others—‘blessed thistle’, ‘lady’s thistle’ and ‘speckled thistle’—are indicative
ofSilybum marianum,even though that is quite rare in Ireland and certainly
introduced. If that identification is correct, possibly the sole source of it for
herbal medicine was cottage gardens, in which case these records do not
rightly belong in this book. ‘Blessed thistle’ has also been used for loss of
appetite in Meath.^37 That name originally referred in learned medicine to
the southern European Cnicus benedictus Linnaeus, also known as ‘holy this-
tle’, which was recommended in herbals for colds. That could account for a
record from Cavan^38 of ‘holly thistle’ as a cure for those.
That leaves a residue of records which may belong to one or more of the
very common wild, purple-flowered thistles such as Cirsium arvense and C.
vulgare (Savi) Tenore. The ‘Scotch thistle’ or ‘bull thistle’ still employed for
kidney infection in Donegal^39 is presumably one of those. But the identity of
the species employed as a wound plant in Co. Dublin^40 and Limerick^41 is
quite uncertain, and the same applies to the one whose tops, mixed with plan-
tain and sorrel, have yielded a juice drunk for tuberculosis in Kildare.^42
Whatever their identity, records for true thistles thus seem to be Irish
almost exclusively. The sole exception is a thistle tea drunk in the Highlands
to dispel depression.^43
Serratula tinctoria Linnaeus
saw-wort
northern and central Europe, Siberia, Algeria; introduced into
North America
There is just one record, from Sussex, for Serratula tinctoria as a wound
plant.^44 The species is still locally frequent in that county and thus plentiful
enough to be utilised herbally.
Centaurea cyanus Linnaeus
cornflower, bluebottle
south-eastern Europe; introduced into the rest of Europe, south-
western Asia, North Africa, North America, Australasia
There is an apparently long-standing East Anglian tradition of collecting the
heads of the once common cornfield weedCentaurea cyanus,bruising and
distilling them in water, and dropping the liquid into the eyes, to cure them of
inflammation or merely clear those of the elderly enough to make wearing
glasses unnecessary (hence ‘break spectacles water’). There is a recipe to this
effect in a late seventeenth-century Suffolk household book which has sur-
vived in a Norwich church.^45 The practice is referred to rather grudgingly by
Daisies 283