the fruit is ripe in Autumn Government and Virtues This Balsome-tree is a Solar plant of temperature hot and dry in the second degree and is sweet in smell being of thin parts but the liquor or Opobalsamum is of more thin parts than the plant it self the fruit or berries is very like it in quality but far inferior thereunto in the subtilty The Liquor or Opobalsamum is of great good use against all poisons or infections Poys ns Vipers Scorpions Pestilence Spotted Feaver Liver Spleen Head Stomack brain Memory Falling-sickness Eyes Eares Coughs Consumption Cold Wind Bowells Mother Barrenness Dead-birth Whites Vrine Stone Gravel Palsy Cramp Sinews Green Worms both Vipers Serpents and Scorpions the Pestilence and spotted Feaver and other putride and intermissive Agues that arise from obstructions and crude cold humors to take a scruple or two in some drink for some dayes together and to sweat theron for this openeth the obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and digesteth those raw humors in them cherishing the vital spirits radical moysture and natural heat in them and is very effectual in all cold griefs and diseases of the head or stomack helping the swimmings and turnings of the brain weak memories and falling-sickness it cleareth the eyes of films or skins and easeth paines in the Eares It helpeth the cough shortness of breath and consumption of the Lungs warming and drying up the distillations of Rheums upon them and all other diseases of the stomack proceeding of cold or wind the cold or windy distempers of the bowels womb or mother which cause torments or pains or the cold moystures procuring barrenness It provoketh the courses expelleth the dead birth and afterbirth the flux of the Whites and stopping of Urine it cleanseth the Reins and kidneys and expelleth the stone and gravel it is singular good against the Palsy Cramp tremblings convulsâ—ons shrinking of sinews and for green wounds The women in Aegypt preserve their beauty and youth herewith for a long time The berries are especially good against poysons and infections the falling sickness swimmings and pains in the head the cough and diseases of the Lungs windy pains and Stitches in the sides stopping of Urine rising of the mother and other diseases thereof to sit in a bath made of them The wood is also though in a farre weaker manner effectual for the same purposes Bdellium Name BOth the tree and Gum are called by one name that is Bdellium and gum Bdellium Descript Dioscorides giveth no description of this tree but Pliny Lib. 12. cap. 9. setteth it down to be of a sad form and of the bigness of the white olive tree having leaves like an oak and fruit like the wild figtree the best Gum is clear like glew fat on the inside easily melting or dissolving pure or clean from drosse sweet in the burning like unto Unguis Odoratus and bitter in tast but there is hardly any such brought unto us for we find little bitternesse in any and lesse sweetnesse in the burning of it but strong and unpleasant rather neither is it soft or easie to be dissolved but hard and not to be dissolved Equally but into graines or knots without warmth yet it is of a sad brown colour somwhat like glew and much like unto Myrrhe so that they are often mistaken one for another but that Bdellium is harder dry and browner but there are sundry sorts therof as saith Mathiolus and Bauhine in his Comment upon him for the Indians and Arabians who were the chief merchants for drugs had learned the art of Adulterating them of whom the Jews learned that art and have since exceeded them therein as the Vintners and Coopers study who shall out-doe others in the mysterious Mystery and mischeif of sophisticating and adulterating wines Place Arabia is said to be the chief place where they naturally grow yet in Genesis 2. it is said it groweth in the land of Havilah which is compassed by the River Pishon one of the heads of the River which went out of the Garden of Eden which land of Havilah joyneth to Persia Eastward and doth incline towards the West where it is said is Gold Bdellium and Onyx stone Government and Virtues Both tree and Gum Bdellium are peculiars to the Jurisdiction of Mars the tree is very sharply armed with cruel Thorns the Properties of the Gum are to heat and mollifie hard Tumors Tumors Nodes knots Terms Stone cough serpents Spleen Sides Burstness Cods Dead-birth Mother and the Nodes or knots in the throat neck or Sinews or of any other parts any way applied it provokes Urine and womens courses and breaketh the Stone it is good for the Cough and for those that are bitten or stung by any Venemous creatures It helpeth to discusse the windiness of the Spleen and the pains of the sides it is good for those that are bursten or have the falling of the guts into their Cods as also for the swellings of the Cods through wind It expelleth the dead birth softneth the hardness of the mother and dryeth up the moysture thereof Buckwheat Names IN most Countries of England this grain goeth by the generall name of French Wheat especially in Hampshire Surry Berkshire Wiltshire and Buckinghamshire especially in those barren parts of those countries where it is most usually sown and delighteth to grow it is also in many parts of England called Buckwheat some take it to be the Erysinum of Theophrastus and the Ireo of Pliny and it is called by Mathiolus Frumentum Sarasenicum the Dutch names are Bâ—ckweydt and Buckenweydt Descript It riseth up with divers round hollow reddish stalks set with divers leaves each by it self on a stalk which is broad and round and lye forked at the bottom small and painted at the end somwhat it doth resemble an Ivy leafe but is softer in handling at the top of the stalks come forth divers clusters of small white flowers which turn into small three-cornered blackish seed with a white pulpe within the root is small and threddy Place and Time It is said to have its original birth-place in Arabia whereby it had the Latine name of Frumentum Sarasenicum and was transplanted from thence into Italy but now it is very commonly sown in most of our Northern countries where for the use and profit made of it many fields are sown therwith it is not usually sown before April and sometimes in May for at its first springing up a frosty night kills it all and so it will do the flowers when it blossomes it is ripe at the latter end of August or beginning of September and will grow in a dry hungry ground for which it is held as good as a dunging Government and Virtues This grain is attributed to Venus it doth nourish lesse then wheat Rye or barly but more then millet or Paâ—ick and the bread or cakes made of the meal thereof doth easily digest and soon passe out of the stomack yet some hold the contrary
and Virtues Saturn rules this plant the leaves and fruit are dry in the third degree without any manifest heat and very astringent the fruit of Cypress taken into the body stoppeth looseness and the Bloody flux Bloody Flux and is good against spitting of bloud and all other issues of bloud Issues of blood the decoction of the same made with water hath the same vertue The oyle in which the fruit or leaves of Cypress have been boyled doth strengthen the Stomack Stomack Vomiting stayeth Vomiting stoppeth the belly Broken Belly and all fluxes of the same and cureth the excoriation or going off of the skin from the secret members Cypress-nuts cure them that are bursten and that have their Guts fallen into their Cods being outwardly applied in Cataplasms thereunto the leaves have the same vertue but not so strong the fruit of Cypress is also good to cure Polypus Pollypus which is corrupt flesh growing in the nose The same bruised with dry fat figs doth cure the blasting and swellings of the Yard and Stones Yard Stones and if leaven be added thereunto it dissolveth and wasteth botches and boyls being laid upon the grieved place The leaves of Cypress boyled in sweet Wine or Mede doth help the Strangury strangury and issue of the Bladder the same beaten very small and applied doth close up green Wounds Green-Wounds and stop the bleeding thereof and being applied with parched Barly-meal they are profitable against St. Anthonies-fire St. Anthonies-fire Carbuncles carbuncle and other hot Ulcers Vlcers and fretting sores Sores the leaves and fruit of Cypress being infused in Vinegar and the hair washed therewith maketh it black Hair Coral Kind and Names THere be several kinds of Coral but the red and the white especially the red is most in use there be also several sorts of black Coral called Antipathes and ther is a kind of Coral which is black rough and bristly and is called Sambeggia Descript These plants although their hard substance make them seem rather to be Stones yet they are vegetables The greater red Coral which is the best groweth upon rocks in the Sea like unto a shrub with arms and branches which shoot forth into sprigs some greater and some lesser of a pale red colour for the most part when it is taken out of the water but when it is pollished it is very fair and of a lovely red colour whilest it is in the water it is soft and pliable but being taken out and kept dry a while it becomes of an hard stony substance Place The Corals are found in the Isles of Sardinia and divers other places of the Mediterranean Sea Time Coral is found growing at all times in the year Government and Virtues Coral is under the dominion of the Sun yet reputed to be of a cooling and astringent quality the red is the hottest the white the coldest it is good to stop the Running of the Reins in Men Running of the Reins Whites Bleeding spâ—â—en Strangury Spleen Stone Heart stomack Liver Feavers and the Whites in Women the red Coral stops bleeding and is good for them that spit bloud or any flux of bloud being taken in Wine or other drink It abates the Slpeen helps the stoppage of Urine and such as pisse by drops the powder of it being burnt and taken in drink easeth the pain of the Stone It strengthens the Heart Stomack and Liver and is good in all pestilential Feavers and malignant diseases it is good against Venome chears the Heart and is good against Melancholy there is an excellent Cordial made of it called Tictura Corallii singular good for all the purposes aforesaid the powder taken in Wine or distilled Water gives rest to such as have Agues helps the Cramp Cramp it is good against the Falling-Sickness some write that if two grains of the powder of red Coral be given to a Child newly born in some black cherry water or the Mothers milk that Child shall never be troubled with the Falling-Sickness Falling-Sickness it is likewise good to cause easie Delivery Easie Delivery to rub Childrens Gums Gums to help their teeth to break forth more easily Teeth it helps sore Gums and Ulcers in the Mouth and healeth up foul hollow Ulcers in other parts Vlcers it is also profitable to be used in medecines for the Eyes to stay the Flux of Rhume It cools and dryes up the moisture and takes away the heat and redness of the Eyes the aforementioned Tincture and likewise the Chymical oyl may be used for any of the aforesaid purposes Cardamoms Names THey are called Cardamom and Grana Paradisi by some Grains of Paradice Descript Cardamoms grow upon a small tree in the East-Indies and Arabia which beareth the seeds in husks in which they are brought hither and sold in our shops for medicinal use Government and Vertues These seeds called Cardamoms are hot and dry in the third degree under the dominion of Jupiter It breaketh the Stone Stone Vrine Poison Scorpions and provoketh Urine and giveth ease to such as make water with pain it resisteth Poison and helpeth stingings or bitings of Scorpions or other Venemous creatures It is good against the Falling-Sicknesse Falling-sickness Guts Wind Bruises Sinews Sciatica Gripings in the Guts or Bowells expelleth Wind from the Stomack and intrails helpeth such as are bruised or broken by falls or bruises those that have loose or weak Sinews and pains of the Sciatica or Hip-gout and used with Vinegar it is good against Scabs and is an ingredient in many of our compositions and cordial Antidotes Cloves Names THey are called in Latine Caryophylli Descript The tree wherin the Cloves do grow is great tall covered with an Ash-coloured bark the younger branches being more white the leaves grow by couples one against another somewhat long and narrow like to bay leaves with a middle rib and sundry veins running through them each of them standing on a long footstalk the ends of the branches are divided into many small brown sprigs wheron grow the flowers on the tops of the Cloves themselves which are white at the first with their sprigs green afterwards and at last reddish before they be beaten off from the tree and as they dry before they be put up grow blackish as they are brought to us having four small tops at the heads of them and a small round head in the middle of them the flower it self standing between those consisteth of four small leavs like unto a Cherry blossom but of an excellent blew colour with three white Veines in every leaf and divers purple-threds in the middle of a more fine scent then the dried Clove Place The Clove-trees grow in the Molucca-Islands where they gaâ—her them twice every year viz. in June and December they grow plentifully also in Amboyna and in divers other places of the Indies â—he Indians generally call them
may outwardly be applied for the same purpose it hindreth conception in Women if they make much use of it The Cokar Nut-tree Description and Names THis groweth to be a great large Timber-tree the body cover'd with a smooth bark bare or naked without any branch to a great height for which cause the Indians do either bore holes therein at certain distances and knock strong pegs into them which stick out so much as may serve for sooting to get up into the tree to gather the juice or liquor and the fruit or fasten ropes with nailes round about the tree with spaces which serve as steps to go up into it and towards the top it spreadeth out into sundry great Arms which bow themselves almost round with large leaves on them like the Date tree but greater whose middle-rib is very great and abiding alwaies green and with fruit also continually one succeeding another from between the lower boughs come forth smaller stalks hanging down bearing sundry flowers on them like those of the chestnut-tree after which come large great three-square fruit or Nuts ten or twelve and sometimes twenty thereon together as big as ones head or as a smaller Pompion almost round but a little smaller at the end covered with a hard tough Ash-coloured thick bark an inch thick in some places and within it a hard woody brownish shell but black being polished having at the Head or top thereof three holes somewhat resembling the nose and eyes of a Monkey between which outer bark and this shell grow many gross thredd 's or hairs within the woody shell there is a white kernel cleaving close to the side thereof as sweet as an Almond with a fine sweet water in the middle thereof as pleasant as Milk which will grow lesse pleasant or consume either by over ripeness or long keeping this tree is called by the Indians Maro in Malaca Trican and in other places by several other apppellations the timber of this tree is solid and firm black and shining like the walnut-tree and fit for any building and Garcias saith it is of two sorts I suppose he meaneth for two uses the one to bear fruit the other to extract the liquor which issues therefrom when the branches are cut or when it is bored and received into some things tyed thereunto for that purpose which liquor they call in their Language Sura and it sheweth like unto troubled Wine but in tast like new sweet Wine which being boyled they call Orraque and being destilled it yeildeth a spirit like unto our Aquavitae and it is used for the same purposes as we do ours and will burn like it they call it Fula And being set in the Sun it will become good Vinegar and that which runneth last being set in the Sun to grow hard or boyled to hardness will become Sugar which they call Jagra of the inner kernel while it is fresh they make bread the fresher the Nuts are the sweeter is the meat thereof Government and Vertues This is a Solar plant the fruit or kernel of the Coker-nut doth nourish very much and is good for lean bodies they increase the natural seed and stir up the appetite to Venery Venery Throat and are good to mollifie the hoarsenesse of the Throat and hoarseness Hoarseness of the voice Chocholate HAving before set down the particular Vertues of the Cacoa or Coker-Nut I shall add somewhat of a Confection or Composition made therof called Chocolate It is brought over unto us made into Rowls is used for a Cordial being macerated in milk and made potable adding what other ingredients pleases the preparer thereof which may be done divers waies according to the constitution of the party and medicinal use it is prepared for There is very much variety of the ingredients whereof this confection is compounded some do put into it black Pepper and Tanasco which is a red Indian root like Madder which is proper onely for those who are of cold and moist constitutions and are troubled with a very cold Stomack and Liver Another Receipt of the Indian Spaniards is this Take of Cacoa's 700. of white Sugar one pound and an half Cinnamon two ounces of long red Pepper 14 in Number of Cloves half an ounce three cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree or instead of that the weight of two Rialls or a shilling of Anniseeds some put in Almonds kernels of Nuts and Orenge-flower-water This Receipt is fit for those that have chronick diseases macilent bodies or are inclinable to be infirm you may either add or take away according to the necessity or temperature of every one and it is very proper and convenient that Sugar be put into it when it is drunk sometimes they make Tabulats of the Sugar and the Chocholate together which they do onely to please the palâ—ts as the Dames of Mexico do use it and they are there sold in shops and are confected and eaten like other sweet-meats Another Receipt or way of compounding it shall follow but take this for a Rule that one Receipt cannot be proper for all Persons therefore such as drink it as common drink in publick houses may receive more hurt than good by it therefore every one may make choice of the ingredients that they may be usefull for the complexion of the Body The Receipt is this To every 100 of Cacao's put two cods of long red Pepper one handful of Anniseeds one cod of Campeche or Logwood two drams of Cinnamon Almonds and Hasel-nuts of each a dozen white Sugar half a pound and if you cannot have those things which come from the Indies you may make it with the rest The way of compounding the Chocholate The Cacao and other ingredients must be beaten in a stone morter or grownd upon abroad stone which the Indians call Metate and is made onely for that use such stones as our Painters grind their colours upon will serve for that use the first thing that is to be done is to dry the ingredients with care that in stirring they be not burnt nor become black and if they be over dried then they will be bitter and lose their vertue the Cinnamon and the long red Pepper are to be first beaten with the Anniseed and then beat the Cacao by little and little till it be all powdered and sometimes turn it round in the beating that it may mix the better and every one of these ingredients must be beaten by it self and then put them all into the vessel where the Cacao is which you must stir together then take out that paste put it into the morter under which you must lay a little fire after the confection it made But you must be very careful not to put more fire than will warm it that the unctuous parts do not fly away you must searse all the ingredients but onely the Cacoa and when you find it to be wel beaten and incorporated which you shall know by the
of the body to warm it and to ease the paines of the Cramp and Stiches in the sides There is also an Oyntment made with the flowers and grease or butter which they call Jessamine-butter which the barbers use to rub amongst mens hair for what purpose I know not for in such as are young or of hot Complexions is causeth Head-ach and the often smell thereof causeth bleeding at the nose as Serapio saith but it profiteth such as are troubled with cold Rheumes or distillations of humors from the Head and moistness and cold infirmities of the brain John the Infants herb Name s IT is called in Latine Herba Johannis Infantis and took the name from one Inan Infanta an Indian the Son of a Spaniard Descript It is a small herb growing in the West-Indies and used to cure wounds staunch their bleeding and helpeth all hurts pricks and wounds in the sinewss or any other part of the body digesting cleansing and healing them by laying some of the green herb bruised thereunto or else the powder of the dryed herb strewed thereon which is thought to be most effectual The Jujube-tree Names and Kinds DOdoneus saith There be two sorts of Jujubes red and white and since there is found three kinds of the red Jujube viz. The greater Jujube-treâ— called in Latine Ziziphus sive Jujuba Major The lesâ—er Jujube called Ziziphus or Jujuba minor and the wild Jujube-tree Descript 1. The greater Jujube-tree groweth sometimes to be very high but rather and more often spreading in breadth having a crooked body the wood thereof is hard and whitish the bark rugged the branches are great and spreading the lesser twigs about a foot long are full of leaves on both sides one a little above another and an odd one at the end these leaves are small broad and pointed at the end finely dented about the edges with long veins in them each standing on a long foot stalk smooth and feel hard at the foot of every leaf towards the tops of the Twigs come forth small yellowish flowers consisting of five leaves apeece after which succeed the fruit which is like unto a small Plum or Olive but a little long green at the first and then they are harsh afterwards they become yellowish and when they are ripe they are red of a sharp sweetness and somewhat clammy flattish next the stalk and the skin is thicker and harder then a plum the stone within it is firm and solid pointed like an Olive or Cornelian Cherry-stone The branches are all thorny both great and small standing two alwayes at a joint one whereof is straight the other crooked the roots are long and fast in the earth Descript 2. The lesser Jujube-tree is both in branches leaves and flowers very like unto the former but in all parts is lower and smaller the fruit also is alike and red when it is ripe but smaller and rounder having also an hard stone in it it is thick set with thornes also as the other but they are somewhat shorter Descript 3. The wild Jujube-tree is lower and more like a shrub than the last but thicker set with small sharp thorns the leaves are alike but growing fewer on a twig and smaller the fruit is round and red like the last somewhat lesser and dryer of substance and more sharp when it is ripest Place The first groweth naturally in Africa Egypt and those Easterly Countries and was as Pliny saith brought thence into Italy where it is now plentifully in Gardens Orchards in Italy also in Provence in Fran. The other is to be likewise found in Italy in some Gardens of the Curious And was of late times brought thence from Syria the wild kind groweth in the fields by hedges not far from Verona and such Countries Time They flower in May and the plums are ripe in September Government and Vertues The Jujubes especially being fresh do open the body and gently purge Choler Choler and cleanse the blood Bloud as Simon Sethi and Actuarius say but Mathiolus and Avicen deny their purging faculty Heal The plums Venus governs and they are endued with a temperat quality in heat and moisture they cool the heat and sharpness of the blood and therefore are good in hot Agues Hot-Ague and to expectorate tough Flegm and are good for other diseases of the Chest Chest and Lungs Lungs Coughs Cough and shortness of Breath hot distillations they appease the roughness of the Throat and breast being taken in syrrups or Electuaries They are good to cleanse the Reins and bladder by their viscous quality making the passages slippery and the Gravel and Stones to avoid the more easily they also stay Vomiting which are caused by sharp humors they are hard of digestion being eaten either fresh or dry and therefore are used in decoctions syrrups or Electuaries with other things fit and proper for all the purposes asorementioned A decoction may be made with Jujubes for all sharp and salt humors in the Kidneys and bladder and for all Ulcers or inflamations in the back Reins and Bladder and for the stone Jaundies falling-sickness and dropsie It is thus prepared Take Jujubes of the seeds of Parsly Fennel Annise and Carawayes of each an ounce of the roots of Parsley Burnet Saxifrage and Carawayes of each an ounce and an half let the seeds be bruised the roots washed cut small let them all infuse all-night in a pottle of White-wine and in the morning boyled in a close earthen Vessel untill a third part thereof be consumed strain it and drink four ounces hereof at a time morning and evening first and last abstaining from other drink three hours this will powerfully open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and cureth the Dropsie and Jaundies by Urine The white Jujube-tree with thornes and without Names ZIziphus alba Spinosa non Spinosa are the most proper Names there being two sorts of this tree one beareth Thornes the other none but in all other things they are both alike Descript This tree groweth as great as a middle sized Pear-tree covered with a whitish ash-coloured bark over both body and boughs full of short and sharp thornes two at each leaf not far asunder on the one sort and not any on the other the leaves are somewhat like those of the red Jujube tree but greater round pointed for the most part with three ribs in each running all the length of a dark shining green colour on the upper side and somewhat ash-colour under standing singly on each of branches up to the top At the joints with the leavs shoot forth small flowers of a greenish white colour in form like those of the Olive or Jujube-tree each standing on a small foot stalk the flowers being fallen away there followes a small round fruit as big as a Cherry and sometimes of the bigness of a Walnut in some whitish in others more yellow and reddish on the one side like an Apple
only planted in Gardens Time The Lupines do flower in July and August and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Lupines are under the dominion of Mars and have an opening cleansing dissolving and digestive property but if they be steeped in water untill they have lost their bitterness they may be eaten but they are very hard to digest and breed grosse humors and passe slowly through the belly yet do not stop any flux If they be so steeped Appetite Stomack Liver Spleen Vrine Terms Dead-Child Scabbs Morphew cankers Tetters Sores and afterwards dryed and taken with Vinegar they provoke Appetite and help the loathing of the Stomack to meat The decoction of Lupines taken with hony opens obstructions of the Liver and Spleen provokes Urine and the Terms and expelleth the Dead-child if it be taken with Myrrhe The decoction of them cleanseth the body of Scabs Morphew Cankers Tetters and soul running Ulcers or Sores It also cleanseth the Face and taketh away the marks or pits which the Pox leaves behind it and cleareth the skin of Marks and black and blew Spots An oyntment of Lupines to beautifie and make the Face Amiable is made after this manner Take the meal of Lupines the gaul of a Goat or Sheep juice of Lemons and a little Alumen Saccharimum mingle them into the form of a soft oyntment The meal of Lupines being boyled in Vinegar and applied taketh away knobs and kernels or pimples The smoak of the shells being burned drives away gnats and flyes which annoy many houses in Summer Madder great and small BEsides the Garden and Wild Madder there are many other kinds hereof sound out Parkinson makes six kinds of the Rubia major or greater Madder and eight sorts of the Rubia minor or little small Madder Rubia Tinctorum is the general name of the manured Madder in Shops not onely so called from the colour of the root but also from its propety to dye a red colour The names of the other kinds follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Culpepper hath described the Garden or manured Madder therefore I say no more of it Descript 2. Rubia sylvestris wild Madder is very like unto the manured but the stalks are smaller and not so spreading neither are they so rough or hairy the leaves are lesse the flowers are white the root groweth greater but not so red as the Garden-kind Descript 3. Wild Madder with long leaves called Rubia sylvestris longioribus foliis hath divers round jointed stalks two or three foot long or thereabout not so rough as the other wild sort the leaves that stand at the joints are somewhat rough narrower and longer than the other seaven or eight at a distance the flowers are white and stand at the tops of the stalks having four leaves apeece which turn into small round seed like the other the root is red as the former but smaller Descript 4. Smooth-leaved-Madder Rubia levis Taurinensium hath divers round smooth stalks two or three foot long whereon stand leaves not rough at all but smooth larger broader than garden Madder towards the tops of the branches and at the joints with the leaves standing round about the stalks come white flowers consisting of five or six small leaves apeece the roots are smaller then the other and run not far into the ground Descript 5. The 〈◊〉 smooth Candy-Madder called Rubia levis arborescens Cretica It hath a thick short stalk about the thickness of one's singer from whence spring many straight smooth branches with small short leaves standing at distances like the former sorts at the tops of the branches shoot out two or three slender sprigs which bear whitish flowers like those of the ordinary Madder the root is long and reddish and of a bitter harsh tast Descript 6. Sea-Madder Rubia marina hath many square hard and somewhat rough stalks full of joints and spreading round about the root upon the ground the leaves are somewhat rough small and long broadest at the bottom and pointed at the end growing lesser towards the tops the flowers are of a star-like fashion and whitish the root is more red on the outside then within more wooddy and harder then the other Place The first is manured in Gardens and large fields for the profit that is made of it for dyers as well as medicinal uses the second groweth by hedge-sides in many places of Germany and so doth the third which groweth also in many places of our own Land the fourth is found by Turin on the hills of Piemont according as Pena and Lobel say the fift in Candy and the sixt by the Sea-side in Provence and neer Mompelier Time They flower towards the latter end of Summer and the seed of some of them is ripe shortly-after Government and Vertues All the Madders are plants of Mars our Antient and modern writers have controverted each other about the properties of Madder whether it be of an opening or binding quality Galen and Dioscorides say that the root doth open and cleanse the body of thick and tough Flegm Vrine Terms Dead-Child After-Birth Yellow Jaundice Liver Spleen Melancholy Palsie Sciatica that it provoketh Urine bringeth down Womens Courses and expelleth the Dead-child and afterbirth but Dodoneus affirmeth that it is dry and astringent and hath no opening faculty at all but it is sound to have both an opening and an astringent quality even as Rhubarb hath which first opens and then binds and strengthens it turneth the Urine into a red colour as Rhubarb doth colour it yellow it is an excellent remedy for the yellow Jaundies opening obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and cleanseth those parts it abates Melancholy humor it is effectual for those that have the Palsey and Scitica the roots boyled in Ale drunk is good for those that have received any hurts by bruises or falls and for all these purposes the root may be boyled in Wine Ale or Water and some hony or Sugar put thereunto afterwards The seed taken with Vinegar and hony helps swellings and hardness of the Spleen Spleen Freckels Deformity of the skin the decoction of the leaves and branches is good so Women to sit over to drive down their Courses The leaves and roots bâ—â—â—sed and applied cleanse and take away Freckles Morphew white Scurff or any deformity of the skin Small or little Madder Descript 1. Candy-Madder with a spikey head and larger leaves called in Latine Rubia spicata Cretica latiore folio It hath divers square rough slender stalks full of joints from which shoot many branches with four or five small rough leaves compassing them the top-branches end in small long spiked four square heads with many short rough husks set close one above another which send forth small whitish green flowers scarce to be seen after which come small greenish Seed The root is fibrous and wooddy but dyeth every Winter Descript 2. Spiked-Madder with small leaves Rubia spicata angusti-folia This differeth from the former in that
Lysimachia the Willow-herb or Loose-strife but lesser being an inch broad and an inch and an half long compassing the stalk at the bottom with sundry veins running all the length of them from the joints rise long stalks bearing sundry yellow small flowers made of leaves like also unto Lysimachia with a small Pointel in the middle after which follow small blackish long heads or Seed-Vessels pointed at the end and having in them small blackish seed the stalk hath little or no scent yet not unpleasant as Alpinus saith being bitter with a little Acrimony therein but Bauhinus saith it is of an Aromatical tast and very bitter Descript 3. The sweet smelling Reed or Calamus officinarum or Acorus verus hath many flags long and narrow fresh green leaves two foot long a peece or more yet oftentimes somewhat brownish at the bottom the one rising or growing out of the side of the other in the same manner that other flags or flower-De-luces grow which are thin on both sides and ridged or thickest in the middest the longest for the most part standing in the midst and some of them as it were curled or playted towards the ends or tops of them smelling very sweet aswel when they are green and fresh as when they are dried and so kept a long time which do so abide in a Garden a long time as though it never did nor never would bear flower the leaves every year dying down to the ground and shooting out fresh every Spring but after three or four years abiding in a place without removing besides the leaves it shooteth forth not any stalk as other Flower-de-luces do but a narrow long leaf by it self flat like unto the other leaves especially from the middle thereof upwards but from the bottome to the middle it is flat-like at which place cometh forth one long round head very seldom two in form and bigness like unto the Catkin or Aglet of the Hazelnut-tree growing upright and of the length and thickness of ones finger or rather bigger set with several small lines or divisions like unto a green Pine-Apple of a purplish green colour for the most part out of which bunches shoot forth small pale whitish flowers consisting of four small leaves a peece without so good a scent as the leaves falling quickly away and not yeelding any seed The root is thick and long lying under the upper face of the ground shooting forward and with small roots or suckers on all sides like unto the Garden Valerian whitish on the outside or greenish if it lye above the ground and more pale or whitish on the inside with many joints thereabouts and whereat it hath or doth shoot forth long thick fibres underneath whereby it taketh strong hold in the ground of a firm or fast substance yet not hard or wooddy but easie to be cut of a sweet scent and somewhat bitter tast Place and Time The first is said by Mathiolus and others to grow in India Syria and Judea the dry stalks of the second are said to grow at the foot of Mount Libanus in Syria not far from Tripoli in the wet grounds there The third in sundry moist places in Aegypt and by the lake Gennesareth in Judea and in divers places of Syria and Arabia The other Calamus of the shops or true Acorus groweth in many places of Turk y in moist grounds from whence the largest roots the firmest whitest and sweetest are brought unto us it groweth also in Russia and those places thereabouts in great plenty Mr. Morgan hath of it growing in the physick-Garden at Westminster and he himself told me that he was informed by some that they had found it growing in moist grounds in Yorkshire and the Northern parts of England Government and Vertues These Reeds are under the dominion of Venus of a temperate quality The Calamus of Dioscoâ—ides he saith hath these properties it provoketh Urine and boyled with Grass roots and smallage it helpeth those that have the Dropsie Vrine Dropsie it fortifieth the Reins and is good against the Strangury or pissing by drops and is also profitable for those that have the Rupture Reins strangury Rupture or are broken Bellied It provoketh Womens Termes or Courses either drunk or applied to the place the fumes of it taken through a Tobacco-pipe either by it self or with some dryed Turpentine cureth them that have a Cough Termes Cough it is put into bathes for Women to sit in as also in Glisters to ease Pains Pains eased It is used in mollifying Oyles and Plaisters that serve to ripen hard Imposthumes Imposthumes as also for the sweet scent thereof Galen saith it being of a temperature moderate between heat and cold and somewhat Astringent and having a very little Acrimony it is profitably used among other things that help the Liver Liver and Stomack Stomack doth gently provoke Urine and is used with other things in fomentaions for the Mother Mother when it is troubled with inflamations and gently to move the Courses Courses Dioscorides saith that the sweet flag it good to provoke Urine Vrine if the decoction thereof be drunk It helpeth to ease pains in the Sides Sides Liver Liver and Breast Breast as also to ease the Griping pains of the Chollick Chollick and Cramp Cramp and is good against Ruptures It wastes the Spleen Spleen helps the Strangury strangury and Bitings of Venemous Creatures Serpents It is also good in Baths for Women to sit in for distempers of the Womb. Womb The juice dropped into the Eyes Eyes dryeth Rheums Rheums therein and cleareth the sight taking away all filmes Filmes that may hurt them The Root is of much use in all Antidotes against Venome and Poison or infection it is a good remedy against a stinking Breath Stinking Breath to take the Root fasting every Morning for some time together The hot fumes of the decoction made in Water and taken in at the Mouth thorow a funnel are Excellent good to help those that are troubled with a Cough Cough a dram of the powder of the Roots with asmuch Cinnamon taken in a draught of Wormwood Wine is singular good to comfort and strengthen a cold weak Stomack Cold Weak stomack the decoction thereof drunk is good against Convulsions Convulsions or Cramps Cramps and for falls Falls and inward Bruises Bruises an Oxymel or surrup made hereof in this manner is wonderful effectual for all cold Spleens Spleen and cold Livers Liver Take of the Roots of Acorus one pound wash and pick them clean then bruise them and steep them for three days in Vinegar after which time let them be boyled together to the Consumption of the one half of the Vinegar which being strained forth set to the fire again putting thereto as much Hony as is sufficient to make it into a syrrup an ounce
and among the flowers which are whiter spreading forth into many branches and consisting of five or six small white leaves a peece hardly to be discerned from the white threds which are in the middle after which come brownish three square seed the Root groweth in time to be very great with divers and sundry great spreading branches of a dark brownish or reddish colour on the outside and with a pale yellow thin skin under it which covereth the inner substance or Root which rind and skin being pared away the root appeareth of so fresh and lively a colour with fresh coloured Veins running thorow it that the cheifest of that Rubarb brought us from the Indies doth not excell it which Root being carefully dryed will hold his colour almost aswel as when it is fresh Descript 4. The true Rubarb and Rhapontick of China and of the shops Rhabarbarum ponticum genuinum officinarum The form of the root is somewhat great round and long for the most part yet there are smaller and shorter peeces that come together the colour on the outside is not all alike for some is of better colour and sounder than other the best is firm and heavy not spongy or light somewhat brown but fresh on the outside without many blackish spots with fresh coloured veins running thorow it bitter in tast and somewhat Aromatical in smell especially if it be fresh and causing the spittle to be yellow being a little chewed in the Mouth The True Rhapontick brought to us with the Rubarbe is only the lesser and longer peeces of the Root of the true Rubarb Descript 5. The broader Elecampane leafed Rubarb Rhaponticum Enuliae folio latiore This hath divers leaves rising from the root somewhat large and long but not so large as the leaves of Elecampane greenish on the upper-side and greyish or woolly underneath every one standing on his own stalk pointed at the end and dented about the edges from amongst which riseth up a reasonable big round stalk about half a yard or a foot high bearing at the top thereof one great scaly head consisting of very broad and loose or open brown scales like a small Artichoke head at first but that the scales are much more open The flower standeth in the middle and is composed of many blewish red or purple thrums very pleasant to behold after which come blackish round and long seed the Root is somewhat long and thick blackish on the outside and of a deadish colour on the inside And hath formerly been used for Rha Ponticum Descript 6. The narrower Elecampane leafed Rhubarbe Rhaponticum alterum angustifolium This differeth not much from the last but onely in the leaves which are a little narrower and longer then it and a little unevenly waved on the edges the head flowers are alike but a little larger and so is the Root Place and Time Tragus saith that the first groweth naturally about Lausanna in Savoy but onely in Gardens with us The second groweth upon the hills not far from Caria in Germany as also neer Friburg in Switzerland and on the Mountains in Austria The third as is reported was natural in Thracia and from some seeds thereof it hath been planted both in England and other Countries The fourth groweth chiefly in China and Cataga and in the Mountains of Persia The fifth groweth on Mount Baldus neer Verona in Italy and upon the Hills in Switzerland and in some craggy places in Savoy All these sorts of Rhubarbe do grow with us in our Gardens and do flower about the beginning or middle of June and the Seed is ripe in July The Roots that are to be dryed and kept all the year following are not to be taken up before the stalk and leaves be quite withered and gone which will be about the middle or end of October Government and Vertues Culpepper with a great deal of foolish non-sense assigns all these plants to the Government of Mars But I say that they more properly are under the particular influence of Jupiter the leaves of these kinds of Docks do a little mollifie and loosen the Belly being boyled in Broth and taken but the Roots have a more opening and purging quality in them and some more or lesse then others according to their quality The round-leafed Rubarb is stronger in operation than the Garden-Patience or Moncks Rubarb but this last is of Excellent use in dyet drinks and decoctions to purge the Liver and cleanse the Blood Liver Blood Tragus saith that a dram of the dryed Roots of Moncks Rubarb with a scruple of Ginger made into powder and taken fasting in warm Broth purgeth Choler and Flegm Choler Flegm downward very gently the seed thereof contrariwise doth bind the Belly and helpeth to stay any sort of Lask or Bloody-flux The distilled Water of the leaves is used with good successe to heal Scabs and foul ulcerous Sores Lask Bloody-Flux Scabs Sores and to allay the inflamations of them the juice of the leaves or Roots or the decoction of them in Vinegar is a most effectual remedy to heal foul-Scabs and Running-Sores The round-leafed or bastard-Rubarb hath all the same properties but more effectual and is also good against the stinging of Scorpions as Dioscorides saith the decoction thereof in Vinegar dropped into the Ears Scorpions pain in the Eares taketh away the paines thereof and gargled in the Mouth taketh away the pains of the Tooth-ach Tooth-ach and being drunk healeth the Jaundice the Seed thereof taken helpeth the gnawing and Griping pains in the Stomack Jaundice gripings in stomach and taketh away the loathing thereof unto Meat which cometh by vicious sharp humors which are gathered together at the Mouth of the Stomack the Root thereof helpeth the ruggedness of the nails Rugged Nails and being boyled in wine it helpeth the Kings-Evil Swellings of the Throat and kernels Kernels of the Ears being swollen and it helpeth them that are troubled with the Stone provoketh Urine and helps the dimness of the sight The Roots of this bastard Rubarb are of good use in diet-drinks which are opening and purging or in Ale or Beer prepared for opening the Liver cleansing the blood and to allay the heat thereof The properties of the round leafed Dock or English Rubarb are the same with the former but much more effectual and hath all the virtues of the Indian Rubarb but only is not so purgative but being taken in a double quantity it worketh almost in an equal quality without bitterness or Astriction The true Indian Rubarbe doth excellently and safely purge the body of Choler and Flegm Flegm Choler either taken it self in powder in a draught of White-wine or steeped therein all night and taken fasting or mixed among other purgers cleansing the Stomack Stomack Liver and Spleen Liver Spleen and the Blood opening Obstructions Obstructions and helping those griefs that come thereof as the Jaundies Jaundies Dropsie
round ruggish root covered with a crested or as it were a joynted Bark come forth out of knots three or five broad leavs like unto those of the Maple or Plane-tree standing on small blackish long stalks and are divided in three or five parts full of veins dented about the edges and pointed at the ends Descript 3. Red Storax called in latine Styrax rubra This hath formerly by some been thought to be the bark of some kind of tree that went under that name of Storax But Serapio and Avicen divide Storax into liquida and sicca by liquida meaning the pure gum flowing from the tree and not that liquida which we have now adays by that name and by the sicca the feces of the expressed oyl from the fruit but Calumita is now taken of some to be red Storax Place and Time The first groweth in Provence of France in Italy Candy Greece and some hither parts of Turkey where it yieldeth not gum but in Syria Silicia Pamphylia Cyprus and those hotter countreys it groweth much It flowreth in the Spring yielding fruit in September Government and Virtues This is a solar Plant there is no part of this tree in use with us but the gum that issueth out of it It is of temperature hot in the second degree and dry in the first it heateth mollifieth and digesteth and is good for Coughs Catarrhes Coughs Catarrhes Rheums Courses Mothr Loosen the belly Afterbirth Ears cold Aches Lameness distillations of Rheums and hoarsness It provokes womens courses and mollifieth the hardness and contractions of the Mother Pills made with it and a little Turpentine and taken gently looseneth the belly it resisteth cold poysons used as a Pesâ—ary it draweth down the courses and Afterbirth dropped into the ears it helpeth the singings and noise in them applyed to the hips joynts or shoulders afflicted with cold Aches it resolveth and comforteth much and is good to be put into baths for lameness of the joynts and weariness by travail It is also good to be put with white Frankincense to perfume those that have Catarrhes Rheums and defluxions from the head to the nose eyes Rheums head Nose Eyes or other parts by casting it on quick coals and holding their heads over the smoak and to air their night-caps therewith It dissolveth hard Tumors in any part as them about the throat and the Kings-evil Tumors Kings-Evil Sumach Descript Names Sumach groweth like a bushy shrub about the height of a man bringing forth divers branches upon which grow long soft hairy or velvet leaves with a red stem or sinew in the middle the which upon every side hath six or seven little leaves standing one against another nipt about the edges like the leavs of Egrimony the flowers grow among the leaves upon long stems or footstalks clustring together like the Cats-tails or blowings of the Nut-tree of a white green colour the seed is flat and red growing in round berries clustring together like grapes This Plant is called in Latine Rhus and in English Sumach and Coriers Sumach The seed is called in Latine Rhus obsoniorum and in English Meat-Sumach and Sauce Sumach Place and Time It groweth in Spain and other hot Countreys It is seldome found in this countrey but in the gardens of diligent Herbarists where it flowers in July Government and Vertues This is a Saturnine Plant of temperature cold in the second degree and dry in the third of a strong binding faculty the leavs have the same power that Acacia hath they stop the Lask and womens flowers with all other issues of blood Lask-flowers Bloody Issues Bloody-Flux Watry Ears to be first boyled in water and wine and drunken the same decoction stoppeth the Lask and bloody flux to be used as a Glyster or to bathe in the decoction It also dryeth up the running water and filth of the ears when it is dropped into the same and maketh the hair black being washed therein The seed of Sumach being eaten in sawces with meat doth stop all Fluxes of the belly with the bloody-flux and the whites Bloody-Flux Whites The same layd upon new bruises and green wounds defendeth them from hurts inflamations Swellings and Exulcerations the same pounded with Oaken-coals and layd to the hemerrhoids healeth and dryeth up the same The decoction of the leaves worketh the same effect Swallow-wort Kinds Names OF this there are three kinds The usual latine names of Swallow-wort is Asclepias or Vnice toxicum their distinct names follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Swallow-wort with white flowers Asclepias flore albo This Swallow-wort riseth up with divers slender weak stalks to be two or three foot long not easie to break scarce able to stand upright and therefore for the most part doth lean or lie down upon the ground if it find not any thing to sustain it and sometimes will twine themselues about it whereon are set two leaves at the joynts being somewhat broad and long-pointed at the end of a dark green colour and smooth at the edges At the joynts with the leavs towards the tops of the stalks and at the tops themselves come forth divers small white flowers consisting of five pointed leaves apeece of an heavy sweet scent after which come small long pods thick above and less and less to the point wherein lie small flat brown seed wrapped in a great deal of white silken down which when the pod is ripe it openeth of it self and sheddeth both seed and cotton upon the ground if it be not carefully gathered The roots are a great Bush of many strings fastned together at the head smelling somewhat strong while they are fresh and green but more pleasant when they are dryed both leavs and stalks perish every winter and rise anew in the spring of the year when the stalks at their first springing are blackish brown Descript 2. Swallow-wort with black flowers called in Latine Asclepias flore nigro This groweth in the same manner that the former doth having his long slender rough branches rise to a greater height than the other and twining themselves about whatsoever standeth next unto them having such like dark green leavs set by couples but somewhat smaller than they the flowers likewise stand in the same fashion but somewhat smaller also and of a dark purplish colour that it seemeth to be black and are scarce discerned unless one look very earnestly upon them after which come more plentifully than the other such like Cods with a white silver down and seeds in them as the former the roots hereof are not so bushy as the other neither smell so strong neither doth it give any milky but a watry juice when it is broken Descript 3. Swallow-wort of Candy Asclepias Cretica This riseth up in the same fashion that the former do with many slender flexible green branches with leavs set at the joynts on either side as the white kind hath and are very like unto them but somewhat of a
with salt causeth a sweet breath The Roots stamped with oyle and applied taketh away black and blew marks that come of bruses or stripes Bruises cureth and dissolveth the Kings Evil and all hard swellings and botches Kings-Evill Botches the parts being anointed or plastered therewith The same root made into powder and made into a plaister with the oyle of Ireos and wax doth asswage and cure the Sciatica or hip-Gout Sciatica the same boyled with pomgranat-pills and vinegar doth cure the hemorroids and taketh away warts and superfluities about the fundamentor elswhere Warts They also mundifie and cleanse the breast dissolve and ripen tough flegm Flegm and are profitable against an old cough coming of cold Cough being taken with honey in manner of an Electuary or Lohoch They provoke Urine Vrine clense the Kidneys and bladder break and drive forth the stone Stone provoke womens flowers Flowers and expulse the secondine and dead child Secondine Being chewed in the mouth they abate the tooth-ach Toothach and draw superfluous humors from the brain The liquor or Gum of Laserpitium especially of Cyrene which is called in our shops Gummi Benzni or Benzoin dissolved in water drunk driveth away hoarsness Hoarsness that cometh suddenly being supt up with a rear egg it cureth the Cough Cough taken in some broth is good against the Pleurisie Pleurisie It is good against Cramps and shrinking of the sinewes Cramp Sinews to be taken the quantity of a scruple and taken with Pepper and mirrhe it provoketh the Terms Terms and driveth forth the afterbirth and dead fruit afterbirth to be taken with hony vinegar or surrup of vinegar it is good against the falling sicknes Falling-Sickness it is good against the flux of the belly Flux coming from weakness of the stomack being taken with raisins It driveth away the shaking fits of Agues being drunken with wine pepper and Frankincense ther is an electuary made thereof with pepper Ginger and the leaves of Rue pounded together with hony which is called Antidotum ex succo Cyreniaco which is a singular medecine against Quartain Agues Agues It is good against the bitings of Venemous beasts Venemous bittings poisonous shots of darts or Arrows Shots bitings of mad dogs being taken inwardly and applied outwardly upon the wounds It quickneth the sight and taketh away the haw or web in the Eyes web in the Eyes at the first coming if it be applied upon them with hony being wrapped with Frankincense in a fine linnen Cloth and holden upon the Tâ—eth it cureth the Ach of the same Toothach the decoction thereof with figs and hysop boyled together in water and holden or kept in the mouth worketh the same effect Being applied with hony it stayeth the Vvula falling down Vvula and with hydromel or mede it cureth the Squinance being gargled with it It breaketh pestilential Impostums and Carbuncles Carbuncle being laid thereto with Rue Nitre and hony after the same manner it takes away Corns Corns being applied with Coperass and Verdigrease it cureth the disease in the Nostrills called Polypus Polypus and all scurvy manginess Manginess Against kybed heeles Kibed heeles first bath the heeles with wine and then anoint the kibes with this gum boyled in oyle The stinking gum call Assa foetida is good for all the purposes aforesaid but it is not so good as the Laser of Cyrene but it is very good to smell unto or to be laid upon the Navel against the choking or rising up of the Mother Benzoin is used for all the purposes aforesaid instead of the sweet Laser but it is supposed not to be the true Laser Cyreniacum but the gum of a certain tree to us unknown B. Balsom-tree or the true Balsome Names THe Arabians call it Balessau The Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Balsamum the liquor they call Opobalsamum the berries or fruit of the tree Carpobalsamum and the sprigs or young branches therof Xylobalsamum Descript The balsome or balm tree in the most natural places where it groweth is never very great seldome about eight or nine foot high and in some places much lower with divers small and straight slender branches issuing from thence of a brownish red colour especially the younger twigs covered with a double bark the red outermost and a green one under it which are of a very fragrant smell and of an Aromatical quick taste somewhat Astringent and gummy cleaving to the fingers the wood under the bark is white and as insipid as any other wood on these branches come forth sparsedly without order many stalks of winged leaves somwhat like unto those of the Mastick-tree the lowest and those that first come forth consisting but of three leaves others of five or seaven leaves and seldome above which are set by couples the lowest smallest the next bigger the end-one largest of all of a pale green colour smelling and tasting somwhat like the bark of the branches somewhat clammy also and abide on the bushes all the year the flowers are many and small standing by three together on small stalks at the ends of the branches made of six small white leaves a peece after which follow small brownish hard berries little bigger than Juniper-berries small at both ends crested on the sides and very like unto the berries of the Turpentine tree of a very sharp sent having a yellow hony-like substance in them somwhat bitter but Aromatical in tast and biting on the tongue like the Opobalsamum from the body hereof being cut there issueth forth a liquor which sometimes floweth without scarifying of a thick whitish colour at the first which afterwards groweth cleer and is somewhat thicker than oyle in Summer of so sharp a peircing sent that it will pierce the Nostrills of those that smell thereunto almost like unto oyle of spike but as it groweth older so it groweth thicker and not so quick in the smell and in the colour becoming yellow like honey or brown thick Turpentine as it groweth old Place and Time The most reputed natural places where this tree hath been known to grow both in these and former dayes are Arabia Foelix about Mecha and Medina and a small village neer them called Bedrumia the hills valleys and sandy grounds about them and the Country of the Sabeans adjoyning next thereunto and from thence transplanted into India and Aegypt It likewise grew on the hills of Gilead And it is reported that the Queen of Sheba brought of the Balsome-trees to Solomon as the richest of her Presents who caused them to be planted in Orchards in the Valley of Jericho where they flourished and were tended and yearly pruned untill they together with the Vineyards in that Country were destroyed by that monster of mankind the savage Bestial Turk It flowereth in the spring and
Correction of Spurge Laurel Lay the leaves or berries in steep in Vinegar a whole day then dry it and make it into powder adding to it Annise or Fennel seed gum Tragant and Mastick and so give it together with some cooling water as of Endive Succory or Orenges it will perform its operation without troubling or inflaming the Throat nor the inward parts Indian-leaf Names IT is called by the Indians Cadegi Indi that is Folium Indum It is called also Malabathrum and of the East-Indians Tamala patra Descript They are broad leaves with three ribs onely in them a little pointed at the ends which have been brought unto us but in small quantity and amongst them some leaves on their branches two usually at a joint tasting somewhat hot like unto bay-leaves and the bark of the branches hath the same tast amongst these leaves sometimes hath been found a small fruit like unto an Acorn in the cup which is probably the fruit of the tree and gathered with the leaves Government and Vertues It is Solar The vertues are to provoke Urine to warm and strengthen the Stomack and it maketh the Breath sweet It is good to be put into Cordial and Stomachical compositions It resisteth poison and Venome and the infusion thereof in Wine warm helpeth inflamations and redness of the Eyes being bathed therewith Lentills Kinds and Names THey are called Lens and Lenticula in Latine In some Countries of England where they sow them for meat for their Cattel they call them Tills There are found three sorts hereof 1. Lens Major the greater Lentill 2. Lens Minor the lesser Lentil And 3. Lens Maculata the spotted Lentil Descript 1. The greater Lentil groweth about two foot long with many hard yet slender and weak branches from whence at several places shoot forth long stalks of small winged leaves many on each side of a middle rib which middle rib endeth in a small clasper between the leaves and the stalks come the flowers which are small of a sad reddish purplish colour almost like the flowers of Vetches they stand for the most part two at the end of a long footstalk after the flowers are gone there succeed small short flat Cods wherein is flat round smooth seed of a pale yellowish Ash-colour the root is fibrous and dyeth every winter 2. The lesser lentill differeth from the former onely in this that the stalks leaves and seed is lesser the flowers are more pale and the seeds are whiter The third differs not much from the last but the seed which is blackish is spotted with blacker spots Place and Time The two first in parts beyond the Seas are sown in manured Fields and so they are in some Countries in England especially the smaller sort The greater doth seldome come to maturity with us if the season be not very mild and dry the spotted kind hath been growing wild in Portugal Government and Virtues They are under the dominion of Saturn of a mean temperature between heat and cold yet they are dry in the second degree according to Galen they are somewhat astringent and bind the body especially the outer skin It is of contrary qualities for the decoction thereof doth not bind but loosen the body therfore those that would have it bind let them cast away the first water and use the second which stoppeth Lasks and strengtheneth the Stomack Lasks Stomack and inward parts Lentils husked lose the strength of binding but nourish more than those that are not husked but Galen saith that to cat much of the broth of Lentils breedeth Cankers and Leprosie being grosse and thick meat It breedes the Melancholy humor but is good for moist and watry bodies but forbidden to those that are of a dry constitution It is also hurtful to the fight but is convenient for Women that have their Courses in too much abundance the decoction thereof applied with Wheat flower easeth the Gout Terms Gout and used with hony it closeth up the Lips of Wounds and cleanseth foul sores being boyled with Vinegar it dissolveth knots Sores knots and kernels Kernels and a decoction made thereof with Quinces Melilot and a little Rose-water put thereto it helpeth the Inflamation of the Eyes and Fundament But for the chaps of the Fundament let it be boyled with dryed Roses and Pomgranate rindes adding a little hony unto it And so it is good for creeping Cankers adding some Sea water unto it and for Wheals and running watry sores St. Anthonies-fire Kibes and for the curdling of Milk in Womens Breasts And a decoction there of with Rose leaves and Quinces is a good lotion for Ulcers in the Mouth Privy parts or Fundament Cankers Kibes St. Anthonies-fire Mouth Privy parts Fundament Lentisk or Mastick-tree Names IT is called in Latine Lentiscus and the gum or Rozen resina Lentiscina and Mastiche and Mastix in English Mastick Descript The Mastick or Lentisk-tree groweth like a tree if it be suffered to grow up and often it riseth but as a shrub the body and branches are of a reddish colour tough and gentle having their ends bending somewhat downwards whereon do grow winged dark green leaves consisting of four couples standing one against another of the bigness of the large Myrtle leaf with a reddish Circle about their edges and somewhat reddish veins on the underside smelling sweet and always continuing green the flowers grow in clusters at the joints with the leaves being small and of a pale purplish green colour after them come small blackish berries of the bigness of a Pepper-corn with a hard black shell under the outer skin and a white kernel within it beareth also certain hornes with a cleer liquor in them which turneth into small flies that fly away It yeeldeth also a clear white gum in small drops when the stocks are cut in sundry places which is carefully gathered and preserved Place The Lentisk-tree groweth in Provence of France and also in divers places of Italy and Candy and in many places of Greece but yeeldeth little gum there But especially in the Isle of Chio now called Sio Time It floureth in April and the berries are ripe in September It is pruned and manured with as great care and pains as others do their Vines it goeth beyond them in the profit of the Gum. Government and Vertues The Lentisk-tree is under the influence of Jupiter It is of temperature moderately hot but both root and branch bark leaf fruit and Gum are of a binding quality and do stop all Fluxes Fluxes and spitting of Blood Blood strengthens a weak Stomack Stomack and helps falling down of the Mother Mother or Fundament The decoction healeth up hollow sores Fundament sores sodereth broken bones Bones fasteneth loose Teeth Loose-teeth Itch and stayeth creeping Sores they being fomented therewith The oyl that is pressed out of the berries helpeth the Itch Leprosie Leprosie and Scabbs Scabbs both in Men and Beasts
large but not so large as the first as sweet as the other and the flowers white like the rest and sweet likewise and the fruit black Descript 4. Strange narrow-leaved Myrtle Myrtus angusti-folia exotica This groweth in all parts like unto the second but that the leaf is smaller narrower small pointed and of a darker green colour the flowers are alike and so is the fruit but greater and rounder having crooked white seeds in them like the other Descript 5. The Spanish wild Myrtle Myrtus Boetica sylvestris This wild myrtle groweth not so high nor so thick with leaves as the former sorts but hath slender and brittle branches with broader leaves than the last set more thinly on both sides than the rest and of a dark green colour the flowers are like the rest and the fruit is round standing on long footstalks between the leaves green at first then whitish and blackish when they are ripe full of pleasant sweetish juice and with some astriction to the Taste Descript 6. Small white myrtle Myrtus domestica minutissimis foliis fructu albo This groweth reasonable tall with slender reddish branches thick bushing together and thick-set with very small leavs narrowest of any other and sharp-pointed and somewhat dark green also the flowers are white like the rest and so is the fruit but of a whitish colour tending to a little blush and so abide not turning blackish Descript 7. The small and pointed Myrtle Myrtus minor acuto folio This riseth not so high as the third or ordinary broad-leaved sort but groweth fuller of branches and thick-set with small fine and green and almost shining round leaves a little pointed at the ends abiding always green as all the sorts of myrtles doe which with the flowers are sweet and bear black berries but they never bear in our cold Countrey Descript 8. Box-leaved myrtle Myrtus minor rotundiore folio This groweth in all points like the last but that the leaves being as small and fresh green thick are rounder at the ends very like unto the small box-leaves and beareth flowers as sparingly Descript 9. Double-flowred myrtle Myrtus flore pleno Of the greater kind of Myrtle there hath been of late nursed up one in the Gardens of the Curious with as double flowers as the double Feaverfew coming forth of a round reddish husk continuing flowring at the least three months and each flower a fortnight and is not over-tender to be kept yet will not endure the frosts Place and Time Many sorts of myrtles are found generally upon all the Sea-Coasts of Spain and in divers other hot Countries but generally in hot Countreys they must be defended from the cold but in the warm Countreys they must have shadow also for they love both shadow from the heat and moisture in hot Countreys Government and Vertues The Myrtles are under the dominion of Mercury and is indued with contrary qualities as Galen saith for it hath a very cold quality in it and a certain thinne warm offence also and therefore it dryeth and bindeth powerfull The dryed leaves are more drying and binding than the fresh which being beaten and boyled in water is good to drink against Catarrhes falling to any part of the body and doth help Fluxes of the belly and stomach moist Ulcers Catarrhes Belly Stomach Vlcers Cods Swelled Arteries Broken bones fretting and creeping Sores Swellings and heat of the Cods Imposthumes of the Fundament and St. Anthonies fire The decoction of the leaves is good for the resolution of the Arteries and Joynts and their weakness to sit in as a Bath and helps to consolidate bones that be broken or out of joynt that will hardly be cured It helpeth the soreness of the nayls and the rising of the skin about them if the powder of the dryed leaves be layd thereon The juice of the leaves worketh the same effects whether taken out of the fresh leaves or from the dry by infusing them in red wine and is safely used where there is any need of binding medicines or to heal Ulcers of the mouth or privy parts The same also helps watring eyes and those that begin to have a film or skin to grow over them which will take away the sight Watry eyes Passion Heart Spitting blood Venemous Beasts stinking breath old Vlcers Blanes Wheals Matrix Piles The seed is good against trembling and passion of the heart spitting of bloud and the bloody Flux It stops the Terms and the Whites helpeth the stinging of Scorpions and biting of venemous Creatures and of the Spider called Phalangium and the danger of Mushrooms being drunk in wine it helps a stinking breath and being warmed with wine it helps old Ulcers that are hard to cure It provokes Urine helps diseases of the bladder binds the belly and stayes the Flux of humours Blanes Wheals and breakings out of the skin the decoction of them is good for women to sit over that are troubled with the falling down of the Matrix and for the falling down of the Fundament and the Piles The excrescence called Myrtidanum is of greater force to dry and bind than either leaf juice or seed Myrobolans Kinds Names THere are brought unto us five sorts of fruits of the Myrobolan well known in the Apothecaries Shops called Cytrine Chebul Bellericks Emblick Indian They are also called Indian purging Plums Descript 1. The yellow Myrobolan or purging Indian Plum Myrobolanus Citrina Is said to grow on a Tree as great as a Plum Tree having many branches and winged leaves like unto the leaves of the Service-tree The fruit is for the most part as big as an ordinary Plum somewhat long having many fair ridges on the outside especially when it is dryed shewing it to be five-square though round of a yellower colour on the outside than any of the rest The flesh or substance being of a reasonable thickness the stone is white thick and hard to break with ridges also therein and a very small long kernell in the middle of an astringent taste as the dryed fruit is but much more than it Descript 2. The purple Myrobolan or purging Indian plum Myrobolanus chebula This kind groweth in bigness and branches like a Plum-tree having leaves like unto Peach leaves the fruit thereof is the greatest and longest of all the five sorts of a blackish purple colour on the outside while it is fresh which it holdeth in the dry fruit which as saith Mathiolus is the best being five square as the former of a more thick and fleshy substance than any of the other and with the smallest stone in it not so hard to break as the former but with the smallest kernell therein Descript 3. The round Myrobolan or purging Indian plum Myrobolanus Bellerica This is like the rest for growth but hath leaves like the Bay tree but of a paler green colour the fruit is of a mean bigness round and smooth yet in many being as it were three square of a pale rushetish
part coming together each of them upon a short foot stalk at the tops of the stalks grow the fruit which are round and reddish of the bigness of a plum and full of seed within Descript 5. Apples-of-Love of a greater middle and lesser size Poma amoris majora media minora These sorts do all resemble one another in their branches leaves yellow flowers and red berries or fruit Place and Time The first is natural in Spain the second in Aegypt and Syria and those Eastern Countreys the third is supposed to be brought out of Ethiopia and the back parts of Barbary the fourth is found in shadowy places upon the Appenine Mountains the last is natural in Egypt Syria Arabia and those parts The three first do flower in August their fruit not coming to perfection with us but the other sorts ripen well if the Summer be not too cold Government and Vertues The first sort of these are Plants of Saturn and as Avicen saith are very hurtfull yet being first boyled in fat broath they are eaten as a pleasant Junket with vinegar or salt oyl salt amongst the Genoa's and others and neither breed frensies nor other harm yet though the fresh ones be better yet they which are old are very hurtful for by their bitterness they are accounted hot and dry in the second degree and do ingender Melancholy Leprosie Cancers and the Piles the Head-ach and a stinking breath breed obstructions on the Liver and Spleen and change the complexion into a foul black and yellow colour unless they be boyled in vinegar And Fuschius saith that they do superabound in coldness and moisture as do the Cucumbers and Mushrooms yet the beauty of the fruit the delight to the palate and most of all their supposed faculty of inciting to venery do transport a great many especially in Italy and other hot Countreys where they come to their full maturity and proper rellish that they eat them with a great deal of desire and pleasure and therefore prepare and dress them divers ways as some eat them raw as we do Cucumbers some roast them under the embers and others boyl them and then pare and slice them and having strowed flower on them do fry them with oyl or butter and with a little pepper and salt eat them and some keep them in pickle to serve in the winter and Spring but certain it is that they do hardly digest in the Stomach whereby they breed much windiness which probably may cause a provoking to Venery they ingender bad blood and melancholy humours and give little nourishment to the body and that not good The Poma Amoris golden apples or apples of love are under the dominion of Venus they are cold and moist more than any of the former and less offensive these are eaten with great delight and pleasure in hot Countreys but in our Country for want of sufficient heat of the Sun to ripen them they are flashy and insipid and not so fit to be eaten Thorny Apple-bearing Nightshades Kinds and Names THere are recorded two sorts of these viz. The thorny nightshade of Jericho with round apples Solanum spinosum fructu rotundo And Indian apple bearing Nightshade with round leaves solanum pomiferum Indicum folio rotundo Descript 1. The thorny Nightshade of Jericho hath leaves like unto those of the mad Apples of Peru but whiter and softer having many small thorns in the middle rib of every leaf on the under side and on the stalks and branches are divers thorns and purplish flowers at the top of them after which come small apples green before they be ripe changing yellow and brownish afterwards being round and somewhat sweet in smell but as unsavoury or without taste as the former Descript 2. The Indian Apple-bearing Nightshade with round leaves groweth in manner of a shrub or Hedg-bush as Monardus saith of an excellent green colour having small thin round leaves bearing long fruit round at the lower end and flat toward the stalk of a greyish or Ash-colour on the outside and of a pleasant and grateful taste without any Atrimony therein having many small seeds within it Place and Time The first groweth in Syria and Palestine and other Countreys adjacent The second groweth in the Mountains of Peru only but at what time they flower or bear fruit it is not menâ—ioned Government and Virtues These Plants are certainly governed by Mars but the Physical vertues of the first no mention is by any Author made thereof But the second as Monardus saith is in great estimation in the West-Indies both amongst the Spaniards and Indians in that it provoketh Urine expelleth Gravel and the Stone in the kidneys and bladder Gravel Stone It breaketh the stone in the bladder if it be not so hard as that it will yield to the force of no medicine It is said of this that the seed taken in any fit in some proper water for that purpose will by degrees dissolve the stone into small Gravel which after it is expelled forth will again petrifie and grow together into an hard stone Nipplewort Kinds and Names OF this there is some three kinds 1. the ordinary Nipplewort called in Latine Lampsana vulgaris 2. The Nipplewort of Austria called Lampsana papillaris and 3. Wild or wood bastard-Nipplewort Soncho affinis Lampsana Sylvatica And in Prussia as saith Camerarius they call it papillaris Descript 1. The ordinary Nipplewort groweth with many hard upright stalks whereon grow dark green leaves from the bottoms to the tops but the higher the lesser in some places without any dents in the edges and in others with a few uneven jags therein somewhat like a kind of Hanckweed the tops of the Stalks have some small long branches which bear many small starlike yellowish flowers on them which turn into small seed the root is small and fibrous the Plant yieldeth a bitter milk as the Sowthistles do Descript 2. Nipplewort of Austria hath slender smooth and solid stalks not easie to break about two foot high whereon stand without erder somewhat long and narrow leaves broadest in the middle and sharp at the ends waved a little about the edges and compassing them at the bottom yielding a little milk from the upper joynts with the leaves grew forth small firm branches yet a little bending hearing each of them four or five long green husks and in them small purplish flowers of five leaves a piece nicked in at the broad ends with some small threds in the middle which turn into Down and are carried away with the wind the root is small and shreddy and lasteth many years Descript 3. The wild or wood Bastard-Nipplewort is like unto the first sort but with somewhat broader leaves and more store of branches but in flowers and other parts not much different Place and Time The first groweth-common almost every where upon the banks of ditches and borders of fields the second Clusius saith he found in Hungary and Saxony and other
sharp and aromatical is of more effect in medicines and so is the long being more used to be given for Agues to warm the stomach before the coming of the fit thereby to abate the shaking thereof All of them are used against the Quinsie being mixed with honey Quinsie Kernels and taken inwardly aswell as applyed outwardly and disperseth the kernels aswell in the throat as in the other parts of the body Mathiolus writeth of a kind of Pepper which he calleth Piper Aethiopicum brought with other Merchandise from Alexandria into Italy and groweth in long Cods like beans or pease but many cods set together at a place whose grains within them being like Pepper both in form and taste but smaller stick very close to the inside this sort Serapio calleth granum Zelin Monardus also maketh mention of a kind of long Pepper that groweth in all the tract of the Continent of the West-Indies This kind of pepper is half a foot long and of the thickness of a small Rope consisting of many rowes of small grains set close together as in the head of Plantane and is black being ripe and hotter in taste and more aromatical and pleasant than Capsicum and preferred before black Pepper and groweth saith he on high Trees or Plants Guinny Pepper Kinds and Names THere are many sorts hereof found out and brought to our knowledge in these latter dayes more than formerly were one Gregorius de Reggio a Capuchine Fryar maketh mention of a dozen several sorts or varieties at the least in the fruit or Cods though in any thing else very little differing there are likewise some other varieties observed by Clusius and others Descript 1. The most ordinary Guinny Pepper with long husks Capsicum majus vulgatius oblongis siliquis By this you may frame the Description of all the rest the main difference consisting in the form of the fruit whether husks or Cods This Plant riseth up with an upright firm roundstalk with a certain pyth within them about two foot high in our Countrey and not above three foot in the hotter spreading into many branches on all sides even from the very bottome which divide themselves again into other smaller branches at each joynt whereof come forth two long leaves upon short footstalks somewhat bigger than those of Nightshade else very like with divers veins in them not dented about the edges at all and of a very sad green colour the flowers stand severally at the joynts with the leaves very like unto the flowers of Nightshade consisting most usually of five and sometimes of six white small-pointed-leaves standing open like a star with a few yellow threds in the middle after which come the fruit either great or small long or short round or square as the kind is either standing upright or hanging down as their flowers shew themselves either of this or that form in this somewhat great and long about three inches in length thick and round at the stalk and smaller towards the end which is not sharp but round-pointed green at the first but being full ripe of a very deep shining Crimson red colour on the outside which is like a thick skin and white on the inside smelling reasonably well and sweet having many flat yellowish white seeds therein cleaving to certain thin skins within it which are broader at the upper end and smaller at the lower leaving the end or point empty within not reaching so far the which husk but especially the seed being of so hot and fiery a taste that it enflameth and burneth the mouth and throat for a long time after it is chewed almost ready to choak one that taketh much at a time thereof the root is composed of a great Tuft or bush of threds spreading plentifully in the ground and perisheth even in hot Countreys after it hath ripened all its fruit Descript 2. Capsicum minus Brasilianum small round Guinny-pepper This groweth in the same manner as the former doth not differing in any thing but in the leaves which being of the same form are not so great and large and in the fruit which is small and round standing some forthright and some upright but none hanging down each of them upon a long footstalk about the bigness of a Barbery but round and nothing so red and in another sort almost black having such like seeds within them but somewhat smaller no less hot and fiery than the former and abideth the winter-colds no otherwise than the former and seldome beareth ripe fruit in our Countrey Descript 3. The greater round upright Guinny Pepper Capsicum rotundum majus surrectum The chiefest difference in this sort of Guinny-pepper consisteth most in the form of the fruit which standeth upright as the flowers do being great and round like an apple even the greatest of all the sorts that bear round fruit of an excellent red colour when it is ripe like unto a polished Corall Descript 4. The great upright Spire-fashion'd Guinny-Pepper Capsicum erectum pyramidale majus This differeth very little from the first the difference of the fruit is that this standeth upright great below and smaller and smaller to the point which is sharper than in the first of as brave an orient Corall-like colour as the last Descript 5. The lesser upright Spire-fashion'd Guinny-Pepper Capsicum erectum pyramidale minus As the fruit of this sort is lesser by the half than the last and not so sharp or small at the end but somewhat round so the green leaves also are smaller and narrower and the stalk smaller and not growing so high the flowers of this as of all the rest that bear their fruit upright do stand upright also which is a certain rule to know what fruit will be pendulous and what will be upright Descript 6. The least Spire-fashioned Guinny-Pepper Capsicum exiguum erectum Pyramidale The form of this is very like the second sort but these are smaller and longer than those of the second sort of an inch long at the least and of a blackish red before they be through-ripe and then as red as the rest This groweth taller fuller of branches and more stored both with flowers and fruit the leaves are of the same dark green colour with the rest Descript 7. The greater upright Heart-fashioned Guinny-Pepper Capsicum Cordatum erectum majus This groweth not so high as most of the former having large leaves but not so small at the ends the fruit is not pendulous or hanging downwards with his footstalk but standing upright being somewhat great flattish and as it were bunched out at the upper end next unto the stalk and smaller below short and round-pointed somewhat resembling the form of a mans-Heart as it is intituled Cordatum Descript 8. The lesser upright Heart-fashioned Guinny-Pepper Capsicum Cordatum erectum minus This doth not differ from the last but in the smallness of the fruit standing also upright but much smaller and shorter Descript 9. Pendulous Heart-fashioned Guinny-Pepper
is good to be given to Children for the worms Liver Spleen Vrine Griping in the Guts Inflamations Stone Wounds Lask Vomiting Worms Sea-spiked Quick Grass Kinds and Names THere are several sorts hereof whose names shall severally follow before their Descriptions Descript 1. Sea-spiked quick grass or dogs grass Gramen caninum geniculatum maritimum spicatum this Sea grass hath divers joynted stalks about a foot high with hard leaves thereon long and like the other quick grass the spiked heads are much shorter and harder than the common kind the root is full of joynts and creepeth under ground like it Descript 2. Sea quick grass Gramen caninum vulgare Canariae simile This other grass is a slenderer lanker and harder grass than the ordinary quick grass and of a blewish green colour and differeth not in any thing else but there are two other differing sorts hereof the one in the roots which at the several joynts as it runneth doth shoot up the like stalks of leaves and spiked tufts and will be sometimes twenty foot in length with many of these tufts of stalks and leaves at them the other in the spikes which will have two rowes or orders in them Descript 3. Sea quick grass with long roots Gramen caninum alterum maritimum longius radicatum this long rooted Sea grass differeth little from the former either in the hard leaves or in the running roots but that they spread more and instead of spiked heads at the tops of the stalks this hath chaffie heads among the leaves Descript 4. Sea-spiked quick grass of Mompelier Gramen caninum maritimum spicatum Monspeliense this French Sea-grass hath slender woody roots with few fibres thereat from whence rise divers trayling stalks a foot or more high with sundry joynts and branches at them and short narrow reed-like leaves at the tops whereof grow spiked heads of three inches long apiece of a darkish Ash-colour Place and Time The three first are found on our Sea-coasts especially in Kent and the fourth about Mompelier and Narbone near the Sea Coasts they are in flower and seed towards the end of Summer Government and Vertues These are under the same Planetary regiment as the ordinary Quick grass of the Land and the roots hereof are held as effectual to all the effects and purposes that the ordinary sort serveth for only this hath been observed that Cattel will not feed on these of the Sea because of their hardness roughness and sharpness Rattle Red and yellow Kinds Names OF this we shall describe two sorts the one called common red Rattle pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris the other yellow Rattle or Coxcomb pedicularis sive crista galli lutea it is also called Fistularia of the hollowness of the stalks and Coxcomb because the flowers as some think do stand like a Cocks comb at the tops of the stalks it is also called Rattle grass and Louse-wort Descript 1. Common red Rattle Pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris this hath sundry reddish hollow stalks and sometimes green rising from the roots lying for the most part on the ground yet some growing more upright with sundry small reddish or greenish leaves set on both sides of a middle rib finely dented about the edges the flowers stand at the tops of the stalks and branches of a fine purplish red colour like small gaping hoods after which come small blackish flat seeds in small husks which lying loose therein will rattle with shaking the root consisteth of small whitish strings with some fibres thereat Descript 2. Yellow Rattle or Coxcomb Pedicularis sive crista galli lutea The common yellow Rattle hath seldome above one round green stalk rising from the root about half a yard or two foot high and with but few branches thereon having two long and somewhat broad leaves set at a joynt deeply dented or cut in the edges resembling therein the Crests or Combe of a Cock broadest next to the stalk and smaller to the end the flowers grow at the tops of the stalks with some shorter leaves with them being hooded after the same manner that the red ones are but of a fair yellow colour in most or else in some paler and in some more white the seed is contained in large husks and with lying loose in them will rattle when they are ripe the root is small and slender and dyeth every Winter Place and Time Some of both these kinds grow in Meadows and Woods generally througâ— out our Land where they are rather an annoyance than of any good use for Cattel They are in flower from Midsummer till after August sometimes Government and Vertues These Plants are Saturnine of a cold and drying property the red Rattle is good to heal up Fistula's and hollow Ulcers and to stay the flux of humours to them and also the abundance of womens courses Fistula's Vlcers Courses or any other flux of blood to be boyled in harsh or red wine and drunk The yellow Rattle is also held to be good for those that are troubled with a Cough or dimness of Sight Cough Dimness of Sight if the herb being boyled with Beans and some honey put thereto be drunk or dropped into the eyes The whole seed being put into the eyes doth draw forth any skin film or dimness from the sight without trouble or pain Sweet or Aromatical-Reed Kinds and Names THere is one sort called Calamus Aromaticus Mathioli Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed a second called Calamus Aromaticus Syriacus vel Arabicus suppositivus the supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical-Reed and the third the true Acorus of Dioscorides or sweet smelling Reed called in shops Calamus Aromaticus and likewise Acorus verus sive Calamus officinarum Descript 1. Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed This groweth with an upright tall stalk set full of joints of certain spaces up to the top not hollow but stuffed full of a white spongeous pith of a gummy taste somewhat bitter and of the bigness of a mans finger and at every one of them a long narrow leaf of a dark green brown colour smelling very sweet differing therein from all other kinds of Reeds on the tops whereof groweth a bushy or Featherlike pannicle like unto those of the common Reed the root is knobby with divers heads thereat whereby it increaseth and shooteth forth new heads of leaves smelling also very sweet having a little binding taste and sharp withal Descript 2. The supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical Reed riseth up from a thick root three or four inches long big at the head and small at the bottom with one and sometimes more stalks two Cubits high being straight round smooth and easie to break into splinters full of joints and about a fingers thickness hollow and spongy within of a whitish yellow colour the stalk is divided into other branches and they again into other smaller ones two usually set together at a joint with two leaves under them likewise very like unto the leaves of
cleanse the body of the watry humours of the dropsie the second sort is used to the same purposes of the last little is said but being alike in form it may be so likewise in quality Sarsaparilla THis is reckoned amongst the sorts of prickly bindweeds of which there are two sorts and this Sarsaparilla brought from the West-Indies makes the third kind Their names with their Descriptions severally follow Descript 1. Prickly Bindweed with red berries called in Latine Smilax aspera fructu rubro This groweth up with many branches wherewith it windeth about trees and other things set with many crooked pricks or thorns like a bramble all the whole length bending this way and that in a seemly proportion at every joynt it boweth or bendeth it self having somewhat a broad and long leaf thereat standing upon a long foot-stalk and is broad at the bottom with two forked round ends and then groweth narrower unto the point The middle rib on the backside of most of them having many small thorns or pricks and also about the edges The lowest being the largest and growing smaller up to the top smooth and of a fair green colour and sometimes spotted with white spots at the joynts with the leaves also come forth clasping tendrels like as a Vine hath whereby it winds it self the flowers stand at the tops of the branches at three or four joynts many breaking forth in a cluster which are white composed of six leaves a piece star-fashion and sweet in scent after which come the fruit which are red berries when they are ripe of the bigness of Asparagus berries or small grapes and in some lesser wherein are contained sometime two or three hard black stones like also unto those of Asparagus the root is slender white and long in hard dry grounds not spreading far but in the looser and moister places running down into the ground a pretty way with divers knots and joynts thereat and sundry long roots running from thence Descript 2. Prickly Bindweed with black berries Smilax aspera fructu nigro This other prickly bindweed groweth like the former his branches being joynted in like manner with thorns on them but nothing so many climbing like the former the leaves are somewhat like it but not having those forked ends at the bottom of every leaf but almost wholly round and broad at the bottom of a darker green colour also seldome having any thorns or pricks either on the back or edges of the leaves with tendrels like a Vine also the flowers come forth in the same manner and are Star-fashion consisting of six leaves like the other of an incarnate or blush-colour with a round red umbone in the middle of every one which is the beginning of the berry which when it is ripe will be black being more sappy or fleshy than the other with stones or kernels within them like unto it the roots hereof are bigger and fuller than the former for the most part and spreading further under the ground Descript 3. Sarsaparilla of America Smilax aspera Peruana The Sarsaparilla that cometh from America into Spain hath been seen fresh even the whole plant and hath been verified in all things to resemble the prickly Bindweed and in nothing different from it But certainly the Plant of Sarsaparilla that groweth in Peru and the West-Indies is a peculiar kind of it self differing from the Smilax aspera as Mechoacan doth from our Briony This doth wind it self about Poles or any thing else it can lay hold on to climb on the branches have crooked prickles growing on them as the Smilax aspera hath but fewer and not so sharp it hath very green leaves like those of Bindweed but longer and cornered like Ivy-leaves ending in a long point the flowers are said to be very great and white every one as big as a middle-sized dish which opening in the morning fadeth at night which occasioned the Spaniards to call the whole Plant Buenas noches that is goodnight Gerard describes the Sarsaparilla to be the roots of a shrub having leaves like Ivy but saith nothing of the flowers or fruit which it may be believed was not then discovered Although I have set down the usual and common names of these three kinds in their Descriptions both English and Latine yet because the word Smilax is among writers diversly taken and with various and several significations it is not improper here by the way to make some exposition thereof It is taken for two sorts of trees and it is also taken for three kinds of herbs Theophrastus maketh mention of one of the trees in lib. 3. cap. 16. of his History calling it Smilax Arcadum a soft Oak which is like unto an Ilex or Holly-oak The other which the Grecians call Smilax simply is called in Latine Taxus the Yew-tree The Herbs are first this here expressed aswell as the other more gentle sort which is the common Bindweed this the Grecians call Smilax Tracheia Smilax Aspera as they call the other Smilaxlia Smilax Laevis sive levis And the other the Grecians call Smilax Kepaia Smilax hortensis which is Dolichus or Phaseolus the French or Kidney Bean. Place and Time The two first grow in Italy Spain and other the warmer Countries whether Continent or Isles throughout Europe and Asia The third is found onely in the West-Indies The best is said to come from the Honduras others not so good from other places as the fertility or barrenness of the ground and the temperature of the Climate affordeth it and it hath ripe berries early in hot Countries Government and Virtues These are all plants of Mars of an healing quality howsoever used Diascorides saith that both leaves and berries being drunk before or after any deadly poyson is taken are a remedy there-against Remedy against deadly poyson serving to expell it It is said also saith he that if to a new born Child some of the juice of the berries hereof be given it shall not be hurt by Poyson ever after it is given as an antidote against all sorts of Poison and Venemous things Venomous things if a dozen or sixteen of the berries being beaten to powder be given in wine it procureth Urine Procureth Vrine cleanseth the Reins inward Inflamations Heat and Redness in the Eyes Dryeth Humours and washeth away when it is stopped the distilled water of the flowers being drunk worketh the same effect and cleanseth the Reins asswageth inward inflamations If the eyes be washed therewith it taketh away all heat and redness in them And if the Sores of the Legs be washed therewith it healeth them throughly The true Sarsaparilla is held generally not to heat but rather to dry the humours yet it is easily perceived that it doth not only dry the humours but wasteth them away by a secret and hidden property therein much whereof is performed by sweating which it performeth very effectually It is much used in many kinds of diseases as in all cold
four foot high sometimes more and sometimes less the winged leaves are somewhat narrower than those of the Elder but else very like it the flowers are white with a dash of purple standing in Vmbells like those of the Elder but more sweet in smell after which come small blackish berries full of juice while they are fresh wherein there lie small hard kernels or seed the root doth creep under the upper crust of the ground springing a fresh in divers places about the bigness of ones finger Jagged Dwarff-Elder Descript 8. THis is called in Latine Ebulus foliis laciniatis there can be known no difference between this and the other save onely in the leaves which do so deform the whole face of the plant that none almost would think it should belong to the former the flowers fruit and smell onely leading us to Judge of the Species the leaves are almost Jagged as much as the jagged Elder wherein consists the only difference in this from the former The Place and Time Common Elder groweth very frequently in hedges and in many places it is planted to serve for hedges and partitions for grounds and Gardens especially about London where the Gardeners plant it not onely to serve in their grounds but for the annual profit it yeeldeth both for the green buds flowers and fruit and it is planted likewise in many places where Coneys breed for shadow every stick or branch being thrust into the ground will easily take root and grow The second it is said was first found by Tragus in the Woods of Germany The third is found wild on Hills in watry Woods The fourth is only found planted in the Gardens of the Curious The fifth is found by watersides and Moorish places in Germany France England Italy and Peidmont in Savoy as Pena saith The sixt is nursed up onely in Gardens but best delighteth in moist Grounds The seventh groweth Wild in many places of England where if it be once gotten into a Ground it will so creep and spread it self under the upper crust of the earth that is will hardly be gotten out again The last is as yet a stranger in England The Time The common Elder shoots forth his buds early in the year-in the beginning of January if the weather be mild all or most of the Elders flower in June but the Danewort somewhat late as his fruit likewise is later ripe even not untill September but the others are ripe for the most part at the middle or latter end of August Government and Vertues In the judgement of Culpepper about the planetary dominion of these plants he much mistakes himself saying that both Elder and Walwort were under Venus but they are numbred amongst the violent purgers and of a heating and drying quality quite contrary to the nature of Venus as also their rank smell demonstrates I do therefore attribute them to the dominion of Mars in Scorpio both Galen and also Dioscorides do attribute to the Walwort aswell as to the common Elder for they account their properties both one a hot and dry temperature purging watry humors abundantly but not without trouble to the Stomack the first shoots of the common Elder boyled like unto Sparagus and the young leaves and stalks boyled in fat broth draweth forth mightily Choler and tough Flegm Choler Flegm the tender leaves also eaten with oyl and salt doth the same the middle or inner bark boyled in Water and given to drink worketh much more violently and the berries also either green or dry expell the same humors and is often given with good successe to help the Dropsie by evacuating great plenty of watrish humors Watry humors the bark of the root also boyled or the juice therof drunk worketh the same effects but more powerfully than do either the leaves or fruit the juice of the root taken provoketh Vomiting Vomit Dropsie mightily and purgeth the watry humors of the Dropsie the same decoction of the root cureth the biting of the Viper Viper Adder or Adder as also of a Mad-dog Mad-dog Mother and mollifieth the hardness of the Mother if Women sit therein and openeth the Veins and bringeth down their Courses Courses Hair made black Eyes inflamed Burning the berries boyled in Wine perform the same effects the hair of the Head or other parts washed therewith is made black the juice of the green leaves applied to hot inflamations of the Eyes asswageth them the leaves boyled until they be tender and then beaten and mixed with Barly-meal and applied to hot inflamations asswageth them and helpeth Burning Burning Scalding Sealding Fistula's Vlcers cureth Fistula's Ulcers being laid thereupon and easeth the pains of the Gout Gout Brain being beaten and boyled with tallow of a Bull or a Goat laid theron the juice of the leave snuffed up into the nostrills purgeth the Tunicles of the Brain the juice of the berries boyled with a little hony and dropped into the Eares Eares pained easeth the pains of them the decoction of the berries in Wine being drunk provoketh Urine Provoke Vrine to make lean the powder of the seeds first prepared in Vinegar and then taken in Wine Wind Chollick half a dram at a time for certain daies together is a means to abate fat and keep the body lean the berries so prepared and asmuch white Tartar and a few Anniseeds put unto them a dram of this powder given in Wine cureth the Dropsy humor Dropsie humors very gently purging the dry flowers are very often used in the decoctions of Glisters to expell Wind and easeth the Chollick for they lose their purgeing quality which they have being green and retain an attenuating and digesting property being dried The distilled water of the flowers is of much use to clear the skin from Sunburning Sunburning Freckles Freckles Morphew Morphew or the like and saith Mathiolus the Head being bathed therewith it taketh away all manner of Head-ach Head-ach that cometh of a cold cause The Vinegar made of the flowers of Elder by maceration and insolation is grateful to the Stomack Stomack and of great power and effect to quicken the Appetite and helpeth to cut grosse or tough Flegm Flegm hot in the chest a sirrup of Vinegar made thereof will work more effectually for these purposes the leaves boyled and laid hot upon any hot and painful Aposthumes Aposthumes especially in the more remote and sinewy parts doth both cool the heat and inflamation of them and ease the pains the distilled water of the inner bark of the tree or of the root is very powerful to purge the watry humors of the Dropsie Dropsie Tympany Burning or Tympany taking it fasting and two hours before Supper Mathiolus prescribeth a Receipt hereof to help any Burning or Scalding Scalding which is made in this manner viz. Take saith he one pound of the inner bark of the Elder
way Place and Time This tree groweth in Arabia in many places and in Aegypt and floureth and beareth fruit twice a year and hath alwayes green leaves Government and Vertues It is Saturnine the gum hath a thickning condensing and cooling property and is very effectual to represse and cool the heat and sharpness of humors and to bind or close up the open passages of the skin and keeping the places from blistering that are burnt with fire being dissolved with the white of an Egg and applied It is also very serviceable for Limners Dyers to make the best writing Ink and many other external uses Gum Tragacanth Names and Descript THe tree hereof is called Goats-thorn which is a small bushy plant rising up with many tough pliant or flexible woody stems about two foot high divided into many slender branches covered with a white hoariness with divers long white thorns in a double row among which rise up many small long and round leaves which abide always green there grow flowers at the tops of the branches and amongst the leaves of a pale yellow colour which turn into small white cods containing in them small whitish cornered seed the root is great and long much spreading in the ground which being cut or broken yeeldeth a pure white shining Gum in small crooked peeces of a sweet tast Place All sorts of these trees are found in Candia and about Marselles and Mompelier Time In the places where they naturally grow they flower and seed in the beginning of Autumne Government and Vertues There is no physical use known of either the leaves flowers seeds or roots of Tragacantha but onely of the gum it self which partaketh of the influence of Venus it is of a temperate property and besides the medicinal uses thereof it serveth for many external purposes as a starch or glew for which young Ladies use it to make their Artificial flowers and other gum-works This gum being dissolved is often used to be mixed with pectoral syrrups honey or juice of Liquorice to help the Cough or Hoarseness Coughs Hoarseness in the Throat salt and sharp distillations of Rhume upon the Lungs Rhume Lungs being taken as an Electuary or put under the tongue so to go gently down he said gum diâ—â—olved in sweet Wine a dram at a time and drunk is pâ—ofitable for the knawing pains in the Bowells Knawings-Bowels and the sharpness of Urine and frettings either in the Reins or Bladder Reines Bladder especially if it be mixed with some burnt Harts-horn the said Gum is also good for the Eye sight Eyes Sight being used alone or mixed with other things proper for the same purpose to allay the heat and sharpness of hot Rhumes the said gum mingled with milk taketh away white spots growing in the black of the Eyes and the Itching of the Eyes and Wheals or scabs upon the Eye-lids and being mixed with the juice of Quinces and used in a glister is good against the Bloody-flux and is generally used where there is cause of making smooth the Lungs breast or Throat or the wind-pipe being grown sharp or harsh by Rhumes and is excellent to represse and dry up sharp and thin matter and is excellent for Ulcers in any of the parts before-named Gum Elemni Description and Vertues WHat tree this gum is taken from we have no certain description it is a yellowish gum cleer and transparent which being broken sheweth more white and gummi within it will easily take fire and is of a quick scent and tast The properties of it are these It is of excellent use for all wounds and fractures of the Head and skull to be mixed with Balsomes and Oyntments for that purpose and is good for the Tooth-ach when Rhumes fall into them to be applied unto the Temples as Mastick Gum Tacamahacca THis Gum is reported to be gathered from a tree like unto Poplar being very sweet having a red fruit or berry like unto a Peony Government and Vertues Mercury rules it the gum is good for many external uses but not being known to be given inwardly it is useful for Women to retain the mother in its place by laying a plaister thereof upon the Navel Matrix and putting a little Musk Amber or a little Civet in the middle of the plaister This gum being applied as a plaister spread upon leather to the side or Spleen Side Spleen Tumors Pains Joints stomach digestion head-ach Brain Memory Defluxions Face Eyes Eares Teeth Gout Sciatica Punctures that is grown hard and Windy disperseth the Wind and dissolveth the Tumors and is effectual in all Tumors and pains of the body or Joints which come from cold raw and Windy humors applied thereon Take of this gum with a third part of Sâ—orax a little Ambergreese and some Wax and make a plaister thereof and apply it to the Stomack doth much strengthen the weakness thereof and digestion provokes appetite and breaks Wind it is good in the Headach and to strengthen the Brain and Memory as also in all defluxions from the Head into the Face Eares or Teeth to be applied to the Temples or to be put into the Ear tyed in a little fine silk or Cloth it is good also for pains in the joints Gout and Sciatica it speedily helpeth Punctures and Wounds in the joints it is hot almost in the third degree and dry in the second with much astriction Herb Robert Names IT is called Geranium Robertianum vulgare the common Herb Robert Descript The common Herb Robert springeth up with a reddish stalk about two foot high having divers leaves thereon upon very long and reddish footstalks divided at the ends into three or four divisions and each of them cut in on the edges some with deeper cuts than others and all dented likewise about the edges which oftentimes turn reddish at the tops of the stalks come forth divers flowers consisting of five leaves a peece larger then those of the Garden Musk and of a more reddish colour after which come beaky heads like long bills the root is small and threddy the whole plant is of a very strong smell Place Herb Robert groweth frequent every where by wayes sides upon the banks of Ditches and wast grounds Time It flowereth chiefly in June and July and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Herb Robert is a plant of Mars and is very much commended against the Stone and not onely so but also to stay blood Stone Flux of Blood Green wounds Vlcers from what part soever flowing it is excellent good speedily to heal all green wounds and is effectual likewise in old Ulcers either in the secrets or any other parts Hermo-dactyls HErmodactils are to be reckoned amongst the number of unknown drugs they being brought into England in abundance but no Author hath hitherto declared the place or growing thereof but only Mesne who saith it is the root of a Mountain herb whereof some are long and round
and other places of the Mediterrenean Sea and in Italy and Spain in our Countries they are carefully nursed up in Gardens the Male in many places but the Female onely with the Curious being rare to get and tender to keep Time The Male flowreth in March and the fruit is ripe in July the Female Clusius saith he found in some parts of Spain in flower in Febuary and in other places in Spain in the same Moneth it had ripe fruit but with us it flowreth not until August or September and the fruit seldome or never cometh to any perfection Government and Vertues The Mandrake is a plant of old Saturn endued with a very cold quality of temperature cold in the third degree but the bark of the root hath in it some driness the apple some moisture it hath a very soporiferous property causing sleepiness or drowsiness Levinus Lemnius reports that sitting in his Study at his from Book upon a suddain he became drowsie found the cause to be the scent of one of those apples which he had laid on a shelf therein which being removed the drowsiness ceased The bark or juice thereof is given to those that cannot sleep in their sickness the decoction of the root in Wine also doth the same It is given in like manner to those that are to be feared or are to have any member cut off to cast them into a sleep that they may not be sensible of the pain the condensate juice taken to the waight of a scruple in sweet Wine Flegm Melancholy Matrix Courses Deadcholy Inflamations Eyes Imposthumes Hardness knois kernels burning St. Anthonies fire purgeth Flegm and Melancholy like unto Hellebor but taken in a greater quantity it killeth It is used also in pessaries either by it self or with other emoldient things to take away the hardness of the Matrix to drive down the Courses and expel the Dead-birth but use not above half a scruple at one time The said juice is also used with ocular medicines to cool inflamations in the Eyes the leaves are likewise used for the same purpose as also to Imposthumes and also to discusse all hardness knots and kernels in the flesh and Scars of burning The root beaten with Vinegar and applied helps St. Anthonies-fire and applyed with hony or oyl it takes away the sting of Serpents The Apples and especially the seeds in them do purge and cool the hot Matrix as Serapio Avicen and Paulus Aegineta write which might be the reason that Rachel so desired them as knowing them to be available for her hot and dry body which was the cause of her barrenness Manna Kinds THere is two kinds of Manna the one hard and in peeces either greater or lesser the other liquid and thin like the lesse thick hony Of the hard fort there is some difference for that which is gathered in Arabia differeth from that in Persia being in small grains somewhat like unto Coriander-seeds and is gathered as Rauwolfius saith from those trees the Arabians call Agul or Alhagi Another sort is reddish and gathered from herbs and plants That of Persia is called Xireast lac Arborum that is milk of trees and is white like that of Calabria whereof some is as small as Hemp-seed others as big as Almond-Comfits another sort is gathered in Armenia in great lumps of a brownish colour Another sort is affirmed by Aphrodiseus cited by Niger that falling as an hony-dew on mount Libanus in Syria it is by the heat of the Sun congealed into an hard Sugar which the inhabitants call Saccar from whence came the Latine word Saccharum Some have been and some still are of the opinion that some of these smaller white sorts might be the Manna of the Israelites wherewith they were fed in the Wilderness and therefore called Bread But the Scripture doth flatly contradict such conceits with divers reasons 1. The Manna which was given to the Israelites to eat had no purging out a Nutritive quality 2. It was not so sweet as ours in tast 3. It fell not on their Sabbaths although it did all the week after 4. It fell all the year long and not as our Manna doth in the Summer only 5. It vanished away as soon as it felt the heat of Sun but the Sun condenseth and hardneth ours 6. It would putrifie if it were kept but two dayes besides the Sabbath day And lastly that Manna ceased to fall any more after they had eaten of the Corn of the Land There is Manna in Europe called Calabrina great controversies have been amongst writers whether it be a dew condensate by the cold of the night or whether it be a gum issuing from trees being cut as other trees that yeeld gums are some do affirm that it is only gathered from the manured or Wild Ash The Liquid sort is gathered both in Europe and Asia but that of the Levant is more plentiful and more operative it is gathered in divers other Countries both of Europe and Asia besides Calabria where no Ash-trees grow from many other trees and differs in drines form of greater or lesser peeces and colour as it is altered by the disposition and temperature of the Climate either hotter or colder Government and Vertues Both these sorts of Manna are governed by Venus and have properties alike in purging and are of a mean temperature a little inclining to heat and moisture and by their gentle working they may safely be given to Children and Women with Child and being mixed with other purgers they help their working and evacuate Choler but the grained Manna is much more frequent and more in use with us Choler quench thirst hoarsness nauseous Stomack and the properties thereof are that besides its purging quality it quencheth Thirst and doth Lenifie the Hoarseness of the Throat and allayes the sharpeness of Choler and the nauseous humors in the Stomack It is very profitable to be used often by those who are subject to be costive to be taken alone or to be put into brothes drinks or other things in stead of Sugar it is excellent good to be taken disâ—olved in whey in Sunmer to abate heat and choler and quench thirst The greater Maple-tree Names IT is called the greater broad-leafed Maple or Sycomore-tree Acer majus latifolium Sycomorus falso dictum because it hath been and still is falsly called the Sycomore-tree it groweth quickly to be a great tree spreading many fair branches which make a goodly shadow covered with a reasonable smooth bark having very many fair large leavs thereon set upon reddish footstalks cut deeply into five long parts dented about the edges green above and grayish underneath the flowers are of a whitish yellow green colour standing on a long stalk with some few threds within them each flower yeelding two winged husks parted at the stalk which are thin skins at the ends and bunched out where the seed lyeth within and are very like unto the common or wood Maple but
much larger and many more standing together the wood is whitish and smooth but not so smooth hard and close as our common Maple is Place This great Maple or falsly-called-Sycomore groweth no where wild or natural in this Kingdom but is onely planted before houses or in walks for the shadowes sake but groweth naturally in many places in Germany c. This as-well as our Wood-Maple flowers about the middle of April and the fruit is ripe in the end of September Government and Vertues It is a tree of Jupiter and is nevertheless scarcely made any mention of for its medicinal virtues but onely Pliny saith that the root of the Maple being bruised is with very great effect applied unto those that have obstructions or other pains of the Liver and Spleen but the root made into powder and given the quantity of a dram in Wine often is more effectual The Mealy-tree Names IT is called in Latine Viburnum and it is also called the Way-fairing-tree and by Mr. Parkinson from the pliantness of the twigs and branches the Pliant Mealy-tree Descript This tree hath from a small body rising to the height of a hedge-tree or bush covered with a dark greyish bark sundry small short but very tough and pliant branches of a fingers thickness whose bark is smooth and whitish whereon grow broad leaves like Elm-leaves but long and hoary rough thick white like meal and a little hairy set by Couples and finely dented about the edges at the ends of the branches stand large tufts of white flowers which turn into large branches of round and flat seed like unto Lentils but greater green at the first and afterwards and black when they are ripe The branches hereof are so tough and strong that they serve for bands to tye bundles or any other thing or to make fast gates of the Fields better than withy or any other Place It groweth as a hedge-bush and is often cut and plashed by Country-men to spread on the hedges in length and is very frequently found in Kent and in many other places of this Land Place It flowreth about the end of May and the fruit is ripe in September Government and Vertues It is a plant of Saturn the leaves thereof have a harsh binding quality and are good to strengthen and fasten Loose-teeth Loose-teeth the decoction of the leaves hereof and of Olive leaves together in Vinegar and Water is excellent good to wash the Mouth and Throat that are swelled by sharp Rhumes falling into them and is good to set the Palate of the Mouth or Vvula in the right place and to stay Rheums that fall upon the Jawes the kernels of the fruit hereof taken before they be ripe dryed and made into powder and drunk do stay the Looseness of the belly and all other fluxes Of the roots being steeped under ground and then boyled and beaten a long time afterwards is made Bird-lime to catch small birds with all The leaves boyled in Lye and the Head or Haires washed therewith doth keep them from falling and make the Hairs black Mechoacan and Jalap Kinds and Names THe Mechoacan of Peru is called also in Latine Brionia alba Peruana sive Mechoacan There is also another kind called Wild Mechoacan and a third sort called black Mechoacan or Jalap Descript 1. The Mechoacan of Peru that hath grown in these parts sendeth forth divers dark greyish long branches winding themselves about poles that are set for them or any other things that are next unto them whereon do grow fair broad leaves pointed at the ends of a dark green colour thin and hard in handling seeming so dry as if they had no juice in them the flowers are many standing in long clusters of a sullen yellow colour in the Indies as Monardus saith and as large as an Orenge-flower with an Umbone in the middle which afterwards cometh to be the fruit which when it is ripe is as big as an Hazel-nut divided by a thin skin in the middle in each side whereof lye two black seeds of the bigness of Pease of a dark whitish colour in the warmer Countryes of Europe but not with us yeelding berries and seed but not so large the root groweth to be as large as any Briony-root being not bitter or loathsome to tast as it is but rather without either tast or smell having many circles in it as may be discerned in the dry roots and may easily be brought into powder Descript 2. Wild Mechoacan called in Latine Mechoacan Sylvestris is altogether like the other both in manner of growing with branches leaves flowers and roots but in every particular lesser and the root wherein is the chiefest difference being sharp and loathsome procureth Vomiting and troubling the Stomack when it is taken asmuch as any ordinary Briony Descript 3. Mechoacan nigricans sive Jalopium black Mechoacan or Jalap The dryed roots of this plant are brought as a Merchandize unto us in England It cometh to us in small thin peeces some greater some smaller yet nothing so large as the greater but rather as the smaller peeces of Mechoacan of a brownish black Colour somewhat more solid compact and Gummy for out of it will rise a black Gum being laid on a burning Coal and of no unpleasant tast but sticking a little in the Teeth when it is chewed Place Mechoacan groweth beyond Mexico in the Province of Mechoacan but since hath been plentifully brought from the main Land of Nicaragna and Quito The wild Mechoacan was brought from the Promontory of St. Helen which is on the same Continent with Nicaragna The last is brought from a place in the Indies called Chelapa or Calapa from whence it obtained the name of Jalap Time They flower in the months of July and August some earlier or later than others as their original is from colder or hotter Climates and do seed soon after where they give any Government and Vertues The Mechoacans are plants of Mars the Mechoacan of Peru is a familiar Medicine used by many It is given to all Ages young and old and to young Children and Women with child without any harm or danger as also at all times of the year for being without any evil taste or smell it may be the better taken of the most delicate and tender stomachs that loath all other medicines It is most usually being made into powder taken in wine or the Root may be boyled in a little broth or wine and so taken The Dose in powder is from half a dram to a whole dram or a dram and an half or two drams as there is cause and according to the Age and strength of the Patient It purgeth cholerick and Flegmatick gross viscous and putrid humours whatsoever Choler Flegm putrid humours Liver Spleen Dropsie Jaundice Wind Pains in the head Bladder Reins Vrine Cholick Mother shortness of breath Cough French Pox. as also the yellow waterish humours of the Dropsie with much ease and facility It cleanseth the Liver
mystica and in Shops Nux moscata the Tree groweth very tall like our Pear-trees having leaves always green somewhat resembling the leaves of the Orange-tree the fruit groweth like our Walnuts having an outer thick husk which when it growes ripe it openeth it self as the shell of the Walnut doth shewing the nut within covered with the Mace which is of an orient crimson colour while it is fresh but the air changeth the colour to be more dead and yellowish Government and Vertues The Nutmegs and Maces are both Solar of temperature hot and dry in the second degree and somewhat astringent and are good to stay the Lask they are effectual in all cold griefs of the head or Brain Lask Head Brain Sinews Mother Wind Stomach sight for Palsies shrinking of Sinews and Diseases of the Mother they cause a sweet breath and discuss wind in the Stomach or Bowels quicken the Sight and comfort the Spirits provoke Urine increase sperm and are comfortable to the Stomach they help to procure rest and sleep being laid to the temples by allaying the distemper of the Spirits The way to use it to cause rest is to take two pieces of red Rose-cake and warm them in vinegar over a Chafing-dish of Coals then scrape nutmeg upon the cakes and bind it warm to the temples The Mace is of the same property but somewhat more warming and comforting than the Nutmeg the thick oyl that is drawn from both Nutmegs and Mace is good in pectoral griefs to warm a cold Stomach Stomach Cough and help the Cough and to dry up distillations of Rheum falling upon the lungs Navelwort of Mathiolus Kinds and Names THere are hereof three sorts called 1 Androsaces major 2. Androsaces minor and 3. Androsaces minima Mathioli Mathiolus his greater lesser and least Navelwort Descript 1. Androsaces major hath divers broad fresh green leaves a little hairy lying upon the ground like Plantain-leaves but smaller and unevenly dented about the edges from among which spring up divers round hairy stalks four or five inches high without any leaves up to the tops where stand four or five leaves like the lower but lesser and among them grow divers slender foot stalks bearing every one of them a small white flower with five small notched leaves standing in a green husk divided at the top into five parts wherein after the flower cometh a small round head full of small blackish seed the root is small and fibrous and perisheth as soon as it hath born seed and riseth again of its own sowing which if it spring before winter or that it doth not run to seed the first year of the sowing it will abide the first winter and flower the Summer following Descript 2. The lesser Androsaces or Navel-wort of Mathiolus groweth like the former but the leaves are smaller and narrower yet hairy and dented about the edges the stalks are like the other but have no leaves at the tops but an Vmbell or Tuft of many small flowers like the former but whiter after which shoot forth small round heads with seeds the root is more fibrous than the former small and fibrous and perisheth every year after it hath given its seed Descript 3. Androsaces minus the least Navel-wort of Mathiolus is very like the former having very many hairy leaves lying on the ground like those of the smallest Shepherds-purse with edges dented deeper than the former and having smaller and shorter stalks but as hairy as the others having five small green leaves set in a round compass at the joynt from whence arise three or four small white flowers which bear seed in heads as the former The root consists of a few small threads Place and Time They all grow in divers places of Germany they flower in May and their seed is ripe in June and July Government and Vertues These Plants are governed by Mars and are of a somewhat sharp taste of temperature hot and dry in the second degree they cleanse old Sores and Ulcers and staye the malignity of those that are corroding or fretting Old Sores Vlcers drying up the superfluous moisture which hindreth their healing cleanseth the roughness of the skin and Sun-burning the juice being clarifi'd and dropt into the eyes cleanseth them from films or skin growing over them Apple-bearing Nightshade Kinds and Names OF these there are several kinds which are accounted amongst the number of Nightshades called Solanum pomiferum and also Mala insana or mad Apples Descript 1. Lobel's red berried Nightshade called in Latine solanum pomiferum herbariorum Lobellii this groweth like common nightshade but greater the leaves are like small Tobacco-leaves the flowers are white the Berries small and round of a reddish colour containing white seeds within them of an insipid taste and perisheth every year as Nightshade doth Descript 2. Mad Apples of Syria called in Latine mala insana Syriaca This springeth up with a great hard round purplish or brownish green stalk about two foot high divided from the bottom into divers branches whereon are set many hairy broad rough leaves unevenly cut in on the edges At the joynts with the leaves come forth several large flowers having six large pointed leaves in some Plants white in others of a pale deadish purple colour with yellow threads in the middle after which come a somewhat long round fruit in hot countreys as big as a Cucumber but in colder places seldome exceeding the bigness of an egg set in the same husk that contained the flowers before having a thin skin and full of a whitish pulp and juice within having many small flat and whitish seeds within it the root is fibrous and perisheth with the first cold frosts Descript 3. Mad-apples of Ethiopia Mala insana Ethiopica These are somewhat like the former but that it groweth not so high nor so much spreading and hath but one upright stalk about half a yard high set in divers places with many small pricks and at several joynts with ragged leaves having some pricks on the middle rib in the back side the flowers stand on the branches at the joynts consisting of six white short leaves with a yellow point in the middle of divers threds joyned together after which cometh the fruit which is round and pointed at the end smaller and harder than the greater kind of Love-Apples and straked in several places of a fine red colour more deeper when it is ripe having sometimes small bunches on them like unto other small apples growing unto them having within them a juicy pulp more sharp than the other with flat yellowish white seed within it the root consisteth of threds and perisheth every year Descript 4. Mad-Apples of Europe Mala insana Europaea this kind groweth with a round upright stalk a foot and an half high from whence spring forth at several joynts divers long and somewhat broad green leaves unevenly cut on the edges and ending in a long point three for the most
to work those good effects in Physick whereunto it is conducible is laid down and prescrib'd by the Fryer Gregorio de Reggio before-mentioned whose Receipt is this following The Correction of the Guinny Peppers TAke the ripe Cods of any sort of the Guinny Pepper for they are in property all alike and dry them well first of themselves and then in an Oven after the bread is taken out put it into a pot or pipkin with some flower that they may be thorowly dryed then cleanse them from the flower and their stalks if they have any cut them or clip them very small both husks and seeds within them and to every ounce of them put a pound of fine Wheat-flower make them up together into Cakes or small Loaves with so much leaven as ye think may be convenient for the quantity you make bake these as you do Bread of the small size and being baked cut it again into smaller parts and bake it again that it may be as dry and hard as bisket which beaten into fine powder and sifted may be kept for any of the uses hereafter specified or may serve instead of ordinary Pepper to season Meat or broth or for Sauce or any other purpose the East-Indian-Pepper doth serve for it doth not onely give as good but rather a better tast or relish to the Meat or Sauce but is found to be singular good both to discusse the Wind and the Chollick in the body It is singular good to be used with flatulent or windy meats and such as breed much moisture and crudities whereof Fish is one especial one scruple of the said powder taken in a little broth of Veal or of a Chicken doth very much comfort a cold Stomack Stomack causing Flegm Flegm and such viscous humors as lye low in the bottom thereof to be avoyded helpeth digestion for it provoketh an Appetite Appetite to Meat it provoketh Urine Vrine and taken with Saxifrage water expelleth the Stone Stone in the Kidneys Kidneyes and the Flegm that breedeth them and taketh away the dimness or mistiness of the Sight Sight being used in Meats taken with Pillulae Aleophanginae it doth help the Dropsie Dropsie the powder taken for three dayes together in the decoction of Penny-royal expelleth the Dead-birth Dead-birth but if a piece of the Cod or husk either green or dry be put into the Mother after Delivery it will make them barren barrenness for ever after but the powder taken for four or five dayes fasting with asmuch Fennel-seed will case all pains of the Mother Pains of the Mother The same also made up with a little powder of Gentian and oyle of bayes into a Pessary with some Cotton-wool doth bring down the Courses Courses the same mixed with a Lohoch or Electuary for the Cough Cough helpeth an old inveterate Cough being mixed with Hony and applied to the Throat helpeth the Quinsie Quinzy and made up with a little Pitch or Turpentine and laid upon any hard knots or kernels kernells in any part of the body it will dissolve them and not suffer any more to grow there and being mixed with Nitre and applied it takes away the Morphew Morphew and all Freckles Spots marks and discolourings of the skin applied with Hensgrease it dissolveth all cold Imposthumes Imposthumes and Carbuncles Carbuncle and mixed with sharp Vinegar it dissolveth the hardness of the Spleen if some thereof be mixed with some Vnguentum de Alabastro and the Reynes of the back anointed therewith it will take away the shaking fits of Agues a plaister made thereof with the leaves of Tobacco will heal the sting or biting of any Venemous Beast The decoction of the husks themselves made with Water and the Mouth gargled therewith helpeth the Toothach and preserveth the Teeth from rottenness the Ashes of them being rubbed on the Teeth will cleanse them make black Teeth White The decoction of them with Wine helpeth the Hernia Ventosa or watry Rupture if it be applied warm Morning and Evening if they put it to steep three dayes together in Aquavitae it helpeth the Palsie thâ— place affected being bathed therewith and steeped for a day in Wine and two Spoonfulls drunk thereof every day fasting helpeth a stinking Breath and snufft up into the Nostrills it will help the stink of them caused there in by corrupted Flegm Pines Description and Names THere is one sort called the West-Indian delicious Pines called in Latine Anana seu Pina and another sort called Anana Silvestris Wild-Indian Pines These Pines which for their excellent and pleasant sweet fruit are much esteemed in all the West-Indies are the fruit of a kind of thistle growing with many long hard rough stiffe and narrow leaves thickest in the middle and thin cut in the end dented about the edges with reddish points seeming prickly like a thistle but are not from the middle whereof riseth up a round and shorter stalk than that of the wilder sort set with like leaves but lesser and at the top one head of the bigness of a reasonable Musk-melon or Pome-citron of a yellowish green before it be ripe more yellowish being thorow-ripe shewing as it were scaly like an Artichoke at the first view but more like to a Cone of the Pine-tree which we call a Pine-Apple for the form yet the out-side hath no hardness at all therein but may be cut or pared like unto Mellow Peach and are so sweet in scent that they may be smelled afar off and of a pleasant sweet tast and substance tasting as if Wine Rosewater and Sugar were mixed together and having no seed at all in it whereby it may be increased but as some say it hath whitish seed like a Musk-melon but lesser and longer this fruit doth bear a bush of leaves at the top and some small heads on small branches underneath it which being taken from it and planted half way deep in the ground will take root and bear fruit the next year which is the onely way of propagating thereof In Brasile it is said they have sundry sorts hereof one they call Jaama which is longer and pleasanter than any other and of a yellowish substance Another they call Benjama being whiter within and of a Wawmish tast with the Lusciousness a third they call Jajagna white also within but tasting like sweet Wine with a little tartness the root is great with many strings thereat but perisheth with the stalk after the fruit is ripe it was first brought from Sancta Cruce in Brasil where it naturally groweth into both West and East-Indies being not natural to either of them but is onely manured there and now is grown there plentiful They of Brasile call it Nana others Anana the Spaniards and Portugalls call it Pinus from the likeness and so do most Countries following that name The cheifest time of their ripeness is in the Spring when they
courses it dryeth up the moisture in Womens wombs and helps conception It is of very good use in Tertian and Quotidian Agues that come of humors or are of long continuance It is thought also to be good in Plague-time to wear some thereof continually about them that the smell thereof may expell the corrupt and evil vapours of the Pestilence It is generally used in all the diseases that come of cold raw thin and corrupt humours the French disease and other of the like foul nature the Indians use the leaves being bruised to heal theit wounds and Sores Saunders Kinds Descript IN our Shops for physical use we have three sorts of Saunders whereof the white and yellow are sweet woods and the yellow is the sweetest the red hath no scent The Saunder-Tree groweth to be as big as a Walnut-tree having fresh green leaves like unto the Mastick-tree and darkish blew flowers the fruit being like unto cherries for the size but without any taste black when they are ripe and quickly falling away the wood it self is without scent as it is said while it is living and fresh and smelleth sweet only when it is dry the white and the yellow woods are so hard to be distinguished before that time that none but those Indians that usually fell those trees do know their difference before-hand and can tell which will prove better than others the chiefest part and smelling sweetest is the heart of the wood they are distinguished by these names Santalum album citrinum rubrum Government and Vertues All the Saunders are under the Solar regiment they are all cooling and cordial and used together in sundry cordial medicines but the white and the yellow are the more cordial and comfortable by reason of their sweetness and the red more cooling and binding which quality neither of the other are without though in a less proportion The red is often used to stay thin rheum Thin Rheum Inflamations Gout Agues Headach Weak and fainting Stomachs hot Agues palpitation of the heart melancholy mirth Sperm Fluxes falling from the head to cool hot Inflamations hot gouts and in hot Agues to cool and temper the heat but the white and yellow are both Cordial and Cephalical applyed with Rosewater to the temples procuring ease in the headach and are singular good for weak and fainting Stomachs through heat and in the hot fits of Agues They are very profitably applyed in fomentations for the stomach spirits and palpitations of the heart which also do comfort and strengthen them and temperate the melancholy humor and procureth Alacrity and mirth which quality is attributed to the yellow more than the white which is used more to stay and bind fluxes of the Sperm in man or woman for which purpose either the powder taken in a real Egge or mixed with other things for that purpose or steeped in red wine and kept in an hot Balneo or hot Embers close stopped all night and strained forth and drunk both in the morning and evening stayeth both the Gonorrhea or running of the Reins in men Gonorrhea Whites abates great breasts in Maids and the whites in women being applyed also to maids and womens great breasts mixed with the juice of Purselan abateth their greatness and represseth their overmuch growing Scamony Descript The true Scamony hath a long root of a dark Ashcolour on the outside and white within and of the bigness of an Arm with a pith in the middle thereof and many fibres thereat which being dryed as saith Mathiolus the pith taken out seemed so like unto the roots of Turbith which are brought to us from the farre remote Eastern parts none knowing what plant it is nor whereunto it is like some thinking it to be the root of Trifolium or Sea Starwort that otherwise it might be thought to be the right Turbith of the Apothecaries shops from whence arise many long round green-branches winding themselves like a bindweed about stakes and trees or any other things that stand next unto it unto a good height without any clasping tendrels like the true or wild Vine from the joints of the branches come forth the leaves every one by it self upon short footstalks somewhat broad at the bottom with two corners next thereunto and some also round and then growing long and narrow to the end being of a fair green-colour and smooth somewhat shining Towards the tops of the branches at the joints with the leaves come forth large whitish bell-flowers with wide open brims and narrow bottoms after which come round heads wherein is contained three or four black-seeds if any part of this plant be broken it yieldeth forth a milk not hot not burning nor bitter yet somewhat unpleasant provoking loathing and almost casting Names It is called Scammonia both in Greek and Latine The dryed Juice which is most in use is called also Scammoniacum in the Druggists and Apothecaries shops as also with most Writers and some call the plant so too When it is prepared that is baked in a Quince under the Embers or in an oven or any other way it is called Diagridium Place and Time Scamony groweth in Syria and the farther Eastern parts where no frosts come in the winter for where any frost comes it quickly perisheth and therefore flourisheth always in those hot Climates Government and Vertues This is a Martial plant and of a Churlish nature so that there had need be great care taken in the choice thereof that only that be used in Physick which is sincere and pure without dross or adulteration which may be known if it be not heavy or close compact together but that it be moderately light with some small holes or hollowness here and there therein and that it be smooth and plain in the breaking and not in grains or knots or having small sticks or stones in it somewhat cleer and blackish but not of a deadish dark or il-favoured colour and that it will be made quickly into a very fine and white powder It purgeth both flegm yellow-choller and watery-humours Flegm Yellow-choler watry-Humours very strongly but if it be indiscreetly given it will not only trouble the stomach more than any other medicine but will also scowr fret and rase the guts in working too powerfully oftentimes unto blood and oftentimes unto faintings and swoonings and therefore is not fit to be given to any gentle or tender body Mesue declareth three several hurts or dangers that come to the body thereby and the remedies of them The first is saith he that it ingendereth certain knawing winds in the stomack so much offending it that it provoketh to vomit To be baked therefore in a Quince and some parsly fennel or wild Carrot-seed or Galanga mixed with it is the remedy hereof The next is that it inflameth the Spirits by the overmuch sharpness or fierceness therein whereby it readily induceth feavers especially in those that are subject to obstructions and repleat with putrid humours
kidneys and the Kings evil the decoction helps the Inflamations of the Mother if they sit therein and causeth hair to grow on the Eye-lids Squinant Kinds Descript Names THere are two sorts of this Squinant a finer and a coarser or the true and a Bastard kind Descript 1. The finer sweet-smelling Rush It is also called Camels hay and Juncus odoratus tenuior sive schenanthos This Rush hath many tufts or heads of long Rush-like leaves set thick together one compassing another at the bottom and shooting forth upwards the outermost whereof are bigger and grosser than those that grow within which are of a foot long and better small round and stiff or hard of a quick and spicy taste somewhat pleasant and of a fine sweet gentle or soft scent It beareth divers round hard-joynted stalks having divers short brownish or purplish husks on the tops containing within them mossie whitish short threads or hairs wherein lyeth a chaffy seed The root is full of long fibres and hath the least scent or taste of any part thereof Descript 2. The grosser sweet-smelling Rush in Latine called Juncus odoratus crassior This groweth in the same manner that the former doth but is greater in every part thereof and less sweet aswell as less sharp and hot in taste Place and Time They grow naturally in Arabia Syria Mesopotamia and those tracts of the East countreys and in some places of Africa It never flowers in these colder Countreys if it be here planted but in those hotter parts it flowreth in the Summer-time Government and Vertues This Plant is under the dominion of Jupiter in Libra it discusseth Swellings and Wind but doth a little trouble the head Swellings Wind Vrine Womens Courses Humours Spitting blood Lungs Liver stomach reins Loathing meat Dropsie Cramps Convulsions Mother Liver Stomach Body It provokes Urine and womens courses it gently cutteth or breaketh humours and digesteth them and looseth the breathing places of the veins The decoction of the flowers drunk stayeth the spitting of blood and helps the griefs of the Lungs Liver Stomach and Reins The Root is held to be of an astringent property and is effectual for those that have a loathing to their meat a dram taken every morning fasting for certain days together with the like quantity of Pepper It is good for the Dropsie Cramps the decoction is good for women to sit in that are troubled with the Mother it allayeth the Inflammations of the Liver Stomach and body the roots do bind more and the flowers are more hot but in all the parts thereof there is an Astriction The whole Plant being boyled in the Broth of a Chicken is helpful to ease the pains of the womb which women feel after Child-bearing Pains of the womb Sores of the mouth Vlcers The powder thereof is good against Sores of the mouth and all creeping Ulcers and taken with wine and vinegar is good for those that have an Ulcer in their stomach if the stomach or belly be fomentâ—d with the decoction thereof it easeth the pains and taketh away all Inflamations therein Stoechas Descript Names THe ordinary Stoechas or Stoechados as it is usually called and also French-Lavenderâ— is a more tender plant than Lavender and more like an herb than a Bush or Shrub not above a foot and an half high having many narrow long whitish green leaves like unto Lavender but softer and smaller set at several distances about the stalks which spread into sundry branches at the tops whereof stand long round and sometimes four-square heads of a dark greenish purple-colour compact of many scales from which come forth the flowers of a bluish purple colour after which follow seed-vessels which are somewhat whitish when they are ripe containing blackish brown seed in them the root is somewhat woody and will hardly endure our cold winter except in some places or before it have flowred the whole Plant is somewhat sweet of scent but nothing so much as Lavender Place and Time This Staechas groweth in Arabia aswel as France and Spain In their natural Climate they flower in March and April but those which are planted in Gardens in our cold Countreys flower not till May or June Government and Virtues This is a Plant of Jupiter the decoction thereof helps diseases of the breast coughs and colds It is good in Medicines against Infections and poysons Breast Coughs Colds Poysons it is of a mixt temperature of a small earthy cold essence as saith Galen from whence it hath the quality of binding and of another earthy more extenuated whereby it is bitter by the mixture of both which it openeth obstructions and freeth the body from them It extenuateth cleanseth and strengthneth all the inward parts and bowels as also the whole frame of the body Inward parts and Bowels Brains Sinews Heart Black Choler Phlegm Head Brain cold griefs Brains Sinews Falling-Sickness Giddiness head Stomach Sadness it strengtheneth the brain sinews and heart and all the other inward parts It purgeth black Choler and phlegm aswel from the head and brain as other the instruments of the senses and comforteth them It is effectual in all cold griefs used in drinks baths or fomentings an oyl made therewith and fomented giveth as it were life to the brains and sinews by warming and comforting them Taken with vinegar of Squils it helpeth the Falling-Sickness and swimming of the head and is helpful for all pains of the head or stomach Taken with juice of Bugloss and of Pippins it helpeth sadness of the heart and melancholy it easeth the pains of the sinews Arteries muscles and joynts taken in what form you will the fumes thereof taken into the nostrils openeth them when they are closed taken in a Syrrup it helpeth Agues especially in those that are phlegmatick being boyled in Lye it is effectual for all those diseases of the head to wash it therewith Agues Scurf Dandrif Lice besides it cleanseth the head of Scurf and Dandrif and killeth Lice therein The Storax-tree Kinds Descript Names THere are accounted three sorts of the Storax tree whose names shall follow with their Descriptions Descript 1. The usual Storax-tree called in Latine Styrax Arbor vulgaris This Storax-tree groweth very like unto the Quince-tree both for form and bigness the leavs also are long and round and somewhat like but far less whitish underneath and stiff the flowers stand both at the joynts with the leaves and at the ends of the branches consisting of five or six large whitish leavs like unto those of the Orange-tree with some threds in the middle after which come cound berries set in the cups that the flowers were in before of the bigness of Hazel-nuts pointed at the ends and hoary all over each standing on a long footstalk containing within them certain kernels in small shells This yieldeth a most fragrant sweet Gum and clear of the colour of brown honey Descript 2. Storax with Maple-leaves Styrax folio Aceris From a
paler white colour The flowers stand in the same manner three or four together upon a stalk but are somewhat of a paler white colour to whom succeed sometimes but one and sometimes two pods together which are thicker and shorter than those of the white kind straked all along and double-forked at the ends wherein lie silk and seeds as in the former The roots have not so strong a smell as the last and have aswel as the rest of the Plant a strong smell like Box-leaves Place and T me The two first grow in rough and untilled ground upon divers Mountains in France about Narbone Marseilles and Mompelier and in Italy also The last in Candy They flower in the months of June and July and sometimes not until August and their Cods are ripe about a moneth after the empty husks abiding on the dry branches when the seed and silk is fallen out Government and Virtues These are Solar Plants the roots have a most soveraign faculty against all poysons Poysons Venemous beasts Serpents mad doâ— Plague Pâ—stilence Pâ—ssions of the heart Griping in the Belly particularly against the Apocynum or Dogs-bane and is effectually given to such as are bitten by any venemous beast or stung by any Serpent or other Creature as also against the biting of a mad dog and a dram and an half thereof taken in Carduus-water for divers days together It is taken also in wine every day against the Plague and pestilence a dram thereof taken in Bugloss-water is effectual against all passions of the heart if the same quantity of Citron-seeds be taken therewith it easeth all the griping pains in the belly the Decoction of the roots made with white-wine taken for divers days together a good draught at a time and sweating thereupon cureth the dropsie The same also cureth the Jaundice Jaundice Dropsie Vrine provoketh Urine and easeth the cough and all defects of the Chest and lungs The powder of the roots taken with Peony-seeds is good against the Falling-Sickness Cough Chest Lungs Falling-Sickness Melancholy Worms or with Basil-seed or the rinde of Pomcitron-seeds is good against melancholy and taken with the roots of Dictamnus albus or bastard-Dittany will kill and expell worms of the maw or belly the roots are also used amongst other things for baths for women to sit in to ease pains of the Mother and to bring down their courses the decoction hereof with comfrey roots made in wine Pains of the Mother Courses Rupture Bruises Vlcers Sores is good for those that have a Rupture or are bursten or have received hurts by bruises The powder of the roots or leaves is effectual to cleanse all putrid rotten and filthy Ulcers and Sores and may safely be used in all Salves Unguents and Lotions made for such purposes The leaves and flowers boyled and made into a Pultis and applyed to the hard tumors or swellings of womens breasts cureth them speedily and all sores in the matrix Womens breasts Matrix Tobacco Names Descript IT is called Petum and Nicotiana There have several kinds thereof been planted here in England which they did manure for Smoaking but that is now prohibited I shall only describe one kind which is planted here for its uses in physick and Chirurgery only It riseth up with a thick round stalk about two foot high whereon do grow thick fat fleshy green leaves nothing so large as the other Indian kinds neither for breadth nor length somewhat round-pointed also and nothing dented about the edges the stalk brancheth forth and beareth at the tops divers flowers set in green husks scarce standing above the brims of the husks round-pointed also and of a greenish yellow colour after which followeth the seeds contained in great heads The root is woody byt perisheth in winter but generally riseth of the seed that is suffered to shed it self Place and Time This as is supposed was first brought from Brazile it giveth ripe seed in our Countrey here earlier than the other Indian sorts It flowreth from June to the end of August or later and the seed ripeneth in the mean time Government and Vertues Tobacco is a Plant of Saturn Culpeppers deity of a stupifying quality it is held to be available to expectorate tough phlegm out of the stomach chest and lungs the juice thereof made into a Syrup Phlegm Stomach Chest Lungs worms or the distilled water of the herb drank with Sugar The same also helps to expell worms in the stomach and belly as also to apply a leaf to the belly and to ease the pains in the head or Meagrim Pains in the head Meagrim Stone Gravel Mother and griping pains in the bowels It is also profitable for those that are troubled with the stone in the kidneys to ease pains and by provoking Urine to expell gravel and the stone ingendred therein and hath been found very effectual to suppress the malignity and windy vapours which cause the strangling of the mother The seed hereof is much more effectual to ease the pains of the teeth than Henbane-seed and the ashes of the burnt herb to cleanse the gums and teeth and make them white The herb bruised and applyed to the place of the Kings-Evil is a speedy rememdy as is said It is also said to be effectual to cure the Dropsie Kings-Evil Dropsie by taking four or five ounces of the juice thereof fasting which will strongly purge the body both upwards and downwards And too strongly too unless it be a well steeled body indeed The distilled water is often given with some sugar before the fit of an Ague to lessen the fits and alter them and to take them quite away in three or four times using if the distilled faces of the herb having been bruised before the distillation and not distilled dry be set in hot dung to digest for fourteen days and afterwards hung up in a bag in a Cellar the liquor that distilleth therefrom is singular good to use for Cramps Aches the Gout and Sciatica and to heal Itches Cramps aches Gouts Sciatica Scabs Cankers Lice Green wounds Old Sores Scabs and running Ulcers and foul Sores whatsoever The juice is good for all the said griefs and likewise to kill lice in childrens heads The herb bruised and applyed to any green wound doth speedily heal the same the juice put into old sores doth heal the same A good salve thereof may be made in this manner Take of the green herb three or four handfulls bruise it and put it into a quart of good oyl-olive boyl them on a gentle fire till the herb grow dry and the oyl will bubble no longer adding thereto wax Rozen and sheeps-tallow or Deers suet of each a quarter of a pound of Turpentine two ounces which being melted put it up for your use Some will add to it the powder of round Birthworth and white Frankincense each half an ounce which is to be put in when it is nigh cold and well
stirred together This Salve likewise will help Imposthumes hard tumors and other Swellings by by Bblows or Falls The Gum Taramahaca Descript THis Gum is said to be gathered from a great Tree like a Poplar that is very sweet having a red fruit or berry like to those of the Peony Virtues The Gum is of good use for outward remedies it serveth most in womens diseases to retain the Mother Mother in its place by laying a plaister thereof upon the Navel as also when it riseth up and is ready to strangle them put some Musk and Amber to it or a little Civet in the middle of the plaister This Gum being spread on leather and applyed to the side or spleen Spleen Wind that is grown hard and windy disâ—olveth the tumors disperseth the wind and bringeth much ease and help to the grieved part and is no less effectual in all tumors pains and torments in the body or joynts proceeding of cold raw and windy humors Tumors Pains Joynts Stomach Brain Memory Digestion Stomach Wind Armes Joynts Gouts applyed plaister-wise thereon To be applyed to the stomach with a third part of Storax a little Amber-greese and some wax is a singular help to strengthen the weakness thereof to strengthen the brain and memory as also in all defluxions from the head it likewise helps the appetite digestion and dissolves wind It helpeth also all running humors and pains in the Arms shoulders or any other part of the body the Joynts likewise Gout and Sciatica It is of temperature hot almost in the third degree and dry in the second the best is pure and clean without dross cleer and some of a whitish brown colour and more whitish in some parts of a little quick and sharp scent and quickly consuming into smoak being cast on quick coals Sealed Earth Terra Sigillata Though this be not an Herb yet because of its singular use in Physick I have here set forth whence it comes and its eminent Virtues The place of its growth is by all reports The Isle of Lemnos in the Aegean-Sea The best fine Bole is very like it The chiefest effects of it is to expell Poison The venome of Serpents it is good against Lasks and Fluxes Poyson Serpents Lasks Fluxes Plague and Bloody-fluxes the bitings of a Mad-dog it wonderfully helpeth old sores and consolidateth green wounds The fine bole of Armenia is found to be very effectual in the Plague it is also singular good in Lasks Bloody-fluxes and spitting of blood Spitting of Blood Catarrhes breath Vlcers Fistulaes for the Catarrhe or defluxion of thin humors upon the Breast and Lungs and shortness of breath and likewise against foul Ulcers of the mouth lungs or other parts and Fistulaes Turbith TUrbith used in shops is a root yet somewhat small and of an Ashcolour on the outside and white within having a pitch in the middle which is cut out and cast away as good for nothing and some peeces but not gummy at the ends having no manifest taste Place It groweth in many places of the Indies naturally and hath been transported into Asia Persia and Portugal Virtues It purgeth flegm and tough clammy humours Flegm tough-humours belly Dropsie Leprosie Pox Adust humours black Jaundies that fall on the joynts and those parts that are more remote it looseneth the belly of those Excrements that stick close thereto and cleanseth the breast from thick flegm It is good for those that have the Dropsie Leprosie or Pox as also those that are troubled with those diseases that arise from adust humours the black Jaundies or the like it helpeth day-Agues and all other diseases bred of Flegm The true Turpentine tree Kinds Description Names There are two sorts of the Turpentine-tree the one bearing broad-leaves and the other narrower leaves Descript 1. The broader leafed Turpentine-tree called in Latine Terebinthus Latifolia This Turpentine-tree in many places groweth but like a shrub yet in some to be a great tree the bark of the body and brances are Ash-colour the lesser being greenish and red while they are young sparingly set with large winged-leaves like unto the Pistack-tree but larger and smelling somewhat like unto a Bay-leaf falling away and not holding on in winter The flowers are Mossy like unto the Olive-blossomes and grow on long-stalks coming out of certain knots from the ends of the branches in small tufts set in clusters together of a purplish brown Colour which pass into berries greenish at first reddish after and of a blewish colour tending to green when they are ripe glutinous in handling and sticking to their fingers that touch them having a kernel within them most of those berries that grow red before they be ripe fall away being empty this beareth also certain red hollow skinny bladders like long-horns full of a blackish liquor which breed small flyes or knats in them This tree being wounded in sundry places yieldeth forth a liquid Rozen or cleer Turpentine but nothing so thin as that of the Larch-tree Descript 2. The narrow-leafed Turpentine-tree called in Latine Terebinthus angustiore folio vulgatiore This Tree is in all things like the former but that it never riseth so high and the leaves are long and narrow much smaller than the former the berries are many of them red on the stalks at their full time which are empty husks and no good seed but some that will be full and good Place and Time The Turpentine-tree groweth in Narbone and Provence in sundry places of Italy and Spain Cyprus and Greece where for the most part it abideth small and low but groweth great and high in Syria Arabia Cilicia Armenia they flower somewhat early in the spring and the fruit is ripe in September and October Government and Virtues These plants are Solar both leaves bark and fruit and do binde strengthen and repel but the Turpentine doth heat cleanse and purge draweth and mollifieth and excelleth all other Rozens The berries being dry very nigh unto the third degree provoke Urine and are good for the spleen Vrine Spleen and for the biting of the Spider Phalangium of the berries is made an oyle as out of the berries of the Lentisk-tree which healeth and bindeth and is good in Cramps Convulsions hardness of the sinews and to close wounds Cramps Convulsions Sinews wounds The berryes themselves are much eaten by the people in Turky where they grow and make them their daily food warming comforting and opening the Uretory passages and doe provoke lust The Turpentine healeth mollifieth dissolveth digesteth and clenseth if a dram or two be taken in a rear egge it helpeth the Cough which cometh by flegm stoppings of the lungs wheesings Cough lungs Wheesings Shortness of breath flegm Back Reins Vrine Stone Gravel Impostumes wind stomack sides Gout Sciatica pains in the joynts Green-wounds and fractures in the head sinewes itch Scab and shortness of breath and all imperfections of the chest by flegm It cleanseth
greater sort is but weaker by much nor is so strong to breed so much blood as it Place and Time The first groweth both in the East and West-Indies and from both places have been brought unto us and hath grown with us and sometimes born ripe Ears but not always and will desire a strong rich ground as the Millet doth It is sown only in the Spring and ripe in September the other is a stranger and seldome seen with us Government and Virtues The grain is certainly Saturnine of a dry quality the meat hath in it some clamminess which bindeth the bread close and giveth good nourishment to the body The sweetness also of the bread sheweth the power of nourishment in it but it breedeth thick blood and humors which cause obstructions It is properly used to be put into Cataplasmes to ripen Imposthumes Imposthumes much feeding thereon ingenders gross bloud which breedeth Itches and Scabs Itches Scabs in those that are not used to it of it is made drink also both in the Indies and in some of our English Plantations that will intoxicate assoon as our small Beer if it be made accordingly But is found to be very effectual if it be made accordingly to hinder the breeding of the stone so that none are troubled therewith that do drink thereof the leaves thereof are used also to fatten their Horses and Cattel Wormwood I Would willingly have omitted this common Wormwood and said nothing of it but that Culpepper hath so ridiculously Romanced upon it and it remains still under colour of truth Common Wormwood called Absynthium vulgare is well known to have many whitish green leaves somewhat more hoary underneath much divided or cut into parts from among which rise up divers hard and woody hoary stalks two or three foot high beset with like leaves as grow below but smaller divided at the tops into smaller branches whereon grow many small yellow buttons with pale yellow flowers in them wherein afterwards is contained small seed the root is hard and woody with many strings thereat the stalks hereof dye down every year but the root holdeth a tuft of green leaves all the winter shooting forth new again which are of a strong scent but not unpleasant and of a very bitter taste The Seriphium or Sea-wormwood is much weaker but of a pleasant bitterness Place and Time It is plentifully found in most places in England and flowers about August Government and Virtues All the sorts of Wormwoods are Martial Plants It is of a heating binding property and is said to purge Choler that cleaveth to the stomach or belly It is said also to provoke Urine help Surfets Choler Vrine Surfeits pains in the stomach Yellow Jaundise and ease pains in the stomach The decoction or the Infusion thereof taken doth take away the loathing to meat and helpeth those that have the yellow Jaundise for which purpose Camerarius in his Hortus Medicus giveth a good Receipt Take saith he of the flowers of Rosemary Wormwood and Blackthorn each a like quantity of Safron half that quantity all which being boyled in Rhenish wine let it be given after the body is prepared by purging a small draught thereof taken a few days together bringeth down womens Courses Womens Courses Heart Liver being taken with vinegar it helpeth those that are almost strangled by eating Mushrooms It helpeth the pains of the heart and Liver being beaten and mixed with Ceratum Cyprinum and applyed as also applyed to the stomach with Rosewater it giveth much comfort to those that have layn long sick It helpeth those that are troubled with the swelling and hardness of the spleen or those that have a hot sharp water running between the skin and the flesh It is often used both inwardly and outwardly for the worms the seed thereof helpeth the Bloody flux Spleen Worms Bloody-flux and all other fluxes vinegar wherein wormwood hath been boyled is good for a stinking breath that cometh from the gums or teeth or corruption of the Stomach The Conserve thereof is good against the Dropsie Stinking-breath Dropsie the Sea-wormwood worketh the same effects but weaker Thus I am sure I have set down all the true virtues of wormwood and it may be some more than will bear the Test when they are tryed if I should have written all that Authors say of wormwood I should have taken up a great deal of room stuff'd full of falsities for besides Culpeppers idle Romancing upon it others have mightily commended it for dimness of sight and to clear the eyes if they had said it is good to cause dimness of sight and put out the eyes they had been nearer the truth Another story they have of it that it preserves cloaths from moths and worms and driveth away Gnats Fleas and such noisome Insects if the skin be anoynted with the juice or oyl thereof This is utterly false as I have had the experience upon my self for being troubled and gnats lodging in the countrey near the Sea-side where gnats are very troublesome in the night to prevent which as I then believed I caused my chamber to be rubbed all over and both walls and windows with wormwood and anointed my self with the juice of it all over thinking to have a quiet night but was worse infested with fleas and Gnats than ever before so that I was forced to leave my Chamber and walk all night These are the true virtues of wormwood Yucca or Jucca Descript THis Indian Plant hath a thick tuberous root spreading in time into many tuberous heads from whence shoot forth many long hard and narrow-guttured or hollow leaves very sharp-pointed compassing one another at the bottome of a greyish green colour abiding continually or seldome falling away with sundry hard threds running in them and being withered become pliant withal to bind things From the midst whereof springeth forth a strong round stalk divided into sundry branches whereon stand divers somewhat large white flowers hanging downwards consisting of six leaves with divers veins of a weak reddish or blush-colour spread on the back of three outer leaves from the middle to the bottom not reaching to the edge of any leaf which abide not long but quickly falling away Place and Time It groweth in divers places of the West-Indies as in Virginia and New-England and flowers about the latter end of July Government and Virtues There hath no property hereof conducible to physical uses as yet been heard of but some of its vices The Natives in Virginia use for bread the roots hereof And that the raw juice is dangerous if not deadly Aldinus relateth that the wound made with the sharp point-end of one of these leaves in his own hand wrought such intolerable pains that he was almost beside himself until by applying some of his own Balsamum unto it he was thereby miraculously eased of the pain and all trouble thereof It is very probable that the Indians use to poyson the
the gum-Mastick doth bind stay fluxes in like manner taken any way in powder or if 3 or 4 grains of it be swallowed whole at night when you go to bed it not onely easeth pains of the Stomack Stomack but keepeth it from the like afterwards the powder of Mastick with Amber and Turpentine is good against the running of the Reins Reins and to stay the Whites Whites and Redds Redds in Women The powder of Mastick mixed with conserve of red Roses is good to stay distillations of thin Rhumes falling upon the Lungs which causeth a continual Cough and spitting of Bloud And if some white Frankincense in powder be mixed therewith also it will be more effectual It comforteth the Brain procureth an Appetite to meat stayeth Vomiting and makes the Breath sweet Mastick being heated in Wine and the Mouth and gums washed with it cleanseth them from corruption and fastneth the Teeth It is much used in Salves and plaisters to cleanse and heal Ulcers and Sores and to stay the flowing of humors unto them and dryeth them up and filleth up their hollowness It comforteth a king joints and sinews being applied thereunto There is an oyl made thereof by infusion and ebullition which is singular good against all the aforesaid diseases and doth moderately comfort bind and mollifie and is effectual against diseases of the Mother the Chollick Mother chollick and pains in the Stomack and Belly Stomack Belly pains of the Joints and sinews and hardness of Tumors tumors Sinews It comforteth the Brain Brain Memory and strengtheneth the Liver and Heart Liver Heart There is also a pure Chymical oyl drawn from Mastick one drop whereof is more effectual then an ounce of the former for all the purposes aforesaid The Lemon-tree or Lemons Names THere are several sorts of Lemons some great others small some having very thick and rugged peels and some very smooth some are of a wild juice others sharp and some very tart and crabbed which alterations may be made both by the Soil and place where they grow or are planted 1. The ordinary Lemon-tree is called Malus Limonia acida vulgaris 2. Malus Limonia acida cortice tenui the thin rin'd sower Lemon 3. Malus Limonia acida fructu rotundo The sower round Lemon 4. Malus Limonia dulcis major The greater sweet Lemon 5. Malus Limonia dulcis minor The lesser sweet Lemon or Civil Lemon 6. Malus Lemonia Silvestris minima The least wild Lemon-tree Descript 1. The ordinary Lemon-tree groweth great and high with great Arms and slender branches with long greenish thorns the leaves are long like unto Bay-leaves but dented about the edges and full of holes the flowers are white and sweet the fruit long and round of a pale yellow colour and the rind rugged and uneven the juice is sharp Descript 2. All the difference between this and the former is this that the other is bigger the rind is of a fine pale yellow colour and smoother then the other and thinner full of a pleasant sharp juice with seeds amongst it as the other hath Descript 3. The tree that beareth the round Lemons is in all things like the last onely in this that it hath few or no thornes upon it and the fruit is like it having a thin rind but is somewhat rounder with a small Crown at the head Descript 4. The greater sweet Lemon is greater then any other of the former Lemons the rind is more smooth and yellower and the juice more sweet and pleasant Descript 5. This Lemon is of the same size as the thin-rinded sower Lemons and so like that it is hard by the outside to know one from the other but this hath a little deeper coloured rind and the juice of a sweet pleasant taste with a little sharpeness Descript 6. The least wild Lemon groweth wild in Syria and Egypt and heareth very smal fruit no bigger then Pigeons Eggs. Place These Lemons are brought unto us from Spain and several of their Islands Time They hold their leaves on alwayes green are never without blossomes green and ripe fruit at all times throughout the year Government and Vertues The Lemons are Solar yet of different parts and contrary effects it is of good use to resist poison Venome or Infection Venome Infection an ounce and an half of the juice of unripe Lemons drunk in Wine cleanseth the Kidneys of the Stone and gravel and killeth Worms Stone Worms in the body and driveth them forth An Antidote against the Plague or any malignant or contagious disease is thus prepared Take 4 ounces of the pure juice of Lemons steep therein an Angel of Gold or the weight thereof in leaf Gold the space of four and twenty hours then take out the Gold or draw the juice dear from it and give some of it in a draught of Wine with a little of the powder of Angelica-root unto any infected with the plague and if there be any hopes of recovery it will help them The juice of sweet Lemons is neither so cooling nor operative as the other The distilled water drawn from the inner pulpe or white substance of the Lemons cleareth the skin and Face from Freckles and Spots Freokles Spots provokes Urine expels the Stone being drunk and helpeth the running Scab Stone Scabs kills Lice in the Head the Worms Lice Wormes in the hands or Nose and Wheals Wheales or pushes in the skin The juice of Lemons is good for Seamen and others in Voyages at Sea to put into their Beverage to keep them from the Scurvy whereunto long voyages much subject their bodies and also to quench thirst in hot Countries But I need not teach the Seamen to make a bowl of punch but pray they may at no time want materials An excellent remedy for Scabs and Itch. Take a Lemon and cut it through the middle and cast thereon some fine powder of Brimstone then rost him either against the fire or under the Embers as you do a Warden-Pear and therewith rub the parts troubled with Itch or Scabs It is also the best most soveraign and clear remedy to destroy those pediculi inguinales vulgarly called Crab-lice the parts afflicted with them being rubbed therewith Line or Linden-tree Kinds and Names OF the Line-tree there are accounted two sorts the Male and the Female and of the Female also two sorts the greater and the lesser It is called in Latine Tilia Descript 1. Tilia mas the Male Line groweth to be a great tree with large spreading boughs but not so much as the Female nor so flexible but harder and more brittle and of a thicker bark the leaves are like unto Elder-leaves but smaller and longer and on every one for the most part grow small bladders full for Worms which turn into flyes which being ripe do fly away This tree seldom beareth either flower or fruit yet when it doth bear it is round flat husks
many growing close together each hanging on a long foot-stalk by it self with a notch or clift at the head or end thereof The wood hereof is harder more knotty and yellower then the Female Descript 2. Tilia foemina major The greater Female Line-tree groweth to be a larger tree then the former especially if it happen to be planted in good ground covered with a dark coloured bark the next thereunto being very pliable to bend and bind having some other thin rindes within it the leaves are fair broad greener smoother gentler rounder than Elm-leaves and with a longer end dented about the edges and of a reasonable good scent at the end of the branches oftentimes and at the foot of the leaves shoot forth long and narrow whitish leaves along the middle rib whereof springeth out a slender long stalk with divers white flowers thereon smelling very sweet after which follow small berries wherein is contained black round seed the wood is whitish smooth and light Descript 3. Tilia foemina minor The lesser Linden-tree is like the last in all things saving that it groweth smaller in body leaves and flowers the leaves are of a darker green colour and beareth no fruit after the flowers Place and Time The greater Female-kind is planted in many places in this land in pleasant Walks it making a large sweet shadow and usually flowreth in May. The other are great strangers and scarce to be seen any where in this land Government and Vertues There is no medicinal use made of the Male Linden The Female is under the dominion of Venus of a moderate temperature and somewhat drying and astringent the decoction of the leaves being sod in water is a pood Lotion to wash the sore Mouthes Sore mouths of young Children or any sore Mouths that have Ulcers blisters Vlcers blisters or Cankers in them The leaves being pounded or bruised after the boyling and applied to the Legs or Feet cankers swelled Feet that are swelled with falling down of humors doth help them the hark is also effectual for the same purpose The flowers of the Line-tree and of Lilly Convally distilled together the water thereof is good against the Falling-sickness so likewise is the distilled water of the bark and is good against those fretting humors that cause the bloody Flux and griping in the Guts the water wherein the inner bark hath been steeped till the water become thick and muscilaginous and applied with clothes wet therein helps burnings and scaldings Liquid Amber Descript and Place LIquid Amber is a thick Rozen like gum droping by incision from certain great trees in the West-Indies which trees are full of branches covered with a thick Ash-coloured bark the leaves are like unto Ivy leaves and the Gum which issueth from the tree is of a strong and sweet smell and is somewhat like unto Liquid Storax and may passe instead thereof for the same uses but there is a coarse sort which is the scum of the uppermost fatness that is made by boyling the branches and is supposed to be that Storax liquida sold by Druggists and Apothecaries out of the first sort while it is fresh and laid in the Sun there droppeth a certain clear reddish oyl called oyle of Liquid Amber and of some Liquid Amber it self Government and Virtues Both Tree and Gum are under the influence of Jupiter of a moderately hot and moist temperature and is useful either of it self or mixed with other things to comfort and warm a cold moist braine Brain Stomack Digestion Apetite Mother Tumors being used as an oyntment and easeth all pains proceeding from a cold cause being applied thereunto It comforts and strengtheneth a weak Stomack helps digestion and procures an Appetite But more effectually if a plaister be made thereof with some Storax Musk and Amber and applied to the Stomack it is also profitably used in all cold griefs of the the Mother it warms mollifies and dissolves Tumors and opens obstructions and stoppings of the Terms Lung-flower or Autumn Gentian Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of these plants are generally called Autumn small Gentians Gentianellae Autumnales and of some Pneumonanthe Descript 1. The greater Autumn Gentian Pneumonanthe dicta riseth up according to the richness of the ground higher or lower sometimes two foot high and sometimes not above a foot and sometimes with many and sometimes with fewer stalks of a brownish green colour with many long and narrow dark green leaves set by couples upon them up to the topsâ— which seldom branch forth but bear every one a large hollow flower in most of them of a deep blewish purple colour but in some a little paler ending in five points the roots are many small and long growing deep into the ground and abiding all the Winter Descript 2. Gentianella Autumnalis simbriato flore Antumn-Geatian of Naples This doth creep up like Couch-grasse from a long yellowish small root shooting forth a few long and narrow leavs likâ— those of Flax but shorter but those that grow up to the middle of the stalk are larger and lesser again from the middle to the top two set at every joint all along and striped from every one of the joints on both sides to the top of the stalk which is green and about a foot high at the top commeth a purplish green husk which hath four large pointed leaves and encloseth the flower which is long and writhed before it be blown and of a pale blew colour but when it is blown open is of a deeper blew colour having four leaves somewhat long and as it were purfled about the edges with a little hairiness at them and a small leaf at the bottom of each flower with a few yellow threds in the middle standing about a head which groweth to be the seed-vessel forked into two parts at the head being greater there then below and containeth in it very small black seed when it is ripe Descript 3. Autumn-Gentian with small Centory-leaves called in Latine Gentianella Autumnalis Centaureae minoris folio This riseth up with sundry stalks scarce a foot high parted into many small branches whereon do stand two leaves together very like those of the lesser Centaury not so long as either of the former but a little broader and of a whiter green colour at the tops of the stalks and branches grow divers blew flowers set in small long husks half way rising above the tops of them the seed is small and groweth in long horned vessels the root is small and fibrous Descript 4. There is another sort with small Centory-like flowers which is more spreading small but hath larger leaves and flowers than Centory and of the same colour as are the flowers of Centory yet having many more and lasteth longer the root abideth not the Winter Descript 5. Another smaller Gentian with Centaury-leaves is very like unto the last but smaller and the stalks much lower not above three inches high having