Also snakeweed. [SNAKE sb.]
1. The plant bistort, Polygonum bistorta.
In dial. use the name has also been applied to other species of Polygonum, as P. lapathifolium and P. viviparum; and to the plants Mercurialis perennis, dogs mercury, and Cicuta maculata, an American hemlock.
1597. Gerarde, Herball, II. lxxxi. 323. Bistorta is called in English Snakeweede. Ibid. Broade leafed Snakeweede.
1601. R. Chester, Loves Martyr (1878), 90. Dwarfe gentian, Snakeweed, and Sommer Sauory.
1611. Cotgr., Bistorte, Bistort, Snakeweed.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 284. [Mountebanks] instead of Mandrakes sell the Roots of Bryony or of Snake-weed.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. Snakeweed, Polygonum.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 40. Certain annual plantsas the septfoil and bistort, or snake-weed.
1887. Brit. Med. Jrnl., Feb., 424. The rhizome of snake-weed is successfully used by the Lithuanian peasantry as a prophylactic in cases of bite by rabid animals.
2. = SNAKE-ROOT 1.
1631. Winthrop, Hist. New Eng. (1825), I. 62. He always carried about with him match and a compass, and in summer time snake-weed.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. xxii. 392. Snakeweed. The root of the Virginian cures the Plague, poyson, Pox [etc.].
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Fryars Balsam, Infuse in it one Ounce of Virginia Snakeweed cut small.
1855. Dunglison, Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 12), 100. Aristolochia Serpentaria, Virginian Snakeroot, Snake-weed.