is inclosed in a prickly husk which openeth when they grow ripe and the Nut appeareth covered with a brown husk Names Castanea and Castaneum are the usual Latine names thereof in English Chesnuts Place and Time They grow wilde in the Woods in Heat and in the hedges in the Road to Canterbury yet in other Counties of this Land are planted in Orchards and Gardens the fruit is ripe about Michaelmas time Nature and Vertues Chesnuts are dry and astringent in a mean between hot and cold a plant of Jupiter they are very windy yet nourish much and are said to stir up Venery the Nuts being powdered and made into an Electuary with honey is effectual for the Cough bloody Flux spitting of Blood or any Lask or looseness they are hard of digestion and immoderately eaten cause the Head-ache the same powder mixed with Barley Meal and Vinegar helps swellings of the Breasts and unnatural Blastings The best way to correct their windiness is to prick them with a needle and roast them Chickweed Alsine THis herb runneth along upon the ground with many tender branches full of joynts Description and at every joynt cometh forth two smooth green leaves from which sprout out other branches like the former the flowers are small and white after which comes the seed in little knops the root is all strings like hairs and if you break the stalks gently you shall perceive a little sinew in the middle thereof Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines the same namely Alsine anciently it hath been called Hippia Place and Time It delights to grow in shadowy and moist places it flowers in the Spring and the seed is ripe soon after Nature and Vertues Chickweed is cold moist and watry of the Moons temperature it is good to cool the heat of the Liver being bruised and outwardly applyed to the Region thereof or wet cloathes dipt in the juyce thereof and renewed as they dry the decoction cooleth the Blood in Agues Hectick Fevers Stomach and Liver and cools the heat of the Back and Vrine The juyce taken in white Wine or Ale five dayes together first and last is effectual for the Jaundies it is effectual to ripen Imposthumes and swellings being applyed pultiswise with mallow roots and the powder of Fenugreek and Linseed with Hogs Lard and asswages generally all pains in the body proceding of heat the juyce or distilled water is good for Pushes inflamed Eyes and the heat and sharpness of the Piles Sweet Cicely Myrrhis THe ordinary garden sweet Cicely hath leaves somewhat like Fern Description but not so high but they taste as sweet as Anniseeds the flowers grow in white umbels on the top of the stalks after which come small black seed which taste like the leaf of Anniseed the root tastes stronger then either herb or seed and is long growing deep and lasting many years Names The Greeks call it Myrrhis and Myrrha so do the Latines the English Sweet Cicely Sweet Chervil and Sweet Fern. Place and Time It is planted with us in Gardens flowers in May and the seed is ripe in July Nature and Vertues It is hot in the second degree having thinness of parts This plant of Sol is excellent good for the Ptisick and Consumptions and diseases of the Lungs being boiled in broth and eaten it expectorates Phlegm from the Breast warms a cold Stomach is a good sallet herb and the root boiled and eaten with oyl and vinegar produceth the like effects The candid root is excellent against the Plague and infections This herb procures appetite expells Winde provokes the Terms and expells a dead Childe and the After-birth provokes Vrine and the root sliced and steeped in white Wine all night gently purges being drunk in the morning with a little Sugar ☞ See more of this in Adam in Eden by Will Cinquefoil Pentaphyllum I Suppose this herb needs little description Description being well known it runs along upon the ground with small strings which shoot out small leaves growing five together sometimes seven The flowers are yellow the seeds small and brownish and the root little and fibrous Names The Latines call it Pentaphyllum and Quinque-folium in English five leaved grass and five fingred grass Place and Time It grows by Ditches and High-way sides and in low grounds and flowers from the beginning of May till the end of June and may be found green all Winter Nature and Vertues The herb and root is hot and dry but the root more then the herb a plant of Mars Culpepper affirms a scruple hereof given in white Wine or vinegar never misses cure of an Ague of what kinde soever in three sits but my experience proves the contrary It restrains Fluxes and bleeding at Nose the juyce drunk in Ale or red Wine and the root or herb applyed to the nose it is good against venoms and infections resisting putrefaction The roots boyled in milk stayes the whites reds and bloody Flux but you must drink the milk then the juyce with honey helps hoarseness is good against the Cough of the Lungs the Quinzy yellow Jaundies and Falling Sickness and the decoction of the root is good against the Tooth-ache being held in the mouth Cynamon Cynamomum THis outlandish Bark needs no description here the Latine name is Cynamomum it is hot and dry in the third degree and is aromatical The Chymical water hereof comforts all the vital parts helps passions of the heart easeth the winde Chollick provokes the Terms strengthens the Retentive faculty is good against a Looseness Dropsies and cold and moist Diseases it causes a good colour in the Face let old and cold folks use it though Cynamon is an excellent spice and the chymical oyl thereof comforts the Stomach helps pains of the Breast and causes good digestion but it must be carefully used if it be mixed with honey it takes away spots in the face Cives Vide Leeks Clarey Horminum I Need not describe it my Countreywomen so frequently planting it in their Gardens for theirs and their Husbands backs Names The Latines call it Horminum and Geminalis of some Place and Time Gardens is the place it flowers and seeds about the latter end of Summer Nature and Vertues Clary is hot and dry in the third degree a plant of Sol and is good for diseases of the Eyes the seed powdered and applyed being mixed with honey it s a great strengthner of the back and reins it brings down the Terms and Secondine the muscilage of the seed takes away Tumors and Swellings and draweth forth Splinters and Thorns it provokes venery but the overmuch eating of it hurts the head and brain the powder of the leaves snuffed into the nostrils purges the head and brain by sneezing the herb is good for cold and moist Stomachs and the purposes aforesaid being fryed in Tansies Cleavers or Goosegrass Aparine CLeavers is well known The Names It is called in Greek and Latine Aparine and by Pliny
is white round and shining the root is hard and wooddy with many fibres it abides all the year but the stalks dye Names It is called Milium solis and Granum solis in Shops and also Litho-spermum in English Gromel and Pearle Plant. Place and Time The first groweth in Gardens the second and third grow wilde in many places of this Land on barren grounds they flower from Midsummer till September the seed ripening in the mean time Nature and Vertues Gromel-seeds are hot and dry in the second degree under Venus saith Culpepper they are singular good to break the Stone to open and cleanse the Reins Kidneys and Bladder to drive forth the Gravel provoke Vrine and do expell Winde exceedingly two drams of the seed in powder given in Breast milk to a woman in Travel procures speedy delivery The Herb it self boiled in Wine and drunk worketh all the same effects but weaker then the seeds ☞ See further in The Expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus Winter Green Pyrola THis sendeth up round pointed leaves Description every one standing on a long foot stalk of a sad green colour almost like Pear-Tree leaves and so are the flowers the stalk is weak and slender yet standing upright bearing many small white flowers smelling sweet consisting of five round pointed leaves with many yellowish threads in the middle about a green head which groweth to be the seed vessel and is five square when it is ripe with a small point in it is the seed as small as dust it hath a brownish creeping root Names It is called in Latine Pyrola in English Winter green Place and Time It groweth in the Northern parts of England they flower about July or later Nature and Vertues Winter green is cold in the second degree and dry in the third having a Glutinous and very binding quality a Saturnine Herb it is a very good Wound Herb to close and consolidate green Wounds the green Herb or juyce applyed or a Salve made thereof with Hogs Lard or with Sallet Oyl Wax and Turpentine The decoction is good for inward hurts used by it self or with other Herbs as Comfrey c. and for Vlcers in the Kidneys or Bladder it stayes Fluxes and overslowing of the Courses it is good for foul Vlcers and Fistula's The distilled water performs the same The herb may also be kept dry to use in Decoctions and made into powder to be taken in drink Ground-pine Chamaepitie GRound-pine seldom groweth above the height of a hand breadth from the ground Description it hath many small branches which are set with slender long narrow gray whitish leaves hairy and sometimes divided into three parts many of them growing together at a joynt and having a scent like Rozen or pitch it yields a pale yellow small flower growing amongst the leaves at the joynts of the stalks after which follow small long and round husks the root is woody but small and dyeth every year Names In shops it is usually called Chamaepitys which name both Greeks and Latines use it is called also in Latine Abiga and by some Thus terrae and Iva Arthrytica in English Herb Ivy Forget me not Ground-pine and Field Cypress Place and Time It groweth plentifully in Kent about Gravesend Cobham Southfleet Dartford and other places flowers in June and july and yields its seed about August Nature and Vertues It is hot in the second degree and dry in the third the decoction of Ground pine being drunk procures Womens Courses helps diseases of the Mother expells a dead Childe and After-Birth and is very powerful in causing abortion wherefore let not Women with Childe meddle with it The same prevails against the Stranguary and inward pains of the Reins it opens the Liver and Spleen cleanseth gross Blood The decoction of the Herb in Wine taken inwardly or outwardly applyed helps diseases of the Joynts as the Gout Sciatica Cramps Palsie and Aches for which purpose there is also a Pill made with the powder of Ground pine Hermodactil and Venus Turpentine which Pills are also good for the Dropsie and Jaundies pains in the Belly and Joynts and helps cold diseases of the Brain and is good for the Falling Sickness it s a good remedy against poisonous Herbs as Aconites and the stinging of Venomous Beasts The green herb or the decoction applyed dissolves Tumours in any part of the Body and the hardness of Womens Breasts and the juyce or herb applyed with Honey cleanseth Vlcers and soders up the lips of green Wounds The herb tunned up in drink the Conserve of the Flowers and the distilled Water have the same effects for the forementioned diseases but more weakly ☞ See further in The Art of Simpling written by W. Coles Groundsel Senecio GRoundsel riseth up with a round Description green and somewhat brownish stalk spread toward the top into branches set with long narrow green leaves cut in the edges somewhat resembling an oaken leaf but lesser and round at the ends at the tops of the stalks and branches grow many green knaps or heads out of which grow small thrums of yellow flowers which continue brown a few dayes and after pass into doun which with the seed is blown about with the winde the root is small and threddy quickly perishing and the herb as soon springing again from the seed that it sheds so that it is green and in flower many moneths in the year springing and seeding twice a year at least in a Garden Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Senecio because it soon becomes hoary it is called in English Groundsel and Grunsel Place and Time It grows frequently in Gardens and will not easily be wedded out it grows also on tops of old Walls and at the bottom amongst any rubbish in untilled grounds and by ditches sides about London plentifully and is to be found almost all the year Nature and Vertues Groundsel is cold and moist and digesteth and is by Culpepper accounted to be the chiefest flower in Venus Nosegay the decoction thereof in Wine purgeth Choller by vomit and so easeth pains of the Stomach the juyce thereof in drink or the decoction thereof with a few Currans in water doth the like it provokes Vrine also and cleanseth Gravel it is good also against the Jaundies and Falling Sickness taken in wine or a dram thereof in Oxymel it also provokes the Terms and a pultis made of the herb easeth hot Inflammations and Swellings of the Breasts privy parts Arteries Joynts or Sinews of man or woman and helps to dissolve Knots or Kernels in any part of the body of man or woman the distilled water of the herb helps Inflammations and watring of the Eyes and so doth the clarified juyce Guaiacum THis Tree grows in the West Indies Description and the Wood and Bark is prentifully brought here into England so that I shall forbear any further description thereof Names The Latines call it Guaiacum Lignum Indicum Lignum sanctum
others not till the beginning of October Nature and Vertues Hazel Nuts fresh gathered are hot and moist but afterwards they grow dry they are under the Planet Mercury the skin that covers the kernells is very astringent so are the Katkins a dram thereof in wine stayes Womens Courses The parched kernels made into an Electuary helps and old Cough On oyl may be pressed from the kernells in the same manner as is made oyl of sweet Almonds which is very effectual for Coughs Hoarseness and shortness of Breath so that Nut Kernels do not altogether deferve the blame which is usually laid upon them for causing shortness of Breath Hawkweed Hieracium HAwkweed hath many leaves lying on the ground Description cut on the sides much like Dandelion amongst which shooteth up a rough hollow stalk not above two foot high at most branched from the middle upwards with lesser leaves and not so much dented as the other growing at every joynt at the top grow pale yellow flowers having many small narrow leaves broad pointed and nicked at the ends set in a double row or more which turn into doun and with the small brownish seeds is carried away with the winde the root is long white and full of small fibres the whole plant full of bitter milk Names In Latine its called Hieracium and Accipitrina by some Lampuca Porcellia and Hypochaeris and Hyoseris in English onely Hawkweed Place and Time It grows in untilled places by the borders of Fields and Ditches sides in Meadows Woods and Mountains they flower for the most part all Summer Nature and Vertues Hawkweeds are all cold and dry and withal astringent supposed to be a Saturnine Plant appropriated to the Eyes for which purpose it is said Hawks eat it to clear their sight and thence it takes its name the juyce of it mixed with Womans milk dropped into the Eyes is very good for all defects thereof and so is the distilled water used in like manner it is also good against fretting and creeping Vlcers and against Pushes Inflammations St. Anthonies fire and erruptions of heat A plutis made of it with meal applyed to any place affected with the Cramp or Convulsions giveth it ease The juyce taken in Wine helps digestion discusseth Winde and crudities in the Stomach provokes Vrine helps venomous bitings the herb also outwardly applyed A scruple of the concreted juyce taken in Wine and Vinegar is profitable against the Dropsie The decoction of the Herb with Honey digesteth Phlegm being hoiled in Wine with wild Succory and taken it helps the Winde Chollick mollifies the Spleen procures Sleep abates Venery and Nocturnal pollutions cooleth heat purgeth the Stomach increaseth Blood and helps diseases of the Reins and Bladder The distilled water cleanseth the skin from Freckles Spots and Morphew Haw-thorne Spina THis Shrub is well known in every hedge there is reputed three kindes our common Haw-thorn another lower Shrub which grow in Germany and bears yellow fruit and a third which flowers twice a year of which kinde is that of Glassenbury and that in Whey-street in Rumney Marsh and near Nantwich in Cheshire Names and Time Spina is the Latine name in English Haw-thorn White-thorn and of some May and May Bush because it s in flower about May day and the fruit is ripe in October when the frost hath bitten them Nature and Vertues It is of an astringent drying quality both leaves flowers and fruit Culpepper ascribes it to Mars because he would not have him want Weapons he may make use of the prickles and let Saturn take the fruit The powder of the berries or of the seeds in the berries is reputed good against the Stone and the Dropsie being drunk in Wine The flowers steeped three dayes in Wine and then distilled in a Glass and the water thereof drunk is good against the Plurisie and inward tormenting pains The water of the flowers also stayeth the Flux or Lask and so doth the fruit being eaten Cloathes or Spunges wet in the said water and applyed to the place where Thorns or Splinters be in the flesh will draw them forth Hedge-mustard or Bank-cress Erysimum IT springeth up with one blackish green stalk Description flexible but tough and not easie to break branched into divers parts and sometimes with divers stalks full of branches with long rough hard leaves much cut in the edges into many parts some bigger and some lesser of a darkish green colour at the tops of the branches grow small yellow flowers in long spikes flowring by degrees the stalks have small round cods at the bottom growing upright close to the stalk while the top flowers as yet shew themselves wherein is a small yellow seed sharp and strong as is the Herb the root is slender and wooddy but abideth the Winter springing again every year Names Amongst other Erysimum serves for a Latine title and a Greek one too Gerhard calls it Bank-cress and Parkinson Wilde hedge-mustard Place and Time It is common by wayes and hedge sides walls and sometimes in open Fields and flowers about July Nature and Vertues It is a Mercurial Plant of a cleansing quality temperately hot singular in all diseases of the Lungs to help Hoarseness and recover a lost voice the juyce made into a syrrup or Lohoc with Honey or Sugar it is profitable also against the Jaundies Plurisie pains in the Back and Loins and the griping of the Guts being used in Giâ—sters The seed is held an Antidote against poison it is good for the Gout and Aches Fistula's and Vlcers and for swellings or hardness in Womens Breasts and the Testicles White Hellebore Helleborus THere are accounted eight kindes of this Hellebore Description some whereof grow in the Northern parts of our Land The ordinary white Hellebore riseth up with a round whitish head which opens it self into large green leaves plaited with ribs all along the leaves from the middle riseth a round stalk with divers leaves to the middle where it divides into branches having many small yellowish or whitish green star-like flowers upon them which turn into a three square whitish seed standing naked without any husk The root is thick great at the head and is fastened deep into the ground with many white strings Names Helleborus albus and Helleborum in Latine and also Veratrum album in English Hellebore and Neesewort Place and Time They grow in Germany Austria and Russia and some about Lancashire and Yorkshire they flower about May some earlier and some later Nature and Vertues The root is hot and dry in the third degree one of Mars his weapons to tame mud folks with to be taken unprepared it is dangerous and extreamly provokes Vomiting but there is an Oximel made with it which is useful against Madness and Melancholly swimming of the Head and Falling Sickness and the Quartain Ague it brings down the Courses and kills the Childe in the Womb being put into the nostrills it provokes sneezing purgeth the Head of superfluous Humours
drink it it will not curdle in the Stomach and some say a Cheese will not come if it be put into the milk or Runnet The distilled water is available for all the aforesaid purposes though more weakly but the Chymical Spirit drawn from the herb is most effectual Chollerick persons must abstain from Mint for much of it taken makes the Blood thin and turns it into choller The horse Mints are good to expell winde in the Stomach to help the Chollick and short windedness and is good to help nocturnal pollutions being applyed to the Cods Myrtles Myrtilli THis Outlandish plant cannot endure the Winter with us unless it be kept in pots within doors The Tree is called in Latine Myrtus and the berries Myrtilli Nature and Vertues The myrtle hath contrary qualities cold and earthy warm and thin powerfully binding and drying The dry leaves beaten and boiled in water and drunk is good against Cathars the Whites Vlcers and creeping Sores The berries and seed is good against passions of the Heart stingings of Serpents and venomous Creatures and the poison of Toadstools being drunk in Wine it helps a stinking Breath diseases of the Bladder and provokes Vrine The decoction is good for the falling down of the Fundament and the Piles being mixed with oyl of Roses and applyed it helps swelling of the Cods Imposthumes of the Fundament and St. Anthonies fire The decoction of the berries makes the Hair black and keeps it from falling cures sores of the Head and helps those that are Bursten The syrrup of Myrtles is good against the Cough and Vlcers of the Lungs And although I have not told you where this Tree grows because I doubt you will not go so far to fetch it you may have it near home at the Druggists and Apothecaries Myrobalanes MYrobalanes are an East Indian Fruit and are called in English by Mr. Parkinson purging Plums My Authour reckons up five kindes of them viz. Cytrina Chebula Bellerica Emblica Indica Nature and Vertues They are all cold in the first degree and dry in the second and do purge and also strengthen the Stomach The Citrine Myrobalanes purge Choller strengthen the Stomach Heart and Liver help such as have the Hemorrhoides and Piles they are good in Tertian Agues cause a good colour and hinder old Age the Chebule purge Phlegm quicken the brain and sight and strengthen the Stomach They are good in the Dropsie and for long continued Agues The Embellick and Bellerick purge Phlegm from the Stomach strengthens the Brain Joynts Heart and Liver helps passions of the Heart provokes Appetite allayes Thirst stayes Vomiting qualifies inward heat and allayes Choller and gives ease to those that have the Piles The Indies or Black Myrabolanes purge Melancholly and adust Choller and cause a good colour and are good against Quartain Agues the Leprosie and all Paralytical Diseases The Citrine are also often used in Cholleries with the juyce of Fennel or Rose water against Inflammations and flowing of humours to the Eyes and likewise in powder with Mastick or Rose water to dry and heal Vlcers Misleto Viscum I Think Misleto is so well known that its needless to describe it The Latines call it Viscus and Viscum and so is the Birdlime called that is made of the Berries The Misleto of the Oak is called Viscus Quercini and so of the rest Places and Time Misleto groweth plentifully upon Fruit Trees as Apples Pear Trees and Crab Trees in divers Counties of the Land sometimes on Ashes and Oaks but that of the Oak is most rare in England It flowers in the Spring and the Berries are ripe in October abiding on the branches all the Winter unless the Birds devour them Nature and Vertues Misleto is hot and dry in the third degree the leaves and berries do heat and dry and are of subtle parts and questionless participates of the nature of that Tree it grows upon as that which grows upon the Oak partakes of the nature of the Oak and therefore is ascribed to Jupiter and is the most effectual It is held to be very effectual for the curing of the Falling Sickness and is by some prescribed to be taken in Pills thus prepared ℞ Visci Quercini seeds and roots of Piony ana ʒi § Nutmeg Anniseeds ana ʒi § Sacchari Buglossati ʒvii make Pills thereof Mathiolus saith that the Misleto of the Chesnut Tree made into powder and given in drink cures the Falling Sickness Some attribute so great vertue unto it as they have called it Lignum sanctae Crucis and believe it to help the Falling Sickness Palsie and Apoplexy being onely hung about their Necks Tragus saith that the juyce of fresh Misleto dropped into the Ears of them that have Imposthumes in them easeth them and helps them in few dayes The Birdlime which is made of the Berries ripens and discusses Tumors and Imposthumes and mollifies hard knots and draweth forth both thick and thin Humors from the remote places of the Body digesting and separating them and being mixed with equal parts of Wax and Rozen it mollifieth the hardness of the Spleen being applyed thereunto Gerrard saith being taken inwardly it is mortal I never did prove any of it but onely the Birdlime upon Birds and I am sure that hath proved mortal to them Money-wort or Herb two pence Nummularia MOney-wort shooteth forth many long Description weak slender branches lying and running upon the ground with two leaves at each joynt equally opposite one to another almost as round as a Penny but that they are pointed a little at the ends smooth and of a yellowish green colour at the joynts with the leaves from the middle forward come forth sometimes one sometimes times two yellow flowers standing each upon a small foot stalk consisting of five narrow leaves pointed at the ends with some yellow threds in the middle after which come small round heads of seed the root is small and threddy Names It is called in Latine Nummularia and Serpentaria in English Two Penny Grass Herb Two-Pence and Money-wort Place and Time It grows by Ditches sides low Meadows and watry places flowers about June and July and the seed is ripe soon after Nature and Vertues Money-wort is an herb of Venus and cold drying and astringent The flowers and leaves are good to heal green Wounds speedily and for old spreading Vlclers especially if it be bruised and boiled in Sallet Oyl with some Rozen Wax and Turpentine added to it or Tents dipped in the juyce and put into the Wounds The juyce taken in Wine or the decoction thereof stayes the overflowing of Womens Courses and the Whites and also Lasks bloody Fluxes inward and outward Bleedings helps weakness of the Stomach that is subject to Vomiting being boiled in Wine and Honey and taken it cures inward Wounds and Vlcers of the Lungs and is a remedy against the Chin-Cough in Children Moonwort Lunaria IT riseth up with one dark Description green thick fat
of Barrenness it also provokes the Terms and is useful for pains of the head proceeding from a cold cause as Rheume and Cathars and giddiness of the Head it is good also for windiness of the Stomach and Belly and is effectual to dissolve winde in cold Aches and Cramps it is effectual for Coughs Colds and shortness of Breath The juyce thereof given in Mead or Wine is a good remedy for inward Burstings and Bruises by means of Falls or otherwise A bathe made thereof for Women to sit in or receive the Fumes bringeth down their Courses warmeth those parts and helps Barrenness The herb bruised and applyed to the Fundament easeth the pains of the Piles in two or three hours space and an oyntment made up with the juyce and applyed doth the same The decoction in spring Water is good to wash the Head to take away the Scabs thereof and may be effectual for other parts of the Body the distilled water is useful for many of the aforesaid purposes Nettles Urtica STinging Nettles are very well known Description and Names or may be by feeling as well as sight so that a description may be forborn It is called in LatineVrtica ab urendo because it raises Blisters like burning with sire Place and Time They are common associates to most hedges under walls amongst cubbish and in untilled places you may finde them plentifully they flower and seed in the end of Summer Nature and Vertues This plant is armed by Mars and is by temperature hot and dry in the third degree A decoction of the roots and leaves of Nettles or the juyce thereof taken in an Electuary with Honey or Sugar is a good medicine to open the obstructions of the Lungs and a remedy against Wheesing and shortness of Breath it expectorates tough Phlegm and evacuates an impostumated Plurisie by spittle it is a good gargle to help swellings of the Throat and the Almonds of the Throat and swellings in the Mouth The leaves boiled in Wine and drunk provokes Womens Courses helps suffocations and other diseases of the Mother and so it doth being outwardly applyed with a little Myrrhe The same also or the seed taken provokes Vrine and expells the Gravel or Stone out of the Reins and Bladder it killeth worms in Children easeth pains in the sides and dissolves windiness of the Spleen and in the Body yet some do suppose it onely effectual to provoke Venery The juyce of the leaves taken two or three dayes together stayeth bleeding at Mouth The seed taken in drink is a remedy against venomous bitings and the biting of a mad Dog and resists the poison of Hemlock Henbane and Night-shade Mandrakes and other stupifying Herbs as also for the Lethargy to rub it upon the Forehead and Temples and upon the places bitten or stung by venomous Beasts with a little Salt The distilled water is effectual for the said purposes yet more weak and likewise to wash Sores and Wounds to cleanse the skin from the Morphew Leprosie and other deformities thereof The seed or leaves bruised and put into the Nestrils stayeth Bleeding thereof and takes away the excrescense growing there called Pollipus The juyce of the leaves or the decoction of them or the roots is good to wash old rotten Sores Fistula's or Gangreens and corroding Scabs Manginess or Itch in any part of the Body and is good also to wash green Wounds or to apply the fresh bruised herb thereunto though the flesh were separated from the bones The same is good to refresh wearied members and to comfort dry and strengthen such parts as have been out of joynt and are set again and also for Aches and Gouts and to easethe pains and to dry and dissolve the defluxions of humours upon the Joynts and Sinews An oyntment made of the juyce oyl and wax is good to rub benummed members to reduce them to their proper activity A handful of green Nettle leaves and another of Danewort or Wallwort bruised and applyed to the Gout Sciatica or joynt Aches is a good help thereunto The young tops of Nettles being used in pottage in the Spring are good to consume phlegmatick superfluities in the Body and clarifie and warm the Blood give Hens dry Nettles cut small amongst their meat in Winter and it will make them lay Eggs the more plentifully Nigella GArden Nigella riseth about a foot high with weak and brittle stalks Description full of branches with many leaves upon them finely cut and divided something like Larks-heel but of a more grassy green colour it beareth flowers of a whitish blue colour which grow on the tops of the branches each flower being star-like divided into five parts and each part consisting of many fine small leaves after the flowers there come knops or heads having at the end five or six little horns or points and every head is divided into several cells or partitions wherein is contained the seed which is blackish somewhat like Onion seed but larger of a sharp taste and sweet strong favour the root is small fibrous and yellow perishing every year Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine Authours Melanthium and Nigella We in England call it Gith and Nigella Romana it is also called by some Fennel flower Bishops-wort St. Katherines flower and of some Kiss me twice before I rise and the Old Mans Beard Place and Time That which is most common with us is sown in Gardens and being sown in April it will flower in July and the seed be ripe in September Nature and Vertues The seeds of Nigella are hot and dry in the third degree and of thin parts I suppose under the influence of Jupiter The seed drunk in Wine helps shortness of Breath expells winde provokes Vrine and the Courses kills worms is good against Poisons and the bitings of venomous Beasts it likewise increases Milk in Womens Breasts if moderately taken but otherwise it is hurtful to Nurses and to all others that take it too often or in two great quantity The Common dose of the seed therefore is from half a dram to a dram A dram thereof taken in wine or Posset drink before the sit is effectual in Tertian and Quartain Agues It is an excellent remedy in other distempers that need cleansing heating and drying and opens obstructions being boiled in Vinegar and so taken being applyed to the Navel with juyce of Wormwood it kills Worms being dryed and quilted in Linnen or Sarcenet and applyed to the Head it cures Cathars and Rheumes dryeth the Brain and restores lost smelling being mixed with Vinegar and applyed it takes away Scurf Freckles and hard swellings the smoke of it drives away venomous creatures and kills Flyes Wasps and Bees The seed mixed with Oyl of Flower de Luce and applyed to the forehead helps a cold Head-ache Nightshade Solanum COmmon Nightshade hath an upright green hollow stalk Description about a foot high and sometimes more bushing forth into many branches whereon grow
dwarf Elder Humilis Sambucus and Ebulus and in English is known by the names of Walwort Danewort and Dwarf Elder Place and Time There is scarce a Town or Village but the common Elder grows in its Hedges the Dwarf Elder grows wilde in many places of England particularly in the grounds of Mr. Hinde at Hedsor in Buckinghamshire The Elder Flowers in June the fruit is usually ripe in August the Dwarf Elder is somewhat later Nature and Vertues Elder is hot and dry in the second and third degree the Danewort something hotter both under Mars it is profitable for the Dropsie and to remove watry humours between the skin and the flesh the young buds boiled in broth purges Phlegm and Choller the inner bark is commended for the yellow Jaundies medicines prepared of the bark opens obstructions six drops of the spirit of Elder salt taken in broth is good in the Scurvy The decoction of the root in wine cures the bitings of venomous Beasts and mad Dogs mollifies hardness of the Mother opens the Veins and provokes the Terms the berries work the same effects the juyce of the green leaves helps inflammations of the Eyes there is hardly a disease from the head to the foot but Elder is effectual for it it is good for Melancholly Madness the Falling Sickness Palsie Apoplexy catharrs Tooth-ache Deafness diseases of the Lungs Mouth and Throat Hoarseness Ptisick sore Breasts swoonings and Faintings Gout Worms Stone Plague Pox Measles and diseases of the Stomach Cùm multis aliis c. The Dwarf Elder is stronger then the other for all the said purposes and hath besides particular vertues viz. the juyce of the root cures the Kings Evil and Quinzy being applyed to the Throat and being put into the Fundament stayes it from falling down The root being steeped in Wine all night helps Agues a dram of the seeds in powder with a little Cinamon taken in the decoction of ground Pine is good against the French Disease Gout Sciatica and joynt Aches by drawing away peccant humours An Oyntment made of the green leaves with May Butter mollifies starkness of the Nerves and Sinews and remedies outward Pains Aches Cramps and Lameness ☞ See further in Adam in Eden by W. Coles Elecampane Enula IT groweth up with a long hairy stalk Description bearing great large leaves pointed at the ends it gives a large yellow flower the root is white and increaseth much every year spreading under the ground 't is well known therefore I forbear any further description Names Enula Campana is the Latine Appellation Place and Time It delights in Meadows and fertile ground flowers in June and July and the leaves fall in Autumne Nature and Vertues It is hot and dry in the third degree a Solar herb a great friend to the Breast and Lungs and a helper of shortness of Breath it opens the Liver and Spleen and is good against poisons and venomous bitings and helps Cramps Ruptures and inward bruises the decoction of the root being drunk the roots candied warm a cold Stomach helps the Cough and Wheesings An oyntment made of the roots with Hogs grease and a little flower of Brimstone is an excellent remedy for the Itch. The root chewed fastens loose Teeth and preserves them from rotting The distilled water of the green leaves makes the face fair cleanses the skin and helps the Morphew The decoction thereof provokes Vrine and the Terms and cleanses the Breast and Lungs Elme-Tree Ulmus THis Tree is so well known for its Timber it needs no description but we proceed to the Physical use of it Names Vlmus the Latines call it Nature and Vertues The Leaves and Bark are moderately hot having a cleansing and glewing quality and I believe Saturnine The water in the bladders upon the leaves are said to be good to help burstness cloathes being wet in the water and applyed and the parts bound up with a Truss it also cleanses the Skin The decoction of the Bark of the Root softens hard swellings the decoction of the middle bark is good to bathe places burnt or scalded and being boiled in wine and some syrrup of Mulberries added to it causes the pallat of the mouth to ascend being fallen the decoction in water helps the Dandriff Scurfs and Leprosie The leaves heal green Wounds and the water of the bladders that grow upon the leaves being put in a glass and set in Horse-dung for five and twenty dayes the mouth of the glass being stopt and a lay of salt underneath so that the feces may settle and the water become very clear is a sovereign Balsome for green wounds being applyed with sofe Tents it may be set in the ground if you be not provided of Dung An Vnguent being made of Elme Bark by boiling it to that consistence is a sovereign remedy to allay the pains of the Gout Endive Endivia MAster Coles comprehends the Succory Description Dandelion and Endive all together as not differing in Nature though in Form and one Greek name goes for them all namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet Succory is called Cichoreum and Cichorea in Latine and the Endive Endivia which Endive bears a larger leaf then Succory and the root perishes every year it bears blue flowers and seed like Succory The names I have given you in the Description Place and Time It is an inhabitant onely in Gardens if it be sown in the Spring it quickly flowers and seeds Nature and Vertues It is cold and dry cleansing Jovial saith Mr. Culpepper but I judge rather under Venus it cools the sharpness of Vrine and cleanses the uretory parts The decoction of it or the distilled water is good in hot Agues and Inflammations to mittigate the heat it helps the great heat of the Stomach and Liver stoppings of the Gall and Vrine lack of sleep in hot burning Fevers being outwardly applyed it allayes Swellings Pushes and Pimples and is good to wash pestiferous sores and Vlcers ☞ See further in The expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus Eringo or Sea-holly Eringium THe Sea-holly cometh up with tender leaves at the first Description but as they grow old they grow hard and prickly crumpled about the edges with here and there a sharp prickle they are of a blueish green colour and stand every one upon a long foot stalk after comes a long crested stalk having several joynts beset with leaves sharp and prickly it bears round prickly herds out of which shoot blue flowers with whitish threads in the middle the root grows very long and is about the bigness of a mans little finger having a pleasant taste brownish without but white within with some pith in the middle Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Eringium the Shop Eringus and Eringo in English we call in Sea-holly Place and Time It grows about the Sea sides in most Countreys of England as upon the Sea Sands by Yarmouth in Norfolk and about Shuberry in Essex it flowers about
infusing fresh flowers in the liquor six or seven times still straining it and then boil it to a syrrup with a convenient quantity of Sugar and take two spoonfuls thereof and it will purge waterish humours without trouble to the Stomach or lower parts of the body A conserve made of the said flowers provokes Vomiting and wasteth hydropick humors The liquor that droppeth from the Tree being wounded is given in the decoction of Colts-foot for the Cough and shortness of Breath by adding thereto some sweet Wine and Saffron and it is good for Hoarseness and all diseases of the Lungs and for them that vomit or spit blood two drams thereof taken in the juyce of Lemons or Radish is good for the Stone The Pear Tree Pyrus THere are divers sorts of them but all so well known they need no description Names The Latine name is Pyrus and the wilde Pear Pyraster the Warden Volema Nature and Vertues Culpepper ascribes all Pears and Apples to Venus but he might allow Jupiter some of them they are said to be cold and moist in the first degree having an earthy substance and binding quality but the sweet Pears do move the Belly the harsh and sowre binde as much the Warden is most commendable and may be given to those that are sick being first baked stewed or roasted Pears being boiled and taken with a little Honey helps the pains and oppression of the Stomach Pears outwardly applyed are good for hot Tumors and close and heal new Wounds and so do the leaves for which the wilde Pear is most effectual Perry is a cordial drink reviving the Spirits comforting the Heart and is a healthy drink Pease Pisum THey are very well known and are called in Latine Pisum in English Pease and Peason Nature and Vertues They are of a mean temperature less flatuous then Beans yet pass not so soon through the body they help the generative and procreative faculty very much they increase the seed and bodily lust and also milk in womens breasts The dryed pease sodden in water and a lye made therewith helps spreading sores of the head spots of the face and other discolourings of the skin The broth wherein they have been boiled is good to take purgations in to cleanse the Stomach of cold and moist humors The pottage is good for the Strangury and to take with Sena morning and evening for the Ague and Rhabarb for the Jaundies The powder of them stops bleeding at the Nose The red Ciches have a cleansing faculty they provoke Vrine and break the Stone Pellitory of Spain THis beareth long leaves Description finely cut upon the stalks lying upon the ground larger then the leaves of Camomill at the top it bears one large flower at a place white on the upper side and reddish underneath having a yellow thrum in the middle The root runs down right into the ground There is another kinde which riseth up with divers brittle stalks a yard high and more having narrow long leaves finely dented about the edges standing one above another to the top and hath many white flowers which stand in tufts like those of Yarrow with a small yellowish thrum in the middle which yields a small seed the root is of a sharp biting taste Places and Time The first groweth onely in Gardens the latter by hedges sides and paths in many places it flowers in the latter end of June and July Nature and Vertues It is hot and moist particularly ruled by Mercury so that it is a purger of the Brain the herb or the root chewed in the mouth draweth away phlegmatick humors and easeth pains of the Teeth and hinders distillations of the brain upon the Eyes and Lungs and by that means prevents Coughs Prisicks and Consumptions the Apoplexy and Falling Sickness and is good for the Lethargy The herb made into an Oyntment with Hogs Grease takes away black and blue spots caused by blows or falls It is said an ounce of the juyce taken in a draught of Muscadel an hour before the fit will drive away an Ague at the second or third time taking at furthest Pellitory of the Wall Herba muralis COmmon Pellitory of the Wall hath many brownish red tender stalks Description rising not above a foot high at most upon which grow at the several joynts two leaves of a dark green colour afterwards turning brownish smooth on the edges and rough or hairy like the stalks at the joynts with the leaves from the middle of the stalks upwards come many small pale purplish flowers in hairy heads or husks after which come small black rough seed which will stick to any Garment or cloth the root is somewhat long with many fibres of a dark reddish colour which abideth all Winter though the stalks and leaves perish springing fresh every year Names It is commonly called Parietaria and of some Herba muralis Place and Time It grows upon old stone Walls as upon the Walls of Rochester Castle in Kent and amongst rubbish and such like places flowers in June and July and the seed is ripe soon after Nature and Vertues Pellitory of the Wall is reputed to be cold and moist yet it is thought to be hot because it is effectual against Winde and the Stone it is also ascribed to Mercury The decoction of the herb taken with a little honey is a good Gargle for a sore Throat and being drunk without Honey it easeth pains of the Mother provokes the Terms and helps obstructions of the Liver Spleen and Reins three ounces of the juyce taken at a time helps stopping of Vrine and expells the Stone and Gravel out of the Reins and Kidneys and is good in Glisters to ease pains of the Sides and Back proceeding of Winde The juyce held in the mouth easeth the Tooth-ache The powder of the dryed herb made into an Electuary with Honey or the juyce or decoction taken with Sugar or Honey is good for an old dry Cough shortness of Breath and Wheesing The bruised herb being sprinkled with some Muscadine and warmed upon a Tyle or a Chasing-dish of Coals and applyed to the Belly works the same effect The leaves mixed with Oyl of sweet Almonds is good for the Stone Winde or gripings being laid to the pained parts the juyce dropped into the ears ceaseth the noise and easeth the pains thereof The juyce applyed with a little salt doth cleanse and heal Fistula's the bruised herb bound to a green wound healeth it in two or three dayes A Pultis made hereof with Mallows boiled in wine with wheat-bran bean-flower and some oyl and applyed warm to any bruised Sinew Tendon or Muscle it restores them to their strength in a short space and caseth pains of bruises and dissolves congealed blood of beatings or falls The juyce or the distilled Water is useful for many of the aforesaid purposes and also to cleanse the skin from spots and freckles wheales sun-burn and morphew and doth asswage hot Imposthumes burnings scaldings or
Palsies and Cramps and to strengthen and comfort the parts it is good against the Stitch and pains of the Side coming of Winde the Place being fomented with the decoction thereof in Wine and the boiled Sage afterwards applyed hot thereunto and the decoction thereof according to Dioscorides provokes Vrine and womens Courses The juyce of Sage taken in warm water helps a hoarseness and the Cough Rue is good to be planted amongst Sage to prevent the poison which may be in it by Toads frequenting amongst it to relieve themselves of their poison as is supposed but Rue being amongst it they will not come near it Wood Sage Salvia sylvestris WOod Sage springeth up with square hoary stalks Description sometimes two foot high having two leaves at every joynt much like other Sage but smaller softer whiter and rounder and a little dented about the edges smelling somewhat stronger the flowers stand on a slender long spike on the tops of the stalks and branches turning all one way when they blow and are of a pale whitish colour smaller then Sage but hooded and gaping like unto them the seed is blackish and round four usually in an husk together the root is long stringy and fibrous and abideth many years Names It is called in Latine Salvia sylvestris Place and Time It grows in Woods and by Hedge sides and High wayes and flowers about July Nature and Vertues Wood Sage is hot and dry in the second degree and attributed to Venus the decoction thereof provokes the Tearms and Vrine and provokes Sweat digests humors and dissolves swellings and nodes in the flesh and is therefore thought to be good against the French Pox. The decoction of the green Herb in Wine is good for those that have any Vein inwardly broken by a fall bruise or beating to disperse the congealed blood and consolidate the Vein and it is also good for such as are bursten the drink taken inwardly and the herb applyed outwardly and in the same manner used it is also good for the Palsie The juyce thereof or the herb in powder is goods to dry moist Vlcers and sores in the Legs or other parts thereby causing them to heal the more speedily and is also effectual in green Wounds Burnet Saxifrage Pimpinella Saxifraga IT hath great long roots like a Parsnip Description of a biting hot taste like Ginger the stalk is hollow and riseth up about three foot high with joynts and knees beset with large leaves much like those of Smallage or the Garden Parsnip The Plant consisteth of many leaves growing upon one stem cut about the edges like a Saw the flowers grow in white round tufts at the top of the stalks The seed is like Parsley seed but hotter and biting upon the Tongue There is a lesser kinde little differing from the greater but that the stalks and veins of the leaves of the lesser are of a purplish colour and the root hotter Names It is called Pimpinella major Saxifragia major and the lesser kinde Saxifragia minor in English great and small Saxifrage and Burnet Saxifrage Place and Time They grow plentifully in dry Pastures and Meadows and flower from June to the end of August Nature and Vertues The leaves seeds and roots of both kindes are hot and dry in the third degree and of thin and subtle parts The juyce of the leaves cleanseth the face of Spots and Freckles and causeth a good colour The distilled water thereof mingled with some Vinegar in the distillation dears the Sight and helps the dimness thereof The seed and root in powder drunk in wine or the decoction thereof made in Wine provokes Vrine breaks the Stone and is good against the Strangury and stoppings in the Kidneys and Bladder The Service Tree Sorbus THis grows to be a great Tree delighting in Woods and Groves and are also planted in Orchards there doth grow of them in the Woods of Mr. Hinde at Hedsor and in Woods and by High way sides I have found them in Surrey and Kent the Tree and fruit are both so well known that a further description is needless Names The Greeks call this Tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Sorbus and in English Service and Sorb-Tree Place and Time They flower in March and the fruit is ripe in September or the beginning of October Nature and Vertues The Service berries are of temperature cold and binding and more being hard then when they are rotten yet then people usually eat them but they yield no nourishment but what is gross and cold therefore they are better for medicine then meat and being gathered while they be hard and cut and dryed in the Sun they may be kept all the year to stay bleedings of Wounds Mouth or Nose Fluxes and Vomiting the decoction drunk or outwardly applyed Solomons Seal Sagillum Solomonis COmmon Solomons Seal groweth with a round stalk about half a yard high Description with the top bending down set with single leaves one above another somewhat large like the leaves of May Lilly of a blueish green colour with some Ribs therein and a little yellowish underneath at the foot of every leaf almost from the bottom it hath small long and white pendulous flowers like those of May Lilly but ending in five longer points for the most part two together at the end of a small foot stalk standing all on one side the stalk under the leaves after which come round berries green at first but afterwards of blackish green tending to blue wherein is contained small white hard stony seed The root is white and thick full of knobs or joynts in some places resembling the mark of a Seal the taste thereof is sweet at first but afterwards somewhat bitter and sharp Names It s common Latine name is Sigillum Solomonis and in English Solomons Seal and sometimes white Wort or white Root Jacobs Ladder and Scala Caeli in Latine Place and Time It grows in divers places of this Land as about Odiham in Hampshire in a Wood within two miles of Canterbury by Fish-pool Hill and between Newington and Sittingbourn in Kent and divers other places it flowers about May and the seed is ripe in September Nature and Vertues The roots of Solomons Seal are hot and dry and astringent a Saturnine Plant the roots have great vertue in sealing or closing up the rim of the Belly when it is bursten the decoction thereof taken in Wine or the powder in broth or drink and being outwardly applyed to the place it is likewise good for other hurts wounds or outward sores to heal and close up green wounds and to dry up and restrain the flux of humors into old sores it also slayes bleedings vomitings fluxes the running of the reins in men and the whites and reds in women it mightily conglutinates and soders broken bones in man or beast the bruised root applyed to the place and the decoction thereof or infusion in wine being strained out hard and drunk it is likewise
it helps rising of the Mother provokes Vrine and expells Winde It takes away loathing of the Stomach and procures a good appetite it cuts tough Phlegm in the Chest and Lungs and is good to season stewed meat or broaths The juyce being snuffed up into the nostrils quickens the dull spirits in the Lethargy and being dropped into the eyes it clears the sight which is dulled by thin humours distilling from the brain The juyce heated with a little Oyl of Roses helps deafness and noise in the ears being dropped into them It helpeth to ease the Sciatica and members that have the Palsie being applyed pultisswise with Wheat-flower It is good against the stingings of Wasps and Bees and being laid in Chambers it killeth Fleas Savin Savina IT is nursed up in Gardens and abides green all the year being so well known it needs no further description Names It is called in Latine Sabina and Savina Nature and Vertues The leaves of Savin are hot and dry in the third degree and of subtle parts under the Influence of Mars The decoction of Savin is powerful to provoke Womens Courses and it also expells the Birth and After-birth and causeth Abortion It expelleth blood by Vrine and is good for the Kings Evil the powder thereof mixed with honey cleanseth filthy Vlcers and Fistula's but is unapt to heal them and being mixed with Cream and Childrens heads anointed therewith which have scabs or running sores it cleanseth and healeth them and also St. Anthonies fire a dram of Savine in powder mixed with three ounces of Nitre and two of Honey helps such as are short-winded as saith Mathiolus It kill Worms in Children being applyed to the Navel or the belly anointed with the Oyl thereof The powder of the leaves mixed with honey takes away spots and freckles in the face or body and helps blisters of the Yard gotten by a Lady of Pleasure they being first bathed with the decoction of the leaves and is good to heal Scabs and Itch Tetters and Ring-worms and to break Carbunckles and Plague-sores being spread upon a piece of leather and applyed to the place The distilled Water cleanseth the skin and helpeth such as have the Worms Saxifrage Saxifragia THere be accounted nine kindes of this Plant which grow in England Description I shall describe three of them as the most useful viz. English Saxifrage or Mead-Parsley White Saxifrage and Barnet Saxifrage English or Meadow Saxifrage called Mead-Parsley groweth with many green winged leaves like Fennel but thicker and broader amongst which rise up divers crested stalks of a Cubit high having thereupon divers smaller stalks of winged leaves also finely cut but harsh to the seeling bearing at the top Umbels of white Flowers tending a little to yellow after which come seed much like Fennel-seed but browner and of a small taste The Root is thick black without and white within and of a good savour White Saxifrage hath many round faint yellowish green leaves but grayish underneath spread upon the ground unevenly dented about the edges and somewhat hairy every one upon a little foot-stalk from whence riseth up a round brownish hairy green stalk about a foot high with a few leaves like the former but smaller branched at the top whereon stand pretty large white flowers of five leaves apiece with some yellow threds in the middle standing in a long crested brownish green husk after which ariseth sometimes a round hard head biforked at the top wherein s contained blackish small seed The Root is composed of black strings or fibres whereunto are fastned many reddish grains about the bigness of Pepper-corns which are called by the Apothecaries white Saxifrage seed Burnet Saxifrage springeth up with divers stalks of winged leaves set one against another each being somewhat broad and a little dented about the edges of a sad green colour at the tops of the stalks come Umbels of white Flowers and after them small blackish seed The Root is long and whitish Names Saxifraga and Saxifragia are the Latine Names Place and Time The first groweth commonly in Meadows and Pastures and flowers from May till the end of August The second grows in Fields and corners of Meadows and in grassie sandy places and the third grows in moist Meadows and flowers about July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues They are all hot and dry in the third degree and said to be herbs of the Moon but I can finde no reason for it the decoction of the seeds or roots of Mead-Parsley made in white wine helps the Strangury provokes the Courses and expells the secondine or dead Childe and breaks the Stone in the Bladder and Kidneys half a dram or a dram of the root in powder taken with sugar warmeth and comsorteth the stomach and easeth griping pains of the belly and the Chollick and expelleth Winde and outwardly it is good in somentations and bathes to provoke Vrine and ease pains of the belly which proceed from Winde The decoction of the seed or root of white Saxifrage or the powder thereof drunk in wine is good against the Stone Strangury and stoppings of the Kidneys and Bladder The distilled water of the whole herb is good for the same purposes and to cleanse the Stomach and Lungs from tough and thick Phlegm The same water is given by Nurses to their Children for the frets and stopping of Vrine The Burnet Saxifrage hath the same properties as the other in expelling Vrine Winde and helping the Chollick and to ease pains of the Mother to procure Womens Courses to break the Stone in the Kidneys and to digest cold and tough Phlegm in the stomach and is a good remedy against venome The dryed roots are as hot as Pepper and may be used for it being more wholesome as saith Tragus The root and seeds in powder taken with Sugar purgeth the brain restoreth lost speech and is good for Convulsions Cramps Apoplexies and cold Feavers The distilled Water when in Castoreâ—â— hath been boiled is good for the same and also for the Palsie and other cold griefs The same drunk with wine and vinegar is good in the Plague and preserves from infection and corrupted air being chewed in the mouth The distilled water beautifieth the face and cleanseth it from spots and freckles and causeth a good colour and is good for all the purposes aforesaid being taken with sugar the juyce of the leaves doth the same and being dropped into wounds in the head or any other place it dryeth up the moisture and heals them quickly The seeds being made into Comfits like Carraway seeds are good for all the aforesaid purposes Scabious and the kindes Scabiosa THere are many kindes of this Plant mentioned by Authours Description I shall onely name three viz. Common Scabious small common Scabious Corn Scabious The onely difference between the two first is that the leaves of one are bigger then those of the other and the Corn Scabious is greater then the other the flowers more
are mistaken who take Siser to be a Parsnip Nature and Vertues The roots of Skirrets which are onely in use are moderately hot and moist the roots are but of indifferent nourishment yet they provoke Lust being windy and are easily concocted whereby they yield a reasonable good juyce they are dressed much after the manner of Potatoes either baked or boiled and stewed wiht Pepper Butter and Salt and so eaten they may be eaten also cold with Vinegar and Oyl being first boiled the juyce of the roots drunk with Goats milk stoppeth the Lask and being drunk in Wine it is said to help windiness in the Stomach gripings in the Belly and the Hiccough it doth somewhat provoke Vrine and is a little effectual to consume the Stone and Gravel in the Bladder and Kidneys Smallage Paludapium IT is so well known I need not describe it Names It is called in Latine Paludapium and Apium palustre and in Shops onely Apium in English Smallage and Marsh-parsley Places and Time It is found in Gardens and sometimes in wet and moorish Grounds whence it was first brought it flourisheth when the Garden Parsley doth the stalks coming up the second year and then the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues Smallage is hot and dry in the end of the second degree of a bitter taste and opening quality being an herb of Mercury it opens obstructions of the Liver and Sleen rarifies thick phlegm and cleanseth the Blood being used in pottage amongst other herbs as Water-cresses c. It drives down the Courses and is good for the Green Sickness it provokes Vrine and is good against the yellow Jaundies if a syrrup be made of the juyce it is very useful in lasting Agues The juyce with honey of Roses and Barley Water cures Vlcers of the Mouth and the almonds of the Throat being bathed or gargled therewith and cleanseth other foul Vlcers and Wounds being mixed with honey and used it preserves exulcerated Cancers from stinking and putrefaction and helps to heal them the leaves boiled in Hogs grease like a pultis helps Felons and Whitloes on the fingers The seed is good to break Winde kill Worms and help a stinking breath The herb and root do warm the Stomach and expell Winde and help digestion The root is to be sliced and eaten with oyl and Vinegar The root is stronger in operation then the herb for all the said purposes but especially to open obstructions and rid away an Ague the juyce thereof being taken in wine or a decoction thereof made in Wine Sorrel Acetosa THis is very well known plentifully to grow both in the Gardens and Fields and needs no further describing Names It is called in Latine Acetosa and Acedula from its sowreness Nature and Vertues Sorrel is cooling and drying in the second degree and cutteth tough phlegm by reason of its sowreness it is ascribed to the dominion of Venus it is a pleasant sauce to many meats grateful to hot Stomachs it provokes appetite tempers the heat of the Liver and opens the stopping and prevents the wasting thereof it cools inflammations and heat in Agues and Fevers and faintings arising from heat it refresheth the spirits A Sorrel posset is excellent to quench the thirst the leaves taken fasting preserve from infection but much more the Conserve which is good for all the forementioned purposes The seeds bruised and drunk in wine or water are good against the fretting of the Guts and the Chollick and stops hot Fluxes of the Tearms and of humours in the Bloody Flux or flux of the Stomach the leaves wrapped in a Colewort leaf and roasted under the Embers and applyed discusseth kernels in the Throat and ripens and breaks any hard Imposthume Tumor Boyl or Plague Sore the juyce used with Vinegar is good for Tetters Ring-worms and the Itch. The distilled water kills worms resists poison and is good for all the said purposes The roots either in powder or decoction are good for many of the forementioned purposes and helpeth the Jaundies and Gravel and Stone in the Kidneys A decoction of the flowers made in Wine and drunk helpeth the black Jaundies and inward Vlcers Wood-Sorrel Alleluia IT groweth low upon the ground without any stalk Description with a great many leaves coming from the root made of three leaves like Treefoil every leaf somewhat resembling a heart being broad at the ends cut in the middle and sharp towards the stalk of a faint yellowish green colour every one standing on a long red foot stalk which at their first coming up are close folded together to the stalk but opening themselves afterwards they are of a fine sowre taste and yieldeth a juyce which turneth red when it is clarified amongst these leaves rise up weak slender foot stalks bearing every one of them a white flower at the top consisting of five small pointed leaves star fashion and in some desht over with a small shew of blush after the flowers succeed small round heads with yellowish seeds in them the root consists of small strings fastned to the end of a small long piece of a yellowish colour abiding with some leaves thereon all the Winter Names It is called in Latine Trifolium Acetosum and in Shops Alleluia and Lujula in English Wood-Sorrel and Scab-wort Place and Time It grows in moist Woods and shadowy places and upon the old stems of Withyes Alders and such Trees as delight to grow in wet and shadowy places it flowers in April and May. Nature and Vertues Wood Sorrel is of temperature as the other and under the Planetary Influence This herb is singular good to defend the heart in all pestilential Diseases and to cool the faintings thereof caused by heat in Agues Fevers and other diseases it preserves the Blood from putrefaction quencheth thirst stayeth Vomiting and procures a good stomach a dram of the Conserve being taken in a morning or oftner if need require it is good in any contagious Disease A syrrup made of the juyce is effectual for all the said distempers and so is the distiled water the juyce is good to gargle the mouth for any Canker or Vlcer it is good in Wounds and Scabs to stay the bleeding and to cleanse and heal the Wounds and to stay hot defluctions and Catharrs upon the Throat or Lungs Spunges or linnen cloathes wet in the juyce and applyed to hot tumors and inflammations doth cool and help them A composition made with Mithridate Sugar and Wood Sorrel hath been approved for those that are entring into a Fever ☞ See further in The Art of Simpling written by W. Coles Sow-Thistles Sonchus THey need no description Names The Latines call them Sonchus which is divided into Asperum and Levem and in English we call them prickly and smooth Sow-thistles and sometimes Hares Lettice they are called likewise Lactula Leporina Palatium Leporis and Leporum Cubile Place and Time They grow in Gardens and manured Grounds commonly against the owners will as also
and evening with a little milk against the heat of the Vrine and therefore is effectual in virulent Gonorrhea's it cleanseth foul Vlcers in the reins and bladder dissolves the stone in the reins kidneyes and bladder opens the uritory passages and provokes Vrine and helps those that make foul or bloudy Vrine the decoction of the fruit being taken in wine or water it likewise opens the liver and gall and therefore is good for the yellow Jaundies Angelica THere is both garden Angelica Description and wilde Angelica some also reckon up a water kinde it groweth up with great hollow stalks four or five foot high having broad divided leaves of a pale green colour at the top cometh forth large umbells of white flowers after which succeedeth flat round seeds somewhat whitish the root perisheth every year if it be suffered to seed not else Names Place and Time It 's common name with us both for Latine and English is Angelica it grows common in our Gardens and wilde likewise in many places flowers about July and the seed is ripe soon after Temperature and Vertues It is an herb of the Sun hot and dry almost to the third degree it opens and digesteth it is a great cordial for the heart in defending it from poison a dram thereof in powder being taken in the distilled water of the same plant and sweat upon it it heats and comforts the Blood and Spirits and is good against the Plague Pestilence and other infections the root being taken green helps such as are troubled with stuffings in their Stomack it also abates lust the water thereof and some of the root in powder helps cold and winde the Collick and Strangury Coughs Ptisick and other diseases of the Lungs and Breast it provokes womens Courses and helps to expell the after-birth it likewise provokes Vrine and helps the Chollick and Strangury The decoction helps inward bruises discusseth congealed blood it helps digestion is an excellent remedy for a Surfeit The decoction helps an Ague at two or three times taking if it be drunk and sweat upon before the fit comes The roots being taken in powder and made into a plaister with a little pitch helps the bitings of venomous creatures and mad dogs the water or juyce being dropped into the eyes and ears helps dimness of sight and 〈◊〉 The Apple-Tree Pomus IT is needless to describe the Apple trees nor reckon up their several kindes many sorts of them being generally known to almost every boy and is out of my purpose here many of them are early ripe in Summer others more late towards Winter which are most durable to keep some of them are sweet fragrant and odoriferous others more sharp The Names The tree is called in Latine Pomus and malus the fruit Pomum and malum The English name you have already Places and Time They grow wilde in the hedge rows and Woods in many places of this Land but the best are manured in Orchards they flower in April the fruit of the latest is ripe in October which is the John Apple Temperature and Vertues There is a great difference in Apples in regard there are both sweet sowre and bitter they are generally held to be cold and moist but the sweet and bitter do somewhat incline to heat but to omit the general use which is made of Apples both in City and Countrey they are effectual in hot diseases cooling the stomack and heart The Apple called a Pomewater being roasted and the pulp laboured in fair water till it be like that we call Lambs-wool and drunk going to bed helpeth such as are troubled with an involuntary passage of the seed either in dreams or otherwise and is also effectual for such as piss by drops Rotten apples are good to be applyed to the eyes which are blood-shotten or bruised by any stripe or stroke Apples expel melancholly humours and stir up mirth being roasted and eaten with rose water and sugar Cider and also Verjuyce do both singularly cool the stomack and is effectual in hot Agues and is good against casting and vomiting and the verjuyce being applyed to burnings or scaldings draweth out the fire and cools and heals the same Apricock-Tree Malus Armeniaca THis plant needs no description being very well known yet it is a tender plant in our cold Countreys for if a frost meet with the flowers or young fruit they are quickly gone Names It is called in Latine Malus Armeniaca the fruit Malum Armeniacum In English Apricocks Place and Time They are planted against walls in most Gentlemens Gardens and against the walls of houses too in many places They flower in March and the fruit is ripe about the latter end of July Temperature and Vertues This is one of Venus plums and is cold in the first degree and moist in the second the fruit is better to be eaten before meals then after because of their quick descension into the belly they cause other meats to descend the sooner There may an oyl be pressed out of the kernells of the stones which being taken in wine helpeth the Chollick and driveth forth the stone out of the reins and bladder helps pains in the ears hoarseness of the voice inflammations of the Piles Vlcers and the roughness of the tongue and throat The leaves I have proved effectual to dry up the corrupt matter of hot running scabs Archangel or Dead nettles Lamium THis herb is generally known Description it needs no description Names It 's called in Latine Lamium andVrtica mortua In English dead or blinde Nettle or Archangel Herbarists reckon up eight sorts hereof but I shall here mention onely three which are common and those are that with the white flower the red and the yellow Places and Time And these may be found under hedges old walls amongst rubbish by high wayes sides and in corners of Gardens which are not digged nor planted they flower about the Spring of the year and so continue all Summer Temperature and Vertues Archangel is hot and dry in the first degree bitter in taste under the dominion of Mars and it is good against Quartain Agues the flowers of the Archangel or the distilled waters stayeth the whites in women and the flowers of the red Archangel stayeth the reds The herb is effectual for Tumors or swellings of the Kings Evil in the throat to dissolve them being bruised with some Hogs Lard and applyed thereunto It also allayes the pains of the Gout or Sciatica and aches of the joynts being used in like manner it openeth obstructions and dissolveth the hardnesse of the Spleen by drinking the decoction of the herb in wine and applying the herb hot pultiswise to the Region of the Spleen it is a good repercussive in inflammations and stayeth the corroding of old Vlcers it cureth the rising up of the skin about the roots of the nails being applyed thereunto and is said to stanch bleeding at the nose the bruised herb being applyed to the nape of
an oyntment of it thus Take of Oyl Olive one pint the root of Alkanet two ounces Earthworms purged twenty in number boil them together and keep it as a singular remedy for the use aforesaid Amara dulcis Bitter-sweet and Woody Nightshade is all one therefore Vide Bitter-sweet Amaranthus Vide Blites and Flower Gentle Anemonies Herba venti THese are of various kindes Descri ∣ ption altering as they are often and frequently transplanted out of one Garden into another for whose adornment they are most used so that a further description is needless Names It is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Anemone and Herba venti because it reported these flowers never open but when the winde bloweth The Gardners commonly call them Emonies and they are likewise called in English Winde flowers Nature and Vertues They are of a sharp hot quality biting the tongue and of a binding quality the wilde ones called Pulsatilla's being stamped and applyed will eat into the skin they are all taken to be a kinde of Crowfoot The leaves of Anemonies boiled in white Wine and the decoction drunk powerfully provokes the Terms the leaves and stalks being boiled with clean blanched Barley increaseth milk in Nurses if they eat thereof the juyce of the leaves snuffed up into the nose or the root chewed in the mouth purgeth the head mightily of watery and phlegmatick humours by spitting and being so used is good for the Lethargie they cure the Leprosie the body being bathed with the decoction thereof and an oyntment thereof helps Inflammations of the Eyes the eye-lids being anointed with it and cleareth the sight by taking away the Web or other spots therein the same oyntment also cleanseth corroding Vlcers being used for that purpose Artechokes Cinara OF this Plant I need make no description it 's very well known to all that desire it Names Place and Time It is called in Latine Cinara in English Artechokes They are plentifully nourished by our Gardners about London and in Gentlemens Gardens in the Countrey They are ripe in June and will flower at the latter end of the Summer if they be suffered to stand Temperature and Vertues They are of a temperate nature inclining to heat certainly under the dominion of Venus being great friends to venerious persons by whom they are dressed after all the luxurious wayes as may be thought on they do mightily stir up lust by increasing seed and therefore are good for married persons who are weak in the act of generation they restore nature and strengthen the stomach The Decoction of the young buds in wine provoke Vrine and though they increase seed yet they stay the involuntary flowing thereof in dreams or otherwise Assarabacca Asarum THis plant riseth up with many heads shooting from the roots Descri ∣ ption from whence spring the leaves which are round much like a Violet leaf but larger they are of a dark green shining colour on the upper side but paler underneath There springeth up likewise amongst them round husks upon stalks wherein are contained many small seeds much like the seeds of Violets but somewhat bigger Names Place and Time It is called by us commonly Asarum and Assarabacca It is planted frequently in our Gardens Their seed is ripe about the beginning of July Temperature and Vertues The leaves are hot and dry and purging having likewise a binding quality after it the roots are more hot and dry then the leaves a plant sure under the dominion of Mars It is commonly given to Maids who are inclinable to the Green Sickness to take the juyce of five or seven leaves in a little posset drink or white wine doth both cause Vomiting and purgeth downwards and by Vrine cleansing the body of Choller and Phlegm being steeped in wine and drunk it is good against the Dropsie and Jaundies and helps continual Agues A dram of the root in powder given in white Wine a little before the fit of an Ague at twice taking drives it away A Conserve made of the flowers hereof strengthens the memory and the hearing It helps likewise obstructions of the Liver and Spleen being boiled in Whey and the juyce thereof with a little Tutia prepared and added to it and dropped into the corners of the Eyes helps the dimness and mistiness of them and sharpens the sight Asparagus Corruda IT groweth up at first with a round greenish head Descri ∣ ption much like hops so near that they may easily be mistaken one for another afterwards they run up in long stalks shooting out green leaves like Fennel but smaller at the joynts come forth yellowish flowers after which come round green berries which are red when they are ripe and the seed is black the roots are spongious and full of small strings Names It is called in Latine Corruda Asparagus and in English Sperage and Sparagus by some Sparagrasse Places and Time It is nourished for a pleasant Sallet in our Gardens the tender shoots being in their prime to be eaten in April and May. They flower about July and have berries towards Michaelmas Temperature and Vertues Sparagus is of a fine temperate nature a procurer of lust yet expelling the Stone and Gravel from the Reins and Kidneys provokes Vrine and helps the Strangury helps pains in the Reins and Back The root is good against the yellow Jaundies falling Sickness and fits of the Mother and easeth pains of the Breast and Stomach being boiled in white Wine and the decoction drunk The root doth much open and provokes Vrine by which means it hath acquired the title of one of the five opening Roots The young shoots are as pleasant meat as any grows in Venus Garden and are effectual for most of the purposes before-mentioned The Ash-Tree Fraxinus THis is so well known to every one it needs no Description Names It is called in Latine Fraxinus and the fruit is called Kitkeyes Place and Time The Ash grows plentifully in most Woods and other places of this Land as in hedges and walks where they have been planted yet of late they have been wastefully destroyed as well as other wood and timber The leaves and flowers come forth about April and the keyes are ripe about September Temperature and Vertues This is a plant of Jupiter the leaves and bark are temperately hot and dry the seed hot and dry in the second degree A Lye made of the Ashes of Ashen Bark cureth Scald Scabby and Leprous heads they being bathed therewith the juyce of three or four leaves taken constantly every morning prevents mens bodies from growing corpulent or gross and makes them lean that are fat the leaves and bark being boiled in vinegar and water stayes vomiting being laid upon the stomach The leaves bark and tender crops being boiled in wine and drunk are singular good for the Dropsie the roots boiled in Ale and drunk morning and evening doth the same the leaves and bark being boiled in wine and drunk do open the Liver and Spleen and
are divided into several branches out of which come long foot stalks bearing three broad round and pointed green leaves and must be supported with sticks or poles growing much higher then garden Pease the flowers are like pease blossoms and vary in colour like the fruit which are some white some blackish some striped the Bean is small and much resembles a Kidney from whence they have attained the name of Kidney beans There is a kinde that bears a scarlet flower more planted for ornament then any thing else Names In Latine it is called Phaseolus in English French and Kidney Beans Place and Time They delight the grow in good ground and must be planted about the latter end of April or beginning of May for sooner the frost will destroy them their fruit is ripe about August and September sometimes in July Temperature and Vertues Kidney beans are accounted hot and moist in the first degree easie of digestion they nourish much increase sperm and are very venerial they excellently provoke Vrine and are great friends to the Kidneys they help shortness of breath by opening the Breast and strengthen the Liver and Stomach and a weak back the dryed beans in Winter may be boiled and eaten with butter as pease are and being beaten to powder and given in white wine they are good against the Stone and cleanse and strengthen the Kidneys taking the quantity of a dram at a time Bears-foot Vide Hellebore Ladies Bedstraw Gallium COmmon Ladies Bedstraw springeth up with small square brown stalks Description at the first standing upright but when it cometh to its usual height which is about a foot or half a yard the tops lean a little downward being usually branched out into divers parts full of joynts with divers very fine small leaves at every one set at equal distances like Woodroof but a great deal less and scarcely having any roughness at all at the branches tops from several joynts do spring forth many long tufts of yellow flowers standing very thick one above another having four leaves apiece smelling not unpleasant yet strong and resinous the seed is black and small like poppey seed and having two most usually joyned near together the root is somewhat red and hath many small threads fastned to it by which it taketh fast hold of the earth creeping a little way under it and the heaviness of the flowers weigh the branches to the ground that it taketh root again at the joynts thereof whereby it most increaseth There is another kinde called Common white-flowred Ladies Bedstraw There are four other kindes which are found in Italy Germany and Candy where I leave them Names It is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milk because formerly they used it instead of Runnet to turn the milk into a curd for to make Cheese for which it is said to serve very well and therefore it is called Cheese Runnet both here and beyond the Seas The Latines call it also Gallium and that with white flowers Mollugo in English Ladies Bedstraw and Maids-hair from the fineness of the leaves Place and Time The Common ladies Bedstraw grows in dry Pastures Closes and Meadows and sometimes in those that are wet the white flowred groweth in the Abbey Orchard at St. Albans and divers other places they flower in May and June and the seed is ripe in July and August Temperature and Vertues The name of this plant attributes it to the dominion of Venus but I judge Mercury is the chief ruler thereof it challenges the preheminence above Mugwort for preventing the sore weariness of Travellers The decoction of the herb and flowers used warm is excellent good to bathe the surbated Feet of Footmen and Lackies in hot weather and also to lissome and mollisie the stiffness and weariness of their joynts and sinews being bathed with the said decoction the same may be done with an oyntment or oyl made of the said Herb and flowers which you may alwayes keep in readiness which is available not onely for the same purpose but also sor Burnings and Scaldings and for the dry Scab and Itch in Children The way to make the oyl is by infusing the herb and flower in a sufficient quantity of sallet Oyl and setting it in the heat of the Sun for ten or twelve dayes as oyl of the flowers of Cammomile and other oyls by infusion are made The oyntment you may make by boiling the flowers and herb in Hogs Lard or Sallet Oyl adding to it some melted Bees wax after it is strained either of these may be used for prevention before a Journey is taken or afterwards for a cure first bathe the feet with the decoction and afterwards anoint them with either oyl or oyntment but you are not alwayes sure to have the herb and flowers in readiness for a decoction therefore you may be provided with the Oyl or Oyntment or both which will serve your turn without it The Germans praise that with white flowers to make an excellent bath to strengthen and comfort the weak and weary Sinews Arteries and Joynts Some Cheshire dairy women use the other as is reported in their Runnet for which cause it obtained the name of Cheese Runnet as is said before The decoction of the herb is likewise effectual being drunk to provoke Vrine it helps to break the Stone and to stay inward bleedings and to heal inward wounds The herb and flowers bruised and put up into the nostrils stayeth their bleeding and so it doth the bleeding of Wounds and being applyed to a place that is burned it draweth out the fire and healeth it Dioscorides reports that the Roots are good to stir up Lust which vertue some also attribute to the flowers Beets Sicula THere are of Beets both white and red Description the white is the most common which springeth up with many whitish green great leaves next the ground after cometh a strong ribbed stalk bearing leaves almost to the top the flowers growth in tufts which hang down their heads the seeds are cornered and prickly the root great and long and perisheth commonly the second year Names It is called in Latines Beta and Sicula by some in English Beets Place and Time They grow onely with us where they are planted in Gardens they continue green the first Winter and afterwards flower in July the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues The white Beet is temperate in heat and moisture they loosen the belly and provoke Vrine and are good against bitings of venomous beasts the juyce thereof mixed with honey and dropped into the ears easeth the pains and noise thereof and snuffed up into the nose it recovereth a lost smelling the decoction of the roots and leaves cleanseth the head of Scurf Scales and Nits helps the falling of the hair helpeth Freckles Spots and kibed heels if they be
in the Expert Doctors Dispensatory written by P. Morellus Bilberries or Whorts Vaccinia THis Shrub creepeth along upon the ground Description seldom exceeding above half a yard high having small dark green leaves a little dented about the edges at the foot of the leaves shoot forth the flowers which are small and of a pale blush colour the brims having five points with a small reddish thred in the middle after which come small round berries of a purple or blackish colour of a sharp sweetish taste the root spreads and creeps along in the ground sprouting up in several places Names They are called in Latine Vaccinia in English Biberries Whorts and Whortle-Berries Places and Time They grow plentifully in dry Woods and barren hilly places and abundantly in the Woods near Guilford in Surrey so that the Countrey people make Pyes and Tarts of them as we do with other Fruits and they taste almost like Damson Tarts They are ripe in June and July Quality and Vertues The Bilberies are cold in the second degree and do a little binde and dry the Berries are good for those that are troubled with an old Cough or Vlcer in the Lungs but offensive to those that have a cold or weak Stomach and therefore it is better for them to take it either in a Syrrup made of the Juyce or a Conserve made of the Pulp and thus they are effectual in hot Agues and cool the heat of the Stomach and Liver and do somewhat binde the Belly and stayeth Vomitings and Loathings and by it's binding quality stayeth Lasks and Fluxes of Blood Bifoil or Twayblade Bifolium THis Herb springeth up with a slender stem or stalk Description fat and full of juyce from many small threddy strings fastned unto a small knot or root about the middle whereof are orderly placed two broad leaves ribbed much like Plantain leaves at the top of the stalk groweth a slender greenish bush of many small flowers resembling Flyes or Knats like the third kinde of Serapio's or female Goatstones and indeed it is a kinde of Serapio Names In Latine its called Bifolium and Ophris the English names are above Place and Time It loves Meadow and Marsh grounds moist and shadowy places flowers in May and June and is soon gone like Orchis Nature and Vertues It inclines to cold and dryness and is good in Vnguents and Balsoms for green Wounds and Burstings or Ruptures Blue-Bottle or Corn Flower Cyanus THere may be reckoned up of these several kindes Description as Cyanus major Vulgaris Purpureus Albus Violaceus Variegata That is the great Blue Bottle or Corn flower the common the purple the white the violet colour and the variable These are all of kin to the Corne Scabious and useless in Physick there being better Medecines more known what defects soever these have the Scabious supplyes therefore I 'le say no more of it but onely that the Common Blue Bottle is reputed good against inflamed eyes being of a cold Temperature Brank Vrsine or Bears-breech Acanthus IT is a stranger in England onely the Garden kinde called Hortensis Acanthus may be found in Physick Gardens but is naturally a German plant and is reckoned amongst the kindes of Thistles The Garden kinde is called Hortensis Acanthus the wilde Acanthus Sativus the one is a German the other an Italian yet Culpeppers Romancer would make an English Physician of them Nature and Vertues The leaves hereof are of a mean Temperature between hot and cold of a mollifying and digesting faculty and may be used for Limbs burnt with fire or out of joynt saith Dioscorides and the decoction helps the Ptisick and such as spit blood or have bruised or overstrained themselves as Comphrey Roots doth and of the Roots are made a Plaister against the numness of the hands and feet it is also used in Glisters and the decoction of the Leaves provoke Vrine stop the Belly help the Rupture Cramp and such as spit Blood Bindeweed or Belflower Campanella THe great blew Bindeweed springeth up with many long and winding branches Description winding it self contrary to the course of the Sun upon any thing that is near it the leaves are round and pointed at the end like a Violet Leaf but larger of a deep green colour The flowers come forth on pretty long foot stalks two or three together at the joynts of the branches where the leaves are set at first long like a finger of a pale whitish blue colour but afterwards they grow broad like bells and become of a deep blue tending to purple which after they are fallen away the stalks whereon they stood bend downwards and send forth husks containing in them three or four seeds apiece which are black and about the bigness of a Tare the roots are stringy and dye every Winter Names The various kindes of this flower or weed as it is more generally called hath obtained several names as in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latine Smilax laevis and because it windeth about whatever is next to it it is called Funus Arborum and Campanella from the flowers resembling a little Bell. It is called also Convolvulus Orobanche with many other names which for brevities sake I omit and in English Bindeweed Withwinde and Devils Gut c. Place and Time They are taken into Gardens for the beauty of the flowers and may be also found in Corn Fields I mean the common Bindeweed and flower about the latter end of Summer seldom perfecting their seed in England Temperature and Vertues Bindeweeds are most of them hot and dry towards the second degree The decoction thereof in white Wine is a good remedy for the Chollick it purgeth Phlegmatick and Melancholly Humours and killeth worms yet it is apt to trouble the Stomack and cause Vomitings The juyce of the black Bindeweed being drunk doth loosen the Belly so doth the powder thereof drunk in Wine or any other liquor and Galen saith the bruised Leaves applyed to Tumors and Knots in the Flesh dissolveth them It is also said that if any place where hair groweth if it be anointed with the juyce hereof after the hair is plucked up by the roots it suffereth it not to grow there any more Bitter-sweet or Wooddy Nightshade Amara dulcis IT springeth up with many slender Description wooddy winding brittle stalks about a mans height sometimes higher folding it self about any thing it is next unto without any claspers at all having a whitish rough bark and a pith in the middle sending forth branches on every side green while they are young and so are the new shoots of those that are elder The leaves are somewhat like unto those of Nightshade but that they are pointed at the ends and grow disorderly upon the stalks having usually growing upon the footstalks between the leaf and the branch two small leaves or pieces of leaves like little wings of a pale green colour but some of them have but one and some none at the tops and sides
and the berries are ripe towards Michaelmas Temperature and Vertues The Leaves Root and Berries of the Bramble are all of an astringent quality it s a plant of Mars and is good to stop Fluxes and Lasks and the decoction of the Flowers or unripe fruit helps spitting of Blood they also help Vlcers and Sores of the Mouth and Throat the Leaves likewise are good to make Lotions for the sores of the Mouth and privy parts and to heal a cut finger too the powder of the root expells the Stone and Gravel of the Reins and Kidneys the berries or flowers are good against the poison of venomous Serpents The decoction of them binde the Belly and stop the over-flowing of womens Courses the juyce of the ripe berries being drunk and the pumish of them out of which it is strained being outwardly applyed to swellings in the Neck and Throat is a speedy remedy for those Distempers The distilled water of the flowers and fruit is good in Feavers and heat of the Body A syrrup of the ripe berries may be kept all the year for the purposes aforesaid ☞ See further in The Expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus Bryony Brionia THere are two sorts of Bryony growing here in England Description the white Bryony or wilde Vine and the black Bryony the white Bryony springeth up with long tender stalks with many clasping tendrells by which it catcheth hold and clambreth on those things that are near it the leaves are like our Vine leaves but more hairy and whiter of colour the flowers be white and small consisting of five leaves apiece the berries grow in clusters and are green at first but red when they are ripe the root groweth very big and is bitter Names The Latine name is Bryonia in English Bryony and wilde Vine Some call the white root English Jollap and use it instead thereof Place and Time It growes in Hedge-rowes and Coppices in many of our Countreys and flowers in May and the berries be ripe in Autumne Quality and Vertues The white Bryony is chiefly used in Physick and is hot and dry in the third degree or more an herb of Mars it purgeth with great violence being taken alone but a scruple or two of the powder of the root with a third part of Cynamon and Ginger being drunk in white Wine draweth away water abundantly both by Vomit and Stool and therefore is good for the Dropsie The compound water of Bryony a spoonful being taken at a time easeth the fits of the Mother expells the After-birth and cleanseth the Womb so likewise doth a Pessary of the root and also draweth forth the dead Childe it provokes Vrine and purgeth the Reins and Bladder opens obstructions of the Spleen draweth away Phlegm and Rheumes from the Head and Brain and therefore is profitable in the falling Sickness and swimming of the head the juyce applyed cleanseth the skin from the Morphew and Leprosie the root is good against the bitings of venomous Creatures kills Worms and is good against the Kings Evil the juyce being taken with equal parts of Wine and Honey the Berries and distilled water are good to take away spots and freckles in the face ☞ See more of this in The Art of Smpling by W. C. Brookelime Becabunga BRookelime groweth up with thick stalks Description parted into divers branches the leaves are broad thick and smooth like Purslane leaves but of a darker green colour growing by couples upon the stalks the flowers are of a blue colour and grow upon tender foot stalks the root is white having five strings fastned thereto at every joynt Names It is usually called in Latine Becabunga in English Brookelime Place and Time It groweth in small Brooks Ditches and standing Waters it flowers in June and July Temperature and Vertues It is of a temperate moist quality some say dry Culpepper ascribes it to Mars but I am sure then his Logick is false for it groweth not in martial places I rather give Venus the rule of it It is good against Dropsies and Scurvies and is used in Spring time in water Gruel to purge the body from ill homours and to cleanse the Blood it is also used with Water-cresses and other Herbs for the same purpose it is helpful to break the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder provokes Vrine and womens Courses and expells the dead Birth it helps the Strangury and heals inward Scabs in the Bladder the juyce being drunk in Wine being fryed with butter and vinegar and applyed warm it helps Tumors and St. Anthonies fire being often renewed Butchers Broom Bruscus THis groweth up somewhat more then a foot high Description with a tough round stalk which spreadeth into divers green branches the leaves are of a dark green colour hard and prickly at the ends it giveth a whitish green flower consisting of four round pointed leaves after which comes a round berry which is red when it is ripe the root is thick white and great at the head from whence shooteth divers thick white tough strings Names In Latine it is called Ruscus and Bruscus in English it is called Knee-holme Knee-holly and Butchers broom because Butchers use it to cleanse their Stalls and keep Flyes away from the meat Places and Time It grows plentifully in dry waste grounds and near Holly Bushes you may often finde it in most places of this Land in dry light ground The berries are ripe about September and the leaves abide green all Winter Quality and Vertues The roots which are chiefly used in Physick are moderately hot and dry with a thin quality it is one of the five opening roots and doth open obstructions provokes Vrine expels Gravel and the Stone helpeth the Strangury drives down the Terms cleanseth the Breast of Phlegm and the Chest of clammy humours being taken with Honey the berries may be used in Electuaries for the same purpose The juyce being drunk and a pultis made of the berries and leaves being applyed is effectual in knitting broken Bones or parts out of joynt In diseases of the Reins and Bladder a Decoction of the sive opening roots is thus made Take of this root and the roots of Parsley Fennel Smallage and Grass of each a like quantity and boil them in White Wine and drink the decoction respect being had to the strength of the Pattent in making it stronger or weaker It may also be made in water for want of wine and sweetned with Sugar Broom and Broomrape Genista TDe Broom needs no description the Broomrape springeth up from the roots of the Broom in form like unto Bastard Orchis called Birds-nest having a root like a Turnip or Rape Names It is called in Latine Genista and the broom-rape Rapum Genistae Place and Time Broom delights to grow in dry grounds and quickly over runs whole Fields if they lie a little untilled My Fathers Grounds at Holshot in Hampshire are never free from it altogether it flowers about the latter end of Summer Quality and
Lappa minor and Asperugo in English Cleavers Clivers and Goosegrass because young Goslings feed on it Place and Time It runs up by hedge sides and hangs to what grows next it it flowers in June and July and the seed is ripe in August which soweth it self Nature and Vertues Cleavers are of thin parts indifferently hot and dry an herb of Mars the young herb boiled in Water-Gruel in the Spring cleanses the Blood and strengthens the Liver An unguent made of the herb with Hogs Suet helps Wens the Kings Evil and Paps swollen with curdled milk The distilled water and the decoction helps the yellow Jaundies drunk twice a day and stops Fluxes The juyce dropped into the Ears takes away the pains of them the juyce or bruised leaves applyed to a green Wound stops the Bleeding and closes it up so doth the powder thereof and helpeth old Vlcers Cloves Caryophillus THis aromatical Indian Fruit doth much comfort the Head Heart and vital parts they strengthen Nature break Winde and stir up Venery helps Fluxes of the Belly is good against Infection and stayes Vomiting the chymical oyl is good in a Quartain Ague and weakness of the Stomach and for the Head-ache two or three drops given in Beer or Wine or other drink it easeth the Tooth-ache let old and phlegmatick persons use it young people and chollerick are to refrain it Clove Gilly-flowers Caryophylleus flos THis cordial flower is well known Nature and Vertues It is a temperate slower no way exceeding in heat or dryness cold or moisture a plant of Sol the Conserve and Syrrup of the slowers are gallant cordials comforting the Heart it resisteth the Plague or any Venome it strengthens Nature and is good against Consumptions the flowers pickled are an excellent sauce and stir up appetite being set in a glass in the Sun in vinegar they make a good vinegar to preserve from the Pestilence and revive one in a Swoon the Temples and Nostrils being washed therewith ☞ See further in Adam in Eden by W. Coles Clowns Woundwort Sideritis IT springs up with square rough green stalks near two foot high Description at every joynt grow two long narrow dark green leaves sharp at the point and bluntly dented about the edges the flowers compass the stalks towards the top and grow to a spiky head of a purplish colour having long gaping hoods with some white spots in them the seeds are round and blackish the root is fibrous with some tuberous knobs among them both herb and root have a strong smell much like stinking horehound Names Gerhard as I remember saith he gave it the name of Clowns-wort from a clownishianswer he had of a man that had cut his Leg with his Sithe and it is called Panax Coloni in Latine and Sideritis Places and Time It grows by Ditches sides in most places of this Land flowers in August and the seed is ripe in September Nature and Vertues It is dry in the first degree and reputed hot in the second of an earthy Saturnine quality it doth cure green Wounds and closes them up to admiration being stamped with Hogs Lard and applyed thereunto it stanches Blood and dryes up Fluxes of humours in old Vlcers a syrrup made thereof and taken inwardly heals inward Wounds Veins broken spitting pissing or vomiting blood and stayes the bloody Flux A Plaister or Vnguent of the Herb and some Comphrey with it helps swollen Veins and consolidates a cut muscle and is excellent for Ruptures of the Belly being applyed to the place Columbines Aquilina THere are Columbines of several colours Description as white flowers purple and carnation colour with divers others but they are so generally known I shall describe it no further Names No good Latine name can I finde for it yet it is termed Aquileia Aquilina and Aquilegia the onely English name Columbines Place and Time I have seen both the white and purple coloured grow wilde in our Meadows in Hampshire where the ground is somewhat dry as in a place called Gassen Mead in Holshot but they frequently grow in Gardens they flower about the beginning of May and are gone by the end of June Nature and Vertues They are temperately cold and dry moderately digestive a plant of Venus and sympathizingly cures sore Throats Canker and the Kings Evil the leaves boiled in milk and given to the party affected the seeds drunk in Ale is good for the Quinzy it also heals inflammations of the Mouth and Jaws a dram of the seed and half a penny weight of Saffron drunk in wine and the party covered to sweat opens the Liver and is good against the Janudies The decoction of the herb and root with some Ambergrease added helps Swoonings The seed drunk in wine causes speedy delivery and the juyce is good in the beginning of a Phrenzy the patient eating with it pottage of Sage Valerian and Rue Of Coloquintida or the bitter Gourd THis out-landish Indian Plant is hot and dry in the third degree very bitter of taste and strongly purging it may be taken to purge Phlegm by strong bodies being corrected with oyl of Roses Gum Tragacanth and Ginger which will help the griping pains it will cause if taken alone but being thus made up with Rose-water into pills or trochis it purges viscous humours tough Phlegm and Choller and water from the Brain Lungs and Breast and therefore is good against Fluxes of Rheume Apoplexy Falling Sickness and swimming of the Head the Jaundies old Coughs and rotten putrid Fevers the Chollick and Dropsie the decoction thereof in Vinegar easeth pains of the Teeth they being washed therewith being steeped in vinegar it helps the Morphew Scurf and Scabs in Glisters which is the safest way it may be given thus take the pulp hereof two drams Camomile flowers M. 1. Anniseed Comminseed of each ℥ ss make hereof a decoction fair water and in a pint thereof dissolve honey of Roses and oyl of Cammomile each ℥ iii. The dose otherwise is from five grains to ten Colts-foot Tussilago THis pectoral plant is well known onely hardly observed in this that it sendeth forth its flowers before the leaves Names Tussilago is the common Latine name Foals-foot and Colts-foot the English because the leaves resemble a Horses foot Place and Time It loves to grow in moist and low Grounds in good Ground it flowers in the end of March and beginning of April the flowers and stalks quickly fade away afterwards come the leaves which abide green all Summer Nature and Vertues It is cooling and drying being fresh but when the moisture is evaporated it inclines to heat and driness it is an herb of Venus very effectual for infirmities of the Lungs wheesing and shortness of Breath the leaves taken like Tobacco draws away thin Rheumes distilling upon the Lungs and helps the Cough the distilled water with Elder Flowers is good against hot Agues to drink about two ounces at a time it likewise helps hot Swellings inflammations as St. Anthonies
correct the infirmities thereof and dissolve pains and swellings of the Belly and the juyce of the root maketh the hair of a black colour being used for that purpose Wall-fern or Osmond Royal. Osmunda IT hath a great triangle stalk about a yard high Description beset on each side with large winged leaves dented or cut like polipody resembling the large leaves of the Ash-tree towards the tops of the branches grow brown rough and round grains but they are not the seed the root is great and thick covered over with many scales and interlacing roots having in the middle of the great wooddy part thereof some whiteness Names It is called in Latine Osmunda filix Palustris and of some Filicastrum by Alchimists Lunaria major in English Water-fern Osmund Royal and Osmond the Water man Place and Time It grows in moist boggy Ditches as in the Ditch near the Well in Holshot Lane in Hampshire it flourisheth in Summer as the other Ferns do and the leaves decay in Winter but the root continueth long Nature and Vertues The roots are hot and dry but not so hot as the other Ferns the root especially the heart thereof boiled or stamped and taken with some convenient liquor is good for those that are bruised by falls dry beaten or wounded for which cause it is used in wound drinks it is reputed to dissolve clotted blood in any inward part of the body and that it can drive it out by the wound The young sprigs at their first coming forth are good for all the said purposes and to be put into Balsoms Oyls and Plaisters and Vnguents for wounds punches and the like Fig-wort Vide Throat-wort Filipendula Vide Dropwort Dill. Anethum IT groweth up with one stalk Description hardly so big or high as Fennel yet it is so like Fennel that it is often mistaken for it yet the leaves are harder and thicker then Fennel of a stronger and more unpleasant smell and hath smaller Umbels of yellow flowers and the seeds are flatter and thinner then Fennel seed and not of so pleasant a taste the root dyes every year Names It is called in Latine Anethum in English Dill. Place and Time It is sown in Gardens and being once sown if the seeds be suffered to shed it needs no more sowing it flowers in July and seeds in August Nature and Vertues Gerrard saith it is dry in the beginning of the second degree and hot in the end thereof Parkinson saith it is hot in the third degree and dry in the second an herb of Mercury some say that it increases milk in womens breasts though many Authours deny it it is good to expel Winde and provoke Vrine ease pains in the body and stay Vomiting it strengthens the Brain stayes Looseness and stirs up lust being boiled in Wine and drunk but taken in too much quantity it dulls the sight it digesteth raw and viscous humours and easeth pains of winde The oyl is good to dissolve Imposthumes to procure sleep and warm the Brain Stomach and Belly the parts being anointod therewith ☞ See further in Adam in Eden by W. Coles Dittander or Pepperwort Lepidium IT hath long broad sharp pointed leaves of a light blueish green colour dented about the edges Description a round and tough stalk a foot and a half high having divers branches and little white flowers after which comes small seed in little heads Names It is called in Latine Lepidium and Piperitis Place and Time It groweth naturally in many places of this land in low grounds as in the Marshes by Rochester in Kent it flowers about July Nature and Vertues It is hot and dry in the third degree of a sharp taste it hath a cleansing quality and is a Martial plant The leaves being made into an oyntment with Hogs suet or bruised and applyed to the place helps the Sciatica Hip-Gout and pain in the Joynts the part being afterwards bathed with Wine and Oyl and wrapped in Wool or Lambs Skins some women give the juyce of Dittander a spoonful or two in Ale to women in Travail to procure easie delivery it helps to take away the scars of Burning Scabs and scars in the body and cleanseth discolourings of the Skin Docks Rumex THere are many kindes of Docks as the red Dock and Bloodwort but they are all so well known I shall forbear any further description Names It s called in Latine Lapathum and Rumex and Bloodwort Lapathum Sanguineum Their places and time of growth is very well known Nature and Vertues They are cold and dry generally yet herbs of Jove and therefore good to strengthen the Liver and cleanse the Blood especially Bloodwort they are good to cool hot Livers and the red Dock root is good against the yellow Jaundies The root doth also provoke Vrine and the Terms and expells Gravel out of the Bladder The decoction of the seed helps wamblings in the Stomach and stops Fluxes The distilled water cleanses the Skin from the Morphew and Freckles Dodder of Time or Epithymum DOdder shoots strings or threads out of the ground at first Description which are greater or less according to the nature of the plant whereon it grows or fastneth these strings have no leaves but winde themselves thick about the plant they lay hold on ready sometimes to strangle it after they have gotten good hold they break off at bottom and receive nourishment from the plant partaking of its nature it puts forth clusters of small husks or heads which send forth small whitish flowers and afterwards small pale coloured flat seed and twice as big as Poppey seed Names Dodder is called in Shops Cuscuta but that which groweth upon Time Epithymum it grows also upon Nettles Flax Ferne Savory Tares and other Plants that which grows upon Tares the Husbandmen call Hell-weed because they cannot destroy it Places and Time That of Time and Flax grow rarely in England but those of Nettles and Fern do It flowers in July and August Nature and Vertues Dodders do partake of the nature of the Plant on which they grow and therefore Dodder of Time is hot and dry in the third degree whose vertues follow It purges Choller and Phlegm and therefore is good against Melancholly hardness of the Spleen Madness Faintings and the Quartane Ague windiness stopping of the Kidneys Itch Leprosie Vlcers and the French Pox It opens the Gall cleanses the Blood and is good against the Jaundies and strengthens the Liver and Spleen and is good against all hypocondriack passions Dodder of Nettles and Broom provokes Vrine and the other Dodders participate of the nature of the Plant whereon they grow and therefore have the same Vertues so that Mr. Culpepper was besides the saddle in attributing them all to the dominion of Saturn ☞ See more of this in the Expert Doctors Dispensatory written by P. Morellus ☞ See more of this in Adam in Eden by Will. Coles Dog-toothed Violet or Corral-wort Dentaria IT shooteth forth one or two winged leaves
Gall helps shortness of breath The roots in dyet drink or broth cleanseth the Blood opens the Liver provokes Vrine and helps the evil colour of the face after long Sickness and causeth a good habit throughout the body the juyce kills worms in the Ears being dropped therein The ordinary Fennel is stronger then the sweet Fennel and therefore better for the purposes aforesaid Fennel Giant Ferulago THis plant grows in Cyrene Description and place and brings forth the Gum called Ammoniacum which is hot and dry in the second degree which is good to dissolve Tumors and taken inwardly it purges Phlegm opens stoppings of the Liver helps Astma's and stoppings of breath it provokes Vrine and the Terms eases the Gout and Sciatica softens Corns and hard Swellings ☞ See further in Adam in Eden written by Will. Celes Sow-Fennel or Hogs-Fennel Peucedanum IT hath divers branched stiff stalks Description full of knees of thick long leaves three for the most part joyned together at a place among which riseth a crested stalk less then Fennel somewhat joynted and leaves thereon and towards the top some branches on the tops whereof grow tufts of yellow flowers the seeds are thin flat and yellowish almost twice as big as Fennel seed the root is great and grows deep with many fibres smelling like hot brimstone and yielding a yellowish juyce like a Gum. Names Peucedanus and Peucedanum are the Latine names in English Hogs-Fennel Sow-Fennel Hore-strange and Hore-strong Sulpher-wort or Brimstone-wort Places and Time It grows in salt low Marshes as by Whitstable and Feaversham in Kent and many other places they flower and seed towards the end of Summer Nature and Vertues It is a Mercurial herb hot in the second degree and dry in the beginning of the third The juyce dissolved in Wine and dropped into the Ears helps such griefs thereof as proceed from a cold cause the same used with Vinegar and Rose-water or the juyce with a little Euphorbium put to the Nose helps the Phrenzy Lethargy Giddiness falling Sickness long and inveterate Head-ache the Palsie Sciatica Cramp and generally all diseases of the Nerves and Sinews if it be used with Oyl and Vinegar as saith Dioscorides and Gallen the juyce dissolved in Wine or put in an Egge is good for the Cough shortness of Breath and winde in the body it gently purges the Belly dissolves winde and hardness of the Spleen gives ease to women that have hard Labour and easeth pains of the Reins Bladder and Womb the juyce put into a hollow tooth easeth the pain and so doth the root but more slowly The powder of the dried root cleanseth foul Vlcers and removes splinters or broken bones out of the flesh dryes up inveterate Sores and is of a great force in green Wounds Fig-wort Vide Throat-wort Flax. Linum THis needs no description good Housewifes know it well enough it is called in Latine Linum which is somewhat near our English word Linnen fine linnen cloth being made thereof it flowers from Midsummer till August it is sown in divers places of this Land Nature and Vertues The seed thereof which we call Linseed which is onely used in Physick is hot in the first degree and in a mean between moist and dry but Dodoneus saith it hath a superfluous moisture and causes winde and that the Inhabitants of Middleborough in Zealand for want of Corn eat thereof to the great prejudice of thier healths but the seed being boiled in water and some honey put to it is said to case the Chollick Stitches and Inflammations I fancy not that medicine but the seed is a good ingredient in pultisses with Fenugreek and Mallows to mollisie and discuss Tumors in any part of the body and being used with Myrrhe and Rozen it helps Ruptures and swellings of the cods the decoction thereof in wine is good to stay the spreading of silthy Sores being used thereto and being mixed with honey or suct and wax and applyed it helps hard swellings under the Ears and Throat and remedies spots and discolourings of the skin Fig-Tree Ficus THe Fig-tree seldom grows in England but as it is planted against a Wall yet at the house of Rowland Hinde Esquire at Hedsor in Buckinghamshire grows or lately did grow a Fig-Tree in his Court having a body as big as an ordinary Elme or Oak growing low and spreading much ground wiht great Boughs Names The Greeks call the Tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine both tree and fruit is called Ficus Place and Time They grow plentifully in Spain and Italy and bear fruit both in the Spring and in August and September Nature and Vertues Figs are hot and moist almost in the third degree and yield good nourishment but being immoderately eaten they ingender crude humours in the Stomach and hurt hot Livers and chollerick Stomachs they are therefore best for old phlegmatick persons being eaten with Almonds they cleanse the Breast and the Lungs A decoction of them with Hysop and Liquorish is good for the Cough of the Lungs and for the Reins and Bladder and to recover a good colur to them that have lost it by Sickness it also cleanses the Womb and is useful for the Dropsie Quinzy and the falling Sickness they are a good Antidote against the Plague Poison and infections Air being stamped together with Salt Rue and Nut Kernels and eaten fasting in the mornings a Fig sliced and toasted and applyed to an aking Tooth sometimes gives ease The decoction of the leaves is good to wash sore heads for the Leprosie Morphew and running Sores and a syrrup made thereof is good against Coughs shortness of Breath and all diseases of the Breast and Lungs Filberd Vide Hazel Nut. Fistick Nuts Pistacia THis tree grows in the East Indies Persia and Arabia and the hot parts of Italy Names It is called in Latine Pistacia and Pistacium in English the fruit is called Pistacies and Fistick Nuts Nature and Vertues They are under the dominion of Jupiter of temperature hot and moist they increase seed and stir up Venery being eaten condited or otherwise they recover strength in those bodies which are in Consumptions and are grateful to the Stomach they are good against bitings of venomous creatures they open obstructions of the Liver Chest and Lungs concocting and digesting raw humours that offend them they are a little astringent strengthening the Liver and Stomach used either in meats or medicines they remove Sand and Gravel out of the Reins and Kidneys asswage their pain and are good for Vlcers Fleawort Herba pulicaria ORdinary Fleawort groweth up with a stalk two foot high Description or more full of branches on every side up to the top and at every joynt grow two small long and narrow whitish green leaves at the tops of every joynt stand divers short small scaly or chaffy heads out of which come small whitish yellow threds like those of plantain which are the bloomings or
flowers the seed is small and shining while it is fresh very like Fleas but turning black when it grows old the root is white hard and woody perishing every year The whole plant is whitish hairy and smelling somewhat like Rozin Names It s called in Latine Herba pulicaria and in Shops Psyllium in English Fleawort Place and time It grows with us no where but in Gardens but there is another kinde much like the former which grows in Fields near the Sea-coasts they flower in July or thereabouts with us but in thier natural Countreys all the Summer Nature and Vertues The seed of Fleawort which is chiefly used in Physick is cold in the second degree and temperate in moisture and driness according to Gallen and Serapio it is a Saturnine Plant. The muscilage made with Rose water and taken with syrrup of Violets or a little Sugar purges Choller and Phlegm is useful in burning Fevers to lenisie chirst and driness of the mouth and throat it helps also Hoarseness Inflammations of the Breast Lungs and Head and hot pains in the joynts the muscilage of the seed in an Electuary with Marmalade of Quinces and Sugarcandy hath the same effects and stayes the fluxions of hot Rheumes The seeds dryed and taken with Plantain water stayes fluxes of the Belly and helps the gripings thereof caused by Chollerick humours or the over-working of violent Medicines the seeds bruised or the herb mixed with juyce of Night-shade or Housleek oyl of Roses and Vinegar easeth the hot Gout and hot Imposthumes the water wherein the seeds have been steeped is good against St. Anthonies fire the juyce with Honey put into the Ears stayes the running thereof and is good for sore Breasts being often applyed thereunto being mixed with Hogs Grease and applyed to corrupt Sores and Vlcers it heals them The muscilage of the seed made in Plantain water and mixed with the yolk of an Egge or two and a little of the Vnguent Populeon easeth the pains of the Piles and Hemorrhoides being bound thereto It is not safe for cold and moist bodies Flixweed Thalictrum FLixweed springs up with a round upright hard stalk about two foot high Description spread into many branches whereon grow many grayish green leaves finely jagged like Roman Wormwood the flowers are small of a dark yellow colour and grows in a spiky fashion on the tops of the spriggy branches after which grow long pods with small yellowish seed in them The root is long weedy and perishes every year Names It is called in Latine Pseudonasturtium Sylvestre Thalictrum and Sophia Chirurgorum Places and Time It grows by Hedge sides High wayes upon old walls in many places of this Land and flowers from the beginning of June till the end of September Nature and Vertues It s a drying astringent Saturnine Herb the seed drunk in Wine or water wherein Steell hath been often quenched stops the Lask Bloody Flux and all other issues of Blood the Herb boiled performs the same effects and also it consolidates Bones broken or out of Joynt from which vertue it obtained the name of Sophia Chirurgorum a syrrup of it may be made to be taken inwardly for the former purposes The juyce drunk in Wine or the decoction of the Herb kills Worms in the Stomach and Belly and Worms which sometimes breed in Vlcers the juyce or bruised herb put into Oyntments or Salves quickly heals old Sores how foul or malignant soever they be They whose Stomachs cannot brooke any of the former Medicines may take the distilled water which worketh the same effects but not so effectually or powerfully Fluellin or Lluellin Veronica Mas. OF this plant there is a male and a female kinde Description called male and female Speedwell before the Welch-man gave it her Countrey name Lluellin The common Speedwell hath divers soft leaves about the breadth of a two pence of a hoary green colour a little dented about the edges set by couples at the joynts of the hairy brownish stalks which lean upon the ground never standing upright but shooting forth roots as they lie upon the ground at divers joynts the flowers grow one above another at the top and are of a blueish purple colour sometimes white the seed is small and blackish contained in small flat husks The root is fibrous Names In Latine it hath been called Veronica Mas and Veronica Femina and Betonica Pauli in English Male and Female Speedwel and Pauls Betony but the Shentleman of Wales hath given it the name of Lluellin because it saved her Nose which the French Pox had almost gotten from her Place and Time They grow upon dry Banks and Wood sides and in sandy grounds in many places of this Land They flower in June and July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues The Male is temperately hot and dry the Female cooling and drying the Male is most common and of greatest use they are both good wound Herbs a Salve being made therewith with wax oyl and Turpentine it also hinders the fretting of old Vlcers stayes Bleeding of Wounds dissolves Swellings it strengthens the Heart and expells Poison and Venome from thence it strengthens the Memory eases swimmings and pains in the Head The decoction given in Wine it cleanses the Blood and helps the Leprosie as is said A dram of it in powder in its own distilled water helps the Cough and diseases of the Lungs and Breast It opens the Liver and Spleen cleanses Vlcers in the Reins and Bladder the distilled water is good to wash Wounds and Sores and helps Morphew Scabs and Freckles a little Coper as being dissolved therein and bathed therewith The Female Speedwel or Fluellin bruised and applyed with Barley Meal helps watring Eyes caused by hot Rheumes flowing from the Head it stops the overflowing of the Terms and all Fluxes of Blood it helps the inward parts which need consolidating and strengthning the leaves being sod in broth with a Hen or piece of Veal It is effectual to heal green Wounds and to cleanse and heal old soul Vlcers and fretting Cancers the juyce and decoction of the herb taken inwardly and the herb used outwardly ☞ See more of this in The Art of Simpling written by W. Coles Fox Gloves Digitalis IT is known so commonly almost to every Childe in my Countrey of Hampshire that I shall forbear to make any large description of it Names Authours call it by many strange Latine names as Digitalis Virga Regia Campanula silvestris and many other affected names We in English call it Fox-Gloves and in Hampshire it is very well known by the name of Poppers because if you hold the broad end of the flower close between your finger and thumb and blow at the small head as into a bladder till it be full of winde and then suddenly strike on it with your other hand it will give a great crack or pop Place and Time They grow generally in dry grounds and under Hedges sides in most Countreys
which I refer you White Lillies Lilium THe English white Lilly groweth in most Gardens of England and will increase much by the root where it is planted it is so vulgarly known as needs no further description They flower from May to the end of June Names The white Lilly is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Lilium and Rosa Junonis or Juno's Rose it being reported that it sprung up of her milk which she spilt upon the ground after Hercules had sucked her in her sleep Nature and Vertues The white Lilly is hot partaking of a subtil substance the root dry in the first degree and hot in the second the leaves boiled in red Wine and applyed to old Wounds or Vlcers doth them much good in expediting the cure as saith Gallen The distilled water being drunk causeth easie deliverance and expelleth the After-birth saith Alexandrinus The flowers steeped in oyl Olive and set in the Sun in Summer in a glass and repeated two or three times is good to harden the softness of the Sinews and help the hardness the Matrix The root stamped and strained with Wine-and drunk two or three dayes together expelleth the Pestilence causing it to break out and the juyce thereof tempered with barley Meal and baked in Cakes and eaten ordinarily for a moneth or six weeks together forbearing all other bread in the mean time helps to the cure of the Dropsie the same root roasted in the Embers and stamped with some leaven of Rye Bread and Hogs grease breaketh Plagues Sores and Pestilential Botches and ripens Venerial Imposthumes and Buboes in the Flank or elsewhere The same root stamped with Honey and applyed gleweth together Sinews that be cut it consumeth and cleanseth away the Vlcers of the head called Achores and all scurviness of the Beard and Face and being stamped with Vinegar Henbane Leaves or Barley Meal it cures Humours and Imposthumes of the privy parts Laserwort and its Assa Faetida Laserpitium THis is an Outlandish Plant growing in Syria America and Libia There issueth a Gum or liquor out of the same called Laser but that which is gathered from those Plants in Media and Syria is that stinking Gum called in our Shops Assa Faetida which is good to be applyed unto the Navels of such Women as are troubled with the rising of the Mother and for them to smell unto for that purpose the reason whereof you may read in my Womens Counsellour The root of Laserpitium is hot and dry in the third degree and so is Laser The root well pounded with Oyl scattereth clotted Blood cureth the Kings Evil and takes away black and blue marks that come by stripes or bruises the places being anointed or plaistered therewith The same root chewed in the Mouth asswageth the Tooth-ache A plaister made thereof with the oyl of Ireos and Wax is good to help the Sciatica The Laser or Gum of Laserpitium dissolved in Water and drunken taketh away a sudden Hoarseness being supt up with a rear Egge it cures the Cough and taken in broth is good against an old Plurisie being taken with dryed Figs it cureth the Jaundies and Dropsie A scruple thereof taken with a little Pepper and Myrrhe is good against the shrinking of Sinews and taken with syrrup of Vinegar it is good against the Falling Sickness The same drunk in Wine with Pepper and Frankincense is good against the shaking's of Agues being applyed with Copperas and Verdigrease it takes away superfluous out-growings of the Flesh Polypus in the Nose and nianginess and applyed with vinegar pepper and wine it cures the Scurf of the Head and hinders the falling off the Hair Lignum Aloes Vide Xylo-Aloe White Maiden-hair or Wall Rue Ruta Muraria IT brings forth many small round slender leaves Description cut into two or three parts very hard in handling on the outside smooth and green and of an ill-favoured dead colour underneath set with little fine spots the root is black and full of strings Names It s called in Latine Ruta muraria and Salvia vitae in English Wall Rue Stone Rue or white Maiden-hair Place and Time It grows upon old Walls near unto Waters and Wells is green as well Winter as Summer and beareth neither flower nor seed Nature and Vertues Wall Rue is much like the other Maiden-hair both in temperature and vertue it is commended against Ruptures in young Children and affirmed to be good if the powder be taken continually for forty dayes together it is likewise good for the Cough shortness of breath pains and stitches in the sides the decoction of it being drunk digesteth raw humours which stick in the Lungs takes away the pain of the Kidneys and bladder gently provokes Vrine and expelleth the Stone ☞ See further of this in Culpeppers School of Physick Sweet Maudlin Vide Alecoast Dogs Mercury Cynocrambe IT is like the Garden Mercury Description but that the leaves hereof are greater the stalk not so tender but very brittle growing about half a yard high having no branches at all the flowers are small and yellow Names Dogs Mercury is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Cynocrambe Canina Mercurialis Sylvestris in English Dogs Cole and Dogs Mercury Place and Time It grows about Green Hithe and Gravesend in Kent and about Hamsted near London and in many Woods Copses and Borders of Fields flourishes all the Summer Nature and Vertues Dogs Mercury comes near the other Mercury in Nature and quality though seldom used it is also reported to cure the biting of mad Dogs from whence it is thought to obtain the name of Dogs Mercury Naile-wort Vide Whitlow-grass Madder Rubia Tinctorum THere be six kindes Description whereof I shall describe the Garden Madder which shoots forth many stalks standing upright at first and so continue if they be kept cut but if they grow without cutting they become weak and trailing upon the ground unless they grow by some hedge and then they climb thereon being four square rough and full of joynts at every of which come forth long and somewhat narrow leaves standing about the stalks like the rowel of a Spur at the tops whereof come forth many small pale yellow flowers after which come small round heads green at the first and reddish afterward but black when they are ripe wherein is contained the seed the root is long growing deep and creeping far about the ground fat full of substance and of a very clear red colour Names In Latine it is called Rubia Tinctorum in English Madder Place and Time It is manured in Gardens and flowers in June and July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues Madder roots are hot in the second degree and dry in the â—â—rd an Herb of Mars it hath an opening quality and also a binding The decoction in Wine provokes Vrine Womens Courses and also brings away the Birth and After-birth it cures the Jaundies purges melancholly and opens the Spleen and Gall
against the stinging of Bees and Wasps the oyntment of Marsh Mallows doth mollifie heat and moisten and is good against the Plurisie and other pains of the Sides and Breast Maple Tree IT is a Tree well known to Turners who use the Timber of it it is said to be under the dominion of Jupiter and a strengthner of the Liver The decoction of the leaves or Bark being used strengthens the Liver and opens obstructions of the Liver and Spleen but I believe it is not much experienced if at all Wilde and Sweet Marjoram Marjorana SWeet Marjoram is very well known Description and the Field Marjoram is very like it but we shall describe the wilde It hath a root which creepeth much under ground and continueth a long time sending up sundry brownish hard square stalks with small dark green leaves like sweet Marjoram but harder and broader at the tops of the stalks stand trufts of flowers of a deep purplish red colour the seed is small and somewhat blacker then that of sweet Marjoram Names In Latine it is called Amaracus and Marjorana in English Sweet Marjoram and Marjoram gentle and the wilde kinde Organy Origanum and bastard Marjoram Place and Time The sweet grows onely in Gardens the wilde kinde in borders of Corn Fields and Pastures in sundry places of this Land It flowers about July and August Nature and Vertues They are all Herbs of Mercury the common Sweet Marjoram is hot and dry in the second degree it is comfortable in cold Diseases of the Head Stomach Sinews and other parts taken inwardly and outwardly applyed it digesteth openeth and strengthneth comforts the Brain helps the Memory and is good against the Apoplexy the Head being washed with a Lye made of it eases grievous pains thereof it helps coldness of the Stomach and digestion being given in powder in wine The oyl of it is good to supple warm and stretch forth stiff Joynts and hard Sinews it helps cold griefs and windiness of the Womb and the dead Palsie the back Bone being anointed with it it helps Spasmus Cynicus which is a wrying of the mouth aside being snuffed up into the Nose it is a gallant Oyl to strengthen the Muscles and other parts of the Body it helps noise of the Ears being dropped into them The decoction of this Herb is good in the beginning of a Dropsie it heats the inward Members softens the Milt and asswageth the swelling of it it helps those that cannot make water and easeth pains of the Belly The powder of the leaves snuffed upon into the Nose stayes Rheume cleanses and warms the Head The flower and herb being put into a fine Bag and applyed to the Stomach easeth pains thereof Marigolds Calendula THis well known herb needs no description Names It is called in Latine Calendula and of some Caltha in English Marigolds and Ruds Place and Time I think there are few Gardens without them they flower all Summer and in Winter too if it be milde Nature and Vertues Marigold flowers are hot almost in the second degree especially being dryed it is a Solar Herb and under the sign Leo a great comforter of the Heart and though it be so plentiful and therefore less regarded it is not much inferiour to Saffron The Marigold Flowers resist poison and are good in contagious Fevers and the Jaundies and are very expulsive and therefore effectual in the Small Pox and Measles they provoke Sweat and Womens Courses and expell the After-birth The Conserve of the Flowers is very good against corrupted Air and in time of Pestilence to prevent Infection it helps the trembling of the Heart being taken morning and evening The flowers used in Possets or Broth either green or dry do comfort the Heart and Spirits and expell Pestilential qualities that might annoy them The Juyce taketh away Warts being washed therewith and helps the Tooth-ache and being mixed with vinegar and a hot swelling bathed therewith asswages it and gives ease and being dropped into the ears it kills worms therein The distilled water is good for sore Eyes and a Plaister made of the dry flowers in Powder Hogs Grease Turpentine and Rosin and applyed to the Breast comforts and strengthens the Heart in Feavers very much ☞ See further in The Expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus Masterwort Imperatoria IT hath divers great broad leaves divided into many parts Description standing three together for the most part upon a foot stalk being somewhat broad and cut in on the edges into three or more divisions all of them dented about the brims of a dark green colour much like Angelica amongst which rise up two or three short stalks about two foot high and slender with such leaves at the Joynts as grow below but lesser bearing Umbels of white Flowers and after them small thin flat blackish seed bigger then Dill seeds The root is somewhat great and groweth rather side-wayes then down right into the ground and is the hottest and sharpest part of the plant and the seed next unto it being somewhat on the out-side and smelling well Names It is called Imperatoria Masterwort and false Pellitory of Spain Places and Time It is usually kept in Gardens with us flowers and seeds about the end of August Nature and Vertues The root of Masterwort is hot in the third degree and of subtle parts an herb of Mars The dried root chewed in the mouth draweth Rheume from the head easing pains of the Head and Teeth and draweth away defluxions of Rheume upon the Lungs or Eyes it dissolves winde and is good in cold grief of the Stomach and Body it provokes Vrine helps to break the Stone and expells Gravel it is good against the suffocation of the Mother drives down the Courses and expells a dead Childe it is good against the Dropsie Cramp and falling Sickness it provokes Sweat and is good against all cold Poisons The juyce dropped or Tents wet therein and applyed to green Wounds or old fretting Vlcers doth soon cleanse and heal them it is likewise good for the cold Gout Mastick Tree Lentiscus THis Outlandish Tree I shall not describe but onely sum up the Vertues of its Gum called Mastick The Tree is called in Latine Lentiscus the Gum Resina Lentiscina Mastiche and Mastix Mastick is very good for the Tooth-ache being steeped in Rose water and the Mouth washed therewith it fastens loose Teeth and strengthens the Gums being held or chewed in the Mouth it draws away phlegm and causes a sweeet Breath it cleanses and dryes up Vlcers and Sores being used in plaisters and oyntments it strengthens and comforts the Stomach mollifies Tumors and eases pains of the Joynts and Sinews for all which purposes the chymical oyl is most effectual being taken inwardly it stayes Vomiting and brings good digestion it stops the Flux of the Belly and taken with syrrup of Colts-foot it helps Coughs it is a good corrigent in strong purging Medicines abating their acrimony or sharpness Sweet
the Worms in Children Onions being sliced and dipped in the juyce of Sorrel and given to those that have the Tertian Ague helpeth them in once or twice taking The seed stirreth up lust and increaseth natural seed A great Onion made hollow and the place filled up with good Treacle and well roasted under the Embers and then the outermost skin pulled off and then beaten together and applyed to a Plague Sore or putrid Vlcer is a sovereign remedy the juyce snussed up into the Nostrils purgeth the Head and helps the Leprosie and is good for scalding or burning and being used with Vinegar it takes away spots and blemishes in the skin and dropped into the ears it easeth the pains and noise in them The juyce mixed with the decoction of Penniroyal and a cloth wet therein and applyed easeth the Gout The juyce mixed with Honey causeth Hair to grow a bald Head being anointed therewith They help kibed Heels being reasted and applyed with Butter or Hogs Grease being applyed with Figs it helps to ripen Imposihumes and stamped with Vinegar and applyed they provoke the Hemorrhoides and Piles they are hurtful to Chollerick bodies and immoderately eaten especially raw they breed ill humours in the Stomach offend the Blood increase thirst dull the Sight and Memory and cause the Head-ache Orange Tree Aurantia I Shall not describe this fragrant Tree it being Outlandish yet may be seen in some English Gardens though it seldom comes to any perfection here Names They have been called Aurea mala Hesperidum and by divers Aurantia by Dodonaeus Anarantium and by Lobel Malum Aureum The flowers are called Napha and the Oyntment made thereofVnguentum ex Naphâ Nature and Vertues Oranges are not wholly of one temperature the rinde is hot in the first degree and dry in the second and the juyce is cold in the second degree and dry in the first and the sweeter are more hot then the sowre ones The peel is very good to warm a cold Stomach to break Winde and avoid cold Phlegm from thence and being condited or preserved they mend a stinking Breath help digestion and strengthen the Heart and Spirits The juyce and inner substance is good against Corruptions of the Air the Plague and other hot Fevers and is grateful to the Heart and Mouth of the Stomach and Strengthens the same it helps also wambling of the Gâ—â—mach heaviness and trembling of the Heart restraws Vomiting and loathing of meat and quencheth Thirst the seeds resist poison and are good to kill and expell Worms the yntment made of the flowers is good for a Cough and to expectorate raw Phlegm the Stomach being anointed with it The distilled water of the same flowers is good for perfumes being very odoriferous it is good also to drink against contagious diseases and helpeth cold infirmities of the Mother Orpine Telephium COmmon Orpine springeth up with divers round brittle stalks Description thick set with fat and fleshly leaves without any order and little or nothing dented of a pale green colour the flowers are white or whitish growing in tufts after which come small chaffy husks with seed like dust in them the roots consist of divers thick round white tuberous clogs not growing so big in some places as in others where it likes the ground better Names The Latines call it Telephium and Sempervivum sylvestre it is called also by divers other names amongst Authours too tedious to rehearse and in English Orpine and Live long Place and Time It is generally cherished in Gardens but groweth almost in every County of this Land in shadowy sides of Fields and Woods they slower in July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues Dioscorides and Galen say the true Telephium is hot and of a drying cleansing quality but that with us is cooling as Purslain and ascribed to the Moon by Culpepper The leaves of Orpine bruised and applyed to the Throat cureth the Quinzy which is an inflammation of the Throat and Gullet hindring breathing and swallowing it is seldom used inwardly with us yet Mr. Culpepper brags much of a sycrup of it for the Quinzy though not of experience But Tragus saith that in Germany the distilled water is used for excoriations and knawing of the Bowels and for Vlcers in the Lungs and Liver or other inward parts as also in the Matrix and stayeth sharpness of humours in the bloody Flux and other Fluxes of the Belly or in Wounds The root performeth the same effect It is used outwardly to cool Inflammations of Wounds and heal them and to heal scaldings and burnings the juyce beaten with Sallet Oyl and the place anointed therewith the leaf bruised and laid to a green Wound in the Hands or Legs healeth it The root helps Burstness and Ruptures ☞ See more of this in The Art of Simpling by W. Coles One Blade Unifolium THis plant springeth up with one leaf Description somewhat like the greatest leaf of Ivy but ribbed like the Plantain leaf this leaf doth alwayes spring singly out of the earth alone but when the stalk riseth up afterwards it hath two leaves upon his sides like the former at the top of the slender stalk cometh fine small white flowers after which succed many small red Berries The root is small and tender creeping far under the upper crust of the ground Names It s called Monophyllon which word is borrowed of the Greeks and in Latine Vnifolium in English One Blade or One Leaf Place and Time It groweth in Woods Pastures and shadowy places but is not very common to be found it flowers in May and the fruit is ripe in September Nature and Vertues One Blade is of a hot and dry temperature and is a singular Wound Herb especially in Wounds amongst the Nerves and Sinews half a dram of the root given in Wine and the Patient Sweating upon it is effectual against Poisons and Pestilential Diseases and the decoction of the Herb with Comphrey is good against Vlcers of the Kidneys and Entrails Orris or Flower de Luce. Iris alba ORris Description or the Common Flower de Luce hath long large flaggy leaves like a two-edged Sword amongst which spring up smooth and plain stalks half a yard long or longer bearing flowers towards the top composed of six leaves joyned together whereof three that stand upright are bent inward one towards another and in those leaves that hang downwards there are rough and hairy welts rising from the nether part of the leaf upward almost of a yellow colour The roots are long thick and knobby with many hairy threds thereat but being dry it is without them and white Names It is called in Latine Iris and Radix Marica in English Flower de Luce and Orris Place and Time They grow naturally in France Italy and those Countreys and are nourished in Gardens with us they flower about May and June and the seed is ripe in the end of August Nature and Vertues The green roots of Flower de
Rhabarb be stewed amongst them for then they become more purging and evacuate chollerick humours do help weak stomachs and are good in Feavers and other hot diseases The Gum that issues out of the trees being drunk in wine is good against the Stone the said gum or the leaves being boiled in vinegar and applyed kills Tetters Ring-worms and the Leprosie A decoction of the leaves in wine is good to gargle and wash the mouth and throat and to dry up the flux of Rheum that falleth down to the Pallat Gums or Almonds of the Throat Poley-Mountain Polium montanum THis Plant grows not naturally in England but may be had at the Apothecaries shop to which I refer you It is called in Latine Polium but more usually with the Epithet montanum Nature and Vertues Poley is dry in the third degree and hot in the end of the second of a loathsome bitter taste It is useful to open obstructions especially of the Liver and Spleen and the decoction thereof drunk helps swelling of the Spleen the Jaundies and Dropsie being boiled in Vinegar and Water It resists poison and is used in Antidotes for that purpose the fumigation thereof drives away Vermin it moves the belly and the tearms and being applyed green it soders up the lips of wounds and being dry it healeth foul sores or ulcers Polipody of the Oak Polipodium POlipody of the Oak is a small Herb Description consisting of nothing but roots and leaves bearing neither flower nor seed from the root groweth up three or four leaves singly by themselves winged and about a handful high having many small narrow leaves on each side the stalk large below and growing smaller and smaller towards the top cut into the middle rib but not dented on the edges as the male Fern is of a sad green colour smooth on the upper side but rough on the under side by reason of some yellowish spots thereon The Root is smaller then ones little finger but long and creeping asloap and hath a sweetish harshness in the taste Names It is called in Latine Polipodium in English Polipody of the Oak Places and Time That which grows upon Oaks is the best yet Polipody is also found upon old stumps of other trees as Beech Hazle and Willow and sometimes in the woods under them upon old walls and slated Churches and in many other places It is alwayes green and may be gathered at any time yet it shoots forth fresh leaves in the Spring Nature and Vertues It is hot and dry in the second degree and that which growes upon the Oak partakes of the nature of the Oak and is an herb of Jupiter whatever others say The herb taken in decoction broth or infusion purgeth burnt choller tough and thick Phlegm and dryeth up thin humours and is good for Melancholly and Quartain Agues for which it may also be taken in Whey Barley-water or honied water or the broth of a Chicken with Epithymum or Beets and Mallows added thereto The distilled water of the roots and leaves taken with Sugarcandy is good against wheazings Coughs and distillations of thin Rheum upon the Lungs which cause Ptisicks and Consumptions It is good to soften the Spleen and ease Stitches in the sides and the Chollick A dram or two of the Powder of the dryed Roots taken in honeyed water worketh gently for the purposes aforesaid the distilled water is likewise commended for Quartain Agues and against melancholly Dreams it cures the disease in the Nose called Polipus and helpeth clefts or chops that come between the fingers or toes being applyed thereunto The fresh roots beaten small or the powder of the dryed root mixed with honey and applyed to a member that hath been out of joynt and is newly set again doth much strengthen it some put Fennel seeds Anniseeds or Ginger to it to correct it which it needs not being a gentle medicine of it self and an Ounce of it may be taken at a time in a decoction if there be not Sena or some other stronger purger with it I have found it very effectual in decoctions with other Pectoral Herbs for opening and cleansing the Liver and Lungs Pome-Citron Tree Malus Citria THis Outlandish Tree is called in Latine Malus Persica and Malus Assyria and also Malus Citria Pomum Citrium and in English Citron Place and Time They grow in Spain and other hot Countreys and flower and bear fruit all the year Nature and Vertues Avicen saith the Seed is hot in the first degree and dry in the second the Bark hot in the first and dry in the end of the second the inner white substance hot and moist in the first degree and the Juyce cold and dry in the third degree It is a Solar Plant and a sovereign Cordial for the Heart an Antidote against Poison and Infections the outer rinde being dryed and taken it also warms and comforts a cold Stomach expells and disperses Winde and indigested humours therein and in the Bowels and helps digestion and melancholly it helps a stinking breath being chewed in the mouth The outward rindes preserved are a good Cordial and very effectual against melancholly and infection There is an Electuary made thereof which purgeth cold phlegmatick humours the Syrup of the Rindes strengtheneth the stomach and heart and helps faintings thereof and resists poison and strengthens nature and is good for such as are in Consumptions or Hectick Feavers The Syrup of the juyce is effectual for most of the same purposes the seeds preserve the heart from infection of the Plague Pox and venomous Bitings they kill Worms provoke the Tearms and cause Abortion They dry up and consume moist humours in the body or outwardly in moist Sores or Vlcers The sowre juyce is good in Pestilential Feavers suppressing the violence of Choller and hot distempers in the Blood corrects the Liver quenches thirst stirs up an appetite resists venome and infection and refreshes fainting spirits The Pomegranate-Tree Malus Granata THis Plant groweth also in hot Countreys as in Spain and Italy but chiefly in Granado yet it is useful in Medicine with us therefore I shall not omit its Vertues It is called in Latine Malum Granatum or Punicum and Granatum the Flower Balaustium the Rinde Sidium but more generally Cortex Granatorum Nature and Vertues Those that are sweet are helping to the stomach and are somewhat hot but the sowre ones and seeds of each are cold and astringent it is an Herb of Venus The flowers and shells in powder help to stay blood in Wounds and the Kernels dryed in the sun stop fluxes of the Belly and Matrix and helps spitting of blood being drunk in raw water and so do the flowers and rindes The Juyce and the Kernels or the Syrup is good to quench thirst in burning Fevers and hot diseases a Gargarisme or Lotion made of the Rindes is good to bring down the hot swellings of the Almonds in the Throat the juyce of the Kernels sodden with Honey
purple and the root doth not run deep into the ground as the first doth The common Field Scabious riseth up with many hairy soft whitish green leaves some whereof are not at all jagged or very little others are much rent in the sides and have films or small threads in them which may be seen in the breaking them among which rise up many round hairy green stalks two or three foot high with such like hairy green leaves on them but more deeply and finely divided and branched forth a little at the tops of the stalks stand round heads of flowers of a pale blewish colour many set together in a knop the outermost being largest with many threads in the middle and somewhat flat at the top and so is the head with seed The Root is great white and thick and grows deep into the ground abiding many years Names Scabiosa is the Latine Appellation hereof Place and Time The first groweth in Woods Meadows and Pastures plentifully almost every where the other in dry Fields Corn-fields and Fallow-Grounds they flower in June and July and so continue in some till the end of August the seed ripening in the mean time Nature and Vertues Scabious is hot and dry in the second degree a Mercurial plant and is of an opening cleansing and digesting quality it is effectual for all Coughs and diseases of the breast and lungs it ripens inward Vlcers Imposthumes and the Plurisie the decoction of the dry or green herb made in Wine and drunk often the clarified juyce taken in the morning fasting to the quantity of four ounces with a dram of Mithridate or Venice Turpentine defends the heart from infection of the Pestilence the party sweating two hours after it in his bed and after the first time taking it again if need require the same is good against the stinging of venomous Beasts Mathiolus saith that the decoction of the roots drunk forty dayes together or a dram of the powder thereof taken at a time in Whey helps such as are troubled with spreading Scabs Tetters or Ringworms though they be effects of the French Pox and the juyce or decoction helps Scabs or Itch and an oyntment made of the juyce doth the same The same juyce or decoction cleanseth and healeth inward Wounds The green herb bruised dissolves and breaks a Carbunckle or Plague sore being applyed thereto in three hours space and helps the stinging of any venomous beast being so applyed The decoction of the herb and roots applyed helps cold tumors or swellings in any part of the body and any sinew or vein that is shrunk The juyce made up with the powder of Borax and Camphire cleanseth the skin of Freckles Pimples Morphew and the Lepry The Tents which are dipped in the juyce or water thereof are good to heal green Wounds and old Sores and Vlcers and the bruised herb being applyed doth loosen any Splinter broken Bone Arrow head or such like thing lying in the flesh so that it may easily be drawn out The decoction used either alone or with juyce of Fennel helps redness and spots in the Eyes and the same decoction cleanseth the head from Dandriff Scurff Scabs and Itch the head being washed with it warm A syrrup made of the juyce and sugar is effectual for all the inward purposes aforesaid and so is the distilled water of the herb and flowers Scordium or Water Germander IT shooteth forth divers weak square hairy branches from a small root full of white strings Description spreading and running about in the ground the branches take root in divers places as they lie and spread whereby it much increaseth the leaves grow two at a joynt not so large as garden Germander leaves of a darkish green colour having thereon a shew of hairiness and hoariness somewhat soft full of veins and dented about the edges The flowers are small red and gaping standing at the joynts with the leaves towards the tops of the branches It is thought not to perfect its seed but is propagated by the branches Names Scordium is the Latine name Place and Time It grows in wet grounds and by waters sides in many places of England and flowers in June July and August It is usually gathered to be kept dry before it flowers Nature and Vertues Scordium in hot and dry of a certain harsh sharp and bitter taste it is a Solar herb a great resister of Venome and Infection and is the basis of that medicine called Diascordium it is of excellent use to strengthen the heart and procure sleep in Feavers it provokes the Tearms hastens womens labour helps their usual sickness in lying in and strengthens the Stomach ten grains or a seruple at a time may safely be given to weak people and a dram or more to them that are stronger The decoction of the green or dry herb in wine is good against venomous bitings and other deadly poisons and griping pains of the stomach or sides that come of cold or obstructions and for the bloody Flux it is good against an old Cough and to expectorate phlegm out of the Chest and Lungs being made into an Electuary with Cresses Rozen and Honey and is good for such as are bursten or troubled with the Cramp it is a special Counter-poison in all pestilential Diseases and Infections and is often used with good success before the fits of Agues to hinder the access and drive them away a little of the juyce thereof or the powder in drink taken fasting kills worms in the stomach or belly The decoction of the dryed herb with two or three Tormentil roots is available against the bloody Flux The juyce or a syrrup made of the herb is profitable for many of the forenamed griefs The green herb bruised and applyed healeth any green Wound and the dryed herb used with Honey cleanseth foul Vlcers A pultis or cerate made of the dryed herb helpeth to discuss Wens and excrescences in the flesh it easeth also pains of the Gout being applyed with vinegar or water Scurvy-grass Cochlearia OF this I shall mention two kindes Description common or Sea Scurvy-grass and Dutch or Garden Scurvy-grass The Sea Scurvy-grass is well known the Dutch or Garden Scurvy-grass hath divers fresh green and almost round leaves not so thick as the common sort a little hollowed in the middle and round pointed of a sad green colour standing every one by it self upon a long foot talk among which rise up divers long slender weak stalks about a foot high thick beset on each side with small white flowers on the tops of them which turn into small pods with little brownish seeds the root is white small and fibrous the taste of it is somewhat bitterish Names The Latines call it Cochlearia the leaf being like a spoon in English Scurvy-grass and Spoon-wort Places and Time The Sea Scurvy-grass groweth about the Sea Coasts and both on the Essex and Kentish shores in the River of Thames so far as the salt water
cometh the other groweth in the Marshes of Holland in Lincolnshire as well as in the Low Countreys and likewise prospereth in Gardens where it is sown they flower in April and give their seed about the latter end of May. Nature and Vertues Scurvy-grass is hot and dry much in quality like the Garden Cresses it is an herb of Jupiter It is an excellent remedy for that Disease called the Scurvy which often afflicts Sea-men and many persons by land besides I have had it this Summer after a Winters Ague but by drinking the juyce of this herb every morning in Ale or white Wine have by Cods blessing obtained a cure in a small time it may likewise be taken in decoction or in dyet drink being tunned up with new Ale or Beer and some long Pepper Grains Anniseeds and Liquorice added thereto and at three dayes old the drink will be fit for your use it opens obstructions and evacuates cold clammy and phlegmatick humors from the Liver seat of Blood and the Spleen wasting the swelling and hardness thereof and reduceth the body to a lively colour the juyce helps Vlcers and Sores in the mouth it being gargled with it and outwardly used it cleanseth the skin from spot and scars The conserve worketh the same effects as the juyce or herb and is a fine delicate medicine for weak stomachs Of Sebesten Myxa THis is a certain Plum Description brought hither out of Assyria and is called by them Sebestens in Latine Myxa and Myxaria from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is their name for the Tree Nature and Vertues Sebestens are temperately cold and moist of a thick clammy substance they cleanse the throat of hoarseness and roughness caused by sharp humors which descend from the head into the winde-pipe and cause difficulty of breathing they also cause phlegm to be avoided and help the Cough and Wheesings of the Lungs and distillations upon them they help the sharpness of Vrine proceeding from Choller or salt Phlegm and help such as are troubled with pains in thier sides they are good in hot Agues to cool the intemperate heat of the Stomach and Liver and to purge Choller Self-heal Prunella IT is a low creeping herb Description having many small and somewhat round leaves a little pointed of a sad green colour without any dents on the edges the stalks are square and hairy about half a foot high which sometimes are divided into branches with small leaves thereon to the top whereon stand brown spiked heads consisting of many scaly leaves and flowers mingled together gaping and commonly of a blueish purple colour but sometimes of a pale blue of a sweet smell in some but in a few places the root is small and threddy and by taking hold of the ground by the fibres which grow out from its branches it is much increased Names It is called generally in Latine Prunella and of some Solidago minor Consolida minor and Consolida minima in English Self-heal Hook-heal and Carpenters herb Place and Time It grows commonly in most Fields and flowers in May Nature and Vertues Self-heal is moderately hot and dry somewhat astringent an herb of Venus an excellent Wound Herb either for inward or outward hurts ot be taken inwardly in syrrup or decoction and outwardly to be applyed in Vnguent or Plaisters of it self alone it will heal any green wound being bruised and wrought with the point of a knife upon a trencher like unto a Salve and applyed and it good to heal the sore Nipples of Nurses it is good for those that have received hurt by bruises or falls a decoction being made thereof with Sanicle Bugle and such other Wound Herbs and is effectual to inject into outward Vlcers and the inward taking thereof will help the sharpness of humors which follow any Sore Vlcer Inflammation Swelling or the like the juyce hereof mixed with oyl of Roses is good to anoint the Temples and Forehead for the Head-ache and the same juyce mixed with a little honey of Roses cleanseth and healeth Vlcers and Sores of the Mouth and Throat and secret parts Sena Colutea THe true Sena is said to grow in Arabia and Syria Description and is transported from Alexandria to us there is a bastard Sena which is kept in many Gardens with us commonly called Colutea which is its Latine name Nature and Vertues The leaves of Sena which are onely used are hot near the first degree and dry in the third it is of a purging faculty and leaveth a binding quality after the purging it openeth obstructions and cleanseth and comforteth the Stomach being corrected with some Auniseed Carrawayseed or Ginger it purgeth Melancholly choller and Phlegm from the Head and Brain Lungs Heart Liver and Spleen cleansing those parts of evil humors a dram thereof taken in Wine Ale or Broth fasting it strengthens the sences and procureth mirth it is also good in cronical Agues whether Quartain or Quotidian it cleanseth and purifieth the blood and causeth a fresh and lively habit of the body and is a special ingredient in dyet drinks and to make purging Ale to be taken to clarifie and cleanse the blood The bastard Sena purgeth vehemently both upwards and downwards offending the Stomach and Bowels Shepherds purse Bursa Pastoris IT hath small long leaves Description of a pale green colour deeply cut in on both sides the stalk is small and round parted into many branches containing small leaves upon them up to the top the flowers are white and very small after which come flat pouches which hold the seed which are flat in form of a heart in each side whereof lyeth a small brownish yellow seed the root is small and white and perisheth every year Names The Latines call it Bursa pastoris and Pastoria Bursa in English Shepherds purse Poor mans Parmacity Toywort Pick-purse and Caseweed Place and Time It grows frequently almost in every Field and Hedges side and upon Banks about London they flower and seed all the Summer and some of them twice a year Nature and Vertues Shepherds purse is cold dry and binding a Saturnine Plant the decoction hereof stoppeth the Lask spitting of Blood pissing Blood the Terms and all other fluxes of Blood howsoever it be taken but especially with red Wine or Plantain Water the juyce helpeth mattering and running Fars being dropped therein A good Salve may be made hereof for Wounds especially in the head The bruised herb pultiswise applyed helpeth Inflammations St. Anthonies sire and cures running Sores Fistula's Swellings hardness new Wounds Shingles and rheumatick Sores The juyce being drunk helpeth straitness of the Breath the Strangury and stoppage of Vrine and stoppeth Phlegm and is very prevalent against venomous bitings being drunk with Wine and prevents the fits of Agues being taken an hour before the fit Skirret Sisarum THey grow not naturally in England but as they are planted in Gardens Names It is called in Latine Sisarum Siser Chervillum and Servilla they
made into a syrrup or the distilled water drunk with Sugar or the smoke taken fasting in a Pipe it easeth gripings in the Bowels pains in the Head and expells Worms and is profitable to provoke Vrine and expel the Stone and Gravel out of the Kidneys to expel windiness which causes strangling of the Mother the seed is good to ease the Tooth-ache and the ashes of the Herb cleanseth the Gums and Teeth and makes them white the bruised herb is profitably applyed to swellings of the Kings Evil four or five ounces of the juyce taken fasting purges the body upwards and downwards and is effectual for the Dropsie The distilled water taken with Sugar before the fit of an Ague lessens the fit The distilled faeces of the Herb having been bruised before the distillation and not distilled dry but set fourteen dayes in hot dung and then hung up in a bag in a Wine Cellar there will drop a liquor therefrom good for Cramps Aches the Gout and Sciatica and to heal Itches Scabs Cankers and foul Sores The juyce is good to kill lice in Childrens Heads The green herb bruised and applyed is good to cure any fresh wound and the juyce put into old Sores cleanseth and healeth them There is an excellent Salve made of Tobacco good for Imposthumes hard Tumors swellings by blows and falls old and new Sores and is to be had at the Apothecaries by the name of Unguentum Nicotianum or oynment of Tobacco Tamarinds Tamarindus THis Tree groweth in Arabia and the Indies and the fruit is brought hither for Medicine whose vertues follow Nature and Vertues Tamarinds are cold and dry in the second degree or in the beginning of the third a plant of Venus The pulp of Tamarinds open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and taken with Borrage water it quickens the spirits and mitigates the fits of Frenzy and madness it is good in acute Fevers it purgeth Choller and adust humors stayeth vomiting and cools inflammations of the Liver Stomach and Reins and helps the running of the Reins it is good against the Scab Itch and Leprosie and salt humors breaking out in the skin it is good in hot burning Agues it quencheth thirst and procures appetite an ounce thereof being dissolved in fair water and taken with a little Sugar it stayes bleedings at nose arising from Choller and womens Fluxes and is good against the yellow Jaundies Tamarisk Tamarix IT is well known in Gardens where it onely grows in England so that a description is needless Names Mytica Tamarix and Tamariscus are the Latine names the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. infinitus from its abundance of leaves Place and Time It groweth about Mompelier and Narbone in France and is planted in Gardens with us they flower about the end of May or in June and the seed is ripe and blown away in September Nature and Vertues Tamarisk is drying and astringent having also a cutting and cleansing quality a Saturnine Plant. The leaves or roots boiled in Wine drives forth Melancholly helps spitting of blood and stayes the overflowing of the Terms the bleeding of the Hemorrhoides and other Fluxes and is good against the Jaundies and other diseases which are caused by obstructions The roots sodden with Wine and drunk cleanseth the milt and thereby it helps the Lepry the decoction of the root or young branches in Wine or Vinegar drunk and outwardly applyed helps hardness of the Spleen The decoction of the bark and leaves in Wine helps the Tooth-ache the mouth and Teeth being gargled therewith it also helpeth redness and watring of the Eyes and easeth pains of the ears being dropped therein and is good to wash those that are subject to Lice and Nits and is good to stay gangrous and fretting Vlcers being mixed with honey it is good for spleenatick persons to drink out of Cups or Cans made of the Wood thereof A good quantity of the leaves boiled in water is a good bath for women to sit over whose Matrix is in danger of coming down it fastneth the same and the ashes of the Wood applyed to the place stops the excessive flowing thereof A Lye made of the Ashes is good for many of the said Diseases and to help blisters raised by burning or scalding The Egyptians use the Wood hereof to cure the French Disease Leprosie Scabs Pushes Vlcers and the like it is likewise good to help the Dropsie proceeding from hardness or stopping of the Spleen and is available against Melancholly and the black Jaundies the Bark with the Barks of Ash and Ivy being infused in Beer or Ale some use Ling or Heath where Tamarisk is not to be had instead thereof Garden Tansie Tanacetum THis needs no description Names It is called both in Greek and Latine Athanasia and also in Latine Tanacetum the French call it Tanaisie and our English Tansie Place and Time It is nourished in Gardens sendeth forth green leaves in March and April and flowers in June and July Nature and Vertues It is said to be hot in the second degree and dry in the third attributed to the particular influence of Venus The decoction of Tansie or the juyce thereof drunk in Wine or Beer doth dissolve and expell Winde in the Stomach or Bowels The eating of it in Spring time purgeth the Body of moist and phlegmatick humors ingendred in the foregoing Winter and by eating Fish in Lent before it became superstition to our gluttonous Religion-pretenders whose lustful guts cannot forbear the Flesh-pots on Frydayes the decoction before mentioned provokes Vrine helps the Strangury expells Winde out of the Matrix and procures womens Courses and is good for those that have weak Reins and Kidneys it is profitable for such women as are apt to miscarry being bruised and often smelled unto and applyed to the lower part of the Belly it is used against the Stone in the Reins especially to men being boiled in Oyl it is good against the Cramp and shrinking of Sinews if applyed to the affected part it avoideth Phlegm dryeth the Sinews and therefore is good for the Palsie Wilde Tansie or Silver Weed Argentina IT is much like unto the ordinary Garden Tansie a little also resembling the leaves of Agrimony Description it creeps upon the ground taking root at the joynts so that it will quickly spread a great deal of ground the leaves are of a fair green colour on the upper side and a silver colour underneath it beareth no stalks but the flowers stand singly upon a short foot stalk which are yellow much like those of Cinque foâ—l Names It is called in Latine Argentina Agrimonia sylvestris and Tanacetum sylvestre in English Wilde Tansie and Silver weed Place and Time It groweth in moist grounds near High Wayes sides at the foot of Hills and such like places it flowers in June and July Nature and Vertues Wilde Tansie especially the root is dry near the third degree without much manifest heat having also an
Palsie Fevers and consumes the Liver and inward parts Violets Viola BOth the Garden kindes and wilde Violets are generally known Names Viola is the common Latine name for a Violet and Herba Violaria There is also a kinde called Viola tricolor having three colours in the flower which in English is called Hartsease Pansies and three faces under a hood They begin to flower in March and the beginning of April and are then in prime The Pansies flower till the end of July Nature and Vertues Both Garden and wilde kindes while they are fresh and green are cold and moist under the milde influence of Venus the flowers are accounted one of the chief cordial Flowers and are much used in cooling Cordials and so is the syrrup they are good to cool any heat or distemper of the body either inward or outward as inflammations of the Eyes falling down or pain of the Womb or Fundament Imposthumes and hot Swellings To drink the decoction of the leaves and flowers made in water and Wine or to apply them pultiswise to the grieved place it also easeth pains of the Head which are caused by want of sleep The powder of the flowers drunk with water is said to help the Quinzy and Falling Sickness in Children if taken in the beginning of the Disease A dram of the dryed flowers taken in Wine or other drink doth purge the Body of chollerick humors and asswageth heat The flowers of the white Violets ripen and dissolve swellings The seed resists poison of the Scorpion The green or dry herb and flowers are effectual to abate the heat and sharpness of Vrine and hot Rheumes to ease pains of the Back Reins and Bladder and to help the plurisie and other diseases of the Lungs and hoarseness of the Throat The syrrup is good for the Liver and Jaundies and in hot Agues to cool the heat and quench thirst being taken in some convenient liquor and a little juyce or syrrup of Lemons added to it or a few drops of oyl of Vitriol put therein it doth more powerfully cool the heat and quench thirst they are more cooling being made up with Sugar and with Honey more cleansing ☞ See further in Adam in Eden written by Will. Coles Vipers Bugloss Echium COmmon Vipers Bugloss hath many long rough leaves lying upon the Ground Description amongst which rise up divers round stalks very rough as if they were set with prickles or hairs having many black spots on them like a Vipers skin whereon are set such long rough hairy or prickly sad green leaves somewhat narrow the middle rib for the most part being white The flowers stand at the tops of the stalks branched forth into many spiked leaves of flowers bowing or turning like the Turnsole all of them opening for the most part on the one side which are long and hollow turning up the brims a little of a purplish violet colour in those that are full blown but more reddish while they are in the Bud but in some places of a paler purple colour with a long pointel in the middle feathered or pointed at the top after the flowers come blackish cornered and pointed seed somewhat like the head of a Viper inclosed in round heads the root is somewhat great blackish and woody and perisheth in Winter Names It is called by most Authours in Latine Echium and of some Buglossum sylvestre Viperinum Place and Time It groweth wilde on Hills and dry Grounds almost every where that with white flowers about the Castle Walls at Lewes in Sussex and the other about Rochester Castle and elsewhere they flower and seed in the Summer Moneths Nature and Vertues Vipers Bugloss is cold and dry in temperature a Solar Herb the roots and seeds are a good Cordial to comfort the Heart and to expell Sadness and Melancholly it tempers the Blood and mitigates hot sits of Agues The seed drunk in Wine procures Milk in Womens Breasts easeth pains in the Loins Back and Kidneys and is a special remedy against the bitings of Vipers and venomous Beasts and against poison and poisonous herbs Dioscorides saith that whosoever shall take of the herb or root before they be bitten shall not be hurt by the poison of any Serpent There is a syrrup made thereof after this manner Take of the clarified juyce of Vipers Bugloss four pound of the infusion of the flowers one pound fine Sugar three pound boil it to a syrrup which is effectual to comfort the Heart and expell sadness and Melancholly The distilled water made of the herb and flower when it is in its full strength is effectaul for all the griefs aforesaid inwardly or outwardly applyed Wall Flowers or Winter Gillow-Flowers Viola lutea BOth those which are planted in Gardens and those which grow wilde upon old Walls are very well known Names They are called in Latine Viola lutea in Spanish Violettas Amarillas and in French Violieres des murailles from their growing on Walls Place and Time They grow wilde as I said upon old stone Walls mighty plentiful upon the Castle Walls of Rochester and the double kindes are planted in Gardens they flower very early in the Spring Nature and Vertues They are Lunar and of temperature meanly hot of thin parts and of a cleansing faculty the yellow Wall Flowers according to Galen are of most use in Physick it cleanseth the Blood and opens obstructions of the Liver and Reins helps hardness and pains of the Mother and Spleen comforts and strengthens any part that is weak or out of joynt and stayeth Inflammations and Swellings it is a good remedy for the Gout and Aches and Pains in the Joynts it clears the Eyes from Films and Mistiness and cleanseth Vlcers in the Mouth or other parts and provokes the Tearms and expells the secondine or dead Childe and a Conserve of the Flowers is good for the Apoplexy and Palsie The Walnut Tree Juglans THis Tree is very well known the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jovis glans and the Latines Juglans they blossom early before the leaves shoot forth and the fruit is ripe in September Nature and Vertues It is a Solar Plant. Dodoneus saith the fresh Nuts are cold and moist but others say and that 's most likely that they are drying and heating the Bark doth dry and binde very much and the leaves are much of the same nature the old Nuts are hot and dry in the second degree and of harder digestion then the fresh The kernels of Walnuts do comfort the brain and resist poison or being bruised with the quintissence of Wine and applyed to the Crown of the Head they comfort the Head and Brain The peels being taken off they comfort the Stomach and are said to kill broad Worms in the Belly being old they offend the Stomach and increase Choller King Mithridates medicine against poison was to take in the morning two dry Walnuts as many Figs twenty leaves of Rue and two or three corns of Salt beaten and
the latter end of Summer and seeds about a month after Nature and Vertues Sea-holly is temperate of a cleansing drying nature a Venerial plant the roots confected stir up the affection to Venery and are a restorative against the consuming of old age being decocted in Wine they open obstructions of the Spleen and Liver provoke Vrine expell the Stone and move the Terms helps the yellow Jaundies Dropsie pain in the Loins and winde Chollick The roots bruised and applyed to the Throat helps the Kernels there and heals bitings of Serpents being taken inwardly and applyed to the place and if the roots be boiled in Hogs Lard and applied to thorns in the flesh it draws them out and heals the place the juyce of the leaves helps Imposthumes in the Ears The distilled water of the whole herb being young drives away Melancholly and helps Quartane and Quotidian Agues the young tender shoots may be eaten fresh or pickled they are a good Venerial Sallet ☞ See more of this in the Art of Simpling written by W. Coles Eye-bright Ocularia IT is a small low herb rising seldom above a span high Description having a blackish green stalk which spreadeth from the bottom into sundry branches whereon grow small dark green leaves finely snipt about the edges growing two together very thick the flowers are small and white striped with purple and yellow spots and grow at the joynts with the leaves from the middle upwards the seeds are very small growing in small round heads which succeed the flowers The root is long small and threddy Names Euphrasia is both a Greek and Latine name for it it is also called in Latine Opthalmica and Ocularia in English Eye-bright Places and Time It grows plentifully in many places of this Land by Hedge rowes and on Hills sides it groweth in the High way between Gravesend and Rochester and in the Fields about Gravesend They flower in August which is the best time to gather it before it seeds Nature and Vertues It is a Solar herb hot and dry it is excellent to clarifie and preserve the sight from dimness either the powder of the dry herb being used or the juyce of the green plant the distilled water clears the dimness of the Eyes either being dropped into the Eyes or drunk in Wine or Broth a Conserve of the Flowers works the like effects being eaten It restoreth a decayed Memory and helps a weak Brain and Memory being used any of the aforesaid wayes if it were tunned up with Bear or Ale it will work the like effects Some Authours write that Birds make use of it to repair their sight and Arnoldus saith that it did restore their sight who had been blinde a long while Ferne. Filix IT s very well known there is accounted a Male and Female and Water Ferne or Osmond Royal. Names The Latine name for Ferne is Filix the Water Fern Osmunda Regalis and St. Christophers Herb. Place and Time Fern grows too plentiful in many places and can hardly be rooted out where it hath possession the seeds are small trebble pointed black and shining and may be gotten on Midsummer-eve at night at which time I have gathered it my self The Water Ferne grows by wet Ditiches sides bogs and watrish places Nature and Vertues Ferne is hot and dry bitter and somewhat astringent a Mercurial Plant the roots of Ferne boiled in Mead kills worms in the Belly and abates swelling and hardness of the Spleen and being bruised and boiled in Oyl or Hogs Grease they make a good Oyntment to heal Wounds and Bruises and cases the Chollick and Diseases of the Spleen especially those of the Water Fern A bath made of the leaves is good to strengthen the Sinews the powder of the root dryes up the watry humours of Vlcers A dyet Drink being made of it with other Capillary Herbs is good for the Rickets The water Fern is effectual for Ruptures an Oyntment being made thereof and the decoction of the root in white Wine provokes Vrine and opens the uretory passages Feathersew Parthenium IT grows up with many large green leaves Description very much torn or cut about the edges the stalks are hard and round beset with smaller leaves the flowers stand fingle upon several foot stalks at the cop consisting of finall white leaves standing round about a yellow thrum in the middle the root is tough hard and short having many fibres thereat the whole Plant of a strong scent and bitter taste Names Parthenium from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Matricaria and Febrisuga in Latine Place and Time It grows by divers Walls and Hedges and frequently in Gardens they continue in flower the gratest part of Summer Nature and Vertues Featherfew is hot and dry in the third degree having a quality of cleansing and opening its temperature scent and taste attributes it to Mars but its vertues are ascribed to Venus it is an excellent herb for womens Diseases for all Diseases of the Mother the decoction being drunk or the fume set over helps fits of the Mother it drives down the Courses expells the dead Childe and After-birth The juyce with the juyce of Motherwort taken in old Ale with a little gross Pepper is good to prevent fits of the Mother The decoction with Sugar or HOney helps the Cough and short Windedness and cleanses the Reins and Bladder so doth the powder of the herb and expells Melancholly helps the swimming of the Head and windiness in the Stomach and is good against the Dropsie it is good for cold and moist bodies to stir up the procreative vertue but it is naught for hot and dry bodies it s a good remedy for such as have taken too much opium being fryed with Oyl and Wine it eases the griping pains of winde being applyed to the Stomach and Belly The distilled water cleanseth the Skin Fellwort Vide Gentian Fennel Feniculus FEnnel is well known its Latine name Feniculus Gardens are his habitation he flowers in June and July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues Most affirm Fennel to be hot in the third degree and dry in the first and according to Gerrard the seed is hot and dry in the third degree it is a Mercurial herb saith Culpepper but I suppose rather Solar it is used to be boiled with Fish and other viscous meats to digest their crude and phlegmatick qualities and the seed is used in bread to break Winde and strengthen the breath The distilled water cleanseth the Eyes being dropped therein and the condensate juyce cleanseth them from Mists and Films It is good to increase milk in Nurses it provokes Vrine and eases the pains of the Stone The leaves or rather the seeds boiled in water stay the Hiccock helps loathings of the Stomach of sick persons and allayeth the heat thereof and is a remedy for such as have eaten poisonous herbs and against bitings by Serpents The seed and root opens obstructions of the Liver Spleen and
many dark green leaves somewhat broad and pointed at the ends soft and full of juyce somewhat like the leaves of Bazil but larger and a little unevenly dented about the edges at the tops of the stalks and branches come forth four or five and sometimes more white flowers consisting of five small pointed leaves apiece standing on a stalk together one by or above another with yellow pointels in the middle composed of four or five yellow threds set together which afterwards turn into so many pendulous green berries of the bigness of a small pease full of green juyce and small round whitish flat seeds lying within it the root is white and a little woody when it hath given flower and fruit with many small fibres at it the whole plant is of a watrish insipid taste The juyce in the berries is somewhat viscous like a thin muscilage and of a cooling astringent quality Names In Latine it is called Solanum and Solatrum Vva Lupina and Vva Vulpis Cuculus and Morella in English Morrel Petty Morrel Nightshade and in some places Houndsberries there is another sort called Dwall or deadly Nightshade being of a poisonous and excessive cold quality which beareth a berry black and shining like jet and about the bigness of a black Cherry Place and Time Common Nightshade groweth upon Dunghills and amongst rubbish under old Walls and by the sides of Hedges and Fields I have seen the Dwall or Deadly Nightshade growing in a Ditch by the High wayes side near Alton in Hampshire and near Croyden in Surrey where it was about six foot high They slower in Summer till the beginning of Autumne and the fruit is ripe in August and September Nature and Vertuer They are all cold and Saturnine Plants but the Dwall as coal in the fourth degree The berries of common Nightshade are good to provoke Vrine and expell the Stone being moderately taken in white Wine and cooleth hot Inslammations being inwardly or outwardly taken so not in too great a quantity for then it procures the Phrenzy but a remedy against it is to drink good store of warm honied water The juyce easeth pains and Inflammations of the Ears being dropped therein and the juyce clarified and mingled with Vinegar is a good gargarisme for the Mouth and Throat being inflamed The juyce of the herb or Berries incorporated in a leaden Mortar with Oyl of Roses Vinegar and Ceruss is good to anoint the Eyes for all hot Inflammations The juyce made up with Hen-dung and applyed is good for the Shingles Ring-worms Corroding Vlcers and moist Fistula's A Pessary dipped in the Juyce and put up into the Matrix stayeth the immoderate flowing of the Courses A cloth wet therein and applyed to the Testicles or Cods giveth much ease in any hot swelling there and easeth the Gout coming of hot and sharp humours The Dwall or deadly Nightshade is by no means to be taken inwardly yet if the Temples and Forehead be a little bathed with the juyce of the leaves and a little Vinegar it procures sleep which is hindred by hot causes and eases pains of the Head proceeding of heat The bruised leaves or juyce may be applyed to St. Anthonies fire the Shingles and such hot Inflammations and fiery Cankers to cool them and stay the spreading thereof The distilled water of the common Night-shade is safest to be given inwardly but they are both dangerous and the Dwall deadly The Nutmeg Tree Nux Moschata THis odoriferous tree groweth in the East-Indies the fruit is called in Latine Nux Moschata and the Mace that grows also upon this Tree is called in Latine Macis Nature and Vertues Nutmegs are hot and dry in the second degree and somewhat binding Mace is hot in the second degree and dry in the third Nutmegs do heat and strengthen a cold and weak Stomach resist Vomiting and takes away the Hiccough it helps pain and Winde in the Belly and stoppings of the Liver and Milt and stopeth the Lask being taken in red Wine it is profitable for the Mother Kidneys and Bladder helps pissing by drops and other cold griefs in men and Women the powder thereof with oyl of Mints is good against the coldness of the Head and dulness of Memory the Forehead and Temples being anointed therewith it is good in Cordials and Receipts to help coldness of the Liver stopping of the Milt the Dropsie Vomiting Head-ache Swellings bloody Fluxes it helps trembling of the Heart and comforts the Veins and Muscles in cold people and helps to expell Gravel from the Reins and Bladder being first steeped in Oyl of Sweet Almonds The Oyl of Nutmegs doth likewise comfort a cold Stomach Mace is somewhat of the same nature with the Nutmeg it stops the Lask bloody Flux and Womens Courses and helps trembling of the Heart The oyl of Mace cures wamblings of the Stomach and a desire to Vomit the Stomach being anointed therewith The powder of a Pomgranate large Mace long Pepper and Sugar being drunk with Posset Ale Malmsey or Broth sodden together is a good remedy for the Black jaundies Mace being used in Meats causeth lean people to grow fat warmeth those that are cold in their Venereous acts and so do Nutmegs and are good to be taken in Broths or Milk it is good also against Fluxes spitting of Blood Vomit and the Chollick ☞ See more of this in The Expert Doctors Dispensatory by by P. Morelius ☞ See further in The Art of Simpling written by W. Celes Of the Oak Quercus THis stately Tree is very well known it is called in Latine Quercus and Robur the Acorn Glans the Cup Calix and Cupula Glandis Place and Time Our Land did once so flourish with these lusty Trees that it was called Druina by some but of late many of them are destroyed The Catkins come forth about April the Acorns are not ripe till October Nature and Vertues The leaves and bark of the Oak and Acorn Cups do binde and dry very much and are somewhat cold but the Acorns are not so cold nor binding The Acorns provoke Vrine and help to break the Stone in the Bladder the decoction of them and the Bark taken in milk helps exulcerations of the Bladder and pissing of Blood cansed by poisonous Herbs corroding Medicines and Cantharides The powder of Acorns drunk in wine is good to help Stitches and pains in the Sides especially if it be mixed with the powder of Bay-berries The inner Bark of the Tree and the thin skin that covereth the Acorn do stay the spitting of Blood and the Bloody Flux The decoction of the Bark and powder of the Cups stayeth Vomitings spitting of Blood bleeding at Mouth Lasks the involuntary Flux of natural seed and all other Fluxes in man or woman The fume of the leaves helps strangling of the Mother and the bruised leaves soder up Wounds and keeps them from inflammations The distilled water of the Buds is likewise good to stay all Fluxes to cool the body in