IF the last-mentioned plant has more credit for medicinal
virtues than it deserves, this is not so much regarded as it
ought. Providence has made some of the most useful plants the
most common; but, because they are so, we foolishly neglect
them. It is hardly necessary to describe the common burdock. It
may be enough to say, that it grows a yard high, and has vast
leaves, of a figure approaching to triangular, and of a whitish
green colour. The stalks are round, striated, and very tough:
The flowers are small and red, and they grow among the hooked
prickles of those heads which we call burs, and which stick to
our clothes. Even this seems a provision of nature in kindness
to us. In pulling off these we scatter the seeds of which they
are composed, and give rise to a most useful plant in a new
place. The root of the burdock is long and thick; brown on the
outside, and whitish within; this is the part used in medicine,
and it is of very great virtues. It is to be boiled, or infused
in water, the virtue is diure