Ladies' Bed Straw

It is also called cheese rennet, because it performs the same office as rennet; maid hair, and wild rosemary. Galium verum. It grows in meadows and pastures, and by hedges. It rises up with small, brown, and square upright stalks, two or three feet high; sometimes it branches forth into divers parts, full of joints, with several very small leaves at every one of them. At the tops of the branches grow very thickly many yellow flowers from the several joints, which consist of four leaves each, which smell strong, but not unpleasant. The seed resembles poppy seeds. The root is reddish, having many small fibres. The branches bend to the ground, and take root at the joints, by which it is increased.

There is another kind which bears white flowers; but the branches of this are so weak, that, unless supported by the hedge, etcetera. It lies on the ground. The leaves are larger than the former, but the flowers are not so numerous.

This herb possesses very great virtues. It is a popular remedy for hysterical complaints and epilepsy, and has been given in inflammations of the brain, as an infusion, made by pouring 11 pints of boiling water on 2 of the herb, taking a wineglassful several times a day. The decoction is good to dissolve stone, to provoke urine, to stop inward bleeding and bleeding at the nose, and to heal inward wounds. The herb and its flowers made into an ointment, by boiling with salad oil, and adding a little wax, then straining, is a remedy for burns and scalds, and especially for scrofulous sores. The decoction of the herb and flowers refreshes the feet after long walking. The ointment removes the dry scab and itch.