Comfrey, Vervain and Mints 221are very widely spread but especially frequent from the ‘Celtic’ west. A natural
follow-on from the reputation for clearing the head has been to bring that
property to bear on deafness (reported from Lincolnshire^142 ) and, of course,
headaches, too. The method of administering it for the latter is not mentioned
in the one unlocalised Irish record,^143 but in the case of a seventeenth-century
one from Staffordshire the juice was put up the nostrils,^144 while in the High-
lands the dried leaves have been made into a snuff.^145 Predictably, the eyes
have been seen to benefit, too. The deriving of an eye lotion from the plant evi-
dently goes back a very long way, for it features among the recipes of the physi-
cians of Myddvai in thirteenth-century Carmarthenshire; more recent
records come from Dorset^146 and Warwickshire.^147
Ground-ivy’s more broadly cleansing action has caused its second most
widespread use, as a purifying tonic. Whereas its records as a cold cure show
a preponderantly ‘Celtic’ distribution, by contrast they come noticeably much
more from the southern half of England: Devon,^148 Dorset,^149 Wiltshire,^150
Berkshire and Oxfordshire,^151 Kent^152 and Warwickshire.^153 In this last area,
the plant was boiled with the young shoots of nettles to produce a very bitter
drink known as ‘gill tea’, which children were made to drink on nine succes-
sive days every spring. Like other purifying herbs, this one has been credited,
too, with clearing up skin complaints of a variety of kinds—in Devon^154 and
Gloucestershire^155 as far as Britain is concerned.
The plant further enjoyed a reputation, if a more minor one, for healing
externally. In Cornwall, wounds and lesser cuts have been bound with its
fresh leaves, a secondary function of which has been to draw out thorns and
splinters.^156 It has been valued for wounds in Caernarvonshire,^157 too, and for
adder bites in the Highlands.^158 And no doubt its claimed success with lard as
an ointment for corns in Suffolk^159 belongs in this category, too.
Ireland’s share of these lesser uses extends from clearing up skin com-
plaints (Westmeath,^160 Limerick,^161 Cork^162 ), flushing out the kidneys (Kil-
kenny,^163 Tipperary^164 ), stimulating menstruation in cases of chlorosis
(‘Ulster’^165 ), healing sores and blisters (Louth^166 ) and making ulcers disap-
pear (Westmeath,^167 We x f o r d^168 ).
Prunella vulgaris Linnaeus
self-heal;ceannbhan beg, heart’s-ease (Ireland)
Europe, temperate Asia, North Africa; introduced into North
America, Australasia
An Irish herbpar excellence—despite being common over most of the British