mentioned the species now known asFilago vulgarisunder a different name,
others^128 have assumed he meant the latter nonetheless. Matters have not been
helped by the fact that John Gerard^129 chose to illustrate what he called ‘Eng-
lish cudweede’ with a figure of what is unambiguouslyG. sylvaticum—though
it is apparent from the text that he understood by ‘cudweed’ and ‘chaffweed’
various Filago and Gnaphalium species in just a vague, collective sense.^130
Fortunately, Matthias de l’Obel in 1576 was a model of clarity by com-
parison: his figure is undoubtedly Filago vulgaris,which he says the common
people in the west of England pound, steep in oil and boil for use on spots,
bruises, cuts and lacerations.^131 By the west of England he doubtless meant
the neighbourhood of Bristol, where he practised medicine on first arriving
as an immigrant, and Gnaphalium sylvaticum is much too scarce in that part
of the country to have served as a herbal source.
Though the use of the plant appears to have died out in England a century
or so after de l’Obel wrote (John Parkinson in 1640 merely paraphrases his
words),Filago vulgaris has borne a name in Manx,lus ny croshey,which has
been interpreted as implying a herbal application of some (unknown)
kind.^132 At the same time ‘cudweed’ can be short for the American cudweed
or pearly everlasting,Anaphalis margaritacea,a garden plant which is on
record as smoked like tobacco for a cough or headache in Suffolk.^133 This
was probably the ‘cudweed’ reported from Wexford in the 1930s as a whoop-
ing-cough cure.^134
Antennaria dioica (Linnaeus) Gaertner
mountain everlasting, cat’s-ear, cat’s-foot
northern and central Europe, northern and western Asia,
North America
‘A plant that grows wild named cat’s-ear’ when chewed and mixed with cob-
webs has been used in Clare for staunching bleeding from cuts.^135 Anten-
naria dioica has a reputation as astringent and styptic, and happens to occur
particularly frequently in the calcareous turf of the Burren for which that
county is botanically renowned.
Inula helenium Linnaeus
elecampane, wild parsnip, horseheal, scabwort
central Asia; introduced into Europe, western Asia, Japan, North
America, New Zealand
Inula helenium falls into the same category as greater celandine (Chelido-
nium majus): an ancient herb largely fallen into disuse but lingering on stub-
Daisies 291