this small herb hath but one leaf which grows with the stalk a fingers
length above the ground being fat and of a fresh green colour broad like
the water plantane but less without any middle rib in it from the bottom
of which leaf on the inside riseth up ordinarily one somtimes two or
three small slender stalks the upper half wherof is somwhat bigger and
dented with smal round dents of a yellowish green colour like the tongue
of an adder or serpent only this is as useful as they are formidable the
root continues all the year it groweth in moist meadows and such like
places and is to be found in april and may for it quickly perisheth with
a little heat it is temperate in respect of heat but dry in the second
degree the juyce of the leaves drunk with the distilled water of
horstail is a singular remedy for all manner of wounds in the breast
bowels or other parts of the body and is given with good success unto
those who are troubled with casting vomiting or bleeding at the mouth or
nose or otherwise downwards the said juyce given in the distilled water
of oaken buds is very good for women who have their usual courses or the
whites flowing down too abundantly it helps sore eyes the leaves infused
or boyled in oyl omphacine or unripe olives set in the sun for certain
daies or the green leaves sufficiently boyled in the said oyl is made an
excellent green balsom not only for green and fresh wounds but also for
old and inveterate ulcers especially if a little fine clear turpentine
be dissolved therin it also stayeth and represseth all inflamations that
arise upon pains by hurts or wounds it is an herb under the dominion of
the moon in cancer and therfore if the weakness of the rententive
faculty be caused by an evil influence of saturn in any part of the body
governed by the moon or under the dominion of cancer this herb cures it
by sympathy it cures those diseases before specified in any part of the
body under the influence of saturn by antypathy what parts of the body
are under each planet and sign and also what diseases may be found in my
astrological judgment of diseases and for the internal work of nature in
the body of man as vital animal natural and procreative spirit of man
the apprehension judgment memory the external sences seeing hearing
smelling tasting and feelings the vertues attractive retentive digestive
expulsive under the dominion of what planets they are may be found in my
ephemeris for the yeer in both which you shall find the chaff of authors
blown away by the fame of dr reason and nothing but rational truths left
for the judgment of the ingenious to feed upon lastly to avoid blotting
paper with one thing many times and also to ease your purses in the
price of the book and withal to make you studious in physick you have at
the latter end of the book the way of preserving all herbs either in
juyce conserve oyl oyntment or plaister electuary pill or troches this
hath divers long leaves some greater some smaller set upon a stalk all
of them dented about the edges green above and grayish underneath and a
little hairy withal among which ariseth up usually but one strong round
hairy brown stalk two or three foot high with smaller leaves set here
and there upon it at the top wherof grow many smal yellow flowers one
above another in long spikes after which come rough heads of seeds
hanging downwards which wil cleave to and stick upon garments or any
thing that shal rub against them the root is black long and somwhat
woody abiding many yeers and shooting afresh every spring which root
though smal hath a reasonable good scent it groweth upon banks near the
sides of hedges or pales and it flowreth in july and august the seed
being ripe shortly after it is of a clensing and cutting faculty without
any manifest heat moderately drying and binding it openeth and clenseth
the liver helpeth the jaundice and is very beneficial to the bowels
healing all inward wounds bruises hurts and other distempers the
decoction of the herb made with wine and drunk is good against the
stinging and biting of serpents and helps them that have foul troubled
or bloody waters and makes them piss cleer spedily it also helpeth the
chollick clenseth the breast and rids away the cough a draught of the
decoction taken warm before the fit first removes and in time rids away
the tertian or quartan agues the leaves and seed taken in wine stayeth
the bloody flux outwardly applied being stamped with old swines grease
it helpeth old sores cancers and inveterate ulcers and draweth forth
thorns splinters or wood nails or any other such thing gotten into the
flesh it helpeth to strengthen the members that be out of joynt and
being bruised and applied or the juyce dropped in it helpeth foul and
imposthumed ears the distilled water of the herb is good to all the said
purposes either inward or outward but a great deal weaker it is an herb
under jupiter and the sign of cancer and therfore strengthens those
parts under that planet and sign and removes diseases in them by
sympathy and those under saturn mars and mercury by antipathy if they
happen in any part of the body governed by jupiter or under the signs
cancer sagitary or pisces and therfore must needs be good for the gout
either used outwardly in an oyl or oyntment or inwardly in an electuary
or syrup or concreated juyce for which see the latter end of the book it
is a most admirable remedy for such whose livers are annoyed either by
heat or cold the liver is the former of blood and blood the nourisher of
the body and agrimony and strengthner of the liver i cannot stand to
give you a reason in every herb why it cureth such diseases but if you
please to peruse my judgment in the herb wormwood you shall find them
there and it will be well worth your while to consider it in every herb
you shall find them true throughout the book this well known herb lieth
spreadeth and creepeth upon the ground shooting forth roots at the
corners of the tender joynted stalks set all along with two round leavs
at every joynt somwhat hairy crumpled and unevenly dented about the
edges with round dents at the joynts likewise with the leaves towards
the end of the branches come forth hollow long flowers of a blewish
purple colour with small white spots upon the lips that hang down the
root is small with strings it is commonly found under hedges and on the
sides of ditches under houses or in shadowed lanes and other wast
grounds in almost every part of the land they flower somwhat early and
abide so a great while the leaves continue green untill winter and
somtimes abide except the winter be very sharp and cold it is quick
sharp and bitter in tast and is therby found to be hot and dry a
singular herb for all inward wounds exulcerated lungs or other parts
either by it self or boyled with other the like herbs and being drunk it
in short time easeth all griping pains windy and chollerick humors in
the stomach spleen or belly helps the yellow jaundice by opening the
stoppings of the gaul and liver and melancholly by opening the stoppings
of the spleen expelleth venom or poyson and also the plague it provoketh
urin and womens courses the decoction of it in wine drunk for some time
together procureth ease unto them that are troubled with the sciatica or
hip gout as also the gout in the hands knees or feet and if you put to
the decoction some honey and a little burnt allum it is excellent good
to gargle any sore mouth or throat and to wash the sores and ulcers in
the privy parts of man or woman it speedily healeth green wounds being
bruised and bound therunto the juyce of it boyled with a little hony &
verdigrees doth wonderfully clens fistula's ulcers and stayeth the
spreading or eating of cancers and ulcers it helpeth the itch scabs
wheals and other breakings out in any part of the body the juyce of
celondine field daysies and ground ivy clarified and a little fine sugar
dissolved therin and dropped into the eyes is a sovereign remedy for all
the pains redness and watering of them as also for the pin and web skins
and films growing over the sight it helpeth beasts as well as men the
juyce dropped into the ears doth wonderfully help the noise and singing
of them and helpeth the hearing which is decayed it is good to tun up
with new drink for it will so clarifie it in a night that it will be the
fitter to be drunk the next morning or if any drink be thick with
removing or any other accident it will do the like in a few hours it is
an herb of venus and thefore cures her diseases by sympathy and those of
mars by antipathy how to preserve it all the yeer you shall find at the
latter end of the book it is usually sown in all the gardens in europe
and so well known that it needs no further description they flower in
june and july and the seed is ripe in august it warmeth a cold stomach
and openeth stoppings of the liver and spleen it is good to move womens
courses to expel the after birth to break wind to provoke urine and help
the strangury and these things the seeds wil do likewise if either of
them be boyled in wine or being bruised and taken in wine it is also
effectual against the biting of serpents and now you know what alexander
porredg which is so familiar in this city is good for that you may no
longer eat it out of ignorance but out of knowledg this tree seldom
groweth to any great bigness but for the most part abideth like a hedg
bush or tree spreading into branches the wood of the body being white
and of a dark red core or heart the outward bark is of a blackish colour
with many white spots theron but the inner bark next unto the wood is
yellow which being chewed will turn the spittle neer unto a saffron
colour the leaves are somwhat like those of the ordinary alder tree or
the foemale cornel or dogberry tree called in sussex dog wood but
blacker and not so long the flowers are white coming forth with the
leaves at the joynts which turn into small round berries first green
afterwards red but blackish when they are through ripe divided as it
were into two parts wherin is contained two small round and flat seeds
the root runneth not deep into the ground but spreadeth rather under the
upper crust of the earth this tree or shrub may be found plentifully in
johns wood by hornsey and in the woods upon hamsted heath as also at a
wood called the old park in barcomb in sussex near the brooks side it
flowereth in may and the berries are ripe in september the inner yellow
bark herof purgeth downwards both choller & flegm & the watry humors of
such as have the dropsie and strengtheneth the inward parts again by
binding if the bark hereof be boyled with agrimony wormwood dodder hops
and some fennel with smalledg endive and succory roots and a reasonable
draught taken every morning for some time together it is very effectual
against the jaundice dropsie and the evil disposition of the body
especially if some sutable purging medicine have been taken before to
avoid the grosser excrements it purgeth and strengtheneth the liver and
spleen clensing them from such evil humors and hardness as they are
afflicted with it is to be understood that these things are performed by
the dryed bark for the fresh green bark taken inwardly provoketh strong
vomitings pains in the stomach and gripings in the belly yet if the
decoction may stand and settle two or three daies until the yellow
colour be changed black it will not work so strongly as before but will
strengthen the stomach and procure an appetite to meat the outer bark
contrarywise doth bind the body and is helpful for all lasks and fluxes
therof but this must also be dried first wherby it wil work the better
the inner bark herof boyled in vinegar is an approved remedy to kill
lice to cure the itch and take away scabs by drying them up in a short
time it is singular good to wash the teeth to take away the pains to
fasten those that are loos to clens them to keep them sound the leaves
are good fodder for kine to make them give more milk if in the spring
time you use the herbs before mentioned and will but take a handful of
each of them and to them ad a handful of elder buds and having bruised
them all boyl them in a gallon of ordinary beer when 'tis new and having
boyled them half an hour ad this to three gallons more and let them work
together and drink a draught of it every morning half a pint or there
about it is an excellent purge for the spring to consume that flegmatick
quality the winter hath left behind it and withal keep your body in
health and consume those evil humors which the heat of summer will
readily stir up esteem it as a jewel groweth to a reasonable heighth and
spreads much if it like the place it is so generally wel known unto
country people that i conceive it needless to tel them that which is no
news it delighteth to grow in moist woods and watry places flowring in
april or may and yeilding ripe seed in september the leaves and bark of
the alder tree are cooling drying and binding the fresh leaves laid upon
swelling dissolveth them and staieth the inflamations the leaves put
under the bare feet gauled with travelling are a great refreshing to
them the said leaves gathered while the morning dew is on them and
brought into a chamber troubled with fleas wil gather them therinto
which being suddenly cast out wil rid the chamber of those troublesom
bed fellows it is a tree under the dominion of venus and of some watry
sign or other i suppose pisces and therfore the decoction or distilled
water of the leaves is excellent against burnings and inflamation either
with wounds or without to bath the place grieved with and especially for
that inflamation in the breast which the vulgar call an ague if you
cannot get the leaves as in winter 'tis impossible make use of the bark
in the same manner to write a description of that which is so well known
to be growing in almost every garden i suppose is altogether needless
yet for its vertues it is of admirable use in times of heathenism when
men had found out any excellent herb they dedicated it to their gods as
the bay tree to apollo the oak to jupiter the vine to bacchus the poplar
to hercules these the papists following as their patriarchs they
dedicate them to their saints as our ladies thistle to the blessed
virgin johns wort to john and another wort to peter our physitians must
imitate like apes though they cannot come off half so cleverly for they
blasphemously call pansies or hartseas an herb of the trinity because it
is of three colours and a certain oyntment an oyntment of the apostles
because it consisteth of twelve ingredients alas poor fools i am sorry
for their folly and grieved at their blasphemy god send them the rest of
their age for they have their share of ignorance already o why must ours
be blasphemous becaus the heathens and papists were idolatrous certainly
they have read so much in old rustie authors that they have lost all
their decmity for unless it were amongst the ranters i never read or
heard of such blasphemy the heathens and papists were bad and ours wors
the papists giving idolatrous names to herbs for their vertues sake not
for their fair looks and thefore some called this an herb of the holy
ghost others more moderate called it angelica becaus of its angelical
vertues and that name it retains still and all nations follow it so near
as their dialect will permit it resists poyson by defending and
comforting the heart bleed and spirits it doth the like against the
plague and all epidemical diseases if the root be taken in pouder to the
waight of half a dram at a time with some good triacle in cardus water
and the party therupon laid to sweat in his bed if treacle be not at
hand take it alone in cardus or angelica water the stalks or roots
candied and eaten fasting are good preservatives in time of infection
and at other times to warm and comfort a cold stomach the root also
steeped in vinegar and a little of that vinegar taken somtimes fasting
and the root smelled unto is good for the same purpose a water distilled
from the root simply or steeped in wine and distilled in glass is much
more effectual than the water of the leaves and this water drunk two or
three spoonfuls at a time easeth all pains and torments coming of cold
and wind so as the body be not bound and taken with some of the root in
pouder at the beginning helpeth the pluresy as also all other diseases
of the lungues and breast as coughs phthisick and shortness of breath
and a syrup of the stalks doth the like it helps pains of the colick the
strangury and stopping of the urin procureth womens courses and
expelleth the after birth openeth the stoppings of the liver and spleen
and briefly easeth and discusseth al windiness and inward swellings the
decoction drunk before the fit of an ague that they may sweat if
possible before the fit come wil in two or three times taking rid it
quite away it helps digestion and is a remedy for a surfet the juyce or
the water being dropped into the eyes or ears helps dimness of sight and
deafness the juyce put into the hollow teeth easeth their pains the
roots in pouder made up into a plaister with a little pitch and laid on
the biting of a mad dog or any other venemous creature doth wonderfully
help the juyce or the water dropped or tents wet therin and put into old
filthy deep ulcers or the pouder of the root in want of either doth
clens and cause them to heal quickly by covering the naked bones with
flesh the distilled water applied to places pained with the gout or
sciatica doth give a great deal of ease the wild angelica is not so
effectual as the garden although it may be safly used to all the purpose
aforesaid it is an herb of the sun in leo let it be gathered when he is
there the moon applying to his good aspect let it be gathered either in
his hour or in the hour of jupiter let sol be angular observe the like
in gathering the herbs of other plants and you may happen do wonders in
all epidemical diseases caused by saturn this is as good a preservative
as grows a word or two of the most usual kinds of apples though the
colledg of physitians make use of none but such as vulgo vulgati
pearmains vel pippins apples in general are cold and windy and being of
sundry tasts galen sheweth thereby how to distinguish them som have a
sharp tast and are good for fainting stomachs and loos bellies others
sowr good to cool and quench thirst som sharp fit to cut gross flegm som
sweet soon destributed in the body and as soon passed away yet sooner
corrupted in the stomach if they be staid the best sorts before they be
throughly ripe are to be avoided then to be roasted or scalded is the
best way to take them and a little spice or seeds cast upon them and
taken after meat do strengthen both stomach and bowels especially in
those that loath or hardly digest their meat or are given to casting or
have a flux or lask those that are a little sowr and harsh used in that
manner are fittest sweet apples loosen the belly and drive forth worms
sowr apples stop the belly and provoke urin and crabs for this purpose
are fittest the sweet apples as the pippin and pearmain help to dissolve
melancholly humors and to procure mirth and therfore are fittest for
confectio alkermes and syrupus de pomis the leavs boyled and given to
drink in hot agues where the heat of the liver and stomach causeth the
lips to break out and the throat to grow dry harsh and furred is very
good to wash and gargle it withal and to drink down som this may to good
purpose be used when better things are not at hand or cannot be had the
juyce of crabs either verjuyce or cider is of singular good use in the
heat and faintings of the stomach and against casting to make a posset
with or taken som of it alone by it self the juyce of crabs or cider
applied with wet cloaths therein to scalded or burnt places cooleth
healeth and draweth forth the fire a rotten apple applied to eyes
bloodshotten or enflamed with heat or that are black and blue about them
by any stroke of fall and bound too all day or night helpeth them
quickly the distilled water of rotten apples doth cool the heat and
inflamations of sores and is good to bath foul creeping ulcers and to
wash the face to take away spots freckles or other discolorings the
distilled water of good and sound apples is of special good use to
procure mirth and expel melancholly the ointment called pomatum if sweet
and well made helpeth the chops in the lips or hands and maketh smooth
and supple the rough skin of the hands or face parched with wind or
other accidents thus my authors all that i can say of apples is this
that they are extream windy that they provoke urin being roasted
especially pomwaters and mixed with fair water and drunk up at night
going to bed half a dozen great ones mixed with a quart of water
excellently provokes urin if there be no material stone in the body this
i had of gerhard and have often known it proved and alwaies with good
success all apples loosen the belly and pleasure the stomach by their
coolness this hath small and almost round leaves yet a little pointed
and without dent or cut of a dusky mealy colour growing on the slender
stalks and branches that spread on the ground with smal flowers in
clusters set with the leaves and small seeds succeeding like the rest
perishing yearly and rising again with its own sowing it smels like old
rotten fish or somthing worse it grows usually upon dunghills they
flower in june and july and their seed is ripe quickly after stinking
arrach is used as a remedy to help women pained and almost strangled
with the mother by smelling to it but inwardly taken there is not a
better remedy under the moon for that disease i would be large in
commendation of this herb were i but eloquent it is an herb under the
dominion of venus and under the sign scorpio it is common almost upon
every dunghil the works of god are given freely to man his medicins are
common and cheap and easie to be found 'tis the medicines of the colledg
of physitians that are so dear and scarce to find i commend it for an
universal medicine for the womb and such a medicine as will easily safly
and speedily cure any diseas therof as the fits of the mother
dislocation or falling out therof it cools the womb being over heated
and let me tel you this and i wil tel you but the truth heat of the womb
is one of the greatest causes of hard labor in childbirth it makes
barren women fruitful it clenseth the womb if it be foul and strengthens
it exceedingly it provokes the terms if they be stopped and stops them
if they flow immoderately you can desire no good to your womb but this
herb will effect it therfore if you love children if you love health if
you love ease keep a syrup alwaies by you made of the juyce of this herb
and sugar or honey if it be to clens the womb and let such as be rich
keep it for their poor neighbors and bestow it as freely as i bestow my
studies upon them or els let them look to answer it another day when the
lord shall come to make inquisition for bloud to put a gloss upon their
practice the physitians call an herb which country people vulgarly know
by the name of dead nettles archangel wherein whether they favor of more
superstition or folly i leave to the judicious reader there is more
curiosity than courtesie to my countrymen used by others in the
explaination aswel of the names as description of this so wel known an
herb which that i may not also be guilty of take this short description
first of the red archangel this hath divers square stalks somwhat hairy
at the joynts whereof grow two sad green leaves dented about the edges
opposit to one another the lowermost upon long footstalks but without
any toward the tops which are somwhat round yet pointed and a little
crumpled and hairy round about the upper joynts where the leaves grow
thick are sundry gaping flowers of a pale reddish colour after which com
the seeds three or four in a husk the root is small and thriddy
perishing every year the whol plant hath a strong scent but not stinking
white archangel hath diverse square stalks not standing streight upright
but bending downward wheron stand two leavs at a joynt larger and more
pointed than the other dented about the edges and greener also more like
unto nettle leavs but not stinking yet hairy at the joynts with three
leavs stand larger and more open gaping white flowers in husks round
about the stalks but not with such a bush of leavs as flowers set in the
top as in on the other wherin stand smal roundish black seeds the root
is white with many strings at it not growing downward but lying under
the upper crust of the earth and abideth many years encreasing this hath
not so strong a scent as the former yellow archangel is like the white
in the stalks and leavs but that the stalks are more streight and
upright and the joynts with leaves are further asunder having longer
leavs than the former and the flowers a little larger and more gaping of
a fair yellow colour in most in som paler the roots are like the white
only they creep not so much under the ground they grow almost everywhere
unless it be in the middle of the street the yellow most usually in the
wet grounds of woods and somtimes in the dryer in divers countries of
this nation they flower from the begining of the spring all the summer
long the archangels are somwhat hot and dryer than the stinking nettles
and used with better success for the stopping and hardness of the spleen
than they by using the decoction of the herb in wine and afterwards
applying the herb hot unto the region of the spleen as a plaister or the
decoction with spunges the flowers of the white archangel are preserved
or conserved to be used to stay the whites and the flowers of the red to
stay the reds in women it makes the heart merry drives away melancholly
quickens the spirits is good against quartan agues stancheth bleedings
at mouth or nose if it be stamped and applied to the nape of the neck
the herb also brused and with some salt and vinegar and hogs greas laid
upon any hard tumor or swelling or that which is vulgarly called the
kings evil doth help to dissolve or discuss them and being in like
manner applied doth much allay the pains and give eas to the gout
sciatica and other aches of the joynts and sinews it is also very
effectual to heal all green wounds and old ulcers also to stay their
fretting gnawing and spreading it draweth forth splinters and such like
things gotten into the flesh and is very good against bruises and
burnings but the yellow archangel is most commended for old filty
corrupt sores and ulcers yea although they grow to be hollow and to
dissolve tumors the chief use of them is for women it being an herb of
venus and may be found in my guide for women this hath broad leaves set
at the great red joynts of the stalks with semicircular blackish marks
on them usually yet somtimes without the flowers grow in long spikes
usually either blush or whitish with such like seed following the root
is long with many strings therat perishing yeerly this hath no sharp
tast as another sort hath which is quick and biting but rather sowr like
sorrel or els a little drying without tast it grows in watery plashes
ditches and the like which for the most part are dry in summer it
flowreth in june and the seed is ripe in august it is of a cooling and
drying quality and very effectual for putrified ulcers in man or beast
to kill the worms and clens the putrified places the juyce therof
dropped in or otherwise applied consumeth all cold swellings and
dissolveth the congealed blood of bruises by strokes falls a piece of
the root or some of the seed bruised and held to an aching tooth taketh
away the pain the leaves bruised and laid to the joynt that hath a
fellon theron taketh it away the juyce destroyeth worms in the ears
being dropped into them if the hot arsmart be strewed in a chamber it
will soon kill all the fleas and the herb or juyce of the cold arsmart
put to horses or other cattels sores will drive away the flie in the
hottest time of summer a good handful of the hot biting arsmart put
under a horses saddle will make him travel the better although he were
half tired before the mild arsmart is good against hot imposthumes and
inflamations at the beginning and to heal green wounds all authors chop
the vertues of both sort of arsmart together as men chop herbs for the
pot when both of them are of clean contrary qualities the hot arsmart
groweth not so high or tall as the mild doth but hath many leaves of the
colour of peach leaves very seldom or never spotted in other particulars
it is like the former but may easily be known from it if you will be but
pleased to break a leaf of it cross your tongue for the hot will make
your tongue to smart so will not the cold if you see them both together
you many easily distinguish them becaus the mild hath far broader leaves
and our colledg of physitians out of their learned care for the publick
good anglice their own gain mistake the one for the other in their new
master piece wherby they discover their ignorance their carelesness and
he that hath but half an eye may see their pride without a pair of
spectacles i have done what i could to distinguish them in their vertues
and when you find not the contrary named use the cold the truth is i
have not yet spoken with reason nor his brother experience concerning
either of them both asarabacca hath many heads rising from the roots
from whence come many smooth leavs every one upon his own footstalk
which are rounder and bigger than violet leaves thicker also and of a
darker green shining colour on the upper side and of a paler yellow
green underneath little or nothing dented about the edges from among
which rise smal round hollow brown green husks upon short stalks about
an inch long divided at the brims into five divisions very like the cups
or heads of the henbane seed but that they are smaller and these be all
the flowers it carrieth which are somwhat sweet being smelled unto and
wherein when they are ripe is contained smal cornered rough seeds very
like the kernels or stones of grapes or raisons the roots are small and
whitish spreading divers waies in the ground and encreasing into divers
heads but not running or creeping under ground as some other creeping
herbs do they are somwhat sweet in smell resembling nardus but more when
they are dry than green and of a sharp but not unpleasant tast it
groweth frequently in gardens they keep their leaves green all winter
but shoot forth new in the spring and with them come forth those heads
or flowers which give ripe seed about midsummer or somwhat after this
herb being drunk not only provoketh vomiting but purgeth downward and by
urin also purging both choller and flegm if you ad to it some spicknard
with the whey of goats milk or honeyed water it is made more strong but
it purgeth flegm more manifestly than choller and therfore doth much
help pains in the hips and other parts it being boyled in whey it
wonderfully helpeth the obstruction of the liver and spleen and therfore
profitable for the dropsie and jaundice being steeped in wine and drunk
it helps those continual agues that come by the plenty of stubborn
humors an oyl made therof by setting it in the sun with some laudanum
added to it provoketh sweating the ridg of the back being anointed
therwith and therby driveth away the shaking fits of agues it will not
abide any long boyling for it loseth its chiefest strength therby nor
much beating for the finer pouder doth provoke vomit and urin and the
courser purgeth downwards the common use herof is to take the juyce of
five or seven leavs in a little drink to caus vomitings the roots have
also the same vertue though they do not operate so forcibly yet they are
very effectual against the biting of serpents and therfore is put as an
ingredient both into methridate and venice treacle the leaves and roots
being boyled in ly and the head often washed therwith while it is warm
comforteth the head and brain that is ill affected by taking cold and
helpeth the memory i shall desire ignorant people to forbear the use of
the leavs the roots purge more gently and may prove beneficial in such
as have cancers or old putrified ulcers or fistulaes upon their bodies
to take a dram of them in pouder in a quarter of a pint of white wine in
the morning the truth is i fancy purging and vomiting medicines as
little as any man breathing doth for they weaken nature nor shall never
advise them to be used unless upon urgent necessity if a physitian be
natures servant it is his duty to strengthen his mistris as much as he
can and weaken her as little as may be it riseth up at first with divers
whitish green scaly heads very brittle or easie to break while they are
yong which afterwards rise up into very long and slender green stalks of
the bigness of an ordinary riding wand at the bottom of most or bigger
or lesser as the roots are of growth on which are set divers branches of
green leavs shorter and smaller than fennel to the top at the joynts
wherof come forth small mossie yellowish flowers which turn into round
berries green at the first and of an excellent red colour when they are
ripe shewing like beads of corral wherin are contained exceeding hard
black seeds the roots are dispersed from a spongeous head into many long
thick and round strings wherby it sucketh much nourishment out of the
ground and encreaseth plentifully thereby it groweth usually in gardens
and some of it grows wild in appleton meadow in gloucestershire where
the poor people do gather the buds or yong shoots and sell them cheaper
than our garden asparagus is sold at london they do for the most part
flower and bear their berries late in the yeer or not at all although
they are housed in winter the yong bud or branches boyled in ones
ordinary broth maketh the belly soluble and open and boyled in white
wine provoketh urin being stopped and is good against the strangury or
difficulty of making water it expelleth the gravel and stone out of the
kidneys and helpeth pains in the reins and boyled in white wine or
vinegar it is prevalent for them that have their arteries loosned or are
troubled with the hip gout or sciatica the decoction of the roots boyled
in wine and taken is good to cleer the sight and being held in the mouth
easeth the toothach and being taken fasting several mornings together
stirreth up bodily lust in man or woman whatsoever some have written to
the contrary the garden asparaus nourisheth more than the wild yet hath
it the same effects in al the aforementioned diseases the decoction of
the roots in white wine and the back and belly bathed therwith or
kneeling or lying down in the same or sitting therin as a bath hath been
found effectual against pains that happen to the lower parts of the body
and no less effectual against stiff and benummed sinews or those that
are shrunk by cramps and convulsions and helpeth the sciatica this is so
wel known that time wil be misspent and paper wasted in writing a
description of it and therfore i shal only insist upon the vertues of it
the yong tender tops with the leaves taken inwardly and some of them
outwardly applied are singular good against the biting of the viper
adder or any other venemous beast and the water distilled therfrom being
taken a smal quantity every morning fasting is a singular medicine for
those that are subject to a dropsie or to abate the greatness of those
who are too gross or fat the decoction of the leaves in white wine
helpeth to break the stone and expel it and cureth the jaundice the
ashes of the bark of the ash made into ly and those heads bathed
therwith which are leprous scabby or scal'd they are therby cured the
kernels within the husks commonly called ashen keys prevaileth against
stitches and pains in the sides proceeding of wind and avoideth away the
stone by provoking urin i can justly except against none of all this
save only the first that ash tree tops and leaves are good against the
biting of serpents and vipers and i suppose this had its rise from
gerard or pliny both which hold that there is such an antipathy between
an adder and an ash tree that if an adder be compassed round with ash
tree leaves she wil sooner run through the fire than through the leaves
the contrary to which is the truth as both my eyes are witnesses the
rest are vertues somthing likely only if it be in winter when you cannot
get the leaves you may safely use the bark instead of them the keys you
may easily keep all the year gathering them when they are ripe the
ordinary avens hath many long rough dark green winged leavs rising from
the root every one made of many leavs set on each side of the middle rib
the largest three wherof grow at the ends and are snip'd or dented round
about the edges the other being smal pieces somtimes two and somtimes
four standing on each side of the middle rib underneath them among which
do rise up divers rough or hairy stalks about two foot high branching
forth with leavs at every joynt not so long as those below but almost as
much cut in on the edges some into three parts some into more on the
tops of the branches stand smal pale yellow flowers consisting of five
leavs like the flowers of cynkfoyl but larger in the middle wherof
standeth a smal green head which when the flower is fallen groweth to be
rough and round being made of many long greenish purple seeds like
grains which wil stick upon your cloathes the root consists of many
brownish strings or fibres smelling somwhat like unto clover especially
those which grow in the higher hotter and drier grounds and in the freer
and clear air they grow wild in many places under hedg sides and by the
pathwaies in fields yet they rather delight to grow in shadowy than in
sunny places they flower in may and june for the most part and their
seed is ripe in july at the furthest it is good for the diseases of the
chest or breast for pains and stitches in the sides and to expel crude
and raw humors from the belly and stomach by the sweet savor and warming
quality it dissolveth the inward congealed blood hapning by falls or
bruises and the spitting of blood if the roots either green or dryed be
boyled in wine and drunk as also al manner of inward wounds or outward
if they be washed or bathed therwith the decoction also being drunk
comforteth the heart and strengtheneth the stomach and a cold brain and
therfore is good in the spring time to open obstructions of the liver
and helpeth the wind chollick it also helpeth those that have fluxes or
are bursten or have a rupture it taketh away spots or marks in the face
being washed therwith the juyce of the fresh root or pouder of the dried
root hath the same effect with the decoction the root in the spring time
steeped in wine doth give it a delicat savor and tast and being drunk
fasting every morning comforteth the heart and is a good preservative
against the plague or any other poyson it helpeth digestion and warmeth
a cold stomach and openeth the obstructions of the liver and spleen it
is very safe you need have no dose prescribed and is very fit to be kept
in every good bodies house this herb is so wel known to be an inhabitant
almost in every garden that i shal not need to write any description
thereof although the vertues thereof which are many may not be omitted
the arabian physitians have extolled the vertues hereof to the skyes
although the greeks thought it not worth mentioning serapio saith it
causeth the mind and heart to becom merry and reviveth the heart
fainting into foundlings especially of such who are over taken in their
sleep and driveth away al troublesom cares and thoughts out of the mind
arising from melancholly or black choller which avicen also confirmeth
it is very good to help digestion and open obstructions of the brain and
hath so much purging quality in it saith avicen as to expel those
melancholly vapors from the spirits & blood which are in the heart and
arteries although it cannot do so in other parts of the body diascorides
saith that the leaves steeped in wine and the wine drunk and the leavs
externally applied is a remedy against the sting of scorpions and the
bitings of mad dogs and commendeth the decoction therof for women to
bath or sit in to procure their courses it is good to wash aching teeth
therwith and profitable for those that have the bloody flux the leaves
also with a little nitre taken in drink are good against a surfet of
mushromes helps the griping pains of the belly and being made into an
electuary is good for them that cannot fetch their breath used with salt
it takes away wens kernels or hard swellings in the flesh or throat it
clenseth foul sores and easeth pains of the gout it is good for the
liver and spleen a tansie or cawdle made with egs and the juyce therof
while it is yong putting to it some sugar and rosewater is good for
women in childbed when the after birth is not throughly avoided and for
their faintings upon or after their sore travel the herb bruised and
boyled in a little wine and oyl and laid warm on a boil will ripen and
break it it is an herb of jupiter and under cancer and strengthens
nature much in al its actions let a syrup made with the juyce of it and
sugar as you shall be taught at the latter end of the book be kept in
every gentlewomans house to releeve the weak stomachs and sick bodies of
their poor sickly neighbors as also the herb kept dry in the hous that
so with other convenient simples you may make it into an electuary with
hony according as the diseas is and as you shall be taught at the latter
end of the book the shrub is so wel known to every boy and girl that
hath but attained to the age of seven years that it needs no description
mars owns the shrub and present it to the use of my country men to purge
their bodies of choller the inner rind of the barberry tree boyled in
white wine and a quarter of a pint drunk each morning is an excellent
remedy to clense the body of chollick humors and free it from such
diseases as choller causeth such be scabs itch tetters ringworms yellow
jaundice boils it is excellent for hot agues burnings scaldings heat of
bloud heat of the liver bloudy flux for the berries are as good as the
bark and more pleasing they get a man a good stomach to his victuals by
strengthning the attractive faculty which is under mars as you see more
at large in the latter end of my ephemeris for the year the hair washed
with the ly made of the ashes of the tree and water 'twil make it turn
yellow of mars his own colour the fruit and rind of the shrub the
flowers of broom and of heath or furz clens the body of choller by
sympathy as the flowers leaves and bark of the peach tree do by
antipathy because these are under mars that under venus the continual
usefulness hereof hath made al in general so aquainted herewith that it
is altogether needless to describe its several kinds hereof plentifully
growing being yearly sown in this land the vertues whereof take as
followeth barly in al the parts and compositions therof except malt is
more cooling than wheat and a little clensing and al the preparations
therof as barly water and other things made therof do give great
nourishment to persons troubled with feavers agues and heats in the
stomach a pultis made of barly meal or flower boyled with vinegar and
honey and a few dry figs put into them dissolveth all hard imposthums
and aswageth inflamations being therto applied and being boyled with
melilot and chamomel flowers and som linseed fenngreek and rue in pouder
and applied warm it easeth the pains in the sides and stomach and
windiness of the spleen the meal of barly and fleawort boyled in water
and made into a pultis with honey and oyl of lillies applied warm cureth
swellings under the ears throat neck and such like and a plaister made
therof with tar wax & oyl helpeth the kings evil in the throat boyled
with sharp vinegar into a pultis and laid on hot helpeth the leprosie
being boyled in red wine with pomgranat rinds and mirtles stayeth the
lask or other flux of the belly boyled with vinegar and a quince it
easeth the hot pains of the gout barly flower white salt honey and
vinegar mingled together taketh away the itch speedily and certainly the
water distilled from the green barly in the end of may is very good for
thos that have defluxions of humors fallen into their eyes and easeth
the pains being dropped into them or white bread steeped therein and
bound on to the eyes doth the same the greater ordinary bazil riseth up
usually with one upright stalk diversly branching forth on all sides
with two leaves at every joynt which are somewhat broad and round yet
pointed of a pale green colour but fresh a little snipt about the edges
and of a strong heady scent the flowers are smal and white standing at
the tops of the branches with two smal leavs at the joynt in som places
green in others brown after which come black seed the root perisheth at
the approach of winter and therfore must be new sowen every year it only
groweth in gardens it must be sowed late and flowers in the heat of
summer being a very tender plant this is the herb which all authors are
together by the ears about and rail at one another like lawyers galen
and diascorides hold it not fitting to be taken inwardly and chrysippus
rails at it with downright billingsgate rhetorick pliny and the arabian
physitians defend it for mine own part i presently found that speech
true and away to reason went i who told me it was an herb of mars and
under the scorpion and perhaps therfore called basilicon and then no
mervail if it carry a kind of virulent quality with it being applied to
the place bitten by a venemous beast or stung by a wasp or hornet it
speedily draws the poyson to it every like draws his like myzaldus
affirms that it being laid to rot in horsdung it wil breed venemous
beasts and hollerius a french physitian affirms upon his own knowledg
that an acquaintance of his by common smelling to it had a scorpion bred
in his brain somthing is the matter this herb and rue wil not grow
together no nor near one another and we know rue is as great an enemy to
poyson as any grows to conclude it expelleth both birth and after birth
and as it helps the deficiency of venus in one kind so it spoils al her
actions in another i dare write no more of it this is so wel known that
it needs no description i shal therfore only write the vertues therof
which are many galen saith that the leaves or bark do dry and heal very
much and the berries more than the leaves the bark of the root is less
sharp and hot but more bitter and hath some astriction withal whereby it
is effectual to break the stone and good to open obstructions of the
liver spleen and other inward parts which bring the dropsie jaundice the
berries are very effectual against al poyson of venemous creatures and
the stings of wasps and bees as also against the pestilence or other
infectious diseases and therfore is put into sundry triacles for that
purpose they likewise procure womens courses and seven of them given to
a woman in sore travel of child birth do cause a speedy delivery and
expel the after birth and therfore not to be taken by such as have not
gon out their time lest they procure abortment or cause labor too soon
they wonderfully help al cold and rhumatick distillations from the brain
to the eyes lungs or other parts and being made into an electuary with
honey do help the consumption old coughs shortness of breath and thin
rhewms as also the meagrim they mightily expel wind and provoke urin
help the mother and kil the worms the leaves also work the like effects
a bath of the decoction of the leavs and berries is singular good for
women to sit in that are troubled with the mother or the diseases therof
or the stoppings of their courses or for the diseases of the bladder
pains in the bowels by wind and stoppnig of urin a decoction likewise of
equal parts of bay berries cummin seed hysop origanum and euphorbium
with some honey and the head bathed therwith doth wonderfully help
distillations and rhewms and setleth the pallat of the mouth into its
place the oyl made of the berries is very comfortable in all cold griefs
of the joynts nervs arteries stomach belly or womb and helpeth palsies
convulsions cramps aches trembling and numness in any part weariness
also and pains that come by sore travelling al griefs and pains likewise
proceeding from wind either in the head stomach back belly or womb by
anointing the parts affected therwith and pains in the ears are also
cured by dropping in some of the oyl or by receiving into the ears the
warm fume of the decoction of the berries through a funnel the oyl takes
away marks of the skin and flesh by bruises fals and dissolveth the
congealed bloud in them it helpeth also the itch scabs and wheals in the
skin i shal but only ad a word or two to what my friend hath written
that it is a tree of the sun and under the coelestial sign leo and
resisteth witchcraft very potently as also al the evil old saturn can do
to the body of man and they are not a few for it is the speech of one
and i am mistaken if it were not myzaldus that neither witch nor devil
thunder nor lightning wil hurt a man in the place where a bay tree is
both the garden and field beans are so wel known that it saveth me labor
of writing any description of them their vertues briefly are as
followeth the distilled wather of the flowers of garden beans is good to
clens the face and skin from spots and wrinkles and the meal or flower
of them or the smal doth the same the water distilled from the green
husks is held to be very effectual against the stone and to provoke
urine bean flower is used in pultisses to asswage inflamations rising
upon wounds and the swelling of womens breasts caused by the curding of
their milk and represseth their milk the flower of beans and fenugreek
mixed with honey and applied to fellons boyls bruises or blue marks by
blows or the imposthumes in the kernels of the ears helpeth them all and
with rose leavs frankinsens and the white of an egg being applied to the
eyes helpeth them that are swoln or do water or have received any blow
upon them if used with wine if a bean be parted in two the skin being
taken away and laid on the place where a leech hath been set that
bleedeth too much it staieth the bleeding bean flower boyled to a pultis
with wine and vinegar and some oyl put therto ceaseth both pain and
swelling of the cods the husks boyled in water to a consumption of a
third part therof staieth a lask and the ashes of the husks made up with
old hogs greas helpeth the old pains contusions and wounds of the sinews
the sciatica and gout the field beans have all the aforementioned
vertues as the garden beans beans eaten are extream windy meat but if
after the dutch fashion when they are half boyled you husk them and then
stew them i cannot tell you how for i never was cook in al my life they
are wholsomer food the french or kidney bean ariseth up at first but
with one stalk which afterwards divideth its self into many arms or
branches but also weak that if they be not sustained with sticks or
poles they wil lie fruitless upon the ground at several places of these
branches grow forth long footstalks with every one of them three broad
round and pointed green leavs at the end of them towards the tops wherof
come forth divers flowers made like unto pease blossoms of the same
colour for the most part that the fruit wil be of that is to say white
yellow red blackish or a deep purple but white is most usual after which
come long and slender flat pods some crooked some straight with a string
as it were running down the back therof wherein are contained flattish
round fruit made to the fashion of a kidney the root is long and
spreadeth with many strings annexed to it and perisheth every year there
is also another sort of french beans commonly growing with us in this
land which is called the scarlet flowred bean this ariseth up with
sundry branches as the other but runs up higher to the length of hop
poles about which they grow twining but turning contrary to the sun
having footstalks with three leaves on each as on the other the flowers
also are in fashion like the other but many more set together and of a
most orient scalet colour the beans are larger than the ordinary kind of
a deep purple colour turning black when it is ripe and dry the root
perisheth also in winter the ordinary french beans are of an easie
digestion they move the belly provoke urin enlarge the breast that is
straitned with shortness of breath engender sperme and incite venery and
the scarlet coloured beans in regard of the glorious beauty of their
colour being set near a quickset hedg wil bravely adorn the same by
climing up theron so that they may be discerned a great way not without
admiration of the beholder at a distance but they wil go near to kil the
quicksets by cloathing them in scarlet this ariseth up with divers smal
brown and square upright stalks a yard high or more somtimes branched
forth into divers parts ful of joynts and with diverse very fine small
leaves at every one of them little or nothing rough at al at the top of
the branches grow many long tufts or branches of yellow flowers very
thick set together from the several joynts which consist of four smal
leavs apiece which smel somwhat strong but not unpleasant the seed is
smal and black like poppy seed two for the most part joyned together the
root is reddish with many smal thrids fastned unto it which take strong
hold of the ground and creepeth a little and the branches leaning a
little down to the ground take root at the joynts therof wherby it is
easily encreased there is also another sort of ladies bedstraw growing
frequently in england which beareth white flowers as the other doth
yellow but the branches of this are so weak that unless it be sustained
by the hedges or other things near which it groweth it wil lie down on
the ground the leaves a little bigger than the former and the flowers
not so plentiful as those and the root hereof is also thridy and abiding
they grow in meadows and pastures both wet and dry and by the hedges
they flower in may for the most part and the seed is ripe in july and
august the decoction of the former of these being drunk is good to fret
and break the stone and provokes urin stayeth inward bleedings and
healeth inward wounds the herb or flower bruised and put up into the
nostrils stayeth their bleeding likewise the flowers and the herb made
into an oyl by being set in the sun and changed after it hath stood ten
or twelve daies or into an ointment being boyled in axungia or sallet
oyl with some wax melted therein after it is strained either the oyl
made therof or the ointment do help burnings with fire or scalding with
water the same also or the decoction of the herb and flower is good to
bath the feet of travellers and lacquies whose long running causeth
weariness and stifness in their sinews and joynts if the decoction be
used warm and the joynts afterwards anointed with the ointment it
helpeth the dry scab and the itch in children and the herb with the
white flower is also very good for the sinews arteries and joynts to
comfort and strengthen them after travel cold and pains they are both
herbs of venus and therfore strengthen the patrs both internal and
external which she rules there are two sorts of beets which are best
known generally and wherof i shal principally intreat at this time the
white and the red beets and their vertues the common white beet hath
many great leaves next the ground somwhat large and of a whitish green
colour the stalk is great strong and ribbed bearing great store of
leaves upon it almost to the very top of it the flowers grow in very
long tufts smal at the ends and turning down their heads which are smal
pale greenish yellow burrs giving cornered prickled seed the root is
great long and hard and when it hath given seed of no use at all the
common red beet differeth not from the white but only it is lesser and
the leaves and the roots are somwhat red the leaves are differently red
in som only with red strakes or veins som of a fresh red and others of a
dark red the root hereof is red spungy and not used to be eaten the
white beet doth much loosen the belly and is of a clensing and digesting
quality and provoketh urin the juyce of it openeth obstructions both of
the liver and spleen and is good for the headaches and swimmings therein
and turnings of the brain and is effectual also against al venemous
creatures and applied upon the temples stayeth inflamations in the eyes
it helpeth burnings being used without oyl and with a little allum put
to it is good for anthonies fire it is also good for al wheals pushes
blisters and blains in the skin the herb boyled and laid upon chilblains
or kibes helpeth them the decoction therof in water and some vinegar
healeth the itch if bathed therwith and clenseth the head of dandraf
scurff and dry scabs and doth much good for fretting and running sores
ulcers & cankers in the head legs or other parts and is much commended
against baldness and shedding of hair the red beet is good to stay the
bloody flux womens courses and the whites and to help the yellow
jaundice the juyce or the root put into the nostrils purgeth the head
helpeth the nois in the ears and the tooth ach the juyce snuffed up the
nose helps a stinking breath if the caus lie in the nose as many times
it doth if any bruis have been there as also want of smel coming that
way first of the water betony which riseth up with square hard greenish
stalks and somtimes brown set with broad dark green leavs dented about
the edges with notches somwhat resembling the leavs of the wood betony
but much larger two for the most part set at a joynt the flowers are
many set at the tops of the stalks and branches being round bellied and
open at the brims and divided into two parts the uppermost being like a
hood and the lowest like a lip hanging down of a dark red colour which
passing away there comes in their places smal round heads with smal
points in the ends wherin lie smal and brownish seeds the root is a
thick bush of strings and threds growing from an head it groweth by
ditchsides brooks and other water courses generally through this land
and is seldom found far from the waters sides it flowereth about july
and the seed is ripe in august it is of a clensing quality the leavs
bruised and applied are effectual for all old and filthy ulcers and
especially if the juyce of the leavs be boyled with a little honey and
tents dipped therin and the sores dressed therwith as also for bruises
or hurts whether inward or outward the distilled water of the leaves is
used for the same purposes as also to bath the face or hands spotted or
blemished or discolored by sunburning i confess i do not much fancy
distilled waters i mean such waters as are distilled cold some vertue of
the herb they may happliy have it were a strange thing else but this i
am confident of that being distilled in a pewter stil as the vulgar and
apish fashion is both chymical oyl and salt is left behind unless you
burn them and then all is spoiled water and al which was good for as
little as can be by such a distillation you have the best way of
distillation in my translation of the london dispensatory the colledg of
physitians having as much skil in distillations as an ass hath reading
hebrew water betony is an herb of jupiter in cancer and is apropriated
more to wounds and hurts in the breast than wood betony which follows
the common or wood betony hath many leavs rising from the root which are
somwhat broad and round at the ends roundly dented about the edges
standing upon long footstalks from among which rise up smal square
slender but yet upright hairy stalks with some leaves thereon two apiece
at the joynts smaller than the lower whereon are set several spiked
heads of flowers like lavender but thicker and shorter for the most part
and of a reddish or purple colour spotted with white spots both in the
upper and lower part the seeds being contained within the husks that
hold the flowers are blackish somwhat long and uneven the roots are many
white threddy strings the stalk perisheth but the root with some leavs
theron abides al the winter the whole plant is somwhat smal it groweth
frequently in woods and delighteth in shady places and it flowreth in
july after which the seed is quickly ripe yet in its prime in may
antonius musa physitian to the emperor augustus caesar wrote a peculiar
book of the vertues of this herb and amongst other vertues saith of it
that it preserveth the lives and bodies of men free from the danger of
epidemical diseases and from witchcrafts also it is found by daily
experience to be good for many diseases it helpeth those that loath or
cannot digest their meat those that have weak stomachs or sower
belchings or continual rising in their stomach using it familiarly
either green or dry either the herb the root or the flowers in broth
drunk or meat or made into conserve syrup water electuary or pouder as
every one may best frame themselvs unto or as the time or season
requireth taken any of the aforesaid waies it helpeth the jaundice
falling sickness the palsie convulsions or shrinking of the sinews the
gout and those that are inclined to dropsies those that have continual
pains in their head although it turn to phrensie the pouder mixed with
pure honey is no less available for al sorts of coughs or colds wheesing
or shortness of breath distillations of thin rhewm upon the lungues
which causeth consumptions the decoction made with mead and a little
penyroyal is good for those that are troubled with putrid agues whether
quotidian tertian or quartan and to draw down and evacuate the blood and
humors that by falling into the eyes do hinder the sight the decoction
therof made in wine and taken killeth the worms in the belly openeth
obstructions both of the spleen and liver cureth stitches and pains in
the back or sides the torments and griping pains of the bowels and the
wind chollick and mixed with honey purgeth the belly helpeth to bring
down womens courses and is of especial use for those that are troubled
with the falling down of the mother and pains therof and causeth an
easie and speedy delivery of women in childbirth it helpeth also to
break and expel the stone either in the bladder or kidneys the decoction
with wine gargled in the mouth easeth the toothach it is commended
against the sting or biting or venemous serpents or mad dogs being used
inwardly and applied outwardly to the place a dram of the pouder in
betony taken with a little honey in some vinegar doth wonderfully
refresh those that are overwearied by travail it staieth bleedings at
the mouth or nose and helpeth those that piss or spit blood and those
that are bursten or have a rupture and is good for such as are bruised
by any fall or otherwise the green herb bruised or the juyce applied to
any inward hurt or outward green wound in the head or body wil quickly
heal and close it up as also any veins or sinews that are cut and will
draw forth any broken bone or splinter thorn or other thing gotten into
the flesh it is no less profitable for old sores or filthy ulcers yea
though they be fistulaus and hollow but some do advise to put in a
little salt to this purpose being applied with a little hogs lard it
helpeth a plague sore and other boyls and pushes the fumes of the
decoction while it is warm received by a funnel into the ears easeth the
pains of them destroyeth the worms and cureth the running sores in them
the juyce dropped into them doth the same the root of betony is
displeasing both to the tast and stomach whereas the leavs and flowers
by their sweet and spicy tast are comfortable both in meat and medicine
there are some of the many vertues antony musa an expert physitian for
it was not the practice of octavius caesar to keep fools about him
apropriates to bethony it is a very precious herb that's certain and
most fitting to be kept in a mans hous both in syrup conserve oyl
oyntment and plaister the flowers are usually conserved the herb is
apropriated to the planet jupiter and the sign aries in treating of this
tree you must understand that i mean the great mast beech which is by
way of distinction from that other smal rough sort called in sussex the
small beech but in essex hornbeam i suppose it needless to describe it
being already so wel known to my countrymen it groweth in woods amongst
oaks and other trees and in parks forrests and chases to feed deer and
in other places to fatten swine it bloometh in the end of april or
begining of may for the most part and the fruit is ripe in september the
leavs of the beech tree are cooling and binding and therfore good to be
applied to hot swellings to discuss them the nuts do much nourish such
beasts as feed thereon the water that is found in the hollow places of
decaying beeches will cure both man and beast of any scurf scab or
running tetters if they be washed therwith you may boyl the leavs into a
pultis or make an ointment of them when time of year serves of these i
shal only speak of two sorts which are commonly known in england the
black and the red bilberries and first of the black this smal bush
creepeth along upon the ground scarce rising half a yard high with
divers smal dark green leaves set on the green branches not alwaies one
against another and a little dented about the edges at the foot of the
leaves com forth smal hollow pale blush coloured flowers the brims
ending in five points with a reddish threed in the middle which pass
into smal round berries of the bigness and colour of juniper berries but
of a purple sweetish sharp tast the juyce of them giveth a purplish
colour to their hands and lips that eat and handle them especially if
they break them the root groweth asloop under ground shooting forth in
sundry places as it creepeth this loseth its leaves in winter the red
bilberry or whortle bush riseth up like the former having sundry harder
leaves like the box tree leaves green and round pointed standing on the
several branches at the tops whereof only and not from the sides as in
the former com forth divers round flowers of a pale red color after
which succeed round reddish sappy berries when they are ripe of a sharp
tast the root runneth in the ground as the former but the leaves of this
abide al winter the first groweth in forrests on the heaths and such
like barren plaaces the red grows in the north parts of this land as
lancashire yorkshire they flower in march and april and the fruit of the
black is ripe in june and july this smal herb from a root somewhat sweet
shooting downwards many long strings riseth up a round green stalk bare
or naked next the ground for an inch two or three to the middle therof
as it is in age or growth as also from the middle upward to the flowers
having only two broad plantain like leaves but whiter set at the middle
of the stalk one against another and compasseth it round at the bottom
of them it is a usual inhabitant in woods copses and in many other
places in this land there is another sort growes in wet grounds and
marshes which is somwhat differing from the former it is a smaler plant
and greener having somtimes three leaves the spike of flowers is less
than the former and the roots of this do run or creep in the ground they
are much and often used by many to good purpose for wounds both green
and old and to consolidate or knit ruptures this groweth a goodly tall
straight tree fraught with many boughes and slender branches bending
downward the old ones being covered with a discoloured chapped bark and
the yonger being browner by much the leaves at their first breaking out
are crumpled and afterward like the beech leaves but smaler and greener
and dented about the edges it beareth smal short catkins somwhat like
those of the hazel nut tree which abide on the branches a long time
until growing ripe they fall on the ground and their seed with them it
usually groweth in woods the juyce of the leaves while they are yong or
the distilled water of them or the water that coms out of the tree being
bored with an augur and distilled afterwards any of these being drunk
for some time together is available to break the stone in the kidnies or
bladder and is good also to wash sore mouths this smal herb groweth not
above a span high with many branches spread on the ground set with many
wings of smal leaves the flowers grow upon the branches many smal ones
of a pale yellow colour being set at a head together which afterwards
turn into so many smal joynted cods with seeds in them the cods well
resembling the claws of smal birds whence it took its name there is
another sort of birds foot in all things like the former but a little
larger the flowers of a pale whitish red colour and the cods distinct by
joynts like the other but a little more crooked and the roots do carry
many small white knots or kernels amongst the strings these grow on
heaths and many open untilled places of this land they flower and feed
in the end of summer they are of a drying binding quality and therby
very good to be used in wound drinks as also to apply outwardly for the
same purpose but the latter birds foot is found by experience to break
the stones in the back or kidnies and drive them forth if the decoction
therof be taken and it wonderfully helpeth the rupture being taken
inwardly and outwardly applied to the place all salts have best
operation upon the ston as ointments & plaisters have upon wounds and
therfore if you may make a salt of this for the stone the way how to do
so many be found in my translation of the london dispensatory and it may
be i may give you again in plainer terms at the latter end of this book
common bishops weed riseth up with a round straight stalk somtimes as
high as a man but usually three or four foot high beset with divers smal
long and somwhat broad leavs cut in som places and dented about the
edges growing one against another of a dark green colour having sundry
branches on them and at the top smal umbels of white flowers which turn
into smal round brown seed little bigger than parsly seed of a quick hot
scent and tast the root is white and stringie perishing yearly after it
hath seeded and usually riseth again of its own sowing it groweth wild
in many places in england and wales as between greenheath and gravsend
it digesteth humors provoketh urin and womens courses dissolveth wind
and being taken in wine easeth pains and griping in the bowels and is
good against the biting of serpents it is used to good effect in those
medicins which are given to hinder the poysonful operation of
cantharides upon the passages of the urin being mixed with honey and
applied to black and blue marks coming of blows or bruises it takes them
away and being drunk or outwardly applied it abates an high colour and
makes it pale and the fumes therof taken with rozin or raisons clenseth
the mother it is hot and dry in the third degree of a bitter tast and
somthing sharp withal it provokes lust to purpose i suppose venus owns
it this hath a thick short knobbed root blackish without and somwhat
reddish within a little crooked or turned together of an harsh
astringent tast with divers black threds hanging there from whence
spring up every year divers leaves standing upon long footstalks being
somwhat broad and long like a dock leaf and a little pointed at the ends
but that it is of a blewish green colour on the upper side and of an ash
colour gray and a little purplish underneath with divers veins therin
from among which rise up divers smal and slender stalks two foot high
and almost naked and without leavs or with very few and narrow bearing a
spiky bush of pale flesh colour'd flowers which being past there abideth
smal seed somwhat like unto sorrel seed but greater there are other
sorts of bistort growing in this land but smaller both in height root
and stalks and especially in the leavs the root blackish without and
somwhat whitish within of an austere binding tast as the former they
grow in shadowy moist woods and at the foot of hils but are chiefly
nourished up in gardens the narrow leaved bistort groweth in the north
in lancashire yorkshire and cumberland they flower about the end of may
and the seed is ripe about the beginning of july both the leavs and
roots have have a powerful faculty to resist al poyson the root in
pouder taken in drink expelleth the venem of the plague the smal pox
meazles purples or any other infectious disease driving it out by
sweating the root in pouder or the decoction therof in wine being drunk
stayeth al manner of inward bleedings or spittings of blood and any
fluxes in the body of either man or woman or vomitings it is also very
available against ruptures or burstings or all bruises or fals
dissolving the congealed blood and easeth the pains that happen therupon
it also helpeth the jaundice the water distilled from both leavs and
roots is a singular remedy to wash any place bitten or stung by any
venemous creature as also for any of the purposes before spoken of and
is very good to wash any running sores or ulcers the decoction of the
root in wine being drunk hindreth abortion or miscarriage in child
bearing the leavs also kil the worms in children and is a great help for
them that cannot keep their water if the juyce of plantane be added
therto and outwardly applied much helpeth the gonorrhea or running of
the reins a dram of the pouder of the root taken in the water thereof
wherein som red hot iron or steel hath been quenched is also an
admirable help thereto so as the body be first prepared and purged from
the offensive humors the leaves seed or roots are al very good in
decoctions drinks or lotians for inward or outward wounds or other sores
and the pouder strewed upon any cut or wound in a vein stayeth the
immoderat bleeding thereof the decoction of the roots in water whereunto
som pomgranate pils and flowers are added injected into the matrix
stayeth the access of humors to the ulcers thereof and bringeth it to
its right place being fallen down and stayeth the immoderat flux of the
courses the root hereof with pellitory of spain and burnt allum of each
a like quantity beaten smal and made into past with some honey and a
little piece thereof put into an hollow tooth or held between the teeth
if there be no hollowness in them stayeth the defluxion of rhewm upon
them which causeth pains and helps to clense the head and avoid much
offensive water the distilled water is very effectual to wash sores or
cankers in the nose or any other part if the pouder of the root be
applied therunto afterwards it is good also to fasten the gums and to
take away the heat and inflamations that happen in the jaws almonds of
the throat or mouth if the decoction of the leavs roots or seeds be used
or the juyce of them but the roots are most effectual to all the
purposes aforesaid this smal plant never beareth more than one leaf but
only when it rises up with its stalk which thereon beareth another and
seldom more which are of a bluish green colour broad at the bottom and
pointed with many ribs or veins like plantane at the top of the stalk
grow many smal white flowers star fashion smelling somthing sweet after
which come smal reddish berries when they are ripe the root is smal of
the bigness of a rush lying and creeping under the upper crust of the
earth shooting forth in diverse places it groweth in moist shadowy
grassie places of woods in many places of this realm it flowreth about
may and the berries be ripe in june and then quickly perisheth until the
next year it springth from the same again this is so wel known that it
needeth no description the vertues therof are as followeth the buds
leavs and branches while they are green are of a good use in the ulcers
and putrid sores of the mouth and throat and for the quinsie and
likewise to heal other fresh wounds and sores but the flowers & fruit
unripe are very binding and so profitable for the bloudy flux lasks and
are a fit remedy for spitting of bloud either the decoction or pouder of
the root being taken is good to break or drive forth gravel and the
stone in the reins and kidnies the leavs and brambles aswel green as dry
are excellent good lotions for sores in the mouth or secret parts the
decoction of them & of the dried branches do much bind the belly and are
good for the too much flowing of womens courses the berries or the
flowers are a powerful remedy against the poyson of the most venemous
serpents as wel drunk as outwardly applied helpeth the sores of the
fundament and the piles the juyce of the berries mixed with juyce of
mulberries do bind more effectually and help fretting and eating sores
and ulcers whersoever the distilled water of the branches leaves and
flowers or of the fruit is very pleasant in tast and very effectual in
feavers and hot distempers of the body head eyes and other parts and for
al the purposes aforesaid the leaves boyled in ly and the head washed
therewith healeth the itch and the running sores therof and maketh the
hair black the pouder of the leaves strewed on cankrous and running
ulcers doth wonderfully help to heal them some use to condensate the
juyce of the leaves and some the juyce of the berries to keep for their
use all the year for the purposes aforesaid it is a plant of venus in
aries you shall have som directions at the latter end of the book for
the gathering of al herbs and plants if any ask the reason why venus is
so prickly tel them 'tis because she is in the house of mars of these
there are two sorts commonly known white and red the white hath leavs
somwhat like unto beets but smaller rounder and of a whitish green
colour every one standing upon a smal long footstalk the stalk riseth up
two or three foot high with such like leavs theron the flowers grow at
the top in long round tufts or clusters wherein are contained smal and
round seed the root is very full of threeds or strings the red blite is
in all things like the white but that his leavs and tufted heads are
exceeding red at first and after turn more purplish there are other
kinds of blites which grow wild differing from the two former sorts but
little only the wild are smaler in every part they grow in gardens and
wild in many places of this land they seed in august and september they
are all of them cooling drying and binding serving to restrain the
fluxes of bloud in either man or woman especially the red which also
stayeth the overflowing of women's reds as the white blite stayeth the
whites in women it is an excellent secret you cannot wel fail in the use
they are al under the dominion of venus there is one other sort of wild
blites like the other wild kinds but having long and spike heads of
greenish seed seeming by the thick setting together to be al seed this
sort the fishes are delighted with and it is a good and usual bait for
the fishes will bite fast enough at them if you have but wit enough to
catch them when they bite these are so wel known to be inhabitants in
every garden that i hold it needless to describe them they flower in
june and july and the seed is ripe shortly after they are very cordial
the leaves or roots are to very good purpose used in putrid and
pestilential feavers to defend the heart and help to resist and expel
the poyson or the venom of other creatures the seed is of the like
effect and the seed and leavs are good to encrease milk in womens
breasts the leavs flowers and seed all or any of them are good to expel
pensiveness and melancholly it helpeth to clarifie the bloud and
mitigate heat in feavers the juyce made into a syrup prevaileth much to
all the purposes aforesaid and is put with other cooling opening
clensing herbs to open obstructions and help the yellow jaundice and
mixed with fumitory to cool clens and temper the blood therby it helpeth
the itch ringworms and tetters or other spreading scabs or sores the
flowers candied or made into a conserve are helping in the former causes
but are chiefly used as a cordial and is good for those that are weak
with long sickness and to comsumptions or troubled with often swoonings
or passions of the heart the distilled water is no less effectual to all
the purposes aforesaid and helpeth the redness and inflamations of the
eyes being washed therewith the dried herb is never used but the green
yet the ashes therof boyled in mead or honyed water is available against
inflamations and ulcers in the mouth or throat to wash and gargle it
therewith the roots of bugloss are effectual being made into a licking
electuarie for the cough and to condensate thin flegm and rhewmatick
distillations upon the lungs they are both herbs of jupiter and under
leo both great cordials great strengthners of nature these are so wel
known generally unto my country men to grow among their corn that i
suppose it needless to write any description therof there are other
kinds which i purposely omit both in this and others my intent being
only to insist most principally upon the vulgarly known and commonly
growing flowers and herbs they flower and seed in the summer months the
pouder or dried leavs of the bluebottle or cornflower is given with good
success to those that are bruised by a fal or have broken a vein
inwardly and void much blood at the mouth being taken in the water of
plantane horstail or the greater comfry it is a remedy against the
poyson of the scorpion and resisteth al other venoms and poysons the
seed or leavs taken in wine is very good against the plague and al
infectious diseases and is very good in pestilential feavers the juyce
put into fresh or green wounds doth quicky soder up the lips of them
together and is very effectual to heal al ulcers and sores in the mouth
the juyce dropped into the eyes taketh away the heat and inflamation in
them the distilled water of the herb hath the same properties and may be
used for all the effects aforesaid the common white briony groweth
ramping upon the hedges sending forth many long rough very tender
branches at the beginning with many very rough broad leavs theron cut
for the most part into five partitions in form very like a vine leaf but
smaller rougher and of a whitish or hoary green colour spreading very
far spreading and twining with his smal claspers that come forth at the
joynts with the leavs very far on whatsoever standeth next it at the
several joynts also especially towards the top of the branches cometh
forth a long stalk bearing many whitish flowers together in a long tuft
consisting of five smal leaves apiece laid open like a star after which
come the berries separated one from another more than a cluster of
grapes green at the first and very red when they are through ripe of no
good sent but of a most loathsom tast provoking vomit the root groweth
to be exceeding great with many long twines or branches growing from it
of a pale whitish colour on the outside and more white within and of a
sharp bitter loathsom tast it groweth on banks or under hedges through
this land the roots lie very deep it flowereth in july and august some
earlier and some later than others the roots of the briony purge the
belly with great violence troubling the stomach and hurting the liver
and therfore not rashly to be taken but being corrected is very
profitable for the diseases of the head as falling sickness giddiness
and swimmings by drawing away much flegm and rhewmatick humors that
oppress the head as also the joynts and sinews and is therfore good for
palseys convulsions cramps and stitches in the sides and the dropsie and
in provoking urin it clenseth the reins and kidnies from gravel and the
stone and consumeth the hardness and swellings therof the decoction of
the root in wine drunk once a week at going to bed clenseth the mother
and helpeth the rising therof expelleth the dead child and afterbirth
but is not to be used by women with child for fear of abortion a dram of
the root in pouder taken in white wine bringeth down their courses an
electuary made of the roots and honey doth mightily clens the chest of
rotten flegm and wonderfully help an old strong cough those that are
troubled with shortness of breath and is very good for them that are
brused inwardly to help to expel the clotted or congealed blood the
leavs fruit and root do clens old and filthy sores are good against al
fretting and running cankers gangrenes and tetters and therfore the
berries are by some country people called tetter berries the root
clenseth the skin wonderfully from al black and blew spots freckles
morphew leprosie foul scars or other deformity whatsoever as also al
running scabs and manginess are healed by the pouder of the dried root
or the juyce therof but especially by the fine white hardned juyce the
distilled water of the roots worketh the same effects but more weakly
the root bruised and applied of it self to any place where the bones are
broken helpeth to draw them forth as also splinters and thorns in the
flesh and being applied with a little wine mixed therwith it breaketh
boyls and helpeth whitlows on the joynts for al these latter beginning
at sores cankers apply it outwardly and take my advice along with you
you shal find in my translation of the london dispensatory among the
preparations at latter end a medicin called focculae brioniae take that
and use it you have the way there how to make it and mix that with a
little hogs greas or other convenient oyntment and use it at your need
as for the former diseases where it must be taken inwardly it purgeth
very violently and needs an abler hand to correct it than most country
people have therfore it is a better way for them in my opinion to let
the simple alone and take the compound water of it mentioned in my
dispensatory and that is far more safe being wisely corrected this
sendeth forth from a creeping root that shooteth forth strings at every
joynt as it runneth divers and sundry green stalks round and sappy with
some branchs on them somwhat broad round deep green and thick leavs set
by couples theron from the bosom wherof shoot forth long footstalks with
sundry smal blue flowers on them that consist of five smal round pointed
leavs apiece there is another sort nothing differing from the former but
that it is greater and the flowers of a paler blue colour they grow in
smal standing waters and usually neer watercresses and flower in june
and july giving seed the next month after brooklime and watercresses are
generally used together in diet drinks with other things serving to
purge the blood and body from ill humors that would destroy health and
are helpful for the scurvy they do also provoke urin and help to break
the stone and pass it away they procure womens courses and expel the
dead child being fried with butter and vinegar and applied warm it
helpeth all manner of tumors or swellings and inflamations such drinks
ought to be made of sundry herbs according to the malady offending i
shal give a plain and easie rule at the latter end of the book the first
shoots that sprout from the root of butchers broom are thick whitish and
short somwhat like those of asparagus but greater these rising up to be
a foot and an half high are spread into divers branches green & somwhat
crested with the roundness tough and flexible wheron are set somwhat
broad and almost round hard leavs sharp and prickly pointed at the ends
of a dark green colour two for the most part set at a place very close
or neer together about the middle of the leaf on the back or lower side
from the middle rib breaketh forth a smal whitish green flower
consisting of four smal round pointed leavs standing upon little or no
footstalk and in the place wherof cometh a smal round berry green at the
first and red when it is ripe wherin are two or three white hard round
seeds contained the root is thick white and great at the head and from
thence sendeth forth divers thick white long tough strings it groweth in
copses and upon heaths and wast grounds and often times under or neer
the holly bushes it shooteth forth his yong buds in the spring and the
berries are ripe in or about september the branches and leavs abiding
green al the winter the decoction of the roots made with wine openeth
obstructions provoketh urin helpeth to expel gravel and the stone the
strangury and womens courses as also the yellow jaundice and the head
ach and with some honey or sugar put therunto clenseth the breast of
flegm and the chest of much clammy humors gathered therin the decoction
of the roots drunk and a pultis made of the berries and leavs being
applied are effectual in knitting and consolidating broken bones and
parts out of joynt it is called bruscus in some places and in sussex
kneeholly and kneeholm the common way of using it is to boyl the roots
of it and parsly and fennel and smallage in white wine and drink the
decoction adding the like quantity of grass roots to them the more of
the roots you boyl the stronger will the decoction be it works no ill
effects yet i hope you have wit enough to give the strongest decoction
to the strongest bodies to spend time in writing a descripton herof is
altogether needless it being so generally used by all the good huswifes
almost through this land to sweep their houses with and therfore very
wel known to all sorts of people the broomrape springeth up in many
places from the roots of the broom but more often in fields by hedg
sides and on heaths the stalk wherof is of the bigness of a finger or
thumb above two foot high having a show of leavs on them and many
flowers at the top of a deadish yellow colour as also the stalks and
leavs are they grow in many places of this land commonly and as commonly
spoyl all the land they grow in and flower in the summer months and give
their seed before winter the juyce or decoction of the yong branches or
seed or the pouder of the seed taken in drink purgeth downwards and
draweth flegmatick and watery humors from the joynts wherby it helpeth
the dropsie gout sciatica and the pains in the hips and joynts it also
provoketh strong vomit and helpeth the pains of the sides and swellings
of the spleen clenseth also the reins or kidneys and bladder of the
stone provoketh urin abundantly and hindreth the growing again of the
stone in the body the continual use of the pouder of the leaves and seed
doth cure the black jaundice the distilled water of the flowers is
profitable for al the same purposes it also helpeth surfets and altereth
the fits of agues if three or four ounces therof with as much of the
water of the lesser centaury and a little sugar put therin be taken a
little before the fit cometh and the party be laid down to sweat in
their bed the oyl or water that is drawn from the ends of the green
sticks heated in the fire helpeth the toothach the juyce of the yong
branches made into an oyment of old hogs greas and anointed or the yong
branches bruised and heated in oyl or hogs greas and laid to the sides
pained by wind as in stitches or the spleen easeth them in once or twice
using it the same boyled in oyl is the safest and surest medicine to kil
lice in the head or body of any and is an especial remedy for joynt
aches and swoln knees that come by the falling down of humors the
broomrape also is not without his vertues the decoction therof in wine
is thought to be as effectual to avoid the stone in the kidnies and
bladder and to provoke urin as the broom it self the juyce therof is a
singular good help to cure as wel green wounds as old and filthy sores
and malignant ulcers the insolate oyl wherin there hath been three or
four repetitions of infusion of the top stalks with flowers strained and
cleered clenseth the skin of al manner of spots marks and freckles that
arise either by the heat of the sun or the malignity of humors as for
the broom for as yet i know not what to say to broomrape in the business
but as from broom mars owns it and it is exceeding prejucidial to the
liver i suppose by reason of the antipathy between jupiter and mars
therfore if the liver be disaffected administer not of it this being
sown of seed riseth up at the first with smal long narrow hairy dark
green leavs like grass without any division or gash in them but those
that follow are gashed in on both sides the leavs into three or four
gashes and pointed at the ends resembling the knags of a bucks horn
wherof it took the name and being well grown round about the root upon
the ground in order one by another therby rsembling the form of a star
from among which rise up divers hairy stalks about a hand breadth high
bearing every one a smal long spiky head like to those of the common
plantane having such like bloomings and seed after them the root is
single long and smal with divers strings at it they grow in dry sandy
grounds as in tuttle fields by westminster and divers other places of
this land they flower and seed in may june and july and their green
leavs do in a manner abide fresh al the winter this boyled in wine and
drunk and some of the leavs applied to the hurt place is an excellent
remedy for the biting of the viper or adder which i take to be one and
the same the same being also drunk helpeth those that are troubled with
the stone in the veins or kidnies by cooling the heat of the parts
afflicted strengthning them as also weak stomachs that cannot retain but
cast up their meat it stayeth al bleedings at mouth and nose bloody urin
or the bloody flux and stoppeth the lask of the belly and bowels the
leavs herof bruised and laid to their sides that have an ague suddenly
easeth the fit and the leavs and roots beaten with some bay salt and
applied to the wrists worketh the same effects the herb boyled in ale or
wine and given for some mornings and evenings together staieth the
distillations of hot and sharp rhewms falling into the eyes from the
head and helpeth al sorts of sore eyes venus challengeth the dominion of
this herb this hath larger leavs than those of the selfheal but els of
the same fashion or rather a little longer in some green on the upper
side and in others more brownish dented about the edges somwhat hairy as
the square stalk is also which riseth up to be half a yard high somtimes
with the leavs set by couples from the middle almost hereof upwards
stand the flowers together with many smaler and browner leaves than the
rest on this stalk below set at distances and the stalk bare between
them among which flowers are also smal ones of a bluish and somtimes of
an ash colour fashioned like the flowers of the ground ivy after which
come small round blackish seed the root is composed of many strings and
spreadeth upon the ground in divers parts round about the white flowered
bugle differeth not in form or greatness from the former saving that the
leavs and stalks are alwaies green and never brown like the other and
that the flowers therof are very white they grow in woods wet copses and
fields generally throughout england but the white flowered bugle is not
so plentiful as the other they flower from may until july and in the
mean time perfect their seed the roots and leavs next therunto upon the
ground abiding all winter the decoction of the leavs and flowers made in
wine and taken dissolveth the congeled blood in those that are bruised
inwardly by a fall or otherwise and is very effectual for any inward
wounds thrusts or stabs in the body or bowels and is an especial help in
all wound drinks and for those that are liver grown as they cal it it is
wonderful in curing all manner of ulcers and sores whether new and fresh
or old and inveterate yea gangrenes and fistulaes also if the leavs
bruised be aplied or their juyce used to wash and bath the places and
the same made into a lotion with some honey and allum cureth all sores
of the mouth or gums be they never so foul or of long continuance and
worketh no less powerfully and effectually for such ulcers and sores as
happen in the secret parts of men or women being also taken inwardly and
outwardly applied it helpeth those that have broken any bone or have any
member out of joynt an ointment made with the leaves of bugle scabious
and sanicle bruised and boyled in hogs greas until the herbs be dry and
then strained forth into a pot for such occasions as shal require it is
so singular good for all sorts of hurts in the body that non that know
its usefulness will be without it this herb is belonging to dame venus
and if the vertues of it make you in love with it as they wil if you be
wise keep a syrup of it to take inwardly and an ointment and plaister of
it to use outwardly alwaies by you the truth is i have known this herb
cure some diseases of saturn of which i thought good to quote one many
times such as give themselvs much to drinking are troubled with strange
fancies strange sights in the night time and some with voices as also
with the diseas ephialtes or the mare i take the reason of this to be
according to fernelius a melancholly vapor made thin by excessive
drinking strong liquor and so flys up and disturbs the fancy and breeds
imaginations like it self fearful and troublesom these i have known
cured by taking only two spoonfuls of the syrup of this herb after
supper two hours when you go to bed but whether this do it by sympathy
or antipathy is som question all that know any thing in astrologie know
that there is a great antipathy between saturn and venus in matter of
procreation yea such an one that the barreness of saturn can be removed
by none but venus nor the lust of venus be repelled by none but saturn
but i am not yet of opinion this is done this way and my reason is
because these vapors though in quality melancholly yet by their flying
upward seem to be somthing aeriel therfore i rather think it is done by
sympathy saturn being exalted in libra the house of venus selfheal which
follows is of the same nature and i am of opinion the same herb only
differs a little in form according to the difference of place they grow
in this i am sure they work the same effect the common garden burnet is
so well known that it needeth no description there is another sort which
is wild the description wherof take as followeth the great wild burnet
hath winged leavs rising from the roots like the garden burnet but not
so many yet each of these leavs are at the least twice as large as the
other and nicked in the same manner about the edges of a grayish colour
on the underside the stalks are greater and rise higher with many such
like leavs set theron and greater heads at the tops of a brownish green
colour and out of them come smal dark purple flowers like the former but
greater the root is black and long like the other but greater also it
hath almost neither scent nor tast therin like the garden kind the first
grows frequently in gardens the wild kind groweth in divers countries of
this land especially in huntington & northampton shires in the meadows
there as also near london by pancras church and by a causey side in the
middle of a field by paddington they flower about the end of june and
beginning of july and their seed is ripe in august they are accounted to
be both of one property but the lesser is more effectual because quicker
and more aromatical it is a friend to the heart liver and other the
principal parts of a mans body two or three of the stalks with leavs put
into a cup of wine especially clarret are known to quicken the spirits
refresh and cheer the heart and drive away melancholly it is a special
help to defend the heart from noisom vapors and from infection of the
pestilence the juyce therof being taken in som drink and the party laid
to sweat thereupon they have also a drying and an astringent quality
whereby they are available in all manner of fluxes or bloud or humors to
stanch bleedings inward or outward lasks scourings the bloudy flux
womens too abundant courses the whites and the chollerick belchings and
castings of the stomach and is a singular good wound herb for all sorts
of wounds both of the head and body either inward or outward for all old
ulcers or running cankers and moist sores to be used either by the juyce
or decoction of the herb or by the pouder of the herb or root or the
water of the distilled herb or ointment by it self or with other things
to be kept the seed is also no less effectual both to stop fluxes and
dry up moist sores being taken in pouder inwardly in wine or steeled
water that is wherin hot gads of steel have been quenched or the pouder
of the seed mixed with the ointments this is an herb the sun challengeth
dominion over and is a most precious herb little inferior to betony the
continual use of it preservs the body in health and the spirits in vigor
for if the sun be the preserver of life under god his herbs are the best
in the world to do it by this riseth up in february with a thick stalk
about a foot high whereon are set a few smal leavs or rather pieces and
at the tops a long spiked head of flowers of a blush or deep red colour
according to the soil wherin it groweth and before the stalk with the
flowers have abidden a month above ground wil be withered and gone blown
away with the wind and the leaves will begin to spring which being full
grown are very large & broad being somwhat thin and almost round whose
thick red footstalks about a foot long stand towards the middle of the
leavs the lower parts being divided into two round parts close almost
one to another and of a pale green colour and hoary underneath the root
is long and spreading under ground being in some places no bigger than
ones finger in others much bigger blackish on the outside & white within
of a bitter and unpleasant tast they grow in low and wet ground by
rivers and waters side their flower as is said rising and decaying in
february and march before the leavs which appear in april the roots
hereof are by long experience found to be very available against the
plague and pestilential feavers by provoking sweat if the pouder therof
be taken in wine it also resisteth the force of any other poyson the
root hereof taken with zedoary and angelica or without them helps the
rising of the mother the decoction of the root in wine is singular good
for those that wheeze much or are short winded it provoketh urin also
and womens courses and killeth the flat and broad worms in the belly the
pouder of the root doth wonderfully help to dry up the moisture of sores
that are hard to be cured and taketh away all spots and blemishes of the
skin it were wel if gentlewomen would keep this root preserved to help
their poor neighbors it is fit the rich should help the poor for the
poor cannot help themselvs it is so well known even to the little boys
who pul off the burs to throw and stick upon one another that i shal
spare to write any description of it they grow plentifully by ditches
and water sides and by the high wales almost every where through this
land the bur leavs are cooling moderatly drying and discussing withal
whereby it is good for old ulcers and sores a dram of the roots taken
with pine kernels helpeth them that spit foul mattery and bloudy flegm
the leavs applied on the places troubled with the shrinking of the
sinews or arteries give much ease the juyce of the leavs or rather the
roots themselvs given to drink with old wine doth wonderfully help the
bitings of any serpents and the root beaten with a little salt and laid
on the place suddenly easeth the pain thereof and helpeth those that are
bit with a mad dog the juyce of the leavs taken with honey provoketh
urin and remedieth the pain of the bladder the seed being drunk in wine
forty daies together doth wonderfully help the sciatica the leavs
bruised with the white of an egg and applied to any place burnt with
fire taketh out the fire gives sudden ease and heals it up afterwards
the decoction of them fomented on any fretting sore or canker stayeth
the corroding quality which must be afterwards anointed with an ointment
made of the same liquor hogs greas nitre and vinegar boyled together the
roots may be preserved with sugar and taken fasting or at other times
for the said purposes and for consumptions the ston and the lask the
seed is much commended to break the stone and cause it to be expelled by
urin and is often used with other seeds and things to that purpose venus
challengeth this herb for her own and by its leaf or seed you may draw
the womb which way you pleas either upward by applying it to the crown
of the heed if in case it fal out or downward in fits of the mother by
applying it to the soals of the feet or if you would stay it in its
place apply it to the navel and that is one good way to stay the child
in it see more of it in my guide for women i shal spare a labor in
writing a description of these sith almost every one that can but write
at all may describe them from his own knowledg they being generally so
well know that descriptions are altogether needless these are generally
planted in gardens their flowering time is towards the middle or end of
july and the seed is ripe in august the cabbages or coleworts boyled
gently in broth and eaten do open the body but the second decoction doth
bind the body the juyce therof drunk in wine helpeth those that are
bitten by an adder and the decoction of the flowers bringeth down womens
courses being taken with honey it recovereth hoarsness or loss of the
voice the often eating of them wel boyled helpeth those that are entring
into a consumption the pulp of the middle ribs of coleworts boyled in
almond milk and made up into an electuary with honey being taken often
is very profitable for those that are pursie and short winded being
boyled twice and a old cock boyled in the broth and drunk it helpeth the
pains and obstructions of the liver and spleen and the stone in the
kidnies the juyce boyled with honey and dropped into the corner of the
eye cleareth the sight by consuming any film or cloud begining to dim it
it also consumeth the canker growing therin they are much commended
being eaten before meat to keep one from surfetting as also from being
drunk with too much wine or quickly make a man sober again that is drunk
before for as they say there is such an antipathy or enmity between the
vine and the colewort that the one will die where the other groweth the
decoction of colworts taketh away the pain and ach and allayeth the
swellings of swoln and gouty legs and knees wherein many gross and watry
humors are fallen the place being bathed therwith warm it helpeth also
old and filthy sores being washed therewith and healeth all smal scabs
pushes and wheals that break out in the skin the ashes of colwort stalks
mixed with old hogs grease are very effectual to annoint the sides of
those that have had long pains therin or any other place pained with
melancholly and windy humors this was surely chrysippus his god and
therfore he wrote a whol volumn of them and their vertues and that none
of the least neither for he would be no smal fool he apropriates them to
every part of the body and to every disease in every part and honest old
cato they say used no other physick i know not what mettals their bodies
were made of this i am sure cabbages are extream windy whether you take
them as meat or as medicine yea as windy meat as can be eaten unless you
eat bagpipes or bellows and they are but seldom eaten in our daies and
colewort flowers are somthing more tollerable and the wholsomer food of
the two the moon challengeth the dominion of the herb this hath divers
somwhat long and broad large thick wrinkled leavs somwhat crumpled upon
the edges growing each upon a several thick footstalk very brittle of a
grayish green colour from among which riseth up a strong thick stalk two
foot high and better with some leavs theron to the top where it
brancheth forth much and on every branch standeth a large bush of pale
whitish flowers consisting of four leavs apiece the root is somwhat
great and shooteth forth many branches under ground keeping the green
leavs al the winter they grow in many places upon the sea coasts as wel
on the kentish as essex shores as at lidd in kent colechester in essex
and divers other places and in other countries of this land they flower
and seed about the time that other kinds do the broth or first decoction
of the sea colewort doth by the sharp nitrous and bitter qualities
therin open the belly and purge the body it clenseth and digesteth more
powerfully than the other kind the seed herof bruised and drunk killeth
worms the leavs or the juyce of them applied to sores or ulcers clenseth
and healeth them and dissolveth swellings and taketh away inflamations
this is a smal herb seldom rising above a a foot high with square hoary
and woody stalks and two smal hoary leavs set at a joynt about the
bigness of marjoram or not much cigger a little dented about the edges
and of a very fierce or quick scent as the whol herb is the flowers
stand at several spaces of the stalks from the middle almost upwards
which are smal and gaping like to those mints and of a pale blush colour
after which follow smal round blackish seeds the root is smal and woody
with divers smal sprigs spreading within the ground and dieth not but
abideth many yeers it groweth on heaths and upland dry grounds in many
places of this land they flower in july and their seed is ripe quickly
after the decoction of the herb being drunk bringeth down womens courses
and provoketh urin it is profitable for those that are bursten or
troubled with convulsions or cramps with shortness of breath or
chollerick torments and pains in their bellies or stomachs it also
helpeth the yellow jaundice and staieth vomiting being taken in wine
taken with salt and honey it killeth al manner of worms in the body it
helpeth such as have the leprosie either taken inwardly drinking whey
after it or the green herb outwardly applied it hindreth conception in
women being either burned or strewed in the chamber it driveth away
venemous serpents it takes away black and blue marks in the face and
maketh black scars become wel colored if the green herb not the dry be
boyled in wine and laid to the place or the place washed therwith being
applied to the hucklebone by continuance of time it spendeth the humors
which caused the pain of the sciatica the juyce dropped into the ears
killeth the worms in them the leavs boyled in wine and drunk provoketh
sweat and openeth obstructions of the liver and spleen it helpeth them
that have a tettian ague the body being first purged by taking away the
cold fits the decoction herof with some sugar put therto afterwards is
very profitable for those that be troubled with the overflowing of the
gal and that have an old cough and that are scarce able to breath by the
shortness of their wind that have any cold distemper in their bowels and
are troubled with the hardness of the spleen for al which purposes both
the pouder called diacalaminthes and the compound syrup of calamint
which are to be had at the apothecaries are most effectual let not women
be too busy with it for it works very violently upon the foeminin parts
this is so wel known every where that it is but lost time and labor to
describe it the vertues wherof are as followeth a decoction made of
chamomel and drunk taketh away al pains and stitches in the sides the
flowers of chamomel beaten and made up into bals with oyl driveth away
al sorts of agues if the party grieved be anointed with that oyl taken
from the flowers from the crown of the head to the soal of the foot and
afterwards laid to sweat in his bed and that he sweat wel this is
nichessor an egyptian's medicine it is profitable for all sorts of agues
that come either from flegm or melancholly or from an inflamation of the
bowels being applied when the humors causing them shal be concocted and
there is nothing more profitable to the sides and region of the liver
and spleen than it the bathing with a decoction of chamomel taketh away
weariness easeth pains to what part of the body soever they be applied
it comforteth the sinews that are overstrained mollifieth al swellings
it moderately comforteth al parts that have need of warmth digesteth and
dissolveth whatsoever hath need therof by a wonderful speedy property it
easeth al the pains of the chollick and stone and al pains and torments
ofthe belly and gently provoketh urin the flowers boyled in posset drink
provoketh sweat and helpeth to expel colds aches and pains whersoever
and is an excellent help to bring down womens courses a syrup made of
the juyce of chamomel with the flowers and white wine is a remedy
against the jaundice and dropsie the flowers boyled in a ly are good to
wash the head and comfort both it and the brain the oyl made of the
flowers of chamomel is much used against al hard swellings pains or
aches shrinking of the sinews or cramps or pains in the joynts or any
other part of the body being used in clisters it helpeth to dissolve
wind and pains in the belly anointed also it helpeth stitches and pains
in the sides nichessor saith the egyptians dedicated it to the sun
becaus it cured agues and they were like enough to do it for they were
the arrantest apes in their religion that ever i read of baccinus pena
and lobel commend the syrup made of the juyce of it and sugar taken
inwardly to be excellent for the spleen also this is certain that it
most wonderfully breaks the stone some take it in syrup or decoction
others inject the juyce of it into the bladder with a syring my opinion
is that the salt of it taken half a dram in a morning in a little white
or rhenish wine is better than either that it is excellent for the stone
appears by this which i have seen tried that a stone that hath been
taken out of the body of a man being wrapped in chamomel will in time
dissolve and in a little time too the white wild campion hath many long
and somwhat broad dark green leavs lying upon the ground with divers
ribs therin somwhat like plantane but somwhat hairy broader and not so
long the hairy stalks rise up in the middle of them three of four foot
high and somtimes more with divers great white joynts at several places
theron and two such like leavs therat up to the top sending forth
branches at the several joynts also al which bear on several footstalks
white flowers at the tops of them consisting of five broad pointed leavs
every one cut in on the end unto the middle making them seem to be two
apiece smelling somwhat sweet and each of them standing in large green
striped hairy husks large and round below next to the stalk the seed is
smal and grayish in the hard heads that come up afterwards the root is
white and long spreading divers fangs in the ground the red wild campion
groweth in the same manner as the white but his leavs are not so plainly
ribbed somewhat shorter rounder and more woolly in handling the flowers
are of the same form and bigness but in som of a pale in others of a
bright red colour cut in at ends more finely which maketh the leavs seem
more in number than the other the seed and the roots are alike the roots
of both sorts abiding many years there are forty five kinds of campions
more those of them which are of physical uses having the like vertues
with these above described which i take to be the two chiefest kinds
they grow commonly through this land by fields hedg sides and ditches
they flower in summer som earlier than others and some abiding longer
than others it is found by experience that the decoction of the herb
either the white or red being drunk doth stay inward bleedings and
applied outwardly it doth the like and being drunk helpeth to expel the
urin being stop'd and gravel or the stone in the reins or kidnies two
drams of the seed drunk in wine purgeth the body of chollerick humors
and helpeth those that are stung by scorpions or other venemous beasts
and may be as effectual for the plague it is of very good use in old
sores ulcers cankers fistulaes and the like to clens and heal them by
consuming the moist humors falling into them and correcting the
putrifaction of humors offending them the garden kind are so wel known
that they need no description but because they are of less physical use
than the wild kind as indeed almost in all herbs the wild are most
effectual in physick as being more powerful in operation then the garden
kinds i shal therfore briefly describe the wild carrot it groweth in a
manner altogether like the tame but that the leavs and stalks are
somwhat whiter and rougher the stalks bear large tufts of white flowers
with deep purple spot in the middle which are contracted together when
the seed begins to ripen that the middle part being hollow and low and
the outer stalks rising high maketh the whol umbel to shew like a birds
nest the root is smal long and hard unfit for meat being somwhat sharp
and strong the wild kind groweth in divers parts of this land
plentifully by the fields sides and in untilled places they flower and
seed in the end of summer it beareth divers stalks of fine cut leavs
lying upon the ground somwhat like to the leavs of carrots but not
bushing so thick of a little quick tast in them from among which riseth
up a square stalk not so high as the carrot at whose joynts are set the
like leavs but smaler and finer and at the top smal open tufts or umbels
of white flowers which turn into smal blackish seed smaler than the
anniseed and of a quicker and hotter tast the root is whitish smal and
long somwhat like unto a parsnep but with more wrinckled bark and much
less of a little hot and quick tast and stronger than the parsnep and
abideth after seed time it is usually sown with us in gardens they
flower in june or july and seed quickly after caraway seed hath a
moderat sharp quality wherby it breaketh wind and provoketh urin which
also the herb doth the root is better food than the parsnep and is
pleasant & comfortable to the stomach helping digestion the seed is
conducing to all the cold griefs of head and stomach the bowels or
mother as also the wind in them and helpeth to sharpen the eye sight the
pouder of the seed put into a pultis taketh away black and blue spots of
blows or bruises the herb it self or with some of the seed bruised and
fryed laid hot in a bag or double cloth to the lower part of the belly
easeth the pains of the wind chollick the roots of caraway eaten as men
eat parsnips strengthen the stomacks of ancient people exceedingly and
they need not make a whol meal of them neither and are fit to be planted
in every ones garden caraway comfects once only dipped in sugar and half
a spoonful of them eaten in the morning fasting and as many after each
meal is a most admirable remedy for such as are troubled with wind this
hath divers tender round whitish green stalks with greater joynts than
ordinary in other herbs as it were knees very brittle and easie to break
from whence grow branches with large tender long leavs much divided into
many parts each of them cut in on the edges set at the joynts on both
sides of the branches of a dark bluish green colour on the upper side
like columbines and of a more pale bluish green underneath ful of a
yellow sap when any part is broken of a bitter tast and strong scent at
the tops of the branches which are much divided grow gold yellow flowers
of four leaves apiece after which come smal long pods with blackish seed
therin the root is somwhat great at the head shooting forth divers other
long roots and smal strings reddish on the outside and yellow within ful
of a yellow sap therein it groweth in many places by old walls by the
hedges and way sides in untilled places and being once planted in a
garden especially in some shady place it wil remain there they flower
all the summer long and the seed ripeneth in the mean time the herb or
roots boyled in white wine and drunk a few aniseeds being boyled
therwith openeth obstructions of the liver and gall helpeth the yellow
jaundice and the often using it helps the dropsie and the itch and those
that have old sores in their legs or other parts of the body the juyce
thereof taken fasting is held to be of singular good use against the
pestilence the distilled water with a little sugar and a little good
triacle mixed therwith the party upon the taking being laid down to
sweat a little hath the same effect the juyce dropped into the eyes
clenseth them from films and the cloudiness which darken the sight but
it is best to allay the sharpnes of the juyce with a little breast milk
it is good in old filthy corroding creeping ulcers whersoever to stay
their malignity of fretting and running and to cause them to heal the
more speedily the juyce often applied to tetters ringworms or other such
like spreading cancers will quickly heal them and rubbed often upon
warts will taken them away the herb with the roots bruised and heated
with oyl of camomel applied to the navel taketh away the griping pain in
the belly and bowels and all the pains of the mother and applied to
womens breasts stayeth the overmuch flowing of their courses the juyce
decoction of the herb gargled between the teeth that ake easeth the pain
and the pouder of the dryed root laid upon an aching hollow or loos
tooth wil cause it to fal out the juyce mixed with som pouder of
brimstone is not only good against the itch but taketh away al
discolourings of the skin whatsoever and if it chance that in a tender
body it causeth any itching or inflamation by bathing the place with a
little vinegar it is helped this is an herb of the sun & under the
coelestial lyon and is one of the best cures for the eyes that is al
that know any thing in astrologie know as wel as i can tel them that the
eyes are subject to the luminaries let it then be gathered when the sun
is in leo and the moon in aries applying to his trine let leo arise then
may you make it into an oyl or oyntment which you please to anoint your
sore eyes withal i can prove it both by my own experience and the
experience of those to whom i have taught it that most desperat sore
eyes have been cured by this only medicine and then i pray is not this
farbetter than endangering the eyes by the art of the needle for if this
do not absolutly take away the film it wil so facilitate the work that
it may be don wihout danger another il favored trick have physitians got
to use to the eye and that is worse than the needle which is to eat away
the film by corroding or gnawing medicines this i absolutly protest
against because the tunicles of the eye are very thin and therfore soon
eaten asunder the callus or film that they would eat away is seldom of
an equal thickness in every place and then the tunicle may be eaten
asunder in one place before the film be consumed in another and so be a
readier way to extinguish the sight than to restore it it is called
chelidonium from the greek word which sigifies a swallow because they
say that if you prick out the eyes of yong swallows when they are in the
nest the old ones wil recover their eyes again with this herb this i am
confident for i have tried it that if you mar the very apple of their
eyes with a needle she wil recover them again but whether with this herb
or no i know not also i have read and it seems to be somwhat probable
that the herb being gathered as i shewed before and the elements drawn
apart from it by the art of the alchymist and after they are drawn apart
rectified the earthy quality still in rectifying them added to the terra
damnata as alchymists call it or terra sacratissima as som phylosophers
call it the elements so rectified are sufficient for the cure of al
diseases the humor offending being known and the contrary element given
it is an experience wurth the trying and can do no harm i wonder what
ailed the antients to give this the name of celandine which resembles it
neither in nature nor form it acquired the name of pilewort from its
vertues and it being no great matter where i set it down so i do set it
down at al i humor'd tradition so much as to set it down here this
celandine then or pilewort which you please doth spread many round pale
green leavs set on weak and trailing branches which lie upon the ground
and are fat smooth and somwhat shining and in some places though seldom
marked with black spots each standing on a long footstalk among which
rise smal yellow flowers consisting of nine or ten smal narrow leavs
upon slender footstalks very like unto a crowfoot wherunto the seed also
is not unlike being many smal ones set together upon a head the root is
made of many smal kernels like grain of corn some twice as long as
others of a whitish colour with some fibres at the end of them it
groweth for the most part in the moist corners of fields and places that
are neer water sides yet wil abide in dryer grounds if they be but a
little shadowed it flowereth betimes about march or april is quite gone
in may so as it cannot be found until it spring again it is certain by
good experience that the decoction of the leavs and roots doth
wonderfully help the piles and hemorrhoids as also kernels by the ears
and throat called the kings evil or any other hard wens or tumors here's
another secret for my country men and women a couple of them together
pilewort being made into an oyl oyntment or plaister readily cures both
the piles or hemorrhoids and the kings evil if i may lawfully cal it the
kings evil now there is no king the very herb born about ones body next
the skin helps in such diseases though it never touch the place grieved
let good people make much of it for these uses with this i cured my own
daughter of the kings evil broke the sore drew out a quarter of a pint
of corruption and cured it without any scar at all and in one weeks time
this groweth up most usually but with one round and somwhat crested
stalk about a foot high or better branching forth at the top into many
sprigs and some also from the joynts of the stalks below the flowers
that stand at the tops as it were in an umbel or tuft are of a pale red
tending to a carnation colour consisting of five somtimes six small
leavs very like those of johns wort opening themselvs in the daytime and
closing at night after which come seed in little short husks in form
like unto wheat corns the leavs are smal and somwhat round the root smal
and hard perishing every year the whol plant is of an exceeding bitter
tast there is another sort in al things like the former save only it
beareth white flowers they grow ordinarily in fields pastures and woods
but that with the white flowers not so frequent as the other they flower
in july or there abouts and seed within a month after this herb boyled
and drunk purgeth chollerick and gross humors and helpeth the sciatica
it openeth obstructions of the liver gall and spleen helping the
jaundice and easing pains in the sides and hardness of the spleen used
outwardly and is given with very good effect in agues it helpeth those
that have the dropsie or the green sickness being much used by the
italians in pouder for that purpose it killeth the worms in the belly as
is found by experience the decoction therof the tops of the stalks with
the leavs and flowers is good against the chollick and to bring down
womens courses helpeth to avoid the dead birth and easeth pains of the
mother and is very effectual in al old pains of the joynts as the gout
cramps or convulsions a dram of the pouder therof taken in wine is a
wonderful good help against the biting and poyson of the adder the juyce
of the herb with a little honey put to it is good to cleer the eyes from
dimness mists and clouds that offend or hinder the sight it is singular
good both for green and fresh wounds as also for old ulcers and sores to
close up the one and clens the other and perfectly to cure them both
although they be hollow or fistulous the green herb especially being
bruised and laid therto the decoction therof dropped into the ears
clenseth them from worms clenseth the foul ulcers and spreading scabs of
the head and taketh away al freckles spots and marks in the skin being
washed therwith the herb is so safe you cannot fail in the using of it
only give inwardly for inward diseases use it outwardly for outward
diseases 'tis very wholsom but not very toothsom reason and experience
could not agree the last time i spake with them whether the herb were
under the dominion of the sun or mars i suppose there are few but know
this tree for his fruits sake and therfore shal spare the writing a
description therof for the place of its growth it is afforded room in
every orchard cherries as they are of different tasts so they are of
divers qualities the sweet pass through the stomach and belly more
speedily but are of little nourishment the tart or sowr are more
pleasing to an hot stomach procuring appetite to meat and help to cut
tough flegm and gross humors but when these are dryed they are more
binding the belly than when they are fresh being cooling in hot diseases
and welcom to the stomach and provoke urin the gum of the cherry tree
dissolved in wine is good for a cold cough and hoarsness of the throat
mendeth the colour in the face sharpneth the eye sight provoketh
appetite and helpeth to break and expel the stone the black cherries
bruised with the stones and distilled the water therof is much used to
break the stone expel gravel and break the wind the winter cherry hath a
running or creeping root in the ground of the bigness many times of ones
little finger shooting forth at several joynts ins everal places wherby
it quickly spreadeth a great compass of ground the stalk riseth not
above a yard high wheron are set many broad and long green leavs somwhat
like nightshade but larger at the joynts wherof come forth whitish
flowers made of five leavs apiece which after turn into green berries
inclosed with thin skins which change to be reddish when they grow ripe
the berry likewise being reddish and as large as a cherry wherein are
contained many flat and yellowish seeds lying within the pulp which
being gathered and strung up are kept all the yeer to be used upon
occasion they grow not naturally in this land but are cherished in
gardens for their vertues they flower not until the middle or latter end
of july and the fruit is ripe about the end of august or beginning of
september they are of great use in physick the leavs being cooling may
be used in inflamations but not opening as the berries and fruit are
which by drawing down the urine provoke it to be avoided plentifully
when it is stopped or grown hot sharp and painful in the passage it is
good also to expel the stone and gravel out of the reins kidnies and
bladder helping to dissolve the stone and avoiding it by greet or gravel
sent forth in the urin it also helpeth much to clens inward impostumes
or ulcers in the reins or bladder or in those that avoid a bloody or
foul urin the distilled water of the fruit or the leavs together with
them or the berries green or dry distilled with a little milk and drunk
morning and evening with a little sugar is effectual to al the purposes
afore specified and especially against the heat and sharpness of the
urin i shal only mention one way amongst many others which might be used
for ordering the berries to be helpful for the urin and the stone which
is thus take three or four good handfuls of the berries either green and
fresh or dried and having bruised them put them into so many gallons of
beer or ale when it is new tunned up this drink taken daily hath been
found to do much good to many both to eas the pains and expel urin and
the stone and to caus the stone not to ingender the decoction of the
berries in wine or water is the most usual way but the pouder of them
taken in drink is more effectual the garden chervil doth at first
somwhat resemble parsly but after it is better grown the leavs are much
cut in and jagged resembling hemlocks being a little hairy and of a
whitish green colour somtimes turning reddish in the summer with the
stalks also it riseth little above half a foot high bearing white
flowers in spoked tufts which turn into long and round seed pointed at
the ends and blackish when they are ripe of a sweet tast but no smel
though the herb it self smelleth reasonable wel the root is smal and
long and perisheth every yeer and must be sowen anew in the spring for
seed and after july for autumn sallet the wild chervil growth two or
three foot high with yellow stalks and joynts set with broader and more
hairy leavs divided into sundry parts nicked about the edges and of a
darker green colour which likewise grow reddish with the stalks at the
tops wherof stand smal white tufts of flowers & afterwards smaller and
longer seed the root is white hard and enduring long this hath little or
no scent the first is sown in gardens for a sallet herb the second
groweth wild in many of the meadows of this land and by the hedg sides
and on heaths they flower and seed early and thereupon are sown again in
the end of summer the garden chervil being eaten doth moderately warm
the stomach and is a certain remedy saith tragus to dissolve congealed
or clotted bloud in the body or that which is clotted by bruises fals
the juyce or distilled water therof being drunk and the bruised leavs
laid to the place being taken either in meat or drink it is held good to
provoke urin to expel the stone in the kidnies to send down womens
courses and to help the plurisie and prickings of the sides the wild
chervil bruised and applied dissolveth swellings in any part of the body
and taketh away the spots and marks of congealed blood by bruises or
blows in a little space this groweth very like the greater hemlock
having large spread leavs cut into diverse parts but of a fresher green
colour than the hemlock tasting as sweet as the anniseed the stalk
riseth up a yard high or better being crested or hollow having the like
leavs at the joynts but lesser and at the tops of the branched stalks
umbels or tufts of white flowers after which com large and long crested
black shining seed pointed at both ends tasting quick yet sweet and
pleasant the root is great and white growing deep in the ground and
spreading sundry long branches therin in tast and smel stronger than the
leavs or seed and continuing many years this groweth in gardens this
whol plant besides its pleasantness in sallets hath also his physical
vertues the root boyled and eaten with oyl and vinegar or without oyl
doth much pleas and warm an old and cold stomach oppressed with wind or
flegm or those that have the phtisick or consumption of the lungs the
same drunk with wine is a peservative from the plague it provoketh
womens courses and expelleth the after birth procureth an appetit to
meat and expelleth wind the juyce is good to heal the ulcers of the head
and face the candied roots hereof are held as effectual as angelica to
preserv from infection in the time of a plague and to warm and comfort a
cold weak stomach it is so harmless you cannot use it amiss this is
generally known to most people i shal therfore not trouble you with the
description therof nor my self with setting fourth the several kinds
sith but only two or three are considerable for their usefulness these
are usually found in moist and watry places by wood sides and els where
they flower about june and their seed is ripe in july it is found to be
as effectual as purslane to al the purposes whereunto it serveth except
for meat only the herb bruised or the juyce applied with cloaths or
spunges dipped therein to the region of the liver and as they dry to
have fresh applied doth wonderfully temper the heat of the liver and is
effectual for all imposthums and swellings wheresoever for scabs the
juyce either simply used or boyled with hogs greas and applied the same
helpeth cramps convulsions and palsies the juyce or distilled water is
of much good use for al heat and redness in the eyes to drop som therof
into them as also into the ears to ease pains in them and is of good
effect to ease the pains the heat and sharpness of blood in the piles
and generally al pains in the body that arise of heat it is used also in
hot and virulent ulcers and sores in the privy parts of man or woman or
on the legs or els where the leavs boyled with marsh mallows and made
into a pultis with fenugreek and linseed applied to swellings or
imposthumes ripeneth and breaketh them or swageth the swellings and
easeth the pains it helpeth the sinews when they are shrunk by cramps or
otherwise and to extend and make them pliable again by this medicine
boyl an handful of chickweed and a handful of red rose leavs dryed but
not distilled in a quart of muscadine until a fourth part be consumed
then put to them a pint of the oyl of trotters or sheeps feet let them
boyl a good while still stirring them wel which being strained anoint
the grieved place herewith warm against a fire rubbing it wel in with
ones hand and bind also some of the herb if you wil to the place and
with gods blessing it will help in three times dressing the garden sorts
whether red black or white brings forth stalks a yard long wheron do
grow many smal and almost round leavs dented about the edges set on both
sides of a middle rib at the joynts come forth one or two flowers upon
short footstalks peas fashion either white or whitish or purplish red
lighter or deeper according as the peas that follow will be that are
contained in smal thick and short pods wherin lie one or two peas more
usually a little pointed at the lower end and almost round at the head
yet a little corner'd or sharp the root is smal and perisheth yeerly
they are sown in gardens or the fields as peas being sown later than
peas and gathered at the same time with them or presently after they are
no less windy than beans but nourish more they provoke urine and are
thought to encreas sperm they have a clensing faculty wherby they break
the stones in the kidneys to drink the cream of them being boyled in
water is the best way it moveth the belly downwards provoketh womens
courses and urin and encreaseth both milk and seed one ounce of cicers
two ounces of french barley and a smal handful of marsh mallow roots
clean washed and cut being boyled in the broth of a chicken and four
ounces taken in the morning and fasting two hours after is a good
medicine for a pain in the side the white cicers are used more for meat
than medicine yet have they the same effect and are thought more
powerful to encrease milk and seed the wild cicers are so much more
powerful than the garden kinds by how much they exceed them in heat and
driness whereby they do more open obstructions break the stone and have
al the properties of cutting opening digesting and dissolving and this
more speedily and certainly than the former this spreadeth and creepeth
far upon the ground with long slender strings like strawberries which
take root again and shooteth forth many leavs made of five parts and
somtimes of seven dented about the edges and somwhat hard the stalks are
slender leaning downwards and bear many smal yellow flowers theron with
some yellow threds in the middle standing about a smooth green head
which when it is ripe is a little rough and containeth smal brownish
seeds the root is of a blackish brown colour seldom so big as ones
little finger but growing long with some threds therat and by the smal
strings it quickly spreadeth over the ground it groweth by wood sides
hedg sides the pathwaies in fields and in the borders and corners of
them almost through all this land it flowreth in summer some sooner some
later it is an especial herb used in all inflamations and feavers
whether infectious or pestilential or among other herbs to cool and
temper the blood and humors in the body as also for all lotions gargles
injections and the like for sore mouths ulcers cankers fistulaes and
other corrupt foul or running sores the juyce herof drunk about four
ounces at a time for certain daies together cureth the quinsie and the
yellow jaundice and taken for thirty daies together cureth the falling
sickness the roots boyled in milk and drunk is a most effectual remedy
for all fluxes in man or woman whether the whites or reds as also the
bloody flux the roots boyled in vinegar and the decoction therof held in
the mouth easeth the pains of the toothach the juyce or decoction taken
with a little honey helpeth the hoarsness of the throat and is good for
the cough of the lungs the distilled water of both roots and leavs is
also effectual to all the purposes aforesaid and if the hands be often
washed therin and suffered at every time to dry in of it self without
wiping it wil in short time help the palsy or shaking in them the roots
boyled in vinegar helpeth all knots kernels hard swellings and lumps
growing in any part of the flesh being therto applied as also al
inflamations and anthonies fire all imposthumes and painful sores with
heat and putrefaction the shingles also and all other sorts of running
and foul scabs sores and itch the same also boyled in wine and applied
to any joynts full of pain and ach or the gout in the hands or feet or
the hip gout called the sciatica and the decoction therof drunk the
while doth cure them and easeth much pains in the bowels the roots are
likewise effectual to help ruptures or burstings being used with other
things available to that purpose taken either inwardly or outwardly or
both as also for bruises or hurts by blows falls or the like and to stay
the bleeding of wounds in any part inward or outward this is an herb of
jupiter and therfore strengthens the parts of the body that he rules let
jupiter be angular and strong when it is gathered and if you give but a
scruple which is but twenty grains of it at a time either in white wine
or white wine vinegar you shal very seldom miss the cure of an ague be
it what ague soever in three fits as i have often proved to the
admiration both of my self and others let no man despise it becaus it is
plain and easie the waies of god are all such 'tis the ungodliness and
impudencey of man that made things hard and hath by so doing made sport
for al the devils in hell and grieved the good angels and when you reade
this your own genius if you be any thing at al acquainted with it may
dictate to you many as good conclusions both of this and other herbs
some hold that one leaf cures a quotidian three a tertian and four a
quartan ague and a hundred to one if it be not dioscorides for he is ful
of such whimseys the truth is i never stood so much upon the number of
the leavs nor whether i gave it in pouder or decoction if jupiter were
strong and the moon applying to him or his good aspect at the gathering
of it i never knew it miss the desired effects our ordinary garden clary
hath four square stalks with broad rough wrinkled whitish or hairy green
leavs somwhat evenly cut in on the edges and of a strong sweet sent
growing some neer the ground and some by couples upon the stalks the
flowers grow at certain distances with two smal leavs at the joynts
under them somwhat like unto the flowers of sage but smaller and of a
whitish blue colour the seed is brownish and somwhat flat or not so
round as the wild the roots are blackish and spread not far and perish
after the seed time it is usually sown for it seldom riseth of its own
sowing this groweth in gardens it flowereth in june and july some a
little later than others and their seed is ripe in august or therabouts
the seed is used to be put into the eyes to cleer them from moats or
other such like things gotten within the lids to offend them as also to
clear them from white or red spots in them the muccilage of the seed
made with water and applied to tumors and swellings disperseth and
taketh them away as also draweth forth splinters thorns or other things
gotten into the flesh the leavs used with vinegar either by it self or
with a little honey doth help hot inflamations as also boyls felons and
the hot inflamations that are gathered by their pains if it be applied
before they be grown too great the pouder of the dried leavs put into
the nose provoketh neesing and therby purgeth the head and brain of much
rhewm and corruption the seed or leavs taken in wine provoketh to venery
it is of much use both for men and women that have weak backs to help to
strengthen the reins used either by it self or with other herbs
conducing to the same effect and in tansies often the fresh leavs dipped
in a batter of flower egs and a little milk and fried in butter and
served to the table is not unpleasant to any but exceeding profitable
for those that are troubled with weak backs and the effects therof the
juyce of the herb put into ale or beer and drunk bringeth down womens
courses and expelleth the after birth it is an usual cours with men when
they have gotten the running of the reins or women the whites then run
to the bush of clary maid bring hither the frying pan fetch me some
butter quickly then to eating fryed clary just as hogs eat acorns and
thus they think wil cure their disease forsooth wheras when they have
devoured as much clary as wil grow upon an acre of ground their backs
are as much the better as though they had pissed in their shoos nay
perhaps much wors as for the trick of curing the eyes by it i can as yet
say nothing to it for the rest it may be effectual we will grant that
clary strengthens the back but this we deny that the caus of the running
of the reins in men or the whites in women lies in the back though the
back may somtimes be weakned by them and therfore the medicine is as
proper as for me when my toe is sore to lay a plaister to my nose the
common cleavers hath divers very rough square stalks not so big as the
tag of a point but rising up to be two or three yards high somtimes if
it meet with any tall bushes or trees wheron it may climb yet without
any claspers or els much lower and lying upon the ground full of joynts
and at every of them shooteth forth a branch besides the leavs therat
which are usually six set in a round compass like a star or the rowel of
a spur from between the leavs at the joynts towards the tops of the
branches come forth very smal white flowers every one upon a smal
threddy footstalk which after they are fallen there do shew two smal
round rough seeds joyned together like two testicles which when they are
ripe grow hard and whitish having a little hole on the side somewhat
like unto a navil both stalks leavs and seeds are so rough that they wil
cleave to any thing shal touch them the root is small and very threddy
spreading much in the ground but dieth every yeer it groweth by the hedg
and ditch sides in many places of this land and is so troublesom an
inhabitant in gardens that it rampeth upon and is ready to choak what
ever grows next it it flowreth in june and july and the seed is ripe and
falleth again in the end of july or august from whence it springeth up
again and not from the old roots the juyce of the herb and seed together
taken in wine helpeth those that are bitten with an adder by preserving
the heart from the venom it is familiarly taken in broth to keep them
lean and lank that are apt to grow fat the distilled water drunk twice a
day helpeth the yellow jaundice and the decoction of the herb in
experience found to do the same and stayeth lasks and bloody fluxes the
juyce of the leavs or they a little bruisep and applied to any bleeding
wound stayeth the bleeding the juyce is also very good to close up the
lips of green wounds and the pouder of the dried herb strewed therupon
doth the same and likewise helpeth old ulcers being boyled with hogs
greas it healeth al sorts of hard swellings or kernels in the throat
being anointed therwith the juyce dropped into the ears taketh away the
pains of them it is a good remedy in the spring eaten being first
chopped smal and boyled well in water gruel to clens the blood and
strengthen the liver thereby keeping the body in health and fitting it
for that change of season that is coming it groweth up somtimes to three
or four foot high but usually about two foot with square green rough
stalks but slender joynted somwhat far asunder and two very long and
somwhat narrow dark green leavs bluntly dented about the edges thereat
ending in a long point the flowers stand toward the tops compassing the
stalks at the joynts with the leavs and end likewise in a spiked top
having long and much open gaping hoods of a purplish red colour with
whitish spots in them standing in somwhat rough husks wherein afterwards
stand blackish round seeds the root is composed of many long strings
with some tuberous long knobs growing among them of a pale yellowish or
whitish colour yet at some times of the year these knobby roots in many
places are not seen in the plant the whol plant smelleth somwhat
strongly it groweth in sundry counties of this land both north and west
and frequently by path sides in the fields neer about london and within
three or four miles distance about it yet it usually grows in or neer
ditches it flowreth in june and july and the seed is ripe soon after i
is singularly effectual in all fresh and green wounds and therfore
beareth not this name for nought and is very available in stanching of
blood and to dry up the fluxes of humors in old fretting ulcers cancers
that hinder the healing of them a syrup made of the juyce of it is
inferior to none for inward wounds ruptures of veins bloody flux vessels
broken spitting pissing or vomiting blood ruptures are excellently and
speedily even to admiration cured by taking now and then a little of the
syrup and applying an oyntment or plaister of the herb to the place also
if any vein be swelled or muscle cut apply a plaister of this herb to it
and if you ad a little comfry to it 'twil not do amiss i assure the herb
deservs commendations though it have gotten but a clownish name and
whoever reades this if he try it as i have done will commend it as well
as i i have done only take notice that it is of a dry earthy quality and
under the dominion of the planet saturn this hath divers weak but rough
stalks half a yard long leaning downwards beset with winged leavs longer
and more pointed than those of lentils and whitish underneath from the
tops of these stalks arise up other slender stalks naked without leavs
unto the tops where there grow many smal flowers in manner of a spike of
a pale reddish colour with some blueness among them after which rise up
in their places round rough and somwhat flat heads the root is tough and
somwhat woody yet liveth and shootheth anew every yeer it groweth under
hedges and somtimes in the open fields in divers places of this land
they flower all the months of july and august and the seed ripeneth in
the mean while it hath a power to rarifie and digest and therfore the
green leavs bruised and laid as a plaister disperseth knots nodes or
kernels in the flesh and if when it is dry it be taken in wine it
helpeth the strangury and being anointed with oyl it provoketh sweat it
is a singular food for cattel to cause them to give store of milk and
why then may it not do the like being boyled in the ordinary drink of
nurses these are so wel known growing in almost every garden that i
think i may save the expence of time in writing a description of them
they flower in may and abide not for the most part when june is past
perfecting their seed in the mean time the leavs of columbines are
commonly used in lotions with good success for sore mouths and throats
tragus saith that a dram of the seed taken in wine with a little saffron
openeth obstructions of the liver and is good for the yellow jaundice if
the party after the taking therof be laid to sweat wel in his bed the
seed also taken in wine causeth a speedy delivery of women in childbirth
if one draught suffice not let her drink a second and it is effectual
the spaniards use to eat a piece of the root hereof in a morning fasting
many daies together to help them being troubled with the stone in the
reins or kidneys this shooteth up a slender stalk with small yellowish
flowers somwhat early which fall away quickly and after they are past
come up somwhat round leavs somtimes dented a little about the edges
much lesser thicker and greener than those of butterbur with a little
down or freez over the green leaf on the upper side which may be rubbed
away and whitish or mealy underneath the root is smal and white
spreading much underground so that where it taketh it windwardly be
driven away again if any little piece be abiding therin and from thence
springeth fresh leavs it groweth as well in wet grounds as in drier
places and flowreth in the end of february the leavs beginning to appear
in march the fresh leavs or juyce or a syrup made therof is good for a
hot dry cough for wheesings and shortness of breath the dry leavs are
best for those that have thin rhewms and distillations upon the lungs
causing a cough for which also the dried leavs taken as tobacco or the
root is very good the distilled water herof simply or with elder flowers
and nightshade is a singular remedy against al hot agues to drink two
ounces at a time and apply cloathes wet therein to the head and stomach
which also doth much good being applied to any hot swellings or
inflamations it helpeth anthonies fire and burnings and is singular good
to take away wheals and smal pushes that arise through heat as also the
burning heat of the piles or privy parts cloathes wet therin being
therunto applied the common great comfry hath divers very large and
hairy green leavs lying on the ground so hairy or prickly that if they
touch any tender part of the hands face or body it will caus it to itch
the stalk that riseth up from among them being two or three foot high
hollow and cornered is very hairy also having many such like leavs as
grow below but lesser and lesser up to the top at the joynts of the
stalks it is divided into many branches with some leavs theron and at
the ends stand many flowers in order one about another which are somwhat
long and hollow like the finger of a glove of a pale whitish colour
after which come smal black seed the roots are great and long spreading
great thick branches under ground black on the outside and whitish
within short or easie to break and ful of a glutinous or clammy juyce of
little or no tast at al there is another sort in al things like this
save only it is somwhat less and beareth flowers of a pale purple colour
they grow by ditches and water sides and in divers fields that are moist
for therin they chiefly delight to grow the first generally through al
the land and the other but in some several places by the leave of my
author the first grow often in dry places they flower in june and july
and give their seed in august the great comfry helpeth those that spit
blood or make a bloody urin the root boyled in water or wine and the
decoction drunk helpeth al inward hurts bruises and wounds and the
ulcers of the lungs causing the flegm that oppresseth them to be easily
spit forth it staieth the defluxions of rhewm from the head upon the
lungs the fluxes of blood or humors by the belly womens immoderate
courses as well the reds as the whites and the running of the reins
hapning by what caus soever a syrup made therof is very effectual for
all those inward griefs and hurts and the distilled water for the same
purpose also and for outward wounds and sores in the fleshy or sinewy
part of the body whersoever as also to take away the fits of agues and
to allay the sharpness of humors a decoction of the leavs herof is
available to all the purposes though not so effectual as of the roots
the roots being outwardly applied helpeth fresh wounds or cuts
immediatly being bruised and laid therunto and is especial good for
ruptures and broken bones yea it is said to be so powerful to
consolidate and knit together that if they be boyled with dissevered
pieces of flesh in a pot it will joyn them together again it is good to
be applied to womens breasts that grow sore by the abundance of milk
coming into them as also to repress the overmuch bleeding of the
hemorrhoids to cool the inflamation of the parts therabouts and to give
eas of pains the roots of comfry taken fresh beaten smal and spread upon
leather and laid upon any place troubled with the gout do presently give
eas of the pains and applied in the same manner giveth eas to pained
joynts and profiteth very much from running and moist ulcers gangrenes
mortifications and the like for which it hath by often experience been
found helpful this is also an herb of saturn and i suppose under the
sign capricorn cold dry and earthy in quality what was spoken of clowns
woundwort may be said of this this is so frequently known to be an
inhabitant in almost every garden that i suppose it needless to write a
description therof it flowreth in june and july the ordinary costmary as
well as maudlin provoketh urin abundantly and moistneth the hardness of
the mother it gently purgeth choller and flegm extenuating that which is
gross and cutting that which is tough and gluttenous clenseth that which
is foul and hindreth putrefaction and corruption it dissolveth without
attraction openeth obstructions and healeth their evil effect and is a
wonderful help to al sorts of day agues it is astringent to the stomach
and strengtheneth the liver and al the other inward parts and taken in
whey worketh the more effectually taken fasting in the morning it is
very profitable for the pains in the head that are continual and to stay
dry up and consume all thin rhewms or distillations from the head into
the stomach and helpeth much to digest raw humors that are gathered
therein it is very profitable for those that are fallen into a continual
evil disposition of the whol body called cachexia being taken especially
in the beginning of the diseas it is an especial friend and help to evil
weak and cold livers the seed is familiarly given to children for the
worms and so is the infusion of the flowers in white wine given them to
the quantity of two ounces at a time it maketh an excellent salve to
clens and heal old ulcers being boyled with oyl olive and adders tongue
with it and after it is strained to put a little wax rozin and
turpentine to bring it into a convenient body the common cudweed riseth
up but with one stalk somtime and somtimes with two or three thick set
on all sides with small long and narrow whitish or wooly leavs from the
middle of the stalk almost up to the top with every leaf standeth a smal
flower of a dun or brownish yellow colour or not so yellow as others in
which heads after the flowers are fallen come smal seed wrapped up with
the down therin and is carried away with the wind the root is small and
threddy there are other sorts hereof which are somwhat lesser than the
former not much different save only that as the stalk and leavs are
shorter so the flowers are paler and more open they grow in dry barren
sandy and gravelly grounds in most places of this land they flower about
july some earlier some later and their seed is ripe in august the plants
are all stringent or binding and drying and therfore profitable for
defluxions of rhewm from the head and to stay fluxes of blood whersoever
the decoction being made into red wine and drunk or the pouder taken
therin it also helpeth the bloody flux and easeth the torments that come
therby stayeth the immoderate courses of women and is also good for
inward or outward wounds hurts and bruises and helpeth children both of
burstings and the worms and the disease called tenasmus which is an
often provocation to the stool and doing nothing being either drunk or
injected the green leavs bruised and laid to any green wound staieth the
bleeding and healeth it up quickly the decoction or juyce therof doth
the same and helpeth all old and filthy ulcers quickly the juyce of the
herb taken in wine and milk is as pliny saith a soverign remedy against
the mumps and quinsie and further saith that whosoever shal so take it
shal never be troubled with that disease again venus is lady of it both
the wild and garden cowslips are so wel know that i wil neither trouble
my self nor the reader with any description of them they flower in april
and may the flowers are held to be more effectual than the leavs and the
roots of little use an oyntment being made with them taketh away spots
and wrinkles of the skin sunburning and freckles and ads beauty
exceedingly they remedy all infirmities of the head coming of heat and
wind as vertigo ephialtes fals apparitions phrensies falling sickness
palsies convulsions cramps pains in the nerves the roots eas pains in
the back and bladder and open the passages of urine the leavs are good
in wounds and the flowers take away trembling if the flowers be not well
dried and kept in a warm place they wil soon putrifie and look green
have a special eye over them if you let them see the sun once a month it
wil do neither the sun nor them harm because they strengthen the brain
and nerves and remedy palsies the greeks gave them the name prralisis
the flowers preserved or conserved and the quantity of a nutmeg eaten
every morning is a sufficient dose for inward diseases but for wounds
spots wrinkles and sunburnings an oyntment is made of the leavs and hogs
greas venus laies claim to the herb as her own and it is under the sign
aries and our city dames know wel enough the oyntment or distilled water
of it ads beauty or at least restores it when it is lost these are of
two kinds the first riseth up with a round stalk about two foot high
spread into divers branches whose lower leavs are somwhat larger than
the upper yet all of them cut or torn on the edges somewhat like unto
garden cresses but smaller the flowers are smal and white growing at the
tops of the branches where afterwards grow husks with smal brownish seed
therin very strong and sharp in tast more than the cresses of the garden
the root is long white and woody the other hath the lower leavs whol
somwhat long and broad not torn at al but only somwhat deeply dented
about the edges towards the ends but those that grow up higher are
lesser the flowers and seed are like the former and so is the root
likewise and both root and seed as sharp as it these grow by the
waysides in untilled places and by the sides of old walls the flower in
the end of june and their seed is ripe in july the leavs but especially
the roots taken fresh in the sumer time beaten & made into a pultis or
salve with old hogs greas and applied to the place pained with the
sciatica to continue theron four hours if it be on a man and two hours
on a woman the place afterwards bathed with wine and oyl mixed together
and then wrapped with wool or skins after they have set a little wil
assuredly cure not only the same diseas in the hips hucklebone or other
of the joynts as the gout in the hands or feet but all other old griefs
of the head as inveterate rhewms and other part of the body that is hard
to be cured and if of the former griefs any part remain the same
medicine after twenty daies is to be applied again the same is also
effectual in the diseases of the spleen and applied to the skin it
taketh away the blemishes therof whether they be scars leprosie scabs or
scurf which although it exulcerate the part yet that is to be helped
afterwards with a salve made of oyl and wax esteem of this as another
secret our ordinary water cresses spreadeth forth with many weak hollow
sappy stalks shooting out fibres at the joynts and upwards long winged
leavs made of sundry broad sappy and almost round leavs of a brownish
green colour the flowers are many and white standing on long footstalks
after which come small yellow seed contained in smal long pods like
horns the whol plant abideth green in the winter and tasteth somwhat hot
and sharp they grow for the most part in the smal standing waters yet
somtimes in smal rivulets of running water they flower and seed in the
beginning of summer they are more powerful against the scurvy and to
clens the blood and humors than brooklime is and serve in al the other
uses in which brooklime is available as to break the stone and provoke
urin and womens courses the decoction therof clenseth ulcers by washing
them therwith the leavs brused or the juyce is good to be applied to the
face or other parts troubled with freckles pimples spots or the like at
night and washed away in the morning the juyce mixed with vineger and
the forepart of the head bathed therwith is very good for those that are
dull and drowsie or have the lethargy water cress pottage is a good
remedy to clens the blood in the spring and help head aches and consume
the gross humors winter hath left behind those that would live in health
may use it if they pleas if they will not i cannot help it if any fancy
not pottage they may eat the herb as a sallet the common crosswort
groweth up with square hairy brown stalks little above a foot high
having four smal broad and pointed hairy yet smooth green leavs growing
at every joynt each against other cross waies which hath caused the name
toward the tops of the stalks at the joynts with the leavs in three or
four rows upwards stand smal pale yellow flowers after which come smal
blackish round seed four for the most part set in every husk the root is
very smal and full of fibres or threads taking good hold of the ground
and spreading with the branches a great deal of ground which perisheth
not in winter although the leavs die every year and spring again anew it
groweth in many moist grounds as well meadows as untilled places about
london in hamsted church yard at wye in kent and sundry other places it
flowreth from may al the summer long in one place or other as they are
more open to the sun and the seed ripeneth soon after this is a singular
good wound herb and is used inwardly not only to stay bleeding of wounds
but to consolidate them as it doth outwardly any green wounds which it
quickly sodereth up and healeth the decoction of the herb in wine
helpeth to expectorate flegm out of the chest and is good for
obstructions in the breast stomach or bowels and helpeth a decayed
appetite it is also good to wash any wound or sore with to clens and
heal it the herb bruised and then boyled and applied outwardly for
certain daies together renewing it often and in the mean time the
decoction of the herb in wine taken inwardly every day doth certainly
cure the rupture in any so as it be not too inveterate but very speedily
if it be fresh and lately taken abundance are the sorts of this herb
that to describe them all would tire the patience even of socrates
himself but because i have not yet attained to the spirit of socrates i
shall but describe the most usual the most common crowfoot hath many
dark green leavs cut into divers parts in tast biting & sharp biting &
blistering the tongue it bears many flowers and those of a bright
resplendent yellow colour i do not remember that ever i saw any thing
yellower virgins in ancient time used to make pouder of them to strew
bride beds after which flowers come smal heads of seeds round but tugged
like a pine apple they grow very common every where unless you run your
head into a hedg you cannot chuse but see some of them wherever you walk
they flower in may and june even till september this fiery and hot
spirited herb of mars is no way fit to be given inwardly but an oyntment
of the leavs or flowers wil draw a blister and may so be fitting applied
to the nape of the neck to draw back rhewm from the eyes the herb being
bruised and mixed with a little mustard draws a blister as well and as
perfectly as cantharides and with far less danger to the vessels of urin
which cantharides naturally delight to wrong i knew the herb once
applied to a pestilential rising that was falling down and it saved life
even beyond hope it were good keeping an oyntment and plaister of it if
it were but for that this shooteth forth three four or five leavs at the
most from one root every one wherof is somwhat large and long broad at
the bottom next the stalk and forked but ending in a point without cut
on the edges of a ful green colour each standing upon a thick round
stalk of a hands breadth long or more among which after two or three
months that they begin to wither riseth up a bare round whitish green
stalk spotted and straked with purple somwhat higher than the leavs at
the top wherof standeth a long hollow hose or husk close at the bottom
but open from the middle upwards ending in a point in the middle whereof
standeth a smal long pestle or clapper smaller at the bottom than at the
top of a dark purple colour as the husk is on the inside though green
without which after it hath so abidden for some time the husk with the
clapper decayeth and the foot or bottom therof groweth to be a smal long
bunch of berries green at the first and of a yellowish red colour when
they are ripe of the bigness of an hazel nut kernel which abide theron
almost until winter the root is round and somwhat long for the most part
lying along the leavs shooting forth at the bigger end which when it
beareth his berries is somwhat wrinkled and loos another being growing
under it which is solid and firm with many smal threads hanging therat
the whol plant is of a very sharp biting tast pricking the tongue as
nettles do the hands and so abideth for a great while without alteration
the root hereof was anciently used instead of starch to starch linnen
withal there is another sort of cockowpint with lesser leavs than the
former and somwhat harder having blackish spots upon them which for the
most part abide longer green in summer than the former and both leavs
and roots are more sharp and fierce than it in al things els it is like
the former these two sorts grow frequently almost under every hedg side
in many places of this land they shoot forth leavs in the spring and
continue but until the middle of summer or somwhat later their husks
appearing before they fall away and their fruit shewing in august tragus
reporteth that a dram weight or more if need be of the spotted wake
robin either fresh and green or dried being beaten and taken is a most
present and pure remedy for poyson and the plague the juyce of the herb
taken to the quantity of a spoonful hath the same effect but if there be
a little vinegar added therunto as well as unto the root aforesaid it
somwhat allayeth the sharp biting tast therof upon the tongue the green
leavs bruised and laid upon any boyl or plague sore doth wonderfully
help to draw forth the poyson a dram of the pouder of the dried root
taken with twice so much sugar in the form of a licking electuary or the
green root doth wonderfuly help those that are pursie and short winded
as also those that have a cough it breaketh digesteth and riddeth away
flegm from the stomach chest and lungs the milk wherin the root hath
been boyled is effectual also for the same purpose the said pouder taken
in wine or other drink or the juyce of the berries or the pouder of them
or the wine wherein they have been boyled provoketh urine and bringeth
down womens courses and purgeth them effectually after child bearing to
bring away the after birth taken with sheeps milk it healeth the inward
ulcers of the bowels the distilled water herof is effectual to all the
purposes aforesaid a spoonful taken at a time healeth the itch and an
ounce or more taken at a time for some daies together doth help the
rupture the leavs either green or dry or the juyce of them doth clens
all manner of rotten and filthy ulcers in what part of the body soever
and healeth the stinking sores in the nose called polipus the water
wherin the root hath been boyled dropped into the eyes clenseth them
from any film or skin clouds or mists which begin to hinder the sight
and helpeth the watering or redness of them or when by some chance they
become black and blue the root mixed with bean flower and applied to the
throat or jaws that are inflamed helpeth them the juyce of the berries
boyled in oyl of roses or beaten into pouder and mixed with the oyl and
dropped into the ears and easeth pains in them the berries or the roots
beaten with hot ox dung and applied easeth the pains of the gout the
leavs and roots boyled in wine with a little oyl and applied to the
piles or the falling down of the fundament easeth them and so doth
sitting over the hot fumes therof the fresh roots bruised and distilled
with a little milk yieldeth a most sovereign water to clens the skin
from scurff freckles spots or blemishes whatsoever therin authors have
left large commendation of this herb you see but for my part i have
neither spoken with reason nor experience about it these are so wel
known to almost every child that i suppose it altogether needless to
write any description of them take therfore the vertues of them as
followeth the greater wild daisie is a wound herb of good respect often
used in those drinks or salvs that are for wounds either inward or
outwards the juyce or distilled water of these or the smal daisies doth
much temper the heat of choller and refresheth the liver and other
inward parts a decoction made of them and drunk helpeth to cure the
wounds made in the hollowness of the breast the same also cureth al
ulcers and pustles in the mouth or tongue or in the secret parts the
leavs bruised and applied to the cods or to any other parts that are
swollen and hot doth resolve it and temper the head a decoction made
hereof with walwort and agrimony and the places fomented or bathed
therwith warm giveth great eas to them that are troubled with the palsy
sciatica or the gout the same also disperseth and dissolveth the knots
or kernels that grow in the flesh of any part of the body and the
bruises and hurts that come of fals and blows they are also used for
ruptures and other inward burnings with very good success an oyntment
made hereof doth wonderfully help al wounds that have inflamations about
them or by reason of moist humors having access unto them are kept long
from healing and such are those for the most part that happen in the
joynts of the arms or legs the juyce of them dropped into the running
eyes of any doth much help them the herb is under the sign cancer and
under the dominion of venus and therfore excellent good for wounds in
the breast and very fitting to be kept both in oyls oyntments and
plaisters as also in syrup this is wel known to have many long and
deeply gashed leavs lying on the ground round about the head of the root
the ends of each gash or jag on both sides looking downwards towards the
root the middle rib being white which broken yieldeth abundance of
bitter milk but the root much more from among the leavs which alwaies
abide green arise many slender weak naked footstalks every one of them
bearing at the top one large yellow flower consisting of many rows of
yellow leavs broad at the points and nicked in with a deep spot of
yellow in the middle which growing ripe the green husk wherin the flower
stood turneth it self down to the stalk and the head of down becometh as
round as a ball with long reddish seed underneath bearing a part of the
down on the head of every one which together is blown away with the wind
or may be at once blown away with ones mouth the root growth downwards
exceeding deep which being broken off within the ground wil
notwithstanding shoot forth again and wil hardly be destroyed where it
hath once taken deep root in the ground it groweth frequent in al
meadows and pasture grounds it flowreth in one place or other almost all
the yeer long it is of an opening and clensing quality and therfore very
effectual for the obstructions of the liver gall and spleen and the
diseases that arise from them as the jaundice & hypocondriacal passion
it wonderfully openeth the passages of the urin both in yong and old it
powerfully clenseth aposthumes and inward in the uritory passages and by
the drying and temperate quality doth afterwards heal them for which
purpose the decoction of the roots or leavs in white wine or the leavs
chopped as potherbs with a few allisanders and boyled in their broth is
very effectual and whoso is drawing towards a consumption or an il
disposition of the whol body called cachexia by the use herof for some
time together shal find a wonderful help it helpeth also to procure rest
and sleep to bodies distempered by the heat of ague fits or otherwise
the distilled water is effectual to drink in pestilential feavers and to
wash the sores you see here what vertues this common herb hath and
that's the reason you french and dutch so often eat them in the spring
and now if you look a little further you may see plainly wthout a pair
of spectakles that forraign physitians are not so selfish as ours are
but more communicative of the vertues of plants to people this hath all
the winter long sundry long fat and rough leavs which when the stalk
riseth which is slender and joynted are narrower but rough stil on the
top groweth a long spike composed of many heads set one above another
containing two or three husks with sharp but short beards or awns at the
ends the seed is easily shaked out of the ear the husk it self being
somwhat tough the country husbandmen do know this too well to grow among
their corn or in the borders and pathwaies of other fields that are
fallow as this is not without some vices so hath it also many vertues
the meal of darnel is very good to stay gangreans and other such like
fretting and eating cankers and putrid sores it also clenseth the skin
of al lepries morphews ringworms and the like if it be used with salt
and rhadish roots and being used with quick brimstone and vinegar it
dissolveth knots and kernels and breaketh those that are hard to be
dissolved being boyled in wine with pidgeons dung and linseed a
decoction therof made with water and honey and the place bathed therwith
is profitable for the sciatica darnel meal applied in a poltis draweth
forth splinters and broken bones in the flesh the red darnel boyled in
red wine and taken stayeth the lask and all other fluxes and womens
bloody issues and restraineth urin that passeth away too suddenly the
common dill groweth up with seldom more than one stalk neither so high
nor so great usually as fennel being round and with fewer joynts theron
whose leavs are sadder and somwhat long and so like fennel that it
deceiveth many but harder in handling and somwhat thicker and of a
stronger unpleasanter set the tops of the stalks have four branches and
smaller umbels of yellow flowers which turn into smal seed somwhat
flatter and thinner than fennel seed the root is small and woody
perishing every year after it hath born seed and is also unprofitable
being never put to any use it is most usually sown in gardens and
grounds for the purpose & is also found wild with us in some places the
dill being boyled and drunk is good to eas swellings & pains it also
stayeth the belly and stomach from casting the decoction thereof helpeth
women that are troubled with the pains and windiness of the mother if
they fit therin it stayeth the hiccough being boyled in wine and but
smelled unto being tied in a cloth the seed is of more use than the
leavs and more effectual to digest raw and viscuous humors and is used
in medicines that serve to expel wind and the pains proceeding therfrom
the seed being toasted or fried and used in oyls or plaisters dissolveth
the imposthumes in the fundament and drieth up all moist ulcers
especially in the secret parts the oyl made of dill is effectual to warm
to resolve humors and imposthumes to eas pains and to procure rest the
decoction of dill be it herb or seed only if you boyl the seed you must
bruis it in white wine being drunk is a gallant expeller of wind and
provoker of the terms this riseth up with a round green smooth stalk
about two foot high set with divers long and somwhat narrow smooth dark
green leavs somwhat snip'd about the edges for the most part being els
al whol and not divided at al or but very seldom even to the tops of the
branches which yet are smaller than those below with one rib only in the
middle at the end of each branch standeth a round head of many flowers
set together in the same manner or more neatly than the scabious and of
a more blewish purple colour which being past there followeth seed that
falleth away the root is somehat thick but short and blackish with may
strings abiding after seed time many yeers this root was longer untill
the devil as the fryars say bit away the rest of it for spight envying
its usefulness unto man kind for sure he was not troubled with any
disease for which it is proper there are two other sorts hereof in
nothing unlike the former save that the one beareth white and the other
blush colour'd flowers the first groweth as well in dry meadows and
fields as moist in many places of this land but the other two are more
rare and hard to meet with yet they are both found growing wild about
appledore neer rye in kent they flower not usually untill august the
herb or root all that the devil hath left of it being boyled in wine and
drunk is very powerful against the plague and all pestilential diseases
or feavers poysons also and the bitings of venemous beasts it also
helpeth those that are inwardly bruised by any casualty ar outwardly by
falls or blows dissolving the clotted blood and the herb or root beaten
and outwardly applied taketh away the black and blue marks that remain
in the skin the decoction of the herb with honey of roses put therin is
very effectual to help the inveterate tumors and swellings of the
almonds and throat by often gargling the mouth therwith it helpeth also
to procure womens courses and easeth all pains of the mother and to
break and discuss winds therein and in the bowels the pouder of the root
taken in drink driveth forth the worms in the body the juyce or
distilled water of the herb is effectual for green wounds or old sores
and clenseth the body inwardly and the seed outwardly from sores scurff
itches pimples freekles morphew or other deformities therof but
especially if a little vitriol be dissolved therin these are so wel
known many kinds of them that i shall not trouble you with a description
of them my book grows big too fast all of them have a kind of cooling
but not all alike drying quality the sorrels being most cold and the
bloodworts most drying of the bur dock i have spoken already by himself
the seed of most of the other kinds whether of the garden or field do
stay lasks or fluxes of all sorts the loathings of the stomach through
choller and is helpful to those that spit blood the roots boyled in
vinegar helpeth the itch scabs and breakings out of the skin if it be
bathed therwith the distilled water of the herb and roots hath the same
vertue and clensth the skin of freckles morphews and all other spots and
discolourings therin all docks being boyled with meat make it boyled the
sooner besides bloodwort is exceeding strengthning to the liver and
procures good blood being as wholsom a pot herb as any grows in a garden
yet such is the nicity of our times forsooth that women will not put it
in the pot becaus it makes the pottage black pride and ignorance a
couple of monsters in the creation preferring nicity before health this
first from seeds giveth roots in the ground which shooteth forth threads
or strings grosser or finer as the property of the plant wherein it
groweth and the climate doth suffer creeping and spreading on that plant
wheron it fastneth be it high or low these strings have no leavs at all
upon them but wind and interlace themselves so thick upon a smal plant
that it taketh away all comfort of the sun from it and is ready to choke
or strangle it after these strings are risen up to that height that they
may draw nourishment from the plant they seem to be broken off from the
ground either by the strength of ther rising or withered by the heat of
the sun upon these strings are found clusters of small heads or husks
out of which start forth whitish flowers which afterwads give smal pale
colour'd seed somwhat flat and twice as big as poppy seed it generally
participates of the nature of that plant which it climbeth upon but the
dodder of time is accounted the best and is the only true epithimum this
is accounted the most effectual for melanchollick diseases and to purge
black or burnt choller which is the caus of many diseases of the head
and brains as also for the trembling of the heart faintings and
swounings it is helpful in all diseases and griefs of the spleen and of
that melancholly that ariseth from the windiness of the hypochondria it
purgeth also the reins or kidneys by urin it openeth obstructions of the
gall wherby it profiteth them that have the jaundice as also of the
liver and spleen purging the veins of chollerick and flegmatick humors
and helpeth childrens agues a little wormfeed being put therto the other
dodders do as i said before participate of the nature of those plants
whereon they grow as that which hath been found growing upon nettles in
the west country hath by experience been found very effectual to procure
plenty of urin where it hath been stopped or hindred and so of the rest
all dodders are under saturn tell not me of physitians crying up
epithimum or that dodder which grows upon time most of which comes from
hymettus in greece or hybla in sicilia becaus those mountains abound
with time he is a physitian indeed that hath wit enough to chuse his
dodder according to nature of the diseas and humor peccant we confess
time is the hottest herb it usually grows upon and therfore that which
grows upon time is hotter than that which grows upon colder herbs for it
draws nourishment from what it grows upon as well as from the earth
where its root is and thus you see old saturn is wise enough to have two
strings to his bow sympathy and antipathy are the two hinges upon which
the whol moddel of physick turns and that physitian which minds them not
is like a door off from the hooks more likely to do a man a mischief
than to secure him then all the diseases saturn causeth this helps by
sympathy & strengthens al the parts of the body he rules such as caused
by sol it helps by antipathy what those diseases are see my judgment of
diseases by astrology and you be pleased to look the herb wormwood you
shal find a rational way for it it is well known that this grass
creepeth far about under ground with long white joynted roots and smal
fibres almost at every joynt very sweet in tast as the rest of the herb
is and interlacing one another from whence shoot forth many fair long
grassy leavs small at the ends and cutting or sharp on the edges the
stalks are joynted like corn with the like leavs on them and a long
spiked head with long husks on them and hard rough seed in them it
groweth commonly through