Camel's Hay.

Botanical name: 

Schenanthus.

A SORT of grass of a fragrant smell, frequent in many parts of the East, and brought over to us dried for the use of medicine. It grows to a foot high, and in all respects resembles some of our common kinds of grass, particularly the darnel. The leaves are long and narrow: the stalks are round and jointed, and have grassy leaves also on them, and the flowers stand on the tops of the stalks in a double series: they are not unlike those of our grasses, chaffy and ornamented with a few filaments.

It was at one time in great esteem as a medicine; they called it a cordial, and a promoter of the menses, but it is now very little regarded.


The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill.