poured into both nostrils, producing a copious flow of mucus and saliva
which often effected a cure.^117 Alternatively, as in Orkney,^118 the liquid itself
was snorted up the nose. For toothache in Argyllshire, on the other hand, the
rhizome itself was chopped up and chewed^119 —a practice frowned on in
Orkney, where it was held to cause stammering^120 —but elsewhere (as also in
Ireland) a piece was kept against the particular tooth affected.
None of these applications appears to be on record from southern Britain.
Instead, it has been for kidney trouble that the plant has been valued in Cardi-
ganshire,^121 while in Sussex it has featured in a list of wound plants,^122 and in
Kent (?) an ointment made from the flowers served as a popular village cos-
metic in the early nineteenth century.^123
The Irish, however, have shared to some extent (Wicklow,^124 Galway,^125
Kerr y^126 ) that Scots faith in the plant’s effectiveness against toothache and
have also used it for mumps (Meath,^127 Offaly^128 ). Apparently unique,
though, is a record from the area just south of western Ulster of the inclusion
of these yellow flowers in a mixture taken there for jaundice.^129
Iris foetidissima Linnaeus
stinking iris, gladdon, gladwin
western and central Europe, North Africa; introduced into
North America, New Zealand
Popular as a purge since Anglo-Saxon times,Iris foetidissima was still in use
for that purpose in England as late as the early nineteenth century. William
Turner found that in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset it was locally known as
‘spurgewort’ for that reason^130 ;John Gerard knew it only as a Somerset rem-
edy,^131 but by the time of John Parkinson it was described as a herb of ‘many
of our country people in many places’.^132 Those who found the traditional
decoction of the sliced rhizome acted too violently drank instead an infu-
sion of the bitter leaves in ale. This latter method was in favour in the south
of England at the time when the last reports were published.^133 By the twen-
tieth century, however, the country folk of Somerset had apparently shifted to
using the rhizome only for cramp,^134 while in the Isle of Man the plant was
valued as a diuretic.^135
That purging tradition has seemingly been absent (or died out) from Ire-
land, where this plant is much scarcer and not considered native. Instead, in
‘several parts’ of that country in the nineteenth century, ‘gladum’ or ‘glading
root’ was esteemed for dropsy (as in Tyrone^136 ) and for applying to fresh
wounds.^137 By the 1930s, however, the Irish country people talked of it mainly
if not solely as a treatment for mumps or a throat swollen from other causes.
332 Iris pseudacorus