A LITTLE shrubby plant frequent on our waste grounds and heaths, with small prickly leaves and bushy tops. The plant grows a foot and a half high. The stalks are roundish, striated, thick, and very tough. They are naked towards the bottom, and divide into some branches towards the top: they are there covered with leaves. These leaves are short, broad, oval, and pointed, the point running out in a prickle; they are of a bluish green, and very thick and fleshy. The flowers are seldom regarded; they grow in a singular manner upon the backs of the leaves; they are very small and purplish: these are succeeded each by a single berry, which is red, round, and as big as a pea. The roots are white, thick, and numerous.
The root is the part used, and it is an excellent medicine to remove obstructions. It works power fully by urine, and is good in jaundices, and in stoppages of the menses, and excellent in the gravel.