Hare's Ears.
Bupleuron latifolium. (Possibly Bupleurum longifolium. -Henriette)
A common wild plant in some parts of Europe, but kept here in gardens. It is two feet or more in height. The leaves are long and broad, of a stiff substance, and somewhat hollowed, which gives them the appearance of a long and hollow ear, from whence they are named; they are of a whitish green colour, and the ribs upon them are high. There is a sort with narrow leaves, but the broad leaved kind is to be used in medicine. The stalks are round, upright, striated, and toward the top branched. The flowers are little and yellow, and they stand at the tops of the branches in small umbels. The root is long and thick, and has many fibres.
The young shoots of the leaves which grow from the root, are esteemed exceedingly in places where they are native, for the cure of fresh wounds. They cut two or three of these off close to the ground, and without bruising them, first closing the lips of the wound, they lay them on one over the other, making a kind of compress: they then bind them on with linen rags, and never take off the dressing for three days, at the end of which time in most cases they only find a scar: the cure being perfected. This is the substance of a pompous account sent lately to a person of distinction with some leaves of the herb. There is no doubt of the truth, and the surgeons will very well understand the nature of the cure; the discovery how ever is not new, for the herb has always been reckoned among the vulnerary plants; and some have pretended that it will singly cure the king's evil, but that is not to be expected; at the same time it may be proper to observe, that we do not want plants for the same use in England; we have the tutsan which is to be applied in the same manner, and has the same effect; clown's all-heal, and many others, named in their places.
