wave of research has focused on the floras of the tropics. The herbal potential
of Europe and other temperate regions has been relatively neglected, per-
haps in the belief that it can have little more to offer after so many centuries
of empirical use. But if we assume that over the millennia the users of coun-
try remedies have experimented with all the wild plants around them, we
would probably be wrong. There is a notable lack of folk remedies drawn
from some groups of common plants, such as the legumes (the Fabaceae).
Perhaps a plant needed some tangible scent or taste to encourage experimen-
tation. Those groups omitted from the folk record may have been rejected as
inactive or may simply not have been tried at all. There is still much to be
learned from native plant medicines of Britain and Ireland, and it is hoped
that this book may provide some leads to further remedies worthy of closer
investigation.
Notes
30 Herbs Without the Herbals
- Praeger, 155; Webb & Scannell, 110;
L. S. Garrad, in litt. - Cockayne 1864–6; Grattan & Singer
1952 - Robinson 1994
- Parkinson, 947
- Herbert, 82
- Coles 1656, 52
- Johnson 1636, unnumbered last page
8. Short 1746, ix
9. Smith, 8 verso - Dorson, 1
- Singer,i,xlvii
- Williams ab Ithel; Turner & Turner
1983 - Anon. 1906; MacFarlane; Comrie, i,
23–4