This section of the book is from "The Complete Herbalist" by Dr. O. Phelps Brown. Also available from Amazon: The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians By The Use Of Nature's Remedies.
MEDICINAL PART. The plant.
Description. -- This is a perennial plant,
the root of which consists of numerous strong fibres. The leaves
are all radical, on long, hairy petioles, smooth, evergreen, cordate at
base, the new ones appearing later than the flowers. The flowers
appear almost as soon as the snow leaves the ground in the spring.
Fruit an ovate achenium.
History. -- These plants are common to the
United States, growing in woods and upon elevated situations--the former,
which is the most common, being found on sides of hills, exposed to the
north, and the latter on the southern aspect. The plants yield their
virtues to water.
Properties and Uses. -- It is a mild, mucilaginous
astringent, and is freely used in infusion, in fevers, diseases of the
liver; and for bleeding from the lungs, coughs, etc., it is a most valuable
curative.
Dose. -- Infusion taken ad libitum.
 
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