Chaste Tree.
Botanical name:
Agnus castrus.
A LITTLE shrub, native of Italy, and frequent in our gardens. It is five or six feet high; the trunk is rough, the branches are smooth, grey, tough, and long; the leaves are fingered or spread like the fingers of one's hand when opened: five, six, or seven, of these divisions stand on each stalk, they are of a deep green above, and whitish under neath; the flowers are small and of a pale reddish hue; they stand in long loose spikes; the fruit is as big as a pepper-corn.
The seeds of this shrub were once supposed to allay venery, but no body regards that now. A decoction of the leaves and tops is good against obstructions of the liver.
