Bind Weed.
Convolvulus major.
A COMMON wild plant which climbs about our hedges, and bears very large white flowers. The stalks are weak and slender, but very tough, six or eight foot long, and twist about any thing that can support them. The leaves are large, and of the shape of an arrow-head, bearded at the base, and sharp at the point: they stand singly, not in pairs, and are of a pale green colour. The flowers are of like breadth of a crown piece at the mouth, and narrower to the base, bell fashioned, and perfectly white. The root is long and slender.
In Northamptonshire the poor people use the root of this plant fresh gathered and boiled in ale as a purge; they save the expence of the apothecary, and answer the purpose better than any one thing would do for them. It would nauseate a delicate stomach, but, for people of their strong constitution, there is not a better purge.
