Gromvel.

Botanical name: 

Plate 25. Lithospermon.

A wild plant of no great beauty, but distinguished by its seeds, which are hard, glossy, and resemble so many pearls, as they stand in the open husk. The plant grows a yard high. The stalk is round, thick, firm, very upright, and branched. The leaves are oblong, not very broad, rough, and hairy, of a deep blackish green colour, and placed irregularly; the flowers are small and white: when they are fallen off, the cups remain, and contain these shining, and, as it were, stony seeds. The plant is frequent about hedges.

The seeds are the only part used; they work powerfully by urine, and are of great service in the gravel and all other obstructions; they are best given in powder, with a great deal of barley-water at the same time.


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