Lavender Cotton.

Abrotonum faemina.

A little shrubby plant, frequently wild in Italy, but with us kept in gardens. It grows two feet or more in height, the stem is whitish: the stalks growing from it, are tough and firm, of a whitish colour also, and very numerous; the leaves are oblong, slender, of a square shape, and indented; they are also whitish and of a strong smell. The stalks which support the flowers are long and naked; they are round, of a greenish colour, and each has at its top a single flower, which is yellow and naked, and of the bigness of an horse-bean.

The leaves are the part used, they are best fresh gathered. They are to be given infused in water against worms, they are a disagreeable medicine, but a very efficacious one. They also promote the menses, and open obstructions of the liver. They have been recommended greatly in the jaundice.


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