Her War

Interpreting Women's Lives during the American Civil War

Herbs L

Liquorice
The saccharine juice of the root is useful in catarrhs, fevers, &c.  Its taste is sweet and mucilaginous, and it is much used as a demulcent, either alone or combined with other substances, for lung diseases.
Lavender
It is cultivated for its fragrant spikes of flowers, which are used for the distillation of Lavender-water.  Being dried and put up in paper bags, they are also used to perfume linen.  Both flowers and leaves are very aromatic.  It has an agreeable pungent bitterness to the taste, and its medical properties are stimulant, cordial, and stomachic, and the essential oil mixed with proof spirits is very useful in cases of fainting and paralysis, but the chief use of the plant is as a perfume.