Ending the Silence

Herb Magick

* Herbal Medicines Dictionary
* Magical Herbs Dictionary
* Kitchen Herbs & Spices
* Herbal remedies (recipes)
* Herbal Crafts
* History of herbs
* Herbal Teas
* Herbal Gardens
* Safety with Herbs
* Herbal Healing for Pets
* Herbs for Women
* Herbs for Men
* Herbal Links

This is to be used as a reference, a guide in which one can ask or speak to professional or one's doctor before undertaking any herbal remedy.

Adder's Tongue

Synonyms---Serpent's Tongue. Dog's Tooth Violet. Yellow Snowdrop.
Parts Used---Leaves, bulbs.
Habitat---Eastern United States of America, from New Brunswick to Florida, and westwards to Ontario and Arkansas.
The American Dog's Tooth Violet or Adder's Tongue, Erythronium Americanum (Ker Gawl), is a very beautiful early spring flower of the Eastern United States of America, belonging to the Lily family. It grows in damp, open woodlands from New Brunswick to Florida and westwards to Ontario and Arkansas.

Description

Medicinal Action and Uses

In some areas, the Northern Adder's Tongue is a threatened species which In Connecticut, it is a threatened plant, though it is more common in northern New England. This is a plant that should be protected due to its increasing rarity in the wild.

Gender: Femine
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Powers: Healing
Magical Uses: Soak some adder's tongue in cold water and apply it to a wound or bruise (wrap it in a peice of cloth) untilt he herb grows warm. Next, bury the wet herb in a muddy place. The wound will be cured.

Superstitions/Folk lore:

ADDER'S TONGUE,
ENGLISH

Synonym---Christ's Spear.
Parts Used---Root, leaves.
The Adder's Tongue, known also in some parts of England as Christ's Spear, has no resemblance to any other Fern. The stems which grow up solitarily from the small root - formed merely of a few stout, yellow fibres - are round, hollow and succulent, bearing on the upper part a simple spike, issuing from the sheath of a smooth, oblong-oval, tapering, concave, undivided, leafy frond. Embedded on each side of the stalk - at the top is a single row of yellow thecae, not covered by any indusium. The whole has much the appearance of the Arum flower.

The name is derived from ophios (a serpent) and glossa (a tongue).

This strange little Fern, growing only from 3 to 9 inches in height, is generally distributed over Great Britain, being not uncommon, buried in the grass in moist pastures and meadows. It is tolerably easy of cultivation.

Size: Grows to a height of around 100mms.

Distribution: Found mostly in southern England. Quite rare.

Flowering months: As with other ferns it does not flower, but usually appears between June and August. The remainder of the year is spent underground as a slender rhizome.

Habitat: Found mostly on damp grassland.

Special features: Compared with most of our other native ferns, this one is tiny and easily overlooked. The elliptic leaves are mostly solitary, but sometimes paired. Growing from the centre of the plant is an unbranched spike, approximately 40mms long, which contains two rows of reproductive spores. It is this spike which gives the plant its name.

This plant is considered a good indicator of ancient meadows.



	The plant, which is quite smooth, grows from a small, slender, ovoid, fawn-coloured corm, 1/3 to 1 inch long which is quite deeply buried in the soil and is of solid, firm consistence and white and starchy internally. The stem is slender, a few inches high, and bears near the ground, on footstalks 2 to 3 inches long, a pair of oblong, dark-green, purplish-blotched leaves, the blades about 2 1/2 inches long and 1 inch wide, minutely wrinkled, with parallel, longitudinal veins. The stem terminates in a handsome, large, pendulous, lily-like flower, an inch across, with the perianth divisions strongly recurved, bright yellow in colour, often tinged with purple and finely dotted within at the base, and with six stamens. It flowers in the latter part of April and early in May.

In BRitish folklore credited with curing adder bites and countering other evils associated with snakes, and was once used as an ointment for minor cuts and wounds. It is still found in some medicinal lotions and is sometimes drunk as a tea to cleanse the blood.		The constituents of the plant have not yet been analysed. The fresh leaves and corm, and to a lesser degree the rest of the plant, are emetic. The fresh leaves having emollient and anti-scrofulous properties are mostly used in the form of a stimulating poultice, applied to swellings, tumours and scrofulous ulcers. The infusion is taken internally in wineglassful doses. It is reputed of use in dropsy, hiccough and vomiting. The recent bulbs have been used as a substitute for colchicum. They are emetic in doses of 25 to 30 grains.