it abates the redness of the face and nose caused by drinking or otherwise being given with Raisins as Wormseed is to Children it cleanseth the Matrix and so it doth the fume being received mixed with Rozin Bistort or Snakeweed Bistorta Form THis Herb hath a thick short knobbed root blackish without and reddish within crooked or wreathed together of a harsh astringent taste with divers blackish fibres thereon from whence ariseth divers leaves upon long foot stalks much like a dock leaf a little pointed at the ends of a blueish green on the upper side and of an Ash colour gray and a little purplish underneath having many veins therein the stalks are small and slender about half a yard high growing without leaves which beareth a spiky head of pale flesh coloured flowers which produceth small seed like unto Sorrel seed but greater Names It is called Bistorta and Serpentaria in English Bistort and Snakeweed Places and Time It grows in shadowy places at the foot of Hills in moist Grounds and Meadows I have found it in the Meadows by Wickomb in Buckinghamshire It flowers in May and the seed is ripe in July Nature and Vertues It is hot and dry in the third degree and astringent it is good against the bitings of Snakes and Serpents from whence it got its name and the poison of Toads Spiders and other venomous Creatures if the place be washed with the distilled water of the Roots and leaves It stayes all Fluxes cures inward Bleeding and Spitting of Blood and Vomiting the powder of the root being taken in Wine or the Decoction being drunk the juyce is good against the Polipus and other Sores of the Nose both the Leaves and Roots resist poison The root in powder taken in drink the quantity of a dram at a time expells the venome of the Plague small Pox Measels Purples and other Infectious Diseases driving it out by seating The Root in powder or the Decoction thereof being drunk helps Ruptures and Bruises dissolving congealed Blood The Decoction in Wine hindreth Abortion the leaves kill Worms in Children and helps them that cannot hold their Water if some juyce of Plantain be added thereto and outwardly applyed it helps the running of the Reins A dram of the root in powder taken in the water thereof wherein some Steel hath been quenched is essectual for the same the body being first purged The decoction of the whole plant is good for Wounds or Sores the decoction of the roots in water with some Pomegranate Pills and Flowers is a good injection to reduce the Matrix to its right place and stop the overflowing of the Courses the Roots will keep good a year or two The Dose in powder is from a Scruple to a Dram in decoction from one dram to two or three which may be made in posset drink bruising the root onely ☞ See more of this in Adam in Eden by W. Coles Blackthorn or Sloebush Spinus THe Black Thorn is very well known to every boy for its Sloes so that it needs no further description Names It is called in Latine Spinus in English Black Thorn and the Sloe Tree Place and Time They grow plentifully in Hedge-rowes in most places of this Land they flower usually in March if the Spring be forward yet the Sloes are not ripe till October Frosts bite them Nature and Vertues Both the Sloe Tree and Fruit is cooling drying and the Sloes howsoever used are effectual against Lasks Looseness and Fluxes of Blood either in men or women The decoction of the bark of the root performeth the like effects and caseth pains in the Sides Bowells and Guts that come by overmuch Scowring or Looseness the Conserve hath the same effect the distilled water of the Flowers steeped one night in Sack and drawn therefrom in a body of glass easeth gnawings in the Stomach Sides and Bowels to drink a small quantity when they are troubled therewith Sloes being stamped and tunned up in an earthen pot with new Ale and so drunk helps pains in the Breast and the decoction of the Bark is good against pissing in bed The distilled water of the green Sloes and Flowers as also the decoction of the green leaves is good to wash a sore Mouth or Throat and to stay distillations of Rheume into the eyes and to case hot pains of the Head the Forehead and Temples being bathed therewith ☞ See more of this in the Art of Simpling written by W. Coles Blites Blitue THere are two kindes of Blites white and red the white groweth up two or three foot the leaves are somewhat like Beets but smaller rounder and of a whitish green colour the Flowers grow on the tops in long tufts or clusters wherein is contained a small round seed the roots is fibrous Names It is called in Latine Blitus and Blitum in English Blite and Blites Place and Time Both sorts are found wilde in many places of this Land and are also nourished in some Gardens they slourish all Summer seeds about August or September and continues green all Winter Quality and Vertues Blites are cold and moist in the second degree under the dominion of Venus their Physical use is to restrain Fluxes of Blood other in man or woman the red stay the Reds and the white the Whites in women The white Blite is proved a delightful bait to Fishes as Anglers say Bloodwort Vide Docks Borrage Borrago THe Garden Borrage is so well known it needs no Description Borrago is the Latine name thereof Place and Time It grows plentifully in Gardens in most places of this Land and flowers in July and August Quality and Vertues Borrage is one of Jupiters Cordials hot and moist in the first degree all parts of it are cordial and do expel Sadness and Melancholly it cleanseth the Blood and is effectual in putrid and pestilential Feavers to defend the Heart The juyce made into a Syrrup is good for the same purpose and cleanseth the Blood and tempers the heat thereof the conserve of the Flowers is good for the same purposes and is a good Cordial for such as are in Consumptions it comforts the Heart and Spirits and is therefore good for those that are troubled with Swoonings and Passions of the heart The distilled water is effectual for the same purposes and helps Inflammations and redness of the Eyes they being washed therewith The Herb in Summer being boiled with some other Sallet Herbs is an excellent Sallet and grateful to the Stomach being eaten with Butter and Vinegar The Bramble Bush Rubus I Shall not need describe this Bush if you go by a Hedge it will be acquainted with you if it can lay hold of your cloathes Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Batus in Latine Rubus and Sentis of some Cynosbatus in English Bramble and Black-berry-bush the fruit Black-berries which are called in shops Mora Bati Place and Time It is a companion for every hedge almost most it flowers in July
effectual for inward and outward bruises falls and blows to disperse the congealed blood and take away the pains and black and blue marks that abide after the hurt and the distilled water of the whole herb cleanseth the skin from Morphew Freckles and Spats making it fair and smooth Sampire Feniculum marinum ROck Sampire springeth up with a tender green stalk Description about half a yard high or two foot at the most branching forth almost from the bottom set with many thick almost round and somewhat long leaves of deep green colour three together and sometimes more on a stalk full of sap and of a pleasant hot or spicy taste at the tops of the stalks and branches stand Umbels of white flowers after which come large seed somewhat like Fennel seed but bigger The root is great white and long of a pleasant smell and taste and abideth many years Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Feniculum Marinum and in Shops Creta marina in English Sampire and Sea Fennel Place and Time The Cliffts in the Isle of Wight abound with it where it is incredibly dangerous to gather yet many adventure it though they buy their sauce with the price of their lives It groweth also about the Rocky Cliffts upon the Sea coast in most parts of England It flourisheth in May and June and is fittest to be gathered in the beginning of August It flowers and seeds in August Nature and Vertues Sampire is of a cleansing faculty and is hot and dry about the second degree and herb attributed to the influence of Jupiter Pickled Sampire is an excellent sauce for digestion of meats it breaks the Stone and expells Gravel out of the Reins and Bladder and provokes Vrine and womens Courses The decoction of the leaves seeds and roots in wine being drunk helps ill digestion and opens obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and of the Entrails which are the causes of most diseases it is grateful both to the taste and stoâ—◠〈◊〉 and helps to whet a dull appetite by the saltness and spiciness that is in it The way to preserve it in pickle is to boil it in water till it be tender and then pickle it up in a Barrel with a liquor made of Vinegar Water and Salt Saunders Santalum THere are three sorts of this plant brought unto us Kindes and Names viz. Santalum Rubrum Red Saunders Santalum Album or white Saunders and Santalum Citrinum or Flavum yellow Saunders they are all brought unto us from the East Indies where they naturally grow about the River Ganges and in the Isle of Timor and provinces adjacent Nature and Vertues Of all these three kindes of Saunders the yellow is the best the next is the white the red is least in use they are Solar Plants yet by temperature cold and dry in the second degree the red is more cooling and binding they open and cool the Liver and ease pain of the Head and are good to strengthen and revive the Spirits for which purpose they are used in Jellies Sauces and Broths c. they are likewise good in hot burning diseases as Fevers and such like The red Saunders applyed to Maids or Womens great Breasts mixed with the juyce of Purslain abateth their greatness and represseth their growing too big it is likewise effectual to stanch Blood at the Nose or other place being taken in red Wine and is used to slay defluctions of thin Rheume from the head and to cool and temper the heat in hot Agues hot Gouts and Insflammations In cordial medicines the white and yellow Saunders are most effectual by reason of their sweetness they help faintings of the Heart and weak Stomachs caused by heat they divert Melancholly and procure Mirth they stay the spermatical flux in man or woman The powder taken in a rear Egge or mixed with other things for that purpose or being infused in red Wine all night in Balneo or hot Embers and the Wing strained and drunk morning and evening for all inflammations it is very effectual being mixed with the juyce of Housleek Nightshade or Purslain outwardly they are good in Fomentations and Epithems against the intemperate heat of the Liver and being applyed with Rose water to the Temples they ease pains of the Head and stay the flowing of humours into the Eyes Sanile Sanicula SAnicle springeth up with many leaves of a middle size Description deeply cut or divided into five or six parts and some of them cut also sometimes standing upon brownish foot stalks about a handful high somewhat like the leaves of Crow-foot or the broadest sort of Anemonies finely dented about the edges smooth and of a dark green shining colour and sometimes reddish about the brims amongst which rise up small round green stalks without any joynt or leaf but at the top where it brancheth into flowers having a leaf divided into three or four parts at that joynt with the flowers which are small and white growing out of small round greenish yellow heads standing on a tuft together which afterwards contains small round burry seeds sticking unto any thing like the seeds of Cleavers The root consists of many black strings set together at a little long head which abideth with the green leaves all the winter Names It is called in Latine Sanicula from its efficacy in healing Wounds and by Lobel Diapensia in English Sanicle There is a sort called Pinguicula Eboracensis Butter-wort and Butter-root because of the oyliness of the leaf Place and Time It grows in woody shadowy places and under hedges in many places of this Land it flowers in July and the seed is ripe soon after nature and Vertues Sanicle is hot and dry in the second degree bitter in taste and somewhat astringent Culpepper ascribes it to Venus but I judge Mercury hath the greater influence upon it but the Sun most of all It is an excellent herb for any infirmity of the Lungs and is a singular good wound herb speedily healing all green Wounds and also Vlcers Imposthumes and bleeding inwardly and it dissipateth and represseth Tumors in any part of the Body if the decoction or juyce be taken or the powder in drink and apply the juyce outwardly The decoction of the leaves and root with a little honey added to it heals putrid and malignant Vlcers in the Mouth Throat and Privities by gargling and washing them therewith it helps to stay womens Courses and and all other Fluxes of blood and Lasks of the Belly ulcerations of the Kidneys pains in the Bowels and the running of the Reins being boiled in wine or water and drunk it is effectual to heal Burstings or Ruptures either inwardly or outwardly as well as any of the Consounds or other vulnerary herb whatsoever Of it also may be made an oyntment good for obstructions of the Liver and a syrrup or conserve for the Lungs Sauce alone or Jack by the Hedge THis herb as well as Wood-Sage is by some
and evening with a little milk against the heat of the Vrine and therefore is effectual in virulent Gonorrhea's it cleanseth foul Vlcers in the reins and bladder dissolves the stone in the reins kidneyes and bladder opens the uritory passages and provokes Vrine and helps those that make foul or bloudy Vrine the decoction of the fruit being taken in wine or water it likewise opens the liver and gall and therefore is good for the yellow Jaundies Angelica THere is both garden Angelica Description and wilde Angelica some also reckon up a water kinde it groweth up with great hollow stalks four or five foot high having broad divided leaves of a pale green colour at the top cometh forth large umbells of white flowers after which succeedeth flat round seeds somewhat whitish the root perisheth every year if it be suffered to seed not else Names Place and Time It 's common name with us both for Latine and English is Angelica it grows common in our Gardens and wilde likewise in many places flowers about July and the seed is ripe soon after Temperature and Vertues It is an herb of the Sun hot and dry almost to the third degree it opens and digesteth it is a great cordial for the heart in defending it from poison a dram thereof in powder being taken in the distilled water of the same plant and sweat upon it it heats and comforts the Blood and Spirits and is good against the Plague Pestilence and other infections the root being taken green helps such as are troubled with stuffings in their Stomack it also abates lust the water thereof and some of the root in powder helps cold and winde the Collick and Strangury Coughs Ptisick and other diseases of the Lungs and Breast it provokes womens Courses and helps to expell the after-birth it likewise provokes Vrine and helps the Chollick and Strangury The decoction helps inward bruises discusseth congealed blood it helps digestion is an excellent remedy for a Surfeit The decoction helps an Ague at two or three times taking if it be drunk and sweat upon before the fit comes The roots being taken in powder and made into a plaister with a little pitch helps the bitings of venomous creatures and mad dogs the water or juyce being dropped into the eyes and ears helps dimness of sight and 〈◊〉 The Apple-Tree Pomus IT is needless to describe the Apple trees nor reckon up their several kindes many sorts of them being generally known to almost every boy and is out of my purpose here many of them are early ripe in Summer others more late towards Winter which are most durable to keep some of them are sweet fragrant and odoriferous others more sharp The Names The tree is called in Latine Pomus and malus the fruit Pomum and malum The English name you have already Places and Time They grow wilde in the hedge rows and Woods in many places of this Land but the best are manured in Orchards they flower in April the fruit of the latest is ripe in October which is the John Apple Temperature and Vertues There is a great difference in Apples in regard there are both sweet sowre and bitter they are generally held to be cold and moist but the sweet and bitter do somewhat incline to heat but to omit the general use which is made of Apples both in City and Countrey they are effectual in hot diseases cooling the stomack and heart The Apple called a Pomewater being roasted and the pulp laboured in fair water till it be like that we call Lambs-wool and drunk going to bed helpeth such as are troubled with an involuntary passage of the seed either in dreams or otherwise and is also effectual for such as piss by drops Rotten apples are good to be applyed to the eyes which are blood-shotten or bruised by any stripe or stroke Apples expel melancholly humours and stir up mirth being roasted and eaten with rose water and sugar Cider and also Verjuyce do both singularly cool the stomack and is effectual in hot Agues and is good against casting and vomiting and the verjuyce being applyed to burnings or scaldings draweth out the fire and cools and heals the same Apricock-Tree Malus Armeniaca THis plant needs no description being very well known yet it is a tender plant in our cold Countreys for if a frost meet with the flowers or young fruit they are quickly gone Names It is called in Latine Malus Armeniaca the fruit Malum Armeniacum In English Apricocks Place and Time They are planted against walls in most Gentlemens Gardens and against the walls of houses too in many places They flower in March and the fruit is ripe about the latter end of July Temperature and Vertues This is one of Venus plums and is cold in the first degree and moist in the second the fruit is better to be eaten before meals then after because of their quick descension into the belly they cause other meats to descend the sooner There may an oyl be pressed out of the kernells of the stones which being taken in wine helpeth the Chollick and driveth forth the stone out of the reins and bladder helps pains in the ears hoarseness of the voice inflammations of the Piles Vlcers and the roughness of the tongue and throat The leaves I have proved effectual to dry up the corrupt matter of hot running scabs Archangel or Dead nettles Lamium THis herb is generally known Description it needs no description Names It 's called in Latine Lamium andVrtica mortua In English dead or blinde Nettle or Archangel Herbarists reckon up eight sorts hereof but I shall here mention onely three which are common and those are that with the white flower the red and the yellow Places and Time And these may be found under hedges old walls amongst rubbish by high wayes sides and in corners of Gardens which are not digged nor planted they flower about the Spring of the year and so continue all Summer Temperature and Vertues Archangel is hot and dry in the first degree bitter in taste under the dominion of Mars and it is good against Quartain Agues the flowers of the Archangel or the distilled waters stayeth the whites in women and the flowers of the red Archangel stayeth the reds The herb is effectual for Tumors or swellings of the Kings Evil in the throat to dissolve them being bruised with some Hogs Lard and applyed thereunto It also allayes the pains of the Gout or Sciatica and aches of the joynts being used in like manner it openeth obstructions and dissolveth the hardnesse of the Spleen by drinking the decoction of the herb in wine and applying the herb hot pultiswise to the Region of the Spleen it is a good repercussive in inflammations and stayeth the corroding of old Vlcers it cureth the rising up of the skin about the roots of the nails being applyed thereunto and is said to stanch bleeding at the nose the bruised herb being applyed to the nape of
ease pains of the Sides and being boiled in oyl and applyed outwardly they work the same effect the Keyes are good to be used in dyet drinks for the purposes aforesaid The decoction of the leaves in white Wine do help the Jaundies and break the Stone the seeds also the husks being taken off are good against Winde and provoke Vrine Aspe or Poplar Tree Populus I Shall not need to describe this Tree Descri ∣ ption you may know it well enough by the shaking of the leaves which will quiver and tremble though there be no winde and from thence comes a proverb to say when one is affrighted that he trembles like an Aspen leaf There is two kindes the white and black Poplar the black is most useful in Physick Names It is called Poplar Asp and Aspen Tree in Latine Populus Place and Time It groweth plentifully in our Land but in low and watry grounds the clammy buds thereof are gathered about the beginning of April to make the Oyntment called Vnguentum Populeon Temperature and Vertues The clammy substance of the black Poplar is hot and dry the white is of a watery warm nature and of a cleansing quality the Moon rules them both in Aries the first The oyntment made of this plant before spoke of is a fine cooler of Inflammations in any part of the body it temperates the heat of Wounds and is good to dry up milk in womens Breasts The juyce of the leaves of white Poplar being extracted and dropped into the Ears easeth pains of them and cures Vlcers in the Ears The seed drunk in Vinegar is held good against the Falling Sickness and the water that drops from hollow places of the black Poplar takes away Wheals Pushes Warts and other such breakings out in the body Avens Garyophillata THe Avens rise up from the root with many dark green leaves Descri ∣ ption winged and jagged about the edges the stalks rise about a foot high and are long and hairy and shoot forth leaves at every joynt which are not so long as the lower leaves but cut in on the edges into three parts or more on the tops of the branches sprout forth the flowers which are yellow and have five leaves like the flowers of Cinquefoil but they are larger when the flower is fallen it leaveth a small green head which after groweth to be rough and round and consisteth of many long purple greenish seeds which will stick to your cloathes the root hath many brownish fibres smelling almost like Cloves Names It is called in Latine Garyophillata from the scent of the Roots in English Avens and Herb Bennet Place and Time Avens delight to grow most in shadowy places and is to be found in many places under hedge sides They flower in May and June and the seed is ripe in July Quality and Vertues Avens is hot and dry of a purging quality a Plant of the Sun and a great comforter of the heart it is a good preservative against the Plague or any other poison it helps digestion warms a cold Stomach and opens the Liver and Spleen the roots thereof in the Spring being steeped in Wine and drunk thereof every morning fasting it also helpeth the Winde Chollick Fluxes and is good for such as are troubled with Ruptures The Decoction of the herb takes away spots in the face it being washed therewith the root may be dryed and kept in powder having the same vertue as the Decoction It expells crude humours from the Breast Belly and Stomach it dissolves congealed Blood and helps the spitting of Blood and heals inward Wounds and outward Wounds if they be bathed with the decoction thereof Assafoetida Vide Laserwort Balme Melissa BAlme groweth up with divers square green stalks Descri ∣ ption the leaves are dark green pointed at the ends and a little dented round about the edges having a fragrant smell the flowers are small and gaping of a pale Carnation colour the leaves and stalks dye every year but the root abides in the ground sprouting out fresh every Spring Names It is called in Latine Melissa and in English Balme Place and Time It groweth almost in every Countrey Housewifes Garden and flowers about August Nature and Vertues This is another Solar herb hot and dry in the second degree of some thinness of parts and 4 purging quality an herb appropriated to the Heart against the passions whereof it is an Antidote It maketh the heart merry strengthens the Spirits and is good against Swoonings and Faintings it drives away passions arising from Melancholly and burnt Phlegm the water thereof or rather a Conserve of the flowers strengthens the Brain helps Digestion and comforts a cold Stomach and is good against the Plague it provokes the Terms is good to sweeten a stinking Breath it is good in an Electuary for such as are troubled with difficulty of Breathing The Sirrup of Balm is good in Feavers strengthning the Heart and Stomach the juyce thereof with a little honey is good to clarifie the sight it is good to be used in baths to comfort the Joynts and Sinews and easeth pains of the Gout it is good against bitings of mad Dogs and stinging of Venemous Creatures In Oyls or Salves it is a good ingredient to heal green Wounds The Barberry-Tree Oxyacantha IT ariseth up with many slender stalks from the root Descri ∣ ption which grow sometimes to a great height and of an ordinary bigness the Bark is whitish in the outside and yellow next the wood it is full of prickly sharp thorns the flowers are yellow the fruit hangs in clusters upon a stalk or string and are red when they be ripe of a sowre taste the root is yellow Names The Latines call it Oxyacantha a term not well befitting it in English Barberries Place and Time It groweth plentifully in Gardens Orchards and Closes near dwelling houses where it hath been planted it hath been also found wilde in hedge-rowes but I believe some Ditcher planted it there to mend his hedges instead of Thorns They blossom in May and the fruit is ripe in September about the latter end or beginning of October Quality and Vertues Venus owns this plant whatever Culpepper sayes it is cold and moist in the second degree and of the fruit are made gallant cooling medicines both Conserves and Preserves the leaves beat like to Green sauce while they be young cools hot Stomachs and hot burning Agues procures appetite cools the Liver and helps Belchings so likewise doth the Conserve or Preserve of the Fruit it represseth Choller helps them that loath their meat by procuring an appetite it cools Inflammations of the mouth and throat the mouth being gargled with some of the Conserve dissolved in a little water and vinegar it stayeth Rheumes and Distillations and fastens the Gums and loose Teeth it stayes the immoderate Flux of Womens Courses kills Worms being taken with a little Southernwood and Sugar the decoction of the inner Bark is effectual against the
Vertues Broom is hot and dry in the second degree cleanseth and openeth purgeth phlegmatick and watry Humors is very good for the Dropsie and Green Sickness and for the Gout Sciatica and other pains of the Joynts helps the swellings of the Spleen provokes Vrine and thereby cleanseth the Reins Kidneyes and Bladder and breaketh the Stone the powder of the leaves and seeds taken in Wine cures the black Jaundies and a Conserve of the flowers is good against the Kings Evil the distilled water is good for the same The flowers made into an Oyntment with Hogs Grease cures pains in the Knees the swellings of the Kings Evil Winde and Stitches in the sides being applyed thereto and the bitings of venomous Creatures The Oyl of the Roots cleanseth the body from Freckles the pickled buds stir up an appetite to meat opens the Spleen and provokes Vrine the Broom Rape infused in Oyl and set in the Sun for certain dayes makes an oyl to take away Wheals and pushes from the face or any other part of the Body Buckshorn Plantain Herbastella IT groweth up at first with small long narrow green leaves like Grass Description the leaves that follow are gashed on each side like the snags of a Bucks Horn and when they are thorow grown they lie upon the ground round the root like a Star from which rise up divers stalks with spiky heads like common Plantain the root is small with divers fibres hanging thereto Names It 's called in Latine Cornu Cervinum Herb stella and Sanguinaria Place and Time It delights to grow in dry sandy Grounds and flowers in the Summer moneths the leaves keep green all the Winter Quality and Vertues It is cooling drying and astringent the decoction in Wine strengthneth the Reins and Back and cooleth the heat of the Reins and Kidneys wherefore it is good for those that are troubled with the Stone it helps the Bloody Flux and Lasks of the Belly and other bleeding helps the Chollick breaks the fits of Agues stayeth bleedings at the Nose and the decoction either in ale or wine stayeth the distillations of hot and sharp Rheumes from the Head to the Eyes it is a Plant under the dominion of Saturn Of Bugle Consolida media BUgle hath larger leaves then Self-heal Description but not much different some green on the upper side others more brownish somewhat hairy and dented about the edges the stalk is square and hairy about a foot high the leaves stand by couples and from about the middle of the stalk to the top stand the flowers which are blueish and some of an ash colour like those of ground Ivy the seeds are small round and blackish the roots like those of penny-royal Names It is called in Latine Consolida media Buglum and Bugula Place and Time It groweth in wet Copses and moist Fields and flowers from May to July the root abides many years Quality and Vertues It is temperately hot and dry and somewhat binding an herb of Venus it wonderfully cures Vlcers and Sores whether new or old the leaves being bruised and applyed the juyce made into a Lotion with honey and allome cures sores of the Mouth and Gums and all sores and ulcers of the privy parts The decoction in wine dissolves congealed blood and helps inward Bruises and Wounds and is a special herb in wound Drinks and for those that are Liver grown Take Bugle Scabious and Sanicle boil them in hogs grease till the herbs be dry then strain it and keep it for a singular oyntment for all sorts of hurts in the body Bugloss Buglossum THis needs no description it 's Latine name is Buglossum and for it's Vertues I shall refer you to Borrage they are both excellent cordial herbs under the dominion of Jupiter strengthners of the heart and lungs and breast An Electuary may be made of Bugloss roots for the Cough and to condensate and expectorate thin Phlegm and Rheumatick distillations upon the Lungs Vipers Bugloss Echium THis springeth up with many rough leaves lying on the ground Description the stalks are rough hard and prickly spotted like a Vipers skin the leaves long rough and hairy of a sad green the middle rib for the most part white the flowers grow in spiky heads on the tops of the stalks of a purple violet colour the seeds are blackish cornered like a Vipers head the root is woody but perisheth every Winter Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Latines Echium and Buglossum silvestre Viperinum Vipers Bugloss Place and Time It grows wilde in many places of this Land flowers and seeds about the middle of Summer Temperature and Vertues It is cold and dry yet the seeds and roots are good to expel Melancholly temper the Blood and allay hot fits of Agues procures milk in womens Breasts easeth pains of the Reins and Kidneys helps bitings of venomous creatures is effectual against poison and poisonous Herbs The distilled water being used inwardly or outwardly as occasion serves a syrrup may likewise be made thereof which is good to expel sadness and comfort the heart ☞ See further in The Art of Simpling by W. Coles Burnet Pimpinella THis small herb sendeth forth divers long winged leaves finely dented about the edges Description green on the upper side and grayish underneath set on each side with a middle rib the stalks rise about a foot high of a brown colour the flowers are small of a purplish colour the seed cornered the root small long and blackish with some fibres Names Some call it in Latine Pimpinella and Pampinula and Sanguisorba Place and Time It groweth wilde in most dry hilly grounds as all along the way almost between Gravesend and Rochester and is also nourished in Gardens it flowers in June and July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues Burnet is hot and dry in the second degree a plant of the Sun a great friend to the heart and principal members quickens the spirits and expells melancholly defends the heart from infection the juyce being taken in some proper drink and the party sweating thereupon It stops fluxes of Blood Scourings and the overflowings of womens Courses and the whites helps chollerick belchings of the Stomach and is a singular good wound herb and in Summer a little of this herb being put in a glass of Claret gives it a pleasing relish Burdock and Butter-burre Bardana BUtter-burre sendeth forth his flowers before the leaves like Coltsfoot Form which grow upon a thick stalk of a deep red colour they quickly fall away then come the leaves which grow bigger then the Burdock of a pale green colour above and hoary underneath the root is blackish without and white in the inside of a bitter taste Names The Burdock is called in shops Bardana and Lappa major the Butter-burre Petasites Place and Time They grow plentifully by Brooks Ditches and High-way sides delighting in good ground the flowers and burrs come forth in July and
drink it it will not curdle in the Stomach and some say a Cheese will not come if it be put into the milk or Runnet The distilled water is available for all the aforesaid purposes though more weakly but the Chymical Spirit drawn from the herb is most effectual Chollerick persons must abstain from Mint for much of it taken makes the Blood thin and turns it into choller The horse Mints are good to expell winde in the Stomach to help the Chollick and short windedness and is good to help nocturnal pollutions being applyed to the Cods Myrtles Myrtilli THis Outlandish plant cannot endure the Winter with us unless it be kept in pots within doors The Tree is called in Latine Myrtus and the berries Myrtilli Nature and Vertues The myrtle hath contrary qualities cold and earthy warm and thin powerfully binding and drying The dry leaves beaten and boiled in water and drunk is good against Cathars the Whites Vlcers and creeping Sores The berries and seed is good against passions of the Heart stingings of Serpents and venomous Creatures and the poison of Toadstools being drunk in Wine it helps a stinking Breath diseases of the Bladder and provokes Vrine The decoction is good for the falling down of the Fundament and the Piles being mixed with oyl of Roses and applyed it helps swelling of the Cods Imposthumes of the Fundament and St. Anthonies fire The decoction of the berries makes the Hair black and keeps it from falling cures sores of the Head and helps those that are Bursten The syrrup of Myrtles is good against the Cough and Vlcers of the Lungs And although I have not told you where this Tree grows because I doubt you will not go so far to fetch it you may have it near home at the Druggists and Apothecaries Myrobalanes MYrobalanes are an East Indian Fruit and are called in English by Mr. Parkinson purging Plums My Authour reckons up five kindes of them viz. Cytrina Chebula Bellerica Emblica Indica Nature and Vertues They are all cold in the first degree and dry in the second and do purge and also strengthen the Stomach The Citrine Myrobalanes purge Choller strengthen the Stomach Heart and Liver help such as have the Hemorrhoides and Piles they are good in Tertian Agues cause a good colour and hinder old Age the Chebule purge Phlegm quicken the brain and sight and strengthen the Stomach They are good in the Dropsie and for long continued Agues The Embellick and Bellerick purge Phlegm from the Stomach strengthens the Brain Joynts Heart and Liver helps passions of the Heart provokes Appetite allayes Thirst stayes Vomiting qualifies inward heat and allayes Choller and gives ease to those that have the Piles The Indies or Black Myrabolanes purge Melancholly and adust Choller and cause a good colour and are good against Quartain Agues the Leprosie and all Paralytical Diseases The Citrine are also often used in Cholleries with the juyce of Fennel or Rose water against Inflammations and flowing of humours to the Eyes and likewise in powder with Mastick or Rose water to dry and heal Vlcers Misleto Viscum I Think Misleto is so well known that its needless to describe it The Latines call it Viscus and Viscum and so is the Birdlime called that is made of the Berries The Misleto of the Oak is called Viscus Quercini and so of the rest Places and Time Misleto groweth plentifully upon Fruit Trees as Apples Pear Trees and Crab Trees in divers Counties of the Land sometimes on Ashes and Oaks but that of the Oak is most rare in England It flowers in the Spring and the Berries are ripe in October abiding on the branches all the Winter unless the Birds devour them Nature and Vertues Misleto is hot and dry in the third degree the leaves and berries do heat and dry and are of subtle parts and questionless participates of the nature of that Tree it grows upon as that which grows upon the Oak partakes of the nature of the Oak and therefore is ascribed to Jupiter and is the most effectual It is held to be very effectual for the curing of the Falling Sickness and is by some prescribed to be taken in Pills thus prepared ℞ Visci Quercini seeds and roots of Piony ana ʒi § Nutmeg Anniseeds ana ʒi § Sacchari Buglossati ʒvii make Pills thereof Mathiolus saith that the Misleto of the Chesnut Tree made into powder and given in drink cures the Falling Sickness Some attribute so great vertue unto it as they have called it Lignum sanctae Crucis and believe it to help the Falling Sickness Palsie and Apoplexy being onely hung about their Necks Tragus saith that the juyce of fresh Misleto dropped into the Ears of them that have Imposthumes in them easeth them and helps them in few dayes The Birdlime which is made of the Berries ripens and discusses Tumors and Imposthumes and mollifies hard knots and draweth forth both thick and thin Humors from the remote places of the Body digesting and separating them and being mixed with equal parts of Wax and Rozen it mollifieth the hardness of the Spleen being applyed thereunto Gerrard saith being taken inwardly it is mortal I never did prove any of it but onely the Birdlime upon Birds and I am sure that hath proved mortal to them Money-wort or Herb two pence Nummularia MOney-wort shooteth forth many long Description weak slender branches lying and running upon the ground with two leaves at each joynt equally opposite one to another almost as round as a Penny but that they are pointed a little at the ends smooth and of a yellowish green colour at the joynts with the leaves from the middle forward come forth sometimes one sometimes times two yellow flowers standing each upon a small foot stalk consisting of five narrow leaves pointed at the ends with some yellow threds in the middle after which come small round heads of seed the root is small and threddy Names It is called in Latine Nummularia and Serpentaria in English Two Penny Grass Herb Two-Pence and Money-wort Place and Time It grows by Ditches sides low Meadows and watry places flowers about June and July and the seed is ripe soon after Nature and Vertues Money-wort is an herb of Venus and cold drying and astringent The flowers and leaves are good to heal green Wounds speedily and for old spreading Vlclers especially if it be bruised and boiled in Sallet Oyl with some Rozen Wax and Turpentine added to it or Tents dipped in the juyce and put into the Wounds The juyce taken in Wine or the decoction thereof stayes the overflowing of Womens Courses and the Whites and also Lasks bloody Fluxes inward and outward Bleedings helps weakness of the Stomach that is subject to Vomiting being boiled in Wine and Honey and taken it cures inward Wounds and Vlcers of the Lungs and is a remedy against the Chin-Cough in Children Moonwort Lunaria IT riseth up with one dark Description green thick fat
the Worms in Children Onions being sliced and dipped in the juyce of Sorrel and given to those that have the Tertian Ague helpeth them in once or twice taking The seed stirreth up lust and increaseth natural seed A great Onion made hollow and the place filled up with good Treacle and well roasted under the Embers and then the outermost skin pulled off and then beaten together and applyed to a Plague Sore or putrid Vlcer is a sovereign remedy the juyce snussed up into the Nostrils purgeth the Head and helps the Leprosie and is good for scalding or burning and being used with Vinegar it takes away spots and blemishes in the skin and dropped into the ears it easeth the pains and noise in them The juyce mixed with the decoction of Penniroyal and a cloth wet therein and applyed easeth the Gout The juyce mixed with Honey causeth Hair to grow a bald Head being anointed therewith They help kibed Heels being reasted and applyed with Butter or Hogs Grease being applyed with Figs it helps to ripen Imposihumes and stamped with Vinegar and applyed they provoke the Hemorrhoides and Piles they are hurtful to Chollerick bodies and immoderately eaten especially raw they breed ill humours in the Stomach offend the Blood increase thirst dull the Sight and Memory and cause the Head-ache Orange Tree Aurantia I Shall not describe this fragrant Tree it being Outlandish yet may be seen in some English Gardens though it seldom comes to any perfection here Names They have been called Aurea mala Hesperidum and by divers Aurantia by Dodonaeus Anarantium and by Lobel Malum Aureum The flowers are called Napha and the Oyntment made thereofVnguentum ex Naphâ Nature and Vertues Oranges are not wholly of one temperature the rinde is hot in the first degree and dry in the second and the juyce is cold in the second degree and dry in the first and the sweeter are more hot then the sowre ones The peel is very good to warm a cold Stomach to break Winde and avoid cold Phlegm from thence and being condited or preserved they mend a stinking Breath help digestion and strengthen the Heart and Spirits The juyce and inner substance is good against Corruptions of the Air the Plague and other hot Fevers and is grateful to the Heart and Mouth of the Stomach and Strengthens the same it helps also wambling of the Gâ—â—mach heaviness and trembling of the Heart restraws Vomiting and loathing of meat and quencheth Thirst the seeds resist poison and are good to kill and expell Worms the yntment made of the flowers is good for a Cough and to expectorate raw Phlegm the Stomach being anointed with it The distilled water of the same flowers is good for perfumes being very odoriferous it is good also to drink against contagious diseases and helpeth cold infirmities of the Mother Orpine Telephium COmmon Orpine springeth up with divers round brittle stalks Description thick set with fat and fleshly leaves without any order and little or nothing dented of a pale green colour the flowers are white or whitish growing in tufts after which come small chaffy husks with seed like dust in them the roots consist of divers thick round white tuberous clogs not growing so big in some places as in others where it likes the ground better Names The Latines call it Telephium and Sempervivum sylvestre it is called also by divers other names amongst Authours too tedious to rehearse and in English Orpine and Live long Place and Time It is generally cherished in Gardens but groweth almost in every County of this Land in shadowy sides of Fields and Woods they slower in July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues Dioscorides and Galen say the true Telephium is hot and of a drying cleansing quality but that with us is cooling as Purslain and ascribed to the Moon by Culpepper The leaves of Orpine bruised and applyed to the Throat cureth the Quinzy which is an inflammation of the Throat and Gullet hindring breathing and swallowing it is seldom used inwardly with us yet Mr. Culpepper brags much of a sycrup of it for the Quinzy though not of experience But Tragus saith that in Germany the distilled water is used for excoriations and knawing of the Bowels and for Vlcers in the Lungs and Liver or other inward parts as also in the Matrix and stayeth sharpness of humours in the bloody Flux and other Fluxes of the Belly or in Wounds The root performeth the same effect It is used outwardly to cool Inflammations of Wounds and heal them and to heal scaldings and burnings the juyce beaten with Sallet Oyl and the place anointed therewith the leaf bruised and laid to a green Wound in the Hands or Legs healeth it The root helps Burstness and Ruptures ☞ See more of this in The Art of Simpling by W. Coles One Blade Unifolium THis plant springeth up with one leaf Description somewhat like the greatest leaf of Ivy but ribbed like the Plantain leaf this leaf doth alwayes spring singly out of the earth alone but when the stalk riseth up afterwards it hath two leaves upon his sides like the former at the top of the slender stalk cometh fine small white flowers after which succed many small red Berries The root is small and tender creeping far under the upper crust of the ground Names It s called Monophyllon which word is borrowed of the Greeks and in Latine Vnifolium in English One Blade or One Leaf Place and Time It groweth in Woods Pastures and shadowy places but is not very common to be found it flowers in May and the fruit is ripe in September Nature and Vertues One Blade is of a hot and dry temperature and is a singular Wound Herb especially in Wounds amongst the Nerves and Sinews half a dram of the root given in Wine and the Patient Sweating upon it is effectual against Poisons and Pestilential Diseases and the decoction of the Herb with Comphrey is good against Vlcers of the Kidneys and Entrails Orris or Flower de Luce. Iris alba ORris Description or the Common Flower de Luce hath long large flaggy leaves like a two-edged Sword amongst which spring up smooth and plain stalks half a yard long or longer bearing flowers towards the top composed of six leaves joyned together whereof three that stand upright are bent inward one towards another and in those leaves that hang downwards there are rough and hairy welts rising from the nether part of the leaf upward almost of a yellow colour The roots are long thick and knobby with many hairy threds thereat but being dry it is without them and white Names It is called in Latine Iris and Radix Marica in English Flower de Luce and Orris Place and Time They grow naturally in France Italy and those Countreys and are nourished in Gardens with us they flower about May and June and the seed is ripe in the end of August Nature and Vertues The green roots of Flower de
leaves which turn into leaves as small as dust the root is small and long growing deep into the ground the taste hereof is not perceivable at first but after a little while there may be perceived a somewhat astringent taste a little bitter and sharp withal but without any manifest heat Names This plant hath acquired several names according to the various opinions of Authours as Polygonum minus by Mathiolus and Castor durantes Herba Turca by Lobel but the most usual and known Latine name is Herniaria from Hernia a Rupture and in English Rupture-worb Place and Time It delights to grow in barren sandy and rocky grounds as upon the dry chalky and sandy grounds in Kent and elsewhere and flowers and flourishes in the four Summer Moneths which are spelled sine littera R. Nature and Vertues Rupture-wort is very drying binding closing and sasting Saturnine It s name speaks its Vertues that is to cure the disease called the Rupture or Burstness which is the falling down of the Guts into the Cods A dram of the herb in powder taken in wine for many dayes together or the decoction of the herb in Wine or the juyce or distilled water drunk in the same manner marvellously helps that Disease and being so taken it stayes Fluxes Vomiting and the Gonorrhea it helps the Strangury stopping of Vrine Stone or Gravel in the Reins or Bladder stitches in the Side griping pains in the Stomach or Belly and obstructions of the Liver and cures the yellow Jaundies and killeth Worins in Children it conglutinates Wound cheing outwardly applyed and helpeth to stay defluctions of Rheumes from the head to the eyes nose and teeth the temples and nape of the Neck being bathed with the decoction of the dryed herb or the green herb being bruised and bound thereto it dryes up the moisture of foul spreading and fistulous Vlcers and is good to be bruised and applyed to the place of a Rupture having a Truss bound thereunto Rice Oriza THis is an East-Indian grain and groweth up there much like the stalk of Wheat but in regard it groweth not with us I shall describe it no further but proceed to declare its vertues we having it plentifully brought hither by industrious Merchants Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines following them call it Oryza Nature and Vertues Rice is binding and drying temperate and not exceeding in heat or cold the pottage made thereof with milk and spiced with Sugar and Cynamon is pleasant and easie of digestion and is reputed to increase seed it is very useful to stay all Lasks or Fluxes being so eaten or beaten to powder and mixed with yolks of Eggs and fryed with fresh Butter and eat morning and evening and being so taken it helps the bloody Flux it is good to put in Cataplasms to repeli humors and being boiled in running Water and the face bathed therewith it takes away spots and pimples it is an excellent and wholesome food and in great estimation amongst the Indians though not so much in repute with us Perhaps because it is too cheap for the wanton rich and too dear for the pining poor c. Rye Secale THis Grain is well known in England more for food then Physick but the bread and leaven of it is good to ripen Imposthumes and Boils or other swellings Mathiolus saith that water wherein the Ashes of Rye straw hath been infused four and twenty hours heals chops of the hands and feet being washed therewith Meal of Rye put between a double cloth and moistned with Vinegar and heated in a pewter Dish over a Chafing dish of Coals ond applyed hot to the head easeth continual pains thereof Rye is more digesting then Wheat but it is windy and griping in the Bowels Saffron Crocus THe Chives of the Flower commonly called Saffron are generally well known so that a description is needless Names It s Latine names are Crocus and Crocum it is also termed Filius ante patrem because it putteth forth flowers before the leaves Place and Time It is plentifully manured in Fields in Essex and Cambridge-shire Saffron-Walden takes her name from its growing there it begins to flower in September and presently after the leaves shoot forth and abide green all the Winter dying again in April when it puts forth another Crop of Flowers which must be gathered as soon as it is blown or else it is lost so that Jack Presbyter for covetousness of the profit can reach his Sabbatarian Conscience to gather it on Sunday and so he can to do any thing else that redounds to his profit though it destroy his Brother Nature and Vertues Saffron is hot in the second degree and dry in the first of a little astringent quality it is an Herb of the Sun a great Cordial and comforter of the spirits it expells venome from the Heart strengthens the Stomach helps concoction preserves the Entrails and is very useful in the Plague Pestilence small Pox and such contagious diseases the Tincture thereof is profitable in fits of the Mother it strengthens the Memory Head Stomach Spleen Bladder animal vital and natural spirits and helps cold diseases of the Brain and Nerves it is profitable for the Lungs Consumption and shortness of Breath it is best for eld phlegmatick and melancholly persons it is good against melancholly and the Jaundies and stoppings of the Liver and Gall and is profitable for the Plurisie and provokes Vrine and Venus take ten grains of Saffron two ounces of Walnut Kernels Figs two ounces Mithridate one dram and a few Sage leaves stamp them into a mass with a sufficient quantity of Pimpernel water and keep it for use twelve grains thereof taken fasting is an excellent Antidote against the Plague and expelleth it from those that are infected Some write that two or three drams hereof taken brings death doubtless too great a quantity cannot do otherwise it is not safe to be given to women with childe Sage Salvia TO avoid prolixity we proceed to its vertues The Latine name of it is Salvia and so wholesome an Herb reputed by Schola salerni that they say Cur moritur homo dum Salvia crescit in horto Nature and Vertues Sage is hot and dry in the third degree an herb of Jupiter it restores natural heat and comforts the vital spirits and helps the Memory and quickens the sences it is very healthful to be eaten in May with Butter and also to be drunk in Ale it is good for women that are apt to miscarry or cannot conceive by reason of the over-much moisture-or slipperiness of their Wombs Sage Rosemary Honey-suckles and Plantain boiled in water or wine and some Honey and Allome added thereto is a good gargle for Cankers or Sores in the Mouth or Throat and for sores in the privy parts of Man or Woman and is good to be boiled with other comsortable and hot herbs to bathe the cold Sinews and to warm the Joynts and help
driveth away Serpents Stone Crop or Wall Pepper Vermicularis THis Plant is much like unto the lesser Housleek Description called also Sedum and Prickmadam and is by Gerrard and others ranked amongst the number of the Sedums or Prickmadams but because of its far different and contrary temperature I have placed it alone it is a low and little herb the stalks whereof are slender and short about which the leaves stand very thick being small in growth full bodied sharp pointed and full of juyce The flowers stand at the top and are of a yellow colour and of a sharp biting taste the root is nothing but strings Names The Latine names are Vermicularis and Illecebra Minor Acris The tertium Semper vivum of Dioscorides which he saith the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Romans Illecebra Place and Time Stonecrop grows in stony and dry places in chinks and cranies of old Walls and on the tops of tiled Houses on the Church-house at Heckfield in Hampshire useth to grow abundance of it it flowers in the Summer moneths and is alwayes green as the Sengreens are Nature and Vertues Stonecrop is of a very hot temperature sharp and biting being outwardly applyed it raiseth Blisters as the Ranunculus or Crow-foot will do and at length exulcerateth therefore such as have any occasion to use the cooling Prickmadams ought to beware that they mistake not this for it Dioscorides saith that it wasteth away hard kernels of the Kings Evil if it be applyed unto them with Hogs Grease and boiled in Oyl of Roses and the sore Piles anointed therewith it easeth their pains The juyce as Gerrard saith being extracted and drawn forth and taken with Vinegar or some other liquor procures Vomit and brings up gross and phlegmatick humors and also chollerick and doth thereby oftentimes cure the quartain Ague and other Agues of long continuance and being given in this manner it is a remedy against poisons inwardly taken but it is dangerous to be used and there being many other safer medicines for the same purposes I conceive it is better to be forborn then experimented Strawberries Fragraria THey need no description The Plant is called in Latine Fragraria and the fruit Fraga They grow both in Gardens and wilde in Fields and Woods Nature and Vertues Let Venus have these sweet Berries lest she lose her longing The leaves of Strawberries are cooling in the first degree and the root more drying and binding the green berries are cold and dry but when they are ripe they are cold and moist the distilled water of the berries is good against faintings of the heart and overflowing of the gall The berries themselves refresh and comfort fainting spirits ocol the Liver Blood and Spleen and chollerick Stomachs and quench thirst they are good for other Inflammations but meddle not too much with them in Fevers lest they putrifie in the Stomach and increase the Fits A decoction of the leaves and roots in wine and water doth abate the heat and sharpness of Vrine cools the Liver and Blood and asswages Inflammations in the Reins and Bladder stayes the bloody Flux and the Tearms and helps the swellings of the Spleen The juyce or the decoction of the herb and root cleanseth soul Vlcers being washed therewith the leaves and roots hereof serve to make lotions and gargles for sores in the Mouth or privy Parts and are good to fasten loose Teeth and to heal foul Gums it also helps to stay Catharrs or defluctions of Rheume into the Mouth Throat Teeth or Eyes The juyce or water is good for red and inflamed Eyes and also to help pushes and wheals in the face or other parts and to make the skin clear and smooth The water of Strawberries distilled in a glass after they have stood twelve or fourteen dayes in Horse dung cureth the Leprosie and Morphew if it be drunk Succory Dandelion or Pissabeds Cicorea SUccory Endive and Dandelion differ not much in operation the Garden Succory and wilde Dandelion or Pissabeds are all very well known so that I shall not need to describe either Names Succory is called Cicorea in Latine and the Dandelion Dens Leonis from the jagged leaves resembling a Lions Tooth Nature and Vertues Succory and Endive are cold and dry in the second degree the wilde sorts are dryer then the Garden kindes and do cleanse and open most by reason of their bitterness it is an herb of Jupiter The leaves of the Garden kindes are used both for meat and medicine they do both cool the Liver and open the obstructions thereof strengthening the same and likewise helps burning Agues lack of sleep stopping of Vrine and the Gall the yellow Jaundies and great heat of the Stomach A draught of the decoction of the herb or root in wine drunk fasting helps the Dropsie and drives forth chollerick and phlegmatick Humors the like decoction in wine is good against lingering Agues and a dram of the seed in powder taken in Wine before the fit is available in Agues and for faintings and passions of the heart the herb outwardly applyed is good to allay sharp humors in Vlcers Tumors and pestilential Sores and helps inflammations of the Eyes and clears the sight and easeth pains of the Gout The distilled water is effectual for the same purposes and to drink morning and evening for 〈◊〉 in the Breast and is good for women with Childe and the Head-ache in Children coming of heat which water oo the juyce of the leaves is good for Nurses Breasts that abound with milk allayeth swellings Inflammations Pushes Pimples and St. Anthonies fire and is good to wash filthy Sores being used with Vinegar Sun-flowers i. e. Elecampane Tobacco English and Indian Nicotiana ENglish Tobacco riseth up with a thick round stalk Description about two foot high whereon grow thick fat green leaves not so large as the Indian round pointed and not dented about the edges at the tops stand divers flowers in green husks scarce standing above the brims of the husk round pointed also and of a greenish yellow colour its seed is not very bright but large contained in great heads The roots perish every Winter but rise generally of its own sowing Names It is called in Latine Petum and Nicotiana Place and Time English tobacco groweth much about Winscomb in Glocestershire as delighting in a fruitful soil the other which we smoke groweth best in Virginia and is thence carried to some parts of Spain and there made up and then brought to us and named Spanish Tobacco under which Title the Taverns and Ale drapers cheat the Smokers who buy it greedily at three Pipes for two pence as a great bargain when it doth not stand the seller in a half-penny Nature and Vertues Tobacco is hot and dry in the second degree it cleanseth and discusseth and hath also a stupifying quality and a power to resist poison English Tobacco is good to expectorate tough Phlegm the juyce
made into a syrrup or the distilled water drunk with Sugar or the smoke taken fasting in a Pipe it easeth gripings in the Bowels pains in the Head and expells Worms and is profitable to provoke Vrine and expel the Stone and Gravel out of the Kidneys to expel windiness which causes strangling of the Mother the seed is good to ease the Tooth-ache and the ashes of the Herb cleanseth the Gums and Teeth and makes them white the bruised herb is profitably applyed to swellings of the Kings Evil four or five ounces of the juyce taken fasting purges the body upwards and downwards and is effectual for the Dropsie The distilled water taken with Sugar before the fit of an Ague lessens the fit The distilled faeces of the Herb having been bruised before the distillation and not distilled dry but set fourteen dayes in hot dung and then hung up in a bag in a Wine Cellar there will drop a liquor therefrom good for Cramps Aches the Gout and Sciatica and to heal Itches Scabs Cankers and foul Sores The juyce is good to kill lice in Childrens Heads The green herb bruised and applyed is good to cure any fresh wound and the juyce put into old Sores cleanseth and healeth them There is an excellent Salve made of Tobacco good for Imposthumes hard Tumors swellings by blows and falls old and new Sores and is to be had at the Apothecaries by the name of Unguentum Nicotianum or oynment of Tobacco Tamarinds Tamarindus THis Tree groweth in Arabia and the Indies and the fruit is brought hither for Medicine whose vertues follow Nature and Vertues Tamarinds are cold and dry in the second degree or in the beginning of the third a plant of Venus The pulp of Tamarinds open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and taken with Borrage water it quickens the spirits and mitigates the fits of Frenzy and madness it is good in acute Fevers it purgeth Choller and adust humors stayeth vomiting and cools inflammations of the Liver Stomach and Reins and helps the running of the Reins it is good against the Scab Itch and Leprosie and salt humors breaking out in the skin it is good in hot burning Agues it quencheth thirst and procures appetite an ounce thereof being dissolved in fair water and taken with a little Sugar it stayes bleedings at nose arising from Choller and womens Fluxes and is good against the yellow Jaundies Tamarisk Tamarix IT is well known in Gardens where it onely grows in England so that a description is needless Names Mytica Tamarix and Tamariscus are the Latine names the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. infinitus from its abundance of leaves Place and Time It groweth about Mompelier and Narbone in France and is planted in Gardens with us they flower about the end of May or in June and the seed is ripe and blown away in September Nature and Vertues Tamarisk is drying and astringent having also a cutting and cleansing quality a Saturnine Plant. The leaves or roots boiled in Wine drives forth Melancholly helps spitting of blood and stayes the overflowing of the Terms the bleeding of the Hemorrhoides and other Fluxes and is good against the Jaundies and other diseases which are caused by obstructions The roots sodden with Wine and drunk cleanseth the milt and thereby it helps the Lepry the decoction of the root or young branches in Wine or Vinegar drunk and outwardly applyed helps hardness of the Spleen The decoction of the bark and leaves in Wine helps the Tooth-ache the mouth and Teeth being gargled therewith it also helpeth redness and watring of the Eyes and easeth pains of the ears being dropped therein and is good to wash those that are subject to Lice and Nits and is good to stay gangrous and fretting Vlcers being mixed with honey it is good for spleenatick persons to drink out of Cups or Cans made of the Wood thereof A good quantity of the leaves boiled in water is a good bath for women to sit over whose Matrix is in danger of coming down it fastneth the same and the ashes of the Wood applyed to the place stops the excessive flowing thereof A Lye made of the Ashes is good for many of the said Diseases and to help blisters raised by burning or scalding The Egyptians use the Wood hereof to cure the French Disease Leprosie Scabs Pushes Vlcers and the like it is likewise good to help the Dropsie proceeding from hardness or stopping of the Spleen and is available against Melancholly and the black Jaundies the Bark with the Barks of Ash and Ivy being infused in Beer or Ale some use Ling or Heath where Tamarisk is not to be had instead thereof Garden Tansie Tanacetum THis needs no description Names It is called both in Greek and Latine Athanasia and also in Latine Tanacetum the French call it Tanaisie and our English Tansie Place and Time It is nourished in Gardens sendeth forth green leaves in March and April and flowers in June and July Nature and Vertues It is said to be hot in the second degree and dry in the third attributed to the particular influence of Venus The decoction of Tansie or the juyce thereof drunk in Wine or Beer doth dissolve and expell Winde in the Stomach or Bowels The eating of it in Spring time purgeth the Body of moist and phlegmatick humors ingendred in the foregoing Winter and by eating Fish in Lent before it became superstition to our gluttonous Religion-pretenders whose lustful guts cannot forbear the Flesh-pots on Frydayes the decoction before mentioned provokes Vrine helps the Strangury expells Winde out of the Matrix and procures womens Courses and is good for those that have weak Reins and Kidneys it is profitable for such women as are apt to miscarry being bruised and often smelled unto and applyed to the lower part of the Belly it is used against the Stone in the Reins especially to men being boiled in Oyl it is good against the Cramp and shrinking of Sinews if applyed to the affected part it avoideth Phlegm dryeth the Sinews and therefore is good for the Palsie Wilde Tansie or Silver Weed Argentina IT is much like unto the ordinary Garden Tansie a little also resembling the leaves of Agrimony Description it creeps upon the ground taking root at the joynts so that it will quickly spread a great deal of ground the leaves are of a fair green colour on the upper side and a silver colour underneath it beareth no stalks but the flowers stand singly upon a short foot stalk which are yellow much like those of Cinque foâ—l Names It is called in Latine Argentina Agrimonia sylvestris and Tanacetum sylvestre in English Wilde Tansie and Silver weed Place and Time It groweth in moist grounds near High Wayes sides at the foot of Hills and such like places it flowers in June and July Nature and Vertues Wilde Tansie especially the root is dry near the third degree without much manifest heat having also an
dwarf Elder Humilis Sambucus and Ebulus and in English is known by the names of Walwort Danewort and Dwarf Elder Place and Time There is scarce a Town or Village but the common Elder grows in its Hedges the Dwarf Elder grows wilde in many places of England particularly in the grounds of Mr. Hinde at Hedsor in Buckinghamshire The Elder Flowers in June the fruit is usually ripe in August the Dwarf Elder is somewhat later Nature and Vertues Elder is hot and dry in the second and third degree the Danewort something hotter both under Mars it is profitable for the Dropsie and to remove watry humours between the skin and the flesh the young buds boiled in broth purges Phlegm and Choller the inner bark is commended for the yellow Jaundies medicines prepared of the bark opens obstructions six drops of the spirit of Elder salt taken in broth is good in the Scurvy The decoction of the root in wine cures the bitings of venomous Beasts and mad Dogs mollifies hardness of the Mother opens the Veins and provokes the Terms the berries work the same effects the juyce of the green leaves helps inflammations of the Eyes there is hardly a disease from the head to the foot but Elder is effectual for it it is good for Melancholly Madness the Falling Sickness Palsie Apoplexy catharrs Tooth-ache Deafness diseases of the Lungs Mouth and Throat Hoarseness Ptisick sore Breasts swoonings and Faintings Gout Worms Stone Plague Pox Measles and diseases of the Stomach Cùm multis aliis c. The Dwarf Elder is stronger then the other for all the said purposes and hath besides particular vertues viz. the juyce of the root cures the Kings Evil and Quinzy being applyed to the Throat and being put into the Fundament stayes it from falling down The root being steeped in Wine all night helps Agues a dram of the seeds in powder with a little Cinamon taken in the decoction of ground Pine is good against the French Disease Gout Sciatica and joynt Aches by drawing away peccant humours An Oyntment made of the green leaves with May Butter mollifies starkness of the Nerves and Sinews and remedies outward Pains Aches Cramps and Lameness ☞ See further in Adam in Eden by W. Coles Elecampane Enula IT groweth up with a long hairy stalk Description bearing great large leaves pointed at the ends it gives a large yellow flower the root is white and increaseth much every year spreading under the ground 't is well known therefore I forbear any further description Names Enula Campana is the Latine Appellation Place and Time It delights in Meadows and fertile ground flowers in June and July and the leaves fall in Autumne Nature and Vertues It is hot and dry in the third degree a Solar herb a great friend to the Breast and Lungs and a helper of shortness of Breath it opens the Liver and Spleen and is good against poisons and venomous bitings and helps Cramps Ruptures and inward bruises the decoction of the root being drunk the roots candied warm a cold Stomach helps the Cough and Wheesings An oyntment made of the roots with Hogs grease and a little flower of Brimstone is an excellent remedy for the Itch. The root chewed fastens loose Teeth and preserves them from rotting The distilled water of the green leaves makes the face fair cleanses the skin and helps the Morphew The decoction thereof provokes Vrine and the Terms and cleanses the Breast and Lungs Elme-Tree Ulmus THis Tree is so well known for its Timber it needs no description but we proceed to the Physical use of it Names Vlmus the Latines call it Nature and Vertues The Leaves and Bark are moderately hot having a cleansing and glewing quality and I believe Saturnine The water in the bladders upon the leaves are said to be good to help burstness cloathes being wet in the water and applyed and the parts bound up with a Truss it also cleanses the Skin The decoction of the Bark of the Root softens hard swellings the decoction of the middle bark is good to bathe places burnt or scalded and being boiled in wine and some syrrup of Mulberries added to it causes the pallat of the mouth to ascend being fallen the decoction in water helps the Dandriff Scurfs and Leprosie The leaves heal green Wounds and the water of the bladders that grow upon the leaves being put in a glass and set in Horse-dung for five and twenty dayes the mouth of the glass being stopt and a lay of salt underneath so that the feces may settle and the water become very clear is a sovereign Balsome for green wounds being applyed with sofe Tents it may be set in the ground if you be not provided of Dung An Vnguent being made of Elme Bark by boiling it to that consistence is a sovereign remedy to allay the pains of the Gout Endive Endivia MAster Coles comprehends the Succory Description Dandelion and Endive all together as not differing in Nature though in Form and one Greek name goes for them all namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet Succory is called Cichoreum and Cichorea in Latine and the Endive Endivia which Endive bears a larger leaf then Succory and the root perishes every year it bears blue flowers and seed like Succory The names I have given you in the Description Place and Time It is an inhabitant onely in Gardens if it be sown in the Spring it quickly flowers and seeds Nature and Vertues It is cold and dry cleansing Jovial saith Mr. Culpepper but I judge rather under Venus it cools the sharpness of Vrine and cleanses the uretory parts The decoction of it or the distilled water is good in hot Agues and Inflammations to mittigate the heat it helps the great heat of the Stomach and Liver stoppings of the Gall and Vrine lack of sleep in hot burning Fevers being outwardly applyed it allayes Swellings Pushes and Pimples and is good to wash pestiferous sores and Vlcers ☞ See further in The expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus Eringo or Sea-holly Eringium THe Sea-holly cometh up with tender leaves at the first Description but as they grow old they grow hard and prickly crumpled about the edges with here and there a sharp prickle they are of a blueish green colour and stand every one upon a long foot stalk after comes a long crested stalk having several joynts beset with leaves sharp and prickly it bears round prickly herds out of which shoot blue flowers with whitish threads in the middle the root grows very long and is about the bigness of a mans little finger having a pleasant taste brownish without but white within with some pith in the middle Names The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Eringium the Shop Eringus and Eringo in English we call in Sea-holly Place and Time It grows about the Sea sides in most Countreys of England as upon the Sea Sands by Yarmouth in Norfolk and about Shuberry in Essex it flowers about
whitish green colour the flowers are blue growing on the tops of the stalks the root is small and fibrous Names Gentiana in Latine and Gentianella the lesser sort in English Gentian Felwort Bitterwort and Baldmony Place and Time The first grows in divers places of Kent as about Southfleet and Long Field near Gravesend so likewise doth the other and upon Barton Hills in Bedfordshire and not far from St. Albans upon a piece of waste chalky ground as you go out of Dunstable way towards Gothambury They flower in August and the seed is ripe in September Nature and Vertues The root which is chiefly in use is hot and dry in the third degree a Martial plant it strengthens the Heart and Stomach resists poison putrefaction and the Pestilence and helps digestion the powder of the dry roots helps bitings of mad Dogs and Venomous Beasts opens the Liver and procures an Appetite Wine wherein the herb hath been steeped being drunk refreshes such as are overwearied by Travel or are lame in their Joynts by cold or bad Lodgings it is good for bruises and to help stitches and pains in the sides the decoction is good against Cramps and Convulsions provokes Vrine and the Terms so that it is not to be given to women with Childe it dissolves congealed Blood is good in the Dropsie strangling of the Mother drives down the dead Childe and After-birth helps falling Sickness Worms Cough and shortness of Breath it expells Winde and is profitable in all cold Diseases the juyce or powder of the root heals green Wounds and cleanses and heals up fretting rotten Vlcers Fistula's and Cancers The root is used by Chyrurgions to enlarge the orifice of a Sore The herb applyed helps swellings of the Kings Evil and the juyce clears the sight being dropped into the Eyes it helps the bots in Cattle and the swelling of a Cows Vdder being bitten by a Venomous Creature the place being stroaked and fomented with the decoction of this Herb. Germander Trissago COmmon Germander shooteth forth many branches leaning towards the Ground Description whereupon grow small leaves snipt about the edges like the teeth of a Saw the flowers are purple small and stand close to the leaves on the tops of the branches the root is slender and stringy which spreading round about causes it to be very plentiful where it is once set Names Chamaedrys is the Greek name and Latine name used in Shops yet it s called by some Trissago and Quercula minor because the leaves resemble an Oak leaf in English it is called Germander and English Treacle Place and Time It is planted in Gardens usually with us yet groweth also wilde It flowers about June and July Nature and Vertues Germander is hot and dry almost in the third degree of subtil parts and hath a cutting quality it is a Mercurial Herb the leaves of Germander and the seeds of Nigella quilted in a Cap helps Catharrs and distillations of cold Rheumes being worn on the heads of them that are troubled therewith The Herb used with Honey cleanseth foul Vlcers the juyce mixed with Honey helps dimness and moistness of the Eyes the Herb being bruised and applyed is good against venome and venomous bitings The decoction of the green Herb helps distempers of the Spleen pains of the side provokes Vrine the Course and used with Honey it is good for Coughs it quickens the spirits helps diseases of the Brain falling Sickness Lethargy Palsie and Gout a dram of the seed in powder is good for the yellow Jaundies purging it by Vrine and kills Worms Stinking Gladwin Vide Orris it is a kinde of Flower De luce which see in Orris Ginger Zinziber THis Indian Root is hot and dry in the third degree the Latine name is Zinziber it is good for a cold Stomach it warmeth it and expells Winde there and in the Bowels and helpeth Digestion it likewise corrects the rawness of the Stomach and clears the Breast Green Ginger provokes lust dryes up moisture of the Stomach phlegm of the Lungs opens obstructions and is good in all cold griefs of the Stomach Golden Rod. Auria virga GOlden Rod groweth up with brownish small stalks Description about half a yard high with dark green narrow leaves sometimes but very seldom so found dented about the edges and as seldom with strakes or white spots therein divided at the tops into many small branches with divers small yellow flowers on every one of them which are turned one way and being ripe become doun and are blown away with the winde The root consists of divers small fibres not running deep in the ground yet abiding all Winter sending forth new branches every year the old ones dying Names Auria virga it is called in Latine in English Golden Rod. Place and Time It grows both in moist and dry grounds in many places of this Land in Woods and Copses in Hamsted Wood and Kentish-Town near Gravesend in Swanscomb Wood and Southfleet It flowers about July Nature and Vertues Golden Rod is hot and dry in the second degree with a cleansing astringent quality a reputed Herb of Venus it is useful in lotions for sores in the Mouth and Throat and is a good Wound Herb for inward or outward Wounds Bleeding or Bruises and for Ruptures to be used inwardly and out wardly it stayes Fluxes and Courses it dryes up moist humours in old Sores and Vlcers which hinder their healing The decoction helps to fasten loose Teeth and it is commended and approved to be good against the Gravel and Stone in the Reins and Kidneys and to provoke Vrine Gooseberry Bush Grossularia I Think it needs no description it is called in LatineVva Crispa and Grossularia in some places Feaberry Dewbery and Wineberry Bush but most commonly Gooseberry Bush in English Nature and Vertues The Berries before they be ripe are cold and dry and something binding they are under the dominion of Venus they cool the vehement heat of the Stomach and Liver and provoke appetite being scalded and eaten with Rose Water and Sugar or made in Tarts or stewed with Mutton they also make good sauce for Green Geese and many other Dishes both Flesh and Fish they are good to boil in broth for such as have hot Agues they stay the longings of Women with Childe being ripe they are pleasant to the Stomach The decoction of the leaves cool Inflammations and St. Anthonies fire The tender leaves are good to break the Stone and expell Gravel but too much of the fruit breeds Crudities and Worms especially before it is ripe Gromel Milium solis THere be accounted nine sorts of this Herb Description whereof I shall mention three 1. Great upright Gromel 2. The greater creeping Gromel 3. Small wilde Gromel The great upright Gromel rises up with divers upright slender hairy wooddy brown crusted stalks very little branched with long hard rough sharp pointed narrow green leaves the flowers stand at the tops of the stalks are small and white the seed
venomous worms The Ashes may be mixed with medicines to take away Scabs Leprosie and to cleanse the skin and likewise it consumes proud and superfluous flesh in poisonous and filthy Vlcers as say Avicen and Serapio Sandiver doth dry and takes away Scabs and Manginess the foul parts being washed and bathed with the water wherein it hath been boiled ☞ See more of this in The Expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus ☞ See further in Adam in Eden written by Will. Coles Goats Thorn or Gum Dragon Tragacantha IT is a bushy plant Description having thorns which represent a Goats beard having a great root which being wounded with some instrument yieldeth a liquor which by the heat of the Sun is soon condensed into a shining white Gum shrivelling its self into little crooked pieces sweet in taste Names Place and Time It is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is known in Latine by the name of Tragacantha Gummi Tragacanthae and Gum Trajant in English and is brought to us from Candy and Syria where it yields his Gum in Autumne Nature and Vertues Gum Dragant is somewhat dry having a quality to dull and allay the sharpness of humours a dram of it dissolved in sweet wine and a little burnt Harts-born washed and a little Allome mixed with it and drunk is good against the sharpness of the Vrine and helps pains of the Guts and Bowels being dissolved and mixed with other pectorals it helps the Cough and hoarseness of the Throat salt and sharp distillations upon the Lungs being taken as an Electuary or put under the tongue letting it distill gently down and so it taken away the roughness of the Tongue The said Gum being torrefied or dryed at the fire and mixed with the juyce or wine of Quinces and used in a Glister is good against the bloody Flux being boiled in wine with Stoechas and drunk it warmeth and cleanseth the Breast Stomach and Bowels being afflicted with any cold helps the Chollick and stopping of the Spleen and Vrine it is also used in Medicines for the Eyes to allay the heat and sharpness of hot Rheumes and being dissolved in milk and used it takes away white spots growing in the Eyes the itching of them and Wheals and Scabs that grow upon the Eye-lids it cleanseth the face and maketh it white if it be steeped a night in Rose-water and in the morning a little Borace or Camphire be put thereto and the face washed therewith being dissolved in Rose-water and strained and some white starch mixed with it it is effectual to help sores and Chaps of the Mouth Lips and Hands the place being anointed therewith the Muscilage mixed with Honey doth the same and is good for the Leprosie The powder of it taken in broth is available for those that have broken a Vein or have the Cramp There is another kinde hereof called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poterion because it delights in watry places which grows in Candy and about Marselles and Montpelier in France the root whereof being boiled in Wine and drunk is profitable against the poison of the Red Toad and being made into a pultis and applied to any Nerve or Sinew that is cut wounded or hurt doth heal them and soder them together and all other kindes of wounds and cuts The said decoction of the roots in Wine is effectual to be drunk for the said purposes and for inward Wounds or Veins that are broken There is another Gum brought into England and to be had at our Druggists called Gum Arabick which is effectual for many of the aforesaid purposes but especially for helping those frettings of the Reins and Bladder which cause bloody Urine being used in the same manner as Gum Tragant Harts-ease or wilde Pansies Herba Trinitatis Description and Names THis is a kinde of Violets growing 〈◊〉 well in Gardens as 〈…〉 rally known by the name of Hartsease 〈…〉 is called Viola 〈◊〉 Herba Trinitatis 〈…〉 Trinity and by some Love in idleness Call me to you and Three Faces under a hood Place and Time They grow as I said before as well in Fields as Gardens they flower all the Spring and Summer Nature and Vertues They are cold and moist and much of the nature of Violets though nor so effectal it is reputed to be Saturnine and an excellent anti-Venerial Medicine for the French Pox a decoction used of the herbs and flowers or a syrrup made therewith the spirit of it is good for the Falling Sickness Convulsions Plurisie and Inflammations of the Lungs and Breast Harts Tongue Scolopendria HArt Tongue riseth up with divers leaves springing severally from the root Description at first crumpled like Ferne but at their full growth almost a foot long smooth and green above but straked underneath overthwart with small and somewhat long brownish marks the bottom of the leaves are a little bowed on each side of the middle rib somewhat narrow and small at the end the root consists of many black threds interlaced together Names It is known in Shops by the Latine name of Scolopendria and Scolopendrium and is called also Lingua Cervina in English Harts tongue Place and Time It delights to grow in shadowy moist places in the insides of Wells and by Walberton towards the Sea-side near Arundel in Sussex it grows so plentifully by the High-way sides on the banks of the Ditches you may gather loads of it it bears no flower but is green all the year and bringeth forth new leaves in the Spring and Summer Nature and Vertues Authours disagree whether it be hot or cold but I judge it to be moderately hot of the nature of Jupiter it hath a binding drying faculty it is an excel-cellent herb for all diseases of the Milt by reducing it to its right temper whether it be too much opened or swollen hard or stopped The decoction thereof taken in Wine and the herb boiled and laid to the grieved place it likewise mollifies opens and strengthens the Liver and Stomach and stops the Terms spitting of blood and other Fluxes A decoction made of Harts Tongue Knot-grass and Comfrey roots a draught thereof being drunk every morning and the boiled herbs applyed to the grieved place is a good remedy against Burstness it is also profitable in the Jaundies Kings Evil and bitings of venomous Beasts The herb or juyce applyed cleanseth Wounds and Vlcers and the distilled water is commended against the passion of the Heart Hiccop and bleeding of the Gums ☞ See more of this in the Art of Simpling written by W. Coles Hazel Nut Tree Nux tenuis IT is so well known it needs no Description Names Nux tenuis or Parva some call it to distinguish it from Walnuts others Corylus and Nux Avellana Those in Gardens are called in English Filberds and the wilde kinde Hazel and Small Nuts Place and Time They are commoners in most Woods and Hedges the fruit of some of them is ripe in August and of
against the heat of the Mouth and Stomach and quenches thirst being boiled in water with some Maidenhair and Figs it helps a dry Cough wheesing and shortness of Breath Hoarseness digests and expectorates Phlegm and is good for all griefs of the Chest and Lungs Ptisick and Consumptions it helps pain of the Reins Strangury and heat of Vrine The juyce of Liquorice dissolved in Rose-water with some Gum Trajacanth is a fine Lohoch for Hoarseness Wheesing roughness in the Mouth and Throat it expectorates tough Phlegm and condensates thin Rheumes which fall on the Lungs Lemon-Tree Malus Limonia LEmons seldom come to maturity in our cold Countrey therefore I shall not describe the Tree but proceed to the vertues of the fruit which is well known to us Nature and Vertues The rinde of Lemmons is hot in the first degree and dry in the second and the juyce cold in the second degree and dry in the first the Sun hath dominion over it the juyce of Lemons drunk two or three times a week in white or Rhenish Wine with some Sugar strengthens the heart stomach and head resists poison expells melancholly makes a sweet Breath and cleanses the Reins and bladder and helps to expel the Stone out of the Kidneys it kills and drives forth worms out of the belly An Angel of gold or the weight thereof in leaf Gold steeped four and twenty hours in four ounces of the juyce of Lemons and some of that juyce given in a Cup of Wine with some powder of Angelica root is very good to be given to such as are infected with the Plague The juyce is good in Fevers to quench thirst and so is the posset made of it A water distilled in a glass from the pulp of Lemons provokes Vrine being drunk and helps to break the Stone it likewise cleanses the skin kills lice in the Head helps running Scabs and Wheals in the Skin The seeds preserve the Heart and vital Spirits from poison and resists infection of contagious diseases ☞ See further in Adam in Eden written by Will. Coles Lilly Convally Lilium Convallium IT hath leaves somewhat like unto white Lillies Description or rather those of the smallest water Plantain it hath a slender small stalk at the top of which grow little small white flowers like little Bells with turned edges of a pleasant smell after which come small red berries much like the berries of Asparagus wherein the seed is contained the root is small creeping far abroad in the ground Names Lillium Convallium is the Latine name in English Lilly of the Valley Conval Lilly May Lilly Wood Lillies and Lilly Confancy Place and Time It groweth upon Hamsted Heath in Cobham Park in Kent and many other places of this Land it flowers in May and the fruit is ripe in September Nature and Vertues It is temperately hot and dry an herb of Mercury it cures the Apoplexy and the flowers distilled with Wine and a spoonful thereof given at a time restoreth lost speech to them that have the dumb Palsie it strengthens the Brain helps a weak Memory comforts the vital Spirits and is good against the Gout the distilled water helps Inflammations of the Eyes The flowers steeped in new Wine and drunk helps trembling of the Heart and other Members and stops the spreading of the Leprosie The flowers steeped in new Wine a moneth and then the Wine distilled five times over in a Limbeck is a precious water for the Apoplexy being taken with a little Lavender water and six grains of Pepper it eases the Chollick comforts the brain and is good against the Falling Sickness it likewise helps the Strangury pricking about the Heart and Inflammations of the Liver and stayes the overmuch flowing of the Terms ☞ See further in Adam in Eden by W. Coles Water-Lilly Nymphaea IT hath large round leaves Description thick and fat of a dark green colour which stand upon long round spongy foot stalks and alwayes float upon the water there rise also from the root other round stalks each of them bearing a white flower containing divers rowes of narrow white leaves with many yellow thrums in the middle standing about a little head which after the leaves are fallen off becomes like a Poppey head containing in it broad blackish oyley and glittering seed of a bitter taste the root is round long and tuberous with many knobs thereat loose and spongy in substance black without and white within fastned with many strings to the ground under the bottom of the water There is also another kinde which bears yellow flowers Names Both Latines and Greeks call it Nymphaea it is called also in Shops Nenuphar it is called in English Water Rose and Water Lilly Place and Time They grow alwayes in standing Waters and slow running Rivers and very plentifully in Holshot River in Hampshire my native soil all along the River by Danmore Mead They flower in May and June and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues The leaves and flowers are cold and moist the seed and roots cold and dry an herb of Venus The decoction of the seed cools and bindes restrains lust and nocturnal pollutions but the frequent use thereof extinguishes motions to Venery it is available for the Running of the Râ—ins and the Whites and to cool the heat of Vrine the leaves cool Inflammations and the decoction thereof helps the inward heats of Agues being drunk they also expell the After-birth the syrrup of the Flowers allayes the heat of Choller and distempers of the Head provokes sleep and heap hot distempers of the Heart Liver Reins and Matrix the conserve and distilled water worketh the same effects The distilled water takes away spots Sun-burning and Freckles of the Skin The oyl that is made of the flowers helps the Head-ache causeth sleep prevents Venereous dreams and takes down the standing of the Yard the head and privities being anointed therewith it also cures hot tumours and the Inflammations of Vlcers Liver-wort Lichen LIverwort groweth close upon the ground Description and upon stony places spreading much upon it with sad green leaves cleaving flat upon one another unevenly cut in the edges and crumpled amongst which arise small slender stalks an inch or two high at most bearing small star-like flowers at the top the roots are very fine and small Names It is called in Latine Lichen Jecoraria and of some Hepatica in English Liverwort Place and time Liverwort grows in moist and shadowy places by the heads of Springs and Ponds and sometimes on the stones in the insides of Wells it is green all the year and flowers in June and July Nature and Vertues It is a plant of Jupiter and under the sign Cancer by temperature cold and dry and somewhat binding it is very good to help all distempers of the Liver and is effectually used in diet drinks for that purpose it cools and cleanses it and helps Inflammations of that part and the yellow Jaundies being bruised and boiled
against the stinging of Bees and Wasps the oyntment of Marsh Mallows doth mollifie heat and moisten and is good against the Plurisie and other pains of the Sides and Breast Maple Tree IT is a Tree well known to Turners who use the Timber of it it is said to be under the dominion of Jupiter and a strengthner of the Liver The decoction of the leaves or Bark being used strengthens the Liver and opens obstructions of the Liver and Spleen but I believe it is not much experienced if at all Wilde and Sweet Marjoram Marjorana SWeet Marjoram is very well known Description and the Field Marjoram is very like it but we shall describe the wilde It hath a root which creepeth much under ground and continueth a long time sending up sundry brownish hard square stalks with small dark green leaves like sweet Marjoram but harder and broader at the tops of the stalks stand trufts of flowers of a deep purplish red colour the seed is small and somewhat blacker then that of sweet Marjoram Names In Latine it is called Amaracus and Marjorana in English Sweet Marjoram and Marjoram gentle and the wilde kinde Organy Origanum and bastard Marjoram Place and Time The sweet grows onely in Gardens the wilde kinde in borders of Corn Fields and Pastures in sundry places of this Land It flowers about July and August Nature and Vertues They are all Herbs of Mercury the common Sweet Marjoram is hot and dry in the second degree it is comfortable in cold Diseases of the Head Stomach Sinews and other parts taken inwardly and outwardly applyed it digesteth openeth and strengthneth comforts the Brain helps the Memory and is good against the Apoplexy the Head being washed with a Lye made of it eases grievous pains thereof it helps coldness of the Stomach and digestion being given in powder in wine The oyl of it is good to supple warm and stretch forth stiff Joynts and hard Sinews it helps cold griefs and windiness of the Womb and the dead Palsie the back Bone being anointed with it it helps Spasmus Cynicus which is a wrying of the mouth aside being snuffed up into the Nose it is a gallant Oyl to strengthen the Muscles and other parts of the Body it helps noise of the Ears being dropped into them The decoction of this Herb is good in the beginning of a Dropsie it heats the inward Members softens the Milt and asswageth the swelling of it it helps those that cannot make water and easeth pains of the Belly The powder of the leaves snuffed upon into the Nose stayes Rheume cleanses and warms the Head The flower and herb being put into a fine Bag and applyed to the Stomach easeth pains thereof Marigolds Calendula THis well known herb needs no description Names It is called in Latine Calendula and of some Caltha in English Marigolds and Ruds Place and Time I think there are few Gardens without them they flower all Summer and in Winter too if it be milde Nature and Vertues Marigold flowers are hot almost in the second degree especially being dryed it is a Solar Herb and under the sign Leo a great comforter of the Heart and though it be so plentiful and therefore less regarded it is not much inferiour to Saffron The Marigold Flowers resist poison and are good in contagious Fevers and the Jaundies and are very expulsive and therefore effectual in the Small Pox and Measles they provoke Sweat and Womens Courses and expell the After-birth The Conserve of the Flowers is very good against corrupted Air and in time of Pestilence to prevent Infection it helps the trembling of the Heart being taken morning and evening The flowers used in Possets or Broth either green or dry do comfort the Heart and Spirits and expell Pestilential qualities that might annoy them The Juyce taketh away Warts being washed therewith and helps the Tooth-ache and being mixed with vinegar and a hot swelling bathed therewith asswages it and gives ease and being dropped into the ears it kills worms therein The distilled water is good for sore Eyes and a Plaister made of the dry flowers in Powder Hogs Grease Turpentine and Rosin and applyed to the Breast comforts and strengthens the Heart in Feavers very much ☞ See further in The Expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus Masterwort Imperatoria IT hath divers great broad leaves divided into many parts Description standing three together for the most part upon a foot stalk being somewhat broad and cut in on the edges into three or more divisions all of them dented about the brims of a dark green colour much like Angelica amongst which rise up two or three short stalks about two foot high and slender with such leaves at the Joynts as grow below but lesser bearing Umbels of white Flowers and after them small thin flat blackish seed bigger then Dill seeds The root is somewhat great and groweth rather side-wayes then down right into the ground and is the hottest and sharpest part of the plant and the seed next unto it being somewhat on the out-side and smelling well Names It is called Imperatoria Masterwort and false Pellitory of Spain Places and Time It is usually kept in Gardens with us flowers and seeds about the end of August Nature and Vertues The root of Masterwort is hot in the third degree and of subtle parts an herb of Mars The dried root chewed in the mouth draweth Rheume from the head easing pains of the Head and Teeth and draweth away defluxions of Rheume upon the Lungs or Eyes it dissolves winde and is good in cold grief of the Stomach and Body it provokes Vrine helps to break the Stone and expells Gravel it is good against the suffocation of the Mother drives down the Courses and expells a dead Childe it is good against the Dropsie Cramp and falling Sickness it provokes Sweat and is good against all cold Poisons The juyce dropped or Tents wet therein and applyed to green Wounds or old fretting Vlcers doth soon cleanse and heal them it is likewise good for the cold Gout Mastick Tree Lentiscus THis Outlandish Tree I shall not describe but onely sum up the Vertues of its Gum called Mastick The Tree is called in Latine Lentiscus the Gum Resina Lentiscina Mastiche and Mastix Mastick is very good for the Tooth-ache being steeped in Rose water and the Mouth washed therewith it fastens loose Teeth and strengthens the Gums being held or chewed in the Mouth it draws away phlegm and causes a sweeet Breath it cleanses and dryes up Vlcers and Sores being used in plaisters and oyntments it strengthens and comforts the Stomach mollifies Tumors and eases pains of the Joynts and Sinews for all which purposes the chymical oyl is most effectual being taken inwardly it stayes Vomiting and brings good digestion it stops the Flux of the Belly and taken with syrrup of Colts-foot it helps Coughs it is a good corrigent in strong purging Medicines abating their acrimony or sharpness Sweet
little long pods of a bitter and hot biting taste and so are the leaves the root is small and wooddy Names It is called Eruca in Latine Place and Time The first is an inhabitant in Gardens this which I have described is found in many places of this Land They flower about June and July and the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues It is an herb of Mars hot and dry in the third degree and is seldom eaten alone but all sorts of Rocket quicken Nature and provoke Lust the wilde kinde it more strong then the Garden kinde it helps digestion and provokes Vrine much the seed excites to Venery as much or more then the herb and is good against the bitings of the Shrew Mouse and other venomous Beasts it puts away the ill scent of the Arm-pits increaseth milk in Nurses and â—asteth the Spleen being mixed with Honey and applyed it cleanseth the skin from the Morphew and other spots with Vinegar it takes away Freckles and redness in the face it amendeth Scars black and blue spots and marks of the small Pox being used with an Oxe gall The herb boiled or stewed and some Sugar put to it helps the Cough in Children being taken often the leaves may be eaten with Lettice and Purslain and such cooling Herbs to correct the heat of it for eaten alone their overmuch heat causeth the Head-ache Roses Rosa THere is by Gerard mentioned fourteen kindes of Roses but it were useless to repeat them all here I shall onely treat of the red Rose the white the damask Rose and the Bryar Canker and the wilde Rose and these are so very well known they need no further description but onely of their vertues Nature and Vertues Roses have different qualities as well as colours the Damask purge the white and red cool and binde the white are held to binde most yet they are scarce used in Physick the red Rose according to Galen hath also a watry substance and a warm quality astringent and bitter The yellow threds in the middle do binde and dry more then the Rose it self The buds do cool and binde more then the full blown flowers according to Mesue the Rose is cold in the first degree and dry in the second and consisteth of divers substances as watry earthly airy aromatical and hot which causeth the bitterness and colour the fresh juyce purgeth Choller and watry humours but being dryed the heat is consumed and then they are astringent Of the Roses are made many simple and compound Medicines whereof it is too large here to treat of A decoction of the red Roses in wine is a good Lotion for pains in the lower Bowels Fundament and Matrix the parts being bathed or put into them It is also good for the Head-ache and pains in the Eyes Ears Throat and Gums The same decoction with the Roses easeth Inflammations of the Heart being applyed to the Region thereof and also helps St. Anthonies fire and Inflammations of the stomach The dryed Roses taken in powder in some steeled Wine or Water stayes Womens Courses and so do the yellow threds being powdered and drunk in the distilled water of Quinces and likewise stayes defluxions of Rheum upon the Gums and Teeth fastens the loose Teeth and preserves them from corruption if they be gargled therewith and some Vinegar of Squills The red Roses do strengthen the heart liver and stomach and the retentive faculty and mitigate hot pains and inflammations The Conserve is binding and cordial and is profitable to stay Lasks and Fluxes of the Belly and is good for the Running of the Reins being mixed with powder of Mastick it likewise strengthens the stomach and helps digestion and resists vomiting and helps faintings and tremblings of the heart being mixed with Aromaticum Rosarum Sugar of Roses is also a very good Cordial to strengthen the heart and stay desluxions The Syrrup of dryed red Roses cools the over-heated Liver and Blood comforts the heart and resists putrefaction and stayes Fluxes There are Cordial Powders likewise made of them as Diarhodon Abbatis and Aromaticom Rosarum which help digestion and strengthen the heart and stomach The heads with seed in powder or in decoction stayeth the Lask and spitting of blood Red Rose-water is cooling and cordial refreshing weak and faint spirits and is for that purpose used either in meats or broths to wash the Temples and smell to or to receive the sweet vapour thereof out of a perfuming-pot or hot fireshovel it is good against redness and inflammations of the Eyes and to bathe the Temples against the Head-ache for which purpose vinegar of Roses it also good and to procure rest and sleep take a piece of red rose cake cut fit for the head moisten it in Rosewater and Vinegar of Roses and heat it between a double-folded cloath on a Chafing-dish of coals with some beaten Nutmeg and Poppy-seed strewed on the side which must lye next the Forehead and Temples and binde it on for all night Of the Damask Roses are made Syrrups both simple and compound the simple solutive Syrrup is a safe easie medicine gently purging Choller being taken from one ounce to four The Syrrup with Agarick worketh on Phlegm as well as Choller and one ounce thereof worketh more strongly then three of the simple The compound Syrrup with Hellebore worketh forceably upon melanchollick humours and is available against the French Disease Tetters Itch. c. Honey of Roses solutive is also opening and purging and is often given in Glisters and so is the Syrrup made with sugar The Conserve of Damask Roses do likewise gently open the belly The distilled water is much used for fumes and to sweeten things and the dried leaves for Sweet-bags Honey of red Roses is good to wash sores in the mouth throat or elsewhere The fruit of the wilde Bryer which some call Heps though in Hampshire we call them Canker-berries being made into a Conserve when they are fully ripe do binde the belly and stayeth defluxions from the head upon the stomach drying up the moisture thereof and helping digestion and are of a pleasant taste The pulp of them dryed to a hard consistence and made into powder and taken in drink stayeth the Whites the powder of the Briar-ball easeth the Chollick provokes Vrine kills Worms and is good to break the Stone being taken in drink Ros Solis or Sun-dew IT hath many hollow Description round small leaves greenish but full of red hairs which makes them seem red every one standing upon a hairy redish foot-stalk the leaves keep a dew upon them in the hottestday having a certain slimeness the small hairs always holding this moisture amongst the leaves rise up small slender stalks reddish also bearing divers small white knobs one above another which are the flowers after which in the heads come certain small seeds The Root consisteth of a few small hairs Names It is called in Latine Ros solis in English Sun-dew Lustwort Moor-grass
and of some Redrot because some think it rots sheep that feed thereon but of this be sure if sheep feed much on the places where it grows they will quickly run to rot Places and Time It grows upon Bogs and moist wet places and in moist boggy Woods as in lower Danemore in Holshot and in a boggy piece of ground where my Father dwells adjoyning to the same Wood called the Grove which will scarce bear any thing else but this Plant It flourisheth from May till August and ought to be gathered in the heat of the day for then it is fullest of dew Nature and Vertues Authours differ in opinion concerning this Herb some hold it to be Caustick and much biting and hot and dry in the fourth degree others that it is sharp and a little drying and binding Dodonaeus held it to be extream biting and that the distilled Water is not safe to be taken inwardly But the truth is it is an Herb of the Sun and the distilled Water is good against the Consumption of the Lungs and is effectual against salt Rheums distilling on the Lungs which cause a Consumption it also comforts the heart and fainting spirits and is available against wheâ—sings Ptysick Cough and Shortness of Breath and heals Vlcers in the Lungs The leaves outwardly applyed will raise Blisters the Cordial Water made hereof called Rosa solis is good against heart-qualms and to strengthen the body Root of Peru. Radix Peruviana THis Cordial Root is known best in our shops by the name of Contra Yerva which title the Spaniards in the Indies gave it being as much as to say an Antidote against Poison because the powder thereof taken in wine is a present remedy against poison causing it to be cast up by vomit or expelled by sweat It also killeth worms in the belly and being taken in the morning in powder in a glass of wine it strengthneth the heart and vital spirits A modern Physician writeth that if it be beaten to powder and infused in wine two hours before the fit of an Ague and then drunk at the coming of the fit and the Patient covered to sweat upon it it cures an Ague at twice or thrice the Dose may be from half a dram to two drams according to the age strength and constitution of the Patient Rosemary Rosmarinus I Shall not need to describe this excellent Herb being so well known in every good Housewises Garden It usually flowers in April and May. Names It is called Rosmarinus and Rosmarinum in Latine the Flowers are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Composition made thereof Dianthos Nature and Vertues It is accounted an Herb particularly under the Influence of Sol in Aries it is hot and dry in the second degree having an astringent quality and consists of divers parts but partakes most of the earthly substance Rosemary hath a warming and comforting heat helping all cold diseases of the Head Stomach Liver and Belly The Herb but especially the Flowers are good for all cold and moist infirmities of the Head and Brain they dry the brain and quicken the sences and memory and strengthens the sinewy part It is also good against all Fluxes The flowers and leaves are profitable against the Whites to be taken daily the Conserve of the flowers is good to comfort the heart and expell the poison of the Pestilence and the branches of Rosemary is good to burn in infectious times the dryed leaves taken like Tobacco dryes up thin distillations and therefore is good against any Cough Ptysick or Consumption Rosemary doth also cleanse and comfort the Stomach and makes a sweet Breath being thus used Take an handful of Rosemary with the flowers or without boil it a good while in white wine adding thereto a little Cinamon then drink it and wash your mouth therewith it maketh the skin very clear being used without Cinamon It helps cold Rheums falling into the eyes giddiness or swimming of the head the Lethargy and Falling-sickness the dumb Palsie or loss of Speech if it be drunk and the Temples bathed therewith It helps such as are liver-grown opening the Obstructions and warmeth and strengtheneth the same it expells Winde powerfully in the Stomach Bowels and Spleen and helps the Hypocondriack passion The Chymical Oyl of the leaves and flowers is effectual for all the Diseases aforesaid being carefully applyed it is very quick and piercing and therefore the Dose must be very little at once for inward griefs It helps the Head and Brain if the Temples and Nostrils be touched with a drop or two it likewise helps any cold joynt sinew or member if it be anointed with two or three drops thereof True Rhabarb Bastard and Moncks Rubarb Rhabarbarum THe true Rubarb groweth in China and the Eastern Countreys therefore I shall not describe it the root being to be had in most Druggists Shops yet I confess it may be seen growing in some curious Gardens with us but not in such plenty as Mr. Culpepper seems to talk of through the multiplying glass of his carping fancy Names It is called Rha from the River Rha in China where it groweth and in our Shops Rhabarbarum the place I have told you the roots are to be taken up about October when the leaves and stalks are fully withered Nature and Vertues Rubarb is hot and dry in the second degree of mixt parts airy thin and purging and partly gross earthly drying and binding the Bastard and Moncks Rubarb are also dry but cooling Rubarb is certainly a herb af Jupiter it is called the friend the life heart and treacle of the Liver being so effectual for the same it purgeth it of Choller Phlegm and watry humors and helps the hardness and coldness thereof and is useful in chollerick and long continued Fevers in the Jaundies Green Sickness Dropsie and stoppings of the Liver the powder steeped in White Wine all night and drunk fasting or being taken amongst other purges being taken in powder with Cassia and a little Venice Turpentine Washed it cleanseth the Reins and strengthneth them and is effectual to stay a Gonorrhea or running of the Reins it is also good against pains windiness wambling and weakness of the stomach Cramp gnawings and gripings of the Kidneys Belly and Bladder pains of the Breasts Mother and Sciatica it helps spitting of blood the Hicket bloody Flux Lasks and all venomous stingings and bitings one dram thereof taken in Hydromel or honied water it easeth the Gout helpeth those that are troubled with Melancholly and is good against pains and Swellings of the Head It is most properly insused in Whey or White Wine which liquors make it work more effectually in opening obstructions and purging the Liver and Stomach The oyl wherein Rubarb hath been boiled is good to anoint any bruised place to dissolve the clotted Blood and Rubarb taken in powder with Mummy and Madder-roots in red Wine healeth Burstings and broken parts as well inward as outward and dissolveth clotted
Blood in the Body occasioned by any fall or bruise Rubarb steeped in white Wine or any other convenient liquor and strayned is good to heal Vlcers in the Eyes and Eye-lids and to asswage swellings and inflammations and being applyed with Honey or boiled in Wine it takes away all black and blue spots that happen therein The seed of Bastard Rubarb helpeth gripings knawings and loathings of the Stomach The roots help ruggedness of the nails and being boiled in Wine it helps the Kings Evil and swellings of the Kernels of the Ears it also provokes Vrine helps such as are troubled with the Stone and dimness of sight it is effectually used with other things in opening and purging dyet drinks to open the Liver and cleanse and cool the blood The root of Monks Rubarb also purgeth but more weakly then either of the other but the root thereof bindeth the Belly and stayeth Lasks and the bloody Flux and so doth the root of the true Rubarb if it be toasted and taken in Plantain water red-Wine or in conserve of Roses or Marmalade of Quinces as I have often found to my great comfort the distilled water hereof is effectual to heal Scabs and foul Sores and to allay the inflammations of them for which purpose also the juyce of the leaves or roots or the decoction thereof in Vinegar is an effectual remedy some use Indian Spikenard with Rubarb to correct it yet it doth not much need any corrigent ☞ See further in The Art of Simpling by W. Coles Meadow Rue Ruta Aquatica THis Herb springeth up from a yellow stringy root Description spreading much in the ground and shooting forth new sprouts round about with many green stalks about two foot high crested all the length of them set with joynts here and there and many large leaves on them divided into smaller leaves nicked or dented in the fore-part of them of a sad green colour on the upper side and pale green underneath toward the top of the stalk there shooteth forth many short branches whereon stand three or four small round heads or buttons which open and appear like a tust of pale greenish yellow threads after which there come small three cornered Cods wherein is contained small long round seed the whole plant hath a strong unpleasant scent Names Ruta Aquatica or Ruta Palustris may be the Latine names thereof Places and Time It grows by Ditches sides and in the borders of moist Meadows in many places of this Land Nature and Vertues The Meadow Rue is doubtless under the influence of Mars and is something of his temperature hot and dry Camcrarius reports that it is used in Italy and in Saxony against the Plague And Dioscorides saith that the bruised herb being applyed healeth old Sores and the distilled water of the herb and flowers doth the same some use it amongst other Pot-herbs to make the body solluble The roots washed clean and boiled in Ale and drunk provoke to Stool gently and being boiled in water and the body bathed therewith warm it destroyeth Lice ☞ See more of this in The Expert Doctors Dispensatory by P. Morellus Garden Rue or Herb-Grace Ruta THis herb is familiarly known the Latine name is Ruta in English Rue Herb Grace and Serving-mens joy it is planted in Gardens and propagated by slips seldom flowring with us and therefore scarce ever bears any good seed Nature and Vertues Rue is hot and dry in the latter end of the third degree and of thin subtle parts a Solar Herb it preserves Chastity being eaten it quickneth the Sight stirs up the Spirits and sharpneth the Wit it provokes Vrine and Womens Courses being taken either in meat or drink it is an excellent antidote against poisons and infections the very smell thereof is a preservative against the Plague in the time of infection The seed thereof taken in Wine is a special Antidote against dangerous Medicines or deadly Poisons A decoction made thereof with some Dill-leaves and flowers easeth pains and torments being drunk inwardly and applyed outwardly to the grieved place The same decoction being drunk helps pains of the Chests and Sides Coughs difficulty of breathing and inflammations of the Lungs and easeth the Sciatica and pains of the Joynts being applyed thereto or the parts anointed with an oyntment made hereof it helps also the shakings of Agues a draught of the decoction being drunk before the coming of the sit an oyl made of Rue by infusion or decoction helps the winde Chollick hardness windiness and suffocation of the Mother the share and parts about it being anointed therewith A decoction thereof in Wine with a little Honey added to it killeth and driveth forth Worms out of the Body Mithridates used a Counter-poison to preserve himself against infection made thus take twenty leaves of Rue two Figs two Walnuts twenty Juniper berries and a little Salt which being beaten together into a Mass was his dese appointed for every morning There is another Electuary made of it which is a remedy for pains or griefs of the Chest and Stomach Spleen Belly and Sides Winde Stitches and Obstructions of the Liver Reins and Bladder by stopping of Urine and extenuates the grossness of fat corpulent Bodies and is thus made Take of Niter Pepper and Commin seed each equal parts leaves of Rue clean picked as much in weight as all the other beat them well together and adde as much Honey as will make thereof an Electuary but first correct the Commin seed by steeping it twenty four hours in Vinegar and then dry it in a hot Fireshovel or in an Oven The leaves of Rue boiled and kept in pickle are a good sauce to meat to warm a cold Stomach and quicken the Sight A decoction of Rue easeth the Gout being bathed therewith and being bruised and put into the Nostrils it stayes bleeding at Nose A decoction of Rue and Bay leaves helps swellings of the Cods it takes away Wheals and Pimples being bruised with Myrtle leaves and made up with wax and applyed being boiled in Wine with some Pepper and Nitre and the places rubbed therewith it taketh away Warts and cureth the Morphew and with Allome and Honey it helps the dry Scab or any Tetter or Ring-worm The juyce thereof warmed in a Pomegranate shell helpeth pain of the Ears being dropped therein An oyntment made of the juyce of Rue with Oyl of Roses Ceruss and Vinegar cures St. Anthonies fire foul running Sores in the Head and Vlcers in the Nose and other parts they being anointed therewith The distilled water is very effectual for many of the said purposes Rupture-wort Herniaria Description THis plant shooteth up with many threddy branches spread round upon the ground about a span long divided into many other smaller parts full of small joynts set thick together whereat come forth two small leaves of a fresh green colour as the branches are whereat grow forth abundance of small yellowish flowers but scarce discernable from the stalks and
are mistaken who take Siser to be a Parsnip Nature and Vertues The roots of Skirrets which are onely in use are moderately hot and moist the roots are but of indifferent nourishment yet they provoke Lust being windy and are easily concocted whereby they yield a reasonable good juyce they are dressed much after the manner of Potatoes either baked or boiled and stewed wiht Pepper Butter and Salt and so eaten they may be eaten also cold with Vinegar and Oyl being first boiled the juyce of the roots drunk with Goats milk stoppeth the Lask and being drunk in Wine it is said to help windiness in the Stomach gripings in the Belly and the Hiccough it doth somewhat provoke Vrine and is a little effectual to consume the Stone and Gravel in the Bladder and Kidneys Smallage Paludapium IT is so well known I need not describe it Names It is called in Latine Paludapium and Apium palustre and in Shops onely Apium in English Smallage and Marsh-parsley Places and Time It is found in Gardens and sometimes in wet and moorish Grounds whence it was first brought it flourisheth when the Garden Parsley doth the stalks coming up the second year and then the seed is ripe in August Nature and Vertues Smallage is hot and dry in the end of the second degree of a bitter taste and opening quality being an herb of Mercury it opens obstructions of the Liver and Sleen rarifies thick phlegm and cleanseth the Blood being used in pottage amongst other herbs as Water-cresses c. It drives down the Courses and is good for the Green Sickness it provokes Vrine and is good against the yellow Jaundies if a syrrup be made of the juyce it is very useful in lasting Agues The juyce with honey of Roses and Barley Water cures Vlcers of the Mouth and the almonds of the Throat being bathed or gargled therewith and cleanseth other foul Vlcers and Wounds being mixed with honey and used it preserves exulcerated Cancers from stinking and putrefaction and helps to heal them the leaves boiled in Hogs grease like a pultis helps Felons and Whitloes on the fingers The seed is good to break Winde kill Worms and help a stinking breath The herb and root do warm the Stomach and expell Winde and help digestion The root is to be sliced and eaten with oyl and Vinegar The root is stronger in operation then the herb for all the said purposes but especially to open obstructions and rid away an Ague the juyce thereof being taken in wine or a decoction thereof made in Wine Sorrel Acetosa THis is very well known plentifully to grow both in the Gardens and Fields and needs no further describing Names It is called in Latine Acetosa and Acedula from its sowreness Nature and Vertues Sorrel is cooling and drying in the second degree and cutteth tough phlegm by reason of its sowreness it is ascribed to the dominion of Venus it is a pleasant sauce to many meats grateful to hot Stomachs it provokes appetite tempers the heat of the Liver and opens the stopping and prevents the wasting thereof it cools inflammations and heat in Agues and Fevers and faintings arising from heat it refresheth the spirits A Sorrel posset is excellent to quench the thirst the leaves taken fasting preserve from infection but much more the Conserve which is good for all the forementioned purposes The seeds bruised and drunk in wine or water are good against the fretting of the Guts and the Chollick and stops hot Fluxes of the Tearms and of humours in the Bloody Flux or flux of the Stomach the leaves wrapped in a Colewort leaf and roasted under the Embers and applyed discusseth kernels in the Throat and ripens and breaks any hard Imposthume Tumor Boyl or Plague Sore the juyce used with Vinegar is good for Tetters Ring-worms and the Itch. The distilled water kills worms resists poison and is good for all the said purposes The roots either in powder or decoction are good for many of the forementioned purposes and helpeth the Jaundies and Gravel and Stone in the Kidneys A decoction of the flowers made in Wine and drunk helpeth the black Jaundies and inward Vlcers Wood-Sorrel Alleluia IT groweth low upon the ground without any stalk Description with a great many leaves coming from the root made of three leaves like Treefoil every leaf somewhat resembling a heart being broad at the ends cut in the middle and sharp towards the stalk of a faint yellowish green colour every one standing on a long red foot stalk which at their first coming up are close folded together to the stalk but opening themselves afterwards they are of a fine sowre taste and yieldeth a juyce which turneth red when it is clarified amongst these leaves rise up weak slender foot stalks bearing every one of them a white flower at the top consisting of five small pointed leaves star fashion and in some desht over with a small shew of blush after the flowers succeed small round heads with yellowish seeds in them the root consists of small strings fastned to the end of a small long piece of a yellowish colour abiding with some leaves thereon all the Winter Names It is called in Latine Trifolium Acetosum and in Shops Alleluia and Lujula in English Wood-Sorrel and Scab-wort Place and Time It grows in moist Woods and shadowy places and upon the old stems of Withyes Alders and such Trees as delight to grow in wet and shadowy places it flowers in April and May. Nature and Vertues Wood Sorrel is of temperature as the other and under the Planetary Influence This herb is singular good to defend the heart in all pestilential Diseases and to cool the faintings thereof caused by heat in Agues Fevers and other diseases it preserves the Blood from putrefaction quencheth thirst stayeth Vomiting and procures a good stomach a dram of the Conserve being taken in a morning or oftner if need require it is good in any contagious Disease A syrrup made of the juyce is effectual for all the said distempers and so is the distiled water the juyce is good to gargle the mouth for any Canker or Vlcer it is good in Wounds and Scabs to stay the bleeding and to cleanse and heal the Wounds and to stay hot defluctions and Catharrs upon the Throat or Lungs Spunges or linnen cloathes wet in the juyce and applyed to hot tumors and inflammations doth cool and help them A composition made with Mithridate Sugar and Wood Sorrel hath been approved for those that are entring into a Fever ☞ See further in The Art of Simpling written by W. Coles Sow-Thistles Sonchus THey need no description Names The Latines call them Sonchus which is divided into Asperum and Levem and in English we call them prickly and smooth Sow-thistles and sometimes Hares Lettice they are called likewise Lactula Leporina Palatium Leporis and Leporum Cubile Place and Time They grow in Gardens and manured Grounds commonly against the owners will as also
very dangerous being mach haunted by Tygers Temperature and Vertues It is hot and dry in the second and according to the judgement of some in the third degree of subtle parts a little astringent and bitter This wood is used as a main Ingredient in those Powders and Electuries which are used to strengthen the heart and inward parts to resist saintings and cold diseases of the heart and corroborate the spirits for which it is very essectual It is also useful in the Apoplexy Palsie Lethargy and left Memory by strengthning and drying the brain and stopping rheumatick defluxions which cause those Diseases It helps faint Swetings Dysenteries Lasks and Pleurisies expells Winde dryeth up Crudities fortisies a weaks Stomach and resists Putrefaction for which it is used in drivers Cordials and Antidotes The Extract thereof it good for the forementioned Diseases It is used outwardly in sumigations to dry up Rheum and in Quilts for that purpose it helps also cold diseases of the Womb The fumigation thereof is said also to provoke the Tearms it helps told diseases of the Womb and killeth Worms by reason of its bitterness as much of the powder thereof as will lye upon a groat being taken three mornings together either in broth or wine is profitable in diseases of the Liver and Spleen openeth their obstructions and strengtheneth them Yarrow Millefolium IT hath many long leaves lying upon the ground Description which are divided or finely cut into many small parts finer then Tansie a little jagged about the edges amongst which rise up two stalks round and green with such leaves but smaller and finer the nearer the tops where stand many small white flowers upon a tuft or umbel each flower having five leaves with a yellowish thrum in the middle somewhat strong in scent but not unpleasant The Root is deep and spreading consisting of many white fibres Names It is called in Latine Millefolium and of some Supercilium Veneris in English Millefoil Yarrow Nose-bleed and thousand leaf Place and Time There are very few Pasture-grounds free from it they flower in July and August Nature and Vertues Yarrow is meanly cold and dry and somewhat astringent an Herb of Venus and is excellent good for Vlcers and Inflammations of the Privities and for inward Excoriations of the Yard the juyce being injected with a Seringe Mathiolus commends it against pissing of blood an ounce of the powder of the herb and flowers with a dram of fine Bole-Armonick being taken three dayes together fasting in a draught of milk The same powder taken in Comphrey or Plantain-water is excellent to staqy inward bleadings and stayeth the bleeding of fresh wounds being strewed thereon and being put into the nostrils stayeth bleeding at rose The juyce put into the Eyes cleareth them of blood and redness and the rox or green leaves chewed in the mouth easeth the Tooth-aches The juyce of the herb and flow 〈◊〉 taken in Goats milk or the distilled water stayeth the running of the Reins in men especially if taken with a little powder of Corral Amber and Ivory The decoction of Yarrow in white wine being drunk stoppeth womens Courses and the bloody Flux and a good quantity thereof boiled in water and made into a bathe and sate over performeth the same It is good to close up the stomachs of those in whom the Retentive Faculty is so weak that they disgorge or vomit up whatsoever they eat It is a good Medicine for an Ague a draught thereof being drunk before the fit come and used for two or three fits together An Oyntment made of the herb is good for green wounds and also for Vlcers and Fistula's especially such as abound with moisture The said Oyntment or Oyl is good to stay the shedding of hair the head bieng anointed therewith Yew Tree Taxus THis Tree is well known for hard timber and good to make strong Bowes the Latine name thereof is Taxas but it is not mentioned by me for any medicinal Vertue that is in it though the bark thereof is by some used instead of that of Tamarisk I say not how judiciously Nature and Vertues Yew is hot and dry in the third degree and hath such an attractive quality that if it be set in a place subject to poysonous vapours the very branches will draw and imbibe them Hence it is conceived that the judicious in former times planted it in Church-yards on the West side because those places being fuller of putrefaction and gross oleaginous Vapours exhaled out of the Graves by the setting Sun and sometimes drawn into those Meteors called Ignes fatui divers have been frighted supposing some dead bodies to walk others have been blasted c. not that it is able to drive away Devils as some superstitious Monks have imagined nor yet that it was ever used to sprinkle Holy-Water as some quarrel some Presbyters altogether as ignorant of natural Causes as the signification of Emblems and useful Ornaments have fondly conceived Wheresoever it grows it is dangerous and deadly both to man and beast according to most Authours how much more then if it be encompassed with Graves into which the lesser Roots will run and suck nourishment poisonous mans flesh being the rankest poison that can be yet a certain Vicar unwilling to own the effects thereof upon his Cows would fain deny it to be so Other Creatures as Rabbits have been poisoned with it and the very lying under the shadow hath been found hurtful Yet the growing of it in a Church-yard is useful and therefore it ought not to be cut down upon what pittiful pretence soever Zedoary Zedoaria IT is a Root growing in the East Indies Description called in Latine Zedoaria growing much like unto Ginger Nature and Vertues It is hot and dry in the second degree It stops Lasks and is good against venomous bitings stoppings and pains of the Stomach It stayes vomiting helps the Chollick amends a stinking Breath and is a very good Antidote against the Plague and other contagious Diseases FINIS An Alphabetical Table of all the Herbs and Plants contained in this Book with their several Latine Appellations directed to their several Pages A. ADders Tongue Ophioglossum Page 1 Adders-grass idem Page 1 Agrimony Eupatoria Page 2 Water-Agrimony Eupatorium Page 3 Agarick Agaricus Larix Page 172 Ague tree Sassafras Page 295 Agnus castus Chaste tree Page 4 Alecoast Costus hortorum Page 5 Alehoof Hedera terrestris Page 6 All-heal Panax Herculeum Page 7 Alexanders Hipposelinum Page 8 Black Alder-tree Alnus nigra Ibid. Alleluia Page 311 Almond-tree Amigdalum Page 9 Alkekengi Page 10 Angelica Page 11 Apple-tree Pomus Page 12 Apricock-tree Malus Armeniaca Page 13 Archangel Lamium Ibid. Aron Page 92 Arrach Atriplex Page 14 Arsmart Persicaria Page 15 Alkanet Fucus Herba Page 16 Amara dulcis Page 41 Amaranthus Page 346 Anemonies Herba venti Page 18 Artechokes Cinara Page 19 Assarabacca Asarum Page 20 Asparagus Corruda Ibid. Ash-tree Fraxinus Page 21 Asp or