Before doctor's treatments came into use, people used to make up medicines from herbs of plants. The following are some of the herbs used for cures. Cough-grass for a cold, Butter-cups for a hearthburn, Chickweek for a swollen joint, House leek for sore eyes, Coltsfoot for sore throats, Dandelion juice is good to drink for a weak heart and bones, [?] is good for the kidney trouble, Bleeding-heart
The roots of comfrey if boiled and chopped fine and used as a poultice is a cure for swollen or painful joints. The stone crop that grows on the top of the walls if chopped fine and mixed through bread or vegetables and given to young dogs suffering from worms is a cure. Coltsfoot is a composite plant with a yellow flower. It grows in moist clayey soil. The leaves when dried and smoked like tobacco will cure asthma. Garlic is a cultivated herb. If sowed on a Good Friday it has a cure for many diseases. Consumption is one of the diseases Garlic will cure. To drink goats milk and Garlic and sleep over horses is known to have cured the most hopeless cases. Hemlock is a poisonous herb.
stomach". Watercress, which grows in limestone springs, was considered good for the blood. Bog bean which grows in marshes was highly valued as a "Spring medicine". Watercress was eaten raw with salt. Camomile and bog bean were used in decoctions. Slan lios (slob grass) was much used as a healer for cuts. It was prepared by being chewed, or brused between two flat stones. Thistles, docks and raweed (bouchalan buide) are very injurious, both to crops and pastures, because they are strong - growing, and they spread rapidly, both by seeds and roots. Charlock preshaugh is very injurious to cereals, because it is difficult to weed it out, without injuring the crop. Coltsfoot is considered a very bad weed. It grows mostly in poor soils. Crowfoot, groundsel and chickweed are very troublesome in gardens.
Herbs that are harmful to land are, Nettles, Ragwort, thistles, dockleaf, fórán, lambsquarter, coltsfoot, chickenweed, bloodwort, prasaugh.
Nettles