Calves' Snout or Snapdragon.

Botanical name: 


A COMMON wild plant in many parts of Europe, and is very frequent in our gardens, and upon the walls of gardens: Its natural situation is on hills among barren rocks, and nothing comes so near that, as the top of an old wall with us: the seeds are light and are easily carried thither by the wind, and they never fail to strike, and the plant flourishes. It is two feet high, the stalks are round, thick, firm, end tolerably upright, but generally a little bent towards the bottom; the leaves are very numerous; they are oblong, narrow, not indented at the edges, blunt at the ends, and of a bluish green colour. The flowers are large and red, they stand in a kind of loose spikes upon the tops of the stalks; the root is white and oblong.

The fresh tops are used; an infusion of them works by urine, and has been recommended by some in the jaundice, and in other diseases arising from obstructions of the viscera; but we have so many English plants that excel in this particular, and the taste of the infusion is so far from agreeable, that it is not worth while to have recourse to it.

The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill.