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DOWN or COTTON- THISTLE ONOPORDUM ACANTHIUM Though it may hurt your finger, it will help your body. This has large leaves covered with a white cotton down and purplish flowers. The prickles are sharp and cruel. It has become known as the Scotch Thistle, although it is not the one depicted on the hadge.of the Stuart kings. Where to find it: Roadside, waste ground and fields. Flowering time. Midsummer to early autumn. Astrology: Mars owns the plant. Medicinal virtues: Pliny and Dioscorides say the leaves and roots taken in drink help those that have a crick in their neck, such that they cannot turn their neck without turning their whole body (surely they do not mean those that have a crick in their neck by being under the hangman's hand). Galen said the roots and leaves are of a healing quality and good for those that have their bodies drawn together by some spasm or convulsion, as it is with children that have rickets - or, as the College of Physicians will have it, rachites. It is the name of the disease they have set forth lately in a particular treatise for public view. The world may now see that they have taken much pains to little purpose. Modern uses: The juice has been used by some practitioners as an application for tumours and ulcers with some success, but there is insufficient evidence of its efficacy. The juice was, however, specific in ancient times for cancerous complaints. |