Least Houseleek, or Wall Pepper.

Botanical name: 

Plate 29. Sedum minimum acre.

A common plant on old walls, of kin to the preceding, but very different both in face and virtues. The root is little; from this grow an abundance of stalks; they are round, weak, and unable to support themselves; they spread every way about, and are six inches in length. The greater part of every stalk is covered with leaves, so that it appears a green substance, of the thickness of one little finger; these leaves are short and thick; they are of a fine green colour, and are broad at the base and sharp at the point. The flowers are little, and of a bright yellow; they grow in great numbers, from the tops of these branches, and are of the shape of those of common houseleek, and rounded by such seed-vessels.

The juice of this kind of houseleek is excellent against the scurvy and all other diseases arising from what is called foulness of the blood. It is said that a continued course of it will cure the king's evil: but we want experience to support this.


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