erick^105 (for easing sore throats) is anything to go by. Yet raspberries certainly
grow wild in Ireland quite widely and are accepted as native in at least upland
areas there.
Rubus fruticosus Linnaeus, in the aggregate sense
blackberry, bramble; briar (in Ireland)
Europe, North Africa, Macaronesia, North America; introduced
into Australasia
The leaves (or roots) ofRubus fruticosus have enjoyed the same reputation as
that of raspberry and black currant for an astringency that has made them
valuable against diarrhoea (Devon,^106 Essex,^107 Fife^108 ) and coughs, colds, sore
throats or asthma (Devon,^109 Somerset,^110 Hertfordshire,^111 Lincolnshire,^112
southern Yorkshire,^113 the Highlands^114 ). Also prominent, but apparently
almost exclusive to the south-west of England, has been their application to
skin disorders in the widest sense, from shingles (Cornwall,^115 Devon^116 ) and
boils (Cornwall^117 ) to spots and sores on the face (Dorset^118 ) and burns and
scalds (Cornwall,^119 Wiltshire,^120 Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides^121 ). In the
Chiltern Hills^122 and East Anglia,^123 cancers have been treated with a black-
berry poultice. In Sussex a thorn in the finger was drawn out by moistening
a leaf and leaving it on as a plaster for an hour or two,^124 in Devon an infusion
of the leaves is still in currency as a tonic,^125 in Dorset chewing the tip of a
shoot has been reputed an excellent cure for heartburn,^126 while in the Isle of
Man the boiled leaves have soothed sore eyes.^127
In Ireland much the most widespread use of the blackberry has been for
staunching diarrhoea (and for that in cattle, too). All the other applications
feature in the records only marginally by comparison: for cuts in Offaly^128
and Louth,^129 as a tonic in Limerick^130 and Cork,^131 for ulcers in Limerick,^132
burns in Louth,^133 kidney trouble in Kerry,^134 swellings in Wicklow,^135 indi-
gestion in Carlow^136 and sore, swollen or sweaty feet in Leitrim.^137
Potentilla anserina Linnaeus
Argentina anserina (Linnaeus) Rydberg
silverweed, goosegrass, wild tansy
northern half of Eurasia, North and South America, Australia
Of the few recorded uses of the mild ‘astringent’,Potentilla anserina,two are
of interest for their lengthy continuity. One was as a cosmetic by young
women, to cleanse the skin of spots, pimples, freckles or suntan—observed in
an unstated part of England (probably the Bristol area) by the foreign bota-
nists Pierre Pena and Matthias de l’Obel in the sixteenth century^138 and still
142 Rubus idaeus