COMMON NAMES. Cockleburr or Sticklewort.
    MEDICINAL PARTS. The root and leaves.
    Description. -- Agrimony has a reddish, tapering, not creeping root, with brown stems covered with soft silky hairs; two or three feet high; leaves alternate, sessile, interruptedly pinnate. The stipule of the upper leaves large, rounded, dentate, or palmate. The flowers grow at the top of the stem, are yellow, small, and very numerous, one above another in long spikes, after which come rough heads hanging downwards, which will stick to garments or anything that rubs against them.
    History. -- This perennial plant is found in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the United States, along roadsides, and in fields and woods, flowering in July or August. Both the flowers and roots are fragrant, but harsh and astringent to the taste, and yield their properties to water or alcohol.
    Properties and Uses. -- It is a mild tonic, alterative, and astringent. Useful in bowel complaints, chronic mucous diseases, chronic affections of the digestive organs, leucorrhoea, certain cutaneous diseases, etc. A strong decoction, sweetened with honey, is an invaluable cure for scrufola, if persisted in for a length of time. It is exceedingly useful in gravel, asthma, coughs, and obstructed menstruation. As a gargle for sore throat and mouth, it is very serviceable.
    Dose. -- Powder, one teaspoonful; decoction, a wineglassful.