Botany and Herbalism, A Primer.

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[SIZE="6"]Botany and Herbalism, A Primer[/SIZE]




[SIZE="5"]An Encyclopaedic Compilation of the Plants of the Island Ymph, and their Properties

By Manannan Maiea, The Magnificent
Wyrm-Watcher
Hedge-Wizard
1382[/SIZE]

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[tface=FellSC][SIZE="5"]Bonga Fern[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]A herbaceous perennial growing freely wild to a height of 1 to 3 feet in uncultivated ground, woods, hedges, roadsides, and meadows; short, decumbent, barren shoots and erect stems branching in upper part.  Flowers bright cheery yellow. Blooms midsummer, followed by numerous small round blackish seeds which have a resinous smell and are contained in a three-celled capsule; odour peculiar, terebenthic; taste bitter, astringent and balsamic.

Aromatic, astringent, resolvent, expectorant and nervine. Used in all pulmonary complaints, bladder troubles, in suppression of urine, dysentery, worms, diarrhoea, hysteria and nervous depression, haemoptysis and other haemorrhages and jaundice. For children troubled with incontinence of urine at night an infusion or tea given before retiring will be found effectual; it is also useful in pulmonary consumption, chronic catarrh of the lungs, bowels or urinary passages. Externally for fomentations to dispel hard tumours, caked breasts, ecchymosis, etc.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Bronze Peaches[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The leaves are long and broad, pinnately veined. The flowers are produced in early spring before the leaves; they are solitary or paired and pink in color, with five petals. The fruit has Bronze or copper flesh, a delicate aroma, and a skin that is velvety.  The flesh is very delicate and easily bruised, but is fairly firm, especially when green. The single, large seed is red-brown, oval shaped, and is surrounded by a wood-like husk.

The skin and flesh of the Peach possesses the virtue of protecting the arteries or making us to remain young during more time.  Its presence in the body guarantees the good health of the vision, the good state of the skin, teeth and gums.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Coconut[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Found throughout the archipeligo, the coconut is known for its great versatility as seen in the many  uses of its different parts. Coconuts are part of the daily diet of Wildlings and Natives. Coconuts are different from any other fruits because they contain a large quantity of "water" and when immature they are known as tender-nuts or jelly-nuts and may be harvested for drinking. When mature they still contain some water and can be used as seednuts or rendered to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell and coir from the fibrous husk.

Many of the greatest benefits of the Coconut are derived from its juice, and oils.  The juices when consumed will strengthen the constitution against vapors, jaundices, abscesses, baldness dropsy, the trots, and lice.  The Oil when rendered and found in the body will ward away rash, scabies, swelling, weakness, and infection.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Demonthorn[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Demonthorn is a flowering plant native to the Ymphian Lowlands, and is the common equivelant of the Mainlands Stinging Nettle. The plant has many hollow stinging hairs on its leaves and stems which act like needles, injecting venoms that produce a stinging sensation when contacted by humans and other animals.  The plant has a long history of use as a medicine and as a food source.

Because of its many nutritients, Demonthorn is traditionally used as a spring tonic.  It is a slow-acting nutritive herb that gently cleanses the body of ill humours.  It is one of the safest alteratives especially in the treatment of chronic disorders that require long-term treatment.  It has a gentle, stimulating effect on the cleansing system of the body, enhancing the excretion of wastes through the kidneys.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Duskwood[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]They grow in densely packed groves which end up looking quite strange. They have smooth black bark and the trunks grow to an average of 60 feet. Atop these trunks lay small branches. The wood is as tough as iron and some native cultures fashion weapons out of the wood in place of metal.

It has been recommended in agues and haemorrhages, and is a good remedy for intermittent fever, especially when given with Vervain flowers.  It is useful in chronic diarrhoea and dysentery, either alone or in conjunction with aromatics. A decoction is made from bark in water, boiled down and taken in wineglassful doses has been advantageously employed as a gargle in chronic sore throat with relaxed uvula, and also as a fomentation. It is also serviceable when applied locally to bleeding gums and piles.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Foxberry[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Foxberry is a short evergreen shrub that bears edible sour, slightly sweet, slightly bitter fruit, native to the Ymphian highlands from the Wyldwater Mouth all the way up to the snowline.  The flowers are bell shaped and white to pale pink.  The berry is small and red, and ripes in late summer to early autumn.  The Shrub grows best where it is in shaded, moist soil.

The berry is a popular cure for liver ailments and ulcer.  It strengthens the blood and neutralizes impurity within the elemental balance of the body.  the Pearly red, rupe berries are common in the treatment of infection.  Should be avoided by men attempting to father children.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Fragrant Blue Mushroom[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]This small mushroom is a distinctive all-blue colour, while the gills have a slight reddish tint from the spores. The blue coloring of the fruit body is due to it's close association with the element of water.  When mature, it exudes an aroma not unlike a morning meal of fried pork and hearty tea.  Whether the Fragrant Blue Mushroom is poisonous or not is unknown.

When immolated, the smoke is known to improve concentration and relieve stress.  A distillate of fragrant blue mushroom, applied to the skin is known to improve the appearance and vibrancy of the flesh, while eliminating foul odours, particularly among men.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Garlic[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Garlic is a bulbous plant. It grows up to 2 feet in height. It produces flowers that are spread by insects and bees.  The garlic plant's bulb is the most commonly used part of the plant usually being divided into numerous fleshy sections called cloves. Garlic cloves are used for consumption (raw or cooked) or for medicinal purposes. They have a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking.

Medicinally, Garlic is known to thin the consistancy of blood when ingested.  It strengthens the body against vapors and humours.  Taken externally it can treat such maladies as Foot Itch, Baker's Tongue, and the trots.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Grimwort[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Grimwort is the distillate of the root of the Ragwort plant, dried and ground, then mixed in a small bowl with water to form a mud that is then dried once more and formed into a nugget.  The Ragwort plant itself is a very common wild flower that is native to the Ymphian Highlands, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere.

A distillate of Grimwort is used with success in relieving rheumatism and gout, a poultice of the green leaves being applied to painful joints and reducing the inflammation and swelling. It makes a good gargle for ulcerated throat and mouth, and is said to take away the pain caused by the sting of bees. A decoction of the root has been reputed good for inward bruises and wounds. In some parts of the Isle, Ragwort is accredited with the power of preventing infection.  These same poultices are known to prevent a stagger in the canter of a horse, or to make speech clear and concise.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Hellebore[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Commonly known as hellebores, these are evergreen perennial flowering plants with five petals surrounding a ring of small, cup-like nectaries (petals modified to hold nectar). The petals do not fall as petals would, but remain on the plant, sometimes for many months.  Sometimes called the Lantan Rose, these are not in fact actual roses in the manner of botanists.

The root possesses drastic purgative, and is violently narcotic. It is much used in dropsy and the treating of Barrenness, and has proved of value in treating mania and hysteria. It is used in the form of a tincture, and must be administered with great care.  Applied locally, the fresh root is violently irritant.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Ivory Moss[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]This species is found all over Faerun and occurs throughout Ymph, being most plentiful on the highlands leading to the mountains.  To harvest it, the tops of the plants are cut as the spike growths atop it approach maturity and a powder shaken out and separated by a sieve.

The whole plant can be used, dried, as a stomachic and diuretic, mainly in calculous and other kidney complaints; the spores are employed as a diuretic in dropsy, a drastic in diarrhoea, dysentery and suppression of urine, a nervine in spasms and hydrophobia, an aperient in gout and scurvy and a corroborant in rheumatism, and also as an application to wounds.[/SIZE]
 

[SIZE="5"]Kelpie Snare[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]A long, green aquatic vine twist and undulate in the current. It's sap is sticky and has been known to ensnare small animals, and so in this nature the plant is predatory. The Tome of the Isle states that "Certain fey delight in planting these vines near pools of water", but this author cannot ascertain the accuracy of this remark.

Medicinally, the Kelpie Snare is useful when dried and ground as a treatment for Goiter.  Herbally it has many practical uses in binding mixtures together.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Magic Mushroom[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Possessing usually a pleasant mushroomy odour, some have a smell of new meal, others a faint anise-like scent or no particular odour at all. Evil-smelling Fungi are always to be regarded with distrust. It is a suspicious sign of dangerous qualities, if a fungus on being cut or bruised quickly turns deep blue or greenish, also if it is noticed that a small piece broken from a freshly-gathered fungus when tasted leaves, instead of an agreeable, nutty flavour, a sharp tingling on the tongue, or is in any way bitter. All such should be avoided. It is as well, also, not to eat any Fungi which contain a milky juice which exudes freely on being cut, without carefully identifying the species first, as some of these are dangerous, though one of them, distinguished by a reddish juice, ranks as one of the best.

The spores are stated to have no effect upon the system except to paralyse the nerves of the sweat glands. Large doses act as an irritant to the stomach and intestines. The most important use of these is in the treatment of sweats in wasting conditions such as phthisis. Its value in checking these profuse sweats has been confirmed by clinical experience. When these spores are applied to abraded surfaces or lips, fingers, or private bits, it acts as a distinct counter-irritant.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Mandrake Root[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]It has a large, brown root, somewhat like a parsnip, running 3 or 4 feet deep into the ground, sometimes single and sometimes divided into two or three branches. Immediately from the crown of the root arise several large, dark-green leaves, which at first stand erect, but when grown to full size a foot or more in length and 4 or 5 inches in width - spread open and lie upon the ground. They are sharp pointed at the apex and of a foetid odour. From among these leaves spring the flowers, each on a separate foot-stalk, 3 or 4 inches high. They are somewhat of the shape and size of a primrose, the corolla bell-shaped, cut into five spreading segments, of a whitish colour, somewhat tinged with purple. They are succeeded by a smooth, round fruit, about as large as a small apple, of a deep yellow colour when ripe, full of pulp and with a strong, apple-like scent.

The leaves are quite harmless and cooling, and have been used for ointments and other external application. Boiled in milk and used as a poultice, they are as an application to indolent ulcers.  The fresh root operates very powerfully as an emetic and purgative. The dried bark of the root is used also as a rough emetic.  Mandrake is much used by the Tribals who consider it an anodyne and soporific. In large doses it is said to excite delirium and madness. They use it for procuring rest and sleep in continued pain, also in melancholy, convulsions, rheumatic pains and scrofulous tumours. They mostly employ the bark of the root, either expressing the juice or infusing it in wine or water. The root finely scraped into a pulp and mixed with brandy was said to be efficacious in chronic rheumatism.  Some physicians use it as an anaesthetic for operations, a piece of the root being given to the patient to chew before undergoing the operation. In small doses it can be employed in maniacal cases.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Mistletoe[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The well-known Mistletoe is an evergreen parasitic plant, growing on the branches of trees, where it forms pendent bushes, 2 to 5 feet in diameter. It will grow and has been found on almost any deciduous tree, preferring those with soft bark, and being, perhaps, commonest on old Apple trees, though it is frequently found on the Ash, Hawthorn, Lime and other trees. On the Oak or Duskwood, it grows very seldom. It has been found on the Cedar of Lebanon and on the Larch, but very rarely on the Pear tree.

Nervine, antispasmodic, tonic and narcotic. Has a great reputation for curing the 'falling sickness and other manias. It has also been employed in checking internal haemorrhage.  The physiological effect of the plant is to lessen and temporarily benumb such nervous action as is reflected to distant organs of the body from some central organ which is the actual seat of trouble. In this way the spasms of epilepsy and of other convulsive distempers are allayed. Large doses of the plant, or of its berries, would, on the contrary, aggravate these convulsive disorders. Young children have been attacked with convulsions after eating freely of the berries.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Nightshade[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Found under the shade of trees, on wooded hills, on chalk or limestone, it will grow most luxuriantly, forming bushy plants several feet high, but specimens growing in places exposed to the sun are apt to be dwarfed, consequently it rarely attains such a large size when cultivated in the open, and is more subject to the attacks of insects than when growing wild under natural conditions.

The fresh plant, when crushed, exhales a disagreeable odour, almost disappearing on drying, and the leaves have a bitter taste, when both fresh and dry.  The various preparations of Nightshade have many uses. Locally applied, it lessens irritability and pain, and is used as a lotion, plaster or liniment in cases of neuralgia, gout, rheumatism and sciatica. As a drug, it specially affects the brain and the bladder. It is used to check excessive secretions and to allay inflammation and to check the sweating of phthisis and other exhausting diseases.  Small doses allay cardiac palpitation, and the plaster is applied to the cardiac region for the same purpose, removing pain and distress.  Large doses however will always be fatal.  It has no action on the voluntary muscles, but involuntary muscles are paralysed by large doses, the paralysis finally affecting the brain, causing vocal paralysis, excitement and delirium.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Phoenix Pine[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Pines are among the most important commercial trees. Most of them have straight, unbranched, cylindrical trunks, which furnish large amounts of excellent saw timber. On account of the straight grain, strength, and other qualities of pine timber, it is used for nearly every sort of constructional work and the trade in it is enormous.

The distilled oils and turpentines are rubefacient, diuretic, irritant. A valuable remedy in bladder, kidney, and rheumatic affections and diseases of the mucous membrane and respiratory complaints; externally in the form of liniment plasters and inhalants, particularly from Pine Oil.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Prismatic Berries[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Having a perennial root, and the herbaceous shoots bear three-lobed, finely serrated leaves and flesh-coloured or yellowish, sweet-scented flowers, tinged with purple. The ripe, orange-coloured, ovoid, many-seeded berry is about the size of a small apple; when dried, it is shrivelled and greenish-yellow. The yellow pulp is sweet and edible.

The berries are known to be a depressant of the backbone, slightly reducing blood pressure, though affecting circulation but little, while increasing the rate of respiration. It is official in homoeopathic medicine and used with bromides, it is said to be of great service in Shivers and Falling Sickness.  Its narcotic properties cause it to be used in diarrhoea and dysentery, sleeplessness and barrenness.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Red Lypiom Plume[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]This is a half-hardy shrub growing to 4 or 5 feet high. It has downy leaves and stems and small ornamental white flowers in great numbers, coming into bloom at Highsun, followed by bluntly triangular seedvessels. It takes its name from its large red roots. Its wood is tough, pale brown red, with fine rays - taste bitter and astringent with no odour. Fracture hard, tough, splintering. Its bark is brittle, dark-coloured and thin.

The leaves are said to contain tannin, a soft resin and bitter extract, a green colouring matter similar to green tea in colour and taste, gum a volatile substance, lignin, and a principle called Ceanothine.  Astringent, antispasmodic, anti-syphilitic expectorant and sedative, used in asthma, devilcough, whooping-cough, consumption, and dysentery; also as a mouth-wash and gargle, and as an injection in the Itch Below, gleet and Demon-trots.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Roseneedle Pine[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The perennial, tapering root is very large, being from 2 to 8 feet in length, and 2 to 5 inches in diameter. It is brownish-yellow outside, whitish and lactescent within, having an acrid taste and disagreeable odour. It loses 75 per cent of weight in drying. Usually it arrives in transverse, circular sections, not readily reducible to greyish powder. It is stated that the Stargazers can handle Island Cobras with ease and safety after wetting their hands with the milky juice of the root. The tree is small, with dwarfed needles of bright green.  Can be boiled, mashed, or stuck into a Stew.

Mildly cathartic and diuretic. It is used in strangury and calculous diseases, and also slightly influences lungs, liver, and kidneys without excessive diuresis or catharsis. Probably the active principle would prove stronger than the crude root.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Silver Peaches[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]When growing naturally, it is a medium-sized tree, with spreading branches of quick growth and not longlived. The leaves are lance-shaped, about 4 inches long and 1 1/2 inch broad, tapering to a sharp point, borne on long, slender, relatively unbranched shoots, and with the flowers arranged singly, or in groups of two or more at intervals along the shoots of the previous year's growth. The blossoms come out before the leaves are fully expanded, and are of a delicate, pink colour. They have a hollow tube at the base, bearing at its free edge five sepals, and an equal number of petals, usually concave, and a great number of stamens. They have very little odour.

The leaves and bark are employed for their curative powers. They have demulcent, sedative, diuretic and expectorant action.  The fresh leaves possess the power of expelling worms, if applied outwardly to the body as a poultice. An infusion of the dried leaves was also recommended for the same purpose.  If fresh Peach leaves are applied to warts and then buried, the warts will fall off by the time the buried leaves have decayed.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Striped Apples[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The branches of the Striped Apple tree are pendant, with long shoots which bear the leaves and flowers. The leaves are dark green and glossy and the flowers, in small clusters on dwarf shoots are produced in Summer. The buds are deeply tinged with pink on the outside the expanded flowers an inch and a half across, and when the trees are in full bloom, they are a beautiful sight.

Ripe, juicy apples eaten at bedtime every night will cure some of the worst forms of constipation. Sour apples are the best for this purpose. Some cases of sleeplessness have been cured in this manner. People much inclined to biliousness will find this practice very valuable. In some cases stewed apples will agree perfectly well, while raw ones prove disagreeable.  The Apple will also act as an excellent dentifrice, being a food that is not only cleansing to the teeth on account of its juices, but just hard enough to mechanically push back the gums so that the borders are cleared of deposits.  Rotten apples used as a poultice is known as a remedy for sore eyes.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Sweetgrass[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]From its long creeping, pointed root-stock, it produces in summer several round, hollow flower stems, 2 to 3 feet high, thickened at the joints, bearing five to seven leaves and terminated by long, densely flowered, two-rowed spikes of flowers, somewhat resembling those of rye or beardless wheat, composed of eight or more oval spikelets on alternate sides of the spike, each containing four to eight florets, the awns, when present, being not more than half the length of the flower. The leaves are flat, with a long, cleft sheath, and are rough on the upper surface, having a row of hairs on each principal vein.

The scented Sweetgrass - with yellow anthers, not purple, as so many other grasses - gives its characteristic odour to newly-mown meadow hay, and has a pleasant aroma of Woodruff. It is, however, specially provocative of hay fever and hay asthma.  A medicinal tincture is made from this grass with spirit of wine, and it said that if poured into the open hand and sniffed well into the nose, almost immediate relief is afforded during an attack of hay fever.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Vervain[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The Common Vervain is found growing by roadsides and in sunny pastures. It is a perennial bearing many small, pale-lilac flowers. The leaves are opposite, and cut into toothed lobes. The plant has no perfume, and is slightly bitter and astringent in taste.

The plant was much used for affections of the bladder, especially calculus. Another derivation is given by some due to the aphrodisiac qualities attributed to it by the Ancients. Priests used it for sacrifices.  The druids include it in their lustral water, and magicians and sorcerers employ it largely. It is used in various rites and incantations.  Bruised, it is worn round the neck as a charm against headaches, and also against snake and other venomous bites as well as for general good luck. It is thought to be good for the sight. It must be picked before flowering, and dried promptly.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Wilting Flower[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]From its root-stock, which is perennial, with numerous, white, fleshy roots, which creep in all directions, it throws up stout stems, 2 or 3 feet high and with four sides, having many pairs of rather elongated, oblong leaves, tapering to a point and usually clasping the stem at the base. The light purple flowers are arranged in a long spike terminating the stem, usually with only six flowers in each whorl. The long-stalked leaves that spring directly from the root have mostly faded off by the time the flowers appear in late summer. The whole plant is very hairy.

The sovereign remedy for all maladies of the head, its properties as a nervine and tonic are widely acknowledged, though it is more frequently employed in combination with other nervines than alone. It is useful in hysteria, palpitations pain in the head and face, neuralgia and all nervous affections.  The fresh leaves are said to have an intoxicating effect. They have been used to dye wool a fine yellow.  The flowers, ground and boiled with mead are a treatment for the bites of mad dogs.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Witch Hazel[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]This shrub, long known in cultivation, consists of several crooked branching trunks from one root, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, 10 to 12 feet in height, with a smooth grey bark, leaves 3 to 5 inches long and about 3 inches wide.The leaves drop off in autumn, then the yellow flowers appear in clusters from the joints, followed by black nuts, containing white seeds which are oily and edible. On Ymph, the nut does not bear seeds.  The seeds are ejected violently when ripe, hence the name Snapping Hazelnut. The leaves are inodorous, with an astringent and bitterish aromatic taste.

A tea made of the leaves or bark may be taken freely with advantage, being good for bleeding of the stomach and in complaints of the bowels, and an injection of this tea is excellent for inwardly bleeding piles, the relief being marvellous and the cure speedy.  In the treatment of varicose veins, it should be applied on a lint bandage, which must be constantly kept moist: a pad of Witch Hazel applied to a burst varicose vein will stop the bleeding and often save life by its instant application.  Diluted with warm water, the extract is used for inflammation of the eyelids.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Woad[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]Woad is about three feet high, with long, bluish-green leaves growing round and out of the stalk, growing smaller as they reach the top, when they branch out with small yellow flowers, which in turn produce seed like little black tongues. The root is white and single. The Wild Woad is similar except that the stalk is softer, smaller and browner, and the leaves and tongues narrower. Where Woad is cultivated in fields, the wild Woad grows. It flowers from late summer to early autumn.

The herb is so astringent, that it is not fit to be given internally as a medicine, and has only been used medicinally as a plaster, applied to the region of the spleen, and as an ointment for ulcers, inflammation and to stanch bleeding.  Woad leaves, covered with boiling water, weighted down for half an hour and the water poured off, treated with potash and subsequently with acid yield a good indigo dye. If the time of infusion be increased, greens and browns are obtained.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Ymphian Blood Oranges[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]It is a small tree with a smooth, greyish-brown bark and branches that spread into a fairly regular hemisphere. The oval, alternate, evergreen leaves, 3 to 4 inches long, have sometimes a spine.  They are glossy, dark green on the upper side, paler beneath. The calyx is cup-shaped and the thick, fleshy petals, five in number, are intensely white, and curl back.  The fruit is earth-shaped, a little rougher and darker than the common, sweet orange: the flowers are more strongly scented and the glands in the rind are concave instead of convex.

The oil is used chiefly as for flavour, but may be used in the same way as oil of turpentine in chronic devil-cough. It is non-irritant to the kidneys and pleasant to take.  The compound wine is too dangerous as an intoxicant to be recommended as a tonic.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Ymphian Nuts[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The tree is about 25 feet high, has a greyish-brown smooth bark, abounding in a yellow juice. The branches spread in whorls - alternate leaves, on petioles about 1 inch long.  The tree does not bloom till it is nine years old, when it fruits and continues to do so for seventy-five years without attention.

Ymphian Nuts are used for flatulence and to correct the nausea arising from other herbals, also to allay nausea and vomiting.  Ground, it is an agreeable addition to drinks for convalescents.  Grated nut mixed with lard makes an excellent ointment for piles.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Ymphian Olives[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The Ymphian Olive grows upon a small, ever green tree, averaging up to 20 feet or more in height. It has many thin branches with opposite branchlets and shortly-stalked, opposite, lanceolate leaves about 2 1/4 inches long, acute, entire and smooth, pale green above and silvery below. The bark is pale grey and the flowers numerous, small and creamy-white in colour.  The dark purple fruit is a drupe about 3/4 inch long, ovoid and often pointed, the fleshy part filled with oil. The thick, bony stone has a blunt keel down one side. It contains a single seed.

The oil is a nourishing demulcent and laxative. Externally, it relieves pruritis, the effects of stings or burns, and is a good vehicle for liniments. With alcohol it is a good hair-tonic. As a lubricant it is valuable in skin, muscular, joint, kidney and chest complaints, or abdominal chill, typhoid and scarlet fevers, plague and dropsies. Delicate babies absorb its nourishing properties well through the skin. Its value in worms or gallstones is uncertain.  Internally, it is a laxative and disperser of acids, and a mechanical antidote to irritant poisons. It is often used in enemas. It is the best fat for cooking, and a valuable article of diet for both sick and healthy of all ages.[/SIZE]


[SIZE="5"]Ymphian Violet[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]The familiar leaves are heart-shaped, slightly downy, especially beneath, on stalks rising alternately from a creeping underground stem, the blades of the young leaves rolled up from each side into the middle on the face of the leaf into two tight coils. The flower-stalks arise from the axils of the leaves and bear single flowers, with a pair of scaly bracts placed a little above the middle of the stalk.  The flowers are generally deep purple, giving their name to the colour that is called after them, but lilac, pale rose-coloured or white variations are also frequent, and all these tints may sometimes be discovered in different plants growing on the same bank.

Violet flowers possess slightly laxative properties. The best form of administration is the Syrup of Violets which may be given as a laxative to infants in doses of 1/2 to 1 teaspoonful, or more, with an equal volume of oil of nut.  Syrup of Violets is also employed as a laxative, and as a colouring agent and flavouring in other neutral or acid medicines.  The older writers had great faith in Syrup of Violets: ague, epilepsy, inflammation of the eyes, sleeplessness, pleurisy, jaundice and quinsy are only a few of the ailments for which it was held potent.[/SIZE][/tface]

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