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
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
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
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
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
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
much larger and many more standing together the wood is whitish and smooth but not so smooth hard and close as our common Maple is Place This great Maple or falsly-called-Sycomore groweth no where wild or natural in this Kingdom but is onely planted before houses or in walks for the shadowes sake but groweth naturally in many places in Germany c. This as-well as our Wood-Maple flowers about the middle of April and the fruit is ripe in the end of September Government and Vertues It is a tree of Jupiter and is nevertheless scarcely made any mention of for its medicinal virtues but onely Pliny saith that the root of the Maple being bruised is with very great effect applied unto those that have obstructions or other pains of the Liver and Spleen but the root made into powder and given the quantity of a dram in Wine often is more effectual The Mealy-tree Names IT is called in Latine Viburnum and it is also called the Way-fairing-tree and by Mr. Parkinson from the pliantness of the twigs and branches the Pliant Mealy-tree Descript This tree hath from a small body rising to the height of a hedge-tree or bush covered with a dark greyish bark sundry small short but very tough and pliant branches of a fingers thickness whose bark is smooth and whitish whereon grow broad leaves like Elm-leaves but long and hoary rough thick white like meal and a little hairy set by Couples and finely dented about the edges at the ends of the branches stand large tufts of white flowers which turn into large branches of round and flat seed like unto Lentils but greater green at the first and afterwards and black when they are ripe The branches hereof are so tough and strong that they serve for bands to tye bundles or any other thing or to make fast gates of the Fields better than withy or any other Place It groweth as a hedge-bush and is often cut and plashed by Country-men to spread on the hedges in length and is very frequently found in Kent and in many other places of this Land Place It flowreth about the end of May and the fruit is ripe in September Government and Vertues It is a plant of Saturn the leaves thereof have a harsh binding quality and are good to strengthen and fasten Loose-teeth Loose-teeth the decoction of the leaves hereof and of Olive leaves together in Vinegar and Water is excellent good to wash the Mouth and Throat that are swelled by sharp Rhumes falling into them and is good to set the Palate of the Mouth or Vvula in the right place and to stay Rheums that fall upon the Jawes the kernels of the fruit hereof taken before they be ripe dryed and made into powder and drunk do stay the Looseness of the belly and all other fluxes Of the roots being steeped under ground and then boyled and beaten a long time afterwards is made Bird-lime to catch small birds with all The leaves boyled in Lye and the Head or Haires washed therewith doth keep them from falling and make the Hairs black Mechoacan and Jalap Kinds and Names THe Mechoacan of Peru is called also in Latine Brionia alba Peruana sive Mechoacan There is also another kind called Wild Mechoacan and a third sort called black Mechoacan or Jalap Descript 1. The Mechoacan of Peru that hath grown in these parts sendeth forth divers dark greyish long branches winding themselves about poles that are set for them or any other things that are next unto them whereon do grow fair broad leaves pointed at the ends of a dark green colour thin and hard in handling seeming so dry as if they had no juice in them the flowers are many standing in long clusters of a sullen yellow colour in the Indies as Monardus saith and as large as an Orenge-flower with an Umbone in the middle which afterwards cometh to be the fruit which when it is ripe is as big as an Hazel-nut divided by a thin skin in the middle in each side whereof lye two black seeds of the bigness of Pease of a dark whitish colour in the warmer Countryes of Europe but not with us yeelding berries and seed but not so large the root groweth to be as large as any Briony-root being not bitter or loathsome to tast as it is but rather without either tast or smell having many circles in it as may be discerned in the dry roots and may easily be brought into powder Descript 2. Wild Mechoacan called in Latine Mechoacan Sylvestris is altogether like the other both in manner of growing with branches leaves flowers and roots but in every particular lesser and the root wherein is the chiefest difference being sharp and loathsome procureth Vomiting and troubling the Stomack when it is taken asmuch as any ordinary Briony Descript 3. Mechoacan nigricans sive Jalopium black Mechoacan or Jalap The dryed roots of this plant are brought as a Merchandize unto us in England It cometh to us in small thin peeces some greater some smaller yet nothing so large as the greater but rather as the smaller peeces of Mechoacan of a brownish black Colour somewhat more solid compact and Gummy for out of it will rise a black Gum being laid on a burning Coal and of no unpleasant tast but sticking a little in the Teeth when it is chewed Place Mechoacan groweth beyond Mexico in the Province of Mechoacan but since hath been plentifully brought from the main Land of Nicaragna and Quito The wild Mechoacan was brought from the Promontory of St. Helen which is on the same Continent with Nicaragna The last is brought from a place in the Indies called Chelapa or Calapa from whence it obtained the name of Jalap Time They flower in the months of July and August some earlier or later than others as their original is from colder or hotter Climates and do seed soon after where they give any Government and Vertues The Mechoacans are plants of Mars the Mechoacan of Peru is a familiar Medicine used by many It is given to all Ages young and old and to young Children and Women with child without any harm or danger as also at all times of the year for being without any evil taste or smell it may be the better taken of the most delicate and tender stomachs that loath all other medicines It is most usually being made into powder taken in wine or the Root may be boyled in a little broth or wine and so taken The Dose in powder is from half a dram to a whole dram or a dram and an half or two drams as there is cause and according to the Age and strength of the Patient It purgeth cholerick and Flegmatick gross viscous and putrid humours whatsoever Choler Flegm putrid humours Liver Spleen Dropsie Jaundice Wind Pains in the head Bladder Reins Vrine Cholick Mother shortness of breath Cough French Pox. as also the yellow waterish humours of the Dropsie with much ease and facility It cleanseth the Liver
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
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
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
with clothes dispose themselves for sweating But this is onely to be done in the beginnings of Feavers and in such bodies as are not full of grosse and corrupt humors otherwise it is more safe to open the passages of the whole body by Emeticks and Catharticks The purified oyl expressed out of the kernels of the berries is commended in strong and lusty bodies one dram or a dram and an half thereof being taken in the broth of flesh for it gently moveth Vomiting and loosneth the Belly The oyl made of the infused flowers and bark of the Elder from one ounce to three provokes Vomit and purgeth the Belly the same alone or in a decoction may be given in a Glister In young ones the syrrup of the juice of the berries of the buds or bark sufficeth There are some which testifie and call experience to witness that if the middle bark of Elder be pulled downward from the tree it purgeth the body downwards but if they be pulled upward it worketh by Vomit In such Feavers which are lengthened from the stopping or fullness of the Meseraick Veins and from the grosseness and toughness of the humor Oxymel Sambucinum dissolved in the distilled water of the flowers or Barly-water and dayly on the intermitting dayes drank an hour or two before supper is commended the Crystallized salt of the Elder taken from half a scruple to a whole one is profitable also six drops of the Spirit of the fame taken in the broth of flesh all these do powerfully open obstructions and cut asunder the grossenesse and roughnesse of the humor they cleanse the Bowells and Vessels and both by Urine and Sweat dissipate the Feaverish matter In the time of the Fit give the patient a spoonful or a dram and a half of the oyle pressed out of the berries-kernells in warm Ale the rob of Elder in greatness of a Walnut being mixed with half a dram of the powder of Carduus benedictus and swallowed and drinking Vinegar above it and afterwards provoking sweat in bed is a very good medicine In continual and hot burning Feavers where the heat is more intense and great drought tormenteth the Patient make this Julap Take of Fountain or River-water three pounds of Elder Vinegar three ounces of the finest Sugar two ounces let them boyl together a little in a fit Vessel unto which being warm add an ounce of Cinnamon in powder let them cool of themselves in a close Vessel and strain them for a Julap of which give the Patient oft in a day it extinguisheth the Feaverish heat cuts the grosse and tough matter cleanseth the thin and Bilous opens obstructions it purgeth the peccant humors and by its acidity sharpneth the appetite and refresheth the strength Of Worms The Crystalline salt of the Elder preserveth and freeth from Worms it robs them of their nourishment kills them and purgeth them out the dose is from half a scruple to half a dram or two scruples for those of riper years you may prepare in the Spring time a dish made of Elder-buds freed from their bitter nauseous tast by the infusion of boyling water with Oyl Salt and Vinegar which is to be used as a sallad before supper That this sallad may be the more pleasant you may add some tender leaves of Sorrel Briefly whatsoever I have here said in relating the properties of the Elder the Dwarff-Elder doth more strongly effect in opening and purging Choler Flegm and Water in helping the Gout the Piles and Womens diseases it coloureth the hair black helpeth inflamations in the Eyes and pains in the Eares the biting or stinging of Venemous creatures or a mad Dog the Burnings or Scaldings by fire or water the Wind Chollick the Chollick and Stone difficulty of Urine the cure of old sores and Fistulous Ulcers the Dropsie and Gout and all the other griefs before specified Eglantine Name IT is also called Sweet-bryar Descript Eglantine or Sweet-bryar is much like the Wild Rose plant having very sharp prickles shutes springes and rough branches the leaves also be not much unlike but larger and of a pleasant smell the flowers be single smaller than the flowers of the Wild Rose most commonly white and sometimes red after which there come also little knaps or long red berries like as in the other Roses wherein the seed is contained Place The Eglantine aswell as the manured Roses is planted in Gardens if it be set against a wall under a Window it will cast a most pleasant smell into the room and so will the branches thereof being set in flower-pots in Windows and Chimneys in the Summer Months Time Eglantine flowers in May and June about the time the Garden-Roses doe Government and Vertues It is under the dominion of Venus the fruit is of an astringent quality It stoppeth the Lask Lask and all other issues of blood Bloody-Issues being eaten There is a rough Spongeous ball or Excrescence that groweth on the Wild Rose bush and also on the Eglantine which is of great efficacy and virtue against the Stone Stone and Strangury strangury It bringeth forth the Gravel and Stone and provoketh Urine Vrine White Ellebore Names IT is also called Hellebore and Neese-wort Veratrum album in Latine and Helleborus albus Descript The White Ellebore hath great broad leaves with ribs or Sinews like the leaves of the great Plantain or Gentian the stalk is round two or three foot high at the uppermost part whereof grow along and round about the top the flowers one above another pale of colour divided into six little leaves the which have a green line overthwart the flowers being passed away there cometh in their places small husks wherin the seed is contained the root is round as thick as a mans finger or thumb white both within and without having many threddy strings appending unto it Place White Ellebore or Hellebore groweth in Anticyra neer about the Mountain Octa and in Cappodocia and Syria but the best groweth in Cyrene in this Country the Herbarists plant it in their Gardens Time White Ellebore flowereth in June and July Government and Virtues The root of White Ellebore is hot and dry in the third degree a plant of Mars The root causeth one to Vomit up mightily and with great force all superfluous slimy Venemous and naughty humors Slimy-humors likewise it is good against the Falling-sickness Falling-sickness Frenzies Frenzy Head-ach Melancholy old pains in the Head Melancholy the Gout Gout Sciatica and Sciatica all sorts of Dropsies Poison and against all cold diseases that he hard to cure and will not yield to any medicine But it ought not to be given to any body to be taken inwardly but from a skilful hand and with good advice and due preparation and correcting Galen adviseth not to give of this root in any medicine to be taken into the body but to be used only in outward applications Therefore Outwardly it is good
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
shortness of breath and taken with Sugar-candy it is a present remedy Alpinus further saith that the oyle thereof is so familiarly used by the Aegyptians in their meals as that they do seldom eat without it yet it breedeth many obstructions and the viscous nourishment of it turneth into Melancholy and other diseases It will not be improper here to add somewhat of the virtues of our Marsh-mallows both leaves seeds and roots wherein Culpepper falls too short It is the chiefest of all other Mallows and most effectual and is therefore called Dismalva being twice as good as any other The root being boyled in wine and drunk is good against the pain and grief of the Gravel and Stone Gravel Stone Bloody Flux Sciatica cough Tooth-ach the blood Flux the Sciatica the trembling and shaking of any member and for such as are troubled with Cramps and burstings Pliny writeth the same boyled in sweet new milk healeth the Cough and being boyled in some Vinegar and holden in the mouth it asswageth the pain in the Teeth The same being boyled in Wine or hony-water and bruised or pounded very small Green Wounds Tumors Swellings Wens Kernels Impostumes chaps of the fundament doth cure and heal new Wounds and doth dissolve and consume cold Tumors and Swellings Wens and hard kernels and Imposthumes behind the Ears and is good for the burning Imposthume of the Paps It doth soften ripen digest breaketh and covereth with skin old Imposthumes blastings and Windy Swellings Mother it cureth rifts and chaps of the Fundament and trembling of the sinews and sinewy parts the same being so prepared pounded with hogs-grease goose-grease and a little Turpentine and a Pessary or Mother suppository made thereof and put up doth mollifie and asswage Imposthumes and sores of the Mother and openeth the stoppings of the same The leaves are likewise used instead of common Mallows to loosen the belly gently and are very effectual in decoctions for Glisters to ease all pains in the body Pains in the body Stone to open the straight passages and make them slippery whereby the stone may descend the more easily out of the Reins and Kidneys and the bladder and to ease the great and torturing pains that come thereby the roots being boyled very well in water and after they be strained out the decoction being boiled again with Sugar to a just consistence and troches rowls or Lozinges made thereof is effectual against the diseases of the Breast Chest and Lungs as Coughs Hoarseness Wheefings and shortness of Breath Coughs hoarseness shortness of Breath Guts Bloody flux the roots and seeds of the Marsh-mallow boyled in Wine and Water is very effectual to be used by such as have any excoriation in the Guts or bloody flux by qualifying the violence of the sharp Cholerick fretting humors which are the cause thereof and by sliminess easing the pains and healing the soreness and in some sort staying the further erruption of blood Ruptures cramps Convulsions Kings Evil Chin cough It is very profitable for them that are troubled with Ruptures Cramps or Convulsions of the sinews and being boyled in White-wine it is profitable for the Impostumes of the Throat called the Kings-evill for kernels behind the Ears and swellings or Inflamations in Womens breast The dryed roots boyled in Milk and drunk are singularly good for the chin-Cough Hippocrates used to give the decoction of the roots or the juice thereof to drink to wounded persons who were ready to faint through loss of blood and applied the same mixed with Hony and Rozen unto the Wounds he gave also the decoction of the roots in Wine to those to drink that were hurt by bruises or Falls or by blows or stripes and to such who had any bone or member out of joint and to those who had any swelling pain or Ach in the muscles sinews or Arteries it is good also to be used in all Ulcers and sores that happen in any Cartilaginous place The muscilage of the roots and of Linseed and Fenegreek put together is of much use in pultisses oyntments and plaisters to mollifie hard tumors and the Inflamations of them and to ease pains in any part of the body The seed either green or dry mixed with Vinegar cleanseth the skin of Morphew and other discolourings thereof being bathed therewith either in the Sun or in a Hot-house or Stove Mandrake Kinds and Names THere is described by Authors both a Male and Female Mandrake and two of the Males-Mandrak It is called Mandragoras both in Latine and Greek and Dioscorides saith in his time called Circaea because Circe the great Witch or enchantresse used it as is thought in love-matters Descript 1. The more ordinary Male Mandrake Mandragoras mas vulgatior sendeth forth from a somewhat great and downright root in some but with one in other two three or four twines or branches divided a little below the head or top and divers small fibres besides blackish on the out side and whitish within having many large leaves lying on the ground greater then any Beete-leaves from the middle whereof rise up sundry pale green flowers of five round leaves a peece each standing on a small slender footstalk within a green five-leaved husk wherein afterwards is set the fruit being of the bigness of a reasonable Pippin and as yellow as Gold when it is through ripe with divers round whitish flat seeds in it of a heady or strong stuffing scent This is the true Description of the plant without other shape of Mans or Womans parts although some Cheats have made counterfeit forms thereof and have exposed them to publick view both in our own and other Countries but they are utterly deceitfull forgeries to cheat people of their mony Descript 2. Mandragoras mas alter another Male-Mandrake whose leaves were of a more grayish green colour and somewhat folded together herein differing from the former This Mr. Parkinson saith he saw in the Lord Wottons Garden at Canterbury when John Tradescant had the keeping of it but that it had never born any fruit Descript 3. The Female Mandrake Mandragoras foemineus hath many leaves lying on the ground but smaller narrower more crumpled and of a darker green colour then the Male like those of Lettice as saith Dioscorides The flowers also rise from among the leaves each on a slender footstalk as the former but of a blewish purple colour the fruit is much lesse then those of the Male but round like them of a paler yellow colour when they are ripe and of a more pleasing and lesse heady-scent having in them such like seed as the Male but smaller and blacker the root is also like the former blackish without and white within neer unto the same form parted into sometimes more and sometimes fewer branches Place They grow in Woods and shadowy places and the Female by Rivers-sides in diverse Countries beyond the Alps but not naturally on this side thereof as in Greece Candy Isles
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
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
of this syrrup in a Morning in a small draught of the decoction of the same Roots is sufficient for a dose the whole Roots preserved either in Hony or Sugar is effectual for all the same purposes but the green Roots preserved are better then the dryed Roots which are first steeped and then preserved The Roots Bruised and boyled in Wine and applied to the Cods and Stones that are swelled dissolveth the Tumor Cods Stones Tumors and easeth the pains It likewise mollifieth hard Tumors in any part of the body Sweet-Rush Names IT is also called Camells-hay in Latine it is called Juneus odoratus and Schaenanthos and corruptly Squinanthum and Squinant Kinds and Description There are found two kinds hereof a finer and a Course or the true and bastard kind Descript 1. The finer sweet smelling Rush called in Latine Juncus odoratus Tenuior This hath many tuffts or heads of long Rush-like leaves thick set together one compassing another at the bottom and shooting forth upwards the outermost whereof are bigger or grosser then those that grow within which are a foot long and better small round and stiff or hard and much smaller from a little above the bottom of them then any of our Rushes of a quick and spicy tast somwhat pleasant and of a fine sweet scent It beareth in its natural soyl divers strong round hard jointed stalks having divers short brownish or purplish husks at the tops containing within them mossy whitish short threds or hairs wherein lyeth a chaffy seed the Root is stringgy full of long fibres and very hard Descript 2. Juncus odoratus Crassior The grosser sweet smelling Rush This groweth in the same manner as the former doth but is greater in every part of it and hath lesse smell aswel as lesse tast whereby it seemeth to be a kind of it self that groweth so great in the natural aswel as forreign parts or by growing in moister places cometh to be the larger Place and Time They grow naturally in Arabia Syria Mesopotamia and all those Eastern Countries as also in some places of Africa It cometh not to flowring in those colder Countries but in those hotter places it flowreth in the Summer time Government and Vertues This is a plant of Venus of a moderate temperature the Root is accounted to be somewhat astringent and is effectual for those that have a loathing in their stomack to their Meat it provokes Urine Loathing Stomack Vrine and Womens Courses Womens courses discusseth all Swellings and Wind swellings Wind it gently cutteth and breaketh Humors and digesteth them and looseneth the Breathing places of the Veines Humors Veins The decoction of the flowers being drunk as Dioscorides saith stayeth spitting of Blood and is good for the griefs of the Stomack Lungs Liver Lungs Liver and Reins a dram of the Root taken with the like quantity of Pepper every Morning fasting for certain dayes together is a very good remedy for those that have the Dropsie Reines Dropsie and for Convulsions or Cramps the decoction thereof is profitable for Women to sit in that are troubled with the Mother Cramps Convulsions mother it openeth their Obstructions Obstructions digesteth Crudities expelleth Corrupt humors cutteth tough Flegm Crudities Corrupt humors Tough Flegm and consumeth congealed matter in the Body and therefore it is of excellent use for the stopping of Urine Matter congealed Vrine and Womens Courses taken either in drink or by fomentation allayeth the inflamations of the Liver Courses inflamations Liver Stomack and body the Roots do bind more and the flowers are more hot but there is some Astriction in all the parts thereof and therefore is very profitably mixed with those things that stay Bleeding it is used to be boyled in the broth of a Chicken to ease the pains of the Womb that Women feel after Child-bearing The powder thereof is singular good for all Sores stomack bleeding Womb Sore of the Mouth and for all creeping Ulcers Mouth Vlcers and taken with Wine and Vinegar it is very effectual for those that have an Ulcer in their Stomack if the Stomack or Belly be fomented with the decoction thereof it taketh away all Inflamations therein and easeth the pains Rhubarb Kinds and Names THe Rha or Rubarbe both true and Bastard are all accompted and numbred amongst the Kinds of Docks so is our Garden Dock or that called Patience or Moncks Rubarbe so is also the Rha-pontick I shall give you 5 or 6 kinds of these plants the true China and oriental the Bastard and such sorts as grow in England Descript 1. Garden-Patience or Moncks Rhubarb the Latine Appellation is Lapathum sativum sive Patientia This is a Dock yet beareth the name of Rubarb because of some small purging quality it is endowed with it groweth up with large tall stalks set with somewhat broud and long fair green leaves not dented at all the tops of the stalks are divided into small branches bearing reddish or purplish flowers and three square seed like unto other Docks the Root is long great and yellow like unto the Wild-Docks but a little redder Descript 2. Common great round leafed Dock or Bastard Rubarbe It is called in Latine Hippolapathum rotundifolium vulgare This hath divers large round thin yellowish green leaves a little waved about the edges every one standing on a long brownish footstalk from among which riseth up a stalk about two foot high with some such leaves thereon as grow below but smaller at the top whereof stand in a long spike many small brownish flowers which turn into hard three-square shining-brown seed like unto the Garden-Dock or Patience the Root is greater then that of Patience having many strings or branches thereat yellow on the outside and somewhat pale yellow within with some discoloured Veins therein especially when it is dry Descript 3. True Rubarbe or Rubarbe of Pontus or English Rubarbe called Hippolapathum maximum rotundifolium exoticum sive Rhaponticum Thracium vel Rubarbarum verum This springeth up with a great round brownish head rising from the middle or sides of the Root which openeth it self into sundry leaves one after another very much crumpled or folded together at the first and brownish but afterward spreadeth it self and becometh smooth very large and almost round every one standing on a brownish stalk of the thickness of a mans thumb when they are grown to their fulness and most of them two foot and more in length especially in any moist or good ground and the stalk of the leaf also from the bottom thereof next unto the Root unto the leaf it self being in length about two foot or more of a sad or dark green colour of a fine tart or sowrish taste much more pleasant then the Garden or Woodsorrel from among these riseth up sometimes but not every year a strong thick stalk with such round leaves as grow below but smaller at every joint up to the top
Bryar-ball is often used being made into powder and drunk to break the stone to provoke Urine and to ease and help the Chollick Whites Stone Vrine Chollick In the middle of these balls are often found certain white worms which being dryed and made into powder and some of it drunk is found by long experience of many to kill and drive forth the worms of the belly Rice Descript THis grain or Corn riseth up with a stronger stalk than wheat about a yard high with sundry joynts and a large thick leaf at each of them like unto the Reed at the top it beareth a spiked tuft spread into branches whose blooming is said to be purplish with the seed standing severally on them inclosed in a hard brown straked husk and an Arm at the head of every one of them which being hulled is very white of the bigness almost of wheat Cornes blunt at both ends Names Rice is called in latine Oriza and the Italians call it Rizo the French Rys Place and Time This grain originally was brought out of the East-Indies where in many places it yieldeth two Crops in a year being the chiefest Corn they live upon and not with them onely but through all Aethiopia and Africa and from thence hath been brought into Syria Aegypt Italy c. It delighteth to grow in moist grounds and is a Summer Corn ripe about the middle of Autumn Government and Vertues It is a Solar grain The physical use thereof is chiefly to stay the Lasks and Fluxes of the stomach and belly especially if it be a little parched before it be used and steel quenched in the milk wherein it is boyled being somewhat binding and drying It is thought also to increase seed Lasks Fluxes increase Seed being boyled in milk and some sugar and Cinnamon put thereunto The flower of Ryce is of the same property and is sometimes also put into Cataplasmes that are applyed to repell humours from flowing or falling to the place and is also conveniently applyed to womens breasts Repell humors Inflamations in womens breasts to stay Inflamations therein in the beginning thereof Spanish Safron Kinds and Names I shall describe severally the sorts hereof and therein set down their names Descript 1. The manured Spanish or bastard Safron called in Latine Cnicus sive Carthamus sativus This hath sundry large leaves lying next the ground without any pricks or with very few white ones at the corners of the leaves and divisions among which riseth a strong round stalk three or four foot high branching it self up to the top bearing shorter leaves sharp-pointed and prickly at the edges and at their ends a great open scaly head out of which shoot forth many gold yellow threads of a most orient and shining colour which being gathered in a dry warm time and kept dry will abide in the same delicate colour which it bare when it was fresh for a long time the seed when it cometh to maturity is white and hard somewhat long and round and a little cornered the root is long white and woody perishing yearly after seed time Descript 2. Wild or bastard Safron of Candy Cnicus alter Creticus This hath a thick and long black root from which riseth up one streight round stalk half a cubit high set here and there with long sharp-pointed leaves thick set with prickles at the dents of the edges at the top whereof standeth a scaly head compassed with prickly leaves of the bigness of the Atractylis or distaff-thistle out of which break forth divers thick yellow Safron-like threads thrust thick together a fier which the seed groweth therein being white and as big as the greater Centory-seed Descript 3. Clusius his everliving bastard Safron Cnicus alter perennis Clusâ—i This groweth up with divers hard strong and round stalks without any branches at all from them to the height of three or four foot bearing thereon at several places somewhat large and long leaves dented about the edges of a sad or dusky green colour at the top of every stalk standeth one great close hard scaly head but not prickly at all not so great as the other bastard-Safron never opening the scales of the head as that doth from the middle whereof cometh divers threads yet nothing so many as in the other of a sad blewish ash colour and whitish at the bottom of them the seed which lyeth among the down in those heads is greater than of the other thick and short but not white and in lesser quantity than it The Roots run down deep into the ground and being there increased do run and spread themselves taking up a great deal of room Place and Time The first is generally sown in Spain Italy and other places for the especial use thereof The second Alpinus saith was brought out of Candy the last groweth wild in Spain aswel about Sevil as Cordula and in several other places as Clusius saith These kinds of Safron are called both in Greek and Latine Cnicus and Cnecus and in Apothecaries shops Carthamus of some also Crocus Saracenicus the Arabians call it Kartan the Italians Saffarano Sarasenisco the Spaniards Alacor and Acafran Salvia the Germans call it wilder Safron the French Safron-bastard and graine de Peroquets because they use to feed Parrots with the seed in English wild Safron Bastard-Safron Spanish Safron and Catalonia Safron Government and Virtues These are all Solar the flowers of the first Spanish Safron are much used in Spain and other places to be put into their broths and meats they are also of great use in dying silk into a kind of a Carnation-colour the seed is chiefly used in physick or rather the kernels within the seed which beaten and the emulsion thereof taken in honyed water or the broth of a Pullet and taken fasting doth open the body and purgeth watry and Phlegmatick humours Phlegm Watry humours Chollick Dropsie both upwards and downwards which it also performeth if the emulsion thereof be given in a Glyster and thereby helpeth the Chollick and dropsie and those other diseases that proceed from those humours Being made into a lohoch or licking Electuary with Sugar and honey and a few Almonds and Pine-kernels it wonderfully cleanseth the breast and lungs of phlegm sticking thereon causing it to be spit forth Phlegm Breast Lungs Sperm Voice cleared it clears the voice and increaseth seed by the often use of it but it doth somewhat trouble the stomach and therefore some stomachichal helpers are to be used with it As Anniseed Galanga Mastich or if need be of more forceable Cardamoms Ginger Salgem a dram of the flowers in powder taken in Hydromel or honyed water or in Barley-water helpeth the Jaundise Jaundise a dram of the pulp of the seed taken with an ounce of Syrup of wormwood doth the like also the Confection made of the seeds of it called in Shops Diacarthamum is an especial good medicine to purge Choler and flegm as also to clear and
they are green and less when they are dry yet the decoction of them or the Infusion of them in broth although dryed and taken whole worketh effectually which Fuschius denyeth and affirmeth that they bind rather they serve to cool any intemperate heat of the Stomach or liver and therefore are good in hot Agues and to purge choler whereof they come Mathiolus saith that ten drams or twelve at the most of the pulp of Sebestens taken from the skins and stones worketh aswel and to as good purpose as the pulp of Cassia Fistula They are very effectual also to lenifie the hoarsness and roughness of the throat they help the Cough and wheasing of the Lungs Cough Wheasing Lungs and distillations upon them by lenifying of the passages and causing much phlegm to be avoided They also give ease to such as are troubled with pains in their Sides Pains in the Sides Sharpness of Vrine Choler Worms and marvelously help those that are troubled with heat in their Urine and sharpness thereof proceeding from Choler or Salt phlegm they also drive forth the long worms of the belly There is a kind of Birdlime made of these fruits by boyling them a little in water to take away the skins and stones and afterwards boyling them more to a Consistence the which as saith Mathiolus was used at Venice to catch Birds but Alpinus saith they use it in Aegypt as a plaister to dissolve hard tumors or swellings Sena or Purging Sene. Kinds THere are two sorts of this purging Sena-tree differing very little between themselves as also three or four bastard-sorts more churlish than the other in working Descript 1. Sene of Alexandria Sena Alexandrina This Sene groweth not above a Cubit high with slender branches set with many leavs together on a rib somewhat like unto Liquorish being narrow and pointed which being dryed and brought over unto us if they be fresh will smell very like unto fresh new-made Hay The flowers stand at the tops of the branches one above another being as Mathiolus saith of a yellow colour like to the flowers of Coleworts after which come crooked thin husks fashioned somewhat like an half-moon in the middle part whereof grow flat seeds like unto Grape-kernels but of a blackish green colour and somewhat flat the whole Plant perisheth every year Descript 2. The Sene of Italy Sena Italica This Sena differeth in no other thing from the former but in the form of the leaves which are not so narrow-pointed but broader and rounder which difference is plainly to be discerned by comparing the leaves of that Sena which cometh from Alexandria with that which groweth in Italy Place and Time The first groweth in Arabia Felix and in Syria and is brought to Alexandria in Egypt as other things are which from thence is transported unto all other Countreys The other Mathiolus saith was in his time frequently sown in the Duke of Florence his Dominion in Italy Government and Virtues These are Plants of Mercury the leaves of Sene howsoever used are a safe and gentle purger aswel made into powder and the weight of a dram thereof taken in wine or ale or broth fasting as the Infusion of half an ounce in wine or ale for a night or the decoction of half an ounce or if need be of six drams with some other herbs or roots but because they are somewhat windy a few Anniseeds or Fennel-seeds and a little Ginger is to be added unto them to correct that evil quality And then they purge melancholy Choler and phlegm Melancholy Choler Flegm from the head and brain the lungs and heart the liver and Spleen Head and Brain Lungs Heart and Liver Spleen Stomach cleansing all those parts of such evil humours as by possessing them are the causes of those diseases incident unto them and comforting the Stomach especially if some cordial or stomachical helper be put into it Mesnes saith it hurteth the stomach but Monardus and Mathiolus deny it can do so in regard that Sena hath somewhat a bitter taste partaking of heat and dryness all which qualities are known rather to strengthen the stomach than to trouble or weaken it it strentheneth the senses both of sight and hearing and procureth mirth by taking away that evil humor Sight Hearing Myrth Obstructions Bowels which was the inward cause of sadness in the mind opening the obstructions of the bowels and causing a fresh and lively habit in the body prolonging youth and keeping back old age divers things are added hereunto to quicken the working hereof and to make it the more effectual As Rubarb Agarick Cassia Fistula Dracon Syrrup of Roses c. according as the nature of the disease age strength and necessity of the Patient do require Serapio saith it wonderfully helpeth such as are distracted of their senses by the extremity of fits in Agues or other diseases which makes them rave Raving idle talking Falling-Sickness Headach Palsyâ— Lowsie-Evil or talk idly The Epilepsie or the falling-sickness head-ach Palsie the Lowsie Evil all sorts of Itches Scabs Wheals or Pushes Sena is a good-Ingredient to put into a Bag for purging Ale to be taken in the Spring of the year not only for the forementioned diseases but to cleanse the bloud from all sharp humours mixed or running therewith purging-Prunes and purging-Currans are made herewith by boyling Sena and some opening herbs or roots with some Anniseed Fennel-seed Cynamon Ginger and Cloves some of these or all of them a little quantity and according to the proportion of the Prunes or Currans being set to stew with the decoction of the Sena and the other things above specified this doth open the body and purge the humours above-specified But because the Decoction of Sena is too unpleasant to weak and render stomachs the Infusion thereof for a night in warm Embers is much less offensive but no less purging In that Infusion while it is warm you may dissolve some Manna or put into it some Syrrup of Roses and so take it Cassia Fistula may be drawn with the Decoction of Sena corrected as aforesaid and so given of it self or made into a bole with Rubarb powdered or with the powder of Sene leaves and a little Anniseeds and Fennel-seeds together The Lye wherein Sene and Camomile-flowers have been boyled is good to comfort and strengthen a weak brain Brains Sight Hearing Sinews shrunk Cold Cramps Itch. as also the sight and hearing if the head be washed therewith The same lye is also profitable for Sinews that are shrunk or stiff with cold or Cramps to warm comfort and extend them and to cleanse the body of the Itch being washed therewith Seasamum Names Descript IT is called the oyly purging pulse Sesamum and Sesama in Latine Upon the first springing up of this Plant from the seed it riseth up with four long small and somewhat broad leaves between which come forth others that when they are full grown are as large
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
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