like a finger white both without and within but the Hermodactils used in shops are not such they are small and somewhat flat thick short white roots and some are blackish which are not good they are of a firm substance yet easie to be cut or made into powder and of little or no tast but drying Government and Vertues They are Solar hot and dry in the second degree and are effectual in purging forth flegmatick slimy and watry humors Flegm Watry Humors from the joints and therefore good to help the Gout and other running joint-aches and is used to good purpose with other things in diet-drinks Hermodactils are apt to stir up Windiness and trouble the Stomach but may be corrected with either Ginger long Pepper Anniseeds or Comin Hone-wort Names IT is called also Corn-parsly and Selinum Segetale and Hone-wort Descript It is a small low Herb having sundry winged long leaves lying on the ground many being set one against another finely dented about the edges with one at the end which are each of them longer than Burnet-leaves and pointed at the ends among which rise sundry round stalks half a yard high with the like but lesser leaves on them branching forth likewise from the joints and all of them bearing small Vmbells of white flowers which turn into a small blackish seed lesse than Parsley seed but in tast as hot and sharp as it the root is small long and white and perisheth every year after it hath yeelded its seed and springeth up again of its own sowing Place It groweth in Fields among Corn or in places where Corn hath been sown and by the sides of Corn-fields I have found it grow plentifully in the Fields between Camberwel and Dulwich Time It flowereth in Harvest time and the seed is ripe in September Government and Virtues It is under the planetary rule of Mercury as the other parsleys are of a cutting exterminating nature and effectual for the same purposes Parsley is Parkinson saith that Mr Goodier of Hampshire reported to him that the use of a handful of the leaves being drunk in a draught of Beer every morning for a fortnight did cure one that had a Swelling in her cheek arising there yearly and Mr. Roger Dixon Chirurgion did use it for Swellings and Tumors Jack by the Hedge Names IT is called also Sawce-alone and in Latine Alliaria Descript This Herb at his first springing up hath roundish leaves the lower are rounder then those that grow towards the tops of the stalks and are set singly one at a joint being somewhat round and broad and pointed at the ends and jagged about not much unlike Nettle-leaves but greater and of a fresher green colour and not rough nor pricking the which being bruised between the fingers have the savor and smell of Gar-like but more pleasant and tasteth somewhat hot and sharp the flowers are very small and white growing at the tops of the stalks one above another like to Rocket and after them succeed long Cods or husks wherein is contained a small round blackish seed the root is stringy and threddy perisheth every year when it hath given seed and of its own seed springeth again Place This plant delighteth to grow in low untilled grounds undâ—◠〈…〉 the borders of Meadows and moist pastures and by He◠〈◊〉 and path wayes in many places Tiâ—â—â—â— â—ack by the Hedge floureth in May and June and the seed is ripâ— soon after Government and Vertues It is a plant of Mars of temperature hot and dry in the third degree Sawce-alone hath been much used and is still in some places by people for sawce to their meat in stead of Garlick and it is likewise a good sawce to fish and helpeth to digest the crudities and other corrupt humors ingendred by the much eating of Fish it warmeth the Stomack Stumack and causeth digestion Digestion the juice boiled with hony is very good for the Cough Cough to help to cut and expectorate tough Flegm Flegm the seed bruised and boiled in Wine is a good remedy for the wind-Chollick Chollick and S one Stone being drunk warm the same for Women troubled with the Mother Mother both to drink warm and the seeds put into a Cloth and applied warm the decoction of the leaves or seed is good in glisters to ease pains of the Stone the green leaves are good to cleanse and heal Ulcers Vlcers in the legs the root hath a tast like unto Radishes and may be used in the same manner and to the same purposes as they are Jessamine or Jesmine Names IT is called Jasminum and Gelseminum vulgatius et album there being reckoned amongst Authors four other kinds as Jasminum vel Gelseminum Catalonicum simplex the single Spanish Jasmine Gelseminum vel Jasminum Catalonium multiplex The double Spanish Jasmine Gelseminum sive Jasmimum Indicum flavum odoratissimum The Indian most sweet yellow Jasmine And Gelseminum sive Jasminum luteum Odoratum Virginianum scandens et semper virens The sweet yellow climing Virginian Jasmine Desâ—ript The ordinary Jasmine springeth up with many long shoots from the root divided into many small branches full of joints or knots and covered with a dark grayish bark these shoots or twigs are filled with a white spongy pith within like the Elder the leaves be of a dark green colour winged and parted into several other little leaves the flowers be white and long of a sweet and pleasant savor standing divers in a tuft together at the tops of the small branches which fall away without bearing of any fruit in our Country but in hotter Countries where it naturally groweth it beareth a flat seed like a Lupine the root spreadeth far in the ground and increaseth by yeelding of many suckers Place Jasmine the three first sorts thereof grow well in Spain and are supposed to have been brought thither out of Syria none grows here but such as are planted in Gardens Time Jasmine floureth in July and August but the fruit thereof never cometh to perfection in this Country Government and Vertues Jasmine is under the Solar Influence It is hot almost in the second degree as saith Serapio and hath a bitter tast Jasmine is effectual to cure the foul dry Scurff and red Spots Scurff Spots Swellings Wens flegm Catharrs Head-ach Freckles Morphew Tetters Ring-worms Cramp Stiches and dissolveth cold Swellings and Wens or hard lumps or knobs gathered together in the flesh being pultis-wise applied thereon It discusseth humors is good against salt Flegm and is profitable for old men that are troubled with Catharrs and tough Flegm but it breedeth the Head-ach in those who are of an hot constitution if they use it the leaves either green or dry do cleanse Freckles Morphew Spots and discolourings of the Face and other parts of the body and helpeth Tetters and Ring-worms There is an Oyle made of the flowers by infusion which is good for any cold part
many growing close together each hanging on a long foot-stalk by it self with a notch or clift at the head or end thereof The wood hereof is harder more knotty and yellower then the Female Descript 2. Tilia foemina major The greater Female Line-tree groweth to be a larger tree then the former especially if it happen to be planted in good ground covered with a dark coloured bark the next thereunto being very pliable to bend and bind having some other thin rindes within it the leaves are fair broad greener smoother gentler rounder than Elm-leaves and with a longer end dented about the edges and of a reasonable good scent at the end of the branches oftentimes and at the foot of the leaves shoot forth long and narrow whitish leaves along the middle rib whereof springeth out a slender long stalk with divers white flowers thereon smelling very sweet after which follow small berries wherein is contained black round seed the wood is whitish smooth and light Descript 3. Tilia foemina minor The lesser Linden-tree is like the last in all things saving that it groweth smaller in body leaves and flowers the leaves are of a darker green colour and beareth no fruit after the flowers Place and Time The greater Female-kind is planted in many places in this land in pleasant Walks it making a large sweet shadow and usually flowreth in May. The other are great strangers and scarce to be seen any where in this land Government and Vertues There is no medicinal use made of the Male Linden The Female is under the dominion of Venus of a moderate temperature and somewhat drying and astringent the decoction of the leaves being sod in water is a pood Lotion to wash the sore Mouthes Sore mouths of young Children or any sore Mouths that have Ulcers blisters Vlcers blisters or Cankers in them The leaves being pounded or bruised after the boyling and applied to the Legs or Feet cankers swelled Feet that are swelled with falling down of humors doth help them the hark is also effectual for the same purpose The flowers of the Line-tree and of Lilly Convally distilled together the water thereof is good against the Falling-sickness so likewise is the distilled water of the bark and is good against those fretting humors that cause the bloody Flux and griping in the Guts the water wherein the inner bark hath been steeped till the water become thick and muscilaginous and applied with clothes wet therein helps burnings and scaldings Liquid Amber Descript and Place LIquid Amber is a thick Rozen like gum droping by incision from certain great trees in the West-Indies which trees are full of branches covered with a thick Ash-coloured bark the leaves are like unto Ivy leaves and the Gum which issueth from the tree is of a strong and sweet smell and is somewhat like unto Liquid Storax and may passe instead thereof for the same uses but there is a coarse sort which is the scum of the uppermost fatness that is made by boyling the branches and is supposed to be that Storax liquida sold by Druggists and Apothecaries out of the first sort while it is fresh and laid in the Sun there droppeth a certain clear reddish oyl called oyle of Liquid Amber and of some Liquid Amber it self Government and Virtues Both Tree and Gum are under the influence of Jupiter of a moderately hot and moist temperature and is useful either of it self or mixed with other things to comfort and warm a cold moist braine Brain Stomack Digestion Apetite Mother Tumors being used as an oyntment and easeth all pains proceeding from a cold cause being applied thereunto It comforts and strengtheneth a weak Stomack helps digestion and procures an Appetite But more effectually if a plaister be made thereof with some Storax Musk and Amber and applied to the Stomack it is also profitably used in all cold griefs of the the Mother it warms mollifies and dissolves Tumors and opens obstructions and stoppings of the Terms Lung-flower or Autumn Gentian Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of these plants are generally called Autumn small Gentians Gentianellae Autumnales and of some Pneumonanthe Descript 1. The greater Autumn Gentian Pneumonanthe dicta riseth up according to the richness of the ground higher or lower sometimes two foot high and sometimes not above a foot and sometimes with many and sometimes with fewer stalks of a brownish green colour with many long and narrow dark green leaves set by couples upon them up to the topsâ— which seldom branch forth but bear every one a large hollow flower in most of them of a deep blewish purple colour but in some a little paler ending in five points the roots are many small and long growing deep into the ground and abiding all the Winter Descript 2. Gentianella Autumnalis simbriato flore Antumn-Geatian of Naples This doth creep up like Couch-grasse from a long yellowish small root shooting forth a few long and narrow leavs likâ— those of Flax but shorter but those that grow up to the middle of the stalk are larger and lesser again from the middle to the top two set at every joint all along and striped from every one of the joints on both sides to the top of the stalk which is green and about a foot high at the top commeth a purplish green husk which hath four large pointed leaves and encloseth the flower which is long and writhed before it be blown and of a pale blew colour but when it is blown open is of a deeper blew colour having four leaves somewhat long and as it were purfled about the edges with a little hairiness at them and a small leaf at the bottom of each flower with a few yellow threds in the middle standing about a head which groweth to be the seed-vessel forked into two parts at the head being greater there then below and containeth in it very small black seed when it is ripe Descript 3. Autumn-Gentian with small Centory-leaves called in Latine Gentianella Autumnalis Centaureae minoris folio This riseth up with sundry stalks scarce a foot high parted into many small branches whereon do stand two leaves together very like those of the lesser Centaury not so long as either of the former but a little broader and of a whiter green colour at the tops of the stalks and branches grow divers blew flowers set in small long husks half way rising above the tops of them the seed is small and groweth in long horned vessels the root is small and fibrous Descript 4. There is another sort with small Centory-like flowers which is more spreading small but hath larger leaves and flowers than Centory and of the same colour as are the flowers of Centory yet having many more and lasteth longer the root abideth not the Winter Descript 5. Another smaller Gentian with Centaury-leaves is very like unto the last but smaller and the stalks much lower not above three inches high having
only planted in Gardens Time The Lupines do flower in July and August and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Lupines are under the dominion of Mars and have an opening cleansing dissolving and digestive property but if they be steeped in water untill they have lost their bitterness they may be eaten but they are very hard to digest and breed grosse humors and passe slowly through the belly yet do not stop any flux If they be so steeped Appetite Stomack Liver Spleen Vrine Terms Dead-Child Scabbs Morphew cankers Tetters Sores and afterwards dryed and taken with Vinegar they provoke Appetite and help the loathing of the Stomack to meat The decoction of Lupines taken with hony opens obstructions of the Liver and Spleen provokes Urine and the Terms and expelleth the Dead-child if it be taken with Myrrhe The decoction of them cleanseth the body of Scabs Morphew Cankers Tetters and soul running Ulcers or Sores It also cleanseth the Face and taketh away the marks or pits which the Pox leaves behind it and cleareth the skin of Marks and black and blew Spots An oyntment of Lupines to beautifie and make the Face Amiable is made after this manner Take the meal of Lupines the gaul of a Goat or Sheep juice of Lemons and a little Alumen Saccharimum mingle them into the form of a soft oyntment The meal of Lupines being boyled in Vinegar and applied taketh away knobs and kernels or pimples The smoak of the shells being burned drives away gnats and flyes which annoy many houses in Summer Madder great and small BEsides the Garden and Wild Madder there are many other kinds hereof sound out Parkinson makes six kinds of the Rubia major or greater Madder and eight sorts of the Rubia minor or little small Madder Rubia Tinctorum is the general name of the manured Madder in Shops not onely so called from the colour of the root but also from its propety to dye a red colour The names of the other kinds follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Culpepper hath described the Garden or manured Madder therefore I say no more of it Descript 2. Rubia sylvestris wild Madder is very like unto the manured but the stalks are smaller and not so spreading neither are they so rough or hairy the leaves are lesse the flowers are white the root groweth greater but not so red as the Garden-kind Descript 3. Wild Madder with long leaves called Rubia sylvestris longioribus foliis hath divers round jointed stalks two or three foot long or thereabout not so rough as the other wild sort the leaves that stand at the joints are somewhat rough narrower and longer than the other seaven or eight at a distance the flowers are white and stand at the tops of the stalks having four leaves apeece which turn into small round seed like the other the root is red as the former but smaller Descript 4. Smooth-leaved-Madder Rubia levis Taurinensium hath divers round smooth stalks two or three foot long whereon stand leaves not rough at all but smooth larger broader than garden Madder towards the tops of the branches and at the joints with the leaves standing round about the stalks come white flowers consisting of five or six small leaves apeece the roots are smaller then the other and run not far into the ground Descript 5. The 〈◊〉 smooth Candy-Madder called Rubia levis arborescens Cretica It hath a thick short stalk about the thickness of one's singer from whence spring many straight smooth branches with small short leaves standing at distances like the former sorts at the tops of the branches shoot out two or three slender sprigs which bear whitish flowers like those of the ordinary Madder the root is long and reddish and of a bitter harsh tast Descript 6. Sea-Madder Rubia marina hath many square hard and somewhat rough stalks full of joints and spreading round about the root upon the ground the leaves are somewhat rough small and long broadest at the bottom and pointed at the end growing lesser towards the tops the flowers are of a star-like fashion and whitish the root is more red on the outside then within more wooddy and harder then the other Place The first is manured in Gardens and large fields for the profit that is made of it for dyers as well as medicinal uses the second groweth by hedge-sides in many places of Germany and so doth the third which groweth also in many places of our own Land the fourth is found by Turin on the hills of Piemont according as Pena and Lobel say the fift in Candy and the sixt by the Sea-side in Provence and neer Mompelier Time They flower towards the latter end of Summer and the seed of some of them is ripe shortly-after Government and Vertues All the Madders are plants of Mars our Antient and modern writers have controverted each other about the properties of Madder whether it be of an opening or binding quality Galen and Dioscorides say that the root doth open and cleanse the body of thick and tough Flegm Vrine Terms Dead-Child After-Birth Yellow Jaundice Liver Spleen Melancholy Palsie Sciatica that it provoketh Urine bringeth down Womens Courses and expelleth the Dead-child and afterbirth but Dodoneus affirmeth that it is dry and astringent and hath no opening faculty at all but it is sound to have both an opening and an astringent quality even as Rhubarb hath which first opens and then binds and strengthens it turneth the Urine into a red colour as Rhubarb doth colour it yellow it is an excellent remedy for the yellow Jaundies opening obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and cleanseth those parts it abates Melancholy humor it is effectual for those that have the Palsey and Scitica the roots boyled in Ale drunk is good for those that have received any hurts by bruises or falls and for all these purposes the root may be boyled in Wine Ale or Water and some hony or Sugar put thereunto afterwards The seed taken with Vinegar and hony helps swellings and hardness of the Spleen Spleen Freckels Deformity of the skin the decoction of the leaves and branches is good so Women to sit over to drive down their Courses The leaves and roots bâ—â—â—sed and applied cleanse and take away Freckles Morphew white Scurff or any deformity of the skin Small or little Madder Descript 1. Candy-Madder with a spikey head and larger leaves called in Latine Rubia spicata Cretica latiore folio It hath divers square rough slender stalks full of joints from which shoot many branches with four or five small rough leaves compassing them the top-branches end in small long spiked four square heads with many short rough husks set close one above another which send forth small whitish green flowers scarce to be seen after which come small greenish Seed The root is fibrous and wooddy but dyeth every Winter Descript 2. Spiked-Madder with small leaves Rubia spicata angusti-folia This differeth from the former in that
it hath lesser leaves stalkes and branches not growing above a hand breadth high and perisheth every year Descript 3. Small smooth Madder with sharp-pointed leaves Rubia Pratensis levis acuto folio This springeth up with one smooth square jointed stalk about a foot and a half high from the joints grow small branches whereat are set usually four long leaves ending in a small point The flowers come forth at the tops consisting of four leaves and are small and yellow at the first and afterwards become of a pale white colour Descript 4. Small smooth Madder with round pointed leaves Rubia quadrifolia rotunda levis This hath many square stalks about half a foot high which send forth other smaller branches at every joint four small round pointed leaves a little rough and not so smooth as the last the flowers are small and white and stand at the tops upon small threddy footstalks each having four leaves the root is small threddy and reddish Descript 5. Small creeping Madder with purplish blew flowers Rubia minor pratensis Coerulea This hath many small square branches which creep upon the ground divided into other small ones full of joints and at every of them five or six round green leaves smooth or very little rough from the joints and tops of the branches come small flowers consisting of five blewish purple round pointed leaves having some small threds in the middle the seed is small and long the root is small and of a reddish yellow colour it continueth green all the Winter Descript 6. Small rock-Madder Rubia minima Saxatilis Tâ—is groweth not above a hand-breadth in height it hath a small square stalk sending small branches from the joints at which grow seaven or eight small pointed leaves and somewhat rough the flowers are very small of a pale red standing in Vmbells at the tops of the branches the root is small and reddish Descript 7 Small rock-Madder with prickly heads Rubia Echinata Saxatilis This hath a small whitish threddy root which sendeth up many square render branches small and slender below and thicker up higher having many thick and hairy joints whereat grow four small leaves between which and the branches come forth small greenish flowers of four leaves a peece standing together upon a footstalk having small threds in the middle after which come small heads somewhat rough which become sharp and prickly when they are ripe divided into four parts on each side of the head the middle part being also prickly the seed is small and yellow It flowreth at the lower joints first and afterwards at the higher Descript 8. Candy Silver-leaved Madder Rubia argentea Cretica This is like the former small Madder but that the leaves are longer and whiter and the flowers yellow Place The fifth groweth plentifully in many places in England and so doth the sixt as upon the Chalky hills neer Drayton over against the Isle of Wight the others are strangers in our land Time They flower in the Summer Months and perfect their seed shortly after Government and Vertues These small Madders are all likewise plants of Mars and are of the same property and temperature as the former greater Madders are but not so powerfull Mayweed Kinds and Names THere is found three sorts of Mayweed 1. Cotula foetida stinking Mayweed 2. Cotula non foetida Mayweed with no scent Stinking Mayweed groweth more upright then that which sâ—nelleth not or the common Camomile neither of them creep or or run on the ground as Comomile doth the leaves are longer and greater then these of Camomile yet very like unto it but of a paler green colour the one sort hath a very strong smell the other no scent at all the flowers are like those of Camomile but larger there hath also been found of this sort in many places of this Land a Mayweed which hath double flowers almost as large as double Camomile-flowers which is called Cotula flore pleno Place The stinking Mayweed groweth abundantly among Corn and will blister the hands of the reapers that which stinketh not groweth also very plentifully wild in many places and often amongst wild Camomile Time They flower all the Summer-Months some earlier and some later Government and Vertues Mayweed is governed by Mars yet Galen saith The Sophi of the Egyptians consecrated Camomile to the Sun which is much of the same temperature but the stinking Mayweed is more hot and dry and is used for the same purposes that Camomile is to dissolve Tumors and Wind and to ease pains and Aches in the joints and other parts Tumors Wind Paines Aches Matrix Fallen down Suffocations of the Matrix it is also good for Women whose Matrix is fallen down or loosed from one side to another their feet being washed with a decoction thereof made in water It is likewise good to be given to smell unto for such who are troubled with the rising or suffocation of the Matrix Jewes-Mallow Names IT is called Melochia or Molochia and Corchorus Descript It is a small low herb rising up a foot and an half from the stalks shoot forth divers branches on all sides whereon grow many leaves without order up to the tops somewhat longer and broader then the leaves of Basil and some are shorter and broader almost round all of them finely nicked and pointed about the edges having at the bottom of each leaf a small thred as it were on each side which are of a little sourish tast the flowers for the most part come forth singly but one standing at a place every one upon a short footstalk consisting of five broad small pointed leaves of a yellow colour with some threds in the middle which being past there rise up slender long pods somewhat like unto those of Swallow-wort which when they are ripe open into five parts having within them small seed like unto Nigella but lesser and of a blewish green colour the root is long fibrous and perisheth every year Place It groweth in Syria Asia Aegypt and in those places abundantly in the Gardens where it is sown and in many places of Spain and Italy It is so common in Aegypt that they seldom make a meal without a dish therof as saith Alpinus Time It seldom cometh to flower with us and being sown groweth not above a hand high a cold night quickly killeth it Government and Virtues Alpinus assimilateth the faculties hereof unto the Marsh-Mallow that is of a temperature moderate in heat and moisture but this thought to be dryer even in the first degree it is under the government of Venus It is much used to suppurate digest resolve and mollifie all hard Tumors in that the muscilage hereof is more slymy then that of our Marsh-mallows Hard tumors Dry Coughs Hoarseness Throat two drams of the seed he saith is usually taken at a time to purge all sorts of humors the decoction of the leaves is very frequently used against dry Coughs hoarsness of the Throat or voice and
in the mouth it helpeth a stinking breath it also helps digestion and is good against Melancholy These outer rinds being preserved with Sugar are used as a Junket at Banquets yet they are often used in Cordial Electuaries and preservatives against infection and Melancholy It also helpeth to loose the body and therefore there is a solutive Electuary made therewith called Electuarium de citro solutivum to evacuate the bodies of cold flegmatick Constitutions and may safely be used where Choler is mixed with Flegm The inner white rinde of the fruit is almost unsavoury and without taste and is not used in Physick but being preserved is used at Banquets the sowr juice in the middle is cold and farre surpasseth that of Lemons in the effects although not so sharp in taste it is singular good in all pestilential and burning Feavers to restrain the venome and Infection to suppress the Choler and hot distemper of the blood and to quench thirst and correcteth the ill disposition of the Liver stirreth up an Appetite and refresheth the over-spent and fainting spirits Burning Feavers Choler Thirst Appetite Faint Spirits resisteth drunkenness and helpeth the turnings of the Brain by the hot vapours arising therein which causeth a Frenzy for want of sleep the seed not only equalleth the rind but also surpasseth it in many particulars yet Galen and Avicen contradict one another herein Galen saith that the seed is cold which Mathiolus excuseth with diverting his intent to the juice and Avicen saith it is hot in the first degree and dry in the second the Bark or rynd hot in the first and dry in the end of the second degree the inner white substance between the outer bark and the inner juice hot and moist in the first degree and the sowr juice cold and dry in the third degree These seeds are very effectual to preserve the heart and vital spirits from the poyson of the Scorpion and other venemous creatures as also against the infection of the Plague or Pox or any other contagious disease they kill the worms in the stomach provoke the Terms cause an Abortment and have a digesting and a drying quality fit to dry up and consume moist humours both inwardly in the body and outwardly in any moist or running Ulcers or Sores Heart poyson of Scorpions Plague Pox Worms Terms Moist humours Vlcers Sores and to take away the pains that come after the biting of any venemous Creature The whole fruit or the branches of the trees layd in Presses Chests or Wardrobes keepeth Cloth or silk Garments from Moths or worms and likewise giveth them a good scent Quick-Grass Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of these Grasses some growing in the fields and other places of the upland grounds and others near the Sea it is also called Dogs-grass and Gramen Caninum the other several names shall follow in the Descriptions Descript 1. Common quick-grass Gramen caninum vulgare This grass creepeth far about under ground with long white joynted roots and small fibres almost at every joynt very sweet in taste as the rest of the herb is and interlaceing one another from whence shoot forth many fair and long grassie leaves small at the ends and cutting or sharp at the edges the stalks are joynted like Corn with the like leaves on them and a long spiked head with long husks on them and hard rough seed in them Descript 2. Quick grass with a more spread Panickle Gramen caninum longius radicatum paniculatum This differeth very little from the former but in the tuft or panickle which is more spread into branches with shorter and broader husks and in the root which is fuller greater and further-spread Descript 3. The lesser quick-grass with a sparsed tuft Gramen caninum latiore panicula minus This small quick-grass hath slender stalks about half a foot high with many very narrow leaves both below and on the stalks the tuft or panickle at the top is small according to the Plant and spreadeth into sundry parts or branches the root is small and joynted but creepeth not so much and have many more fibres among them than the others have and is a little browner not so white but more sweet Descript 4. Low bending quick grass Gramen caninum arvense This creepeth much under ground but in a differing manner the stalks taking root in divers places and scarce rising a foot high with such like green leaves as the ordinary but shorter the spiked head is bright and sparsed or spread abroad somewhat like the field grass Descript 5. Gramen caninum supinum Monspeliense This differeth very little from the last in any other part thereof than in the panickle or spiked head which is longer and not spread or branched into parts as that is Descript 6. A small sweet grass like Quick-grass Gramen exile tenuifolium Canariae simile sive gramen dulce This small grass hath divers low creeping Branches and rooting at the joynts as the two last having many small and narrow leaves on them much less than they and a small sparsed panickle somewhat like the red dwarf-grass Descript 7. Wall-grass with a creeping root Gramen murorum radice repente this Wall grass from a blackish creeping root springeth forth with many stalks a foot high bending or crooking with a few narrow short leaves on them at whose tops stand small white panickles of an inch and a half long made of many small chaffy husks Place and Time The first is usual and common in divers plow'd Grounds and Gardens where it is often more bold than welcome troubling the Husbandmen as much after the plowing up of some of them as to pull up the rest after the springing and being raked together to burn them as it doth Gardners where it happeneth to weed it out from amongst their trees and Herbs the second and third are more scarce and delight in Sandy and Chalky grounds the three next are likewise found in Fields that have been plowed and do lye Fallow and the last is often found on old decayed Walls in divers places they flourish chiefly in the beginning of Summer Government and Virtues These are Plants of Mercury The root is of temperature cold and dry and hath a little mordacity in it and some tenuity of parts the herb is cold in the first degree and moderate in moisture and dryness but the seed is much more cold and drying of some tenuity of parts and somewhat harsh This quick grass is most medicinable of all other sorts of grasses it is effectual to open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and the stoppings of Urine the decoction thereof being drunk and to ease the griping pains in the belly and Inflamations and wasteth the excrementitious matter of the Stone in the Bladder and the Ulcers thereof also the root being bruised and applyed doth knit together and consolidate wounds the seed doth more powerfully expell Urine bindeth the belly and stayeth vomiting the distilled water
is good to be given to Children for the worms Liver Spleen Vrine Griping in the Guts Inflamations Stone Wounds Lask Vomiting Worms Sea-spiked Quick Grass Kinds and Names THere are several sorts hereof whose names shall severally follow before their Descriptions Descript 1. Sea-spiked quick grass or dogs grass Gramen caninum geniculatum maritimum spicatum this Sea grass hath divers joynted stalks about a foot high with hard leaves thereon long and like the other quick grass the spiked heads are much shorter and harder than the common kind the root is full of joynts and creepeth under ground like it Descript 2. Sea quick grass Gramen caninum vulgare Canariae simile This other grass is a slenderer lanker and harder grass than the ordinary quick grass and of a blewish green colour and differeth not in any thing else but there are two other differing sorts hereof the one in the roots which at the several joynts as it runneth doth shoot up the like stalks of leaves and spiked tufts and will be sometimes twenty foot in length with many of these tufts of stalks and leaves at them the other in the spikes which will have two rowes or orders in them Descript 3. Sea quick grass with long roots Gramen caninum alterum maritimum longius radicatum this long rooted Sea grass differeth little from the former either in the hard leaves or in the running roots but that they spread more and instead of spiked heads at the tops of the stalks this hath chaffie heads among the leaves Descript 4. Sea-spiked quick grass of Mompelier Gramen caninum maritimum spicatum Monspeliense this French Sea-grass hath slender woody roots with few fibres thereat from whence rise divers trayling stalks a foot or more high with sundry joynts and branches at them and short narrow reed-like leaves at the tops whereof grow spiked heads of three inches long apiece of a darkish Ash-colour Place and Time The three first are found on our Sea-coasts especially in Kent and the fourth about Mompelier and Narbone near the Sea Coasts they are in flower and seed towards the end of Summer Government and Vertues These are under the same Planetary regiment as the ordinary Quick grass of the Land and the roots hereof are held as effectual to all the effects and purposes that the ordinary sort serveth for only this hath been observed that Cattel will not feed on these of the Sea because of their hardness roughness and sharpness Rattle Red and yellow Kinds Names OF this we shall describe two sorts the one called common red Rattle pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris the other yellow Rattle or Coxcomb pedicularis sive crista galli lutea it is also called Fistularia of the hollowness of the stalks and Coxcomb because the flowers as some think do stand like a Cocks comb at the tops of the stalks it is also called Rattle grass and Louse-wort Descript 1. Common red Rattle Pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris this hath sundry reddish hollow stalks and sometimes green rising from the roots lying for the most part on the ground yet some growing more upright with sundry small reddish or greenish leaves set on both sides of a middle rib finely dented about the edges the flowers stand at the tops of the stalks and branches of a fine purplish red colour like small gaping hoods after which come small blackish flat seeds in small husks which lying loose therein will rattle with shaking the root consisteth of small whitish strings with some fibres thereat Descript 2. Yellow Rattle or Coxcomb Pedicularis sive crista galli lutea The common yellow Rattle hath seldome above one round green stalk rising from the root about half a yard or two foot high and with but few branches thereon having two long and somewhat broad leaves set at a joynt deeply dented or cut in the edges resembling therein the Crests or Combe of a Cock broadest next to the stalk and smaller to the end the flowers grow at the tops of the stalks with some shorter leaves with them being hooded after the same manner that the red ones are but of a fair yellow colour in most or else in some paler and in some more white the seed is contained in large husks and with lying loose in them will rattle when they are ripe the root is small and slender and dyeth every Winter Place and Time Some of both these kinds grow in Meadows and Woods generally througâ— out our Land where they are rather an annoyance than of any good use for Cattel They are in flower from Midsummer till after August sometimes Government and Vertues These Plants are Saturnine of a cold and drying property the red Rattle is good to heal up Fistula's and hollow Ulcers and to stay the flux of humours to them and also the abundance of womens courses Fistula's Vlcers Courses or any other flux of blood to be boyled in harsh or red wine and drunk The yellow Rattle is also held to be good for those that are troubled with a Cough or dimness of Sight Cough Dimness of Sight if the herb being boyled with Beans and some honey put thereto be drunk or dropped into the eyes The whole seed being put into the eyes doth draw forth any skin film or dimness from the sight without trouble or pain Sweet or Aromatical-Reed Kinds and Names THere is one sort called Calamus Aromaticus Mathioli Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed a second called Calamus Aromaticus Syriacus vel Arabicus suppositivus the supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical-Reed and the third the true Acorus of Dioscorides or sweet smelling Reed called in shops Calamus Aromaticus and likewise Acorus verus sive Calamus officinarum Descript 1. Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed This groweth with an upright tall stalk set full of joints of certain spaces up to the top not hollow but stuffed full of a white spongeous pith of a gummy taste somewhat bitter and of the bigness of a mans finger and at every one of them a long narrow leaf of a dark green brown colour smelling very sweet differing therein from all other kinds of Reeds on the tops whereof groweth a bushy or Featherlike pannicle like unto those of the common Reed the root is knobby with divers heads thereat whereby it increaseth and shooteth forth new heads of leaves smelling also very sweet having a little binding taste and sharp withal Descript 2. The supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical Reed riseth up from a thick root three or four inches long big at the head and small at the bottom with one and sometimes more stalks two Cubits high being straight round smooth and easie to break into splinters full of joints and about a fingers thickness hollow and spongy within of a whitish yellow colour the stalk is divided into other branches and they again into other smaller ones two usually set together at a joint with two leaves under them likewise very like unto the leaves of
the back and Reins and stayeth the running of the Reins wiâ—h a little powder of Rubarb put thereto it provoketh Urine and helpeth to expel both stone and gravel it ripeneth Impostumes and helpeth to expel them and mightily dissolveth winde in the pains of the Chollick stomack or sides and is good also against the Gout Sciatica and all pains in the joints aswell to take it inwardly with Chamepitis Sage and Stoechas as to be made into a Cerecloth and applyed thereto It is a special ingredient in those Balsoms that are to heal any green wounds and is effectual in all wounds and fractures of the head all punctures in the head and sinews and all breakings out in the skin be it Itch or Scab Piles Pushes or wheals it draweth forth Splinters Piles Pushes Thorns Lips Hands Fundament thorns or the like out of the flesh and healeth the chaps of the lips hands fundament or other parts It is put into all salves oyls oyntments or plaisters that serve to cleanse Ulcers to draw or heal any sores and to warm and comfort any cold and weak parts the Chymical oyl of this Turpentine is very effectual in many of these diseases if it be carefully applyed it being of very subtil parts and therefore inwardly or outwardly it must be used as it were by drops Descript The Turmerick brought unto us is an Indian Root In which Countreys it springeth up and beareth larger and thinner leaves than Millet of a paler green colour a stalk full of leaves compassing one another to the top The Root is slender and yellow near unto the form of Ginger Government and Vertues It is a Plant of Mars and is of great use in the yellow Jaundise Jaundise Old diseases Dropsie either the powder or the decoction being taken for it doth open obstructions of the gall and other parts It is of very good use in old and inveterate griefs and sicknesses and the evil disposition of the body called Cachexia and is very profitable against the dropsie Turn-Sole Kinds and Names OF Turn-Sole there are several kinds whose names shall follow with their Descriptions Descript 1. The greater Turnsole called in Latine Heliotropium maius This riseth up with one upright stalk about a foot or more high dividing it self almost from the bottom into divers smaller branches of a hoary colour At each joynt of the stalk and branches grow two small broad leaves somewhat like unto those of Calamint or Basil somewhat white or hoary also at the tops of the stalks and branches stand in any small white flowers consisting of four and sometimes of five very small leaves set in order one above another upon a small very crooked spike which turneth inwards like a bowed finger opening by degrees as the flowers blow open after which in their places come small cornered seed four for the most part standing together the root is small and threddy perishing every year and the seed shedding it self riseth again the next spring Descript 2. The greater creeping Turnsole is in a manner but the same with the fomer greater Turnsole because it is in most things so like it yet differeth in these particulars That it hath more and slenderer stalks not standing upright as the other doth but leaning down to the ground the stalks and leaves are lesser but hoary in like manner the flowers are white and stand in crooked spiky heads bowing like a Scorpions tail as the other but the seed being smaller standing singly or but two together the roots are small and perish in like manner Descript 3. The smaller Turnsole Heliotropium minus this smaller Turnsole groweth very low lying almost with his slender weak branches upon the ground having thereon many small leaves like the other in form but three times less in substance neither stalks nor leaves white nor hairry but of a dark green colour the flowers are much smaller and yellowish not growing in long crooked or bowing heads like the former nor at the tops of the branches but standing at the joynts upon very small stalks some above the leaves and others under them which afterwards turn into small round heads or buttons like unto warts wherein is such like seed as the last but smaller and rounder Descript 4. The Colouring or dying Turnsole Heliotropium triconum This dying Turnsole that beareth berryes three alwayes set together riseth up with an upright stalk branching it self diversly to the height of half a yard or there-abouts whereon grow broader and softer leaves than on any of the former like unto those of the sleepy night-shade and whitish withall set without order at the joynts up to the tops yet lesser above than below at the ends of the branches come forth small mossy yellowish flowers which quickly perish and fall away without giving any seed herein like unto the Ricinus or Palma Christi called the great Spurge for in the same manner also at the joynts with the leaves come forth the fruit or berries standing three for the most part alwayes joyned together upon short footstalks which are of a blackish green colour and rough or rugged on the outside wherein is contained ash-coloured seed which if the heads be suffered to grow over-ripe and be dryed with the Sun will fall out of themselves upon the ground and spring again in their natural places the next year thereby renewing it self for the root is small and perisheth after it hath born seed But these berries when they are at their full maturity have within them that is between the outer skin and the inward kernel or seed a certain juice or moisture which being rubbed upon a paper or cloath at the first appeareth of a fresh and lively green colour but presently changeth into a kind of blewish purple upon the cloath or paper and the same cloath afterwards wet in water and wrung forth will colour the water into a Claret-wine colour And these are those rags of cloath called Turnsole in the Druggists and Grocers shops and with all other people and serveth to colour Jellies or other things Place and Time These doe grow in Italy France and Spain in divers places The two first are planted in gardens here with us and doe flower and seed well every year but the other two will scarce grow to shew any seed in our cold Climate Government and Vertues These are Solar Plants to whom they yield obedience the head of the flowers always facing the Sun a good handfull of the greater Turnsole boyled in water and drunk purgeth both Choler and phlegm and being boyled in wine it is good against the stinging of Scorpions Choller Phlegm Scorpions Stone Reins Kidneys Bladder Vrine Womens Courses Easie birth Worms Gout Joynts pained Warts Wens Kernels Excrescencies Face Eye-lids to be aswel drunk as layd upon the place that is stung The same also boyled with Cummin and drunk helpeth them that are troubled with the Stone in the Reins Kidneys or Bladder provoketh Urine and Womens Courses
hot and dry in the second degree and somwhat astringent the bark of the root is most used in Physick the flowers and leaves are not so strong in operation and are an excellent sawce The bark of the Caper roots is good against the hardness and stopping of the Spleen to be taken with Oxymel or mingled with oyles or oyntments for that purpose and outwardly applied upon the region of the Spleen Spleen the root hereof is good in decoction to be given in drink to such as are troubled with the Sciatica and Palsy Sciatica Palsie and to such as are hurt or bruised by falls or otherwise Bruises it mightily provokes Urine and stirrs up womens courses Termes the fruit and leaves have the like virtue as the roots but not so strong the seed of Capers boyled in Vinegar and kept warm in the Mouth asswageth the Tooth-ach Tooth-ach the juice of the leaves flowers and young fruit of Capers killeth Worms in the Eares Worms in the Eares being dropped therein the Capers which are brought into this Country preserved in pickle being eaten are meat and medicine for it stirreth up appetite fortifies the Stomack openeth obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and consumeth and wasteth cold flegm that is gathered about the Stomack Soldonella Names IT is called also in some places Sea-cawle and in Dutch Zee-wind but in shops it is known by the name of Soldonella or Brassica-marina Descript Soldonella hath many small branches somewhat red by which it spreadeth and creepeth along the ground covered here and there with little round green leaves rounder and smaller then leaves of Assarabana the flowers are red or carnation colour the seed is black and groweth in husks or round Cods the root is small and long the leaves have a saltish tast Place This herb groweth abundantly in Zealand upon the Sea-banks and in most salt grounds and Marshes which the Sea flowes over Time It floureth in June after which time it is fit to be gathered and kept to serve in medicine Government and Vertues It is hot and dry in the third degree a martial plant it purgeth very forceably down all watry humors Watry humors Liver Dropsie and opens obstructions of the Liver and is given with good successe to hydropicall people the best way to give it is boyled with the broth of fat flesh or else it may be dried and taken in powder but if it be taken in powder alone it hurteth and troubleth the Stomack the correcters of it are Anniseeds Ginger and Cynnamon and a good quantity of Sugar and so taken altogether The Carob-tree Names IT is called in shops Xylocaracta Carob and Carobs Descript This fruit groweth upon a great tree whose branches are small and covered with a red bark the leaves be long and spread abroad after the manner of Ashen leaves consisting of six or seven small leaves growing by a rib one against another of a sad dark green colour above and of a light green underneath the fruit is certain crooked cods or husks sometimes of a foot and an half long and as broad as ones thumb sweet in the husk is contained seed which is great plain and of a Chestnut colour Place This plant grows in Spain Italy and other hot Countries Government and Vertues The fruit of the Carob-tree is some what hot and dry and astringent especially when it is fresh and green somewhat subject to the influence of Saturn the fresh and green Carobs do gently loose the belly but are somewhat hard of digestion if eaten in great quantity hurtful to the Stomack but being dried they stop fluxes of the belly Fluxes provoke Urine Vrine and are not prejudicial to the Stomack being much fitter to be eaten then the Carobs which are fresh gathered or green Cassia-fistula Names IT it called Cassia in the cane but is usual known by the general name of Cassia-fistula in most Countries Descript The tree which beareth the canes hath leaves not much unlike those of the Ash-tree they be great long and spread abroad made of many leaves growing one against another along by one stem the fruit is round long black and with woodish huskes or Cods most commonly two foot long and as thick as ones thumb severed or parted in the inside into divers small cells or Chambers wherein lyeth flat and brownish seed laid together with the pulpe which is black soft and sweet and is called the flower marrow or cream of Cassia and is very useful and profitable in medicine Place It groweth in Syria Arabia and the East-Indies and in the West as Jaimaca Government Nature and Vertues The black pulpe or moist substance of Cassia is of a gentle temperature moderatly hot and moist in the first degree under the Government of Venus the inner pulpe of Cassia is a sweet and pleasant medicine and may safely be given to all weak people as women with Child and young Children It looseth the belly gently and moderatly purgeth cholerick humors Choler and slimy flegm Flegm gathered about the Guts to be taken the quantity of an ounce at a time Cassia is excellent good for those who are troubled with hot Agues Agues the Pleurisie Pleurisie Jaundies Jaundise or any inflamation of the Liver especially being mixed with waters Liver drinks or heâ—bs that be of a cooling nature It is good to cleanse the Reines and Kidneys Reines Kidneys it driveth forth Gravel and the Stone and is a preservative against the Stone to be drunk in the decoction of Liquorish and Parsly roots or Ciches It is good to gargle with Cassia to asswage and mitigate swellings of the Throat and to dissolve ripen and break imposthumes and Tumors Avicen writeth that Cassia being applied to the part greived with the Gout asswageth the pain Wild-Carrot Names THere is one kind that groweth not in England which is called Daucus Cretensis because it groweth in Crete or Candy or Daucus of Candy the wild Carrot which groweth here is also Daucus and often passeth in shops for the true Daucus of Crete it is also called birds-nest from the great tufts of the flowers resembling a birds-nest Descript The Daucus Cretensis is a tender herb having a stalk of a span long set with leaves a great deal smaller and more tender then the leaves of Fennel at the top of the stalk grow little spikey tufts with white flowers like unto the tops of Coriander yeelding a little long rough white seed of a good savor and sharp tast the root is of the thickness of ones finger and about a span long The Wild-Carrot or birds-nest hath leaves like Coriander but greater and not much unlike the leaves of the yellow garden Carrot the flowers be white growing upon tufts or rundells like to the tuffets of the yellow Carrots in the middle whereof there is found a little small flower or twaine of a brown red colour turning towards black the
humors wherefore they may very well be given to young Children that are sick of the Small-pox Small-Pox and Wheals or Measels Measells for they bring them quickly forth without any danger they be good also for the Throat Throat Lungs Lungs and Cough Cough and those that are short Winded they ripen Flegm Flegm and cause the same to be easily spit out whether they be eaten raw or rosted or sodden with Hysop and Licoris and the decoction drunk The decoction of Figs in water is good to be drunk of those that have taken hurt by squats or bruises Bruises of or by falls Falls from high they disperse and scatter clotted Clotted and congealed blood bloud and asswage or slake the pain An Electuary made with Figs Salt Rue and Walnuts is an Antidote against all Poison and corruption of the Air. This was the preservative which Mithridates King of Pontus used against the Plague Plague Pestilence and against all Poison Poison Venome Venome The decoction of Figs gargariz'd or holden in the mouth is good against the sharpness and hoarseness Hoarseness of the Throat and also against Swellings swellings and Impostumations Imposthumes of the Mouth Throat Almonds of the Throat and Jawes and Swelling of the Tongue Figs are also good to be kept in the Mouth against Swellings and Ach and pain of the Teeth Teeth Gums Gums and Jawes Jaws being outwardly applied with Wheaten-Meal they do soften and ripen boiles Boiles Imposthumes and Phlegmons that is hot and angry Swellings Swellings and Tumors Tumors behind the Eares especially if there be put to it Linsâ—ed and Fenugreek and if Lilly roots be mixed with it and applied pultis-wise it will ripen and break Plague-Sores Plague Sores Imposthumes Buboes Buboes and Botches Botches Figs sodden in Wormwood Wine with Barly-meal is good to be applied as a Pultis or Plaister upon the Bellies of those that have the Dropsie Dropsie Figs and Mustard-seed being pounded very well together and outwardly applied amend the Hearing Hearing help Deafness and take away the ringing noise Noise or sound in the Eares Eares the dry Figs have power to dissolve consume and make subtill and may very well be used both inwardly and outwardly the leaves of the Fig-tree do wast and consume way the Kings-Evill Kings-Evil or Swelling kernels in the Throat and mollisie and wast all other Tumors being beaten small and applied thereunto The milky juice of Figs is good against all roughness of the skin Skin Leprosies Leprosie spreading Sores Sores Tetters Tetters Small-pox Measells Pushes Freckles Lentiles and other such like spots Spots and Scurviness both of the body and Face being laid thereto with parched Barly-meal and being mixed with sat or grease it taketh away Warts Warts if they be anointed therewith It cureth the Tooth-ach Tooth-ach if you dip a little Cotton in the said Milk and lay it to the Tooth or make a pellet thereof and put it into the Tooth if it be hollow It openeth the Veins of the Hemerrhoids Hemerrhoids and looseth the Belly being laid to the fundament the leaves have the same vertue being used for a suppository being mixed with the Meal of Fenugreek and Vinegar it giveth ease in the hot Gout the same juice is good to pour into Wounds made by the biting of Mad-dogs Mad-dog the Ashes of the Fig-tree mixed with oyle of Roses and Wax cureth burnings Burnings and the Lye that is made of the ashes of the fig healeth festred and foul fretting Sores Sores if they be washed therewith Fistick-Nuts Names THese Nuts are called in shops Pistacia Pistacies Fistici and Fistick-nuts Descript The Tree that heareth the Fistick-nuts hath long great leaves spread abroad consisting of five seven or more leaves growing one against another all along a reddish rib or sinew whereof the last which is alone at the top of the leaf is the greatest and largest the fruit of this tree is much like to small Hazel-nuts and like the kernells of the Pine-apple in which lyeth the kernel or nut Place This tree is a stranger in this Country it groweth in Syria and other hot Eastern Countries Government and Virtues Fistick-nuts are under the influence of Jupiter they are of a mean or temperate heat and somewhat astringent Fisticks are good to open stoppings and obstructions of the Liver and also they strengthen the same they he also good for the Stomack they also open the pipes of the Lungs Liver Lungs and Breast Breast stomack and are good against shortness of Breath Lungs Breath the Tissick Tissick and painful fetching of Breath to be eaten either alone or with Sugar Dioscorides saith that Fistick nuts given in Wine are a good medecine against the bitings or stingings of Venemous beasts Flax. Names IT is called Linum in Latine by which name it is well known in shops it is called also Lin whence the Cloth that is made thereof is called Linnen-cloth and the seed is called Linseed the oyl which is pressed out of the same seed is called Linseed-oyle Descript Flax hath a tender stalk covered with sharp narrow leaves parted at the top into small short branches the which bringeth forth fair blew flowers when the flowers are fallen away there cometh in their stead round knaps or buttons in which is contained a blackish seed large fat and shining Place Flax is sown in this Couuntry in fat and fine Ground and in low moist fields it delights to grow in Time Flax floureth in May and June and is ripe soon after Government and Vertues It is under the dominion of Venus the seed of Flax which is onely used in medecine is of temperature hot in the first degree and temperate in moisture and driness The seed called Linseed being boyled in water and applied in manner of a pultis or plaister asswageth all pains softneth cold Tumors or Swellings the Imposthumes of the Eares and Neck and of other parts of the body Linseed pounded with Figs doth ripen and break Imposthumes and boyles Pains Imposthumes swelling Eares Boyles being laid thereon and draweth forth thorns and all other things that stick fast in the body iâ— it be mingled with the root of Wild Cucumer The same seed mingled with hony and Cresses and laid unto rough rugged and il-favored Nailes aswell of the hands as the Feet cleanseth them that be corrupt and cureth the party Nailes Spots in the Face Old Sores Vlcers Sight Belly Gripings Bowells Matrix Cough Heckick Feavers the same seed being pounded and laid to the Face cleanseth and taketh away all Spots and Freckles thereof The Wine wherein Linseed hath been boyled preserveth old Sores and Ulcers from corruption if they be washed therewith and from festering and inward rankling the water wherein Linseed hath been
way Place and Time This tree groweth in Arabia in many places and in Aegypt and floureth and beareth fruit twice a year and hath alwayes green leaves Government and Vertues It is Saturnine the gum hath a thickning condensing and cooling property and is very effectual to represse and cool the heat and sharpness of humors and to bind or close up the open passages of the skin and keeping the places from blistering that are burnt with fire being dissolved with the white of an Egg and applied It is also very serviceable for Limners Dyers to make the best writing Ink and many other external uses Gum Tragacanth Names and Descript THe tree hereof is called Goats-thorn which is a small bushy plant rising up with many tough pliant or flexible woody stems about two foot high divided into many slender branches covered with a white hoariness with divers long white thorns in a double row among which rise up many small long and round leaves which abide always green there grow flowers at the tops of the branches and amongst the leaves of a pale yellow colour which turn into small white cods containing in them small whitish cornered seed the root is great and long much spreading in the ground which being cut or broken yeeldeth a pure white shining Gum in small crooked peeces of a sweet tast Place All sorts of these trees are found in Candia and about Marselles and Mompelier Time In the places where they naturally grow they flower and seed in the beginning of Autumne Government and Vertues There is no physical use known of either the leaves flowers seeds or roots of Tragacantha but onely of the gum it self which partaketh of the influence of Venus it is of a temperate property and besides the medicinal uses thereof it serveth for many external purposes as a starch or glew for which young Ladies use it to make their Artificial flowers and other gum-works This gum being dissolved is often used to be mixed with pectoral syrrups honey or juice of Liquorice to help the Cough or Hoarseness Coughs Hoarseness in the Throat salt and sharp distillations of Rhume upon the Lungs Rhume Lungs being taken as an Electuary or put under the tongue so to go gently down he said gum diâ—â—olved in sweet Wine a dram at a time and drunk is pâ—ofitable for the knawing pains in the Bowells Knawings-Bowels and the sharpness of Urine and frettings either in the Reins or Bladder Reines Bladder especially if it be mixed with some burnt Harts-horn the said Gum is also good for the Eye sight Eyes Sight being used alone or mixed with other things proper for the same purpose to allay the heat and sharpness of hot Rhumes the said gum mingled with milk taketh away white spots growing in the black of the Eyes and the Itching of the Eyes and Wheals or scabs upon the Eye-lids and being mixed with the juice of Quinces and used in a glister is good against the Bloody-flux and is generally used where there is cause of making smooth the Lungs breast or Throat or the wind-pipe being grown sharp or harsh by Rhumes and is excellent to represse and dry up sharp and thin matter and is excellent for Ulcers in any of the parts before-named Gum Elemni Description and Vertues WHat tree this gum is taken from we have no certain description it is a yellowish gum cleer and transparent which being broken sheweth more white and gummi within it will easily take fire and is of a quick scent and tast The properties of it are these It is of excellent use for all wounds and fractures of the Head and skull to be mixed with Balsomes and Oyntments for that purpose and is good for the Tooth-ach when Rhumes fall into them to be applied unto the Temples as Mastick Gum Tacamahacca THis Gum is reported to be gathered from a tree like unto Poplar being very sweet having a red fruit or berry like unto a Peony Government and Vertues Mercury rules it the gum is good for many external uses but not being known to be given inwardly it is useful for Women to retain the mother in its place by laying a plaister thereof upon the Navel Matrix and putting a little Musk Amber or a little Civet in the middle of the plaister This gum being applied as a plaister spread upon leather to the side or Spleen Side Spleen Tumors Pains Joints stomach digestion head-ach Brain Memory Defluxions Face Eyes Eares Teeth Gout Sciatica Punctures that is grown hard and Windy disperseth the Wind and dissolveth the Tumors and is effectual in all Tumors and pains of the body or Joints which come from cold raw and Windy humors applied thereon Take of this gum with a third part of Sâ—orax a little Ambergreese and some Wax and make a plaister thereof and apply it to the Stomack doth much strengthen the weakness thereof and digestion provokes appetite and breaks Wind it is good in the Headach and to strengthen the Brain and Memory as also in all defluxions from the Head into the Face Eares or Teeth to be applied to the Temples or to be put into the Ear tyed in a little fine silk or Cloth it is good also for pains in the joints Gout and Sciatica it speedily helpeth Punctures and Wounds in the joints it is hot almost in the third degree and dry in the second with much astriction Herb Robert Names IT is called Geranium Robertianum vulgare the common Herb Robert Descript The common Herb Robert springeth up with a reddish stalk about two foot high having divers leaves thereon upon very long and reddish footstalks divided at the ends into three or four divisions and each of them cut in on the edges some with deeper cuts than others and all dented likewise about the edges which oftentimes turn reddish at the tops of the stalks come forth divers flowers consisting of five leaves a peece larger then those of the Garden Musk and of a more reddish colour after which come beaky heads like long bills the root is small and threddy the whole plant is of a very strong smell Place Herb Robert groweth frequent every where by wayes sides upon the banks of Ditches and wast grounds Time It flowereth chiefly in June and July and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Herb Robert is a plant of Mars and is very much commended against the Stone and not onely so but also to stay blood Stone Flux of Blood Green wounds Vlcers from what part soever flowing it is excellent good speedily to heal all green wounds and is effectual likewise in old Ulcers either in the secrets or any other parts Hermo-dactyls HErmodactils are to be reckoned amongst the number of unknown drugs they being brought into England in abundance but no Author hath hitherto declared the place or growing thereof but only Mesne who saith it is the root of a Mountain herb whereof some are long and round
afterwards turn into small soft Cones like to Cypresse Nuts while they are close but longer than they made of many fine scales lying one upon another standing on a short stalk having seed in the inside of every scale formed like a small bird with two wings and a small sweet kernel within them like the Pine kernel the wood is very firm hard and close long in growing and long lasting It yieldeth forth a liquid Rozen being bored veâ—y clear and white which is called Venice Turpentine There is also found upon the bodies and great boughs thereof a kind of hard and dry Mushroom called Agarick Place and Time It groweth plentifully in the Woods by Trent and in many other places of Germany and between Germany and Italy It shooteth forth leaves in the Spring and the blossomes presently after and the fruit is ripe towards the latter end of Summer The Turpentine is gathered in the hottest time of the Summer but the Agarick about November and December Governments and Vertues The Larix-tree is under the dominion of Venus the leaves bark and fruit are of the same temperature as those of the Pine-tree the Turpentine thereof taken to the quantity of an ounce will gently open the belly provoke Urine and cleanse the Reines Kidneys Reines Kidneys and Bladder and helps to dissolve the Stone Bladder Stone and drive forth the Gravel and gives ease to those that have the Gout Gravel Gout if it be rouled up in Sugar and taken it helps the running of the Reins But pills most excellent for the Gonorrhaea or running of the Reins may be made thereof in this manner Turpentine Pills for the Gonorrhaea or Running of the Reins Take Turpentine-and wash it in Plaintain and Rose-water then with the powder of white Amber red Corral Mastick and a little Camphire make it into Pills which are to be taken morning and Evening for certain dayes together It is good also for the Tissick and Consumption of the Lungs Tissick Lungs being taken with hony in an Electuary it expectorates tough flegm and helps those that are troubled with a continual Cough it is of excellent use also outwardly to be used as an ingredient amongst salves It doth both draw cleanse and heal all sores or Ulcers whether new or old and green Wounds the Chymical oyl drawn from Turpentine is more drying and consolidating than the Turpentine it self so that it is singular good to be used in Wounds Wounds Vlâ—ers and to warm and ease paines in the joints and sinews caused with cold and being mixed with oyl of St. Johns-wort it is singular good against Sprains Pains Sprains Wrinches and outward Bruises Bruises-freckles caused by falls or otherwise the parts being fomented This oyl being drank the quantity of twenty drops at a time in Ale or white Wine provokes Urine cleanseth and cureth all Ulcers and Sores in the Kidney Kidneys or Bladder Bladder or Uretory passages The water that is distilled with the oyl is good for freckles and spots in the Face A scruple in weight of that water taken in white Wine procureth a Vomit and giveth much ease to those whose Stomacks are overcharged with Flegm Agarick which is the Tuberous substance which groweth upon this tree is a good purging medicine and often used by it self but more commonly is mixed with other medicines of a purging quality to open obstructions of the Liver Spleen Liver Spleen and entrails it purgteh all vitious humors which offend the body It is usually corrected wich Ginger and given with Oxymel that is a sirrup made with Vinegar and Hony otherwise of it self it is apt to trouble the Stomack and cause Vomiting It purgeth thin and rotten tough flegm both yellow hard and black burnt Choller Flegm Choler from the Head and Brain Breast Lungs Head Lungs stomack Liver Stomack Liver and Spleen Spleen Gout and from the Reins joints Sinews and Muscles whereby it helpeth such as are troubled with the Gout Dropsie Falling-sickness Jaundise Chollick Dropsie Chollick Sciatica shortness of Breath Cough Consumption of the Lungs spitting of Blood paines of the Womb Blood Womb sharpness of Urine and the Wormes It is also helpful to cure all sorts of Agues Agues to ease griping pains of the Stomack and Belly and such as have had Falls and Bruises or are bursten-Bellied Half a dram or two scruples being taken in Wine either by the infusion or in powder is good against all poisons and bitings of Serpents The most usual way of preparing it for the other diseases before mentioned is to slice a dram and put it into a gentle purging decoction or an Infusion If it be boyled in Lye with other Cephalicks and the head washed therewith it comforteth the Brain Memory Brain Memory and giddinessof the Head and stayes Rhumes and Catarrhs and cleanseth it from scurff Rhumes Scurff and Dandriff Spurge-Laurel Names IT is also called Wild Laurel and in Latine Laureola Descript The Spurge Laurel springeth up usually but with one stem but sometimes with more very tough and pliant having a whitish thick tough bark branching forth into divers parts towards the tops whereon grow many long thick somewhat broad and shining dark green leaves longer smoother and softer than Bay-leaves and without any veins therein the flowers come forth towards the tops of the stalks and branches and at the joints with the leaves many set together which are somewhat long and hollow having four small leaves of a whitish yellow green colour after which come small round and somewhat long black berries when they are ripe wherein is contained a white kernell the root groweth deep into the ground and spreadeth with long white strings and is somewhat wooddy The leaves flower bark and root are very hot in tast burning the mouth and Throat of any that shall tast them the leaves continue green all the Winter Place Spurge Laurel groweth Wild in many places of this land particularly in Cobham Park in Kent Time It floureth very early as about January if the Winter be mild and the berries are ripe about June Government and Vertues Mars rules this plant both leaves and berries hereof are violent purges of a heating burning quality so that they inflame the throat and Stomack of whosoever shall take thereof yet being given advisedly and prepared by a skilful hand it cleanseth the Stomack of Flegm Flegm Terms both by purge and Vomit it driveth down Womens Courses and being chewed in the Mouth it draweth down much corrupt matter from the Head and brain if the leavs and berries when they are fresh be boyled in oyl and the oyle strained forth this oyle looseneth the belly and helpeth the Chollick the belly being anointed therewith it provokes Urine and helpeth the Piles some give the powder of the leaves in a little broth to ease the pains of the Chollick and purge forth watry humors in the Dropsie The
shortness of breath and taken with Sugar-candy it is a present remedy Alpinus further saith that the oyle thereof is so familiarly used by the Aegyptians in their meals as that they do seldom eat without it yet it breedeth many obstructions and the viscous nourishment of it turneth into Melancholy and other diseases It will not be improper here to add somewhat of the virtues of our Marsh-mallows both leaves seeds and roots wherein Culpepper falls too short It is the chiefest of all other Mallows and most effectual and is therefore called Dismalva being twice as good as any other The root being boyled in wine and drunk is good against the pain and grief of the Gravel and Stone Gravel Stone Bloody Flux Sciatica cough Tooth-ach the blood Flux the Sciatica the trembling and shaking of any member and for such as are troubled with Cramps and burstings Pliny writeth the same boyled in sweet new milk healeth the Cough and being boyled in some Vinegar and holden in the mouth it asswageth the pain in the Teeth The same being boyled in Wine or hony-water and bruised or pounded very small Green Wounds Tumors Swellings Wens Kernels Impostumes chaps of the fundament doth cure and heal new Wounds and doth dissolve and consume cold Tumors and Swellings Wens and hard kernels and Imposthumes behind the Ears and is good for the burning Imposthume of the Paps It doth soften ripen digest breaketh and covereth with skin old Imposthumes blastings and Windy Swellings Mother it cureth rifts and chaps of the Fundament and trembling of the sinews and sinewy parts the same being so prepared pounded with hogs-grease goose-grease and a little Turpentine and a Pessary or Mother suppository made thereof and put up doth mollifie and asswage Imposthumes and sores of the Mother and openeth the stoppings of the same The leaves are likewise used instead of common Mallows to loosen the belly gently and are very effectual in decoctions for Glisters to ease all pains in the body Pains in the body Stone to open the straight passages and make them slippery whereby the stone may descend the more easily out of the Reins and Kidneys and the bladder and to ease the great and torturing pains that come thereby the roots being boyled very well in water and after they be strained out the decoction being boiled again with Sugar to a just consistence and troches rowls or Lozinges made thereof is effectual against the diseases of the Breast Chest and Lungs as Coughs Hoarseness Wheefings and shortness of Breath Coughs hoarseness shortness of Breath Guts Bloody flux the roots and seeds of the Marsh-mallow boyled in Wine and Water is very effectual to be used by such as have any excoriation in the Guts or bloody flux by qualifying the violence of the sharp Cholerick fretting humors which are the cause thereof and by sliminess easing the pains and healing the soreness and in some sort staying the further erruption of blood Ruptures cramps Convulsions Kings Evil Chin cough It is very profitable for them that are troubled with Ruptures Cramps or Convulsions of the sinews and being boyled in White-wine it is profitable for the Impostumes of the Throat called the Kings-evill for kernels behind the Ears and swellings or Inflamations in Womens breast The dryed roots boyled in Milk and drunk are singularly good for the chin-Cough Hippocrates used to give the decoction of the roots or the juice thereof to drink to wounded persons who were ready to faint through loss of blood and applied the same mixed with Hony and Rozen unto the Wounds he gave also the decoction of the roots in Wine to those to drink that were hurt by bruises or Falls or by blows or stripes and to such who had any bone or member out of joint and to those who had any swelling pain or Ach in the muscles sinews or Arteries it is good also to be used in all Ulcers and sores that happen in any Cartilaginous place The muscilage of the roots and of Linseed and Fenegreek put together is of much use in pultisses oyntments and plaisters to mollifie hard tumors and the Inflamations of them and to ease pains in any part of the body The seed either green or dry mixed with Vinegar cleanseth the skin of Morphew and other discolourings thereof being bathed therewith either in the Sun or in a Hot-house or Stove Mandrake Kinds and Names THere is described by Authors both a Male and Female Mandrake and two of the Males-Mandrak It is called Mandragoras both in Latine and Greek and Dioscorides saith in his time called Circaea because Circe the great Witch or enchantresse used it as is thought in love-matters Descript 1. The more ordinary Male Mandrake Mandragoras mas vulgatior sendeth forth from a somewhat great and downright root in some but with one in other two three or four twines or branches divided a little below the head or top and divers small fibres besides blackish on the out side and whitish within having many large leaves lying on the ground greater then any Beete-leaves from the middle whereof rise up sundry pale green flowers of five round leaves a peece each standing on a small slender footstalk within a green five-leaved husk wherein afterwards is set the fruit being of the bigness of a reasonable Pippin and as yellow as Gold when it is through ripe with divers round whitish flat seeds in it of a heady or strong stuffing scent This is the true Description of the plant without other shape of Mans or Womans parts although some Cheats have made counterfeit forms thereof and have exposed them to publick view both in our own and other Countries but they are utterly deceitfull forgeries to cheat people of their mony Descript 2. Mandragoras mas alter another Male-Mandrake whose leaves were of a more grayish green colour and somewhat folded together herein differing from the former This Mr. Parkinson saith he saw in the Lord Wottons Garden at Canterbury when John Tradescant had the keeping of it but that it had never born any fruit Descript 3. The Female Mandrake Mandragoras foemineus hath many leaves lying on the ground but smaller narrower more crumpled and of a darker green colour then the Male like those of Lettice as saith Dioscorides The flowers also rise from among the leaves each on a slender footstalk as the former but of a blewish purple colour the fruit is much lesse then those of the Male but round like them of a paler yellow colour when they are ripe and of a more pleasing and lesse heady-scent having in them such like seed as the Male but smaller and blacker the root is also like the former blackish without and white within neer unto the same form parted into sometimes more and sometimes fewer branches Place They grow in Woods and shadowy places and the Female by Rivers-sides in diverse Countries beyond the Alps but not naturally on this side thereof as in Greece Candy Isles
mystica and in Shops Nux moscata the Tree groweth very tall like our Pear-trees having leaves always green somewhat resembling the leaves of the Orange-tree the fruit groweth like our Walnuts having an outer thick husk which when it growes ripe it openeth it self as the shell of the Walnut doth shewing the nut within covered with the Mace which is of an orient crimson colour while it is fresh but the air changeth the colour to be more dead and yellowish Government and Vertues The Nutmegs and Maces are both Solar of temperature hot and dry in the second degree and somewhat astringent and are good to stay the Lask they are effectual in all cold griefs of the head or Brain Lask Head Brain Sinews Mother Wind Stomach sight for Palsies shrinking of Sinews and Diseases of the Mother they cause a sweet breath and discuss wind in the Stomach or Bowels quicken the Sight and comfort the Spirits provoke Urine increase sperm and are comfortable to the Stomach they help to procure rest and sleep being laid to the temples by allaying the distemper of the Spirits The way to use it to cause rest is to take two pieces of red Rose-cake and warm them in vinegar over a Chafing-dish of Coals then scrape nutmeg upon the cakes and bind it warm to the temples The Mace is of the same property but somewhat more warming and comforting than the Nutmeg the thick oyl that is drawn from both Nutmegs and Mace is good in pectoral griefs to warm a cold Stomach Stomach Cough and help the Cough and to dry up distillations of Rheum falling upon the lungs Navelwort of Mathiolus Kinds and Names THere are hereof three sorts called 1 Androsaces major 2. Androsaces minor and 3. Androsaces minima Mathioli Mathiolus his greater lesser and least Navelwort Descript 1. Androsaces major hath divers broad fresh green leaves a little hairy lying upon the ground like Plantain-leaves but smaller and unevenly dented about the edges from among which spring up divers round hairy stalks four or five inches high without any leaves up to the tops where stand four or five leaves like the lower but lesser and among them grow divers slender foot stalks bearing every one of them a small white flower with five small notched leaves standing in a green husk divided at the top into five parts wherein after the flower cometh a small round head full of small blackish seed the root is small and fibrous and perisheth as soon as it hath born seed and riseth again of its own sowing which if it spring before winter or that it doth not run to seed the first year of the sowing it will abide the first winter and flower the Summer following Descript 2. The lesser Androsaces or Navel-wort of Mathiolus groweth like the former but the leaves are smaller and narrower yet hairy and dented about the edges the stalks are like the other but have no leaves at the tops but an Vmbell or Tuft of many small flowers like the former but whiter after which shoot forth small round heads with seeds the root is more fibrous than the former small and fibrous and perisheth every year after it hath given its seed Descript 3. Androsaces minus the least Navel-wort of Mathiolus is very like the former having very many hairy leaves lying on the ground like those of the smallest Shepherds-purse with edges dented deeper than the former and having smaller and shorter stalks but as hairy as the others having five small green leaves set in a round compass at the joynt from whence arise three or four small white flowers which bear seed in heads as the former The root consists of a few small threads Place and Time They all grow in divers places of Germany they flower in May and their seed is ripe in June and July Government and Vertues These Plants are governed by Mars and are of a somewhat sharp taste of temperature hot and dry in the second degree they cleanse old Sores and Ulcers and staye the malignity of those that are corroding or fretting Old Sores Vlcers drying up the superfluous moisture which hindreth their healing cleanseth the roughness of the skin and Sun-burning the juice being clarifi'd and dropt into the eyes cleanseth them from films or skin growing over them Apple-bearing Nightshade Kinds and Names OF these there are several kinds which are accounted amongst the number of Nightshades called Solanum pomiferum and also Mala insana or mad Apples Descript 1. Lobel's red berried Nightshade called in Latine solanum pomiferum herbariorum Lobellii this groweth like common nightshade but greater the leaves are like small Tobacco-leaves the flowers are white the Berries small and round of a reddish colour containing white seeds within them of an insipid taste and perisheth every year as Nightshade doth Descript 2. Mad Apples of Syria called in Latine mala insana Syriaca This springeth up with a great hard round purplish or brownish green stalk about two foot high divided from the bottom into divers branches whereon are set many hairy broad rough leaves unevenly cut in on the edges At the joynts with the leaves come forth several large flowers having six large pointed leaves in some Plants white in others of a pale deadish purple colour with yellow threads in the middle after which come a somewhat long round fruit in hot countreys as big as a Cucumber but in colder places seldome exceeding the bigness of an egg set in the same husk that contained the flowers before having a thin skin and full of a whitish pulp and juice within having many small flat and whitish seeds within it the root is fibrous and perisheth with the first cold frosts Descript 3. Mad-apples of Ethiopia Mala insana Ethiopica These are somewhat like the former but that it groweth not so high nor so much spreading and hath but one upright stalk about half a yard high set in divers places with many small pricks and at several joynts with ragged leaves having some pricks on the middle rib in the back side the flowers stand on the branches at the joynts consisting of six white short leaves with a yellow point in the middle of divers threds joyned together after which cometh the fruit which is round and pointed at the end smaller and harder than the greater kind of Love-Apples and straked in several places of a fine red colour more deeper when it is ripe having sometimes small bunches on them like unto other small apples growing unto them having within them a juicy pulp more sharp than the other with flat yellowish white seed within it the root consisteth of threds and perisheth every year Descript 4. Mad-Apples of Europe Mala insana Europaea this kind groweth with a round upright stalk a foot and an half high from whence spring forth at several joynts divers long and somewhat broad green leaves unevenly cut on the edges and ending in a long point three for the most
to work those good effects in Physick whereunto it is conducible is laid down and prescrib'd by the Fryer Gregorio de Reggio before-mentioned whose Receipt is this following The Correction of the Guinny Peppers TAke the ripe Cods of any sort of the Guinny Pepper for they are in property all alike and dry them well first of themselves and then in an Oven after the bread is taken out put it into a pot or pipkin with some flower that they may be thorowly dryed then cleanse them from the flower and their stalks if they have any cut them or clip them very small both husks and seeds within them and to every ounce of them put a pound of fine Wheat-flower make them up together into Cakes or small Loaves with so much leaven as ye think may be convenient for the quantity you make bake these as you do Bread of the small size and being baked cut it again into smaller parts and bake it again that it may be as dry and hard as bisket which beaten into fine powder and sifted may be kept for any of the uses hereafter specified or may serve instead of ordinary Pepper to season Meat or broth or for Sauce or any other purpose the East-Indian-Pepper doth serve for it doth not onely give as good but rather a better tast or relish to the Meat or Sauce but is found to be singular good both to discusse the Wind and the Chollick in the body It is singular good to be used with flatulent or windy meats and such as breed much moisture and crudities whereof Fish is one especial one scruple of the said powder taken in a little broth of Veal or of a Chicken doth very much comfort a cold Stomack Stomack causing Flegm Flegm and such viscous humors as lye low in the bottom thereof to be avoyded helpeth digestion for it provoketh an Appetite Appetite to Meat it provoketh Urine Vrine and taken with Saxifrage water expelleth the Stone Stone in the Kidneys Kidneyes and the Flegm that breedeth them and taketh away the dimness or mistiness of the Sight Sight being used in Meats taken with Pillulae Aleophanginae it doth help the Dropsie Dropsie the powder taken for three dayes together in the decoction of Penny-royal expelleth the Dead-birth Dead-birth but if a piece of the Cod or husk either green or dry be put into the Mother after Delivery it will make them barren barrenness for ever after but the powder taken for four or five dayes fasting with asmuch Fennel-seed will case all pains of the Mother Pains of the Mother The same also made up with a little powder of Gentian and oyle of bayes into a Pessary with some Cotton-wool doth bring down the Courses Courses the same mixed with a Lohoch or Electuary for the Cough Cough helpeth an old inveterate Cough being mixed with Hony and applied to the Throat helpeth the Quinsie Quinzy and made up with a little Pitch or Turpentine and laid upon any hard knots or kernels kernells in any part of the body it will dissolve them and not suffer any more to grow there and being mixed with Nitre and applied it takes away the Morphew Morphew and all Freckles Spots marks and discolourings of the skin applied with Hensgrease it dissolveth all cold Imposthumes Imposthumes and Carbuncles Carbuncle and mixed with sharp Vinegar it dissolveth the hardness of the Spleen if some thereof be mixed with some Vnguentum de Alabastro and the Reynes of the back anointed therewith it will take away the shaking fits of Agues a plaister made thereof with the leaves of Tobacco will heal the sting or biting of any Venemous Beast The decoction of the husks themselves made with Water and the Mouth gargled therewith helpeth the Toothach and preserveth the Teeth from rottenness the Ashes of them being rubbed on the Teeth will cleanse them make black Teeth White The decoction of them with Wine helpeth the Hernia Ventosa or watry Rupture if it be applied warm Morning and Evening if they put it to steep three dayes together in Aquavitae it helpeth the Palsie thâ— place affected being bathed therewith and steeped for a day in Wine and two Spoonfulls drunk thereof every day fasting helpeth a stinking Breath and snufft up into the Nostrills it will help the stink of them caused there in by corrupted Flegm Pines Description and Names THere is one sort called the West-Indian delicious Pines called in Latine Anana seu Pina and another sort called Anana Silvestris Wild-Indian Pines These Pines which for their excellent and pleasant sweet fruit are much esteemed in all the West-Indies are the fruit of a kind of thistle growing with many long hard rough stiffe and narrow leaves thickest in the middle and thin cut in the end dented about the edges with reddish points seeming prickly like a thistle but are not from the middle whereof riseth up a round and shorter stalk than that of the wilder sort set with like leaves but lesser and at the top one head of the bigness of a reasonable Musk-melon or Pome-citron of a yellowish green before it be ripe more yellowish being thorow-ripe shewing as it were scaly like an Artichoke at the first view but more like to a Cone of the Pine-tree which we call a Pine-Apple for the form yet the out-side hath no hardness at all therein but may be cut or pared like unto Mellow Peach and are so sweet in scent that they may be smelled afar off and of a pleasant sweet tast and substance tasting as if Wine Rosewater and Sugar were mixed together and having no seed at all in it whereby it may be increased but as some say it hath whitish seed like a Musk-melon but lesser and longer this fruit doth bear a bush of leaves at the top and some small heads on small branches underneath it which being taken from it and planted half way deep in the ground will take root and bear fruit the next year which is the onely way of propagating thereof In Brasile it is said they have sundry sorts hereof one they call Jaama which is longer and pleasanter than any other and of a yellowish substance Another they call Benjama being whiter within and of a Wawmish tast with the Lusciousness a third they call Jajagna white also within but tasting like sweet Wine with a little tartness the root is great with many strings thereat but perisheth with the stalk after the fruit is ripe it was first brought from Sancta Cruce in Brasil where it naturally groweth into both West and East-Indies being not natural to either of them but is onely manured there and now is grown there plentiful They of Brasile call it Nana others Anana the Spaniards and Portugalls call it Pinus from the likeness and so do most Countries following that name The cheifest time of their ripeness is in the Spring when they
and the decoction of the same drunken hath the like property The same is also good against all Scorchings and burnings with fire to be pounded together with litharge of silver and Frankincense and if there be some Coperas mixt therewith it will cleanse and heal Consuming and fretting Sores The leaves of the Pine-tree healeth Green Wounds and boyled in Vinegar they ease the Tooth-ach The kernels of the Nuts which are found in the Pine-apples are good for the Lungs Burning Old Sores Green Wounds Tooth-ach Lungs they cleanse the Breast and expectorate tough Flegm Breast Flegm also they nourish well and ingender good blood and are good for such as have the Cough and begin to pine away and consume in what sort soever they be taken These kernels also do open the Liver Cough Liver and Spleen and mitigate the sharpness of Urine Spleen Vrine and are good for those that are troubled with the Gravel and Stone Gravel Stone The Pitch-tree Names THis Tree is called in Latine Picea and Pytis Descript The Pitch-tree is also of an indifferent bigness and tall stature but not so great as the Pine-tree and alwayes green like the Pine and Firre-trees The Timber is fat and resinous and doth yeeld Rozen of divers sorts The branches be hard and parted into other sprayes most commonly cross-wise upon which grow small green leaves not round about the branches but by every side one right over against another like to little Feathers the fruit is smaller than the fruit of the Pine-tree In burning of this tree there doth issue out Pitch aâ— also there doth out of the Pine-tree Place and Time The Pitch-tree groweth in many places of Greece Italy France and Germany and the fruit hereof is also ripe in September Government and Vertues The leaves bark fruit kernels or Nuts of this Tree are almost of the same Nature Vertues and operations as the leaves bark fruit and kernels of the Pine-tree The Rozen that cometh out of the Pine and Pitch-trees OUt of the Pine and Pitch-trees riseth three sorts of Rozen besides the Pitch and Tar. 1. The one floweth out by force of the heat of the Sun in Summer from the Wood or Tymber where it is broken or cut 2. The other is found both upon and betwixt the bark of the Pine and Pitch-tree and most commonly in such parts thereof as are Cloven or hurt 3. The third kind groweth betwixt the scales of the fruit Names All the kinds of Rozen are called in Latin Resina In French Resine and in Dutch Herst The first kind is call Resina liquida and Resina Pini of this sort is also the Rozen which is Molten with the Sun in Summer and remaineth dry and may be made into powder which some call Resina Arida or dry Rozen The Second kind is called in Latine Resina arida but that which sweateth out of the Pine-tree is called Resina Pinea and that which cometh out of the Pitch-tree Resina Picea The third kind is called Resina Strobilina Government and Vertues All these Rozens are Solar and of an hot and dry temperature and of a cleansing and Scouring nature Rozen doth cleanse and heal new Wounds and there New-wounds fore is a principal ingredient in all Oyntments and Emplaisters that serve for that purpose It softneth hard Swellings and is comfortable to bruised Parts or Members being applied or laid to with Oyls and Oyntments or Plaisters appropriate thereunto Pitch and Tar. Kinds and Names THere be two sorts of Pitch the one moist and that is called liquid Pitch the other is hard and dry they do both run out of the Pine and Pitch-trees and out of certain other Trees as the Cedar Turpentine and Larch-trees by burning of the Wood and Timber of the lame Trees Pitch is called in Latine Pix in Frencâ— Poix in Dutch Peck The liquid Pitch is called in Latine Pix liquida in Brabant Teer and in English Tarr The dry Pitch is called in Latine Pix arida and Pix Navalis in English Ship-Pitch or Stone-Pitch in Dutch Steen-peck Government and Vertues The Pitch and Tar are both Solar hot and dry in the second degree and of subtile parts but the Stone-Pitch is the dryest the liquid Pitch or Tar is the hotter and of more subtile parts Liquid Pitch taken with Hony doth cleanse the Breast is good to be licked in by those that are troubled with shortnes of Breath breast shortness of Breath whose Breast is stuffed with corrupt Matter It mollifyeth and ripeneth all hard Swellings Hard swellings and is good to anoint the Neck against the Squinancy or Swelling of the Throat it is good to be put into mollifying Plaisters Anodynes to take away Pains and Maturatives or ripening Medicines being applied with Barly-meal it softneth the hardness of the Matrix and Fundament Squinancy Matrix fundament Liquid Pitch mingled with sulphur vivum or quick Brimstone represseth fretting Ulcers foul Scabs Vlcers Scabs and Scurff and if that some Salt be put thereunto it is good to be laid upon the Bitings and Stingings of Serpents and Vipers It cureth the rifts and cloven Chaps that happen to the Hands Feet Scurff Venemous Beasts Hands Feet and Fundament Fundament being laid thereto The Stone-Pitch being pounded very small with the fine powder of Frankincense healeth hollow Ulcers and Fistula's Vlcers Fistulas filling them up with Flesh the Stone-Pitch is not so strong as the Liquid Pitch but is better and apter to soder and glew Wounds together as Galen saith Sea-Plantane Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of Herbs referred to the Plantanes the first whereof is called Holostea but more fitter Sea-Plantane or ordinary Sea-Plantane their several Names shall follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Ordinary Sea-plantane Plantago Marina vulgaris This Sea-plantane hath many narrow long and thick green leaves having here and there a dent or two on the edge pointed at the end among which rise up sundry bare stalks with a small spiked head thereon smaller than Plantane else a like both in blooming and Seed the root is somewhat white thick and long with long fibres thereat abiding many years Descript 2. Spanish Sea-plantane Holosteum Salmanticum This Spanish Sea-plantane also differeth not much from the former greater kind having many narrow hoary leaves lying on the ground but shorter and broader then they are among which rise up divers naked short stalks little more than an hand breadth high furnished from the middle almost to the tops with many whitish green flowers standing more sparsedly in the spiky heads then the former which do afterwards yeeld small Seed in husks like unto Plantane-Seeds the root is somewhat long and hard with divers Fibres at it There is another sort hereof much lesser than the former the leaves greener and narrower and the heads of Flowers are smaller Descript 3. The greater Sea-plantane with grassy leaves Holosteum angusti-folium majus sive Serpentaria
major This greater Sea-plantane hath a number of small long leaves almost like Grass but that they are stiffe and hard sometimes lying upon the ground and sometimes from a stem under them raised a little higher of a grayish or hoary green colour and having on some of them some small gashes on the edges among which rise up naked stalks about half a foot high with small spikey heads like unto Plantane-heads set at the top of them wherein also is contained such like Seed the root is somewhat thick long and woody with some fibres growing thereat Descript 4. The lesser Sea-Plantane with Grassy leaves Holosteum angusti-folium minus This lesser Holosteum is very like the former but that it is smaller and scarce having any dent on the edges and groweth much lower not exceeding three or four inches in height having such like heads but smaller Descript 5. Candy Sea-Plantane Holosteum Creticum sive Leontopodium Creticum This plant hath a reddish root somewhat great and as it were scaly at the head growing smaller downwards and spread into many long fibres from whence springeth up many long and narrow soft woolly leaves a hand-breadth long with three Ribs in each of them among which rise up divers small and short footstalks about two or three inches long and covered with a soft woolliness on every one whereof standeth a thick short reddish woolly head like unto a Plantane-head having divers whitish flowers upon them with blackish spots within them seeming so many holes in them which after they are past have small brownish Seeds inclosed in their husks very like unto Plantane-Seed or the Seed of Psyllium or Fleawort which heads when they are fully ripe do bend downwards to the ground and are so drawn or bended together that they resemble herein a Lyons-foot clasped together whereof it obtained the name of Leonto-podium Descript 6. Mouse-tail Holosteum Loniceri cauda muris vocatum This being in tast and property like unto these Holostea's is therefore ranked amongst them It shooteth forth divers small Grassy leaves very short rough and hard among which spring divers small slender stalks with small long blackish green spiked heads like unto a small Plantane-head but smaller with white flowers on them which quickly fade and fall away after which there are found very small blackish Seeds in the long heads which then in some are a little crooked and in others straight resembling a Mouse-tail the root is small and threddy Place and Time The first groweth in divers places about our Sea-coasts aswell as others The second of both sorts groweth in Valentia Salamanca and divers other parts of Spain as Clusius saith the third and fourth as saith Mathiolus by the Sea-side in Italy Camerarius saith by a lake of Salt-water neer Istebia which is in Germany The fifth in Candia The last groweth in many fertile Pastures and Meadowes as also on dry Banks and by the path-sides in divers places of our own Land They do flower in the Moneths of June and July and their Seed ripeneth quickly after The last which is the earliest of them all flowreth often in April and is almost gone in May. Government and Vertues These are of the same temperature and regiment as our ordinary Plantanes so very little differing in quality of cold dryness that all the virtues of the other Plantanes may properly be attributed to these onely the third kind Mathiolus saith that the people of Gorilia who call it Serpentina have used it to very good purpose as he himself also saith he hath found by good experience against the Bitings or stingings of Venemous Beasts Serpents serpents-bitings especially as also to help those that are troubled with the Dropsie especially that which hath possessed the whole body The Mouse-tail is cooling and drying like the Plantane and the Country people in some places of this Land apply it not onely to those that bleed at the Nose Dropsie bleeding at the Nose by bruising of the leaves and putting it up therin or pounding it and letting the party snuffe up the juice but also use it with good effect to stay the much bleeding of Wounds and to heal them up it being a singular good Wound-herb The Pomegranate-Tree Kinds and Names THe Pomgranate-tree is distinguished into three kinds that is The manured Pomegranate bearing fruit and the greater and lesser wild kinds the first is called Malus Punica and Malus granata and the fruit Malum Punicum and Malum granatum because it is supposed that they wer brought over from that part of Africa where old Carthage stood into that part of Spain which is now called Granada and froâ— thence called Granatum The flowers of the manured kind Dioscorides saith are called Citini but Pliny calleth the flowers the wild kind Citinus and the flowers of both kinds Balaustium but Cytinus is more properly the cup wherein do stand the flowe of both kinds and Balaustium is with us generally taken for the doble flowers of the wild kind only Descript 1. The Pomgranate-tree bearing fruit Malus Punica saâ—va This Tree groweth not great in the warm Countries and where it is natural not above seven or eight foot high spreading into manny slender branches here and there set with thorns and with many very fair green shining leaves like in form and bigness unto the leaves of large Myrtle-leaves every one upon a small reddish footstalk Among the leaves come forth here and there the flowers which are like Bell-flowers broad at the brims and smaller at the bottom being one whole leaf divided at the top into five parts of an orient red Crimson colour naturally but much paler with us and many veins running through it with divers threds in the middle and standing in a brownish hollow cup or long hard husk the fruit is great and round with a hard smooth brownish red rind not very thick but yellowish on the inside and a Crown at the top stored plentifully with a most cleer Liquor or juice like Wine either sweet or sower or between both full of seeds inclosed in skins and the liquor among them Sometimes this breaketh the rind as it groweth which will cause it to rot very soon Descript 2. The greater double blossomed Pomgranate-tree Malus Punica Sylvestris major sive Balaustium majus The great wild Pomegranate-tree groweth into slender brownish branches with some thorns amongst them and shining green leaves somewhat larger than the former but it is a shrubbish low Tree naturally from the branches shoot forth flowers very double as large as a double Provence-Rose but with shorter small leaves of an excellent bright crimson colour tending to a silken carnation standing in brownish hard cups or husks divided into five parts but no fruit followeth Descript 3. Balaustium minus the lesser double Pomgranate-tree There is but little difference in this from the other the leaves onely are of a sadder green colour the flowers smaller and lesse thick and double and of a sadder
were with blisters in divers places with thorns thereon like a Bryar or wild-Rose the leaves are not many but small like the wild hedge-bryar or rather smaller and turning red in Summer the Roses are single and small of a deep incarnate colour more than the former Descript 4. The Virginia Bryar Rose called in Latine Rosa sylvestris Virginiensis The Virginia Rose hath divers as great stems and branches as any other Rose whose young are green and the elder greyish set with many pricks and a few great thorns among them the leaves are very green and shining small and almost round many set on a middle rib one against another somewhat like unto the single yellow-Rose the flowers stand at the tops of the branches consisting of five small leaves of a pale purple or deep Carnation-colour like unto those of the sweet Bryar Descript 5. The single sweet white Rose called in Latine Rosa Campestris flore albo odora This Rose hath woody stems about three foot high set as thick with sharp thorns as any of the other and hath the like leaves but not so green at the tops of whose branches stand usually but one flower apiece consisting of five white leaves reasonable large and of a sweet smell with divers yellow threads in the middle in their places come such like round and short heads or berries as are in other Roses but are black when they are ripe and not red with white seeds lying in flocks of Down Descript 6. The Vermilion Rose of Austria Rosa sylvestris Austriaca flore phoeniceo The younger branches of this Rose are slender and reddish the elder brownish grey set with divers thorns but not very thick great or sharp the leaves are somewhat sharper than those of the single yellow Rose else not much unlike the flowers are single and as large as those of the yellow-Rose but of an excellent Orange-tawny-colour with an eye of vermilion cast over it and of a paler-yellow on the outside after which the fruit follows Descript 7. The single dwarf red-Rose of Austria Rosa pumila rubra Austriaca This Dwarf-Rose groweth not above half a yard high with slender green stems set with few or no thorns below but having many higher having whitish green leaves upon them like the other roses and greyish underneath five or seven set on a stalk together at the top of the branches come forth very great bearded husks wherein stand large flowers made of five leaves apiece somewhat sweet red at the first but decaying with standing growing much more pale before they fail away with yellow threds in the middle after which come the fruit which are red as the others but greater somewhat more like unto a pease than the others Descript 8. The small Burnet-Rose or Pimpinel-Rose Rosa Pimpinella sive pomifera minor This small Rose seldome riseth above a foot high being of two sorts whereof the one hath but few thorns and the other full of small thorns which is most frequent set with long winged stalks of leaves being many small leaves round and greenish set one against another upon the stalk finely dented about the edges seeming like unto a Burnet leaf for the form and number set together The flowers are single small and white without any scent after which come small round heads black when they are ripe and full of seed as the other Roses Descript 9. Dwarf single white Rose Rosa pumila sylvestris alba This scarce riseth above a foot above ground being set with small thorns and leaves according to the proportion of the Plant and the wildness of the kind the flowers are white and small giving heads and seed like the rest the root creepeth about more than others Descript 10. The single Dwarf-Rose without thorns Rosa simplex pumila sine spina This Dwarf-Rose groweth also very low almost upon the ground with green stalks without any thorn thereon set with small winged leaves the flower is small and of a pale reddish colour and single in some places very sweet and in others little or nothing flowring also in some places both in the Spring and Autumn Place and Time The two first grow in the Hedges of our Land every where almost yet the second not so frequent as the first the third came from Muscovy the fourth from Virginia the fifth from Germany in sundry places the sixth and seventh from Austria the eighth is found in divers places of our own land both in barren Heathy grounds and by Woods and hedges sides the ninth on some of the hills among the Switzers and the last near unto Lyons in France upon Pilates Hill there some of these Roses flower earlier than others some in May and others not until June Government and Vertues The Roses are certainly all under the dominion of Venus I shall first set down the properties of the manured-Roses Both the white and the red are of a cooling binding quality yet the white is taken to exceed the red in both these qualities but is seldom used in any inward medicine The red hath a watry substance and a warm joyned with the other Qualities The yellow threads in the middle do binde and dry more then the Rose it self The Juice of the Roses when they are fresh purgeth Choler and watry Humours Choler watry humors but being dryed they have a stopping and astringent quality The decoction of the red-Rose in wine is very good for the Headach and pains in the Ears Eyes Throat and Gums The Fundament also the lower-bowels and the Matrix being bathed or put into them The same decoction with the Roses remaining therein is profitably applyed to the Region of the Heart to ease the inflamations therein as also St. Anthonies fire and all other diseases of the Stomack and being dryed and beaten to powder and taken in steeled wine or water they stay womens Courses Headach pains in the Ears Eyes Throat Gums Fundament Lower-Bowels and Matrix Inflamation of the Heart St. Anthonies fire stomack Womens Courses Eyes and are good for the eyes being mixed with other medicines for that purpose The yellow threads in the middle of the red Roses being powdered and drunk in the distilled water of Quinces stayeth the abundant flux of womens Courses and helps the defluxions of Rheume upon the Gums and Teeth Womens Courses Rheums Gums and Teeth-loose and preserveth them from corruption and fastneth them if they be loose if they be washed and garbled therewith and some Vinegar of squils added thereto the heads with seed being used in powder or in a decoction stayeth the Laske and the spitting of Blood Red Roses do strengthen the heart the stomack and the Liver and the retentive faculties and mitigate pains that arise of heat asswage Inflamations procure sleep and rest stay womens Courses Gonorrhaea and the fluxes of the belly The husks of the Roses with the beards and the nailes of the Roses are binding and cooling and the distilled water of
causeth an easie and speedy birth when they are in travail It killeth the Worms of the belly both long and round if the herb and seed of the lesser kind be taken with Hysop Cresses and Nitre the leaves bruised and applyed to the places pained with the Gout or that are out of joynt and being set are full of pain do give much ease as also for Children which are troubled with an Inflamation in the parts about the brain and the tunicles thereof The seed of the greater or least kind being rubbed with a little salt upon warts or wens and other hard kernels or Excrescencies in the face eye-lids or any other part of the body will take them away by consuming them by little and little with often using it The dying or colouring Turnsole is good against all venemous creatures chiefly against the great Spider Phalangium and the stinging of Scorpions being applyed thereto The Vine Kinds THere are great varieties of Vines both of the manured and wild kinds most whereof came at first from one original but alter in nature and in the wine as the Climate differs Descript 1. The manured Vine Vitis vinifera This where it hath stood long groweth to have a great stem spreading without end or measure if it be suffered many slender weak branches that must be propped up from falling down the young being red and the old of a dark colour with a pyth in the midst at the sundry ioynts whereof grow several large broad green leaves cut into five divisions and dented also about the edges at the joynts likewise against the leaves come forth long twining Tendrels clasping or winding about whatsoever it can take hold of at the bottom of the leaves come forth clusters of small greenish yellow flowers and after them berries set thick together in branches of several forms of greatness colour and taste in some the clusters are close and others more open and some being long others more round tending to a square some likewise are very small as the Curran-grape others great and some in a mean between both some are white others black or blewish or red or parti-coloured and for tastes they are very variable some sweet according to the several Climates they grow in and sowr or harsh or mixt more or less pleasant one than another within which there are usually one two or three kernels They that keep their Vines in the best manner do keep them low and cut them often whereby they grow the better and take up less room bringing their grapes both fairer and sweeter Descript 2. The Parsly-Vine or Grape with thin-cut leaves Vitis laciniatis foliis This also groweth as other Vines do the difference chiefly consisting in the leaves which are very much incised or cut into many parts even almost to the middle and dented the grapes which are white and great are like the white muscadine-grape and of as good a rellish bearing great bunches and ripening with the middle sort of grapes Descript 3. The wild Vine of Europe Labrusca sive Vitis sylvestris Europaea The wild Vine in regard it is natural and therefore neglected lyeth for the most part on the ground and therefore is less fruitful unless it meet with some hedge or tree whereon it may climb and then spreadeth as the manured being both in branches leaves and tendrels like unto the manured Vine as also in blossomes but beareth either little or no fruit or seldome cometh to ripeness and what it doth is small and black and no way comparable to any of the manured Vines being rather binding and sowr than sweet Descript 4. The wild Vine of Virginia Vitis sylvestris Virginiana This one sort of the Vines of Virginia like all other wild sorts runneth on the ground and taketh hold of whatsoever it meeteth with being in all things like the former wild sorts but that the grapes are small and white and with little sap or juice in them and the kernels twice as big as others There is another sort that hath bigger blew grapes and sowr in taste a third they call the Fox-grape and hath a more rugged bark a very broad leaf without any division almost but dented and the grape is white but smelleth and tasteth like unto a Fox Descript 5. The wild Vine of Canada This groweth like unto the other wild Vines of those parts with slender reddish branches climbing where it can get thereon but the leaves on them being little more than half so large as the manured Vine hath only three partitions in every leaf but each cut-in deep even to the long smooth stalk whereon they stand making them seem as three leaves which are of a dark green colour and somewhat thick also the fruit is like the other wild sorts having more skin and kernel than substance or juice The cheifest sorts of grapes whereof Wines are made and which are brought unto us are these The Damasco white grape which is the true Vvae Zibebae that the Apothecaries should use in several of their compositions if they can get it The Muscadine grape both white and red most if not all destroyed by the Turks The Frontiniack or Musk-grape The Particoloured-grape The Raisin of the Sun-grape The Curran-grape is the small blew currans that the Grocers use have no kernels whereof there is another sort that beareth red berries almost as small but not so sweet but rather a little tarter The small early black grape The black grape of Orleance There is a grape without stones g owing in many places as by the River Zyreck near Ascalon in Palestina giving a red wine as also in divers places of Arabia and in the Maderas There is reported also to be a Vine that beareth green leaves continually yet yieldeth fruit but at the same times that others do There is said likewise to be some that bear twice in a year and some oftner having both ripe and green fruit together at one time upon the tree Place and Time The manured kinds are planted every where and according to the Soyl and Climate is both the rellish and strength of every sort For the Vine that groweth in the Canary Islands is the same with that at Malaga and Sherris and yet the one excelleth the other still in strength and sweetness the other wild sorts are all expressed in their Titles The first wild sort in sundry places of Europe both Italy France and Germany The wild sorts flower somewhat later than the manured and therefore what fruit they bear must likewise be ripe later than others Government and Virtues The Vine hath in it so many divers differing and contrary properties some cold some hot some sweet some sowr some mild some sharp and some moistning and others drying that they may be assigned to several stars But the glorious Planet the Sun hath the sole Regiment of this most noble Plant I shall distinctly set down the names of the several parts of the Plant and such medicaments and wines as
something like those of our Ivy but longer and sharper at the point the flowers are white and the fruit are red berries when they be ripe clustering like Grapes the root is of a thick hard substance Place It groweth in the West-Indies as in Peru and Virginia delighting in places that incline to moisture and in low and shadowy Valleys and is sometimes found in the Gardens of curious herbarists Time In its natural Country it flowers in Spring and Autumn Government and Virtues It is hot and dry of temperature but of subtile and thin parts under the influence of Mars to which plant he flies for cure after he hath been too much inflamed in his fiery assaults with Venus the decoction of this plant is excellent for the French-pox Pox Rhumes Gouts Stomach Catharrs Kings-Evill Spleen and is good in Rhumes Gouts and cold diseases of the head and stomach and expelleth Wind from the Stomach and Mother it helpeth also Catharrs and salt distillations from the Head it is good in Tumors and the Kings-Evill A dram of the powder with the like quantity of Tamarisk being taken in Ale or Wine mollifies Tumors and hardness of the Spleen It is so great an Antidote against Poyson that it doth not serve only for Venome received before hand but also against all poyson after that one hath taken hereof so that whosoever taketh thereof daily no Venome can hurt him it is also reported of this plant that if the juice thereof be given to a child newly born no Poyson shall ever after hurt him Bombace-tree Name IT is also called the Cotton-Tree Descript This plant is but a shrub or low-tree which groweth not very high the leaves be broad with deep cuts or slits somewhat like Vine leaves but smaller the flowers be yellow and somwhat purple in the middle jagged about the edges the fruit is almost like unto Filberds broad and flat and full of fair white Cotton or Bombace in which the seed lyeth hidden Place The Bombace or Cotton-tree groweth in Egypt Candy Maltha and the Indies it is now very plentifully planted in the Island of Barbadoes Government and Vertues This plant is under the dominion of Venus the seed whereof is of temperature moderatly hot and moist and is very good against a Cough and all cold diseases of the breast It augmenteth natural strength increasing the seed of Generation and exciteth and stirreth up the desire to Venus sports Box-tree Names IT hath been also called Palm-tree because on Palm-sunday people use to dresse up Churches and their houses therwith Descript It is so well known a description is needlesse Place It delighteth in hilly Grounds as Boxwood in Surry can testifie they usually plant it to make knots in Gardens Time It is planted in the beginning of November it floureth in February and March and the seed is ripe in September or thereabouts Government and Vertues It is a Saturnine plant the leaves are hot and dry and astringent It is not useful in any medicine but rather hurtful for box taken into the body doth not only hurt the head and brain but the very smell thereof is hurtfull unto the brain and causeth Head-ach Some writers do affirm that the lye wherein boxen leaves have been steeped make the hair yellow if the head be often washed therewith Prickly-Box Names IT is called also Box-thorn Asses-box and Thorn-box Descript It is a tree not much unlike the other Box the leaves be thick and somewhat round like boxen leaves and amongst them grow sharp prickles the flowers grow amongst the leaves and after them there cometh a black round seed as big as a pepper corn the roots are woodish and spread much abroad Of the small branches and roots of this tree steeped in water and boyled or of the pressing forth of the juice of the seed they make Licium which formerly was in much use with Physitians Place The prickly Box-tree groweth in Capadocia Lybia and in some parts of Italy and Slavonia Government and Vertues Mercury governs it the dryed Licium is of subtil parts and astringent it helpeth those who have the Lask and Bloudy-flux Lask Bloudy-flux Spitting-bloud Cough Vlcers Gums Lipps Eyes as also those that spit Bloud or have a Cough It stoppeth the inordinat course of the flowers either taken inwardly or applyed outwardly it is good against corrupt Ulcers and running Scabs running of the Eares inflamation of the Gums and against chops of the lips and fundament being applied thereto It cleereth the sight and cureth scurvy festred sores of the eye lids and corners of the Eyes Comin Name IT hath no other names there are two kinds hereof Garden Comin and wild Comin Descript The Garden Comin hath a straight stem with divers branches the leaves be jagged not much unlike Fennel the flowers grow in rundells or spiky tops like Annise Fennel or Dill the seed is brown and long The wild Comin hath a brittle stalk of a span long upon which grow four or five leaves all jagged or snipt or dented round about Place The Garden Comin groweth in Ethiopia Aegypt Galatia lesser Asia and Cicily from whence the seed is brought to us Government and Vertues The seed is hot and dry in the third degree and solar Comin scattereth and breaketh windiness of the Stomack Bowels and Matrix it is singular against Gripings Griping of the Guts and frettings of the Bowells either to be received at the Mouth administred in Clisters or outwardly applied pultis-wise with barly-meal The same eaten or drunken is very good for the Cough Cough Colds Cold stoppings in the Breast and if it be drunk in Wine it is good for those that are hurt with any Venemous beast it asswageth swellings of the Cods and Stones Cods swelled being applied pultis wise The same mingled with Yuray meal and pulpe of raisins and applied to the Belly stops the inordinate flux of Womens courses Flowers Comin-seed pounded and given to smell to with Vinegar stops bleeding at Nose Bleeding at Nose Capers Names NAmes it hath none but Capers or Cappers Descript It is a prickly plant or bush almost like the bramble with many branches spread abroad and stretched along the ground upon which do grow hard sharp and crooked prickles with blackish round leaves standing one against another not much unlike the leaves of Assarabacca or the leaves of a Quince-tree but much rounder amongst the leaves spring up small knops or buds which do open into fair starlike flowers of a pleasant smell after which cometh the fruit which is long and round and hath in it small corns or kernells the root is long and woodish covered with a thick bark or rind very useful in Physick Place Capers grow in rough untilled places in stony sandy ground and by hedges sides in Spain and Italy and other hot Countries the fruit and flowers are brought unto us from Spain preserved in pickle Government and Virtues Capers are plants of Mars
which leaves in the hotest daies is found a certain fatness which is diligently gathered and dryed and makes that Gum which is called Lapdanum Government and Vertues These plants are governed by Jupiter the flowers and leaves of Cistus are dry in the second degree and somewhat astringent that which groweth about the roots is of like temperature but more astringent Lapdanum is hot in the second degree almost and is somewhat dry and astringent The flowers of Cistus boyled in Wine and drunk stoppeth the Lask Lask and all issues of bloud and dryes up superfluous moisture Bloody issues as well of the Stomack as other parts of the belly the leaves do cure and heal green wounds being laid thereupon Green-Wounds Hypocistis stoppeth all Fluxes of the belly Fluxes and is of a stronger operation then the flowers and leaves of Cistus wherefore it cureth the bloody Flux and the immoderate overflowing of Womens Courses Womens Courses Ladanum drunk with old Wine stoppeth the Lask Lask and provoketh Urine It is very good against the hardness of the Matrix or Mother Matrix laid to in manner of a pessary it draweth down the secondine or afterbirth afterbirth when it is laid upon quick-coales and the fumigation or smoak thereof be received up into the Matrix the same applied to the head with Myrrhe or oyl of Myrrhe Head cureth the scurff thereof Scurffe and keepeth the hair from falling off if it be droped into the Eares with honied Water or Oyle of Roses it healeth pains in the Eares Eares It taketh away the Scars of wounds being applied thereunto with Wine Scars it is also very profitably mixed withall unguents and plaisters that serve to heat moisten and asswage pains and for such as be laid to the breast against the Cough Cockle Names IT is called also Nigell-weed Field-Nigella and Cockle Descript It hath straight slender hairy stems the leaves be also long narrow hairy and grayish the flowers are of a brown purple colour changing towards red divided into five small leaves not much differing from the proportion of Wild Campions after which there groweth round cups wherein is contained plenty of seed of a black brown colour Place It is two frequent amongst Corn Wheat Rye and Barly Time It flowers in May June and July Government and Vertues This unprofitable guest amongst Corn is of a Saturnine quality causeth giddinesse of the Head and stupifies if it get amongst the Corn to be made with it into bread and howsoever taken it is dangerous and hurtful although some ignorant persons have mistaken it for the right Nigella or used it instead Yuray or Darnell to the great danger of the patient Corn-flour Names IT is also called Blew-bottle Hurt-Sicle and Blew-blow great Corn-flour and Wild-corn-flour Descript Corn-flour hath a crested stalk upon the which grow narrow sharp-pointed and grayish leaves notched or cut about the edges and sharp corners like teeth about the top of the stalks it beareth small round buttons which be rough and scaly out of which grow pleasant flowers of five or six jagged leaves most commonly blew especially the wild kind which being vanished there groweth in the scaly huskes or heads certain long seeds which are inclâ—sed in a hairy down or Cotton Place It groweth in the fields amongst Corn but especially amongst Rye there are other kinds which have whiâ—e and purple flowers which are planted in Gardens of Herbarists and of them called Cyanus Time These flowers do flourish from May untill August Government and Vertues Corn-flour is cold and dry a plant of the Lunar influence and is appropriate to the Eyes Corn-flour bruised or pouâ—ded and laid to the Eyes cureth any redness running or inflamation thereof Eyes inflamed or any kind of Tumor or hot inflamation or Tumor about the Eyes Distilled water of Corn-flour or Cyanus cureth redness and pain of the Eyes either being dropped into the Eyes or the Eyes washed therewith Coryander Names IT is called in shops Coryandrum in English Coryander and of some Colyander Description This is a stinking plant it beareth a round stalk full of branches of a foot and an half long the leaves are whitish all jagged and cut the under leaves that spring up first are almost like the leaves of Chervil or Parsly and the upper leaves are not much unlike the same or rather like to Fumitory leaves but a great deal tenderer and more jagged the flowers be white and grow in round tuffets the seed is all round and hollow within and of a very pleasant sent when it is dry the root is hard and of a woody substance Place It is sown in Gardens and loveth a good Soyle Time It flowereth in July and August and the seed is ripe shortly after Government and Vertues The green plant is cold and dry of a Saturnine quality hurtful to the body but the sweet-savoring seed is of a warm temperature and useful for many purposes the seed of Coryander being prepared and taken alone or covered with Sugar after meales closeth up the mouth of the Stomack Stomack stayeth Vomiting and helpeth digestion Vomiting Digestion the same rosted or parched and drunk in Wine killeth and bringeth forth Worms out of the body Worms and stoppeth the Lask and bloody Flux and all other extraordinary issues of blood Lask Bloody Flux Coryander ought not to be covered with Sugar or to be put into any meat or medecine nor used any way unprepared the way of preparing it is after this manner viz. Take of the seed of Coryander well dried and pour thereupon good strong Wine and Vinegar mixed together and so leave them to steep by the space of four and twenty hours then take the seeds out of the Liquor and dry them so keep them to be used in medicine the green herb Coryander being boyled with crums of whitebread or barly meal consumeth and driveth away hot Tumors Tumors Kings-Evil Lumps St. Anthonies-fire swellings and inflamations and with bean-meal it dissolveth the Kings-evil hard knobs and Worms the juice applied with Ceruse Litharge of Silver Vinegar and oyl of Roses cureth St. Anthonies-fire and asswageth and easeth the pains of all inflamations Coloquintida Names I It is also called Wild-bitter-gourd and the fruit Coloquint-Apple Descript Coloquintida creepeth with his branches along by the ground with rough hairy leaves of a grayish colour much cloven or cut the flowers are bleak or pale the fruit round of a green colour at the beginning and after yellow the bark thereof is neither thick nor hard the inner part or pulpe is open and spongy full of gray seed in tast very bitter the which is dryed and kept for medicinal use Place Coloquintida groweth in Italy and Spain from which places the dryed fruit is brought unto us Time Coloquintida bringeth forth his fruit in September Nature and Vertues It is under the planetary influence of Mars
Calefar and in some place Chanque Government and Virtues The Cloves are under the solar influence of temperature hot dry in the third degree they comfort the Head â—nd Heart Head Heart Liver stomack Wind Vrine strengthen the Liver and Stomack and all â—nward parts that want heat they help digestion â—reak Wind and provoke Urine the Portugal Women use to distill the Cloves while they are fresh which make a sweet and delicate water profitable for â—ll passions of the Heart and weakness of the Stomack China-root Descript THe root called China-root is like to the root of a great Reed some flattish others round not smooth but bunched and knotty reddish for the most part on the outside and whitish and sometimes a little reddish in the inside the best is solid and firm and somewhat waighty fresh and not worm-eaten and without any tast but as it were drying the plant of the root groweth up with many prickly branches like unto Sarsaparilla or the prickly Bind-weed winding it self about trees and hath many leavs growing on them like broad Plantain leavs the roots grow sometimes many together and while they are fresh the Indians eat them as we do Turneps or Carrots Place This plant groweth not only in China but also in Mallabar Cochin and divers other places there Government and Vertues It is a plant of Jupiter and the properties therof are many and of great use with us in divers cases in diet drinks for the French-Pox French-pox it is profitable in all Agues Agues Heckticks Quotidian Intermittent or pestilential Heckticks and Consumptions Consumptions it helps the evil disposition of the Liver pains of Head Head and Stomack Stomack and strengthneth it It dryes up the defluxions of Rheums helps the Jaundies Jaundies and burstings Burstings in Children or others by drying up the humor which is the cause therof It also helps the Palsie Palsie Gout and all other diseases of the joints and bladder the Gout Sciatica Sciatica Nods Pocky-nods and Ulcers of the Yard Yard Lust and is good in all cold and Melancholy diseases It stirreth up Venery it may be taken several wayes as being boyled first slic'd thin and steeped a good while in water onely or with Wine and water some boyl it in the broth of a chicken tyed up in Linnen cloth and to take from a quarter to half an ounce or more at a time as the quantity of drink oâ— broth is or as the party can bear Cinnamon and Cassia Lignea Descript THe Cinnamon-tree is described to be a great Tree about the bigness of the Olive-tree with many straight branches without knots covered with a double bark like the Cork whose inner rind is to Cinnamon and is so barked every third year and being cut in long peeces oâ— if it were the bark of the whole tree is cast on the ground wherein dry it it is rouled together as we see it and is better or worse blacker or betteâ— coloured by the greater or lesser heat of the Sun the leaves are of a fresâ— green colour like those of the Cittron-tree the flowers are white and the fruit black and round like hasel-nuts or small Olives the best groweth in Zeland having leaves like Willowes and fruit like unto bay-berries whereof there is made an oyl As concerning the Cassia several Authors do write that Cinnamon and Cassia is one and the same tree and that the variety and difference of the Soyl where they grow makes the difference onely but we daily see that the Cassia which cometh to us is the bark of a tree and either roul'd together like Cinnamon or not roul'd but in small or great smooth peeces and therefore may be conceived to be a sort of Cinnamon yet the tast being Glutinous lesse sharp and quick and more stiptick then Cinnamon argueth it to be the bark of another sort of tree although of the same kind and nature Pliny lib. 12 cap. 29. saith that Cassia which groweth where Cinnamon doth is a shrub of three cubits high but on the hills whose thick branches have their bark unto leather which must be emptied or hollowed in a contrary manner unto that of Cinnamon for being cut into sticks of two cubits long they are sewed into fresh beasts skins that the worms may eat out the wood and leave the bark whole by reason of the sharpness and bitterness the three sorts of colour therein sheweth their goodness That which is white for a foot high next the ground is the worst the next thereunto for half a foot is reddish which is next in goodness from thence upward which is blackish and the best and is to be chosen fresh of a mild scent and of a very sharp tast rather than biting of a purplish colour light in waight and with a short pipe not easily broken so that we may see plainly that Cassia differeth not much from Cinnamon and yet that it is differing from it Government and Virtues Cinnamon is under the dominion of Jupiter it is of temperature hot and dry in the second degree of very subtile parts and very Aromatical it is very Cordial it comforteth the Heart and strengthneth a weak Stomack Heart stomack it easeth the pains of the Cholick Cholick Vrine especially the distilled water of it the stopping of Urine and it stayes the superabounding flux of Womens Courses Terms Face it causeth a good colour in the Face makes a sweet breath Breath Poison and good against the poison of venemous beasts it is much used to stay looseness Looseness and binde the body the distilled water thereof is most effectual but the Chymical oyle thereof is much more hot and piercing Cocculus Indus Names Description and Vertues THe Italians call these berries or round seed Cocco di levante and the French call them so likewise they are of a blackish Ash-colour on the outside having a thick white kernel within them of a hot tast drawing water into the mouth and grow many together like Ivy-berries yet each by it self on a stalk some thinking them to grow upon a kind of night shade others on a kind of Tithymal or Spurge they are used either to make bates to catch fish with things for that purpose or the powder thereof used to kill Lice and Vermine in in Childrens Heads Costus THere are to be had in our Druggists and Apothecaries Shops two sorts of Costus far differing the one from the other both in form and substance the vertues of the true Costus are these It provokes Urine Vrine Courses and Womens Courses and helps diseases of the Mother Mother Convulsions aswel by bathing as suming two ounces thereof being drunk helpeth the biting of Vipers and is good against pains of the Breast Convulsions or the windy Stirches Stitches Stomack swellings in the Stomack Sides or Body being taken in Wormwood-Wine sciatica sinews and being taken with sweet Wine
because if the Down thereof happen to fall into the Eares it will cause one to be deaf as Mathiolus saith It is called in Latine Typha palustris Reed-mace and Water-torch the leaves are called Matweed because they make Mats therewith Descript This herb hath long rough thick and almost three square leaves filled within with a soft pith or marrow amongst the leaves sometimes groweth up a long smooth naked stalk without knots or joints not hollow within having at the top a grey or russet long knap or Ear which is round soft thick and smooth and seemeth to be nothing else but a throm of russet wool or flocks set thick throng d together the which at length when as the said knap or Ear waxeth ripe it is turned into down and carried away with the Wind this down or Cotton is so fine that in some Countries they fill cushions and beds with it as Fuchsius writeth the roots be hard thick and white with many threds hanging overthwart one another and when these roots are dry they are good to burn and for nothing else as I ever heard of Place This plant is frequently found in standing-ponds and waters and shadowy pools and commonly amongst Reeds and flags by the brinks or edges of Rivers and running Streams Time It is at full growth in July and August and the Down ripe soon after Government and Vertues It is an herb of the Moon of temperature cold and dry the Down of this plant mingled with Swines-grease well washed healeth burnings Burnings or Scaldings Scaldings with fire or water It hath also been experimented and prooved that the Down or Cotton of this plant is very profitable for Kibed-heels Kibed-heels which are broken out and hollow if it be laid thereupon Dwarff-plane-tree Names IT is called in Latine Sambucus Palustris and Sambucus Aquatica Marsh-Elder and Water-Elder because of the flowers and fruit and the Timber is full of pith like Elder Descript This plant is somewhat like Elder The Wood thereof but especially of the young branches is full of pith as are those of Elder the leavs be large and fine cornered almost of the fashion of Vine leaves but smaller the flowers be white and grow in round shadowy tuffets whereof those in the middle are small and they that stand all about the border of the round spokey tuffts are great the fruit is round berries like the berries of Elder but greater and of a shining red colour Place This plant groweth plentifully in Meadows by the sides of fresh fair running Rivers and by water-courses and in low waterish places Time The Dwarff-plane-tree floweâ—s in May and the fruit is ripe in September following Government and Vertues It is a Saturnine plant some say that the berries thereof being taken into the body do cause Vomiting and open the belly purging Vomit Purge downwards but it is not now experienced being little made use of if at all Elder and the Kinds OUr Prodromus Culpepp falling short both in the description kinds nature and Celestial government of Elder and also of their several medicinal uses I must not omit to enlarge somewhat thereupon supplying his defects and adding the several kinds and their virtues Descript 1. The common Elder-tree called in Latine Sambucus vulgaris groweth up in some ground if it stand alone to a good height but standing thick t is but a shrub with spreading branches the outer bark is grayish but underneath it hath a green skin it hath a pith in the middle the leavs are winged and stand at the joints of the branches a little dented about the edges of a fair sad green colour of a strong smell the flowers are white and stand in tufts at the tops of the twigs smelling stronger than the leaves after which succeed small round berries green at first and blackish when they are ripe full of purplish juice within them and some small flat seeds or grains the root is great and thick far spreading there is a kind of Fungus or Excrescence growing at the bottom of the tree and on the branches of this tree called Jews-Ears and is somewhat in resemblance like unto an Ear but is accounted a kind of the Mushrooms Descript 2. White berried Elder Sambucus fructu albo this Elder is both in form bark pith branches leaves and flower so like the other that it cannot be discerned but by the fruit but the cheifest diffe is that the berries are of a pale whitish yellow colour in most places yet in some they abide greenish and is hereby only distinguished from the former Descript 3. Jagged-Elder Sambucus Laciniatis foliis the difference in this from the first is the form of the leaves which are so much divided or jagged even to the middle rib that it would not be deemed an Elder but only by the smell thereof in all other parts aswel flowers as berries it differeth not from the first Descript 4. Red-berried Elder Sambucus racemosa Rubra this is a mountain Elder and differeth but a little from the common Elder but that it seldome groweth so great and the flowers are somewhat yellowish and grow not in large spread tufts but in small long branched clusters like Privet and the berries are of a scarlet colour and pleasant to be eaten it is like it in the growing rugged white bark in the body and Elder boughes and somewhat reddish in the young leavs as also in the roots the Wood is not so soft nor so pithy Descript 5. Sambucus Palustris sive Aquatica the Marsh Elder This hath his body and branches covered with a whitish bark but they are smaller and more brittle then any of the former the leaves also differ much from them being broad and smooth divided at the edges into three and sometimes five parts and dented round about like unto a vine leaf and somewhat resembling the great Maple or vulgarly called Sycamore leafe the flowers stand in tufts or umbells like the first sorts but they are smaller and whitish the outermost are much larger than any of the innermost or of the former Elders consisting of five leaves a peece round pointed which compasse the middle flowers round about but have no threds in the middle of a reasonable sweet scent after which follow very red berries somewhat flat and full of a red juice bitterish in tast ready to cause Vomiting Descript 6. The Elder or Gelder-rose Sambucus Rosea is the Latine appellation this is of the same kind growing after the same manner with such like leavs but the Flower is composed as it were of many whitish or pale blush flowers set together in a round tuft or ball Descript 7. Dwarff-Elder called also Walwort and Danewort in Latine Ebulus sive Sambucus humilis this is but an herb dying every year with the stalks down to the ground and rising fresh again every Spring and inform and quality resembles the common Elder it riseth up with a four square rough hairy stalk
four foot high sometimes more and sometimes less the winged leaves are somewhat narrower than those of the Elder but else very like it the flowers are white with a dash of purple standing in Vmbells like those of the Elder but more sweet in smell after which come small blackish berries full of juice while they are fresh wherein there lie small hard kernels or seed the root doth creep under the upper crust of the ground springing a fresh in divers places about the bigness of ones finger Jagged Dwarff-Elder Descript 8. THis is called in Latine Ebulus foliis laciniatis there can be known no difference between this and the other save onely in the leaves which do so deform the whole face of the plant that none almost would think it should belong to the former the flowers fruit and smell onely leading us to Judge of the Species the leaves are almost Jagged as much as the jagged Elder wherein consists the only difference in this from the former The Place and Time Common Elder groweth very frequently in hedges and in many places it is planted to serve for hedges and partitions for grounds and Gardens especially about London where the Gardeners plant it not onely to serve in their grounds but for the annual profit it yeeldeth both for the green buds flowers and fruit and it is planted likewise in many places where Coneys breed for shadow every stick or branch being thrust into the ground will easily take root and grow The second it is said was first found by Tragus in the Woods of Germany The third is found wild on Hills in watry Woods The fourth is only found planted in the Gardens of the Curious The fifth is found by watersides and Moorish places in Germany France England Italy and Peidmont in Savoy as Pena saith The sixt is nursed up onely in Gardens but best delighteth in moist Grounds The seventh groweth Wild in many places of England where if it be once gotten into a Ground it will so creep and spread it self under the upper crust of the earth that is will hardly be gotten out again The last is as yet a stranger in England The Time The common Elder shoots forth his buds early in the year-in the beginning of January if the weather be mild all or most of the Elders flower in June but the Danewort somewhat late as his fruit likewise is later ripe even not untill September but the others are ripe for the most part at the middle or latter end of August Government and Vertues In the judgement of Culpepper about the planetary dominion of these plants he much mistakes himself saying that both Elder and Walwort were under Venus but they are numbred amongst the violent purgers and of a heating and drying quality quite contrary to the nature of Venus as also their rank smell demonstrates I do therefore attribute them to the dominion of Mars in Scorpio both Galen and also Dioscorides do attribute to the Walwort aswell as to the common Elder for they account their properties both one a hot and dry temperature purging watry humors abundantly but not without trouble to the Stomack the first shoots of the common Elder boyled like unto Sparagus and the young leaves and stalks boyled in fat broth draweth forth mightily Choler and tough Flegm Choler Flegm the tender leaves also eaten with oyl and salt doth the same the middle or inner bark boyled in Water and given to drink worketh much more violently and the berries also either green or dry expell the same humors and is often given with good successe to help the Dropsie by evacuating great plenty of watrish humors Watry humors the bark of the root also boyled or the juice therof drunk worketh the same effects but more powerfully than do either the leaves or fruit the juice of the root taken provoketh Vomiting Vomit Dropsie mightily and purgeth the watry humors of the Dropsie the same decoction of the root cureth the biting of the Viper Viper Adder or Adder as also of a Mad-dog Mad-dog Mother and mollifieth the hardness of the Mother if Women sit therein and openeth the Veins and bringeth down their Courses Courses Hair made black Eyes inflamed Burning the berries boyled in Wine perform the same effects the hair of the Head or other parts washed therewith is made black the juice of the green leaves applied to hot inflamations of the Eyes asswageth them the leaves boyled until they be tender and then beaten and mixed with Barly-meal and applied to hot inflamations asswageth them and helpeth Burning Burning Scalding Sealding Fistula's Vlcers cureth Fistula's Ulcers being laid thereupon and easeth the pains of the Gout Gout Brain being beaten and boyled with tallow of a Bull or a Goat laid theron the juice of the leave snuffed up into the nostrills purgeth the Tunicles of the Brain the juice of the berries boyled with a little hony and dropped into the Eares Eares pained easeth the pains of them the decoction of the berries in Wine being drunk provoketh Urine Provoke Vrine to make lean the powder of the seeds first prepared in Vinegar and then taken in Wine Wind Chollick half a dram at a time for certain daies together is a means to abate fat and keep the body lean the berries so prepared and asmuch white Tartar and a few Anniseeds put unto them a dram of this powder given in Wine cureth the Dropsy humor Dropsie humors very gently purging the dry flowers are very often used in the decoctions of Glisters to expell Wind and easeth the Chollick for they lose their purgeing quality which they have being green and retain an attenuating and digesting property being dried The distilled water of the flowers is of much use to clear the skin from Sunburning Sunburning Freckles Freckles Morphew Morphew or the like and saith Mathiolus the Head being bathed therewith it taketh away all manner of Head-ach Head-ach that cometh of a cold cause The Vinegar made of the flowers of Elder by maceration and insolation is grateful to the Stomack Stomack and of great power and effect to quicken the Appetite and helpeth to cut grosse or tough Flegm Flegm hot in the chest a sirrup of Vinegar made thereof will work more effectually for these purposes the leaves boyled and laid hot upon any hot and painful Aposthumes Aposthumes especially in the more remote and sinewy parts doth both cool the heat and inflamation of them and ease the pains the distilled water of the inner bark of the tree or of the root is very powerful to purge the watry humors of the Dropsie Dropsie Tympany Burning or Tympany taking it fasting and two hours before Supper Mathiolus prescribeth a Receipt hereof to help any Burning or Scalding Scalding which is made in this manner viz. Take saith he one pound of the inner bark of the Elder
are sweetest But this Pina surpasseth all other fruits in the West-Indies for pleasantness and wholsomeness so that many eat them abundantly but a surfeit with them is dangerous as it is with the best Meats drinks or fruits whatsoever The Physitians there forbid it their Patients lest it should breed inflamations Some wonders are reported hereof which I never had experience of neither do intend to go thither to disprove them As namely That if one of these fruits be cut through the middle with a knife and they joyned together again the peices will joyn and stick so fast together as if they had not been cut asunder at all Another property it hath that if one cut the fruit with a knife and leave the knife sticking therein untill the next day so much of the blade thereof as stuck within the fruit will be wholy consumed and wasted or as it were eaten away the knife also that did cut one of them if it be not forthwith clean wiped but let alone unwiped will seem as if it had been eaten in with Aqua fortis Descript 2. Wild-Indian Pine Anana Sylvestris this Wild kind of Pine groweth naturally both greater higher and more prickly or thistle-like having a great tuft of leaves at the bottom of their stalks or stems next the ground seeming to be Aloe-leave afar off but lesser and of a pale green colour set with sharp prickles It is increased by the off-sets one arising from another from the main stem grow sundry branches bearing at their ends heads of soft tender leaves closed round together which are nothing but the flowers and are of a yellowish colour smelling very sweet out of these heads rise spikes not unlike to those of the Reed but thicker closer set and far more beautiful smelling like the Cedar from the branches hang down the fruit called by the Portugalls Anana's Breva's that is Wild Anan's or Pina's which do somewhat resemble the manured ones of the bigness of a Melon of a beautiful red colour very pleasant to behold which is divided into parts like unto Cypresse-nuts when they are dry and set with bunches or knobs very much resembling a Cone or Pine-apple which are nothing so good although a little pleasant but harsh withal whereof few do at for pleasure but they are more physically used Government and Vertues These rare fruits are plants of Venus and of a moderate temperature six or eight ounces of the juice of this Wild kind taken in a morning fasting with some Sugar is a most present and certain remedy against the heat or inflamations of the Liver or Back Liver Back and is of singular use and very effectual against Ulcers inflamations and soreness of the Kidneyes and Bladder and foul purulentous Urines Kidneys Bladder Vrines and is good for the Excoriations of the Yard all which diseases this cureth in three dayes time The Pine-tree Kinds THer are two kinds of the Pine-tree that is the Garden and the wild Pine-tree and of the Wild Pine-tree there be divers sorts Names The Pine-tree is called in Latine Pinus and the nuts which are found in the Pine-apples are called in Latine Nuces Pineae in English Pine-Apple kernels or nuts in French Pignous The tame or Garden kind of Pine-apple is also called in Latine Pinus Sativa and the wild Pine is called in Latine Pinaster and Pinus Sylvestris the first wild kind is supposed to be the Pinus Tarentina whereof Pliny writeth the second kind is called in Latine humilis Pinus or Pinus terrestris and in Italian Mughi The third is called in some places in the Mountains betwixt Italy and Germany Cambri and Cirmoli and is that kind which the French-men call Sniffe The Fourth is called in Latine Pinus Idaea The fift is called in Latine Pinus marina and in French Pin-marin The fruit of the Pine-tree is called in Latine Conus and nux pinea and in English a Cone or Pine-apple in French Pome de pin Descript The Pine-tree groweth to a great and lofty height with many branches at the top parted into other round branches set round about with little hard leaves and almost sharp-pâ—inted or prickly very straight and narrow and of a green whitish colour The Timber is red and heavy and within about the heart full of sap and liquor The fruit is great balls of a brown Chesnut colour which are called Cones or Pine-apples in which grow small nuts wherein is a sweet white kernel Descript 1. Of the first Wild kind The first wild sort of the Pine-trees is high great and thick and yet not so high as the Tame or Garden Pine the branches be spread abroad with long sharp-pointed leaves the fruit is short and not hard which doth open easily and soon falleth Descript 2. The second kind of the wild Pine doth not grow so high neither is the stem growing straight up but bringeth forth many branches suddenly from the root creeping by the ground long slender and pliable or easie to be bent or ployed insomuch that hereof they may make hoops for Wine Hogs-heads and other Vessels and Casks the fruit of this tree is greater than the fruit of any other of the Wild Pine-trees Descript 3. The third kind groweth straight upright and waxeth great and high yet not so high as the other Wild kinds the branches of this sort do grow like the Pitch-tree the fruit is long and big almost like the fruit of the Pitch-tree in the same is contained triangled small nuts like to the Nuts of the Pine-apple but smaller and britler with a kernel of a very good taste like unto the kernel of the tame Pine Descript 4. The fourth wild kind hath a long hard fruit the which will not open easily nor fall lightly from the tree Descript 5. The fifth kind hath small round nuts not much greater than Cypresse-nuts the which will open and fall quickly From out of these trees cometh that liquor called Rozen especially from the wild-trees and it runneth most commonly out of the bark or from the Timber and is sometimes found in the fruit And from these trees cometh also Pitch both liquid and hard Place and Time The Tame or Garden Pine groweth in many places in Greece Italy Spain France and in some places in England where it hath been planted The wild Pines grow upon Mountains and that sometimes on very high Mountains where none other Trees or Herbs do grow especially the first wild kind which also groweth in Germany Poland Leifland and other cold Regions The fruit or Pine-apples are ripe in September Government and Virtues The Pine-trees are under the dominion of Saturn the bark is dry and astringent especially the scales of the Cones or Apples and the leaves be almost of the same temperature The kernels of the nuts are hot and moist and somwhat astringent The scales of the Pine-apple with the bark of the Pine tree do stop the Lask and bloudy-flux and provoke Urine Lask-Bloody Flux Vrine
Lysimachia the Willow-herb or Loose-strife but lesser being an inch broad and an inch and an half long compassing the stalk at the bottom with sundry veins running all the length of them from the joints rise long stalks bearing sundry yellow small flowers made of leaves like also unto Lysimachia with a small Pointel in the middle after which follow small blackish long heads or Seed-Vessels pointed at the end and having in them small blackish seed the stalk hath little or no scent yet not unpleasant as Alpinus saith being bitter with a little Acrimony therein but Bauhinus saith it is of an Aromatical tast and very bitter Descript 3. The sweet smelling Reed or Calamus officinarum or Acorus verus hath many flags long and narrow fresh green leaves two foot long a peece or more yet oftentimes somewhat brownish at the bottom the one rising or growing out of the side of the other in the same manner that other flags or flower-De-luces grow which are thin on both sides and ridged or thickest in the middest the longest for the most part standing in the midst and some of them as it were curled or playted towards the ends or tops of them smelling very sweet aswel when they are green and fresh as when they are dried and so kept a long time which do so abide in a Garden a long time as though it never did nor never would bear flower the leaves every year dying down to the ground and shooting out fresh every Spring but after three or four years abiding in a place without removing besides the leaves it shooteth forth not any stalk as other Flower-de-luces do but a narrow long leaf by it self flat like unto the other leaves especially from the middle thereof upwards but from the bottome to the middle it is flat-like at which place cometh forth one long round head very seldom two in form and bigness like unto the Catkin or Aglet of the Hazelnut-tree growing upright and of the length and thickness of ones finger or rather bigger set with several small lines or divisions like unto a green Pine-Apple of a purplish green colour for the most part out of which bunches shoot forth small pale whitish flowers consisting of four small leaves a peece without so good a scent as the leaves falling quickly away and not yeelding any seed The root is thick and long lying under the upper face of the ground shooting forward and with small roots or suckers on all sides like unto the Garden Valerian whitish on the outside or greenish if it lye above the ground and more pale or whitish on the inside with many joints thereabouts and whereat it hath or doth shoot forth long thick fibres underneath whereby it taketh strong hold in the ground of a firm or fast substance yet not hard or wooddy but easie to be cut of a sweet scent and somewhat bitter tast Place and Time The first is said by Mathiolus and others to grow in India Syria and Judea the dry stalks of the second are said to grow at the foot of Mount Libanus in Syria not far from Tripoli in the wet grounds there The third in sundry moist places in Aegypt and by the lake Gennesareth in Judea and in divers places of Syria and Arabia The other Calamus of the shops or true Acorus groweth in many places of Turk y in moist grounds from whence the largest roots the firmest whitest and sweetest are brought unto us it groweth also in Russia and those places thereabouts in great plenty Mr. Morgan hath of it growing in the physick-Garden at Westminster and he himself told me that he was informed by some that they had found it growing in moist grounds in Yorkshire and the Northern parts of England Government and Vertues These Reeds are under the dominion of Venus of a temperate quality The Calamus of Dioscoâ—ides he saith hath these properties it provoketh Urine and boyled with Grass roots and smallage it helpeth those that have the Dropsie Vrine Dropsie it fortifieth the Reins and is good against the Strangury or pissing by drops and is also profitable for those that have the Rupture Reins strangury Rupture or are broken Bellied It provoketh Womens Termes or Courses either drunk or applied to the place the fumes of it taken through a Tobacco-pipe either by it self or with some dryed Turpentine cureth them that have a Cough Termes Cough it is put into bathes for Women to sit in as also in Glisters to ease Pains Pains eased It is used in mollifying Oyles and Plaisters that serve to ripen hard Imposthumes Imposthumes as also for the sweet scent thereof Galen saith it being of a temperature moderate between heat and cold and somewhat Astringent and having a very little Acrimony it is profitably used among other things that help the Liver Liver and Stomack Stomack doth gently provoke Urine and is used with other things in fomentaions for the Mother Mother when it is troubled with inflamations and gently to move the Courses Courses Dioscorides saith that the sweet flag it good to provoke Urine Vrine if the decoction thereof be drunk It helpeth to ease pains in the Sides Sides Liver Liver and Breast Breast as also to ease the Griping pains of the Chollick Chollick and Cramp Cramp and is good against Ruptures It wastes the Spleen Spleen helps the Strangury strangury and Bitings of Venemous Creatures Serpents It is also good in Baths for Women to sit in for distempers of the Womb. Womb The juice dropped into the Eyes Eyes dryeth Rheums Rheums therein and cleareth the sight taking away all filmes Filmes that may hurt them The Root is of much use in all Antidotes against Venome and Poison or infection it is a good remedy against a stinking Breath Stinking Breath to take the Root fasting every Morning for some time together The hot fumes of the decoction made in Water and taken in at the Mouth thorow a funnel are Excellent good to help those that are troubled with a Cough Cough a dram of the powder of the Roots with asmuch Cinnamon taken in a draught of Wormwood Wine is singular good to comfort and strengthen a cold weak Stomack Cold Weak stomack the decoction thereof drunk is good against Convulsions Convulsions or Cramps Cramps and for falls Falls and inward Bruises Bruises an Oxymel or surrup made hereof in this manner is wonderful effectual for all cold Spleens Spleen and cold Livers Liver Take of the Roots of Acorus one pound wash and pick them clean then bruise them and steep them for three days in Vinegar after which time let them be boyled together to the Consumption of the one half of the Vinegar which being strained forth set to the fire again putting thereto as much Hony as is sufficient to make it into a syrrup an ounce
of this syrrup in a Morning in a small draught of the decoction of the same Roots is sufficient for a dose the whole Roots preserved either in Hony or Sugar is effectual for all the same purposes but the green Roots preserved are better then the dryed Roots which are first steeped and then preserved The Roots Bruised and boyled in Wine and applied to the Cods and Stones that are swelled dissolveth the Tumor Cods Stones Tumors and easeth the pains It likewise mollifieth hard Tumors in any part of the body Sweet-Rush Names IT is also called Camells-hay in Latine it is called Juneus odoratus and Schaenanthos and corruptly Squinanthum and Squinant Kinds and Description There are found two kinds hereof a finer and a Course or the true and bastard kind Descript 1. The finer sweet smelling Rush called in Latine Juncus odoratus Tenuior This hath many tuffts or heads of long Rush-like leaves thick set together one compassing another at the bottom and shooting forth upwards the outermost whereof are bigger or grosser then those that grow within which are a foot long and better small round and stiff or hard and much smaller from a little above the bottom of them then any of our Rushes of a quick and spicy tast somwhat pleasant and of a fine sweet scent It beareth in its natural soyl divers strong round hard jointed stalks having divers short brownish or purplish husks at the tops containing within them mossy whitish short threds or hairs wherein lyeth a chaffy seed the Root is stringgy full of long fibres and very hard Descript 2. Juncus odoratus Crassior The grosser sweet smelling Rush This groweth in the same manner as the former doth but is greater in every part of it and hath lesse smell aswel as lesse tast whereby it seemeth to be a kind of it self that groweth so great in the natural aswel as forreign parts or by growing in moister places cometh to be the larger Place and Time They grow naturally in Arabia Syria Mesopotamia and all those Eastern Countries as also in some places of Africa It cometh not to flowring in those colder Countries but in those hotter places it flowreth in the Summer time Government and Vertues This is a plant of Venus of a moderate temperature the Root is accounted to be somewhat astringent and is effectual for those that have a loathing in their stomack to their Meat it provokes Urine Loathing Stomack Vrine and Womens Courses Womens courses discusseth all Swellings and Wind swellings Wind it gently cutteth and breaketh Humors and digesteth them and looseneth the Breathing places of the Veines Humors Veins The decoction of the flowers being drunk as Dioscorides saith stayeth spitting of Blood and is good for the griefs of the Stomack Lungs Liver Lungs Liver and Reins a dram of the Root taken with the like quantity of Pepper every Morning fasting for certain dayes together is a very good remedy for those that have the Dropsie Reines Dropsie and for Convulsions or Cramps the decoction thereof is profitable for Women to sit in that are troubled with the Mother Cramps Convulsions mother it openeth their Obstructions Obstructions digesteth Crudities expelleth Corrupt humors cutteth tough Flegm Crudities Corrupt humors Tough Flegm and consumeth congealed matter in the Body and therefore it is of excellent use for the stopping of Urine Matter congealed Vrine and Womens Courses taken either in drink or by fomentation allayeth the inflamations of the Liver Courses inflamations Liver Stomack and body the Roots do bind more and the flowers are more hot but there is some Astriction in all the parts thereof and therefore is very profitably mixed with those things that stay Bleeding it is used to be boyled in the broth of a Chicken to ease the pains of the Womb that Women feel after Child-bearing The powder thereof is singular good for all Sores stomack bleeding Womb Sore of the Mouth and for all creeping Ulcers Mouth Vlcers and taken with Wine and Vinegar it is very effectual for those that have an Ulcer in their Stomack if the Stomack or Belly be fomented with the decoction thereof it taketh away all Inflamations therein and easeth the pains Rhubarb Kinds and Names THe Rha or Rubarbe both true and Bastard are all accompted and numbred amongst the Kinds of Docks so is our Garden Dock or that called Patience or Moncks Rubarbe so is also the Rha-pontick I shall give you 5 or 6 kinds of these plants the true China and oriental the Bastard and such sorts as grow in England Descript 1. Garden-Patience or Moncks Rhubarb the Latine Appellation is Lapathum sativum sive Patientia This is a Dock yet beareth the name of Rubarb because of some small purging quality it is endowed with it groweth up with large tall stalks set with somewhat broud and long fair green leaves not dented at all the tops of the stalks are divided into small branches bearing reddish or purplish flowers and three square seed like unto other Docks the Root is long great and yellow like unto the Wild-Docks but a little redder Descript 2. Common great round leafed Dock or Bastard Rubarbe It is called in Latine Hippolapathum rotundifolium vulgare This hath divers large round thin yellowish green leaves a little waved about the edges every one standing on a long brownish footstalk from among which riseth up a stalk about two foot high with some such leaves thereon as grow below but smaller at the top whereof stand in a long spike many small brownish flowers which turn into hard three-square shining-brown seed like unto the Garden-Dock or Patience the Root is greater then that of Patience having many strings or branches thereat yellow on the outside and somewhat pale yellow within with some discoloured Veins therein especially when it is dry Descript 3. True Rubarbe or Rubarbe of Pontus or English Rubarbe called Hippolapathum maximum rotundifolium exoticum sive Rhaponticum Thracium vel Rubarbarum verum This springeth up with a great round brownish head rising from the middle or sides of the Root which openeth it self into sundry leaves one after another very much crumpled or folded together at the first and brownish but afterward spreadeth it self and becometh smooth very large and almost round every one standing on a brownish stalk of the thickness of a mans thumb when they are grown to their fulness and most of them two foot and more in length especially in any moist or good ground and the stalk of the leaf also from the bottom thereof next unto the Root unto the leaf it self being in length about two foot or more of a sad or dark green colour of a fine tart or sowrish taste much more pleasant then the Garden or Woodsorrel from among these riseth up sometimes but not every year a strong thick stalk with such round leaves as grow below but smaller at every joint up to the top
Bryar-ball is often used being made into powder and drunk to break the stone to provoke Urine and to ease and help the Chollick Whites Stone Vrine Chollick In the middle of these balls are often found certain white worms which being dryed and made into powder and some of it drunk is found by long experience of many to kill and drive forth the worms of the belly Rice Descript THis grain or Corn riseth up with a stronger stalk than wheat about a yard high with sundry joynts and a large thick leaf at each of them like unto the Reed at the top it beareth a spiked tuft spread into branches whose blooming is said to be purplish with the seed standing severally on them inclosed in a hard brown straked husk and an Arm at the head of every one of them which being hulled is very white of the bigness almost of wheat Cornes blunt at both ends Names Rice is called in latine Oriza and the Italians call it Rizo the French Rys Place and Time This grain originally was brought out of the East-Indies where in many places it yieldeth two Crops in a year being the chiefest Corn they live upon and not with them onely but through all Aethiopia and Africa and from thence hath been brought into Syria Aegypt Italy c. It delighteth to grow in moist grounds and is a Summer Corn ripe about the middle of Autumn Government and Vertues It is a Solar grain The physical use thereof is chiefly to stay the Lasks and Fluxes of the stomach and belly especially if it be a little parched before it be used and steel quenched in the milk wherein it is boyled being somewhat binding and drying It is thought also to increase seed Lasks Fluxes increase Seed being boyled in milk and some sugar and Cinnamon put thereunto The flower of Ryce is of the same property and is sometimes also put into Cataplasmes that are applyed to repell humours from flowing or falling to the place and is also conveniently applyed to womens breasts Repell humors Inflamations in womens breasts to stay Inflamations therein in the beginning thereof Spanish Safron Kinds and Names I shall describe severally the sorts hereof and therein set down their names Descript 1. The manured Spanish or bastard Safron called in Latine Cnicus sive Carthamus sativus This hath sundry large leaves lying next the ground without any pricks or with very few white ones at the corners of the leaves and divisions among which riseth a strong round stalk three or four foot high branching it self up to the top bearing shorter leaves sharp-pointed and prickly at the edges and at their ends a great open scaly head out of which shoot forth many gold yellow threads of a most orient and shining colour which being gathered in a dry warm time and kept dry will abide in the same delicate colour which it bare when it was fresh for a long time the seed when it cometh to maturity is white and hard somewhat long and round and a little cornered the root is long white and woody perishing yearly after seed time Descript 2. Wild or bastard Safron of Candy Cnicus alter Creticus This hath a thick and long black root from which riseth up one streight round stalk half a cubit high set here and there with long sharp-pointed leaves thick set with prickles at the dents of the edges at the top whereof standeth a scaly head compassed with prickly leaves of the bigness of the Atractylis or distaff-thistle out of which break forth divers thick yellow Safron-like threads thrust thick together a fier which the seed groweth therein being white and as big as the greater Centory-seed Descript 3. Clusius his everliving bastard Safron Cnicus alter perennis Clusâ—i This groweth up with divers hard strong and round stalks without any branches at all from them to the height of three or four foot bearing thereon at several places somewhat large and long leaves dented about the edges of a sad or dusky green colour at the top of every stalk standeth one great close hard scaly head but not prickly at all not so great as the other bastard-Safron never opening the scales of the head as that doth from the middle whereof cometh divers threads yet nothing so many as in the other of a sad blewish ash colour and whitish at the bottom of them the seed which lyeth among the down in those heads is greater than of the other thick and short but not white and in lesser quantity than it The Roots run down deep into the ground and being there increased do run and spread themselves taking up a great deal of room Place and Time The first is generally sown in Spain Italy and other places for the especial use thereof The second Alpinus saith was brought out of Candy the last groweth wild in Spain aswel about Sevil as Cordula and in several other places as Clusius saith These kinds of Safron are called both in Greek and Latine Cnicus and Cnecus and in Apothecaries shops Carthamus of some also Crocus Saracenicus the Arabians call it Kartan the Italians Saffarano Sarasenisco the Spaniards Alacor and Acafran Salvia the Germans call it wilder Safron the French Safron-bastard and graine de Peroquets because they use to feed Parrots with the seed in English wild Safron Bastard-Safron Spanish Safron and Catalonia Safron Government and Virtues These are all Solar the flowers of the first Spanish Safron are much used in Spain and other places to be put into their broths and meats they are also of great use in dying silk into a kind of a Carnation-colour the seed is chiefly used in physick or rather the kernels within the seed which beaten and the emulsion thereof taken in honyed water or the broth of a Pullet and taken fasting doth open the body and purgeth watry and Phlegmatick humours Phlegm Watry humours Chollick Dropsie both upwards and downwards which it also performeth if the emulsion thereof be given in a Glyster and thereby helpeth the Chollick and dropsie and those other diseases that proceed from those humours Being made into a lohoch or licking Electuary with Sugar and honey and a few Almonds and Pine-kernels it wonderfully cleanseth the breast and lungs of phlegm sticking thereon causing it to be spit forth Phlegm Breast Lungs Sperm Voice cleared it clears the voice and increaseth seed by the often use of it but it doth somewhat trouble the stomach and therefore some stomachichal helpers are to be used with it As Anniseed Galanga Mastich or if need be of more forceable Cardamoms Ginger Salgem a dram of the flowers in powder taken in Hydromel or honyed water or in Barley-water helpeth the Jaundise Jaundise a dram of the pulp of the seed taken with an ounce of Syrup of wormwood doth the like also the Confection made of the seeds of it called in Shops Diacarthamum is an especial good medicine to purge Choler and flegm as also to clear and
and long as the great Night-shade leaves but some deeplier dented than others almost torn especially at the lower end of the leaf next the stalk each standing on a long footstalk The stalk riseth from among the leaves being streight thick fat strong and round two or three foot high from whence shoot forth on all sides if it be in warm fat ground divers stalks of leaves like unto the other or in a barren ground its bare without branches two for the most part set at a joynt and at each joynt of the stalk up to the top cometh forth one flower of a whitish colour which is somewhat long like unto a Bell-flower made of one leaf without division at the edges having a few long threads at the bottom not rising so high that they may be seen without opening the flower after the flowers are past there come up in their steads small long hard Cods having three or four or five Ribs or Crests which do open themselves into many parts having in each part small whitish yellow flat seeds lying therein the root is somewhat great and long with many strings and fibres at it taking fast hold in the ground both leaves stalks and seeds are very bitter while they are green but being dryed they become more pleasant The seed is more oyly than Linseed from whence is pressed forth a whitish oyl very sweet while it is fresh and will not in a long time decay or grow stronger Place and Time It groweth naturally in the Indies and other Eastern Countreys It flowreth in July and the seed is ripe about the end of September Government and Vertues This is an herb of Mars both seed and oyl are of temperature hot and moist near in the second degree and are of a mollifying and dissolving quality The green leaves are fit for fomentations to be used for the eyes to repress inflamations and pains thereof the seeds may be taken inwardly in decoctions or otherwise or used in a glister looseneth the belly the oyl is often used for the same purposes It sticketh in the teeth when it is eaten thereby causing a stinking breath It is said that the Egyptians use the Decoction of the seed for the Cough shortness of breath Eyes inflamed Bellly Cholick Cough Shortness of breath Plurisie and hard swellings of the Liver Mesue saith it lenifieth the roughness or hoarsness of the throat and voice Plurisie Liver Throat Voice and making it clear and free of pain It easeth pains of the head proceeding from the heat of the Sun The decoction of both herb and seeds with some honey is good for women to sit over whose wombs are hard or swollen Womb Hard Courses to bring down Scurf Dandrif Scabs and to bring down their courses and to wash their heads who are troubled with scurf dandrif or dry scabs the herb or seed doth stay vomiting Vomiting taken in an egge the oyl is effectual to anoint the face or any other part of the body to cleanse the skin and to take away Sun-burning Morphew Freckles Sun-burning Sinews shrunk Freckles Morphew Spots or skars or any other deformities of the skin it helps sinews that are shrunk and is good to anoynt any part scalded or burnt The true Sycomore-tree Names Descript Kinds THere are two sorts of this tree the one bearing fruit out of the Body and greater Arms of the tree only the other upon stalks without leaves The first is called in Latine Sycomorus and Ficus Egyptia the Egyptian Fig-tree and is the true Sycomore tree those trees which are vulgarly called Sycamores in England are a kind of Maples Descript 1. This Sycamore groweth to be a very great tree bigger than the Mulberry tree with great Arms and Branches full of round and somewhat long leaves pointed at the ends and dented about the edges very like the leaves of the Mulberry tree but harder and rougher like Fig-leaves this beareth small Figs or fruit and no flower differing in that from all other trees for it putteth forth the fruit out of the very body or trunk of the tree only and the elder branches next to the body and no where else And are very like unto white or wild Figs and of the same bigness but much sweeter and without any kernels therein The whole tree and every part aboundeth with milk if the bark be but gently wounded but if it be cut too deep it yieldeth no milk at all which maketh it to bear three or four times a year new rising out of the places where the old grew The root is solid hard and black and will abide fresh long after it is felled Descript 2. The other Sycamore is called Sycomorus altera ceu Ficus Cypria the Sycamore of Cyprus This groweth to be as big as a Plum-tree or white Poplar-tree the Arms and Branches bearing broad and somewhat round leaves like unto the Elm but very like unto the former This beareth such like fruit as Figs but smaller which rise both from the body and the greater Arms but not as the former but on certain stalks in branches which rise by themselves without any leaves with them and are as sweet as Figs and bear four times every year but not unless they be slit that the milk in them may come forth Place and Time The first chiefly in Egypt Syria and Arabia and other places adjacent The other in Cyprus Caria Rhodes and the neighbouring parts their time you may know by their Descriptions Government and Vertues These are under the particular Influence of Venus The fruit maketh the belly soluble but by its overmuch moisture it troubles the Stomach and giveth but little nourishment The milk that is taken from the tree by gently piercing the bark and afterwards dryed and made into Trochiss and kept in an earthen pot hath a property to dissolve Tumors and soften them and to soder and close together the lips of green wounds Belly soluble Tumors mollified Green wounds The fruit it self being applyed as a plaister worketh the same effect The said dryed milk is good against venemous creatures and the Plague Venemous Creatures Plague Pains in the head Ears Spleen and easeth the pains of the head and Ears and is good to be drunk by those persons that are Splenetick Spikenard Descript Names IT is a Root called Spike because it shooteth up hairy stalks of hairy-like Spikes many set together of a brownish colour the root doth somewhat resemble that of the French Nardus but of a paler blackish colour and without any scent Place It s natural growth is in the East-Indies Government and Vertues It 's Venu's Plant the properties are these It is of a gentle heating drying quality provokes Urine Vrine Fluxes Reds Whites Loathing meat stayeth Fluxes and both the reds and whites in women it takes away the loathing to meat and the gnawing in the stomach Gnawing of the stomach Swellings Stone Kings-Evil helps swellings the Stone in the
round ruggish root covered with a crested or as it were a joynted Bark come forth out of knots three or five broad leavs like unto those of the Maple or Plane-tree standing on small blackish long stalks and are divided in three or five parts full of veins dented about the edges and pointed at the ends Descript 3. Red Storax called in latine Styrax rubra This hath formerly by some been thought to be the bark of some kind of tree that went under that name of Storax But Serapio and Avicen divide Storax into liquida and sicca by liquida meaning the pure gum flowing from the tree and not that liquida which we have now adays by that name and by the sicca the feces of the expressed oyl from the fruit but Calumita is now taken of some to be red Storax Place and Time The first groweth in Provence of France in Italy Candy Greece and some hither parts of Turkey where it yieldeth not gum but in Syria Silicia Pamphylia Cyprus and those hotter countreys it groweth much It flowreth in the Spring yielding fruit in September Government and Virtues This is a solar Plant there is no part of this tree in use with us but the gum that issueth out of it It is of temperature hot in the second degree and dry in the first it heateth mollifieth and digesteth and is good for Coughs Catarrhes Coughs Catarrhes Rheums Courses Mothr Loosen the belly Afterbirth Ears cold Aches Lameness distillations of Rheums and hoarsness It provokes womens courses and mollifieth the hardness and contractions of the Mother Pills made with it and a little Turpentine and taken gently looseneth the belly it resisteth cold poysons used as a Pesâ—ary it draweth down the courses and Afterbirth dropped into the ears it helpeth the singings and noise in them applyed to the hips joynts or shoulders afflicted with cold Aches it resolveth and comforteth much and is good to be put into baths for lameness of the joynts and weariness by travail It is also good to be put with white Frankincense to perfume those that have Catarrhes Rheums and defluxions from the head to the nose eyes Rheums head Nose Eyes or other parts by casting it on quick coals and holding their heads over the smoak and to air their night-caps therewith It dissolveth hard Tumors in any part as them about the throat and the Kings-evil Tumors Kings-Evil Sumach Descript Names Sumach groweth like a bushy shrub about the height of a man bringing forth divers branches upon which grow long soft hairy or velvet leaves with a red stem or sinew in the middle the which upon every side hath six or seven little leaves standing one against another nipt about the edges like the leavs of Egrimony the flowers grow among the leaves upon long stems or footstalks clustring together like the Cats-tails or blowings of the Nut-tree of a white green colour the seed is flat and red growing in round berries clustring together like grapes This Plant is called in Latine Rhus and in English Sumach and Coriers Sumach The seed is called in Latine Rhus obsoniorum and in English Meat-Sumach and Sauce Sumach Place and Time It groweth in Spain and other hot Countreys It is seldome found in this countrey but in the gardens of diligent Herbarists where it flowers in July Government and Vertues This is a Saturnine Plant of temperature cold in the second degree and dry in the third of a strong binding faculty the leavs have the same power that Acacia hath they stop the Lask and womens flowers with all other issues of blood Lask-flowers Bloody Issues Bloody-Flux Watry Ears to be first boyled in water and wine and drunken the same decoction stoppeth the Lask and bloody flux to be used as a Glyster or to bathe in the decoction It also dryeth up the running water and filth of the ears when it is dropped into the same and maketh the hair black being washed therein The seed of Sumach being eaten in sawces with meat doth stop all Fluxes of the belly with the bloody-flux and the whites Bloody-Flux Whites The same layd upon new bruises and green wounds defendeth them from hurts inflamations Swellings and Exulcerations the same pounded with Oaken-coals and layd to the hemerrhoids healeth and dryeth up the same The decoction of the leaves worketh the same effect Swallow-wort Kinds Names OF this there are three kinds The usual latine names of Swallow-wort is Asclepias or Vnice toxicum their distinct names follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Swallow-wort with white flowers Asclepias flore albo This Swallow-wort riseth up with divers slender weak stalks to be two or three foot long not easie to break scarce able to stand upright and therefore for the most part doth lean or lie down upon the ground if it find not any thing to sustain it and sometimes will twine themselues about it whereon are set two leaves at the joynts being somewhat broad and long-pointed at the end of a dark green colour and smooth at the edges At the joynts with the leavs towards the tops of the stalks and at the tops themselves come forth divers small white flowers consisting of five pointed leaves apeece of an heavy sweet scent after which come small long pods thick above and less and less to the point wherein lie small flat brown seed wrapped in a great deal of white silken down which when the pod is ripe it openeth of it self and sheddeth both seed and cotton upon the ground if it be not carefully gathered The roots are a great Bush of many strings fastned together at the head smelling somewhat strong while they are fresh and green but more pleasant when they are dryed both leavs and stalks perish every winter and rise anew in the spring of the year when the stalks at their first springing are blackish brown Descript 2. Swallow-wort with black flowers called in Latine Asclepias flore nigro This groweth in the same manner that the former doth having his long slender rough branches rise to a greater height than the other and twining themselves about whatsoever standeth next unto them having such like dark green leavs set by couples but somewhat smaller than they the flowers likewise stand in the same fashion but somewhat smaller also and of a dark purplish colour that it seemeth to be black and are scarce discerned unless one look very earnestly upon them after which come more plentifully than the other such like Cods with a white silver down and seeds in them as the former the roots hereof are not so bushy as the other neither smell so strong neither doth it give any milky but a watry juice when it is broken Descript 3. Swallow-wort of Candy Asclepias Cretica This riseth up in the same fashion that the former do with many slender flexible green branches with leavs set at the joynts on either side as the white kind hath and are very like unto them but somewhat of a
are taken from it which are the weakest before the last and strongest riseth but not the last which is the Empireuma and serveth even as the vinegar it self doth but with more force and as the vehiculum wherein the tincture and spirits of simple medicines are reserved Vinum Wine To shew all the several colours scents strengths ages and tastes of simple wines were an Herculean labour and so it is likewise to shew you all the sorts of compound or artificial wines which are as infinite as the herbs roots seeds or other parts of them are and take their names from the several Ingredients that compound them I shall therefore set down the particular properties of Wine it self both as it is mediclnable and nourishing Wine taken moderately by such as are of a middle age or well in years or are of a cold and dry Constitution it increaseth blood Increaseth blood Nourisheth Appetite Vrine Raw humors Vital Spirits Leanness Fears Cares Heaviness Stomach Liver and nourisheth much procureth an appetite and helpeth to digest being taken at meat it provoketh Urine and driveth forth raw humours thereby strengthneth the vital spirits and procureth a good colour in them that want it or are macilent drawing to a Consumption so as it be not accompanyed with a Feaver It expelleth fears cares and heaviness It doth comfort all cold infirmities of the stomach Liver Spleen and womb and helpeth windy swellings in the body and general evi dispositions thereof green-sickness and the dropsie Virtues of the true Spirit of wine The pure spirit of wine must be taken but very little in quantity and that not of it self but in some wine or other liquor for fear of inflaming the bloud and spirits and chiefly upon symptoms and passions of the heart And then taken with respect and good consideration it worketh much more effectual than the wine it self doth to all the purposes aforesaid in comforting and nourishing the natural heat in elder persons given strength and quickness to the senses Strength Senses Memory Brain Faintings Heart Wind Poysons Headach Toothach Sores it repaireth memory and the cold and moist diseases of the brain helpeth the fainting and trembling of the heart warmeth a cold and moist stomach helpeth digestion expelleth wind from the sides and belly and all cold poysons Being outwardly applyed to the Temples it easeth the pains in the head and cold distillations and the Toothach being gargled a little and cicatrizeth old Sores These Spirits of wine aswel as the wine it self serve as a vehiculum to draw out the tincture of divers things The Lees of wine being hardned is called Tartarum Tartar or Argall and that which is taken from the whitest wines is accounted the principal best for any medicine but the red sort serveth Goldsmiths and others to pollish silver and the Dyers to set their dye The best white Tartar is either given of it self simply being made into powder and taken the quantity of a dram at a time in some convenient drink or broath for some time together in Dropsies or evil dispositions of the body Dropsies Vrine Siege Watry humors to expell both by urine and siege those wheyish and watry humors thereof and applyed to womens breasts that are over-full of milk doth dry it up But the Cremor tartari which is the purer part thereof and especially if it be made as clear as crystal doth work more safely and more effectually than the crude Tartar can do but this Tartar that is calcined until it be white hath then put off all purging quality and hath gained a Caustick burning property that will corrode and eat away-scabbed nails and warts and soon be brought into a salt and will also soon be resolved into an oyl or liquor if it be layd upon a stone or hung up in a linnen bag in a moist cellar to be received as it dropped down it is of admirable use in chymical operations There is another kind of oyl of Tartar of a far milder temper and is more like unto clear water which is very effectual to cleanse the skin from all manner of spots scars morphew Spots Scarrs Morphew Hair or discolourings whatsoever and maketh it smooth and amiable and will help to bring on hair on the places decayed The wild vines are in property no less cooling but more binding than the branches of the manured stayeth the lask and spitting of blood Lask Spitting of blood Stomach Sore mouths Privy parts Eyes provoking Urine and is pleasing to a hot stomach or that loatheth meat the leaves hereof are as good for Lotions as the other for sores in the mouth privy parts and Fundament The ashes of the branches are likewise used to clear the Eye-sight of filmes and what else may offend them to cleanse sores and Ulcers and to take away the over-growing skins of the nayls of the hands or toes Indian wheat Maiz. Frumentùm Indicum vel Turcicum vulgare Kinds THere are two sorts hereof the greater and the lesser Descript 1. The usual Indian or Turkey wheat This Indian wheat shooteth from the root which is thick and bushy sundry strong and tall stalks about eight foot high as thick as a mans wrist if it grow in any rank ground full of great joynts with a white pyth in the middle of them the leaves are long twice as large as of Millet at the tops come forth many feather-like spâ—igs bending downwards like unto the top of Millet which are either white or yellow or blew as the grains in the ears will prove which fall away nothing appearing after them but while they are in slower at the joynts of the stalks with the leaves from within two or three of the lower joynts up towards the tops come forth the ears one at a joynt which have many leaves folded over them smallest at the top with a small long bush of threads or hairs hanging down at the ends which when they are ripe are to be cut off which folds of leaves being taken away the head appeareth much like unto a long Cone or Pine-apple set with six or eight or ten rowes of Cornes orderly and closely set together each being almost as big as a pease not fully round but flat on the sides that joyn one to another of the same colour on the outside as the bloomings were hard but brittle and easie to be broken or ground with white meal within them somewhat dry and not clammy in the chewing Descript 2. The other lesser Indian wheat Frumentum Indicum alterum sive minus This other Indian wheat is like the former both in stalks and leaves but not half so high or great the ears likewise are not half so big of as differing colours as it but they do not grow at the joynts of the stalks as the other but at the tops following the flowers which maketh a special difference between them the grain it self is being made into bread not of that nourishing quality as the