Little Celandine

The greater and the lesser celandine are two different plants. They agree in nothing, except they have yellow flowers. The great celandine is much like the poppy; and the lesser celandine resembles the crow-foot. Their virtues also differ. It is surprising the old herbalists did not make a distinction.

Chelidonium minus. It is also known by the name of pilewort and fogwort. Celandine, or pilewort spreads many round pale green leaves, set on weak and trailing branches, which lie upon the ground, and are flat, smooth and somewhat shining, and in some places marked with black spots, each standing on a long footstalk.

The flowers, which are yellow, rise singly from the root, on long, slender, and naked stalks, consisting of nine or ten small narrow leaves, very like crowsfoot. The seed also is not unlike, being many small kernels like a grain of corn, of a whitish colour, with fibres at the end of them. It grows mostly in moist corners of fields, and near water sides; yet it will grow in drier ground if it is a little shady. It flowers about march or april, is quite gone by may.

If you dig up the root of it, you will perceive the perfect image of the disease commonly called the piles. Experience proves that the decoction of the leaves and roots is a wonderful remedy for the piles and hemorrhoids, the king's evil, or any other hard wens or tumours.

Pilewort made into an oil, ointment or plaister, has the same effect in curing the piles, or hemorrhoids, and the king's evil. The herb borne about one's body next the skin, helps in such diseases, though it never touches the affected place. With this i cured my own daughter of the king's evil, broke the sore, drew out a quarter of a pint of corruption, and cured without any scar at all in one week's time.