Legumes, Spurges and Geraniums 169medicinal use.Buxus sempervirens has been grown so widely as an orna-
mental, though, that the leaves in the case of the only folk records traced, for
ridding the body of worms (human bodies in Suffolk,^116 horses’ in Dorset^117 )
are likely to have been taken from bushes ready to hand, for which reason
this cannot be classed on present evidence as a wild herb.
Euphorbiaceae
Mercurialis perennis Linnaeus
dog’s mercury
Europe, south-western Asia, Algeria
Records ofMercurialis perennis in the folk medicine lit-
erature must mainly belong to good-King-Henry
(Chenopodium bonus-henricus Linnaeus), a for-
merly widely grown vegetable which was com-
monly known as ‘mercury’ at one time. Dog’s
mercury is highly acrid and for that reason
unlikely to have been used for the healing pur-
poses specified. If the botanist John Light-
foot was correctly informed, however,
it was the species that the inhabi-
tants of Skye took to induce saliva-
tion, under the name lus-glen-
Bracadale.^118 Though very local on
that island today, the ease and per-
sistence with which the plant spreads
tend to make for abundance wherever it
occurs and it could thus have been present in
sufficient quantity to be used herbally. Good-
King-Henry, moreover, is not on record from
Skye. It is nevertheless possible that dog’s mer-
cury was used there in all innocence in error
for its harmless namesake.
Euphorbia helioscopia Linnaeus
sun spurge, wartweed
Europe, central Asia, North Africa;
introduced into North America,
Australasia
Euphorbia helioscopia,
sun spurge (Fuchs
1543, fig. 465)