use of Silverweed
fomentations. A distilled water of the herb takes away freckles,
spots, pimples in the face, and sunburnings; whilst all parts of the
plant are found to contain tannin.

The Creeping Cinquefoil (_Potentilla replans_) grows also
abundantly on meadow banks, having astringent roots, which have
been used medicinally since the times of Hippocrates and
Dioscorides.

They were found to cure intermittent fevers, such as used to prevail
in marshy or ill-drained lands much more commonly than now in
Great Britain; though country folk still use the infusion or decoction
for the same purpose in some districts; also for jaundice.

Likewise, because of the tannin contained in the outer bark of the
roots, their decoction is useful against diarrhoea; and their infusion
as a gargle for relaxed sore throats. But, except in mild cases, other
more positively astringent herbs are to be preferred. The roots afford
a useful red dye.

SKULLCAP.

A useful medicinal tincture (H.) is made from the Skullcap
(_Scutellaria_), which is a Labiate plant of frequent growth on the
banks of our rivers and ponds, having bright blue flowers, with
a tube longer than the calyx. This is the greater variety
(_Galericulata_). There is a lesser variety (_Scutellaria minor_),
which is [517] infrequent, and grows in bogs about the West of
England, with flowers of a dull purple colour. Each kind gets its
name from the Latin _scutella_, "a little cap," which the calyx
resembles, and is therefore called Hood Wort, or Helmet flower.
The upper lip of the calyx bulges outward about its middle, and
finally closes down like a lid over the fruit. When the seed is ripe
it opens again.

Provers of the tincture (H.) in toxic doses experienced giddiness,
stupor, and confusion of mind, twitchings of the limbs, intermission
of the pulse, and other symptoms indicative of the epileptiform
"petit mal"; for which morbid affection, and the disposition thereto,
the said tincture, of a diluted strength, in small doses, has been
successfully given.

The greater Skullcap contains, in common with most other plants of
the same order, a volatile oil, tannin, fat, some bitter principle,
sugar, and cellulose.

If a decoction of the plant is made with two ounces of the herb to
eight ounces of water, and is taken for some weeks continuously in
recent epilepsy, or when the disease has only functional causes, it
will often prove very beneficial. Likewise, this de