'Pissy beds, lion's tooth . . . it has to be the dandelion'

Sir, – From personal experience, I can add to Michael Viney’s reference (“Pissy beds, lion’s tooth..

Sir, – From personal experience, I can add to Michael Viney’s reference (“Pissy beds, lion’s tooth ... it has to be the dandelion”, Weekend, May 5th) to the medicinal potential of the dandelion. My mother, also country-born and after long years in town, told me the only way to cure or remove the warts on my 10-year-old hands was to apply the squeezed-out milk from the dandelion’s stalk on to the skin-rooted growths. It worked where all pharmaceutical remedies had failed. She also advised that the same milk was poisonous, so instead I’ll try dandelion wine. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN BRADY,

Geashill,

Tullamore, Co Offaly.