Plantains, Figworts, Foxglove and Speedwells 259ers for sore nipples is an assertion based merely on a translation of a Gaelic
name identified with this species.^205
Ver onica chamaedrys Linnaeus
germander speedwell, cat’s-eye,
bird’s-eye
Europe, northern and western Asia;
introduced into North America,
New Zealand
Ver onica chamaedrys has been so particu-
larly mentioned in the folk records as a remedy
for two ailments almost exclusively that it seems
safe to assume that ‘speedwell’ is intended for this
in instances where just that name is given in either of
those connections.
One of those ailments is tired or strained eyes. The
records traced of the use of a lotion for that are all from the
southern half of England: Cornwall,^206 Somerset,^207 Suf-
folk^208 and Norfolk.^209 In some areas, this use was appar-
ently so deeply entrenched that the plant was known as
‘eyebright’,^210 a name normally borne by Euphrasia species
(with which speedwell was combined in the decoction
recorded from Somerset^211 ).
In sharp contrast, the records of use for the other ailment,
jaundice, are Irish exclusively: Cavan,^212 Longford,^213
Offaly,^214 Wicklow,^215 Tipperary,^216 Limerick^217 and Kerry^218
—mostly around the fringes of the central plain. The leaves
and stems in these cases were boiled and the resulting liquid
drunk, with milk and sugar sometimes added. According to
one Kerry informant, after drinking this twice daily the jaun-
dice will disappear after the ninth day; but if the yellow
colour of the skin turns to black, the
cure has no effect.^219
If this was ‘cat-eye’, the plant
has performed the further ser-
vice in Limerick, pounded and
boiled in milk, of healing the
‘falling sickness’, i.e. epilepsy.^220
Veronica chamaedrys,
germander speedwell
(Fuchs 1543, fig. 501)