Motherwort

A tall and pretty plant. It grows wild in farm-yards, and dry places. It is a yard high; the stalk is square, thick, and erect. The leaves stand on long foot-stalks, two at each joint. They are divided into three parts, and are much indented at the edges; colour, dark green, smell, bad; flowers, pale red; they grow in a kind of prickly cups.

There is no better herb for strengthening and gladdening the heart; therefore it is called cardiaca by the latins. It is exhilarating in travail, and therefore called motherwort. It may be made into a syrup, which, when taken, will allay inward tremors, faintings, etcetera. It is good against hysteric complaints, and especially for curing palpitation of the heart, arising from hysteric causes