103
CHAPTER 7 St John’s-worts to Primulas
Dicotyledonous flowering plants in the orders (and families) Theales (Clusi-
aceae, St John’s-worts), Malvales (Tiliaceae, lime trees; Malvaceae, mallows),
Nepenthales (Droseraceae, sundews), Violales (Cistaceae, rock-roses; Viola-
ceae, violets; Cucurbitaceae, squashes), Salicales (Salicaceae, willows and
poplars), Capparales (Brassicaceae, cresses), Ericales (Empetraceae, crow-
berries; Ericaceae, heaths) and Primulales (Primulaceae, primroses) are
included in this chapter.
Clusiaceae
Hypericum androsaemum Linnaeus
tutsan
western and southern Europe, south-western Asia, North Africa;
introduced into New Zealand
Medieval herbalists identified Hypericum androsaemum with the agnus cas-
tus of Pliny and it acquired its French-derived vernacular name tutsan (tout-
saine,‘all-heal’) in tribute to its supposed medicinal virtues. It is therefore
hard to be sure whether its few appearances in the folk repertory are alto-
gether innocent of that reputation in learned physic. In Buckinghamshire
the pounded leaves were mixed with lard to produce an ointment for dress-
ing cuts and wounds,^1 but in northern Wales, in both Merionethshire and
Denbighshire, the plant’s name in Welsh betrays that it was once a remedy for
carbuncles.^2
The lard ointment also features in the Irish records, from parts of Ulster^3
(including Londonderry^4 ) and from Leitrim.^5 In the latter the plant went