaves applied to the skin will raise a blister, and may be
used for such a purpose, especially to relieve the swollen legs of
dropsical subjects when the vesicles should be punctured and the
serum drawn off. They contain a pungent butyraceous volatile oil.
The seeds dislodged from the dry, ripe plant, by striking it smartly
on a table, are good in decoction against bleedings, and are
employed by country people for curing piles. About the Russian
Empire the Water Plantain is still regarded as efficacious against
hydrophobia. Dr. George Johnston says: "In the Government of
Isola it has never failed of a cure for the last twenty-five years."
Reduced to powder it is spread over bread and butter, and is eaten.
Likewise, cures of rabid dogs by this plant are reported; and in
America it is renowned as a remedy against the bite of the
rattlesnake. The tubers contain a nutritious substance, and are eaten
by the Tartars.

_Apropos_ of this "Water Plantain" a Teesdale proverb says: "He's
nar a good weaver that leaves lang _thrums_."

The small seeds of a Plantain grass which grows commonly in
Southern Europe, the Fleawort, or _Plantago Psyllium_, have been
known from time immemorial as an easy and popular aperient. In
France these Psyllium seeds, given in a dessertspoonful dose, are
widely prescribed as a laxative in lieu of mineral aperient waters,
or the morning Seidlitz. They act after being soaked for some hours
in cold water, by their mucilage, and [437] when swallowed, by
virtue of a laxative oil set free within the intestines. The grass is
well known in some parts as "Clammy Plantain," and it has leafless
heads with toothed leaves. These seeds are dispensed by the London
druggists who supply French medicines.

POPPY.

The Scarlet Poppy of our cornfields (_Papaver Rhoeas_) is one of
the most brilliant and familiar of English wild flowers, b