Ming herbal (painting): Violet

Unknown artist

Lettering: Dinghao, also known as diding. It is now found everywhere. The stems bow down towards the earth. It is found in five colours [i.e. all colours]; the purple ones are generally used in medicine. It is bitter and pungent in sapor, cooling and non-poisonous. It is efficacious for sores and abscesses of all kinds, eruptions on the back, boils and scrofula (luoli), unnnamed toxic swellings (zhongdu), and malign sores. It is administered in wuhui liquor (an alcoholic beverage used in medicine[?])