Important: Safety Warning
This page recommends preparations containing opium, laudanum, morphine, or similar narcotics — in some cases for children. These substances are dangerously addictive, easily fatal in overdose, and strictly controlled by law today.
In addition, this page states that certain wild plants are safe to eat. Its identifications and edibility claims are more than a century old and in some cases simply wrong, and deadly look-alikes exist for many edible species. Never eat a wild plant on the strength of this text.
In addition, this page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Comfrey
the Symphytum officinale.
The stem is 2-3 feet high, branched above.
The flowers are in pairs, secund, and drooping. The corolla is large, yellowish-white, often purple. The plant is frequently found on the banks of rivers or in watery places generally. It flowers in May and June. It was formerly regarded as a vulnerary. The leaves substitute young may be used as a gathered while substitute for spinach. Comfrey stewed in sugar, with a small amount of paregoric added, makes a highly-prized domestic remedy for coughs and bronchial irritation.