was much forked diuided into branches wherwith folk vsed to kil fishes But among al other herbs of name Peucedanum is much talked of and commended principally that which groweth in Arcadie next to it most account is made of that in Samothrace a slender stalk it carrieth and a long resembling the stem of Fennell neere vnto the ground it is replenished well with leaues the root is black thick full of sap and of a strong and vnpleasant smell it delighteth to come vp and grow among shady mountains The proper time to dig it out of the ground is in the later end of Autumne the tenderest roots and those that run deepest downe into the earth are most commendable The manner is to cut these roots ouerthwart into certaine cantels or pieces of foure fingers in length with kniues made of bone whereout there issueth a juice which ought to be dried kept in the shade but the party who hath the cutting of them had need first to annoint his head all ouer and his nosthrils with oile rosat for feare of the gid and least he should fall into a dizzinesse or swimming of the braine There is another juice or liquor found in this plant lying fast within the stems therof which they yeeld forth after incision made in them The best juice is knowne by these marks It carieth the consistence of honey the colour is red the smell strong and yet pleasant and in the mouth it is very hot and stinging Much vse there is of it in many medicines as also of the root and decoction thereof but the juice is of most operation which being dissolued with bitter almonds or rue people vse to drink against the poison of serpents in case the body be annointed all ouer with oile it preserueth them safe against their stings CHAP. X. ¶ Of ground Elder or Wallwoort Of Mullen or Taper wort Of the Aconit called Thelyphonos Of remedies against the pricke of Scorpions the venome of Hedge-toads the biting of mad Dogs and generally against all poysons THe smoke or perfume also of VValwort a common herb and knowne to euery man chaseth and putteth to flight any serpents The juice of Polemonia is a proper defensatiue especially against scorpions if one haue it tied about him or hanging at his neck likewise it resisteth the prick of the spiders Phalangia and any other of these venomous vermins of the smaller sort Aristolochia hath a singular vertue contrary vnto serpents so hath Agaricke if foure oboli thereof be drunke in as many cyaths of some artificiall or compound aromatized wine Vervaine is a soueraigne herb also against the venomous spider Phalangium being taken in wine or oxycrat i. vineger and water so is Cinquefoile and the yellow Carrot That herb which the Latines call Verbascum i. Lungwort or Hightaper is named in Greek Phlomos Two special kinds there be of it the one is whiter which you must take for the male the other black that may go for the female There is a third sort also but it is found no where but in the wild woods The leaues of all the former be broader than those of the Colewort and hairy withal they beare a main vpright stem a cubit in height with the vantage the seed is black and of no vse in Physicke a single root they haue of a finger thicknes These grow also vpon plains and champian grounds The wild kinde beareth leaues resembling sauge the branches be of a wooddy substance the same grow high There be moreouer of this kind two other herbs named Phlomides both of them hairy their leaues be round and they grow but low A third sort there is be sides named by some Lychnitis and by others Thryallis it sheweth 3 leaues or foure at the most and those be thick fat good to make wyks or matches for lights It is said that if figs be kept in the leaues of that which I named the female they will not rot To distinguish these herbs into seuerall kinds is a needlesse peece of work considering they agree all in the same effects their root together with rue is to be drunk in water against the poyson of scorpions true it is that the drinke is very bitter but the effect that it worketh maketh amends There is an herbe called by some Thelyphonon by others Scorpion for the resemblance that the root hath to the Scorpion and yet if Scorpions be but touched therwith they will die thereupon no maruell therefore if there be an ordinary drinke made of it against their poison and here commeth to my mind that which I haue heard namely that if a dead scorpion be rubbed with the white Ellebore root it wil reuiue and quicken again The said Thelyphonon hath such a spightful nature against the four-footed beasts of the female sex that if the root be laid to their shap or naturall place it killeth them and if the leafe which is like vnto the Cyclamin or Sowbread leafe aboue named be applied in that maner they will not liue one day to an end This herb is parted and diuided into knots or joints taking pleasure to grow in coole and shady places To conclude and knit vp these remedies against scorpions the juice of Betonie and of Plantaine likewise is a singular remedie for their poison Moreouer Frogs such especially as keep in bushes and hedges and be called in Latine Rubetae i. toads are not without their venom I my self haue seen these vaunting Montebanks calling themselues Psylli as comming from the race of those people Psylli who feared no kind of poison I haue seen them I say in a brauery because they would seem to surpasse all others of that profession to eat those toads baked red hot between 2 platters but what became of them they caught their bane by it and died more suddenly than if they had bin stung by the Aspis but what is the help for this rank poison surely the herb Phrynion drunk in wine Some cal it Neuras others Poterion pretty flours it beareth the roots be many in number full of strings like vnto sinews and the same of a sweet pleasant sent Likewise Alisura is counted another remedy in this case an herb it is called by some Damosorium by others Liron the leaues might be taken for Planta in but that they be narrower more iagged and plaited bending also toward the ground for otherwise ribbed they be and full of veins as like as may be to Plantain As for the stalk it is likewise one and no more plain and slender of a cub it in heigth in the head wherof it hath knobs roots growing many and thick together and those but small like vnto those of the blacke Ellebore but they be hot and biting of a sweet and odoriferous smell and of a fatty substance withall it groweth ordinarily in watery and moist places And yet there is a second kind of it which commeth vp in woods of a more
or poole it would draw the same dry and was of power by touching onely to open lockes or vnbolt any dore whatsoeuer Of Achoemenis also another herb they made this boast That beeing throwne against an armie of enemies ranged in battel array it would driue the troups and squadrons into feare disorder their ranks and put them to flight Semblably they gaue out and said That when the king of Persia dispatcâ—…ed his Embassadors to any forrein states and Princes he was wont to giue them an herb called Latace which so long as they had about them come where they would they should want nothing but haue plenty of all that they desired besides a number of such fooleries wherewith their bookes bee pestered But where I beseech you were these herbs when the Cimbrians and Teutons were defeated in a most cruell and terrible battell so as they cried and yelled again What became of these Magitians and their powerfull herbs when Lucullus with a small army consisting of some few legions ouerthrew and vanquished their owne kings If herbs were so mighty what is the reason I pray you that our Romane captaines prouided euermore aboue all things how to be furnished with victuals for their camp and to haue al the waies and passages open for their purveâ—…ours In the expedition of Pharsalia how came it to passe that the souldiers were at the point to be famished for want of victuals if Caesar by the happy hauing of one hearbe in his campe might haue injoied the abundance of all things Had it not bin better think ye for Scipio Aemilianus to haue caused the gates of Carthage to flie open with the help of one herbe than to lie so many yeres as he did in leaguer before the city with his engins ordinance to shake their wals batter their gates Were there such vertue in Ethiopius aforesaid why do we not at this day dry vp the Pontine lakes and recouer so much good ground vnto the territory about Rome Moreouer if that composition which Democritus hath set downe and his bookes maketh prayse of to be so effectual as to procure men to haue faire vertuous and fortunat children how happeneth it that the kings of Persia themselues could neuer attaine to that felicity And verily wee might maruell well enough at the credulity of our Ancestors in doting so much vpon these inuentions howsoeuer at the first they were deuised and brought in to right good purpose in case the mind and wit of man knew how to stay and keepe a meane in any thing els besides or if I could not proue as I suppose to doe in due place that euen this new leech-craft brought in by Asâ—…lepiades which checketh those vanities is growne to farther abuses and absurdities than are broched by the very Magitians themselues But this hath beene alwaies and euer will bee the nature of mans mind To exceed in the end and go beyond all measure in euery thing which at the beginning arose vpon good respects and necessary occasions But to leaue this discourse let vs proceed to the effects and properties remaining behind of those herbs which were described in the former booke with a supplement also and addition of some others as by occasion shall be offered and presented vnto vs. Howbeit to begin first with the remedies of the said Tettars so foule and vnseemly diseases I mean to gather a heape of as many medicines as I know appropriat for that malady notwithstanding I haue shewed alreadie of that kind not a few Well then in this case Plantaine stamped is very commendable so is Cinquefoile and the root of the white Daffodill punned and applied with vineger The young shoots or tender branches of the fig-tree boiled in vineger likewise the root of the Marsh-Mallow sodden with glow in a strong and sharpe vineger to the consumption of a fourth part Moreouer it is singular good to rub tettars throughly with a pumish stone first to the end that the root of Sorrell stamped and reduced into a liniment with vineger might be applied afterwards therupon with better successe as also the floure of Miselto tempred incorporat with quick-lime the decoction likewise of Tithymale together with rosin is much praised for this cure but the herb Liuerwort excelleth all the rest which therupon tooke the name Lichen it groweth vpon stony grounds with broad leaues beneath about the root hauing one stalke and the same small at which there hang downe long leaues and surely this is a proper herb also to wipe away all marks and cicatrices in the skin if it be bruised and laid vpon them with hony Another kind of Lichen or Liuerwort there is cleauing wholly fast vpon rockes and stones in manner of mosse which also is singular for those tettars being reduced into a liniment This herb likewise stancheth the flux of bloud in green wounds if the juice be dropped into them and in a liniment it serueth well to be applied vnto apostumat places the jaundise it healeth in case the mouth and tongue be rubbed and annointed with it and hony together but in this cure the Patients must haue in charge To bathe in salt water to anoint themselues with oile of almonds and in any case to abstain from all salads and pothearbs of the garden For to heale tettars the root of Thapsia stamped with hony is much vsed As for the Squinsie Argemonia is a soueraigne remedy if it be drunk in wine Hyssop also boiled in wine and so gargarized likewise Harstrang with the rennet of a Seale or Sea-calse taken both of them in equall portion moreouer Knot-grasse stamped with the pickle made of Cackrebs and oile and so gargled or els but held only vnder the tongue Semblaby the juice of Cinquefoile being taken in drink to the quantity of three cyaths this juice besides in a gargarisme cureth all other infirmities of the throat And to conclude with Mullen if it be drunk in water it hath a speciall vertue to cure the inflammation of the amygdals or almond kernels of the throat CHAP. V. ¶ Receits for the scrophules ar wens called the Kings-euill for the paines and griefes of the singers for the diseases of the breast and namely for the Cough PLantaine is a soueraigne herb to cure the Kings euill also Celendine applied with honey and hogs lard so is Cinquefoile The root of the great Clot-bur serueth for the same purpose if it be incorporat with hogs grease so that the place after it is annointed therewith be couered with a leafe of the said Bur laid fast vpon it in like manner Artemisia or Mugwort also a Mandrage root applied with water is good for that purpose The broad leafed Sideritis or Stone-sauge being digged round about with a spike of yron and taken vp with the left hand and so applied vnto the place cureth the kings euill prouided alwaies that the Patients when they be healed keep the same herbe still by them
reduce them to the natural color of the other skin There is an herb which in Latine is named Natrix the root whereof being pulled out of the ground hath a rank smell like vnto a Goat with this herbe they vse in the Picene countrey to driue away those hob-goblins which they haue a maruellous opinion to be spirits called Fatui but for mine own part I am verily persuaded they be nothing else but fantasticall illusions of such as be troubled in mind and bestraught the which may be chased and rid away by the vse of this medicinable herbe Odontitis may be reckoned among the kinds of hey-grasse putting forth many small stems growing thicke together from one root and those knotted and ful of ioints triangled and blackish withall in euery ioint small leaues it hath resembling those of knot-grasse howbeit somwhat longer in the concauities between the said leaues and the stem there is contained a seed like vnto Barly corns the floure is of a purple colour and very small It groweth ordinarily in medow grounds The decoction of the branches and tender stalks of this herb to the quantitie of one handful boiled in some astringent wine cureth the toothach if the patient hold the same in the mouth Othonne groweth plenteously in Scythia like vnto Rocket the leaues be full of holes and the floure resembleth Safron which is the cause that some haue called it Anemone The juice of this herbe entreth very well into those medicines which are appropriate to the eies for it is somewhat mordicatiue and heateth gently besides exiccatiue it is and by that meanes astringent It clenseth the eies of those films and clouds which darken the sight and remoueth whatsoeuer hindereth the same Some ordain for this purpose that it should be washed first and after it is dried againe made into certain balls or troschisks Onosma beareth leaues wel-neare three fingers long and those lying flat vpon the ground three in number and indented or cut after the manner of Orchanet without stem without flour without seed If a woman with child eat thereof or do but step ouer it she shal cast her vntimely birth out of her wombe As for Onopordon they say if Asses eat thereof they will fall a fizling and farting Howbeit of vertue it is to prouoke vrine and the monethly sicknesse of women to stop a laske to discusse and resolue impostumes and to heale them when they be broken and do run Osyris putteth forth small branches of a browne colour slender pliable and easie to wind the same be garnished with leaues resembling those of Line or flax of a dark duskish green at first but afterwards changing colour and inclining to a red colour and the seed is contained in those branches Of these leaues are made certain washing balls to scoure womens skin and make them look faire The decoction of the root being drunk cureth those that haue the jaundise The same roots gathered before the seed be ripe cut into roundles and dried in the Sun do stop the laske but drawn after that the seed is ripe they represse all catarrhes and fluxes of the belly if the patient drink the supping wherein they are boiled Also stamped simply and so giuen in rain water they haue the same effect Oxys beareth three leaues and no more This herb is singular to be giuen for a feeble stomack which hath lost all appetite to meat They also who haue a rupture and whose guts be fallen down eat thereof to very good successe Polyanthemum which some call Batrachion hath a causticke quality whereby it doth blister any vnseemly scars by means whereof reduceth them to their fresh and former colour the same also applied scoureth away the morphew and bringeth the skin to the natiue hue answerable to the rest of the body Knot grasse is that herb which the Greeks name Polygonon and we in Latine Sanguinaria in leaf it resembleth Rue in seed common quich grasse riseth not from the ground but creepeth along the juice of this herb conueied vp into the nosthrils stancheth bleeding at the nose They who set down many kinds of Polygonon do hold that this is to be taken for the male and by reason of the multitude of seed which it beareth is called Polygonon or for that it groweth so thick in tufts Calligonon Others name it Polygonaton for the number of knots or knees which it carrieth There be again who giue it the name Theuthalis some cal it Carcinetron others Clema many Myrtopetalon and yet I meet with some writers who say this is the female knot-grasse and that the male is the greater and not altogether so dark of colour growing also thicker with knots swelling with seed vnder euery leaf wel how soeuer it it the property of them both the one as well as the other is to bind and coole and yet their seed doth loosen the belly which if taken in any great quantity is diuretical and represseth any rheums prouided alwaies that the patient be troubled therwith otherwise it doth no good The leaues are singular good to be applied vnto the stomack for to assuage the heat thereof in a liniment they mitigat the griefe of the bladder and stop the course of shingles and such like wilde-fires The juice is soueraigne to be dropped alone by it selfe into the eares that run and into the eyes to abate their pain It is vsually giuen to the quantity of 2 cyaths in tertian Agues and Quartans especially before the fit commeth likewise for the feeblenesse of the stomack when it will keep nothing for the bloudy flix and the rage of cholerick humors both vpward and downward A third kind there is which they cal Oreon growing vpon the mountains resembling a tender reed rising vp in one single stem but full of little knees or knots and those couched thrust together Leafed it is like the Pitch tree the root needlesse and of no vse and generally the whole herb of lesse strength and operation than the former Howbeit this singular propertie hath it to help the sciatica A fourth Polygonum there is called the wild and this busheth like a shrub or a prety tree rather the root is of a wooddy substance the stock or plant of a reddish colour resembling the Cedar it beareth branches much like to Spart or Spanish broome two spans long iointed into three or four knots and those of a blackish colour This also hath an astringent nature and tasteth in the mouth like to a Quince The decoction thereof in water till the third part be consumed or the pouder of it dried is commended for the sores in the mouth and for any part that is fretted and galled And the very substance thereof is good to be chewed in case the gums be sore It represseth the malignity of eating corrosiue vlcers and cankers and in one word staieth the malice of all sores that run on end and
if you would know which end serueth for the one and the other certaine it is that the bigger and thicker part of the grain yeeldeth root and the smaller the greene blade In all other seeds there is no such diuersitie for from one and the same end breaketh our both root and greene blade All kind of corn carying spike or eare called Frumenta shew nothing but the green blade during winter howbeit no sooner commeth the spring but they begin to grow vp into straw and to spindle vpward pointwise I meane all that be of the winter kind But Millet and Panick run vp into an hollow stem full of knots and ioynts and Sesama by it self into a kex or hollow stem in maner of fenell and such like The fruit or seed of all graine that is sowne or set is contained within eares as we see in bearded wheat and barley and the same is defended as it were with a palisaide of eales disposed square in foure rankes or is inclosed within long cods and husks as the Pulse kind or els lieth in little cups as Sesame and Poppie Millet and Panick only put forth their fruit grape-wise and openly without any partitions and defences so as their seed is exposed to the little birds of the aire for no otherwise are they defended than within small skins and thin huls And as for Panick it taketh the name of certain panicles or chats hanging from the top thereof whereby the head bendeth and leaneth downward as if it were weake and wearie of the burden The stem or stalk thereof groweth smaller and smaller and pointed vpward insomuch as by little and little it runneth vp in maner of a little sprig or sion and there you shall see a number of seeds or grains clustered together thicke insomuch as they are somtimes bunched with an head a good foot long As touching the Millet the head thereof bearing seed round about is bent likewise and curbed beset also with fringes as it were of hairy fillets But to return to Panick againe there be sundry sorts thereof for some of it is found with a tuft or bunch from which depend certain small clustered chats or panicles the same also hath two knaps or heads and this is called Mammosum as one would say the Panick with bigs or dugs Moreouer you shall haue Panick seed of sundry colours white blacke and red yea and purple Of Mill or Millet there be diuers sorts of bread made in many places but of panick it is not so common howbeit there is no grain more ponderous and weighty than it or which in the seething or baking swelleth and riseth more for out of one Modius or pecke thereof there is ordinarily made 60 pound of dough for bread Moreouer take but 3 sextares or quarts of it being steeped and it will yeeld a measure called Modius of thicke gruel or batter called in Latine Puls It is not fully ten yeres since there was a kind of Millet brought out of India into Italy and the same was of colour black the seed or grain in quantitie big and faire and for stem like vnto a reed It riseth vp in height seuen foot the stalks are mighty and great some call them Lobae or Phobae Of all sorts of corne it is most fruitfull and yeeldeth greatest increase for of one grain a man shal haue 3 sextars or quarts again But it loueth yea 〈◊〉 to be sown in a moist soile Moreouer some kinds of spiked corn begin to spindle and gather eare at the third ioynt others at the fourth but there it lieth as yet hidden and inclosed Now as touching these 〈◊〉 wheat beareth vsually foure beere Barly six and the common sprit Barly eight which is wel 〈◊〉 be considered for no corn vseth to spier before it be fully knotted or iointed in maner abouesaid And so soon as the said spier sheweth some hope of an eare within 4 or fiue daies after at the most they begin to bloum and in as many dayes space or little more they will haue done and shed their floures And yet I must needs say that all sorts of barley are a seuen-night at the vtmost in so doing Varro saith that in foure times 9 daies this kind of corn commeth to perfection but it ought to stay nine moneths before it be ripe for to be reaped and mowne downe As for Beanes after they be set or cast into the ground first they put forth leafe and afterward stalk that shooteth vp euen without any partition of ioynts or knots between All other pulse besides the Bean haue a more sollid and wooddy substance in the straw Of which the Chich pease the Ervile and Lentils doe spred forth in branches And some of them runne so low that they creep along the ground vnlesse they be born vp and supported with some props as for example Pease which help if they misse they proue the worse for it Of all manner of Pulse the Bean alone and Lupine beare but one single stalke apiece the rest doe branch into very small sprigs or tendrils Howbeit none of them but their stalke or straw is fistulous and hollow in maner of reeds Some pulse put out leaues presently from the root others again from the top or head only wheat and Barly both the one and the other and what corn soeuer standeth vpon a stalk beareth one leafe in the head or top thereof But the leaues of Barly are rough wheras in other corn they be smooth Contrariwise Beanes Chiches and Pease haue many leaues In spiked corn the leafe resembleth that which groweth to reeds in beans they be round and so likewise in the most kinds of puls how beit in pease and Ervile we see they be somwhat longer The leaues of Fasels or Kidney beanes are ribbed and full of veines of Sesama and Irio they be red and resemble bloud The Lupines only and the Poppies do shed their leaues All pulse is long in the bloom and namely Ervile and the Cich pease but Beans continue longest euen for the space of 40 daies together howbeit euery single stalk beareth not bloom so long but thus it is as one hath done and giuen ouer another beginneth afresh Neither bloumeth the whole field at once as spiked corn doth Also all kinds of Pulse doe cod at sundrie times and not vpon the same day beginning first at the bottome and so likewise the floure riseth vp higher by little and little All corne growing in spike or eare so soone as it hath done blooming waxeth big and strong and commeth to maturitie within forty daies at the farthest so doth Beanes also but the Cich pease receiueth her full perfection in very few daies for from the time that it was first sowed it groweth to be ripe in forty daies Millet Panick Sesame and all Summer corn haue their full ripenesse forty daies after their blooming But herein there is great diuersitie according to the clyme and the soile in which respects
he contained in long and flat according to the forme and figure of the seed which they hold Pease by themselues haue a long round cod in forme of a Cylinder The Pulse called Phasâ—…oli i. Kidney Beans vse to be eaten cod and al together These may be set or sowne in what ground you list from the Ides of October to the Calends of Nouember Finally all kinds of Pulse so soone as they begin to ripen are to be gathered or plucked hastily for stay neuer so little they leape out of their cods and shed and being once fallen they lie hidden in the ground like as the Lupine also CHAP. XIII ¶ Of Rapes or Neuewes of Amiternium Turneps NOw let vs proceed and passe to other matters and yet in this discourse it were meet to write somwhat as touching Rapes or Nauews The Latin writers our countreymen haue slightly passed by and touched them only by the way The Greeks haue treated of them somwhat more diligently and yet among pot-hearbes and worts growing in gardens whereas indeed according to good order they would be spoken of immediatly after Corne or Beanes at least wise considering there is not a plant of more or better vse than is the Rape or Nauew First and formost they grow not only for beasts of the earth and the Foules of the aire but also for men For all kinds of Pullen about a Farme-house in the countrey doe feed vpon the feed thereof as much as of any thing else especially if they be boiled first in water As for four-footed beasts they eat the leaues thereof with great delight and wax fat therewith Last of al men also take as great pleasure and delight in eating the leaues and heads of Rapes or Nauewes in their season as they do of young Coly-flories Cabbages or any tender crops of hearbs whatsoeuer yea when they are faded flaggie and dead in the Barn they are esteemed better than being fresh and green As for Rapes or Nauewes they will keep long and last al Winter both within the ground where they grew and being well wintered they will continue afterwards out of the earth lying abroad euen almost till new come so as they yeeld men great comfort to withstand hunger and famin In Piemont Lombardie those countries beyond the Po the people make the most account of gaine by gathering Rapes next to wine vintage and corne haruest It is not choise and daintie of the ground where it will grow for lightly it wil prosper where nothing els can be sowed In foggy mists hard frosts and other cold weather it thriues passing wel and grows to a wonderfull bignes I haue seene one of their roots weigh aboue fortie pounds As touching the handling and dressing of them for our table there be many waies and deuises to commend and set them out Preserued they may be till new come specially condite with sharp and biting Senuie or Mustard seed Moreouer our Cooks know how to giue them six other colours besides their owne which is pure and naturall they haue the cast to set euen a purple hew vpon them And to say a truth there is no kind of viands besides that being thus painted colored hath the like grace The Greeke writers haue diuided them by the sexe and therby made two principal kinds therof to wit the male and the female Nay more than that out of one and the same seed according as it is sowed they can make male or female whether they please For if they sow thicke and chuse therto a hard and churlish ground it will proue of the male kind Also the smaller that the seed is the better it is esteemed But of al Rapes male or female three especiall sorts there be no more For some roots spread flat and broad others are knit round like a ball the third sort that runs downe into the ground with a long root in manner of a Raddish they cal the wild Rape or Nauew this bears a rough lease and ful of angles or corners the juice that it yeelds is sharp hote and biting which being gathered in haruest time reserued mundisieth the eies and cleareth the sight especially being tempered with brest-milke If the weather be cold they are thought not only to thriue in bignesse of the root but also to prooue the sweeter whereas contrariwise in a warm season they run vp all to stalke and leafe The best simply are those that grow in the Nursine territory For they are sold by the weight and euery pound is worth a Roman Sesterce yea and otherwhiles twaine if there be any scarcity of them Next to these in goodnes be those that come out of Algidum Thus much of Rapes Navews As for the Turneps of Amiternum they be in a manner of the same nature that the Rapes aforesaid cold they loue as well Sown they are before the Calends of March foure quarts of their seed will take vp a whole acre of ground The best Husbandmen and such as are more exquisite in their practise of Agriculture giue order That the ground for Turneps should haue fiue tilthes whereas Rapes or Nauewes are content with foure but both the one and the other had need of a soile well inriched with dung or compost By their sayings also Rapes will prosper the better and come vp thicker if they be sowed in their huls chaffe and all together Moreouer they would haue the seeds-man to be naked when he sowes them and in sowing to protest that this which he doth is for himselfe and his neighbors and withall to pray as he goeth The proper season for the seednesse of them both is between the feasts of the two gods to wit Neptune and Vulcan To conclude there is a subtill and curious obseruation that many go by and do hold namely this To marke how many daies old the Moon was when the first snow sel the winter next before for if a man do sow Rapes or Turneps within the foresaid compasse of that time the moon being so many daies old they will come to be wondrous great and increase exceedingly Men vse to sow them also in the Spring but then they make choise of moist and hot grounds CHAP. XIIII ¶ Of Lupines AFter Rapes and Turneps the Lupines haue greatest vse and serue to be raunged next for that they indifferently serue both men and also all foure footed beasts that be houfed either whole or clouen Now for that the stalke is very shittle in mowing and therefore flyeth from the edge of the syth the onely remedie therefore that the mower may catch it is to goe to worke presently after a good shower And verily there is not a plant growing vpon the earth I meane of such as are sowne of seed more admirable than the Lupine in regard of the great amity and sympathie betweene the earth and it Looke how the Sun keepeth his course in our Horizon aboue so doth it turne and go withall insomuch as the
stem from the root howbeit among the leaues it groweth to more thicknesse These leaues branch out but here and there and are in comparison of others narrower howbeit much set by for their speciall tendernesse wherby they are soon sodden and dressed and yet cold weather they cannot indure whereas on the other side the Coleworts of Bruzze or Calabria like the best in winter and be nourished with the hard season leaues they haue exceeding great and large but their stalks are but small and as for tast they be sharp and sower The Sabellian Coles what curled and ruffed leaues they carry it is a wonder to see so thick they are besides that they rob the very stem of their nutriment which therby is the smaller howbeit of al others they be reputed the sweetest Long it is not since there came from out of the vale of Aricia where somtimes there was a lake and a tower standing vpon it remaining yet at this day to be seene a kind of Cabbage-cole with a mightie great head and an infinite number of leaues which gather and close round together and these Coles we in Latin call Lacuturres of the place from whence they come Some Coleworts there be which stretch out into a roundle others againe extend in breadth and be very full of fleshy brawns None cabbage more than these settting aside the Tritian Coleworts beforenamed that are known otherwiles to bear a head a foot thick and yet none put sorth their Cymes or tender buds more than they Moreouer this would be noted That howsoeuer all kinds of Coleworts eat much sweeter for being bitten with the frost yet if there be not good heed taken in cutting off their head or tender crops and buds so that the wound come not neere the heart and pith and namely by cutting them aslope and byas in manner of a Goats foot they will take much harme thereby Such as be reserued to beare seed ought not to be cut at all They also are not without their grace and commendation which neuer passe the bignesse of a green and ordinary plant such small coles are called Halmyridia for that they grow not elsewhere but vpon the sea coasts and because they wil keep greene prouision is made of such for to serue in long voiages at sea for so soon as they be cut vp before they touch the ground they be put vp into barrels where lately oile hath been and those newly dried against the time and stopped vp close that no aire at all may enter in and therein be they preserued Some there be who in remouing the young plants lay vnder their roots Riek and Sea-weeds or els bruised and powdred nitre as much as a man may take vp with three fingers imagining thereby that they will the sooner come to maturity Others againe take the seed of Trifolie and Nitre stamped together which they strew vpon the leaues for the same purpose And as for Nitre it is of this nature to make them look green still although they were sodden or els they vse to boile them after Apicius his fashion namely to steep them wel in oile and salt mingled together before they be set vpon the fire for to be sodden Moreouer there is a way tograffe herbs also as well as trees namely by cutting off the yong sions that spring out of the stalk and therein to inoculate as it were the seed of another plant within the pith or marow thereof This also may be practised vpon wild Cucumbers Ouer and besides there is a kind of wild Woorts growing in the fields called Lapsana much named and renowned by occasion of the sonets carols chanted in the solemnitie of Iulius Caesar the Emperors triumph and especially of the merry times and licentious broad jeasts tossed by his soldiers who at euery second verse cast in his teeth â—…hat in Dyrrhachium they liued of nothing els but of those Woorts noting indeed by way of cauill and reproch his niggardise in rewarding them so sleightly for their good seruice now was this Lapsana a kind of wild Colewort which they did eat of instead of the fine and dainty tendrils and buds of the garden Coles As touching Sperages there is not an herb in the garden whereof there is so great regard and care taken as of them Concerning their first original beginning I haue spoken at large in the treatise Of the maner how to order the wild of that kind and to entertain them in our gardens as also how Cato willed vs to sow and plant them in plots of Reeds and Canes Now there is a middle sort of these Sperages not so ciuill and gentle as the Asparagi of the garden and yet more kind and mild than the Corrudae of the field these grow euery where abroad euen vpon the mountains and the champion countrey of high Aâ—…ain is ouerspred and full of them wherof there goes a pleasant speech and merry conceit of Tyberius Caesar the Emperour namely that there grew an herb in Almain very like to the garden Sperage for as touching that which commeth vp of it selfe in Nesis an Island of Campaine it is thought the best simply of all others without comparison The garden Sperages be planted from the knots bunching together within the ground named Spongiae which easily may be replanted for surely an hearb it is that carrieth a mighty head or cluster as it were of roots and the same putteth forth spurns euery way from it of a great depth into the ground They send out at first certaine greene spurts or buds peeping forth of the ground which growing to a stem in processe of time rise sharpe in the top and then are they chamfered diuided into certaine musculous branches that spread abroad This hearbe may be sowne also of seed Cato tooke not more paines about any other hearbe nor imploied greater diligence in the description thereof than he did in it It is the very last thing that he treateth of in his booke whereby it may appeare that the man came all vpon a sudden and newly to the knowledge of that hearbe and the ordering of it He giueth order Imprimis That the plot wherein they are to sowne be moist fat and well digged Item That they be set half a foot euery way asunder one from another in no wise the place troden down with ones foot moreouer that two or three seeds be put together in a hole made before with a dibble directly by a line for in those daies they set them onely of seed Item That this would be done about mid-March which is the proper season therefore Item That they haue their fill of dung That they be kept cleane with often weeding but in any case That great heed be taken in plucking vp the weeds that the tender buds or croppes new knit and appearing aboue ground be not knapt off For the first yeare hee would haue them in winter time to be couered with straw and litter and
make them cups of diuers forms and fashions out of which they take no small pleasure to drink And now adaies this herb is planted here in Italy Next to Colocasia the Aegyptians make most account of that Cichory which I named before the wild and wandring Endiue which herb commeth vp in that country after the rising of the Brood hen star it floureth not all at once but bloweth by branches one after another a supple and pliable root it hath and therefore the Aegyptians vse it in stead of cords to binde withall As for Anthalium it groweth not in Nilus but not far from the riuer it beareth a fruit in bignesse and roundnesse resembling a Medlar hauing neither kernell within nor husk without and the leafe of this plant is like to Cyperus or English Galangale This herbe they vse to eat being first dressed and prepared in the kitchin They feed likewise vpon Oetum a plant that hath few leaues and chose very small howbeit a great root Touching Aracidna and Aracos they haue many roots verily branching and spreading from them but neither leafe nor herbage ne yet any thing els appearing aboue ground And thus much of the chiefest and greatest herbs of Egypt serued vp to the table the rest are common or vulgar and euery mans meat by name Condrylla Hypochoeris Caucalis Authriscum Scandix called by some Tragopogon which beareth leaues like to Saffron Parthenium Strychnum Corchorus and A pace which sheweth his head about the Aequinox also Acinos and that which they name Epipetron and it neuer beareth floure whereas Aphace contrariwise neuer giueth ouer flouring but when one floure is faded and shed another commeth vp and this course it holdeth all Winter long throughout the Spring also euen to the heat of Summer Many other hearbs they haue of base reckoning but aboue all they make greatest account of Cnicus an herbe not knowne in Italy not for any good meat they find in it but for the oyle drawne out of the seed thereof Of this herb there be two principall kinds to wit the Wild and the Tame the Wild is subdiuided into two speciall sorts the one of a more mild and gentle nature than the other although the stalks of both be alike that is to say stiffe and streight vpright and therefore women in old time vsed the stems thereof for rocks and distaffes whereupon some do call the herb Atractylis the seed is white big and bitter The second is more rough and hairy creeping long on the ground with stalks more musculous and fleshy and carrieth a small seed The herb may be ranged among those that be prickly for so must herbs be diuided into such general heads namely that some be full of pricks others cleane without and smooth As for those which stand vpon pricks they be subdiuided into many members and branches And to begin with a kind of Sperage called also Scorpio it hath no leafe at all but instead therof pricks and nothing els some there be leafed indeed but those are beset with prickes as the Thistle Sea-holly Liquorice and Nettle for the leaues of all these herbs be pricky stinging withall Others besides their leaues haue prickles also as the bramble Rest harrow or whin Some be provided of pricks both in lease and stalk as Phleos which others haue called Stoebe As for Hippophacet it hath a prick or thorne in euery joint but the bramble Tribulus aforesaid hath this property by it selfe That the fruit also which it beareth is set with pricks Of all these sorts the Nettle is best knowne which carrieth certain goblets and concauities and the same yeelding a purple kind of downe in the floure and it riseth vp sometimes aboue two cubits high Many kinds there be of these Nettles namely the wild Nettle which some would haue to be the female and this is more milde than the rest In this wilde kinde is to be reckoned also that which they cal Cania and is of the twain more aegre for the very stalke will sting and the leaues be purfled as it were and jagged But that Nettle which carrieth a stinking sauor with it called is Herculanea All the sort of them are full of seed and the same blacke A strange quality in these Nettles that the very hairy downe of them hauing no euident prickes sticking out should be so shrewd as it is that if one touch it neuer so little presently there followeth a smarting kind of itch and anon the skin riseth vp in pimples and blisters as if it had been skalt or burnt but well knowne is the remedie of this smart namely to annoint the place with oyle Howbeit this biting property that it hath commeth not to it at the beginning when it is new comevp but it is the heat of the Sun that fortifieth this mordacitie And verily in the Spring when the Nettle is young and peepeth first out of the ground they vse to eat the crops therof for a pleasant kind of meat and many be persuaded besides that it is medicinable therefore precisely religiously feed thereupon as a preservatiue to put by all diseases for that present yeare Also the root of the wild Nettle if it be sodden with any flesh maketh it to eat more tender The dead nettle which stingeth not at all is called Lamium As touching the herb Scorpio I will write in the treatise of herbs medicinable CHAP. XVI ¶ Of Carduus and Ixine of Tribulus and Anchusa THe common Thistle is ful of pricky hairs both in leafe stalk likewise Acorna Leucacanthos Chalceos Cnicos Polyacanthos Onopyxos Ixine Scolymos As touching the Thistle Chamaeleon it hath no pricks in the leafe Moreouer these pricky hearbes are distinguished different one from another in this that some of them be furnished with many stems and spred into diuers branches as the Thistle others againe rise vp with one maine stalk and branch not as Cnecos Also there be of them that be prickly only in the head as the Eryngium or Sea-holly Some floure in Summer as Tetralix and Ixine As for Scolymus late it is also ere it blow but it continueth long in the floure Acorna differeth from it onely in the red colour and fattier juice that commeth from it Atractylis also might go for Scolymus but that it is whiter and yeeldeth a liquor like bloud wherupon there be some who cal it Phonos i. Murderer this quality it hath besides that it senteth strong the seed also ripeneth late not before Autumne and yet this is a property common to all plants of this pricky and thistly kind But all these herbs wil come of seed and root both As for Scolymus it differeth from the rest of these Thistles herein that the root if it be sodden is good to be eaten besides it hath a strange nature for all the sort of them during the Summer throughout neuer rest and giue ouer but
the Pitch tree Larch tree brused and sodden in vineger do ease the tooth-ache if the mouth be washed with the decoction The ashes made of their barks skin the places that be chafed fretted and galled betweene the thighs and heale any burn or scald Taken in drinke they bind the belly but open the passages of the vrin A perfume or suffumigation therof doth settle the matrice when it is loose and out of the right place But to write more distinctly of these two trees the leaues of the Pitch tree haue a particular property respectiue to the liuer and the infirmities thereof if one take a dram weight of them and drink it in mead and honied water It is well known and resolued vpon that to take the aire of those woods and forests only where these trees be cut lanced and scraped for to draw pitch and rosin out of them is without all comparison the best course which they can take who either be in a consumption of the lungs or after some long and languishing sicknes haue much ado to recouer their strength Certes such an aire is far better than either to make a long voiage by sea into Egypt or to goe among the cottages in summer time for to drinke new milk comming of the fresh and green grasse of the mountains As for Chamaepitys it is named in Latine by some Abiga for that it causeth women to slip their conception beforetime of others Thus terrae i. ground Frankincense this herb putteth forth branches a cubit long and both in floure and sauor resembleth the Pine tree A second kind there is of Chamaepitys lower than the other seeming as though it bended and stooped downward to the ground There is also a third sort of the same odor that the rest and therefore so named This last Chamaepitys riseth vp with a little stalke or stem of a finger thicknesse it beareth rough small slender and white leaues and it groweth commonly amongst rockes All these three be herbs indeed and no other and should not be ranged among trees yet for names sake because they carry the denomination of Pitys i. the Pitch-tree I was induced the rather to treat of them in this present place to stay no longer Soueraigne they bee all against the pricks or stings of Scorpions applied in manner of a liniment with dates and quinces they be wholsome for the liuer their decoction together with barly meale is good for the infirmities of reins and bladder Also the decoction of these hearbes boiled in water helpeth the jaundise and the difficulty of vrine if the Patient drinke thereof The third kind last named taken with hony is singular against the poison of serpents and in that maner only applied as a cataplasme it clenseth the matrice natural parts of women If one drink the same herbe it will dissolue and remoue the cluttered thick bloud within the body it prouoketh sweat if the body be therwith annointed and it is especially good for the reins Being reduced into pills together with figs it is passing wholsome for those that be in a dropsie for it purgeth the belly of waterish humors If this herb be taken in wine to the weight of a victoriat piece of siluer i. halfe a Roman denier it warisheth for euer the pain of the loins and stoppeth the course of a new cough Finally if it be boiled in vineger and so taken in drink it is said that it will presently expel the dead infant out of the mothers wombe For the like cause and reason I will do the herb Pityusa this honor as to write of it among trees since that it seemeth by the name to come from the Pitch tree this plant some do reckon among the Tithymals a kind of shrub it is like vnto the Pitch tree with a small floure and the same of purple color If one drink the decoction of the root to the quantity of one hemina it purgeth downward both fleam and choler so doth a spoonfull of the seed therof put vp into the body by suppositories The decoction of the leaues in vineger doth cleanse the skin of dandruffe and scales if the decoction of rue be mingled therwith it is singular for sore brests to appease the wrings and tormenrs of the cholick against the sting of serpents and generally for to discusse and resolue all apostemations and botches a breeding But to returne againe to our former trees how Rosine is ingendred in them of their seuerall kinds and the countries where they grow I haue shewed before first in the treatise of wines and afterwards in the discourse and histories of Trees And to speak summarily of rosins they may be diuided into two principal kinds to wit the dry and the liquid rosin The dry is made of the Pine and the Pitch trees the liquid commeth from the Terebinth Larch Lentisk Cypresse trees for these beare rosin in Asia and Syria wheras some there be of opinion That the rosins of the Pitch and Larch trees be all one they be much deceiued for the Pitch tree yeeldeth a fatty rosin and in maner of frankincense vnctuous but from the Larch tree there issueth a subtill and thin liquor running like to life hony of a strong and rank vnpleasant smell Physitians seldome vse any of these liquid Rosins and neuer prescribe them but to be taken or supped off with an egge As for that of the Larch tree they giue it for the cough and exulceration of some noble parts within neither is that per-rosin of the Pine tree much vsed as for the rest they be not of any vse vnlesse they be boiled Touching the diuers manners of boiling them I haue shewed them sufficiently But if I should put a difference between these rosins according to the trees from whence they come the right Terpentine indeed which the Terebinth yeeldeth liketh and pleaseth me best being of all others lightest and most odoriferous If I should make choice of them in regard of the countries where they are found certes they of Cypresse and Syria be best and namely those that in colour resemble Attick hony and for the Cyprian rosin that which is of a more fleshie substance and drier consistence Of the dry per-rosins those are in most request which be white pure transparent or cleare quite through In generall those that come from trees growing vpon mountains be preferred before them of the plains also regarding the Northeast rather than any other wind For salues to heale wounds as also for emollitiue plasters rosins ought to be dissolued in oile for drinks or potions with bitter almonds As touching their medicinable vertues they be good to clense and close vp wounds to discusse and resolue any apostemes which bee in gathering Moreouer they be vsed in the diseases of the brest and namely true Terpentine by way of liniment for then it is singular good especially if it be applied hot also for the
In lease it resembleth water Mints but that the branches be greater Moreouer this setled and deep persuasion men haue of Candy that what Simples soeuer grow there they be infi nitly better than all others of the same kind whatsoeuer Next vnto which Island there goeth a great name and opinion of the mountain Pernassus for excellent herbes howsoeuer otherwise mount Pelius in Thessaly the hil Telechrius in Euboea and generally al Arcadia the country of Laconica throughout be renowned much for plenty of good simples And yet the Arcadians verily vse no other Physicke but milke onely and that about the spring at what time all herbs there be in their best verdure and fullest of sap so as the vdders of beasts be their Physi tians yeelding them medicines out of their pastures But aboue all they vse to drink cow milk for that those kind of cattell feed indifferently in manner of all kind of herbs Certes of what power and efficacy herbs are and namely what effects they may work euen by the milk of four-footed beasts grasing and pasturing thereupon appeareth manifestly by two notable examples which I will report vnto you About Abdera and along the street or high way called Diomedes causey there lie certain pastures wherein all the horses that feed become inraged stark wood thereby Semblably the herbage belonging to Potniae a towne in Magnesia driueth Asses to a kind of madnesse Leauing now those herbts which took their appellations of beasts let vs proceed to others Among which Aristolochia deserueth to be ranged with the best and principal an herb which seemeth to haue had that name giuen it by great bellied women for that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Countreymen of Italy call this herbe in Latine Malum terrae which is as much to say as the Apple of the earth and they do make foure kinds thereof The first hath a round root swelling and bunching out leaues resembling the Mallow and partly those of Iuy but that they be of a more browne and duskish colour and withall softer in the hand The second Aristolochia or Birthwort is taken to be the male and hath a root as thicke as a good Baston or staffe growing longwise to the length of foure fingers The third which by some is called Clematis by others Aristolochis of Candy hath a root exceeding long and slender like to that of a young Vine and this is reputed of all others for the best and most effectuall The roots of them all be of a Box colour the stalks small and the floures purple They beare little prety berries much like to capers But it is the root alone which is medicinable A fourth kinde there is also which they call Pistolochia smaller and slenderer than the last before named Clematis A root it hath diuided into many fibers or strings growing thick one by another to the thicknesse of big and well growne rushes whereupon some haue giuen it the name of Polyrrhizon All the sort of these Aristolochies yeeld an aromaticall odour but the long and smaller root is that which is most pleasant to smell vnto for it hath a fleshie rind and is one of the principall ingredients which enter into those odoriferous perfumes and ointments which stand most vpon Nard these Birth-woorts delight all of them to grow vpon plaines and battle grounds The right season to digge or draw them out of the earth as in haruest time and then after they be rid and scaled as it were from the earth or mould sticking vnto them they vse to lay them vp safe Howbeit the best simply are those which come out of Pontus And take this for a generall rule That in euery kind the weightiest is alwaies most medicinable The round rooted Aristolochie hath a speciall property against the poison of serpents Yet there goeth the greatest name of the long for this excellent qualitie if it be true that is reported thereof namely that if a woman newly conceiued with childe applie the root thereof to her naturall parts within a morcell of raw boeufe it will cause her to breed and forme in her wombe a man childe Our Fishers heere by in Campaine doe tearme the round root The poyson of the earth In very truth I haue seene them with mine owne eyes to stampe the said root and incorporat it with lime into a paste and so to cast it into the sea in small pellets or gobbets for to catch fishes and I assure you they will skud amaine and make haste to this bait and be very eager of bit but no sooner haue they tasted thereof but they will turne vp their bellies and lie floating aloft vpon the water starke dead As for that Aristolochie which for the manifold rootes that it hath is called Polyrrhizos it is thought to be soueraigne for convulsions or crampes contusions or bruises for such also as haue fallen from some steepe and high place if the root be drunke in water Likewise the seed of this kinde is supposed singular good for the pleurisie and to corroborate strengthen and heat weake and distempered sinewes The same likewise may be reckoned for a Satyrion It remaineth now to knit vp this discourse with a rehearsall of all the operations and effects of the plants before named To begin then with the most dangerous accident of al other to wit the sting of serpents these hearbes following are very medicinable and effectuall in that case namely Brittannica and the roots of all the kinds of Panaces taken in wine The floure seed besides of Chironium especially if it be drunk or otherwise applied as a liniment with wine and oile Also the wild Origan or Marjeram called Cunila Bubula hath a singular property by it self that way like as Polomonia otherwise called Philetoeria if one take 4 drams weight of the root in wine Semblably Teucrion Sideritis Scordotis giuen in wine But more particularly against snakes aders the like the said herbs be right soueraign either inwardly taken or outwardly applied vpon the wound be it in juice substance of leafe or decoction it skilleth not whether for which purpose a dram weight of the root of great Centaurie drunk in three cyaths of white wine is excellent as for Gentian it serueth properly against snakes if it be taken to the poise of two drams with Pepper and Rue in 6 cyaths of wine green or dry it makes no matter Touch herbe Willow or Lysimachia serpents cannot abide the very smell thereof but flie from it If any body chance to be stung alreadie by them there is not a better medicine than to giue Celendine in drinke But of Betonie aboue all the rest there is made a most soueraigne salue to be laied vnto the place that is stung And such a contrarietie in nature of Antipathie there is by folks report between them and this herb that if the leaues thereof be strewed in a circle round about them the serpents within wil
be more sweet and pleasant There is sound within a resemblance of canes and reeds full of this iuice Howbeit about the rising of the Dog star there be certain winged wormes settle vpon the said reeds creepe in and eat away the marrow as it were which lay within so as a man shall find nought left behind but a mouldy dust or rotten powder good for nothing Next to this Storax of Syria great account is made of that which commeth out of Pisidia from Sidon Cypres and Cilicia but least reckoning is made of that which Candie sendeth vs. That which is brought from the mount Amanus in Syria is good for the Physicians but better for the perfumers and confectioners From what nation soeuer it comes the best Storax is that which is red somewhat glutinous besides by reason of the fattines The worst is that which hath no consistence and tenacitie but crumbles like bran and is so mouldie that it is ouergrowne with a white hoarie mosse The pedlers and such like petie merchants can skill how to sophisticate this drug also with the rosin of cedar and gum otherwhiles also with honie or bitter almonds But al these deceits are known by the tast The price of the best is 19 deniers a pound There is a Storax besides which Pamphylia doth yeeld but drier it is and nothing so full of moisture Moreouer we haue from Syria out of the same mountain Amanus another kind of gum called Galbanum issuing out of an hearbe like Fennell-geant which some call by the name of the said Rosin others Stagonitis The best Galbanum and which is most set by is gristly and cleare withall resembling Hammoniacum without any spils of wood in it For in that wise the hucksters vse to deceiue chapmen by mingling beanes with it or the gum Sagapenum The right Galbanum if you burn it chaseth away Serpents with the strong perfume or smoke thereof It is sold for fiue deniers the pound and is vsed only in Physicke for medicines CHAP. XXVI ¶ Of Panaces Spondylium and Malobathrum THe same perfumers seeke also into the same Syria for Panaces growing there and yet it is to be found also about Psophis a citie in Arcadia and the fountaines from whence floweth the riuer Erymanthus yea and in Affricke besides and Macedonie This Panax is an hearbe with a tall stalke and round tuft in the head like Fennell and yet it is a plant by it selfe growing to the height of fiue cubits At the first it putteth out foure leaues and afterwards six They be very large and round withall lying vpon the ground but toward the top they resemble the leaues of an Oliue it beareth seed in the head hanging within certaine round tufts as doth the Ferula Out of the stalk of this hearb there there is drawn a liquor by way of incision made in haruest time and likewise out of the root in Autumne or the fall of the leaf And this is called Opopanax The best lookes white when it is gathered and congealed The next in worth and weight is that which is yellow As for the blacke it is of no account The berter Opoponax costeth not aboue two Asses a pound Another hearbe there is of this Fennell kind namely Spondylium somwhat different from the former but in leaues only because they be lesse than those of Panax and diuided after the manner of the Plane leaues This Spondylium groweth no where but in cold and shadowie places It carrieth a fruit or graine called also Spondylium which resembleth the forme of Sil or Siler montanum and serueth for no vse but Physick We are beholden moreouer to Syria for Malobathrum This is a tree that beares leaues rolled vp round together and seeming to the eie withered Out of which there is drawne and pressed an Oile for perfumers to vse Aegypt is more fruitfull of this hearbe than Syria And yet there comes a better kind therof from India than both those countries It is said that it grows there in meeres and standing waters swimming aloft after the manner of Fen-lentils or Duckes meat more odoriferous than Saffron enclining to a blacke colour rough in handling in tast salt or brackish The white is not so well esteemed It wil soon be mouldie when it is stale The rellish thereof ought to resemble Nardus at the tongues end The perfume or smell that Malobathrum or the leafe yeeldeth when it is boiled in wine passeth all others It is strange and monstrous which is obserued in the price for it hath risen from one denier to 300 a pound whereas the Oile it selfe doth cost 60. CHAP. XXVII ¶ Of Oile Olive made of greene Oliues likewise of Grape Veriuice FOr the mixture and composition of ointments the Oile of vnripe Oliues and Veriuice is very good and verily made it is in two kinds after two sorts to wit of the Oliue and the Vine Of the Oliues if yee would haue good they ought to bee pressed whiles they be yet white for if they turn colour once and be blackish the worse is the Oyle or Veriuice that commeth thereof And such kind of Oliues be called Drupae namely before they be fully ripe and good to eat and yet haue lost their colour And herein is the difference for that the oyle of this later sort is green the other is white Now as for grape Verjuice it should be made of the Vine Psythia or Amminea and before the canicular daies when as the grapes bee but new knit and no bigger than the Cich-pease The grapes I say must be gathered for this purpose at the beginning before they change colour the juice thereof ought then to be taken Then should the Verjuice that comes from it be sunned and heed must be taken in any case that no dews by night do catch it and therefore it would stand in couvert Now when this iuice or verjuice is gathered it is put vp in earthen pots and otherwhiles kept also in vessels of copper The best grape verjuice is red sharp and soure in taste dry withall and scyptick A pound or a pinte of such verjuice is worth six deniers It may be made in another sort namely by punning and stamping vnripe grapes in morters drying it afterwards in the Sunne and so made vp into certain rolls or trochisks CHAP. XXVIII ¶ Of Bryon and Oenanthe of the tree Elate and Cinnamon Cariopus THe mosse of the white Poplar or Asp which is reputed as the grape therof is vsed likewise in these odoriferous and sweet compositions The best grows about Cnidos or Caria in thirsty dry and rough places A second sort is that which is found vpon the Cedar of Lycia To this pertaineth Oenanthae which is no more but the grapes of the wild vine called Labrusca Gathered it is when it floureth that is to say when it smels best It is dried in the shade vpon a linnen sheet lying vnder it and then put vp into little barrels
is not like as wine is neither is there such difference in so many kinds of oliues as there is in wine for surely we cannot at the most obserue aboue three degrees in the goodnesse of oiles namely according to the first second and third running out of the presse Finally the thinner that oile is and the more subtill the finer and daintier is the smell thereof and yet the same same sent in the very best of them all continueth but a small time CHAP. IIII. ¶ The nature of Oile Oliue THe property of oile is to warm the body and to defend it against the iniuries of cold and yet a soueraigne thing it is to coole and mitigate the hot distemperature of the head The Greekes whom wee may count the very fathers and fosters of all vices haue peruerted the true and right vse thereof to serue for all excesse and superfluitie euen as far as to the common annointing of their wrastlers with it in their publick place of exercise Known it is for certain that the gouernors and wardens of those places haue sold the oile that hath beene scraped from the bodies of the said wrastlers for 80 Sesterces at a time But the stately maiesty of Rome contrariwise hath done so great honour to the Oliue tree that euery yere in Iuly when the Ides come they were wont to crowne their men of armes and gentlemen marching by their troups and squadrons in solemne wise with chaplets of oliue yea and the manner was of captains likewise to enter ouant in pety triumphes into Rome adorned with Oliue coronets The Athenians also honoured their conquerors with Oliue garlands But generally the Greekes did set out their victors at the games of Olympia with branches of the wild-oliue CHAP. V. ¶ The manner how to order Oliues NOw will I report the precepts and rules set down by Cato as touching oliues His opinion is that the greater long Oliue Radius of Salentum the big Orchites the Pausia the Sergiana Cominiana and the Albicera should be planted in hot and fat grounds He addes moreouer as hee was a man of singular dexterity and prudent spirit which of them in the neighbour territories and places adioining were taken for the best As for the Licinian Oliues he saith They would be planted in a weely and cold hungry ground for if it be a fat soile and a hot the oile wil be corrupt and naught and the very tree it self wil in short time be killed with ouermuch fertility and bearing too great a burden Moreouer they will put forth a red kind of mosse which eateth and consumeth the tree To conclude his mind is that Oliue hort-yards should be exposed to the sun yet so as they regard the West wind also in any case for otherwise he commendeth them not CHAP. VI. ¶ How to keep Oliues and the way to make oile of them CAto alloweth of no other means to keep and preserue oliues and specially the great ones made like cullions named thereupon Orchita and the Pausiae but either in brine and pickle when they are greene or else among Lentisk branches when they are bruised and broken The best oile is made saith he of the greenest and sourest oliues Moreouer so soon as euer they be faln they must be gathered from off the ground and if they be fouled and beraied with the earth they ought to be washed clean and then laid to dry three daies at the most Now if it fall out to be weather disposed vnto frost they should be pressed at 4 daies end He giueth order also to bestrew and sprinkle them with salt saying moreouer that if they be kept in borded sollors or garners the oile will be both lesse in quantitie worse withal So it wil be also if it be let lie long in the lees or together with the cake and grounds when they be bruised and beaten for this is the very fleshie and grosse substance of the Oliues which cannot chuse but breed filthy dregs And therfore he ordaineth that oftentimes in a day it should be poured out of one vessell into another so by setling clarified from the grounds then to put it vp afterwards into pans and panchions of earth or els into vessels or kimnels of lead for brasse mettall wil mar oile All this should be done within close presses and rooms and those kept shut where no aire or wind may come in that they might be as warm and hot as stouves He forbids also to cut any wood or fuel there to maintain fire for that the fire made of their stones and kernels is most kindly of any other To the end also that the grounds lees should be liquified and turn into oile euen to the very last drop the oile should be let run out of those vessels or kimnels aforesaid into a vat or cistern for which purpose the vessels are often to be clensed the ozier paniers to be scoured with a spunge that the oile might stand most pure clear But afterward came vp the deuise to wash oliues first in hot water then immediatly to put them whole as they are into the presse for by that means they squize forth lees all and then anon to bruise and crush them in a mil so presse them in the end Moreouer it is not thought good to presse the second time aboue 100 Modij which is the full proportion of one pressure it is called Factus That which after the mil comes first is named the floure of the oile or the Mere-gout Lastly to presse 300 Modij is thought to be foure mens work ordinarily in one night and a day CHAP. VII ¶ Of Oile Artificiall IN Cato his time there was no artificiall Oiles I meane no other but that of the Oliue and tâ—…refore I suppose it was that he made no mention thereof but now adaies there be many kinds First will we treat of those that are made of trees and principally before all the rest of the oile of the wild oliue thin it is and much more bitter than that of the other gentle true Oliue but good for medicines onely Very like to it is that which is made of Chamelaea an herb or shrub growing in stony places to the heigth of a span no more with leaues and berries resembling those of the wild oliue The next is that which commeth of Cici or Ricinus i Palma Christi a plant which groweth plentifully in Aegypt which some call Croto others Trixis or wild Sesam but long it hath not been there In Spaine likewise this Ricinus is found of late to rise suddenly to the heigth of an Oliue tree bearing the stalke of Ferula or Fennel-Geant clad with leaues of the vine and replenished with seed resembling the graines or kernels of small and slender grapes and of a pale colour withall we in Latine call it Ricinus of the resemblance that the seed hath to a ticke which is a vermin that annoies sheepe For
be sodden in wine and water they serue in stead of a broth or grewell so do no fruit els but Pome and Peare-Quinces CHAP. XVI ¶ The manner how to preserue Apples THe generall rules to keep and preserue Apples are these Imprimis That the solars be wel planked and boorded in a cold and drie place prouided alwaies that the windows to the North do stand open especially euery faire day Item to keep the windows into the South shut against the winds out of that corner and yet the North winds also where they blow doe cause Apples to shrink and riuell ill fauouredly Item That Apples be gathered after the Aequinox in the Autumne and neither before the full of the Moone nor the first houre of the day Moreouer that all the Apples which fell be seuered from the other by themselues and laid apart also that they be bedded vpon straw mats or chaffe vnder them that they be so couchedas that they touch not one another but haue spaces between to receiue equall aire for to bee vented To conclude this is well knowne that the Amerine Apples doe last and keepe good long whereas the honie Apples will abide no time CHAP. XVII ¶ How to keep Quinces Pome-granats Peares Sorvises and Grapes FOr the good keeping and preseruing of Quinces there must be no aire let into them where they are enclosed or else they ought to be confected in sodden honey or boiled therein Pomegranats should be plunged into sea-water boiling and so hardened therein and after that they be dried in the Sun three daies so as they be not left abroad in the night to take dew they would be hanged vp in a solar and when a man list to vse them then they must be wel washed in fresh water M. Varro sets downe the manner to keep them within great earthen vessels in sand And if they be not ripe he would haue the earthen pots bottomes broke off and so the Pomegranates to be put in and couered all ouer with mould but the mouth therof must be well stopped for letting any aire in prouided alwaies that the steele and the branch wherto the fruit groweth be pitched For so quoth he they will not giue ouer to grow still yea and proue bigger than if they had remained vpon the tree As for other Pomegranats i. that are ripe they may be wrapped and lapped one by one in fig-leaues such as are not fallen but plucked from off the tree greene and then to be put into twigge paniers of oisiers or else daubed ouer with potters blay He that would keep Peares long must put them in earthen vessels turned with the bottomes vpward well varnished or annealed within couered also with saw dust or fine shauings and so enterred As for the Tarentine Peares they abide longest on the tree ere they be gathered The Anitian Peares be well preserued in cuit-wine As for Soruisses they are kept also in trenches within the ground but the couer of the vessel whereinto they are put ought to be well plastered all ouer and so stand two foot couered with earth also they may be set in a place exposed open to the Sun with the bottome of the vessells vpward yea and within great barrels they may be hung vp with their branches and all after the manner of grape-clusters Some of our moderne writers handle this argument more deepely than others and fetch the matter farre off giung out rules in this manner saying That for to haue Apples or Grapes de garde that is to say fit to be preserued and to last long the trees that beare the one and the other ought to be pruned and cut betimes in the waine of the Moone in faire weather and when the winds blow drie Likewise they affirme That fruits to be preserued would be chosen from drie grounds gathered before they be full ripe and this would be looked vnto in any hand that the Moon at the gathering time be vnder the earth and not appearing in our hemisphaere And more particularly for Grape bunches they would be gathered with a foot or heele from the old hard wood and the Grapes that are corrupt and rotten among the rest be clipped off with a paire of sheers or plucked out with pincers then to be hung vp within a great new earthen vessell well pitched with the head or lid thereof thoroughly stopped and plastered vp close to exclude all aire After which manner they say Soruisses and Peares may be kept but so as in any case the twigs ond steeles whereby they hang be well besmeared with pitch Moreouer order would be giuen that the barrels and vessells wherein they are kept be far ynough from water Some there be again who keep Grapes together with their branch after the same maner in plaster but so as both ends of the said branch sticke in the head of the sea-Onion Squilla and others let Grape-clusters hang within hogsheads and pipes hauing wine in them but so as the Grapes touch not the wine in any case There be also that put Apples and such fruits in shallow pans or pancheons of earth and let them swim and flote aloft vpon the wine within their vessels for besides that this is a way to preserue them the wine also as they think will thereby get a pleasant odoriferous tast Others ye haue besides that chuse rather to preserue al these fruits as well Apples Pears c. as Grapes couered in Millet seed Howbeit the most part dig a trench or ditch two foot deep in the ground they floore it with sand in the bottome and lay their fruits thereupon then they stop the top with an earthen lid and afterwards couer al with earth Some there are which smeare their bunches of Grapes all ouer with potters clay and when they are dried in the Sun hang them vp in solars for their vse and against the time that they should occupie them steep them in the water and so wash off the foresaid clay But for to keep Apples that are of any worth they temper the same clay with wine and make a morter thereof wherein they lap the said Apples Now if those Apples be of the best kind and right soueraigne after the same sort they couer them with a crust of the like past or morter or else clad them within a coat of wax and if they were not fully ripe afore they grow by that means and break their crust or couer what euer it be But this would not be forgotten that they vse alwaies to set the Apple or fruit vpright vpon the taile howsoeuer they be kept Some there are who gather Apples and such like fruit with their slips and sprigs hide them within the pith of an Elder tree and then couer them in earth as is before written And others there are who for euery Peare or Apple haue a seuerall earthen pot and after that their lids be well closed and stopped with pitch then they enclose them again with great vessels
the same which at first was Helix and clasped trees in tract of time changed the leafe and became a very Iuie tree but fouly they are deceiued and disproued plainly they may be by this That of the said clasping Iuie Helix there be many kinds and three principall aboue the rest The first of grasse greene colour which groweth most common the second with a white leafe and the third called also the Thracian Iuie which hath leaues of diuers colours The foresaid greene Iuie is fuller of leaues and those finer and set in better order than in others whereas the contrary is to be seen in the white kind also in the third sort with variety of colours some haue smaller and thinner leaues couched likewise in good order and thicker growing whereas in the middle kind no such thing may be obserued Ouer and besides the leaues of Iuie are bigger or lesse spotted also and marked in which regard one differeth from another Among the white Iuies some be whiter than other The green Iuie groweth most of all others in length the white killeth trees for by sucking and soking al the sap and moisture out of them it feedeth and thriueth so wel it selfe that it becommeth in the end as big as a tree A man may know an Iuie being come to his perfection by these signes the leaues are very big and large withal the tree putteth forth yong shoots straight whereas in others they be crooked and bend inward the berries also stand in their clusters directly vpright Moreouer whereas the branches of all other Iuies be made like vnto roots this hath boughes strong and sturdy aboue the rest and next vnto it the black kind howbeit this property hath the white Iuie by it self that amid the leaues it putteth forth armes that clasp and embrace the tree round on euery side which it doth vpon walls likewise although it cannot so well compasse them And hereupon it is that although it be cut asunder in many places yet it continueth and liueth stil and looke how many such arms it hath so many heads likewise of roots are to be seen whereby it maintaineth it selfe safe and sound and is besides of that force as to suck and choke the trees that it claspeth Furthermore there is great diuersity in the fruit as well of the white as the black Iuie As for the rest the berries of them are so exceeding bitter as no bird wil touch them And yet there is one kind more of Iuy which is very stiffe and standeth alone of it selfe without any prop to beare it vp and this of all others only is therupon called Cissos or Iuie indeed Contrariwise Chamaecissos i. ground Iuie is neuer knowne but to creep along the ground CHAP. XXXV ¶ Of the Bind-weed or Iuie called Smilax LIke vnto Iuie is that plant which they call Smilax or rough Bind-weed It came first out of Cilicia howbeit more commonly it is to be seen in Greece it putteth forth stalks set thicke with ioints or knots and those thrust out many thornie branches The leafe resembleth Iuie and the same is small and nothing cornered from a little stele that it hath it sendeth forth certain pretty tendrils to clasp and wind about the floure is white and smelleth like to a Lilly it beareth clusters comming nearer to those grapes of the wild vine Labrusca than to the berries of Iuie red of color wherof the bigger contain within them 3 kernels or pepins apiece the smaller but one and those be hard and black withall This Smilax is not vsed in any sacrifices or diuine seruice of the gods nor serueth for garlands and chaplets for that it is held to be dolefull and ominous or of an vnlucky presage by occasion of a certain yong lady or Damosell of that name who for the loue of the young gallant and knight Crocus was turned into this shrub or plant retaining still her name which the ignorant people not knowing but taking it for a kind of Iuie stick not to make coronets therof profaning by that means many times their high feasts and sacred solemnities and yet who woteth not with what chaplets Poets are crowned and what garlands prince Bacchus or Silenus vsed to weare Of this Smilax are made certain manuell writing tables And this property moreouer hath the wood thereof That if a man hold it close to his eare he shall heare it to giue a pretty sound But to return againe to the Iuie indeed it hath by report a strange and wonderful vertue to trie wines whether they be delaied with water or no for make a cup of Iuie wood and put wine thereinto all the wine will soke and run through but the water if any be mingled therewith will tarry behind CHAP. XXXVI ¶ Of Reeds Canes and other water shrubs IN this discourse touching plants that loue cold places it wil not be amisse to treat of those that grow in waters Among which the Reeds and Canes may be raunged in the first place for necessarie they be in time both of war and peace they haue their vse besides and are accepted among the delightsom pleasures of this world Moreouer in the Northern regions the people vse therewith to couer and thatch their houses and this kind of roofe will last many ages if it be laid with a thick coat euen vpon high and stately houses In other parts also of the world they are woont with it to make their arch-roufes and hanging floores of most sleight worke As for Canes particularly and those of Aegypt by name which haue a certaine resemblance of the Papyr-reed in Nilus they serue for writing Paper Howbeit those of Gnidos and which grow in Asia along the lake or meere of Anaia be held for the best As for ours heere in Italy they are of a more spungeous substance and gristly matter apt to sucke and drinke vp any liquour The same within-forth is full of holes and concauities but conuerted aloft into a fine wooddy rind and in time becommeth drie fast and hard Apt it is to cleaue and the clifts euermore carry with them a very sharp edge and besides it is full of ioints Now this woodie substance being thus distinctly parted by knots runneth alwaies euen and smooth growing smaller and smaller vntill it proue sharpe pointed in the top with a head consisting of a good thicke downe or plume which serueth also to right good purposes for either in stead of feathers they vse to stuffe beds therewith in common Innes or when it is growne hard and hath a slimie callositie about it they in Picardie and those Nether-lands do stampe it and therewith calfret or calke the ioints of their ships betweene the ribs and plankes and herein it hath no fellow for it taketh faster hold than any glue and for filling vp any rifts and chinks no solder so strong no pitch so sure and trustie Of Reeds the Easterlings make their shafts and archers they be that fight their battels and
determine all quarrels These shafts they arme with sharpe barbed arrow heads in manner of fish-hooks which wound with a mischiefe because they cannot be drawne out of the body againe and to make these arrowes flie the faster and kill more presently they set feathers vnto them Now say that a shaft be broken as it is set fast in the body that end without the flesh wil serue againe to be shot so inured are the people in those parts to these kind of weapons so practised withall in discharging of them so nimbly that a man seeing how thick the shafts flie in the aire would say they were a cloud of arrowes that shadowed the very Sun And therefore when they goe to battell they wish euer for faire weather and Sunne-shine daies Windes and raine as most aduerse vnto their warres they cannot abide then are they quiet and rest in peace ful sore against their wils because their weapons at such a time wil not serue their turne Certes if a man would fall to an exact reckoning and aestimate of Aethyopians Egyptians Arabians Indians Scythians and Bactrians of so many nations also of the Sarmatians and other East-countries together with all the kingdomes of the Parthians hee should finde that the one moietie or halfe of the world hath been vanquished and conquered by the meanes of arrowes and darts made of Reedes The Candiots aboue all others were so readie and perfect in this kinde of feat that the ouerweening of their owne skill and the confidence which they had in this manner of seruice made them too bold and was in the end their owne ouerthrow But herein also as in all other things else whatsoeuer Italie hath carried the name and woon the prize for there is not a better Reed growing for to make shafts than that which is found about the Rhene a little riuer running vnder Bononia very full of marrow or pith stiffe also it is and weightie withall it cutteth the aire it flyeth away most swiftly and last of all it will hold the owne and stand in the weather so counterpoised that no winde hath any power on it And those Reeds in Picardie and the Low-countries are nothing comparable ne yet of Candie how highly soeuer they be commended for warre-seruice And yet the Reeds that grow in India be preferred before them and beare the name which indeed some thinke to be of another nature considering they bee so firme and bigge withall that beeing well headed with yron they serue in stead of Speares and Iauelins In very truth the Indian Canes for the most part grow to the bignesse of Trees such as we see commonly in Temples standing there for a shew The Indians doe affirme that there is a difference amongst them also in regard of sexe and namely That the substance and matter of the male is more fast and massie but that of the female larger and of greater capacitie within Moreouer if wee may beleeue their words the verie Cane betweene euery ioint is sufficient to make a boat These great Canes do grow principally along the riuer Acesine All Reeds in generall doe shoot and spring in great number from one root and principall stocke and the more they bee cut the better they come againe The root liueth long and without great iniurie offered vnto it will not die it also is divided into many knottie ioints Those onely of India haue short leaues But in all of them the leafe springeth out of the ioint which embracing the Cane doth clad it round about with certaine thin membranes or tunicles as far as to the middle space between the ioints and then for the most part they giue ouer to claspe the Cane and hang downeward to the ground As well Reeds as Canes spread their leaues like wings round one after another on either side vpon the very ioints and that in alternatiue course alwaies very orderly so as if the one sheath come forth of the right side the other at the next ioint or knot aboue it putteth out on the left and thus it doth throughout by turnes From these nodosities otherwhiles a man shall perceiue as it were certaine little branches to breake foorth and those bee no other but small and slender Reeds Moreouer there be many kindes of Reedes and Canes for some of them stand thicker with ioints and those are more fast and solid than others small distance there is between the same there be again that haue not so many of them and greater space there is from the one to the other and such Canes for the most part are of a thinner substance Yee shall haue a Cane all full of holes within called therupon Syringias and such are very good to make whistles or smal flutes because they haue within them neither gristly nor fleshy substance The Orchomenian Cane is hollow throughout from one end to the other and this they call Auleticus or the pipe Cane for as the former was fit for flutes so is this better for great pipes Now you shall meet with Canes also that stand more of the wood haue but a narrow hole and concauity within and this is full of a spungeous pith or marow within-forth Some be shorter some longer than other and where you haue one that is thin and slender you shall spie a fellow to it more grosse and thicker That which brancheth most putteth forth greatest store of shoots is called Donax and is neuer known to grow but in marishes and watery places for herein also lieth a difference and preferred it is far before the Reed that commeth vp in dry ground The archers reed is a seuerall kind by it selfe as we haue shewed before but of this sort those in Candy haue the greatest spaces betweene euery ioint and if they be made hot they are very pliable and will bend and follow which way soeuer a man would haue them Moreouer Reeds are distinguished one from another by the leafe not for the number but the strength and colour The leaues of those about Lacedaemon are stiffe and strong growing thicker of the one side than of the other And such as these are thought generally to grow along standing pooles and dead waters far vnlike to those about running riuers and besides to be clad with long pellicles which claspe and climbe about the Cane higher aboue the ioint than the rest doe Furthermore there is another kind of Reeds that groweth crooked and winding trauers and not vpright vnto any height but creeping low toward the ground and spreading it selfe in manner of a shrub Beasts take exceeding great delight to feed thereof and namely when it is young and tender for the sweet and pleasant taste that it hath Some cal this Reed Elegia Ouer and besides there breedeth in Italy also among the fens a certain salt fome named Adarca sticking to the rind or vtmost barke of Reedes and Canes onely vnder the verie tuft and head passing good it is for the
at root and beare the fairer head Let that which you cut or shred be so little short withal that it resemble a mans fist rather than a bough the thicker will it come again a tree no doubt that would not be set in the lowest rank but be wel regarded how soeuer we make but base reckoning thereof for surely there is not a tree for reuenue and profit more safe and certain for cost lesse chargeable and for iniury of weather in better security Certes Cato among the commodities that commend a good ferm or manor esteemeth it in the third place and preferreth the increase and benefit thereby before the gain that groweth from oliue rows corn fields good medows Yet hereof we must not infer that we are not furnished with many other things which wil serue for bands to bind withal for we haue certain sorts of Spart or Spanish broom we haue Poplars Elmes the Sanguine-shrubs Birch clouen Reeds leaues of Cane as for example in Liguria the cuttings also of the very Vine and Briars so their sharp pricks be cut away to tie withall yea and the Hazell wands also so they be writhen and twined wherein a man may see a wonderful property That a wood should be stronger for to bind withal when it is crushed and bruised than whiles it was entire and sound All these I say are good for bands and yet the willow hath a gift therein beyond all the rest The Greek willow is red and commonly is sliuen for to make wit hs The Amerian Osier is the whiter but more brittle and soon wil crack therfore it is put to that vse of binding sound and whole as it groweth and not clouen through In Asia they make account of three sorts of willows the black which they imploy to wind and bind withal so tough and pliant it is the white wherewith husbandmen make their wicker paniers and baskets with other such vessels for their vse as for the third it is the shortest of all other and they cal it Helix or Helice With vs also here in Italy there be as many kinds those distinguished by their seuerall names the first which is of a deep purple colour they call the free osier or willow and that is so good for bands the second which is more thin and slender is named Vitelina or Vitellinam rather for the yellow colour of the yolke of egges for the bright hew that it hath the third that is smallest of all three is the French willow To come now to the brittle Rushes that grow in marish grounds which serue to thatch houses and to make mats and the pith whereof when the rind is pilled maketh wieke for watch-candles and funerall lights to burne by a dead corps whiles it lieth aboue ground they cannot iustly be reckoned in the ranke either of shrubbes or Brier-bushes and Brambles ne yet of tall plants growing vp with stems and stalks no more than among Hearbes and Weeds creeping along the ground but are to be counted a seuerall kind by it selfe True it is that in some places there are to be found rushes more stiffe hard and strong than in others For not onely mariners and watermen in the riuer Po do make sailes thereof but fishermen also of Affrick in the maine sea howbeit they hang their sailes betweene the masts from mast to mast after a preposterous manner contrary to all other The Mores also do couer their cottages with Bulrushes and surely if a man looke neerly to the nature of them they may seeme to serue for that vse which the Papyr-reeds in the netherland of Aegypt are put vnto about the descent and fall of the riuer Nilus As touching Brambles they may go among the shrubs of the water so may the Elders also which consist of a spungeous kind of matter yet cannot wel be counted among those plants which bee termed Fenels-gyant for surely the Elder standeth more vpon the wood than they do The shepherds are verily persuaded that the Elder tree growing in a by-place farre out of the way and from whence a man cannot heare a cock crow out of any town maketh more shrill pipes and louder trumpes than any other The Brambles beare certaine berries like the Mulberries euen as the sweet Brier of another kind which they call Cynosbatos or the Eglantine carieth the resemblance of a Rose A third sort there is of brambles which the Greeks cal Idea of the mountaine Ida. This is the Raspis smaller it is and more slender than the rest with lesse pricks vpon it and nothing so sharpe and hooked The floure of this Raspis beeing tempered with hony is good to be laied to bleared and bloud-shotten eies as also to the wild-fire or disease called Saint Anthonies fire Being taken inwardly and namely drunk with water it is very comfortable to a weake stomacke The Elder beareth certain blacke and small berries full of a grosse and viscous humor vsed especially to die the haire of the head black If they be boiled in water they are good and wholsome to be eaten as other pot-herbs CHAP. XXXVIII ¶ Of the iuice or humor in trees The nature of their wood and timber The time and manner of felling and cutting downe trees TRees haue a certaine moisture in their barkes which we must vnderstand to be their very bloud yet is it not the same nor alike in all for that of the Fig trees is as white as milke and as good as rendles to giue the forme to cheese Cherry trees yeeld a glutinous and clammy humor but Elmes a thin liquor in manner of spittle In Apple trees the same is fattie and viscous in Vines and Pyrries waterish And generally those trees continue and liue longest that haue such a glewy moisture in them In summe there are to be considered in the substance and body of trees like as of all other liuing creatures their skin their bloud flesh sinues veins bones and marrow For in lieu of their hide is the barke And I assure you a strange and maruellous thing it is to be obserued here in the Mulberry that when Physitians seek to draw the foresaid liquour out of it at seuen or eight a clocke in a morning if they scarifie or lightly cut the bark with a stone it issueth forth and they haue their desire but if they crush or cut it deeper in they meet with no more moisture than if it were stark dry In most trees next to the skin lieth the fat this is nought else but that white sap which of the colour is called in Latin Alburnum As it is soft in substance so is it the worst part of the wood and euen in the strong oke as hard as otherwise it is ye shal haue it soon to putrifie and rot yea and quickly be worm-eaten And therefore if a man would haue sound and good timber this white must be alwaies cut away in the squaring After it followeth the flesh of the tree and so
is meet for by reason of the foresaid bonds they need not feare the gaping of it too wide Some stocks there be that the very same day that they be graffed in the nource-garden are without any harme remooued to the place where they must grow If the stocke wherein you graffe be big and round the best way is to set the sion between the barke and the wood therof and to diuide the one from the other with a wedge of bone least in enlarging of the barke it channce to breake In graffing of a Cherry tree stocke the ouer rind or barke would be taken away before the clift be made Now these trees alone of all others may be graffed very well presently after mid-winter When the said rind is gone you shall see therein a certain down that if it chance to clasp about the graft it rots the same incontinently But to return again to our worke of graffing After the wedge is taken forth whole and sound at the point which is a token that no spill remaines within you may be bold to bind the head of the stocke all about Yet this would be considered by the way which I had like to haue forgotten that the best handsomest graffing is as neer the ground as may be in case the knots wil giue leaue and the stock beare it also that the grafts would not conueniently stand without the stock aboue six fingers breadth Now when al is done and sure work made as hath been said Cato willeth vs to take cley or the sandie grit of chalk mixed together with oxe or cow shearn to worke and temper all these together in maner of a tough past or cataplasme and then to lay the same within the clift round about to daube all And verily by this and other such rules which he hath left in writing it appears plainly that in those daies the manner was to graffe betweene the barke and the tree and not otherwise as also to set the sions in the stocke not aboue two fingers deepe As for Apple trees and Pyrries he prescribeth that they should be graffed in the Spring also 50 daies after the summer Sun-stead and again after vintage but Oliues and Fig-trees in the Spring only obseruing the age and disposition of the Moon when she is in the wane and thirstie that is to say drie moreouer after noonetide and when no Southern wind doth blow And I cannot chuse but wonder much at the curiositie and double diligence of Cato who not content to haue defended the graft with clay or past aforesaid yea and to preserue it with turfe and mosse against the injurie of rain and cold to haue bound it about also with little knitches of soft osier twigs sliued in twaine must giue charge besides to couer it with Oxe-tongue a kind of herb there is so called i. Buglosse and yet hee hath not done but the same must be bound with wispes and wreaths of straw and litter aloft Now adaies men make no more adoe but thinke it sufficient to stop and close vp barke and al with earth or cley and chaffe tempered together thinking it sufficient the graft beare out two fingers breadth aboue They that wait vpon the Spring season for to graffe are many times driuen to their shifts for want of time by reason that all trees make hast then to bud and do break out of a sudden vnlesse it be the Oliue the oilets or eies wherof be longest while in comming forth as hauing least sap of all other running vnder the barke the which if it were ouermuch would stifle and choke the grafts As for the Pomegranat and Fig tree howsoeuer otherwise they seem to be dry yet good it is not to defer and put off the graffing of them The Peare tree may well enough be graffed with the blossom on the head and it makes no matter if a man do stay and graffe it within the moneth of May. To be short if a man be constrained to fetch his sions or imps of Apple trees and such like far off it is thought that they will keepe their sap best if they be stuck or set fast in a Rape root Also if one would preserue them a certain time before they should be occupied it is passing good to lay them close betweene two erest tiles well stopped on euery side with earth and that neere to some riuers or fish-ponds CHAP. XV. ¶ The manner how to graffe a Vine tree AS for the cuttings or sets of vines they may be kept wel a long time couered all ouer with straw or litter in dry ditches and afterwards they are to be laid within the earth all hilled or couered saue only that their heads be seen aboue ground Cato graffeth a vine stock three maner of waies First he willeth that the mother stock should be cut ouerthwart then clouen through the very pith or heart in the mids wherin he would haue the yong imps thwitted and sharpened as is beforesaid to be set and ingraffed so as the marrow of the one and the other may ioyne and meet iust together The second maner is when two vine stockes doe reach one to the other for to cut byas or aslaunt after the manner of a goats foot two twigs or branches of either one with this regard that these cuts be of a contrarie side the one vnto the other and withall so deep as that they come vnto the pith or heart then to fit one to the other ioyning pith to pith and then binding them fast together so close that no aire may enter between vntill such time as the one hath adopted the other The third deuise is to bore holes in an old vine not directly but aslope as far as to the pith and then to put into them yong imps 2 foot long and to bind them fast which done to make a certaine batter or morter with clay beasts dung and sand together and therewith to dawbe the place but with this regard that the graft stand halfe vpright or somwhat leaning This manner of graffing hath bin checked and corrected of late daies by our countrymen who leauing the hand-piercer haue taken the French Vibrequin or brest-wimble which gently and quickely boreth a hole and hurteth not the wood for all chasing heate caused by the said piercer dulleth the vigor both of stock and imp Also they haue deuised that the said imp to be ingraffed be gathered from the tree when it begins to bud or burgen and when it is set into the stocke that it be left standing out with no more than two eies or buds out of the graffing place that it be well bound also with the winding rods of an Elme moreouer that on either side of it the mother stock be slit or cut in two places on both sides to the end that from thence rather than otherwise the waterish humour may distill and drop forth which of all things hurteth vines most After all this they would haue the
springeth for it on the left hand in that next aboue it and thus they keep order the whole length of the branch These sprouts when they are come once to some bignesse and do branch there be called of the Latines by a prety name Gemmae as it were precious stones but so long as they are no other than buds sprouting forth vnder the concauity or pit-hole of the foresaid ioints they term them Oculos i. Oilets or Eies marie in the very top they be named by them Germina i. Sprigs or Burgeons After this order are ingendered the maine branches the smaller sprigs yearly cut away the grapes leaues and yong tendrils of Vines But hereat I wonder most that the burgeons comming forth on the right side be alwaies more tough and firm than those of the left To come now vnto the planting of these vines the shoots or branches must be cut iust in the midst between the foresaid knots or ioints so as the marrow in no wise run out And if you would plant fig-sets or sions they ought verily to be a span long and then to be prickt into the ground but first there should bee a hole made with a little stake with the greater end that grew next to the body of the tree downward prouided alwaies that two oilets or buds stand aboue ground Now these oilets are properly in twigs or sets of trees those buds called where the new spring first shooteth forth And herupon it is that these sions or cuttings being set in nource-gardens beare the same yere that very fruit which they would haue borne vpon the tree if they had not been cut off and namely if they be set in the right season whiles they be plump and full for hauing conceiued on the Tree they do consummat the sad conception so begun and are deliuered thereof elswhere And look what Fig-sets be in this manner planted may be easily and without danger remoued and translated the third yere after For certes as this tree of all others soon ageth and indureth not long so in recompence of short life this one gift it hath of Nature That it comes forward apace quickly groweth to the full bignesse and beareth fruit As for the Vine there is not a tree that is planted more sundrie waies nor affourdeth greater store of sions or sets than it For first and formost nothing thereof is planted but that which is vnprofitable hurtfull superfluous and of necessitie to be pruned and cut away But in the pruning this rule must be obserued that those branches bee cut off which were portoirs and bare grapes the yere before The manner in old time was to plant or set a sion headed as it were and taking hold on both sides of the old wood and hard stock whereupon because it was fashioned like a little mallet or hammer head it was and is at this day called in Latine Malleolus But afterwards they began to slip off a twig with a heele only of the old wood as they vse to doe in a Fig-tree there is not a better way to make a Vine surely to take and liue than this A third sort there is besides of sions or sets which are more readily gotten without any such heele of the hard wood and therefore they be wreathed and twined when they be set into the ground whereupon they be called in Latine Sagittae i. Shafts for the same sions only cut off and not wreathed are named Trigemmes as a man would say twigs with 3 buds or spurts therefore of one and the same vine-branch a man may in this sort make many kinds of sions or sets Howbeit that is to be noted that if you set any yong sprigs that neuer bare fruit but leafe onely the Vines comming thereof will be euer barren and therefore none ought to be planted but such as are fruitfull A vine-set or cutting that hath ioints standing thin but here there is thought to be fruitlesse but contrariwise if it be set thick with buds by all likelihood it will beare plentifully Some are of opinion that no sions should be put into the ground but those that haue floured already also that to set such cuttings as be called shafts which haue no part of the old wood is not so fit for that in remouing they are in danger to break whereas they were writhen Now when you haue gotten such sets as be meet for planting let them be a foot long at the least and carry fiue or six knots and at this length they cannot possibly haue fewer than three buds Moreouer the best way is presently to set them the very same day that they be gathered But in case a man be driuen to keep them long before they be put into the ground great heed would be taken according to the rule before said that they be not laid aboue ground that they dry not in the Sun that they take no wind nor loose their fresh vigor by cold And if it chance that they lie out any while in the dry aire they would be laied to soke in water many daies together vntill they be refreshed and look green again before they be set into the earth The plot or quarter within the nource-garden or vineyard ought to be wel exposed to the Sun of a good largenesse and sufficiently moulded also it must be well digged for 3 foot broad with a grubbing double toothed forke then must you goe deeper and cast vp the earth with a broad spade or shouell after that the same hath bin broken vp with a mattocke or yron toole carying foure foot in the head so as the ditch may go two foot directly deep into the ground Which done the ditch is to be clensed the mould to be spread abroad not left lying raw in that maner but to take a kind concoction in the weather And herein must the labourer proceed and be ruled by measure and trie his worke thereby for iâ—… the earth be not well delued it will be soone found out by the vneuen balks or beds There would be a iust measure taken also of the allies that lie between the beds All things being thus prepared let vs come now to the planting of the sets a foresaid which would be couched either in trenches made of purpose or in long furrowes and then the finest and most delicate mould that can be found is to be cast aloft But all this preuaileth not in a leane and hungry ground vnlesse fatter earth be laied as a pallet vnderneath Moreouer this is tobe looked vnto that two sets at the least be moulded and laid within the earth together in one range also they must be so couched that they leane with their heads close vpon the earth next about them yea and with one and the same stake the said earth ought to be driuen close and fast about them Ouer ane besides throughout the whole plot or quarter of this nource-garden regard is to be had that between
spend it selfe by carrying too great a burden Also another burgen there is close to him bearing out like a knob of the bignesse of a wart called he is Furunculus who must serue the turne and make supply if peraduenture the foresaid Watch or Keeper faile Moreouer a vine if it be suffered to beare before the seuenth yeare after it was first set of a cutting or sion decaieth sensibly and soon dieth neither is it thought good to let the old wood run on still in length vpon the frame as far as to the fourth forke that vnderproppeth it such old crooked branches some call Dracones others Iuniculos to make thereof huge and great trailes of vines termed Masculeta But worst of all it is to seeme for to propagate or draw in a long traile within the ground vines in a vineyard when they be growne hard with age When the vine is fiue yeares old a man may boldly wind and twine the very branches so as out of euerie one there be a twig let to grow at liberty thus he may proceed forward to the next cutting away the wood as he goeth that bare before The surer way euermore is supposed to leaue the Watch or Keeper behinâ—… marie he must be next vnto the vines maine bodie and nearest the root and no longer than is before set downe Now in case the branches prooue ouer ranke they must be writhed and twisted in maner aforesaid so as the vine stock may put forth no more than foure boughs at the most or twaine if so be it rest vpon one chanter or range of perches If you would order a vine so as it may stand alone without any props at the beginning it would desire and haue some supporter or other it makes no matter what to rest vpon vntill it haue learned to stand of it selfe rise vpright afterwards it is to be vsed in manner of all other vines when this training is past This regard would be had in pruning and cutting the twigs of these vines called Pollices That a man well guide and ballance his hand and go euen withall in euery part indifferently for feare lest one side be charged with fruit or branch more than the other where by the way he must also remember to keepe downe the head and not suffer it in any wise to run vp in height for if this kind of vine be aboue three foot high it wil hang the head downward As for others they may well grow to fiue foot and vpward so that they passe not in any case the full height of a man To come now vnto the other vines that creepe along and spread ouer the ground they be inuironed all the way as they run with pretty short hollow cages as it were to rest and repose their branches in They haue need moreouer of certaine trenches or ditches round about to run in to the end that as the said branches wander too and fro they should not incounter one another and striue together And verily in most parts of the world they vse to gather their vintage of vines thus growing low by the ground as we may see the manner is in Africke Aegypt Syria throughout all Asia and in many places of Europe For the good vsage and dressing of these vines a speciall care would be had to keepe them downe close to the earth and to fortifie the root so long and in the same manner as hath beene shewed before in those that are shored or beare vpon frames with this charge and regard besides to leaue alwaies the short twigs only called Pollices with three buds a piece in case the ground be fruitfull or fiue if it be light and lean And in one word better it is without all question that they be left many than long As for those points which we haue deliuered heretofore as touching the nature of the soile they will be more effectually seen to proue either the goodnesse or the contrary in the grapes of this vine by how much nearer they lie to the ground than others Wherein consideration is to be had of the sundry sorts of vines namely that they be seuered apart and nothing is better than to sort euery one with the tract or region that agreeth best with it and therein to plant them accordingly for these mixtures of diuers kindes are neuer good but alwaies discordant naught in old wines that come to our table much worse then you may bee sure in those that be new and not yet tunned vp But if a man will intermingle plants of sundry vines together yet in any case those would be ioined together and none els which ripen their fruit at one and the same time For frames and trailes wherein vines are to run the better and more battle that the ground of the vineyard is the plainer and euener that it lieth the higher they would be from the ground likewise if the place be subiect to dews fogs and mists and nothing exposed to the winds contrariwise if the ground be leane and dry hot and open to the winds they must be the lower and nearer the earth As concerning the rafters that lie ouer reach from prop to prop they ought to be tied and fastened thereto with as streight and sure a knot as is possible whereas the Vine would be bound vnto them but slacke Of the sundry sorts of Vines as also which were to be planted in this or that soile and what coasts climats each one of them loueth we haue shewed sufficiently in the particular treatise of their nature and of the wines that come of them Touching all other points of husbandry that remaine behind much doubt and diuers questions are made for many there be that feare not all Summer long to bee digging in the vineyard about vine-roots after euery little raine Others again forbid to meddle be lusty therin in the budding time for it cannot be auoided but that the yong oilets will either bee smitten off clean or els galled or bruised one time or other with their gate that go in and out between which is the cause that they would haue all kind of cattell to bee kept out that they come not neare and especially such as beare wooll on their backs for sheep of all others soonest rub off the buds as they passe by with their shag coats Moreouer they are of opinion that all manner of raking and harrowing is an enemy to vines when they bee in their floure and putting foorth young grapes and sufficient it is say they if a vineyard be delued thrice in one yere to wit first from the spring Aequinox to the apparition of the Brood-hen star secondly at the rising of the great Dog star and thirdly when the grape beginneth to change colour and turne blacke Others set out these times after this maner if the vineyard be old they would haue it once digged betweene vintage and mid-winter howsoeuer some be of this mind That it sufficeth them to
be made of Zea than of Wheat and called it is Granum or Granatum although in Alica that be counted a fault To conclude they that wil not vse chalk do blanch and make their Frumentie white by seething milke with it and mingling all together CHAP. XII ¶ Of Pulse IT followeth now to write of the nature of Pulse among which Beanes do challenge the first ranke and principall place for thereof men haue assaied to make bread The meale of Beans is called in Latine Lomentum There is not a Pulse weigheth more than it and Beane meale makes euery thing heauier wherin it is Now adaies they vse to sel it for prouender to feed horses And indeed Beanes are dressed and vsed many waies not only to serue all kind of four-footed beasts but also for man especially For in most countries it is mingled with Frumentiâ—… corn and namely with Pannicke most of all whole and entire as it is but the more delicat and daintie way is to break and bruise it first Moreouer by ancient rites and religious ceremonies at the solemn sacrifice called Fabraria the maner was to offer vnto certain gods and goddesses Beane cakes This was taken for a strong food being eaten with a thick grewel or pottage howbeit men thought that it dulled a mans sences and vnderstanding yea and caused troublesome dreames in the night In regard of which inconueniences Pythagoras expressely forbad to eat Beanes but as some haue thought and taught it was because folke imagined that the soules of such as were departed had residence therein which is the reason also that they be ordinarily vsed and eaten at the funerals and obsequies of the dead Varro also affirmeth That the great Priest or Sacrificer called the Flamine abstains from Beanes both in those respects aforesaid as also for that there are to be seen in the floure thereof certain letters or characters that shewheauines and signs of death Further there was obserued in old time a religious ceremonie in Beanes for when they had sown their grounds their maner was of all other corne to bring back with them out of the fieldes some Beanes for good luck sake presaging thereby that their corne would returne home again vnto them and these Beanes thereupon were called in Latine Refriuae or Referiuae Likewise in all port-sales it was thought that if Beanes were entermingled with the goods offered to be sold they would be luckie and gainefull to the seller This is cerataine that of all the fruits of the earth this only will be full and sound when the Moone is croisant notwithstanding it were gnawne and halfe eaten with some thing before Set them ouer the fire in a pan with sea water or any other that is saltish they will neuerbe thoroughly sodden They are set or sowne before the retrait of the Starre Vergiliae i. the Brood-hen the first of al other Pulse because they might take root betimes and preuent the Winter And yet Virgill would haue them to be put into the ground in the Spring like as the manner is in Piemont and Lombardie all about the riuer Po. But the greater part of good Husbandmen are of this opinion That the stalke or straw of Beanes sowne early or set betimes are better than the very fruit it selfe which hath had but three months being in the ground For the cods and stalks only of Beans are passing good fodder and forage for cattell Beanes when they are blouming and in their floure desire most of al to be refreshed with good store of rain but after they haue don flouring they care for little the sowing of this Pulse in any ground is as good as a mucking vnto it for it enriches it mightily And therefore towards Macedonie and about Thessalie the manner is when Beanes begin to blossom for to turne them into the ground with the plough Beans come vp and grow in most places of their owne accord without sowing and namely in certaine Islands lying within the Northern ocean which our countrymen therupon haue named Fabariae Semblably they grow wild commonly thoroughout Mauritania but exceeding hard and tough they be and such as possibly canot be sodden tender There are likewise in Aegypt to be found Beanes with a stalk beset full of prickles or thornes which is the cause that Crocodiles wil not come neer them for feare of hurting their eyes The stemme of these Beanes is foure cubites in height but exceeding thicke and big withall tender it is notwithstanding and soft running vp euen and smooth without any knots or joints at al it caries a head in the top like Chesboule or Poppy of a rose red color wherin are contained not aboue 30 Beanes at the most The leaues be large the fruit it selfe or the Bean is bitter in tast and the smel not pleasant howbeit the root is a most dainty meat which the inhabitants do eat as wel raw as sodden and like it is to reed cane roots These grow in Syria and Cylicia as also about the lake Torone within Chalcis As touching other Pulse Lentils be sown in Nouember and so are Pease but in Greece only Lentils loue a light ground better than a fat heauie they like also drie and faire weather Two kinds thereof be found in Aegypt the one more round and blacke than the other the rest be fashioned as common Lentils According to the manifold vse and diuers effects of Lentils there haue sundrie names and denominations beene borrowed from them for I find in writers that the eating of Lentils maketh men to be mild and patient whereupon they be called Lenti and Lenes As for Pease it ought to be sowed in warm places lying well vpon the Sunne for of all things it cannot abide the cold Which is the cause that in Italie and in other countries where the clime is tough and hard they are not sowne vsually but in the Spring and folke chuse a gentle light and loose ground To come now to the Ciâ—…h pease the nature of it is to be nitrous and saltish and therefore it burneth the ground where it grows Neither must it be sowne vnlesse it were well steeped and soked in water the day before many sorts there be of these cich-pease different in bignes form colour and tast for there are both blacke and white and those in fashion shaped like to a Rams head and therupon they are so called There is a second kind named Columbinum or by others Venerium These are white round light lesse than the former Rams-head ciches which men do eat ceremoniously with great religion when they meane to watch thoroughly all night long There is a little cich pease also called Cicercula made cornered and otherwise vneuen like vnto a Pease But the best ciches and most pleasant are those that come neerest in resemblance to the Eruile and generally the red kind and the black are more firm and fast than the white cich pease grow within round cods whereas other Pulse
winds hurt all spiked corne as well Wheat as Barly at three seueral times to wit in their floure presently vpon their blooming and last of all when they begin to ripen for then namely when they are vpon the point of maturitie those blasts consume the grain and bring it to nothing which before was full whereas at the two former seasons they hinder it altogether from knitting and growing The hot gleames moreouer of the Sun betweene often clouding do much harme to corne Furthermore there be certaine little wormes breeding in the root that do eat it which happeneth by occasion of much raine falling immediatly after the seednesse especially when some sudden heat and drowth ensueth therupon which bindeth the earth aboue and so encloseth the moisture conceiued within the very cause nourice of putrifaction Ye shall haue other such like vermin engender likewise in the very grain of the corn namely when the ear doth glow within and is chafed with sultry hot rains Ouer and besides there be certain green flies like small Beetles called Cantharides which do gnaw and eat the corne But al these and such like worms or flies die presently when the corn which was their food is gone Moreouer Oile Pitch and Tarre all manner of greace also be contrarie to seed-corne especially and therefore take heed that you sow none such as hath caught oile pitch or grease As for showers of raine good they are for corne so long only as it is in the green blade when corne is blooming be it either wheat or barley or such like raine is hurtfull Mary Pulse takes no harme thereby vnlesse it be the Cich-pease All kinds of wheat and other bread corne when they be toward ripenesse catch hurt by showers but Barley more than any Besides all this there is a certaine white hearbe or weed resembling Panicke growing among corne and ouerspreading whole fields which not onely hindereth corne but also killeth all the cattell that feedeth thereupon For as touching ray or darnel burs thistles and brambles I may hold and reckon them not so much for faults and imperfections of corn as rather the plagues and infections proceeding from the very earth And for blasting which commeth of some distemperature of the aire a mischiefe common as well to corn as vines it is as hurtful as any other malady whatsoeuer This vnhappie blast falleth most often in places subject to mists and dewes and namely hollow vallies and low grounds lying vnder the winde for contrariwise windie quarters and such as are mounted high are not subiect to this inconuenience Also we may number among the faults incident to corne their rankenesse namely when the blade is so ouergrowne and the stalke so charged and loden with a heauie head that the corn standeth not vpright but is lodged lieth along Moreouer when there fals a great glut of rain insomuch as the ground stands with water there befalleth vnto all corn and pulse yea and whatsoeuer is sowne a certaine disease called in Latine Vrica insomuch as the very Cich-pease taketh hurt therby for by reason that the rain washed from them that salt quality which was naturall thereunto it becommeth sweeter than it should be and loseth the kind tast There is a weed that claspeth and tieth about Ciches and Eruiles wherby it choketh and killeth them both and thereupon it is called Orobanctum i. Choke Eruile After the same maner dealeth Ray or Darnel by wheat wild Otes likewise named by some Aegilops with barly as also the weed Securidaca i. Ax-fitch which the Greeks also for the resemblance that it hath to an axe head call Pelicinon with Lentils These weeds I say kill corne by winding about it Another herb there is growing neere to the city Philippi which killeth Beans if the ground be fat and good they name the said weed Ateramnon but if it be found in a hungry and leane soile and namely when being wet some vnhappy wind bloweth vpon it they call it Teramnon As for the graine of Raie or Darnell it is very small and lieth inclosed with a sharpe-pointed husk The bread which hath any of this seed in it soone causeth dizinesse and swimming of the head And by report in Asia and Greece the masters of the common Bains and Stuphes when they would keep away the great resort of multitude thither haue a deuise to cast Darnell seeds vpon burning coles for this perfume will quickly set them farther off Moreouer if the Winter proue to be wet and waterish ye shall haue in the Pulse called Eruile a little vermin ingendred there called Phalangion and it is of the kind of these spiders Likewise vpon Vetches there wil breed naked dew-snails yea otherwhile those little ones with shels or houses on their backs which creeping from the ground wil gnaw eat them that it is a wonder to see what foul work they will make Thus much concerning all the maladies and inconueniences to speak of incident to corne It remaineth now to treat of the remedies As touching the cure of those harms that come by hurtful weeds to the corn in blade it consisteth principally in two things namely either in the vse of the weeding knife or hooke when they be newly come vp or els in strewing ashes when the corn is a sowing But as for those dangers that touch the seed or grain in the eare and cod as also that settle about the root they must be preuented by good forecast euen before it be thrown into the ground It is generaly thought that if seed-corn lie steeped beforehand in Wine it will be better able afterwards to resist all diseases whatsoeuer Virgil giueth order to infuse or soke the Beanes that must be sown in nitre and oile lees or dregs and he assureth vs that they will prosper mightily besides and become exceeding great But others are of opinion that if for 3 daies before they be cast into the earth they lie in vrine shere water mingled together they wil being thus prepared come on apace and thriue passing well It is said moreouer That if Beans be thrice raked and rid from weedes one Modius of them being whole and solid wil yeeld a Modius again after it is husked broken As for other seed-corn it wil escape the danger of the worme if either it lie before among Cypresse leaues bruised or be sowed in and about the change of the Moon namely when she is not to be seen aboue the earth in our hemisphaere Many there be who practise other remedies namely for the Millet they would haue a toad to be caried round about the field before that it be harrowed which done to be put close within an earthen pot and so buried in the middest of the said field and by this meanes for sooth neither Sparrows will lie vpon the corn nor any worm hurt it Mary in any case this same toad must be digged out of the ground againe before the field be
both lighter and also more massie and richer ground for our ordinary wheat In a low and wet piece of ground it is good to sow the red wheat Adoreum rather than the common wheat Triticum but both it and barley will sort well with a soile of a middle temperature The hills yeeld a firm fast and strong kind of wheat but the grain is but smal And to conclude the best kinds of wheat to wit Far and Siligo challenge for their lot to bee seated in a chalky soile and therwith alwaies wet and soked in water CHAP. XVIII ¶ Of strange prodigies and wonders obserued in corne the knowledge and skill of earing and tilling the ground also diuers sorts of plough-shares ALbeit I haue in the title of this chapter purposed to write of prodigies seen in corne yet to my knowledge there neuer happened but once the like wonder and portenteous sight to this which I shall tell and which befell in the time that P. Aelius and Cn. Cornelius were Consuls of Rome that very yeare wherein Annibal with his whole armie was defeated and vanquished for then by report there was corne grew vpon trees But forasmuch as I haue discoursed at large of the sundry kinds as well of corn as of ground I will proceed now forward and come to the manner of ploughing the earth after I haue first set downe before all things els how easie the husbandrie is in Egypt for there the riuer Nilus seruing in stead of a good plough man beginneth to swel and ouerflow as we haue before rehearsed at the first new Moone after the Summer Sunstead Hee beginneth faire and softly and so increaseth more and more by little and little but all the while that the Sun passeth vnder the signe Leo he higheth apace vntill he be risen to his ful heigth being entered once into Virgo his fury slaketh then decreaseth he as fast vntill hee be fallen againe into his wonted channell which ordinarily happeneth by the time that the Sun is in Libra Now this is obserued That if he rise not plumb aboue 12 cubits high the people are sure to haue a famine of corn that yere the like also do they make account of in case he passe the gage of sixteen cubits for the higher that he is risen the longer it is again ere he be fully fallen by which time the Seednesse is past and men cannot sow the ground in due season It hath bin generally receiued for a truth That presently vpon the departure of this deluge and ouerflowing of Nilus they were woont to cast their seed-corne vpon the floten ground and presently let in their swine after for to trample it with their feet into the earth whiles it was soft and drenched And verily for mine owne part I beleeue wel they vsed so to do in old time for euen now adaies also much more ado they make not about it Howbeit this is certaine that first they cast their seed vpon the slime and mud so soone as the riuer is downe which commonly falleth out in the very beginning of Nouember which done they go ouer it with the plough and giue it a light tilth so as it may be couered only and lie vnder a small furrow Some few there be that afterwards fall aweeding which point of husbandry they call Botanismos but the most part after they haue once sowed and turned their seed into the ground neuer after make a step into field to see how their corne groweth vntil they go once for all with syth on neck or sickle in hand namely at the end of March for then they fall to reaping and cutting it downe so as by the moneth of May they sing in Egypt Haruest in and all is done for that yeare As touching this corne gathered in Base Egypt the straw is neuer a cubit long the reason is because the seed lieth very ebbe and hath no other nutriment than from the mud and slime aforesaid for vnder it is nothing but sand and grauell But those that inhabit higher vp into the countrey namely about Thebais they be far better prouided for corne because Egypt indeed for the most part lyeth low vpon marais ground Toward Babylon likewise and Seleucia where the riuers Euphrates and Tigris doe swell ouer their banks and water the country the same husbandry is practised but to better effect and greater profit by reason that the people may let in the water at sluces and floud-gates more or lesse with their owne hands according as they list themselues Also in Syria they haue their small ploughs for the nones to take a shallow stitch and make light worke whereas in many places here with vs in Italy eight oxen are little enough to euery plough and to go away withall they must laborat it till they blow and pant again It is an old said Saw and may goe for an Oracle to be practised in all parts of husbandry but in this point of ploughing especially Bee ruled by the nature of euery countrey and see what each ground will abide To come now vnto our ploughes Of Shares there be many sorts first there is that instrument called a culter which serueth to make way before cutting and cleauing the hard and thick ground as it goeth before it be broken vp and turned atoneside this sheweth by the slits and incisions that it maketh as it were by a true line drawn how the furrows shal go after which commeth the broad bit of the ploughshare indeed lying flat-wise and in earing casteth vp all before it and cleareth the furrow A second sort there is commonly vsed in many places and it is no more but a bar of yron pointed sharpe in manner of a beak-head or stem of a ship and it may be called a Rostle And when the ground is not stubborn but gentle to be wrought there is a third kind vsed which is nothing but a piece of yron not reaching all ouer the plough head and shooing it to the full but turning vp like a snout with a small point sharp at the end This neb is somewhat broader in a fourth kinde of shares but as it is broader in blade and trenchant withall so it is sharper also at the end insomuch that both with the point forward the edges of the sides it not only pierces the ground before it poinctant like a sword but also cutteth the roots of weeds which it incountreth a deuise inuented not long since in Rhoetia As for the Gaules they set too besides certain smal roundles or wheels a plough thus shod harnaised they call in their language Planarati the head of their share is broad fashioned like vnto the bit of a spade and thus they sow their grounds for the most part new broken vp and not tilled nor eared before And for that their plough-shares be large and broad so much the easier turn they vp good turfs of earth and make broad furrows Presently after the plough they
especially I say if it thunder much Secondly they wil not last aboue one yere Item The tenderest daintiest be those that breed in the Sprinâ—… and that indeed is the best time for them Item In some countries the ouerflow of riuers engender Mushromes and namely at Mitylene where by report they will not otherwise grow but vpon floten grounds and namely in such places whither the water hath brought from Tiara a certain vegetatiue seed to breed them And verily That Tiara is wonderfully stored replenished with such As touching the Truffles or Mushroms of Asia the most excellent of all others be neer vnto Lampsacum and Alopeconnesus but the best that Greece yeeldeth are in the territorie about the citie Elis. In this Toad-stoole or Mushrome kind are those flat Fusses and Puffes to be reckoned which the Greekes name Pezitae as they haue no root at all so they be altogether without either stele or taile In the next place to these I must needs speake of the most noble and famous plant Laserpitium which the Greeks name Silphium discouered and found first in the abouesaid prouince of Barbarie Cyrenaica The juice or liquor drawne out of this hearb they cal Laser a drug so magnified of such singularitie and vse in Physicke especially that it was sold by weight and a dram thereof cost commonly Romane denier For these many yeares of late there is none of this plant to be found in that country of Cyrenaica beforesaid for that the Publicans and Farmers of the pastures and grounds there vnder the people of Rome doe put in their cattell among these plants and eat al downe by that means finding thereby a greater gaine or commodity than by letting them stand for the juice or liquor aforesaid One only stalk or stem thereof hath bin found in our days which was sent vnto Emperor Nero as a present for a great nouelty If it chance at any time that either sheepe or goat which commonly bite neer to the ground do light vpon a yong plant thereof newly peeping forth and not euident to be seene you shall know it by these signes The sheepe presently so soone as she hath tasted it will drop asleep and the goat fal a neesing For these many yeres the merchants haue brought vs into Italy no other Laser than that which grows abundantly in Persis or Media and in Armenia but it is far inferior to this of Cyrenaica and commeth short of it for goodnes And this that we haue is no better than it should be for they sophisticate and corrupt it with gum with Sagapeum or else with bruised Beans In regard of which scarsity I canot chuse but remember that which befell at Rome in that yere wherin C. Valerius and M. Herennius were consuls when by great good fortune there was brought from Cyrenae thirtie pound weight of the best Laser and set abroad to be seene in open place of all commers As also I may not let passe another occurrent namely how Caesar Dictatour at the beginning of the ciuile war tooke forth openly out of the chamber of the citie with other treasure both of gold and siluer an hundred and eleuen pounds of the best Laser Moreouer this one thing more I canot forget the best and most renowned Greeke Authors haue left in writing That 7 years before the foundation of the citie Cyrenae which was built 143 yeres after our citie of Rome this plant Laserpitium that beareth the said Laser was engendered at one instant by occasion of a certain thicke grosse and black shewer of raine in manner of pitch which sodainely fell and drenched the ground about the hortyards or gardens of the Hesperides the greater Syrtis The which rain was effectual and left the strength thereof for the compasse of foure thousand stadia within Affricke or Barbarie They affirme moreouer That the herb Laserpitium there growing is of so sauage and churlish a nature that it canot abide any culture or good ordering by mans hand but if one should goe about to tend and cherish it it would rather chuse to be gon into the desart and vnpeopled parts of the countrey or else winder away and die Moreouer they set downe this description of it That it hath many roots and those bigge and thicke a stemme or stalke resembling the hearb Sagapeum or Fennell-geant howbeit not altogether so great the leaues of this plant which they termed by the name of Maspetum come very near in all respects to those of Smallach or Persely As touching the seed that it beareth flat and thin it is in maner of leaues but the leafe it selfe therof sheddeth in the Spring time The cattell that vse to feed thereupon and whereof they be very greedy first fall a scouring but afterwards when they be clensed and rid of il humors begin to wax fat and their flesh by this means becommeth wonderfull sweet and pleasant They report moreouer that after the leaues be fallen men also were wont in old time to eat the stem or stalk thereof either rosted and baked vnder the cindres or else boiled and sodden in water and their bodies likewise for the first 40 daies ensuing did nothing but purge til they were cleared of al diseases breeding by occasion of any Cacochymie or collection of ill humours within them Now concerning the juice or soueraigne liquor before said the manner was to draw it after two sorts to wit by scarification either out of the root or forth of the stem and maister stalke And hereof it came to haue two names Rhizias and Caulias But the later of these two to wit that which came of the stem was counted the worst fubiect to putrifaction and sold cheaper than the other To come now to the root of Laserpitium it hath a blacke rind or barke vpon it wherewith the merchants vse to sophisticat many of their drugs As for the manner of dressing and ordering the juice thereof it was no sooner drawne but they put it into certaine vessels together with brans among then euer and anone they plied it with stirring and shogging vntil it had lost the cruditie and verdure thereof and by that working came to the maturity and perfection for if it were not thus well followed soon would it catch a vinew begin to putrifie and so continue but a while In this worke of theirs they had an eye vnto the color how it changed for when they perceiued it to be high that they saw it once drie and haue don sweating breathing out the raw humidity and vapor within then they knew therby that it was wrought sufficiently and come to the full ripenesse Others there be who say that the root of Laserpitium beareth more than a cubit in bignesse and that out of it there swelleth an excresence aboue the ground out of which there was wont by way of incision to issue forth a certaine white juice in manner of milke vpon which grew the stalke
translate it into a warm sun-shine bank and there replant it then cut it off leauing not aboue 2 fingers breadth from the root aboue the ground but this must be don about the Spring Aequinox in mid-March then take a Cucumber seed set it within the soft pith of the said bramble bank it will round about with fine fresh mould dung blended together This is the way he assureth vs to make that the roots therof bearing such cucumbers or Melons will abide the greatest cold in Winter and neuer shrink at it of cucumbers the Greeks haue set down 3 kinds to wit the Laconick the Scvtalick the Boeotick Of which as they say the first sort only they be that loue waters so wel some there be who prescribe to take the seed of Cucumber or Melon to temper it in the juice of a certain hearb stamped which they cal Culix then to sow it persuading vs that we shal haue fruit therof without anyseed Of the like nature I meane for their manner of growing be the Gourds Winter and al cold weather they canot endure they loue also places wel watered dunged As wel Gourds as the cucumbers or Melons aboue said are commonly sowed between the Aequinox in March the Sunstead in Iune prouided alwaies that their seedly in a trench within the ground a foot a halfe deepe But in very deed the best and meetest time to sow them is about the feast Parilia howsoeuer there be some would haue the seed of gourds to be put into the ground presently after the Calends or first day of March but of cucumbers about the Nones i. the 7 day thereof or at farthest by the feast or holy-daies of Minerva named Quinquatrus They loue both alike to creep and crawle with their winding top branches or tendrels and gladly they would be clambering vpon walls and climbing vp to the house roofe if they can meet with any rough places to take hold by for naturally they are giuen to mount on high Howbeit their strength is not answerable â—…o their will and desire for stand they canot alone without the help of some props forks or railes to stay them vpright Exceeding forward and swift they be in growth They run on end when they are set on it and if they may be born vp sustained in maner aforesaid they will gently ouershade galleries walking places arbors frames allies vnder them in a garden and that right quickly In regard of which nature and behauior of theirs two principall kindes there be of them the one Camerarium as one would say the frame or trail Gourd and cucumber which climbeth aloft the other Plebeium i. the vulgar and common which creepeth along the ground beneath In the former kind it is worth the noting to see how the fruit heauy as it is hangeth stiffe poised as it were in the wind and will not stir notwithstanding the stele wherto it groweth be wondrous fine and smal Moreouer Gourds also may be fashioned in the head euery way as a man will like as the Cucumbers or Melons before named and specially within wicker cases made of pliable oisiers into which they are put for to grow to take their form so soon as they haue cast their blossom The nature of them I say is to receiue what figure a man will force and put them to but commonly shaped they are in their growth like to a Serpent winding and turnign euery way There haue bin known of them such I meane as were of the traile kind being led vpon a frame from the ground and permitted to run at libertie which grew to an incredible length for one of them hath bin seen 9 foot long As for cucumbers they bloom not all at once but by piece-meale floure after floure now one and then another yea and floure vpon floure one vpon the head of another Howsoeuer the Cucumber loueth waterish grounds yet can he abide drier places also Couered al ouer this plant and fruit is with a white down euen at the first but especially all the while he is in his growth Gourds are imploied sundry waies and to many more vses than Cucumbers For first their yong and tender stalks be very good meat and being dressed are serued vp as a dish to the table but the rind is of a cleane contrary nature Gourds of late time came to be vsed in stouves and baines for pots and pitchers but long before that they stood in stead of rundlets or small barrels to keep wine in The green of this kind hath a tender rind which must be scraped notwithstanding before a dish of meat can be made thereof And certes albeit Gourds be of digestion hard and such as will not throughly be concocted in a mans stomacke yet they are taken 〈◊〉 be a light mild and wholsom meat as they be handled and dressed diuers waies for that they 〈◊〉 not a mans belly to swel as some meats doe Of those seeds which be found within the gourd next â—…o the neck therof if they be set come the long gourds commonly such lightly you shall haue ingendred of those also that are in the bottom howbeit nothing comparable to the other Those that lie in the midst bring forth round ones but from the seeds that are taken out of the sides ordinarily there grow the shorter sort of Gourds such as be thicke and broad These grains or seeds would be handled in this manner First they are dried in the shadow and afterwards when a man list to sow them they ought to be steeped in water The longer slenderer that a Gourd is the better meat it yeelds and more pleasant to be eaten and therefore it is that they be thought more wholesome which grew hanging vpon trailes such indeed haue least store of seed within them Howbeit wax they once hard away with them out of the kitchen for then they haue lost all their grace and goodnes which commended them to the cooks dresser Such as are to be kept for seed the manner is not to cut vp before winter and then are they to hang or stand a drying in the smoake as proper stuffe and implements to be seen in a country house to keep as good chaffer seeds for the gardner against the time Moreouer there is a means deuised how to preserue them and cucumbers too for meat sound and good almost til new come that is by laying both the one and the other in a kind of brine or pickle Some say also that they may be kept fresh and greene interred in a caue or ditch vnder the ground in some darke and shady place with a good course or bed of sand laid vnder them and well couered afterward with dry hay and earth vpon the same in the end Ouer besides as in all plants and herbs in maner of the garden there be both wild and tame so is there of Gourds and Cucumbers both a certain sauage
kinde Such are not for the kitchen but for the Apothecaries shop and good only in Physick and therefore I will put off for this present the discourse of them their nature reseruing them for their seueral treatises in other books concerning such medicinable simples As touching the rest of garden plants which are of the like cartilage and pulpous substance they be all the sort of them roots growing hidden within the ground amongst which I might seem to haue written already fully and sufficiently of Rapes and Turneps but that the Physitians haue obserued in them both sexes to wit masculine foeminin for the rounder kind they wil haue to be the male but the broader and flatter sort which also are somewhat hollow they account the female and these last they hold to be the better far and more pleasant as being easier to be kept and condite which also if they be often remoued and replanted will turn to be males Physitians likewise haue set down fiue kinds of Nauewes namely the Corinthian the Cleonaean the Liothasian the Boeotian and that which simply by it self they called the green Nauew Of all these the Corinthian Nauews grow to a great bignes and in maner all the root is seen naked aboue ground for this is the only kind that coueteth to be aloft and groweth not downward into the earth as the rest do As for the Liothasian some call it also the Thracian of all others it will abide and endure frost and cold weather best Next to it is the Boeotian nauew sweet in tast differing from the rest in the notable shortnesse and roundnesse withall that the root carieth nothing at all like to the Cleonaean which is passing long Generally this is obserued as a rule that all Nauews the slenderer smaller and smoother leaues that they beare the more pleasant is their root to the tast and contrariwise the rougher that they be the more cornered also and pricky the bitterer they are There is a wild kind of them besides the leaues wherof resemble Rocket The best Nauews that are sold at Rome be those that come from Amiternum in Bruzze The next to them in goodnes are those of Nursium In the third place are they to be ranged which our country about Verona yeelds As concerning all things els and namely the maner of sowing them I haue said enough in the treatise of Rapes or Turneps As for Radishes their roots do consist of a rind without a cartilage or pulpous substance within and verily many of them are known to haue a thicker skin or rinde than the barke is of some trees bitter such are more or lesse according to the thicknes of the said rind otherwhile also the rest is all pitch and as hard as wood All Radishes breed wind wonderfull much prouoke a man that eateth of them to belch A base and homely meat therefore it is and not for a gentlemans table especially if it be eaten with other worts as Beets mary if a man take them with vnripe oliues condite he shall neither belch or rift wind so much ne yet so soure and stinking will his breath be afterwards The Egyptians make maruellous great account of radishes for the plenty of oile that they draw out of the seed and therefore a great desire they haue to sow them if they may for as they find it more gainful than corn so they pay lesse tribute custom in regard of that commoditie and yet there is nothing yeeldeth more abundance of oile The Greeks haue made three sorts of Radishes differing all in leafe the first crisped and curled like a ruffe the second smooth and plain the third wild and sauage and these wild ones verily haue smooth leaues but short and round plentiful also they be and otherwise ful of branches a rough and harsh tast they haue howbeit medicinable they be and as good as a purgation to loosen the belly and make it laxatiue As for the other two former kindes a difference there is in the seed for in some it is very fair good in others as small and bad howbeit these imperfections light vpon none but such as haue the crisped and frizled leaues Our countrymen here in Italy haue made other kinds therof to wit Algiclense so called of the place long they be transparent and cleare that a man may see through them A second sort there be fashioned in maner of a Rape root and those they call Syriaca the sweetest for the most part of all others and tenderest such also as will hold out best against frost and winter weather Yet the principal and very best indeed are those which as it should seem were but lately brought out of Syria at leastwise the seed of them for that in no writers there is found any mention made of them and they wil continue all winter long Ouer and besides all these there is one sauage kind of them more which the Greeks name Agrion the inhabitants of Pontus Armon others Leuce and our countrymen giue it the name of Armoracia more shew it maketh in leafe than in the root or all the body besides Moreouer the best token to know good Radishes by is their stem or stalk for such as bite at the tongues end haue rounder and longer stems than the other that be mild they haue long and hollow gutters also the leaues besides are more bitter and vnsauorie cornered more rough and vntoward to be handled Radish seed would willingly be sowne in a loose or light ground and nathelesse moist enough it cannot abide rank mucke but contenteth it selfe with rotten chaffe or pugs and such like plain mullock It likes and thriues so well in cold countries that in Germanie a man shall haue their roots as big as prety babes To haue Radish roots in the spring the seed would be sowed presently after the Ides or 13 day of Februarie and a second time again about the feast of Vulcan which is indeed the better season for Seednes Mary there be that put the seeds into the ground in March Aprill and September When they are come vp and begin to grow to some bignesse it is very good to enterre and couer with mould round about the leaues now one and then another but in any case to banke the roots well with earth for looke how much appeareth bare aboue ground prooues either to be hard or els fungous and hollow like a Kex and nothing good to be eaten Aristomachus would haue them to be stript from their leaues in winter in any hand to be banked well about that the water stand not there in any hollow furrow or hole lower than the other ground promising vs by this meanes that they will proue faire and big against Summer Some haue reported that if a man make a hole in the ground with as big a stake as he wil and strew or lay it in the bottom with a bed of chaffe six fingers deepe and
afterwards be tied fast vnto them Of all Garden-hearbs Beets are the lightest The Greeke writers make two kinds thereof in regard of the colour to wit the black Beets and the whiter which they prefer before the other although it be very scant and sparie of seed these also they cal the Sicilian Beets and for their beautiful white hew and nothing else they esteeme them aboue Lectuce But our countreymen here in Italy put no other difference between Beets but in respect of the two seasons when they be sowed namely in the Spring and Autumne whereof we haue these two sorts the spring Beets and the Autumnall and yet they be vsually sowne in Iune also This herbe likewise is ordinarily remooued in the plant and so replanted or set againe it loueth besides to haue the roots medicined with muck as well as the other abouesaid yea and it is very wel content with a moist and waterish ground The roots as well as the leaues or herbage thereof vse to be eaten with Lentils Beans but the best way to eat them is with Senuie or Mustard for to giue a tast and edge as it were to that dull and wallowish flatnesse that it hath Physitians haue set downe their iudgement of this herb That the roots be more hurtfull than the leafe and therefore being set vpon the bourd before all persons indifferently as well the sound as the sick and crasie yet many a one maketh it nice and scrupulous once to tast therof and if they do it is but slightly for fashion only leauing the hearty feeding thereupon to those rather that be in health and of strong constitutions The Beet is of two diuers natures and qualities for the herbage or leafe hath one and the bulbs comming from the head of the stem another but their principall grace and beautie lieth in their spreading and breadth that they beare as they cabbage And this they come vnto as the manner is of Lectuces also by laying some light weight vpon the leaues when they begin once to gather into a stalke and shew their colour And there is not an hearbe throughout the Garden that taketh vp greater compasse with fuellage than doth the Beet for otherwhiles you shal see it to spread it selfe two foot euery way whereunto the goodnesse and nature of the soile is a great help The largest that be knowne of these Beets are those which grow in the territory about Circij Some hold opinion that the only time to sow Beets is when the Pomegranat doth blossome and to transplant them so soon as they haue 5 leaues A wonderfull thing to see the diuersitie in Nature of these Beets if it be true namely that the white should gently loosen the belly and make one soluble whereas contrariwise the black doe stay a flux and knit the body It is as strange also to obserue another effect thereof for when the Colewort hath marred the taste of wine within the tun or such like vessell the only sauour and smell of Beet leaues steeped therein will restore and fetch it againe As touching the Beets as also Colewoorts which now beare all the sway and none but they in Gardens I do not find that the Greeks made any great account of them yet Cato highly extolleth Coules and reporteth great wonders of their vertues and properties which I meane to relate in my treatise of Physick For this present you shall vnderstand that he putteth downe three kinds of them the first that stretcheth out broad leaues at ful and carieth a big stem the second with a crisped and frizled leafe the which he calleth Apiana the third is smooth plain and tender in leafe and hath but a little stalke and these are of no reckoning at all with Cato Moreouer like as Coleworts may be cut at all times of the yeare for our vse so may they be sown set al the yere long yet the most appropriat season is after the Aequinox in Autumn Transplanted they be when they haue once gotten fiue leaues The tender crops called Cymae after the first cutting they yeeld the Spring next following now are these Cymae nothing else but the yong delicat tops or daintier tendrils of the maine stem And as pleasant and sweet as these crops were thought to other men yet Apicius that notable glutton tooke a loathing of them and by his example Drusus Caesar also careth not for them but thought them a base and homely meat for which nice and dainty tooth of his he was well checked and shent by his father Tiberius the Emperor after this first crop or head is gone there grow out of the same colewort other fine colliflories if I may so say or tendrils in Summer in the fall of the leafe and after them in winter and then a second spring of the foresaid Cymae or tops against the spring following as the yeare before so as there is no hearb in that regard so fruitfull vntill in the end her owne fertility is her death for in this manner of bearing she spends her heart her selfe and all There is a third top-spring also at mid-summer about the Sunstead which if the place bee any thing moist affoordeth yong plants to be set in summer time but in case it be ouer-drie against Autumne If there be want of moisture and skant of muck the better taste Colewoorts haue if there be plenty and to spare of both the more fruitfull and ranke they are The onely muck that which agreeth best with Coleworts or Cabbages is Asses dung I am content to stand the longer vpon this Garden-wort because it is in so great request in the kitchin and among our riotous gluttons Would you haue speciall and principal Coleworts both for sweet tast and also for great and faire cabbage first and foremost let the seed be sowne in a ground throughly digged more than once or twice and wel manured secondly see you cut off the tender springs and yong stalkes that seem to put out far from the ground or such as you perceiue mounting too ranke and ouer-high from the earth thirdly be sure to raise other mould in maner of a bank vp to them so as there peep no more without the ground than the very top these kind of Coleworts be fitly called Tritiana for the threefold hand and trauell about them but surely the gaine will pay double for all the cost and toile both Many more kindes there be of them to wit that of Cumes which beareth leaues spreading flat along the ground and opening in the head Those of Aricia be for heigth no taller than they but rather more in number than for substance thinner and smaller this kind is taken for the best and most gainfull because vnder euery main leafe in maner it putâ—… forth other yong tendrils or buds by themselues which are good to be eaten The Colewort Pompeianum so called of the towne Pompeij is taller than the rest rising vp with a smal
Reader that we Romanes are acquainted with very few garden floures for Guirlands and know in manner none but Violets and roses CHAP. IV. ¶ Of the Rose employed in Coronets The diuers kinds thereof and where it is set and groweth THe plant whereupon the Rose doth grow is more like a thorn or bush than a shrub or any thing else For it will come of a very Brier or Eglantine also where it wil cast a sweet and pleasant smell although it reach not far off All Roses at their first knitting seeme to be inclosed within a certain cod or huske full of graines which soon after beginneth to swell and grow sharp pointed into certain green indented or cut buds then by little and little as they wax red they open and spred themselues abroad containing in the midst of their cup as it were certain small tufts or yellow threds standing out in the top Vsed they are exceeding much in Chaplets and Guirlands As touching the oile Rosat made by way of infusion it was in request before the destruction of Troy as may appeare by the poet Homer Moreouer Roses enter into the composition of sweet ointments and perfumes Ouer and besides the Rose of it selfe alone as it is hath medicinable vertues and serueth to many purposes in physick It goeth into emplastres and collyries or eye-salues by reason of a certain subtil mordacitie and penetratiue qualitie that it hath Furthermore many delicate and dainty dishes are serued vp to the table either couered and bestrewed with Rose leaues or bedewed and smeared all ouer with their juice which doth no harme to those viands but giue a commendable tast therto We at Rome make most account of two kinds of Roses aboue the rest to wit those of Praeneste and of Capua And yet some haue ranged with these principal Roses those of Miletum which are of a most liuely and deep red colour and haue but twelue leaues in a floure at the most The next to them are the Trachinian Roses not so red all out Then those of Alabanda which be of a baser reckoning with a weak colour inclining to white Howbeit the meanest and worst of all is the Rose Spineola Most leaues in number it hath of all others and those in quantity smaller For this would be knowne that Roses differ one from another either in number of leaues more or lesse or els that some be smooth others rough and pricky also in colour and smell The fewest leaues that a Rose hath be fiue and so vpward they grow euer still more and more vntill they come to those that haue an hundred namely about Campain in Italy and neere to Philippos a city in Greece whereupon the Rose is called in Latine Centifolia How beit the territorie of Philippi hath no such soile as to bring forth these hundred-leafe Roses for it is the mountain Pangaeus neare adioyning vpon which they naturally doe grow with a number of leaues I say but the same small which being remoued transplanted by the neighbor borderers do mightily thriue in another ground namely about Philippi aforesaid proue much fairer than those of Pangaeus Yet are not such Roses of the sweetest kind that are so double and double againe no more than those which are furnished with the largest and greatest leaues But in one word if you would know a sweet smelling rose indeed chuse that which hath the cup or knob vnder the floure rough pricky Caepio who liued in the time of Tiberius the Emperour was of opinion That the hundred-leafe Rose had no grace at all in a garland either for smel or beauty therfore should not be put into chaplets vnlesse it were last in maner of a tuft to make a sur-croist or about the edges as a border no more than the Rose Campion which our men cal the Greek Rose and the Greekes name Lychnis which lightly groweth not but in moist grounds and neuer hath more than siue leaues The floure exceeds not the bignes of a certain violet and carieth no sent or sauor at all Yet is there another Rose called Graecula the floures leaues wherof are folded and lapped one within another neither wil they open of themselues vnlesse they be forced with ones fingers but looke alwaies as if they were in the bud notwithstanding that the leaues when they be out are of all others largest Moreouer there be Roses growing from a bush that hath a stalk like a Mallow and beareth leaues resembling those of the oliue and this kind is named in Greek Moscheuton Of a middle sise between these abouenamed is the Rose of Autumne commonly called Coroneola And to say a truth all the said Roses except this Coroneola and that which groweth vpon the brier or Eglantine before-named haue no smell with them in the whole world naturally but are brought to it by many deuises sophistications yea the very Rose it selfe which of the own nature is odoriferous carieth a better smell in some one soile than in another For at Cyrene they passe all other for sweetnes and pleasant sauor which is the reason that the oile Rosat and ointment compounded thereof is most excellent there of all other places And at Cartagena in Spain there be certaine timely or hastie Roses that blow and floure all winter long The climat also and temperature of the aire makes for the sweetnesse of the Rose for in some yeares yee shall haue them lesse odoriferous than in others Ouer besides the place would be considered for the roses be euer more sweet growing vpon dry than wet grounds And indeed the Rose bush loueth not to be planted in a fat and rich soile ne yet vpon a vein of cley no more than it liketh to grow neere vnto riuers where the banks be ouerflowed or in a waterish plot but it agreeth best with a light and loose kinde of earth and principally with a ground full of rubbish and among the ruines of old houses The Campain Rose bloweth early and is very forward The Milesian comes as late How beit those of Praeneste be longest ere they giue ouer bearing As touching the maner of planting them as the ground would be delued deeper than for corn so a lighter stitch had need be taken than for Vine sets Those that be sowed of seed be latest of all others ere they come vp and thriue most slowly Now lieth this seed in the cup or husk thereof iust vnder the very floure and is couered all ouer with a down And therefore it is better to set sions cut from the stalk or els to slip the little oilets and shoots from the root as the maner is in reeds and canes After which sort they vse to set yea to graf one kind of a pricky pale rose bush putting forth very long twigs shoots like to those of the Cinq-foile rose which is one of the Greekish kind There is no rose bush whatsöeuer but prospereth the better for cutting
head it somwhat stuffeth and offendeth The floure is of a golden colour And say that it carrieth neither seed nor floure yet commeth it vp of it selfe in void and vacant places altogether neglected and without any culture for it doth propagat and increase by the tops and tips of the branches lying vpon the ground and so taking root And therefore it groweth the better if it be set of root or slip than sowed of seed For of seed much adoe there is to make it come vp and when it is aboue ground the yong plants are remoued and set as it were in Adonis gardens within pots of earth and that in Summer time after the maner of the herb and floure Adonium for as well the one as the very tender and can abide no cold and yet as chill as they be they may not away with ouer-much heat of the Sun for taking harme But when they haue gotten head once and be strong enough they grow and branch as Rue doth Much like vnto Sothernwood in sent and smell is Camomile the floure is white consisting of a number of pretty fine leaues set round about the yellow within CHAP. XI ¶ Of Marioram the greater and the lesse called in Latine Amaracus or Sampsuchum Of Nyctygretum Melilote the white Violet of Codiaminum and wild Bulbes of Heliochrysum and Lychnis or Rose Campain And of many other herbs growing on this side the sea DIocles the Physitian and the whole nation in maner of the Sicilians haue called that herb Amaracus which in Egypt and Syria is commonly named Sampsuchum It commeth vp both waies as well of seed as of a slip and branch It liueth and continueth longer than the herbs beforenamed and hath a more pleasant and odoriferous sent Marjoram is as plentifull in seed as Sothernewood but whereas Sothernewood hath but one tap root and the same running deep into the ground the rest haue their roots creeping lightly aloft and eb within the earth As for all the other herbes they are for the most part set and sowne in the beginning of the Autumne some of them also in the spring and namely in places which stand much in the shade which loue to be well watered also and inriched with dung As touching Nyctygretum or Lunaria Democritus held it to be a wonderfull herb and few like vnto it saying that it resembleth the colour of fire that the leaues be pricky like a thorne that it creeps along the ground he reporteth moreouer That the best kind therof growes in the lad Gedrosia That if it be plucked out of the ground root and all after the Spring Aequinox and be laid to drie in the Moonshine for 3 daies together it will giue light and shine all night long also That the Magi or Sages of Persia as also the Parthian kings vse this herb ordinarily in their solemn vowes that they make to their gods last of all That some call it Chenomychos because Geese are afraid of it when they see it first others name it Nyctilops because in the night season it shineth and glittereth afarre off As for Melilote it commeth vp euery where howbeit the best simply wherof is made the greatest account is in Attica but inwhat place soeuer it growes that is most accâ—…pted which is fresh new gathered not enclining to white but as like vnto Saffron as is possible And yet in Italie the white Melilote is the sweeter and more odoriferous The first floure bringing tidings of the springs approch is the white bulbous stock-Gillofre And in some warmer climates they put forth and shew euen in Winter Next vnto it for their timely appearance is the purple March Violet and then after them the Panse called in Latine Flammea and in Greeke Phlox I meane the wild kind onely Codiaminon bloweth twice in the yeare namely in the Spring and the Autumne for it cannot abide either Winter or Summer Somewhat later than those before rehearsed are the Daffodil and Lilly ere they flour especially in countries beyond sea in Italy verily as I haue said before they bloum not till after Roses for in Greece the Passe-floure Anemone is yet more lateward Now is this Anemone the floure of certain wild Bulbes different from that other Anemone whereof I will speake in the Treatise of Physick-hearbs Then followeth Oenanthe and Melanion and of the wild sort Heliochrysos After them a second kind of Passe-flower or Anemone called also Leimonia beginneth to blow And immediatly vpon it the pety Gladen or sword-grasse accompanied with the Hyacinth last of all the Rose sheweth in her likenes But quickly hath the Rose done and none so soone and yet I must except the garden Rose Of all the rest the Hyacinths or Harebels the stock-Gillo floure and Oenanthe or Filipendula beare floures longest But of this Oenanthe this regard must bee had that the floures bee often picked and plucked off and not suffered to run to seed This groweth in warme places It hath the very same sent that Grapes when they first bud and put out blossom whereupon it took the name Oenanthe But before I leaue the Hyacinth I cannot chuse but report the fable or tale that goeth thereof and which is told 2 maner of waies by reason that the floure hath certaine veines to be seen running in and out resembling these two letters in Greek AI plaine and easie to be read which as some say betoken the lamentable mone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Apollo made for his wanton minion Hyacinthus whome he loued or as others make report sprung vp of the bloud of Aiax who slew himselfe and represented the two first letters of his name AI. Helyachrysos beareth a yellow floure like to gold a small and fine leafe a little stalk also a slender but hard and stiffe withall The Magi or Sages of Persia vse to weare this hearbe and floure in their Guirlands and they be fully persuaded that by this meanes they shall win grace and fauour in this life yea and attaine to much honour in glorie prouided alwaies that their sweet compositions wherewith they annoint and perfume themselues be kept in a vessel or box of gold not yet fined nor purified in the fire which gold they call Apyron And thus much for the floures of the Spring Now succeed and comeafter in their rank the summer floures to wit Lychnis Iupiters flower or Columbine-and a second kind of Lilly likewise Iphyon and that Amaracus or Marjeram which they cal the Phrygian But of all others the flower Pathos is most louely beautifull whereof there be two kinds the one with a purple flower like vnto the Hyacinth the other is whiter and groweth commonly in churchyards among graues and tombs and the same holdeth on flouring better and liueth longer The flower de-luce also is a Summer flower These haue their time fade and are soone gone And then come other flowers for them in their place in
either they floure or they apple or els be ready to bring forth fruit and look when the leaues begin to wither their prickes lose their force and will not pierce Ixine is a rare herb and geason to be seen and not found growing in al countries alike Immediatly from the root it putteth forth leaus plenty out of the mids of which root there swelleth out a bunch like an apple but the same is couered with the foresaid leaues in the very â—…p of which fruit there is contained a gum of a pleasant tast called the thistle Mastick Touching the herb Cactos which groweth also in Sicily and no where els it hath a property by it self the stalks whereof shooting from the root creep along the ground and it carrieth a broad leafe full of pricks and thorns and indeed these stalks thus running vpon the earth the Sicilians cal Cactos which they vse to keep and preserue and being thus condited also they commonly eat as very good meat One stem it hath growing vpright which they terme Pternix as sweet pleasant as the other but it will not abide to be kept long The seed thereof is couered with a certain soft down which they call Pappos which being taken off with the husk there remaineth a tender kernell within which they eat find it as delicat as the very heart of the Date tree top which is called the Brain and this pith aforesaid the Sicilians name Ascalia The Caltrop thistle Tribulus groweth not but in moory grounds and standing dead waters Surely in other places folke curse it as they passe by the prickes and spurs stick out so dangerously but about the riuers Nilus and Strymon the inhabitants do gather it for their meat the nature of this plant is to lean and bend downward in the head to the water The leafe resembles in form those of the Elme and they hang by a long stele or taile But in other parts of the world there be two other kinds of Tribulus the one is leafed like vnto the Cichling pease the other hath leaues sharp pointed this second kind is later ere it floure and commonly groweth about the mounds of closes lying by villages and town sides the seed lieth in a cod rounder than the other and black withall whereas the former hath a sandy seed Of these thorny and pricky plants there is yet one kind more namely Ononis i. Rest. harrow for it carrieth pricks close to the very branches the leafe is like to Rue the whole stalk throughout is set with leaues disposed in manner of a garland This plant commonly groweth after corn it plagueth the plough and yet there is much adoto rid it out of a ground so loth it is to die Of plants that be prickie some haue their stalkes and branches trailing by the ground as namely that hearbe which they call Coronopus i. Harts horn or Buck-horne Plantaine contrariwise there stand vpright Orchanet the root whereof is so good to colour wax and wood red And of such as be more gentle in handling Camomile Phyllanthus Anemone and Aphace As for Crepis Apate their stalks be all leafe Moreouer this would be noted that the leaues of herbs differ one from another as well as in trees some in the length or shortnesse of the stele whereto they hang others in the breadth or narrownesse of the leafe it selfe in form also whereby you shal haue some cornered others cut and indented likewise in sent and floure for some there be that continue longer in flouring than others and blow not all at once but one part after another as Basill Tornsall Aphaca and Onocheile CHAP. XVII ¶ The difference of herbs in their leafe what hearbes they be that floure all the yeare long of the Asphodell Pistana and Petie-Gladen or Sword-grasse MAny hearbes there be as well as some trees which continue greene and hold their leaues from one end of the yeare to the other as Tornsol and Adianthum or Capillus Veneris Another sort there is of herbs that floure spike-wise of which kind are Cynops Alopecurus i. Foxtaile Stelephuros which some call Ortyx others Plantaine of which I will write more at large among Physick herbs and Thryollis Of these Alopecurus carrieth a soft spike and a thick mossie down not vnlike to Fox-tails whereupon it tooke that name in Greeke and Stelephurus resembleth it very much but that the Foxtaile bloweth not all together but beareth floures some at one time some at another Cichory and such like haue their leaues spreading vpon the ground and those put forth directly from the root beginning to spring immediatly after the apparition of the star Vergiliae As touching Parietary there be other nations as wel as the Aegyptians who feed vpon it it took the name Perdicium in Latine of the bird Perdix i. the Partridge that seeketh after it so much and plucketh it out of the wals where it groweth it hath many roots and the same thick In like maner the herb Ornithogale i. Dogs onion hath a small stem and a white but a root halfe a foot long the same is full of bulbs like onions soft also and accompanied with three or foure other spurs growing out of it This hearbe they vse to seeth among other pot-herbs for potage I will tell you a strange quality of the herb Lotos and of Aegilops if their seed be cast into the ground it wil not come vp in a yeare As wonderfull is the nature also of the Camomile for it beginneth to floure in the head whereas all other herbes which blow not all at once floure at the foot first Notable is the Bur likewise and worthy to be obserued I mean that which sticketh to our clothes as we passe by the floure lieth close and groweth within the said Bur and neuer appeareth without-forth it is I say as it were hatched within much like vnto those liuing creatures that couve and quicken their egges within their belly Semblably about the city Opus there is an herb called Opuntia which men delight to eat this admirable gift the leafe hath That if it be laied in the ground it will take root and there is no other way to plant this herb maintain the kind As for Iasione one leafe it hath and no more but so lapped and infolded that it seemeth as if they were many Touching Condrylla the herb it selfe is bitter but the juice of the root is hot and biting Bitter also is Aphaca or Dent de Lion as also that which is called Picris which name it took of the exceeding bitternesse that it hath the same floureth all the yere long As for Squilla and Safron they be both of a maruellous nature for whereas all other hearbes put out leafe first and then knit round into a stem in those two a man may euidently see the stalk before the leafe And in Saffron verily the said stalk thrusteth out the floure before it but
drink the same with salt and hony mixed therwith but the said decoction if it be made with an hogs foot with a hen capon or cock boiled withal is the wholsomer Some Physitians were of opinion That for to purge the body both Mercuries as wel the male as the female are to be giuen either boiled alone by themselues or els with Mallows they clense the brest parts and euacuat choler but they hurt the stomacke Touching all the other properties of Mercury I will write in place conuenient As Chiron the Centaure found out the medicinable vertues of certaine herbes so we are beholden to his scholler Achilles for one which is singular to heale wounds and of his name is called Achilleos This is that wound-herb wherewith by report he cured prince Telephus Some haue thought that hee deuised first the rust of brasse or verdegreece which is so excellent for salues and plasters therfore you shall see Achilles commonly painted scraping off the rust of his speare head with his sword into the wound of the said Telephus Others say that he tooke both the said rust or verdegreece and also the herb Achilleos to worke his cure Some would haue this Achillea to be Panaces Heracleon and others Sideritis we in Latine call it Millefolia An herb it is growing with a stalk or stem to the height of a cubit spreading into many branches clad from the very root vp to the top with leaues smaller than those of Fenell Others confesse indeed that this herb is singular good for wounds but the true Achilleos say they hath a blewish stalk a foot high no more bare and naked without any branches at all howbeit finely deckt and garnished on euery side with round leaues standing one by one in excellent order and making a faire sight There be again who describe it with a foursquare stem bearing heads in the top in manner of Horehound and leaued like vnto an Oke And this they say is of that efficacy that it wil conglutinat vnite sinews again if they were cut quite a sunder Moreouer you shall haue some who take it for Achillea that kinde of Sideritis growing vpon mud walls which if it be brused or stamped yeeldeth a stinking sent Moreouer there is another going vnder the name Achilleos like to this last described but that the leaues be whiter and fattier the little stalks or sprigs more tender it groweth in vineyards Last of al there is one more called Achilleos which riseth vp to the height of 2 cubits bearing pretty fine slender branches and those three square leaues resembling Fearn hanging by a long stele the seed is much like to that of the Beet In one word they be al of them most excellent for healing wounds And as for that especially which hath the largest leaues our countrimen in Latine haue called it Scopa Regia And the same is holden to be good for to heale the Squinancy or Gargle in swine In the same age wherin Achilles liued prince Teucer also gaue the first name and credit to one speciall herb called after him Teucrion which some nominat Hemionium this plant putteth forth little stalks in maner of rushes or bents and spreadeth low the leaues be small it loueth to grow in rough and vntoiled places a hard and vnpleasant sauor it hath in tast it neuer floureth and seed it hath none Soueraigne it is for the swolne and hard spleene the knowledge of which property came by this occasion as it is credibly and constantly reported It fortuned on a time when the inwards of a beast killed for sacrifice were cast vpon the ground where this herb grew it took hold of the spleen or milt and claue fast vnto it so as in the end it was seen to haue consumed and wasted it clean hereupon some there be that call it Splenion i. Spleenwort and there goeth a common speech of it That if swine doe eat the root of this herbe they shall be found without a milt when they are opened Some there be who take for Teucrium and by that name do call another herb full of branches in manner of hyssop leafed like vnto beans and they giue order that it should be gathered whiles it is in floure as if they made no doubt but that it would floure The best kind of this herb they hold to be that which commeth from the mountains of Cilicia and Pisidia Who hath not heard of Melampus that famous diuinor and prophet he it was of whom one of the Ellebores tooke the name and was called Melampodion and yet some therebe who attribute the finding of that herb vnto a shepheard or heardman of that name who obseruing wel that his she goats feeding therupon fell a scouring gaue their milk vnto the daughters of king Proetus whereby they were cured of their furious melancholy and brought again to their right wits This herb then being of so excellent operation it shall not be amisse to discourse at once of all the kinds of Ellebore whereof this maketh one And to begin withal two principal sorts there be of it namely the white and the black which distinction of colour most writers would haue to be meant and vnderstood of the roots only and no part else others there be who would haue the root of the blacke Ellebore to be fashioned like vnto those of the Plane-tree but that they be smaller and of a more darke duskish green diuided also into more jags and cuts but those of the white Ellebore to resemble the yong Beet new appearing aboue the ground saue onely that they be of a more blackish colour and along the back part of their concauitie inclining to red Both the one and the other bringeth forth a stalke in fashion like the Ferula or Fenel-geant a span or good hand-breadth high and the same consisteth of certain tunicles or skins folded one within another in manner of bulbous plants rising from the like root and the said root is full of strings or fringes as is the head of an onion The blacke Ellebore is a very poison to horses kine oxen and swine for it killeth them and therefore naturally these beasts beware how they eat of it whereas confidently they feed vpon the white The right season of gathering the Ellebores is in haruest time Great store thereof groweth vpon the hill Oeta but the best is that which is found in one only place therof neere about Pyra The black Ellebore commeth vp euery where but the best is in Helicon a mountaine much renowned and praised for other herbs beside it wherewith it is well furnished As touching the white that of the mount Oeta is counted the principall in a second degree is the white Ellebore of Pontus in the third place is to be ranged that which commeth from Elaea which they say groweth among vines in the fourth and last place for goodnesse is that of the mount Pernassus which is sophisticated with the
Euphorbium The same being grown thick and hard if a man break it resembleth gum Ammoniacke Tast it neuer so little at the tongues end it setteth all the mouth on a fire and so continueth it a long time hot but more by fits vntill in the end it parcheth and drieth the chaws and throat also far within CHAP. VIII ¶ Of Plantain Buglosse and Borrage Of Cynoglossa or Hounds tongue Of Buphthalmus i. Oxe eie or Many-weed Of Scythica Hippice and Ischaemon Of Vettonica and Cantabrica Of * Consiligo and Hiberis Of Celendine the great Canaria and Elaphoboscos Of Dictamnum Aristolochie or Hertwort That fish are delighted so much therwith that they will make hast vnto it and be soon taken Also the medicinable vertues of those herbs aboue named THemison a famous Physitian set forth a whole booke of the herbe Way-bred or Plantaine wherein he highly praiseth it and challengeth to himselfe the honor of first finding it out notwithstanding it be a triuiall and common herb trodden vnder euery mans foot Two kinds of it be found the one which is the lesser hath also narrower leaues and inclining more to a blackish green resembling for all the world sheepe * or lambs tongues the stalke is cornered bending downward to the ground it growes ordinarily in medows The other is greater with leaues enclosed as it were within certain ribs resembling the sides of our body which being in number seuen gaue occasion to some herbarists for to call it Heptapleuron as a man would say the seuen ribbed herb The stem of this Plantain riseth to a cubit in height much like to that of the Naphew That which groweth in moist and waterie places is of greater vertue than the other Of wonderfull power and efficacy it is by the astringent quality that it hath for to dry and condensate any part of the body and serueth many times in stead of a cautery or searing yron And there is nothing in the world comparable vnto it in staying of fluxes and destillations which the Creeks call Rheumatismes To Plantain may be ioined the herb * Buglossos so called for that the leafe is like an Oxe tongue This herb hath one speciall property aboue the rest that if it be put into a cup of wine it cheareth the heart and maketh them that drink it pleasant and merry whereupon it is called Euphrosynon Vnto this for affinity of name it were good to annex Cynoglossos i. Hounds tongue for the resemblance that the leaues haue to a dogs tongue a proper herb for vinet-works and knots in gardens It is commonly said That the root of that Cynoglossos which putteth forth 3 stems or stalks and those bearing seed if it be giuen to drink cureth tertian agues but the root of that which hath foure is as good for the Quartains Another * Cynoglossos there is like to it which carrieth small burs the root whereof being drunke in water is a singular counterpoison against the venome of toads and serpents An herb there is with flours like vnto oxe eies wherupon it took the name in Greek * Buphthalmos the leaues resemble Fennel it groweth about town sides it shutteth forth stalkes from the root plentifully which being boiled are good to be eaten Some there be who call it Cachla This herb made into a salue with wax resolueth all * schirrous and hard swellings Other plants there be which beare the names not of men but of whole nations which first found them and their vertues out And to begin withall beholden we are to Scythia for that which is called Scythica It groweth notwitstanding in Boeotia and is exceeding sweet in tast Also there is another of that name singular good for the cramps called by the Greeks Spasmata An excellent property it hath besides for that whosoeuer holds it in their mouth shall for the time be neither hungry nor thirsty Of the same operation there is another herb among the Scythians or Tartars called Hippice because it workes the like effect in horses keeping them from hunger and thirst And if it be true that is reported the Scythians with these herbs wil endure without meat or drink for twelue daies together Touching the herbe Ischaemon the Thracians first found out the rare vertue that it hath in stanching bloud according as the very name implies For say they it wil stop the flux of bloud running and gushing out of a veine not only opened but also if it were â—…ut through It coucheth and creepeth low by the ground and is like vnto Millet but that the leaues be rough and hairy The manner is to stuffe the nosthrils therewith for to stay the bleeding at nose And that which groweth in Italy stancheth bloud if it be but hanged about the neck or tied to any part of the body The people in Spaine named Vettones were the first authors of that herb which is called in France * Vettonica in Italy Serratula and by the Greeks Cestron or Psychotrophon Surely an excellent herb this is and aboue all other simples most worthy of praise It commeth forth of the ground and riseth vp with a cornered stalke to the heigh of two cubits spreading from the very root leaues of the bignesse of Sorrell cut in the edges or toothed in manner of a saw with floures of a purple color growing in a spike seed correspondent therto The leaues dried and brought into pouder be good for very many vses There is a wine and vineger made or condite rather with Betony soueraign for to strengthen the stomack and clarifie the eiesight This glorious prerogatiue hath Betony that look about what house soeuer it is set or sowed the same is thought to be in the protection of the gods and safe enough for committing any offence which may deserue their vengeance and need any expiation or propitiatory sacrifice In the same Spain groweth * Cantabrica lately found by the people Cantabri and no longer since than in the daies of Augustus Caesar. This herb is to be seen euery where rising vp with a benty or rushy stalk a foot high vpon which you may behold small long floures like to cups or beakers wherein lie enclosed very small seeds Certes to speak the truth of Spain it hath bin alwaies a nation curious in seeking after simples And euen at this day in their great feasts where they meet to make merry Sans-nombre they haue a certain wassell or Bragat which goeth round about the table made of honied wine or sweet mead with a hundred distinct herbs in it and they are persuaded that it is the most pleasant and wholsomest drinke that can be deuised yet there is not one amongst them all who knoweth precisely what speciall herbs there be in all that number in this only they be all perfect that there go a hundred seuerall kinds therto according as the name doth import In our age we remember well that there was an hero discouered
it the herbe Flea-wort or Cotyledon otherwise called Vmbilicus veneris stamped with fried Barly meale into a cataplasme or els to take Iubarb i. Sengreen to the same effect The herbe Molon hath a stem chamfered or channelled along soft leaues those small a root foure fingers long in the end whereof it beareth an head like vnto Garlicke Some call it Syron Taken in wine it helpeth the stomack and difficulty of drawing breath In which cases the greater Centaury is singular if it be reduced into a lohoch or liquid electuary Plantain also eaten any way either in a green-sauce or sallad This composition is reputed a soueraign medicine Take of Betony stamped the weight of one pound of Atticke hony as much incorporat them together and hereof drinke euery day the quantity of halfe an ounce in some conuenient liquor or in water warm Aristolochia or Agarick are soueraigne meanes to be vsed in these infirmities if one drinke the weight of three oboli thereof either in warme water or asses milke The herb Cissanthemos is good to be drunk for those that be streight winded and must sit vpright when they draw their breath In the like case Hyssop is commended as also for pursiuenesse and shortnesse of wind The juice of Harstrang is an ordinary medicine for the griefe of the liuer the pains also of brests and sides in case the Patient be cleare of the ague As for Agarick it helpeth all such as spit bloud if the pouder thereof to the weight of one Victoriat be giuen in fiue cyaths of honied wine Of the same operation is Amomum But particularly for the liuer the herb Teucria is thought to be soueraign if it be taken fresh green to the weight of foure drams in one hemine of water and vineger mixed together One dram of Betony giuen in three cyaths of warm water or in tw ain of cold is thought to be a singular cordiall The iuice of Cinquefoile helpeth all the imperfections of the liuer and lights it cureth them that voyd or reach vp bloud and generally it serueth for al inward corruptions and distemperatures of the whole masse of bloud Both Pimpernels be wonderfull medicinable for the liuer Fumiterre the herb whosoeuer do eat shal purge choler by vrine Galangale is helpfull likewise to the liuer to the chest also and the midriffe or precordial parts The herb Caucon named also Ephedra and by some Anabasis groweth ordinarily in open tracts exposed to the wind it wil clime vpon trees and hang down from their boughs and branches Leafe it hath none but is garnished with a number of haires which are no other but rushes indeed full of ioints and knots the root is of a pale colour Let this herb be beaten to pouder and giuen in red wine that is greene and hard it is good for the cough for the shortnesse of wind and the wrings of the belly it may be taken also in some other supping whereto it were conuenient to put wine In like sort the infusion of one dram of Gentian which hath lien steeped the day before may be very wel taken in three cyaths of wine for those purposes Herb Benet or Auens hath a small root of a blackish colour which hath a good sent this herb not only cureth the pains of the brest and side but also discusseth all crudities proceeding of vnperfect digestion by reason of the pleasant sauour that it hath As for Veruaine it is medicinable vnto all the prrncipall and noble parts within the body good for the sides the lungs the liuer and the breast but most properly it respecteth the lungs and namely when the patient is in a phthy sick or consumption by the means of their vlcer The root of Bearfoot an herb which I said was but lately found out is a present remedie for swine sheep goats all such cattel in case they be diseased in the lights if it be but drawn crosse through any of their eares The same ought to bee drunke in water and a piece thereof continually held vnder the tongue As for any other part of this hearbe aboue ground be it leafe stalke floure or seed it is not yet certainly knowne whether it be good or no for any purpose in Physicke As for the kidneies the hearbe Plantaine is good to be eaten Betonie to be drunke Agaricke also to be taken in drinke like as for the cough Tripolium groweth vpon the rocks by the sea side on which the sea-water beateth so as a man cannot say that it is either in the sea or the drie land in leafe it resembleth woad but that it is thicker the stemme is a span or hand-breadth high forked and diuided at the point the root white odoriferous grosse and hot in taste when it is sodden in a frumenty pottage of wheat they giue it with good successe to those that be diseased in the liuer this is thought of some to be all one with Polium whereof I haue spoken in due place Symphonia or Gromphena an herbe hauing leaues some red others greene growing to the stem in order one red and another greene is a soueraigne medicine for such as reach and void vp bloud if it be taken in oxycrat or vineger water mingled together Melandryum is an herb found growing in corn-fields medows with a white floure and the same of a sweet and pleasant sent the smal stems therof be commended for the liuer in case they be stamped giuen in old wine Chalcetum commeth vp in vineyards which if it be punned serueth for a good cataplasme to be applied vnto the region of the liuer The root of Betony taken to the weight of foure drams in wine cuit or honied wine prouoketh vomit readily as well as Ellebore But for this purpose Hyssope is better being beaten in pouder and giuen with honey but order would be giuen before vnto the Patient to eat Cresses or Irio Molemonium also is of the like effect if it be taken to the weight of one denier Moreouer the herb Silybum hath a white juice like vnto milke which after it is thickened to the substance of a gum is vsually taken to the foresaid weight with hony for a vomitorie and doth euacuat cholericke humors especially On the contrary side wild Cumin and the poâ—…der of Betony if they be drunk with water do stay vomiting For to digest the crudities of the stomack and to rid away the loathing to meat Carrot is thought to be very good so is the pouder of Betony if it be taken in honied water and Plantain also boiled in potage after the manner of Coleworts or such like potherbs Hemonium staieth the painful yex oâ—… hocquet In like sort Aristolochia Clymenos giues liberty to draw the wind more freely The greater Centaury and Hyssop are singular in drink for the pleurisie and inflammation of the lungs The iuice of Harstrang principally is a proper remedy for those that haue
blacke and blew vnder the eies with hony it reduceth the place to the natiue colour againe The vapour or fume of the decoction of wormwood receiued into the eares assuageth their paine or if they run with corrupt matter it is good to apply the same reduced into pouder and incorporat in hony Take three or foure sprigs of wormwood one root of Nardus Gallicus boile them in six cyaths of water it is a soueraigne medicine to drinke for to prouoke vrine and bring downe the desired sicknesse of women or beeing taken simply alone with hony and withall put vp in a pessarie made with a locke of wooll it is of speciall operation to procure their monthly terms with honey and sal-nitre it is singular for the Squinancie it healeth chill-blanes if they be bathed with the decoction thereof in water applied vnto fresh or green wounds in a cataplasme before any cold water come vnto them it healeth them and besides in that manner it cureth the scals in the head being incorporat with Cyprian wax or figges and so applied to the flankes or hypochondrial parts it hath a particular vertue by it selfe to helpe their griefes Moreouer it killeth any itch Howbeit this would be noted that wormewood in no case must be giuen to those that haue an ague Let a man or woman vse to drinke wormewood they shall not be sea-sicke nor giuen to heauing as commonly they be that are at sea If wormewood be worne in a trusse to the bottome of the bellie it allayeth the swelling in the share The smell of wormewood procureth sleepe or if it be laid vnder the pillow or bolster prouided alwaies that the patient be not ware of it Either basted within cloaths or strewed vpon them it keepeth away the moth If one rub his body therewith and oile together it driueth gnats away so doth the smoke therof also when it burneth If writing inke be tempered with the infusion of wormewood it preserueth letters and bookes written therewith from being gnawne by mice The ashes of wormewood burnt and incorporate with oile Rosat to an ointment coloureth the haire of the head black There is yet another kinde of Sea-wormewood which some call Seriphium and excellent good is that which groweth about the city Taphositis in Aegypt Of this wormewood it is that the priests of Isis in their solemne marches and processions vse to beare branches before them The leaues be somewhat narrower than those of the former and the bitternesse not altogether so much An enemy it is to the stomacke howbeit the belly it loosneth and chaseth worms out of the guts for which purpose it is good to drink it with oile and salt or else the infusion therof in a supping or grewell made with the floure of the three moneth corne To make the decoction of wormwood well there would be taken a good handfull of wormwood and sodden in a sextar of water to the consumption of the one halfe CHAP. VIII ¶ Of stinking Horehound of Mille-graine or Oke of Ierusalem of Brabyla Bryon Bupleuros Catanance of Calla Circaea and Cersium of Crataeogonon and Thelygonum of Crocodilium and Cynosorchis of Chrysolachanon Cucubalon and Conserua STinking Horehound which some Greeks call Ballote others Melamprasion i. Black Horehound is an herbe tufted full of branches the stems be black and cornered the leaues wherwith they be clad and garnished are somewhat hairy resembling those of sweet or white Horehound but that they be bigger blacker and of a stinking sauor but the leaues stamped and applied with salt be very effectuall against the biting of a mad dog also if they be wrapped in a Colewort or Beet leafe and so rosted vnder the embers they are commended for the swelling piles in the fundament This Horehound made into a salue with honey clenseth filthie vlcers Botrys is an herb ful of branches and those of a yellowish colour and beset round with seed the leaues resemble Cichorie Found it is commonly growing about the banks of brookes and riuerets Good it is for them that be streight winded and cannot draw their breath but sitting vpright The Cappadocians call it Ambrosia others Artemisia As for Brabyla they be astringent in manner of Quinces More than so I find not any Author to write thereof Bryon no doubt is a Sea-herbe like in leaues to Lettuce but that they be riuelled and wrinkled as if they were drawne together in a purse no stem it hath and the leaues come forth at the bottom from the root it groweth ordinarily vpon rockes bearing out of the sea and ye shall find it also sticking to the shels of certaine fishes especially such as haue gathered any mud or earth about them The herbe is exceeding astringent and desiccatiue by vertue whereof it is a singular repercussiue in all impostumes and inflammations of the gout especially such as require to be repressed or cooled Touching Bupleuros I read that the seed thereof is giuen against the sting of serpents and that the wounds inflicted by them are to bee washed or somented with the decoction of the herb putting thereto the leaues of the Mulberrie tree or Origan Catanance is a meere Thessalian herb and growing no where els but in Thessalie and forasmuch as it is vsed only in amatorious matters and for to spice loue drinks withall I meane not to busie my selfe in the description therof howbeit thus much it would not be amisse to note for to detect and lay open the folly and vanities of Magitians namely that they went by this conjecture onely that it should be of power to win the loue of women because forsooth when it is withered it draweth it selfe inward like a dead Kites foot For the same reason also I will hold my tongue and say neuer a word of the herb Cemos Cala is of two sorts the one like to Aron which loueth to grow in toiled and ploughed grounds the time to gather this herb is before it begin to wither the same operation it hath that Aron and is vsed to the like purposes the root thereof is commended to be giuen in drink for a purgation of the belly and to prouoke the monethly termes of women the stalkes boyled leafe and all together with some pulse or other into a pottage and so taken cure the inordinate prouocations to the stoole and streinings therupon without doing any thing The second kind some call Anchusa others Rhinochisia the leaues resemble Lettuce but that they be longer ful of plume or down the root red which being applied with the floure of barly groats healeth shingles or any other kind of S. Anthonies fire but drunke in white wine cureth the infirmities of the liuer Circaeum is an herb like to winter Cherry or Alkakengi but for the flours which are black the seed small as the graine of Millet and the same groweth in huskes or bladders resembling little hornes the root is halfe a foot long forked
or wine The bloud of the fouls abouenamed helpeth those that cannot see toward a night the liuer also of a sheep doth the same but if the said sheep be of a russet or browne colour the medicine will do the better for as I obserued before in Goats those that carry such a coat bee alwaies esteemed best Many giue counsell to foment and wash the eies with the decoction of the said liuer and if they be in pain and swollen withall they aduise to annoint them with the marrow of a Mutton They promise also That the ashes of scrich-owles eyes put into a collyrie wil clarifie the sight Indeed the dung of Turtles consumeth the white pearles in the eyes so doth the ashes of shell-snailes or hoddidods as also the meuting of the kestrell Cenchris which the Greeke writers wil haue to be a kind of Hawke As for the spot or pearle in the eie called Argema it may be cured by all those medicines aboue rehearsed so that they be applied thereto with hony But the best hony simply for the eies is that wherein a number of Bees were forced to die Whosoeuer hath eaten a young storke out of the nest he shall they say continue many yeares together and neuer be troubled with inflamed or bleared eies like as they that carrie about them a Dragons head It is said moreouer That the Dragons grease incorporat in honey and old oile dispatcheth and scattereth the filmes and webs that trouble the sight if they bee taken betimes before they be grown too thicke Some there be who at the full of a Moone put out the eies of yong swallowes marking the time when they haue recouered their sight againe for then they pluck off their heads and burne them to ashes which being tempered with hony they vse for to cleare their owne sight to ease the pains and discusse the blearednesse of eies yea and to heale them if they haue caught a blow or rush As for Lizards they vse to prepare them many and sundry waies for the infirmities incident to the eies Some take the green Lizard and put her close within a new earthen pot that neuer was occupied and therewith 9 of those little stones which the Greeks call Cinaedia and these are vsually applied vnto the share for the swelling glandules and tumors that many times rise there marking euery one of them respectively by themselues which being done they take forth of the pot euery day one when the ninth day is come they let out the Lizard and then they keepe the said stones thus ordered and prepared as soueraigne remedies to allay the pain and griefe of the eies Others get a green Lizard and put out her eies and bestow her in a glasse with a bed of earth vnder her in the bottome thereof and withall inclose within the said glasse certaine rings either of solid yron or massie gold and so soon as they perceiue through the glasse that the Lizard hath recouered her sight againe they let her forth but the said rings they keep with great care and regard as a speciall meanes for to helpe any bleared eies There be moreouer who vse the ashes of a Lizards head in stead of Stibium or Antimonium for to make smooth the roughnesse of the eye-lids Some hunt after green Lizards with long neckes which breed in sandy and gravelly grounds and when they be gotten burne them to ashes with which they vse to represse the flux of waterish humors which begin to fall into the eies yea and therewith consume the red pearls growing therein It is said moreouer That if a Weasels eies be pecked or plucked out of the head they will come againe and shee will recouer her sight and therefore they practise the like with rings and them together as I obserued before in Lizards Furthermore it is said That as many as carry about them the right eie of a serpent tied vnto any part it is very good for to stay the violent rheumes that haue taken to the eies but then in any wise the serpent must be let goe aliue after that she hath lost her eie As touching those eies which be euermore weeping and do stand ful of water continually the ashes of the star-lizards head called Stellio together with Antimonium helpeth them exceeding much The copweb which the common Spider maketh that vseth to catch flies but especially that which shee hath wouen for her nest or hole wherein she lieth her selfe is soueraigne good for the flux of humours into the eyes if the same be applied all ouer the forehead so as it meet with the temples on both sides but wot you what none must haue the doing hereof either to get the said copwebs or to lay it vnto the place but a young lad not as yet vndergrowne nor foureteene yeares of age neither must he be seene of the partie whom hee cureth in three daies after ne yet during the space of those three dayes must either hee or his Patient touch the ground with their bare feet Which circumstances and ceremonies being duely obserued it is wonderfull to see what a cure will follow thereupon Furthermore it is said That these white spiders with the long and slender legs being punned and incorporat in old oile be singular for to consume the white pearle in the eie if the same be dressed with that composition Also those spiders that worke ordinarily vnder roofes rafters and boorded floores of houses and weaue the thickest webs if any of them be inwrapped within a piece of cloth and kept bound to the eies or forehead do restraine for euer the said rheumes and catarrhes that haue found a way to the eies The greene Beetle hath a property naturally to quicken their sight who do but behold them and therefore these lapidaries and cutters or grauers in precious stones if they may haue an eie of them once looke vpon them take no more care for their eie-sight how it should serue their turnes when they are at their worke Thus much of eies As concerning the ears and the infirmities incident vn them there is not a better thing to mundifie and cleanse them than a sheepes gall with hony and a bitches milke if it be dropped into them easeth their paine Dogs grease tempered with Wormewood and old oile helpeth those that be hard of hearing so doth Goose grease howbeit some put thereto the juice of an Onion Garlick of each a like quantity In this case also there is much vse of Ants egs alone without any thing els for as little and silly a creature as it is yet she is not without some medicinable vertues insomuch as Beares when they feele themselues sickish or not well at ease cure themselues with eating Pismires As for the manner of preparing as well the grease of a goose as of all other fouls this it is first the fat ought to be clensed and rid from all the skins veines and strings that are among it and
greatest proportion thereof to Asturia and there is not any part of the world comparable to it either for so great fertility of mines or so long continuance holding out as they do so many ages As for Italy our antient Senat in old time thought good to haue it spared and they made an Act forbidding expressely to break any ground for mines otherwise there is not I dare be bold to say a land more plentifull in gold and other mettals And here there commeth to my remembrance an Act of the Censors extant vpon record as touching the gold mine of Ictimulum a towne in the territory or countrey of Vercelles which Act contained an inhibition that the publicanes who fermed that mine of the city should not keepe aboue fiue thousand pioners together at worke there Moreouer there is one deuise to make artificiall gold to wit of Orpiment a minerall digged out of the ground in Syria where it lyeth very ebbe and the painters vse it much in colour it resembleth gold but brittle it is in substance like as glasse stones And verily Caligula the Emperour a couetous prince and greedy of gold was in great hope to extract gold out of this minerall and thereupon caused a huge masse thereof to bee boiled melted and calcined and in truth he made therof most excellent gold but in so smal a quantity that it would not quit for the cost pains about it in somuch as he lost by the bargain yet his auarice was such as he would needs make the experiment notwithstanding that orpiment it selfe was worth fourteene deniers the pound but he sped so bad that no man afterwards would go about to try the like conclusion Gold vntried is of a diuers touch generally there is not any but it hath siluer in it more or lesse for in some places the gold ore hath a tenth part in weight of siluer in others a ninth and there is again that hath a mixture of the eight part In one gold mine within France called Albicrarense there is found in gold the 36 part of siluer and no more such mettall is not elswhere found to my knowledge and therefore it passeth all other whatsoeuer There is a base kind of pale and whitish gold which hath in it a fifth part of siluer and whersoeuer this is found they call it Electrum Such mettall lieth commonly in trenches and pits minerall and namely with that gold which I called before Canaliense Moreouer there is an artificiall Electrum made namely by intermingling gold with siluer according to the naturall mixture but if it exceed that proportion of one part to fiue it wil not abide the hammer and the anuill This white gold also hath bin of great account time out of mind as may appeare by the testimony of the Poet Homer who writeth that the pallace of prince Menelaus glittered with gold electrum siluer and yvorie At Lindos a city within the Island of the Rhodians there is the temple of Minerua wherein Lady Helena did dedicate vnto that goddesse a cup made of Electrum and as the story saith moreouer it was framed and wrought just to the proportion bignesse of one of her own paps This property hath Electrum naturally To shine by candle-light more cleare and bright than siluer This singularitie and proper vertue it hath besides if it be naturall to discouer and shew any poison for be there poison in a cup of this mettall a man shal see therein certain semicircles resembling rainbows perceiue besides the liquor to keep a hissing and sparkling noise as the fire doth which 2 signs do certainly giue warning of poison As touching statues of gold it is said that the first image that euer was knowne to be solid and massie was that of the goddesse Diana syrnamed Anaitis which stood within a temple dedicated to her which in my Cosmography I haue signified vnder that name and this was before any brasen statue of that making This temple in those parts was accounted in regard of the diuine power of this goddesse most holy and sacred and such a kind of Image they cal Holosphyraton Howbeit as religious as the church was Antonie in his voiage into Parthia spoiled it and carried away the said Image And here I cannot forget to put downe a pretty speech which by report an old gentleman and souldier of Bononie deliuered to Augustus Caesar at what time as he was entertained as a guest and supped with the said Emperour at his owne table for beeing asked by Augustus whether it was true that the man who first violated this goddesse died blind lame and bereaued of all his lims he answered Yea sir that it is and that me thinks you should know best for euen now a leg of his you haue at supper and all your wealth besides is come to you by that saccage The first man that caused his owne statue to be made of gold and the same solid massie was Gorgias Leontinus the great Orator and Rhetoritian which to immortalize his owne name he set vp in the temple at Delphos and this was about the 70 Olympias whereby we may see what wealth and gain was gotten in those daies by teaching Oratory and the Art of Rhetorick But to come at length vnto the medicinable vertues of gold certes diuers waies effectuall it is in the cure of many diseases for first of all soueraign it is for green wounds if it be outwardly applied and if yong children weare it about them lesse harme shal they haue by any sorcery witchcraft or inchantments that be brought into the house or practised where they are howbeit gold it selfe if it be carried ouer one is thought to be mischieuous and hurtfull for in that sort it doth harme also to hens that couve and sit or ews that are great with lambe and ready to yeane But what is the remedy to preuent this mischiefe marry take the same gold that is thus brought in place to do a shrewd turn wash it well and with that water besprinkle them that you would cure Moreouer gold may be torrified once with cornes of salt taken to the triple weight thereof and a second time with two parts of salt and one of the stone which they call Schistis by this manner of preparing all the venomous and hurtfull quality that is therein it doth transfuse into the other things that be calcined or burnt therewith which must be done vpon an earthen vessell and it selfe continueth pure and incorrupt still Now the rest of the ashes separated from the gold saued in an earthen pot and incorporat with water into the forme of a liniment healeth the foule tettar that appeareth in the face it cureth the same disease also if the face be rubbed with the said ashes and beane floure together but then it must be afterwards washed off These ashes thus prepared cure the hollow vlcers called fistuloes and also the haemorrhoids but in case you put thereto the
Anthonies fire In agues it procureth sweat so that the patient drink the juice thereof mingled with hot water But of all herbes that be there is none more wonderful then Greimile some call it in Greek Lithospermon others Aegonychon some Diospyron and other Heracleos It groweth ordinarily fiue inches high and the leaues be twice as big as those of Rue The foresaid stalks or stems be no thicker than bents or rushes and the same garnished with small and slender branches It bringeth forth close ioining to the leaues certain little beards one by one in the top of them little stones white and round in manner of pearls as big as cich pease but as hard as very stones Toward that side where they hang to their steles or tailes they haue certain holes or concauities containing seed within This herb groweth in Italy but the best in the Island Candy And verily of all the plants that euer I saw I neuer wondred at any more so sightly it groweth as if some artificiall goldsmith had set in an alternatiue course and order these prety beads like orient pearls among the leaues so rare a thing it is difficult to be conceiued that a very hard stone should grow out of an herb The Herbarists who haue written thereof do say that it lieth along and creepeth by the ground for mine owne patt I neuer saw it growing in the plant but shewed it was vnto me plucked out of the ground This is for certaine knowne that these little stones called Greimile seed drunke to the weight of one dram in white wine breake the stone expell the same by grauell and dispatch those causes that be occasions of strangurie Certes a man no sooner seth this hearb but he may presently know the vertues thereof and for what it serueth in Physicke a thing that he shall not obserue again in any other whatsoeuer for at the very first sight of these little stones his eie will tell him what it is good for without information from any person at all There be common stones found about riuers bearing a certain drie hoary mosse vpon them Rub one of these stones against another hauing spit first therupon and then therewith touch the tettar or ringworme in any part of the body it will kill the same but the party must as he toucheth it vtter this charme following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say Cantharides flie apace for a wilde Wolfe followeth in chase The French-men haue a certaine herbe which they call Limeum out of which they draw a venomous juice named by them Stags-poison wherewith they vse to envenome their Arrow heads when they go to hunt their red Deere Take of this as much as goeth to the poysoning of one arrow and put it in three measures or Modij of a mash wherewith they vse to drench cattel and make sops thereof and conuey them down the throat of sick oxen or kine it will recouer them But presently after the receit of this medicine they must be tied vp sure vnto their bousies vntill the medicine haue done purging for the beasts commonly fare all the while that it is in working as if they were wood In case they fall a sweating vpon it they must be washed all ouer with cold water Leuce is an herbe like vnto Mercury but it tooke that name by reason of a certaine white strake or line that runneth crosse through the mids of the leafe for which cause some cal it Mesoleucas The iuice of this herbe healeth fistuloes and the substance of the herbe it selfe stamped cureth cancerous sores It may be peraduenture the same herb which is named Leucas that is so effectuall against all venomous stings proceeding from any sea-fishes The herbarists haue not described this herb otherwise than thus That the wild kind thereof with the broader leafe is more effectual in the leaues and that the seed of the garden kind hath more acrimony than the other Touching Leucographis what manner of herbe it should be I haue not found in any writer and I wonder thereat the rather because it is reported to be so good for them that void reach bloud vpward namely if it be taken to the weight of three oboli with Safron likewise stamped with water and so applied it is singular good against those fluxes that proceed from the imbecility of the stomacke soueraigne also for to stav the immoderat flux of womens termes And it entereth into those medicines which are appropriate for the eies yea and into incarnatiues such especially as be fit to incarnat those vlcers which are in the most tender and delicat parts of the body CHAP. XII ¶ Of Medium Myosota Myagros Nigina Natrix Odontitis Othonne Omosma Onopordos Osyris Oxys Batrachion Polygonon Pancration Peplos Periclymenos Laucanthemon Phyteuma Phyllon Phellandrion Phalaris Polyrrhizon and Proserpinaca of Rhacoma Reseda and Stoechas MEdion hath leaues like vnto garden Floure-de-lis A stem three foot high garnished with faire large floures of purple colour and round in forme the seed is small and the root halfe a foot long it groweth willingly vpon stony grounds lying in the shade The root taken in a liquid electuary or lohoch made with hony to the quantity of 2 drams for cerdaies together staieth the immoderat flux of womens monethly termes The seed also reduced into pouder and drunke in wine represseth their extraordinary shifts Myosota otherwise called Myosotis is a smooth herbe shooting forth many stems from one single root and those in some sort of a reddish colour and hollow garnished with leaues which toward the root be narrow long and blackish hauing their backe part sharpe and edged which leaues grow along the stems two by two together and out of the concauities or armpits between the stalk and them there put forth other small branches with a blew floure The root is of the thicknesse of a mans finger bearded with many small strings resembling hairs This root is of a corrosiue nature fretting and exulcerating any place wherunto it is applied in which regard it healeth vp the fistulous vlcers called Aegilops growing between the nose and angles of the eies The Aegyptians are of opinion that if vpon the 27 day of that moneth which they call Thiatis and which answereth very neare to our moneth August a man or woman do annoint themselues with the juice of this herb in a morning before they haue spoken one word he or she shall not be troubled with bleared eies all that yeare long Myagros is an herb growing vp with stems in manner of Fenell geant in leaues resembling Madder and riseth to the height of 3 foot The seed which it beareth is oleous out of it there is an oile drawne which is good for the sores in the mouth if they be annointed therewith The herbe called Nigina hath three long leaues like vnto those of Succorie wherewith if scars remaining after vlcers and wounds be rubbed it will