vinegre is good for cholerik burnynges or inflāmationes If it be menged with hony or oyle / it is good agaynst the styngyng of serpentes / with water it dryueth away resolueth hard swellynges / with perched barley mele / it slaketh the payne of the ioyntes Wyne may be made of the roote of Mandrag wtout any sethyng / after thys maner The poundes of the rootes must be put into a small firkin of swete wyne / there they must lye so long together vntill the vertue of the rootes is gone into the wyne Ye may gyue iij. cyates of thys wyne / to them that must be cut / burned or fered If they drynk thys drynke / they shall fele no payne / but they shal fall into a forgetfull and a slepishe drowsines The apples / if a man smell of them / will make hym slepe / and also if they be eaten And so doth the iuice that is streyned out of them But they that smell to muche of the apples / becom dum The sede of the apples dronken scoureth the mother / and so doth it also / if it be layd to with quick brymstone It stoppeth the rede isshue of weomen If ye will haue the iuice / ye must scotche pryck the rootes in many places / and then set vesselles vnder it / and saue it The iuice that is pressed out / is better then that which droppeth furth after cuttyng or scotchyng But that commeth not furth in euery countre as experiēce teacheth vs. Because thys herbe diuerse wayes taken / is very iepardus for a man / may kill hym if he eat it / or drynk it out of measure / and haue no remedy for it I will shew yow also remedy agaynst the poyson of it If Mandrag be taken out of measure / by and by slepe in sueth / and a great lousyng of the streyngthe with a forgetfulnes But before that cometh / it were wisdome to vomite with mede / and afterwarde to take nitre and womwod with swete wine or Maluasey ye must also poure vinegre and rose oyle vpon the patientes heade It is good tho stirr the body and to smell of Agrimoni / peper / mustarde costorium / and rue / brused in vinegre It is also good to smell of tarr / or of the styngkyng that commeth from a candle that is put out But if the patient cannot be easely waked again / it is mete to vse such other comen remedies Auicenna wold that they that are hurt with thys herbe / should vomit with hony and butter Where as Dioscorides wolde that a mans heade should haue Rose oile vinegre poured vpon it / when a man hath taken to muche of Mandrag Matthiolus sayeth that it is agaynst reason that it shuld be layd to the heade which is colde / when as the cause of the diseases also colde / and to take to bores in one wod / he catcheth Galene and accuseth hym for a lyke faute / that is for conselyng men to pour rose oyl and vinegre vpon them that haue the drawsy or forgetfull euel And to cōfute Galene / he alledgeth Aetius / Paulus / and Trallianus / which do not admit oyl vinegre alone / but woulde hoter medicines as erthpyne wilde tyme / penin all / castorium / and suche lyke to be put ther to As for Galene I leue hym vndefended at thys tyme vntill I shall haue more leasure / but for Dioscorides I answer / that if iij. later writers then Galene / were inough to cōfute hym as many myght by good reason be sufficiēt to defend Dioscorides from that faut that Matthiolus layeth vnto Dioscoridisses charge But ij of the witnesses that he allegeth to confute Galene with all / that is Aetius and Paulus / with them a learned laterwryter of the Grecianes Actuarius / counsel that rose oyle with vinegre should be poured vpō the hedes of them that haue eaten or dronken to much of Mandrag But Matthiolus a lytle after in the same chapter forgettyng what he had accused Dioscorides / and Galene of before / wryteth these wordes folowynge Tametsi Mandragorae poma matura c. Allthoughe the rype apples of Mandrag the sedes taken out / be eaten diuerse tymes with out any grefe at all Yet the vnrype apples eaten with theyr sede / bryng dedely withfalles There ryseth after vnsufferable heate / which burneth all the outer parte of the skinne The toung and the mouthe withere and waxet drye / wherefore they that are so vexed / are sene allwayes gapyng with theyr mouthe / and drawyng in colde ayre Thus farr Matthiolus Now seyng that he confesseth openly here that men are in suche heat as haue eaten of the vnrype apples which are muche colder then the rype apples be how iustly was Dioscorides accused a litle before for counsellyng roseoyle and vinegre / because they were colde / to be poured vpon the heades of them that had taken to muche Mandrag And how well doth thys hys sayng of the hote withfalles that came of the eayng of the vnrype Mandrag apples / agree with it / whiche he sayd immediatly before the rehersall of the hete / that aryseth of the eatyng of the row apples in these wordes Ab assumpta Mandragora nisi fal lar caput nullo afficitur calore The head is not vexed with any hete except I be deceyued after the takyng of Mandrage Now whether that such a forgetfull man as thys is ought so boldely to chek anciant autores or no as he doth at diuerse tymes / let wyse men lerned be iudges But if he answer that he geueth only hete vnto the fruite / and not to the roote / besyde that it may be sayd vnto hym / that so much he accuseth Dioscorides vnworthely / as the hote withfalles come to / that come of the vnrype apples experience / is agaynst hys accusyng of Dioscorides and the autorite of hym that had the same experience also For in the booke that Serapio wrote of simples / Rasis / sayeth these wordes Dixerunt mihi quidam ex antiquis Babyloniae quòd puella quaedam c. Certayn of the ancientes or old men of Babylon / haue tolde me that a certayn mayde eat fiue Mandrag apples / and that she fell in a swowne / and that she becam all rede / and that a man commyng by at that tyme / poured snow water so long vpon her heade vntill she rose agayn And I haue sene men my selfe whiche did eat of the roote of Mandrag to make them selues fat therwith / and it chanced vnto them / as it chanceth vnto men that go out of the bath and drynke muche wyne after theyr outgoyng For their faces was excedyngly rede and swelled These wordes doth Rasis write in the place aboue alledged By which a man may learne that not only the vnrype appels of Mandragora driueth a man into a great heate outwardly / but also the rootes / so that it is euidently now perceyued
tyme / the vpper parte is grene and the vnder parte is grene The rest that Pliny wryteth of the poplers / sauyng where as he taketh any thyng out of Theophrast is not worthy the wrytyng Populus nigra which is called in Greke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Italian Pioponero / in Frence du tremble or Pepleur / in Duche Aspen / is not so comon in England / as it is in Italy hyghe Germany The Populus is called with vs by two names / som call it a Poppler / and other an Asp or an esp tre But not euery tre in England called Popler or Esp / is the ryght Populus nigra For it that groweth in the hylles and dry woddes both in England Germany / is not the Populus nigra but rather kerkis or Populus alpina of Theophrait / or populus lybica in Pliny For bothe Theophrast and Virgil appoynte the water sydes merrishe groundes vnto populo nigrae The popler / also that groweth in the woddes of England if my memory fale me not haue no such blak tagges as the blak popler hath / which groweth in Germany by the rene syde / hard by the city called Lauterburgh Pliny also rekeneth the popler amongest the other trees whiche haue curled veynes in these wordes Tarde illae senescunt quarum crispa materies vt acer palma populus That is those trees ar long in commyng to age / whose wod or tymbre / is curled / as the maple tre / the date tre / and the popler tre Hyther to Pliny I haue sene in Germany many well fauored thynges perteynyng vnto houshold stuff made of the blak popler / which groweth by the water sydes / as spownes / tables / dores and chistes / withe a meruelus fyne curled grayn / and pleasant to looke to But the wod of our comon popler is nothyng lyke vnto it that I haue spoken of / for it hath no such grayn or curlyng / therfore it is not the ryght blak popler of Pliny and Theophrast Therefore it were beste to calle populum nigram a blak popler or a blak asp / or a water asp / and not by thys word popler / or asp alone As touchyng the whyte Asp / I remembre not that euer I saw it in any place of England But I haue sene it in great plentye in Italy by the ryuer sede of Padus / where as it is called albera / and in hyghe Germany by the rene syde / where as it is called saurbaum If it be found in England / it may be called a whyte Asp or a whyte popler / because the vndersyde of the lefe is as whyte as any paper The whyte Asp differeth not only from the blak in the whytenes of the one syde of the lefe / but also in the form of the lefe For the whyte Asp hath a lefe somthyng indented or cut after the maner of palma Christi But if any man cast agaynst me / it that Theophrast writeth of bothe the poplers in the 14. chapter of the thyrde book de historia plantarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the figure or fasshon of the lefe is lyke I answer that thys lyknes is only when as the leues com first furth / and not afterwardes / for if they shuld be lyke afterwarde / then shuld Theophrast be contrary vnto hym self / who in the first book de historia plantarum and in the xvj chapter writeth these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The leues of the whyte popler of the Iuy and of it that is called palma Christi ar vnlyke and diuerse in figure For when as they ar yong they ar round / but when as they ar older they haue corners / there may ye se playnly that the leues of the whyte popler when as they ar old / ar cornered Which thyng if it be true as I haue sufficiently proued to be so / thē erre they very much and gyue other occasion of error / which set out in theyr herballes the whyte popler with a round lefe without any corners at all The thyrde kynde of popler which is called of Theophrast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as I gesse rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and translated of Gaza populus alpina and named of Pliny populus lybica is our comon asp in England / or ellis I know not what it is The causes that make me to thynke that our comon asp is populus lybica in Pliny / and populus montana in Theophrast ar these First bothe the lyknes of leues that it hath with the blak popler and in many other so resembleth the other poplers / that I thynke that there is no man that hath sene the other two kindes of popler / that wil deny but that thys is a kinde of popler Then when as it is nether the first kinde nor the seconde / it is very lyke that it is the thyrde kynde when as no other tre can be founde as yet for the thyrde kinde Theodor Gaza being a man of much reding / wold not cal thys kinde populum alpinam except ether som reson or autoritie that he had red / had moued hym therto Then when as thys comon asp tre is much in hyghe mountaynes / he semeth in callyng the thyrd kynde of the popler populum alpinam to meane that Theophrast vnderstādeth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that popler that groweth in hylles and mountaynes Then when as the comon asp groweth in such places / it is lyke that our comon asp shuld be kerkis / the thyrde kynde of Populus Theophrast maketh the thyrde kynde / lyke vnto the white popler in bygnes and in spredyng abrode of boughes / whych two thynges may be found in our comon asp with the scabbednes of the bark in old trees / except my memory fale / may also be founde but as touchyng the propertie that he geueth vnto the foot stalke of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 / I am sure agreeth wel with our comon asp tre But whether the leues that Theophrast geueth vnto hys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ar agreyng with the leues of our asp or no / I leue that to be iudged of them that ar learned / but I dowt som thyng that they do not in all poyntes wel agre / or ellis I durst geue sentence that our comon asp were there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theophrast But though it be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Theophrast / it semeth vnto me that it may well be the thyrde kynd of Populus in Pliny which he called populum lybicam Pliny maketh one kynde of Populus to grow in the mountaynes and that is nether the whyte nor the blak / wherfore it semeth that it is thē the thyrde kynde of populus Pliny also maketh hys thyrde kynde of populus to haue grete todestoles growyng vpon it / and he maketh the pople tre to haue a trymblyng foot stalke
The first and seconde partes of the Herbal of William Turner Doctor in Phisick / lately oversene / corrected and enlarged with the Thirde parte / lately gathered / and nowe set oute with the names of the herbes / in Greke Latin / English / Duche / Frenche / and in the Apothecaries and Herbaries Latin / with the properties / degrees / and naturall places of the same Here vnto is ioyned also a Booke of the bath of Baeth in England / and of the vertues of the same with diuerse other bathes / moste holsom and effectuall / both in Almanye and England / set furth by William Turner Doctor in Phisick God saue the Quene HONY SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Imprinted at Collen by Arnold Birckman / In the yeare of our Lorde M.D.LXVIII Cum Gratia Priuilegio Reg. Maiest A sincere testamonie off Cap Wil Hay his reall affectioÌ„ too his approued frind Maister TailÈour appothecarie in Yoirk 1643 ye 16 of May To the most noble and learned Princesse in all kindes of good lerninge / Quene Elizabeth / by the grace of God Quene of England / France and Ireland / Defender of the Fayth / re William Turner Doctor of Physicke / wisheth continual helth of both bodye and soule / and daylye encrease of the knowledge of Goddes holy worde / with grace to lyue and rule Goddes people according to the same MOst mighthe and renoumed Princesse / after that I had made an end of the third parte of my Herbal / which intreateth of these herbes / whereof is no mention made nether of the old Grecianes nor Latines / had ouersene agayne my first parte / and both corrected it and encreased it very muche / and had also corrected the seconde parte and the Printer had geuen me warninge / there wanted nothinge to the settinge oute of my hole Herbal / sauing only a Preface / wherein I might require some both mighty and learned Patron to defend my laboures against spitefull enuious enemies to al mennis doynges sauing their owne / and declare my good minde to him that I am most bound vnto by dedicating and geuing these my poore labours vnto him I did seke out euerye where in my mind / howe that I coulde come by suche a Patron as had both learning sufficient autoritie / ioyned therewith to defend my poore labours against their aduersaries / and in the same person suche frendshippe and good will towardes me / by reason whereof I were most bound vnto aboue all other After longe turninge this matter ouer in my mind / it came to my memorye that in all the hole realme of England / that there were none more fit to be Patronesse of my Booke / and none had deserued so muche / to whom I should dedicate geue the same as your most excellent sublimitie hath done I haue dedicated it therefore vnto your most excellent sublimitie / and do geue it for the auoydinge of all suspicion of ingratitude or vnkindnes vnto you as a token and a witnes of the acknowledginge of the great benefites that I haue receyued of your Princelye liberalitie of late yeares As for the supremitie of your power / might and autoritie in this realme / there are none that will denye it / sauing onlye the bewitched hipocrites and bound men of the spiritual Babylon As for your knowledge in the Latin tonge xviij yeares ago or more / I had in the Duke of Somersettes house beynge his Physition at that tyme a good tryal thereof / when as it pleased your grace to speake Latin vnto me for although I haue both in England / lowe and highe Germanye / and other places of my longe traueil and pelgrimage / neuer spake with any noble or gentle woman / that spake so wel and so much congrue fyne pure Latin / as your grace did vnto me so longe ago sence whiche tyme howe muche and wounderfullye ye haue proceded in the knowledge of the Latin tonge / and also profited in the Greke / Frenche and Italian tongues and others also / and in all partes of Philosophie and good learninge / not onlye your owne faythfull subiectes / beynge far from all suspicion of flattery bear witnes / but also strangers / men of great learninge in their bokes set out in the Latin tonge / geue honorable testimonye As touchinge the benefites that I haue receyued in of your Mayestie / I must confesse that for the obteininge of certeyne surites and defendinge of my selfe agaynst them that troubled me vniustelye / ye haue at the lest four tymes holpen me with your letters patentes / sealed with the great seale of Englande / and also restored me vnto the denerye of Welles / both by the depriuation of the vsurper of it / that held me out / and admittinge of meâ— as onlye the lawfull deane of Welles by your appoynted commissioners and iudges delegate agayne Wherefore your Mayestie hath largelye deserued to haue a greate deale worthier gifte for the greatnes and manifoldnes of the benefites that ye haue bestowed vpon me youre poore subiecte But although euen as I thinke my selfe it be but a small present in comparison of your worthines state / dignitie and degre / and benefites towardes me Yet my good will considered / and the profit that maye come to all youre subiectes by it / it is not so small as my aduersaries paraduenture will esteme it For some of them will saye / seynge that I graunte that I haue gathered this booke of so manye writers / that I offer vnto you an heape of other mennis laboures / and nothinge of myne owne / and that I goo about to make me frendes with other mennis trauayles / and that a booke intreatinge onelye of trees / herbes and wedes / and shrubbes / is not a mete present for a prince To whom I aunswere / that if the honye that the bees gather out of so manye floure of herbes / shrubbes / and trees / that are growing in other mennis medowes / feldes and closes maye iustelye be called the bees honye and Plinies booke de naturali historia maye be called his booke / allthough he haue gathered it oute of so manye good writers whom he vouchsaueth to name in the beginninge of his worke So maye I call it that I haue learned and gathered of manye good autoures not without great laboure and payne my booke / and namelye because I haue handled no one Autor / so as a craftie couetous and Popishe printer handled me of late / who suppressing my name / and leuinge oute my Preface / set oute a booke that I set out of Welles / and had corrected not without some laboure and coste with his Preface / as though the booke had bene his owne For I am able to proue by good witnesses that I haue aboue thyrtye yeares ago / written an Herbal in Latin / wherein were conteyned the Greke / Latin and English names of so many herbes
Cicuta / to whom I aunswere / that al herbes haue not like vertues in all places / for Aron in some places is eaten / and in other it is so sharpe that it can not be eaten as Galene sayth in his boke de facultatibus alimentorum Helleborus is not alwayes a lyke good in euerye place as Dioscorides writeth / and Theophrastus writing of Cicuta / sheweth that in some places Cicuta is much stronger then in other som Cicuta is strongest in susis / and in al colde and shadowy places Therfore if it haue not al the hole strenght that it hath in Susis / yet it ought not therfore to be iudged for any other herbe then Cicuta Howebeit this same / if that it were ordered as I knowe howe that it mighte be ordered / it wold do harme more then inough Plinye also writeth that in some places men vse to eate the yong stalkes of Homlokes in sallates But I wil counsel no man to do so / for feare of it that maye folowe The Properties of Homloke IF that anye man be afrayd that he hath eaten or dronken Homloke / let him drinke pure hote wine / whiche is not to subtile The maner of kepinge of the iuyce of Homloke / is this Take the toppes of Homloke / before the sedes and leaues wexe harde / and bruse them / and presse out the iuyce / and set it in the sunne / and let it harden with sunne / and when it is harde / laye it vp and vse it This is good to put vnto eye medicines / to quenche the ache withal It quencheth the outragious hete / called saint Antonis fyre / and runninge sores whiche sprede abroade very muche The herbe wyth the leaues broken and layd vnto a mannes stones / stauncheth the imaginations dreaming of the bodely pleasur / which chanse vpon the night but it febleth the member of generation The same layd vpon a lately delyuered womannes pappes / wasteth awaye the milke / and if it be layde vpon maydens brestes in the tyme of their virginite / it holdeth them doune / and suffereth them not to growe Homloke of Candye is of moste strength / and it of Magara / after them it of Athenes / and they that growe in Cio and in Cilicia Of the Sea gyrdel ALga which is a common name vnto a greate parte of Sea herbes / and is commonly called in English / Sea wrack / and in Greke phycos / is deuided into diuers kindes / and euerye one hath a sondry forme from another Virgil maketh mention of Alga / where he sayeth Proiecta vilior alga Viler thē the cast out Seawrak Among all other kindes Theophrastus describeth one after this maner There is a certeyne kinde of Seawrake with a broade leafe / of a grene color / to the whiche some gyue the name of a leeke / other call this gyrdel The roote is rough / and without it is ful of scales / within verye longe and thicke / and not vnlyke vnto the herbe called syue onyon This kinde maye well be called in English Sea gyrdel / it is called in Latin cingulum / and in Greke Zoster Thys herbe is plenteously sene in Purbek by the sea syde / after a great tempest hath ben in the Sea / which commonly louseth such sea herbes / and dryueth them vnto the syde Dioscorides maketh thre kindes of Fucus or Sea wrake / one broade / and other kinde longe and rede / the thyrde kind whyte / I saw the Sea gyrdel this year in Iuly with all the properties that Theophrastus requireth in his Sea gyrdel in the forsayd place / the rootes was lyke vnto Garleke / manye chyues makinge one great heade / and the lenes had the forme of a leke / but they were a fadom longe The Properties of Sea wrake DIoscorides writeth that all the kindes of Sea wrake do coole / and helpe not only the goute / but also hote burninges / called inflammations If they be layde vnto the places greued / yet grene and moyste after the maner of an emplaster In the Bishopriche of Durram / the housband men of the countre that dwel by the Sea syde / vse to fate their lande with Sea wrake Of Cirsion / called Langue de befe CIrsium / called in Greke Kirsion as Dioscorides writeth / is a tender stalke of two cubites longe / and thresquared / the litle leaues that come out beneth / resemble in lykenes a rose / the corneres are full of prickes / and it is soft in the spaces that are betwene The leaues are lyke vnto the leues of Buglossum / mesurable rough and longer / whyte in vnder / full of prickes in the extremities or edges The top of the stalke is rounde about and rough / and in that are purple heades which wast awaye into doune at the length / Pliny describeth Cirsion thus Cirsion is a tender litle stalke of two cubites longe lyke vnto a triangle compassed about with prickye leaues The prickes are soft / the leues are lyke vnto oxe tonge / but lesse / whyte in vnder / and in the top are purple heades / which consume into downe We haue no herbe in England that I knowe / to whom al this hole description doth agree They do not agree vnto oure common Buglosse / for besyde that the floure is not resolued into downe / the order of prickes in the leafe doth not agre I knowe no herbe in Englande wherevnto these descriptions do agre better / then vnto oure Langue de befe Howbeit / it wanteth certain tokens / that the description doth require / that is purple floures / for oures hath yellowe floures / and a thresquared stalke / and as some recken that the leues that are vndermoste / resemble not a rose As for the color of the floure / I passe not so muche of / seynge that it is consumed into a down / for I knowe manye herbes whiche by nature should haue blewe floures / and yet haue whyte floures / as Cichory violettes and Borage As for the thresquared stalke / it maye be so that at some tyme of the growing / it hath a thresquared stalke which Dioscorides hath marked / and not many other / or it maye be thresquared / where as Dioscorides hath sene it / and not here in England / as haue marked in our English Ebulo in Cambridge shyre / that the stalke was rounde and not foursquare / which thinge Dioscorides requireth in his countre Ebulo Dioscorides doth also require in his Elder purple blackish berryes / yet all the Elder berries whiche I sawe in the alpes and in Retia / were as rede as scarlat Dioscorides requireth in his lesse Centory creme sin floures turning into purple / I haue sene an hole felde full of whyte Centory Then where as all the other properties and tokens do agree / and no other kinde can be founde here so lyke Cirsion as this herbe is I reken that
tre / wil burn as well as the wod of other trees Whych thing this day / is perfitly knowē in many places by dayly experiēce But the old writers hold that the larche tree will take no flame / and that it will no more burn thē a stone Amōgest many old wryters that hold opinion / I will bryng furth but two to beare witnes of that mater The one is Palladius / which writeth thus in hys boke of husbandry of the Larche tre Larix sayeth he / is very profitable to make bordes of / to lay them vnder the tyles / in the vtter parte of the house If thou do so / thou hast made a sure defence against al burning For those bordes will nether receyue any flame / nether will they make any cole The other olde writer is named Vitruuius / who in hys second booke of bylding wryteth these wordes of the larche tree The larche trees / saieth he / are touching the leaues / like vnto the pyne tree leaues The tymbre is long as tractable for any inwarde werck as Sapin is And it hath moyste or liquide rosin of the color of the hony of Athenes And it is good for thē that haue the tisick in theyr lunges The Larche tre whiche is not knowen / but only vnto the proper inhabitantes / that ether dwel about the banck of Padus flood / and about the see shores of the Venetiane see / not only is not hurted / with rottyng or muldring / or wyth wormes / by the meanes of the great bitternes that it hath / but also it will receyue no flame of the fire Nether can it burn any otherwyse thē a stone doth in a lyme kyll Yet by other wod it burneth And yet not euen then doth it receyue the flame / nether gyueth any cole / but in a long tyme it is slowly burnt And thys is the cause / that there is in it a small temperature of the principales of the ayer and fyre For the wod beynge thick and hard fastened together / with an earthly moysture / and not hauyng voyd spaces for holes / by the whyche the fyre may entr in it putteth back the pour of the fyre / and suffereth not it selfe to be hurt of the reason of the heuynes / it is not holdē vp of the water / but when it is born ether in shyppes / or is set aboue the fyrr raft How that this tymbre was founde / there is a cause to know it The renowmed and noble Cesar / when he had an hoste about the alpes / he cōmanded the inhabitantes there that were vnder hym / to finde vitales But there was a fast toun / named Laringum / and the mē of the town trustyng to theyr naturall defence / would not obey the commandement of Cesar Therfore the chefe capitayne commaunded the garisones to besedge it But there was before the gate of the towne / a tour made of thys tymbre / made of diuerse beames / one goyng crosse ouer an other And it was very hygh / and in fasshon after the making of a broche or a steple / that is great beneth and small aboue / so that a man myght put back agyn them that came vp / both wyth stones and clubbes But when it was perceyued that they had no other wepenes but stones clubbes / and that they could not cast far from the wall / by the reasone of the heuynes / the commandment was geuē / that faggoters made of small brusshe / shuld be set a fyre / and layd to the holde The souldyers dyd that spedely But as soun as the flame had taken holde of the faggottes / besyde the tymbre / and went vp in to the ayre a loft / it made all menn thynck that all the hole heap shuld fall by and by But when the flame went out of it self / and so was quēched / and the tour appered vntouched / Cesar woundering greatly / commāded that they should be compassed round about / with out the castyng of dartes But when the townes men compelled by fere / had geuen vp and yelded them selues / it was demanded of them from whence the wodde came / which woulde not be hurt with the fyre And then they shewed thē those trees where of was great plenty in that place Thus far hath Vitruuius writen of the larche tre Ye may se now that ether the olde writers haue erred sore in tellyng the properties of the larche tre / or elles the new writers know not the ryght larche tre But I thynck the lyghtly there is no tre better knowē vnto the moste parte of the new writers of plantes thys day / thē the tre called larix is The hyghe duche call thys tre cin lorchbaū or ein lerchbaū They that dwell about Tridēt call the rosin of it larga / there is a place as Bellonius the Frēchmā wryteth that is called at this tyme vallarix Whiche thyng may be takē / that the Larix tre is not gone out of knowledge nether in Itali / nor in Frāce / nor in Germany wherefore it is rather to be thought that the olde wryters markyng not so diligētly as they ought to haue done one exāple / haue fallē into a false beleue / out of whiche as of a great tre many branches of errores haue sprōg out afterwarde Besyde that the tymmer of the larche tre which is very good beutuus profitable for bildyng it gyueth also ij exceding holsom profitable medicines / where of the one is the comē turpētine / the other is the famus medicine called Agarick Matthiolus writeth / that where as he hath bene / that the mē that gather the moyst rosen of the larch tre / vse to bore a hole wyth a long perser euē vnto the harte of the tre / vnder that hole to set a vessel made of the barck of the pichetre / to receyue the rosin that cōmeth furth there in But in Rhetia where as I haue sene the maner of gathering of the comē turpētine / is thys They cut an hole depely doūwarde in the larche tre / with an hatched a chisel / so great that will holde a great olial of the rosin Whē that hole is full / they take it out with ladles spownes / put it into vesselles Antonius Trauersus a ryght Gētlemā of the coūtre of Rhetia / whē as I lay in hys howse / restyng me after my great labours that I had taken in seking of herbes in the alpes / tolde me for a suertie / that the carpēters of that coūtre knowyng the holsomnes of the rosin / when they chance vpon any plenty of it / whilse they cut the larche trees / drinck largely there of / and becom as drōken therew t / if they had dronken a great deale of strong wyne Dioscorides writeth that the rosine larche tre receyued in / by lycking / is good for
burnynge where wyth the places begyn to swell It is a good remedy against the foul skurfe of the skin / If it be layd to wyth hony it heleth the iaundes / and it stoppeth the flowynges of humores that vexe the tong the mouthe Tragus writeth that liuerwurt sodden in wine is good for the diseases of the liuer and longes / and that the pouder of it taken wyth suggar / is good for the same / and it is muche better then the comē people thynketh / agaynst great hetes and burnynges Of the litle tre called Ligustrum or Cypros CYpros as Dioscorides sayeth is a tre wyth leues / about the bowes / lyke vnto the leaues of an oliue tre / but broder / softer / and grener It hath white floures / mossy / or as som bookes haue growyng thyck together lyke clusters The fruite is black / lyke older berries The leaues haue a certayn byndyng in thē Thys description as I thynk and iudge wyth many other agreeth in all poyntes wyth the herbe / which is called in Latine Ligustrum / in Englishe prym / Ligustrum or pryuet / in Duche Beinholtzlin / in Frenche troesne But Massarius Venetus in hys boke that he writeth of fisshes / denieth styfly / that Cypros is Ligustrum But hys reasones that he bryngeth to proue hys purpose wyth al are not so stronge / but that they may be confuted Hys first argument is thys Both Dioscorides and Pliny make Cyprum a strange tree / and assigne to it far and strāge countres to grow in / as in Canope / in Ascalone / and in Egypt But Ligustrum groweth euery where / therefore Ligustrum is not Cypros First Massarius sayeth not truely in sayng that Dioscorides and Pliny make Cypros a strange tre / if he meane by sayng so that they meant / that it grew not in theyr countrees For allthough Dioscorides sayeth that the best Cypros groweth in Canope / and in Ascalone yet it foloweth not / that Dioscorides denyeth that there is any Cypros growyng in Grecia or in Italy The same Dioscorides wryteth that the best Iris groweth in Illyrico and in Macedonia doth it folow therefore that he sayeth that Iris groweth nowhere els but in Illyrico and in Macedonia Thys first argument therefore as ye se / is of no effect And where as he sayeth / that Pliny maketh Cyprum a strange or foren tre / which groweth not in Italy he reporteth not truely of Pliny / for Plinies wordes of Cypros are these Ligustrum eadem arbor est quae in oriente Cypros Ligustrum is the same tre that Cypros is in the East How shal a man then gather that Pliny sayeth / that there is no Cypros in Italy / when as he sayeth thus playnly as ye haue hearde that Ligustrum is the same tre that Cypros is in the Easte / then if Ligustrum and Cypros be all one as he sayeth then / when as Ligustrum groweth in Italy / then groweth also there Cypros But Massarius expoundeth these wordes Ligustrum is the same tre that is Cyprus in the Easte / after thys maner Ye must vnderstand that where Pliny sayeth the same that thys worde the same / is as muche to say as the same in lyknes For if he would that Cypros should haue bene Ligustrum / he would not haue sayde in the xij booke / Cypros is a tre in Egypt wyth leaues of iuiuba / when as Ligustrum groweth euery where in Italy Nether doth he hold in that place / that Cypros is Ligustrum / where he sayeth Quidam dicunt Cyprum esse arborem quae in Italia Ligustrum vocatur Some say that Cyprus is the tre whiche is called in Italy Ligustrum These be hys argumentes where with he would haue proued that Cypros and Ligustrum were not all one But to answer vnto to hys reasones / I axe of hym or any other that holdeth hys opinion / where or in what place Theophraste / Dioscorides or Pliny / or any other good writers of herbes / vsed any such phrase or maner of speakyng as thys The lefe of Berony is an oke lefe / or the lefe of veruyn is an oke lefe / because the oke leaues are lyke vnto the leaues of veruyn and betony Who dyd euer say that an ape was a man / because he is lyke vnto a man surely that I remembre / I haue not red any suche phrase in Pliny nether in any other good autor But what if thys where a ryfe phrase in Pliny / yet for all that / it should not folow in this place that eadem / should betoken lyke And that shall I proue by thys reasone Ye grant that Ligustrum is very lyke Cypros / and so lyke that the one may be named wyth the others names / because they be so lyke Then if Ligustrum haue also the properties of Cyprus as it hath The perfit lykewise / where in differeth the one from the other / when as they agre in all poyntes both in lyknes and in vertues But Pliny gyueth the same vertues vnto Ligustro that Dioscorides gyueth vnto Cypro rede the places in the forsayde autores / and ye shal fynde that I say true Wherefore seyng that Ligustrum is Cypros both in lyknes and in vertue / the interpretation of Massarius is not to be alowed And as for the meanyng of these wordes of Pliny / Ligustrum is the same tre that Cypros is in the Easte / it hath hys profites / vses and commodites in Europa etc. Me thynke / that thys is the ryght vnderstandyng of them The tre that is called in the Easte Cypros / is called Ligustrum in Italy But allthough Cypros in the East be much stronger in operation / yet our Ligustrum is not alltogether without vertue in Italy / for it hath these vertues folowyngs / whiche in dede Dioscorides as I sayd before / geueth vnto Cypro But yet I must answer to an other reason that Massarius maketh / which is thys If Pliny had meant that Cypros had bene Ligustrum / then wold he not haue sayde in the xij booke / Cypros is a tre in Egypt / when as Ligustrum groweth euery where in Italy Tho whome I answere / by thys question / in what book writeth Pliny that Ligustrum is Cypros Writeth he not so in the xxiij booke Thys ones graunted that Cypros is Ligustrum / and that Ligustrum groweth in Italy / I trow when as Pliny holdeth both these sentences / that he gathereth not truely of Pliny that he should mean that Cypros were not to be found in Italy Pliny in the sam place where he sayeth that Cypros is a tre in Egypt / he sayeth also Quidam hanc esse dicunt arborem quae in Italia Ligustrum vocetur Some say that thys is the tre which is called in Italy Ligustrum Then when as to saye that Cypros is in Egypt / is not to deny that it is in Italy and to alledge
that som men say that Cypros is the tre which is called in Italy Ligustrum / is much lesse to deny that Ligustrum is in Italy thys reasone of Massarius is found to be as weke as hys former argumentes be If that any aske of me how chanceth that Pliny semeth to dout in the xij booke wheter Cypros be Ligustrum or no / and that in the xxiij he pronunceth and gyueth sentence of it that he semeth to dout of before I answer that Pliny when as he wrote the xij booke / douted wheter Cypros was Ligustrum or no / ether because he had heard it so to be ether of som vncertayn reporte / or had red it in som autor / whose autorite deserued not full credit / and that when he wrote a good season afterwarde the xxiij booke / he had in the mean tyme learned of credible and learned men / or red in credit worthy autores / that Cypros was LigustruÌ„ Betwene the twelft booke and the xxiij ten bookes are conteyned / and some one booke conteyned in printe ix large shetes of papyr What tyme will a resonable man gyue vnto Pliny for the studying settyng in order / and wrytyng of these x. bookes If ye grant hym a moneth for euery booke to perfit it / as ye can grant hym no lesse seyng that he was the admirall or chefe rueler of the Emperoures Naui / and so cumbred with many weighty besinesses which belonged vnto hys office / ye must grant that in the space of x. monethes Pliny myght not only haue learned the certaynte of Cypros / but of many other thynges where of he was vncertayn before Therfore thys ought to trouble no man that Pliny in hys later booke doth hold boldly / it where of in hys former booke / he was doutfull The other reasones of Massarius I passe ouer as so weik that euen the yong studentes of Physick are able inoughe to confut by them selues These reasones I thought that it was mete / that I should answere to / lest any maÌ„ by redyng of Massarius Venetus / who writeth learnedly of fisshes / should by his argumentes bring hym from the truth / which Ruellius / Fuchsius / and Matthiolus defend / in holdyng that Cypros is Ligustrum Pryuet groweth very plentuously / in Cambrich shyre in the hedges / and almoste in euery gardin in London The vertues of Priuet THe leaues haue a byndyng nature / wherefore they are good to be chowed in the mouth to hele the sores of it If they be layd to emplaster wyse / they are good agaynst greate burnynges or inflammationes and carbuncles Whatsomeuer thyng is burned with the fire / may be healed with the broth of Priuet leues The flour of Priuet layd vnto the forheade / swageth the ache thereof The oyle of Priuet / heateth and softeneth the synewes if it be menged with those thynges that are of an hote nature Of the Lily LIlium is called in Greke Krinon or Lirion / in Englishe a Lily / in Duche wyß Lilgen or Gilgen / in Frenche du Lis. The Lily hath a long stalk and seldom more then one / how beit it hath somtyme ij It is ij or iij. cubites hyghe It hath longe leues and somthyng of the fasshon of the great satyrion The flour is excedyng white / and it hath the forme or fasshon of a long quiuer / that is to say smal at the one end / and byg at the other The leues of the floures are full of crestes The ouermost endes of the leues bowe a litle backwarde / and from the lowest parte within / come furth long small yelow thynges lyke thredes / of an other smell then the floures are of The roote is Lilium Lilium purpureum round / and one pece groweth hard to an other allmoste after the maner of the roote of Garleke / but that the clowes in the Lily are broder There is also a redish purple colored Lily besyde the white / where of Dioscorides also maketh mention The vertues and properties of the Lily THe oyntment made of Lilies softeneth the synewes and also very well the hardnes of the mother The leues of the herbe layd to / are good agaynst the styngyng of serpentes The same made hote / are good for places that burned If they be layd vj. and seasoned in vinegre / they heale woundes The iuice sodden with hony or vinegre in a brasen vessel / â—is a good medicine for olde sores and for grene woundes The roote rosted and broken wyth rose oyle / healeth places burned wyth the fyre It softeneth the mother It bringeth weomen theyr desyred sicknes It couereth woundes with a skin If it be broken brused with hony / it healeth out synewes / places out of ioynte It healeth scurfynes / scales / scabbes and Lepres / it scoureth away the rynning sores in the heade It scoureth the face and taketh away the wrynkles It is good to be brayed wyth the leues of henbayn whete mele / in vinegre to swage the inflammation or burnyng heat of the stones The sede dronken is a remedy agaynst the bytynge of serpeÌ„tes The leues and the sede are good to be layde vnto the cholerik inflammation called Erysipelas Of the herbe called Limonium Limonium LImonium hath leues like vnto a bete / but thynner and longer / ten in numbre / and oft tymes more / a thyme stalck / a streyght lyke vnto a lily It is full of red byndyng sede Some learned men hold that the herbe called pyrola / of the lyknes that it hath wyth a pere tre lefe / and in Duche Wintergruene / is the ryght Limonium But pyrola hath not leues longer then a bete / nether x. or more together Other holde / that bistorta is Limonium / but nether the leues are like betes leues / nether hath it such a stalck / as can ryghtly be compared vnto a lilies stalck But he that shoulde vse ether of both these for Limonio / he shuld not do amise For all though they differ from Limonio in lyknes / yet they agre well it in properties Matthiolus setteth furth ij figures of LimoniuÌ„ / but the former hath not a stalck lyke a lily / wherfore it can not be Limonium And as for the second / allthough it agreeth metely well wyth the description / I can not tell whether it be LimoniuÌ„ or no / because he telleth not whether the sede be byndyng or no. If he wold haue taught vs the Italiane name of it / perchaÌ„ce som of vs that here after shall go into Italy / myght spere it out and fynd it by that name But now haue we nothyng to help vs wyth al / sauyng only the figure wherefore we shal come more handly by the knowledge of hys Limonium The vertues of Limonium THe sede of Limonium broken and dronken in wyne / in the mesure of ij vnces or thereabout / is good agaynst all kyndes of flyxes /
Threleafe / because it hath thre leaues / bowing doune toward the earth lyke vnto a dock / or a lyly leafe / but lesse rede / the stalk is of a cubit hyght / and bare It hath a whyte floure like a lyly / and a knoppy roote of the bignes of an appel / broune in color without / and within white as an eg / in tast swete / and not vnplesant vnto the mouth I haue very seldom sene this kinde of Satyrion that Dioscorides describeth here For I neuer saw it / sauing twyse in Germany / and twyse in England In Germany I haue sene it growing in great plenty besyde Bonne / and aboute Weissenburg in hygh Almany / and in England in Soffock It hath a leafe broder then a lyly leafe / but shorter and rounder The floures are very whyte / and the stalck is longer then any kinde of Orchis / called Testiculus canis Besyde thys greater kinde / I haue sene about Charde in Sommersetshyr / a litle kinde of Satyrion with whyte floures / and rounder leaues / and broder for the quantite / then the lilye leaues are They are moste lyke yong plantayn leaues of the greater kinde The rootes are longer / then the rootes of the greater kinde / and are in taste not all swete / but a litle turninge to som darcke bitternes / and a litle heate The floures grew very thyck together / as they were writhen about the stalcke I haue sene about the last ende of August / this kinde in the floures / when as all other kindes of Orchis and Satyrion are far dede awaye / sauinge an other litle kinde with a purple flour / which is called of som our ladies traces The vertues of Satyrion DIoscorides writeth that the roote of Satyrion dronken in tarte binding rede wine / is good for the bowyng back of the neck / and that it is supposed to stere men to the lust of the body Out of Galene GAlene writeth that Satyrion is hote and moyst in complexion / and that not withstanding that it hath an ouerflowyng and windy moysture / by reason whereof it stirreth vp the lust of the bodye The herbe and roote are both of lyke streyngth in doynge of these thinges Of Rye Siligo Yet for all thys / there are two places in Columella / that will not suffer siliginem to be our rye The fyrst places is where as he sayeth quamuis candore praestet pondere tamen vincitur That is / allthough it excelle in whytenes / yet in heuynes or weyght other excede it Who dyd euer se rye whyter then wheate / and is it not most commonlye sene / that rye bread is heuyer then the wheat Therefore siligo whyche is whyter then the common and best wheat / and lighter also / can not be our rye The seconde place is in the seconde booke of Columella / in the sixt chapter / where as he wryteth these wordes We know many kindes of wheat / but that is moste to be sowen of all other / that is called robus / because it doth excelle both in weyght and in shyning or clerenes Ye ought secondely to regarde siliginem / whose chefe kinde wanteth weyght in breade Pliny also in the xvij boke of hys naturall history wryteth / that Siligo spicam semper erectam habet pariter nunquam maturescit That is / siligo hath the ear euer standing ryght vp / and it neuer wexeth rype alltogether But whether oure rye groweth with the eares dounwarde or no / and whether it be rype al at one tyme or no / I reporte me vnto them that are housband men / and haue skyll in corn / and both sowe it and mowe it By these places I trust / that I haue sufficiently proued / that siligo of the olde wryters / is not our rye / as the Phisiciones and Grammarians haue taught certayn hundred yeares But som will axe of me / seyng that siligo is not rye / what thynkest thou was it called of any old wryter To them I answer / that I fynde nothinge lyke vnto our rye / thē it whych is called of Sicale wherof he writeth thus The taurines that dwell vnder the alpes / cal sicale Asiane it is the worst of al other / and is only mete to dryue hungre awaye It hath a plenteous / but a small stalke / it is vgly to be sene for the blacknes / but it passeth in heuynes Then when as our rye hath these propertyes / and the Italianes in som places call rye Segale / the French men call it segle / whych countremen hold certayn remnantes of the old Latin tonge I thynke I gather not amis / that our rye was named secale of the old wryters Thys also maketh somthing for the same purpose / that som of the Northen men call rye breade / aussem brede / as though it had the name of assius The nature of Rye BY comon experience we fynde that rye bread is cold / windy / and hard of digestion / a breder of melancholy / namelye in al such persones / as want exercise of the body But it helpeth to kepe the body soluble / such as are disposed to be hard bellied But the medicine is grosse / and bringeth as much harm and more then it doth good all thinges well considered Som of the later wryters haue taught that the yong blades of rye distilled / are good for the stone / and for great heat in any parte or membre of the body But here of / because I haue no experiēce as yet / I dare not warrant anye man / that they haue that vertue and propertye It were good that som man that hath leasure / shoulde ones proue it Of the herbe called Scandix Scandix SCandix is supposed of som to be the herbe which is called in English Pinke nedle / or storkes bill And I haue iudged it to be an herbe the groweth in the corne with a fayre whyte floure / leaues lyke vnto cheruel The later herbe in my iudgement draweth nerer vnto the bitternes heat that Dioscorides requireth of scādix But because nether of thē both / hath so much heat and bitternes / as Dioscorides semeth to geue vnto scandix I dare not certaynly geue sentence / that ether of them should be scandix in Dioscorides Of the vertues of Scandix I Rede no other vertue the scādix hath / but the it is good for the kidnees bladder / lyuer / sauing that Galene sayth that it is good to prouoke a man to pisse / to deliuer al the inward bowelles from stoppinge The same Galene writeth that it is hote drye in the second degre Of the sea vnyon called squilla Scilla SCilla is named in Greke Skilla of the Apothecaries Squilla / of the hygh duch / meus zwybel it may be called in English / sea vnyon or Squilla or Squill vnyon The rote of the Squilla is like a great vnyon / couered with a thin
credamus quo herbam eam appellant postea palmarum folijs philuraque manifestum est inde translatum à poenis perque simile veri est Thus farre Plinye Out of these wordes I gather that the herbe that he writeth of / is a kind of sea bente / or sea rishe / whereof the frayles are made / that figges and rasines are caried hether in out of Spayne The same bent or sea rishe haue I sene in Northumberland / besyde Ceron Dalauale / ther they make hattes of it I haue also sene it in great plenty in ij ylandes of Easte Freslande / whereof the one is called the iust / and the other mordenie there men vse thys rishe onelye for to make ropes of it as Pliny writeth and to couer houses wyth it It may be named in Englishe Sea bent / or sea rishe / or frayl rishe I haue not rede in anye good autor / that it hath anye vertue to heale any disease Of the herbe called Spondilion Spondilium SPondilion is named in Greke Sphondilion / in Duch BereÌ„ klaw or wild Pasteney / it maye be called in Englishe Kow persnepe or middow persnepe It groweth in moyst middowes / about hedges sydes / but not in the hedges The description of Spondilium out of Dioscorides SPondilium hath leaues after a maner lyke vnto a playn tre leaues / drawyng very vnto the lykenes of the leaues of Ponax The stalke is a cubit long or longer lyke vnto fenels stalke it hath sede lyke vnto siseli / duble / broder / whyter / fuller of chaff / of a stronge or greuous smell It hath a roote lyke a radice / it groweth in merrish and watery groundes The vertues of Spondilium THe sede of cowe persnep dronken / scoureth oute flegmatike mater thorow the belly and guttes It healeth also them that are diseased in the liuer / the iaundes / them that are short winded / the falling siknes / the stranglinge of the mother If a man that is fallen in to depe a slepe / receyue the perfume of it / it wil waken him agayne If a mannis head be anoynted wyth the oyle wherein it is sodden / it will help them that haue the phrenesye / the drowsey or forgetfull euell / and the heade ache If it be layed to wyth rue / it holdeth and stayeth creping sores and tetters The root also is good for the disease of the lyuer / and for the iaundes The same shauen / and put in / wasteth away the hardnes of fistules oâ— false woundes The iuyce of the flemes beynge grene / is good for mattery eares Thys iuyce maye be dryed in the sonne / and layd vp as other iuyces be Of certayn kindes of thistelles SPina in Latin / is properly called a thistel / and in Greke Acantha Howbeit is called vnproperly after a metaphoricall maner / spina is taken for a prick / because thistelles or spine / are most full of prickes First that acantha signifieth a thystell / and not an hawthorn / or a thorne wythout anye addition / as the most part of scoolmaysters and translatours Englishe it I am able to proue / not only by good Greke authours / but also by the best Latin wryters / that acantha in Greke signifieth a thystell / it maye be proued by the autorite of Aristotel in the viij boke of the history of liuing and sensible substances / and in the thyrd chapter / who wryteth these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to saye / these are spiniuora / that is thistel eaters / and vnder the name of the thystell / he vnderstandeth the sede of a thistel / as wheÌ„ we saye / a man eateth more wheat then rye / we meane nether the blade of wheat / nether the straw nor chaff / but onlye the sede of wheate If acantha ought to be Englished a thorn or an hawthorne / let vs se which byrdes they be / that Aristotel calleth acanthophagas / and as diuerse interpretours Englishe them thorn eaters Aristotell sayeth that Linetes and Goldfinches / and Grene finches / are acanthophage who euer sawe any of these thre kindes of byrdes eat thornes / or the fruytes of thornes Therefore I maye saye vnto them / that Englishe acantham and spinam / a thorn or an haw / whych is the fruyt of a whyte thorn Erratis philosophiam plantarum historiam ignorantes For besyde this place now alledged Dioscorides in the chapter wheras he intreateth of the tre called Rododendron / wryteth thus Merion bringeth furth a fruyte lyke an Almonde / as it were a certayn horne / when as it is opened / it is full of a wolly nature / lyke vnto the down of thistelles The Greke hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who heard euer tell / that anye thorn tre / had any down or anye wollye nature / lyke vnto the downe of a thistell Plinye also writynge of the herbe called Erigeron / whyche we call in Englishe Groundsell / sayth thus The head of Grounsell is diuersely diuided wyth a down / qualis est spina What is spina here an hawthorne or a thystel when haue ye sene the thorne tre haue any down by these places it is playne that acantha in Greke / and spina in Latin signifye a thistel / and no thorn / as our scoolmaisters translatours vse to English it now a dayes Thesame word acantha doth S. Luke vse in the paraâ—â—e of the sower in the viij chapt all the translatours turn acantham spinam / but the translators of the Latin in to English / not wythout a great error / turn spinam into a thorn / wheÌ„ as spina betokeneth not a thorne / but a thistel For Luke writeth thus Aliud cecidit super spinas simul enatae spinae suffocauerunt illud And som fell vpon what the thornes / or vpon the thistelled sede and waxed or grew vp with it / and chouked it Who vseth to sow vpon thornes / whether thornes signifye thorn trees / or the sede or fruit of the thorne tre Who dare saye that a thorne tre in one year can growe so hyghe / that it maye be aâ—â—e to choke the corne Is a thorne able to grow wyth the corne / as Luke sayeth / so hygh in one year I trow nay Therefore let men learne to Englishe acantham or spinam a thistel / when as there is nothyng put to them Of two other kindes of thystelles DIoscorides writeth of two herbes / whyche haue lyke names / but for all that / differ in description / and in substance / the one is called in Greke acantha leuke and the other is called leucacantha The former called spina alba / groweth in Italye / and in som places of Germany / besyde Sion in England I know no English name for it / but it may be called in English whyt thistel The other kind called in Greke leucacantha / in latin spina alba
it bringeth oute wormes / and both floures and the secondes / and the chylde also at conueniente tyme receyued / it prouoketh water also But if it be menged wyth honye and licked in / it maketh good auoyding oute of a mannis brest If it be put into an emplaster / it driueth away newe swellinges It louseth in peces the lumpes of brused blood if it be taken wyth vinegre It taketh awaye hanginge wartes / and those that are called thymi / of the lykenes that they haue wyth the toppes of thyme It is good for them that haue the sciatica / layd to wyth wyne and perched barley mele Thesame taken wyth meat / is good for eyes that are dull of syghte And in the tyme of health / it is good for a sauce or a seasoner of meat Thyme is hote in the thyrde degre Of the herbes called Tribuli Tribulus aquaticus Tribulus terrestris THere are two kindes of herbes that haue the name of Tribulus the one that groweth vpon the lanâ—â— / and the other in the water or vpon the water The fyrst kinde is called in Greke Tribolos chersea this kinde as Dioscorides describeth it / hath leaues lyke vnto porcellayne / but smaller / and litle braunches sprede vpon the grounde / and in them are very tarte meaning peraduenture by tart sharp also prickes and harde It groweth besyde waters and aboute olde houses and wayes The second kinde groweth in waters / wyth the top growynge aboue the water / but it hydeth the prick the leaues are brode / and they haue a loÌ„g footstalk The stalk is great in the ouer part and small beneth It hath litle tasselles lyke heares growynge vp in the lykenes of eares The fruit is hard as the other is The former kinde groweth in Italy aboute Bonony in plentye / where as I haue sene it And in dede the leaues are more lyke the leaues of ciches as Theophrast describeth Tribulus / then vnto the leaues of porcellayn / but they haue som lykenes vnto the yong leaues of porcellayn Nowe when as the one sayeth that Tribulus hath leaues lyke vnto porcellayne / and the other leaues lyke vnto a ciche / they erre verye sore / that ether Englishe tribulus / a thiâ—tel or a bramble / seynge that nether the leafe of a thistel nor of a bramble / is lyke vnto the leafe of a ciche or the leafe of porcellayne And as for the second kinde of Tribulus / nether can it be a bramble nor a thistel / except there be thistelles and brambles / that growe in and aboue the water / whych no man hetherto hath sene If anye man woulde knowe or aske me / howe I would Englishe in Matthewes gospell thys worde Tribulus If men will trust my iudgement / in englishing of thys worde / I aunswere / I had leuer English tribulus / a trible / or a ciche thistell / then englishe it ether a thistel or a bramble The water tribulus is called in Duche Wasser nuss and therefore we maye englishe it a water nut / or club nut / because the fruyt of it is lyke a club full of greate pykes But som perchance will saye that Theophrast an older autour / maketh two kindes of grounde tribulus / and therefore it is possible that though a thistell or a bramble haue not a leafe lyke vnto ciche / yet it maye be lyke vnto the leaues of a thistel / and so maye tribulus be a thistel For Theophrast sayeth Tribuli duo sunt genera vnus folio exit ciceris alter spinosus constat foliatus ambo terreni Lo here Theophrast maketh one kinde of tribulus terrestris that hath pricky leaues therefore tribulus allthough it can not be a bramble / yet it may be a thistell To thys I aunswere / that Theophrast in the sixt boke and fyft chapter writeth Serius germinat qui spinosus est semen praecoquis sesamae vicinum serotini rotundum nigricans septum in siliqua That is tribulus that hath the prickes in the leaues doth spruit or bud oute later The sede of them that are hastely rype / is lyke vnto the sede of Sesama / but the sede of it that waxeth rype late / is rounde / blackishe / closed vp in a cod If ye will then haue the seconde kinde of tribuli terrestris of Theophrast to be a thistel or a bramble / ye must shewe som thistel or bramble that hath round sede in a cod / or ellis I must thynke that ye erre very much that English tribulum ether a thistell or a bramble The vertues of the two kindes of Tribulus THey are both bindinge / and do coole / and are good to be made playsters of / for anye kinde of inflammation / with hony they heale the hote sores of the mouth / the sore kyrnelles about the rootes of the tong / and all rotting in the mouth / and the sore goumes There is also pressed out of them a iuyce for eye medicines The grene fruyte of theÌ„ dronken / is good for the stone a dram of it of the lande dronken / and layd to / is good for them that are bitten of a viper or adder It is also good agaynste poysoned drinkes / if it be dronken wyth wyne The broth of it sprinkled vpon the grounde / killeth flees There is an yron wyth four pykes called as I remembre a callerop that is also named tribulus / of the lykenes that it hath wyth the fruyt of tribulus This instrument is casten in the way to hinder the enemies that folow flyers very sore / it is called in Latin Murex Of Englishe Maydens heare Trichomanes TRichomanes groweth in the same places that Adianthum / or right Lumbardy maydens hear groweth It is lyke vnto a Ferne / very litle in quantite / and it hath smal leaues of eche syde growyng in order in figure lyke vnto the leaues of a Lentill / one agaynst an other vpon small twigges shyninge tarte / and somthynge blackishe This herbe is called of the Grecianes and Latines both Trichomanes / and of som Grecianes also Calliphyllon / and of other Politrichon / and of som Cellitrichon the comon herbaries call it capillum veneris / whiche name is more agreynge wyth the ryghte Adiantho It is called in Duch Widertod / and Venus hare / in English we call it Maydens hear or Englishe maydens heare The vertues of Maydens heare DIoscorides writeth that Trichomanes that is our English Maydens heare is supposed to haue the same vertue that the Lumbardy Maydens heare hath / therefore turne to the herbe called Adianthum or Lumbardye venus heare or maydens heare / and there ye shall fynd the vertues of it at large Pliny writeth that the broth of our maydens heare dronken wyth wyne / and a litle wilde Cumin / healeth the Strangurie The iuice stayeth the heare that falleth of / and if they be fallen of / it restoreth them agayne Of the herbe called Trifolium
Absinthium Ponticum Romae natum ABsinthium is named in Greke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 / in Duche Wermut or Alkin / or Elk / in Frenche Aluin or Absince / in Italian Assenzo / in Spanishe Asentios / in Englishe Wormwode There are thre kindes of Wormwode after the iudgements of Dioscorides / Galene / Pliny / Aetius / and Paulus Egineta The fyrste kind is called Absinthium Ponticum / Dioscorides describeth not absinthium Ponticum / as an herbe well knowen in hys tyme euen vnto the common people Which thinge hath bene the cause / that of late yeares it hath bene so litle knowen of the Phisicians both in Italy and in Germanye / and in manye other countrees Howbeit a diligent and witty man might haue gathered of Dioscorides / where he compareth in diuerse places Absinthium Ponticum and other herbes together in likenes of leaues and branches / that this common Wormwode whiche hath bene longe taken for Pontike Wormwode / was not the Pontike wormwode that Dioscorides meant of For in the description of oure common Sothernwod / he sayeth that it hath small braunches lyke Wormwod / that is to saye / Pontike Wormwode and in the description of Santonik Wormwod he writes that it is not vnlyke vnto Wormwode / meaninge thereby as I sayed before / Pontike wormwode Then he that knoweth well by the description of Dioscorides / ether Sothernwode or Santonike wormwode / maye thereby metely well knowe Pontike wormwode / or at the lest that this common Wormwood is not the righte Pontike wormwode / because the braunches are not lyke But Galene perceyuinge in hys tyme that the ignorance of the righte Wormwode Pontike began to come in / belyke because that Dioscorides went ouer it vndescribed in the eleuenth boke De methodo medendi / fulfilleth perfectly it that Dioscorides left oute / in these wordes followinge When as there is in euery Wormwod a duble poure / in Pontike wormwode is no small binding propertye / in all other Wormwodes a verye vehement bitter qualitie But as for astriction or bindinge / which a man can perceyue by taste / is ether verye harde to be founde / or ellis none at all Wherefore Pontike Wormwode oughte to be chosen for the inflammationes of the lyuer But it hath muche lesse floures and leaues then other Wormwodes / and the smelle of thys is not onelye not vnpleasant / but resembleth a certeyne spicines or pleasant sauor / all other haue a verye foule smell Galene also in the sixt boke of Simple medicines writeth / that Pontike wormwod is not so hote as the other kindes of Wormwode be / and that it is more bindinge then bitter By thys description of Galene it is playne that the herbe whiche is called in the West parte of Englande / Herbe cypres / about London Wormwod Roman / in Freseland / Cypreskruyt / or wilde Rosmarine / of the Apothecaries of Anwerpe / and of Mesue Absinthium Romanum / and of the Colones Graue cruyt / is the right Absinthium Ponticum / and that the great bitter stinking common Wormwod / is not the Wormwod that Galene taketh / and teacheth to be taken for Wormwode Pontike For the hole description agreeth wyth the litle Wormwode Roman / and disagreeth wyth the common great leaued Wormwod / as euerye indifferent man that hath sene / tasted / smelled / and compared the herbes with the description / can beare witnes But Matthiolus whome the Spanyarde Amatus foloweth / holdeth not withstandinge these wordes of Galene aboue rehearsed / that oure common great Wormwod / is righte Pontike wormwod / hys wordes are these Some of later writers leaninge vnto the authorite of Galene libro secundo de methodo medendi / that Pontike wormwode differeth muche in kinde from it that groweth in oure countre / euen as Santonike and Sea wormwod do differ But I for my parte do beleue / that they differ in no otherwise / but that Pontike by the reason of the clyme and complexion of the region where it groweth / hath lesse floures and leaues then oures hath / and for the same cause I beleue that it excelles oures also both in bindinge and also in sauor or smellinge / whyche thinge Galene in the sixte boke of Simple medicines / where as he intreateth of Sothernwod / doeth sufficientlye declare / when he sayeth / there are two kindes of Sothernwod / the one which they call the male / and the other which they call the female / whiche thinge is determined by Dioscorides and Pamphilus / and infinit mo But Wormwod is an other thinge / differinge from Sothernwode and of Wormwode we must determine that there are thre kindes / of the whiche there is one that hath hys name of his kinde or countreye / as is called Pontike wormwode / the other Santonike / the thirde Seriph or Sea Wormwode Wherefore Dioscorides iudged well / where as in the kinde of common Wormwode he gaue the chefe prayse vnto Pontike The same Matthiolus writeth also these wordes There are thre kindes of Wormwode intreated of here of Dioscorides / that is to wet / oure common Wormwode / Sea wormwod whiche they call Seriphium / and Santonike / whereof France nexte vnto the Alpes hath great plenty Because Matthiolus is a learned man / and therefore by the opinion of his learninge euen wythoute good reason and autorite maye drawe other after him in to his error for the defence of the trueth / I will confute hys error both wyth reason and sufficient authorite Where he sayeth that Dioscorides intreateth of thre kindes of Wormwod / and that he intreateth fyrste of / is oure common Wormwod In the beginninge he swarueth from the trueth / for the fyrste kinde of Wormwode that Dioscorides intreateth of / is Pontike wormwode But the common Wormwode is not Pontike wormwode the beste Pontike Wormwode / as Dioscorides sayeth / groweth in Ponto in Cappadocia / and in the hill called Taurus / and in the description of Abrotoni / he maketh Abrotonum the female lyke vnto Sea Wormwode / and the male lyke in smallnes of the littel braunches vnto Wormwode Where as Wormwod doutles signifieth Pontike wormwode / for Wormwod rehearsed alone wythoute anye addicion / is euer taken for Pontike Wormwod / because it is more excellent / then all other Wormwodes be But the common Wormwod groweth not in mountaynes or wilde hilles / but onelye aboute tounes / diches / hyghe wayes / and in tilled and labored grounde / nether is it lyke vnto oure common Sothernwod / whiche is the male in Dioscorides / for it hath stalkes / leaues and braunches / ten tymes greater then Abrotonum the male hath / as euerye man maye se / that will compare the one wyth the other / Therefore this common greate Wormwode that groweth onelye aboute tounes / diches / and in tilled groundes wyth a leafe and braunches / ten tymes greater then Sothernwod / can not be Absinthium Ponticum of
Dioscorides describeth / where as Dioscorides maketh no mencion But of one kinde of Sorbus / and yet describeth it not Pliny that wrote muche of him / maketh mencion of foure diuerse kindes / and describeth them / where Dioscorides maketh but one kinde of Betoni Paulus Egineta that came after him a longe tyme / maketh two kindes / whereof the one is nothinge at all lyke the other / Where Dioscorides maketh but one kinde of Ashe / Theophrastus maketh two diuerse and seuerall kindes Auerrois maketh mencion of a kinde of Wormwode / which he calleth Absinthiolum / whereof there is no mencion in Dioscorides / And Auicenna maketh fyue kindes of Wormwode / where as Dioscorides and Galene make but thre kindes / wherefore it foloweth not / because Dioscorides and Galene make but thre kindes of Wormwode / ergo there are but thre kindes of Wormwode Yea if there were but onely thre kindes of Wormwod / yet it should not folowe streyght / that the common Wormwod should be vnder the kinde of Pontike Wormwod Naye / it should folowe that it should be a kinde of See wormwod / or Santonik Wormwod rather then Pontike Wormwod or anye kinde of it / because Galene maketh all kindes of Wormwode greater leued and floured / and more stinkinge then Pontike Wormwode Therefore when as this great comon Wormwod is greater and more stinkinge then anye other Wormwode is / it muste nedes be farrest awaye from the kinde of Pontike Wormwode / and so rather a kinde of Sea Wormwod or Santonike Wormwode / and especiallye of Santonike / because Santonia is nerer Italye / Germanye / and England / then Pontus is / in whiche countres by the more likenes of the clymes and nerenes of the countres / it is more likely that there shoulde be more plentye of Santonike Wormwod then Pontike Gerhardus de VVijck twelue yeares ago / when as he was in Colon at that tyme the Emperours Secretary / taught me fyrste the righte Pontike Wormwode Thys man was well learned in Greke / Latine / and Hebrew / and was so earnest a sercher of simpels when he was in Italy / that he went into the mount Appennine wyth manye other / to finde oute simplesse / whereof he onelye wyth two or thre other escaped death / for all the other dyed ether in there yorneye / or shortely after that they came home Thys same man tolde me that after his laborsum and perillous iorney / he fell into a dropsy / and that by vsinge of Romish or Pontike Wormwod / whiche he founde in Italye / he was delyuered from his dropsye But it was not the common Wormwode / but Absinthium Romanum that the Apothecaries of Anwerpe vse / and is called Graue cruyt This noble clerke afterwarde was sente by Charles the fyft / Embassator to the greate Turke / and in his iorneye he came thorowe Pontus / and broughte home wyth hym trewe Rapontike / whereof manye haue douted manye a daye / The same clerke after he came home from Pontus / seynge a frende of hys writinge agaynst them that helde that Graue cruyt of the coloures / shoulde be Absinthium Ponticum / reproued hym and made him in the seconde settinge furth of his boke / call back hys former opinion / and write that Absinthium Romanum Antuerpiensium and Coloniensium / was the trewe Pontik and Romish Wormwod Then if it be trewe that Plautus sayeth / Pluris est oculatus testis vnus quà m auriti decem men ought rather to beleue Gerardus in this matter then Matthiolus A certayne Spanyard / somtyme called Ioannes Rodericus / and afterward I can not tell by what chaunge named Amatus Lusitatus / a verye ape vnto Matthiolus / but muche behinde him in learninge / who semeth to haue taken a great parte of his boke oute of the Italian Commentaries of Matthiolus / writteth thus of Wormwod Pontike The common Wormwode is all one wyth Pontike and Romishe Wormwode / for they differ in nothinge but in the naturall place of their growinge / whereby it chaunsed that Galene in his bookes De methodo medendi / mighte seme to make them somtyme diuerse herbes / when as they are but all one herbe / caet If Amatus had ben Pythagoras / and we hys scollares / we woulde haue ben content wyth hys onely sayinge / that the common Wormwod was Pontike Wormwode / withoute anye requiringe of further authorite or reasons to proue thys sayinge wythall But seynge that he is nether Pythagoras / nor we hys scollares / we require both authorite and reason to proue that the common Wormwod is Wormwode Pontike / and because we finde nether of both fitt to hys sayinge / we do not receaue this sayinge for Apollones aunswere Naye / because it is contrarye both vnto Dioscorides and Galene / we take his iudgement to be vntrewe and in no wise to be followed He sayeth that the common Wormwode agreeth in all thinges wyth Pontike Wormwode / sauinge onelye in the naturall place of growinge But thys saynge is quite agaynste the saynge of Galene in vndecimo libro methodi medendi where he sayeth that in all other Wormwodes / sauinge in Pontike / the bitter qualitie excedeth all other qualities / and they haue a foule smell or stinkinge Pontike Wormwode hath a lesse leafe and flower / and a better smell then the other haue Therefore Pontike Wormwod differeth from Sea Wormwod in greatnes and in stinkinge smell But thys great Wormwode is both greater and more stinkinge / and also lesse bindinge then the Sea Wormwode is / then when as Sea Wormwode is greater / lesse bindinge / and more stinkinge then Pontike Wormwod / and the common Wormwode excedeth the Sea Wormwode in all these It must nedes followe that Pontike Wormwode differeth from the common Wormwod / not onelye in the naturall place of growinge / but also in bignes / smellinge / and bindinge / and the place aboue rehersed / proueth that it is not trewe / that he sayed that Pontike Wormwode is tauler or hygher then the other common Wormwodes be / when as Galen teacheth the open contrarye It is a marueyl to se howe manye ennemies alwayes the trueth hath in all kindes of learninge / after that it hath bene longe hyde / and beginneth to springe vp agayne / and by a fewe is set furth to be receyued frelye of all men Some of the Apothecaries of Rome / belyke warned and taught by some learned Phisician there / began to leaue the common Wormwod that groweth about diches and hyghe wayes wyth the brode leafe and the stinkinge smell and bitter taste / and to vse in the stede of that Wormwode that groweth aboue olde walles of Rome These Apothecaries receyued the trueth and followed it as they were taught But two Obseruante freres coulde not abyde the trueth / whiche of late by name wrote agaynst the Apothecaries of Rome / for holdinge with the trueth The freres
rounde as the leaues of Aristolochia the rounde / and Asarabacca are The tast is not so sharpe as the tast of the leaues of Spounwurte are They purge beten into pouder in the quantite of two drammes / but nothing so much as Dioscorides semeth to meane that brassica marina doth For Dioscorides sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sodden in meate / it louseth the bellye most vehemently Plinye writinge of Brassica marina sayth / vehementisime ex omnibus aluum alet / that is of all other it louseth the bellye most vehemently Nether are they so hote as Dioscorides writeth that Brassica marina is / for he sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The hole herbe is sharpe or bytinge / and some for the sharpenes seth it wyth fat fleshe Then when as Soldanella hath no longe leaues / but all round / is nether so sharpe nor so vehemente a purger / as Dioscorides maketh hys brassicam marinam to be nether hath anye qualitie / nether in tast nor smell / wherefore it should be called brassica marina / and seynge the hole herbe is so lyke vnto Helxine cisampelo / and to smilaci syluestri / and compared it to none of them A man may dout whether Soldanella be Brassica marina Dioscorides or no. But if Soldanella be not brassica marina / yet for al that it maye serue well to purge water in a dropsey / as other kindes of Helxines cisampelos / and Midlandish with windes do Aetius sayth that Smilax syluestris whyche crepeth vpon busshes and hedges by water sydes / is verye good against the dropsey / and Nicolaus Mirepsus belyke folowynge Aetius / saith the same / Dioscorides writeth that Helxine cisampelos purgeth the bellye / and Mesue writinge of fyue kindes of windes or winding herbes / maketh them all purgers Wherefore it is no meruel that this Soldana beynge a kinde of Winde / purge as other windinge herbes do Matthiolus to take all lettes that Soldanella might be brassica marina / sayth that where as the common textes haue / Makra phylla / that they are falsed / and in the stede of mikra is makra put in / which surely is lyke to be true / except in some places of Aristolochia / there be longer leaues / and in other places be shorter rounder as are in Leffelwurt / and diuerse kindes of Mallowes / other herbes / and thē is not Soldanella brassica marina But it appereth that ether ther is no falsifying of the text at al / or els that it hath ben changed very long ago / for both the old barbarus translation of Dioscorides / which is set furth by the order of letters / also the translations of Serapio redeth folia longa But I finde in no Greke text that nowe is / or in anye olde translation phylla lepta / or folia tennia / as Ruellius hath in his translation / which thing I merueil that Matthiolus spyed not otherwayes / a man well eyed / as in diuerse places of his boke it doth appere The Vertues of Brassica marina DIoscorides writeth nothinge of Brassica marina / sauinge that it is euel for the stomack / and louseth the belly very muche / and Galene writeth that it besyde that it louseth the belly / it will serue layde to without / for suche purposes / as an herbe that is somthing salt and somethinge bitter / will serue Of Brion thalassion Corallina Sea mosse Slanke BRion thalassion / is called in Latin / Muscus marinus But muscus marinus is of two kindes / as Muscus is One kind of Mosse is broad / like vnto liuer wurt / which is named in Dioscorides a Mosse / in these wordes Leichen brion esti prosechomennon tais endrosais petrais And that ther is an other kinde of Mosse / which is smal lyke heyres Dioscorides in the description of this herbe doth testifye And euen so manye kindes are there of Brion thalassion / allthough Dioscorides do describe but one Brion thalassion that Dioscorides speaketh of / groweth vpon stones / and oysters / and suche other lyke fishe shelles / by the sea syde / smal and like heyres / and without any stalke but Pliny and Theophrastus write of an other kinde of Brion thalassion / whiche Theophrastus describeth in these wordes Ther is another herbe called Brion with a lefe grene and large not vnlyke vnto Lettis / but fuller of wrinkles / and drawen in together Plinye in the xxvij booke and viij chapter / hath the same description Wherfore Pliny allthough he erreth oft / and deserueth to be confuted as Matthiolus with other learned men confute him learnedly / yet he is vniustlye checked of Matthiolus The lerned mē of Italy haue taken a litle thinge like Mosse / that groweth here commonly vpon oysters shelles / which they call Corallinam / for Brion thalassion Dioscoridis / whose opinion I can not vtterly refell But I knowe a Sea herbe like Mosse in dede / with a taste plaine astringent / which semeth to me more lyke to be Brion thalassion / the Potecaries call this herbe Vsneam marinā and it hath woddish matter / when a man byteth on it But the other called Corallina / is made of manye litle stonye ioyntes / conningly knit together / if ye byte it with your teth / it will crashe vnder your teth / as litle stones or grauel do Vsnea marina maye be called in Englishe Sea mosse / Corallina may be named in English Coralline / The Brion thalassion of Theophrastus Pliny is called in Northumberland Slanke / which in Lent the poore people seth / and that with lykes and oyniones They put it in a pott and smore it / as they call it / and then it loketh black / and then put they oyniones to it / eate it But before it is sodden / it is wonderfully grene The vertues BRion thalassion / that is sea mosse / is made of an earthlye and waterye substance / and both colde / for it bindeth also the taste / and is astringent / and the same layd vnto anye hote thyng / cooleth it / healeth it / it driueth back the gathering of humores together / helpeth the goute / which had nede to be cooled / some vse Coralline to kill wormes / and hold that it killeth them in dede / whereof as yet I haue no experience Of Borage Buglossum DIuerse well learned men / as Leonicenus and Ruellius with other mo / haue supposed that the herbe which is called in Latin Borago / and in Englishe Borage / is Buglossum in Dioscorides / and this opinion hath long preuailed but two freres of Rome / wrytinge vpon Mesue / saye / that they haue found in Spayne the true Buglossum / and that this our Borage is not the true Buglossum Their reason are these / Borage hath not leaues like vnto Mullen say they nether lyke Comfrey but Dioscorides maketh Buglossum lyke them both / therefore
howe sufficiente a cause is this / that the opinion of Ruellius should be refused / al men maye easely perceiue Because he sawe an herbe in a watery place lyke Mentastro / with a some thinge more whytishe leaues / and of a sharper taste / as though to be lyke Mentastro / and to haue more whitish leaues / and a sharper tast then it hath / and to growe in watery places / were the hole description of the thirde Calaminte Doutles Matthiolus was very far ouersene in makinge of this description for it that Dioscorides reherseth as a most necessary marke to knowe the third Calamint by / the leaueth he quite out / that is whether the leaues be longer then Mentastrum or no / whether the braunches and stalke be greater then the other kindes of Calamint or no / whether the herbe were hoter then other calamintes or no / it that Dioscorides maketh no part of the description / that is to haue whyter leaues theÌ„ MentastruÌ„ / that setteth he in to fill vp the mater wtal And so with a great number of vayne wordes / he proueth nothing / but vnworthely reproueth a better lerned man then him self in setting furth the trueth MentastruÌ„ / as Auerrois wryteth / is hote in the third degre / if the herbe that Matthiolus sheweth for the third calamint / be hoter then the mentastro as he sayth it is then it can not be the thirde kinde of Calamint in Dioscorides / for it is of lesse strenght then the other kindes be of / as Dioscorides bereth witnes Galene in his boke de simplicibus wryteth / that mint is good for theÌ„ that wolde haue childreÌ„ / that Calamint is so hote that it serueth not for that purpose I thynke that he meant of the second first kinde of Calamint / which Dioscorides maketh of more strenght theÌ„ the third The cattes both eat vp trimble vpon the herbe / called nepe / about the time of their catterwawinge / wherfore some thinke that nature teacheth the cattes to know the herbe which serueth best for the purpose that they go about at that tyme. If that be the cause why they desyre it so greatly / theÌ„ is not nepe so hote as the other ij kindes of calamint be / so draweth nere vnto the nature of gardine mint / if the learninge of Galene be true / that the herbes that are mesurablye warme / serue more for the purpose aboue named / theÌ„ right hote drye herbes do Which thing whether it make any thinge to proue that nepe shoulde be the thirde calaminte / I will be iudged by them that are in this matter learned / and in different iudges The Vertues of Calamint THE leaues of al the kindes of Calamint / are very hote and byting Calamint ether dronken / or laid to the place / is good for theÌ„ that are bitteÌ„ of serpentes / the broth of Calamint dronkeÌ„ / driueth doune weomeÌ„s sycknes / prouoketh water / it helpeth places brused / bursteÌ„ / and shronken or drewen together / theÌ„ that are shortwinded / them that are vexed with choler / or with shakinge it scoureth awaye the iaundies If it be taken aforehande / it withstandeth poyson / if it be dronken with salt and honye / it killeth wormes in the bellye / and that will it do as well rawe as sodden The same herbe eaten / healeth the comon Lazares / if they drinke whaye after the receyuinge of this same herbe The leues brused and layd in wolle / and put into the place of conception / draweth doune weomens syckenes Calaminte ether strewed on the grounde / or set on fyre / dryueth awaye serpentes If it be sodden in wine / it maketh black scarres to be whyte / and taketh awaye the black colour of brasinge Calamint is layde vnto the Sciatica / to drawe humores oute from the depe botome / and burneth the vtter parte of the skinne The iuyce poured in ones eares / killeth the wormes there Galen sayth if it be taken in swete honyed wine / it prouoketh a man to sweat / and that some vse to seth thys herbe in oyle / and anoynte all the bodye with it to driue awaye the colde of agues / and that it cutteth a sundre grosse humores Of Marygoldes Caltha CAltha is called of the Herbaries Calendula / in Englishe a Marygolde / in Duche Ringblomen / in Frenche Soulsie it is not yet surelye knowne / howe that this herbe Caltha was called amonges the Grecians / for it is harde to find any mention of this herbe purposedlye described Howbeit I finde mention of Caltha in the description of Chrisanthemon / for Dioscorides after Ruellinâ—s translation / sayeth these wordes Chrysanthemon aut Caltha non nullis Buthalmos herba est fructicosa / that is / Chrisanthemon or Caltha / whiche some call Buthalmus is a busshy herbe / if this text were true / we might be sure to knowe a Greke name for Caltha For besye that it were a Greke name it selfe / it should be called also Chrysanthemon but my Greke Dioscorides which Cornarius hath set furth / hath calcas / wher as Ruellins hath caltha / which thinge maketh me doute whether the Grecians hath made any meÌ„cion of caltha or no / for Chrysanthemon or Goldfloure may as well be called chalcas of the brasen colour that it hath for chalcas in Greke / is brase in English as it may be called buthalmus / of the lykenes that it hath of the oxeye / Caltha is but sklenderlye described of the Latin authors / for Virgil doth only call it reed yelow caltha / and Plinye amonge yelowe violettes and other yelowe floures / maketh mention of caltha / and sayth that it hath a stronge sauour / of which places we can onelye gesse that oure Marygold should be the Latin mens Caltha The properties of Marygoldes MArygoldes floures dronken / draw doune weomens sycknes / so doth the iuyce of the herbe / which is a present remedye for the toth ake / if the mouth be wasshed with it some vse to make their heyre yelow wyth the floure of this herbe / not beynge content with the natural colour / which God hath gyuen them A perfume made of the dryed floures of thys herbe / and put to the conuenient place / bringeth doune the secondes Some vse thys herbe to prouoke sweat in the pestilence / sodden in posset ale / or whyte wine Of Hempe CAnnabis named both of the Grecians and Latines / is called in English hempe / in Duche hanffe / in French chanure Hemp sayeth Dioscorides / is profitable for many thinges in mans lyfe / and specially to make strong cables and roopes of It hath leaues like an Ashe tree / with a stronge sauour / longe stalkes and round sede The properties of Hempe HEmpsede taken largelye in meate / wasteth vp the natural sede / the iuyce of grene hempe / is
hath litle leaues and bitter / in forme and indentinge of the leafe lyke vnto an Oke leafe The floure is litle / and almost a purple colour It is best tyme to gather it / when as it is full of floures / redye to bringe furth sede Chamaedrys vera Chà maedrys foemina Fuchsij Chamaedrys vulgare faemina Fuchsij Chamaedrys vulgare mas Fuchsij The Vertues of Germander GRene Germander sodden in water and dronken / is good for the cough / for the hardnes of the milte / and for the stoppinge of the water / and dropsyes that are in the beginning It prouoketh also womens sycknes to come doune / and the same dronken wyth vinegre / wasteth awaye the milte It is also a special remedye with wine both dronken / and also in maner of an emplaster agaynste the bytinges of serpentes It scoureth also olde sores with honye / the same layde on wyth oyle / driueth awaye the darcknes of the eyes It cutteth in sunder all grosse humours / and openeth all the inwarde partes The leaues of Germander / as Theophrastus writeth / broken and layd in oyle / are good for burstinges / and against woundes and consuminge sores The fruyte of Germander draweth oute choler The leaues also broken in oyle / are good for the whyte hawe / or the pearle in the eye Of Chameleuce CHameleuce / called also populago / Farfagium / and Farranum is not all one herbe in Dioscorides and Aetius / for Aetius semeth to make of Chameleuce and Bechion al one herbe / for he writinge remedies against the cough / geueth the same properties vnto Chameleuce / that Dioscorides geueth vnto Tussilago or Bechion / where as Galene Paulus write in two seueral places of Bechion Chameleuce / Aetius maketh no mention at all of Bechion / comprisinge or holding it also vnder the name of Chameleuce / as far as I can se Pliny also in hys tyme sayth / that ther was some that toke Chameleuce and Tussilago to be al one And in the names that were added vnto Dioscorides / Tussilago was called Chameleuce howbeit in Dioscorides they are two contrary and diuerse herbes for he writeth contrarye description of thē in two sundry chapters Chameleuce hath leaues bowynge inwarde / and hath certeine branches but Tussilago hath plaine and streight leaues / and wanteth al kinde of branches / for euery leafe commeth out by it selfe out of the root / and not of the stalke Dioscorides sayth that Chameleuce is a grene herbe with leaues bowyng inwarde / with certeine braunches / with a floure lyke a rose / wherevpon it foloweth / seyng that Tussilago hath whytishe leaues and streight / and no braunches / nether anye floure lyke a rose / that they can not both be of one herbe This herbe that I thynke most lyke of all other to be Chameleuce / vseth to grow commonly about watersydes and in watery medowes The proportion of the lesse is muche lyke vnto a water rose / otherwise called nenufar / but the leafe is sharper and many partes lesse / and there growe many leaues on one stalke / and in the top of the stalke is a yelow floure lyke vnto the Kingcup / called ranunculus but the leaues of the floures are thycker / and turne inwarde againe / in the maner of a knop or litle belle / so that they differ nothing to loke to from the floures of the second nenufar with the yelow floure / but that they are lesse / and turne a litle more inward as I do remember / but I am sure not much But there is one thinge / that wil not suffer this herbe / that I cal Lucken gollande / to be Galenis Chameleuce and that is / that this herbe is cold / when as Galene maketh his Chameleuce hote almost in the thyrde degre When as Matthiolus a man wel sene in Simples / and as some iudge best learned in them / of al other new writers / and borne in a countrey / which is very plētuous and ful of al kindes of good herbes / which may haue comming to it out of Candy / Turky Alexandria / and out of Inde al kindes of herbes that growe not in Italy there and hath the helpe of very manye learned men in Simples as hys boke in many places doth witnes can not tell what herbe is Chameleuce in Dioscorides / it is no meruel that I a poore man without helpe / dwellinge in a bare and barbarous contrey in comparison of Italy / know it not He compleyneth of the shortnes of the description of this herbe in Dioscorides The description is shorte / but not so short as manye other be / for he sheweth thre markes / whereby he mighte haue knowen it / if he had sene it / that is the grennes of the leafe / the bowinge of the leaues inward / and the lykenes of the floure vnto a rose But if this description had bene so shorte as it is not so longe and large as nede were / it that wanted / might haue bene fulfylled by it that is written more largely of Plinye For Plinye in the 24. boke of his naturall history / and the 15. chapter / describeth Chameleucen thus Chameleuce with vs is called Farranum or Farfugium it groweth by water sydes with a leafe of a Popler tre / but greater And in the 26. boke and 6. chapter / he writeth thus of Chameleuce Bechion stilleth the cough / which is also called Tussilago There are two kindes of it / the leaues of the wilde are greater then Iuye leaues / fyue or seuen towarde the grounde whytish / aboue pale without stalke / floure and sede / and it hath a small roote Some reken that the herbe whiche is called with an other name Chameleuce / is Bechion Hetherto Plinye Now when as besyde the notes aboue marked in Dioscorides / Pliny hath put to these markes aboue rehersed / me thinke that Matthiolus hath no suche cause to compleine so much as he doth of the shorte description of Chameleuce The vertues of Chameleuce I can not find in Dioscorides any other properties that Chameleuce hath sauinge onelye that it is good for the ake of the loynes Of Chamepeuce CHamepeuce as Pliny writeth / hath leaues lyke vnto a larch tree / which is called in Latin Larix I can finde no mention of this herbe in any Autor / which hath written of herbes / sauinge onelye in Pliny / he describeth it no largelier then ye rede before Wherfore it is harde to tell which is the herbe which Pliny meaneth of Gesnerus rekeneth that the herbe whiche is called in Duche Berentopen / of other called pata vrsina / shuld be Chamepeuce the herbe that he supposeth to be chamepeuce / groweth in the top of the alpes / it is of a finger length and a halfe / bowinge somethinge doune / like a fether that standeth in ones cap and it is set about euery wher
mightelye both other thinges that nede scouringe / and also the frekelles with vinegre The leues also hauing lyke qualitie / are good for freshe woundes / and grene sores / and the lesse drye they are / the bitterer do they ioyne together / and close vp woundes For those thinges that are drye / are hoter then that they can be conuenient for woundes Some ther be of that beleue / that they thinke if chese be couered with dragon leues / that they preserue it from corruption by the reason of their drye complexion The fruyt is mightier then the roote and the leues The iuyce scoureth awaye the disease of the eyes Of Dryopteris DRyopteris hath the name of an Oke a Fern / and groweth in Okes. Dioscorides describeth Dryopteris thus Dryopteris groweth in the mosse of olde Okes lyke vnto a brake / but not so much cut or iagged in the leues It hath rootes wounde one with an other / rough and astringent / and tarte in taste / turning somthing into swetenes The herbe whiche ye se here intitled with the name of Dryopteris / draweth nerest vnto the description of Dryopteris of anye herbe that I knowe Howebeit / besyde diuers other thinges / there be two thinges that make me thinke that it should not be the perfite Dryopteris one is it that groweth in walles with maydens heyre / and in manye bushe rootes / and chefely of them that are in darke laynes / and not in the mosse of olde oke trees The other is that I can not finde the vertue that Dioscorides speaketh of that / to pull of here and to putrefye Manye haue vsed this herbe for the true Adiantum / and namelye the Potecaries of Louan when as I was there It is proued by experience that this herbe is verye good for the stone / ether with wine / or with almone milke made with maydens heyre Of Wallwurte WAlwurt is named in English also Danwurte / in Greke Chameacte / in Latin Ebulus / in Duche Attich / in Frēch Hieble Walwurt is a great deal lower then Elder is / more like an herb / it hath a foursquared stalk ful of iointes / the leues are like vnto the leues of an almond tre / but longer / grow certain spaces goyng betwene aboute euery iointe stretched furth standinge oute like two winges / Ebulus one agaynst an other / indented and stinkinge It hath a spoky or a bushy top as Elder hath / lyke floures and fruyte The roote is longe as great as a finger Walwurt groweth much about Cambridge / and in many other places of England / and also in manye places of Germany Howbeit I coulde neuer se the stalke in any place as yet vnsquared Notwithstandinge I knowe well that it is the true Ebulus or walwurte The vertues of Walwurte ELder and Danwurt haue al one strenght and one vertue to dry vp / they draw water furth of the belly / are euel for the stomache The leues are sodden like wurtes to draw oute choler fleme The tender stalkes sodden in pannes or dishes / bringe thesame thinge to passe The roote boyled in wine gyuen in meate helpeth the dropsy After the same maner dronken / it is good for the bytinges of viperes The broth of it softeneth the mother if a woman sit in it It letteth also the winde go furth of thē / amendeth the fautes of thē The berries dronken in wine / are of thesame effect If they be layde to / they make blacke heyre If the leues beyng as yet tendre softe be layd to after the maner of a pultes / they swage an inflammation and hote burning They are good to be layd vnto burned places / to the places that are bitten of dogges They drawe together the woundes that gape and become a fistula The leaues are good for the goute if they be layd to with bulles talow or gotes swete Of Smallage Elioselinon ELioselinon after the translation of Theodore / is called in Latine Paludapium / in Englishe Smallage or Marche / in Duche Eppich And the Potecaries haue longe called this herbe in Latin apium / but vniustlye / for apium is not Smallage / but Perselye / which thinge I haue sufficiently proued / where as I haue written of perselye Dioscorides writeth that Elioselinon is greater then apium is / and that it groweth in moyst places / wherof it hath the name I haue sene it growe oft times by brook sydes in a certain Iland of East Freseland / called Nordenye / by the seasyde The sauour of smallage is a great dele stronger worse sauoringe then perselye is / and diuerse practicioners holde that the herbe both smelled and eaten / is ieperdous for them that are in danger of that fallinge sycknes For it maketh them fall streyght waye that haue smelled or eaten of it / as they reporte The vertues of Smallage DIoscorides writeth that persely smallage ar al of one vertue strēght Howbeit for the cause aboue rehersed / I wold aduise mē rather to vse persely thē smallage If that ye be desyrous to know the hole properties of perselye / and there shal ye finde the properties of smallage But although Persely be lesse hurtful then smallage is / yet ther are good writers that hold that euen the leues of persely also are euel for them that haue the fallinge sicknes Of Heth. Irica Heth. IRica is called in Greke Erice / in English Heth hather / and Ling / in Duche Heyd / in Frenche Bruyer Irica sayth Dioscorides is a busshy tre lyke vnto Tamarisk / but muche lesse / of whose floures bees make noughty honye Dioscorides calleth Ericam a tre / which is rather so named for the formes sake then for the hyghte / for it neuer ryseth vp vnto the length and hyghnes of a tre Pliny in the xv chapter of the forsaide boke wryteth that Erica groweth in woddes / which I coulde yet neuer se in any such plentye as in playne groundes and wilde feldes and some hilles For our heth groweth in playnes and in wild groundes / and in moyste places / and vpon som wodles hilles The hyest heth that euer I saw / groweth in Northumberland / which is so highe that a man maye hyde him selfe in it The vertues of Heth. BOth the smal leaues and floures heale bytinges of serpentes Galene writeth that the floures and leaues are moste chefely to be vsed / whiche haue pour by ventinge oute or transpiration maketh rype and digesteth I rede in Paul Egineta / among the receytes which are made agaynst the diseases of the milt oft tymes mention of Heth. Wherfore seyng that both Dioscorides setteth nexte vnto tamarisk heth who vseth to set herbes of lyke fashion and propertie together and Paule Eginete vseth it with tamariske I thinke that it is much better to vse it for tamarisk / then Quickboome / otherwyse called rountre or Quickentre / seyng Quickboom hath no
suche qualite in it / as are conuenient for the diseases of the milt / sauing in only stopping Of Rocket Eruca hortensis Eruca syluestris ERVCA is named in Greke Euzomos / in Englishe rocket / in Duche Roket / in Frenche Roquette After Dioscorides and Plinye there are two kindes of Rocket The one is a gardyne Rocket / and that is muche greater then the other / but lyke both in taste / smelle and fassion of indentinge or cuttinge of the leaues vnto the common Rocket with the yelowe floures This greater rocket hath whyte floures with smal black lines like synewes goynge thorowe them The second kind is called in Latin eruca syluestris / that is nowe common in our gardines / and is vsed for gardin rocket Some vse the great rocket for whyte mustard / but they are deceiued / for whyte mustard is in al pointes lyke vnto the other mustarde / sauing that it hath white sede / but not all whyte / but some thinge pale and yellowishe The leaues of great rocket are not lyke the leues of mustarde / but vnto the leaues of the common rocket Ye shall knowe the difference that is betwene gardin rocket wild rocket by the figures / which ye se here lyuely set furth The vertues of Rocket IF rocket be eaten rawe in great quantite / it stirreth vp the pleasure of the bodye The sede is good for the same purpose Rocketh maketh a man pisse / helpeth digestion and is very good for the bellye Some vse the sede for sauce the whiche that it may last the longer / they knede it with milke or vinegre / and make it into litle cakes Dioscorides writeth that the wilde rocket is hoter then the other / and prouoketh water more largelye / and that some vse it for mustard sede Rocket as Pliny writeth / careth nothing for the cold / for it is of a contrary nature vnto lettes / for it stirreth vp the lust of the bodye Therfore is it ioyned in all meates with lettes / that lyke heate mengled with to muche colde / should make lyke the qualite of both The sede of rocket remedieth the poyson of the scorpion / and the feld mouse called a shrew It driueth from the bodye all kindes of litle beastes that growe therein It healeth al the fautes in the face layd to with hony / and it taketh awaye freckles or fayrntikles with vinegre It maketh black scarres of bruses or woundes / whyte / with the gall of an oxe Of Eruilia or pese Eruile ERuiala or Eruilia / called in Greke okros / is a pulse lyke vnto a pease and Theophrastus in the vij boke of the history of plantes writeth / that Eruilles / Cichelinges and peasen haue a stalke falling vpon the gronde Plinye also in the xiij boke of his natural story compareth Eruilles peasen together in likenes of leaues / and sayth that they haue longer leaues then other pulses But this difference haue I marked betwene this and pease The cod or shale of an Eruil is smaller and rounder then the cod of a pease is / and the Eruil is rough within / and the sedes haue litle blacke spottes in them / they are dun and ronder / and lesse then gray pease are I neuer saw this pulse grow in England / but I haue sene it growyng in Germany / but there only in gardines The properties of this herbe agreeth with peasen / and as for any qualite that it hath for Physike / truely I haue rede none But to whatsoeuer vse that phaselles will serue for / Eruilles wil serue for the same / as Galene witnesseth in the first boke de alimentorum facultatibus / where as he sayth that phaselles and Eruilles are in a meane betwene them which make good iuyce and bad / and them that are of hard and light digestion on them that are windy and windles / and them that norishe muche and litle Of bitter Fitches ERuum is named in Greke Orobos / it maye be called in English bitter fitche / of the lykenes that it hath with a fitche Dioscorides doth not describe Eruum so perfitly as he doth other herbes / and therefore it is lesse knowen then manye other herbes be For he sayth onely these wordes of Eruum Eruum is a litle thin bushe / knowen of all men / with a narrowe leafe / and sede in coddes mo tokēs wherby Eruum may be knowen from other pulse / Dioscorides reherseth not The Germanes cal pisum whiche we call a pease / ein Erbis / which word semeth to haue commed of Orobus / and though pisum is not Orobus It doth appere that they gaue the name of Orobus vnto a pease / because the one is so lyke the other Galene / Paulus Egineta / and Aetius with one consent / hold that the black Orobus is bitter Galenis wordes are these Orobus dryeth in the second degre / and that far / and it is hote in the firste degre As far furth as it is bitter / so much doth it cut / scoureth away / and openeth it that is stopped or bounde Then when as Eruum is bitter / the herbe which groweth in woddes with long narrow leues / with floures lyke vnto a pease / can not be Orobus nether is the herbe that Fuchsius taketh for Orobus the true Orobus Some peraduenture will saye that Eruum Fuchsti is the true Eruum / because it hath narrow leaues / and that not withstanding that Galene gyueth vnto Orobus the yelowish and the pale a bitter qualite yet he sayeth that the whyte are not so bitter as the other Wherevnto I say / that although Galene wryte / that the whyte Erua be lesse medicinable then the yelowishe and the pale / that is lesse lyke vnto a medicine / by the reason of anye exceding and vnpleasant qualite as bitternes is yet doth he not take awaye all bitternes from any kinde of Orobus Therefore seynge that there is no bitternes at all in the herbe that Fuchsius setteth furth for Eruo / it can not be Eruum I take the pulse that Fuchsius taketh for Orobus / to be Cicerculas / which is called of Galene Lathyris Matthiolus describeth Orobus thus Eruum which we cal Mocho / putteth furth leaues lyke vnto Cicercula or Cicheling a flour lyke a pease / very redish / coddes in fassion round and longe wherein is sede / in som pale / in other whyte / in other some redishe He sayeth that it groweth also wild in Italy / and is taken for a fitche Wherfore I thinke that longe ago before Matthiolus set oute his Herbal / that I gaue no vnfit name vnto Orobus / when I named it a bitter fitche The vertues of bitter Fitche BItter fitche burdeneth the heade muche / thesame eaten troubled the bellye It draweth oute bloode by the water This pulse wel sodden / maketh oxen fat Eruum helpeth a man to pisse well Thesame maketh a man haue a good
cresses / or sciatica cresses / because the herbe is good for the sciatica The vertues of wilde cresses GAther in somer good plentye of this roote / for then it hath most vertue / and bete it harde / for it requireth muche betinge / and mix it wyth swines gresse / and bete them in a morter well / till they be both come into one body / then if any man or woman haue any paine in the hauche or huckelbone / binde this oyntment vpon the place that aketh if it be in a woman / for the space of two houres if it be in a man / for the space of iiij houres / nether shall ye mixe or put any oile to it But it alone prouoke the patient to swete a litle / and then let him go into a bath / and bid him abide patiently there the bitinge of the ointment continewe a while therein / and when he is well bathed / then let hym out / and after that he becomed fourth / let hym put a good deale of oile to a litle wine and anoynte the diseased place withall / and afterwarde that the place is made clene and the fat is scoured awaye / couer the diseased place wyth warme woole / and if any grudge of the same disease chance to rise againe / let hym vse the fore saide medicin againe after the same maner many haue bene brought in by other meÌ„ into the bath / beinge lame / by the sciatica / whiche after they haue vsed this ointment and bath / haue commed out by theÌ„ selues stronge and lustye The minde of Galene in this matter DEmocrates vsed the same medicine after the same maner against the olde and longe heade ache / and against all olde diseases of the body / and against palseis / against suche diseases as can not be healed wyth out blystringe mustarde plasters / he saith / that he healed therwyth all that were sicke in that disease / whiche he toke in haÌ„de Archigenes saith also in his seconde boke of medicines after the kinde / that Iberis whiche he calleth Lepidium / is good for theÌ„ that are sicke in the milt / or greued wyth the sciatica Hipparcus also wryteth / that Iberis is good for the sciatica for the extreme colde After this maner gather that herbe Iberis / whiche some call Lepideum or wilde cresse / and stampe it wyth swynes gresse after the maner of an emplaster / laye it to the akinge place for the space of iij. howres / and then let the patient go into a bath afterwardes / and this will hâ—lpe him / ye may vse the same remedy against the olde heade ache / as Democrates the Phisiciane in his verses doth testify The vertues of Iberis out of Dioscorides THe rootes of Iberis are burninge hote / they are good against the sciatica / wyth salted swines grece / laide to the place after the maner of an emplaster / for the space of iiij howres / but the patient must afterwarde go into a bath / and after that he must anoynt the place and couer it wyth woll This herbe is hote and drye in the seconde degre at the least Of Cycory and Endiue Intubus Intubum satiuum angustifolium INtubus whiche is named in Greke seris / is of two sortes / the one is called Intubus hortensis / and the other is called intubus syluestris Intubus hortensis is also of two sortes / the one is called Endiue or white Endiue / and the other is called garden succory Intubus syluestris is of two sortes / the one is called in Latin Cichorium / and in Englishe succory or hardewes / and the other is called of Theophrasstus Aphaca / of Plinie Hedipnois / in Englishe DaÌ„delion or priestes crowne / in Duche pfaffenblat Seris / is of two kindes / the one is wilde as Dioscorides wryteth / and it is called picris and cichorium / and the other kinde is of the gardin / and it hath broder leaues / the wilde is better for the stomacke then the garden is / the garden endiue is also of two kindes / the one hath brode leaues lyke vnto lettis and the other hath narrower leaues / which hath a bitter taste The vertues of Cycory and Endiue BOth Endiue and Cycoâ—y coul binde together / and are very good for the stomacke The herbe sodden and taken wyth vinegre / stoppeth the belly The wilde is better for the stomacke / for if it be eateÌ„ / it swageth the burninge stomacke that is feble It is good to lay the herbes ether by them selffe or wyth polenta perched barley to the place conuenient for the disease called Cardiaca passio They are good for the gout and the inflaÌ„mationes of the eies if they be laide to The herbes laide to emplasterwise wyth the roote / are good against the stinginge of a scorpion wyth perched barley / the herbe is good against the cholerike inflammationes called of som saint Antonies fier The iuice of these herbes wyth whyte leade vinegre / are good to be laide vnto suche places to haue nede of coolynge Of Elecampane INnula is called in Greke Helenion / in Englishe Elecampane or AlecaÌ„pane / in duche Alantzwurtz / in Frenche and in the poticaries shoppis Enula campana ElecaÌ„pane hath leaues like vnto mullen / but muche narower / sharper and longer In some places / it putteth furth no stalke / it hath a roote vnder / som thinge whyte / and som thinge redishe / and it hath a good sauor / it is som thinge bytinge / well growen / and of a great bignes out of the whiche come certaine buddinge knoppes / whiche may be sowen after the maner of lylye or aron The vertues of Elecampane THe broth of the rote dronken driueth furth vrine and flowers Elecampane taken in an Electuary wyth hony is good for the cough / for shortnes of breth / for places bursten and shronken together / for windenes and for the bytinge of serpentes The leaues / if they be sodden in wine / are good to be laide vnto the Enula Campana sciatica Elecampane seasoned and layde vp in maluasey / is good for the stomacke / the succot makers and saucemakers / take the roote and drye it a lytle first / and then seth it / and afterwarde stepe it in colde water / and laye it vp in sodden wine for diuerse vses The roote broken and dronken / is very good against the spittinge of blode Of the herbe called in Latin Irio DIuerse learned men haue diuerse opiniones of the herbe that is called in Latin Irio / and in Greke Erysimon Fuchsius rekeneth that the herbe whiche we call in Englishe Carloke or charloke / or wild cole / to be Ireo Dioscorides Ruellius iudgeth that the herbe whiche we call in Englishe female veruine / is Irio / Gerardus Delwike rekeneth that the herbe that is called in Duche winter cresses / or whiche we may call in Englishe bank
is to saye / a stalk / is that parte of the herbe / wherby the norishement is caried / ryseth vp from the grounde alone If thys be true / then shoulde there be but one floure vpon euery stalk of the floure Delice / or all should stand together in the top / and none shoulde by equall distance as Dioscorides meaneth stand one beneth an other Matthiolus setteth out ij figures of Iris / the olye is of the wilde / therein are vj. floures / in the tame are iiij floures / and in bothe the figures are but ij caules or stalkes / except he take pediculos / called in Greke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be all one with caule / which is contrari to all learninge / therefore the floures grow not allwayes in the top of euery stalk alone / but som aboue in the topp / som beneth / com out of the stalk and stand super petiolos or pediculos suos / that is vpon theyr stiles or foot stalkes Therfore hys annotation is nothyng worth Of the walnut and the walnut tree NVx wythout any farther addition is called a Walnut or a walnut tree It is called also Iuglans / nux persica / glans iouis / nux bisilica / nux regia / in Greke Carya basilica / in Duche Eyn nuß baum / oder ein Welshnuß / in Frenche Vng noier The walnut and the walnut trees are so well knowen in all countries / that I nede not to describe / wherfore I entende to leaue the description and to go to the properties of it The vertues of the Vualnut Iuglans WAlnuttes are harde of digestion / not good for the stomake / and ingēdre choler / and they make the heade ache They are euell for them that haue the coughe They are fit to be taken fastinge of them that woulde vomite If they be taken afore hande wyth rue and figges / and also after meat by by / they wythstande poison They do no lesse / if they be eaten after that a man hath dronkē poison If they be eatē in greate plenty they driue out brode wormes It is good to lay them to / wyth a litle hony and rue for the burninge heate or inflammation of the papes / for impostemes / and places out of ioynt If they be layde to wyth an onion / salt and hony / they are good for the bytinges both of men and dogges If they be burnt wyth theyr vtter huskes and laide vnto the nauell / they stāche the gnawinge of the belly The shell burnt and broken in oyle and wine / is good to anoynt childers heades wythall to make the here grow / the same is also good to fill vp the bare places of scalled heades The kernels burned / if they be broken and laide to wyth wine / they will stay the blody yssew that som tyme wemen haue The same are good to laye to olde carbuncles and crepinge sores / tetters and impostemes that are in the corners of the eye The same chowed and laide vpon the heade / are a present remedy for the fallyng of the heare A man may make oyle of the kirnels of walnuttes / if he will presse them / specially when they are olde they that are grene / are not so ill for the stomake as the olde nuttes be / because they are sweter Yf they be mixed with garleke / they take away the sharpnes And they do if they be layde to emplasterwise / driue awaye the blew markes that come of stripes The walnut tree both in his leaues and buddes hath a certayne bindinge / but the bindinge is most euidently perceyued in the vtter huskes / both moyst and drye / and therfore fullers dorse them But I / sayeth Galen / presse out the iuice of the huskes as I do out of the Mulberies bambleberes / and set it wyth sodden hony / and vse it in the steade of a mouth healinge medicine / as I vse the forsaide iuice of mulberes and brambleberes The kirnell of the nut / when it is wythered / is of subtill partes and a dryinge medicine wyth out any bytynge Out of Pliny THe Gretians haue named the walnut of that / that it bringeth the heade ache / for the strengthe of the trees and the leaues perche into the brayne / if the nuttes be taken a fore hand / they breake and quenche the myght of poyson They are good to be laide to the squynsie wyth rue oyle Cneius pompeius when he had ouercomed the myghty kinge Mythrydites / he founde in his most secret treserhouse in a lytle boke by it selffe wryttē wyth his owne hāde wyth this preseruatiue / the cōposition wherof is this Take two drye Walnuttes / and ij figges and xx leaues of rue / breake them together and put a corne of salt tho them / and if yow eate this medicine fastinge / ther shall no poyson hurt yow that daye the kirnels of the nuttes if they be chowed / of a man fastinge / is a present remedy if they be layde vnto the bytinges of a mad dogge Som vse to make succat wyth hony or sugar of the yonge nuttes / whiche are palled of the tree about midsomea Tragus wryteth that the water whiche is destilled out of the grene nuttes gathered at mitsomer / is good for the inflammation of the pappes / impostumes / and for places out of ioynt / the oyle that is pressed out of the walnuttes / saieth Tragus / is good for the purposes aboue rehersed Of Squynant IVncus odoratus siue rotundus / is called in Greke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 / in Englishe Squynant / in Duche Kamelhewe / in the potecaris shoppis Squinantū Squynant groweth in Aphrica and in Arabia / the best cōmeth out of Nabathea / the next in goodnes is it that cōmeth out of Arabie / the worst cometh out of Africa the best the most wourthiest to be chosen / is that whiche is redde / fresse and full of floures / but small / and hath redde peces in it / whiche beinge robbed in a mans handes / will smell lyke a rose It byteth the tonge also lyke fyer We vse no part of it / sauinge the flower / the stalke and the rote We haue not in Europa suche squynant as Dioscorides describeth I neuer sawe squynant growinge / sauinge only dryed The properties of Squynant SQuynant hath the vertue to bringe downe floures to dryue fourth water / it driueth winde awaye / maketh the heade heauy / and bindeth a lytle / breaketh and rypeth / and maketh louse the vessels that the winde maye comforth His floure is good in drinke for them that voide blode / for the paine of the stomake / longes / lyuer and kidnies The rote is more astringent bindinge / therfore it is good to be geuen in the quantite of a dram wyth so muche peper for a few dayes vnto them that haue the lothsumnes of the stomake to them that are sicke
the olde cough Many vse it now / wyth great profit agaynst the stone and the diseases of the kydnes in the stede of the ryght turpētine Aetius writeth thus of all rosines All kyndes of rosine / hete / dryue away / softē / drawfurth and opē / and heal woundes and bynd them together / muche more then waxe doth And Galene in hys booke de simplicibus medicamentis writeth thus of rosines All rosines do heate make drye But they differ one frō other The rosine of the lentiske tree called mastick / deserueth worthely the chese prayse amōgest thē all Amōgest other rosynes / it of the turpētinetre is best It hath an open or manifest byndyng / but not so muche as mastick hath / but it hath ioyned with it a certayn bitternes / whereby it rypeth more thē mastick doth by the meanes of the same qualite / it cā scour so that it cā heale sores scabbes / it draweth more thē other rosines / because it is also of finer partes And the same Galen in the thyrd boke de medicamētis secūdū gn̄a writeth thys sentēce Of these kindes of rosin is / is that which called larigna / that is rosin of the larche tre which is moyster / or more liqued / but of the substāce of the moyst rosen of the pichtre / which the grossers sell for turpētine thē that know not the one frō other But that rosyn both in smel tast working is sharper quicker thē turpētine is There fore the rosin of the larche tre hath a like vertue with thys and with the turpentine / but it hath a greater poure in dryuing away a more subtile / or fyner substāce Of Agarik BEllonius woundereth that any man dare holde the Agarik doth grow in other trees then in the larche tre / but hys meruelyng is again to be merueled at / seyng that good autores wryte / that it may be found also in other rosin bringing trees But thys do I thincke / that the best Agarick that is this day / is foūd in the Larche tre Agarik is soulde very dere bothe in Itali / Frāce / Germany and Englād Wherfore they that would take the paynes to sayle to Norway whiche is nerer vnto England / thē is ether Rome or Compostella they myght bryng many thynges from thence more profitable for the realme of Englād / then that which some bring from the aboue named places For besyde many diuerse kyndes of herbes and rootes which grow there in great plenty / and may be gotten wyth a small coste / the values of the symples well estemed / there may a man haue not only most excellent turpentine of the comē sort / but also the moste precious Agarick If no other men will take the paynes to bring this commodite vnto theyr contre / I will aduise the falconers that go to Northway / that both for theyr own profit and for theyr countreyes / that they learne to know the Larch tree / that they myght bryng into England not only good comen turpentine / but also costly and precious Agarick If any man will take the payn to gather Agarick / let him first learne wel by the forewriten descriptiō to know the Larch tre / and then marke it that I shall tech hym in these wordes immediatly folowyng Agarike is the same / in a larche tre that brueche as the Northern Englishmen call it / or as other call it / a todstole / is in a birche or a walnut tre / where of som make tunder bothe in England and Germany for their gunnes Agarick as it is very precious / so is it not very cōmen nor good to finde / for somtyme a man shall se in som places a thousand trees / erhe fynde one that hath Agarick growyng vpon it It groweth moste commenly in olde trees and in suche / as are growing in hyghest cliffes rockes and toppes of mountaynes of al other It groweth neuer in the bughes of the tree / but vpon the bole or body of the tre / som tyme higher and som tyme lower / as other thynges lyke mushrum mes / todestooles or bruches do The only tyme of gatheryng of Agarick is in the end of haruest / when as it is dry and full rype It that is gathered in the summer and in the spryng / except it be of the last yearis grouth / is both vnholsom for mans body / and the same can not be gathered without the great ieperdy of the gatherer / for then it is full of water / which when it cōmeth furth / with a perillus vapor that it hath / it smiteth in to the heade and maketh hym very syke And as the waterish vnrype Agaricke is vnholsom / so it that is passed two yeares olde / is of no pryce nor value Of Agarick out of Dioscorides THere are two kindes of Agarick / the one is the male / the other is the female The female whiche is the better / hath right or streygth orders / or lynes / of veynes / goyng within it The male is rounde and faster fastened together Bothe the kindes haue a swete taste at the first tastyng / but afterwarde / it turneth into a bitter taste The nature of Agarick is to bynde together to heate It is good for the gnawinges in the belly / for rawnes for bursten places for thē that are brusen hurt with falling The vse is to geue a scruple in honied wyne / to them that haue no ague / and with mede to them that haue a feuer It is also good for them that haue the blody flix to thē that haue the guelsought or iaundesse / to them that are shortwynded / and to thē that are diseased in the lyuer and the kydnes We vse to gyue a dram whē a mans water is stopped / if the mother be strangled / or if a man be ill colored It is taken with maluasei when a man hath cōsumption or tisyck and with oxymel or honied vinegre / when a man is cumbred with the disease of the milt If the stomack be so flashe and louse that it can hold no meat / then is it beste to be taken alone / without any moysture After the same maner is it gyuen to them that belche out a soure breth If it be taken in the quantite of two scruples an half / with water / it stoppeth vomityng of bloode If it be taken with honied vinegre / in lyke weyght / it is good for the sciatica and the payn in ioyntes and the fallyng siknes It bryngeth also doun to wemen theyr syknes In the same quantite it is good to be taken againste the wyndenes of the mother If it be taken before the shakyng of an ague / before the fit come / it taketh the shaking away The same taken in the quātite of a dram or two with mede / purgeth the belly It is a good
It hath a sour taste as wod sorel hath Lotus Vrbana This herbe do I iudge rather to be the ryght Lotus vrbana then ether wod sorell / or melilote For as melilote / is not fit to be eaten and is a wilde herbe / not therfore to be norisshed in gardines / so the wodsorel all though it were mete to be in gardines / and is very good to make sallettes of Yet it groweth not commēly in gardines as the other doth / where fore it appeareth that this herbe whych is found as far as I know no where / but in gardines should rather be lotus vrbana thē any of the other ij herbes I neuer saw thys herbe / but twyse in all my lyfe / ones in Ferraria ones in Clauēna Wherfore I know no Englishe name for it hewbe it / it may be named in English gardin clauer or sour clauer / or sallat clauer The vertue of gardin clauer IF that ye will take the iuice of thys herbe and put hony vnto it / if ye lay it to the eyes / it will dryue away the whyte sores in the eyes called argemata / the cloudes of the eyes other darknes Of the herbe called Lotus syluestris LOtus syluestris that is called wylde lotus / which som call the less trifoli / groweth in Libia It hath a stalck two cubites hyghe somtyme hygher / it hath leues lyke the medow clauer or trifoly / sede lyke fenegreke / but much lesse with a certayne taste lyke a medicine / Theophrast in the vij booke de historia plātarū in the xiiij chapter semeth to make a greate sorte more of wild lotus thē Dioscorides maketh For he writeth thus of the kyndes of lotus Certayn kyndes of herbes haue many formes and fashones / and but one name / as lotus For there are many kyndes of lotus which are disseuered / and differ one from an other / in lefe / stalck / flowr / and fruite Take it that is called mel frugum / for an example / which differeth from all the other in vertue and in maner of meate that it hath But Theophrast describeth neuer one of the kindes of lotus / where of he maketh so many kyndes wherefore a man can not lerne of him the difference betwene one potus and an other He semeth to giue som great difference to it that groweth in the corne / which he calleth mel frugum But yet a man cannot gather therby that it is the lotus syluestris that Dioscorides describeth But because I haue sene oure comen melilote both with a yelow and also with a whyte floure / growing amongest the corne both besyde Bon / besyde Soūdes / and besyde Wormes in hyghe Germany and no other kynde of lotus so growyng I take it to be the kynde of lotus which he called mel frugum And because the herbe whiche is called in hyghe Duchland stundkraut / in Netherland wit nardus / is a long herbe of two cubites hyght / and hath a certayn physick taste in the sede by reason where of it is called whyte nardus in Freslāt / and hath leaues lyke vnto the medow clauer or trifoly / I take it to be the lotus syluestris / where of Dioscorides writeth let other men iudge as they lyst It groweth not wilde nether in Englād nor in Germany / and I haue not sene it wylde in the feldes in Italy / for it that groweth in Italy hath a yelow flour / when as thys that I take to be lotus syluestris / hath a pale blewish floure The vertues of Lotus Syluestris WIlde lotus heateth and byndeth a lytle / it scoureth away the deformites and spottes in the face / if it be anoynted therewith and with hony The herbe broken by it self or with mallowis sede / and dronken with Maluasy or any other wyne / is good againste the payn of the blader Of Hoppes Lupulus I Can fynd no mentiō of hoppes in any olde autor / sauing only in Pliny But he doth not descrybe it Ioānes Mesue a yonger wryter / maketh our hoppes the fourthe kinde of volubilis / he describeth it thus The furth kynde of volubilis hath leues like a citrul but sharp / and the floures are full of leues one growyng ouer an other / after the maner of scales / and this kynde is called lupulus It is temperate / or rather colde in the begynnyng of the first degre All these tokens agre well with our hoppes / sauyng that where he sayeth that the fourthe winde is colde / for after the lernyng of Galene because the rype floures are bitter bite the tong not a litle / they are hote at the leste in the beginnyng in the secōd degre Let any learned man that will taste of it that groweth both in Italy and Germany / he shall fynde that I say true Wherefore it is playn that ether the fourth wynde of Mesue is not our hoppes / whiche I will not hold / or elles Mesue meaned not of the rype floures whē he sayd that hoppes were cold / but of the yōg tēdre knoppes / whiche when they come first furth lyke sperages / are temperate or rather colde / as other buddes and vnripe fruites of other hote plantes be many / as all learned men can tell I neuer saw better hoppes then I saw growyng wylde a litle from the wall that goeth from Chertosa to Pauia / by a litle riuers syde They grow also wylde in many places both of England of Germany The hop bushe is called of the later Grecianes bryon / of Pliny lupus salictarius / of the Barbarus writers humulus / of the later learneder writer lupulus / in Duche hopfen The vertues of Hoppes HOppes purge or scour the blood mesurably of yelow choler / and clengeth it / and tempereth it well / whilse they quēche the heat of it And thys do they moste chefely when as they are infused / or steped in whay The syrop made of Hoppes is good against the guelsucht or iaūdes / and for agues that come of the heat of the blood or of choler The hop with hys iuice and perched barle is good for the burnyng headache and for the great heat of the stomack / and lyuer Wherefore seyng that it is so holsom a medicine / I meruel that the Physicianes of thys tyme / vse it nomore in medicine Thus muche hath Mesue wryten of hoppes Out of other yet later writers HOppes purge furth both choler and melancholy / they dryue away impostemes / and swellynges They dryue out by the stole the water of the dropse The iuice of Hoppes dronken raw / purgeth the belly more then otherwise taken But then it openeth not so muche When it is sodden / it openeth more but then it purgeth lesse The iuice poured into the eares / saueth them from corruption and saueth them from stynkyng The rootes open stoppynges / and specially
of the milt and lyuer Of the pulse called Lupines LVpinus is named in Greke thermos / in Duche feigbon / in Frēche lupin / and so may it be called in Englishe / or if a man will folow the Duche / he may call it a fyg bene Lupine hath one lōg stalke / and a lefe with v. or seuen iaggers / which altogether / when as they are growen out / haue the lykenes of a ruel of a spor / or of a sterr The floure is whyte / in whose place / when it is gone / commeth after a long cod / wherin are v. or seuen sedes in color whyte and without / somtyme a litle redishe / in fasshon flat lyke a cake it hath a shord roote in color redishe The leues of lupines turne with the son / as Pliny wryteth and experience teached The vertues of Lupines THe mele of lupines / licked vp with hony / or if it be taken with drinke / dryueth wormes out of the belly The lupines selues steped / and eatē with theyr bitternes / are good for the same purpose The broth Lupini albi of them hath lyke vertue / dronken with rue and pepper / and so is it good for thē that haue the disease of the milt With the same it is good to bathe and washe wild sores / gangrenes / and the scab / when it beginneth first to come burstinges of it of wheles / rynnyng sores of the hede / frekles and spottes Lupines put into the body after the maner of a suppositori / with hony and myrr / all beyng wrapped in woll / draweth both down weomens floures / and also hyr burden that she goeth with if it be rype The flour or mele of lupines with lynt sede / amendeth the skinne and blew markes with perched barley water it swageth inflāmationes / and burnynges It easeth swellynges / and it is good for the sciatica layd on with vinegre If it be layd to with vinegre where in it is sodden / it heleth wennes and bursteth carbuncles Lupines sodden in rayn water / vntill they wexe towgh into a thick broth / scour and make clene the face Lupines are also good for the scabbor maugenes of cattell with the roote of black chameleon / so that they be wasshed with the warm broth that they are sodden in The rootes sodden in water / prouoke or stir a man to make water Lupines broken / after that by stepyng they wex swete / if they be dronken in vinegre take away the lothsomnes of the stomake and ingendreth an appetit an lust to eat The smoke of lupines burned / dryue gnattes and mydges away as Pliny wryteth Of Lysimachia LYsimachia putteth furth stalkes of the lenght of a cubit or som tyme longer / busshy / small / the leues com out at the knees or knottes / or ioyntes of the herbe They are thinne in fasshō lyke wylow leues in taste byndyng The flour is darck rede or of the color of golde It groweth in watery in marrishe fennish groundes Thys is a very comen herbe in Germany England I meruell that Matthiolus could not fynd it in Italy vntil it was sent hym from Rome by Vincent Cāton to Goritia But all though it be foūd in mani places of Englād / yet Lysimachiae purpureae primum genus Lysimachia luthea Lysimachia III. I coulde neuer learne any Englishe name of it It may be well called after the etimologi of the worde / and also of the vertue that it hath lous strife / or it may be called herbe willow The Duche men call it weyderich The vertues of Lousstrife THe iuice of the leues / by ther byndyng poure stoppeth the castyng out of blood It is ether to be poured in / or to be taken inward for the blody flyx If it be put in a mother suppository / it will stop the excessiue rynnyng or isshue of the mother If ye stop your nose with thys herbe / it will stop the rynnyng out of blood of it It stayeth also the excessiue rynnyng out of blood out of woundes It dryueth away serpentes and killeth flies with hys smoke / for it is wonders sharpe in smell There is an other Lysimachia besyd it that I haue spoken of with a redish purple floure / that groweth much about water sydes with an heade like an eare But I red of no other properti that it shoulde haue then it which hath the yelow or golden floures Of the Mallow or Maw MAlua is named in Greke Malachi / in English a Mallow / in Duch pappel / in Frenche maulue Ther are two kyndes of Mallowes / the one is the gardin mallow / and the other is the wilde mallow And eche of these as Pliny writeth / is diuided into diuerse kindes Of those mallowes that are sowē / the Grecianes call the greater / malopen Me thynck that the other is called malache / because it softeneth the belly Amonges the wilde mallowes it that hath the greate lefe and the whyte rote / is called althea / and of the excellent workyng that it hath / it is called of som Aristalthea The former kynde is now called in Englishe / frenche mallow it may be called tre mallow of the great bygnes that it groweth to And it that is called Malache of the Grecianes / and is after Pliny the Malua hortensis Malua syluestris pumila Malua syluestris lesse kinde of gardin mallowes / is called in Englishe holy ok / in Duche Winter rosen The former kinde of wild mallow / which as Pliny sayeth / is called Althea Aristalthea / is also called of the Latin writers Hibiscus / in Englishe marsh mallow / or marrish mallow / in Duche Ibishe of Galene Anadendron / of Aetius Dēdromalache of the apothecaries maluabis malua and maluaniscus The other kynde of wilde mallow is it that groweth wilde about townes and hygh wayes / and is commenly called in Englishe a mallow Theophrast in the nynthe booke de historia plantarum writeth that certayn thynges by dressyng and trymmyng departe frō theyr kynde and olde nature / as the mallow doth / sayeth he / whiche when as it is by nature but an herbe / yet groweth vp into the greatenes of a tre He sayeth that the gardin mallow within six or seuē monethes groweth so highe / that the stalck of it will serue for a lāce staff / and that therfore diuerse vse the stalkes of mallowes for staues The leues of mallowes are knowen of all men to be round the sede is in a litle round forme lyke a chese / som mallow floures are rede / som blew / som whyte / and if they had the lyke smell in beauty / myght well be compared with the rose floures The roote is very long and depe in the ground and somthyng shymy The vertues of mallowe or mawes THe gardin mallow is better to be eaten / then the wylde mallow is Yet is it ill for the
oleander ar poyson to mules dogges / asses / and to many other four footed beastes But it is vnto a mā a remedy if it be dronken with wyne / agaynst the bytynges of serpentes / and so much better it is if rue be mixed therewith Weike beastes as shepe and gotes / if they drynck of the water where in ar fallen the leues or flowres of oleander / die shortly after Galene writeth that Oleander if it be taken in / that it killeth bothe man and the moste parte of bestes also wherefore let no man thinck that Dioscorides meaneth that Oleāder shuld be taken of animan sauyng only of suche as hath bene hurt with the poysoned bytyng of a serpent for if a man take it in / except he haue bene poysoned before / it will poyson hym But when as the poyson of serpētes may well be healed by many other medicines that ar no poyson / as oleander is / my counsel is that no man that is bitten with a serpent / take in any oleander / if there be any triacle or other good herbe may be had by and by after that he is bitten I haue sene thys tre in diuerse places of Italy / but I care not if it neuer com into England / seyng it in all poyntes is lyke a Pharesey / that is beuteus without / and within / a tauenus wolf murderer The later writers say that Oleander is good for the scab and ich / and that it is good for the olde aches of the knees and kydnes / if it be layd to after the maner of an emplaster They wryte that the broth of the leues killeth flees and such lyke vermind if it be cast vpon the flore / where as they be Of the herbe called Nymphea Nymphaea candida Nymphaea lutea NYmphea is named of the apothecaries nunefar / in Englishe water rose / or water lili / in Duch se blumen Nymphea is of ij sortes / the one hath a whyte flowre and the other hath a yelow flour they grow both in meres loughes / lakes and in still or standyng waters The leues ar lyke that bene of Egypt / but they ar lesse lōger / som of them swym aboue the water / som ar vnder the water / and many of thē com out of one rote The one hath a whyte floure as lili / the other hath a yelow flour lyke a rose / in the middes of the white floure is a thyng lyke vnto safron Out of the flour whē it withereth away / commeth furth a roūd blak apple lyke vnto a poppi hede / which hath a blak sede and a clāmy taste The stalk is smothe / blak and not thick / lyke vnto the bene of Egypt The roote of the whyte Nymphea is black / roughe and lyke vnto a cub But the roote of the yelow nenufar is whyte The rootes vse to be cut doun in September / October and Nouēber / or in the last end of the haruest The vertue of both the kyndes of nenufar THe whyte leued water lili or nenufar dried and dronken with wyne / is good for the comon lax / and for the blody flix / and it washeth away the mylt The roote is good to be layde to the blader stomack With water it scoureth away white spottes lyke lepres If it be layde to with piche / it wil hele a scalled hede when the heyr goeth of The same is good to be drōkē of wiueles gentlemen / or husbandles gentle weomē agaynst the vnclene dremyng of venery and filthy pollutiones that they haue on the nyght For if it be dronkē continually for a certayn tyme / it weykeneth muche the sede The sede of the herbe hath the sam properti The sede roote of it with the yelow floure dronken with rede stoppyng and tart wyne / ar good agaynst the rynnyng out or isshues that weomen somtyme haue Of Basil DIoscorides describeth not ocimū / but a man may gather by hym in the description of other herbes where vnto he cōpareth ocimum / what maner of leues ocimum hath The ryght Mercuri Heliotropium as Dioscorides wryteth / haue leues lyke Basil Then he that knoweth the ryght Mercuri Heliotropium / may easely know what maner of leues Basil hath The stalk is a span long somtime lōger It floureth and sedeth first beneth in the stalk / and after aboue The flour is som tyme white mixed / som tyme with other colores The sede is black or at the lest blakishe / conteyned within a blakish filme One principall roote goeth depe in to the grounde and that is thick and woddishe The other rootes that com out of it / ar small and long Basil is named in Greke ocimon / and of the later Grekes basilicon / in Duche Basilien / in Frence du Basilik The vertues of Basil BAsil / if it be taken to plentuously in mete / dulleth the eysyght / It softeneth the belly / moueth the spirites / dryueth out pisse and bryngeth milk to the brestes But it is hard to be digested But if it be layd to with the flour of perched barley and with vinegre and rose oyle / it helpeth the inflammationes of the longes It is good for the strykyng of a se dragon / and the Ocimum magnum Ocimum minus stynge of scorpiones And by it self onely with wyne of Cio / it helpeth the ach of the eyes The iuice scoureth away the darknes of the eyes It dryueth vp the droppyng down of humores The sede dronken is good for them that brede melancholi / and for them that can not make water / and for them that ar puffed vp with wynd If it be put in to the nosethrilles it maketh a man nese The which thyng the leues do also But ye must shit your eyes when ye ar cōpelled to nese Sum thynk that it ought not to be receyued in mete For if it be chowed and set furth in the son / it bredeth wormes The men of Aphrica say that the man that hath dronken of thys herbe / is afterward bitten of a scorpion / shall haue no payn of that bytyng Out of Galen de simplicibus BAsil is hote in the secōd degre / it hath a superfluous moystur wherefore it is not mete to be takē to the body But if it be layd to wtout / it is good to make rype Galene also in hys booke of the poures and properties of norishmētes writeth thus of Basyl The most part vse Basil and eate it with oyl gare sauce for a sowle or kitchen But it hath a very hurthfull an euel iuice Which thynk made som falsely beleue that if it were set in a pot in the son that it wold turn into a scorpion But thys mayest thou truely say / that it is noisum to the stomack / and of an euel iuice and hard to be digested Of the Oliue tre OLea whiche is sumytme called also Oliua / is named
muche bygger blacker The root of Smirniū is ether grene within / or elles somthyng whitishe But our Alexanders root is not grene within / except my memori fale me / nether a litle whitishe / but playn whyte / as I remembre The herbe Smyrniū of Dioscorides groweth in rocky places / and stepyng down hylles / and in dry places / and about pathes But our Alexander groweth in shaddowy places / and in moyste places / and in Ilandes compassed about the se / as in a certayn Ilāde betwene the far parte of Sommerset shere Wales Wherefore our Alexāder can not be Smyrniō Dioscorides But that our Alexāder is Smyrnion of Aetius Galene / and olus atrum that Galene maketh mention of / which the Romanes vsed muche in meat / also Hipposelinon Theophrasti trust these resones folowyng shall proue ether in parte or in hole Aetius writeth thus of Smyrnion Smyrniū whiche other calle Hipposelinū is of the same kynde that persely is of and petroselinon / but it hath a blak sede and much greter By these wordes may I gather that Smirniū is a kynde of Selinon or Opiū which we call perseli / and seyng that it is the gretest kynde that it may be iustly called Hipposelinō We may also know that it is therefore a kynde of selinon be cause it hath lyke sede in proportion figure with other properties belongyng therto / that it cannot be a kynde of apium or selinō which hath no lyknes in the sede with Apio Selino or persely / where vpō we may gather that louage whiche hath sedes in no poynt lyke Selino / nether to Oreoselino nor petroselino cā not be any kynde of apiū of selinon / and that therefor that it can nether be Hipposelinō Dioscorides / nor the Smyrniō Aetij / nor yet Smirniū Dioscorides Galene in hys secōd booke of the properties of norishmētes or meates writeth thus of selino / hipposelino / Siō smyrniō Alle these make a man pisse / amōgest which persely is moste vsed / plesant to the stomacke But Hipposelinum and belragges ar vnplesanter n Smyrnium is also muche vsed / for it is solde in very grete plēty in Rome / and it is much sharper then perseli and hother / and it hath also a certayn spicie taste And therfor it stirreth a man more vehemently to make water / then persely Hipposelinon and belrages / or water persely / and it moueth the floures of weomē But in the spryng it bryngeth furth a stalke we call the stalkes whē they com first furth in England in the spryng with litle knoppes growyng vpon thē Alexander buddes whiche is good meat to be eaten as the leues / whiche only the herbe had in wynter / when it had no stalk / euen as persely / at that tyme hath none But after that the stalk beginneth ones to com / alle the hole her be is more plesanter and sweter / whether a mā list to eat it raw / or sodden These wordes of Galene declare playnly that the herbe that he calleth Smyrniū is our Alexāder But by it that immediatly folowethe in Galene shall proue bothe thys mater more clerly / also proue that there is one Hipposelinō which I take to be it of Dioscorides not it of Theophrast that cānot be our Alexander / that our Alexāder is called of the dol latines olus atrum that is blak wurt Galene wordes be these But Hipposelinum Siō ar eatē soddē for they ar both vnplesant / when as they ar raw Som men vse to ethe persely smyrnion menged with lettuce leues For when as lettuce is an eatable herbe very vnsauery / and hath a colde iuice / it is made not only plesanter / but also more profitable if ye put som sharp herbe vnto it For which cause som mēg the leues of rocket / lekes othe / the leues of Basil But now in Rome all men cal that wurt or eatable herbe not Smyrnion but olus atrum that is blacwurt Thus far Galene Now after that I haue proued that our Alexāder is Smyrniō of Aetius Galene / the Olus atrum of the old latines / I will looke now if I can proue that the forsayd Smyrnion or Olus atrū is the Hipposelinō that Theophrast describeth Theophrast describeth hys Hipposelinō thus Hipposelinon hath leues lyke vnto march or smalache / but roughe It hath a grete stalk a thick root lyke a radice / but blak It bryngeth also furthe a blak fruite / in gretenes bygger thē Orobus Mē say that they ar bothe good for thē that cā make no water if they be dronkē with whyte swete wyne / and to dryue out stones It groweth comonly euery where And a iuice floweth out of it lyke vnto myrre Som holde that it is holly mirre alltogether / not lyke it only I se nothyng in thys description / but that it agreeth well with our Alexāder The leues of Alexāder ar lyke vnto the leues of smallage in figure / but they ar greater not so smoth as smallage leues ar The stalk of Alexāder is also greate / the roote is as thik as a radice roote is / blak The sede or fruite is blak / an as byg as Orobus / thoughe it haue an other proportion and figure As for the naturall place of growyng / it groweth in euery shyrr of England in plenty wherefore I se no cause but that Hipposelinō Theophrasti / is our Alexāder And because many were of the opiniō that myrr which is called in Greke Smyrna / cam out of the rootes of Hipposelinō I thynck that it was afterwardes called Smyrniō / that is myr herbe If any man dout wheter learned men haue iudged that a thing like myr commeth out of the roote of Hipposeline / let hym rede Plini of Hipposelino and Theophraste / he shall shortly I truste leue of doutyng But if any man repli / sai that Theophrast and Galene make Hipposelinon and Smyrnion to haue grene leues all the hole yere I answer that as Theophraste sayethe that Hipposelinon hath grene leues / that he sayeth euen the same of persely and of them that they ar grene in the very top / that is in the ouermoste parte of the lefe for the stalkes that haue borne sede / perish in winter But whē as there ar ij sortes of persely / one that is a wyfe / which is fruitfull bryngeth furthe fruite / an other kynde is called a mayden or of som a widow / which ether hath neuer borne sede / or hath begō to haue stalk and hath bene cut down before it brought furthe rype sede As in persely it that hath had sed in sommer or haruest / hath no leues in wynter / but only the maydē persely / so is it in Alexander / for allthough not eueri rote of Alexander hathe grene leues in wynter yet in warm places that rough
of Horminum agreeth not with our Clare Dioscorides maketh mention but of one stalk in hys Hormino But it that Matthiolus setteth furth hath seuen stalkes at the leste / wherefore when as Dioscorides vseth not comēly to let such notable thynges to slip / it is lyke if hys Horminū had had as many / he wold haue made som mention of them Wherefore that may make som men to dowt wheter the Horminum of Matthiolus be the ryght Orminum or no / which I wold not do / if I know that it had al other thynges belonging to Horminum besyde The vertues of Horminum MEn will that Orminum stirreth men to the gettyng of childer / with hony it scoureth away the haw in the ey / or the pin and the web And if it be layde to with water it dryueth and scattereth away swellynges with the same prickes or shiuerse may be plucked out of the body The wilde Orminū is stronger then the other Allthoughe our Clare and oculus Christi which is the wilde Clare / be not the ij kindes of Orminum that Dioscorides describeth yet for al that they haue som vertues lyke vnto the kyndes of Orminū / for it that we calle oculus Christi hath thys properti / that if a man put a sede of it into hys ey / vnder the ey lyd / it bryngeth furth much filthy gere out of it / if ther be any there Both the kyndes of Clare be hote dry at the leste in the second degre If ye will put Clare into new must / and let it ly in it a cōuenient tyme / or if it be sodden with the must / it will make a good wyne and holsum for them that haue cold stomackes The same wyne as the later practicioners wryte / is good to cut fleme / for berun weomen / and for suche as ar muche cumbred with theyr white floures The pouder of clare put into a mannis nose maketh hym nese / and bryngeth doun much water out of the hede The same clare is good to bathe weomen with / that want theyr floures / when it is sodden in water with penny ryall and other herbes of lyke vertue Of the herbe called Ornithogalon Ornithogalon ORnithogalū is a tendre stalk / white / smal / a foote an half lōge with ij or thre to growyng branches in the top which ar soft / out of the which come furth floures / wtout of an herbishe color / but whē as they gape ar opened furthe / they appere white / amongest the whiche / a litle hede or knop / lyke a hasel floure / which in the spryng appeareth before the leues / cōmeth furth Thys description of Dioscorides agreeth well in all poyntes with the herbe which is called in Duche in the city of Colon / Hundis vllich / but that it neuer growethe aboue the hyght of one span / and is seldum so long But it may chance that where as our comon Greke text hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 / that som hath put to thys syllab di For Pliny describyng the same herbe / sayeth that it is but of the lenght of half a foote as my text of Plini hath So that it semeth that Plini red in hys Greke Dioscorides for it is playn that he had Dioscorides howsomeuer like a falslying good lesse man / he pretēdeth as thoughe he neuer saw Dioscorides of whom he hath conueyed / so much learned stuf / into hys omnigatherum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because there is so grete difference betwen two spannes and half a foote / whiche hath but vj. Romane inches / when as ij spannes conteyn xviij inches or a foote and an half But it maketh no grete mater whether we know it or no / seyng that it is good for nothing elles / but to be baked in brede as Nigella Romana or blak comun is / and to be eaten Matthiolus setteth furth an herbe for Ornigalo Dioscorides / which if it were ij span long / and had all other thynges agreyng with the description of Dioscorides I wold not deny but it were the ryght Ornithogalon / but because he telleth nether of the lenghth of hys herbe / nor of the qualites that it hath / I dout more of it thē of it that I haue hether to taken for Orinthogalo Of the tre called Ornus THere is som diuersite of opiniones about thys tre Ornus Sum hold that it is the tre whiche we call in the North countre a quicken tre or a rown tre / in the South countre a quikbeme / sum hold that it is Ornus but not fraxinus of the mountaynes as Tragus / who calleth it in Duche Han buchen or Hagen buchen / Other Duche men namely Iacob Detter the Apothecari of Wiseburg told me that Ornus is called in ryght Duche Walt eschern oder Wilder eschebaū But my iudgement is that Ornus is not the quicbeme / but Fraxinus montana / whiche thyng I trust I shall proue by good autorite Columella in hys booke de re rustica sayeth that Ornus is a wyld ashe or an ashe of the woldes / and that it hath no worse bughes then the elm tre Gotes shepe ete more gladly of the bughes of thys tre then of other Theophrast in hys thyrde booke of the histori of plantes / in the eleuent chapter writeth of ij kyndes of asshes / of the whiche the former kynde is in grete plenty in England / and it is called comonly an ashe tre But the second kynde groweth not in England that I know of And if I be not deceyued it is called of the Latines namely of Virgil Ouid and Columella / Ornus or Fraxinus syluestris And Theophrast wryteth of hys second kynde of ashe thus The second kynde of the asshes is lower and waxeth not so hyghe as the other / and is rougher / harder and yelower The smothe ashe groweth in low and holow places / and in watery places But the roughe one groweth in dry rocky grounde All that grow in playn groundes vse to be playn smouthe And all that grow in the mountaynes / vse to be roughe scuruy or scabbed / with vnequal partes apperyng outward after the maner of scabbes Thus far Theophrast That Ornus is a tre of the mountaynes / Virgill in the second of hys Georgikes wytnesseth in thys verse Nascuntur steriles saxosis montibus Orni That is / the Barun Orni or wild ashe trees grow in the rooky or craggi mountaynes I know also by experience that I haue of the wild or rocky ashe here in Germany / and by it that I had in the alpes of Rhetia / that the wod of the wilde ashe is very fayr yelow / and that the Germaynes make fayr tables and cupbordes and spounes and many other thynges belongyng to the house of the same ashe tre Then when as Columella sayeth that Ornus is Fraxinus montana / and Theophrast sayeth
/ and in the myddes there ar blak / purple fiue or six The roote of the male is a finger thick / and a span long / byndyng in taste / and whyte in color To the roote of the female grow certayn thynges lyke acornes vij or viij in numbre / suche as the ryght Affodili hath The femall is comon thorow out all England Germany / and in diuerse places of Englād / and in som partes of Brabāt / as in Peter Coddenberges gardin in Anwerp the male groweth also But I could neuer se it in hygh Germany The farest that euer I saw / was in Newberri in a rych clothiers gardin Diuerse haue bene sore deceyued in takyng the comon dictamum for Paeonia mascula The vertues of bothe the Peonies THe root of Peoni is geuen vnto weomen that ar not purged after theyr delyuerance If it be dronken in the quantite of an almond / it will bryng down to weomen theyr floures And if it be dronken with wyne / it will ease the payn of the belly It is also good for the iaundes / for the payn in the kydnes and in the blader The same sodden in wyne and dronken stoppeth the belly but ten or twelue rede granes or cornes of the sedes / dronkē in rede tarte wyne / stopp the rede issues of weomen The same if they be eaten / help them that haue the gnawynges of the mouth of theyr stomackes But if childer eat them / they will take away the begynnyng of the bredyng of the stone And if one take xv of the blak cornes and drynk them in mede or wyne / they ar a good remedy agaynst the stranglyng of the ryght mare / and agaynst the stranglyng and paynes of the mother Out of Galene THe roote of Peoni byndeth a litle with a certayn swetenes / and if ye will chow it a litle more with your tethe / ye shall perceyue that it is somthyng bytyng and bitter Therefore if ye take the quantite of an almōd of it with honied wyne / it will bryng down floures But in dede ye must bete it well and sift it diligently / so cast the pouder in to the drynke It scoureth also the kydnes / and the lyuer that is stopped It hath pour also to stop / if it be sodden with sum tarte and byndyng wyne The roote hath also a drying poure By reson where of I wold not dout / but that if it be hanged about childers neckes / it wold hele in them the fallyng siknes I saw ones a boy delyuered viij monethes from the fallyng siknes / by the hangyng of the roote about hys neck and when as by chance it fell of / he fell into the siknes agayne / and the same after the roote was hanged vp agayn / he was well agayn But I thought for a surer tryall to take the roote ones agayne / as soun as I had takē the roote of agayn / he fell streyght way into hys olde siknes But then I tooke a greate roote tyed it tho the boyes neck agayn / and after that tyme he fell no more / but was quite delyuered of that siknes Thus far Galene Thys that Galene proued in one childe / I haue proued in two childer / the one where of dwelled in London the other at Syon in my lord of Sommersettes house vnkle / Protector to the most excellēt kyng Edwarde the sixt But when as I proued the same in them that were of perfit age / allthoughe it dyd muche good / yet it neuer wrought any such effect in them / as it dyd in the childer Of the herbe called Phalaris PHalaris putteth furth many small stalkes / out of small and vnprofitable rootes The stalkes ar two handbredthes long / full of ioyntes / lyke strawes or redestalkes / muche lyke vnto the strawes of spelt It hath a sede in bygnes of mil or millet / whyte in fasshon / somthyng long The first tyme that euer I saw thys herbe / was in the citie of Come / where as the chefe Physiciane of the citi no lesse gentle then well learned shewed vnto me / and my felow master Iohan Walker Afterwarde I saw it in England takē for mil / for they that brought Canari burdes out of Spayn / brought of the sede of Phalaris also to fede them with Where of when I sowed a litle / I found that it was the ryght Phalaris which I had sene in Itali before I haue as yet heard no English name of Phalaris / but for lak of a better name it may be called peti panik / of the likenes that it hath with the ryght panik The vertues of Phalaris THe iuice of Phalaris which is pressed out of the herbe when it is stamped throw water or wyne / if it be dronken it is a good remedy against the ache of the blader But a spoun full of the sede of the same herbe / dronken in water is good for the same purpose Other properties I fynde none in Galene thē Dioscorides hath rehersed I haue found by experience that it is not only good to fede small birdes therwith / but that it is veri good for yong chickinges and hennes / to fat them with all / as som vse to fat capones in Italy with mil or millet Of the pulse called Phasiolus out of Dioscorides PHasiolus is wyndie and moueth or stirreth vp wynde And whē it is grene it softeneth the belly / it is fit for vomitynge Cornarius and Matthiolus make ij kyndes of Phasiolus / specialli Matthiolus / who sayeth that Smilax hortensis is the gardin Phasiolus / and the wild is the Phasiolus whiche is described in thys place of Dioscorides And Cornarius to proue that Smilax hortensis Phasiolus be all one / alledgeth the wordes of Aetius / which in dede sound as he meaneth And Matthiolus sayeth further that Smilax hortensis Dolichus in Galene / and in Theophrast / ar all one Allthough these great learned men and of no small autorite in theyr countres / where as they do dwell yet in thys matter I do not agre with them The first cause that maketh me dissent from them is thys / that Dioscorides vseth not in all hys booke that I remembre / to write in two chapters far one from an other / of any gardine and felde herbe or plant / but euer where as he maketh mention of the gardin herbe / he maketh mention also of the felde herbe in the same chapter or in the next folowyng or there about But he writeth of Phasiolus in the 101. chapter of the second booke / and he writeth of Smilax hortensis in the 140. chapter of the same booke Which thyng he wold not haue done accordyng vnto hys accustomed maner if he had thought them allone in kynde / and to differ in no other thyng but in the place of growynge If thys argument be not good / the argumentes that Matthiolus maketh
scolopendria / in English Hartis tung / in Duch Hirtz zung / in FreÌ„che Lang de cerf / was Phyllites in Dioscorides whose description foloweth Phyllitis putteth furth leaues / lyke a dock / but longer / grener or fressher six or seuen together / and them streyght / whiche in the inner parte ar smouthe / but vpon the bak syde / they haue as it wer smal wormes haÌ„gyng on It groweth in shaddowish places / and hath a byndyng taste with an harrishnes or hartnes It groweth also in gardines It hath nether stalk sede nor floure I thynk that thys description agreeth much better with our hartis tung then the description of Hemionitis dothe The leues of Hemionitis ought to be very harrish / byndyng with bitternes But there is no suche bitter taste in hartis tung / therefore it can not be Hemionitis The worst thyng that I mislyke in our hartis tung / is that me thynk that it hath not with vs here such a byndyng harrish taste / as Dioscorides semeth to require Howbeit except my memory fale me / I haue found it in other places tarte and byndyng inoughe The vertues of Phyllitis or hartis tung THe leues of thys herbe dronken with wyne / ar good agaynst the bytynges of serpentes If they be poured in to the mouth of fourfoted beastes / they help them They ar also dronken agaynst the blody flixe the comon flixe with out any blood These be the properties that I fynde in old writers of Phyllitis I can not fynde that it is good for the mylt in any olde wryter And yet now a dayes it is comonly vsed for the diseases of the mylte / therfore as I suppose because it hath bene falsely taken for Scolopendrio / and Hemeonitis If that it do any good to the mylt / it is by the reson of the great byndyng that it hath / where by it may help the milt that is to louse and to much opened Of the Pyne tre and other of that kynde DIoscorides writeth that the tre called in Greke Pitys / it that is named Peuke / ar conteyned vnder one generall hede kynde / but that they differ in theyr proper and particular kynde or spice But he telleth not for all that / where in they differ Whiche thyng hath made that learned men cold not well tell whether of the two was our Pinus in Latin / and which of them should be our Picea Therfore seyng the right difference can not be found in Dioscorides it is nedefull that we set it out of other autentik and sufficient old wryters First it is nedful to seke out in what properties Pitys of the Grecianes differeth from pence / wherin Pinus of the Latines differeth from Picea / and then to se wheter Pitys be Pinus or no in Latin / and wheter Pence in Greke / be our Picea or no / and whether these wordes ar diuersly taken of diuerse autores or no. Theophrast a noble writer amongest the Grecianes / maketh thys difference betwene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fatter and hath a smaller lefe / and is lesse in bignes / groweth not so streyght vp It hathe a lesse con or nut / or appell / and rougher or more vnplesanter to look to / and a fruite more pitchye or rosinie / 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that the rootes be burned / doth not spring vp agayne But they say that Pitys / spryngeth agayn / as it chanced in Lesbo / when as the mountayn Pyrrheus was set afyre The Ideanes hold / that not only the harte / but also the outter parte of the bole / doth turn into a tede / or wodtorche / that then after a maner / that it is strangled And the same thyng chanceth of it self / by the excedyng greate plenty of the tre it self / as a man can coniecture For it is alltogether made a tede or woddish torche or fyrebrande And so thys is the peculiare siknes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same Theophrast maketh thys differeÌ„ce betwene the fyrre tre and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of a notable hyght much tauler then peuce The firre tre hath a wod full of synewes / soft / and lyght But the wod of peuce / is full of tedes or woddishe torches heuye and full of flessh / or thik The peuce hath mo knottes / but the knottes of the fyrr ar harder Pitys serueth in Cyprus to make shippes of it because that yland hathe it And it semeth to be better then peuke The firr tre and peuce ar fittest for howses / and shippes / and for the moste parte of such other thynges The Pitys / is fit for bothe the workes / and especiali for shippes / but it beginneth quikly to root Peuce in no wyse can cum furth in low and shaddowy places / 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iui can not grow in hoote places / peuce is a tre of the mountaynes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also is / about Macedonia Peuce is of ij sortes / the one is the gardin peuce / and the other is the wilde peuce The wild peuce is deuyded into the male / and female 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 groweth not in Syria Thus much haue I taken of Theophrast Now will I se what the other Grecianes wryte of these fornamed trees / and of theyr fruites / properties / and operationes / and vertues Galene in the viij booke / of the vertues of simple medicines / writeth thus of the fruyte Pitys Pityides ar named the fruytes Pityâ—n But som by a misuse / call also the fruyte of Peuces Pityides They haue a menged pour / that is both byndyng / and hauyng a certayn sharpnes with a bitternes / by reson where of they ar good for the spittyng out of mater out of the breste and lunges These ar Galenes wordes But now let vs se what the Latines write of Pinus / and picea Virgil the noblest Poete amongest all the latines / writeth in hys Egloges that the Pyne tre is goodliest in gardines The same in the second of hys Georgikes or husbandry maketh the pyne tre fit and profitable to make shippes of in these wordes Dant alios aliae foetus dant utile lignum Nauigijs Pinos domibus cedrosque cupressos The same thyng doth he also in the fourth Eglog after thys maner Cedet ipse mari uector nec nautica Pinus Mutabit merces Plini writeth thus of the pyne tre / The Pyne tre hath a lefe lyke a hear / very small before / long and sharp with a pricke The Pyne tre bryngeth furth very litle rosin / The Pyne tre is gretely to be wondered at It hath a fruite waxyng rype / which shall com to rypenes in the next yere / and afterward in the thyrde Nether is there any tre that more gredely putteth it self out a lengthe then the Pyne dothe The Pyne tre and
in the leues / so that it hathe a certayn greuous bytyng sharpnes Furthermore that sout which is gathered of the forsayde / is fit for the fallyng out of the heares of the ey liddes / for the moyst corners of the eyes / worn of / which ar blered and waterynge The fruites of the pyne and pich tre haue a mengled pour / that is to wet they bynde with a certayn bitternes Wherfore they ar good to help a man to spit out mater of the breste and lunges Galene also in hys boke of the poures of norishmētes / wryteth thus of the pyne apples The pyne apple nutt is of a good grosse iuice / norisheth muche But it is harde of digestiō The Grecianes call it not now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of Symeon Sethi THe kirnell of the pyne appel ar hote in the second degre / and drye in the first They norish plentuously / they ar of a grosse iuice / and they ar harde of digestion / and greue the hede / and make good bloode They smouth the harrishnes or sharpnes that are in the breste They ar good for the sores or blisters of the bladder / for the sharpnes that is in the stomack and kydnes They ar also good for old coughes / and moyste diseases of the lunges / for them that spit out matter They that vse thē with hony and rasines / make them easier to be digested / and they increase mannis sede They ar also good for them that ar disposed to trymble Of Pepper out of Dioscorides MEn say that Pepper is a shorte tre that groweth in Indye It bryngeth furth a fruite at the first lōge / as it where long coddes which is called long Pepper And it hathe within it a small thyng lyke to mile or millet / which groweth to perfit Pepper at the lengthe Thys when the tyme commeth is spred abrode / and bryngeth furth berries such as all mē know Partely vnrype and therfore harrishe which ar the white Pepper / moste fit for ey medicines / and for preseruatiues and triacles But the long Pepper is excedyng bytynge and sumthyng bitter / because it is vnrype / it is also good for compositiones of preseruatiues and triacles But the blak is pleasanter and more sharp then the whyte / and better for for the stomack and more spycie / because it is rype / and it is fitter to season with all Ye must chuse the pepper that is heuiest / and ful / blak / not full of wryncles / but freshe and without dust or chaffy filthines There is oft foūd in blak pepper a thyng without norishmēt / lene / empty / and lyght / and that they call brasma Out of Plini THe trees that bear pepper in euery place / ar like vnto our iunipers Howbeyt there ar som that holde that they grow only in that fronte of Caucasus that lyeth agaynst the sonne The sedes differ from iuneper by such litle coddes as we se in faselles These plucked before they gape and open / and be heten in the sonne / make it which is called long pepper But whē as by litle and litle they begyn to open for rypnes / they shew whyte pepper / which afterward hete with the sonne it is chēged with color wryncles But the same ar not without theyr iniuri / and they ar perched cinged with the intemperate wether / and the sedes ar made emptie and voyde Which thyng they call brechmasin which betokeneth in the Indiane tūg / bryngyng furth of fruite before the tyme of all the hole kynde / it is the roughest and lyghtest / and pale in color The blak pepper is more plesant / but the whyte is lighther then both the other Ginger is not the roote of pepper as som haue iudged Of the ix book of Theophrast de historia plantarum PEpper indede is a fruite / and thereof ar two kyndes / the one is rounde as the bitter fithche called orobus / it hath a coueryng and fleishe / as the bay berries haue / and it is somthyng in vnder redishe The long is blak / hath litle sedes lyke poppy And thys is much stronger thē the other They ar both hote / wherefore they ar good agaynst the poyson of the homlok as Frankincense is Out of the viij booke of Galene of hys simple medicines THe root of the pepper tre in vertu is much lyke to costus The fruite that was but growyng of late / is the lōg pepper / wherefore it is moyster then it that is rype And thys is a token of hys moysture When it is layde vp / it will be shortly full of holes / and doth not byte by by / but beginneth a litle after / but it dureth a litle more But the fruite that is as it were an vnrype grape / is the whit pepper / sharper in dede then the blak Bothe they do vehemently drye and heate Hytherto haue I brought it that the old wryters haue writtē of pepper / who / as a man may esely gather of theyr wrytyng / had only by hearsay it that they wrote / concernyng the description maner of growyng of peper Wherefore because ther ar many thynges found out of late yeares by the saylyng of the Portugalles / and diuerse other aduenturus traualers in far cuntres / and specially diuerse kyndes of fruites and trees which were neuer perfitly knowen before I will bryng in what the later wryters haue found out / concernyng pepper which was not knowen before Out of the Lewes Bartomanni fift boke of the thynges that he saw in Inde THere groweth pepper in the felde that lyeth about Calecut Som husband men gather pepper euen within the city The stalk of the pepper bushe is very weyke / as a vinde is / without a prop it can not stād alone And it is not vnlyke Yuy / for it crepeth euer hygher hygher / embraseth all that is in the way / byndeth it about The forsayde tre nay rather bushe or shrub / spredeth it selte abrode in to many branches / which ar about two or thre handbredthes long / or as som expound palmum ij or iij. spannes long The leues resemble the leues of a citron tre / but these ar thicker and fatter with small veynes rynnyng vpon the bak syde Out of euery outtermoste yong twygge hang out six clusters / not bigger then a palm that is iiij fingers / lyke vnto grapes / but thicker together They haue the same color that vnrype grapes haue They gather thē in October and Nouembre / as yet turnyng to a grene color / and they lay them vpon mattes agaynst the sonne to be ryped and dryed there And within thre dayes they get thys color that ye se them haue The same leues wrytyng of the noble Yland Taprabona / sayeth that there groweth very great plenty of a bigger kynde of pepper He
vertues of fistickes out of Dioscorides THe fistic nuttes ar good for the stomack They ar also a good remedy agaynst the bytynges of crepyng beastes / wheter they be eaten / or whether they be broken and dronken in wyne Out of Pliny THe fistickes haue the same profittes and workyng that the pineapple kirnelles haue / and besyde that they ar profitable whether they be eaten or dronken against the bytynges of serpentes Out of Galene de alimentorum facultatibus GAlene in the secōd booke de alimentorum facultatibus writeth that fistickes norishe but a litle / and that they ar good to streyngthen the liuer and to scouraway the humores that ar stopped in the canales of it The same Galene writeth of them thus in hys bookes of simple medicine The fruite of the fistic tre is of a finer substance or complexion / and it hath a litle bitternes and a good smell / therfore it scoureth away the stoppyng of the lyuer chefely / and also of the breste and lunges Out of Symeon Sethi FIstickes as Symeō sayeth after the translatiō of Lilius Gregorius norish litle / and ar hote dry in the secōd degre They ar good for the lyuer / and sumtyme they stopp and sumtyme they driue away / because they haue iuices of ij sortes / where of the one is somthyng byndyng / and the other somthyng bitter / and of a spicie smell Galene writeth that they nether greatly help nor hurt the stomack But the later writers hold / that they ar good for the stomack They help them that ar bitten of venummus bestes They make the blood fyne / and they make thynne grosse and thoughe humores The oyl of fistickes is good for the breste / kydnees / and lunges Out of Serapio and other Arabianes THe oyle of fistickes / is good agaynst all venemus bytynges / for the ach of the lyuer / which cōmeth of moysture It is hote drye / and of a greater heat thē the walnut and hasel nut be of Auerroes wryteth that fistickes ar temperatly dry and hote / and that they comfort the stomack and lyuer of theyr hole substance / that they ar of the nombre of these medicines that haue many and grete vertues to help with all Rases also an Arabiane sayeth that fistikes beyng hote / help a woman to hyr syknes Of the pease AS Dioscorides describeth not the fabam / where of he maketh mention and sheweth the vertues / so he nether describeth nether maketh any mention of the Pisi Wherefore it is as litle meruel that men haue erred in the piso as well as in the faba Sum herbaries of Germany hold that cicer anetinum is the pisum of the latines led by thys reson Cicer is called in Greke Erebinthos and the pisum of the Latines is called in som places of Duchlād erweisen / so that they gather that / that the Duch erweysen cam of the Greke worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other gather euē by such an other reson that the Duche erbs / which is called in English a pease is the eruum of the Latines / orobus of the Grecianes / because erbs semeth to come ether of eruū or orobus / by reson of the lyknes of the wordes betwene one an other But all these gessinges ar but vayn and openly agaynst the truth / as God willyng I shall proue her after But before I take that mater in hand / I thynk it best to serche out what old writers haue writen of theyr pisis Pisum Here be all the places that I can fynde at thys tyme in the old writers / which declare any thyng the forme or fashon of pisi But first before I bryng in what is my iudgement of the pisi / I thynck it mete to consule the errores which ar committed in thys pulse piso First that they erre fowly / that hold that Cicer arietinum in Dioscorides is our comon pease / and the pison of the Grekes / because the Duches erweysen is lyke in sound to erebinthus / and they that hold that pease called in som place of Duchelande erbs / is the eruum of the Latines or orobus of the Grecianes / because these wordes orobus and eruum ar lyke vnto the Duch worde erbs It may be easely proued by that it foloweth not / because a Duche worde soundeth lyke a greke or Latin worde / that therfore it that the Duche word betokeneth / that the latine and Greke wordes betokeneth the same For if that were a good maner of argument / then carabus / which soundeth lyke ein krab / should not be a lobster or eyn mer kreuet / but a krab / and vulpes which soundeth lyke vnto ein wolf / shuld not be a fore / but a wolf / where vnto it hath a lyker soūde and name Cunila shuld not be saueray / but tyme / for the hyghe Duche call tyme quendell Puligium shuld not be pennyriall / but polium / because the Duch call pulegium poley Now may ye se how sklender the argument is which is fethched out of the lykenes of wordes in diuerse tonges / except the descriptiones and properties do agre also therwith But that the descriptiō and properties of pisi do not agre with Orobus and Erebinthus / I shall easely proue it / by the autorites of the autores aboue rehersed / and with other besyde them Erebinthus / as Theophrast writeth falleth not vpon the grounde but groweth a syde But the pease falleth vpon the ground / therefor erebinthus cā not be pisum The pisum hath long leues / but Erebinthus hath none / suche Therfor Erebinthus can not be pisum Galene writeth de Cicere Arietino / and de piso as of ij distinct and diuerse pulses / Pliny also in one chapter diuideth cicera frō pisis / therfore erebinthus which is called in latin cicer is not pisum Theophrast maketh orobum to grow sydlynges But all our kyndes of peasen ar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is theyr stalkes grow by the grounde / and Galē writeth that all the kyndes of orobus / sauyng the whyte ar playn bitter and taketh not all bitternes away from it vtterly / but maketh it gentler then the other as Theophrast doth also But all our kyndes of peasen all the kyndes of erweysen or erbsen in Duche / ar playne swete / wtout all bitternes Therfore there can none of our pease nether of the Duche erbsen be any kynde of orobus / sauyng the whyte / and that as it is proued before can not be orobus as one that wrote vpon the Georgikes of Virgil dyd lately teache That the moste part of our comō peasen can not be pisum of the old writers / it dothe appere by bothe the descriptiones of Theophrast and Plini For Theophrast maketh hys pease with a long lefe / Plini giueth corners vnto hys pease Then when as the comon whyte pease is
altogether rounde and wtout corners / and the leues of the moste parte of our comon peasen ar roūde / the comon white peason and other lyke vnto them in form and fasshon can not be pisa of the old writers The comon gray pease with the long leues / which is not round / but cornered / is ether the pisum of the old writers / or ellis I know it not all The vertues of peasen out of Galene PEasen of theyr hole substance haue a certayn lyknes with fabis which ar called of the moste parte of learned men and taken for our beanes and ar after the same maner takē in that fabe ar But they differ in these two poyntes / frō fabis both in that they ar not so wyndy / and that they haue not suche a scowryng nature / therfore go slowlier down throw the belly Galene in that place where as he writeth of fabis / sayeth that all thynges which ar fryed want the wyndenes that they had before / but that they ar harder of digestion Then the perched or burstled peasen which ar called in Northumberlād carlines by Galenis ruel / ar not so wyndye as otherwaies dressed / ar harder to be digested / although they noy not so muche with theyr wyndenes The physiciones of Salern wryte thus of peasen in theyr booke whiche they wrote vnto the kyng of Englande Sunt inflatiua cum pellibus atque nociua Pellibus ablatis sunt bona pisa satis That is peasen with theyr skinnes ar wyndy and noysum / but when as that skynnes ar takē away they ar good inoughe Thus do they say But for all theyr sayng / I will aduise all them that haue ether wyndy stomackes / or miltes / that they vse not much pease at any tyme / howsoeuer they be dressed / except there be ether anis sede / or cumin / or mynte / or som other sede or herb of lyke propertie put thereto Wherefore I must nedes commēde the honest and lerned Physicianes who of olde tyme haue taught our cookes to put the pouder of mynte in to pease potage / for that taketh away for the moste parte the wyndines of the pease / which might els hurt all men disposed vnto any wyndines ether in the milt or stomack The cause why I do commend them is / because they haue don bothe accordyng vnto reason and to the learnyng of Galene who wrytyng of peasen / and other wyndy meates / sayeth that whatsoeuer wyndines is in any kynde of meat / the same may be amended by such herbes as ar hote and make subtile and fyne Of pitiusa or pyne spourge out of Dioscorides PItiusa is iudged to differ in spicie or kynde from the cypresse spourge / called in latin cyparissias Wherefor it is numbred amongest the kyndes of tithimales Pitiusa which I name pyne spourge bryngeth furth a stalk longer thē a cubit / hauyng many knees or ioyntes The leues ar sharp small lyke vnto the leues of a pyne tre The floures ar small / in color purple / the sede is brode as a lentil is The roote is whyte / thyck / and full of iuice Thys same is found in som places a great bushe Hytherto Dioscorides Thys pitiusa is called of the common Herbaries and apothecaries esula maidr / but how that it is called in Englishe / I can not tell / allthoug it be foūd in many places of Englād But leste it shuld be without a name / I call it pyne spourge after the Greke name and lyknes of the leues of it vnto the leues of a pyne tre It may also be called lynespourge / of the lyknes that it hath with linaria The comon herbaries hold that it is hard to discern esulam from linaria / and therfore they haue made a verse whereby a man may learn to discern the one from the other / but the verse is thys Esula lactescit linaria lac dare nescit Pinespourge hathe much milck / which linari lacketh in hyr lefe But because linari is also lyke the Cypresse spourge which is much lesse then thys is it wer best for the auoydyng of confusion continually to call pitiusam pine spourge The great kynde that Dioscorides maketh mention of / haue I sene in diuerse places of Germany / first a litle benethe Colen / by the Rhene syde / and afterward / besyde Wormes in high Germany I haue sene it diuerse tymes as hyghe as a man / and somtyme much lōger Thys herbe may be called in English spourge gyāt / or merrish or water spourges / because it groweth only in merrish and watery groundes The vertue of pitiusa out of Dioscorides TWo drammes of pitiusas rote with mede purgeth / so doth a dram of the sede / so doth a spounfull of the sap made in pilles with flour Thre drammes of the leues / may be taken for a purgation Of plantayn or weybrede Plantago maior Plantago minor Plantago II. minor Plantago aquatica THere at two kyndes of plantayn or Waybrede the lesse and the greater The lesse hath narrower leues / lesse and smother / softer and thynner It hath litle stalkes bowyng to the grounde / full of corners and pale yelowishe floures The sede is in the top of the stalkes The greater is larger with brode leues lyke vnto a bete The stalk in thys kynde is full of corners / somthyng redish of a cubit hyght / set about with small sede from the myddes vnto the top The rootes ar tender roughe / white / and of the thiknes of a finger It groweth in myri places in hedges and in moyst places / and the greater is the better Hyther to Dioscorides Besyde these two kindes there ar diuerse mo besyde which may all well be conteyned vnder these / sauyng it that groweth by the see syde only / which semeth to be a seuerall kynde from all the rest The greatest kynde is called in the South parte of England plantayn or grete plantayn / in the North countre waybrede or grete weybrede The lesse kynde is called sharp waybred or sharp plantayn / and in many places rybgrasse The Duche call the great plantayn breid Wegerich / and the lesse Spitzwegerich The vertues of bothe the Plantaynes or waybredes out of Dioscorides THe leues of plantayn / haue a drying pour and byndyng together Wherfore if they be layd to / they ar good for all perillus sores and hard to heale / and suche as draw towarde the comon lepre / and for such as ar flowyng or rynnyng and full of foul mater They stopp also the burstyng out of blood / carbuncles / fretyng sores / crepyng sores / ryght blaynes / or ploukes / they couer with a skin olde sores vneuen / and sores all moste vncurable / they heal vp corners / and hollow sores They heal also the bytyng of a dog / and burned places / and inflammationes or burnynges / and the inflammationes or
apostemes behind the eares and swellynges / hauyng blaynes in them after the colour of brede They ar good to be layd to hard swellynges or wennes and wateryng of the eyes / with a sore disposed to fistelles / with salt But the herbe if it be eaten as a wurt in meate / with salt / and vinegre / it is good for the blody flix and the other flix without bloode It is also geuē sodden in the stede of betes / with pentilles It is also geuen to them that haue the dropsey which hath the name of whyte fleme / after the vse of dry thynges / so that the herbe sodden may be taken in the myddes It is also good to be geuen to them that haue the fallyng siknes / and to them that ar short wynded The iuice of the leues scoureth sores that ar in the mouthe / if it be oft wasshed therwith With Cimolia and whyte lead or cerusse / it healeth the inflammation called saynt Antonies fyre The same is poured in to the cares for the ach of them / and for the eysore / it is poured in to the ey / and it is menged with ey salues It is dronken of them with profit / that haue blody goumes / and of them that cast out blood It is good to be poured in vnder agaynst the blody flix It is also good to be dronken agaynst the ptisik It is also good to be layd to agaynst the stranglyng of the mother in woll / and so is it good for a waterish or to moyst mother The sede also dronken with wyne stoppeth the belly and the spittyng of bloode The roote sodden stancheth the tuthe ach / if they be wasshed there with / and it chowed in the mouthe The roote and leues ar good against the sores or blisters that ar in the bladder and kydnes / so that they be taken with swete wyne Som say that thre rootes with thre ciates of wyne with lyke portion of water will help a tertian / the four rootes help a quartyn There ar also som that vse the roote hanged in a band / to dryue away wennes and hard swellynges Out of Galene in the vij book of simple medicines PLantayn is of a menged complexion or temperature / for it hath a certayn colde waterishe tyng / and also a certayn byndyng tartish thyng / the which is erly dry and colde And therfore it coleth and dryeth / is in bothe in the second degre from the myddes But such medicines as cool bynde / ar good for sores that ar hard to be healed / for isshues in flowynges and rotten humores / so ar they good for the blody flix The roote and sede ar not so cold as the leues ar / but dryer Aetius confirmeth it that Galene and Dioscorides haue writtē / and sayeth also thus The sede is of moste subtil or fyne partes / but the rootes ar of grosser partes And the leues dryed / get vnto them the pour of subtiler partes / but not so cold as they had before When as these be the true vertues properties of the kyndes of playntayn / it is a folish sayng of som vnlearned persones / which hold stiffly that plantayn draweth humores out of sores When as the properties of it / is rather to dryue bak humores / and to dry vp them / that ar flowen to the hurt places / then to draw any vnto the place For al such medicines as shal draw / must haue an hote or warm propertie / and not a colde and dry / as all the kindes of plantayn haue Of the Playn tre ALlthoughe Dioscorides writeth of the vertues of Playn tre / yet he describeth it not Wherefore very mane in England and Germany haue erred in takyng of diuerse trees for the Playn tre / where of nono of them all / was the ryght Playn tre in dede Sum take the lynd tre which I with many other take for the ryght tilia for Platano because it shutteth furth long branches / bowghes / and is able to couer a grete numbre of men vnder it Sum take a tre which semeth to me / to be a kinde of acer / to be Platanum And that tre is called in Duch Ahorn That the lynd can not be Platanus / it may be gathered by diuerse places of Dioscorides / where as he maketh certayn well knowen herbes lyke to Platano Dioscorides in the fourth booke and 145. chapter / writeth of ricinus / which we call now in England palma Christi sayeth that it hath leues / like vnto a Playn tre / but greter / smother and blacker But the lynd tre hath leues lyke an asp tre / or to som Iuy leues that haue no indentyng or cuttyng / nothing lyke vnto the leues of palma Christi which ar cut out after the maner of a mannis hande Pliny also in the xvj Platanus book and xxiiij chapter / writeth that the fyg tre / playn tre / vynde / haue greatest leues of all other / therfore seyng that the leues of the lynde tre ar but small in comparyson of these now rehersed and of many other / it can not be the ryght Platanus or Playn tre They that hold that the Ahorn tre which I reken to be only a kynde of acer is Platanus / grant that it groweth in the hyghest mountaynes that ar som thyng moyste / amongest the ashe trees But Theophrastus maketh the Playn tre to grow in merrish groūdes with willowes by welles and water sydes And the same writeth thus of the Playn trees naturall place very clerely in the thyrd booke of the History of Plantes / in the seuenth chapter Som trees grow easely increase with spede / as they that aryse vp by ryuers or waters / as the elm tre / the Playn tre / the water asp / and the wylow tre Therfore the Platanus and the ahorn tre agre nothyng in theyr naturall place of growing Both Plini and Theophraste write also that Platanus groweth not naturally in Italy And Plini writeth that the Playn tre was fetched out of a strange worlde / only for the shaddowis sake It is lyke if ahorn had bene Platanus / and the Italianes had knowen / that it had growen so nere hand them / in Germany / as it is very like / they beyng so much so oft in Germany / dyd know what grew there / they wold neuer haue sent in to a strange wald to fetche them / seyng they myght haue had it so nere home They also that describe the ahorn tre / make it not to haue any such shaddowing boughes and branches as Plini and Theophrast write that the Playn tre hath For these and diuerse other lyke causes / I reken that the tre called in Duche Ahorn or wild asshen / can not be Platanus I haue sene the leues of that Platanus that groweth in Italy / and
hath a byndyng poure coolyng / and it is good for all that the other kynde is good for / but it is in all poyntes weyker Galene besyde these properties / that Dioscorides geueth vnto Polygono / assygneth also these that folow here after As knotgrasse hath a certayn byndyng / so doth a waterish coldnes ber the chefe ruel in it So that it is in the second degre colde / or allmoste in the begynnyng of the thyrde degre It is good to make a repercussiue or backdryuyng medicine of it / to dryue bak agayn such humores as flow vnto any place Of the herbe called Polygonatum or scala caeli Polygonaton Polyganatum angustifolium POlygonaton groweth in hylles or mountaynes It is a bushe more then a cubit hyghe / it hath leues lyke a bay tre / but broder and smother / which in taste hath a certayn thyng lyke a quince / or pomgranat For they send furth a certayn byndyng There ar whyte floures about the out sprynges of euery lefe / mo in nombre then the leues ar / if ye begin to tell from the roote It hath a whyte roote / soft / long full of knees or oyntes / coughe as som translate thys worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or thyk well compact together / as other turn the same worde and it hath a greuous smell / it is about an ynche thick Thys herbe is well knowen bothe in England / and in Germany It is called in English scala celi The Duch men call it Weiß wurtz / the herbaries calle it sigillum Salomonis It were better to call it by an English name taken out of Duch from whence our English sprang first whyte wurt then scala celi / for so shall men lern better to know it / and to remembre the name of it The properties of Polygonatum or whyte wurt IT is very good for woundes and to scour away spottes and frekles / out of ones face Som vse to make ashes of the root of thys herbe and to make ley of it / for to scour away frekles out of the face Of Asp and kyndes of Popler Populus I. Populus II. DIoscorides maketh but two kyndes of Populus / that is the whyte and the blak But Theophrast / and Pliny / make thre kindes / Dioscorides and Theophrast call populum nigram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and populum albam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in Theophrast is ther yet an other kynde called in Greke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of hym But why that it hath that name / I can not perfitly perceyue / 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much to say in Latin as Radius / which betokeneth in our speche a beam / a spoke in a whele / the lesse bone in a mannis arm and a weuers instrument named a shittel But I se no cause that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thyrde popler / shuld haue hys name of any of these But if that ther had bene in the stede of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word it is possible that it hath ones bene in the text of Theophrast / and afterward changed by som writer into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it were easye to tell / of what properti it were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greke is as much to say in Englishe / a spytefull noyse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greke is / found agayn Therfore / if the worde had bene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the thyrde kinde of popler shuld haue had the name of soundyng or of makyng of a noysum noyse Whiche propertie Pliny in diuerses places geueth vnto the popler tre / and we se that in the wod popler / that it hath leues euer trymbling and mouyng / with in but a small wynde crackyng Theodore Gaza the translator of Theophrast / out of Greke in to Latin / turneth kerkin in to populum alpinam that is an asp or popler of the mountaynes / called the alpes Pliny called thys thyrde kynde populum lybicam / wher of I intend to intreat here after Of the kyndes of poplers out of Theophrast THe whyte popler / and the blak / ar of one fasshone / they grow ryght vp bothe But the blak popler is longer and smother They ar bothe like in figure of lefe / They haue also bothe white wod / when as they ar cut down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or populus alpina / is not vnlyke vnto the whyte popler / bothe in bygnes and by that it spredeth abrode with white boughes It hath the lefe of an Iuy / but in the one half with out a corner / on the other side a long corner / goyng to a sharpnes / with one color allmoste both vpon the ouer parte and nether parte also It hath a long footstalk and small / therfore it is not ryght out / but bowyng in The bark is rougher then the white poplers bark is / and more scabbed / as the bark of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is / whiche Theodore turneth a wilde pyne Thus wryteth Theophrast in the thyrd booke de historia plantarum and in the xiiij chapter And in the xvj chapter of the first booke de historia plantarū he writeth thus of the whyte popler / and not generally of euery popler as Gaza translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not very well / populum with out any puttyng to of whyte or blak doth The leues sayethe he in all other trees ar in all poyntes lyke them selues / but the leues of the whyte aspe / of the Iuy tre / and of palma Christi / ar not lyke them selues / that is they haue som tyme one fasshon of leues / and som tyme an other fasshon For when as they ar yong / they ar rounde / but when they ar olde / they grow into to corners But it is not so with the Iuy For the Iuy whilse it is yong / hath more cornered leues / and when it commeth to perfit age / then ar the leues rounder And thys propertie belongeth seuerally to the oliue tre to the lynde / and to the whyte popler tre / for they turn downe theyr vpper partes by and by after solstitium whyche is after Aetius / the xxv of Iuny after Pliny the xxiiij of Iuny and by that token the Husbaumen know that the solstitium of sommer is past Theophrast writeth in diuerse places that the poplers grow by water sides / and in moyst places / as the noble Poet Virgil doth also Out of Pliny THere ar thre kyndes of Populus / the whyte / the blak / and it that is called lybica / which is leste and blackest in the lefe / and moste commended of all other / for beryng of todestooles or as the Northumberlanders call them bruches The white hathe a lefe of two colores / white aboue which sayng of Pliny is not true vntill the solstitiū be past for a fore that
and the gnawyng or fretyng of the moother Mē vse also to pour it vpō the hede for the hede ach / that cummeth of hete / with rose oyle or other comon oyle It is good also to rub the hed therwith with wyne agaynste the ploukes or blaynes that ar in the hede It is good to be layd vnto rotten woundes that ar num with perched barley Out of Galene POrcellayn is of a moyst and colde complexion where vnto is ioyned a litle tartnes And therefore it dryueth bak flowynges of humores / and specially such as ar cholerik and hote Besyde that it changeth thē / and turneth them in to an other qualite / colyng wonderfully For it is in the thyrde degre or departyng rfom medicines of mean and temperat complexion / coolyng it is moyste in the second degre By reson where of it helpeth thē that haue a great burnyng heat / if it be layd vpon the stomack / and also ouer all the places about the mydriff / specially in consumyng agues which ar called hectice The iuice is much stronger then the rest of the herbe Galene in an other book that he wrote de alimentorum facultatibus / writeth that allthough som vse porcellayn as a meat / that it is but of very small norishment / and that iuice that commeth of it is moyst colde and clammy Out of Pliny POrcellayn restreyneth the poyson of venemus arrowes of the serpētes / also called hemorrhoydes / and of them that ar called presteres if it be taken in meat And if it be layde vpon the wound / it draweth the poyson out When as they can not be gotten / the sede is as good to to be vsed as it It withstandeth the vnholsommes of waters It healeth sores if it be chowed with hony and layde to And so is it good to be layde vpon yong childers hedes and vpon the nauelles that go to farr out If it be chowed raw / it helpeth the sores of the mouthe and the swellynges of the goumes It is also good for the tuth ache It is good to fasten lousse tethe It streyngtheneth the iuice / dryueth thyrst away It swageth the ach of the nek with lyke quantite of a gall and lynt sede The sede soddē with hony is good agaynst the short wynde When it is taken in sallates / it streyngtheneth the stomack Porcellayn is good to swage the ache of woundes with oyle and perched barley It softeneth the hardnes of the synewes It dryueth away the vnclene dremes of Veneri Plini writeth also that a certayn noble man by wearyng of the roote of porcellayn about hys nek / was delyuered from the vuula / wherewith he had bene longe before greuously vexed Theses and many other properties doth Plinie write that porcellayn hath Out of the Arabianes POrcellayn hurteth the eysyght / cooleth the body and stoppeth vomytynge Porcellayn pulleth down the lust of the body / it is colde in the thyrde degre / and moyste in the seconde / it mynisheth a mannis sede if he vse it muche Of the plum trees bulles trees and slo trees PRumus which is called in Greke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is named in Englshe a plum tre / in Duche ein plaumen baum / in Frenche vnprumer Plini writeth thus of the diuersite of plum trees and plumes Ingens turba prunorum c. Ther ar a great sorte of diuerse kyndes of plumbes / one with a diuerse color / an other black an other whytishe There ar other that they call barley plumbes of the folowyng of that corn There ar other of the same color later and greter They ar calleday asse plūmes of theyr vylenes There ar also som that ar blak and more commendable / the wexy and purple plumbes These kyndes of gardin plumbes if a man may trust Pliny were not knowē in Itali in Catoes tyme. Dioscorides maketh mentiō also of the wilde plūbes so doth Galene and Pliny Galene sayeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called in Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the fruite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latines calle the plum tre spinum more then Prunum as far as I haue red For I rede only mention of prunus for a plū tre in Plini For Virgil callethe the tre or bush that beareth plumes spinum in thys verse folowyng / Georgicorum iiij Eduramque pirum spinos iam pruna ferentes Palladius also in the thyrde book of husbandrie calleth the plum tre spinum / and writeth that the apple tre may be grafted in to the spinum / that is in to the plum tre But when as spinus semeth to haue the name of prickes / that tre that hath mani prickes and beareth plummes / may well be called spinus / whether it be wilde or tame Also as there ar many kyndes of gardin plummes as Pliny hath tolde vs before and experience doth teache so ar there also diuerse kyndes of wilde plumbes and plum trees Wherof I know two seuerall kyndes at the leste The one is called the bulles tre or the bullestertre / and the other is called the slo tre or the blak thorn tre The bulles tre is of two sortes / the one is remoued in to gardines / and groweth to the bygnes of a good byg plum tre The other groweth in hedges / but it neuer groweth in to the bygnes of any grete tre / but abideth betwene the bygnes of a tre and a great bushe I neuer saw in all my lyfe more plenty of thys sorte of bulles trees / then in Sōmerset shyre Thys lesse bulles tre hat mo prickes then the greater hath / wherefore it deserueth better to be called spinus for the names sake then the greter bulles tre dothe And so the slo tre hauyng yet mo prickes / then ether of bothe hathe / may better be called spinus then any of them bothe may be namely wher as with the other / it beareth plumbes in form and taste lyke to the other sortes But Cornarius holdeth contrary to the iudgement of all learned men of our age that our comon slo bushe is not spinus or prunus syluestris / because it is not a greate tre able to be grafted in For Palladius sayeth he maketh spinum to be a tre able to be grafted in But seyng that the slo bushe is not byg inough to be grafted in / it can not be spinus Thys argument doth folow very euel / for allthoughe Palladius iudgethe one spinum mete to be grafted in yet for all that he maketh not euery spinum able to be grafted in For nether he nor Virgill deny that ther is any wilde kynde of spinus which may not be grafted in for litlenes Nay it appeareth by Virgil that he taketh our slo bushe for the wild spino / whilse he writeth that the spineta do hyde the lysertes in the hete of sommer But spinetū hath not the name in thys place of Virgill /
Plini / where of I will show certayn Latin names / compare them with our Englishe peares and Duche peares / as well as I can Pyra super ba / that is to say / proud peares / are litle and sonest rype / and these are called in Cambridge / midsummer peares Falerna pira haue theyr name sayeth Pliny of drinck / because they be ful of iuice These are called in som places watery peares / or moyst peares Dolobelliana are the peares that haue the long footstalkes I remembre not how they be named in England Fauoniana are rede peares / a litle bigger then the midsummer peares Autumnalia pira / that is the peares of the autumne / whiche beginneth in the Septembre / are pleasant with a sour tast Volema wherof Virgil maketh mention in the second boke of hys Georkes or husbandry / in thys verse Crustumijs Syrijsque piris grauibusque nolemis They are named also of Cato / as Pliny writeth / sementina and mustea These because they are very heuy as Virgil sheweth / and very greate / as theyr name betokeneth / for they seme to haue theyr name of Vola / that is the holow place or loof of a mannis hand / because they be as big as a man can grype in the palm or loofe of his hande These are comenly called in English wardens / if they haue a bynding / and be rede / when as they ar rosted / and indure vnto Marche or February It appeareth that they haue theyr name of long keping / for warden in Duche / from whēce our English came / is to kepe Serotina pira / are they that hang vpon theyr mother vntil winter / and wexe rype with the frost These are partely our wardenes / and partely other long during peares / which are called in Duch winter biren / and they may be wel called in English / winter peares Pliny maketh mention of diuerse other sortes of peares / whereunto because I can not compare any of our peares / I thinke it best to passe thē ouer in silence / leste I should talke of such thinges / as I haue no perfit knowledge of The vertues of pere trees and peares out of Dioscorides THer ar many kindes of peares / al ar binding for the cause they ar vsed to be put into emplasters / which stop the course of humors that rin to any place The broth of dried peares / stop the bellye They ar euel if they be eaten fasting the iuice of the peare tre leaues / is good for the biting of venemus bestes Wild peares ar more stoppyng and byndyng / then the gardin peares ar An so lykewyse ar theyr leues more byndyng The asshes of the Peare tree / ar good agaynst the stranglyng that commeth of todestooles or mushrummes And when as wilde Peares ar sodden with toodstoles they will not hurt them that eat them Out of Aetius THe leues and twigges of the Pear tre / ar byndyng an tarte The fruite hath a certayn waterishe swetenes / where by a man may learn to know that the complexion of it is not a like / in all partes The Peares ar good for the stomack / quenche thyrste / if they be taken in meat But when as Peares ar put in to emplasters they drye and coull mesurablely / so that I know that a wound was healed there by Out of the Arabianes GReat Peares haue more streingthe or vertu then litle Peares haue / And Peares norish more then quinces do A syrope made of the iuice of Peares stoppeth the isshue of choler / or cholerik flix And they make skin in the stomack if it be gone of Peares of theyr propertie that they haue / brede the colike Therefore they that eat Peares / must drynk wyne sodden with hony and spices or any good hypocras made of wyne sugar and other warme spices Vnryp Peares ar colde and drye But rype Peares ar temperat / in a mean betwene heat and cold / or they bow a litle to coldnes Peares that ar very swete as Rasis writeth cool not / neuerthelesse they bynde all But if they be taken after meat / they help to dryue furthe it that is in the guttes / but yet for all that / they stopp afterwardes Out of the Phisiciones of Salern Adde pyro potum nux est medicina ueneno Fert pyra nostra pyrus sine uino sunt pyra uirus Cum coquis antidotum pyra sunt sed cruda uenenum Cruda grauant stomachum releuant pyra cocta grauatum Post pyra da potum post pomaque uade cacatum that is / After Peares drynk a walnut / is a remedy agaynst poyson Our peartre bryngeth furth Peares / but peares ar poyson with out wyne When as thow sethest Peares / they ar a triacle / or preseruatiue but raw / they ar poyson Raw Peares burden the stomack / but rosted or sodden / relefe lighten the stomak After Peares gyue drynk / but after apples go to the stool Out of Symeon Sethi PEares ar colde in the first degre / and drying in the second But they that ar sweter / and ripe / they haue som parte of heate and moysture But they that haue a menged nature / whether they be swete and byndyng / or sourish / or whether they haue a litle drynes / if they be taken before meat / they stopp the belly If a man fill hym self with peares of tymes / they brede the colik / but they ar good for hote stomackes The granes that ar found in Peares / of a certayn propertie that they haue / ar good for the kydnees Of the oke tre Quercus ALlthoughe quercus in Latin be the tre which is called in English an Oke tre / or in the North countre an Eike tre / in Duche ein Eichbaum / yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greke / and glans in Latin are comon vnto many mo trees then vnto the oke and to his fruite For dris is comon vnto diuers kindes of trees / as Dioscorides Theophrast beare witnes And balanos is comon to al their fruites / and so is glans comon vnto many fruites of trees / firste to the fruite of the oke and to the fruit of roboris / esculi / cerri suberis For all these trees bryng furth glandes / and are called in Latin / arbores glandifere But none of all these grow in England / sauinge only the oke whose fruite we call an Acorn / or an Eykorn / that is the corne or fruit of an Eike Som make two kindes of okes / the one that beareth only akornes / and oke apples And an other kind / that is much lesse as they saye then the comon oke / that we vse comonly to bylding of houses I haue not sene any galles in Englād growing vpon oke leues But I haue sene them growing vpon oke leues / not only in Italy / but also in very great
about In smell somthing resembling Garleke / binding / and in taste bitter It hath litle stalkes / four squared / wherevpon grow floures somthinge redishe The vertues of water Germander out of Dioscorides WAter Germander hath the pour to heate / and to make a man make water The grene herbe and also dried / if it be sodden with wine / is good to be dronken against the bitinge of serpentes / and agaynst poyson If it be taken in the quantite of two drames with mede / it is good for the gnawing of the stomack agaynst the blody flixe / and for them that can not make water easely It stoureth out also thicke and watery gear out of the brest If ye will take the drye herbe / and menge it with gardin cresses / honye and rosin / and make an electuary therof / and geue it to be leked vp of the patieÌ„t / it will helpe the olde cough / and such places as are bursten / and shronke together Thesame herbe menged with acerat or treat / made of waxe / and sayd to the myd ryf it will swage the longe heat or inflammation of theÌ„ the lame is also good for the gout / if it be layd to ether with sharpe vinegre or with water / with â—ony Also it ioyneth together woundes / and stoureth old sores and couereth them with a skin / and when it is dried / it holdeth doune the fleshe that groweth to much Men vse also to drinke the iuyce of it / pressed out for all the forsayd diseases / the scordium or water germander that groweth in Pontus or in Candy / is of most vertue and streinght Out of Galene Scordium is made of diuers both tastes and poures / for it hath som bitternes / som tartues / and som sharpnes / which is lyke vnto garleke / called scorodon / wherevpon I thinke that scordium hath hys name It stoureth out and warmeth the inward bowelles also / it driueth oute both water and also floures Also if it be dronken / it healeth the partes that are bursten and shronken together / the payn of the syde if it come of stoppinge or of colde The same Galene in hys booke de antidotis / that is of triacle or preseruatiue medicines agaynst poyson / wryteth further of scordium thus The beste scordium is brought from Candis / howbeit it is not to be mislyked that groweth in other countrees It is writen by men of great grauite / that so many dead bodyes of certayn men that were killed in a battel / as fel vpon scordiuÌ„ / namely such partes as touched it / were much lesse putrified / then the other were / som came into that beleue that scordiuÌ„ was good against the putrifying poyson of venemous beastes / and of other poysones Of the herbe called Securidaca SEcuridaca is called in Greke Edisseron or PelikinoÌ„ / I haue sene this herbe only in gardines in England / wherfore I could neuer learne any English name of it but lest it should be wtout name / I call it Axsede or Axwurt / or Axsich / because Dioscorides sayeth that the sede of securidaca is lyke vnto a two edged axe The description of Securidaca out of Dioscorides Securidaca is a litle bushe hauinge leaues lyke a ciche / called in Latin Cicer / coddes lyke vnto litle hornes / wherin is rede sede / lyke vnto a two edged axe / whervpon it hath the name the sede is in tast bitter / but dronkeÌ„ it is pleasant to the stomack / I haue sene ij kindes of Axwurt / both wyth the leaues of a Ciche But the one grewe wilde in Germanye / and had coddes very litle / vowed in an other kinde wyth coddes so bowyng inwarde / that they might be compared vnto a bowe of ayock / this kind dyd I neuer se / but in gardins Dioscorides writeth that it groweth amoÌ„gest the barly wheat The nature of Securidaca Dioscorides writeth that although it be better in tast / yet it is pleasant vnto the stomack / that it is put into triacles / preseruatiues Of other good properties / he maketh no further mention Galene writeth besyde these properties / that it openeth the stopping of the inward partes / and that all the buddes and braunches do thesame Out of Aetius The sede of Axsich is most pleasant to the stomack / is most fit for all the inward bowelles In hoter complexions / the sede of Axwurt ought to be menged with the emplasters / that are made for the hardnes of the milt Howbeit also in colde complexiones / and in all other it is very excellent Of Housleke Sedum magnum Sedum foemina Sedum tertium genus Sedum minus SEdum is called also in Latin Semperuiuum / and in Greke Aeizoon There are iiij kindes of semperuiuum the fyrste kinde is called in Latin Sedum magnum / in Greke Aeizoon mega / in English Housleke / and of som Singren / but it ought better to be called Aygrene / in Duche it is called Gros hauswurtz / in French Iubarb The seconde kinde is called in English / thrift stone crop / in Latin Sedum minus The thyrde kinde is called of som late wryters Vermicularis / in English Mous tayle or litle stone crop / and in Duche Maurpfeffer The description of the kindes of Semperuiuum Housleke hath the name of Semperuiuum in Latin / and of Aeizoon in Greke / the leaues are grene wherfore me thynke that Aygrene as I sayed before / is a better name for it then Singrene The fyrst or great kinde hath a stalk a cubit hygh or hygher / as thycke as your thumb / fatt / fayre grene / hauinge litle cuttinges in it as Tithimalus characias hath the leaues are fatt / or thyck / of the bignes of a mannes thumb / at the poynt lyke a tonge The nethermoste leaues lye wyth there bellyes vpward / and the poyntes dounwarde but they that are toward the top / beyng drawen together / resemble a circle with the figure of an eye It groweth in mountaynes / and hylly places / som vse to set it vpon theyr houses But the lesse Semperuiuum / that we call thrift or great stone crop / groweth in walles / rockes / mudwalles / and shaddowy diches / it hath manye stalkes comming from one root / small / full of rounde leaues / fat and sharpe in the ende / it bringeth furth a stalk in the middes a span long / whyche hath a bushye and shaddowy top / and small grene floures There semeth to be a thyrde kinde of Aygrene / som call it Porcellayne / or Teliphium / the Romaynes call it Illicibram / it hath leaues thycker and rough drawyng nere vnto the leaues of Porcellayn / thys kind groweth in rockes The vertues of the kindes of aygrene THe great kinde hath a cooling nature and binding the leaues by them selues / and layd to wyth perched barley mele / are good for the
let it growe so long / that it maye crepe vpon the ground / and so will not suffer it to take roote It is also lyke it that Pliny calleth the small kind of tyme / that is comon in our gardines in Englande / serpillum hortense / and if that be his meaninge / then is hys opinion very true / for that neuer crepeth And that there are two kyndes of tyme / and not one alone as som holde / wherof Pliny may call the one serpillum hortense / these wordes of Dioscorides in Epitimo beare wytnes Epithymum is the floure of an harder thyme / and lyke vnto sauery Plinye also maketh two kindes of thyme / but he diuideth them not as Dioscorides doth / but he diuideth the one into the whyter / and the other into the blacker / where as Dioscorides diuideth thys thymes into the harder / whych is greater / and into the softer and lesse kinde / wherefore the lesse and softer kinde may be the gardine serpillum of Pliny / no kinde of Plinyes thymes And these do I saye rather by the waye of serching for the truth / then for any determination / leuing the mater to the iudgemente of the learned and discret reader Serpillum that is in gardines / is called in the moste parte in Englande creping thyme / and about Charde pulimountayn It that is abroade in the feldes / is called wilde thyme in English / and in Duche Quendel / in Nether land / vnser lieuer frawen betstro / in Frenche du Serpolet / in Italian serpillo / in Spanish / serpolho The vertues of wilde thyme or rinning thyme RInning thyme dronken / bringeth doun a womans sikenes / and dryueth furth water It is also good for the gnawyng and wringing in the bellye / for bursten places and drawen together / against the inflammationes of the lyuer / and against serpentes / both dronken and also layd to wythout The same sodden wyth vinegre / and afterward mixed with rose oyle / will swage the head ache / of the broth be poured vpon the head It is meruelous good / for the forgetfull euell called of som letharge / and for the phrenesye The iuyce of it dronken in the quantite of iiij drammes / wyth vinegre / stoppeth the vomiting of blood Serpillū is more then hote in the seconde degre a greate deale I take it to be hote in the thyrde degre Of Melilote or Italian Melilote SErta campana or Sertula campana / is named in Greke Melilotos / but howe it is called in Englishe / I can not tell / for I neuer sawe it in England / but it may be called right melilote / or Italian melilote / som Duche men though it grow no more in Duch land / then it doth in England / call it in Duche / Welsch steynklee I haue sene two kindes of Melilote / where of the one came out of Italy / whych I reken was the true Melilote / and an other kinde whych came out of Spayn / whych Matthiolus maketh his Scorpioides / wyth sede in longe hornes / throw the whych a man myght se / how euery sede dyd lye Of Melilote out of Dioscorides THe best Melilote groweth about Athenes / and in Cisik / and Chalcedonia / and it resembleth saffron / is well smelling It groweth also in Campania / aboute Nola / of the color of a quince / but of a weyk smell I fynde no larger description of melilote in Dioscorides / wherefore we muste gather the description by other meanes / then by hys description It doth appeare by the name of Melilote / that it is a kinde of Lotus / and all the kindes of Lotus haue thre leaues together / lyke a clauer / where vpon I gather that melilote ought to haue leaues lyke to clauer or trifoly Dioscorides also intreatinge of Ligustrum or appennine louage maketh the leaues of it lyke vnto the leaues of melilote But the ligusticum hath leaues speciallye them that are outermoste / thre growynge together lyke vnto a clauer or trifolye / but longer / whereby and by the former description / a man may playnely gather / that the comon herbe that is vsed for melilote / is not the ryght melilote For the ryghte melilote must haue longe leaues lyke Ligustik / whyche the comon melilote hath not / and also it must resemble saffron / and haue a good smell / whyche propertyes / because they can not be founde in the comon melilote / therefore it can not be the ryghte melilote / but a kynde of wilde lotus / whereof Theophrast maketh manye kindes The vertues of Melilote MElilote hath a poure to bynde together / and to soften euery inflammation / speciallye about the eyes / the mother / the fundament and stones / with maluasey / and so layed to / somtyme there muste be menged withall / the yolke of an egge rosted / or the mele of fenelgreke / or lintsede / or floure / or the heades of poppy / or succory / or endiue sodden in water / it healeth newe Meliceridas / that is impostemes / hauynge wythin them an humor lyke hony It healeth also the rinninge sores of the head / if it be layed to wyth the earth of Cio / and wyne / or wyth a galle / both sodden wyth wyne / and also raw / layd to wyth any of the fornamed / it swageth the ache of the stomack The rawe iuyce pressed oute and poured in wyth maluasey / healeth the ache of the eares It healeth also the head ache if it be menged wyth vinegre and rose oyle / and sprenckled vpon the head Galene wryteth that melilote is of a mixed qualite / and that it is somthyng byndynge / and that it digesteth therewyth / and maketh rype / and that the substance of it is more hote then colde Of the herbe called Sesamum SEsamum is not described of Dioscorides / therfore many erre about the knowledge of it I wil therfore gather as much as I cā out of other old autores / wherby it may here after be serched better found out and more perfitly knowen Theophrast rekeneth milium panicum sesamam together / in the viij boke and fyrst chapter / and in the iij. chapter / and many other places Columella where as he speaketh of the sowyng of milium and panicum / immediatlye maketh mention also of sesama as a thyng / lyke one to an other Pliny in diuerse places doth the same / as in the xviij boke and vij chapter / and in the xxij boke / xxv chapter / and Dioscorides by and by after milium and panicum writeth of sesama / as of a thyng lyke vnto them / wherevpon a man may gather that there is greate lykenes betwene milium panicum and sesama Theophrast lib. viij cap. iij. writeth the sesama hath such a stalke as the ferula hath / whiche is holowe / and lyke vnto a homlok / and in the v.
chapter he sayeth / that ther is one kinde of sesama that is whyte / he wryteth also that no beast will eat sesama when it is grene / because it is so bitter Pliny also in the xviij boke vij chapter writeth / that sesama hath a stalk lyke ferula / and that the sedeÌ„ of it is kept in litle vesselles / and in the x. chapter of the same boke he wryteth the sesama was fetched out of Iude / and that the sede of it serueth to make oyle of / and that the chaff of milium panicum and sesama / is called Apluda And as touching the leaues / Pliny sayeth that sesama hath leaues blood rede I thynke that where as there are two herbes / that are nowe taken for sesama / nether of them haue all these properties that Theophrast and Pliny geue vnto sesama The fyrst herbe whych is of long time hath ben taken for sesama / hath sedes in litle vesselles / and the sedes are full of oyle / but the leaues and stalke are not lyke sesama / nether is the hole herbe lyke vnto milium or panicum Thys herbe is liuely set furth in Matthiolus and in Hieronymus Bock It is called in Duch / flackes totter / the leaues ar lyke a brode arrow head / if the endes were not croked and to smal / but they are not rede but grene / and the sede is redishe yelow It groweth in Germany commonly amongest flachs / and men fede byrdes wyth the sede of it there / namelye syskennes / and linnettes / and golde finches / and byrdes of Canaria But for the causes aboue rehersed / it can not be sesama of the old wryters The other kinde of herbe / whych is moste commonly taken for the right and true sesama / haue I also sene growyng as well as the former kinde It hath leaues lyke basil / and a yelowish rede sede / all full of oyle It is well set oute in the seconde edition of Matthiolus / but nether the leues of it / nether the stalke / nether anye lykenes that it hath wyth panicum or milium do agre wyth the markes that Theophrast and Pliny do geue vnto theyr sesama / wherefore I can not se how ether of these can be the ryghte sesama of the olde wryters / allthough the sede of them both be verye oylishe / and in many thynges will serue in the stede of the ryght sesama The vertues of Sesama SEsama whyche maye be called in English oyle sede / is euell for the stomack / and maketh ones breth stinke / when it sticketh in the teth while it is in eating / but if it be layed to / it dryueth away the grosnes of the synewes / and it helpeth brused eares / inflammationes / burnt places / the paynes of the ioyntes / and the biting of the serpent / called cerastes Wyth rose oyle it swageth the head ache that commeth of heat The herbe sodden in wyne / doth thesame It is most fit for the inflammaciones and ache of the eyes / there oyle made of it / whyche the Egyptianes vse Of Siler mountayn SEseli massiliense is named of the Apothecaries siler montanum / it may be called in English siler mountayn Dioscorides describeth it thus Seseli of Massilia hath leaues lyke vnto fenell / but grosser and a bigger stalke also / and a spokye top lyke vnto dill / wherein is long â—ede couered / and byting streyght way after it is eateÌ„ The rote is long and well smellinge The vertues of Siler mountayn THe roote and the sede haue an hote poure / if they be dronken / they heale the stranguriam / and the shorte winde / they are also good for the frangling of the mother / and for the falling siknes / they dryue out floures / and also the byrth / and they are good for all inward diseases / and they heal an old cough The sede dronken wyth wyne / helpeth digestion / and taketh awaye the gnawyng of the bellye And it is good for agues / wherein a man is both hote and colde at one tyme. It is good to be dronken wyth wyne and pepper agaynst the coldnes in a iorney It is also geuen to gotes in drink / and to other beastes also to make them bring furth more easely Of Hartis wart SEseli Ethiopicum groweth in diuerse partes of hyghe Germanye / where I haue sene it both grene and drye / and som call it hartzwurt / but I neuer sawe it in Englande / wherefore we maye call it Hartwurt / wyth the Duche men / vntyll we fynde a better name for it It hath leaues lyke Yuy / but lesser / and longe of the fashon of Wodbinde leaues It is a great bushye herbe / or a black bushe as my Greke texte hath / for it hath melas / and not megas / and it groweth two cubites hygh / wherein are braunches two spannes long / and a top lyke dyll / the sede is black / thyck as wheat / but more byting and better smelling / and verye pleasant SEseli Peloponense hath leaues lyke vnto Homlok / but broder and grosser / or thycker It hath a greater stalke then it of Massilia / of lykenes of ferula And in the ouermoste parte of it / is a spokye top / wherein is broder sede / and thycker / and well smelling It groweth in rough places / in moyst places / an in hygh places / and also in Yda / it hath the same vertue wyth the other The figure that Matthiolus setteth out / for seseli Peloponnense / in my iudgement agreeth not wyth the description of Dioscorides for the leaues of hys herbe / in the figure / are not lyke homloke / nether in one poynte nor other The leaues of it that I saw growyng about Weissenburg in hygh Germany is somthinge lyke persely / wherefore som haue taken it for petroselino or apio montano / the roote is very long and great / and of a strong smell / but not vtterly vnpleasant Of the thre kindes of Sideritis SIderitis whyche is called of some Heraclea / is an herbe whyche hath leaues lyke vnto horehound / but longer drawyng nere vnto the lykenes of sage or an oke / but lesser and rougher it hath four-squared stalkes a span hygh / or hygher / not vnpleasant in tast / and after a maner somthyng binding / in them are round thynges lyke whorles / certayn spaces goyng betwene as horehound hath / and ther in is black sede It groweth in places somthyng rockye Thys herbe that Dioscorides describeth here / groweth in the old walles of Colon / and also about the feldes of Wormes / not far from the harnes mylles Sideritis prima It hath longe small indented leaues / with a good smell And I suppose that Fuchsius describeth the same herbe / and although Matthiolus doth reproue Fuchsius in taking of thys herbe for the fyrst kinde of Sideritis / yet he setteth one for the fyrst
kinde whych is much lesse agreyng wyth the description of Dioscorides / then it that Fuchsius setteth furth For except I be far begyled / as I thinke I am not he setteth out for the fyrst kinde of Sideritis / marrubium palustre Tragi / that is water horehound That herbe groweth alwayes about water sydes / and it hath a stinking smell of garleke / it is a cubit hygh / and for the moste parte hygher / wherfore it can not be the fyrste kinde of Sideritis / whyche groweth in rockye groundes / and hath a stalke but a span long / or not muche aboue Thys kinde is called in Duche Glitkraut / it may be called in English Yronwurt or Rock sage The second kind hath braunches two cubites hygh / but small It hath many leaues in long footstalkes / lyke vnto the leaues of a brake / and in the ouer parte clouen of eche syde Out of the hyghest winges come furth certeyn outgrowynges / long and small / and in the hygh top of al / representing a rounde bowle / hauinge a rough heade / wherein is sede / lyke the sede of a bete / but rounder and harder I haue sene no herbe more agreyng vnto thys description / then the herbe that groweth in sennes / called of som Osmunda / but I am afrayd that the top of it and the sede will not suffer it to be Sideritim secundam Of the thyrde kinde of Sideritis THe thyrd kinde groweth in walles and wyneyardes / and it hath many leaues / commyng from one roote lyke vnto the leaues of Coriander / about litle stalkes / beyng a span hygh / smoth / tendre / and somthyng whytish It hath rede floures / in taste bitter and clammye If herbe Robert had had whyte floures as it hath rede / it myghte haue well ben the thyrde kinde of Sideritis But the other kinde that hath the whytish stalkes / after my iudgement is the thyrde kynde / whyche maye be called in Englishe Coriandre wounde wede The vertues of the kindes of Sideritis The leaues of the fyrste kinde layd to / do bynde woundes together / and defende them from inflammation The leaues of the seconde kynde is also good for woundes The thyrde kinde is also good for blodye and greue woundes Of the Carob tre Siliqua THe fruyte of the tre / that is called in Greke Keratonia / is named in Greke Keration / in Latin Siliqua / of the later Grecianes Xyloceraton / in Italian Carobe / in Frenche Carouge / in Spanishe Farobas / in Duch sant Iohans brot but howe that it is named in Englishe / I can not tell / for I neuer sawe it in England / yet I haue had the tre of it / growing in my gardin at Colon in Germanye / and I haue sene the fruyt in diuerse places of Italy / where as it is called Carobe Yet allthough thys fruyte be not / nether hath ben in England that I haue heard of / for all that all the interpretours that haue interpreted the new Testament / haue Englished siliquas coddes / not wythout a greate error For siliqua allthough it signifye som tyme a cod or an huske of beanes or peasen / or suche other like pulse / yet it signifieth in the xv of Luke / the fruyte of a tre / and not simply a cod or a huske wythoute anye addition / whereof it is a cod / for it is named in Greke of Luke Keration The tre is a talle tre / and it hath leaues in suche ordre as the asshen leaues growe in / but they are muche rounder and shorter / and in dede the braunche of the Carob tre is lykest vnto a bean / both in fruyt and leaues of any tre or pulse that I know The fruyt is lyke a longe flat beane / in color rede / in taste when it is ripe and dryed / swete / but vnpleasant whylse it is grene These thynges beynge so / it were better to Englishe siliquas / Carob coddes / then coddes alone The tre may be named in Englishe a Carob tre / and the fruyt a Carob / or the tre maye be named a bean tre / and the fruyt a Carob beane If any man can fynde any better or fitter name / I shal be wel content there wyth The vertues of the Carob FReshe and grene Carobes are euell for the stomack / but they louse the bellye the same dried / stop the belly / and become better for the stomack They prouoke also vrine / and specially suche as are layd vp in the stones of grapes Out of Galene The Carob beane ingendreth but a noughty iuyce / and it is full of wod / by reason whereof it must nedes be hard of digestion / and thys is an euell propertye that it hath / that it will not lightlye go doune Wherefore it were better that they were no more brought from the East countrees / where as they grow hyther into thys countre He wryteth also The carob tre called Cerotonia / is of a binding and drying nature / as the fruyte is / whych is called Ceratium / and it hath som swetenes in it The carob hath one thyng lyke vnto a chirrye / for whylse it is grene / it louseth the bellye more / and when it is dryed it stoppeth the bellye more / because the moysture is spent awaye / and it that is of a grosse substance / doth onlye remayne Of Mustarde Sinapi primum genus Sinapi hortense MVstarde is nether diuided into kindes / nether described of Dioscorides / because it was so well knowen in hys tyme. And now it is so well knowen / that it nedeth but a shorte description / whiche is metely well set furth in Pliny For he in the xix boke and viij chapter writeth thus of mustarde Mustarde is of thre kindes / whereof one kinde is verye small The other kinde hath leaues lyke a rape The thyrde kind hath leaues lyke rocket Thys is the diuision ioyned wyth a shorte description There maye be made an other diuision of mustarde by the sede / wherof one kynde is whyte / and the other blackish broune or redish It that hath the whyte sede / is muche shorter / then the other kindes that haue the broun sede It that groweth in the gardin / groweth vnto a greate hyght / and it hath verye manye and longe braunches It that groweth in the corne in Somersetshyre / a litle from Glassenberrye / is muche shorter then the gardine mustarde is / but nothynge behynde it in biting and sharpnes Mustarde is named in Greke / Napi or sinepi / or sinapi in Englishe / Frenche / and Lowe duche mostarde / in hygh Duche Senffe / in Latin Sinapi or Sinapis The vertues of Mustarde THe best mustard is it that is not wethered nor wrincled / and is rede and full growen / and when it is broken / it is grene within / and as it were ful of iuyce
of / but not nere hand / in colour whyte / and in sauour pleasant After that the floures are fallen / ther foloweth a sede like vnto a litle smale wert / ending into thre sharpe toppes The roote is longe and full of litle tasselles like thredes / black withoute / within brounishe / of a stinking smelle / of a bitter and binding taste This herbe is called of some Vlmaria / and the whole forme of it is like vnto the herbe which is called in Duche Geißbardt / which is Barba capri The vertues of this herbe after the Practitioners of Germanye THE roote of this herbe sodden in wine and honye / and dronken / loseth the bellye and draweth furth choler It is good for the bloody flixe if it be dronken when it is sodden in read wine The weomen cookes in the spring time vse to gather this herbe / and put it in there potages and mooses with other pot herbes Beware that the sede of it be not eaten / for it maketh the head ake The same practitioners of Germanye do affirme that the herbe brused layd to with mede dryueth awaye swellinges / and draweth furth shiuers / and also dartes and arrow heades Of Burnet Sanguisorbia THE herbe that is named in Englishe Burnet / is called of some comon writers Pimpinella / and of other Pimpinella Italica / to put a difference betwene it and Pimpinellam Germanicam / some of the finer sort hold that this herbe ought to be called Bipennula or Bipinnula / because there growe ouer thwart the leafe two and two litle leues like vnto the winges of birdes / standing out as the bird setteth her winges out / when she intendeth to flye Some wold it shuld be called Pampinella / and Fuchsius sayth that it ought to be called Sangui sorba / the Duch men call it Hergottes bertlin / that is Gods litle berde / because of the color that it hath in the toppe This herbe is so wel knowen in al places of England by the name of Burnet / that I should but lese my laboure / if I shoulde describe it / Therfore I wil go to the vertues of it The vertues of Burnet DIuers of the Practitioners of Germanye do holde that this herbe is good to staunche blood both in the bloody flixe / and also in the issue of bloode / that weomen haue oute of measure / some holde that that herbe holden alone in ones hand / is good for the same The truth is that this herbe is of a binding nature / and rather cold then hote / and therefore it is fit for the purposes aboue rehersed / speciallye the roote and the sede The leafe is pleasant both in taste and in smelle / and is good to be put both in wine / bere and ale / for them that are disposed muche to anye reume or flixe in the bodye / and in my iudgement the vse of it is good both within and without against an hote running goute / namely the leues Of Duch Pimpinell THEre is an other herbe called in Duche Bibernel / and of the Duche Herbaries Pimpinella Germanica and it is muche lyke in forme of the leaues vnto oure Burnet / but it is yelower a great deale / and rougher It hath a white floure in the toppe The sede of it is lyke vnto Persely sede The herbe is hote at the lest in the third degre / both the roote and the sede Some call this herbe Saxifrage / because it groweth amongest stones in many places / and cleueth them / and some call it Saxifrage / for the propertye that it hath in breakinge of the stone in a mannis bodye / and it deserueth much better the name of Saxifrage / then our English Saxifrage doth It groweth commonlye in Englande in bankes of eche syde of holowe hygh wayes / and in manye medowes also / and in verye great plentye The vertues of this herbe THE newe writers holde that this herbe is good against the pestilence to be taken in fastinge in the morninge / and as I sayde before / it is good to breake the stone The Germanes do holde that the rote of this herbe dryed / is so hote that it maye be vsed for pepper / which I would not denye if it were so pleasaunt as it is medicinable The rootes maye be sodden and condited in sugar / to the great profit of them that haue colde stomaches / and are troubled with tough fleme / the colike and the stone The roote of Pimpinel any wayes taken in / is good against any kind of poyson / against gnawinges in the bellye / which come of a colde cause And it is good for to bringe doune weomen their sicknes The sede will do al these thinges / therfore it were good that comfittes should be made thereof They saye also that the water of it dronken thre or foure dayes / in the quantite of thre or foure sponefulles / is good for the same purposes / but I geue more credite to the roote and the sede / except the water were better stilled / then it is here in England Of the herbe called of the later writers Bistorta BIstorta is called in some places of England Astrologia / and in some places Pationes / but there is no general name for it It maye be called ether of the name twise writhen / or els docke Bistorte I know no herbe in all these part of Europa / where as I haue bene / that agreeth better with the description vertues of Britannica then Bistorta doth / howbeit the rote agreeth not with the description of Dioscorides / and therfore I haue set it amongest the herbes of the newe writers Yet not withstanding I do vehemently suspect / that it is Britannica of Plinye / whereof is made mention in the booke of Pliny de naturali historia where he writeth that the souldiers of the Romaynes come into Freiceland / and that they dranke two yeare of one freshe springe / for there were no mo fresh springes / as he saith in all the hole countre / and that had suche a propertie that al that dranke of it within two yere / had the disease whiche is called scelotirbe / and stomocace / that is the losing of the knees and the disease of the mouth / for they waxed lame in their knees / and al their teth waxed loose / which later named parte of the disease many in Freiselande haue at this present houre / and when I was the Erle of Emdens Phisitian / whiche is the Lord of East Freseland / diuers asked me councell for that disease / and by the helpe of God / I did heale them / and perceiued that it was the verye same disease that Plinye spake of / wherefore although I had learned by experience to heale the disease with other herbes / yet because that Pliny wrote that the inhabitores of Freseland taught the Romaines to heale their disease with an herbe called
of it be eaten with the yolke of an egge / it worketh the same effect / and the pouder doth the same thinge wounderfullye receyued in wyne And there are credit worthy witnesses aliue / as yet that haue tryed this in them selues / which could not rede without spectacles and afterward red a small text without spectacles If the wine be to stronge / tempre it with fenel water or with sugar / Thus Arnoldus in his boke of wines Tragus writeth that he hath proued that it is good for the iaundes / and I gather by the bitternes and heat that it hath measurable / that it is good against all diseases that come of the stopping of the milt or liuer / or any other parte / and that it is good to cut in peces tough fleme and other grosse humores Of Filipendula Oenanthe FIlipendula is named in Englishe also Filipendula / that is hanging by a threde / for the knobbye rootes hange by small thinges lyke thredes It is called in Duche Rotten steinbrech It is somthinge lyke vnto Burnet / but the leaues are lesse / and it resembleth also the greater kinde of Yarrow / but the leaues are greater / the rootes are manye litle knobbes like longe nuttes / hanginge vpon small thinges like thredes The stalke is longe and smalle / the floures are whyte and of a pleasant smell / not vnlyke vnto the floures of Medowurt The vertues of Filipendula FIlipendula dryueth furth water / and is good for the strangurion / and for the stone in the kidneis / and the ache therein The same as the later writers hold / driueth awaye the windines of the stomach / and that it is good for them that are shortwinded / and for al diseases that rise of cold Some hold also that the pouder of the rotes is good for the falling sicknes Of the herbe called Galega GAlega is named in Italian about Ferraria also Regalicum / in other places Ruta capraria It groweth in great plentye aboute Ferraria about the banke of the noble flood Padus It groweth high vp with leaues like Licores Galega siue Ruta capraria The vertues THE newe writers do hold that Galega is good against the pestilence and against all venome and poyson / and bitinge or prickinge of venemous beastes The iuyce of the herbe hath the same vertue / and it is good to be layde emplasterwyse vpon the same wounded and hurt places Some write that an vnce and a halfe of it is good to be geuen for them that haue the falling sicknes I neuer sawe this herbe growinge in anye place but in gardines / sauinge onlye in Italye Of Gratiola Gratiola I Haue not sene Gratiolam growing in England / sauing two rootes or thre that I set out of Brabant / gaue vnto maister Riche and maister Morgan Apotecaries of London Wherefore I knowe no Englishe name for it But it maye be called herbe Gratius / or horse werye / or werye horse / because when it is eaten of horses / it fainteth them and maketh them wery / for the which cause it is called in Italiā Stanka cauallo The herbe groweth in moyst grondes / as about Wormes in the close that is hard by the water side beyond the bridge / where as my seruantes gathered an hole wallat ful at one tyme. The herbe is somtyme two spannes longe in Germanye when it groweth by water sydes The leaues are not lyke the leaues of hisope as Matthiolus writeth / but much bigger and longer / and of an other coloure that is more whytish grene / and not so blackishe grene as hisope is About the edges of the leaues stand out litle certaine thinges like teth / namely about the endes of the leaues / the floures grow out of a long fote stalke / in figure long / in colour whitish / with some pece purplish / within a litle yelowish The leaues growe wing-wise by coples one against an other The rotes of it that groweth in Germany / are not like it that Matthiolus setteth furth / for they are more creping in the ground along / and out of these creping rootes springe out many litle stalkes / ye maye cut the crepinge roote into manye peces / and euery one of them wil growe and bring furth stalkes / leaues and floures The hole herbe is verye bitter The vertues and complexion of the Diet woode THis herbe is good for a dropsey / for it purgeth water fleme and choler strongly / for two scruples will purge a metely strong body The herbe brused and layd to a wound as Matthiolus writeth / healeth it verye quickely and spedely Of the wodde called Guiacum GViacum is otherwise called Lignum sanctum that is holy wode Some call it the Diet woode / because they that kepe a Diet for the Frenche poxe / or anye other disease hardly curable / most commonlye drinke the broth of this woode It groweth not in Europa but in Inde and in Taprobana and Iaua / and in diuerse Ilandes of Inde The lerned men as Manardus and other of oure tyme / make thre sortes of the Diet woode The first kinde is verye bigge / and in the middes / in the in most parte it appereth blacke / and wtoute it is pale or reddishe The seconde kinde is muche lesse / and the blacke within muche lesse The thirde kinde whiche is properlye called the holye woode / is lesse then all the other / and it is white both within and withoute / and this is more smellinge and bitinge then the other These thre sortes are not thre diuerse trees in kinde / but all one kinde of tree / but they differ in partes and age The great massy part with so much blacke / is the bole or bodye of the tre The seconde kinde are the bigger braunches the third kind is ether a yong tre / or the small bonghes of the old tre The best is it that is al whyte / so that it be freshe and not iuyceles and wythered The seconde beneth that in goodnes is it that is lesse / and hath lesse black then the greatest The vilest of all thre is that / which is greatest of al the other / and hath most black in it The best barcke is that which is taken of the best wode Guiacum is set oute of diuerse places / as oute of Callecute / Iaua the learned sorte holde that it is beste that commeth out of East Inde / because it is hote of subtile partes / and hath muche rosin in it The vertues of Gratiola or herbe Gratius GViacum dryeth vp / maketh fyne and subtil / melteth or resolueth / scoureth away / and prouoketh sweat / and by the reason of his rosin / withstandeth putrefaction or rottennes of humores in the bodye It is knowen that the broth of Guiacum is good for the French poxe / for the gout that is not depely rooted / for the diseases of the milt and liuer It is good for
broth or iuyce of it / it wil driue away the inflammationes or hote burninges of Vuula / squinansy and of the iawes The pouder is good for old sores / for it drieth them vp and healeth them quickly Hierom Bock geueth almoste all the fornamed vertues vnto the distilled water of the herbe / and sayth also that it is good for the stomach and mother / and other partes that haue the skinne of / and brede gnawinges in a mannis body But I set more by the iuyce / broth / and pouder of the herbes / then I do by their waters Of the roote called Setwal / or Zedoaria I Haue not yet spoken with anye man / nether rede any mannis booke of this age / that hath sene Setwal grene / wherefore we can not describe it But because we haue the roote / we can iudge somthinge of it both by taste and the workinge of it / and by bokes of elder writers that haue written of it The vertues of Setwal out of the Arabianes SEtwal or Zedoaria is of a certein natural propertye and not elemental / maketh a man fat / and withstandeth poyson and venome / and therfore it is good against napellū / and many vse to put it into diuerse kindes of triacles And if a man eat of it after vnyons and garleke / it taketh the smell of them awaye / as it taketh also the smell of wine awaye It breaketh grosse winde / and healeth the bytinges of venemous beastes / and it stoppeth the belly It resolueth or melteth awaye grosse empostemes and swellinges / and speciallye them that are in the mother It stoppeth perbreakinge / and is good for a windye colyke Of Rosa solis ROsa solis is a litle small herbe that groweth in mossey groundes and in fennes and watery mores with a brode hory thinge in the toppe / it groweth not aboue the height of thre or foure fingers height The vertues of Rosa solis OVR English men now adayes set very muche by it / and holde that it is good for consumptious and swouning / and faintnes of the harte / but I haue no sure operience of this / nether haue I red of anye olde writer what vertues it hath / wherefore I dare promise nothing of it Of the Coweslippe A Coweslippe is named in the Herbaries Apothecaries Latin herba paralysis there are two kindes of them / the one is redder yelow then the other / the other paler / they differ also in smel / for the one smelleth better then the other / the one is called in the West contre of some a Cowislip / the other an Oxislip / they are both call in Cambridge shyre Pagles There are some grene Cowislippes some dubbel / tripel and quadrupel that grow in gardines / but they differ not in kinde from the other / of the same kinde is our prinrose / which I neuer saw grow in any place / sauing in England East Freseland ij cold contrees / be like it wil not grow in hote countrees / and of al them that hither to hath written of herbes / no man that I do remember hath mention of this kind / nether set out anye figure of it / sauing only Rembertus / and a Barnet of Swigerlandt / in the boke called the garden of Germanes / who writeth that it groweth in the toppe of a cold mountayne in his countrey Ruellius calleth our two kind of Cowislip Verbascum and Phlomides but Matthiolus bringeth reasones against him that they are not Phlomides he saith that our Cowislip is called in Latin Primula veris which name we geue more iustly to oure prinrose / which commeth furth a great while before the Cowislip The Germanes call the Cowislip Schlussel blumen / because they haue a great sort of floures like keyes / growing together in the top of the littel stalke The vertues of Cowislip out of Tragus / Fuchsius / and Matthiolus Tragus THE floures of Cowislip conserued in sugar / and also the stilled water ther of / are very good for thē that are weke very low brought by consumption of long sicknes / also for them that haue the hole palsey / and for them that sounde oft / they saye that this is knowen by experience / it hath a singuler property to comfort the hart The floures and leaues of Cowislip brused and layde to / are good against the bitings of venemous beastes / they swage swellinges / they heale also woundes / both if the water be poured vpon them / and also if the leafe be brused laid vpon them Tragus sayth that the water of Cowislippes layde to a mannis heade / swageth the ache thereof / if it come of a hote cause / that he saith to be knowen by experience Some weomen springkle the floures of Cowislip with whyte wine / and after still it and washe their faces with that water to driue wrinkles away / to make them fayre in the eyes of the worlde rather then in the eyes of God / whom they are not afrayd to offende with the scluttishnes / filthines / and foulnes of the soule Fuchsius THE later writers geue these properties to the two kindes of Cowislip / they are good to be broken brused / laid to the ioyntes that ake / the stoppinge of the bladder and kidneis is taken away by the vsing of the rootes of these The iuyce of these herbes is good to be takē in / and also to be layd with out vpon broken bones / and them that are out of ioynt / they bind very littel / and they are bitter / and a littel byting in taste / by which properties they can not fully bringe to passe that the practitioners saye they can do without the helpe of other herbes / in heling of bone and displaced membres / yet they may wel inough drye vp and scoure away / which properties Galen geueth vnto his Verbasculis The Herbaries of oure time saye that they are hote and dry / and the weomen that would be fayre / and labor to encrease their bewtie / washe their faces with the iuyce of the floures of them Matthiolus THE later writers holde that this herbe hath the vertue to swage the ache of the iointes / they do also commend the broth of the rotes to be good for the stone of the kidney also of the bladder / They saye also that the iuyce of them both dronken inwardly / layd to without / is good for broken bones suche as are out of ioynt / they say also that if they be soddē with sage mergerum / their broth is good against the cold diseases of the sinewes the brayne / wherfore they are very good to be geuen to be dronken vnto them that haue the palsey / or any num or tremble member The water of the floures of Cowislippes is good to be dronken of them that sound / when as the body is very feble weke / for as the experimentores do saye they comfort the hart wonderfully / the floures are good to be layd to the striken of scorpiones feldspiders / for they easelye scatter awaye the swellinges dissolue them The leues or the floures brused / will heale woundes / the stilled water that is out / if the hole herbe is good for the heade ache / Matthiolus confirmeth it that Tragus and Fuchsius wrote before / concerning the propertie that Cowlip water hath to make faire faces Of the Holye tre THE tre which is called commonly in England Holy / in some places Holme / and in other places Huluer / is iudged to be Aquifolium in Latin or Agrifolium of Theophrastus to be named Crateagonon and of some Paliurus whatsoeuer men iudge it to be / it is not certenelye knowen as yet what it is / but because it hath one good propertye in Phisicke / I will not passe ouer it wtout making of some mention of it The vertues THE broth of the barkes of the roote are very good to be sodden for them that haue had their iointes or members out of ioynte / and haue waxed hard thereafter For it softneth and resolueth / and driueth awaye swellinges / sodoreth together broken bones Other properties that this tre hath / I know none / sauing that the barke is good to make byrd lime of / and the bowes are good to swepe kynyes withal / and the stades are good baytes to entyse felde fares to come to lymeroddes / when as all other berries are eaten vp in the woode / this tre is called in Duche Wald distelen / and Stech palmen If any be desyrous to make byrd lime of the barkes / they may lerne it of me which haue made it oft tymes after this manner About Midsommer I pill of the barkes / and strayt way seth them a good while / and then I pull of the outtermost rind / and lay them in a moyst corner / or digge them in the earth or a dunghill / and within eight or ten dayes / I take them out agayne / and bray them or bete them in a morter as smal as is possible / and then I washe them in a running streame / or if I can not come by that in other cold water vntill the vnbeaten peces of the barkes be fallen awaye / and the reste become lyme FINIS
bigger then pepper / swete and pleasant in meate / easy for the stomake Of these autors we do gather / that there are two kindes of Lotus / of the which I haue sene but the one kinde / and that in Clauenna a litle cytie / as we enter in at the foote of the mountaines / besyde an old castel The Vertues of Lotus THE berryes stoppe the bellye / the broth of the shauinges or shyuers of thys woode / ether in wine / or in infusion / helpeth the bloodye flixe of the mother / it maketh ones heyre red / and stoppeth the bellye Of Centory Centorium minus CEntaurium is of two sortes / the one is called Centaurium magnum / and it is called of the Potecaries Raponticum / and in Englishe Rapontike It groweth onelye in gardines I neuer sawe it / sauing onelye in Italye and Germanye The seconde kinde is called in Latin Centaurium minus / in English Centorye / in Duche Tausent gulden / in French Fel terre Great Centaury / otherwise called Raponticum / hath leaues lyke vnto a Walnut tre / somthing longe / of the grene color of cole / indented rouÌ„d about / it hath a stalk like vnto a dock ij or iij. cubits of height in the top / of the which are hedes like vnto poppy / rouÌ„d long The floure is blewe / the sede is lyke wilde saffrone / wrapped in certayn flockes lyke wolle / the roote is thycke / heauy and sounde / of thre fote longe / and full of iuyce / byting with a certeine astriction / and some swetenes / the color of it is red There growe manye bastard stalkes out of the roote / besyde the principal stalke Centaurum minus / that is the lesse Centaury / which is oure common Centory in Englande / is an herbe lyke vnto Organe / or wild Marierum / or saint Iohns wurte It hath a stalke full of corners a spanne longe and more / with a floure lyke vnto rose Campion / that is to witt crymesyne / turninge toward purple The leaues are lyke rewe / long / and small the fruyte of it is lyke vnto wheate The roote is very small / smoth / and of no valewe / but it is bitter The Vertues and Properties of rewe Pontike THE roote helpeth burstinges and drawynges together / those that are sycke in the pleuresye / and them that are shortwinded / the olde cough / and them that spitt bloode without an agewe with wine / if they haue an agewe / if it be taken with water in the quantite of two drammes / so that it be brosed and gyuen to the pacient So lykewyse doth it helpe the gnawynge and payne of the mother It prouoketh also weomens sycknes / and dryueth furth the chylde / if it be put into the secret place of conception / and the iuyce doth the same / it healeth woundes well if the herbe be grene and brosed / or if it be drye / and then steped and brosed It bindeth together and healeth vp woundes / the fleshe will growe together if it be sodden and brosed wyth this same herbe Plinye writeth that this herbe is good for the diseases of shepe The Vertues of Centory THE herbe brused when it is grene / if it be layd vnto woundes / it doth ioyne them together agayne / it scoureth olde sores / and couereth them with skinne / it dryueth out choler and grosse humours thorow the bellye / if it be sodden and dronken The broth that it is sodden in / is good to poure in agaynst them that haue the sciatica / for it draweth the blood / and easeth the payne The iuyce is verye good for to put in the medicines for the eyes / for with honye it purgeth awaye the darcknes of the eyes / The same layd in with wolle into the naturall place / bringeth doune weomens syckenes The iuyce dronken / healeth properlye the diseases of the synewes Centorye is good for the stoppinge of the milte and the lyuer / for the colyke it killeth wormes / and heleth the ake of the mother / some do wryte also / that it doth let the spittinge of bloode / It is also good to laye wythoute vpon a harde milte / to make it softe agayne Of Cudweed or Chafweed CEntunculus named in Greke Gnaphalion / is named in Duche Rurkraut / and in Englishe in some places Cartaphilago Howbeit there is an other herbe whiche is the true Cartaphilago / is muche differinge from this same herbe Centunculus called in Yorke shyre Cudweede / and in Northumberlande Chafweed / because it is thought to be good for chafinge of anye mans fleshe with goynge or rydinge Gnaphalion whiche is described of Dioscorides and Plinye / at the first sight / is lyke vnto the herbe which is called of the Potecaries Stechas citrina / and in Duche Rindblome But nether the floures are so brighte yellowe / nether the leaues are so longe The leaues of Centunculus haue both withoute a whyte wolle or cotton Besyde this kinde that Dioscorides describeth / there is also another kinde / which hath a rough thynge lyke woll / both without and within the leaues Thys hath leaues lyke vnto Rosmary / but longer / and all the stalke thorough is full of broune floures / growynge thicke together in knoppes / hauinge leaues al about them / but speciallye in vnder the floure / the former kinde groweth much in heathes and mores / the second kind groweth in watery places / and specially there where as turffes haue ben digged And Matthiolus iudgeth well me thinke / this seconde herbe to be impiam in Pliny The vertues of Cudweede or Cudwurte CVdwurte or Chafweede / is good sodden in tarte wyne agaynst the common flixe It stoppeth also weomens floures / It is also good to be putt into the fundament against the voyd desyer of goynge to stoole / when that mâ—n can do nothinge / it is good also to laye vpon rotting sores to heale them withall Of the kindes of Onyons AN Onyon was ones called of the olde Latines Vnio / because one herbe dyd growe vpon one roote / and nowe it is called cepa or cepe / The Grecians call it Crommion The Duche men call it zwibbel / or sepel / the Frenche men call it oignon There are diuers kindes of Onyons / the first kinde is our common Onyon / which hath long hollowe leaues lyke pypes / a rounde hollowe and smoth stalke / in whose top groweth a great knop al full of sedes / the roote is rounde lyke a rape but that it is not so thicke / and hath a rede skinne about it / this kind is called commonly in Latin Cepa or Cepe The seconde kinde is called in Greke Crommion ascalonion / in Latine Cepa ascalonia / and in Englishe ascalion Ascalion differeth from an Onyon / in that it hath a great deale lesse heade / and a longer neck / and thycker Cepa Scalyon Theophrastus in the vij boke of the
story of plantes / and the iiij chapter wryteth thus of the kindes of onyons Cepe fissiles which hath their name that one is clouen from another and Ascalonie / which haue their name of Ascalonia / a place in Iewery / differ amonges them selfes both in dresshing in the gardine / and also in nature The gardiners do leaue the clouen onyons in winter / as of no effect with their leaues In the springe tyme they take of the outwarde leaues / and trim the rest / when that this is taken awaye / other do bude agayne / and then are they clouen beneth / wherof they haue their name / and be called clouen onyons Thus far hath Theophrastus / whose wordes we maye playnelye gather / that the herbe which is called of him cepa fissilis / and in Greke Crommion schiston / is it that we call in English Holleke / and the Duche men call Sere or Suer / and in Freseland Suerley And thesame opinion maye be confirmed by the auctorite of Pliny / in the xix boke and vj. chapter of his natural history / in this wordes They leaue the onyon / called Schiston cromion / in winter with his leaues / and in the spring they do take of the leaues / and other ryse vp in vnder agayn with thesame diuisions / where vpon they haue their name Thus far Plinye The onyons that we call Hollekes / are of thys nature / that if one be set alone / that their will a great sorte within a shorte space growe of that same roote / withoute any sowyng and if ye take one of the cluster of / where as there are a dossen together / and set it in haruest in the grounde alone / that one shall bringe you a dosen / if the grounde be fruytfull the nexte yeare Wherefore seynge this herbe lasteth in the grounde all winter / it were better to call it winter onyon / then holleke Plinye also putteth a very playne difference betwene the Scallyone and the Holleke in these wordes This is the proper nature of Scalliones / they are barron in bringinge furth by the roote / therefore the Grecianes haue conselled to sowe them / and not to set them These are Plinies wordes whereof we gather that one kinde of Onyons is plenteous / and maketh increase by the roote But seyng that nether the common onyon nor the scallione bringeth furth by the roote / nether any other kind of onyon / sauing the Holleke / it followeth that it must onlye be Cepafissilis Matthiolus sayth that Cepa fissilis is called in Hetruria Cepolla maligia Cepa Fissilis The Nature of Onyons ONyons as Galene sayth / are hote in the fourth degre / and substance is of grosse partes / wherfore they open the emrodes / both laied to / after the maner of an emplaster / also as an oyntment with vinegre Dioscorides writeth that if it be put in as a suposetory / that it openeth the emrods / such other places as excremētes vse to issue out by The long onyon is sharper then the round the yelow sharper then the white / the drye sharper then the grene / the rawe sharper thē the soddē or the rosted Yet do they al byte and ingendre winde The iuyce of onyons layd to wyth hony / heleth the darcknes of the eyes / and dulnes of sight / the hawes cloudes of the eyes / shoting of blood in the eyes / when they begin / they are good for the quinsey / if the place be anointed with it the iuice driueth out weomēs sycknes / and purgeth the hede / poored in at the nose thrilles it is good to laye to the biting of a dogge with rawe honye and vinegre / it is good for the chafing of ones foote with his shoe / layd to wich capons grece it is good to lay vpon their heades whose heyre falleth of Onyons eaten in meat largely make the head ake / when they are sodden / they prouoke more plētuously vrine / they make them forgetful / which in the tyme of their sicknes vse them out of measure Onyons sodden with rasins and figges / make rype swellinges and burste them verye quicklye Of the herbe called Cepea Caepea Brooklyme Sea porcelline CEpea as Dioscorides writeth / is lyke vnto porcelline / but it hath blacker leaues / and a small roote Plinye sayth that Cepea is lyke Porcelline / but it hath a blacker roote nothing worth / growynge in sandye sea shores with a bitter taste Dioscorides maketh Cepea lyke vnto porcellaine / sauing in blacknes of leaues And Plinye makinge Cepeam also lyke vnto Porcelleine / writeth that the difference which is betwene them / is in the blacknes of the roote / wherefore if the bokes be true / Cepea Dioscoridis Pliny are not all one I haue sene the herbe that Pliny describeth oft in Freselande / except I be far deceiued / by the sea syde with in the sea bankes / in such places as the sea commeth / to euery springe tyde / it maye be called in English sea porcellaine the leaues are very lyke porcelline / and are more salt then bitter as oft as I haue proued I found the same herb of late beside the I le Porbeck But when as Dioscorides semeth to make one Cepeam / and Pliny an other / there must be two kindes of Cepea As for it of Pliny / I haue spoken of it before but as touching the Cepea of Dioscorides / I haue thoughte that a certaine kinde of small broocklyme was Cepea / but afterwardes I sawe in Freseland in watery places / and oft in poules that were ful in winter and dryed vp in summer an herbe / which loked much liker vnto porcellaine / then brooklyme doth It had leues like porcelain / but much lesse I dout which of these two I should take for the right Cepea Fuchsius which taketh brooklyme but not truely / for Sio / in the ende of the chapter of Sion saith / that the herbe is vsed this day of horseleches to swage swellings and to heale scabbes of farcies of horses Tragus hath thesame meaning and telleth also / that if it be fryed with butter and vinegre / and ofte layd to / and taken of renued agayne / that it healeth not only any swelling / but also sainte Antonies fyre / or such inflammationes I haue proued it my selfe by experience / that brooklyme is very good for a decease that reigneth much in Freselād called the Scourbuch I sod the herbe in butter milke / the chese and butter taken away / and gaue the pacientes it so / I made them eate it diuerse wayes / whereby they were within a shorte tyme healed But I neuer proued as yet / what vertue the other herbe that groweth in poules hath Matthiolus setteth oute in dede an herbe not vnlike vnto porcelline / but he nether telleth where it groweth / nether what colour it hath / nether what taste nor smell it