1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller Chapter , "At the same time we got a yerb" (such was his pronunciation) "on the hills, which some call lion-heart, and others snake-head."
1895, Charles Egbert Craddock, The Phantoms Of The Foot-Bridge Chapter , When he ventured to sneeze, Mrs. Roxby compounded and administered a "yerb tea," a sovereign remedy against colds, which he tasted on compulsion and in great doubt, and swallowed with alacrity and confidence, finding its basis the easily recognizable "toddy."
1911, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Brother Copas Chapter , The ancients, by which I mean the Greeks, set amazin' store by the yerb.
