Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Butterwort

BUTTERWORT, or the Pinguicula, L.; a genus containing six species, of which the most remarkable is the vulgaris, or common butterwort, or Yorkshire sanicle, growing on bogs, or low, moist grounds, in England and Scotland. Its leaves are covered with soft, upright, pellucid prickles, secreting a glutinous liquor; the blossoms violet, purple, and reddish, with white lips, and an ash-coloured, woolly spot on the palate: its flowers appear in May and June. Linnæus informs us, that if the fresh gathered leaves of this plant be put into a strainer, through which the milk of the rein-deer is poured while warm, and set by for a day or two, to become acescent, it acquires such a degree of consistency and tenacity, that neither whey nor cream, separate. The inhabitants in the north of Sweden eat this coagulated milk, as a very grateful food. When the leaves have been once used, it is not necessary to have recourse to them again; for half a spoonful of the prepared milk, mixed with a fresh quantity of other milk, will always effect the purpose: but Mr. Hawes, who tried this experiment with cow's milk, did not succeed.

The juice of the leaves of common butterwort kills lice in men and brutes; and likewise cures chaps in cow's udders. Neither sheep, cows, horses, goats, nor swine, will feed upon the plant; though it is erroneously believed that it occasions the rot in sheep.

External applications of the root, are, according to Bechstein, a good vulnerary; and, if credit be due to him, decoctions made of the whole plant, tend to restore the hair to a bald head.