St. John's Wort.
Hypericum.
A robust and pretty plant, frequent in our pastures, and other dry places. The height is a foot and a half. The stalk is round, thick, firm, and very upright, and divided towards the top into several branches. The leaves are short and blunt at the points: they are of a bright green colour, and if held up against the light, they seem to be full of pin holes. The flowers grow in abundance on the tops of the branches: they are large, and of a bright and beautiful yellow, full of yellow threads, which, if rubbed upon the hand, stain it like blood. The fruit is a dry seed vessel.
The part used is the flowery tops of the plant just as they begin to ripen. A decoction of these works powerfully by urine, and is excellent against the gravel, and in ulcerations of the ureters. The same tops fresh gathered and bruised are good for wounds and bruises; they stop bleeding, and serve as a balsam for one, and take off blackness in the other
