Abstract
THERE are here numerous pleasant anecdotes of the useful plants of our islands, culled from authorities both ancient and modern. The range is from Dioscorides through the herbalists-Gerard and Culpeper especially-to a gypsy woman “whose herbal lore I shall quote many times”. This promise is amply fulfilled. There are recipes for unusual dishes and cosmetics. Among the former “the boiled nettles, as described, may be surrounded by poached eggs”. Among the latter, to prepare a cold cream, “if two ounces of glycerine are purchased”. Alas, 'tis “if” indeed. The bulk of the book is concerned with medicinal purposes. As it is for the home, safety is wisely put first and the drug plants of the pharmacopoeia are dismissed under the entry “poisonous plants”. The use of the yellow flowers of celandine as a cure for jaundice is derided as an example of the doctrine of signatures ; but, on reading later that beetroot is “of value to anaemic women and girls”, you wonder if the superstition is so dead after all. Old wives' simples may be traditionally mated with old wives' tales, but they include (p. 272 under review) raspberry-leaf tea as an aid to easy labour, a prescription which has recently been lifted into official respectability. Here is a good half-hour's browsing to be taken over the nuts and wine.
Herbs for Daily Use in Home Medicine and Cookery
Mary Thorne
Quelch
By. Pp. 328. (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1941.) 8s. 6d. net.
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Herbs for Daily Use in Home Medicine and Cookery. Nature 149, 8 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149008a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149008a0