‘with their feet in the water’) as recently as the 1940s for bathing rashes, sun-
burn and the like.^206
Plumbaginaceae
Armeria maritima (Miller) Willdenow
thrift, sea pink
northern hemisphere; introduced into New Zealand
Though Armeria maritima is a common plant round most of the coasts of the
British Isles, the only records of its use in folk medicine seem to be confined
to the Orkney Islands and to South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. In the former,
the thick, tuberous roots were sliced and boiled in sweet milk to produce a
drink known as ‘Arby’, highly prized up to c. 1700 as a remedy for tuberculo-
sis.^207 John Aubrey was also told by a medical correspondent that a cure for
the ague in Orkney included drinking an infusion in which this plant was
one of several herbal ingredients.^208 In South Uist, a sailor’s remedy for a
hangover was to boil a bunch of these plants complete with their roots and
drink the liquid slowly when cooled.^209 The roots at least evidently contain a
compound which induces heavy sweating.
Notes
100 Rumex palustris
- Threlkeld
- Purdon
- IFC S 530: 51, 121
- IFC S 811: 64
- IFC S 787: 368
- Mactaggart, 18
- Ó Súilleabháin, 312
- Maloney
- IFC S 850: 56
- IFC S 512: 445
- Beddington & Christy, 212
- Williams 1922, 275
- IFC S 787: 37
- IFC S 617: 333
- IFC S 484: 41–2
- Quelch, 99
- Moore MS; Logan, 38
- Vickery MSS (Co. Durham)
- Pennant 1784, ii, 155
- Paton, 46
- Mactaggart, 217
- Lightfoot, ii, 614; Vickery 1995
- Johnson 1862
- Goodrich-Freer, 206; Shaw, 50;
Henderson & Dickson, 80; McNeill
25.Independent,5 Aug. 1994 - Pennant 1784, ii, 155
- Freethy, 125
- McGlinchey, 84
- IFC S 171: 46
- IFC S 771: 151
- Palmer 1994, 122
- IFC S 689: 103
- IFC S 157: 314
- IFC S 571: 239
- IFC S 710: 48
- McGlinchey, 84
- Farrelly MS
- IFC S 850: 166
- IFC S 811: 65