Dyer's Weed.

Botanical name: 

Plate 17. Luteola.

A VERY singular and pretty wild plant; it grows on dry banks and upon walls, and is known at sight by its upright stalks, and very long spikes of greenish yellow flowers. It grows to four feet or more in height. The stalk is thick, firm, channelled, and in a manner covered with leaves: they are small in proportion to the bigness of the plant, oblong, narrow, and pointed at the ends, of a yellowish green colour, and not serrated at the edges; a tuft of the same kind of leaves, but somewhat larger, surrounds the bottom of the stalk. The root is long and white. The flowers are small, but very numerous.

The flowery tops of this plant dried, and given in decoction, are said to be a remedy for the evil, but the report is not established by any known experience.


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