ferentiation may well have come about, though, merely through the fact that
S. aquaticushas the more succulent basal leaves, making it more suitable for
poultices (as observed on Clare Island, off the Galway coast).^343 Moreusu-
ally, rather than distinguishing between these two species, the folk tendency
has been to make a distinction between plants with flowers on the one hand
and plants displaying just a leaf rosette on the other. In the west of Ireland and
the Hebrides one of these was considered to be ‘male’ ragwort and the other
‘female’—but accounts differ as to which was which. In Skye, the ‘female’ kind
was the one selected for healing women’s breasts when swollen,^344 in keeping
with that folk belief, so often recorded elsewhere, that many herbs exist as gen-
der pairs and cure effectively only if applied to the ills of the appropriate sex.
Those who subscribe to the belief that many of the practices of folk med-
icine were given direction by plant characters supposed to reveal the plant’s
utility through their form (the Doctrine of Signatures) may consider that
ragwort with its yellow flowers has been used more for jaundice than for any-
thing else lends support to that. If so, however, it is hard to see why the records
traced for that use should be from Ireland only: ‘Ulster’,^345 Cavan,^346 Sligo,^347
Leitrim,^348 Westmeath,^349 Meath,^350 Mayo,^351 Wicklow,^352 Limerick^353 and
Tipperary.^354
Less widespread but apparently more frequent locally is ragwort’s popu-
larity for colds, coughs and especially sore throats (Cavan,^355 Sligo,^356
Meath,^357 Clare,^358 Limerick^359 ). Use for cuts, sores and inflammation of var-
ious kinds matches that but with a more southerly distribution (Mayo,^360
Wicklow,^361 We x f o r d ,^362 Wa t e rford,^363 Tipperary^364 ); application to burns or
scalds (Sligo,^365 Westmeath^366 ) could be regarded as a special subcategory of
that, however, as could the poulticing of boils or abscesses (Fermanagh,^367
Cavan^368 ).
Ragwort has also been valued, but less widely, for rheumatic complaints
(Ulster,^369 Clare,^370 Limerick^371 ) and for sprains or swollen joints (‘Ulster’,^372
Cavan,^373 Wicklow,^374 Kilkenny^375 ). Dropsy (in Cavan^376 ), measles (in
Sligo^377 ), bowel hives in children (in Antrim^378 ), warts and nettle stings (in
Limerick^379 ) are further ailments for which it has had devotees, too.
The curiously rare records from Britain seem to be limited to Scotland
apart from a solitary one of rheumatism treatment from Hampshire.^380 In
the Inner Hebrides, as in Skye^381 and Colonsay,^382 the first year’s growth or a
barren form of the plant was at one time cut into pieces, mixed with butter
and (sometimes with other herbs) applied as a warm plaster to bring a boil to
a head and ‘draw’ it quickly and without pain. In the Hebrides there has also
Daisies 307