Feverfew.

Botanical name: 

Plate 19. Matricaria.

A common wild plant, with divided leaves, and a multitude of small flowers like daisies; it grows about farmers' yards. The stalk is round, hollow, upright, branched, and striated, and grows two feet high. The leaves are large, divided into many small ones, and those roundish and indented; they are of a yellowish green colour, and particular smell. The flowers stand about the tops of the stalks; they are small, white round the edges, and yellowish in the middle. The root is white, little, and inconsiderable.

The whole plant is to be used; it is best fresh, but it preserves some virtue dried; it is to be given in tea, and it is excellent against hysteric disorders; it promotes the menses.


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