Thoroughwax.

Botanical name: 

Perfoliata.

A very beautiful wild plant among our corn, distinguished by the stalk growing through the leaves. It is three feet high. The stalk is round, firm, upright, whitish, and toward the top divided into some branches. The leaves are broad and oval; the stem runs through them toward the bottom, for they have no foot stalks, and they surround it in their largest part, ending in a blunt point. They are of a bluish green colour, and not dented at the edges. The flowers are little and yellow, they stand in clusters, or a kind of umbels at the tops of the branches, with a parcel of small leaves placed under them. The root is white, oblong, and slender.

The leaves are used by the country people against wounds and bruises externally, the seeds are given inwardly, to prevent the ill effects of internal hurts.


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