which leaves in the hotest daies is found a certain fatness which is diligently gathered and dryed and makes that Gum which is called Lapdanum Government and Vertues These plants are governed by Jupiter the flowers and leaves of Cistus are dry in the second degree and somewhat astringent that which groweth about the roots is of like temperature but more astringent Lapdanum is hot in the second degree almost and is somewhat dry and astringent The flowers of Cistus boyled in Wine and drunk stoppeth the Lask Lask and all issues of bloud and dryes up superfluous moisture Bloody issues as well of the Stomack as other parts of the belly the leaves do cure and heal green wounds being laid thereupon Green-Wounds Hypocistis stoppeth all Fluxes of the belly Fluxes and is of a stronger operation then the flowers and leaves of Cistus wherefore it cureth the bloody Flux and the immoderate overflowing of Womens Courses Womens Courses Ladanum drunk with old Wine stoppeth the Lask Lask and provoketh Urine It is very good against the hardness of the Matrix or Mother Matrix laid to in manner of a pessary it draweth down the secondine or afterbirth afterbirth when it is laid upon quick-coales and the fumigation or smoak thereof be received up into the Matrix the same applied to the head with Myrrhe or oyl of Myrrhe Head cureth the scurff thereof Scurffe and keepeth the hair from falling off if it be droped into the Eares with honied Water or Oyle of Roses it healeth pains in the Eares Eares It taketh away the Scars of wounds being applied thereunto with Wine Scars it is also very profitably mixed withall unguents and plaisters that serve to heat moisten and asswage pains and for such as be laid to the breast against the Cough Cockle Names IT is called also Nigell-weed Field-Nigella and Cockle Descript It hath straight slender hairy stems the leaves be also long narrow hairy and grayish the flowers are of a brown purple colour changing towards red divided into five small leaves not much differing from the proportion of Wild Campions after which there groweth round cups wherein is contained plenty of seed of a black brown colour Place It is two frequent amongst Corn Wheat Rye and Barly Time It flowers in May June and July Government and Vertues This unprofitable guest amongst Corn is of a Saturnine quality causeth giddinesse of the Head and stupifies if it get amongst the Corn to be made with it into bread and howsoever taken it is dangerous and hurtful although some ignorant persons have mistaken it for the right Nigella or used it instead Yuray or Darnell to the great danger of the patient Corn-flour Names IT is also called Blew-bottle Hurt-Sicle and Blew-blow great Corn-flour and Wild-corn-flour Descript Corn-flour hath a crested stalk upon the which grow narrow sharp-pointed and grayish leaves notched or cut about the edges and sharp corners like teeth about the top of the stalks it beareth small round buttons which be rough and scaly out of which grow pleasant flowers of five or six jagged leaves most commonly blew especially the wild kind which being vanished there groweth in the scaly huskes or heads certain long seeds which are inclâ—sed in a hairy down or Cotton Place It groweth in the fields amongst Corn but especially amongst Rye there are other kinds which have whiâ—e and purple flowers which are planted in Gardens of Herbarists and of them called Cyanus Time These flowers do flourish from May untill August Government and Vertues Corn-flour is cold and dry a plant of the Lunar influence and is appropriate to the Eyes Corn-flour bruised or pouâ—ded and laid to the Eyes cureth any redness running or inflamation thereof Eyes inflamed or any kind of Tumor or hot inflamation or Tumor about the Eyes Distilled water of Corn-flour or Cyanus cureth redness and pain of the Eyes either being dropped into the Eyes or the Eyes washed therewith Coryander Names IT is called in shops Coryandrum in English Coryander and of some Colyander Description This is a stinking plant it beareth a round stalk full of branches of a foot and an half long the leaves are whitish all jagged and cut the under leaves that spring up first are almost like the leaves of Chervil or Parsly and the upper leaves are not much unlike the same or rather like to Fumitory leaves but a great deal tenderer and more jagged the flowers be white and grow in round tuffets the seed is all round and hollow within and of a very pleasant sent when it is dry the root is hard and of a woody substance Place It is sown in Gardens and loveth a good Soyle Time It flowereth in July and August and the seed is ripe shortly after Government and Vertues The green plant is cold and dry of a Saturnine quality hurtful to the body but the sweet-savoring seed is of a warm temperature and useful for many purposes the seed of Coryander being prepared and taken alone or covered with Sugar after meales closeth up the mouth of the Stomack Stomack stayeth Vomiting and helpeth digestion Vomiting Digestion the same rosted or parched and drunk in Wine killeth and bringeth forth Worms out of the body Worms and stoppeth the Lask and bloody Flux and all other extraordinary issues of blood Lask Bloody Flux Coryander ought not to be covered with Sugar or to be put into any meat or medecine nor used any way unprepared the way of preparing it is after this manner viz. Take of the seed of Coryander well dried and pour thereupon good strong Wine and Vinegar mixed together and so leave them to steep by the space of four and twenty hours then take the seeds out of the Liquor and dry them so keep them to be used in medicine the green herb Coryander being boyled with crums of whitebread or barly meal consumeth and driveth away hot Tumors Tumors Kings-Evil Lumps St. Anthonies-fire swellings and inflamations and with bean-meal it dissolveth the Kings-evil hard knobs and Worms the juice applied with Ceruse Litharge of Silver Vinegar and oyl of Roses cureth St. Anthonies-fire and asswageth and easeth the pains of all inflamations Coloquintida Names I It is also called Wild-bitter-gourd and the fruit Coloquint-Apple Descript Coloquintida creepeth with his branches along by the ground with rough hairy leaves of a grayish colour much cloven or cut the flowers are bleak or pale the fruit round of a green colour at the beginning and after yellow the bark thereof is neither thick nor hard the inner part or pulpe is open and spongy full of gray seed in tast very bitter the which is dryed and kept for medicinal use Place Coloquintida groweth in Italy and Spain from which places the dryed fruit is brought unto us Time Coloquintida bringeth forth his fruit in September Nature and Vertues It is under the planetary influence of Mars
many growing close together each hanging on a long foot-stalk by it self with a notch or clift at the head or end thereof The wood hereof is harder more knotty and yellower then the Female Descript 2. Tilia foemina major The greater Female Line-tree groweth to be a larger tree then the former especially if it happen to be planted in good ground covered with a dark coloured bark the next thereunto being very pliable to bend and bind having some other thin rindes within it the leaves are fair broad greener smoother gentler rounder than Elm-leaves and with a longer end dented about the edges and of a reasonable good scent at the end of the branches oftentimes and at the foot of the leaves shoot forth long and narrow whitish leaves along the middle rib whereof springeth out a slender long stalk with divers white flowers thereon smelling very sweet after which follow small berries wherein is contained black round seed the wood is whitish smooth and light Descript 3. Tilia foemina minor The lesser Linden-tree is like the last in all things saving that it groweth smaller in body leaves and flowers the leaves are of a darker green colour and beareth no fruit after the flowers Place and Time The greater Female-kind is planted in many places in this land in pleasant Walks it making a large sweet shadow and usually flowreth in May. The other are great strangers and scarce to be seen any where in this land Government and Vertues There is no medicinal use made of the Male Linden The Female is under the dominion of Venus of a moderate temperature and somewhat drying and astringent the decoction of the leaves being sod in water is a pood Lotion to wash the sore Mouthes Sore mouths of young Children or any sore Mouths that have Ulcers blisters Vlcers blisters or Cankers in them The leaves being pounded or bruised after the boyling and applied to the Legs or Feet cankers swelled Feet that are swelled with falling down of humors doth help them the hark is also effectual for the same purpose The flowers of the Line-tree and of Lilly Convally distilled together the water thereof is good against the Falling-sickness so likewise is the distilled water of the bark and is good against those fretting humors that cause the bloody Flux and griping in the Guts the water wherein the inner bark hath been steeped till the water become thick and muscilaginous and applied with clothes wet therein helps burnings and scaldings Liquid Amber Descript and Place LIquid Amber is a thick Rozen like gum droping by incision from certain great trees in the West-Indies which trees are full of branches covered with a thick Ash-coloured bark the leaves are like unto Ivy leaves and the Gum which issueth from the tree is of a strong and sweet smell and is somewhat like unto Liquid Storax and may passe instead thereof for the same uses but there is a coarse sort which is the scum of the uppermost fatness that is made by boyling the branches and is supposed to be that Storax liquida sold by Druggists and Apothecaries out of the first sort while it is fresh and laid in the Sun there droppeth a certain clear reddish oyl called oyle of Liquid Amber and of some Liquid Amber it self Government and Virtues Both Tree and Gum are under the influence of Jupiter of a moderately hot and moist temperature and is useful either of it self or mixed with other things to comfort and warm a cold moist braine Brain Stomack Digestion Apetite Mother Tumors being used as an oyntment and easeth all pains proceeding from a cold cause being applied thereunto It comforts and strengtheneth a weak Stomack helps digestion and procures an Appetite But more effectually if a plaister be made thereof with some Storax Musk and Amber and applied to the Stomack it is also profitably used in all cold griefs of the the Mother it warms mollifies and dissolves Tumors and opens obstructions and stoppings of the Terms Lung-flower or Autumn Gentian Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of these plants are generally called Autumn small Gentians Gentianellae Autumnales and of some Pneumonanthe Descript 1. The greater Autumn Gentian Pneumonanthe dicta riseth up according to the richness of the ground higher or lower sometimes two foot high and sometimes not above a foot and sometimes with many and sometimes with fewer stalks of a brownish green colour with many long and narrow dark green leaves set by couples upon them up to the topsâ— which seldom branch forth but bear every one a large hollow flower in most of them of a deep blewish purple colour but in some a little paler ending in five points the roots are many small and long growing deep into the ground and abiding all the Winter Descript 2. Gentianella Autumnalis simbriato flore Antumn-Geatian of Naples This doth creep up like Couch-grasse from a long yellowish small root shooting forth a few long and narrow leavs likâ— those of Flax but shorter but those that grow up to the middle of the stalk are larger and lesser again from the middle to the top two set at every joint all along and striped from every one of the joints on both sides to the top of the stalk which is green and about a foot high at the top commeth a purplish green husk which hath four large pointed leaves and encloseth the flower which is long and writhed before it be blown and of a pale blew colour but when it is blown open is of a deeper blew colour having four leaves somewhat long and as it were purfled about the edges with a little hairiness at them and a small leaf at the bottom of each flower with a few yellow threds in the middle standing about a head which groweth to be the seed-vessel forked into two parts at the head being greater there then below and containeth in it very small black seed when it is ripe Descript 3. Autumn-Gentian with small Centory-leaves called in Latine Gentianella Autumnalis Centaureae minoris folio This riseth up with sundry stalks scarce a foot high parted into many small branches whereon do stand two leaves together very like those of the lesser Centaury not so long as either of the former but a little broader and of a whiter green colour at the tops of the stalks and branches grow divers blew flowers set in small long husks half way rising above the tops of them the seed is small and groweth in long horned vessels the root is small and fibrous Descript 4. There is another sort with small Centory-like flowers which is more spreading small but hath larger leaves and flowers than Centory and of the same colour as are the flowers of Centory yet having many more and lasteth longer the root abideth not the Winter Descript 5. Another smaller Gentian with Centaury-leaves is very like unto the last but smaller and the stalks much lower not above three inches high having
many small branches whereon are large blew flowers the seed and vessels when they are ripe are like unto the last the root is also small but hath many more fibres than the others Place The first is found growing in many places of Germany and other outlandish parts and in divers places of our own land as by Gravesend neer Greenhith in a Chalk-pit not far from Dartford and at Cobham in Kent it groweth both in wet and dry grounds The second upon the hills in Naples as saith Columna The third in divers placeâ— of Kent as about South-fleet and Long-field and also in Bedfordshire and Hartfordshire neer old Verulam The rest are strangers heer Time These flower not untill August and thence got the name of Autumn-Gentian Government and Vertues These Lung-flowers or Autumn-Gentians are also under the dominion of Mars as the Gentian or Felwort is and much of the same temperature in heat and dryness and may be used both inwardly and outwardly as effectually as Gentian and where these are in plenty and the other not easie to be had may well serve instead thereof Poyson Plague They are powerful against Putrefaction Venome and Poison The Germans accompt it their Treakle and did formerly make a Treakle with it and other things at Jena which was brought unto us and called Jenes-Treakle made of these Gentians Aristolochia Bay-leaves and other things which were very good for griefs and pains in the Stomack Stomack plague and very effectual against infection of the Plague and other infectious diseases to expel the malignity thereof and to preserve the Heart and strengthen it against Fainting and Swoonings which Treakle was of a bitter tast But that which is now commonly used by the vulgar people and generally by them called Treacle which is of a sweet and pleasant tast is not any kind of Treacle but is called properly Molosses and is nothing else but the grosse dross of Sugar taken in the refining or boyling thereof and is not helpful in any disease yet usually and greedily desired and taken by the common People as an universal medicine The roots of these Gentians being made into fine powder and taken in Wine either by themselves or with other things as Myrrhe Rue Pepper or the like is an effectual remedy against the bitings or stingings of Serpents Venemous bitings Mad-Dogs Scorpions or any other Venemous Creatures and against the bitings of Mad-Dogs being taken three or four dayes together and the wound carefully kept open with Vinegar and Salt-water and orderly cleansed and dressed The same roots also being so taken in Wine open obstructions of the Liver and help such as are Liver-grown It easeth pains in the Stomack Liver grown stomack lameness Sides Stiches bruises Agues and helpeth such as cannot keep or relish their meat or have lost their appetite to meat It refresheth such as are overweary with Travail being steeped in Wine and drunk helps such as are Lame in their joints by cold or bad lodging and is effectual for pains stiches and prickings in the sides and is good for those who are bruised by falls dissolving congealed Blood and easing the pains thereof The root is held to be good also against Agues to be taken not in Wine but in some other drink or the distilled water of the herb Dead-Child Courses Vrine Stone Cramps The fresh root of the dryed made into a pessary and put into the Matrix expelleth the Dead-Child and After-birth And being taken inwardly it driveth down the Courses and provokes Urine The decoction of the root is excellent to give ease to them who are pained with the Stone the same taken in Wine is very good for those that are troubled with cramps or Convulsions and is good also for Ruptures and those that are Bursten Dioscorides commendeth the roots hereof not to help men only but also for beasts that are troubled with Coughs out-going of their entrails and that it killeth and driveth forth Worms and breaketh Wind in the body It is available in all cold diseases either inward or outward It doth extenuate and make thin thick Flegm or gross humors cleanseth corrupt and filthy sores or Ulcers purging of offensive and peccant humors Liver Lungs Gaul Spleen and opens obstructions of the Liver Lungs Gaul and Spleen and freeing the parts affected with any the diseases incident unto them The decoction of the leaves or the juice of them or the roots worketh the same effect and so doth the distilled water thereof The distilled water of the leaves flowers and roots drawn in a glasse-body in Balneo Mariae hath been found effectual in a wonderful manner to cure putrified Agues Agues Worms Green Wounds Vlcers Kings-Evil Piles Eyes and cleanses the bloud and killeth Worms in the belly the same water used to the Face cleanseth it from Spots Freckles and Morphew The powder of juice of the root healeth Green Wounds and all sorts of foul putrid and rotten Ulcers the same or the powder of the dryed roots helpeth the knots or kernels of the Kings-Evil and the soreness of the Piles the juice either fresh or condensate is good to take away inflamations and swellings of the Eyes and to cleanse them from films The decoction of the herb or root is good to drench Cattell with to free them from Bottes and Worms or if they have received any harm by licking up any Venemous Worm or Tick with their grasse as often they do the same decoction of juice of the bruised leaves is good to bath the Udders of kine which have been bitten or stung by any hurtful worm or other poisonous vermine by two or three times so bathing they are perfectly cured Lupines Kinds and Names THere are several kinds of Lupines as The great white Lupine called Lupinus sativus albus 2. The spotted white Lupine called Lupinus alter albus and the smallest blew Lupine called Lupinus minimus Coeruleus Descript 1. The great white Lupine riseth up with a strong upright round woolly stalk set confusedly with divers soft woolly leaves upon long footstalks each being divided into several parts narrow long and soft greenish on the upperside and woolly underneath the main stalk is divided into two parts after the flowers are grown from the uppermost joint and are like unto the great Garden-bean but wholly white without any spot after the flowers come long soft woolly stalks containing in them flat white leaves somewhat yellowish within of a very bitter taste The root is long hard and fibrous and perisheth every Winter Descript 2. The spotted white Lupine differeth from the former in the greatness and in the flower which is spotted with blew on the head of the inner most leaves and the hollow of the uppermost Descript 3. The smallest blew Lupine is very like unto the other blew Lupine but smaller both stalks and leaves the flowers are blew the seed a little spotted Place They grow naturally wild but in England are
only planted in Gardens Time The Lupines do flower in July and August and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Lupines are under the dominion of Mars and have an opening cleansing dissolving and digestive property but if they be steeped in water untill they have lost their bitterness they may be eaten but they are very hard to digest and breed grosse humors and passe slowly through the belly yet do not stop any flux If they be so steeped Appetite Stomack Liver Spleen Vrine Terms Dead-Child Scabbs Morphew cankers Tetters Sores and afterwards dryed and taken with Vinegar they provoke Appetite and help the loathing of the Stomack to meat The decoction of Lupines taken with hony opens obstructions of the Liver and Spleen provokes Urine and the Terms and expelleth the Dead-child if it be taken with Myrrhe The decoction of them cleanseth the body of Scabs Morphew Cankers Tetters and soul running Ulcers or Sores It also cleanseth the Face and taketh away the marks or pits which the Pox leaves behind it and cleareth the skin of Marks and black and blew Spots An oyntment of Lupines to beautifie and make the Face Amiable is made after this manner Take the meal of Lupines the gaul of a Goat or Sheep juice of Lemons and a little Alumen Saccharimum mingle them into the form of a soft oyntment The meal of Lupines being boyled in Vinegar and applied taketh away knobs and kernels or pimples The smoak of the shells being burned drives away gnats and flyes which annoy many houses in Summer Madder great and small BEsides the Garden and Wild Madder there are many other kinds hereof sound out Parkinson makes six kinds of the Rubia major or greater Madder and eight sorts of the Rubia minor or little small Madder Rubia Tinctorum is the general name of the manured Madder in Shops not onely so called from the colour of the root but also from its propety to dye a red colour The names of the other kinds follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Culpepper hath described the Garden or manured Madder therefore I say no more of it Descript 2. Rubia sylvestris wild Madder is very like unto the manured but the stalks are smaller and not so spreading neither are they so rough or hairy the leaves are lesse the flowers are white the root groweth greater but not so red as the Garden-kind Descript 3. Wild Madder with long leaves called Rubia sylvestris longioribus foliis hath divers round jointed stalks two or three foot long or thereabout not so rough as the other wild sort the leaves that stand at the joints are somewhat rough narrower and longer than the other seaven or eight at a distance the flowers are white and stand at the tops of the stalks having four leaves apeece which turn into small round seed like the other the root is red as the former but smaller Descript 4. Smooth-leaved-Madder Rubia levis Taurinensium hath divers round smooth stalks two or three foot long whereon stand leaves not rough at all but smooth larger broader than garden Madder towards the tops of the branches and at the joints with the leaves standing round about the stalks come white flowers consisting of five or six small leaves apeece the roots are smaller then the other and run not far into the ground Descript 5. The 〈◊〉 smooth Candy-Madder called Rubia levis arborescens Cretica It hath a thick short stalk about the thickness of one's singer from whence spring many straight smooth branches with small short leaves standing at distances like the former sorts at the tops of the branches shoot out two or three slender sprigs which bear whitish flowers like those of the ordinary Madder the root is long and reddish and of a bitter harsh tast Descript 6. Sea-Madder Rubia marina hath many square hard and somewhat rough stalks full of joints and spreading round about the root upon the ground the leaves are somewhat rough small and long broadest at the bottom and pointed at the end growing lesser towards the tops the flowers are of a star-like fashion and whitish the root is more red on the outside then within more wooddy and harder then the other Place The first is manured in Gardens and large fields for the profit that is made of it for dyers as well as medicinal uses the second groweth by hedge-sides in many places of Germany and so doth the third which groweth also in many places of our own Land the fourth is found by Turin on the hills of Piemont according as Pena and Lobel say the fift in Candy and the sixt by the Sea-side in Provence and neer Mompelier Time They flower towards the latter end of Summer and the seed of some of them is ripe shortly-after Government and Vertues All the Madders are plants of Mars our Antient and modern writers have controverted each other about the properties of Madder whether it be of an opening or binding quality Galen and Dioscorides say that the root doth open and cleanse the body of thick and tough Flegm Vrine Terms Dead-Child After-Birth Yellow Jaundice Liver Spleen Melancholy Palsie Sciatica that it provoketh Urine bringeth down Womens Courses and expelleth the Dead-child and afterbirth but Dodoneus affirmeth that it is dry and astringent and hath no opening faculty at all but it is sound to have both an opening and an astringent quality even as Rhubarb hath which first opens and then binds and strengthens it turneth the Urine into a red colour as Rhubarb doth colour it yellow it is an excellent remedy for the yellow Jaundies opening obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and cleanseth those parts it abates Melancholy humor it is effectual for those that have the Palsey and Scitica the roots boyled in Ale drunk is good for those that have received any hurts by bruises or falls and for all these purposes the root may be boyled in Wine Ale or Water and some hony or Sugar put thereunto afterwards The seed taken with Vinegar and hony helps swellings and hardness of the Spleen Spleen Freckels Deformity of the skin the decoction of the leaves and branches is good so Women to sit over to drive down their Courses The leaves and roots bâ—â—â—sed and applied cleanse and take away Freckles Morphew white Scurff or any deformity of the skin Small or little Madder Descript 1. Candy-Madder with a spikey head and larger leaves called in Latine Rubia spicata Cretica latiore folio It hath divers square rough slender stalks full of joints from which shoot many branches with four or five small rough leaves compassing them the top-branches end in small long spiked four square heads with many short rough husks set close one above another which send forth small whitish green flowers scarce to be seen after which come small greenish Seed The root is fibrous and wooddy but dyeth every Winter Descript 2. Spiked-Madder with small leaves Rubia spicata angusti-folia This differeth from the former in that
it hath lesser leaves stalkes and branches not growing above a hand breadth high and perisheth every year Descript 3. Small smooth Madder with sharp-pointed leaves Rubia Pratensis levis acuto folio This springeth up with one smooth square jointed stalk about a foot and a half high from the joints grow small branches whereat are set usually four long leaves ending in a small point The flowers come forth at the tops consisting of four leaves and are small and yellow at the first and afterwards become of a pale white colour Descript 4. Small smooth Madder with round pointed leaves Rubia quadrifolia rotunda levis This hath many square stalks about half a foot high which send forth other smaller branches at every joint four small round pointed leaves a little rough and not so smooth as the last the flowers are small and white and stand at the tops upon small threddy footstalks each having four leaves the root is small threddy and reddish Descript 5. Small creeping Madder with purplish blew flowers Rubia minor pratensis Coerulea This hath many small square branches which creep upon the ground divided into other small ones full of joints and at every of them five or six round green leaves smooth or very little rough from the joints and tops of the branches come small flowers consisting of five blewish purple round pointed leaves having some small threds in the middle the seed is small and long the root is small and of a reddish yellow colour it continueth green all the Winter Descript 6. Small rock-Madder Rubia minima Saxatilis Tâ—is groweth not above a hand-breadth in height it hath a small square stalk sending small branches from the joints at which grow seaven or eight small pointed leaves and somewhat rough the flowers are very small of a pale red standing in Vmbells at the tops of the branches the root is small and reddish Descript 7 Small rock-Madder with prickly heads Rubia Echinata Saxatilis This hath a small whitish threddy root which sendeth up many square render branches small and slender below and thicker up higher having many thick and hairy joints whereat grow four small leaves between which and the branches come forth small greenish flowers of four leaves a peece standing together upon a footstalk having small threds in the middle after which come small heads somewhat rough which become sharp and prickly when they are ripe divided into four parts on each side of the head the middle part being also prickly the seed is small and yellow It flowreth at the lower joints first and afterwards at the higher Descript 8. Candy Silver-leaved Madder Rubia argentea Cretica This is like the former small Madder but that the leaves are longer and whiter and the flowers yellow Place The fifth groweth plentifully in many places in England and so doth the sixt as upon the Chalky hills neer Drayton over against the Isle of Wight the others are strangers in our land Time They flower in the Summer Months and perfect their seed shortly after Government and Vertues These small Madders are all likewise plants of Mars and are of the same property and temperature as the former greater Madders are but not so powerfull Mayweed Kinds and Names THere is found three sorts of Mayweed 1. Cotula foetida stinking Mayweed 2. Cotula non foetida Mayweed with no scent Stinking Mayweed groweth more upright then that which sâ—nelleth not or the common Camomile neither of them creep or or run on the ground as Comomile doth the leaves are longer and greater then these of Camomile yet very like unto it but of a paler green colour the one sort hath a very strong smell the other no scent at all the flowers are like those of Camomile but larger there hath also been found of this sort in many places of this Land a Mayweed which hath double flowers almost as large as double Camomile-flowers which is called Cotula flore pleno Place The stinking Mayweed groweth abundantly among Corn and will blister the hands of the reapers that which stinketh not groweth also very plentifully wild in many places and often amongst wild Camomile Time They flower all the Summer-Months some earlier and some later Government and Vertues Mayweed is governed by Mars yet Galen saith The Sophi of the Egyptians consecrated Camomile to the Sun which is much of the same temperature but the stinking Mayweed is more hot and dry and is used for the same purposes that Camomile is to dissolve Tumors and Wind and to ease pains and Aches in the joints and other parts Tumors Wind Paines Aches Matrix Fallen down Suffocations of the Matrix it is also good for Women whose Matrix is fallen down or loosed from one side to another their feet being washed with a decoction thereof made in water It is likewise good to be given to smell unto for such who are troubled with the rising or suffocation of the Matrix Jewes-Mallow Names IT is called Melochia or Molochia and Corchorus Descript It is a small low herb rising up a foot and an half from the stalks shoot forth divers branches on all sides whereon grow many leaves without order up to the tops somewhat longer and broader then the leaves of Basil and some are shorter and broader almost round all of them finely nicked and pointed about the edges having at the bottom of each leaf a small thred as it were on each side which are of a little sourish tast the flowers for the most part come forth singly but one standing at a place every one upon a short footstalk consisting of five broad small pointed leaves of a yellow colour with some threds in the middle which being past there rise up slender long pods somewhat like unto those of Swallow-wort which when they are ripe open into five parts having within them small seed like unto Nigella but lesser and of a blewish green colour the root is long fibrous and perisheth every year Place It groweth in Syria Asia Aegypt and in those places abundantly in the Gardens where it is sown and in many places of Spain and Italy It is so common in Aegypt that they seldom make a meal without a dish therof as saith Alpinus Time It seldom cometh to flower with us and being sown groweth not above a hand high a cold night quickly killeth it Government and Virtues Alpinus assimilateth the faculties hereof unto the Marsh-Mallow that is of a temperature moderate in heat and moisture but this thought to be dryer even in the first degree it is under the government of Venus It is much used to suppurate digest resolve and mollifie all hard Tumors in that the muscilage hereof is more slymy then that of our Marsh-mallows Hard tumors Dry Coughs Hoarseness Throat two drams of the seed he saith is usually taken at a time to purge all sorts of humors the decoction of the leaves is very frequently used against dry Coughs hoarsness of the Throat or voice and
mystica and in Shops Nux moscata the Tree groweth very tall like our Pear-trees having leaves always green somewhat resembling the leaves of the Orange-tree the fruit groweth like our Walnuts having an outer thick husk which when it growes ripe it openeth it self as the shell of the Walnut doth shewing the nut within covered with the Mace which is of an orient crimson colour while it is fresh but the air changeth the colour to be more dead and yellowish Government and Vertues The Nutmegs and Maces are both Solar of temperature hot and dry in the second degree and somewhat astringent and are good to stay the Lask they are effectual in all cold griefs of the head or Brain Lask Head Brain Sinews Mother Wind Stomach sight for Palsies shrinking of Sinews and Diseases of the Mother they cause a sweet breath and discuss wind in the Stomach or Bowels quicken the Sight and comfort the Spirits provoke Urine increase sperm and are comfortable to the Stomach they help to procure rest and sleep being laid to the temples by allaying the distemper of the Spirits The way to use it to cause rest is to take two pieces of red Rose-cake and warm them in vinegar over a Chafing-dish of Coals then scrape nutmeg upon the cakes and bind it warm to the temples The Mace is of the same property but somewhat more warming and comforting than the Nutmeg the thick oyl that is drawn from both Nutmegs and Mace is good in pectoral griefs to warm a cold Stomach Stomach Cough and help the Cough and to dry up distillations of Rheum falling upon the lungs Navelwort of Mathiolus Kinds and Names THere are hereof three sorts called 1 Androsaces major 2. Androsaces minor and 3. Androsaces minima Mathioli Mathiolus his greater lesser and least Navelwort Descript 1. Androsaces major hath divers broad fresh green leaves a little hairy lying upon the ground like Plantain-leaves but smaller and unevenly dented about the edges from among which spring up divers round hairy stalks four or five inches high without any leaves up to the tops where stand four or five leaves like the lower but lesser and among them grow divers slender foot stalks bearing every one of them a small white flower with five small notched leaves standing in a green husk divided at the top into five parts wherein after the flower cometh a small round head full of small blackish seed the root is small and fibrous and perisheth as soon as it hath born seed and riseth again of its own sowing which if it spring before winter or that it doth not run to seed the first year of the sowing it will abide the first winter and flower the Summer following Descript 2. The lesser Androsaces or Navel-wort of Mathiolus groweth like the former but the leaves are smaller and narrower yet hairy and dented about the edges the stalks are like the other but have no leaves at the tops but an Vmbell or Tuft of many small flowers like the former but whiter after which shoot forth small round heads with seeds the root is more fibrous than the former small and fibrous and perisheth every year after it hath given its seed Descript 3. Androsaces minus the least Navel-wort of Mathiolus is very like the former having very many hairy leaves lying on the ground like those of the smallest Shepherds-purse with edges dented deeper than the former and having smaller and shorter stalks but as hairy as the others having five small green leaves set in a round compass at the joynt from whence arise three or four small white flowers which bear seed in heads as the former The root consists of a few small threads Place and Time They all grow in divers places of Germany they flower in May and their seed is ripe in June and July Government and Vertues These Plants are governed by Mars and are of a somewhat sharp taste of temperature hot and dry in the second degree they cleanse old Sores and Ulcers and staye the malignity of those that are corroding or fretting Old Sores Vlcers drying up the superfluous moisture which hindreth their healing cleanseth the roughness of the skin and Sun-burning the juice being clarifi'd and dropt into the eyes cleanseth them from films or skin growing over them Apple-bearing Nightshade Kinds and Names OF these there are several kinds which are accounted amongst the number of Nightshades called Solanum pomiferum and also Mala insana or mad Apples Descript 1. Lobel's red berried Nightshade called in Latine solanum pomiferum herbariorum Lobellii this groweth like common nightshade but greater the leaves are like small Tobacco-leaves the flowers are white the Berries small and round of a reddish colour containing white seeds within them of an insipid taste and perisheth every year as Nightshade doth Descript 2. Mad Apples of Syria called in Latine mala insana Syriaca This springeth up with a great hard round purplish or brownish green stalk about two foot high divided from the bottom into divers branches whereon are set many hairy broad rough leaves unevenly cut in on the edges At the joynts with the leaves come forth several large flowers having six large pointed leaves in some Plants white in others of a pale deadish purple colour with yellow threads in the middle after which come a somewhat long round fruit in hot countreys as big as a Cucumber but in colder places seldome exceeding the bigness of an egg set in the same husk that contained the flowers before having a thin skin and full of a whitish pulp and juice within having many small flat and whitish seeds within it the root is fibrous and perisheth with the first cold frosts Descript 3. Mad-apples of Ethiopia Mala insana Ethiopica These are somewhat like the former but that it groweth not so high nor so much spreading and hath but one upright stalk about half a yard high set in divers places with many small pricks and at several joynts with ragged leaves having some pricks on the middle rib in the back side the flowers stand on the branches at the joynts consisting of six white short leaves with a yellow point in the middle of divers threds joyned together after which cometh the fruit which is round and pointed at the end smaller and harder than the greater kind of Love-Apples and straked in several places of a fine red colour more deeper when it is ripe having sometimes small bunches on them like unto other small apples growing unto them having within them a juicy pulp more sharp than the other with flat yellowish white seed within it the root consisteth of threds and perisheth every year Descript 4. Mad-Apples of Europe Mala insana Europaea this kind groweth with a round upright stalk a foot and an half high from whence spring forth at several joynts divers long and somewhat broad green leaves unevenly cut on the edges and ending in a long point three for the most
and the decoction of the same drunken hath the like property The same is also good against all Scorchings and burnings with fire to be pounded together with litharge of silver and Frankincense and if there be some Coperas mixt therewith it will cleanse and heal Consuming and fretting Sores The leaves of the Pine-tree healeth Green Wounds and boyled in Vinegar they ease the Tooth-ach The kernels of the Nuts which are found in the Pine-apples are good for the Lungs Burning Old Sores Green Wounds Tooth-ach Lungs they cleanse the Breast and expectorate tough Flegm Breast Flegm also they nourish well and ingender good blood and are good for such as have the Cough and begin to pine away and consume in what sort soever they be taken These kernels also do open the Liver Cough Liver and Spleen and mitigate the sharpness of Urine Spleen Vrine and are good for those that are troubled with the Gravel and Stone Gravel Stone The Pitch-tree Names THis Tree is called in Latine Picea and Pytis Descript The Pitch-tree is also of an indifferent bigness and tall stature but not so great as the Pine-tree and alwayes green like the Pine and Firre-trees The Timber is fat and resinous and doth yeeld Rozen of divers sorts The branches be hard and parted into other sprayes most commonly cross-wise upon which grow small green leaves not round about the branches but by every side one right over against another like to little Feathers the fruit is smaller than the fruit of the Pine-tree In burning of this tree there doth issue out Pitch aâ— also there doth out of the Pine-tree Place and Time The Pitch-tree groweth in many places of Greece Italy France and Germany and the fruit hereof is also ripe in September Government and Vertues The leaves bark fruit kernels or Nuts of this Tree are almost of the same Nature Vertues and operations as the leaves bark fruit and kernels of the Pine-tree The Rozen that cometh out of the Pine and Pitch-trees OUt of the Pine and Pitch-trees riseth three sorts of Rozen besides the Pitch and Tar. 1. The one floweth out by force of the heat of the Sun in Summer from the Wood or Tymber where it is broken or cut 2. The other is found both upon and betwixt the bark of the Pine and Pitch-tree and most commonly in such parts thereof as are Cloven or hurt 3. The third kind groweth betwixt the scales of the fruit Names All the kinds of Rozen are called in Latin Resina In French Resine and in Dutch Herst The first kind is call Resina liquida and Resina Pini of this sort is also the Rozen which is Molten with the Sun in Summer and remaineth dry and may be made into powder which some call Resina Arida or dry Rozen The Second kind is called in Latine Resina arida but that which sweateth out of the Pine-tree is called Resina Pinea and that which cometh out of the Pitch-tree Resina Picea The third kind is called Resina Strobilina Government and Vertues All these Rozens are Solar and of an hot and dry temperature and of a cleansing and Scouring nature Rozen doth cleanse and heal new Wounds and there New-wounds fore is a principal ingredient in all Oyntments and Emplaisters that serve for that purpose It softneth hard Swellings and is comfortable to bruised Parts or Members being applied or laid to with Oyls and Oyntments or Plaisters appropriate thereunto Pitch and Tar. Kinds and Names THere be two sorts of Pitch the one moist and that is called liquid Pitch the other is hard and dry they do both run out of the Pine and Pitch-trees and out of certain other Trees as the Cedar Turpentine and Larch-trees by burning of the Wood and Timber of the lame Trees Pitch is called in Latine Pix in Frencâ— Poix in Dutch Peck The liquid Pitch is called in Latine Pix liquida in Brabant Teer and in English Tarr The dry Pitch is called in Latine Pix arida and Pix Navalis in English Ship-Pitch or Stone-Pitch in Dutch Steen-peck Government and Vertues The Pitch and Tar are both Solar hot and dry in the second degree and of subtile parts but the Stone-Pitch is the dryest the liquid Pitch or Tar is the hotter and of more subtile parts Liquid Pitch taken with Hony doth cleanse the Breast is good to be licked in by those that are troubled with shortnes of Breath breast shortness of Breath whose Breast is stuffed with corrupt Matter It mollifyeth and ripeneth all hard Swellings Hard swellings and is good to anoint the Neck against the Squinancy or Swelling of the Throat it is good to be put into mollifying Plaisters Anodynes to take away Pains and Maturatives or ripening Medicines being applied with Barly-meal it softneth the hardness of the Matrix and Fundament Squinancy Matrix fundament Liquid Pitch mingled with sulphur vivum or quick Brimstone represseth fretting Ulcers foul Scabs Vlcers Scabs and Scurff and if that some Salt be put thereunto it is good to be laid upon the Bitings and Stingings of Serpents and Vipers It cureth the rifts and cloven Chaps that happen to the Hands Feet Scurff Venemous Beasts Hands Feet and Fundament Fundament being laid thereto The Stone-Pitch being pounded very small with the fine powder of Frankincense healeth hollow Ulcers and Fistula's Vlcers Fistulas filling them up with Flesh the Stone-Pitch is not so strong as the Liquid Pitch but is better and apter to soder and glew Wounds together as Galen saith Sea-Plantane Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of Herbs referred to the Plantanes the first whereof is called Holostea but more fitter Sea-Plantane or ordinary Sea-Plantane their several Names shall follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Ordinary Sea-plantane Plantago Marina vulgaris This Sea-plantane hath many narrow long and thick green leaves having here and there a dent or two on the edge pointed at the end among which rise up sundry bare stalks with a small spiked head thereon smaller than Plantane else a like both in blooming and Seed the root is somewhat white thick and long with long fibres thereat abiding many years Descript 2. Spanish Sea-plantane Holosteum Salmanticum This Spanish Sea-plantane also differeth not much from the former greater kind having many narrow hoary leaves lying on the ground but shorter and broader then they are among which rise up divers naked short stalks little more than an hand breadth high furnished from the middle almost to the tops with many whitish green flowers standing more sparsedly in the spiky heads then the former which do afterwards yeeld small Seed in husks like unto Plantane-Seeds the root is somewhat long and hard with divers Fibres at it There is another sort hereof much lesser than the former the leaves greener and narrower and the heads of Flowers are smaller Descript 3. The greater Sea-plantane with grassy leaves Holosteum angusti-folium majus sive Serpentaria
major This greater Sea-plantane hath a number of small long leaves almost like Grass but that they are stiffe and hard sometimes lying upon the ground and sometimes from a stem under them raised a little higher of a grayish or hoary green colour and having on some of them some small gashes on the edges among which rise up naked stalks about half a foot high with small spikey heads like unto Plantane-heads set at the top of them wherein also is contained such like Seed the root is somewhat thick long and woody with some fibres growing thereat Descript 4. The lesser Sea-Plantane with Grassy leaves Holosteum angusti-folium minus This lesser Holosteum is very like the former but that it is smaller and scarce having any dent on the edges and groweth much lower not exceeding three or four inches in height having such like heads but smaller Descript 5. Candy Sea-Plantane Holosteum Creticum sive Leontopodium Creticum This plant hath a reddish root somewhat great and as it were scaly at the head growing smaller downwards and spread into many long fibres from whence springeth up many long and narrow soft woolly leaves a hand-breadth long with three Ribs in each of them among which rise up divers small and short footstalks about two or three inches long and covered with a soft woolliness on every one whereof standeth a thick short reddish woolly head like unto a plantane-Plantane-head having divers whitish flowers upon them with blackish spots within them seeming so many holes in them which after they are past have small brownish Seeds inclosed in their husks very like unto Plantane-Seed or the Seed of Psyllium or Fleawort which heads when they are fully ripe do bend downwards to the ground and are so drawn or bended together that they resemble herein a Lyons-foot clasped together whereof it obtained the name of Leonto-podium Descript 6. Mouse-tail Holosteum Loniceri cauda muris vocatum This being in tast and property like unto these Holostea's is therefore ranked amongst them It shooteth forth divers small Grassy leaves very short rough and hard among which spring divers small slender stalks with small long blackish green spiked heads like unto a small Plantane-head but smaller with white flowers on them which quickly fade and fall away after which there are found very small blackish Seeds in the long heads which then in some are a little crooked and in others straight resembling a Mouse-tail the root is small and threddy Place and Time The first groweth in divers places about our Sea-coasts aswell as others The second of both sorts groweth in Valentia Salamanca and divers other parts of Spain as Clusius saith the third and fourth as saith Mathiolus by the Sea-side in Italy Camerarius saith by a lake of Salt-water neer Istebia which is in Germany The fifth in Candia The last groweth in many fertile Pastures and Meadowes as also on dry Banks and by the path-sides in divers places of our own Land They do flower in the Moneths of June and July and their Seed ripeneth quickly after The last which is the earliest of them all flowreth often in April and is almost gone in May. Government and Vertues These are of the same temperature and regiment as our ordinary Plantanes so very little differing in quality of cold dryness that all the virtues of the other Plantanes may properly be attributed to these onely the third kind Mathiolus saith that the people of Gorilia who call it Serpentina have used it to very good purpose as he himself also saith he hath found by good experience against the Bitings or stingings of Venemous Beasts Serpents serpents-bitings especially as also to help those that are troubled with the Dropsie especially that which hath possessed the whole body The Mouse-tail is cooling and drying like the Plantane and the Country people in some places of this Land apply it not onely to those that bleed at the Nose Dropsie bleeding at the Nose by bruising of the leaves and putting it up therin or pounding it and letting the party snuffe up the juice but also use it with good effect to stay the much bleeding of Wounds and to heal them up it being a singular good Wound-herb The Pomegranate-Tree Kinds and Names THe Pomgranate-tree is distinguished into three kinds that is The manured Pomegranate bearing fruit and the greater and lesser wild kinds the first is called Malus Punica and Malus granata and the fruit Malum Punicum and Malum granatum because it is supposed that they wer brought over from that part of Africa where old Carthage stood into that part of Spain which is now called Granada and froâ— thence called Granatum The flowers of the manured kind Dioscorides saith are called Citini but Pliny calleth the flowers the wild kind Citinus and the flowers of both kinds Balaustium but Cytinus is more properly the cup wherein do stand the flowe of both kinds and Balaustium is with us generally taken for the doble flowers of the wild kind only Descript 1. The Pomgranate-tree bearing fruit Malus Punica saâ—va This Tree groweth not great in the warm Countries and where it is natural not above seven or eight foot high spreading into manny slender branches here and there set with thorns and with many very fair green shining leaves like in form and bigness unto the leaves of large Myrtle-leaves every one upon a small reddish footstalk Among the leaves come forth here and there the flowers which are like Bell-flowers broad at the brims and smaller at the bottom being one whole leaf divided at the top into five parts of an orient red Crimson colour naturally but much paler with us and many veins running through it with divers threds in the middle and standing in a brownish hollow cup or long hard husk the fruit is great and round with a hard smooth brownish red rind not very thick but yellowish on the inside and a Crown at the top stored plentifully with a most cleer Liquor or juice like Wine either sweet or sower or between both full of seeds inclosed in skins and the liquor among them Sometimes this breaketh the rind as it groweth which will cause it to rot very soon Descript 2. The greater double blossomed Pomgranate-tree Malus Punica Sylvestris major sive Balaustium majus The great wild Pomegranate-tree groweth into slender brownish branches with some thorns amongst them and shining green leaves somewhat larger than the former but it is a shrubbish low Tree naturally from the branches shoot forth flowers very double as large as a double Provence-Rose but with shorter small leaves of an excellent bright crimson colour tending to a silken carnation standing in brownish hard cups or husks divided into five parts but no fruit followeth Descript 3. Balaustium minus the lesser double Pomgranate-tree There is but little difference in this from the other the leaves onely are of a sadder green colour the flowers smaller and lesse thick and double and of a sadder
in the mouth it helpeth a stinking breath it also helps digestion and is good against Melancholy These outer rinds being preserved with Sugar are used as a Junket at Banquets yet they are often used in Cordial Electuaries and preservatives against infection and Melancholy It also helpeth to loose the body and therefore there is a solutive Electuary made therewith called Electuarium de citro solutivum to evacuate the bodies of cold flegmatick Constitutions and may safely be used where Choler is mixed with Flegm The inner white rinde of the fruit is almost unsavoury and without taste and is not used in Physick but being preserved is used at Banquets the sowr juice in the middle is cold and farre surpasseth that of Lemons in the effects although not so sharp in taste it is singular good in all pestilential and burning Feavers to restrain the venome and Infection to suppress the Choler and hot distemper of the blood and to quench thirst and correcteth the ill disposition of the Liver stirreth up an Appetite and refresheth the over-spent and fainting spirits Burning Feavers Choler Thirst Appetite Faint Spirits resisteth drunkenness and helpeth the turnings of the Brain by the hot vapours arising therein which causeth a Frenzy for want of sleep the seed not only equalleth the rind but also surpasseth it in many particulars yet Galen and Avicen contradict one another herein Galen saith that the seed is cold which Mathiolus excuseth with diverting his intent to the juice and Avicen saith it is hot in the first degree and dry in the second the Bark or rynd hot in the first and dry in the end of the second degree the inner white substance between the outer bark and the inner juice hot and moist in the first degree and the sowr juice cold and dry in the third degree These seeds are very effectual to preserve the heart and vital spirits from the poyson of the Scorpion and other venemous creatures as also against the infection of the Plague or Pox or any other contagious disease they kill the worms in the stomach provoke the Terms cause an Abortment and have a digesting and a drying quality fit to dry up and consume moist humours both inwardly in the body and outwardly in any moist or running Ulcers or Sores Heart poyson of Scorpions Plague Pox Worms Terms Moist humours Vlcers Sores and to take away the pains that come after the biting of any venemous Creature The whole fruit or the branches of the trees layd in Presses Chests or Wardrobes keepeth Cloth or silk Garments from Moths or worms and likewise giveth them a good scent Quick-Grass Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of these Grasses some growing in the fields and other places of the upland grounds and others near the Sea it is also called Dogs-grass and Gramen Caninum the other several names shall follow in the Descriptions Descript 1. Common quick-grass Gramen caninum vulgare This grass creepeth far about under ground with long white joynted roots and small fibres almost at every joynt very sweet in taste as the rest of the herb is and interlaceing one another from whence shoot forth many fair and long grassie leaves small at the ends and cutting or sharp at the edges the stalks are joynted like Corn with the like leaves on them and a long spiked head with long husks on them and hard rough seed in them Descript 2. Quick grass with a more spread Panickle Gramen caninum longius radicatum paniculatum This differeth very little from the former but in the tuft or panickle which is more spread into branches with shorter and broader husks and in the root which is fuller greater and further-spread Descript 3. The lesser quick-grass with a sparsed tuft Gramen caninum latiore panicula minus This small quick-grass hath slender stalks about half a foot high with many very narrow leaves both below and on the stalks the tuft or panickle at the top is small according to the Plant and spreadeth into sundry parts or branches the root is small and joynted but creepeth not so much and have many more fibres among them than the others have and is a little browner not so white but more sweet Descript 4. Low bending quick grass Gramen caninum arvense This creepeth much under ground but in a differing manner the stalks taking root in divers places and scarce rising a foot high with such like green leaves as the ordinary but shorter the spiked head is bright and sparsed or spread abroad somewhat like the field grass Descript 5. Gramen caninum supinum Monspeliense This differeth very little from the last in any other part thereof than in the panickle or spiked head which is longer and not spread or branched into parts as that is Descript 6. A small sweet grass like Quick-grass Gramen exile tenuifolium Canariae simile sive gramen dulce This small grass hath divers low creeping Branches and rooting at the joynts as the two last having many small and narrow leaves on them much less than they and a small sparsed panickle somewhat like the red dwarf-grass Descript 7. Wall-grass with a creeping root Gramen murorum radice repente this Wall grass from a blackish creeping root springeth forth with many stalks a foot high bending or crooking with a few narrow short leaves on them at whose tops stand small white panickles of an inch and a half long made of many small chaffy husks Place and Time The first is usual and common in divers plow'd Grounds and Gardens where it is often more bold than welcome troubling the Husbandmen as much after the plowing up of some of them as to pull up the rest after the springing and being raked together to burn them as it doth Gardners where it happeneth to weed it out from amongst their trees and Herbs the second and third are more scarce and delight in Sandy and Chalky grounds the three next are likewise found in Fields that have been plowed and do lye Fallow and the last is often found on old decayed Walls in divers places they flourish chiefly in the beginning of Summer Government and Virtues These are Plants of Mercury The root is of temperature cold and dry and hath a little mordacity in it and some tenuity of parts the herb is cold in the first degree and moderate in moisture and dryness but the seed is much more cold and drying of some tenuity of parts and somewhat harsh This quick grass is most medicinable of all other sorts of grasses it is effectual to open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and the stoppings of Urine the decoction thereof being drunk and to ease the griping pains in the belly and Inflamations and wasteth the excrementitious matter of the Stone in the Bladder and the Ulcers thereof also the root being bruised and applyed doth knit together and consolidate wounds the seed doth more powerfully expell Urine bindeth the belly and stayeth vomiting the distilled water
is good to be given to Children for the worms Liver Spleen Vrine Griping in the Guts Inflamations Stone Wounds Lask Vomiting Worms Sea-spiked Quick Grass Kinds and Names THere are several sorts hereof whose names shall severally follow before their Descriptions Descript 1. Sea-spiked quick grass or dogs grass Gramen caninum geniculatum maritimum spicatum this Sea grass hath divers joynted stalks about a foot high with hard leaves thereon long and like the other quick grass the spiked heads are much shorter and harder than the common kind the root is full of joynts and creepeth under ground like it Descript 2. Sea quick grass Gramen caninum vulgare Canariae simile This other grass is a slenderer lanker and harder grass than the ordinary quick grass and of a blewish green colour and differeth not in any thing else but there are two other differing sorts hereof the one in the roots which at the several joynts as it runneth doth shoot up the like stalks of leaves and spiked tufts and will be sometimes twenty foot in length with many of these tufts of stalks and leaves at them the other in the spikes which will have two rowes or orders in them Descript 3. Sea quick grass with long roots Gramen caninum alterum maritimum longius radicatum this long rooted Sea grass differeth little from the former either in the hard leaves or in the running roots but that they spread more and instead of spiked heads at the tops of the stalks this hath chaffie heads among the leaves Descript 4. Sea-spiked quick grass of Mompelier Gramen caninum maritimum spicatum Monspeliense this French Sea-grass hath slender woody roots with few fibres thereat from whence rise divers trayling stalks a foot or more high with sundry joynts and branches at them and short narrow reed-like leaves at the tops whereof grow spiked heads of three inches long apiece of a darkish Ash-colour Place and Time The three first are found on our Sea-coasts especially in Kent and the fourth about Mompelier and Narbone near the Sea Coasts they are in flower and seed towards the end of Summer Government and Vertues These are under the same Planetary regiment as the ordinary Quick grass of the Land and the roots hereof are held as effectual to all the effects and purposes that the ordinary sort serveth for only this hath been observed that Cattel will not feed on these of the Sea because of their hardness roughness and sharpness Rattle Red and yellow Kinds Names OF this we shall describe two sorts the one called common red Rattle pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris the other yellow Rattle or Coxcomb pedicularis sive crista galli lutea it is also called Fistularia of the hollowness of the stalks and Coxcomb because the flowers as some think do stand like a Cocks comb at the tops of the stalks it is also called Rattle grass and Louse-wort Descript 1. Common red Rattle Pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris this hath sundry reddish hollow stalks and sometimes green rising from the roots lying for the most part on the ground yet some growing more upright with sundry small reddish or greenish leaves set on both sides of a middle rib finely dented about the edges the flowers stand at the tops of the stalks and branches of a fine purplish red colour like small gaping hoods after which come small blackish flat seeds in small husks which lying loose therein will rattle with shaking the root consisteth of small whitish strings with some fibres thereat Descript 2. Yellow Rattle or Coxcomb Pedicularis sive crista galli lutea The common yellow Rattle hath seldome above one round green stalk rising from the root about half a yard or two foot high and with but few branches thereon having two long and somewhat broad leaves set at a joynt deeply dented or cut in the edges resembling therein the Crests or Combe of a Cock broadest next to the stalk and smaller to the end the flowers grow at the tops of the stalks with some shorter leaves with them being hooded after the same manner that the red ones are but of a fair yellow colour in most or else in some paler and in some more white the seed is contained in large husks and with lying loose in them will rattle when they are ripe the root is small and slender and dyeth every Winter Place and Time Some of both these kinds grow in Meadows and Woods generally througâ— out our Land where they are rather an annoyance than of any good use for Cattel They are in flower from Midsummer till after August sometimes Government and Vertues These Plants are Saturnine of a cold and drying property the red Rattle is good to heal up Fistula's and hollow Ulcers and to stay the flux of humours to them and also the abundance of womens courses Fistula's Vlcers Courses or any other flux of blood to be boyled in harsh or red wine and drunk The yellow Rattle is also held to be good for those that are troubled with a Cough or dimness of Sight Cough Dimness of Sight if the herb being boyled with Beans and some honey put thereto be drunk or dropped into the eyes The whole seed being put into the eyes doth draw forth any skin film or dimness from the sight without trouble or pain Sweet or Aromatical-Reed Kinds and Names THere is one sort called Calamus Aromaticus Mathioli Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed a second called Calamus Aromaticus Syriacus vel Arabicus suppositivus the supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical-Reed and the third the true Acorus of Dioscorides or sweet smelling Reed called in shops Calamus Aromaticus and likewise Acorus verus sive Calamus officinarum Descript 1. Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed This groweth with an upright tall stalk set full of joints of certain spaces up to the top not hollow but stuffed full of a white spongeous pith of a gummy taste somewhat bitter and of the bigness of a mans finger and at every one of them a long narrow leaf of a dark green brown colour smelling very sweet differing therein from all other kinds of Reeds on the tops whereof groweth a bushy or Featherlike pannicle like unto those of the common Reed the root is knobby with divers heads thereat whereby it increaseth and shooteth forth new heads of leaves smelling also very sweet having a little binding taste and sharp withal Descript 2. The supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical Reed riseth up from a thick root three or four inches long big at the head and small at the bottom with one and sometimes more stalks two Cubits high being straight round smooth and easie to break into splinters full of joints and about a fingers thickness hollow and spongy within of a whitish yellow colour the stalk is divided into other branches and they again into other smaller ones two usually set together at a joint with two leaves under them likewise very like unto the leaves of
Lysimachia the Willow-herb or Loose-strife but lesser being an inch broad and an inch and an half long compassing the stalk at the bottom with sundry veins running all the length of them from the joints rise long stalks bearing sundry yellow small flowers made of leaves like also unto Lysimachia with a small Pointel in the middle after which follow small blackish long heads or Seed-Vessels pointed at the end and having in them small blackish seed the stalk hath little or no scent yet not unpleasant as Alpinus saith being bitter with a little Acrimony therein but Bauhinus saith it is of an Aromatical tast and very bitter Descript 3. The sweet smelling Reed or Calamus officinarum or Acorus verus hath many flags long and narrow fresh green leaves two foot long a peece or more yet oftentimes somewhat brownish at the bottom the one rising or growing out of the side of the other in the same manner that other flags or flower-De-luces grow which are thin on both sides and ridged or thickest in the middest the longest for the most part standing in the midst and some of them as it were curled or playted towards the ends or tops of them smelling very sweet aswel when they are green and fresh as when they are dried and so kept a long time which do so abide in a Garden a long time as though it never did nor never would bear flower the leaves every year dying down to the ground and shooting out fresh every Spring but after three or four years abiding in a place without removing besides the leaves it shooteth forth not any stalk as other Flower-de-luces do but a narrow long leaf by it self flat like unto the other leaves especially from the middle thereof upwards but from the bottome to the middle it is flat-like at which place cometh forth one long round head very seldom two in form and bigness like unto the Catkin or Aglet of the Hazelnut-tree growing upright and of the length and thickness of ones finger or rather bigger set with several small lines or divisions like unto a green Pine-Apple of a purplish green colour for the most part out of which bunches shoot forth small pale whitish flowers consisting of four small leaves a peece without so good a scent as the leaves falling quickly away and not yeelding any seed The root is thick and long lying under the upper face of the ground shooting forward and with small roots or suckers on all sides like unto the Garden Valerian whitish on the outside or greenish if it lye above the ground and more pale or whitish on the inside with many joints thereabouts and whereat it hath or doth shoot forth long thick fibres underneath whereby it taketh strong hold in the ground of a firm or fast substance yet not hard or wooddy but easie to be cut of a sweet scent and somewhat bitter tast Place and Time The first is said by Mathiolus and others to grow in India Syria and Judea the dry stalks of the second are said to grow at the foot of Mount Libanus in Syria not far from Tripoli in the wet grounds there The third in sundry moist places in Aegypt and by the lake Gennesareth in Judea and in divers places of Syria and Arabia The other Calamus of the shops or true Acorus groweth in many places of Turk y in moist grounds from whence the largest roots the firmest whitest and sweetest are brought unto us it groweth also in Russia and those places thereabouts in great plenty Mr. Morgan hath of it growing in the physick-Garden at Westminster and he himself told me that he was informed by some that they had found it growing in moist grounds in Yorkshire and the Northern parts of England Government and Vertues These Reeds are under the dominion of Venus of a temperate quality The Calamus of Dioscoâ—ides he saith hath these properties it provoketh Urine and boyled with Grass roots and smallage it helpeth those that have the Dropsie Vrine Dropsie it fortifieth the Reins and is good against the Strangury or pissing by drops and is also profitable for those that have the Rupture Reins strangury Rupture or are broken Bellied It provoketh Womens Termes or Courses either drunk or applied to the place the fumes of it taken through a Tobacco-pipe either by it self or with some dryed Turpentine cureth them that have a Cough Termes Cough it is put into bathes for Women to sit in as also in Glisters to ease Pains Pains eased It is used in mollifying Oyles and Plaisters that serve to ripen hard Imposthumes Imposthumes as also for the sweet scent thereof Galen saith it being of a temperature moderate between heat and cold and somewhat Astringent and having a very little Acrimony it is profitably used among other things that help the Liver Liver and Stomack Stomack doth gently provoke Urine and is used with other things in fomentaions for the Mother Mother when it is troubled with inflamations and gently to move the Courses Courses Dioscorides saith that the sweet flag it good to provoke Urine Vrine if the decoction thereof be drunk It helpeth to ease pains in the Sides Sides Liver Liver and Breast Breast as also to ease the Griping pains of the Chollick Chollick and Cramp Cramp and is good against Ruptures It wastes the Spleen Spleen helps the Strangury strangury and Bitings of Venemous Creatures Serpents It is also good in Baths for Women to sit in for distempers of the Womb. Womb The juice dropped into the Eyes Eyes dryeth Rheums Rheums therein and cleareth the sight taking away all filmes Filmes that may hurt them The Root is of much use in all Antidotes against Venome and Poison or infection it is a good remedy against a stinking Breath Stinking Breath to take the Root fasting every Morning for some time together The hot fumes of the decoction made in Water and taken in at the Mouth thorow a funnel are Excellent good to help those that are troubled with a Cough Cough a dram of the powder of the Roots with asmuch Cinnamon taken in a draught of Wormwood Wine is singular good to comfort and strengthen a cold weak Stomack Cold Weak stomack the decoction thereof drunk is good against Convulsions Convulsions or Cramps Cramps and for falls Falls and inward Bruises Bruises an Oxymel or surrup made hereof in this manner is wonderful effectual for all cold Spleens Spleen and cold Livers Liver Take of the Roots of Acorus one pound wash and pick them clean then bruise them and steep them for three days in Vinegar after which time let them be boyled together to the Consumption of the one half of the Vinegar which being strained forth set to the fire again putting thereto as much Hony as is sufficient to make it into a syrrup an ounce
Dropsie Swelling of the Spleen and the pricking pains of the Sides Spleen Sides it also stayeth the spitting of Blood coming aswel from the Lungs as any other part The powder taken with Cassia dissolved and a little Turpentine washed cleanseth and strengthneth the Reins and is effectual for the Gonorrhea or Running of the Reines It is also good for pains and Swellings in the Head and against Melancholy the Sciatica Reins Head-ach melancholy Sciatica and Gout and pains of the Cramp Gout Cramp for which purpose one dram or two of the Extract thereof made in this manner doth work effectually being given in Broth. Take a sufficient quantity of Rubarb and let it be steeped in Cinnamon-Water which being strongly pressed-forth let it be stilled in a glasse Limbeck in Balneo untill the Water be drawn forth and the substance remaining be of the thickness of Hony which keep in a close covered-pot or glasse for the use aforesaid The powder of Rubarb taken with a little Minnia and Madder-roots in some red Wine dissolveth congealed or clotted-Blood in the Body happening by any fall or Bruise and healeth Burstings and broken-parts aswell inward as outward the Oyl likewise wherein it hath been boyled worketh the same effect the part being anointed with it It helpeth also the Yexing Hiccop Yexing Hiccop and all Fluxes of the Belly if it be toasted or dryed a little by the fire but much more if it be roasted or half burnt and taken in Wine after this manner Take a pint of good Claret-Wine and burn it with some Sugar and a top or two of Rosemary into which put a dram and an half of Rubarb roasted as aforesaid and one dram of Chebol Merobalanes a little broken or bruised let these stand in the burnt Wine all night by the fire and strain it forth in the Morning giving this at two times fasting which will in three or four dayes stay any scouring or Lask Scouring Lask strengthning the Stomack and inward parts afterwards It is used to heal those Ulcers that happen in the Eyes Stomack Eyes or Eye-lids and to asswage the Tumors and allay the inflamations being steeped and strained and applyed with Hony or Cute that is to say any boyled Wine it taketh away any black and blew Spots or marks that happen therein This Rubarb is so gentle a medecine that it may be given to all Constitutions whether they be Children or Women with Child and that safely at all times of the year the whey of Milk but especeially of Goats Milk is the best and most proper liquor wherein it is to be steeped and taken or else in White-wine whereby it worketh more effectually in opening Obstructions and purging the Stomack and Liver from Choler and Flegm a little Indian Spikenard used therewith is the best Correcter thereof Rosemary Kinds and Names THere was formerly but one kind of Rosemary known to us which was the ordinary Rosemary but now we have discovered several sorts which shall follow with their Names before their Descriptions Descript 1. Ordinary Rosemary It is called in Latine Libanotis coronaria sive Rosmarinum vulgare This is no natural English plant yet in divers Gardens in this Land where it hath stood long aswel as in its naturall Soil it groweth in time to a great height with a great and Woody stem of a close firm substance and whitish within branching forth into many Arms from them again into many other smaller branches at the joints whereof are set at several distances many long and very narrow leaves green above and greyish underneath and with all along the stalks towards the tops divers small gapeing flowers of a pale bleak blewish colour standing in whitish husks the seed is small and reddish but seldom doth any that is sown in our Country endure the first Winter without Extraordinary care and therefore is usually increased by slipping The whole plant hath an Aromatical smell Descript 2. Gilded Rosemary Rosmarinum striatum sive Aureum is the Latine appellation This differeth not from the former in any thing but in the leaves which are edged or striped or pointed with with a fair Gold yellow colour which so continueth all the year yet fresher in Summer than Winter Descript 3. Broad-leafed Rosemary called in Latine Rosmarinum Latifolium This groweth like the former but not so great in our Country nor with such Woody branches and is more tender to keep the leaves are larger and of a more shining deep green colour on the upper side and little or nothing whitish underneath more thinly also or sparsedly set on the stalks the flowers differ nor from the former kinds Descript 4. Double flowred-Rosemary Rosmarinum flore duplici This differs from the former in this that it hath stronger stalks while it is young then the last or not so easie to break fairer also and larger leaves then the first and the flowers are double like those of the Larkes-heel or Larks-spur Descript 5. Whild-sweet Silesia Rosemary or Mathiolus his Wild Bohemian Rosemary Rosmarinum sylvestre Bohemicum Mathioli sive Laedum Silesiacum Clusii This riseth with Woody ash-coloured branches two foot high or more which shoot forth other branches of a purplish colour covered with a brownish-yellow hoariness on which are set many narrow long green leaves like unto those of Rosemary but covered with the like hoariness as the stalks are especially in their natural place but not so much being transplanted folding their sides so close together that they seem nothing but ribs or stalks of an excellent pleasant and sweet smell at the ends of the branches grow certain brownish and scaly leaves out of which spreadeth a tuft of many flowers consisting of five white leaves a peece with ten white chines or threeds in the middle and in some plants with six leaves and twelve threds or Chives after which follow five long square heads spotted with silver-like white spots while they are green but grow brownish when they are ripe and turn down their tops opening their husks at the stalks least the seed which is as small as dust should fall out the Root is Woody with short sprigs Descript 6. Unsavory Wild Rosemary Rosmarinum sylvestre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This doth nearly resemble Rosemary but is not sweet like them It groweth above a foot high having divers reddish branches which divide themselves into others smaller of a whitish colour set confusedly with long and narrow leaves green on the upperside and hoary underneath like those of the Dwarffe-Willow of no pleasant scent at all but of an Astringent taste At the tops of the branches stand divers heads composed of many short scales out of which shoot forth sundry flowers standing on long foot-stalks made of five leaves a peece of a fine pale reddish or flesh colour after which rise short five-square heads with blunt points containing small pale coloured seed Descript 7. Our Wild Rosemary Rosmarinum sylvestre minus
were with blisters in divers places with thorns thereon like a Bryar or wild-Rose the leaves are not many but small like the wild hedge-bryar or rather smaller and turning red in Summer the Roses are single and small of a deep incarnate colour more than the former Descript 4. The Virginia Bryar Rose called in Latine Rosa sylvestris Virginiensis The Virginia Rose hath divers as great stems and branches as any other Rose whose young are green and the elder greyish set with many pricks and a few great thorns among them the leaves are very green and shining small and almost round many set on a middle rib one against another somewhat like unto the single yellow-Rose the flowers stand at the tops of the branches consisting of five small leaves of a pale purple or deep Carnation-colour like unto those of the sweet Bryar Descript 5. The single sweet white Rose called in Latine Rosa Campestris flore albo odora This Rose hath woody stems about three foot high set as thick with sharp thorns as any of the other and hath the like leaves but not so green at the tops of whose branches stand usually but one flower apiece consisting of five white leaves reasonable large and of a sweet smell with divers yellow threads in the middle in their places come such like round and short heads or berries as are in other Roses but are black when they are ripe and not red with white seeds lying in flocks of Down Descript 6. The Vermilion Rose of Austria Rosa sylvestris Austriaca flore phoeniceo The younger branches of this Rose are slender and reddish the elder brownish grey set with divers thorns but not very thick great or sharp the leaves are somewhat sharper than those of the single yellow Rose else not much unlike the flowers are single and as large as those of the yellow-Rose but of an excellent Orange-tawny-colour with an eye of vermilion cast over it and of a paler-yellow on the outside after which the fruit follows Descript 7. The single dwarf red-Rose of Austria Rosa pumila rubra Austriaca This Dwarf-Rose groweth not above half a yard high with slender green stems set with few or no thorns below but having many higher having whitish green leaves upon them like the other roses and greyish underneath five or seven set on a stalk together at the top of the branches come forth very great bearded husks wherein stand large flowers made of five leaves apiece somewhat sweet red at the first but decaying with standing growing much more pale before they fail away with yellow threds in the middle after which come the fruit which are red as the others but greater somewhat more like unto a pease than the others Descript 8. The small Burnet-Rose or Pimpinel-Rose Rosa Pimpinella sive pomifera minor This small Rose seldome riseth above a foot high being of two sorts whereof the one hath but few thorns and the other full of small thorns which is most frequent set with long winged stalks of leaves being many small leaves round and greenish set one against another upon the stalk finely dented about the edges seeming like unto a Burnet leaf for the form and number set together The flowers are single small and white without any scent after which come small round heads black when they are ripe and full of seed as the other Roses Descript 9. Dwarf single white Rose Rosa pumila sylvestris alba This scarce riseth above a foot above ground being set with small thorns and leaves according to the proportion of the Plant and the wildness of the kind the flowers are white and small giving heads and seed like the rest the root creepeth about more than others Descript 10. The single Dwarf-Rose without thorns Rosa simplex pumila sine spina This Dwarf-Rose groweth also very low almost upon the ground with green stalks without any thorn thereon set with small winged leaves the flower is small and of a pale reddish colour and single in some places very sweet and in others little or nothing flowring also in some places both in the Spring and Autumn Place and Time The two first grow in the Hedges of our Land every where almost yet the second not so frequent as the first the third came from Muscovy the fourth from Virginia the fifth from Germany in sundry places the sixth and seventh from Austria the eighth is found in divers places of our own land both in barren Heathy grounds and by Woods and hedges sides the ninth on some of the hills among the Switzers and the last near unto Lyons in France upon Pilates Hill there some of these Roses flower earlier than others some in May and others not until June Government and Vertues The Roses are certainly all under the dominion of Venus I shall first set down the properties of the manured-Roses Both the white and the red are of a cooling binding quality yet the white is taken to exceed the red in both these qualities but is seldom used in any inward medicine The red hath a watry substance and a warm joyned with the other Qualities The yellow threads in the middle do binde and dry more then the Rose it self The Juice of the Roses when they are fresh purgeth Choler and watry Humours Choler watry humors but being dryed they have a stopping and astringent quality The decoction of the red-Rose in wine is very good for the Headach and pains in the Ears Eyes Throat and Gums The Fundament also the lower-bowels and the Matrix being bathed or put into them The same decoction with the Roses remaining therein is profitably applyed to the Region of the Heart to ease the inflamations therein as also St. Anthonies fire and all other diseases of the Stomack and being dryed and beaten to powder and taken in steeled wine or water they stay womens Courses Headach pains in the Ears Eyes Throat Gums Fundament Lower-Bowels and Matrix Inflamation of the Heart St. Anthonies fire stomack Womens Courses Eyes and are good for the eyes being mixed with other medicines for that purpose The yellow threads in the middle of the red Roses being powdered and drunk in the distilled water of Quinces stayeth the abundant flux of womens Courses and helps the defluxions of Rheume upon the Gums and Teeth Womens Courses Rheums Gums and Teeth-loose and preserveth them from corruption and fastneth them if they be loose if they be washed and garbled therewith and some Vinegar of squils added thereto the heads with seed being used in powder or in a decoction stayeth the Laske and the spitting of Blood Red Roses do strengthen the heart the stomack and the Liver and the retentive faculties and mitigate pains that arise of heat asswage Inflamations procure sleep and rest stay womens Courses Gonorrhaea and the fluxes of the belly The husks of the Roses with the beards and the nailes of the Roses are binding and cooling and the distilled water of
kidneys and the Kings evil the decoction helps the Inflamations of the Mother if they sit therein and causeth hair to grow on the Eye-lids Squinant Kinds Descript Names THere are two sorts of this Squinant a finer and a coarser or the true and a Bastard kind Descript 1. The finer sweet-smelling Rush It is also called Camels hay and Juncus odoratus tenuior sive schenanthos This Rush hath many tufts or heads of long Rush-like leaves set thick together one compassing another at the bottom and shooting forth upwards the outermost whereof are bigger and grosser than those that grow within which are of a foot long and better small round and stiff or hard of a quick and spicy taste somewhat pleasant and of a fine sweet gentle or soft scent It beareth divers round hard-joynted stalks having divers short brownish or purplish husks on the tops containing within them mossie whitish short threads or hairs wherein lyeth a chaffy seed The root is full of long fibres and hath the least scent or taste of any part thereof Descript 2. The grosser sweet-smelling Rush in Latine called Juncus odoratus crassior This groweth in the same manner that the former doth but is greater in every part thereof and less sweet aswell as less sharp and hot in taste Place and Time They grow naturally in Arabia Syria Mesopotamia and those tracts of the East countreys and in some places of Africa It never flowers in these colder Countreys if it be here planted but in those hotter parts it flowreth in the Summer-time Government and Vertues This Plant is under the dominion of Jupiter in Libra it discusseth Swellings and Wind but doth a little trouble the head Swellings Wind Vrine Womens Courses Humours Spitting blood Lungs Liver stomach reins Loathing meat Dropsie Cramps Convulsions Mother Liver Stomach Body It provokes Urine and womens courses it gently cutteth or breaketh humours and digesteth them and looseth the breathing places of the veins The decoction of the flowers drunk stayeth the spitting of blood and helps the griefs of the Lungs Liver Stomach and Reins The Root is held to be of an astringent property and is effectual for those that have a loathing to their meat a dram taken every morning fasting for certain days together with the like quantity of Pepper It is good for the Dropsie Cramps the decoction is good for women to sit in that are troubled with the Mother it allayeth the Inflammations of the Liver Stomach and body the roots do bind more and the flowers are more hot but in all the parts thereof there is an Astriction The whole Plant being boyled in the Broth of a Chicken is helpful to ease the pains of the womb which women feel after Child-bearing Pains of the womb Sores of the mouth Vlcers The powder thereof is good against Sores of the mouth and all creeping Ulcers and taken with wine and vinegar is good for those that have an Ulcer in their stomach if the stomach or belly be fomentâ—d with the decoction thereof it easeth the pains and taketh away all Inflamations therein Stoechas Descript Names THe ordinary Stoechas or Stoechados as it is usually called and also French-Lavenderâ— is a more tender plant than Lavender and more like an herb than a Bush or Shrub not above a foot and an half high having many narrow long whitish green leaves like unto Lavender but softer and smaller set at several distances about the stalks which spread into sundry branches at the tops whereof stand long round and sometimes four-square heads of a dark greenish purple-colour compact of many scales from which come forth the flowers of a bluish purple colour after which follow seed-vessels which are somewhat whitish when they are ripe containing blackish brown seed in them the root is somewhat woody and will hardly endure our cold winter except in some places or before it have flowred the whole Plant is somewhat sweet of scent but nothing so much as Lavender Place and Time This Staechas groweth in Arabia aswel as France and Spain In their natural Climate they flower in March and April but those which are planted in Gardens in our cold Countreys flower not till May or June Government and Virtues This is a Plant of Jupiter the decoction thereof helps diseases of the breast coughs and colds It is good in Medicines against Infections and poysons Breast Coughs Colds Poysons it is of a mixt temperature of a small earthy cold essence as saith Galen from whence it hath the quality of binding and of another earthy more extenuated whereby it is bitter by the mixture of both which it openeth obstructions and freeth the body from them It extenuateth cleanseth and strengthneth all the inward parts and bowels as also the whole frame of the body Inward parts and Bowels Brains Sinews Heart Black Choler Phlegm Head Brain cold griefs Brains Sinews Falling-Sickness Giddiness head Stomach Sadness it strengtheneth the brain sinews and heart and all the other inward parts It purgeth black Choler and phlegm aswel from the head and brain as other the instruments of the senses and comforteth them It is effectual in all cold griefs used in drinks baths or fomentings an oyl made therewith and fomented giveth as it were life to the brains and sinews by warming and comforting them Taken with vinegar of Squils it helpeth the Falling-Sickness and swimming of the head and is helpful for all pains of the head or stomach Taken with juice of Bugloss and of Pippins it helpeth sadness of the heart and melancholy it easeth the pains of the sinews Arteries muscles and joynts taken in what form you will the fumes thereof taken into the nostrils openeth them when they are closed taken in a Syrrup it helpeth Agues especially in those that are phlegmatick being boyled in Lye it is effectual for all those diseases of the head to wash it therewith Agues Scurf Dandrif Lice besides it cleanseth the head of Scurf and Dandrif and killeth Lice therein The Storax-tree Kinds Descript Names THere are accounted three sorts of the Storax tree whose names shall follow with their Descriptions Descript 1. The usual Storax-tree called in Latine Styrax Arbor vulgaris This Storax-tree groweth very like unto the Quince-tree both for form and bigness the leavs also are long and round and somewhat like but far less whitish underneath and stiff the flowers stand both at the joynts with the leaves and at the ends of the branches consisting of five or six large whitish leavs like unto those of the Orange-tree with some threds in the middle after which come cound berries set in the cups that the flowers were in before of the bigness of Hazel-nuts pointed at the ends and hoary all over each standing on a long footstalk containing within them certain kernels in small shells This yieldeth a most fragrant sweet Gum and clear of the colour of brown honey Descript 2. Storax with Maple-leaves Styrax folio Aceris From a
round ruggish root covered with a crested or as it were a joynted Bark come forth out of knots three or five broad leavs like unto those of the Maple or Plane-tree standing on small blackish long stalks and are divided in three or five parts full of veins dented about the edges and pointed at the ends Descript 3. Red Storax called in latine Styrax rubra This hath formerly by some been thought to be the bark of some kind of tree that went under that name of Storax But Serapio and Avicen divide Storax into liquida and sicca by liquida meaning the pure gum flowing from the tree and not that liquida which we have now adays by that name and by the sicca the feces of the expressed oyl from the fruit but Calumita is now taken of some to be red Storax Place and Time The first groweth in Provence of France in Italy Candy Greece and some hither parts of Turkey where it yieldeth not gum but in Syria Silicia Pamphylia Cyprus and those hotter countreys it groweth much It flowreth in the Spring yielding fruit in September Government and Virtues This is a solar Plant there is no part of this tree in use with us but the gum that issueth out of it It is of temperature hot in the second degree and dry in the first it heateth mollifieth and digesteth and is good for Coughs Catarrhes Coughs Catarrhes Rheums Courses Mothr Loosen the belly Afterbirth Ears cold Aches Lameness distillations of Rheums and hoarsness It provokes womens courses and mollifieth the hardness and contractions of the Mother Pills made with it and a little Turpentine and taken gently looseneth the belly it resisteth cold poysons used as a Pesâ—ary it draweth down the courses and Afterbirth dropped into the ears it helpeth the singings and noise in them applyed to the hips joynts or shoulders afflicted with cold Aches it resolveth and comforteth much and is good to be put into baths for lameness of the joynts and weariness by travail It is also good to be put with white Frankincense to perfume those that have Catarrhes Rheums and defluxions from the head to the nose eyes Rheums head Nose Eyes or other parts by casting it on quick coals and holding their heads over the smoak and to air their night-caps therewith It dissolveth hard Tumors in any part as them about the throat and the Kings-evil Tumors Kings-Evil Sumach Descript Names Sumach groweth like a bushy shrub about the height of a man bringing forth divers branches upon which grow long soft hairy or velvet leaves with a red stem or sinew in the middle the which upon every side hath six or seven little leaves standing one against another nipt about the edges like the leavs of Egrimony the flowers grow among the leaves upon long stems or footstalks clustring together like the Cats-tails or blowings of the Nut-tree of a white green colour the seed is flat and red growing in round berries clustring together like grapes This Plant is called in Latine Rhus and in English Sumach and Coriers Sumach The seed is called in Latine Rhus obsoniorum and in English Meat-Sumach and Sauce Sumach Place and Time It groweth in Spain and other hot Countreys It is seldome found in this countrey but in the gardens of diligent Herbarists where it flowers in July Government and Vertues This is a Saturnine Plant of temperature cold in the second degree and dry in the third of a strong binding faculty the leavs have the same power that Acacia hath they stop the Lask and womens flowers with all other issues of blood Lask-flowers Bloody Issues Bloody-Flux Watry Ears to be first boyled in water and wine and drunken the same decoction stoppeth the Lask and bloody flux to be used as a Glyster or to bathe in the decoction It also dryeth up the running water and filth of the ears when it is dropped into the same and maketh the hair black being washed therein The seed of Sumach being eaten in sawces with meat doth stop all Fluxes of the belly with the bloody-flux and the whites Bloody-Flux Whites The same layd upon new bruises and green wounds defendeth them from hurts inflamations Swellings and Exulcerations the same pounded with Oaken-coals and layd to the hemerrhoids healeth and dryeth up the same The decoction of the leaves worketh the same effect Swallow-wort Kinds Names OF this there are three kinds The usual latine names of Swallow-wort is Asclepias or Vnice toxicum their distinct names follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Swallow-wort with white flowers Asclepias flore albo This Swallow-wort riseth up with divers slender weak stalks to be two or three foot long not easie to break scarce able to stand upright and therefore for the most part doth lean or lie down upon the ground if it find not any thing to sustain it and sometimes will twine themselues about it whereon are set two leaves at the joynts being somewhat broad and long-pointed at the end of a dark green colour and smooth at the edges At the joynts with the leavs towards the tops of the stalks and at the tops themselves come forth divers small white flowers consisting of five pointed leaves apeece of an heavy sweet scent after which come small long pods thick above and less and less to the point wherein lie small flat brown seed wrapped in a great deal of white silken down which when the pod is ripe it openeth of it self and sheddeth both seed and cotton upon the ground if it be not carefully gathered The roots are a great Bush of many strings fastned together at the head smelling somewhat strong while they are fresh and green but more pleasant when they are dryed both leavs and stalks perish every winter and rise anew in the spring of the year when the stalks at their first springing are blackish brown Descript 2. Swallow-wort with black flowers called in Latine Asclepias flore nigro This groweth in the same manner that the former doth having his long slender rough branches rise to a greater height than the other and twining themselves about whatsoever standeth next unto them having such like dark green leavs set by couples but somewhat smaller than they the flowers likewise stand in the same fashion but somewhat smaller also and of a dark purplish colour that it seemeth to be black and are scarce discerned unless one look very earnestly upon them after which come more plentifully than the other such like Cods with a white silver down and seeds in them as the former the roots hereof are not so bushy as the other neither smell so strong neither doth it give any milky but a watry juice when it is broken Descript 3. Swallow-wort of Candy Asclepias Cretica This riseth up in the same fashion that the former do with many slender flexible green branches with leavs set at the joynts on either side as the white kind hath and are very like unto them but somewhat of a
the back and Reins and stayeth the running of the Reins wiâ—h a little powder of Rubarb put thereto it provoketh Urine and helpeth to expel both stone and gravel it ripeneth Impostumes and helpeth to expel them and mightily dissolveth winde in the pains of the Chollick stomack or sides and is good also against the Gout Sciatica and all pains in the joints aswell to take it inwardly with Chamepitis Sage and Stoechas as to be made into a Cerecloth and applyed thereto It is a special ingredient in those Balsoms that are to heal any green wounds and is effectual in all wounds and fractures of the head all punctures in the head and sinews and all breakings out in the skin be it Itch or Scab Piles Pushes or wheals it draweth forth Splinters Piles Pushes Thorns Lips Hands Fundament thorns or the like out of the flesh and healeth the chaps of the lips hands fundament or other parts It is put into all salves oyls oyntments or plaisters that serve to cleanse Ulcers to draw or heal any sores and to warm and comfort any cold and weak parts the Chymical oyl of this Turpentine is very effectual in many of these diseases if it be carefully applyed it being of very subtil parts and therefore inwardly or outwardly it must be used as it were by drops Descript The Turmerick brought unto us is an Indian Root In which Countreys it springeth up and beareth larger and thinner leaves than Millet of a paler green colour a stalk full of leaves compassing one another to the top The Root is slender and yellow near unto the form of Ginger Government and Vertues It is a Plant of Mars and is of great use in the yellow Jaundise Jaundise Old diseases Dropsie either the powder or the decoction being taken for it doth open obstructions of the gall and other parts It is of very good use in old and inveterate griefs and sicknesses and the evil disposition of the body called Cachexia and is very profitable against the dropsie Turn-Sole Kinds and Names OF Turn-Sole there are several kinds whose names shall follow with their Descriptions Descript 1. The greater Turnsole called in Latine Heliotropium maius This riseth up with one upright stalk about a foot or more high dividing it self almost from the bottom into divers smaller branches of a hoary colour At each joynt of the stalk and branches grow two small broad leaves somewhat like unto those of Calamint or Basil somewhat white or hoary also at the tops of the stalks and branches stand in any small white flowers consisting of four and sometimes of five very small leaves set in order one above another upon a small very crooked spike which turneth inwards like a bowed finger opening by degrees as the flowers blow open after which in their places come small cornered seed four for the most part standing together the root is small and threddy perishing every year and the seed shedding it self riseth again the next spring Descript 2. The greater creeping Turnsole is in a manner but the same with the fomer greater Turnsole because it is in most things so like it yet differeth in these particulars That it hath more and slenderer stalks not standing upright as the other doth but leaning down to the ground the stalks and leaves are lesser but hoary in like manner the flowers are white and stand in crooked spiky heads bowing like a Scorpions tail as the other but the seed being smaller standing singly or but two together the roots are small and perish in like manner Descript 3. The smaller Turnsole Heliotropium minus this smaller Turnsole groweth very low lying almost with his slender weak branches upon the ground having thereon many small leaves like the other in form but three times less in substance neither stalks nor leaves white nor hairry but of a dark green colour the flowers are much smaller and yellowish not growing in long crooked or bowing heads like the former nor at the tops of the branches but standing at the joynts upon very small stalks some above the leaves and others under them which afterwards turn into small round heads or buttons like unto warts wherein is such like seed as the last but smaller and rounder Descript 4. The Colouring or dying Turnsole Heliotropium triconum This dying Turnsole that beareth berryes three alwayes set together riseth up with an upright stalk branching it self diversly to the height of half a yard or there-abouts whereon grow broader and softer leaves than on any of the former like unto those of the sleepy night-shade and whitish withall set without order at the joynts up to the tops yet lesser above than below at the ends of the branches come forth small mossy yellowish flowers which quickly perish and fall away without giving any seed herein like unto the Ricinus or Palma Christi called the great Spurge for in the same manner also at the joynts with the leaves come forth the fruit or berries standing three for the most part alwayes joyned together upon short footstalks which are of a blackish green colour and rough or rugged on the outside wherein is contained ash-coloured seed which if the heads be suffered to grow over-ripe and be dryed with the Sun will fall out of themselves upon the ground and spring again in their natural places the next year thereby renewing it self for the root is small and perisheth after it hath born seed But these berries when they are at their full maturity have within them that is between the outer skin and the inward kernel or seed a certain juice or moisture which being rubbed upon a paper or cloath at the first appeareth of a fresh and lively green colour but presently changeth into a kind of blewish purple upon the cloath or paper and the same cloath afterwards wet in water and wrung forth will colour the water into a Claret-wine colour And these are those rags of cloath called Turnsole in the Druggists and Grocers shops and with all other people and serveth to colour Jellies or other things Place and Time These doe grow in Italy France and Spain in divers places The two first are planted in gardens here with us and doe flower and seed well every year but the other two will scarce grow to shew any seed in our cold Climate Government and Vertues These are Solar Plants to whom they yield obedience the head of the flowers always facing the Sun a good handfull of the greater Turnsole boyled in water and drunk purgeth both Choler and phlegm and being boyled in wine it is good against the stinging of Scorpions Choller Phlegm Scorpions Stone Reins Kidneys Bladder Vrine Womens Courses Easie birth Worms Gout Joynts pained Warts Wens Kernels Excrescencies Face Eye-lids to be aswel drunk as layd upon the place that is stung The same also boyled with Cummin and drunk helpeth them that are troubled with the Stone in the Reins Kidneys or Bladder provoketh Urine and Womens Courses
is good against the Stone taken with wine and water It removeth the hiccop not only when it is taken inwardly but being smelled unto It cureth the bloudy flux and stoppeth the whites in Women and is very profitable to be given to such as have the dropsie it opens the Liver and stancheth thirst Anniseeds plentifully eaten stirre up lust and causeth women to have plenty of milk the seed chewed in the mouth amendeth the stench thereof and maketh the breath sweat The same beaten to powder and taken with honey cleanseth the brest from flegm and cureth the old cough having bitter Almonds mixed therewith the same drunk with Wine is good against poyson and bitings of Venemous beasts Dreams Sleep Head-ach hearing It is singular to be given to Children to eat that be in danger of the falling-sicknes being mixed with hony vinegar and hysop and the throat gargled therwith it cureth the Squinancy and swellings of the Throat Anniseeds bound in a little bag and kept at the nose to smell unto keepeth men from dreaming and starting in their sleep Dreams Sleep and causeth them to rest quietly the perfume of it taken up into the nose cureth the headach Head-ach and being pounded with oyle of roses and laid to the Ears it cures inward hurts and wounds of the same which impedite the hearing hearing Anagyris or Arbor Inda Name IT hath no other names in our shops Descript There are three kinds hereof the first Anagyris is a little low shrub or bush upon which grow small leaves alwayes three together the flowers be yellow almost like broom flowers which being past there succeed long huskes or Cods which contain in it a flat seed hard and firm almost like a kidney leafe but somewhat smaller the whole plant is of a strong ilfavored stinking savor as it were the smell of Gladwyn or Spurge-wort 2. Another shrub somwhat resembling the former in leaves and growing but hath flowers very thick together hanging by a fine slender stem like to a spiky Ear but yellow almost like broom flowers the Cods are rounder and smaller then those of the former with a smaller fruit 3. There is another kind producing long Cods also which well ordered in the growing up waxeth to be a tall tree the branches are set with broad round leaves the flowers be purple and red like the flowers of garden pease which grow about the lowest part of the great branches producing afterwards long flat Cods of a wan blew colour having therein a flat seed hard like to a Lentil Place These plants grow wild in several places of Italy and Province in woods and upon the Mountains Time Anagyris flowreth in April and May the second in May and June the Arbor Inda in March the fruit is ripe in September Government and Vertues Both leaves and seed are hot and dry yet partake of a Saturnine influence a dram of the leaves boyled in wine Terms drive down womens flowers and the afterbirth the young leaves bruised and laid to pultis wise do allay and dissolve swellings Swellings the seeds eaten provoke violent vomiting Vomiting Aloe or Aloes Names BY the same name of Aloe or Aloes is the condensed juice of this plant called in all parts of Europe the plant is also called Sea-houseleek and Sea-Ay-green Descript This plant hath very long leaves thick and set round about with short points or crests standing wide one from another the root is thick and long all the herb is of a strong savor and bitter tast out of this herb is drawn a Juice which is dryed and called Aloes in parts of the world Place Aloe groweth very plentiously in India and from thence cometh the best juice It groweth also in many places of Asia and Arabia neer the sea side but the juice thereof is not so good as that of India Government and Vertues It is a martial plant hot in the second degree dry in the third of a very bitter tast the juice being refined clarified from its drosse is of a cleer blackish clean brown colour it openeth the belly and purgeth cold flegmatick and cholerick humors Flegm Choler which over-burden and hurt the stomack it is the basis in almost all pills it comforteth cleanseth and dryeth up superfluous humors It may be taken with Cinnamon Ginger Mace Galingal or Anniseed to asswage and drive away pain of the stomack Stomack and to comfort and warm the stomack and expell flegm the same is also good against the Jaundies and spitting of bloud Jaundies spitting Bloud Aloe made into powder and strewn upon new bloudy wounds stoppeth the bloud and healeth the wound wounds likewise being applied upon old ulcers it closeth them up and it is a soveraign medicine for Ulcers about the secret parts and fundament Vlcers The same boyled with wâ—ne and honey healeth rifts and out-growings of the fundament and stoppeth the flux of the Hemerrhoides Hemrods and being applied with honey it taketh away black spots Spots that come by stripes or bruises bruises it is also good against inflamations hurts and scabs of the Eyes Eyes and against running and dimness of the same Aloes mixed with oyl of roses and vinegar and laid to the forehead and temples asswageth head-ach head-ach the head being often rubbed with Aloes mixed with wine keepeth the hair from falling off Hair The same applied with wine cureth sores of the mouth and gums the throat and kernels under the tongue and outwardly applied it is a good consolidative medicine stoppeth bleeding and doth mundifie and cleanse all corruption Assa foetida Names THis is a juice or liquor got out of the stalkes and roots of a certain plant called Laser and Laserpitium growing in Media and Persia and is of a very loathsome and stinking savor so that it is called the Devil 's T There is another sort which groweth in Cyrene which is of a pleasant savor and not very bad in tast Descript Laser is a plant that dyeth yearly it hath great thick stalks having leaves like Parsly of a pleasant sent the seed is broad as it were a little leaf It hath a great many roots growing out of one head which is thick and covered with a black skin from out of these roots and stalk being cut floweth a strong liquor or Juice which is dryed and usefull in Physick Place The best groweth on the mountains of Cyrene and yeeldeth a liquor of a pleasant smell the other kind groweth in Syria Media Armenia and Lybia the Juice whereof is of a very loathsome smell which is our Assa foetida or devil's durt Government and Vertues It is hot and dry in the third degree under the dominion of Saturn is the Juice but the roots under the influence of Mars the roots as say Dioscorides and Gallen are good against poyson Poyson Breath Sweet and a little of the same eaten with meat or taken
and Virtues Saturn rules this plant the leaves and fruit are dry in the third degree without any manifest heat and very astringent the fruit of Cypress taken into the body stoppeth looseness and the Bloody flux Bloody Flux and is good against spitting of bloud and all other issues of bloud Issues of blood the decoction of the same made with water hath the same vertue The oyle in which the fruit or leaves of Cypress have been boyled doth strengthen the Stomack Stomack Vomiting stayeth Vomiting stoppeth the belly Broken Belly and all fluxes of the same and cureth the excoriation or going off of the skin from the secret members Cypress-nuts cure them that are bursten and that have their Guts fallen into their Cods being outwardly applied in Cataplasms thereunto the leaves have the same vertue but not so strong the fruit of Cypress is also good to cure Polypus Pollypus which is corrupt flesh growing in the nose The same bruised with dry fat figs doth cure the blasting and swellings of the Yard and Stones Yard Stones and if leaven be added thereunto it dissolveth and wasteth botches and boyls being laid upon the grieved place The leaves of Cypress boyled in sweet Wine or Mede doth help the Strangury strangury and issue of the Bladder the same beaten very small and applied doth close up green Wounds Green-Wounds and stop the bleeding thereof and being applied with parched Barly-meal they are profitable against St. Anthonies-fire St. Anthonies-fire Carbuncles carbuncle and other hot Ulcers Vlcers and fretting sores Sores the leaves and fruit of Cypress being infused in Vinegar and the hair washed therewith maketh it black Hair Coral Kind and Names THere be several kinds of Coral but the red and the white especially the red is most in use there be also several sorts of black Coral called Antipathes and ther is a kind of Coral which is black rough and bristly and is called Sambeggia Descript These plants although their hard substance make them seem rather to be Stones yet they are vegetables The greater red Coral which is the best groweth upon rocks in the Sea like unto a shrub with arms and branches which shoot forth into sprigs some greater and some lesser of a pale red colour for the most part when it is taken out of the water but when it is pollished it is very fair and of a lovely red colour whilest it is in the water it is soft and pliable but being taken out and kept dry a while it becomes of an hard stony substance Place The Corals are found in the Isles of Sardinia and divers other places of the Mediterranean Sea Time Coral is found growing at all times in the year Government and Virtues Coral is under the dominion of the Sun yet reputed to be of a cooling and astringent quality the red is the hottest the white the coldest it is good to stop the Running of the Reins in Men Running of the Reins Whites Bleeding spâ—â—en Strangury Spleen Stone Heart stomack Liver Feavers and the Whites in Women the red Coral stops bleeding and is good for them that spit bloud or any flux of bloud being taken in Wine or other drink It abates the Slpeen helps the stoppage of Urine and such as pisse by drops the powder of it being burnt and taken in drink easeth the pain of the Stone It strengthens the Heart Stomack and Liver and is good in all pestilential Feavers and malignant diseases it is good against Venome chears the Heart and is good against Melancholy there is an excellent Cordial made of it called Tictura Corallii singular good for all the purposes aforesaid the powder taken in Wine or distilled Water gives rest to such as have Agues helps the Cramp Cramp it is good against the Falling-Sickness some write that if two grains of the powder of red Coral be given to a Child newly born in some black cherry water or the Mothers milk that Child shall never be troubled with the Falling-Sickness Falling-Sickness it is likewise good to cause easie Delivery Easie Delivery to rub Childrens Gums Gums to help their teeth to break forth more easily Teeth it helps sore Gums and Ulcers in the Mouth and healeth up foul hollow Ulcers in other parts Vlcers it is also profitable to be used in medecines for the Eyes to stay the Flux of Rhume It cools and dryes up the moisture and takes away the heat and redness of the Eyes the aforementioned Tincture and likewise the Chymical oyl may be used for any of the aforesaid purposes Cardamoms Names THey are called Cardamom and Grana Paradisi by some Grains of Paradice Descript Cardamoms grow upon a small tree in the East-Indies and Arabia which beareth the seeds in husks in which they are brought hither and sold in our shops for medicinal use Government and Vertues These seeds called Cardamoms are hot and dry in the third degree under the dominion of Jupiter It breaketh the Stone Stone Vrine Poison Scorpions and provoketh Urine and giveth ease to such as make water with pain it resisteth Poison and helpeth stingings or bitings of Scorpions or other Venemous creatures It is good against the Falling-Sicknesse Falling-sickness Guts Wind Bruises Sinews Sciatica Gripings in the Guts or Bowells expelleth Wind from the Stomack and intrails helpeth such as are bruised or broken by falls or bruises those that have loose or weak Sinews and pains of the Sciatica or Hip-gout and used with Vinegar it is good against Scabs and is an ingredient in many of our compositions and cordial Antidotes Cloves Names THey are called in Latine Caryophylli Descript The tree wherin the Cloves do grow is great tall covered with an Ash-coloured bark the younger branches being more white the leaves grow by couples one against another somewhat long and narrow like to bay leaves with a middle rib and sundry veins running through them each of them standing on a long footstalk the ends of the branches are divided into many small brown sprigs wheron grow the flowers on the tops of the Cloves themselves which are white at the first with their sprigs green afterwards and at last reddish before they be beaten off from the tree and as they dry before they be put up grow blackish as they are brought to us having four small tops at the heads of them and a small round head in the middle of them the flower it self standing between those consisteth of four small leavs like unto a Cherry blossom but of an excellent blew colour with three white Veines in every leaf and divers purple-threds in the middle of a more fine scent then the dried Clove Place The Clove-trees grow in the Molucca-Islands where they gaâ—her them twice every year viz. in June and December they grow plentifully also in Amboyna and in divers other places of the Indies â—he Indians generally call them
may outwardly be applied for the same purpose it hindreth conception in Women if they make much use of it The Cokar Nut-tree Description and Names THis groweth to be a great large Timber-tree the body cover'd with a smooth bark bare or naked without any branch to a great height for which cause the Indians do either bore holes therein at certain distances and knock strong pegs into them which stick out so much as may serve for sooting to get up into the tree to gather the juice or liquor and the fruit or fasten ropes with nailes round about the tree with spaces which serve as steps to go up into it and towards the top it spreadeth out into sundry great Arms which bow themselves almost round with large leaves on them like the Date tree but greater whose middle-rib is very great and abiding alwaies green and with fruit also continually one succeeding another from between the lower boughs come forth smaller stalks hanging down bearing sundry flowers on them like those of the chestnut-tree after which come large great three-square fruit or Nuts ten or twelve and sometimes twenty thereon together as big as ones head or as a smaller Pompion almost round but a little smaller at the end covered with a hard tough Ash-coloured thick bark an inch thick in some places and within it a hard woody brownish shell but black being polished having at the Head or top thereof three holes somewhat resembling the nose and eyes of a Monkey between which outer bark and this shell grow many gross thredd 's or hairs within the woody shell there is a white kernel cleaving close to the side thereof as sweet as an Almond with a fine sweet water in the middle thereof as pleasant as Milk which will grow lesse pleasant or consume either by over ripeness or long keeping this tree is called by the Indians Maro in Malaca Trican and in other places by several other apppellations the timber of this tree is solid and firm black and shining like the walnut-tree and fit for any building and Garcias saith it is of two sorts I suppose he meaneth for two uses the one to bear fruit the other to extract the liquor which issues therefrom when the branches are cut or when it is bored and received into some things tyed thereunto for that purpose which liquor they call in their Language Sura and it sheweth like unto troubled Wine but in tast like new sweet Wine which being boyled they call Orraque and being destilled it yeildeth a spirit like unto our Aquavitae and it is used for the same purposes as we do ours and will burn like it they call it Fula And being set in the Sun it will become good Vinegar and that which runneth last being set in the Sun to grow hard or boyled to hardness will become Sugar which they call Jagra of the inner kernel while it is fresh they make bread the fresher the Nuts are the sweeter is the meat thereof Government and Vertues This is a Solar plant the fruit or kernel of the Coker-nut doth nourish very much and is good for lean bodies they increase the natural seed and stir up the appetite to Venery Venery Throat and are good to mollifie the hoarsenesse of the Throat and hoarseness Hoarseness of the voice Chocholate HAving before set down the particular Vertues of the Cacoa or Coker-Nut I shall add somewhat of a Confection or Composition made therof called Chocolate It is brought over unto us made into Rowls is used for a Cordial being macerated in milk and made potable adding what other ingredients pleases the preparer thereof which may be done divers waies according to the constitution of the party and medicinal use it is prepared for There is very much variety of the ingredients whereof this confection is compounded some do put into it black Pepper and Tanasco which is a red Indian root like Madder which is proper onely for those who are of cold and moist constitutions and are troubled with a very cold Stomack and Liver Another Receipt of the Indian Spaniards is this Take of Cacoa's 700. of white Sugar one pound and an half Cinnamon two ounces of long red Pepper 14 in Number of Cloves half an ounce three cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree or instead of that the weight of two Rialls or a shilling of Anniseeds some put in Almonds kernels of Nuts and Orenge-flower-water This Receipt is fit for those that have chronick diseases macilent bodies or are inclinable to be infirm you may either add or take away according to the necessity or temperature of every one and it is very proper and convenient that Sugar be put into it when it is drunk sometimes they make Tabulats of the Sugar and the Chocholate together which they do onely to please the palâ—ts as the Dames of Mexico do use it and they are there sold in shops and are confected and eaten like other sweet-meats Another Receipt or way of compounding it shall follow but take this for a Rule that one Receipt cannot be proper for all Persons therefore such as drink it as common drink in publick houses may receive more hurt than good by it therefore every one may make choice of the ingredients that they may be usefull for the complexion of the Body The Receipt is this To every 100 of Cacao's put two cods of long red Pepper one handful of Anniseeds one cod of Campeche or Logwood two drams of Cinnamon Almonds and Hasel-nuts of each a dozen white Sugar half a pound and if you cannot have those things which come from the Indies you may make it with the rest The way of compounding the Chocholate The Cacao and other ingredients must be beaten in a stone morter or grownd upon abroad stone which the Indians call Metate and is made onely for that use such stones as our Painters grind their colours upon will serve for that use the first thing that is to be done is to dry the ingredients with care that in stirring they be not burnt nor become black and if they be over dried then they will be bitter and lose their vertue the Cinnamon and the long red Pepper are to be first beaten with the Anniseed and then beat the Cacao by little and little till it be all powdered and sometimes turn it round in the beating that it may mix the better and every one of these ingredients must be beaten by it self and then put them all into the vessel where the Cacao is which you must stir together then take out that paste put it into the morter under which you must lay a little fire after the confection it made But you must be very careful not to put more fire than will warm it that the unctuous parts do not fly away you must searse all the ingredients but onely the Cacoa and when you find it to be wel beaten and incorporated which you shall know by the
to work those good effects in Physick whereunto it is conducible is laid down and prescrib'd by the Fryer Gregorio de Reggio before-mentioned whose Receipt is this following The Correction of the Guinny Peppers TAke the ripe Cods of any sort of the Guinny Pepper for they are in property all alike and dry them well first of themselves and then in an Oven after the bread is taken out put it into a pot or pipkin with some flower that they may be thorowly dryed then cleanse them from the flower and their stalks if they have any cut them or clip them very small both husks and seeds within them and to every ounce of them put a pound of fine Wheat-flower make them up together into Cakes or small Loaves with so much leaven as ye think may be convenient for the quantity you make bake these as you do Bread of the small size and being baked cut it again into smaller parts and bake it again that it may be as dry and hard as bisket which beaten into fine powder and sifted may be kept for any of the uses hereafter specified or may serve instead of ordinary Pepper to season Meat or broth or for Sauce or any other purpose the East-Indian-Pepper doth serve for it doth not onely give as good but rather a better tast or relish to the Meat or Sauce but is found to be singular good both to discusse the Wind and the Chollick in the body It is singular good to be used with flatulent or windy meats and such as breed much moisture and crudities whereof Fish is one especial one scruple of the said powder taken in a little broth of Veal or of a Chicken doth very much comfort a cold Stomack Stomack causing Flegm Flegm and such viscous humors as lye low in the bottom thereof to be avoyded helpeth digestion for it provoketh an Appetite Appetite to Meat it provoketh Urine Vrine and taken with Saxifrage water expelleth the Stone Stone in the Kidneys Kidneyes and the Flegm that breedeth them and taketh away the dimness or mistiness of the Sight Sight being used in Meats taken with Pillulae Aleophanginae it doth help the Dropsie Dropsie the powder taken for three dayes together in the decoction of Penny-royal expelleth the Dead-birth Dead-birth but if a piece of the Cod or husk either green or dry be put into the Mother after Delivery it will make them barren barrenness for ever after but the powder taken for four or five dayes fasting with asmuch Fennel-seed will case all pains of the Mother Pains of the Mother The same also made up with a little powder of Gentian and oyle of bayes into a Pessary with some Cotton-wool doth bring down the Courses Courses the same mixed with a Lohoch or Electuary for the Cough Cough helpeth an old inveterate Cough being mixed with Hony and applied to the Throat helpeth the Quinsie Quinzy and made up with a little Pitch or Turpentine and laid upon any hard knots or kernels kernells in any part of the body it will dissolve them and not suffer any more to grow there and being mixed with Nitre and applied it takes away the Morphew Morphew and all Freckles Spots marks and discolourings of the skin applied with Hensgrease it dissolveth all cold Imposthumes Imposthumes and Carbuncles Carbuncle and mixed with sharp Vinegar it dissolveth the hardness of the Spleen if some thereof be mixed with some Vnguentum de Alabastro and the Reynes of the back anointed therewith it will take away the shaking fits of Agues a plaister made thereof with the leaves of Tobacco will heal the sting or biting of any Venemous Beast The decoction of the husks themselves made with Water and the Mouth gargled therewith helpeth the Toothach and preserveth the Teeth from rottenness the Ashes of them being rubbed on the Teeth will cleanse them make black Teeth White The decoction of them with Wine helpeth the Hernia Ventosa or watry Rupture if it be applied warm Morning and Evening if they put it to steep three dayes together in Aquavitae it helpeth the Palsie thâ— place affected being bathed therewith and steeped for a day in Wine and two Spoonfulls drunk thereof every day fasting helpeth a stinking Breath and snufft up into the Nostrills it will help the stink of them caused there in by corrupted Flegm Pines Description and Names THere is one sort called the West-Indian delicious Pines called in Latine Anana seu Pina and another sort called Anana Silvestris Wild-Indian Pines These Pines which for their excellent and pleasant sweet fruit are much esteemed in all the West-Indies are the fruit of a kind of thistle growing with many long hard rough stiffe and narrow leaves thickest in the middle and thin cut in the end dented about the edges with reddish points seeming prickly like a thistle but are not from the middle whereof riseth up a round and shorter stalk than that of the wilder sort set with like leaves but lesser and at the top one head of the bigness of a reasonable Musk-melon or Pome-citron of a yellowish green before it be ripe more yellowish being thorow-ripe shewing as it were scaly like an Artichoke at the first view but more like to a Cone of the Pine-tree which we call a Pine-Apple for the form yet the out-side hath no hardness at all therein but may be cut or pared like unto Mellow Peach and are so sweet in scent that they may be smelled afar off and of a pleasant sweet tast and substance tasting as if Wine Rosewater and Sugar were mixed together and having no seed at all in it whereby it may be increased but as some say it hath whitish seed like a Musk-melon but lesser and longer this fruit doth bear a bush of leaves at the top and some small heads on small branches underneath it which being taken from it and planted half way deep in the ground will take root and bear fruit the next year which is the onely way of propagating thereof In Brasile it is said they have sundry sorts hereof one they call Jaama which is longer and pleasanter than any other and of a yellowish substance Another they call Benjama being whiter within and of a Wawmish tast with the Lusciousness a third they call Jajagna white also within but tasting like sweet Wine with a little tartness the root is great with many strings thereat but perisheth with the stalk after the fruit is ripe it was first brought from Sancta Cruce in Brasil where it naturally groweth into both West and East-Indies being not natural to either of them but is onely manured there and now is grown there plentiful They of Brasile call it Nana others Anana the Spaniards and Portugalls call it Pinus from the likeness and so do most Countries following that name The cheifest time of their ripeness is in the Spring when they
nostras This Wild North Country Rosemary groweth not so high with smaller leaves nothing so great and long as Rosemary leaves but thicker and shorter of a dark green shining colour above and somewhat yellowish green underneath set very sparsedly on very slender and pliant blackish green twigs at the tops whereof grow the flowers not out of scaly heads as in the former of a reddish colour the whole plant hath very little scent if any at all that can be perceived Place and Time The Ordinary Rosemary groweth in Spain abundantly neer the Sea-side on Commons as Heath doth with us the scent whereof is many times smelt by those that passe by in Ships very many leagues off from the Land in Provence also of France and sundry other those hot Countries but will not abide unless kept in Stows the Winter in divers places of Germany Denmark Swedland and those other Northerly Regions The fifth in Silesia Bohemia and the parts thereabouts The sixt in the same places with the fifth The last in divers places in Lancashire and Yorke-shire The first flowereth in April and May with us and sometimes in August the others not until August But at Christmas last at Hedsorwharffe in Buckinghamshire there was Rosemary with very fresh blossomes Government and Vertues Rosemary is an Herb of the Sun and is indued with many physical Remedies both for inward and outward diseases it helpeth all cold diseases both of the Head Stomack Head stomach Liver and Belly Liver Belly the decoction of it in Wine helpeth the cold distillation of Rheum in the Eyes Rheum Eyes and all cold diseases of the Head and Brain Head Brain Giddiness or Swimming therein Drowsiness Drowsiness or Dulness of the Mind and Senses the dumb Palsie Dulness Palsie or loss of Speech the Lethargy and Falling-sickness Lethargy falling-sickness to be both drunk and the Temples bathed therewith It helpeth the paines of the Gums and Teeth Gums Teeth by Rheums falling to them or by putrefaction causing a stinking-breath It helpeth a Weak Memory by heating and drying up the cold moistures of the Brains and quickning the Senses Stinking-Breath Weak-Memory Senses It is very comfortable to the Stomach in all the cold griefs thereof and to stay the aptness to Vomiting causing the Stomack the better to contain and Digest Stomack cold griefs vomiting Digestion the Meat either the decoction or powder taken in Wine It is a remedy for the Windiness in the Stomack or Bowells Wind in the stomack or bowels as also for the Hypochondriack passion and Wind in the Spleen Hypocondriack Passion Wind in the Spleen it openeth Obstructions of the Liver and helpeth those that are Liver-grown Liver-grown It helpeth dim Eyes Dim-Eyes and to procure a clear sight Clear-sight if all the while it is in flower one take of the flowers fasting with Bread and Salt If a decoction be made thereof in Water and they that have the yellow Jaundice do take thereof and Exercise their Bodies presently after the taking thereof it will certainly Cure them thereof as Witness both Galen and Dioscorides The flowers and the conserve made of them is singular good to comfort the Heart Yellow-Jaundice Heart and to expell the Contagion of the Pestilence Pestilence to burn the Herb in Houses and Chambers to Correct the Air in the time of Infection Both the flowers and leaves are good for Women that are troubled with the Whites they being taken daily the dryed leaves shred small and taken in a pipe as Tobacco is taken helpeth much those that are troubled with the Tissick Whites in Women Tissick Cough or Consumption Cough Consumption the leaves are effectual in Bathings and like-wise made into Oyntments or Oyles is very good to help cold benummed Nerves Joints Nerves joynts Sinews or Members Sinews Members The Chymical Oyl drawn from the leaves and flowers is a Soveraign Remedy for all the diseases aforesaid to touch the Temples and Nostrils with two or three drops therof for all these diseases of the Head and Brains spoken of before and for the inward griefs before metioned some drops thereof being taken in Ale or Wine you may make Rosemary-Ale with four or six drops thereof in a pinte of Ale at any time which is good for the aforesaid purposes There is another oyl made by insolation in this manner Take what quantity you will of the flowers and put them into a glass close stopped and digest them in Horse-dung fourteen dayes which then being taken forth and unstopped tye a fine linnen-cloath over the mouth and turn the mouth down into another strong glass which being set in the Sun an oyl will distill down into the lower glass which is precious for divers uses both inward and outward as a soveraign Balm to heal the diseases before spoken of to clear a dim sight and to take away spots marks and scars in the skin Roses Kinds and Names IT is not our intention here to say any thing of the Garden or manured Roses but I intend liere to shew you the several kinds of the Rose sylvesters or wild Roses of which I shall set down about ten several kinds whose names follow with their Descriptions Descript 1. The ordinary wild Bryar-bush or wild-Bose called in latine Rosa sylvestris inodora sive Canina This wild-Rose or Bush groweth of it self on the Hedges very high with upright hard wooddy stems covered with a greyish bark especially the old ones set with sharp thorns up to the tops not so thick as the sweet Bryar having divers leaves somewhat large thereon but not so green on the upper side nor so greyish underneath as the other the middle Rib whereof hath divers small crooked thornes and without any scent at all the flowers stand at the tops of the branches divers set together of a whitish blush-colour made of five round-pointed leaves somewhat longer than the Eglantine Rose standing in such husks as the other Roses do After the flowers are gone the fruit cometh somewhat long and round of a reddish colour when it is ripe having a soft sweetish pulp under the skin and seeds lying therein the root is somewhat great and runneth deep and far under the ground upon this Rose is often found a Burre or Ball of brown threads aswell as upon the Eglantine Rose Descript 2. The wild bush bryar Rose whose latine appellation is Rosa sylvestris odorata carneo flore This is so like the former that it is hardly to be discerned from it either for the height of the stem or store of thorns or smallness of the leaves but onely for the flowers which are somewhat larger and of a deeper blush or pale purple colour somewhat sweet withall Descript 3. The wild Bryar of Muscovy called in latine Rosa sylvestris Rustica This hath sundry reddish yellow stalks rising from the root spotted or rather bunched out as it
are taken from it which are the weakest before the last and strongest riseth but not the last which is the Empireuma and serveth even as the vinegar it self doth but with more force and as the vehiculum wherein the tincture and spirits of simple medicines are reserved Vinum Wine To shew all the several colours scents strengths ages and tastes of simple wines were an Herculean labour and so it is likewise to shew you all the sorts of compound or artificial wines which are as infinite as the herbs roots seeds or other parts of them are and take their names from the several Ingredients that compound them I shall therefore set down the particular properties of Wine it self both as it is mediclnable and nourishing Wine taken moderately by such as are of a middle age or well in years or are of a cold and dry Constitution it increaseth blood Increaseth blood Nourisheth Appetite Vrine Raw humors Vital Spirits Leanness Fears Cares Heaviness Stomach Liver and nourisheth much procureth an appetite and helpeth to digest being taken at meat it provoketh Urine and driveth forth raw humours thereby strengthneth the vital spirits and procureth a good colour in them that want it or are macilent drawing to a Consumption so as it be not accompanyed with a Feaver It expelleth fears cares and heaviness It doth comfort all cold infirmities of the stomach Liver Spleen and womb and helpeth windy swellings in the body and general evi dispositions thereof green-sickness and the dropsie Virtues of the true Spirit of wine The pure spirit of wine must be taken but very little in quantity and that not of it self but in some wine or other liquor for fear of inflaming the bloud and spirits and chiefly upon symptoms and passions of the heart And then taken with respect and good consideration it worketh much more effectual than the wine it self doth to all the purposes aforesaid in comforting and nourishing the natural heat in elder persons given strength and quickness to the senses Strength Senses Memory Brain Faintings Heart Wind Poysons Headach Toothach Sores it repaireth memory and the cold and moist diseases of the brain helpeth the fainting and trembling of the heart warmeth a cold and moist stomach helpeth digestion expelleth wind from the sides and belly and all cold poysons Being outwardly applyed to the Temples it easeth the pains in the head and cold distillations and the Toothach being gargled a little and cicatrizeth old Sores These Spirits of wine aswel as the wine it self serve as a vehiculum to draw out the tincture of divers things The Lees of wine being hardned is called Tartarum Tartar or Argall and that which is taken from the whitest wines is accounted the principal best for any medicine but the red sort serveth Goldsmiths and others to pollish silver and the Dyers to set their dye The best white Tartar is either given of it self simply being made into powder and taken the quantity of a dram at a time in some convenient drink or broath for some time together in Dropsies or evil dispositions of the body Dropsies Vrine Siege Watry humors to expell both by urine and siege those wheyish and watry humors thereof and applyed to womens breasts that are over-full of milk doth dry it up But the Cremor tartari which is the purer part thereof and especially if it be made as clear as crystal doth work more safely and more effectually than the crude Tartar can do but this Tartar that is calcined until it be white hath then put off all purging quality and hath gained a Caustick burning property that will corrode and eat away-scabbed nails and warts and soon be brought into a salt and will also soon be resolved into an oyl or liquor if it be layd upon a stone or hung up in a linnen bag in a moist cellar to be received as it dropped down it is of admirable use in chymical operations There is another kind of oyl of Tartar of a far milder temper and is more like unto clear water which is very effectual to cleanse the skin from all manner of spots scars morphew Spots Scarrs Morphew Hair or discolourings whatsoever and maketh it smooth and amiable and will help to bring on hair on the places decayed The wild vines are in property no less cooling but more binding than the branches of the manured stayeth the lask and spitting of blood Lask Spitting of blood Stomach Sore mouths Privy parts Eyes provoking Urine and is pleasing to a hot stomach or that loatheth meat the leaves hereof are as good for Lotions as the other for sores in the mouth privy parts and Fundament The ashes of the branches are likewise used to clear the Eye-sight of filmes and what else may offend them to cleanse sores and Ulcers and to take away the over-growing skins of the nayls of the hands or toes Indian wheat Maiz. Frumentùm Indicum vel Turcicum vulgare Kinds THere are two sorts hereof the greater and the lesser Descript 1. The usual Indian or Turkey wheat This Indian wheat shooteth from the root which is thick and bushy sundry strong and tall stalks about eight foot high as thick as a mans wrist if it grow in any rank ground full of great joynts with a white pyth in the middle of them the leaves are long twice as large as of Millet at the tops come forth many feather-like spâ—igs bending downwards like unto the top of Millet which are either white or yellow or blew as the grains in the ears will prove which fall away nothing appearing after them but while they are in slower at the joynts of the stalks with the leaves from within two or three of the lower joynts up towards the tops come forth the ears one at a joynt which have many leaves folded over them smallest at the top with a small long bush of threads or hairs hanging down at the ends which when they are ripe are to be cut off which folds of leaves being taken away the head appeareth much like unto a long Cone or Pine-apple set with six or eight or ten rowes of Cornes orderly and closely set together each being almost as big as a pease not fully round but flat on the sides that joyn one to another of the same colour on the outside as the bloomings were hard but brittle and easie to be broken or ground with white meal within them somewhat dry and not clammy in the chewing Descript 2. The other lesser Indian wheat Frumentum Indicum alterum sive minus This other Indian wheat is like the former both in stalks and leaves but not half so high or great the ears likewise are not half so big of as differing colours as it but they do not grow at the joynts of the stalks as the other but at the tops following the flowers which maketh a special difference between them the grain it self is being made into bread not of that nourishing quality as the
it giveth small nourishment though not bad and is withal a little statuâ—ent or windy yet Country-people in divers places of Germany and Italy do feed hereon as almost their onely bread-corn and are strong â—nd lusty Persons following hard Labor for the bread or cakes made â—herof are pleasant but do somwhat presse or lye heavy on the stomack I never knew any bread or cakes made of it for people to eat â—n this Country but it is generally used to fatten Hogs and Poultry of â—ll sorts which it doth very exceedingly and quickly The physical uses of it are these It provoketh Urine Vrine Milk Belly Melancholy Sight increaseth milk loosneth the belly and being taken in wine is good for melancholy persons the juice of the leaves dropped into the eyes cleareth the sight Bane-wort Names IT is also called in some places of England Sperewort Descript This plant hath reddish stalks full of knees or joynts upon which grow long narrow leaves almost like the leaves of Withy but longer and a little snipt or toothed round about especially those that grow lowest the flowers are yellow as Gold somwhat rough in the middle in Fashion and Colour like those of Golden Crowfoot After the flowers be past there succeed knops or heads like those of Crowfoot the reed is threddy Place It groweth in moist medows watry places and standing puddles Time It flowreth in May and yeeldeth his seed soon after Government and Vertues This is an herb of fiery Mars hot and dry in the fourth degree it blistereth the body as Ranunculus doth and is like it in complexion and operation This herb is no way to be given inwardly for it is hurtful both to man and beast the sheep which happen to eat thereof are troubled with a greivous inflamation which burneth up and consumeth their Livers whereof they dye the Dutchmen call it Egelcoolen because sheep that have eaten of it have a disease which they call Egel that is the blistering and inflamation of the Liver Spanish-Broom Names IT is also called Italian-Broom Descript The Spanish-Broom hath woodish stems from which grow up long slender and pliant twiggs which be bare and naked without leaves or at least having very few small leaves set here and there far apart from one another the flowers are yellow not much unlike the flowers of our English Broom after which it hath Cods wherein are contained brown and flat seed Place This Broom groweth in dry places in Spain and Languedoc and is not found in this Countrey but in the Gardens of Herbarists It is plentifull in the Physick Garden at Westminster Time It flowers in this Countrey in June and somwhat after the seed is ripe in August Government and Vertues It is under the planetary influence of Mars hot and dry of temperature the flowers and seed of Spanish Broom the quantity of a dram being drunk in mede or honyed-water cause strong Vomiting Vomiting but without danger the seed taken alone looseth the belly Belly loosned and bringeth forth great plenty of watry and tough humors out of the twigs or little branches being steeped in water is pressed forth a juice which taken in quantity of a little glass full fasting is good against the Squinancy and also is good against the Sciatica Base-broom Name IT is called also in English Woodwoseen Descript This is not much unlike the common broom saving that it is not so high nor so straight but lieth along almost upon the ground with many small branches proceeding from a woody stem and set with little long small leaves and at the top with small fair yellow flowers not much unlike those of the Common Broom but smaller after them come narrow husks or Cods wherein is a flat seed the root is hard and of a woodish substance Place It groweth in untilled places that lye low and is very frequent in moist clay pasture grounds Time It flowers in July and August and sometimes after and shortly after the seed is ripe Government and Virtues It is hot and dry of temperature and under the same planetary influence as the other Brooms and is in nature and operation like unto the common Broom but not so powerful It is seldom suffered to grow while the seed is ripe in the Country they gather it while it is in flower for the dyers who dye clothes yellow with it Behen Names IT is also called Been-album and Polemonium Descript Behen hath tender stalks with joynts the leaves are meetly broad set two at every Joynt one against another at the highest of the stalks grow white flowers hanging down and joyning one to another like a little nose-gay after the flowers there cometh black seed inclosed in round huskes the root is white plain and long Place Behen groweth upon mountains and rough stony places but is planted here in Gardens Time It flowers in June and July Government and Vertues It is dry in the second degree a Saturnine plant the root being drunk in wine is good against the bloudy Flux flux Venemous bitings Vrine Strangury and the bitings and stingings of Venemous beasts the same drunk in water Provokes Urine and helps the strangury and pains in the huckle bone It is good to be taken with Vinegar against the hardnesse and stoppings of the Spleen Spleen and all pains thereof being chewed in the mouth it helpeth the Tooth-ach Tooth-ach the same being pounded and applied cureth the stingings of Scorpions and is reported to have so great Antepitheticall power against Scorpions that whosoever doth but hold the same in his hand cannot be stung by any Scorpion Black-bind-weed Name IT is also called With-wind Descript Black-bind-weed hath smooth red branches very small like great threds wherewithal it wrappeth and windeth it self about trees hedges staks and all things it can lay hold upon the leaves are like to Ivy but smaller and tenderer the flowers be white and very small the seed is black tryangled or three square small and black growing thick together every seed is enclâ—sed and covered with a little skin the root is also small and tender as a thred Place It groweth in borders of Fields and Gardens and about hedges and ditches and amongst herbs Time It delivereth ' its seed in August and September and afterwards perisheth Government and Virtues Bind-weed is a plant of Mercury of a hot nature and of subtil parts having power to dissolve the juice of the leaves being drunk do loosen and open the belly and being pounded and laid to the grieved place dissolveth wasteth and consumeth hard swellings Rough bind-weed Names IT is also called prickly Bind-weed and commonly known in shops by the name of Sarsa-parilla Descript Rough or prickly Bind-weed groweth with tender stalks and branches garnished or set round about with many sharp prickles or thorns winding it self about trees hedges and bushes like our English Bind-weed taking hold with its clasping branches upon every thing stands near it the leaves be
something like those of our Ivy but longer and sharper at the point the flowers are white and the fruit are red berries when they be ripe clustering like Grapes the root is of a thick hard substance Place It groweth in the West-Indies as in Peru and Virginia delighting in places that incline to moisture and in low and shadowy Valleys and is sometimes found in the Gardens of curious herbarists Time In its natural Country it flowers in Spring and Autumn Government and Virtues It is hot and dry of temperature but of subtile and thin parts under the influence of Mars to which plant he flies for cure after he hath been too much inflamed in his fiery assaults with Venus the decoction of this plant is excellent for the French-pox Pox Rhumes Gouts Stomach Catharrs Kings-Evill Spleen and is good in Rhumes Gouts and cold diseases of the head and stomach and expelleth Wind from the Stomach and Mother it helpeth also Catharrs and salt distillations from the Head it is good in Tumors and the Kings-Evill A dram of the powder with the like quantity of Tamarisk being taken in Ale or Wine mollifies Tumors and hardness of the Spleen It is so great an Antidote against Poyson that it doth not serve only for Venome received before hand but also against all poyson after that one hath taken hereof so that whosoever taketh thereof daily no Venome can hurt him it is also reported of this plant that if the juice thereof be given to a child newly born no Poyson shall ever after hurt him Bombace-tree Name IT is also called the Cotton-Tree Descript This plant is but a shrub or low-tree which groweth not very high the leaves be broad with deep cuts or slits somewhat like Vine leaves but smaller the flowers be yellow and somwhat purple in the middle jagged about the edges the fruit is almost like unto Filberds broad and flat and full of fair white Cotton or Bombace in which the seed lyeth hidden Place The Bombace or Cotton-tree groweth in Egypt Candy Maltha and the Indies it is now very plentifully planted in the Island of Barbadoes Government and Vertues This plant is under the dominion of Venus the seed whereof is of temperature moderatly hot and moist and is very good against a Cough and all cold diseases of the breast It augmenteth natural strength increasing the seed of Generation and exciteth and stirreth up the desire to Venus sports Box-tree Names IT hath been also called Palm-tree because on Palm-sunday people use to dresse up Churches and their houses therwith Descript It is so well known a description is needlesse Place It delighteth in hilly Grounds as Boxwood in Surry can testifie they usually plant it to make knots in Gardens Time It is planted in the beginning of November it floureth in February and March and the seed is ripe in September or thereabouts Government and Vertues It is a Saturnine plant the leaves are hot and dry and astringent It is not useful in any medicine but rather hurtful for box taken into the body doth not only hurt the head and brain but the very smell thereof is hurtfull unto the brain and causeth Head-ach Some writers do affirm that the lye wherein boxen leaves have been steeped make the hair yellow if the head be often washed therewith Prickly-Box Names IT is called also Box-thorn Asses-box and Thorn-box Descript It is a tree not much unlike the other Box the leaves be thick and somewhat round like boxen leaves and amongst them grow sharp prickles the flowers grow amongst the leaves and after them there cometh a black round seed as big as a pepper corn the roots are woodish and spread much abroad Of the small branches and roots of this tree steeped in water and boyled or of the pressing forth of the juice of the seed they make Licium which formerly was in much use with Physitians Place The prickly Box-tree groweth in Capadocia Lybia and in some parts of Italy and Slavonia Government and Vertues Mercury governs it the dryed Licium is of subtil parts and astringent it helpeth those who have the Lask and Bloudy-flux Lask Bloudy-flux Spitting-bloud Cough Vlcers Gums Lipps Eyes as also those that spit Bloud or have a Cough It stoppeth the inordinat course of the flowers either taken inwardly or applyed outwardly it is good against corrupt Ulcers and running Scabs running of the Eares inflamation of the Gums and against chops of the lips and fundament being applied thereto It cleereth the sight and cureth scurvy festred sores of the eye lids and corners of the Eyes Comin Name IT hath no other names there are two kinds hereof Garden Comin and wild Comin Descript The Garden Comin hath a straight stem with divers branches the leaves be jagged not much unlike Fennel the flowers grow in rundells or spiky tops like Annise Fennel or Dill the seed is brown and long The wild Comin hath a brittle stalk of a span long upon which grow four or five leaves all jagged or snipt or dented round about Place The Garden Comin groweth in Ethiopia Aegypt Galatia lesser Asia and Cicily from whence the seed is brought to us Government and Vertues The seed is hot and dry in the third degree and solar Comin scattereth and breaketh windiness of the Stomack Bowels and Matrix it is singular against Gripings Griping of the Guts and frettings of the Bowells either to be received at the Mouth administred in Clisters or outwardly applied pultis-wise with barly-meal The same eaten or drunken is very good for the Cough Cough Colds Cold stoppings in the Breast and if it be drunk in Wine it is good for those that are hurt with any Venemous beast it asswageth swellings of the Cods and Stones Cods swelled being applied pultis wise The same mingled with Yuray meal and pulpe of raisins and applied to the Belly stops the inordinate flux of Womens courses Flowers Comin-seed pounded and given to smell to with Vinegar stops bleeding at Nose Bleeding at Nose Capers Names NAmes it hath none but Capers or Cappers Descript It is a prickly plant or bush almost like the bramble with many branches spread abroad and stretched along the ground upon which do grow hard sharp and crooked prickles with blackish round leaves standing one against another not much unlike the leaves of Assarabacca or the leaves of a Quince-tree but much rounder amongst the leaves spring up small knops or buds which do open into fair starlike flowers of a pleasant smell after which cometh the fruit which is long and round and hath in it small corns or kernells the root is long and woodish covered with a thick bark or rind very useful in Physick Place Capers grow in rough untilled places in stony sandy ground and by hedges sides in Spain and Italy and other hot Countries the fruit and flowers are brought unto us from Spain preserved in pickle Government and Virtues Capers are plants of Mars
it provokes the desire to Venery Venery It killeth Worms Worms Agues in the Belly it is used with oyle to anoint the Body before the cold fits of Agues to warm it and expell it as also against weakness of the Sinews and the Hip-gout it helps discolouring of the skin using it with honey and water Cubebs CVbebs are small berries somewhat sweet about the bigness of Pepper-Corns but not so black nor solid but more rugged or crested being either hellow or with a kernel within it of a hot tast but not so fiery as Pepper and having each a short stalk on them like a tail these grow on trees less than Apple-trees with leaves narrower than those of Pepper the flower is sweet and the fruit groweth clustring together The Arabians call them Quabebe and Quabebe Chini they grow plentifully in Java they are used to stir up Venery Venery stomack and to warm and strengthen the Stomack being overcome with flegm Flegm Spleen or Wind Wind Womb they cleanse the breast of thick tough humors help the Spleen and are very profitable for the cold griess of the Womb being chewed in the mouth with Mastick they draw Rhume from the Head Head Brain and strengthen the brain and memory Memory Red White and Black-Currans Names THe Latine names for Currans is Ribes and Ribes fructu rubro the red Curran albo white and nigro black Descript The red curran bush hath a stalk covered with a thin brownish bark outwards and greenish underneath the leaves are of a blackish green cut in the edges into five parts much like a Vine-leaf but smaller the flowers come forth at the joints of the leaves many together on a long stalk hanging down about a fingers length of an herby colour after which come round berries green at the first but red when they are ripe of a pleasant tart tast wherin is small seed the root is woody and spreading There is another sort hereof whose berries are twice as big as the former and of a better relish The white Curran-tree hath a taller and more straight stem than the red a whiter bark smaller leaves but hath such like berries upon long stalks of the same bigness as the first but of a shining transparent whiteness of a more pleasant tast then the former The black Curran riseth higher than the last and is more set with branches round about and more pliant the younger covered with a paler and the elder with a browner bark the leaves are smaller then those of the former and often with fewer cuts therein the flowers are alike but of a greenish purple colour which produce small black berries the leaves and fruit have an unpleasant smell but yet are wholsome though not pleasant Place All these sorts of Currans grow plentifully in England in Gardens where they are planted they have been found growing naturally wild in Savoy and Switzerland as Gesner saith and some in Austria saith Clusius they grow in great abundance in Candia and other places in the Streights from whence in great quantities they are brought dried unto us Time They flower and bear fruit in June July and August Government and Vertues Currans are under the influence of the benevolent planet Venus they are of a moist temperate refeshing nature the red and white Currans are good to cool and refresh faintings of the Stomack Stomack thirst to quench Thirst and stir up an appetite Appetite agues and therefore are profitable in hot and sharp Agues it tempereth the heat of the Liver Liver Bloud and Blood and the sharpness of Choler Choler Stomack and resisteth putrefaction it also taketh away the loathing of meat and weakness of the Stomack by much Vomiting and is good for those that have any Looseness looseness of the belly Gesner saith that the Switzers use them for the Cough and so well they may For Take dry Currans a quarter of a pound Brandy Wine half a pint set the Brandy on fire and bruise the Currans and put them into the Brandy as it is burning stirring them untill the Brandy is almost consumed that it becomes like unto an Electuary it is an excellent remedy to be taken hot for any violent Cough cold or Rhume the black Currans and the leaves are used in sawces by those who like the tast and scent of them which I believe very few do of either Caranha CAranha or Carogna is a gumme which is brought from the West-Indies but of the tree that it issues from we have no Description it is a soft kind of Gum wrapped up in leaves to keep one peece from sticking unto another for it is very cleaving and of a dark or muddy greenish colour it is an especial and speedy help for all cold Aches Aches and pains Pains in the Joints and Nerves and swellings therein the defluxions of cold humors on them or on the Eyes or on any other part to be laid on the temples or behind the Eares and it is also used for the Tooth-ach to be laid on the temples like Mastick Ceterach Names IT is called in Latine Asplenum and Splenium and in English Spleenwort and Milt-wast and Scalefern Descript Spleenwort or Ceterach springeth up from a small black threddy bushy root with many long single leaves cut on both sides into round dents even almost to the middle-rib which is not so hard as that of Polypody each division being not alwaies set opposite unto the other but between each smooth and of a light green on the upper part and with a dark yellowish roughness underneath folding or rouling it self inward at the first springing up Place Ceterach groweth in moist shadowy places and very frequently upon old stone-walls of Churches decayed Castles and the ruinous Walls of antient Religious houses It groweth on Beconsfield Church in Buckinghamshire and upon Wooburn Church in the same County and Horn-church in Essex and many other places Time Ceterach is to be found green all the year Government and Vertues Mars rules this plant It is generally used against all the infirmities of the Spleen spleen it also helps the Strangury strangury pissing by drops and wasteth the Stone Stone Jaundies in the Bladder and is good against the yellow Jaundies and the Hicket Hicket a dram of the dust that is on the back of the leaves being mixed with half a dram of Amber in powder and taken with the juice of purslain or plantain is a speedy remedy for the running of the Reins Reines as Mathiolus saith and that the herb and root being boiled and taken helpeth all Melancholy diseases and especially those which rise from the French-Pox French Pox The distilled water thereof being drunk is profitable against the Stone Stone in the Reines and Bladder a lye made of the Ashes thereof or the decoction drunk for some time together helpeth such as are troubled with the Spleen Spleen and it
yellow in the middle There is another kind that is yellow in the middle and bears many more flowers which are smaller than those before described Place The first two kinds grow plentifully in divers places of France as Burgundy and Languedoc in Meadows and pastures but in this Country they grow only in Gardens where they are planted Time They flower most of them in March and April and some kinds flower not untill the beginning of May. Temperature and Vertues Venus challengeth the dominion over these plants for her own and gave them their name from her darling Narcissus the root hereof is hot and dry in the third degree the which root being boyled or rosted or taken in meat drink provoketh the stomack to Vomiting Vomiting burnings the same pounded with a little honey is good to be applied to burnings and scaldings Scaldings and cureth Sinews Sinews-strains that are hurt or sprain'd and is good to help dislocations or Members out of joint Joinst Pains being applied thereunto it also giveth ease in all old griefs and pains of the joints the roots of Narcissus taketh away all spots Spots Face of the Face being mingled with Nettle-seed and Vinegar and applied it mundifieth and cleanseth corrupt and rotten Ulcers Vlcers and ripeneth and breaketh hard Impostumes if it be mixed with the meal of Vetches honey applied pultis-wise to the part greived and being mixed with the meal of Yuray and honey it draweth forth thorns and splinters being applied thereunto Yellow Daffodil Names THis kind of Daffodill is also called Lide-lilly because it flowereth in March which Moneth in some Countries is called Lide and they are also called Daffa-down-dillies Descript It hath long narrow green leaves the stalks be round upon which grow pleasant yellow-flowers to see to but somewhat unpleasant to the smell after which come round knops or husks like little heads wherein the seed is contained it hath abundance of roots which grow thick together and increase by new sprigs and blades whereby it spreadeth and increaseth it self under ground so that of one plant you may soon have a great increase Place It groweth not naturally in this Country but in Gardens where it is planted Time Daffodills flower in March and April Government and Vertues Yellow-Daffodil is under the dominion of Mars the roots hereof are hot and dry almost in the third degree The root boyled in posset drink and drunk causeth Vomiting Vomiting and is used with good successe in the beginnings of Agues Agues Imposthumes especially Tertians which frequently rage in the spring-time a plaister made of the roots with parched Barley-meal and applied to swellings and Imposthumes do dissolve them the juice mingled with hony Frankincense Wine and Myrrhe and dropped into the Eares Eares is good against the corrupt filth and running matter of the Eares the roots made hollow and boyled in oyl doth help raw Kib'd heels Kibed-heels the juice of the root is good for the Morphew Morphew and discolourings of the skin Date-tree Names THis is also called Palm-tree and the fruit Dates or fruit of the Palm-sree Descript This plant groweth to be a great tree with a straight thick trunk cover'd with a scaly bark at the top thereof grow many long branches with great plenty and store of long straight narrow leaves or twigs like reeds so that the branches seem to be no other thing but a bundle or sort of reed leaves growing thick together upon one branch amongst those branches groweth the fruit clustering together at the first and wrapped in a certain long and broad covering like to a pillow which afterwards openeth and sheweth the fruit standing along by certain small sprigs growing out of a flat yellow branch the fruit is round and long containing within it a long and hard stone there is the Male Palm-tree and the Female the Male tree bringeth forth flowers onely which vanish away and the Female beareth the fruit and bringeth it unto perfection and ripeness Place The Date-tree groweth in Africa Arabia India Syria Judaea and other of those Eastern-countries Time The Date or Palm-tree continueth alwaies green and floureth in the spring-time and the fruit in hot Countries is ripe in Autumn Government and Virtues The branches and leaves are cold and astringent the fruit is hot and dry almost in the second degree but somewhat astringent especially before it is throughly ripe Mars governs them Dates are hard of digestion and cause oppilations in the Liver and Spleen they ingender Windiness Headach and gross blood being eaten green and fresh but being through-ripe they are not so hurtful but nourish indifferently being well digested in a good Stomack Dry Dates stop Looseness Looseness Vomiting and stay Vomiting and Wambling Wambling in the Stomack especially of Women with Child if they be eaten or mingled with other proper medicines and applied plaister-wise to the Stomack and being administred inwardly or applied outwardly with medicines convenient they strengthen the weakness of the Liver Liver Spleenn and Spleen The leaves and branches of the Date-tree do heal Green-Wounds Green-Wounds and soder and close them up and refresh and cool hot inflamations There is a direction in the plaister Diacalcitheos that it be stirred with a stick of the Palm-tree that it might be of the more vertue and efficacy from whence also the same plaister is called Diapalma you may see the composition of the plaister in Galens first book de medicamentis secundum genera Dictamnum of Candy Kinds and Names DIoscorides maketh mention of three kinds hereof the first whereof is the right Dictamnum onely the second is the bastard Dictamnum the third is another kind bearing both flowers and seed it is called also Dittany of Crete and in shops Diptamum Descript The first kind which is the right Dictamnum as saith Dioscorides is a hot and sharp plant much like unto Penny-royal but having greater leaves somewhat hoary or mossey with a certain fine down or woolly white Cotton at the top of the stalks or branches grow certain small spikey tufts hanging by little small stems greater and thicker than the eares or spikey tufts of wild Marjoram and are somewhat of a red colour in which there grow little flowers 2. The second kind called Bastard Dictamnum is much like unto the first saving that it doth not hurt nor bite the tongue neither is it hot It hath round soft woolly stalks with knots and joints at every of which joints there stand two leaves somewhat round soft and woolly not much unlike the leaves of Penny-royal but that they are greater all hoary and white soft and woolly like to the first leaves of white Mullein or Tapsus Barbatus without any scent but bitter in tast the flowers be of a light blew compassing the stalk by certain spaces like to garlands and like the flowers of Penny-royal and Hore-hound the root is of a wooddy substance 3. The
boyled doth quicken and clear the sight if it be often dropped into the Eyes the seed used in glisters asswageth the griping pains of the Belly and of the Matrix or Mother and cureth the Wounds of the Bowels and Matrix Linseed mingled with hony and taken as an electuary oâ— lohoch cleanseth the Breast and appeaseth the Cough and taken with Raisins is good for such as are fallen into Consumption or Hecktick-feavers The seed of Lin taken into the body alone or in too great quantity is bad for the Stomack ingenders much Wind and hinders digestion of meats Flea-bane Names IT is called in Latine Psyllium by which name it is known in shops it is also Herba pulicaris and in English Fleabane and Flea-wort Descript Fleabane hath long narrow hairy leaves amongst which spring up round and tender branches set full of like leaves but smaller and garnished at the top with little long round spiked knops like Eares with greenish flowers or blossoms which do afterwards change into brown or shining seeds in proportion colour and quantity like unto Flea's Place Dioscorides saith It groweth in fields and desart places In this Country it groweth not but in some Gardens where it is sown and where it is once sown it groweth continually afterwards of its own sowing or shedding of seed Time It floureth and seedeth in July and August Government and Vertues Flea-wort is a Saturnine plant the seed therof which is chiefly used in medicine is cold in the second degree and temperate in moisture and dryness as Galen and Serapio write The seed of Fleabane steeped in water and boyled and the decoction thereof being drunken purgeth downwards addust and Cholerick humors It asswageth pain and stacketh the inflamation and heat of the entrails or Bowels and is good against hot Feavers or burning Agues Choler inflamed Bowels Fevers Agues and in all inward heats and against Drought and Thirst The same seed grossely bruised but not broken being parched at the fire is good against the Bloudy-Flux Bloudy Flux vehement Lask especially when they proceed of taking strong and violent medicines the Fleabane-seed mingled with oyle of Roses and Vinegar or water is good to be applied unto hot griefs of the joints Aposthumes or swelling behind the Ears and other hot Swellings Hot pains Ears Swellings Also it is good against the Head-ach Head-ach the same applied pultis-wise with Vinegar is good against the going out of the Navel and the bursting Navel bursting of young Children The water wherein the seed hath been steeped is good to be laid on the burning heat called St. Anthonies-fire St. Anthonies fire and to all hot Swellings Some are of opinion that if this plant when in it is green be strowed in any House it driveth away Fleas so that they will not come near it Too much of Fleabane-seed taken inwardly is very hurtful to the body and ingendereth coldness and stiffness dulness of the Spirits and heaviness of the heart If any one find himself distempered by taking of it a speedy remedy is to provoke Vomiting and afterwards drink of the best old Wine that can be gotten either by it self or boyled in Wormwood or Wine mingled with a little hony Firre-tree Names THis Tree is called in Latine Abies and the Dutch call it Mastboom because of the usefulness of the Timber in serving to make Masts for Ships the liquid or clear Rozen that runneth out of the bark of the young trees is called Terebinthina Veneta and in English Venice Turpentine Descript The Firre-tree is great high and long and continueth always green it groweth much higher than the Pine and Pitch-trees The stem is very even and straight plain beneath and without joints but upwards it groweth with joints and knops upon which joints grow the branches bearing leaves almost like Ewe but smaller longer and sharper at the points or ends of a blewish green colour the fruit is like to the Pine-apple but smaller and narrower not hanging down as the Pine-apples do but growing straight upward from out of the bark of the young Firre-tree is gathered a fair liquid Rozen clear and shining which in tast is bitter and Aromatical in tast almost like to Citron pills or Lemon pills condited There is also found upon this tree a Rozen or white Gum like as there is found upon the Pine and Pitch-trees which is sold for the right Frankincense and so is vulgarly esteemed Place The Firre-tree groweth upon high Mountains in Greece Italy Spain and France But in divers places of Germany and most in Norway from whence the Timber thereof is plentifully brought hither and is very serviceable in building Government and Vertues The Firre-tree is under the rule of Mars The bark and dry Gum or Rozen of this Tree are in temperature and vertues like the bark and Rozen of the Pine-tree but these of the Firre-tree are of a more Acrimonious and cleansing quality The liquid or clear Rozen is hot and dry in the second degree having a sharpe quality and is of a digestive or cleansing nature the liquid Rozen of the Firre-tree taken about the waight of half an ounce looseth the Belly driveth forth hot and Cholerick humors it doth cleanse and mundifie the Kidneys Choler Kidneys and Bladder provoketh Urine Bladder Vrine driveth forth the Stone and Gravel Stone Gravel and is good to be taken oftentimes of such as are troubled with the Gout the same taken with Nutmeg and Sugar to the quantity of a Nut helpeth the Strangury Gout strangury and is very good against excoriations or going off of the skin or Flux of the Secret parts Secret parts It is also very excellent for all fresh and green Wounds especially Wounds of the Head Wounds Head for it cleanseth and healeth very much Galangall Names IT is called in Latine Cyperus Descript This plant hath long hard and narrow leaves the stalk is triangled about a foot and an half long at the top whereof grow little leaves among which are spiky tops and white seed the root is long interlaced one within another having many threds of a brown colour and sweet savor Place Galangall as Dioscorides writeth groweth in low and moist grounds but is not common in this Country but as it is planted in some Gardens Time This herb bringeth forth his spikey top and seed with leaves in June and July Government and Vertues It is a plant of Mars the root is hot and dry in the thrid degree The roots of Galangal boyled and the decoction drunk provoketh Urine Vrine bringeth down Womens Flowers driveth forth the Stone Stone and is good for those who are troubled with the Dropsie Terms the same is also good against the Cough Cough the stingings of Scorpions Scorpions and bitings of Venemous beasts being taken after the same manner It is also good against the hardness of the Mother Mother remedieth Stoppings and
way Place and Time This tree groweth in Arabia in many places and in Aegypt and floureth and beareth fruit twice a year and hath alwayes green leaves Government and Vertues It is Saturnine the gum hath a thickning condensing and cooling property and is very effectual to represse and cool the heat and sharpness of humors and to bind or close up the open passages of the skin and keeping the places from blistering that are burnt with fire being dissolved with the white of an Egg and applied It is also very serviceable for Limners Dyers to make the best writing Ink and many other external uses Gum Tragacanth Names and Descript THe tree hereof is called Goats-thorn which is a small bushy plant rising up with many tough pliant or flexible woody stems about two foot high divided into many slender branches covered with a white hoariness with divers long white thorns in a double row among which rise up many small long and round leaves which abide always green there grow flowers at the tops of the branches and amongst the leaves of a pale yellow colour which turn into small white cods containing in them small whitish cornered seed the root is great and long much spreading in the ground which being cut or broken yeeldeth a pure white shining Gum in small crooked peeces of a sweet tast Place All sorts of these trees are found in Candia and about Marselles and Mompelier Time In the places where they naturally grow they flower and seed in the beginning of Autumne Government and Vertues There is no physical use known of either the leaves flowers seeds or roots of Tragacantha but onely of the gum it self which partaketh of the influence of Venus it is of a temperate property and besides the medicinal uses thereof it serveth for many external purposes as a starch or glew for which young Ladies use it to make their Artificial flowers and other gum-works This gum being dissolved is often used to be mixed with pectoral syrrups honey or juice of Liquorice to help the Cough or Hoarseness Coughs Hoarseness in the Throat salt and sharp distillations of Rhume upon the Lungs Rhume Lungs being taken as an Electuary or put under the tongue so to go gently down he said gum diâ—â—olved in sweet Wine a dram at a time and drunk is pâ—ofitable for the knawing pains in the Bowells Knawings-Bowels and the sharpness of Urine and frettings either in the Reins or Bladder Reines Bladder especially if it be mixed with some burnt Harts-horn the said Gum is also good for the Eye sight Eyes Sight being used alone or mixed with other things proper for the same purpose to allay the heat and sharpness of hot Rhumes the said gum mingled with milk taketh away white spots growing in the black of the Eyes and the Itching of the Eyes and Wheals or scabs upon the Eye-lids and being mixed with the juice of Quinces and used in a glister is good against the Bloody-flux and is generally used where there is cause of making smooth the Lungs breast or Throat or the wind-pipe being grown sharp or harsh by Rhumes and is excellent to represse and dry up sharp and thin matter and is excellent for Ulcers in any of the parts before-named Gum Elemni Description and Vertues WHat tree this gum is taken from we have no certain description it is a yellowish gum cleer and transparent which being broken sheweth more white and gummi within it will easily take fire and is of a quick scent and tast The properties of it are these It is of excellent use for all wounds and fractures of the Head and skull to be mixed with Balsomes and Oyntments for that purpose and is good for the Tooth-ach when Rhumes fall into them to be applied unto the Temples as Mastick Gum Tacamahacca THis Gum is reported to be gathered from a tree like unto Poplar being very sweet having a red fruit or berry like unto a Peony Government and Vertues Mercury rules it the gum is good for many external uses but not being known to be given inwardly it is useful for Women to retain the mother in its place by laying a plaister thereof upon the Navel Matrix and putting a little Musk Amber or a little Civet in the middle of the plaister This gum being applied as a plaister spread upon leather to the side or Spleen Side Spleen Tumors Pains Joints stomach digestion head-ach Brain Memory Defluxions Face Eyes Eares Teeth Gout Sciatica Punctures that is grown hard and Windy disperseth the Wind and dissolveth the Tumors and is effectual in all Tumors and pains of the body or Joints which come from cold raw and Windy humors applied thereon Take of this gum with a third part of Sâ—orax a little Ambergreese and some Wax and make a plaister thereof and apply it to the Stomack doth much strengthen the weakness thereof and digestion provokes appetite and breaks Wind it is good in the Headach and to strengthen the Brain and Memory as also in all defluxions from the Head into the Face Eares or Teeth to be applied to the Temples or to be put into the Ear tyed in a little fine silk or Cloth it is good also for pains in the joints Gout and Sciatica it speedily helpeth Punctures and Wounds in the joints it is hot almost in the third degree and dry in the second with much astriction Herb Robert Names IT is called Geranium Robertianum vulgare the common Herb Robert Descript The common Herb Robert springeth up with a reddish stalk about two foot high having divers leaves thereon upon very long and reddish footstalks divided at the ends into three or four divisions and each of them cut in on the edges some with deeper cuts than others and all dented likewise about the edges which oftentimes turn reddish at the tops of the stalks come forth divers flowers consisting of five leaves a peece larger then those of the Garden Musk and of a more reddish colour after which come beaky heads like long bills the root is small and threddy the whole plant is of a very strong smell Place Herb Robert groweth frequent every where by wayes sides upon the banks of Ditches and wast grounds Time It flowereth chiefly in June and July and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Herb Robert is a plant of Mars and is very much commended against the Stone and not onely so but also to stay blood Stone Flux of Blood Green wounds Vlcers from what part soever flowing it is excellent good speedily to heal all green wounds and is effectual likewise in old Ulcers either in the secrets or any other parts Hermo-dactyls HErmodactils are to be reckoned amongst the number of unknown drugs they being brought into England in abundance but no Author hath hitherto declared the place or growing thereof but only Mesne who saith it is the root of a Mountain herb whereof some are long and round
of a very sweet tast with a round stone in the middle thereof like an Olive-stone but not long Place and Time These plants in Syria Egypt Arabia and those parts thereabouts they continue with their leaves green on them all the Winter which the red Jujubes do not in those Countries but in Candy and other neerer Climats they fall off as other Trees do in the hotter Countries they bear twice a year but the fruit of the spring is seldome ripe being spoiled by the moisture of the season but in the Antumn the fruit is perfectly ripened and pleasant Government and Vertues Venus also owns the Fruit of both these The fruits before they are ripe are cold and dry in the first degree and binding but when they are ripe they are moist and are effectual to strengthen the Looseness of the Stomack and Belly Looseness Stomack Belly Vlcers Bowels Feavers Choler Feavers the juice of them either taken inwardly at the Mouth or given in a glister The dryed fruit infused in water and the infusion drunk is good against slipperiness and Ulcers of the Bowells The decoction or infusion of the dry ripe fruit is good against Pestilential Feavers and to resist putrefaction the fruit being endued with an excellent property against Venemous qualities The juice of the fruit being throughly ripe is effectual to purge Choler from the Stomack the infusion of them is profitably used to cool the heat and violence of all putrid Feavers Kali Names and Kinds IT is called also Glasse-wort Salt-wort There are 4 kinds of Kali described by Parkinson viz. 1. Kali majus Cochleatum great Glasse-wort with snailt like seeds 2. Kali minus album small Glasse-wort 3. Kali Aegyptiacum Glasse-wort of Aegypt And 4. Kali geniculatum sive salicornia jointed Glasse-wort I shall only describe the last This jointed Kali or Glasse-wort groweth up usually but with one upright round thick and almost transparent stalk a foot high or more thick set and full of joints or knots without any leaves at all but shooting forth joints one out of another with short cods at the heads of them and such like smaller branches on each side and they also divided into other smaller ones it is thought to bear neither flower nor seed the root is small long and threddy Some other kinds there are differing somewhat in the form of the joints and one kind wholly reddish and differing from the other in nothing else The first and third are absolute strangers in our Countries but grow in Syria and Egypt Italy and Spain the second groweth not onely in those Countries but in Colder Climates upon many places of our own Coasts especially of the West Country The last groweth generally in all Countries in many places of our Sea-coasts where the salt-water overfloweth it Tims They all flourish in the Summer and those that perish give their seed in August or later the last abideth all Winter Government and Vertues Kali or Glasse-wort all the sorts thereof are under the dominion of Mars they are all of a cleansing quality without any great or manifest heat the powder of any of them or the juice which is much better taken in drink doth purge downwards flegmatick Flegm Waterish Water and Adust or Melancholy Melancholy humors And therefore is very effectual for the Dropsie to provoke Urine Vrine and expell the Dead-child Dead-birth It also opens stoppings of the Liver Liver and Speen Spleen and wasts the hardness thereof but it must be used with discretion for a great quantity is dangerous hurtful and deadly The Ashes hereof are very sharp and biting like a Caustick and the Lye that is made thereof is so strong that it will fetch off the skin from the hands or any part of the body but may be mixed with other more moderate medicines to take away Scabbs Leprosie and to cleanse the skin The powder of stones and the ashes hereof being melted is the matter whereof Glasse is made which when it gloweth in the furnace it casteth up a fat matter on the top of it which when it is cold is fat and brittle and is called Sandiver It worketh much to the same effect with the herb or ashes It is used often in powder to blow into horses Eyes or being diossolved to be squirted in them to take away any superfluous film or skin beginning to grow thereon both of them likewise serve to dry up running Sores Scabbs Scabbs Tetters Tetters Ringworms and to help the Itch. Itch Lacca or Gum-lake DEscript This is neither gum distilling out of any tree as other gums do nor condensed juice yet it will melt with heat and burn with fire but is a certain matter wrought by great winged Ants that breed in the ground and sucking out from trees of divers sorts but especially from that which is called Mala Indica from which they take the substancâ— of their work about the smaller branches as Bees do Hony Combs and make this Lacca which is a dark red substance and somewhat transparent harder than any gum and being chewed it will make the spittle look red It is first wrought on sticks by the Ants and then melted being cleered from the sticks and the wings of the Ants and made into Cakes or small peeces is so brought unto us aswell as on the sticks and is the original of the hard Wax wherewith Letters are sealed whose colours of red green yellow or black are added in the new melting of it again and making it into such Rouls as we buy it in but some do Counterfeit it by putting of wax unto it which maketh it softer and run thinner The Painters Lake or Lack is made of Brasill or other dying stuffes and hath in former times been very ignorantly by some put into the composition called Dia-lacca but that Error is reformed Government and Vertues Lacca is governed by Jupiter it is of temperature hot in the second degree it strengthneth the Stomack and Liver Stomack Liver and freeth them from obstructions Obstructions and dissolveth the hardness of the Liver helpeth the yellow Jaundies and driveth forth watry humors of the Dropsie Jaundies dropsies provokes Urine and breaks the Stone Vrine Stone both in Kidneys and Bladder Larch-tree Names IT is called in Latine Larix and the liquid Rozen Resina laricea or larigna and Terebinthia Venetia Description The Larch-tree is usually lower then the Pine or Firre-tree but sometimes groweth as high as either it hath a rugged thick bark full of Chaps and reddish in the inside the branches very comely one above another having several small yellowish knobs or bunches set at several distances from which do yearly shoot forth many long narrow thick soft and smooth leaves as it were in a tuft together of a green-colour which do not abide in Winter but fall away shooting fresh ones every Spring the flowers are of a Crimson colour and very sweet which
and Spleen strengthneth the Stomach and corroborates the inward parts after purging and opening the obstructions of them It helpeth also all diseases proceeding from them as Dropsie Jaundice it rectifieth the evil constitution of the Liver openeth and dissolveth the hardness thereof as also of the Spleen and Stomach and expelleth wind It helpeth and taketh away all old and inveterate pains in the head by cleansing the brain and the nerves and purging those Rheumatick distillations and humours that are in them It helpeth also Joynt-Aches or Gout-pains in the bladder and Reins provokes Urine It helps the Chollick powerfully expelling the wind It also helps pains and windiness of the Mother shortness of breath and an old Cough It is also effectual in the French disease by taking it as often as there is cause purging old peccant humours especially if the disease be not of any long continuance It takes away also the cause of old and long lingring Agues The Jalap is in operation and purging somewhat like unto the Mechoacan but worketh more strongly and somewhat more churlishly both upon Flegmatick and watry humours yet it strengthens both the Liver and Stomach The manner to take it is being made into powder to drink it in White wine fasting or in the distilled water of Cichory or Borrage or else in broth made with cold herbs and some use to drink it in Posset-drink Millet Names Kinds THere are three sorts growing in Europe they are generally all called by the name of Millium with their Adjectives for distinction Gesner calleth it Panicum Indicum Descript 1. Common white Millet Millium vulgare album This groweth with many hard joynted tall stalks full of white pith yet soft and a little hairy or downy on the outside with long and large Reed-like Leaves compassing one another The tops of the stalks are furnished with a great many whitish yellow long Sprigs like feathers bowing down their heads set all along with small seeds inclosed in whitish husks of a shining pale yellowish colour somewhat hard little bigger than the Seed of Fleawort the Root spreadeth much in the ground but perisheth every year Descript 2. Black Millet Millium nigrum differeth from the other but little being somewhat less saving that as the tuft is brownish so is the seed blackish and shining else it is very like to the other Descript 3. Indian Millet called also Melica sive Forghium and higher than the former rising to be five or six foot high or more the stalks are full of joynts and large long leaves at them the juba or Tuft standeth upright and doth not hang down the head as the others whereon stand somewhat round seed as big but not as flat as Lentils and is either whitish yellow red or blackish hard and shining the root busheth more than the other yet endureth all Winter Place All the sorts of Millet came first into Europe out of the Eastern Countries and require a strong well watered ground they soon will impoverish a ground that is not still inriched it will not prosper in dry or hungry ground Time It is to be sown in April and the grain in the hotter Countries will be ripe in August or September Government and Vertues It is Mercurial of a cooling temperature in the first degree and dry almost in the third according to Galen and is also endued with a little tenuity of parts Theophrastus saith that if the grain be kept from wind and weather it will last always It is sometimes made into bread but it is very brittle it dryeth up moist humours In Germany they much use it boyled in milk and some sugar put to it Mathiolus saith that at Verona they eat the bread thereof with great delight while it is hot by reason of the sweetness but being cold it is hard and unpleasant Dioscorides saith that Gruel or Pottage made with it Binding of the belly Vrine Feavers thirst Chollick Sides Pains Joynts Sinews bindeth the belly and provoketh Urine the Apozeme made thereof called Syrupus Ambrosianus or Syrupus Ambrosii taken warm with white wine procureth sweat very much the party being covered in bed and is effectual to cool hot Feavers and to quench thirst Being put into a bag and fryed and applyed hot it easeth the griping pains of the Chollick and of the sides and pains in the Joynts and Sinews in Italy and other places they fat their Poultry with the grain Mathiolus saith that the Indian Millet-stalks are good to help those that are troubled with kernels under the ears or else where to be used in this manner For Kernels under the Ears or elsewhere TAke ten of the joynts of the Indian Millet of the Stalks thereof take out the pyth of them which burn with a new red Sponge take the powder of them with twelve grains of pepper and an ounce of Wheat Paste or Dowe make it up into a Cake with a new-layd egg and let it be baked under the Embers this Cake divide into six parts and let the Patients take one part of it every other night when the Moon is decreasing as they go to bed and not drink after it that night This must be repeated two or three Moons and by this he saith he hath known many to have been cured He also saith that the red flowers taken in red wine to the quantity of a dram cureth women of the Reds as the white flowers doth the Whites It is also good for all Fluxes of the belly Myrtle Names and Kinds THere are several kinds hereof whose names shall follow with their descriptions The Druggists and Apothecaries in their Shops call the berries Myrillus and we in english Myrtle-berries Descript 1. The greatest open Lawrel Myrtle Myrtus latifolia maxima This greatest Myrtle hath great and thick woody branches set with a double row of large leaves coming near unto the smaller leaves of the Baytree but of a paler green colour abiding always green and very â—weet Clusius saith that this sort in Spain seldome beareth either flowers or fruit because they prune it often being kept in Hedges for pleasure Descript 2. The strange broad-leaved close Myrtle Myrtus Latifolia Exotica This doth grow up higher than the former and shooteth from the root many strong thick stemmes more pleasantly stored with large leaves yet not fully so large as the first sort but closer set together that they almost touch one another sometimes in a double rowe and sometimes in a treble and very sweet The flowers are white like unto others but larger the fruit is somewhat longer than in the small sorts green at the first purplish before it be ripe and black when it is full ripe with many crooked white seeds in them Descript 3. The usual broad-leafed Myrtle Myrtus latifolia vulgaris This Myrtle groweth to be four or five foot high with us and in the hot Countries to be a little Tree full of branches and leaves like a small Bush the leaves are somewhat
colour when they are fresh but of a dark or dusty colour on the outside when they are dry of the thinnest substance of any of the sorts the stone is thick and greater than any other kind very hard to break and having within it a pretty big kernell Descript 4. The bearded or six square Myrobolan or purging Indian plum The tree is for height and growing like a Plum-tree the leaves are about an hand-breadth long finely cut in about the edges the fruit appears round but will separate or break into six parts without any stones as may be observed in the dry fruit but more plainly in the fruit preserved which is many times brought over to us and which will be divided into many parts the stone whereof within it is six-square with three greater ridges and three lesser lying between them and bearded at the head of the three greater ridges the kernell within it is parted into three equal divisions having each of them two Cauls wherein the parts of the kernells do lye almost three square Descript 5. The black Myrobolan or purging Indian plum Myrobolanus Indica The tree hereof is like the rest the leaf like unto a Willow leaf as saith Garcias and the fruit is eight square as he also saith but they cannot be plainly discerned to be so in those that are brought over unto us dry the fruit is the smallest and blackest of all the rest somewhat long and altogether fleshy having no stone therein Place and Time All these Plum-trees grow in the East-Indies wild and not manured but in divers Provinces as Goa Batecula Malavar and Dabul Cambaya Bisnagar Decan Surrate and Bengala The time of their flowring and hearing fruit we have no relation of Government and Vertues All these sorts of Myrobolans are under the particular influence of glorious Sol. They are all indued with a gentle purging quality in some more powerfully than in others some also purge Choler some Flegm and some melancholy and have also in all of them an astringent nature more than is in Rubarb the Citrines and Bellericks that is the yellow and round Myrobolans do purge Flegm and yellow Choller gently The Chebules and Embelici that is the purple and six-square Myrobolans do purge Flegm and the Indian or black one Melancholy But generally the Decoction or infusion of them all together do purge better than any other wayes so gently evacuating the humours that they strengthen the Stomach Liver and heart Stomach Liver Heart but given in powder they bind more than purge the binding quality being most predominant in them all especially in the dryed fruits And Garcias saith that the Indians wholly use them for that purpose Therefore they are good to be mingled with Scamony and other violent purgers to correct them The Bellericks and Emblicks purge the stomach from rotten Flegm strengthen the brain and Joynts Stomach from Flegm Brain Joynts Heart Liver appetite Vomiting Choller Quench thirst Piles hot Agues the heart and Liver and are very effectual for the trembling of the heart to stir up appetite stay vomiting and belchings of Choller it fortifies the Spirit qualifies the heat of the inward parts quencheth thirst easeth the pains of the Hemorroides or Piles they are good for all hot constitutions and hot Agues where there is no obstruction but where there are obstructions they are to be corrected with Wormwood or the juice of Fumiterry or with Rubarb Agarick Spiknard and with other opening and diuretical things The Chebules especially do purge Flegm Flegm Memory Sight Stomach Dropsie sharpen the memory cleer the eye-sight cleanse and strengthen the Stomach and are available against the Dropsie and all old Agues Melancholly Quartane Agues The Indian or black Myrobolans do in special purge melancholy and black or adust Choller and therefore are effectual in Quartane agues Leprosie and paralytick diseases The Emblicks and Bellericks in a special manner purge Flegm Brain Heart Stomach and comfort the brain heart and Stomach stay vomiting and stir up an appetite to meat generally they are all of special use to stay all Fluxes of the Stomach and belly by gently purging the malignity of the humours and strengthening and binding the parts afterwards Sore eyes The Chebule myrobolans broken and steeped in Rose-water or in the clarifi'd Juice of Fennel for two or three days Vlcers Sores and strained this water dropped into the eyes doth clear the sight and a fine cloth wet therein and often applyed taketh away the heat and inflamation in them and stayeth Rheums and distillations that fall into the eyes The powder of any of the Myrobolans and Mastick put into running Ulcers and Sores dryeth up the moisture thereof and consolidateth them The Chebules and Emblicks are often brought over hither preserved whereof the Chebules are physically used for the forementioned purposes but the Emblicks are only eaten as other Sweet-meats There is an excellent Receipt composed of the Myrobolans very effectual to stay any Flux looseness of the Belly or old continued lask It is prepared in this manner Take a pynte of Clarret-wine and burn it with a little Rosemary and Sugar then steep in it all night one Dram of Rhubarb first sliced and toasted at the fire and half a Dram of Chebul Myrobolans which let stand by the fire all night and strain it out in the morning and let the Patient take it at twice a draught in the morning fasting which if it help not the first time being renewed and taken two dayes more it will stay the Lask wholly if the malignity of the humours have not so prevailed over the body that no medicine can Cure it Myrobolans are also a substitute in a noble and excellent Pill against all Agues putrid Feavers Jaundice and Cachexia or the ill habit of the body and are effectual in the beginning of the Dropsie Take of the Citrine and Chebule Myrobolans of each half in ounce Turbith one ounce Agarick Aloes Rubarb the best of each half an ounce Leaves of Mint Wormwood Egrimony each two drams Ginger Anniseeds Mastick Pepper Spiknard Raisins of the Sun stoned Liquorish each one dram Oxymel of Squils asmuch as will serve to make them into a mass the Dose is from one dram to two if any would have them purge more strongly he may add Esula prepared and Diagridium of each two drams or three Mushrooms Kinds THere are of Mushrooms or Toad-stools two sorts one called wholsome or edible Mushrooms because they are often pickled and eaten rather out of idle and vain curiosity than for any goodness that is in them And the poysonous or deadly Toad-stools Of the edible kind there are numbred amongst Authours two and thirty sorts they are called in Latine fungus Descript I shall not stand to describe all the various forms of these Mushrooms but only a word or two of the most usual The most usual sorts have small smooth round heads standing upon thick short stalks
are sweetest But this Pina surpasseth all other fruits in the West-Indies for pleasantness and wholsomeness so that many eat them abundantly but a surfeit with them is dangerous as it is with the best Meats drinks or fruits whatsoever The Physitians there forbid it their Patients lest it should breed inflamations Some wonders are reported hereof which I never had experience of neither do intend to go thither to disprove them As namely That if one of these fruits be cut through the middle with a knife and they joyned together again the peices will joyn and stick so fast together as if they had not been cut asunder at all Another property it hath that if one cut the fruit with a knife and leave the knife sticking therein untill the next day so much of the blade thereof as stuck within the fruit will be wholy consumed and wasted or as it were eaten away the knife also that did cut one of them if it be not forthwith clean wiped but let alone unwiped will seem as if it had been eaten in with Aqua fortis Descript 2. Wild-Indian Pine Anana Sylvestris this Wild kind of Pine groweth naturally both greater higher and more prickly or thistle-like having a great tuft of leaves at the bottom of their stalks or stems next the ground seeming to be Aloe-leave afar off but lesser and of a pale green colour set with sharp prickles It is increased by the off-sets one arising from another from the main stem grow sundry branches bearing at their ends heads of soft tender leaves closed round together which are nothing but the flowers and are of a yellowish colour smelling very sweet out of these heads rise spikes not unlike to those of the Reed but thicker closer set and far more beautiful smelling like the Cedar from the branches hang down the fruit called by the Portugalls Anana's Breva's that is Wild Anan's or Pina's which do somewhat resemble the manured ones of the bigness of a Melon of a beautiful red colour very pleasant to behold which is divided into parts like unto Cypresse-nuts when they are dry and set with bunches or knobs very much resembling a Cone or Pine-apple which are nothing so good although a little pleasant but harsh withal whereof few do at for pleasure but they are more physically used Government and Vertues These rare fruits are plants of Venus and of a moderate temperature six or eight ounces of the juice of this Wild kind taken in a morning fasting with some Sugar is a most present and certain remedy against the heat or inflamations of the Liver or Back Liver Back and is of singular use and very effectual against Ulcers inflamations and soreness of the Kidneyes and Bladder and foul purulentous Urines Kidneys Bladder Vrines and is good for the Excoriations of the Yard all which diseases this cureth in three dayes time The Pine-tree Kinds THer are two kinds of the Pine-tree that is the Garden and the wild Pine-tree and of the Wild Pine-tree there be divers sorts Names The Pine-tree is called in Latine Pinus and the nuts which are found in the Pine-apples are called in Latine Nuces Pineae in English Pine-Apple kernels or nuts in French Pignous The tame or Garden kind of Pine-apple is also called in Latine Pinus Sativa and the wild Pine is called in Latine Pinaster and Pinus Sylvestris the first wild kind is supposed to be the Pinus Tarentina whereof Pliny writeth the second kind is called in Latine humilis Pinus or Pinus terrestris and in Italian Mughi The third is called in some places in the Mountains betwixt Italy and Germany Cambri and Cirmoli and is that kind which the French-men call Sniffe The Fourth is called in Latine Pinus Idaea The fift is called in Latine Pinus marina and in French Pin-marin The fruit of the Pine-tree is called in Latine Conus and nux pinea and in English a Cone or Pine-apple in French Pome de pin Descript The Pine-tree groweth to a great and lofty height with many branches at the top parted into other round branches set round about with little hard leaves and almost sharp-pâ—inted or prickly very straight and narrow and of a green whitish colour The Timber is red and heavy and within about the heart full of sap and liquor The fruit is great balls of a brown Chesnut colour which are called Cones or Pine-apples in which grow small nuts wherein is a sweet white kernel Descript 1. Of the first Wild kind The first wild sort of the Pine-trees is high great and thick and yet not so high as the Tame or Garden Pine the branches be spread abroad with long sharp-pointed leaves the fruit is short and not hard which doth open easily and soon falleth Descript 2. The second kind of the wild Pine doth not grow so high neither is the stem growing straight up but bringeth forth many branches suddenly from the root creeping by the ground long slender and pliable or easie to be bent or ployed insomuch that hereof they may make hoops for Wine Hogs-heads and other Vessels and Casks the fruit of this tree is greater than the fruit of any other of the Wild Pine-trees Descript 3. The third kind groweth straight upright and waxeth great and high yet not so high as the other Wild kinds the branches of this sort do grow like the Pitch-tree the fruit is long and big almost like the fruit of the Pitch-tree in the same is contained triangled small nuts like to the Nuts of the Pine-apple but smaller and britler with a kernel of a very good taste like unto the kernel of the tame Pine Descript 4. The fourth wild kind hath a long hard fruit the which will not open easily nor fall lightly from the tree Descript 5. The fifth kind hath small round nuts not much greater than Cypresse-nuts the which will open and fall quickly From out of these trees cometh that liquor called Rozen especially from the wild-trees and it runneth most commonly out of the bark or from the Timber and is sometimes found in the fruit And from these trees cometh also Pitch both liquid and hard Place and Time The Tame or Garden Pine groweth in many places in Greece Italy Spain France and in some places in England where it hath been planted The wild Pines grow upon Mountains and that sometimes on very high Mountains where none other Trees or Herbs do grow especially the first wild kind which also groweth in Germany Poland Leifland and other cold Regions The fruit or Pine-apples are ripe in September Government and Virtues The Pine-trees are under the dominion of Saturn the bark is dry and astringent especially the scales of the Cones or Apples and the leaves be almost of the same temperature The kernels of the nuts are hot and moist and somwhat astringent The scales of the Pine-apple with the bark of the Pine tree do stop the Lask and bloudy-flux and provoke Urine Lask-Bloody Flux Vrine
of this syrrup in a Morning in a small draught of the decoction of the same Roots is sufficient for a dose the whole Roots preserved either in Hony or Sugar is effectual for all the same purposes but the green Roots preserved are better then the dryed Roots which are first steeped and then preserved The Roots Bruised and boyled in Wine and applied to the Cods and Stones that are swelled dissolveth the Tumor Cods Stones Tumors and easeth the pains It likewise mollifieth hard Tumors in any part of the body Sweet-Rush Names IT is also called Camells-hay in Latine it is called Juneus odoratus and Schaenanthos and corruptly Squinanthum and Squinant Kinds and Description There are found two kinds hereof a finer and a Course or the true and bastard kind Descript 1. The finer sweet smelling Rush called in Latine Juncus odoratus Tenuior This hath many tuffts or heads of long Rush-like leaves thick set together one compassing another at the bottom and shooting forth upwards the outermost whereof are bigger or grosser then those that grow within which are a foot long and better small round and stiff or hard and much smaller from a little above the bottom of them then any of our Rushes of a quick and spicy tast somwhat pleasant and of a fine sweet scent It beareth in its natural soyl divers strong round hard jointed stalks having divers short brownish or purplish husks at the tops containing within them mossy whitish short threds or hairs wherein lyeth a chaffy seed the Root is stringgy full of long fibres and very hard Descript 2. Juncus odoratus Crassior The grosser sweet smelling Rush This groweth in the same manner as the former doth but is greater in every part of it and hath lesse smell aswel as lesse tast whereby it seemeth to be a kind of it self that groweth so great in the natural aswel as forreign parts or by growing in moister places cometh to be the larger Place and Time They grow naturally in Arabia Syria Mesopotamia and all those Eastern Countries as also in some places of Africa It cometh not to flowring in those colder Countries but in those hotter places it flowreth in the Summer time Government and Vertues This is a plant of Venus of a moderate temperature the Root is accounted to be somewhat astringent and is effectual for those that have a loathing in their stomack to their Meat it provokes Urine Loathing Stomack Vrine and Womens Courses Womens courses discusseth all Swellings and Wind swellings Wind it gently cutteth and breaketh Humors and digesteth them and looseneth the Breathing places of the Veines Humors Veins The decoction of the flowers being drunk as Dioscorides saith stayeth spitting of Blood and is good for the griefs of the Stomack Lungs Liver Lungs Liver and Reins a dram of the Root taken with the like quantity of Pepper every Morning fasting for certain dayes together is a very good remedy for those that have the Dropsie Reines Dropsie and for Convulsions or Cramps the decoction thereof is profitable for Women to sit in that are troubled with the Mother Cramps Convulsions mother it openeth their Obstructions Obstructions digesteth Crudities expelleth Corrupt humors cutteth tough Flegm Crudities Corrupt humors Tough Flegm and consumeth congealed matter in the Body and therefore it is of excellent use for the stopping of Urine Matter congealed Vrine and Womens Courses taken either in drink or by fomentation allayeth the inflamations of the Liver Courses inflamations Liver Stomack and body the Roots do bind more and the flowers are more hot but there is some Astriction in all the parts thereof and therefore is very profitably mixed with those things that stay Bleeding it is used to be boyled in the broth of a Chicken to ease the pains of the Womb that Women feel after Child-bearing The powder thereof is singular good for all Sores stomack bleeding Womb Sore of the Mouth and for all creeping Ulcers Mouth Vlcers and taken with Wine and Vinegar it is very effectual for those that have an Ulcer in their Stomack if the Stomack or Belly be fomented with the decoction thereof it taketh away all Inflamations therein and easeth the pains Rhubarb Kinds and Names THe Rha or Rubarbe both true and Bastard are all accompted and numbred amongst the Kinds of Docks so is our Garden Dock or that called Patience or Moncks Rubarbe so is also the Rha-pontick I shall give you 5 or 6 kinds of these plants the true China and oriental the Bastard and such sorts as grow in England Descript 1. Garden-Patience or Moncks Rhubarb the Latine Appellation is Lapathum sativum sive Patientia This is a Dock yet beareth the name of Rubarb because of some small purging quality it is endowed with it groweth up with large tall stalks set with somewhat broud and long fair green leaves not dented at all the tops of the stalks are divided into small branches bearing reddish or purplish flowers and three square seed like unto other Docks the Root is long great and yellow like unto the Wild-Docks but a little redder Descript 2. Common great round leafed Dock or Bastard Rubarbe It is called in Latine Hippolapathum rotundifolium vulgare This hath divers large round thin yellowish green leaves a little waved about the edges every one standing on a long brownish footstalk from among which riseth up a stalk about two foot high with some such leaves thereon as grow below but smaller at the top whereof stand in a long spike many small brownish flowers which turn into hard three-square shining-brown seed like unto the Garden-Dock or Patience the Root is greater then that of Patience having many strings or branches thereat yellow on the outside and somewhat pale yellow within with some discoloured Veins therein especially when it is dry Descript 3. True Rubarbe or Rubarbe of Pontus or English Rubarbe called Hippolapathum maximum rotundifolium exoticum sive Rhaponticum Thracium vel Rubarbarum verum This springeth up with a great round brownish head rising from the middle or sides of the Root which openeth it self into sundry leaves one after another very much crumpled or folded together at the first and brownish but afterward spreadeth it self and becometh smooth very large and almost round every one standing on a brownish stalk of the thickness of a mans thumb when they are grown to their fulness and most of them two foot and more in length especially in any moist or good ground and the stalk of the leaf also from the bottom thereof next unto the Root unto the leaf it self being in length about two foot or more of a sad or dark green colour of a fine tart or sowrish taste much more pleasant then the Garden or Woodsorrel from among these riseth up sometimes but not every year a strong thick stalk with such round leaves as grow below but smaller at every joint up to the top
and among the flowers which are whiter spreading forth into many branches and consisting of five or six small white leaves a peece hardly to be discerned from the white threds which are in the middle after which come brownish three square seed the Root groweth in time to be very great with divers and sundry great spreading branches of a dark brownish or reddish colour on the outside and with a pale yellow thin skin under it which covereth the inner substance or Root which rind and skin being pared away the root appeareth of so fresh and lively a colour with fresh coloured Veins running thorow it that the cheifest of that Rubarb brought us from the Indies doth not excell it which Root being carefully dryed will hold his colour almost aswel as when it is fresh Descript 4. The true Rubarb and Rhapontick of China and of the shops Rhabarbarum ponticum genuinum officinarum The form of the root is somewhat great round and long for the most part yet there are smaller and shorter peeces that come together the colour on the outside is not all alike for some is of better colour and sounder than other the best is firm and heavy not spongy or light somewhat brown but fresh on the outside without many blackish spots with fresh coloured veins running thorow it bitter in tast and somewhat Aromatical in smell especially if it be fresh and causing the spittle to be yellow being a little chewed in the Mouth The True Rhapontick brought to us with the Rubarbe is only the lesser and longer peeces of the Root of the true Rubarb Descript 5. The broader Elecampane leafed Rubarb Rhaponticum Enuliae folio latiore This hath divers leaves rising from the root somewhat large and long but not so large as the leaves of Elecampane greenish on the upper-side and greyish or woolly underneath every one standing on his own stalk pointed at the end and dented about the edges from amongst which riseth up a reasonable big round stalk about half a yard or a foot high bearing at the top thereof one great scaly head consisting of very broad and loose or open brown scales like a small Artichoke head at first but that the scales are much more open The flower standeth in the middle and is composed of many blewish red or purple thrums very pleasant to behold after which come blackish round and long seed the Root is somewhat long and thick blackish on the outside and of a deadish colour on the inside And hath formerly been used for Rha Ponticum Descript 6. The narrower Elecampane leafed Rhubarbe Rhaponticum alterum angustifolium This differeth not much from the last but onely in the leaves which are a little narrower and longer then it and a little unevenly waved on the edges the head flowers are alike but a little larger and so is the Root Place and Time Tragus saith that the first groweth naturally about Lausanna in Savoy but onely in Gardens with us The second groweth upon the hills not far from Caria in Germany as also neer Friburg in Switzerland and on the Mountains in Austria The third as is reported was natural in Thracia and from some seeds thereof it hath been planted both in England and other Countries The fourth groweth chiefly in China and Cataga and in the Mountains of Persia The fifth groweth on Mount Baldus neer Verona in Italy and upon the Hills in Switzerland and in some craggy places in Savoy All these sorts of Rhubarbe do grow with us in our Gardens and do flower about the beginning or middle of June and the Seed is ripe in July The Roots that are to be dryed and kept all the year following are not to be taken up before the stalk and leaves be quite withered and gone which will be about the middle or end of October Government and Vertues Culpepper with a great deal of foolish non-sense assigns all these plants to the Government of Mars But I say that they more properly are under the particular influence of Jupiter the leaves of these kinds of Docks do a little mollifie and loosen the Belly being boyled in Broth and taken but the Roots have a more opening and purging quality in them and some more or lesse then others according to their quality The round-leafed Rubarb is stronger in operation than the Garden-Patience or Moncks Rubarb but this last is of Excellent use in dyet drinks and decoctions to purge the Liver and cleanse the Blood Liver Blood Tragus saith that a dram of the dryed Roots of Moncks Rubarb with a scruple of Ginger made into powder and taken fasting in warm Broth purgeth Choler and Flegm Choler Flegm downward very gently the seed thereof contrariwise doth bind the Belly and helpeth to stay any sort of Lask or Bloody-flux The distilled Water of the leaves is used with good successe to heal Scabs and foul ulcerous Sores Lask Bloody-Flux Scabs Sores and to allay the inflamations of them the juice of the leaves or Roots or the decoction of them in Vinegar is a most effectual remedy to heal foul-Scabs and Running-Sores The round-leafed or bastard-Rubarb hath all the same properties but more effectual and is also good against the stinging of Scorpions as Dioscorides saith the decoction thereof in Vinegar dropped into the Ears Scorpions pain in the Eares taketh away the paines thereof and gargled in the Mouth taketh away the pains of the Tooth-ach Tooth-ach and being drunk healeth the Jaundice the Seed thereof taken helpeth the gnawing and Griping pains in the Stomack Jaundice gripings in stomach and taketh away the loathing thereof unto Meat which cometh by vicious sharp humors which are gathered together at the Mouth of the Stomack the Root thereof helpeth the ruggedness of the nails Rugged Nails and being boyled in wine it helpeth the Kings-Evil Swellings of the Throat and kernels Kernels of the Ears being swollen and it helpeth them that are troubled with the Stone provoketh Urine and helps the dimness of the sight The Roots of this bastard Rubarb are of good use in diet-drinks which are opening and purging or in Ale or Beer prepared for opening the Liver cleansing the blood and to allay the heat thereof The properties of the round leafed Dock or English Rubarb are the same with the former but much more effectual and hath all the virtues of the Indian Rubarb but only is not so purgative but being taken in a double quantity it worketh almost in an equal quality without bitterness or Astriction The true Indian Rubarbe doth excellently and safely purge the body of Choler and Flegm Flegm Choler either taken it self in powder in a draught of White-wine or steeped therein all night and taken fasting or mixed among other purgers cleansing the Stomack Stomack Liver and Spleen Liver Spleen and the Blood opening Obstructions Obstructions and helping those griefs that come thereof as the Jaundies Jaundies Dropsie
either of them is good for the heat and redness of the Eyes and to dry up the Rheums and watering of them Lask Spitting of blood Heart Stomach Liver Retentive-faculties pains of heat Inflamations Sleep Rest Womens Courses Gonorrhaea Fluxes Heat and redness of the eyes Rheumes and watering Of the red Roses are made several Compositions as Electuary of Roses Conserve Sugar of Roses Syrup of dryed Roses and honey of Roses The Cordial powder called Diarrhodon Abbatis and Aromaticum rosatum The distilled water of Roses Vinegar of Roses oyntment and oyle of Roses and the rose-Rose-leaves dryed The Electuary is purging whereof two or three drams may be taken for one of a weak constitution but six drams for stronger bodies This purgeth Choler and is good in hot Feavers in pains of the head arising from hot and Cholerick humors and heat in the Eyes The Jaundies also and Joynt-Aches proceeding from hot humours The moist Conserve is both binding and Cordial some of the younger Conserve taken with Mithridate is good for those that are troubled with Rheums and defluxions of Rheums into the eyes And for Fluxes and Lasks of the Belly and being mixed with some powder of Mastich it is good for the running of the Reins Choler hot feavers heat in the eyes Jaundies Joint-aches rheums Defluxions Eyes Lasks Running of the Reins and for looseness of humours in the Body The old Conserve mixed with Diarrhodon Abbatis or Aromaticum rosarum is a very good Cordial against Faintings Swoonings and weakness and tremblings of the heart it strengtheneth also both them nd a weak Stomach Faintings Swoonings Trembling of the heart Weak Stomach helpeth digestion stayeth Casting and is a very good preservative in time of Infection Digestion Casting Infection The Sugar of Roses is a very good Cordial to strengthen the heart and Spirits as also to stay defluxions The Syrup of dryed red Roses strengtheneth a relaxed stomach given to Casting cooleth an over-heated Liver relaxed Stomach-Casting Liver-heated and the blood in Agues comforteth the heart and resisteth putrefaction and Infection and helpeth to stay Lasks and Fluxes Agues Infection Lasks and Fluxes honey of Roses is much used in gargles and Lotions to wash sores either in the mouth throat or other parts both to cleanse and heal them and stay the Fluxes of humours falling upon them hindring their healing It is used also in Glisters to cool and cleanse The Cordial powders called Diarrhodon Abbatis and Aromaticum rosarum doth comfort and strengthen the heart and stomach causeth an Appetite helpeth digestion stayeth vomiting and is good for those that have slippery bowels to strengthen and confirm them Red Rose-water is cooling and Cordial and of better use than Damask Rose-water it refresheth and quickneth faint and weak Spirits Mouth Throat Fluxes of humours strengthens the heart and Stomach Appetite Vomiting Bowels Faint weak Spirits either used in meats or broaths to wash the temples or to smell to at the nose or else by the sweet vapours thereof out of a perfuming-pot or cast on a hot fire-shovel It is also of much use against the redness and Inflamations of the eyes to bathe them therewith and the Temples of the head against pains and ach thereof Vinegar of Roses is of much use for the same purposes and to procure rest and sleep Inflamations of the eyes Head-ach Rest and sleep if the nose and temples be moistned therewith but rather if a peece of red rose Cake made fit for the purpose be moistned thereon and heated between a double-folded cloth with a little beaten nutmeg and poppy-seed strewed on that side shall lie next the forehead and temples and so bound thereto for all night The oyntment of Roses is much used against heat and inflamations in the head to anoynt the forehead and temples and being mixed with some Populeon to procure rest It is also used for heat of the Liver Back and Reins to cool Inflamations pushes wheals or other red pimples Heat and Inflamations in the head Heat of the Liver Back Reins pushes wheals Pimples rising in the Back and other parts Oyl of roses is also used by it self for the same purposes and is likewise put into many Compositions both oyntments and plaisters to cool and bind and restrain the flux of humours The dryed leaves of the red roses are cooling binding and cordial Rose-leaves and Mynts heated and applyed outwardly to the stomach stayeth vomiting and strengtheneth a weak stomach Vomiting weak stomach very much And applyed as an Epitheme or fomentation to the Region of the Liver and heart Liver and heart doth much cool and temper the distemperature in them Of the Damask roses are not made so many medicines and Compositions but onely the Conserve and Preserve the Syrup and honey of those roses both which are called solutive the water and the distilled oyl or spirit which serveth more for outward perfumes than inward physick the Syrup of Damask-Roses is both simple and Compound and made with Agarick the simple solutive Syrup is a familiar safe and gentle easie medicine purging Choler taken from one ounce to three or four The Syrup of roses with Agarick is more strong and effectual in working than the simple Syrup and worketh asmuch on phlegm as Choler The compound Syrup is more forceable in working on melancholy humours and available against the Leprosie Itch Tetters and the French disease Honey of roses solutive is made of the same Infusion that the Syrup is made of and worketh the same effect in opening and purging but because the honey is not so convenient to be given to hot and Aguish bodies it is oftner given to phlegmatick than Cholerick persons and is more used in Glisters than potions as the Syrup made with sugar is The Conserve and Preserved leaves of these roses are operative to the same effect in gently opening the belly the dryed Damask rose leaves powdered and drunk in Whay gently purgeth The Musk Roses both single and double do purge more forceably than the Damask and the single is held more forceable than the double the wild roses are few or none of them used in physick but are generally held to come near to the nature of the manured roses both in the earthy and binding quality Pliny lib. 8. Cap. 4. saith that the root of the wild-Rose is singular good to cure the biting of a mad dog the fruit of the wild Bryar which are called Heppes and in some Countreys Canker-berries being thorow-ripe and made into a Conserve doth gently bind the belly and is very pleasant to the taste and stayeth defluxions Bind the belly Defluxions from the head upon the stomach and dryeth up the moisture thereof and helpeth digestion the pulp of the Heppes dryed into an hard consistence like to the juice of Liquorish or so dryed that it may be made into powder and taken in drink stayeth speedily the Whites in women the
Bryar-ball is often used being made into powder and drunk to break the stone to provoke Urine and to ease and help the Chollick Whites Stone Vrine Chollick In the middle of these balls are often found certain white worms which being dryed and made into powder and some of it drunk is found by long experience of many to kill and drive forth the worms of the belly Rice Descript THis grain or Corn riseth up with a stronger stalk than wheat about a yard high with sundry joynts and a large thick leaf at each of them like unto the Reed at the top it beareth a spiked tuft spread into branches whose blooming is said to be purplish with the seed standing severally on them inclosed in a hard brown straked husk and an Arm at the head of every one of them which being hulled is very white of the bigness almost of wheat Cornes blunt at both ends Names Rice is called in latine Oriza and the Italians call it Rizo the French Rys Place and Time This grain originally was brought out of the East-Indies where in many places it yieldeth two Crops in a year being the chiefest Corn they live upon and not with them onely but through all Aethiopia and Africa and from thence hath been brought into Syria Aegypt Italy c. It delighteth to grow in moist grounds and is a Summer Corn ripe about the middle of Autumn Government and Vertues It is a Solar grain The physical use thereof is chiefly to stay the Lasks and Fluxes of the stomach and belly especially if it be a little parched before it be used and steel quenched in the milk wherein it is boyled being somewhat binding and drying It is thought also to increase seed Lasks Fluxes increase Seed being boyled in milk and some sugar and Cinnamon put thereunto The flower of Ryce is of the same property and is sometimes also put into Cataplasmes that are applyed to repell humours from flowing or falling to the place and is also conveniently applyed to womens breasts Repell humors Inflamations in womens breasts to stay Inflamations therein in the beginning thereof Spanish Safron Kinds and Names I shall describe severally the sorts hereof and therein set down their names Descript 1. The manured Spanish or bastard Safron called in Latine Cnicus sive Carthamus sativus This hath sundry large leaves lying next the ground without any pricks or with very few white ones at the corners of the leaves and divisions among which riseth a strong round stalk three or four foot high branching it self up to the top bearing shorter leaves sharp-pointed and prickly at the edges and at their ends a great open scaly head out of which shoot forth many gold yellow threads of a most orient and shining colour which being gathered in a dry warm time and kept dry will abide in the same delicate colour which it bare when it was fresh for a long time the seed when it cometh to maturity is white and hard somewhat long and round and a little cornered the root is long white and woody perishing yearly after seed time Descript 2. Wild or bastard Safron of Candy Cnicus alter Creticus This hath a thick and long black root from which riseth up one streight round stalk half a cubit high set here and there with long sharp-pointed leaves thick set with prickles at the dents of the edges at the top whereof standeth a scaly head compassed with prickly leaves of the bigness of the Atractylis or distaff-thistle out of which break forth divers thick yellow Safron-like threads thrust thick together a fier which the seed groweth therein being white and as big as the greater Centory-seed Descript 3. Clusius his everliving bastard Safron Cnicus alter perennis Clusâ—i This groweth up with divers hard strong and round stalks without any branches at all from them to the height of three or four foot bearing thereon at several places somewhat large and long leaves dented about the edges of a sad or dusky green colour at the top of every stalk standeth one great close hard scaly head but not prickly at all not so great as the other bastard-Safron never opening the scales of the head as that doth from the middle whereof cometh divers threads yet nothing so many as in the other of a sad blewish ash colour and whitish at the bottom of them the seed which lyeth among the down in those heads is greater than of the other thick and short but not white and in lesser quantity than it The Roots run down deep into the ground and being there increased do run and spread themselves taking up a great deal of room Place and Time The first is generally sown in Spain Italy and other places for the especial use thereof The second Alpinus saith was brought out of Candy the last groweth wild in Spain aswel about Sevil as Cordula and in several other places as Clusius saith These kinds of Safron are called both in Greek and Latine Cnicus and Cnecus and in Apothecaries shops Carthamus of some also Crocus Saracenicus the Arabians call it Kartan the Italians Saffarano Sarasenisco the Spaniards Alacor and Acafran Salvia the Germans call it wilder Safron the French Safron-bastard and graine de Peroquets because they use to feed Parrots with the seed in English wild Safron Bastard-Safron Spanish Safron and Catalonia Safron Government and Virtues These are all Solar the flowers of the first Spanish Safron are much used in Spain and other places to be put into their broths and meats they are also of great use in dying silk into a kind of a Carnation-colour the seed is chiefly used in physick or rather the kernels within the seed which beaten and the emulsion thereof taken in honyed water or the broth of a Pullet and taken fasting doth open the body and purgeth watry and Phlegmatick humours Phlegm Watry humours Chollick Dropsie both upwards and downwards which it also performeth if the emulsion thereof be given in a Glyster and thereby helpeth the Chollick and dropsie and those other diseases that proceed from those humours Being made into a lohoch or licking Electuary with Sugar and honey and a few Almonds and Pine-kernels it wonderfully cleanseth the breast and lungs of phlegm sticking thereon causing it to be spit forth Phlegm Breast Lungs Sperm Voice cleared it clears the voice and increaseth seed by the often use of it but it doth somewhat trouble the stomach and therefore some stomachichal helpers are to be used with it As Anniseed Galanga Mastich or if need be of more forceable Cardamoms Ginger Salgem a dram of the flowers in powder taken in Hydromel or honyed water or in Barley-water helpeth the Jaundise Jaundise a dram of the pulp of the seed taken with an ounce of Syrup of wormwood doth the like also the Confection made of the seeds of it called in Shops Diacarthamum is an especial good medicine to purge Choler and flegm as also to clear and
fluxes from the head and braine Fluxes Head Brain Rheum Catarrhes cold Stomaks Wind Mother French-disease Aches sinews Joints Sores Swellings tetters ringworms Rheums and Catarrhes as also in all cold griefs of the stomack and expelleth wind very powerfully from the stomack and mother It helpeth not only the French disease but all manner of Aches in the Sinews or Joynts all running sores in the legs all flegmatick swellings Tetters or Ringworms and all manner of spots Spots in the Skin and foulness of the skin It is not proper to be given to those whose Livers are over-hot or to such as have Agues The manner of using it is and hath been divers in former times it was used beaten to powder and so drank others used to boyle it so long until it became tender which being beaten or broken was afterwards strained into the decoction making a kinde of thick drink like cream Some others and that most usually boyled it in water to the half or the consumption of the third part as they would have it stronger or weaker and that either by it self or with other things proper for the disease it was intended for and others also put it amongst other things into drink either Beer or Ale new tunned up to drink after it hath stood three or four dayes for Physick-drink for the remedy of those griefs it is conducible unto as aforesaid A dyet-drink with Sarsaparilla for the French-disease Aches pains or any the diseases before mentioned Take Lignum Vitae which is Guiacum nine ounces bark of the same two ounces Sassafras one ounce Sarsaparilla four ounces Juniper-berries one ounce Boyl them in two ounces of fountain-water to the Consumption of half add to the strained liquor Coriander-seeds four drams Cinamon Liquorish each two drams for an ordinary drink Saracens Consound Descript and Names There have several plants been mistaken and set forth for the true Saracens Consound The true is called Solidago Saracenica vera Salices Folia the true Saracens Consound with willow leaves This groweth very high sometimes with Brownish stalks and sometimes with green and hollow to a mans height having many long and narrow green Leaves snipt about the edges set thereon somewhat like unto those of the Almond or Peach-tree or Willow-leaves but not of such a white Green-colour The tops of the stalks are furnished with many pale yellow star-like-flowers which stand in â—green-heads which when they are fallen and the seed ripe which is somewhat long small and of a yellowish brown-colour wrapped in down is therewith carryed away with the winde the root is composed of many strings or fibres set together at the head which perish not in winter but abide though the stalks dry away and no leafe appeareth in winter the taste hereof is strong and unpleasant and so is the leaf also Place and Time It groweth in moist and wet Grounds by woods sides and sometimes in the moist-places of the shaddowy-Groves as also by water-sides It is rare to be found in England Gerrard saith it groweth by the high-way sides in Essex I have sought many wayes there but could never yet find it In July it is in flower and the seed is soon ripe and carried away with the wind Government and Vertues This singular Wound herb is a Plant of Mars so that he can sure aswell as kill It is of temperature hot and dry almost in the third degree and somewhat binding In Germany it is preferred before all other Wound-herbs being boyled in wine and drunk it helpeth the indisposition of the Liver and freeth the gall from obstructions Liver Gall obstructed Yellow Jaundise Dropsie Vlcers of the Reins Wounds and bruises and for the dropsie in the beginning thereof as also in all inward Ulcers of the Reins or elsewhere and inward wounds or bruises and being steeped in wine and then distilled the water thereof drunk is singular good to ease all gnawing in the stomach or any other pains or torments in the body as also the pains of the Mother Gnawings on the stomach Pains Mother Agues green wounds Old Sores Vlcers Sores Mouth and throat privy parts and being in wine and drunk it helpeth continual Agues This said water or the simple water of the herb distilled or the juice or decoction are all very effectual to heal any green wound or old Sore or Ulcer whatsoever both cleansing them from any corruption is in them and healing them up quickly afterwards the same also is no less effectual for the Ulcers of the mouth or throat be they never so foul or stinking by washing and gargling the mouth and throat therewith and likewise for such Sores as happen in the privy parts of man or woman and is as effectual to all the purposes as are Bugle or Sanicle Sassafras or Ague-tree Descript Names THis Indian tree is called by some Ind ans Pavame of some Winanke but its general name amongst the French Spaniards and all other Nations is Sassafras The tree groweth great and tall bare of branches unto a reasonable height covered with a greyish brown bark somewhat thick in taste hotter and quicker than the wood or root towards the top it doth spread forth many Armes and branches into a round compass or form having large dark green leaves growing thereon one at a place standing on the contrary side each to other tasting like the root but more weakly some cut into three Divisions somewhat resembling Fig-tree leaves but lesser by the half for the most part with a middle rib running through each Division and two others to the inner cuts with veins besides and some with little or no division at all upon them smooth also and not dented about the edges the flowers are small and yellow made of threads very like to the male Cornel-tree and the fruit small blackish berries set in small cups upon long footstalks many clustring together The roots are not very great neither do they grow deep but are covered with the like brownish bark that the trunk and branches are but somewhat redder which are most in use being of more force and efficacy than any other part of the tree and of a spicy taste Place This is brought unto us from the parts near Florida and other places of the West-Indies Government and Virtues This is a solar plant of temperature hot and dry in the beginning of the third degree the decoction is very useful in all cold diseases of the liver and spleen as also in cold rheums and defluxions of the head Liver Spleen cold Rheums on the teeth defluxions on the teeth eyes or Lungs eyes or lungs warming and drying up the moisture and strengthening the parts It is available in coughs Coughs Breast Stomach and other cold diseases of the breast stomach and lungs restrains castings and helpeth digestion Castings Digestion wind gravel Kidneys Vrine Terms Agues breaketh and expelleth wind the gravel and stone in the kidneys and provoketh Urine and womens
courses it dryeth up the moisture in Womens wombs and helps conception It is of very good use in Tertian and Quotidian Agues that come of humors or are of long continuance It is thought also to be good in Plague-time to wear some thereof continually about them that the smell thereof may expell the corrupt and evil vapours of the Pestilence It is generally used in all the diseases that come of cold raw thin and corrupt humours the French disease and other of the like foul nature the Indians use the leaves being bruised to heal theit wounds and Sores Saunders Kinds Descript IN our Shops for physical use we have three sorts of Saunders whereof the white and yellow are sweet woods and the yellow is the sweetest the red hath no scent The Saunder-Tree groweth to be as big as a Walnut-tree having fresh green leaves like unto the Mastick-tree and darkish blew flowers the fruit being like unto cherries for the size but without any taste black when they are ripe and quickly falling away the wood it self is without scent as it is said while it is living and fresh and smelleth sweet only when it is dry the white and the yellow woods are so hard to be distinguished before that time that none but those Indians that usually fell those trees do know their difference before-hand and can tell which will prove better than others the chiefest part and smelling sweetest is the heart of the wood they are distinguished by these names Santalum album citrinum rubrum Government and Vertues All the Saunders are under the Solar regiment they are all cooling and cordial and used together in sundry cordial medicines but the white and the yellow are the more cordial and comfortable by reason of their sweetness and the red more cooling and binding which quality neither of the other are without though in a less proportion The red is often used to stay thin rheum Thin Rheum Inflamations Gout Agues Headach Weak and fainting Stomachs hot Agues palpitation of the heart melancholy mirth Sperm Fluxes falling from the head to cool hot Inflamations hot gouts and in hot Agues to cool and temper the heat but the white and yellow are both Cordial and Cephalical applyed with Rosewater to the temples procuring ease in the headach and are singular good for weak and fainting Stomachs through heat and in the hot fits of Agues They are very profitably applyed in fomentations for the stomach spirits and palpitations of the heart which also do comfort and strengthen them and temperate the melancholy humor and procureth Alacrity and mirth which quality is attributed to the yellow more than the white which is used more to stay and bind fluxes of the Sperm in man or woman for which purpose either the powder taken in a real Egge or mixed with other things for that purpose or steeped in red wine and kept in an hot Balneo or hot Embers close stopped all night and strained forth and drunk both in the morning and evening stayeth both the Gonorrhea or running of the Reins in men Gonorrhea Whites abates great breasts in Maids and the whites in women being applyed also to maids and womens great breasts mixed with the juice of Purselan abateth their greatness and represseth their overmuch growing Scamony Descript The true Scamony hath a long root of a dark Ashcolour on the outside and white within and of the bigness of an Arm with a pith in the middle thereof and many fibres thereat which being dryed as saith Mathiolus the pith taken out seemed so like unto the roots of Turbith which are brought to us from the farre remote Eastern parts none knowing what plant it is nor whereunto it is like some thinking it to be the root of Trifolium or Sea Starwort that otherwise it might be thought to be the right Turbith of the Apothecaries shops from whence arise many long round green-branches winding themselves like a bindweed about stakes and trees or any other things that stand next unto it unto a good height without any clasping tendrels like the true or wild Vine from the joints of the branches come forth the leaves every one by it self upon short footstalks somewhat broad at the bottom with two corners next thereunto and some also round and then growing long and narrow to the end being of a fair green-colour and smooth somewhat shining Towards the tops of the branches at the joints with the leaves come forth large whitish bell-flowers with wide open brims and narrow bottoms after which come round heads wherein is contained three or four black-seeds if any part of this plant be broken it yieldeth forth a milk not hot not burning nor bitter yet somewhat unpleasant provoking loathing and almost casting Names It is called Scammonia both in Greek and Latine The dryed Juice which is most in use is called also Scammoniacum in the Druggists and Apothecaries shops as also with most Writers and some call the plant so too When it is prepared that is baked in a Quince under the Embers or in an oven or any other way it is called Diagridium Place and Time Scamony groweth in Syria and the farther Eastern parts where no frosts come in the winter for where any frost comes it quickly perisheth and therefore flourisheth always in those hot Climates Government and Vertues This is a Martial plant and of a Churlish nature so that there had need be great care taken in the choice thereof that only that be used in Physick which is sincere and pure without dross or adulteration which may be known if it be not heavy or close compact together but that it be moderately light with some small holes or hollowness here and there therein and that it be smooth and plain in the breaking and not in grains or knots or having small sticks or stones in it somewhat cleer and blackish but not of a deadish dark or il-favoured colour and that it will be made quickly into a very fine and white powder It purgeth both flegm yellow-choller and watery-humours Flegm Yellow-choler watry-Humours very strongly but if it be indiscreetly given it will not only trouble the stomach more than any other medicine but will also scowr fret and rase the guts in working too powerfully oftentimes unto blood and oftentimes unto faintings and swoonings and therefore is not fit to be given to any gentle or tender body Mesue declareth three several hurts or dangers that come to the body thereby and the remedies of them The first is saith he that it ingendereth certain knawing winds in the stomack so much offending it that it provoketh to vomit To be baked therefore in a Quince and some parsly fennel or wild Carrot-seed or Galanga mixed with it is the remedy hereof The next is that it inflameth the Spirits by the overmuch sharpness or fierceness therein whereby it readily induceth feavers especially in those that are subject to obstructions and repleat with putrid humours
and long as the great Night-shade leaves but some deeplier dented than others almost torn especially at the lower end of the leaf next the stalk each standing on a long footstalk The stalk riseth from among the leaves being streight thick fat strong and round two or three foot high from whence shoot forth on all sides if it be in warm fat ground divers stalks of leaves like unto the other or in a barren ground its bare without branches two for the most part set at a joynt and at each joynt of the stalk up to the top cometh forth one flower of a whitish colour which is somewhat long like unto a Bell-flower made of one leaf without division at the edges having a few long threads at the bottom not rising so high that they may be seen without opening the flower after the flowers are past there come up in their steads small long hard Cods having three or four or five Ribs or Crests which do open themselves into many parts having in each part small whitish yellow flat seeds lying therein the root is somewhat great and long with many strings and fibres at it taking fast hold in the ground both leaves stalks and seeds are very bitter while they are green but being dryed they become more pleasant The seed is more oyly than Linseed from whence is pressed forth a whitish oyl very sweet while it is fresh and will not in a long time decay or grow stronger Place and Time It groweth naturally in the Indies and other Eastern Countreys It flowreth in July and the seed is ripe about the end of September Government and Vertues This is an herb of Mars both seed and oyl are of temperature hot and moist near in the second degree and are of a mollifying and dissolving quality The green leaves are fit for fomentations to be used for the eyes to repress inflamations and pains thereof the seeds may be taken inwardly in decoctions or otherwise or used in a glister looseneth the belly the oyl is often used for the same purposes It sticketh in the teeth when it is eaten thereby causing a stinking breath It is said that the Egyptians use the Decoction of the seed for the Cough shortness of breath Eyes inflamed Bellly Cholick Cough Shortness of breath Plurisie and hard swellings of the Liver Mesue saith it lenifieth the roughness or hoarsness of the throat and voice Plurisie Liver Throat Voice and making it clear and free of pain It easeth pains of the head proceeding from the heat of the Sun The decoction of both herb and seeds with some honey is good for women to sit over whose wombs are hard or swollen Womb Hard Courses to bring down Scurf Dandrif Scabs and to bring down their courses and to wash their heads who are troubled with scurf dandrif or dry scabs the herb or seed doth stay vomiting Vomiting taken in an egge the oyl is effectual to anoint the face or any other part of the body to cleanse the skin and to take away Sun-burning Morphew Freckles Sun-burning Sinews shrunk Freckles Morphew Spots or skars or any other deformities of the skin it helps sinews that are shrunk and is good to anoynt any part scalded or burnt The true Sycomore-tree Names Descript Kinds THere are two sorts of this tree the one bearing fruit out of the Body and greater Arms of the tree only the other upon stalks without leaves The first is called in Latine Sycomorus and Ficus Egyptia the Egyptian Fig-tree and is the true Sycomore tree those trees which are vulgarly called Sycamores in England are a kind of Maples Descript 1. This Sycamore groweth to be a very great tree bigger than the Mulberry tree with great Arms and Branches full of round and somewhat long leaves pointed at the ends and dented about the edges very like the leaves of the Mulberry tree but harder and rougher like Fig-leaves this beareth small Figs or fruit and no flower differing in that from all other trees for it putteth forth the fruit out of the very body or trunk of the tree only and the elder branches next to the body and no where else And are very like unto white or wild Figs and of the same bigness but much sweeter and without any kernels therein The whole tree and every part aboundeth with milk if the bark be but gently wounded but if it be cut too deep it yieldeth no milk at all which maketh it to bear three or four times a year new rising out of the places where the old grew The root is solid hard and black and will abide fresh long after it is felled Descript 2. The other Sycamore is called Sycomorus altera ceu Ficus Cypria the Sycamore of Cyprus This groweth to be as big as a Plum-tree or white Poplar-tree the Arms and Branches bearing broad and somewhat round leaves like unto the Elm but very like unto the former This beareth such like fruit as Figs but smaller which rise both from the body and the greater Arms but not as the former but on certain stalks in branches which rise by themselves without any leaves with them and are as sweet as Figs and bear four times every year but not unless they be slit that the milk in them may come forth Place and Time The first chiefly in Egypt Syria and Arabia and other places adjacent The other in Cyprus Caria Rhodes and the neighbouring parts their time you may know by their Descriptions Government and Vertues These are under the particular Influence of Venus The fruit maketh the belly soluble but by its overmuch moisture it troubles the Stomach and giveth but little nourishment The milk that is taken from the tree by gently piercing the bark and afterwards dryed and made into Trochiss and kept in an earthen pot hath a property to dissolve Tumors and soften them and to soder and close together the lips of green wounds Belly soluble Tumors mollified Green wounds The fruit it self being applyed as a plaister worketh the same effect The said dryed milk is good against venemous creatures and the Plague Venemous Creatures Plague Pains in the head Ears Spleen and easeth the pains of the head and Ears and is good to be drunk by those persons that are Splenetick Spikenard Descript Names IT is a Root called Spike because it shooteth up hairy stalks of hairy-like Spikes many set together of a brownish colour the root doth somewhat resemble that of the French Nardus but of a paler blackish colour and without any scent Place It s natural growth is in the East-Indies Government and Vertues It 's Venu's Plant the properties are these It is of a gentle heating drying quality provokes Urine Vrine Fluxes Reds Whites Loathing meat stayeth Fluxes and both the reds and whites in women it takes away the loathing to meat and the gnawing in the stomach Gnawing of the stomach Swellings Stone Kings-Evil helps swellings the Stone in the
paler white colour The flowers stand in the same manner three or four together upon a stalk but are somewhat of a paler white colour to whom succeed sometimes but one and sometimes two pods together which are thicker and shorter than those of the white kind straked all along and double-forked at the ends wherein lie silk and seeds as in the former The roots have not so strong a smell as the last and have aswel as the rest of the Plant a strong smell like Box-leaves Place and T me The two first grow in rough and untilled ground upon divers Mountains in France about Narbone Marseilles and Mompelier and in Italy also The last in Candy They flower in the months of June and July and sometimes not until August and their Cods are ripe about a moneth after the empty husks abiding on the dry branches when the seed and silk is fallen out Government and Virtues These are Solar Plants the roots have a most soveraign faculty against all poysons Poysons Venemous beasts Serpents mad doâ— Plague Pâ—stilence Pâ—ssions of the heart Griping in the Belly particularly against the Apocynum or Dogs-bane and is effectually given to such as are bitten by any venemous beast or stung by any Serpent or other Creature as also against the biting of a mad dog and a dram and an half thereof taken in Carduus-water for divers days together It is taken also in wine every day against the Plague and pestilence a dram thereof taken in Bugloss-water is effectual against all passions of the heart if the same quantity of Citron-seeds be taken therewith it easeth all the griping pains in the belly the Decoction of the roots made with white-wine taken for divers days together a good draught at a time and sweating thereupon cureth the dropsie The same also cureth the Jaundice Jaundice Dropsie Vrine provoketh Urine and easeth the cough and all defects of the Chest and lungs The powder of the roots taken with Peony-seeds is good against the Falling-Sickness Cough Chest Lungs Falling-Sickness Melancholy Worms or with Basil-seed or the rinde of Pomcitron-seeds is good against melancholy and taken with the roots of Dictamnus albus or bastard-Dittany will kill and expell worms of the maw or belly the roots are also used amongst other things for baths for women to sit in to ease pains of the Mother and to bring down their courses the decoction hereof with comfrey roots made in wine Pains of the Mother Courses Rupture Bruises Vlcers Sores is good for those that have a Rupture or are bursten or have received hurts by bruises The powder of the roots or leaves is effectual to cleanse all putrid rotten and filthy Ulcers and Sores and may safely be used in all Salves Unguents and Lotions made for such purposes The leaves and flowers boyled and made into a Pultis and applyed to the hard tumors or swellings of womens breasts cureth them speedily and all sores in the matrix Womens breasts Matrix Tobacco Names Descript IT is called Petum and Nicotiana There have several kinds thereof been planted here in England which they did manure for Smoaking but that is now prohibited I shall only describe one kind which is planted here for its uses in physick and Chirurgery only It riseth up with a thick round stalk about two foot high whereon do grow thick fat fleshy green leaves nothing so large as the other Indian kinds neither for breadth nor length somewhat round-pointed also and nothing dented about the edges the stalk brancheth forth and beareth at the tops divers flowers set in green husks scarce standing above the brims of the husks round-pointed also and of a greenish yellow colour after which followeth the seeds contained in great heads The root is woody byt perisheth in winter but generally riseth of the seed that is suffered to shed it self Place and Time This as is supposed was first brought from Brazile it giveth ripe seed in our Countrey here earlier than the other Indian sorts It flowreth from June to the end of August or later and the seed ripeneth in the mean time Government and Vertues Tobacco is a Plant of Saturn Culpeppers deity of a stupifying quality it is held to be available to expectorate tough phlegm out of the stomach chest and lungs the juice thereof made into a Syrup Phlegm Stomach Chest Lungs worms or the distilled water of the herb drank with Sugar The same also helps to expell worms in the stomach and belly as also to apply a leaf to the belly and to ease the pains in the head or Meagrim Pains in the head Meagrim Stone Gravel Mother and griping pains in the bowels It is also profitable for those that are troubled with the stone in the kidneys to ease pains and by provoking Urine to expell gravel and the stone ingendred therein and hath been found very effectual to suppress the malignity and windy vapours which cause the strangling of the mother The seed hereof is much more effectual to ease the pains of the teeth than Henbane-seed and the ashes of the burnt herb to cleanse the gums and teeth and make them white The herb bruised and applyed to the place of the Kings-Evil is a speedy rememdy as is said It is also said to be effectual to cure the Dropsie Kings-Evil Dropsie by taking four or five ounces of the juice thereof fasting which will strongly purge the body both upwards and downwards And too strongly too unless it be a well steeled body indeed The distilled water is often given with some sugar before the fit of an Ague to lessen the fits and alter them and to take them quite away in three or four times using if the distilled faces of the herb having been bruised before the distillation and not distilled dry be set in hot dung to digest for fourteen days and afterwards hung up in a bag in a Cellar the liquor that distilleth therefrom is singular good to use for Cramps Aches the Gout and Sciatica and to heal Itches Cramps aches Gouts Sciatica Scabs Cankers Lice Green wounds Old Sores Scabs and running Ulcers and foul Sores whatsoever The juice is good for all the said griefs and likewise to kill lice in childrens heads The herb bruised and applyed to any green wound doth speedily heal the same the juice put into old sores doth heal the same A good salve thereof may be made in this manner Take of the green herb three or four handfulls bruise it and put it into a quart of good oyl-olive boyl them on a gentle fire till the herb grow dry and the oyl will bubble no longer adding thereto wax Rozen and sheeps-tallow or Deers suet of each a quarter of a pound of Turpentine two ounces which being melted put it up for your use Some will add to it the powder of round Birthworth and white Frankincense each half an ounce which is to be put in when it is nigh cold and well
two ounces Barley and Bean-flower of each one ounce Wormwood and Bettony of each half an ounce two drams of Commin-seeds powdered Boyl them all in a pinte of Red-wine to the thickness of a Pultis according to art then add oyl of Roses and Oyl of Camomile of each one ounce and two ounces of honey being mixt it is to be applyed morning and evening or Paracelsus plaister hath been applyed with good success but from the eleventh to the twentieth day apply this following plaister Take twelve ounces of fresh Porks greese of sweet oyl and red lead of each twenty ounces Calcit is burnt but not till it be red burnt Allum of each two ounces four ounces of Deer-suet Mastich and Olibanum finely powdered of each two ounces of these make a plaister according to art before you use it you must moisten it with oyl of Lillies then make use of Paracelsus his stiptik-plaister moistened in Oyl of Camomile to the end of the cure If there be a wound with the fracture in children dress it with a feather dipt in Arceus his Linement not taking away any part of the skul unles there be either a feaver Convulsion a vomiting or a Palsey then open as before and dress it according to art In older persons if in Summer make a Pultis called a Cataplasm of Barley-meal vinegar water apply it If it be in winter make it with wine adding thereto powder of Roses Mastich Myrtle-berries and oyl of Roses administring to the Patient this purge Take of the Electuary called Cariocostinum and of the Electuary of the juice of Roses of each one dram Syrrup of Chichory with Rhubarb one ounce with three ounces of the distilled water of Endive make thereof a Potion letting him bloud before and as often afterwards as you shall see it necessary and having given him a glyster or glysters or Suppositories as you thought good drop some Oyl of sweet Almonds into his ears and nose about the fourth day make him some Gargarisms made of the flowers of Rosemary and Roses Violets Cinamon and the like boyled in Barley-water to which you must add honey of Roses or honey and White-wine-vinegar and water boyled together called Oxymel simplex the seventh day use the same plaister you applyed to children from the eleventh to the twentieth day moistned with oyl of Roses but if you see any appearance of dangerous symptoms after the seventh day open the skul and cure it according to art For wounds of the brain and the other Membrans prevent what possible you can the entrance of the air for the first seven days use oyl of Roses and Turpentine Honey of Roses of each one ounce Aqua-vitae two ounces but honey of Roses and Spirit of wine are to be compared to none upon all which apply Paracelsus plaister When there is a moving of the brain from its natural place by reason of violent external causes such as blows falls from a high place and the Patient be astonished vomit and at length fall a Raving sometimes it is more gentle wherein no vessels are broken sometimes more violent wherein the vessels are broken and the brains shaken then follows speechlesness bleeding at the nose and ears vomiting the matter putrifying a feaver follows First begin the Cure in letting the Patient blood in the arm or the veinunder the tongue give him often cooling glysters such as before were mentioned if occasion be gently purge him then shave the head and anoynt it twice a day with oyl of Roses after apply this Pultis warm Take of Barley-meal three ounces powder of Bettony and Roses of each half an ounce Boyl them with the decoction of Bettony and a little Rose-water to the form of a Pultis adding towards the end half an ounce of oyl of Roses yolks of two eggs mix them and so apply it if there be a wound use this following Oyntment Take new wax and Collollony of each one ounce Gum-Elemie Venus Turpentine of each half an ounce Oyl of Earth-worms Sweet Almonds and the yolks of eggs and of Roses of each two drams Saffron one dram mix it and therewith make an Oyntment if with two ounces of this you shall mix the yolk of one egg it will afford more ease to the Patient If there shall happen to grow a Tumor called a Mushroom from its likeness to the thing so called which is sometimes hard without bloud almost sensless sometimes it will be soft and tender and it will smell noisome being narrow beneath and broad above sometimes increased to the bigness of a Hens egg caused from a thick melancholy blood springing from the broken vessels as before and will partake of the nature of the part to which it grows which will prove dangerous if it happens from the flowing of vicious humours from the brain In the beginning of the cure use such glysters as this every day afterwards every third day take the roots and leaves of Marsh-mallows Mallows the herb Mercury flowers of Camomile Myrtle-flowers and leaves of Bettony of each half a handfull Linseed and Fenugreek Anniseeds of each half an ounce Boyl them in Spring or running-water till the third part be boyled away Strain it to one pinte of the straining add Benedict laxativum and Hiera picra compound of each three drams the yolk of one egg oyl of Camomile two ounces common salt one dram mix them and make a glyster use the following fomentation twice a day Take of the leaves and flowers of Bettony Sage Camomile Mellilot Roses tops of Sweet Margerum and Rosemary of each one handfull Anniseeds and Fenugreek of each one ounce cut them and bruise them then take as many of them as will fill a Bag which may cover almost half the head let it be quilted then boyl it in equal parts of Red wine and water and apply it hot Then cleanse the head with hot Linnen which done be sprinkle the Mushroom or fungus and the wound with this following powder Take of the root of Avens Angelica sweet-smelling or Aromatical Reed of each half a dram of the root of round Birthwort Orrice and Lignum-vitae of each two drams flowers of Sage tops of Sweet margerum and Rosemary of each one pugil i. e. as much as you can take up betwixt your thumb and the two fore-fingers make all of them into a powder and use it as is before directed upon which apply the Basilick plaister the Receipt is as follows Take four ounces of the Bettony-plaister Gum-elemy dissolved in one ounce of Oyl of Roses Powder of Red Roses and Myrtles of each one dram Mastick Sweet-smelling or Aromatical Reed Angelica Avens or Herb-Bennet of each half a dram as much wax as will serve to make it into a plaister But if it be grown to such a bigness as a Hens egg bind it with silk 〈◊〉 â—he root very fast and when it is fallen off use the former powders for a Swelling coming from wind use the same method Wounds of the
greater sort is but weaker by much nor is so strong to breed so much blood as it Place and Time The first groweth both in the East and West-Indies and from both places have been brought unto us and hath grown with us and sometimes born ripe Ears but not always and will desire a strong rich ground as the Millet doth It is sown only in the Spring and ripe in September the other is a stranger and seldome seen with us Government and Virtues The grain is certainly Saturnine of a dry quality the meat hath in it some clamminess which bindeth the bread close and giveth good nourishment to the body The sweetness also of the bread sheweth the power of nourishment in it but it breedeth thick blood and humors which cause obstructions It is properly used to be put into Cataplasmes to ripen Imposthumes Imposthumes much feeding thereon ingenders gross bloud which breedeth Itches and Scabs Itches Scabs in those that are not used to it of it is made drink also both in the Indies and in some of our English Plantations that will intoxicate assoon as our small Beer if it be made accordingly But is found to be very effectual if it be made accordingly to hinder the breeding of the stone so that none are troubled therewith that do drink thereof the leaves thereof are used also to fatten their Horses and Cattel Wormwood I Would willingly have omitted this common Wormwood and said nothing of it but that Culpepper hath so ridiculously Romanced upon it and it remains still under colour of truth Common Wormwood called Absynthium vulgare is well known to have many whitish green leaves somewhat more hoary underneath much divided or cut into parts from among which rise up divers hard and woody hoary stalks two or three foot high beset with like leaves as grow below but smaller divided at the tops into smaller branches whereon grow many small yellow buttons with pale yellow flowers in them wherein afterwards is contained small seed the root is hard and woody with many strings thereat the stalks hereof dye down every year but the root holdeth a tuft of green leaves all the winter shooting forth new again which are of a strong scent but not unpleasant and of a very bitter taste The Seriphium or Sea-wormwood is much weaker but of a pleasant bitterness Place and Time It is plentifully found in most places in England and flowers about August Government and Virtues All the sorts of Wormwoods are Martial Plants It is of a heating binding property and is said to purge Choler that cleaveth to the stomach or belly It is said also to provoke Urine help Surfets Choler Vrine Surfeits pains in the stomach Yellow Jaundise and ease pains in the stomach The decoction or the Infusion thereof taken doth take away the loathing to meat and helpeth those that have the yellow Jaundise for which purpose Camerarius in his Hortus Medicus giveth a good Receipt Take saith he of the flowers of Rosemary Wormwood and Blackthorn each a like quantity of Safron half that quantity all which being boyled in Rhenish wine let it be given after the body is prepared by purging a small draught thereof taken a few days together bringeth down womens Courses Womens Courses Heart Liver being taken with vinegar it helpeth those that are almost strangled by eating Mushrooms It helpeth the pains of the heart and Liver being beaten and mixed with Ceratum Cyprinum and applyed as also applyed to the stomach with Rosewater it giveth much comfort to those that have layn long sick It helpeth those that are troubled with the swelling and hardness of the spleen or those that have a hot sharp water running between the skin and the flesh It is often used both inwardly and outwardly for the worms the seed thereof helpeth the Bloody flux Spleen Worms Bloody-flux and all other fluxes vinegar wherein wormwood hath been boyled is good for a stinking breath that cometh from the gums or teeth or corruption of the Stomach The Conserve thereof is good against the Dropsie Stinking-breath Dropsie the Sea-wormwood worketh the same effects but weaker Thus I am sure I have set down all the true virtues of wormwood and it may be some more than will bear the Test when they are tryed if I should have written all that Authors say of wormwood I should have taken up a great deal of room stuff'd full of falsities for besides Culpeppers idle Romancing upon it others have mightily commended it for dimness of sight and to clear the eyes if they had said it is good to cause dimness of sight and put out the eyes they had been nearer the truth Another story they have of it that it preserves cloaths from moths and worms and driveth away Gnats Fleas and such noisome Insects if the skin be anoynted with the juice or oyl thereof This is utterly false as I have had the experience upon my self for being troubled and gnats lodging in the countrey near the Sea-side where gnats are very troublesome in the night to prevent which as I then believed I caused my chamber to be rubbed all over and both walls and windows with wormwood and anointed my self with the juice of it all over thinking to have a quiet night but was worse infested with fleas and Gnats than ever before so that I was forced to leave my Chamber and walk all night These are the true virtues of wormwood Yucca or Jucca Descript THis Indian Plant hath a thick tuberous root spreading in time into many tuberous heads from whence shoot forth many long hard and narrow-guttured or hollow leaves very sharp-pointed compassing one another at the bottome of a greyish green colour abiding continually or seldome falling away with sundry hard threds running in them and being withered become pliant withal to bind things From the midst whereof springeth forth a strong round stalk divided into sundry branches whereon stand divers somewhat large white flowers hanging downwards consisting of six leaves with divers veins of a weak reddish or blush-colour spread on the back of three outer leaves from the middle to the bottom not reaching to the edge of any leaf which abide not long but quickly falling away Place and Time It groweth in divers places of the West-Indies as in Virginia and New-England and flowers about the latter end of July Government and Virtues There hath no property hereof conducible to physical uses as yet been heard of but some of its vices The Natives in Virginia use for bread the roots hereof And that the raw juice is dangerous if not deadly Aldinus relateth that the wound made with the sharp point-end of one of these leaves in his own hand wrought such intolerable pains that he was almost beside himself until by applying some of his own Balsamum unto it he was thereby miraculously eased of the pain and all trouble thereof It is very probable that the Indians use to poyson the
heads of their Darts with the juice hereof Zedoaria Virtues THis Indian root is effectual against poysons of all sorts and venomes of virulent creatures and is profitable in the pestilence and other contagious diseases as also to warm a cold stomach and to expell wind and repress vomitings to dry up and consume Catarrhes and defluxions of Rheums Poysons Venomes Contagious diseases Cold stomach wind vomitings Catarrhes Rheums to dissolve the Imposthumes of the Matrix and to stay the looseness of the belly and is very powerful to stay or disperse unsavoury belchings Bitumen Dry Pitch ALthough this is and that which follows are no Plants but rather Minerals for their medicinal properties and manner of production and the place from whence this Bitumen cometh I could not omit but add them here The Bitumen or dry Pitch which the dead Sea in Judaea casteth up at certain times in the year is set down by Dioscorides to be of a shining purple-colour but that which is black is adulterate And Mathiolus saith that the Asphaltum or Bitumen of the Shops in Italy and so with us is a mixture and not the true thing The true Bitumen is that of the Lake of Sodom and Gomorrah and those Cities mentioned in Genesis which were destroyed by fire and Brimstone from Heaven Many Writers diversly set down the dimensions or length thereof especially Pliny and his followers But the true description thereof as it was exactly surveyed by one of our Countreymen who writes his own experience and not the relations of those who never saw the place take it in his own words This Lake is called Lacus Asphaltites it yieldeth a kind of slime named Bitumen or Asphaltum which bituminous savour no living thing can endure And now Mare mortuum Mare because it is salt and Mortuum because it is dead for that no living thing breeds therein and more properly for this cause called the dead-Sea because of it self it is unmoveable such is the Leprosie and stability of the water it is also called so because if a Bird fly over it she presently falleth down dead It smoaketh continually from whence proceed filthy vapours which deform the fields lying about for certain miles as it were blasted scorched and made utterly barren This smoak I take onely to be but the exhalation of Jordan for this River falling into it and there ending his course the two contrary natures cannot agree the one being a filthy puddle and the other a pure water This Lake is eighty miles in length and six in breadth being compassed with the Rocks of Arabia Petraea on the South on the North with the Sandy hills of the wilderness of Judaea on the West with the steepy mountains of Arabia deserta and on the East with the Plains of Jericho How cometh it to pass therefore that the fresh running floud of Jordan falling evermore into this bounded Sea that the Lake it self never diminisheth nor increaseth but alwayes standeth at one fulness neither hath it any issuing forth nor reboundeth backwards on the Planes of Jericho which is one of the greatest wonders in the world Wherefore as I have said it must needs exhale into the clouds or else run down into hell For if it ran under the Rocks and so burst out in the Desarts it would soon be known but in all the bounds of Arabia deserta which between this Lake and the Red-Sea extend to three hundred miles there is no such matter as Brook or Strand much less a River neither hath it any Intercourse with the Ocean It breedeth nor reserveth no kind of fishes and if by the swelling of Jordan any fishes fall into it they immediately die And although Josephus saith that in his time there were apples grew upon the banks thereof like unto the colour of gold and within were rotten and would consume to powder if touched yet I affirm now the contrary for there is not such a thing whatsoever hath been in his days as either trees or bushes grow near to Sodom by many miles Such is the consummation of that pestiferous Gulf Divers Authours have reported that nothing will sink into it of any reasonable weight as dead men or Carkasses of Beasts But by experience I affirm the contrary for it beareth nothing above at all yea not the weight of a feather the water it self is of a blackish colour and at some times in the year there are terrible shapes and shows of Terrour in it as I was informed at Jericho which is the nearest Town that bordereth thereupon and that is fifteen miles distance The Bitumen is gathered on the water and hardned in the air the medicinal uses of it are It discusseth Tumors and Swellings and mollifieth the hardness Tumors Swellings Hardness of them and keepeth them from Inflamations and is of singular use for the rising of the Mother and for the Falling-sickness Rising of the Mother Falling-Sickness to be burnt and the fumes thereof which are strong smelled unto it bringeth down womens courses taken in wine with a little Castoreum It helpeth the bitings of Serpents the pains in the sides and hips Womens Courses bitings of Serpents pains Hips and dissolveth congealed blood in the stomach and body Oyl of Peter Petroleum sive Oleum Petrae THis I have known miraculously to cure the Sciatica yet it is scarce taken notice of what it is or whence it comes Oyl of Peter is a thin reddish liquor almost as thin as water and is accounted to be a liquid Bitumen and thought to be the Naphta of Dioscorides by Mathiolus because it is so apt to take fire even by the air thereof and is gotten in sundry places of Italy distilling it self out of a Mine in the earth and in Hungary also in a certain place where issuing forth in a Well together with the water the Owner of the place thought to have the chinks stopped up with mortar which could not be done without light the Workman therefore taking a close Lanthorn with a light in it went about it and being gone down into the Well to stop it very suddainly the Peter-oyl taking fire flew round about the sides of the Well and with a hideous noise and smoak like the crack of a great peece of Ordnance shot off It not only cast'd forth the Workman dead but blew up the cover of the Well into the air and set on fire also some Bottles of the oyl that stood by the Well and many persons that stood thereby were scorched with the flame Virtues This oyl of Peter is a special Ingredient to make Wild-fire and is of a very hot and piercing scent and quality It is used for all cold Aches Cramps and Gouts and to heal any green wound or Cut suddainly a little thereof being put into the oyl of St. Johns-wort and used FINIS An Alphabetical Table of all the Herbs Plants Drugs in the Suppliment to Mr. Nich. Culpeppers English Physitian as also what Planet governeth