Pellitory of Spain.

Botanical name: 

Pyrethrum.

A very pretty little plant kept in our gardens. It is eight inches high. The stalk is round and thick. The leaves are very finely divided, so that they resemble those of the camomile, but they are of a pale green, thick, and fleshy, and the stalk is purple. The flowers stand at the tops of the branches, and are very pretty: they are of the shape and size of the great daisy or ox-eye, white at the edges, yellow in the middle, and red on the back or underside. The root is long, and somewhat thick, of a very hot taste.

The root is used: we have it at the druggists. Its great acridness fills the mouth with rheum on chewing, and it is good against the tooth-ach. It is also good to be put into the mouth in palsies, for it will sometimes alone, by its stimulation, restore the voice.


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