Hyacinthoides nonscripta (Linnaeus) Chouard ex Rothmaler
Endymion nonscriptus (Linnaeus) Garcke
bluebell
Atlantic Europe; introduced into North America, New Zealand
It would be remarkable if so abundant and conspicuous a member of the
flora of the British Isles as Hyacinthoides nonscripta had not had its sticky
juice put to some medicinal purposes at least. That only two folk records that
have been traced of the use of that, however, both Irish—boiled for throat ail-
ments in Cavan^70 and applied to whitlows in Monaghan^71 —suggests that it
has largely been found ineffective.
In Inverness-shire, though, the roots when chopped, fried and applied as
a plaster at one time had a reputation for promoting suppuration speedily.^72
Allium ursinum Linnaeus
ramsons, wild garlic
Europe, Asia Minor
Allium ursinum occurs in such profusion in much of the west of the British
Isles that, as the folk records suggest, many there have probably always been
content to gather it from the wild: transplanting it to the garden would bring
only a marginal gain in convenience. Outside that region, though, gardens are
likely to have been the usual source.
Predominantly Irish as a folk medicine and invested there with a sprin-
kling of semi-magical beliefs indicative of ancient usage, ramsons has a rep-
utation as a preventative of infection as well as a source of cures. A west-of-
England saying ran, ‘Eat leeks in Lide [March] and ramsins in May, and all the
year after physitians may play’.^73 More specifically, ‘nine diseases shiver before
the garlic’, it was held in Sligo, where faith in the plant’s ability to ward off ill-
ness was still so widespread at the time of the 1918 influenza pandemic that
many carried a piece around with them in a pocket.^74 That practice was not
as far-fetched as it may sound, for one of the traditional, if less usual, ways of
bringing garlic to bear on a cough or a cold has been to wear strips of the
leaves under the soles of the feet, and in Lincolnshire,^75 Galway^76 and Clare,^77
if not elsewhere, that has extended to walking around with them inside one’s
shoes or socks. Mostly, though, the plant is either eaten raw or boiled (usually
in milk) and the liquid then rubbed into the skin.
The prolonged burning sensation left by the juice has naturally made this
plant an age-old favourite for treating ailments most obviously responsive to
328 Hyacinthoides nonscripta