Figwort, Knotted
The Knotted Figwort, common throughout England, is similar in general
habit to the Water Figwort, but differs both in the form of its root
and in having more acutely heartshaped leaves. The stem, too, is without
the projections or wings at its angles, and the lobes of the calyx
have only a very narrow membraneous margin. The plant, also, though
found in rather moist, bushy places, either in cultivated or waste
ground, and in damp woods, is not distinctly an aquatic, like the
Water Figwort.
The flowers, which resemble in appearance and character the Water
Figwort, are in bloom during July and are specially visited by wasps.
During the thirteen months' siege of Rochelle by the army of Richelieu
in 1628, the tuberous roots of this Figwort yielded support to the
garrison for a considerable period, from which circumstance the
French still call it Herbe du siège. The taste and
smell of the tubers are unpleasant, and they would never be resorted
to for food except in times of famine.
Modern Uses: It has been called the Scrofula
Plant, on account of its value in all cutaneous eruptions, abscesses,
wounds, etc., the name of the genus being derived from that of the
disease for which it was formerly considered a specific.
It has diuretic and anodyne properties.
The whole herb is used, collected in June and July and dried.
A decoction is made of it for external use and the fresh leaves
are also made into an ointment.
Of the different kinds of Figwort used, this species is most employed,
principally as a fomentation for sprains, swellings, inflammations,
wounds and diseased parts, especially in scrofulous sores and gangrene.
The leaves simply bruised are employed by the peasantry in some
districts as an application to burns and swellings.
The Welsh so highly esteem the plant that they call it Deilen
Ddu ('good leaf'). In Ireland, it is known as Rose Noble and as
Kernelwort. Gerard tells us, referring to what he evidently considered
an exaggerated estimate of its worth: 'Divers do rashly teach that
if it be hanged about the necke or else carried about one, it keepeth
a man in health.'
- The herb was said to be curative of hydrophobia, by taking
- 'every morning while fasting a slice of bread and butter on
which the powdered knots of the roots had been spread and eating
it up with two tumblers of fresh spring water. Then let the patient
be well clad in woollen garments and made to take a long, fast
walk until in a profuse perspiration, the treatment being continued
for seven days.'
A decoction of the herb has been successfully used as a cure for
the scab in swine. Cattle, as a rule, will refuse to eat the leaves,
as they are bitter, acrid and nauseating, producing purging and
vomiting if chewed.
Other Names: Throatwort. Carpenter's Square.
Kernelwort. (Welsh) Deilen Ddu. (Irish) Rose Noble.
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