Purple Loosestrife.
Botanical name:
Lysimachia purpurea.
A wild plant, that decorates the sides of ditches and rivers, and would be an ornament to our gardens. It grows to three feet high, and is very regular; the stalk is square, hairy, and generally of a reddish colour. The leaves stand two at each joint, and they are long and narrow; of a dusky green, and a little rough. The flowers stand in very long spikes at the tops of the stalks, and are large, and of a strong purple colour. The spikes are often a foot or more in length The seed is very little and brown.
The leaves are used. They are a fine balsam for fresh wounds, and an ointment is to be made of them boiled in lard, which is also cooling and detersive, but it is not of a fine green colour.
