Withering’s son, women ‘of the poorer class’ used to drink large amounts of
foxglove tea as a cheap form of intoxication.^172
A herb so patently poisonous has predictably been deployed against pests
as well. In the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire the practice has survived of
boiling the plant to produce a disinfectant wash for the walls of houses, to rid
them of insects and the like.^173
Ireland has shared about the same set of uses in varying degrees. While
the plant features in the records more widely there as a remedy for heart trou-
ble, apart from Sligo^174 and Cavan^175 the counties concerned form a notice-
able cluster along the eastern coast (Co. Dublin,^176 Wicklow,^177 We x f o r d^178 ),
possibly indicative of post-Withering intrusion by learned medicine. As one
general practitioner with an experience stretching back many years in the
region just south-west of the border never encountered any use for this pur-
pose at all,^179 it may be that those records from Sligo and Cavan are merely
recent intrusions, too. Even for use as a diuretic, the sole Irish record traced
is from ‘Ulster’ (unlocalised but probably one or more rural areas^180 ), which
is one further reason for considering the knowledge of, or at any rate valuing,
of these particular actions of the plants to be of no great age in this country.
In Ireland, too, as in Britain, the foxglove has failed to make headway
against alternative remedies for tuberculosis (the sole record traced of use
for that is a Limerick one^181 ), and it is either as an all-purpose salve or as a
cough cure that it seems to have featured almost exclusively. In the first of
those roles it has been applied to skin complaints in Donegal^182 and Limer-
ick,^183 wounds in Cork,^184 lumps and swellings in Carlow^185 and Wexford,^186
sprains in Kilkenny,^187 burns in Limerick,^188 old ulcers in Londonderry^189
and festering stone-bruises in Donegal.^190 In the second role, as a tea, the
plant has outdone Britain, with records from twice as many counties (Mon-
aghan,^191 Mayo,^192 Limerick,^193 We x f o r d^194 ). But only Limerick, once again,
has produced an instance of its use as a repellent: pieces of foxglove were
there at one time strewn around to kill rats and mice.^195
Ver onica serpyllifolia Linnaeus
thyme-leaved speedwell
Europe, temperate Asia, North Africa, Macaronesia; introduced into
North and South America, New Zealand
(Misidentification suspected) According to one far from reliable source,^196
Ver onica serpyllifolia is the herb known in Gaelic as luibh a treatha and the
classic Irish remedy for whooping cough. Confusion with the similarly small-
leaved V.o fficinalis seems probable.
Plantains, Figworts, Foxglove and Speedwells 257