Modern Herbal ~ Vol 1 & 2

Description

A Modern Herbal is a 20th-century version of a medieval Herbal. Rich in scientific fact and folklore as its predecessors and is equally encyclopedic in coverage. From aconite to zedoary, they overlook not an herb, grass, fungus, shrub or tree. Strange and wonderful discoveries about even the most common of plants await the reader.

Traditionally, a herbal combined the folk beliefs and tales about plants, the medicinal properties (and parts used) of the herbs, and their botanical classification. But Mrs. Grieve has extended and enlarged the tradition; her coverage of asafetida, bearberry, broom, chamomile, chickweed, dandelion, dock, elecampane, almond, eyebright, fenugreek, moss, fern, figwort, gentian, Hart’s tongue, indigo, acacia, jaborandi, kava kava, lavender, pimpernel, rhubarb, squill, sage, thyme, sarsaparilla, unicorn root, valerian, woundwort, yew, etc.—more than 800 varieties in all—includes in addition methods of cultivation; the chemical constituents, dosages, and preparations of extracts and tinctures, unknown to earlier herbalists; possible economic and cosmetic properties, and detailed illustrations, from root to bud, of 161 plants.

Of the many exceptional plants covered perhaps the most fascinating are the poisonous varieties. Hemlock, poison oak, aconite, etc. These poisons, in certain cases, serve medical purposes and whose antidotes (if known) are given in detail. Many unique features, perhaps the most interesting are the hundreds of recipes. Instructions for making ointments, lotions, sauces, wines, and fruit brandies like bilberry and carrot jam, elderberry and mint vinegar, sagina sauce, and cucumber lotion for sunburn. The hundreds of prescriptions for tonics and liniments for bronchitis, arthritis, dropsy, jaundice, nervous tension, skin disease, and other ailments.

Volume 1 & 2 ~ You will receive both softcover books