The Universal Herbal: Anemone Nemerosa; Wood Anemone.

The Universal Herbal;
or botanical, medical and agricultural dictonary.
Containing an account of All the known Plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean system. Specifying the uses to which they are or may be applied, whether as food, as medicine, or in the arts and manufactures.
With the best methods of propagation, and the most recent agricultural improvements.
collected from indisputable Authorities.
Adapted to the use of the farmer - the gardener - the husbandman - the botanist - the florist - and country housekeepers in general.
By Thomas Green.
Vol. I
Liverpool.
Printed at the Caxton Press by Henri Fisher.
Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty.
1824Seeds acute, tailless; leaflets gashed; stem one flowered; flower naked. Root perennial, creeping; height of the plant ten inches; the usual colour of the flower white. It grows in woods among bushes, in hedges, and in pastures of most parts of Europe. It almost covers the ground with its flowers in some of the woods of England during March, April, and May. In fine clear weather the blossoms are expanded, and become so erect as to face the sun; but in wet weather, and in the evening, they are closed and hang down. As the paper in which dried specimens of this plant had been preserved was stained brown, it might probably be useful as a dye. It is acrid, and slightly poisonous. Linneus informs us that cattle brought from open to woody pastures, and eating of this plant, have afterwards had the bloody flux, and voided bloody urine. When the flowers become double, the wood anemone is cultivated by the gardeners; and were the same pains taken with it as with the foreign anemones, it would in all probability soon stand higher in the estimation of the florist. The roots may be taken up when the leaves decay, and transplanted into wildernesses, where they will greatly increase if not disturbed; and in the spring, before the leafing of the trees, the ground will be covered with their flowers. This plant is also called the Wind Flower. The juice snuffed up the nose, or the root held in the mouth, excites a discharge of cold watery humours from the head and parts adjacent. The leaves bruised, and applied to ulcers and running sores, cleanse, and dispose them to heal. Some authors recommend it in suppressions of the menses; but it is too acrid in its nature for internal use, and might be fatal in unskilful hands.