Sweet Marjoram.

Botanical name: 

Also see: Sweet Marjoram - Wild Marjoram - Cretic Marjoram.

Majorana.

A common garden plant, of no great beauty but kept for the sake of its virtues and use. It is a foot high. The stalks are firm, upright, and a little hairy. The leaves are broad, short, and some what hairy, of a pale green colour, and not indented at the edges, and of a fine smell. At the tops of the branches, stand a kind of soft scaly heads, three quarters of an inch long, and from these grow the flowers, which are small and white. The seeds are very small; and the root is fibrous. The whole plant has a fine smell.

The whole plant is to be used fresh; and it is best taken by way of infusion. It is good against the head ach, and dizziness, and all the inferior order of nervous complaints; but they talk idly who call it a remedy for apoplexies. It gently promotes the menses, and opens all obstructions. The dried herb may be given for the same purpose in powder, but it does not succeed so well.


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