GERMANDER.

Description:

Teucrion, vel, Chamcedrys.—This celebrated plant is cultivated chiefly for medical purposes. It has several stalks with small round leaves dented at the edges. The flowers stand at the tops, of a deep purple colour. It is cultivated in gardens. It flowers in June and July.

Herbal Remedies and Medicinal Uses of Germander:

Germander

It strengthens the brain and apprehension exceedingly when weak, and relieves them when drooping. Taken with honey (says Dioscorides) it is a remedy for coughs, hardness of the spleen, and difficulty of urine, and gives relief to dropsy, especially at the beginning of the disease, a decoction being made of the green herb. Used with honey it cleanses old ulcers; and made into an oil, and the eyes anointed therewith, it removes dimness and moisture.

It is likewise good for pains in the sides and for cramps. The decoction taken for four days together, cures both tertian and quartan agues. It is also good against all diseases of the brain, as continual headache, falling-sickness, melancholy, drowsiness, lowness of spirits, convulsions, and palsies.

A drachm of the seed taken in powder, is good against the yellow jaundice as it promotes urine. The juice of the leaves dropped into the ears, kills worms in them. The tops when in flower, steeped twenty- four hours in white wine, destroy worms.