Daisies 285ever, be the ‘horse knaps’ that has found favour for rheumatism in Furness.^61
Peculiar to Essex, apparently, is an infusion drunk as a digestive.^62 In the Isle
of Man the one-time name lus-y-cramman-dhoo hints at a medicinal use but
what that was has never been ascertained.^63
Lapsana communis Linnaeus
nipplewort
Europe, western and central Asia, North Africa; introduced into
North America, Australasia
Under Gaelic names translating as ‘good leaf ’ and ‘breast leaf ’,Lapsana com-
munis has had the special function in the Highlands of allaying the soreness
of the nipples of nursing mothers^64 (a function alleged to have been per-
formed in Ireland by heath speedwell,Ver onica officinalis^65 ). This may also
have been the purpose left undisclosed—on grounds of delicacy?—by the
mid-nineteenth-century author who knew the plant featured at that time in
village medicine in ‘parts of England’.^66 Ye t the fact that John Parkinson was
led to coin the name nipplewort only on learning of its use for this same par-
ticular purpose in Prussia^67 seems to suggest that it had no vernacular name
in English before that, which suggests in turn that the use may merely have
been a late infiltration into the folk repertory of Britain.
That in Ireland Lapsana communis has apparently been recorded only as
an application to cuts, bruises or burns (Wexford,^68 Tipperary^69 ) could be
evidence in support of that possibility. On the other hand, a use for the breast
may well not have been revealed to the male or child enquirers responsible for
most of the Irish folk records.
Hypochaeris maculata Linnaeus
spotted cat’s-ear
northern and central Europe
Inone district in the Yorkshire Pennines in the eighteenth century,Hypochaeris
maculatawas believed a cure for ‘tetters’ and other skin complaints—because
of its spotted leaves, it has been (perhaps fancifully) suggested.^70
Sonchus arvensis Linnaeus
perennial sow-thistle
Europe, western Asia; introduced into other continents
Sonchus asper (Linnaeus) Hill
prickly sow-thistle
cosmopolitan