The Family Kitchen Gardener (1856)/Blessed Thistle
BLESSED THISTLE.
Centaurèa benedícta. —Centaurée Sudorifique, Fr.—Cardo benedicten, Ger.
A native of the south of France, Spain, and the Levant. It is annual, and propagated from seed sown in Autumn. This plant has obtained the name of Benedictus, or Blessed, from its supposed extraordinary medicinal qualities. It has an intensely bitter taste and disagreeable smell. It was formerly employed to assist the operation of emetics; but the flowers of Chamomile are now substituted for it with equal advantage. It was also thought, when taken internally, to be peculiarly efficacious in malignant fevers. In loss of appetite, where the stomach has been injured by irregularities, its good effects have been frequently experienced. It has now lost much of its reputation, and does not seem to be essentially different from other simple bitters.