Though often a very troublesome weed in pasture and other lands, the milk-thistle may be eaten in the spring as a salad: and the tender stalks, if peeled and soaked in water to extract their bitterness, afford a delicious dish: the scales of the flower-cup may be used as a substitute for artichokes; and the roots, as well as the leaves, while young, are wholesome food.—Rabbits, likewise, are exceedingly fond of the leaves and stalks of the milk-thistle, which tend to preserve their health, when kept in a domestic state.
MILK-VETCH, or Astragalus, L. a genus of indigenous, perennial plants, consisting of 80 species: the principal of which is the glycyphyllos, Common or Sweet Milk-vetch, Liquorice-vetch, Wild-liquorice, or Liquorice Cock's-head: it grows in meadows, pastures, and on ditch-banks, where it flowers in the months of June and July.—This plant will thrive with uncommon luxuriance in poor barren soils; and yield an abundance of tender and succulent herbage. Its cultivation has, therefore, been strongly recommended by Dr. Anderson, who observes, that it would be an excellent winter-fodder for cattle, which devour it with avidity.—Cows depastured on this plant, are said to yield an abundance of rich milk; from which circumstance it has received its most proper English name.
MILK-WEED, the Marsh, Wild Parsley, or Wild Milky Parsley, Selinum palustre, L. an indigenous perennial plant, growing in damp and marshy situations, where its stalk attains the height of three or four feet; and flowering in the month of June or July.—Every part of this vegetable, on cutting it, exudes a milky juice: its aromatic root may serve as a substitute for exotic spices in medicine, and for culinary purposes: the Russians use it instead of ginger, and the Laplanders chew it in the same manner as tobacco.
MILK-WORT, the Common, or Polygala vulgaris, L. an indigenous perennial plant, thriving on heaths and dry pastures; flowering in the months of June and July.—This herb is eaten by cows, the milk of which it remarkably increases; also by goats and sheep, but is refused by hogs.—Its roots possess an extremely bitter taste, together with all the virtues of the American rattlesnake-root.—According to Du Hamel, it is given with success in pleuritic cases, operating as a purgative, emetic, and diuretic. A spoonful of the decoction, made by boiling an ounce of the herb in a pint of water, till one half be evaporated, sensibly promotes perspiration as well as expectoration, and has therefore been used with advantage in catarrhal fevers and defluxions on the lungs:—three spoonfuls of this medicine, taken every hour, have sometimes afforded considerable relief in dropsical cases.
Milkwort, the Sea. See Black Saltwort.
MILL, a machine for grinding corn, &c. of which there are various kinds, according to the different methods of applying the moving power; such as water-mills, those worked by horses, wind-mills, &c.
Without discussing the mechanical construction of this valuable contrivance, we shall, conformably to our plan, omit the less interesting patents granted for inventions or improvements, and present to our readers an account of Mr.
