worth anything, if setwall were not at one end: whereupon some
woman poet or other hath made these verses:
They that will have their heale
Must put setwall in their keale.It is used in slight cuts, wounds, and small hurts.
Valeriana pyrenaica lingers on as a naturalised plant in northern country
areas, and it seems likely that following its introduction into the British Isles
it partly displaced V.o fficinalis as a wound plant.
One or two minor uses ofValeriana officinalis have been recorded in
Britain in addition: for indigestion in Skye and South Uist in the Inner
Hebrides^98 and for barrenness in the Highlands.^99 Though said to have been
held in high repute in Wales at one time for its healing as well as magical
powers,^100 no more specific Welsh records have been traced. Maybe that was
one of ‘the countries of this land’ that Parkinson had in mind in reporting
that this plant was generally called ‘the poor man’s remedy’; a decoction of its
root drunk if cold after sweating, troubled with colic or wind or ‘otherwise
distempered’, or its leaves bruised and applied to a cut or to draw out a thorn
or splinter.^101
Irish records are far fewer and have been traced only from the north: in
Donegal^102 and Londonderry^103 for cleansing the system and in London-
derry as a wound plant—both as in Britain—but in Cavan^104 for such unre-
lated purposes as sore eyes, liver trouble and tuberculosis.
Dipsacaceae
Dipsacus fullonum Linnaeus
wild teasel
Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa, Canary Islands
According to a deep-seated folk belief going back at least to Pliny the Elder,
the rain-water or dew collecting in the natural cup between the connate leaves
ofDipsacus fullonum (known as the ‘bath of Venus’ or the ‘lip of Venus’) had
certain healing properties. Sundew and lady’s-mantle, similarly endowed
with droplets of moisture of mysterious origin, were treated with special
respect for much the same reason. Teasel’s version of ‘holy water’ was thought
particularly beneficial when used as an eye lotion (Somerset,^105 Sussex,^106
Denbighshire^107 ) but it is also recorded as used in Wales for ridding the com-
plexion of freckles.^108
Bedstraws, Valerian and Scabious 275