rubbed on the part of the body affected. Frustrating in a different way is the
failure to specify in which part of Ireland the plant has been used for a sudden
stroke^128 or believed to have the yet further property of producing a copious
flow of the menses^129 (though that was presumably the basis for the practice
in Londonderry of giving rose noble to cows to help clear the afterbirth^130 ).
British use of this herb has been very slight by comparison and apparently
restricted to the leaves alone: for poulticing skin eruptions, abscesses or ulcers
in Devon^131 and wounds in Surrey—as testified by the name ‘cut finger leaves’
recorded for it there.^132 And it was presumably through its employment for
such purposes that the plant earned a name in Welsh that translates as ‘good
leaf ’.^133
Scrophularia auriculata Linnaeus
S. aquatica of authors
water figwort, water betony
western and southern Europe, north-western Africa, Azores;
introduced into New Zealand
Though in English counties as far apart as Sussex, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire
and Yorkshire^134 Scrophularia auriculatahas suggestively had the supposedly
all-healing betony as one of its local names, it seems doubtful whether it was
consistently distinguished for herbal purposes fromS. nodosa.InIreland, at
any rate, both have passed as ‘rose noble’,^135 and although in Cornwall^136 and
Devon^137 there is a long tradition of singling outS. auriculataas a dressing for
ulcers (and in Devon for cuts as well), ulcers are one of the ailments for which
S. nodosahas been recorded in use in that same corner of the country^138 —
though maybe uncritically. On the other hand it is expressly the leaves of
‘water bitney’ that have been sought out in Oxfordshire, a county in which
both species are present in quantity, for tying round festering fingers.^139 Inthe
Cambridgeshire Fens, again it was leaves of ‘water bitney’—‘from the river’—
that were used to poultice sore heels and chapped and gathered toes.^140 It
thus seems possible that in England, in contrast to Ireland, it wasS. auriculata
that on the whole was the primary recipient of folk attention.
Linaria vulgaris Miller
common toadflax
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North America, Australasia
Only two folk records ofLinaria vulgaris have been traced, both from south-
ern England: in Sussex it has served as a wart plant^141 and in Gloucestershire
it has been mixed with yarrow leaves in a poultice to ease pain, staunch bleed-
Plantains, Figworts, Foxglove and Speedwells 253