Lythrum salicaria,took its place?) but the treatment of wounds may never
have been one of its functions in the British Isles folk repertory in its pristine
state. In Cavan,^150 where herbal uses are known with particular complete-
ness, only heart trouble, stomach upsets and kidney problems feature in the
records. Stomach upsets are the function of the plant in Cork,^151 too. In
Louth, on the other hand, its leaves have been boiled as a remedy for colds,^152
and it may be because that use extended to pulmonary tuberculosis that an
infusion was drunk in Londonderry for the spitting of blood.^153 In other
parts of Ulster, though, its reputation, and that a well-known one, was merely
for curing flatulence.^154
Bellis perennis Linnaeus
daisy
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America, Australasia
Considering its near-ubiquity, it is striking that Bellis perennis has featured as
a folk herb only to a limited extent. Though William Turner knew it in his
native Northumberland as ‘banwort’, ‘because it helpeth bones to knyt
againe’^155 (a statement repeated by Caleb Threlkeld who, though raised in
Cumberland, was probably merely parroting Turner), no further mention of
that use has been discovered. Instead, as far as Britain is concerned, its func-
tions subsequently seem to have been limited to serving as an ointment—
either alone or combined with other herbs—for burns (Hampshire^156 ) or
cuts and bruises (the Highlands and Western Isles^157 ), or as an infusion made
from the flower-heads drunk for coughs and colds (Wiltshire^158 ) or eye trou-
bles (the Highlands^159 ). But simply eating the flower-heads, for curing boils
(Devon,^160 Dorset^161 ) or toothache (Cumbria^162 ), sounds like a procedure
based on magic rather than on any supposed chemical influence: two of them
sufficed for toothache, but at least in Dorset seven or nine, those magic-laden
numbers, were required to heal a boil and had to be picked from plants grow-
ing close enough to be covered with one foot.
The plant is also on record in Ireland as an ointment for burns and as an
eye lotion but in both cases much more widely: from at least six counties,
but entirely different ones in the case of each and with no apparent geo-
graphical patterns. As a cure for coughs and colds, however, records have
been noted only from Cavan^163 and Mayo,^164 though it has been used in
Roscommon^165 for headaches. A treatment for boils is known from Wexford
but of a down-to-earth kind, involving boiling pieces with soap and sugar in
a tin until the mixture turns black.^166 Cavan similarly appears to have been
294 Solidago virgaurea