270 Galium aparine
folk^20 ), the second of which in ‘some English country districts’ unspecified
has extended to drinking the juice mixed with wine as a remedy for the bites
of adders.^21 Single records only have been met with of applications to can-
cerous tumours (Devon^22 ), boils (Somerset^23 ), rheumatism (Essex^24 ) and
warts (South Riding of Yorkshire^25 ).
Ireland’s uses have been largely different but even more diverse. While
tumours have similarly been among those (Londonderry^26 and some part of
the country unspecified^27 ), unlike Britain it has produced records for burns
(Westmeath,^28 Wicklow^29 ), whooping cough (unlocalised^30 ), swellings
(Wicklow^31 ), inflammation of the bowels in children (Donegal^32 ), stomach-
ache (Limerick^33 ) and ‘softening the joints’ (Tipperary^34 ). Though this plant
has had a reputation in learned medicine as a diuretic, the sole hint of that
traced in the folk record is its mixing with crane’s-bill (Geranium sp.) in a
preparation drunk for kidney trouble in Kerry.^35
So lengthy a tail of miscellaneous uses with an apparently very restricted
distribution is normally characteristic of herbs with a much more salient
presence in the folk records. It may be that this species was once much more
prominent in that repertory but lost that place over the centuries to other
plants whose effectiveness was more readily apparent. An alternative expla-
nation could lie in its strictly seasonal character as a remedy, for it is effective
for healing only in the spring; other reputed cures would therefore have had
to be resorted to at other seasons.
Caprifoliaceae
Sambucus nigra Linnaeus
elder
Europe, western Asia, North Africa, Azores; introduced into
North America
Sambucus nigra rivals only docks, nettles and dandelions in prominence and
diversity of use as a folk herb. Some of that it may owe to its former magico-
religious status as a tree redolent of special powers, but it does also seem to
possess some genuine therapeutic effects.
Of the total of 159 records traced, just under half are accounted for by the
four leading uses. Much the commonest of these, with 32 records, is for colds
and respiratory troubles (the liquid from the boiled flowers induces sweating
and the berries are rich in vitamin C); but whereas that is found mostly in the
southern half of England, the 14 records for burns or scalds and the 12 for
swellings and inflammation are preponderantly Irish. The 16 for skin sores