190 Angelica sylvestris
the wild plant are surprisingly few, yet surprisingly various: for lung and chest
complaints in Londonderry,^119 for rheumatism^120 and corns^121 in Norfolk
and as a spring tonic (under the name ‘horse pepper’) in Suffolk.^122 But was
it really so neglected in the north and west or has its presence in the records
from there lay hidden behind unidentified names?
Peucedanum ostruthium (Linnaeus) Koch
masterwort
central and southern Europe; introduced into temperate regions
(Folk credentials questionable) Though undoubtedly a relic of deliberate
introduction (from southern Europe),Peucedanum ostruthium has been
around so long—its seeds have been detected in a rath in an excavated ring-
fort in Antrim dated about ..850–950—and under the name felon-grass
it has achieved such a wide presence in hill farms, more especially in the Pen-
nines, that it should not pass entirely without notice. Mainly a veterinary
herb, its bitter acrid juice has been prized by country people in Kent (?) for
toothache.^123 In the Isle of Man it shared with ribwort plantain (Plantago
lanceolata) the name slan lus,‘healing plant’.^124
Heracleum sphondylium Linnaeus
hogweed
Europe, western and northern Asia, north-western Africa; introduced
into North America, New Zealand
Though often called ‘wild parsnip’ (a name shared with elecampane,Inula
helenium,and restricted by botanists to Pastinaca sativa Linnaeus) and, more
vaguely, ‘hemlock’,Heracleum sphondylium can safely be accepted as correctly
identified in the folk records by virtue of bearing a name special to itself both
in Irish Gaelic and Manx. In the Isle of Man, where it is common (at any rate
today), the seeds and roots have been boiled and the liquid drunk for jaundice
and other liver troubles.^125 In Norfolk, on the other hand, hogweed juice has
featured as a wart cure,^126 while in Mull, in the Inner Hebrides, James Robert-
son in 1768 found the tender shoots, stripped of their outer skin, enjoyed a
reputation as a digestive.^127
That this is the ‘wild hemlock’ whose pollen has been used in Essex^128 like
puffball spores to staunch cuts slow to stop bleeding is seemingly confirmed
by a record of that same use in Tipperary (under the plant’s Gaelic name).^129
The only other Irish record traced, however, is a vague one from Westmeath:
the drinking of a preparation of the plant for some unidentified sickness.^130