MEDICINAL PART. The herb.
    Description. -- This well-known herb has a fibrous, perennial root and numerous annual, bushy stems, leafy, and branching from the bottom to one or two feet in height. The leaves are roundish-ovate, rough and veiny above, woolly on the under surface, one or two inches in diameter; the flowers small and white.
    History. -- Hoarhound is a native of Europe, but has been naturalized in the United States, where it is very common. It grows on dry, sandy fields, waste grounds, and road-sides, flowering from June to September. The entire plant has a white or hoary appearance; the whole herb is medicinal, and should be gathered before its efflorescence. It has a peculiar, rather agreeable, vinous, balsamic odor, and a very bitter, aromatic, somewhat acrid and persistent taste. Its virtues are imparted to alcohol or water.
    Properties and Uses. -- A stimulant, tonic, expectorant, and diuretic. It is used in the form of syrup, in coughs, colds, chronic catarrh, asthma, and all pulmonary affections. The warm infusion will produce perspiration and flow of urine, and is used with great benefit in jaundice, asthma, hoarseness, amenorrhoea, and hysteria. The cold infusion is an excellent tonic in some forms of dyspepsia. It will expel worms and act as a purgative in large doses. It enters into the composition of several syrups and candies.
    Dose. -- Of the powder, one drachm; of the infusion or syrup, from half to a teacupful.