menstruation.^133 Smelling powerfully like garlic, it was also used ‘by the peas-
antry’ as a vermicide, according to a later source.^134 In both cases, though, it
is left ambiguous whether it was specifically Cambridgeshire that was referred
to.No other mentions of the plant have been traced in the folklore literature
of Britain.
Ajuga reptans Linnaeus
bugle
Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa; introduced into North
America, New Zealand
There is one British record, from Sussex,^135 of the ostensibly folk use ofAjuga
reptans for wounds, a purpose for which it was anciently valued on account
of its considerable astringency.
Two Irish records add support to that. In the early nineteenth century,
country people in Londonderry are said to have applied the juice to bruises
as those were at the stage of turning black.^136 And in Sligo—if, as seems likely,
glas-na-coille was a mishearing ofglasnair choille (the name in Irish)—it sup-
plied till much later a cure for whitlows reckoned infallible.^137
Nepeta cataria Linnaeus
cat-mint
Europe, western and central Asia; introduced into North America,
South Africa
(Confusion suspected) A herb boiled in Meath to drive out a cold by induc-
ing sweating has been recorded as Nepeta cataria^138 ;however, no other men-
tion of the species in the folklore literature has been traced, and as it is a rar-
ish plant in Ireland and not accepted as indigenous there, there must be an
element of doubt. Possibly it was a mishearing of ‘calamint’ (Clinopodium
ascendens), another herb used for colds and said to have been formerly drunk
as a tea in parts of Ireland.^139
Glechoma hederacea Linnaeus
ground-ivy, robin-run-in-the-hedge
Europe, north and western Asia; introduced into North America,
New Zealand
‘Women of our northern parts, especially about Wales and Cheshire’, wrote
John Gerard in hisHerball,^140 put pieces ofGlechoma hederaceain their ale to
clear the head of ‘rheumatic humour flowing from the brain’—hence its
names of ‘ale-hoof ’ or ‘tun-hoof ’. By the time John Ray wrote, nearly a century
Comfrey, Vervain and Mints 219