296 Tanacetum vulgare
carrying a piece of it between their upper lip and their nose.^180 Similarly, to
keep at bay the influence of the ‘miasma’ arising from the ground that was
supposed to give rise to ague, country folk in Hampshire^181 and Sussex^182
took the precaution of lining their boots with pieces of the plant.
A toxic oil powerful enough to rid the system of worms and other para-
sites would have commended itself as an abortifacient, too, if taken in a quan-
tity large enough, and the plant is on record as used for that purpose in Wilt-
shire,^183 Gloucestershire^184 and the Cambridgeshire Fens.^185 In all three of
those, however, it also had a reputation for aiding conception, presumably
because of a separate relaxing effect. Such an effect could explain the drink-
ing of tansy tea to counter palpitations in Gloucestershire,^186 rheumatism
and indigestion in Essex^187 and period pains in Norfolk.^188 In the ‘north of
England’ where an alternative was to apply a hot compress of the plant to the
seat of any rheumatic pain, drinking that tea three times a day was held to
clear the system of any tendency to gout^189 ; it was as an antidote to gout that
the plant was once much used in Scotland also^190 (though possibly on the
recommendation of John Gerard’s Herball,as a decoction of the root).
Ireland’s uses seem to have been broadly similar but more thinly spread.
As a vermicidal purge it has featured in Londonderry^191 and Louth^192 (and
for veterinary purposes in further counties, too); in ‘Ulster’, where it was
extensively grown in cottage gardens, it was valued as an emmenagogue of
much power^193 as well as for indigestion and pains in the joints, these last
relieved by being bathed with the product of boiling the leaves in salted
water^194 ; in the Aran Islands the juice has been drunk for fevers^195 and in
some unspecified parts the plant is said to have shared that northern British
popularity for gout.^196 Cavan is alone idiosyncratic in having yielded records
as a jaundice cure and as an application to cuts.^197 That tansy is predomi-
nantly a herb of Ulster may be evidence for its having been introduced pri-
marily from Scotland.
Seriphidium maritimum (Linnaeus) Poljakov
Artemisia maritima Linnaeus
sea wormwood
Europe, south-western and central Asia
Though Seriphidium maritimum has properties similar to the two Artemisia
species (of which more below), its effects were found to be weaker and so led
to its recommendation by village doctresses in preference to its inland coun-
terpart for ridding children of worms.^198 Apothecaries also gave it priority