Green liverwort.
Lichen vulgaris.
A common low plant, composed wholly of leaves, which spread themselves on the ground, and are of a beautiful green colour; authors refer it to the kinds of moss. It grows on old walls, in wells, and other damp places. The leaves are oblong, blunt, and thin, they spread one over another and take root wherever they touch the ground. They often cover the space of a foot or more in one cluster. This is all that is usually seen of the plant, but in spring when the place and the weather favour, there rise up among these leaves certain long and slender stalks, on the tops of which stand imperfect flowers, as they are called, small roundish, and resembling the heads of little mushrooms.
The whole plant is used, and it is best green and fresh gathered. It is to be given in a strong decoction. It opens obstructions of the liver, and works by urine. It is good against the jaundice, and an excellent medicine in the first stages of contraptions. It is not nearly so much regarded as it right to be. It is also used externally for foulness of the skin.
