WINTER-GREEN.

Description:

Ganetharia Procumbeus. This plant is little known. It sends forth seven or eight leaves, from a small, brown, creeping root, upon a long foot-stalk. The leaves are hard, resembling the leaf of a Pear-tree. From them arises a slender, erect stalk, bearing at the top many small white smelling flowers, spread open like a star, with yellowish threads in the middle surrounding a green head. The seed is as small as dust. It grows in fields and woods, especially in the north. It flowers in July.

Herbal Remedies and Medicinal Uses of Wintergreen:

It is a good wound herb, the green leaves, or the juice of them being applied. A salve made of the green herb bruised, or the juice boiled with lard, or salad oil, and wax, with a little turpentine, is a sovereign salve. The Germans use it for all kinds of wounds and sores. A decoction of the herb relieves ulcers in the kidneys, or neck of the blad­der. As an astringent it arrests dysentery, immoderate courses, and bleeding of wounds. It is good for diseases of the heart.