Hog's Fennel.

Botanical name: 

Plate 18. Peucedanum.

A wild plant with divided leaves and umbels of yellow flowers, and thence bearing a remote resemblance to fennel. It grows two feet high: the stalk is round, striated, hollow, upright, and branched. The leaves are like those of fennel, but the divisions are much broader, and they run in threes. The flowers are little and yellow, but the clusters of them are large, and the seed is oblong and flat. At the top of the root, there is always found a tuft of hairy matter. This is made up of the fibres of decayed leaves, but it has a singular appearance. The root is large, long, and brown, and this is the part used as a medicine. It is to be boiled in water, and the decoction drank night and morning; it dissolves tough phlegm, and helps asthmatic people; it also works by urine, and promotes the menses, and is good in all obstructions.


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