Smallage.

Botanical name: 

Plate 44. Apium.

A common wild plant, about ditch sides, with the appearance of celery. These are very numerous and large. The stalk rises two feet and a half in height, and is round, smooth, striated, and branched. The leaves on it are like those from the root, composed of many small parts, which are broad and indented, but they are smaller. The flowers stand in little umbels at the divisions of the branches: they are small and of a yellowish white. The seeds are small and striated. The roots are long, not very thick, white, and of a strong, but not disagreeable taste.

The roots are most used; a strong infusion of them fresh gathered, works briskly by urine. It is good against the gravel, and in jaundices ad other diseases arising from obstructions in the liver and spleen. The seeds dried are good against the colic, and strengthen the stomach.


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