DARNEL

Wray in Sussex, and some call it Crop; it is an enemy among All the Winter, it has long, flat, and rough leaves, which when the stalk rises, which is slender and jointed, are narrower, but rough still; on the top grows a long spike, composed of many heads set one above another, containing two or three husks, with sharp short beards of awns at the end; the seed is easily shaken out of the ear, the husk itself being somewhat rough.

Herbal Remedies and Medicinal Uses of Darnel:

Darnel is a herb with many virtues. The meal of Darnel is very good to stay gangrenes and other eating cankers and putrid sores; it also cleanses the skin from ringworms and the like, if it be used with salt and Radish roots. And being. used with brimstone and vinegar, it dissolves knots andbein kernels, and especially if boiled in wine with linseed. A decoction made with water and honey, and the places bathed therewith is good for sciatica. Darnel meal applied in a poultice draws forth splinters and broken bones in the flesh. The red Darnel boiled in red wine, restrains all fluxes, and the immoderate discharge of urine.