Campion Wild

The red wild campion differs in its leaves which are not so plainly ribbed, but shorter, rounder, and more woolly in handaling. The flowers are of the same form and size, in some of a pale, in others of a bright red colour. They flower in summer, some earlier than others.

The decoction of the herb, either in white or red wine stops inward bleedings; applied outwardly, it has the same effect. It is an excellent diuretic, removing stone, and obstructions in the kidneys. Two of the seed drunk in wine, purges the body of choleric humours. It is good for old sores, ulcers, fistulas, to cleanse and heal them, and preventing putrefaction.

The common english campion is the only kind used in medicine. The wild white campion has many long and rather broad dark green leaves lying upon the ground, somewhat like plantain, and hairy; broader, and not so long; the hairy stalks rise up in the middle two or three feet high, with great white joints, all which bear on several foot stalks white flowers at the top, consisting of five broad-pointed leaves, each cut in on the end unto the middle, making them seem to be two a-piece, and each of them standing in a large green striped hairy bush, large and round below next the stalk. The seed is small and grayish in the hard heads that come up afterwards.