The dried plant of Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Mœnch (Thlaspi Bursa-pastoris, Linné).
Nat. Ord.—Cruciferæ.
Common Names: Shepherd’s purse, Shepherd’s sprout.
Illustration: American Dispensatory, 8th ed., Plate 5.
Botanical Source.—This is an annual weed, the stem of which is erect, striate, about 12 inches high, where the plants grow apart, but in rich soil, where they are in patches, the stems are often over 2 feet long, and reclining, but the thickness is increased very little. The branches are few, remote, and generally simple. The leaves are mostly borne in a thick radical cluster, at the base of the stem, and recline on the ground. They are from 3 to 6 inches long, and pinnatifid, with from 9 to 15 acute, wedge-shaped segments. The stem leaves are few, shorter than the internodes, and clasp the stems at the base of the branches. The lower stem-leaves are sagittate and dentate; the upper, linear and entire. The flowers are small, white, and borne in terminal racemes, which elongate as the flowers expand. The sepals and petals are 4, and the stamens are 6 and tetradynamous. The fruit is a flat, wedge-shaped pod, notched at the end, and divided by a narrow partition, into 2 cells, which contain numerous minute, oblong seeds.
History.—Shepherd’s purse is a native of Europe, but is naturalized in almost every country of the world. In the United States it has become among the most common of yard weeds, growing in all sections of the country, and often forming large patches in waste grounds. It is especially luxuriant in the spring months, but the stem dies and the weed entirely disappears by the middle of summer. It is often eaten in the spring as “greens.”
Capsella Bursa-pastoris has been used in domestic medicine since an early day. Culpepper refers to it in his English Physician, and the article is copied almost verbatim in subsequent works, until Lewis’ (1761) Materia Medica cast discredit upon it as an astringent.
Only the opening of the article is transcribed; Description and Chemical Composition, Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage, and Related Species follow on p. 432.