A C H I L L E A Millefolium.
Common Yarrow ; or Milfoil.
SYNGE NES IA Pslygamia-fuperflua.
G en. C har. Recept. chaffy. Down none. Cal. ovate,
imbricated, unequal. Florets of the radius 5 to 10 ,
roundith, or inverfely heart-thaped.
S p e c . C h a r . Leaves doubly pinnatifid, hairy; their
fegments linear, toothed, pointed. Stems furrowed.
S y n . Achillea Millefolium. Linn. Sp. PI. 1267. Sm.
FI. Brit. 908. Hiulf. 374. With. 742. Hull. 189.
Relh. 324. Sibth. 259. Abbot. 186. Curt. Lond.
fafc. 6. t . 6 i. Mart. Fl. Ruß. t. 123. J fW t;. Jlfft*
AoZ. 64.
Millefolium vulgare, ifo« Sy«. 183.
V j OMMON every where in paftures, flowering from June
to Auguft, and the creeping perennial root is as difficult to be
extirpated as that of A. Ptarmica. The young fubterraneous
fhoots are white, fmooth and tender, with a pungent, not un-
pleafant flavour.- The whole herb above-ground is more or lefs
pilofe or hairy, and when bruifed proves aromatic and fome-
what aftringent. It has been recommended for curing external
Wounds, and internal haemorrhages, but is not ufed by regular
practitioners m this country. Linnaeus fays, the miferable inhabitants
ofDalekarlia, the mining province of Sweden, infufe
it in their beer during the fermentation, to increafe its intoxicating
effeCts. Our public brewers are acquainted with too
many foreign adulterations to need this, and the diffionelt ones
too often have recourfe to them, notwithfianding the many
wife prohibitions of our legiflature 5 for their villainous gains
enable them to defy the penalties.
The Yarrow cannot be confounded with any other Britifli
plant. Its compound leaves diftinguifli it from that laft de-
fcribed, a,s well as its much fmaller flowers, which, though
generally white, often have a reddiffi or even purple radius,‘and
become not unornamental.