Salix marina or Salix Amerina and Piper Agreste in high Dutch Schaffmulle 〈◊〉 in low Dutch and also of the Apothecaries Agnus Castus the Italians Vitice Agno Casto in Spanish Gattile casto in English Chaste tree Hempe tree and of diuers Agnus castus ‡ The name Agnus Castus comes by confounding the Greeke name Agnos with Castus the Latine interpretation thereof ‡ ¶ The Temperature The leaues and fruit of Agnus castus are hot and drie in the third degree they are of very thin parts and waste or consume winde The Vertues Agnus Castus is a singular medicine and remedie for such as would willingly liue chaste for it withstandeth all vncleannesse or desire to the flesh consuming and drying vp the seed of generation in what sort soeuer it be taken whether in pouder onely or the decoction drunke or whether the leaues be carried about the body for which cause it was called Castus that is to say chaste cleane and pure The seed of Agnus Castus drunken driueth away and dissolueth all windinesse of the stomacke openeth and cureth the stoppings of the liuer and spleen and in the beginning of dropsies it is good to be drunke in wine in the quantitie of a dram The leaues stamped with butter dissolue and asswage the swellings of the genitories and cods being applied thereto The decoction of the herbe and seed is good against pain and inflammations about the matrix if women be caused to sit and bathe their priuy parts therein the seed being drunke with Pennyroiall bringeth downe the menses as it doth also both in a fume and in a pessary in a Pultis it cureth the head-ache the Phrenticke and those that haue the Lethargie are woont to be 〈◊〉 herewith oile and vineger being added thereto The leaues vsed in a fume and also strowed driue away serpents and beeing layed on doe cure their bitings The seed laied on with water doth heale the clifts or rifts of the fundament with the leaues it is a remedie for lims out of ioint and for wounds It is reported that if such as iourney or trauell do carry with them a branch or rod of Agnus Castus in their hand it will keep them from Merry-galls and wearinesse Diosc. CHAP. 55. Of the Willow Tree ¶ The Description 1 THe common Willow is an high tree with a body of a meane thicknesse and riseth vp as high as other trees doe if it be not topped in the beginning soone after it is planted the barke thereof is smooth tough and flexible the wood is white tough and hard to be broken the leaues are long lesser and narrower than those of the Peach tree somewhat greene on the vpper side and slipperie and on the nether side softer and whiter the boughes be couered either with a purple or else with a white barke the catkins which grow on the toppes of the branches come first of all forth being long and mossie and quickly turne into white and soft downe that is carried away with the winde 1 Salix The common Willow 2 Salix aquatica The Oziar or water Willow 2 The lesser bringeth forth of the head which standeth somewhat out slender wands or twigs with a reddish or greene barke good to make baskets and such like workes of it is planted by the twigs or rods being thrust into the earth the vpper part whereof when they are growne vp is cut off so that which is called the head increaseth vnder them from whence the slender twigs doe grow which being oftentimes cut the head waxeth greater many times also the long rods or wands of the higher Withy trees be lopped off and thrust into the ground for plants but deeper and aboue mans height of which do grow great rods profitable for many things and commonly for bands wherewith tubs and casks are bound 3 The Sallow tree or Goats Willow groweth to a tree of a meane bignesse the trunke or body is soft and hollow timber couered with a whitish rough barke the branches are set with leaues somewhat rough greene aboue and hoarie vnderneath among which come forth round catkins or aglets that turne into downe which is carried away with the winde 4 This other Sallow tree differeth not from the precedent but in this one point that is to say the leaues are greater and longer and euery part of the tree larger wherein is the difference ‡ Both those last described haue little roundish leaues like little eares growing at the bottoms of the foot-stalkes of the bigger leaues whereby they may bee distinguished from all other Plants of this kinde ‡ 3 Salix Caprearotundi folia The Goat round leafed Willow 4 Salix Caprea latifolia The Goat broad leafed Sallow 5 Salix Rosea Anglica The English Rose Willow 6 The low or base Willow groweth but low leaneth weakly vpon the ground hauing many small and narrow leaues set vpon limber and pliant branches of a darke or blackish greene colour amongst which comeforth long slender stems full of mossie floures which turne into a light downie substance that flieth away with the winde 7 The dwarfe Willow hath very small and slender branches seldome times aboue a foot but neuer a cubit high couered with a duskish barke with very little and narrow leaues of a greene colour aboue and on the vpper side but vnderneath of a hory or ouerworne greenish colour in bignesse and fashion of the leaues of garden Flax among which come forth little duskish floures which doe turne into downe that is carried away with the winde the root is small and threddy of the bignesse of a finger and of a blackish colour 6 Salix humilis The low Willow 7 Chamaeitea siue Salix pumila Thedwarfe Willow ‡ 8 Salix humilis repens Creeping dwarfe Willow ¶ The Place These Willowes grow in diuers places of England the rose-Rose-Willow groweth plentifully in Cambridge shire by the riuers and ditches there in Cambridge towne they grow aboundantly about the places called Paradise and Hell-mouth in the way from Cambridge to Grandchester I found the dwarfe Willowes growing neere to a 〈◊〉 or marish ground at the further end of Hampsted heath vpon the declining of the hill in the ditch that incloseth a small Cottage there not halfe a furlong from the said house or cottage ¶ The Time The willowes do floure at the beginning of the Spring ¶ The Names The Willow tree is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Salix in high-Dutch 〈◊〉 in low-Durch 〈◊〉 in Italian 〈◊〉 Salcio in French Saux in Spanish Salgueiro Salzer and Sauz in English Sallow Withie and Willow The greater is called in Latine Salix perticalis common Withy Willow and Sallow especially that which being often lopped sendeth out from one head many boughs the kinde hereof with the red barke is called of Theophrastus blacke Withy and the other white Pliny calleth the black Graeca or Greeke Withie the red being the Greeke Withy saith he is easie to be cleft and the whiter 〈◊〉 Theophrastus
at the top grow floures like those of Treacle Mustard or Thlaspi The whole plant groweth as a shrub or hedge-bush 3 Thorny Mustard groweth vp to the height of foure cubits of a wooddy substance like vnto a hedge-bush or wilde shrub with stalkes beset with leaues floures and seeds like the last before mentioned agreeing in all points sauing in the cruell pricking sharpe thornes wherewith this plant is armed the other not The root is tough wooddy and some strings or fibres annexed thereto 1 Thlaspi fruticosum incanum Hoary wooddy Mustard 2 Thlaspi fruticosum minus Small wooddy Mustard 3 Thlaspi spinosum Thorny Mustard ‡ 4 Thlaspi fruticosum folio 〈◊〉 Bushy Mustard ‡ 5 Thlaspi hederacium Iuy Mustard 4 There is another sort of wooddy Mustard growing in shadowie and obscure mountaines and rough stony places resembling the last described sauing that this plant hath no pricks at all but many small branches set thick with leaues resembling those of the lesser sea 〈◊〉 the floures are many and white the seed like the other Thlaspies the root is wooddy and fibrous ‡ 5 There is saith Lobel in Portland and about Plimouth and vpon other rockes on the sea coast of England a creeping little herbe hauing small red crested stalkes about a spanne high the leaues are thicke and fashioned like Iuy the white floures and small seeds do in taste and shape resemble the Thlaspies ‡ ¶ The Place ‡ 1 The first of these groweth about Mcchline 2. 3. 4. These plants grow vpon the Alpish and Pyrene mountaines in Piemont and in Italy in stony and rockie grounds ¶ The Time They floure when the other kindes of Thlaspies do that is from May to the end of August ¶ The Names ‡ 1 This Clusius and Lobel call Thlaspi incanum Mechliniense Bauhine thinks it to be the Iberis prima of Tabernamontanus whose figure retained this place in the former edition 2 This is Thlaspi fruticosum alterum of Lobel Thlaspi 5. Hispanicum of Clusius 3 Lobel calls this Thlaspi fruticosum spinosum 4 Camerarius calls this Thlaspi sempervirens 〈◊〉 folio Leucoij c. Lobel Thlaspi fruticosum folio Leucoij c. 5 This Lobel calls Thlaspi hederaceum ‡ ¶ The Nature and Vertues I finde nothing extant of their nature or vertues but they may be referred to the kinds of Thlaspies whereof no doubt they are of kindred and affinitie as well in facultie as forme CHAP. 23. Of Towers Mustard ¶ The Description 1 TOwers Mustard hath beene taken of some for a kinde of Cresses and referred by them to it of some for one of the Mustards and so placed among the Thlaspies as a kinde thereof and therefore my selfe must needs bestow it somewhere with others Therefore I haue with Clusius and Lobel placed it among the Thlaspies as a kinde thereof It commeth out of the ground with many long and large rough leaues like those of Hounds-tongue especially those next the ground amongst which riseth vp a long stalke of a cubit or more high set abont with sharpe pointed leaues like those of Woad The floures grow at the top if I may terme them floures but they are as it were a little dusty chaffe driuen vpon the leaues and branches with the winde after which come very small cods wherein is small reddish seed like that of Cameline or English Worm-seed with a root made of a tuft full of innumerable threds or strings ‡ 2 This second kinde hath a thicker and harder root than the precedent hauing also fewer fibers the leaues are bigger than those of the last described somewhat curled or sinuated yet lesse rough and of a lighter greene in the middest of these there rise vp one or two stalkes or more vsually some two cubits high diuided into some branches which are adorned with leaues almost ingirting them round at there setting on The floures are like those of the former but somewhat larger and the colour is either white or a pale yellow after these succeed many long cods filled with a seed somewhat larger than the last described ‡ 3 Gold of pleasure is an herbe with many branches set vpon a straight stalke round and diuided into sundry wings in height two cubits The leaues be long broad and sharpe pointed somewhat snipt or indented about the edges like those of Sow-thistles The flowers along the stalkes are white the seed contained in round little vessels is fat and oily 1 Turritis Towers Mustard ‡ 2 Turritis major Great Tower Mustard 4 〈◊〉 Wormeseed riseth vp with tough and pliant branches whereupou do grow many small yellow flowers after which come long slender cods like Flixe-weed or Sophia wherein is conteined small yellowish seed bitter as Wormeseed or Coliquintida The leaues are small and darke of colour in shape like those of the wilde stocke Gillofloures but not so thicke nor fat The root is small and single ¶ The Place Towers Treacle groweth in the West part of England vpon dunghils and such like places I haue likewise seen it in sundrie other places as at Pyms by a village called Edmonton neere London by the Citie wals of West-chester in corne fields and where flaxe did grow about Cambridge ‡ The second is a stranger with vs yet I am deceiued if I haue not seene it growing in M. Parkinsons garden ‡ The other grow in the territorie of Leiden in Zeeland and many places of the Low-countries and likewise wilde in sundrie places of England ¶ The Time These herbes doe floure in May and Iune and their seed is ripe in September ¶ The Names ‡ 1 This is 〈◊〉 of Lobell Turrita Vulgatior of Clusius 2 This is Turrita maior of Clusius who thinkes it to be Brassica Virgata of Cordus 3 Matthiolus calls this Pseudomyagrum Tragus calls it Sesamum Dodonaeus Lobel and others call it Myagrum 4 This Lobel calls Myagrum thlaspi effigie Tabernamontanus hath it twice first vnder the name of Erysimum tertium secondly of Myagrum secundum And so also our Authour as I formerly noted had it before vnder the name of Eruca syluestris angustifolia and here vnder the name of Camelina ‡ 3 Myagrum Gold of pleasure 4 Camelina Treacle Worm-seed ¶ The Temperature These Plants be hot and dry in the third degree ¶ The Vertues It is thought saith Dioscorides That the roughnesse of the skinne is polished and made smooth with the oylie fatnesse of the seed of Myagrum Ruellius teacheth That the iuyce of the herbe healeth vlcers of the mouth and that the poore peasant doth vse the oile in banquets and the rich in their lampes The seed of Camelina stamped and giuen children to drinke killeth the wormes and driueth them forth both by siege and vomit ‡ CHAP. 24. Of Turky Cresses ‡ OVr Author did briefely in the precedent Chapter make mention of the two plants wee first mention in this Chapter but that so briefely that I thought it conuenient to discourse more largely of them as also to adde
haue somewhat the smell of a Primrose whence Mr. Parkinson gaue it the English name which I haue also here giuen you after the floures are fallen the cods grow to be some two inches long being thicker below and sharper at the top and somwhat twined which in fine open themselues into foure parts to shatter their seed which is blacke and small and sowne it growes not the first yeare into a stalke but sends vp many large leaues lying handsomely one vpon another Rose-fashion It floures in Iune and ripens the seed in August ‡ 5 The second kinde of Willow-herbe in stalks and leaues is like the first but that the leaues are longer narrower and greener The floures grow along the stalke toward the top spike-fashion of a faire purple colour which being withered turne into downe which is carried away with the winde 5 Lysimachia purpurea spicata Spiked Willow-herbe 6 Lysimachia siliquosa Codded Willow-herbe 6 This Lysimachia hath leaues and stalkes like vnto the former The floure groweth at the top of the stalke comming out of the end of a small long cod of a purple colour in shape like a stocke Gillofloure and is called of many Filius ante Patrem that is The Sonne before the Father because that the cod commeth forth first hauing seeds therein before the floure doth shew it selfe 〈◊〉 ‡ The leaues of this are more soft large and hairy than any of the former they are also snipt about the edges and the floure is large wherein it differs from the twelfth hereafter described and from the eleuenth in the hairinesse of the leaues and largenesse of the floures also as you shall finde hereafter ‡ 7 This being thought by some to be a bastard kinde is as I do esteeme it of all the rest the most goodly and stately plant hauing leaues like the greatest Willow or Ozier The branches come out of the ground in great numbers growing to the height of six foot garnished with braue floures of great beauty consisting of foure leaues a piece of an orient purple colour hauing some threds in the middle of a yellow colour The cod is long like the last spoken of and full of downy matter which flieth away with the winde when the cod is opened †7 Chamaenerion Rose bay Willow-herbe ‡ 8 〈◊〉 alterum angastifolium Narrow leaued Willow-floure ‡ 9 Lysimachia coerulea Blew Loose-strife ‡ 10 Lysimachiagalericulata Hoodéd Loose-strife 11 Lysimachia campestris Wilde Willow-herbe 9 There is another bastard Loose-strife or Willow-herbe hauing stalkes like the other of his kinde whereon are placed long leaues snipt about the edges in shape like the great Veronica or herbe Fluellen The floures grow along the stalkes spike-fashion of a blew colour after which succeed small cods or pouches The root is small and fibrous it may be called Lysimachia coerulea or blew Willow-herbe 10 We haue likewise another Willow-herbe that groweth neere vnto the bankes of 〈◊〉 and water-courses This I found in a waterie lane leading from the Lord Treasurer his house called Theobalds vnto the backeside of his slaughter-house and in other places as shall be declared hereafter Which Lobel hath called Lysimachia galericulata or hooded Willow-herbe It hath many small tender stalkes trailing vpon the ground beset with diuers leaues somwhat snipt about the edges of a deep green colour like to the leaues of Scordium or water Germander among which are placed sundrie small blew floures fashioned like a little hood in shape resembling those of Ale-hoofe The root is small and fibrous dispersing it selfe vnder the earth farre abroad whereby it greatly increaseth 11 The wilde Willow-Herbe hath fraile and very brittle stalkes slender commonly about the height of a cubit and sometimes higher whereupon doe grow sharpe pointed leaues somewhat snipt about the edges and set together by couples There come forth at the first long slender coddes wherein is contained small seed wrapped in a cottony or downy wooll which is carried away with the winde when the seed is ripe at the end of which commeth forth a small floure of a purplish colour whereupon it was called Filius ante Patrem because the floure doth not appeare vntill the cod be filled with his seed But there is another Sonne before the Father as hath beene declared in the Chapter of Medow-Saffron The root is small and threddie ‡ This differeth from the sixth onely in that the leaues are lesse and lesse hairy and the floure is smaller ‡ 12 The Wood VVillow-hearbe hath a slender stalke diuided into other smaller branches whereon are set long leaues rough and sharpe pointed of an ouerworne greene colour The floures grow at the tops of the branches consisting of foure or fiue small leaues of a pale purplish colour tending to whitenesse after which come long cods wherein are little seeds wrapped in a certaine white Downe that is carried away with the winde The root is threddie ‡ This differs from the sixth in that it hath lesser floures There is also a lesser sort of this hairie Lysimachia with small floures There are two more varieties of these codded Willow-herbes the one of which is of a middle growth somewhat like to that which is described in the eleuenth place but lesse with the leaues also snipped about the edges smooth and not hairie and it may fitly be called Lysimachia siliquosa glabra media or minor The lesser smooth-leaued Willow-herbe The other is also smooth leaued but they are lesser and narrower wherefore it may in Latine be termed Lysimachia siliquosa glabra minor angustifolia in English The lesser smooth and narrow leaued Willow-herbe ‡ 13 This lesser purple Loose-strife of Clusius hath stalkes seldome exceeding the height of a cubit they are also slender weake and quadrangular towards the top diuided into branches growing one against another the leaues are lesse and narrower than the common 〈◊〉 kinde and growing by couples vnlesse at the top of the stalkes and branches whereas they keepe no certaine order and amongst these come here and there cornered cups containing floures composed of six little red leaues with threds in their middles The root is hard woody and not creeping as in others of this kinde yet it endures all the yeere and sends forth new shoots It floures in lune and Iuly and was found by Clusius in diuers wet medowes in Austria ‡ ¶ The Place The first yellow Lysimachia groweth plentifully in moist medewos especially along the medowes as you go from Lambeth to Battersey neere London and in many other places throughout England ‡ 13 Lysimachia purpurea minor Clus. Small purple Willow herbe ‡ The second and third I haue not yet seene The fourth groweth in many gardens ‡ The fift groweth in places of greater moisture yea almost in the running streames and standing waters or hard by them It groweth vnder the Bishops house wall at Lambeth neere the water of Thames and in moist ditches in most places of England The sixth groweth neere the waters and in
high a finger thicke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or surrowed and couered ouer with an hairy mossines which diuide 〈◊〉 into sundry smal branches 〈◊〉 with leaues consisting of sundry little leaues 〈◊〉 vpon a middle rib like the wilde Vetch placed on the small pliant branches like feathers which are 〈◊〉 couered ouer with a woollie 〈◊〉 in taste astringent at the first but afterwards burning hot among these leaues come forth many small white floures in fashion like the floures of 〈◊〉 which before their opening seeme to be somewhat yellow the root is maruellous great and large considering the smalnesse 〈◊〉 the plant for sometimes it groweth to the bignesse of a mans arme keeping the same bignesse for the space of a span in length and after diuideth it selfe into two or more forks or branches blacke without and wrinckled white within hard and wooddie and in taste vnpleasant which being dried becommeth harder than an horne 1 Astragalus Lusitanicus Clusij Portingale milke Vetch 2 Astragalus Syriacus Assyrian milke Vetch 2 The second kinde of Astragalus is a rare and gallant plant and may well be termed Planta 〈◊〉 guminosa by reason that it is accounted for a kinde of Astragalus resembling the same in the 〈◊〉 of his stalkes and leaues as also in the thicknesse of his rootes and the creeping and folding thereof and is garnished with a most thicke and pleasant comlinesse of his delectable red floures growing vp together in great tufts which are very seemly to behold 3 There hath been some controuersie about this third kinde which I am not willing to prosecute or enter into it may very well be Astragalus of Matthiolus his description or else his Polygala which doth exceeding well resemble the true Astragalus his small stalkes grow a foot high 〈◊〉 with leaues like Cicer or Galega but that they are somewhat lesser among which come forth small Pease like floures of an Orange colour very pleasant in sight the root is tough and flexible of a finger thicke ‡ 3 Astragalus Matthioli Matthiolus his milke Vetch ‡ 4 Astragaloides Bastard Milke Vetch 4 The fourth is called of 〈◊〉 and other learned Herbarists Astragaloides for that it resembleth the true Astragalus which groweth a cubit high and in shew resembleth Liquorice the floures grow at the tops of the stalks in shape like the Pease bloome of a faire purple colour which turne into small blacke cods when they be ripe the root is tough and very long creeping vpon the vpper part of the earth and of a wooddy substance The Place They grow amongst stones in open places or as 〈◊〉 writeth in places subiect to winds and couered with snow Dioscorides copies do adde in shadowie places it groweth plentifully in Phenea a citie in Arcadia as Galen and Pliny report in Dioscorides his copies there is read in Memphis a citie of Arcadia but Memphis is a citie of Egypt and in Arcadia there is none of that name some of them grow in my garden and in sundrie other places in England wilde they grow in the medowes neere Cambridge where the schollers vse to sport themselues they grow also in sundrie places of Essex as about Dunmow and Clare and many other places of that countrey ‡ I should be glad to know which or how many of these our Authour heere affirmes to grow wilde in England for as yet I haue not heard of nor seene any of them wilde nor in gardens with vs except the last 〈◊〉 which growes in some few gardens ‡ ¶ The Time They floure in Iune and Iuly and their seed is ripe in September ¶ The Names Milke Vetch is called of Matthiolus Polygala but not properly of most it is called Astragalus in Spanish Garauancillos in the Portingales tongue Alphabeca in Dutch Cleyne Ciceren ¶ The Temperature and Vertues Astragalus as Galen saith hath astringent or binding roots and therefore it is of the number of those simples that are not a little drying for it glueth and healeth vp old vlcers and staieth the flux of the belly if they be boiled in wine and drunke the same things also touching the vertues of Astragalus Dioscorides hath mentioned the root saith he being drunke in wine staieth the laske and prouoketh vrine being dried and cast vpon old vlcers it cureth them it likewise procureth great store of milke in cattell that do eat thereof whence it tooke his name It stoppeth bleeding but it is with much ado beaten by reason of his hardnesse CHAP. 521. Of Kidney Vetch ¶ The Description 1 KIdney Vetch hath a stalke of the height of a cubit diuiding it selfe into other branches whereon do grow long leaues made of diuers leaues like those of the Lentill couered as it were with a softwhite downinesse the floures on the tops of the stalks of a yellow colour verie many ioined together as it were in a spokie rundle after which grow vp little cods in which is contained small seed the root is slender and of a wooddie substance ‡ This is sometimes found with white floures whereupon 〈◊〉 gaue two figures calling the one Lagopodium flore luteo and the other Lagopodium flo albo Our Author vnfitly gaue this later mentioned figure in the chapter of Lagopus by the name of Lagopum maximum ‡ 1 Anthyllis Leguminosa Kidney Vetch 2 Stella leguminosa 〈◊〉 Kidney Vetch 2 The Starry Kidney Vetch called Stella leguminosa or according to Cortusus Arcturo hath many small flexible tough branches full of small knots or knees from each of which springeth forth one long small winged leafe like birds foot but bigger from the bosome of those leaues come forth little tender stems on the ends whereof do grow small whitish yellow floures which are very slender and soone vaded like vnto them of Birds-foot these floures turne into small sharpe pointed cods standing one distant from another like the diuisions of a 〈◊〉 or as though it consisted of little hornes wherein is contained small yellowish seeds the root is tough and deeply growing in the ground 3 There is another sort of Kidney Vetch called Birds-foot or Ornithopodium which hath very many small and tender branches trailing here and there close vpon the ground set full of small and 〈◊〉 leaues of a whitish greene in shape like the leaues of the wilde Vetch but a great deale lesser and siner almost like small feathers amongst which the floures doe grow that are very small yellowish and sometimes whitish which being vaded there come in place thereof little crooked 〈◊〉 fiue or six growing together which in shew and shape are like 〈◊〉 a small birds foot and each and euery cod resembling a claw in which are inclosedsmall seed like that of Turneps ‡ 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The great Birds-foot ‡ 4 Ornithopodium minus Small Birds-foot ‡ 5 Scorpoides Leguminosa Small Horned pulse 4 There is also another kinde of Ornithopodium or Birds-foot called small Birds-foot which is very like vnto the first but that it is much smaller the branches or sprigs grow not
יהוה Ecce dedi vobis omnes herbas smentantes semen qiue sunt Gen 1. 29. Excideret ne tibi diuini muneris Author Praesentem monstrat quaelibet herba Deum Ceres Pomona THE HERBALL OR GENERALL Historie of Plantes Gathered by John Gerarde of London Master in CHIRVRGERIE Very much Enlarged and Amended by Thomas Johnson Citizen and Apothecarye of LONDON THEOPHRASTUS DIOSCORIDES London Printed by Adam Islip Joice Norton and Richard Whitakers Anno 1633. Io Payne sculp VIRIS PRVDENTIA VIRTVTE ARTE RERVMQVE VSV SPECTATISSIMIS DIGNISSIMIS RICHARDO EDWARDS RECTORI SIVE MAGISTRO EDWARDO COOKE LEONARDO STONE GVARDIANIS CAETERISQVE CLARISS SOCIET PHARMACEVT LOND SOCIIS HOS SVOS IN EMACVLANDO AVGENDOQVE HANC PLANTARVM HISTORIAM LABORES STVDIORVM BOTANICORVM SPECIMEN AMORIS SYMBOLVM EX ANIMO D. D. VESTRAE PVBLICAEQVE VTILITATIS STVDIOSISSIMVS THOM. IOHNSON TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HIS SINGVLAR GOOD LORD AND MASTER SIR WILLIAM CECIL KNIGHT BARON OF Burghley Master of the Court of Wards and Liueries Chancellor of the Vniuersitie of Cambridge Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter one of the Lords of her Maiesties most honorable Priuy Councell and Lord high Treasurer of England AMong the manifold creatures of God right Honorable and my singular good Lord that haue all in all ages diuersly entertained manv excellent wits and drawne them to the contemplation of the diuine wisdome none haue prouoked mens studies more or satisfied their desires so much as Plants haue done and that vpon iust and worthy causes For if delight may prouoke mens labor what greater delight is there than to behold the earth apparelled with plants as with a robe of embroidered worke set with Orient pearles and garnished with great 〈◊〉 of rare and costly iewels If this varietie and perfection of colours may affect the eye it is such in herbs and floures that no Apelles no Zeuxis euer could by any art expresse the like if odours or if taste may worke satisfaction they are both so 〈◊〉 in plants and so comfortable that no confection of the Apothecaries can equall their excellent vertue But these delights are in the outward sences the principall delight is in the minde siugularly enriched with the knowledge of these visible things setting forth to vs the inuisible wisedome and admirable workmanship of almighty God The delight is great but the vse greater and ioyned often with necessity In the first ages of the world they were the ordinarie meate of men and haue continued euer since of necessaire vse both for meates to maintaine life and for medicine to recouer health The hidden vertue of them is such that as Pliny noteth the very bruite beasts haue found it out and which is another vse that he obserues from thence the Dyars tooke the beginning of their Art Furthermore the necessary vse of these fruits of the earth doth plainly appeare by the great charge and care of almost all men in planting and maintaining of gardens not as ornaments onely but as a necessarie prouision also to their houses And here beside the 〈◊〉 to speake againe in a word of delight gardens especially such as your Honor hath furnished with many rare Simples do singularly delight when in them a man doth behold a flourishing shew of Sommer beauties in the midst of Winters force and a goodly spring of floures when abroad a leafe is not to be seene Besides these and other causes there are many examples of those that haue honored this science for to passe by a multitude of the Philosophers it may please your Honor to call to remembrance that which you know of some noble Princes that haue ioyned this study with their most important matters of state Mithridates the great was famous for his knowledge herein as 〈◊〉 noteth Euax also King of Arabia the happy garden of the world for principall Simples wrot of this argument as Pliny sheweth Diocletian likewise might haue had his praise had he not drowned all his honour in the bloud of his persecution To conclude this point the example of Solomon is before the rest and greater whose wisedome and knowledge was such that hee was able to set out the nature of all plants from the highest Cedar to the lowest Mosse But my very good 〈◊〉 that which sometime was the study of great Philosophers and mightie Princes is now neglected except it be of some few whose spirit and wisdome hath carried them among other parts of wisedome and counsell to a care and studie of speciall herbes both for the furnishing of their gardens and furtherance of their knowledge among whom I may iustly affirme and publish your Honor to be one being my selfe one of your seruants and a long time witnesse thereof for vnder your Lordship I haue serued and that way employed my principall study and almost all my time now by the space of twenty yeares To the large and singular furniture of this noble Island I haue added from 〈◊〉 places all the varietie of herbes and floures that I might any 〈◊〉 obtaine I haue laboured with the soile to make it fit for plants and with the plants that they might delight in the soile that so they might liue and prosper vnder our clymat as in their natiue and proper countrey what my successe hath beene and what my furniture is I leaue to the report of them that haue 〈◊〉 your Lordships gardens and the little plot of myne owne especiall care and husbandry But because gardens are priuat and many times finding an ignorant or a negligent successor come soone to ruine there be that haue sollicited me first by my pen and after by the Presse to make my Labors common and to free them from the danger whereunto a garden is subiect wherein when I was ouercome and had brought this History or report of the nature of Plants to a iust volume and had made it as the Reader may by comparison see richer than former Herbals I found it no question vnto whom I might 〈◊〉 my 〈◊〉 for considering your good Lordship I found none of whose fauor and 〈◊〉 I might sooner presume seeing I haue found you euer my very good Lord and Master Again considering my duty and your Honors merits to whom may I better recommend my Labors than to him vnto whom I owe my selfe and all that I am able in any seruice or 〈◊〉 to performe Therefore vnder hope of your Honorable and accustomed fauor I present this Herball to your Lordships protection and not as an exquisite Worke for I know my meannesse but as the greatest gift and chiefest argument of duty that my labour and seruice can affoord where of if there be no other fruit yet this is of some vse that I haue ministred Matter for Men of riper wits and deeper iudgements to polish and to adde to my large additions where any thing is defectiue that in time the Worke may be perfect Thus I humbly take my leaue beseeching God to grant
aboue a hand or halfe an hand in length spreading themselues vpon the ground with his small leaues and branches in maner of the lesser Arachus the floures are like vnto those of the former but very small and of a red colour ‡ 5 This small horned pulse may fitly here take place The root thereof consists of many little fibres from which arise two or three little slender straight stalkes some handfull and halfe or foot high at the tops of these grow little sharpe pointed crooked hornes rounder and slenderer than those of 〈◊〉 turning their ends inwards like the tailes of Scorpions and so jointed the floures are small and yellow the leaues little and winged like those of Birds foot Pena and 〈◊〉 found this amongst the corne in the fields in Narbon in France and they set it forth by the 〈◊〉 as I haue here giuen you it ‡ ¶ The Place 〈◊〉 4. These plants I found growing vpon Hampstead Heath neere London right against the Beacon vpon the right hand as you go from London neere vnto a grauell pit they grow also vpon blacke Heath in the high way leading from Greenwich to Charleton within halfe a mile of the towne ¶ The Time They floure from Iune to the middle of September ¶ The Names ‡ 1 This Gesner calls Vulneraria rustica Dodonaeus Lobel and Clusius call it Anthyllis and 〈◊〉 leguminosa ‡ 3. 4. I cannot finde any other name for these plants but Ornithopodium the 〈◊〉 is called in English great Birds-foot the second small Birds-foot ¶ The Nature and Vertues These herbes are not vsed either in meate or medicine that I know of as yet but they are very good food for cattel and procure good store of milke whereupon some haue taken them 〈◊〉 kindes of Polygala CHAP. 522. Of Blacke milke Tare Glaux Dioscoridis Dioscorides his milke Tare ¶ The Description THe true Glaux of Dioscorides hath very many tough and wooddy branches trailing vpon the ground set full of small winged leaues in shape like the common Glaux but a great deale smaller resembling the leaues of Tares but rather like Birds-foot of a very gray colour amongst which come forth knobby and scaly or chaffie heads very like the Medow Trefoile of a faire purple colour the root is exceeding long and wooddy which the figure doth not expresse and set forth ¶ The Place The true Glaux groweth vpon Barton hill foure miles from Lewton in Bedfordshire vpon both the sides of the declination of the hill ¶ The Time These plants do floure and flourish about Midsommer ¶ The Names These plants haue in times past been called Glaux i. folia habens glauca siue pallentia that is hauing skie coloured or pale leaues Sithens that in times past some haue counted Glaux among the kindes of Polygala or Milkewoorts we may therefore call this kinde of Glaux blacke Milke-woort ¶ The Nature These herbes are dry in the second degree ¶ The Vertues The seeds of the common Glaux are in vertue like the Lentils but not so much astringent they stop the flux of the belly dry vp the moisture of the stomacke and ingender store of milke CHAP. 523. Of red Fitchling Medick Fitch and Cockes-head ¶ The Description 1 THe first kinde of Onobrychis hath many small and twiggie pliant branches ramping and creeping through and about bushes or whatsoeuer it groweth neere vnto the leaues and all the rest of the pulfe or plant is very like to the wilde Vetch or Tare the floures grow at the top of small naked stalks in shape like the pease bloome but of a purple colour layed 〈◊〉 with blew which turne into small round prickly husks that are nothing else but the seed 1 Onobrychis sive Caput Gallinaceum Medick Fitchling or Cockes-head 2 Onobrychis flore purpureo Purple Cockes-head 2 The second kind of Fitchling or Cocks-head of Clusius his description hath very many stalks especially when it is growne to an old plant round hard and leaning to the ground like the other pulses and leaues very like Galega or the wilde Vetch of a bitter taste and lothsome sauour among which come forth small round stems at the ends whereof do grow floures spike fashion three inches long in shape like those of the great Lagopus or medow Trefoile but longer of an excellent shining purple colour but without smell after which there follow small coddes containing little hard and blacke seed in taste like the Vetch The root is great and long hard and of a wooddy substance spreading it selfe far abroad and growing very deep into the ground 3 The third kinde of Fitchling or Cocks-head hath from a tough smal and wooddie root many twiggie branches growing a cubit high full of knots ramping and creeping on the ground The leaues are like the former but smaller and shorter among which come forth smal tender stemmes whereupon do grow little floures like those of the Tare but of a blew colour tending to purple the floures being vaded there come the small cods which containe little blacke seed like a Kidney of a blacke colour 3 Onobrychis 2. Clusij Blew Medicke Fitch 4 Onobrychis 3. Clusij flore pallido Pale coloured Medicke Fitch 5 Onobrychis montana 4. Clusij Mountaine Medick Fetch 5 The fifth kinde of Onobrychis hath many grosse and wooddie stalks proceeding immediatly from a thick fat and fleshie tough root the vpper part of which are small round and pliant garnished with little leaues like those of Lentils or rather Tragacantha somewhat soft and couered ouer with a woollie hairinesse amongst which come forth little long and naked stems eight or nine inches long whereon do grow many small floures of the fashion of the Vetch or Lentill but of a blew colour tending to purple and after them come smal cods wherein the seed is contained ¶ The Place The first and second grow vpon Barton hill foure miles from Lewton in Bedfordshire vpon both the sides of the hill and likewise vpon the grassie balks between the lands of corn two miles from Cambridge neere to a water mill towards London diuers other places by the way from London to Cambridge the rest are strangers in England ¶ The Time These plants do floure in Iuly their seed is ripe shortly after ¶ The Names It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or without a name among the later writers the old and antient Physitions do call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all those things that are found written in Dioscorides or Pliny concerning 〈◊〉 doe especially agree hereunto Dioscorides writeth thus Onobrychis hath leaues like a Lentill but longer a stalk a span high a crimson floure a little root it groweth in moist and vntilled places and Pliny in like manner Onobrychis hath the leaues of a Lentill somwhat longer a red floure a small and slender root it groweth about springs or fountaines of water All which things and euery 〈◊〉 are in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or namelesse herbe as