Archangel.
Lamium Album.
A common wild plant, more vulgarly called the dead-nettle. It grows about our hedges, it is a foot high, and has leaves shaped like those of the nettle, but they do not sting. The stalk is square, and the leaves are hairy; the flowers are large and white; they stand at the joints where the leaves are set on, and are very pretty. The leaves stand in pairs, and the root creeps under the surface.
The flowers are the only part used; they are to be gathered in May, and made into conserve. A pound of them is to be beat up with two pounds and a half of sugar. They may also be dried. They are excellent in the whites, and all other weaknesses.
There is a little plant with red flowers called also the red archangel, or red dead-nettle. It is common under the hedges, and in gardens; the stalks are square and weak, the leaves are short and notched at the edges, and the flowers small and red; the plant is not above four or five inches high, and these flowers grow near the tops among the leaves. They are in shape like those of the white archangel, but small.
The herb is used fresh or dried, and the flowers. The decoction is good for floodings, bleedings at the nose, spitting of blood, or any kind of hemorrhage. It also stops blood, bruised and applied outwardly.
