BROOK-LIME    VERONICA BECCABUNGA

Brook-lime and Watercresses are generally used together in diet drinks with other things serving to purge the blood and body from all ill humours that would destroy health, and are helpful to the scurvy.
Otherwise known as Water Pimpernel, it is an aquatic plant that sends forth a creeping root with strings at every joint. It produces small blue flowers.
Where to find it: It grows in shallow streams and at the edges of ponds and usually near Water cresses.
Flowering time: Early to midsummer.
Astrology: A hot and biting martial plant.
Medicinal virtues: It provokes the urine and helps to break the stone and pass it away. It procures women's courses and expels the dead child. Fried with butter and vinegar and applied warm, it helpeth all manner of tumours, swellings and inflammations.
Modern uses: Not used in modern practice by herbalists, but a homoeopathic preparation of Veronica beccabunga is available on prescription from homeopathic physicians.

BRYONY    BRYONIA DIOICA
The root of Bryony purges the belly with great violence, troubling the stomach and burning the liver and they' re not rashly to be taken.
There are several Bryonies and all are poisonous. The Common White Bryony (B r yonia dioica) is a rampant twining and climbing plant sending forth long tender branches with rough vine-like leaves and white flowers followed by berries (green, then red) in clusters.
Where to find it: On banks or under hedges. The roots go very deep.

Flowering time: Mid to late summer.
Astrology: They are furious martial plants.
Medicinal virtues: Used correctly it is profitable for diseases of the head, such as falling-sickness, giddiness and swimmings, by drawing away much phlegm and rheumatic humours. Good for palsies, convulsions, cramps and stitches in the side and the dropsy. It provokes the urine and cleanses the reins and kidneys from gravel and stone by opening obstructions of the spleen.
The decoction of the root in wine drunk once a week on going to bed cleanseth the mother and expelleth the dead child. A dram (1.7 g) of the root in powder taken in white wine bringeth down the courses. An electuary made of the roots and honey doth mightily cleanse the chest of rotten phlegm and wonderfully helps any old strong cough, to those that are troubled with shortness of breath.
The root cleanseth the skin from all black and blue spots, freckles, morphew, leprosy, foul scars or other deformity.
The root bruised and applied to any place where bones are broken helpeth to draw them forth, also splinters and thorns in the flesh. Where Bryony must be taken inwardly it purges very violently and needs an abler hand to correct it 'than most country people have. Therefore it is better for them to leave the simple alone and instead take the compound water of it.
Modern uses: Tincture of Bryonia dioica is used by some professional herbalists. It is not recommended for self-medication purposes. In small doses of a few drops it is considered useful in chest complaints, rheumatisrn and gout. It has similar applications in homoeopathic medicine, being employed in bronchitis, sciatica and arthritis. Dosage is critical. Large doses provoke menstruation. It should not be taken in pregnancy.

BUCKTHORN     RHAMNUS CATHARTICUS
The herb bruised and applied to warts will make them consume and waste away in a short time.
The botanical name catharticus gives an indication of its laxative or purging properties. Buckthorn is also known as Hart's-horn or the Purging Buckthorn. It grows to about six feet (1.8m) high with straggling branches trailing here and there on the ground. The leaves are small and jagged and the whitish flowers grow in small clusters. The berries are black.
Where to find it: On dry, barren and sandy soils.
Flowering time: Late spring, early summer.  
Astrology: Under the dominion of Saturn.
Medicinal virtues: The leaves bruised and applied to a wound will stop the bleeding. The bruised herb is applied to warts to consume them.
Modern uses: The juice of the berries is used to make Buckthorn syrup, a powerful laxative. This medicine was official until 1867 but has fallen into disuse because its action is so severe. It is still used as a laxative for animals. Purging is not a method employed by modern medical herbalists and this herb is not recommended for domestic use. However, a homeopathic medicine made from Rhamnus catharticus is available. Buckthorn can still be used as an ointment to treat warts. The ointment also relieves pruritus.  

BUGLE    AJUGA REPTANS
If the virtues of it make you fall in love with it (as they will if you be wise), keep a syrup of it to take inwardly and an ointment and plaister of it to use outwardly, always by you.
It is also called Middle Confound and Middle Comfrey, Brown Bugle and by some Sickle-wort and Herb-carpenter. The stalk is square and the leaves green or brownish and somewhat hairy. The plant, a perennial, grows about 18 inches (46 cm) high and bears bluish or ash-coloured flowers.
Where to find it: Woods, copses and in fields in damp shady areas.

Flowering time: From late spring until midsummer.
Astrology: This herb belongeth to Dame Venus.
Medicinal virtues: The decoction of the leaves and flowers made in wine and taken will dissolve congealed blood in those that are bruised inwardly by a fall. It is very effectual for any inward wounds, thrusts or stabs in the body or bowels, and wonderful for curing ulcers and sores, whether new and fresh, or old and inveterate. Gangrenes and fistulas are also cured if the leaves are bruised and applied, or the juice be used to wash and bathe the place. Made into a lotion with honey and Alum, it cur es all sores in the mouth and gums, and is no less powerful and effectual for ulcers and sores in the secret parts of men and women. Many times those that give themselves much to drinking are troubled with strange fancies, strange sights in the night or voices. There 1 have known cured by taking only two spoonfuls of the syrup of this herb two hours after supper on going to bed.
Modern uses: The whole herb is collected from late spring and dried. It has aromatic and astringent properties, and can be used for arresting internal haemorrhages. It is also regarded as mildly narcotic. An infusion made from i oz (28 g) of the dried herb to 1 Pt (568 rnl) of boiling water may be taken in doses of 2 fl oz (56 ml).

BUTTER-BUR
PETASITES HYBRIDUS (= TUSSILAGO HYBRIDA)
It were well if gentle women would keep this root preserved to help their poor neighbours. It is fit the rich should help the poor, for the poor cannot help themselves.
A perennial plant, Butter-bur has a long root that spreads underground, blackish on the outside, whitish within. The hollow stalk rises to about a foot (30 cm) high bearing flowers of bluish or deep red, according to the soil. The leaves appear on the plant after flowering.
Where to find it: By rivers and watersides and muddy soils.
Flowering time: Late winter, early spring. The leaves do not appear until mid spring.
Astrology: It is under the dominion of the Sun and, therefore, a great strengthener of the heart and cheerer of the vital spirits.
Medicinal virtues: The roots are used against the plague and pestilential fevers by provoking sweat. The powder taken in wine resisteth the force of any other poison. The decoction of the root in wine is singularly good for those that wheeze much, or are short-winded. It provokes the urine and women's courses and kill s flat and broad worms in the belly. The powdered root dries up the moisture of sores and takes away spots and blemishes of the skin.
Modern uses: The root is used as a heart tonic. It stimulates heart function and is diuretic. It is also used to treat asthmatics, calculi of the urinary tract and colds and fevers. It is prepared in the form of a decoction, 1 OZ (28 g) Of the root being boiled in 1 1/2 Pt (852 ml) of water down to 1 pt (568 ml), allowed to cool, strained and taken in doses of 2 fl oz (56 ml) three or four times a day. Homoeopaths use a tincture of the root for headaches, neuralgia and inflammation of the urethra.

BURDOCK ( Greater)    ARCTIUM LAPPA
By its leaf or seed you may draw the womb which way you please, either upward by applying it to the crown of the head in case it falls out; or downwards in fits of the mother, by applying it to the soles of the feet: or if you would stay it in its place, apply it to the navel, and that is one good way to stay the child in it.
A biennial, it grows to more than three feet (90 cm). It is well known to little boys who pull off the clinging seed vessels to throw at one another. It is also called Personata, Happy-major and Clot-bur.
Where to find it: Common by ditches, watersides and highways.

Flowering time: Early to midsummer.
Astrology. Venus challenges this herb for her own.
Medicinal virtues: The leaves are cooling and moderately drying and can be applied to old ulcers and sores, and also to places troubled with the shrinking in of the sinews or arteries. The root beaten with a little salt and laid on the place bitten by a snake, will suddenly easeth the pain. The juice of the leaves drunk with honey promotes the flow of urine and eases pain in the bladder. The seed macerated in wine for 4o days provides a wonderfully helpful medicine for sciatica.
Modern uses: Burdock is one of the finest blood purifiers in the herbal system of medicine., It is classified as an alterative, diuretic and diaphoretic. These properties make it of value in the treatment of boils, acne and eczema. It helps the kidneys to filter out impurities from the blood very quickly. The root is mainly used and administered as a decoction in doses o f 2 fl OZ (56 m l ) three or four times a day. The seeds, used alone as a decoction, have similar properties, but are particularly tonic to the kidneys. A homeopathic medicine made from Arctium lappa is also available.