280

8

CHAPTER 15 Daisies

Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the order Asterales and family Asteraceae
(thistles, daisies and the like) are included in this chapter.

Asteraceae

Carlina vulgaris Linnaeus
carline thistle
Europe, Asia Minor, Siberia; introduced into North America
In Limerick a preparation from Carlina vulgaris has been rubbed into the
skin for a disease described as spreading over the body.^1

Arctium Linnaeus
burdock, cockle; crádán (Ireland);meac-an-dogh(Highlands and
Western Isles);bollan-dhoo(Manx)
Europe, Caucasus, North Africa; introduced into North America,
Australasia
Arctium is another example of a well-known and widely popular herb—
strictly speaking herbs, for more than one species is involved—with one prin-
cipal use and an impressive diversity of other subsidiary ones as well. That
principal one, mainly via a decoction of the roots, has been and still is as a
forceful cleanser of the system and consequent eliminator of boils and skin
complaints. In that it resembles sarsaparilla, the tropical drug to which bur-
dock was even rated superior by some eighteenth-century physicians, accord-
ing to William Withering. Unexpectedly, though—if the records traced accu-
rately reflect its distribution—that use has been restricted in Britain just to
extreme south-western England (Cornwall,^2 Devon^3 ) and parts of Scotland