Elatine dioscoridis Lobel. adv. Linaria segetum nummulariae folio villoso Tourn. Antirrhinum Elatine Linn. Fluellen or Female speedwell: a low, procumbent plant; with oval, acuminated, downy leaves, set alternately on the stalks: from their bosoms issue long pedicles, bearing irregular, monopetalous, labiated, gaping flowers, with a crooked tail or spur behind, followed by roundish capsules full of small seeds: the upper lip is of a dark purplish colour, the lower lip and the spur yellow. It is annual, grows wild in corn fields, and flowers in July.

The leaves of elatine have a roughish very bitter taste, and scarcely any smell. Both watery and spirituous menstrua extract their active matter by infusion, and leave it entire in evaporation. This herb was formerly accounted an excellent detergent and purifier of the blood. An extract made from it by water has been given in doses of a dram, and the expresised juice from three to five ounces, twice or thrice a day, and the juice applied also externally; against scor-butic disorders, and different kinds of old ulcers. A decoction of it has been used likewise in glis-ters for alvine fluxes. A combination of its active matter with honey, prepared by boiling four pints of the depurated juice with four pounds of clarisied honey, is sometimes kept in the shops; but neither this preparation, nor the herb in any form, are at present much made use of.