The juice gives a red colour to the spirit of wine with which it is mixed, and to expressed oils, being then known as the _Hypericum_ "red oil" mentioned above. The flowers contain tannin, and "_Hypericum_ red." Moreover, this _Hypericum_ oil made from the tops is highly useful for healing bed sores, and is commended as excellent for ulcers. A medicinal tincture (H.) is prepared with spirit of wine from the entire fresh plant, collected when flowering, or in seed, and this proves of capital service for remedying injuries to the spinal cord, both by being given internally, and by its external use. It has been employed in like manner with benefit for lock-jaw. The dose of the tincture is from five to eight drops with a spoonful of water two or three times a day. This plant may be readily distinguished from others of the Hypericaceous order by its decidedly two edged stem. Sprigs of it are stuck at the present time in Wales over every outer door on the eve of St. John's day; [290] and in Scotland, milking is done on the herb to dispel the malignant enchantments which cause ropy milk. Among the Christian saints St. John represents light; and the flowers of this plant were taken as a reminder of the beneficent sun. Tutsan is a large flowered variety (_Hypericum androsoemum_) of the St. John's Wort, named from the French _toute saine_, or "heal all," because of its many curative virtues; and is common in Devon and Cornwall. It possesses the same properties as the perforate sort, but yields a stronger and more camphoraceous odour when the flowers and the seed vessels are bruised. A tincture made from this plant, as well as that made from the perforate St. John's Wort, has been used with success to cure melancholia, and its allied forms of insanity. The seed-capsules of the Tutsan are glossy and berry-like; the leaves retain their strong resinous odour after being dried. Tutsan is called also provincially "Woman's Tongue," once set g(r)owing it never stops; and by country folk in Ireland the "Rose of Sharon." Its botanical name Androsoemum, _andros aima_, man's blood, derived from the red juice and oil, probably suggested the popular title of Tutsan, "heal all," often corrupted to "Touchen leaf." Gerard gives a receipt, as a great secret, for making a compound oil of _Hypericum_, "than which," he says, "I know that in the world there is no better; no, not the natural balsam itself." "The plant," he adds, "is a singular remedy for the sciatica, provided that the patient drink water for a day or two after purging." "The leaves laid upon broken shins and scabbed legs do heal them." The whole plant is of a special value for healing [291] punctured wounds; and its leaves are diuretic. It is handsome and shrubby, growing to a height of two or three feet. JUNIPER.