bending downewards which and the long leaves that come from them on both sides are flat and plaited or braided as it were like a braided lace of a darke yellowish greene colour soft and not hard or pricking abiding greene alwayes smelling without falling away and tasting somewhat strong and resinous not pleasing to many but ready to provoke casting Arbor Vitae The tree of life yet very cordiall and pectorall also to them that can endure it at the ends of the branches come forth small mossie yellowish flowers which turne into small scaly yellowish heads wherein lie small and long brownish seede the wood is firme and hard and of a brownish colour The Place and Time It first was brought from Canada by the French in King Francis the first his time and presented to him and from the encrease thereof is spread sufficiently through all the Countries neere it and flowreth in Aprill and May and the fruite is ripe in August and September The Names This being a new found tree hath no true auncient Greeke or Latine name to call it by for although most that have written of it referre it to the Thuja of Theophrastus lib. 5. c. 5. which he compareth both in branches leaves and fruite unto the Cipresse tree yet Omne simile non est idem and although it hath some likenesse in the leaves yet so it is not in the fruite and I verily beleeve that it is proprium sui genus not to be parallelled or made the same with any other we have as most of the trees and herbes of America are not equall to those that grow in Europe the hether part of Africa and of Asia the lesse as experience sheweth Lugdunensis maketh it to be his Thuyae tertium genus Some would make it a kinde of Cedrus Lycia but that beareth red berries which this doth not Some also have called it Arbor Paradisea but it was presented to the French King by the name of Arbor Vitae but upon what reason or ground I know not but ever since it hath continued that name of the tree of life Clusius and Bauhinus say that some would referre it to the Bruta arbor Plinij but that as he saith hath whitish branches and sweete being burned The Vertues Although we have no forraigne experience to report unto you yet upon tryall of the leaves by some in our owne Land we have found that they that were long time troubled with a purulentous cough and shortnesse of breath have beene much releived and holpen thereof by the use of the leaves taken fasting with some bread and butter as the most familiar way for some few dayes together thereby expectorating the flegme stuffing the lungs and so cleering the passages as they found much good by it and doubtlesse the resinous smell and taste abiding dryed as well as fresh doth evidently declare the tenuity of parts therein and a digesting and clensing quality which if any would put into action they should soone see the effect CHAP. LVIII Tamariscus The Tamariske tree I Have three or foure sorts of Tamariske to bring to your consideration one whereof was never published or made knowne to the world before I gave you a hint thereof in my former Booke which I meane to ranke with the rest here 1. Tamariscus folio latiore The Germane or broader leafed Tamariske The broader leafed Tamariske groweth but low in sundry places over that it doth in other for I have observed it growne in some places where it hath stood very many yeares to be a reasonable great tree whose barke was somewhat thicke and rugged of a darke reddish colour the younger shootes being reddish at the first greene after and blackish when they are dry beset all about with fine long darke greene leaves as it were criâ—ped because they are so small and short that stand Myaica sive Tamariscus specierum Tamariske of three sorts about the longer yet are they greater and broader then the French kinde at the end of the young shootes come forth a long spike of flowers and leaves among them each flower being made of five purplish leaves like threds divers of them standing in a greene huske together in which huskes when the flowers are past grow seede lying among them which together are carryed away with the winde the leaves fall away every Autumne and spring anew in the Spring 2. Tamariscus folijs albidis White Tamariske Of this kinde I have seene another sort very beautifull and rare brought me by Master William Ward the Kings chiefe servant in his Granary from his house at Boram in Essex whose branches were all red while they were young and all the leaves white abiding so all the Summer without changing into any shew of grâ—ene like the other and so abideth constantly yeare after yeare yet shedding the leaves in Winter like the other 3. Tamariscus folio tenniore The French or finer leafed Tamariske This finer leafed Tamariske doth in many places grow but into a small shrubbe also but in others into a great thicke and tall tree with many spreading armes and branches whose leaves are set in the same manner and grow after the same fashion but finer and smaller like unto Heath of a grayish greene colour the flowers are smaller and grow spike fashion like the other being purplish at the first but white when they are blowne open consisting of five leaves apeece which turne into downe with the small seede in them and falleth away as the Willow and Poplar doe but Lobel saith they turne not into downe but the fruite is round like Ollive stones which as he saith being laid in the Sunne have stirred to and fro for three dayes together having a worme within them which was the chiefe cause of the motion and having made a hole in the graine commeth forth which of these is truest seeing both affirme the matter as eye-witnesses of the relation I know not never having seene the tree beare out his fruite or seede with us 4. Tamariscus Aegyptia gallâ—â— ferens The Egiptian Tamariske This tree groweth in Egipt and other places of Syria Arabia and Turkie as Bellonius saith who observed it to be a wondrous great and high tree growing as well in dry ground as in moist whole woods of them growing together in each soile whose kind is of this last described but besides it beareth small hard excressences like unto great Gaules of divers formes some longer some shorter some broad others thicke or slender The Place and Time The first groweth naturally in Germany in divers places and as Cordus saith he observed two sorts one growing neere the River of Rhine with a finer leafe and firmer wood and a little pith and another about the Danubius or Danow with broader leaves and not so firme wood The second is declared in the description The third groweth not onely in Narbone and about Mompelier but in Spaine in divers places as Clusius setteth it downe the last in Arabia Egypt and the
alike being blackish and very hard scarce yeelding to be mollified in water the leaves and flowers have but little sent at all to discommend them in any that I have seene and smelt 3. Laburnum minus The lesser Beane Trefoile This lesser Beane Trefoile is in most things like unto the last described but that it groweth not so great nor are the leaves so large by the halfe nor yet either flowers or seede The Place The first as is before said groweth in hot Countries the second and so doth the least also in many of the woods of Italy and the higher parts of France and other places and upon the Alpes The Time The first seldome abideth with us to shew his flower but in his naturall places it flowreth early even in Ianuary and February in Spaine as Culsius saith but in Aprill and May in other places and the seedes are ripe in the Summer time after in Spaine but not untill September in other places the other flowreth in May and Iune and the seede sometimes ripeneth well but not untill September but the least ripeneth well The Names The first is called of Dioscordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anagyris Anagyros which Pliny saith some called Acopon vera faetida is usually added to it to distinguish it from the other which is also called Anagyris of some but altera or non faetida which second or non faetida Matthiolus calleth Anagyris prima major as he calleth the least Anagyris altera but he contendeth against Gesner who did in following other mens opinioÌ„ make the great Laburnum or Anagyris altera to be Laburnum of Pliny which is the least and called Eghelo of those that dwell about Trent Camerarius in horto calleth it LaburnuÌ„ when as he calleth the least Anagyris altera of Matthiolus Anguilara saith it is called by the inhabitants Egano thinketh it may be Ebeni secunda species Theophrasti Lugdunensis also calleth it Laburnum primum and the least Laburnum aelterum and saith it might be called Anagyris Alpina Cordus calleth it Arbor trifolia diverse doe call the least Laburnum Faba inversa Gerard his figure of Anagyris foetida and Anagyris are the same that are in Matthiolus but the titles are contrary for Gerard his Anagyris foetida is the Eghelo or Anagyris altera in Matthiolus It is probable in my opinion that the smaller Laburnum should be that Colytea of Theophrastus which is set down in the 14. c. of his third book with a willow leafe for if you take any one leafe by it self it may wel resemble a Willow leafe both for forme and colour and beareth small seeds in cods like unto pulse as that doth Gesner did referre this kinde unto the mountaine Cytisus but Matthiolus reprooveth him for it the great booke of Eystetensis calleth it Anagyris latifolia but I call it Laburnum majus as I doe the last Laburnum minus The Vertues The leaves as well as the seede of the first Beane trefoile are a strong vomit especially in the hot Countries where it groweth and Honorius Bellus writing thereof to Clusius saith that in Candy where that kind groweth with rounder leaves if the Goates or sheepe do chance to feed thereon the milke which they give will cause any that shall take it to fall as well into extreame scouring downewards as strong casting upwards and that many thereby have beene brought in danger of their lives the young leaves saith Dioscorides applyed unto tumors or swellings discusseth and represseth them and if a dram of the powder of them be drunke in wine as he saith also it expelleth both the dead birth and the secondine and likewise bringeth downe the monethly courses of women if some of the leaves be bound to those that have hard and uneasie travell in child bearing it causeth a speedy delivery of the birth but they must bee taken away presently afterwards they are likewise given in wine to those that are short winded and to such as are often troubled with the head-ach the barke of the roote hath a digesting ripening and discussing quality both the other sorts here set downe have the same properties for they are also of the same temperature but Matthiolus saith that he hath knowne that some that have taken ignorantly of the seede of the lesser Beane trefoile have had strong vomitings even unto blood Solerius in schâ—liis in Aetium saith that by certaine and undoubted experience it hath beene found that a dramme either more or lesse of the dryed bark thereof made into powder and taken in any kind of drink purgeth very strongly both upwards and downewards but in a diverse manner for if as he saith which I take rather to be but a conceite the barke be pulled off from the tree upwards it will cause vomitings if downewards great purging of the belly downewards the Bees saith Pliny refuse to touch the flowers of this Laburnum which is the lesser Beane Trefoile but it hath beene truely observed that both in the naturall places where it groweth as also with us that the Bees doe not refuse to feede upon them the Graecians have an usuall proverbe with them Anagyris commovere when they would signifie one that worketh as wee say his owne woe or is the cause of his owne harme CHAP. XLI Myrobalani Myrobalans or purging Indian Plummes ALthough there be none of these Myrobaland trees whereof are 5 sorts of fruites well known distinguished in the Apothecaries shops growing in any of these Christian Countries of Europe as far as ever I could learne yet I could doe no lesse than make mention of them here both because the fruites are often used in Physicke among other purgers and to make it knowne to all that might be mistakes by the name and thinke that the Myrobalane Plummes the red and the white that I have remembred in my former book be some of these kindes but so they are not neither for forme nor quality as also to stir up some ingenious mind among our Merchants that trade to Aleppo Cairo into Persia and the East Indies to give order to their factors if they doe it not themselves to enquire and seeke out such of the sorts that are to be found in the places of their abode and either to plant the stones of these severall kinds in those warmer countries if they abide any time in them that when they are a little growne they might then send them hither or send the fresh stones over hither to us for those are too dry that are brought for physicke use that wee may plant them here to try if they will not growe and abide with us that at least having but a sight of the forme of the leaves of any sort we might compare them with the descriptions that writers have made of them whether they are answerable thereunto I must in the meane time therefore but shew you them as Garzias and others before me have done with such descriptions as they
belly and will a little force it downeward but being more used it worketh not so at all but rather cooleth an hot or fainting stomacke helping the digestion being temperately taken but at Sea by the working thereof it is made more comfortable taking away the crudity and rawnesse of the water CHAP. LXXIII Malus The Apple tree THe Apple likewise is divided into tame or manured and wilde the one serving for Orchards to be tended and regarded the other to be left to the Woods and Hedge rowes of fieldes c. as I did therefore with Peares in the former Chapter so I meane to deale with Apples in this give you a generall description both of tame and wilde and the other sorts that is especially the Wildings or Crabbes which were not mentioned in my former Booke 1. Malus vulgaris The common Apple tree The Apple tree in generall spreadeth his armes and branches more then the Peare tree but riseth not to that height the leaves are somewhat round a little long pointed towards the ends of them and dented about the edges greene both above and below the flowers white and a little blush coloured about the edges consisting of five leaves the fruite that followeth in this as in the former is of divers sizes formes colours and tastes and likewise of variable ripening and lasting for some will be rotten before others be ripe and some must be spent before others be gathered The double bâ—ossomed Apple differeth from the former in nothing but in the flowers which are double and that it beareth no fruite Flore duplici 2. Malus sylvestris The Wilding or Crabbe tree The Crabbe groweth somewhat like the Apple tree but full of thornes and thicker of branches the flowers are alike but the fruite is generally small and very sower yet some more then others which the Country people to amend doe usually rost them at the fire and make them their Winters junckets whereof some are redder or whiter or greener or yellower then others being seldome much regarded or distinguished more then to make Cyder or Verd juyce of all sorts being indifferently put together 3. Chamae malus The dwarfe or Paradise Apple The Paradise Apple is also a kinde of wilde Apple yet no Crab for it is not grafted like the manured sorts but as the Crab riseth without grafting to be a tree of low stature not much higher then a man may reach having leaves and flowers like the former the fruit is of a reasonable size faire and yellowish but light and spongy of a bitter sweet taste not pleasant and will not last long but quickely shrinke and wither the body and branches are much subject to the Canker which will quickely eate it round and kill it and besides will have many scabby bunches that deforme it and cause it to perish and this as it groweth elder for it is full of suckers from the roote which will be as faire and smoth as of any other tree Of the manured sort there is one whose flowers are wholly white smaller the tree lower and the fruit smaller Pâ—manana There is another which hath no kernels within the core Of the manured kinde the Holland Pippin must be remembred which is a flat and yellowish greene Pippin and of as good a rellish as most of the other Pippins and of a meane size Of Wildings or Crabs there is the Towne Crab the greater and lesser red Crab the greater and lesser white Crab and the small hedge Crabbe Maâ—us The Apple tree Malus sylvestris The Wilding or Crabbe tree The Place and Time The better sorts of Apples are planted in Orchards and some of the other as the dwarfe kinde the Wildings or Crabs grow in Woods generally yet are planted in the hedges in many Countries of this Land to make Cyder withall the Apples in generall flower and bud forth leaves later then Peares and ripen earlier or later for the most part according to the kinde The Names It is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the fruite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Malus and Malum or Pomus and Pomum yet Pomum is a generall word including thâ— fruites of many other trees for some would distinguish all sorts of fruites into Pomum and Nacem but Scaliger saith the opinion of those Grammarians is too ridiculous it is therefore usually called Malus but yet that word likewise is referred to divers other kindes of trees as Malus Cydoma sive Cotonea Malus Medicavel Citria Malus Limonia Malus Auraea sen Aurantia Malus Persica Malus Punica Malus Arminiaca vel praecocia and many others and Pliny numbreth Zizypha and Tuberes among them who reciteth the names of a number of sorts frequent with them as he doth every where with other sorts of fruites which to relate here were impertinent especially to us who can apply but very few of them to those sorts are knowne among us and to save time to spend to better purpose Cornarius taketh the Castiana mala which Columella calleth Sestiana to be the Arantia Orenge but Galen appointing the Castiana mala to be boyled to give one for the head ache did not meane the Orenge which was neither knowne to him or in his time nor yet is used to be boyled The Arabians call it Tusa and Tufalia the Italians Mele the Spaniards Mansanas the French Pomier and Pome the Germanes Depffell and Apffell the Dutch Appel and we Apple The Vertues Apples in generall are cold and windy and being of sundry tastes Galen sheweth thereby how to distinguish them for some have an austere taste and are good for fainting stomackes and loose bellyes others sowre good to coole and quench thirst and some sharpe fit to cut grosse flegme some sweete soone distributed in the body and as quickly passed away yet sooner corrupting in the stomacke if they be stayed the best sorts before they be thorough ripe are to be avoyded then to be rosted or scalded is the best way to take them and a little spice or seedes mixed or cast upon them and taken after meate doe strengthen both stomacke and bowels especially in those that either loathe their meate or hardly digest it and for those that are given to casting or have a flixe or laske those that are not sweete but rather a little sowre or harsh used in that manner are fittest Sweete Apples doe loosen the belly and thereby drive forth the wormes that are therein sower Apples stoppe the belly and provoke vrine Crabs for this purpose are the fittest The sweete Apples as the Pippin and Pearemaine helpe to dissolve Melancholly humours to procure mirth and expell heavinesse and therefore are fittest for Confectio Alkermes and Syrupus de pomis The leaves boyled and given to drinke in hot agues and where the heate of the liver and stomacke causeth the lippes to breake out and the throate to grow dry harsh and furred is very good to wash and gargle it withall and to drinke
Apples THe tree that beareth this fruite is great full of branches and leaves which are somewhat like Apple-tree leaves but longer and not so round Mala Indica Lusitanis Ber Bor Acostae Small Indian Apples of a sad green on the upper end hoary or woolly on the underside astringent in taste the flowers are white made of fine small leaves without any sent the fruite is of the bignesse and likenesse of the Iujube fruite or plant some greater and lesser as well as pleasanter then others yet in the ripest which it is seldome seene that they come to perfect maturity neither will they last to be transported into other Countries they hold a certaine binding property and are good therefore to binde the loose belly but are not so good as Iujubes for the stomacke In Canara and Decan they call the tree Bor or Ber and in Malayo Videras but the Portugals Mansanas de la India that is Mala Indica whom wee have followed those that grow in Malaca are preferred before those of Malabar In Summer these trees are continually seene loaden with those flies or winged Antes that worke gum Lacca thereon CHAP. CIII Iamboloins Indian Ollives THis tree is somewhat like the Lentiske tree in the barke thereof but the leaves are like the Strawberry tree with dented leaves tasting like the Mirtle leaves when they are greene the fruite is very like unto ripe Ollives but of an harsh and binding taste able to draw ones mouth awry yet being pickled up like Ollives they rellish reasonable well and serve to procure and whet the appetite being eaten with boyled Ryce CHAP. CIV Carambolas Furrowed tart Indian Apples THe fruite which they of Malabar call Carambolas and Camarix or Carabeli by those of Canara and Decan and Bolimba in Malayo groweth on a tree much like to a Quince tree whose leaves are longer then Apple tree leaves of a sad greene colour and bitterish in taste the flowers are of a dainty blush colour but without sent and of a sower or tart taste like to Sorrell the fruite is of the bignesse of a good egge but somewhat long withall yellow on the outside hanging by and short stalke and set in the small huske that Carambolas Furrowed tart Indian Apples formerly held the flower being pointed at the end divided as it were into foure parts with furrowes which being deepely impressed therein make it the more gracefull of a pleasant tart taste very pleasing to the palate and stomacke in the middle whereof are contained small seedes These fruites are much used as well to please and stirre up the appetite by reason of their pleasant sharpenesse as in hot and chollericke agues also either the juyce of them made into a Syrupe or the whole fruite preserved in Sugar or pickled up in brine to serve for aftertimes some use the juyce thereof with other ocular medicines for to take away the haw or the pinne and web in the eyes or any filme beginning to grow over them CHAP. CV Iambos Blood red and blush Peares of India THere is another Indian fruite worthy Iambos Red and blush coloured Peares of India to be remembred as well for the beauty it beareth in the shew thereof and the sweete sent and taste it carryeth to the other senses as chiefely for the excellent medicinall properties is now daily found out more and more in it The tree groweth vaste or huge equalling the greatest Orrenge tree in Spaine largely spread with great armes which make a spacious shaddow the body and branches are covered with a grayish barke the leaves are very faire and smooth an handfull long or more with a thicke middle ribbe and other smaller veines therein of a sad greene on the upperside and paler greene underneath the flowers are of a lively purplish red colour with divers threds in the middle very pleasant and standing in a great huske and tasting like Vine branches the fruite is of the bignesse and fashion of a King Peare growing out of that large huske wherein the flower was formerly seated and are of sundry kindes for some are of so deepe a red colour that they seeme allmost blacke some have no kernell or stone within them when others have one which are the best another sort is of a whitish red colour and shining cleare having a hard stone within it like to a Peach stone but smooth and covered with a white rough skinne which although it must give place to the former yet may well be accepted to a dainty palate the skinne being so tender that as in a Plumme or Cherry it cannot be pared away the smell of each resembleth the Rose and in property is cold and moist The tree is never without greene and ripe fruite thereon and blossomes also at all times which falling abundantly on the ground make it seeme all red therewith the ripe fruite by the shaking of the tree are soone made to fall and gathered from under it as also easily gathered by hand The Indians of Malabar and Canara call it Iambolin the Portugalls that dwell there Iambos the Arabians and Persians Tupha and Tuphat the Turkes Alma They there use to eate this fruit before meate most usually yet they are not refused at other times also both flowers and fruite are preserved with Sugar and kept to give to those that have hot agues to coole their stomackes and liver and to quench thirst CHAP. CVI. Iangomas Indian Services IAngomas are Indian fruites like Services growing on trees not much unlike our Service tree both in leaves and flowers but set with thornes and are manured or planted in Orchards as well as found wild abroad the fruite is harsh like an unripe Sloe when it is ripe and must therefore be rowled betweene the fingers to make it mellow before it can be eaten and is generally taken to binde or restraine whensoever there is cause of such an operation CHAP. CVII Lencoma The Indian Chesnut THis tree groweth very great and the wood is strong and firme having leaves like to the Strawberry tree the fruite is very like to our Chesnut as well in colour as bignesse as also in that white or spot thereon but it seemed to have the kernell loose within it for that it giveth a noyse in shaking the fruit is edible and pleasant yet a little astringent CHAP. CVIII Charamci Purging cornered Hasell nuts THere are two kindes of this tree called Charamci by all the Indians generally but the Persians and Arabians Ambela the one is as great as the Medlar Charamci Purging cornered Hasell Nuts tree with Peare tree pale great leaves and yellowish fruite somewhat like to Hasell or Fillberd Nuts ending in sundry corners of the taste of sowre Grapes yet more pleasant which they pickle up as well being ripe as unripe and usually eate them with salt The other kinde is of the same bignesse but hath lesser leaves then the Apple tree and a greater fruite which the Indians use being boyled
tryed my selfe by sowing the seedes in a pot by themselves so observed their springing from whence divers have imagined that it might grow as Mosse upon trees or like Misselto but I think rather as Ivie by drawing nourishment insensibly from the plants whereon it groweth thereby partaketh of the nature of the same plants upon these strings of both sorts upon what plants or herbe soever they grow are found clusters of small heads or huskes out of which start forth whitish flowers which afterwards give small pale coloured seede somewhat flat and twice as bigge as Poppye seede thus much I thought good to let all others understand by that experience and observation I have had thereof yet after this mine owne observation I reade much to this purpose in Tragus in his chapter of Audrosace or Cuscuta by this which I have truely related it may appeare plainely to any that neither Tyme Savory or any other herbe doe naturally of their owne seede bring these stringes or laces but that they spring from their owne seede either shâ—l or scattered of themselves upon the ground or comming among the seedes of other hearbs that are sowne The plantes whereon these laces doe grow are observed by divers to be Vines as Pena and others that have observed them in France and in some places of Turkey upon trees and thornes and some other things Theophrastus in the 23. chap. of his second booke of the causes of plants doth set downe that Cadytas groweth on trees and bushes in Syria which Pliny altereth to Cassitas in the last chap. of his 16. booke by which word no doubt they meant this plant for it differeth not much from Cassita as many others have it or Cuscuta as it is generally called the Arabian name being Chassnth and Cuscuth the hearbs are Polium Dictamus Germauder Hysope Mother of Tyme Marjerome Staebe Wallwort Rosemary and others as Bauhinus hath recorded and also very plentifully in many places of our owne land upon Nettles and upon Lin or Flaxe and called Podagra lini and Angina lini upon Tares also more aboundantly in some places where it destroyeth the pulse or at the least maketh it much worse and is called of the Country people Hell-weede because they know not how to destroy it upon Fearne also and other hearbes upon Hampstead heath as I lately found my selfe the strings flowers being white and upon the grasse likewise on Black-heath in Kent on the very ground not rising an inch or two high being red The place Tyme and Names are sufficiently as I thinke expressed before yet in particular Tragus and Anguilara thinke it to be the Androsace of Dioscorides but erroniously for Epithymum as Matthiolus sheweth out of Aetius Actuarius and others is the threads or laces growing upon Tyme although Dioscorides calleth it the flower thereof we doe generally call that Epithymum that groweth on Tyme in English laced Tyme as the Epithymbra laced Savory and so of Epistoebe Epimajorana Epiurtica Epirubus and so the rest laced Stoebe laced Marjerome laced Nettles laced Brambles but wee call those strings generally by the name of Dodder especially that which groweth on Flaxe and Tares which are red and most frequent with us The Vertues Epithymum by Dioscorides Paulus Aetius Actuarius Mesues and all others is accounted theÌ„ most principall and powerfull Dodder growing upon any herbe and that upon Savory or Stoebe not to bee so effectuall for all melancholicke diseases and to purge blacke or burnt choller which is the cause of many diseases of the head and braines as also for the trembling of the heart faintings and swounings it is helpefull in all the diseases or griefes of the spleene and of that melancholy that riseth from the windines of the Hypochondria which is that part of the belly under the short ribbes where the spleene lyeth by flying up to the braine causeth a kinde of frensy or madnes it purgeth also the reines and kidneys by Vrine it profiteth them that have the Iaundise in opening the obstructions of the gall Galen saith it hath the properties of Tyme being hot and dry in the third degree as Ruellius boserveth from the Arabian authors that it hath by the astriction or drying quality a strengthning property beside the purging as it is also found in Rubarbe and that it is a safe medicine for the obstructions as well of the liver as spleene purging the veines of flegmaticke cholericke humours likewise as Mesues saith it helpeth childrens agues if a little wormeseed be put to it The Dodder of all other plants herbes in like maner pertaketh of the nature of them whereon they grow be they hot or cold and is thought to worke more effectually for those diseases wherunto the herbe it selfe is applyed Lobel saith that in the west parts of this kingdom where he found these laces upon Netles the people had good experience that it was a soveraigne remedy to procure plenty of Vrine where it was stopped or hindred my selfe also have understood it from those parts But that Dodder which groweth upon Tares being the most frequent about London and wherewith our markets are onely in a manner furnished and our Apothecaries shoppes stored from thence taketh his propertie from the Tares whereon it groweth and can have no effectuall quality comparable to Epithymum for as Galen saith Tares are hard of digestion and binde the bellye and that the nourishment of them engendereth thicke blood apt to turne into melancholie which qualities are cleane contrary to those of Epithymum Epithymbra or of other good herbes Chap. V Majoranae vulgares exoticae Common and Strange Marjeroms THere are divers sorts of sweete garden Marjeroms some growing onely in the summer others abiding the winter and one that groweth wilde there are some other sorts called Marum that I have intituled strange Marjerom all which shall be comprehended in this chapter 1. Majorana vulgaris aestiva The ordinary garden sweete Marjerome Our common sweete Marjerome that is commonly 1. Majorana vulgaris Sweete Marjerome sowen in our countrey is a small low herbe little above a foote high full of branches and small whitish and soft roundish leaves on them smelling very sweete at the toppes of the branches stand divers smal long and round scaly heads or knots and therefore of some called Knotted Marierom of a whitish greene colour out of which come here and there small white flowers and after them small reddish seede the roote is composed of divers small threads or strings which perisheth with the whole plant every yeere Majorana tenuifolia Marjerome gentle This Marjerome likewise hath divers small branches growing low and not higher then the former but having finer and smaller leaves hoary and soft but much sweeter the heads are like unto the former and so are the flowers and seede the whole plant being more tender then the former abiding but a Summer in like manner 3. Majorana odorata perennis Winter sweete Marjerom
former The Place The first or common Elder groweth not wilde but is planted in all places to serve for hedges and partitions of grounds vineyards c. to hold up the bankes by ditches and water courses and to bee planted in places where Conies breed for shadow every sticke or branch being thrust into the ground serving as a stocke which will easely take roote and grow The second as it seemeth Tragus first found in the woods of Germany The third is found wild on hills in watery woods The fourth is not knowne certainely from whence his originall came but is found planted in the gardens of those that are curious and lovers of rare plants The fifth is found by water sides and moorish grounds of Germany France England Italy and Piemont in Savoye as Pena hath set it downe The sixth is nursed up onely in gardens but best delighteth in moist grounds The seventh groweth wilde in many places of England where if it be once gotten into a ground it will so creepe and runne therein that it will hardly be gotten forth The last is a stranger in England as yet and nursed onely in that curious garden of that Venetian Magnifico Signior Contarini The Time All or most of the Elders flower in Iune the Wallwort somewhat late as his fruite is likewise later ripe even not untill September when the others are ripe for the most part in August The Names The Elder is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi littoralis dicta videtur in Latine generally Sambucus of Sambix as it is thought the first finder thereof but Quintus Serenus calleth it Sabucus in his verses and thought to be derived from Sabucus or Sambucus as Hermolaus saith which is an hollow instrument of Musicke called also Pectis Magadis The excrescence growing on the Elders is usually called Fungus Sambucinus of Dodonaeus Gummi Sambuci and of some Auriculae Inda in English Iewes cares The first is called Sambucus urbana domestica campestris and vulgaris of all writers and of Bauhinus Sambucus fructu in umbellanigro Tragus calleth the second Sambuci aliud genus Dodonaeus Sambuci altera species Lobel Sambucus fructu albo Bauhinus Sambucus fructu in umbella viridi The third is called Sambucus Montana of Matthiolus Gesner Castor Durantes Camerarius of Tragus and Lonicerus Sambucus sylvestris and because he saith it hath beene certainely observed that the Hindes and Does doe greately affect the leaves thereof when they are great with young Tabermontanus calleth it Sambucus cervina and Gerard after him Sambucus racemosa vel cervina of Lobel Sambucus montana racemosa and Ioannes Thalius in the description of Harcynia Saxono-thuringica Sambucus montana sen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bauhinus calleth it Sambucus racemosa rubra putting a doubt whether it be Sambucus montana of Plinye which he saith groweth on Mountaines and thinking it also to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Theophrastus whereof he maketh mention in his 3 booke and 4 chapter among those trees that onely delight to grow on hills and will not grow in the champions and which Gaza in the Latine translation hath omitted and left out but the Greeke Theophrastus hath not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pygus as Bauhinus setteth it downe but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phagus as Gaza hath it in other places he and Plinye before him being the cause of many mens errours in mistaking the Latine Fagus a Beech tree for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phagus of Theophrastus which is a kinde of Oake as you shall understand in his proper place when I shall speake of all the sorts of Oakes The fourth Lobel in his Dutch herball first made knowne to all having found it planted in the gardens of the low countrie Apothecaries and others that were lovers of rare and strange plants and called it Sambucus laciniatis foliis whom all others have followed The fift is called Sambucus aquatica of Matthiolus Tragus Lobel Castor Durantes Lugdunensis and others Sambucus palustris of Dodonaeus Caesalpinus and Camerarius Cordus in historia calleth it Lycosta phylos faemina i. Vna lupina Ruellius tooke it to be Opulus but that is a kind or name of Maple as Lugdunensis hath it Anguillara calleth is Plantanus aquatica and so do the Italians for the most part which is the third kinde of Maple as he saith Gesner calleth it Sambucus palustris vel aquatica sylvestris and saith some also called it Chamaeplatanus Lugdunensis first and Bauhinus after him doe take it to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thraupalus of Theophrastus in his third booke and seventh chap. and in his fourth booke and 1 chap. Bauhinus calleth it himselfe Sambucus aquaticas flore simplici as hee calleth the Gelder Rose Sambucus aquatica flore globoso pleno The Wallworte or Daneworte or dwarfe Elder is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est humilis Sambucus in Latine Ebulus by which names all other Greeke and Latine writers have called it and the last from the Noble Contarenus his garden receiveth the name of Ebulus laciniatis foliis as it is in the title It is supposed it tooke the name Danewort from the strong purging quality it hath many times bringing them that use it unto a fluxe which then we say they are troubled with the Danes The Arabians call it Infacti the Italians Sambuco the Spaniards Sabuco Sauco Canivero the French Susean Susier Suin the Germanes Holder Holler the Dutche Vlier and we in English Elder The Vertues Both Dioscorides and Galen doe attribute to the Wallworte as well as to the common Elder for they account their properties both one an heating and drying quality purging watery humors aboundantly but not without trouble to the stomacke the first shootes of the common Elder boyled like unto Asparagus and the young leaves and stalkes boyled in fat broth draweth forth mightily choller and tough flegme the tender leaves also eaten with oyle and salt doe the same the middle or inner barke boyled in water and given to drinke worketh much more violently and the berries also either greene or dry expell the same humors and is often given with good successe to helpe the dropsie by evacuating great plenty of waterish humors the barke of the roote also boyled in wine or the juyce thereof drunke worketh the same effects but more effectually then either leaves or fruite doe the juyce of the roote taken provoketh vomit mightily and purgeth the watery humors of the dropsie the same decoction of the roote cureth the biting of the viper or adder as also of a mad dogge and mollifieth the hardnesse of the mother if women sit therein and openeth the veines and bringeth downe their courses the berries boyled in wine performe the same effects the haire of the head or of other parts washed therewith is made blacke the juyce of the greene leaves applyed to the hot inflammations of the eyes asswageth them the leaves boyled until they be tender then
stalke or divided branch is but as one winged leafe the leaves first falling away leaving the branches bare which then shew like unto ordinary or Spanish Broome when it hath lost the leaves and after the leaves the stalkes likewise perish that held the leaves wholly unto the very stemme and therefore sheweth to be but as one winged leafe of a tree as in the Ash Wallnut c. the lowest of these leaves are somwhat round pointed like the herbe Heliotropium Sunturner those on the middle of the branch more sharpe pointed like unto Myrtle leaves and the uppermost smallest somewhat like unto Knot-grasse it hath not borne either flowers or fruit in our Christian countries as yet so far as I can heare the roote is thicke long white and tuberous as it were yet ending in some sprayes being not much wooddy but rather fleshie and tender but the nuts or fruits such as have been brought over to us enclosed in their husks as also out of their husks are expressed here by themselves that is that many of them grow single in the husks some two together and that the nuts enclosed in every huske each by it selfe have their place bunched forth where each of them lie and straightned betweene them both the lower and upper end of the huske being small and sharpe pointed and about an handbreadth long round and of a darke ash colour on the outside and somewhat reddish on the inside of the substance of leather lither or easie to bow rugged on the outside with many long streakes in it but smooth on the inside the nuts themselves are three square for the most part covered with a whitish soft and somewhat tough wooddy shell wherein the white kernell lieth which is not altogether insipid but somewhat sharpe in taste and oylie withall causing a kind of loathing upon the tasting almost ready to provoke vomiting out of which is pressed an oyle as Dioscorides and Galen affirme like as is pressed out of Almonds and not from the shells or husks as some formerly supposed for it is commonly knowne to many here in our owne land and to my selfe also who have pressed as good oyle out of the kernells of the nutts as any hath beene brought from beyond seas and therefore Theophrastus was herein much mistaken or at least misinformed that said the oyle that served for sweete oyles and ointments was drawne from the huskes and shells and not from the Nutts themselves and Pliny also who saith the same doth erre in that although he saith that an oyle is drawen out of the nuts which the Physitions doe use for the oyle to both uses is one and the same The Place These trees grow in Syria Arabia Aethiopia and India and although some say in Egypt also yet I thinke Prosper Alpinus who was curious to set downe all the rare trees and plants unknowne in Italy that grew there would have given us some knowledge thereof among other Egyptian plants if they had beene there in his time The Time We have as I sayd before no knowledge of the time of flowring hereof The Names It is called in Greeke by Dioscorides Galen and others Banar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bulanut Myrepsica that is Glans Vuguentaria and by Lobel Glans unguentaria cathartica siliquata by Theophrastus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely and by Pliny Myrobolanus Trogloditis in his 12 booke and 21. chap. but why the Grecians should call it Balanos an Acorne being like unto none of the kindes of Acornes nor the fruite it selfe nor shell or huske I know not for if they that doe so call it had ever seene the huskes wherein the Nuts are enclosed they would surely have given it a more proper name Monardus tooke them to be the Avellana purgatrices of the West Indies because the fruite is more like an Hasell nut than an Acorne and called them Ben Magnum but he was much mistaken therein and therefore the Arabians called it Ben and Habben which signifieth a Nut with them yet Pena seemeth to make the name and forme to agree together Rauwolfius called it Machalep album saying it is three square and like a Beech mast or fruite of the Beech tree for which cause onely as it is likely Bellonius compared the tree to a Beech it is called either Balanus myrepsica or Glans Vnguentaria after the Greeke signification of most writers but we in these dayes more usually call it Nux Ben and the oyle Oleum de Ben or as the ancients called it Oleum Balaninum I have given the English name to it according to the most proper signification as I thinke calling it rather a Nut than an Acorne as Gerard doth after the Greeke name The Vertues The kernells of the nuts bruised and drunke with Posca posset that is water and vinegar mingled together doth purge the body from grosse and thinne flegme also and thereby is helpefull to those are troubled with the wind collicke if a few Aniseede and Fennelseede be put unto it the oyle that is drawne out of the nuts doth the same also and provoketh vomiting clensing the stomacke of much foule matter gathered therein yet it doth much trouble the stomack in the meane time but the nut being toasted at the fire loseth much of that evill quality oftentimes causing them to purge downewards only it is with very good effect also put into glisters for the same purposes the oyle dropped into the eares helpeth the noise in them and the deafenesse also a dragme of the kernell taken in posset doth soften and dissolve the hardnesse of the spleene and liver Mesues commendeth the drie pressing after the oyle is taken from it being of a clensing as well as of a cutting qualitie by reason that the moisture is taken from it of a drying effect also for to helpe the itch the lepry and running sores and to take away the ruggednesse of the skin morphew drie scabbes scarres freckles wheales and pimples from the face or body especially if it be used with vinegar and niter with which it well agreeth and performeth the cures much better It is also used with the meale of Orobus the bitter Vetch or the meale of Darnell in manner of a plaister to be laid to the side to consume the spleene It helpeth the gout also used in the same manner used with barly meale it comforteth the sinewes that are pained with cold and all spasmes or crampes and used with hony dissolveth all knots and hard swellings the shells or huskes are of an exceeding binding propertie fit to be used when occasion serveth for such purposes The oyle that is pressed forth out of the nuts is much used of Perfumers although it have no sweete smell of it selfe to commend it yet it is of so excellent a qualitie that being kept never so long it will not grow ranke and therefore it doth both preserve the sweete sents of Muske Civet Ambergrise and the like mixed with it and keepeth
the joynts with the leaves on both sides of the stalke three for the most part standing together except the uppermost of all where they stand five together each of them with a short footestalke under them consisting of five small pointed leaves spread like a starre of a pale blew colour finely spotted with many small blacke prickes on the inside having a small umbone in the middle and five small threds tipt with yellow standing about it the seede that follweth is enclosed in such heads or huskes as the Gentians have the roote is small and yellow with many fibres annexed unto it Hereunto I may referre another very like unto it found in the North parts of this land namely in Lancashire by Mr. Hesket a Gentleman in his life time very skilfull in the knowledge of Plants whose figure I here exhibit that some other may be stirred up to finde it out againe that we may have further knowledge thereof Centiana dubia Anglica 2. Gentianella aestiva cordata Small Heartlike Sommer Gentian This Sommer Gentian hath a small long fibrous but wooddy yellowish roote and thereby may be judged to be but annuall and not abiding from whence arise small leaves somewhat round pointed with a greenish yellow â—ibbe in the middle of them two alwaies set one against another the stalke is square about halfe a foote high with the like leaves at the joyntes and divided from the middle upwards into divers small short branches on the toppes whereof stand very large flowers in comparison to the smallnesse of the Plant which is of a whitish blew colour before it be open and writhed together like to many of the flowers of the small Bindeweeds but being opened consisteth of a long hollow round huske ending in five hard leaves somewhat broad and pointed like a starre of as brave a deepe blew colour as any of the former betweene those greater leaves there are other smaller leaves set each of them round at the ends and dented in making them seeme like unto a heart as it is painted from whence the name in the title cordata heart-like was imposed upon it the like forme being not observed in any of the other the seede vessell after the flower is past groweth to have a small long necke and bigger above which being ripe openeth it selfe at the head contrary to the rest containing within it much blacke seede but twise as bigge and as long as the other 3. Gentianella aestiva purpuro-caerulea Small purple Sommer Gentian This purple Sommer Gentian shooteth forth a reasonable strong stalke a foote and a halfe high with divers joynts and two leaves at every one of them somewhat broad at the bottome where it joyneth to the stalke not having any footestalke to stand on growing smaller to the end and long pointed the stalke at the toppe hath some short branches whereon are set five or six or more small purplish blew flowers ending in five small pointed leaves after they are fallen and past come up small long cornered pods or seede vessels containing much small seede the roote is slender long and fibrous and perisheth after bearing raising it selfe againe from its owne sowing and if it spring before Winter it will endure it well and flower the next yeare else if it rise in the Spring it will abide all the first yeare and flower and seede the next 4. Gentianella aestiva flore lanuginoso Sommer Gentian with a cottony flower This Sommer Gentian springeth up with many long and narrow leaves lying in compasse upon the ground with three veines in every one of them as is usuall in all or most of the Gentians from among which riseth up a square stalke about a foote high or more bearing at every joynt two such like leaves as grow below but lesser and longer pointed at the joynts with the leaves toward the toppes of the stalkes shoote forth two or three short branches bearing every of them three or foure flowers larger then the former and bigger bellyed ending in five points or leaves of a paler purple colour having a small purplish cottony downynesse at the bottome of each of the leaves where they are divided on the inside after the flowers are fallen there appeare small long huskes like hornes full of small round seede the roote is small and long of a pale colour somewhat wooddy perishing as all the Sommer kindes doe 5. Gentianella aestiva flore breviore Sommer Gentian with short flowers This kinde of Gentian is somewhat like unto the last but that the leaves are broader by the halfe two alwaies standing at a joynt of a deeper greene colour the stalke is square and branched at the toppe in the same manner bearing divers flowers on every of them which are both shorter and greater then they and of a pale blewish colour the seedes and rootes are much alike all these kinds as well as the former are very bitter which cause them to be referred to Gentian 6. Gentianella aestiva minima Neapolitana The small Sommer Gentian of Naples This small Gentian hath small square stalkes little more then halfe a foote high but fuller of branches and flowers then the last the leaves thereon are somewhat long and narrow the stalkes are branched from the bottome with many small flowers on them standing in small huskes which are long like a cuppe the brimmes ending in foure parts somewhat distant one from another making the ends to seeme the longer of a purplish colour enclining to rednesse with a small woollinesse at the bottome of each of the foure leaves where they are divided and white also on the inside at the lower part of them and of a paler purple about the edges after which come up small long heads forked at the toppe wherein is contained small round shining yellowish seed yet bigger then any of the former the roote is longer and more full of threds or fibres then the last spreading much under ground The Place The first as Clusius saith Dr. Penny of London shewed him the figure and gave him the description and told him that he gathered it upon Bockmut a hill of the Switzers and the other of that kinde as is said in some places of Lancashire but we know not where Columna saith he found the second upon the hils Aequicoli in Naples The third and fourth groweth in the meddowes at the foote of hills in many places of Germany as Clusius saith The fifth groweth on the toppes of hills onely in many places of Austria And the last on the hils in Naples as Columna saith The Time These doe all flower in the Sommer Moneths of Iuly and August and not before the seede growing ripe soone after which shedding themselves continue their kinds but will hardly endure transplantation or rise of the seed sowen in a Garden as both Camerarius and others have observed and my selfe can say the same The Names These are called Gentianellae aestivae and are mediae inter Gentianas Centaurias minores as
thereat likewise the flowers are of a pale red colour set in a long spiked head but more loose and not so compact as the former this I had by Boel out of Spains by the name of Tenuifolius 1. Lagopus maximus flore rubâ—o The greatest Hares foote 2. Lagopus major follo pinnato The longer handed Hares foot 4.5 Lagopus augustifolius 〈…〉 Bright red 〈…〉 6. Lagopus vulgaris Common Hares foote 5. Lagopus minor flore ruberrimo Bright red small Hares foote This small Hares foote hath small woolly or soft leaves as small but nothing so long or narrow as the last and groweth little more then halfe a foote high the spiked head is small but larger then the wilde kind and the flowers on them are of a most excellent crimson colour the corners of whose woolly huskes stand out like starres when the seede within them are ripe this is but annuall perishing yearely as the former this also came to me out of Spaine by the name of Lagopus pratensis Baeticus 6. Lagopus vulgaris Common Hares foote The common Hares foote is well knowne to be a small plant growing greater and higher in some places and smaller in others with whitish woolly small trefoile leaves set upon the stalkes and many branches it hath the heads at the toppes are small and somewhat long with the roundnesse composed as it were all of a hairy hoary downinesse whose flowers in some are of a white in others of a blush colour it is annuall as the rest and this is 〈◊〉 especiall note of this family of Hares foote or that beare spiked heads of flowers that they perish yearely when as the other sorts of â—refoiles that are to follow or that went before are not so This also I had from Boel Supinus 〈◊〉 grew larger and another that stood not upright with many other sorts out of Spaine which are perished with â—e by some unkindly yeares have happened The Place and Time These have beene all found some in Italy others in Spaine some in France and others in Germany but are preserved with â—â— in the Gardens 〈◊〉 such as are curious and the last almost every where in dry grounds in our owne Land and flourish in the summer the onely The Names It is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke and so likewise Lagopus in Latine a Leporis hirfuto pede of the hairy foote of an 〈◊〉 as also Legâ—â—â— and Pes Leporis Lâ— and Trifolium humiles Hippocrates called it Lagopyron quasi Triticum Lepâ—â—â— because it grew among Corne the first is called by most writers Lagopus maximus Lobeâ— by Clusius and Lagopus maximus or major folio 〈◊〉 by Lobel himselfe and Dâ—naeus the second is called by Lobel Lagopus altera folio 〈◊〉 which Clusius maketh the other sort of his third Trifolium majus Tragus called it Cytisus and so did 〈…〉 and Cordus Trifolium magnum the commentors on Mesâ—es in their Pâ—ects Pes 〈◊〉 and Thalius Trifolium spicatum the third is called by Lobel Lagopus altera augustifolia and so by others but as I sayd by Lugdunensis Alapecuros 〈◊〉 Dalechampij the fourth Clusius so calleth as it is in the title the fift is not remembred by any before the last is generally called Laogpus or with little variation Tragus onely calleth it Lotus campestris The Vertues All the parts of these Hares feete that is leaves stalkes c. but especially the spiked heads doe dry and binde and of the first saith Lobel wee have had most certaine experience to stay Fluxes and Larkes of the belly being drunke in wine or in water if the patient be feverish and being bound to the Share it taketh away the inflammations thereof it is profitable saith Matthiolus besides the aforesaid qualities to stay chollericke belchings of the stomacke and paines of the belly if the heads and seede in powder be taken in red wine the herbe boiled with Mallowes in wine is very good for the paines of the bladder the heate of urine and scalding The seede also taken helpeth the spitting of blood the ashes of the heads being burnt is good to apply to the piles to stay their bleedings and some also thinke that if the fundament bee but wiped with the herbe it will stay their bleeding Pena saith that the facultie of drying is so powerfull besides the binding that it wonderfully stayeth the running of the Reines it is also profitably used in all foule and hollow Vlcers being first clensed to raise up flesh in them and to cicatrise them and is of great good use to helpe burstings CHAP. XXXI Trifolia capitulis stellatis globosis c. Starry headed and round headed Trefoiles THese sorts of Trefoiles are likest to the last in their heads chiefely but they are not so closely compacted but stand somewhat looser one flower from another 1. Trifolium stellatum Monspeliensium Starry headed Trefoile of Mompelier This Trefoile of Mompelier hath a small white long down-right root with some fibres therat from whence rise divers leaves upon long weake hoary foote stalkes not standing upright made of three soft hairy and hoary parts formed somewhat like unto an heart whereon some have rashly taken it to be Trifolium cordatum and a little dented about the edges from among which come up three or foure or more low stalkes seldome a spanne high or branched but naked up to the toppe where there usually grow three such like leaves as the lower are set under the head which is a small round spike or umbell with many long flowers appearing of a whitish red or flesh colour out of woolly or hairy and hoary huskes every one by it selfe which when they beginne to fade the whole head becommeth more round and the huskes shew their fine long sharpe points whereinto the toppes of them were divided more apparent laid abroad like a starre in each whereof is contained one blackish flat seede in the place about Mompelier where it groweth naturally it flowreth in May and the seede is ripe in Iune but with us it will neither flower nor seede of a moneth after 2. Trifolium clypeatum argenteum Buckler Trefoile with silver-like flowers This small plant spreadeth many branches upon the ground set with Trefoile leaves like the common medow Trefoile every branch bearing at the end divers silver like flowers and long round blacke and flat seede like unto the old Venetian Bucklers which are hot and drie in taste for which cause I should rather make it a Thlaspi but in that I have not seene the plant I can say no further of it but give it you as my author Alpinus hath set it downe 3. Trifolium globoso capite Globe or round headed Trefoile This round headed Trefoile from a long white fibrous and hairy roote sendeth forth divers slender round stalkes a hand breadth high and sometimes a foote long divided into branches somewhat hairy beset with small triparted leaves a little hairy with two small leaves at every
Dioscorides describeth them both in two severall Chapters the one in the roote that the Lotus roote was called Corsium and was round of the bignesse of a Quince which was used to be eaten either boiled or rosted under the fire which the roote of Nymphaea faileth in this is most probable to bee the Lotus Aegyptia of Dodonaeus And then againe in the seede which as Dioscorides sheweth is flat in the head of the Nymphaea and like Milium that is round in the Lotus but the leaves and flowers in both being so like the other being hid under the water caused Alpinus as he saith himselfe to â—ake no further knowledge or marke any difference in them then of a Nymphaea and I am halfe perswaded the like neglect hath happened to the Faba Aegyptia that it is not yet found in the waters of Egypt because the leaves thereof also are round like the Lotus or Nymphaea but now in his Booke of Exoticke plants he changeth his note and shâ—weth there that this is the true Lotus Aegyptia and all the parts thereof particularly desciphered All thâ—se sorts of Water Lillyes are so called by all Writers almost as I doe and therefore neede no further 〈◊〉 or amplification But hereby all men may take a good caveat not to be too forward either to condemne the Teâ—t of the ancients as judging it erronious or to be too confident of their owne judgement without well considering all parts For the like hereunto happened unto the Faba Aegyptia which formerly was confidently supposed to be Colocassia ignorance being the cause of error which knowledge since by industry hath corrected The Vertues The leaves and flowers of the water Lillies are cold and moist but the roote and seede is cold and dry the leaves doe coole all inflammations and both outward and inward heares of agues and so doe the flowers also either by the Syrupe or Conserve the said Syrupe also helpeth much to procure rest and to settle the braines of franticke persons for it wonderfully helpeth the distemperature of the head arising from heate the seede is sometimes used to stay fluxes of blood or humours either of wounds or of the belly yet is as effectuall as the roote but the roote is of greater use with us some taking the white roote which is of the yellow sort and some the roote of the white Water Lilly which hath the blacke roote to be the more effectuall to coole binde and restraine all Fluxes or defluxions in man or woman as also the gonorrhea or running of the reines and the involuntary passage of sperme in sleepe and is so powerfull that the frequent use thereof extinguisheth Venerious actions the roote likewise is very good for those whose urine is hot and sharpe to be boiled in wine or Water and the decoction drunke the blacke roote which beareth the white flowers is more used with us in these times then the other because it is more plentifully to be had then that with yellow flowers but the white roote of the yellow kinde is lesse pleasant and more astringent and harsh in taste and therefore not without just cause doe most preferre it before the other to stay womens courses and mens spermaticall issues The distilled water of the flowers is very effectuall for all the diseases aâ—oresaid both inwardly taken and outwardly applyed it is much commended also to take away freckles spots sunburne and Morphew from the skinne in the face or any other part of the body The oyle made of the flowers as oyle of Roses is made is profitably used to coole hot tumours and the inflammations of ulcers and wounds and ease the paines and helpe to heale the sores The Frog bit as being a species as I said of the Nymphaea minor and so likewise these lesser sorts have generally a cooling quality in them yet in a weaker measure then the greater sorts But let no man mistake the yellow Marsh Marigold instead of the yellow Water Lilly as it is likely Serapio lib. simplicium cap. 144. and some other Arabian Authours did that said there was another kinde of Nenufar which was sharpe and hot and of subtill parts and is fit to warme and give heate to cold griefes for assuredly they meant hereby the Caltha palustris which they mistooke to be a kinde of Nenufar as is evident by this their relation CHAP. XXX Potamogeton sive Fontalis Pondweede OF the Pondweedes there are divers sorts more found out and referred to them then was in former times which are these that follow 1. Fontalis major latifolia vulgaris The greater ordinary Pondweede This greater Pondweede riseth up with sundry slender round stalkes full of joynts and branches and faire broad round pointed darke greene leaves with long ribs in them like Plantaire set siâ—gly at the joynts and lying flat on the toppe of the water at the toppes of the stalkes and branches usually and seldome Potamogeton sive Fontalis major minor latifolia vulgaris The greater and lesser broad leafed Pondweede 2. Fontalis major longifolia The greater long leafed Pondweede at the lower joynts come forth long spiked heads of blush coloured flowers upon long footestalkes like unto those of Bistort or Arsmart whereon after they are past stand chaffie huskes containing within them blackish hard seede the roote creepeth to and fro in the mudde with divers joynts and tufts of fibres at them whereby they are fastened to the ground There is another of this sort that is lesser not much differing in any thing else Minor 2. Fontalis major latifolia The greater long leafed Pondweede This other greater sort differeth little from the former but in the leaves which are longer and narrower and the ribbes running acrosse in them and not at length as the former doth the spiked heads of flowers hereof are is some more whitish and in others as faire a blush colour as the former and come as well from the upper joynts as the toppes of the stalkes and branches There is another sort hereof also Altera with leaves not altogether so long or narrow 3. Fontalis serrato longifolio Dented Pondeweede The roote of this is joynted and creepeth like the former bringing very long and narrow leaves at the joynts of the stalkes and dented about the edges without any order on both sides and beareth at the toppes such like spiked tufts of flowers and seede after them as the others doe 4. Potamogeton gramineum ramosum Grasselike Pondweede The stalke hereof is a foote high or more being very slender round and whitish parted into sundry branches with many small grassiy round darke greene leaves not set together but by spaces a good way in sunder which end in other leaves that are almost as small as haires yet notwithstanding from the wing of the first leafe commeth forth a stalke with the like leaves at the end and thereat a small footestalke three inches long sustaining certaine small flowers dispersedly set in a
and is so short that it scarse sheweth it selfe out of the sharpe and prickly cuppe like to the male kinde and is almost as bitter the wood or timber hereof is loose weake and soft neither firme nor strong whereby it is the more subject to putrefaction and unfit for building or any other but small worke There is another sort observed hereof in some woods whose leaves are not so much gashed and the Ackornes being greater grow three or foure together without any stalke whose huske or cup is as sharpe and prickely as the other of these kindes The Place and Time The first Oke is the most generall throughout the land growing on high or low grounds indifferently yet flowrish best in a fruitefull ground the other kindes that I can heare of are not growing any where with us although there is some variety found in the timber of ours some being of a finer graine and smoother shorter and whiter wood others a courser graine tougher stronger and more coloured but they are most frequent in Italy Spaine and other hot climates their long catkins or bloomings come forth early in the Spring and fall away for the most part before the leaves doe come forth the fruite or Ackornes are not ripe untill October The Names The Oke is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is a generall word for all trees that beare Ackornes as the Latines Quercus is but more strictly taken it signifieth this Oke which is called by most in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Latifolia after Gaza The Italians call it Quercia the Spaniards Quexigo the French Chesne and Quesne Dodonaeus calleth it Hemeris quercus quasi sativa vel vobana and the second he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sylvestris or Robur when as the best Authours that I read make Hemeris to be Robur Gaza translateth it sometimes Plaecida and sometimes Quercus Theophrastus saith that the Macedonians in his time called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Etymodrys and by Gaza Veri quercus and of some Quercus robur and Galla arbor the Italians call it Rovero the Spaniards Euzina and some Portugalls Carvalla the French Roblo and Roure in Dutch Eyckeuhaâ—â— The third is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phagus in Latine Esculus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Latines doe ab esca vel esu Gaza in translating this unto Fagus according 〈…〉 had so done before him hath beene the cause why so many have erred in taking this Phagâ—s of Theophrastus to be the Fagus of the Latines which is in English the Beech tree when as they might plainely see that Theophrastus reckoneth it as a kinde of Oke and that beareth the sweetest Ackones but Fagus the Beech tree beareth â—â— Ackornes but a three square nut like a chesnut The Italians call it Eschia the Romanes Esculo the Spaniards 〈◊〉 and the Ackornes Vâ—llâ—tas The fourth is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aegilops of the Macedonians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asâ—â— in Latine Cerrus or Cerris as some have it yet Pliny maketh mention both of Aegilops and Cerrus some doe call it Cerrus mas Cerris majore glandâ— in comparison of the next Gerard calleth it the Holme Oke and his Corrector letteth it so passe when as the Ilex Cocoigera is more fitly to be so called because the leaves thereof are much more like unto the Holme or Holly bush then this is the Italians call it Cerro they of Cyprus Sio and other places in the bottome of the Straights call the Ackornes hereof Galliones the Word Aegilops doth also signifie a kinde of wilde Oates as is declared before among the Grasses The last is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as some read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine also Haliphleus but of most Cerrus faemina and of some Cerris minore glande Gaza translateth it Selficertex thinking it tooke the name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sal and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the barke hereof is not more salt but more thicke then others and therefore it is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corticis crassitudine the Italians call it Farnia The fruite of the Oke is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Balanus in Latine Glans but both Greekes and Latines 〈◊〉 the word to divers other fruites of trees as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iovis glans the Wall nut and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glâ—â—s Sardinia the Chesnut and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glans Phaenicea or Palma the Date and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Balanus Myrâ—psâ—ca or Glans unguentaria or Nux ben the oylie Nut Ben in Italian Chiade in Spanish Bellotas in French un gland in Dutch Eekel in English Ackorne and Maste which yet is said to be the fruite of the Beech and some other trees The cup or huske wherein the Ackorne standeth is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Calyx glandis in the Apothecaries shops Cupula glandis The Vertues The leaves and barke of the Okes and the Ackorne cupâ— doe binde and dry very much and are somewhat cold withall but the Ackornes themselves are neither so cold nor so much binding yea we have a generall received opinion that Ackornes in pouther drunke in wine are good to helpe stitches and paines in the sides but they usually put a few bay berries unto them in the taking the inner barke of the tree and the thinne skinne that covereth the Ackorne are most used in Physicke to stay the spitting of blood and the bloody flix the decoction of that barke and the pouther of the cups doe stay vomitings or castings spitting of blood or bleeding at the mouth or other fluxe of blood in man or woman laskes also and the involuntary fluxe of naturall seede the Ackornes in pouther taken in wine provoketh urine and resisteth the poyson of venemous creatures and the decoction of them and the barke made in milke and taken resisteth the force of poysonous herbes and medicines as also the violency of Cantharides when as by eating them the bladder is exulcerated and they pisse blood Hipocrates saith he used the fumes of the Oken leaves to women that were troubled with the strangling of the mother and Galen saith he applyed them being bruised to one that had a wound with an axe or hatchet not having any thing â—â—se neere at hand and thereby sodered up the wound and kept it from inflammation The cups of the Ackornes are more binding then the Ackornes by much in any thing The distilled water of the Oken buddâ— before they breake out into leaves is good to be used either inwardly or outwardly to asswage inflammations and to stay all manner of fluxes in man or woman The same water is singular good in pestilentiall and hot burning fevers for it resisteth the force of the infection and alayeth the extreame heate the same water also drunke as Matthiolus saith cooleth
victuals if a white worme like a magot saith Gerard a murraine of beasts and cattle but if a Spider say they both there will follow a pestilence or mortality but least I grow too tedious in this discourse little pertinent to this our History of Herbes I must passe no further but leave it to every man as his minde is affected and to God the Judge of all mens affections The Oke grape doth binde all fluxes whether of blood or humours and preferred by some before either Gall or Oke Apple especially by Eucelius who is the first that I know hath written of it Most of the rest of these Excressences are seldome used but those that are have the same quality of binding that the Gall or Oke Apple hath The red graine that is found on the Okes in Polonia and other places is altogether used by the Dyers but not used in any medicine by any that I have read or heard CHAP. III. Viscum Missellto BEcause the best Missellto groweth upon Okes sometimes but more usually on other trees I thought good to entreate hereof next unto the Gall and the other excressences of the Oke yet in a Chapter by it selfe not onely for the causes before alledged but for that there are some varieties found herein 1. Viscum vulgare The ordinary Misselto Missellto riseth up from the branch or arme of the tree whereon it groweth with a wooddy stemme parting it selfe into sundry branches and they spreading againe into many other smaller twigges enterlacing themselves one within another very much covered with a grayish greene barke having two leaves set at every joynt or knot and at the end likewise which are somewhat long and narrow small at the bottome but broader toward the end at the knots or joynts of the boughes and branches grow small yellowish flowers which turne into small round white transparent berries three or foure together full of a glutinous moisture with a blackish seede in every of them which was never yet knowne to spring being put into the ground or any where else to grow Policoccon Camaerarius maketh mention of one sort hereof that had many more berries growing together at a knot then the former but not to differ in any thing else Baccis rubris Clusius and Bellonius have each of them recorded in their writings to have found Missellto growing on Olive trees in sundry places both in Spaine and in Turkie that bore red berries not varying much in any other thing but it maketh the trees barren that hath it growing on them 2. Viscum Indicum The Misselto of India The Indian trees Excressence which for want of a fitter name was called Misselto because it groweth on their trees doth as it were runne or creepe upon the boughes shooting up sundry whitish greene stalkes with foure or five joynts thereon like to those of Grasses but without any leafe at them saving at the very toppe where groweth one large leafe like the Missellto leafe but twice as great thicke and fleshy as it with sixe round circles on either side of the middle ribbe toward the upper end from the bottome likewise of each of these leaves riseth up a long spiked head of small leaves as it were which abide greene all Winter long 3. Viscum Peruvianum Missellto of Peru. This other strange plant also that is referred to the Misselto groweth like a bush of small rush like sprigges with broad scales foulded one over another at the bottome as broad as ones hand where it is fastened to the branch whereon it groweth with small rootes like those of Onions but ending in small points all which doe encompasse an hollow reddish striped branched stalke two or three cubits high representing the chaffie tuft or eare of Oates for the fashion but Asclepias for the bignesse and the silken downe with small seede therein like Conyza of a saltish unpleasant taste like Niter perhaps taken from the Sea aire it feeleth Viscus quercinus Missellto of the Oke 2. Viscum Indicum Policoccon The Missellto of India and that with many berries together 3. Viscum Peruvianum Missellto of Peru. The Place and Time The first groweth very rarely on Okes with us but upon sundry other as well timber as fruite trees plentifully in Woods Groves and the like in all the Land but that with many berries in Germany c. the other two grow in the West Indies from whence onely some branch or other was brought by a friend Our Missellto flowreth in the Spring time but the berries be not ripe untill October and abide on the branches all the Winter unlesse the Blacke birds and other birds doe devoure them The Names It is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Dioscorides and so is the Birdlime made thereof also and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Theophrastus who saith also that in Euboea it is called Stelis and in Arcadia Hyphear yet lib. 3. c. 16. of his History he saith that Stelis groweth on the North side of the Ilex and Hyphear on the South so they differed one from another in some thing which he hath no where exprest in Latine Viscus and Viscum and so also the Birdlime made of the berries as are all these sorts called by all Writers that have written either of the two last since Lobel with their severall adjunctes The Arabians call it Debach Dabuch and Hale the Italians Vischio the Spaniards Ligamordago the French Guy the Germanes Mistel and Eichen mistel and Vogellem the Dutch Marentacken and we in English Missellto There are sundry controversies to be decided about this Viscum first whether it be produced from its owne seed or no for many have held that Blacke birds eating the berryes and lying in their bellies by dunging on the trees the seede hath thereby beene made the fitter to grow which else is not and so doth Pliny from Theophrastus set it downe turdus sibi exitium â—â—cat that the Blacke birds voydeth that whereby it is brought to death but it is since found by experience that there is no shew of seed in that dung they voyde upon the trees or elsewhere being wholly altered in their bellies before the voyding and further that Missellto groweth on trees from their owne superfluous moysture which made Ion the Poet to call it Sudor quercus even as Galles doe and Oke Apples from other sort of Okes and have no seede of their owne and to this purpose Virgil sexto Aeneidos saith Quale solet sylvis brumali frigore Viscum Fronde virere novae quod non sua seminat arbos Theophrastus also saith that the Missellto looseth the leaves in Winter if it grow on those trees that shed their leaves then but holdeth them growing on ever greene trees the reason whereof saith he is the tenacious humidity in the one which the other wanteth but the experience of our times hath shewed that it keepeth the leaves fresh and greene in Winter when the trees whereon
bladders thereon as the former the wood or timber of this is not so tough as the former but is more short and will bee more easily cleft 3. Vlmus folio glabro Smooth leafed Elme or Witch Elme The Witch Elme groweth more like to the last then the first in the bending boughes and great body the blooming and seede also is like though lesse but the leaves hereof are nothing so large as the last but neerest in bignesse unto the first yet not rough or crumpled but smooth and plaine and without any blisters on them as the former two have the timber hereof is as strong and as tough as the first or rather more and is accounted of workemen the stronger and more serviceable kinde 1. Vlmus vulgaris cum samâ—rtis sive seminibus suis Our Common Elme with his seede 2. Vlmus latiore folio Broad leafed Elme or witch Hasell 3. Vlmus folio glabro Smooth leafed Elme or Witch Elme 4. Vlmus minor The lesser Elme 4. Vlmus minor The lesser Elme There is in some places of this land found a sort of Elme somwhat differing from those before in that it groweth lower and lesser and with smaller leaves that are as rough on both sides as the first and easie to be distinguished if they be heedefully observed The Place and Time All these sorts are as is said found in our owne Country yet the first is the most frequent and the second in some Countries as much or rather more then the first the third is to be seene in many woods in Essex they all blossome as is said before the leaves come forth and the seede not long after their first spreading at large The Names It is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Vlmus Theophrastus and Columella as I said mention but two kindes Theophrastus Montiulmus or montosa Vlmus and campestris Vlmus Columella hath Vlmus Gallica and Vernacula which is Italica Pliny hath foure sorts Attinia Gallica Nostras and Sylvestris which will thus be reduced into the two sorts his Attinia and Gallica are both one sort as Columella plainely setteth downe and is the same with Theophrastus his montosa which is excelsissima Pliny his nostras and sylvestris are both one likewise and the same with Columella's Vernacula which as I said is called Italica and the same also with Theophastus his Vlmus campestris so that our third sort with smooth leaves was knowne to none of them nor yet scarse to any of our moderne Writers unlesse they put it for the Carpinus as it is usually called or for Ornus as Tragus calleth it as shall be shewed in the next Chapter so that our first here set downe agreeth with the Attinia of Pliny Galica of Columella and Montosa Vlmus of Theophrastus and our second with the campestris of Theophrastus Vernâ—cula of Columella and nostras sylvestris of Pliny and called also latifolia by divers but Bauhinus in my judgement hath much confounded them putting one for another the seede of the Elme is called Samarra The Arabians call it Didar Dirdar and Luzach the Italians Olmo the Spaniards Vlmo the French Orme the Germanes Rustholtz Vlmerbaum Iffenholtz and Lindbast as Tragus saith the Dutch Olboom and we in English the Elme tree The Vertues All the parts of the Elme are of much use in Physicke both leaves barkes branches and rootes the leaves while they are young were wont to be boyled or stewed and so eaten by many of the common people Marcellus saith that the leaves hereof beaten with some pepper and drunke in Malmesie doth helpe an old rotten cough to be taken fasting both Dioscorides and Galen upon his owne experience say that greene wounds are healed by applying some bruised leaves thereto and bound upon with the barke of the Line or Linden tree or with it owne barke the leaves used with vinegar cureth the scurfe and lepry very effectually so doth the barke also in vinegar as Galen saith Dioscorides and Columella do both say that the outer bark of the Elme drunk in wine hath a property to purge flegme which I know of none in our time hath tryed to confirme it the decoction of the leaves barke or roote being bathed healeth broken bones that moisture or water that is found in the bladders on the leaves while it is fresh is very effectually used to cleanse the skinne and make it faire whether of the face or of any other place Matthiolus saith he hath sufficient tryall that the water in the blisters on the leaves if clothes often wet therein and applyed to the ruptures of children will helpe them and they after well bound with a trusse The said water put into a glasse and set in the ground or else in dung for 25. dayes the mouth thereof being close stopped and then the bottome set upon a lay of ordinary salt that the feces may settle and the water become very cleare is so singular and soveraigne a balme for greene wounds that it is a wonder to see how quickly they will be healed thereby being used with soft tents the decoction of the barke of the roote fomented mollyfieth hard tumours and the shrinking of the sinewes the rootes of the Elme boyled for a long time in water and the fat rising on the toppe of the water being cleane scummed off and the place annointed therewith that is growne bald and the haire falne away will quickly restore them againe the said barke ground with brine or pickle untill it come to the forme of a pultis and laid on the place pained with the gout giveth a great deale of ease It hath been observed that Bees will hardly thrive well where many Elmes doe grow or at least if they upon their first going abroad after Winter doe light on the bloomings or seed thereof for it will drive them into a loosenesse that will kill them all if they be not helped speedily CHAP. XII Ostrys sive Ostrya Theophrasti The Horne beame tree THis tree which as I said before is so like unto the Elme but notably differing from it riseth up to be a reasonable great tree with a whitish rugged barke spreading well and bearing somewhat longer and narrower leaves then the ordinary Elme and more gentle or soft in handling resembling in some sort the Beech leaves turning yellow before they fall for which cause some have taken it as a kinde of small Beech at the end of the branches hang downe a large tuft of whitish greene narrow and long leaves being almost three square set together amogn which rise small round heads wherein are contained small yellowish seede like unto barley cornes the timber or wood hereof is whitish like the Beech but tougher and stronger then any Elme and more durable in any worke growing as hard is Horne whereon came our English name Caesalpinus seemeth to set forth another sort differing in the heads of seede which in Italy are smaller and closer Altera Italica
from ours or whether he be mistaken it resteth doubtfull Some as Lugdunensis saith have taken this plant to be the Ostrys or Ostrya of Theophrastus because it beareth small seede like unto Barley and some would have the white Syringa here set forth to be his Ostrys likewise for the same cause but I have shewed you the true Ostrys Theorhrasti before as Clusius hath sufficiently declared it The second is remembred in no Authour but the hortus Eystetensis The third is called by Prosper Alpinus in his Booke de plantis exoticis Ligustrum nigruâ—â— by which name it came first to Bauhinus as he saith out of Italy and afterwards from Signiour Contareni his Garden by the name of Syringa laciniatis folijs which he altereth to Ligustrum laciniatis folijs but it seemeth he had but onely a branch to see without flower as it is in his description and therefore could not further determine upon it but I have often seene it both in and out of flower and doe here give you both a full and true description of the plant and the name that both we and Iacobus Cornutus set it out by in his Booke of Canada plants viz. Agemlilag Persarum which as he saith signifieth Lilac Persicum Agem enim Persideni significat Lilac florem but came to us by the name of Iasminum Persicum because many of the leaves are formed very like those of Iasminum Catolonicum as I have shewed you in the description yet the truest name to be imposed on it is Lilac Persicum as I have before shewed you and this is that Lilac laciniatis folijs that J gave you understanding of in my former Booke The fourth is called Frutex coronarius by Clusius and Syringa alba by all other Authours but Lobel who calleth it Syringa Italica not that he ever saw it growing naturally wilde in Italy but that he there found it very frequent in their Gardens Bauhinus calleth it Syringa alba sive Phyladelphus Athenaei The last is called Sambac Arabum sive Iasminum ex Gine so that it may not unfitly be referred to either it is called Syringa Italica flore albo pleno by Besler who set out the great Garden of the Bishop of Eystot although Bauhinus seeme to make two sorts of it as his custome is in many other things which it is likely he never saw but upon Alpinus his resembling the leaves unto those of the Orenge tree for thereby he maketh his distinction We may call it in English either the double white Syringa or Pipe tree or the double white Iasmine according as it is in Latine which you will although the single white hath nothing the like resemblance in the flower to a Iasmine The Vertues There is no use of any of these in Physicke that I know and are but as ornaments in a Garden and for the beauty and sweetenesse of the flowers there cherished unlesse any would make a perfume of the flowers by infusing them in the Sunne with oyle of sweete Almonds or draw a Chymicall oyle out from the said flowers by distillation onely the last Alpinus sheweth the Egyptians doe use more for ornament to trimme up and perfume themselves then for to helpe them in their diseases neverthelesse they make saith he an oyle thereof which their women use in their bathings to mollifie the hardnesse and warme the coldnesse of the mother for by their experience they have found it to be very helpefull for hard kernels and tumours in the flesh and to cause a more easie and speedy delivery in travaile of childbirth by drinking this oyle warme and annoynting the wombe also Some use likewise to drinke that oyle warme and to annoint the stomacke outwardly therewith against the cough and shortnesse of breath and against the dangerous pleurisie where one can hardly bring up the flegme or their spittle and against Impostumations in the lungs and against the violent paines in the stomacke bowels or privities the oyle is made after the manner aforesaid either with oyle of Almonds or Sesamum and the flowers steeped and sunned CHAP. LIII 1. Oleander sive Laurus Rosea The Rose bay or Oleander THere is of this Rosebay two sorts the one with 1. Oleander flore rubro The Rose bay with red flowers crimson coloured flowers the other with white which are both so like in leafe and growing that very hardly they can be distinguished before they be in flower and therefore one description shall serve for them both and so might one figure also but that I had them both ready cut in my hand as I had many others that are inserted into this Worke. The stemme or trunke hereof groweth in rime with us but much more in the hotter climates to be as big below as a reasonable mans wrist and divideth it selfe upwards into many stalkes three for the most part rising at a place and from each of them likewise three other branches and so by degrees from three to three as long as it groweth the lowest part of the branches being bare without leaves and keeping them only at the tops al the Winter being long somewhat narrow more like to those of the Peach then Bay tree but thicker and harder of a darke greene above and yellowish below the flowers come forth at the tops onely of the branches of a deepe crimson colour while they are in the bud and being blowne consist of foure long and narrow leaves with round ends somewhat twining themselves of a paler red colour tending to a deepe blush and in the other are white without any mixture of other colour therein but the greene leaves are paler or fresher after which come long â—ooked pods hard or wooddy almost on the outside and browne in the hot Countries but was never seene to beare ripe pods I thinke in our Country wherein is contained brownish flat seede wrapped in a great deale of most fine brownish yellow downe as fine almost as silke the pods being somewhat like unto the pods of Asclepias or Periploca but larger flatter and harder 1. Oleander flore albo The Rose bay with white flowers 2. Nerij facie arbor Indica An Oleander-like Indian tree 2. Nerijfacie arbor Indica An Indian Oleander-like tree Because Lobel onely hath set forth this branch comparing it to the Oleander I thought good to joyne it next thereunto although wee have no further knowledge thereof then his relation which is thus Seven or nine of these together like unto sheathes of leather a foote or a foote and a halfe long every one of them resembling a slender Lamprey did hang downe from one place of the branch which was like a pithy Marsh Elder knotty pale browne sticke so neerely resembling the cast skin of a Snake or the dead body it selfe that it might very well fright children therewith although stuffed on the inside with woolly skins at the same knot with these skins came forth some flowers growing out of small huskes as the figure expresseth them
thicke middle rib running through the middle all the length of them and being reddish about the edges which are sharpe like the Iris leaves abiding alwayes greene from among the leaves at the heads come forth long footestalkes of about a footes length branched forth into other lesser stalkes bearing at certaine spaces divers fruites or berryes in clusters for the flowers have not beene observed each of them like unto a small Cherry of a sowrish or tart taste and of a yellowish colour when they are ripe with a stone within them very like a Cherry stone and a like kernell also but here is no shew of any Dragon here in to be seene as Monardus fableth and others that from him have set it forth which sheweth how necessary it is to have judicious and conscionable men to be the first relators of strange or unknowne things out of this tree being slit or bored commeth forth a thicke not cleare as Matthiolus saith darke red gumme or Rossin which hardneth quickely and will melt at the fire and flame being cast therein yet somewhat dryly being bruised it sheweth a very orient red crimson or bloody colour yet is very hardly mixed with any liquour eyther water or oyle the wood is very hard and firme and hardly admitteth to bee cut but the younger branches are more tender What if Master Hamonds flesh tree growing in Magadascar set forth in his Paradox yeelding liquor like blood may not prove to be this tree if the tendernesse of the wood cutting as he saith like flesh either hinder not the identity or be not an hyperbole The Place and Time This tree groweth in the Islands both of Madera and the Canaries and in Brassill also as I am given to understand where it groweth vast but Clusius saith that he found it in the Orchard belonging to the Monastery of our Lady of grace in Spaine planted among some Ollive trees on a small hill the Time is not expressed This is so tender that although it hath sprung with us from the stones that were set yet it would scarse endure to the end of Summer but perished with the first cold nights The Names It is most probable that neither Dioscorides nor any of the ancient Greeke or Latine Authours had any knowledge of this tree or could give any description thereof but of the gum or Rossin onely yet neither knew whether it came from herbe or tree or was a minerall of the earth but called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke and thereafter Cimnabaris in Latine Dioscorides saith that it was so scarse to be had that the Painters could not get sufficient for their workes but yet saith some called it Sanguis draconis so ancient is the name and by which onely the moderne Writers are led to thinke that the gumme of this tree continuing the name to this day the rest of this declaration agreeing likewise thereunto is the right Cinnabaris of Dioscorides but Pliny in his 33. Booke and 7. Chapter for the elder world hath fabled no lesse then Monardus from his Bishop of Carthage in this as is aforesaid and set it downe for a truth that Cinnabaris is no other thing but the blood of a Dragon or Serpent crusht to death by the weight of the dying Elephant killed by him and that both their bloods mingled togethers was the Sanguis draconis that the Painters used and was also used in medicines Iulius Solinus also affirmeth the same thing but assuredly the true cause of the name hereof was the bloody colour that the gum gave however they coloured the truth from others knowledge by the name of a Dragon The Vertues There is no part of this tree put to any use in Physicke with any that I know but the gum onely yet no doubt in the naturall places or where it groweth both barke and fruite might be applyed for such like diseases as the gumme is put unto which is very astringent serving to restraine the fluxe of blood or humours from any parts both in man and woman as laskes the menstrues whites and the gonorrhea it is also said to helpe the strangury and stoppings of the urine to fasten loose teeth and is very availeable for the gummes are spongy or with loose flesh it is good also to stay the watering of the eyes and to helpe those places that are burnt with fire The Goldsmiths and Glasiers use it much in their workes the one for an enamell and to set a foile under their pretious stones for their greater luster and the other by fire to strike a crimson colour into glasse for Windowes or the like I doe not know that Painters can bring it to be a fit colour to be used in their workes CHAP. XCII Cedrus magna Conifera Libani The great Cedar of Libanus THe rest of the Arbores resinifferae those trees that beare Rossins are to follow which are these that beare Cones being the great Cedar the Pine tree and all the sorts thereof both tame and wild the Pitch tree the Firre tree the Larch tree the Cypresse and the Arbor vitae or tree of life and first of the great Cedar This great Cedar groweth up with a great thicke upright body taller then any other tree whatsoever stored with branches on all sides but so ordered that the lower branches spread largest and still upward they grow smaller up to the toppe representing the forme of a Pyramid or Sugar loafe to them that view it a farre of the greater and lowest branches with the body are somewhat rugged and full of chappes but that of the upper branches is very Cedrus magna Conaea Libani The great Cedar of Libaijus smooth and of an ash colour and being rubbed away with ones nailes appeareâ—h greene underneath and reddish under that the branches soâ—e say grow all upright but others straight out and as it were crosse wise strong but brittle and easie to be broken not to be bended and so placed about the body one above another that they yeeld an easie ascent up to the toppe as it were by steps the leaves grow many together out of a knot which are small long and narrow like unto those of the Larch tree somewhat hard but not sharpe at the end as they are and so set the longest being in the middle and the lesser on the sides that they represent the forme of a Painters pensell abiding alwayes greene on the trees being somewhat sweete in sent a little sowre bitter and astringent in taste it beareth Cones that grow upright like as the Firre doth not hanging downe as others doe slenderer then those of the Pitch tree and thicker greater and harder then those of the Firre somewhat yellowish and round at the end made of many scales with a short footestalke to it but so firmely set to the branch that without breaking away some of the wood of the branch it cannot be pulled away yet the scales opening of themselves will fall away leaving the stalke bare
more slender and pliant branches then the former not covered with so rugged a barke nor spreading so much the leaves are very slender shorter and not so hard the Cones are likewise lesser and slenderer and so are the kernels also and covered with a blacke skinne 8. Pinaster pumilio montanus The dwarfe mountaine Pine tree This dwarfe Pine riseth to a mans height branching forth from the ground into somewhat large armes and covered with a thicke rugged barke spreading about the leaves stand by couples as in divers of the other sorts but thicker shorter and blunter pointed and of a sadder greene then in the first wild kinde the cones are small little above an inch long not much bigger then the Larch tree cones but more round at the head and smaller at the end standing upright and not hanging downe as all the others the shell of the nut within is winged as many are but the kernell is small and hard 9. Pinaster tenuifolius julo purpurascente The crooked mountaine Pine with thin leaves The body and branches hereof are crooked or writhed and not streight the leaves thereon are very thinne and shorter then many others two joyned together round about the branches at the ends whereof come forth certaine small scaly catkins of a purplish colour which fall away into a small pouther and after them come in the middle a new sprout of leaves inclosed in a certaine skin the cones hereof are small and blunt pointed 10. Pinaster niger latiore folio julis pallescentibus The crooked mountaine Pine with broader leaves This other crooked Pine hath such a like body and branches as the last spreading much and with a sadder barke the leaves are broader also sharper pointed and shorter then they and of a darker greene colour the catkins comming forth at the ends of the branches like the last are of a yellowish greene colour and not purple as they are after which come new leaves in the like manner the cones are smaller then they The Place and Time The first tame kinde is found planted in sundry places of divers Countries for the beauty of the tree with his ever greene leaves yet are they found also wild about Ravenna towards the Sea side The other sorts grow both in Spaine Italy and Germany and the parts neere adjoyning and the Sea kindes neere the Sea in many places and upon the Land also as Clusius hath observed the catkins of many come forth in the Winter and fall away in the Spring others spring not untill May the fruite of some of them being ripe in the end of Autumne and others not of a yeare after the springing The Names The Pine tree is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Pinus the Cones are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Coni and the auncienter Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but now the kernels are so called the kernels within them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pityides as Dioscorides saith who calleth both those of the Pine and of the Pitch tree by that name whereof Matthiolus is in some doubt that the place is erronius the word Pitch tree being thrust into the Text without any ground of reason for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pinorumfructus and the kernells onely of the Pine tree are edible and not the Pitch tree That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Theophrastus Dioscorides and Galen sheweth should be the Pine tree and not the Pitch tree may be shewed in divers places out of Galen and others although Pliny doth mistake them from the likenesse of Peuce to Picea and Pitys to Pinus as also Peuce to Larix and Bellonius from him doth so also and Gaza sometimes translateth them right and sometimes wrong but there may be as much doubt what tree Dioscorides and Theophrastus meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether the Pitch as it is thought by the most judicious or some sort of Pine because Dioscorides putteth them both together in the title of the Chapter as if they were both of one kinde and yet saith some held them to be divers sorts and nameth the fruite of them both by one name as is shewed here before when as it is plainely knowne to all that have observed them that the Pitch tree doth more resemble the Firre then the Pine as being no other difference betweene them the Pitch and the Firre then betweene male and female as I shall shew you after a while and there is greater difference betweene the Pitch and the Pine tree then there is of the Pines among themselves and Theophrastus also in many places of his Bookes nameth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if there should be two sorts of Pitch trees a tame and a wild which is not found in him to be so distinguished as he doth of the Pine I know to mend this matter that Lugdunensis sheweth the reading of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be understood picea oquifolium two words in hiâ— judgement but how those two words should be so often joyned together in him I see not unlesse they were meant one thing Matthiolus findeth much fault with Pliny that maketh Teda his sixth kinde of Pine tree 〈◊〉 him for errour for it for that Theophrastus and others make Teda to be but the peculiar fault or corruption 〈◊〉 the Pine tree of what kinde soever that is suffocated and killed with the abundance of it owne fatnesse not suffering the sappe to rise that should nourish it and then serveth for lights as Torches slived out into shivers the cause whereof Theophrastus sheweth lib. 6. caus cap. 15. as he did lib. 3 hist c. 10. what Teda is but other good Authours shew that although Teda be so taken with Theophrastus and others yet that letteth not but that there might be also a tree peculiar that boâ—e the name of Teda it being homonomia a word of divers significations and that else Pliny was not in his eight senses to appoint it a peculiar kinde and knew it was appropriated to corrupt trees also as himselfe declareâ—h in many places of his Bookes The first here set downe is called Pinus urbana domestica sativa and vulgatissimo by all Authours that have written thereof The second is called Pinus sylvestris fructifera or montana or Pinaster likewise by all Authours The third is the Pinus sylvestris Cemâ—râ— of Matthiolus which Lugdunensis calleth Teda arbor Plinij as he maketh the computation and his Pinus Tarâ—â—tiâ—a also The fourth is Matthiolus his Mugo and the Pinus tubulus Plinij also of Lugdunensis The fifth is the Pinus sylvestris sterilis of Lugdunensis but is not the Pinus maritima Theophrasti or Lobel nor the maritima major of Lugdunensis for these are the next or sixt that is Pinus maritima major although Bauhinus putteth them all under one title and the other of this kinde is another sort thereof that Clusius hath set forth
strong pegs into them which sticke out so much as may serve for footing to get up into the tree to gather the juyce or liquour and the fruite or fasten ropes with nayles round about the tree at spaces which serve as steppes to goe up into it and toward the top spread sundry great armes which bowe themselves almost round with large leaves on them like the Date tree but greater whose middle ribbe is very great abiding alwayes greene and with fruite also continually one succeeding another from betweene the lower boughes come forth smaller stalkes hanging downe bearing sundry flowers on them like unto those of the Chesnut tree after which succeed large great three square fruite or nuts ten or twelve or sometimes twenty thereon together as big as ones head or as a small Pompion almost round but a little smaller at the end covered with a hard tough darke ash-coloured barke and within it an hard round wooddy brownish shell but blacke being polished having at the head or toppe thereof three holes somewhat resembling the nose and eyes of a Monckey betweene which outer barke and this shell grow a number of grosse threds or haires or such like stuffe whereof is made cordage stronger and more durable in the salt Sea then any made of hempe within the wooddy shell there is a white kernell cleaving close to the inside thereof of the thicknesse of ones finger or thumbe or thinner as sweete and pleasant as an Almond while it is fresh having in the middle thereof a pint two or three of cleare dainty sweet water as pleasant as milke Palma vel Nux Indica Cocos ferens The Indian Cokar Nut tree Nucula Indica racemosa A small Indian Nut many growing together Fructus integer Nucis Indicae Cocus dictus The whole Cokar Nut as it is taken from the tree Nux Indica interior The inward Cokar Nut with the hard blacke shell thereon Nucula Indica alter A little Indian Nut and another called Mehenbethem but as it groweth either to be over ripe or being kept to be older so much lesse pleasant will this liquour be and either grow sower or thicke by time and be quite spent and consumed it hath beene observed that sometimes there will be floting in this liquour a small lumpe or ball as cleere as a pearle and very sweet in taste which is as the sprout which have sprung forth a stalke rising through one of the holes at the head and rising two palmes above it hath shot forth fibres for rootes The name and uses whereunto this tree and the fruite and those things that are made thereof serve are these The tree it selfe is called generally by the Indians Maro in Malaca Trican but in Malabar Tengamaran by Avicen Giausi al heud which is Nux Indica by Serapio and Rhasis as Garcias saith Iarelnâ—re yet that word is not found saith Clusius in our Bookes but Neregill the Latines call it Palma Indica Coccifera to distinguish it from the â—alma Dactylifera the timber whereof is not spongy or like the Ferulas as Garcias saith but solide and firme blacke and shining like the Wallnut tree fit for building of houses or ships and other things as Garcias himselfe saith a little after this tree saith Garcias is of two sorts or rather as I thinke kept for two uses the one to beare fruite the other to extract the liquour issuing thereout when the branches are cut or when it is bored and received into Gourdes or other such like things tyed thereto which liquour they call Sura and is like troubled Wine in shew but in taste like new or sweete wine which being boyled is called Orraqua and being destilled is made like unto Aqua vitae which they use to the same purpose that we doe ours and will burne like it and is called Fula and being set into the Sunne will become good vinegar but that which runneth last being suffered to abide in the Sunne untill it grow hard or boyled to the hardnesse will be Sugar which they call Iagra The branches saith Garcias but Ferdinandus Lopes saith the leaves are called Olla and serve as umbrels to keepe off Sunne and Raine and in such like leaves saith he was written the first Letter that the King of Calecut sent to Emanuel King of Portugall upon the Portugals first arrivall into his Country they serve likewise to cover houses to be defended from raine the fruite is called by the Indians generally Narel which is common both with the Persians and Arabians but in Malabar Tenga and while it is greene and not ripe Eleni the Portugals call it Coquo that is a Monckey of the likenes of a Monkeys face and from thence hath risen the word Cocus or rather Coqus which the three holes represent and at Goa Lanha of the hairy stuffe or hardes which is next the outer barke of this Nut called by the Indians Cairo are made not only Cordage and Tackle for ships but cawking stuffe which is better to cawke ships then any other stuffe and being beaten the finer stuffe is made into girdles and cawles for women sailes cloathes also but not any fine stuffe or cloath like any fine linnen both of the meaner and better sort at Lishbone as Clusius saith he saw and observed but as Garcias saith while this Nut is young it hath a tender barke which may be eaten and tasteth like an Artichoke of the browne hard inner shell being pollished and made blacke and shining is not onely made cups to drinke in set in silver or other mettall which made Sepulveda to draw the Portugalls to thinke that it doth helpe those that have the Palsie to drinke out of them but Garcias saith it hath no likelihood but being burned into coales serve the Gold smithes for their uses who goe about in the streetes crying for worke and carrying some necessary tooles for the purpose with them of the inner white kernell which is hollow cleaving fast to the inside of the hard wooddy shell which is an inch or two or lesse thicke firme and fast tasting sweet like an Allmond they make bread especially while it is fresh for the fresher the Nuts are the sweeter will the meate thereof be and doth nourish much being good for macilent bodies and to encrease sperme and Venery and is good to lenefie the harshnesse of the throate and the hoarsenesse of the voyce and eaten oftentimes with Iagra before recited or with Sugar or else being broken and bruised they draw forth a milke like unto Allmond milke wherewith they boyle Rice and is as sweet as the milke of Kine or Goates or else herewith and the flesh of beasts or birds they make certaine meates which they call Carib The fresh kernels being broken and dryed after the outer rinde is pared away are called by them Copra and is sent as a merchandise into other Countryes that have either none or not sufficient store to serve their use which taste much pleasanter then any
men and the whites in women applyed also to Maides or womens great brests mixed with the juyce of Puâ—slane abateth their greatnesse and represseth their overmuch growing CHAP. XLVIII Pseudosantalus Cretica Abolicea dicta Bastard red Saunders of Candy THis tree groweth in Candy and made Pseudosantalus Cretica Abolicea dicta Bastard red Saunders of Candy knowne to Alpinus whose figure was sent him as I here shew it you with this description following It is a tree that groweth to a reasonable great height straight upright furnished with many armes and branches very beautifull to behold set with faire greene leaves one at a place like unto those of Alaternus but rounder and deeplier endented about the edges the flowers were not observed what forme or colour they bore but the fruite was round and of the biggenesse of Pepper cornes of a darke greenish colour which were not perfectly ripe when this tree was found The wood it selfe is somewhat sweete hard and reddish so that it seemed like red Saunders especially being made into pouther from whence I thinke saith he it may not unfitly be called Bastard red Saunders of Candy some of the wood saith Pona hath beene brought into Italy and there sold for Saunders but it differs from it in that it is nothing so heavy as the true red Saunders is CHAP. XLIX Sassaphras The Sassafras or Ague tree THe first knowledge of this Sassafras or Ague tree came by the French to our Christian world and to the Spaniards by driving out the French who had seated themselves somewhat neere the Florida which they claimed for themselves for they having gotten Agues and swellings in their legges and other diseases by lying on the ground in the open aire by bad victualls and raw drinke of water as the French before them had by a French man that remained among them were taught the use of this tree which he and his Country men had learned before of the Natives to helpe themselves in these extremities some Indians call the tree Pavame and some Winanke but the French whom the Spaniards and all other Nations since that use it follow Sassafras upon what ground or cause is not knowne The tree groweth great and tall bare of branches unto a reasonable height covered with a grayish browne barke somewhat thicke being in taste hotter and quicker then the wood or roote by much towards the toppe it spreadeth forth many goodly armes and branches into a round compasse or forme having large darke greene leaves growing thereon one at a place standing on the contrary side each to other tasting like the roote but more weakely some cut into three divisions somewhat resembling Figge tree leaves but lesser by the halfe for the most part with a middle ribbe running through each division and two others to the inner cuts with veines besides and some with little or no division at all upon them for both sorts wee have seene growing on the same tree smooth also and not dented about the edges the flowers are small and yellow made of threds very like to the Male Cornel tree as Master Iohn Tradescant saith and the fruite small blackish berries set in small cups upon Sassafras The Sassaphras or Ague tree long footestalkes many clustring together the rootes are not very great nor grow deepe in the like manner as all other sorts of Indian trees doe but are covered with the like brownish barke that the trunke and branches are but somewhat redder which are most in use being of greater force and efficacy then any other part of the tree and taste somewhat spicelike rellishing Fennell seede withall but Clusius compareth the taste thereof unto the herbe Tarragon and is hot and dry in the beginning of the third degree The decoction whereof is familiarly given in all cold diseases and obstructions of the Liver and spleene as also in cold rheumes and defluxions of the head on the teeth eyes or lunges warming and drying up the moisture and strengthning the parts afterwards and therefore is availeable in coughes and other cold diseases of the brest stomacke and lungs and restraineth castings and helpeth digestion breaketh and expelleth winde the gravell and stone in the kidneyes and provoketh urine and womens courses it also warmeth heateth and dryeth up the moisture of womens wombes which is in most the cause of barrennesse and causeth them to be the more apt to conceive it is of especiall good use in tertian and quotidian agues that come of humours or are of long continuance it is thought also to be good in the time of the pestilence to weare some thereof continually about them that the smell of it may expell the corrupt and evil vapours of the pestilence it is generally used in all the diseases that come of cold and raw thin and corrupt humours the French disease and other of the like foule nature the Indians use the leaves being bruised to heale their wounds and sores of whatsoever quality they be CHAP. L. Spermacaeti Parmasitty SPermacaeti that is the spawne of the Whale usually called in English Parmasitty is found in the head of one onely sort of Whale fish called Trumpa which hath no finnes in his mouth but teeth about a spanne long and as thicke as ones wrist it lyeth in a hole therein as it were a Well which is taken out and brought home after their fishing for Whales in barrels and is afterwards pressed in a presse that the thinne oyle may runne from the thicker substance which is that Parmasitty we use and the more it is pressed the whiter it will be and of little or no smell yet the oyle is somewhat strong this sort of Whale hath but one hole in the head whereby it spouteth out water all other sorts having two his head is bigger then others and bigger then his whole body besides which is also of a more gray colour in this Whales entralls Ambergreise is said often to be found in more plenty then in other which it is more likely that they swallow as food finding it swimming on the Sea water then that it should breed in them as diverse have supposed for I have here shewed you the generation of Ambergreese this Whale also yeeldeth a kind of oyle as other Whales doe but it groweth both white and hard when it is cold when as all other are liquid like oyle and never glow hard like it and therefore it is alwayes kept by it selfe and not put to others CHAP. LI. Tacamahaca The Gum Tacamahaca THis Gum which the West Indians call Tacamahaca the Spaniards and all other Nations retaining the same name is said to be gathered from a great tree like unto a Poplar that is very sweete having a red fruite or berry like unto those of the Peony more we cannot as yet learne of it The Gumme is of good and much use for outward remedies not being knowne to be given inwardly for any infirmity although I doubt not but that it might safely and to good purpose
resembling a small lambe whose coate or rinde is wolly like unto a Lambes skinne the pulpe or meate underneath which is like the flesh of a Crevise or Lobster having as it is sayd blood also in it it hath the forme of an head hanging downe and feeding on the grasse round about it untill it hath consumed it and then dyeth or else will perish if the grasse round about it bee cut away of purpose it hath foure legges also hanging downe the Woolves much affect to feede on them CHAP. LXVIII Manobiforte Brasilianorum Indian earth nuts or Pease THere is growing in sundry places in Brassil and in America also neare the River Maranon a certaine fruit or Pease breeding under the ground like as puffes doe without either leafe or roote as it is sayd but they are no bigger then great Pease and inclosed in a small grayish thicke and short cod very like a small Pescod with one or two Pease therein of a pale reddish colour on the outside and white within tasting like unto an Almond which will rattle being shaked in the skinne growing many together and tyed by small strings The fruits are eaten as junkets with great delight for their pleasant tastes sake eyther fresh or dryed but a little tosted make them rellish much better and are served to the table of the better sort as an after course and doe dry and strengthen the stomacke very much but taken too liberally breed head ach and heavinesse CHAP. LXIX Radix Sancta Helenae Saint Helens beads or Indian round sweet Cyperus NEare the Port of Saint Hellen which is in Florida grew certaine rootes very long and full of knots or round joynts as great as ones thumbe blacke Radix Sancta Helene Saint Helens Beads or Indian round sweet Cyperus without and white within tasting somewhat aromaticall like Galanga which when they are dry are as hard as an horne the leaves are large and very greene growing on stalkes that spread on the ground it groweth in moist grounds and is drying in the beginning of the second degree and heating in the end of the same the pouther of them taken in wine is used against the paines of the stomacke and bowels easing the collicke and stone in the Kidneyes and provoking urine The Indians use to sprinkle the pouther of the rootes all over their bodies being ready to goe into the Baths because as they say it bindeth the skinne and strengthneth the members of the body by its sweet sent They use there to disjoynt these round knots of the rootes which being drilled and strung serve them in stead of Beads to tell God how many prayers they will give him at a time Clusius thinketh these roots may not unfitly bee referred to some kind of Cyperus but I thinke the large leaves contradict it CHAP. LXX Radix Quimbaya Carthagenas purging roots PEtrus Cieca maketh mention of these roots in the first part of his Peruvian history that they are slender of about a fingers thicknesse growing among the trees in Quinbaya a Province in Feru whose cheife city is Carthage if some of these roots be taken and steeped in a good quantitie of water all night they will drinke up most of the water but yet three ounces thereof remaining being drunke doe purge the body so gently and without trouble or perturbation as if it had beene purged with Rubarbe this hath beene often tryed Clusius thinketh that these rootes were the same or very like unto such as was sent him by a friend by the name of Bexugo vel Peru which he tooke to be no other then the branches of Atragene or Viorna of that Countrey they were so like CHAP. LXXI Rhabarbarum Americanum Rubarbe of America or West Indie Rubarbe MOnardus saith that among other things were sent him out of the maine of the West Indies he had a peece of a roote which they called there by the name of Rubarbe and was very like the East Indian kind for as hee saith it was round with a brownish coate and reddish core or inside which being broken had some whitenesse mixed among it and coloured the spittle yellow like Saffron being bitter withall but what leaves it bore was not signified This is not the white Rubarbe of America for that as is sayd in its place in the Mechoacan CHAP. LXXII Carlo Sancto The Indian Hoppe-like purger OVt of the Province of Mexico commeth this root which they there call Carlo Sancto for what cause is not well knowne it groweth after the manner of Hoppes climing on poles or other high things or else it will lye on the ground the leaves are like unto Hoppe leaves of a very sad greene colour and of a strong heady sent it is not knowne whether it beare eyther flower or fruite the roote is great at the head having sundry smaller sprayes issuing from it each of the bignesse of ones greater finger and white the barke or tinde whereof is easily separated from the rest and is of most use smelling somewhat sweet and tasting bitter and somewhat sharpe withall the pith of the roote consisteth as it were of many small and very thinne filmes which may easily Carlo Sancto The Indian Hoppe-like purger be separated one from another it is hot and dry in the beginning of the second degree The barke of the roote being a little chewed in the mouth draweth downe from the head much flegme whereby rheumes catarrhes and destillations therefrom are voyded and the parts much eased of paines and other griefes in some also it causeth a vomit avoyding thereby much choller and flegme from the stomacke that oppressed it before and strengthned it afterwards the decoction thereof worketh better thereon if a purgation fitting the person be taken before this evacuation upwards it will doe the more good the barke being chewed helpeth loose gummes putrid and rugged teeth and maketh a sweete breath but it were good to wash the mouth with a little wine afterwards to take away the bitternesse the pouther thereof taken in a little white wine or the decoction thereof with Maiden haire and a little Cinamon easeth women of the obstructions of the mother the staying of their courses and consumeth winde in their bodies being formerly purged and prepared and using Liquidambar Vng Dealthaea of equall parts mixed together to annoint the lower parts of the belly all the while the same also helpeth the Simptomes of the heart as swounings and other the passions thereof especially rising from the defects of the mother This decoction likewise is very beneficiall for them that are so troubled that is to take two drams of the barke and boile it in three pints of faire water putting in at the end thereof foure drammes of the barke of Pomcitrons and two drammes of Cinamon which afterwards being strained six ounces of this decoction is to be taken with a little Sugar every morning the body being purged before hand This pouther and decoction is commended likewise against the French disease the
at the Straights of Nagellon returning from thence home into England againe in the yeare 1579. in the Winteranus Cortex Captaine Winters Cinamon parts thereabouts cut downe certaine trees whose barke was somewhat like unto the thicker sort of Cinamon both for substance and colour yet for the most part thicker and some of it of an ash colour and some brownish on the outside and rugged like Elme barke some of it having chinkes or riftes on the inside and some smooth and firme of a smel not unpleasant but of a very sharpe taste like many spices together heating the mouth more then Pepper the leafe of the tree is of a whitish greene not unlike the Aspen leafe the berries grow in clusters like the Hawthorne with divers seedes in each of them They at the first knew not of any properties therein and therefore boyled some of it in hony to make it the more pleasant to be taken and dryed other some and made it into pouther putting it in stead of Cinamon in their meats but afterwards they found it to be singular good against the Scurvey for divers in the shippe being troubled with that disease found remedy thereby in using it a while Some of our company of Apothecaries and those not of the meanest doe use to call the Canella alba mentioned here before Cortex VVinterani and have used it in their dispensation of Mithridatium as a substitute for Costus whereof I gave you a touch in the Classis of Cardui and Spinosae in the last Chapter thereof save one but now by comparing the one with the other you may easily see the errour for the Canella alba is a white barke rowled like Cinamon and not much thicker then it of an hot taste but neither like Cinamon nor Pepper and this Cortex Winteranus is thicker then the thickest Cinamon not caste into rowles or hollow pipes like it and tasting much quicker besides the colour is of a duskie browne in most comming nearest unto Cinamon I thought good a little to explaine this matter here because I finde many possessed so strongly with that errour that Canella alba is Cortex Winterani that all may see how true their opinion is This barke might seeme to be that whereof Monardus saith he had a peece from Bernardino de Burgo an Apothecary but that his had a more excellent smell and taste excelling that of the Nutmeg and as pleasant as Cinamon and more cordiall which is not found in this barke of Winâ—s Monardus likewise maketh mention of another thicke barke which was taken from a tree as great as an Elme and like in forme growing scarse in any other part of the West Indies then neare the Rivers sides about 25. leagues distant from Lima it is hot saith he above the second degree the Indians use to put it up into their nostrills the fine pouther of the barke when they are troubled with rheumes and defluxions from the braines or with other paines in the head for it plentifully draweth downe humors whereby they finde ease CHAP. CXXXVII Coru arbor The costive or binding tree THis tree is somewhat like unto a dwarfe Orrenge tree both for forme and leafe but having a thickeâ— middle ribbe and eight or nine other smaller ones running to the sides the flower is yellow without sent the barke of the roote onely is in use which is of a pale greene colour and being broken yeeldeth much milke which is somewhat clammy having little taste but some bitternesse is more drying then cooling The juice or milke of the barke of the rootes hereof although unpleasant is much used by the natives of China Iapan Malaca and Bengala as well as Christians in all manner of Fluxes and Laskes comming from what cause soever Those of Canarin call it Corn they of Malabar Curo and Curo dapala and the Branchmenes Cura CHAP. CXXXVIII Pavate Another Costive tree THis other tree which is more frequent to be had then the last and called Pavate in Malabar is therefore in more use though not altogether of so strong and speedy effect for the staying of Laskes and Fluxes but is of excellent propertie to coole Pavate Another Costive tree all hot inflammations and eruptions of cholericke matter in the skinne and S. Anthonies fire the roote of this tree is of chiefest use and sometimes the wood steeped in the decoction of Rice which will grow sower after it hath stood a few houres and then they call it Cania with this decoction they wash also the outward parts inflamed or spotted which cooleth much and helpeth all those heates it is also drunke being steeped as aforesaid against the heate of the Liver and in hot Fevers a few leaves of Tamarinds being put thereto they use to wash the sides of Vlcers and wounds that are inflamed and have defluxions of humours to them to stay the Flux and coole the heate The tree is not greater then the former having but few branches and such like leaves of the Orrenge but without that small leafe underneath it and of a fresh greene colour the flowers are whitish like unto the Hony succkle with small round blackish seede likeunto those of the Masticke tree the barke is of an Ash-colour and the root white The Brackmenes and those of Canarin call it Vasaveli the Portugalls Arbol contra las erifi polas CHAP. CXXXIX Pacal The Tetter tree THis tree groweth neare the Rivers sides in the West Indies part whereof being sent to Monardus had this commendations that the ashes of the wood mixed with a little Sope the Indians used to annoint on those places that had Tetters Ring-Wormes or the fowlest spreading Vlcers and scarres that could be either in the head or any other part of the body to cure them and leave the place faire againe CHAP. CXL Lignum Nephriticum The tree against the stone FRom Hispaniola and the paâ— thereabouts hath beene of tear sent many years since at well as of late though now in farre lesse esteeme a certaine sin both light and white wood the tree whereof is as bigge as a Peare tree without knots the wood being sliced final and 〈◊〉 to â—ept in pine Chodait or Spring water will within halfe an houre oâ— thereabouts if it be right discolour the water into a fine light blew colour which lying longer therein will cause it grow of a deeper colour this infusion 〈◊〉 although it be altogether insipide and without any taste as if nothing had beene put into the water is found yet to be hot and dry in the first degree and singular availeable against the stone in the kidneyes and the difficultie in making urine and is found also by good experience to open the obstructions of the Liver and Spleene the water or infusion is being drunke of it selfe or mixed with wine and so taken but there is another wood very like unto this which often obtruded on many in stead thereof which being infused in water in the like manner will discolour
fashion and stand one above another upon a single upright stalke and 7. Polyganatum Virginiâ— Salomons Seale of Virginia 8. Polygonatum racemosum Americanum Cluster like Salomons Seale of America branched about a foote or halfe a yard high but not of so sad a greene colour not discouloured underneath but at the very toppe of the stalke many being set together which are whiter and smaller and nothing so long and pendulous ending in fine small pointed leaves and lastly in the beries which in this are smaller then in any of the former and of a most orient red or scarlet colour which made them at the first to bee taken for Chermes or Scarlet berries where they are naturall and thought fit to dye withall but found unprofitable which while they are white and before they become ripe have six blacke strakes on every of them equally distant but are quite worne out being ripe within which are contained white hard stony graines or seedes like the other Iacobus Câ—untuâ— of Paris in his Canadensium plantarum historia maketh hereof two sorts one be calleth Fertila the other â—ile when as they are both but one sort however happening one may be more apt to beare berries then another for that which I have in my Garden that never bore berries rose from the seede of those berries that were brought us from New-England 8. Polygonatum racemosum Americanum Cluster like Salomons Seale of America This plant shooteth up a round brownish single stalke and sometimes parted or branched about two or three foote high set with many very faire broad leaves some ribbes being of a reddish others of a sad greene colour harder then others and compassed about the edges with a rougher and darker list at the toppes of the branches stand in open clusters many small pale coloured threds like unto the Vine Blossomes which passing away there succeede sundry small berries composed like a cluster of Grapes and each of the bignesse of a â—per 〈◊〉 yellowish before they be ripe and finely spotted with blood red speckles which after they have long so 〈◊〉 are worne out by the ripening of them and change red like a Cherry whose pulpe or juice is sweete and containe within them small white rounidish seede the roote is thicke white tuberous long and joynted as it were by distances with sundry fibres thereon 9. Polygonatum perfoliatum Brasilianum Salomons Seale of Brassil The Salomons Seale of Brassil hath an upright straked stalke about a cubit high whereon are set leaves one above another very large about foure inches long and two inches broad of a pale greene colour full of ribbes tender and not hard which compasse the stalke at the lower end where it is broadest like unto Thoroughwax that the stalke seemeth to goe thorough them the flowers also which stand in the same manner that the ordinary sorts doe are much larger then any of the former consisting of five narrow white leaves two inches long a peece standing at the ends of very small and long footestalkes the berries and rootes are not set forth by mine author 10. Polygonatum ramosum perfoliatum flore luteo majus minus Americanum The greater and lesser thorough leafed yellow Salomons Seale of America This Salomons Seale hath a slender smooth stalke or two halfe a foote high parted about the middle into two branches and each of them againe into others the greater sort having faire broad and long very pale greene ribbed leaves compassing the stalke wholly at the bottome the smaller sort much narrower and smaller at each of 10. Polygonatum ramosum perfoliatum flore luteo majus et minus Americanum The greater and lesse thorow leafed yellow Salomons Seale of America 11. Polygonatum Angestifoliuâ— Narrow leafed Salomons Seale the joynts with the leaves and at the toppes also stand the flowers singly in each sort composed of six long and narrow yellow leaves hanging downewards in the middle whereof is a crooked head or horne compassed with six yellow threds or chives when the flower is past the footestalke thereof riseth up bearing that crooked or horned three square thicke skinny cod on the end having whitish seede within it the roote is nothing so thicke or white as the eight but fastned by many strings in the ground 11. Polygonatum angustifolium Narrow leafed Salomons Seale The narrow leafed Salomons Seale shooteth forth divers upright stalkes about a foote high bending downewards at the toppes without any branches at all upon them whereon stand at severall joynts and spaces foure or five and sometimes six long and narrower greene leaves then they of the former being smooth and ribbed or full of veines at the said joynts with the leaves come forth two or three short stalkes with whitish greene flowers at the ends of them like unto the first after which come round berries red when they are ripe more pulpie or juicie then the last conteining hard white kernells within them like the rest the roote is tuberous like the former ordinary sorts branching forth at the sides like them 12. Polygonatum angustifolium ramosum Branched small Salomons Seale This small Salomons Seale is in most things like the last as in rootes leaves flowers and berries the chiefest difference consisteth in this that it brancheth forth at every joynt on the maine stalke on both sides thereof and hath the leaves somewhat smaller and narrower yet set in the same manner and the flowers somewhat smaller also standing on short footestalkes The Place The first is frequent in divers places of our Land as beside those that Gerard hath named it groweth in a wood two miles from Canterbury by Fishpoole hill as also in a bushie Close belonging to the Personage of Alâ—berry neare Clarindon two miles from Salisbury the next Close thereunto is called Speltes and in Chesson wood on Chesson hill betweene Newington and Sittingburne in Kent the other six following it and the two last grow in Germany Austria and the parts thereabout the seventh was brought both out of Virginia and New-England by some Martiners that had thought they had beene the Scarlet or Kermes berries as I sayd before from whose seede sprang with me first as I thinke in this kingdome and brought such plants as I have expressed in the description the eighth and tenth were brought from Canada by the French the ninth groweth in Brassill and from thence brought and communicated to Bauhinus by Dr. Burserus The Time They flower about May and the Virginia Brassill and American sorts not untill Iune and Iuly the berries of the European sorts are ripe in September and continue on the stalkes untill the frosts rot the stalkes and they fall downe and perish with all above ground the roote abiding safe and shooting a new every yeare the Virginian sort hath such red berries as are expressed in the description but it never bore berries in our Land that I know of but the other Americans beare berries about September The Names It is called in Greeke 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polygonatum and so in Latine also A radicis geniculorum frequentibus nodis of the many nodes and knots in the roote it is usually called Sigillum Salamonis for the causes set downe in the description of the first and of some Scala coeli Ioannes Monardus tooke it to bee Secacul of the Arabians but without all shew of reason almost the Italians in some places call it Polygonato and Ginochietto in others and in Hetruria or Florence Frassinella but for what respect I know not not having any likenesse or affinitie with Fraxiâ— from whence the name should be derived the French Genicoliere of somâ— and Seau or Signet de Salomon of others the Germans Weisswurtz id est radix alba of the Dutch Salomons Seghel and wee in English Salomons Seale most usually but in some countries the people call it Ladder to Heaven according to the Latine name Scala caeli which was anciently knowne in the Apothecaries shoppes from the forme of the stalke of leaves one being set above another The first is called Polygonatum generally by all writers almost some calling it Latifolium some majus and some vulgare and some Sigillum Salomonis Anguilara Caesalpinus and Castor Durantes following their owne country name call it Frassinella confounding it with the Dictamum albus which is called Fraâ—ciâ—ella the second is the first Polygonatum latifolium of Clusius which Camerarius in horto calleth Polygonatum Pannonicum the third is Clusius his second Polygonatum latiore folio which Cordus in his History of plants calleth Polygonatum angulosam the fourth is the third Polygonatum Latiore folio of Clusius which Bauhinus calleth Polygonatum latifolium Ellebori albi folijs the fift Bauhinus in his Pinax and Prodromus calleth PolygonatuÌ„ latifoliuÌ„ minus flore majore The sixt is diversly called Matthiolus setteth it forth for Laurâ— Alexandrina whom Camerarius â—th and Clusius reproveth in that it answereth not thereunto as you shall heare more amply in the next Chapter both by the description and explication Iohannes Mollinaeus that set forth the great Herball of Dalechampius generally called Lugdunensis taketh it to be Hippoglossum of Dioscorides whom Clusius also taxeth for it shewing that howsoever the Text of Dioscorides if corrupted be amended yet this cannot be it because it wanteth those ligulae small tongues that are growing upon the leaves of Hypoglossum as you shall heare by and by and that this is not perpetually greene as the Hypoglossum but dyeth downe to the roote every yeare shooting sooth new stalkes in the Spring and therefore Clusius saith that it cannot be better referred then unto the kinds of Polygonatum unlesse as he saith it might be the Idaea radix of Dioscorides wherein as he saith because he is so briefe nothing can be affirmed for certaine yet I certainely thinke it answereth very fitly thereunto both in face an vertues Lobel calleth it in his observations Polygonato Assinis planta and Caesalpinus Rusco affinis tertia Gerard hath two figures hereof and two descriptions as if they were two severall plants which are his fourth and fift by the name of Polygonatum ramosum and acutum the one being the figure of Matthiolus his Laurus Alexandrina and the other of Clusius for they expresse but one plant no other diversitie thereof to bee found that I can learne Bauhinus calleth it Polygonatum latifolium ramosum the seventh is as I sayd of mine owne nursing and naming the eighth and tenth are so called by Cornutus as they are in the titles the ninth Bauhinus in his Pinax and Prodronius calleth Polygonatum latifolium perfoliatum Brasilianum the eleventh is called Polygonatum minus by divers and generally Polygonatum angustifolium and tenuifolium by all others Thalius calleth this Polygonatum tâ—nnifolium majus as he doth the last tenuifolium minus which Clusius and Bauhinus call Polygonatum angustifolium ramosum The Vertues The roote of Salomons Scale is of chiefest use and hath a mixt property as Galen saith having partly a binding and partly a sharpe or biting quality as also a kinde of loathsome bitternesse therein hardly to be expressed whereby it is of little use in inward medecines which sharpenesse and loathsomenesse we hardly perceive in those that grow with us yet some authors doe affirme that the powder of the herbe or of the seede purgeth flegme and viscous humors very forcibly both upward and downeward it is said also that the roote chewed in the mouth draweth downe much rheume out of the head and put up into the nostrills causeth sneesing but it serveth as he and Dioscorides both say and all experience doth confirme for wounds hurts and outward soâ—es to heale and close up the lippes of those that are greene and fresh made and to helpe to dry up the moisture and restraine the flux of humors of those that are old it is singular good to stay vomitings and also bleedings wheresoever as also all fluxes in man or woman whether it be the whits or reds or the running of the reines in men also to knit any joynt that doth grow by weakenesse to be often out of place or by some cause stayeth but small time therein when it is set as also to knit and joyne broken bones in any place of the body the roots being bruised and applyed to the place yea it hath by late experience beene found that the decoction of the roote in wine or the bruised roote put in wine or other drinke and after a nights infusion strayned hard forth and dranke hath holpen both man and beast whose bones have beene broken by any occasion which is the most assured refuge of helpe to the people in divers countries of this Land that they can have it is no lesse effectuall to helpe râ—pâ—es and burstings to be both inwardly taken the decoction in wine or the powder in broth or drinke and outwardly applyed to the place the same also is availeable for inward or outward bruises falls or beatings both to dispell the congealed blood and to take away both the paines and the blacke and blew markes that abide after the hurt the same also or the distilled water of the whole plant used to the face or other part of the skinne cleâ—seth it from morphew freckles spots or markes whatsoever leaving the place fresh faire and lovely which the Italian dames as it is said doe much use CHAP. CIIII. Laurus Alexandrina The Laurel of Alexandria THere hath beene so great varietie of opinions among our moderne writers concerning the Laurell of Alexandria what plant should be the right of Dioscorides some shewing one and some another and scarse one the true that I much doubt whether this that I shall here shew you in this Chapter will be taken and judged to be the genuine plant by many who peradventure contemning my opinion may thinke me sooner to erre and be deceived then so many learned men before me that have had contrary opinions but
great preservative in the Plague or pestilence and against the venome or poyson of Serpents and harmefull creatures and therefore is put into Antidotes and counter poysons it is a singular remedy for a stinking breath fasteneth loose teeth and stayeth the shedding of the haire being used with Ladanum and the wine of Mirtles it helpeth mattering eares and watering eyes and taketh away the filme or skinne that beginneth to grow over and darken the sight it helpeth to breede flesh in deepe wounds and to cover naked bones Matthiolus commendeth it as a singular fucus for the face to take away wrinckles that come by age and to make it smooth and youthfull to be made into an oyle as it is called or rather the liquour of Myrrhe which is made with egges boyled hard cut in the middle the yolkes taken forth and filled up with pouther of Myrrhe then put into a glasse and set in a Wine celler or moist place and with this liquour to be bedewed As also another way that is by sprinckling with white wine a new iron dish or pan made hot in the fire and taking first the fumes thereof unto the face being covered over with a cloth and then the fumes of Myrrhe in pouther afterwards cast on it being heated againe and the head covered as before and this still to be used before bed time for eight dayes together CHAP. XLI Nardus Indica sive Spica Nardi Spicknard GArcias ab Orta intreating of this Spikenard testifieth that there is but one sort knowne and used as well by the Indian and Turkish as the Persian and Arabian Physitions and although some would intimate that this is not that was used by the Ancients in that Pliny setteth it downe lib 12. c. 12. that it was not to be had but at an excessive price yet that hindereth not in regard both all the Countryes of the Indies are better husbanded then heretofore and especially that since the Portingalls had opened the way by Sea all sorts of Drugges were provided better and better cheape by much the charge of Caravans being excessive chargeable by their long journey and travaile but I thinke both the Drugges and the Indies by being more sought by Venetians and other Christians was the beginning of the reformations for when Arabians and the like were the chiefe Merchants Nardus Indica Spicknard much bad Merchandize was dearely sold howsoever cheapely bought and I thinke much more adulterated both by them and Iewes and the Indians also were not behind to sophisticate whatsoever they could which the Christians I verily suppose did somewhat alter when they became great Merchants for Europe and since is rectified more and more when onely the sincere and pure is bought and the other left on their hand to mend if they can but yet it falleth out that the blinde eateth many a flye I meane the ignorant is often deluded who through covetousnesse oftentimes letteth passe the better to take the worser at cheaper rates but to the purpose in hand This Spicknard groweth not in many places and where it doth it is not very plentifull it is a roote yet called a Spike because it shooteth up hairy stalkes of hairy like Spikes many set together of a brownish colour and whereas Dioscorides saith the roote is of no use yee must understand the word in a double sense the rootes that Dioscorides meant be the short fibres whereby it draweth its nourishment and encrease from the earth and these indeed be unprofitable and of no use but the rootes that Galen speaketh of are the Spikes themselves or Spicknard for so he calleth them both lib. 1. De Antidotis thus saying Iubet Andromachus adijcere Nardum Indicam ea vero est quam spicam vocant non quod spica fit radix enim est sed quod spicae formam referat And in lib. 9. de comp med sec locos He useth somewhat neere the same words but in that some object it is not of a sweet sent such as Dioscorides recordeth of it Garcias saith while it is fresh it is sweete but time may decay some part of the sent and besides sweete smells were otherwise taken with the Auncicients then with us witnesse many things as Galbanum Allium c. were reckoned sweete much differing from the opinions now received but thus I have shewed you the acception of the roote and Spike of this Nardus and the sweetnesse Both Dioscorides and Pena have recorded that it doth beare a stalke and leaves yet have not mentioned what flowers it hath neither is the other bastard or French Spikenard of Lobel shewed to have any which I have exhibited in the first Classis of this Worke but the like was found in Virginia by Master Iohn Tradescant the younger with such like long greene leaves as is desciphered in that the roote also answering so neere unto the French Nardus but of a paler blackish colour and without any sent that I could perceive and besides all this he found it with the spike of flowers and seed at the toppes of the stalkes which were turning or winding the head standing on a small naked stalke somewhat like I meane in the turning unto the Scorodo prassum anguinum or Convoluto capite the great Turky Garlicke with a twined head consisting of two or three rowes of small bright brownish chaffie huskes hairy as it were at their ends and standing all on one side of the stalkes for foure or five inches long This bastard kinde bearing such an head doth perswade me to thinke this Indian kinde to have also some other whether the like or no is not to be determined but by sight The properties of this Indian Spikenard are these It is of an heating and drying quality provoking urine and staying laskes and both the reds and whites in Women it taketh away the loathing to meate and the gnawing of the stomacke usually called the heart-burning it conduceth helpe to swellings to the stone in the kidneyes and to the Kings Evill the decoction helpeth the inflammations of the mother if they sit therein it helpeth to bring haire on the baire eye lids it is not onely an ingredient into the two famous Antidotes Theriaca Andromachi and Mithridatium but into sundry other compositions appointed by the Ancients but because I would not make a double repetition of the same things having declared the properties hereof at large in the 42. Chapter of the first Classis of this worke I must referre you thereunto CHAP. XLII 1. Palma sive Nux Indica vulgaris ferens Coccos The ordinary Indian Cokar Nut. THere cannot be found in the world a tree that hath so many necessary commodities for mens uses to be had from it as this Cokar Nut the tree groweth to be huge great and vaste whose body or stem is covered with a smooth barke bare or naked without any branch to a great height for which cause the Indians doe either bore holes therein at certaine distances and knocke