Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Fumitory

FUMITORY, or Fumaria, L. a genus of plants comprising nine-teen species, five or six of which are natives; and among these the principal are:

1. The officinalis, or Common Fumitory. It is annual, grows in corn-fields, hedge-banks and gardens, and is in flower from May to August.—This plant is eaten by cows and sheep; goats dislike it, except the young shoots, but horses totally refuse it.—The leaves are succulent, saline, and bitter. The expressed juice, in doses of two or three ounces, is strongly recommended in hypochondriacal, scorbutic, and such habits as abound with vitiated humours. It corrects acidity, and strengthens the stomach. Hoffman, in these cases, preferred it to all other medicines. On account of its efficacy in opening obstructions, and what are professionally called infarctions of the viscera, especially those of the liver, an extract of it deserves to be kept in the shops. If the juice be taken in large doses, it proves both diuretic and laxative: it may also be mixed with whey, and used as a common drink.—An infusion of the leaves of this plant is employed as a cosmetic, to remove freckles from the skin.

2. The solida v. bulbosa, or Solid Bulbous Fumitory, which grows in woods and parks (for instance, Levan's Park), and flowers in April or May.—Bechstein relates, that this plant affords a certain remedy for the extermination of frogs in fish-ponds.