CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

HORNED RAMPION

Description. This rises from a long, thick, white, and fibrous root. The lower leaves are short, and almost round, but pointed at the end, and some few of them at times oval, or somewhat oblong: they have long foot-stalks, and are serrated at the edges. The stalk is tender, striated, or hollow, and about a foot high. The leaves stand irregularly on it, and are altogether unlike those from teh root: they are long, narrow, and sharp-pointed, serrated at the edges, and of a plae green: those towards the bottom have long foot-stalks, but those towards the upper part have none. The flowers stand at the top of the stalk in a round thick head; they are small and purple, but are placed close together, and curl round in the manner of a horn; whence the plant has the name of horned rampion.

Place. It is a perennial plant, and not uncommon in the hilly pastures of Kent and Sussex.

Time. It flowers in August.

Government and virtues. There are various species of rampion, but this possesses most virtue. The roots of any of them may be eaten in spring, in the manner of radishes, raw or boiled, and they are kept in some gardens for that purpose: they are tender, full of a milky juice, and well tasted. They are udner Venus, and are said to increase milk in the breasts of nurses, but this is only a conceit of its signature, grounded only on the milky look of the juice. The root, if eaten in due quantity, operates by urine, and may be good to create an appetite. We do not use them much in England, but they are in great request in France and Italy, where they cut them into thin slices, and eat them with oil and vinegar.