Chap. CXXIIII.Periploca recta Virginiana.Virginian Silke.Lest this stranger should find no hospitality with vs, being so beautifull a plant, or not finde place in this Garden, let him be here receiued, although with the last, rather then not at all. It riseth vp with one or more strong and round stalkes, three or foure foote high, whereon are set at the seuerall ioynts thereof two faire, long, and broad leaues, round pointed, with many veines therein, growing close to the stemme, without any foote-stalke: at the tops of the stalkes, and some times at the ioynts of the leaues, groweth forth a great bush of flowers out of a thinne skinne, to the number of twenty, and sometimes thirty or forty, euery one with a long foote-stalke, hanging downe their heads for the most part, especially those that are outermost, euery one standing within a small huske of greene leaues, turned to the stalkeward, like vnto the Lysimachia flower of Virginia before described, and each of them consisting of fiue small leaues a peece, of a pale-purplish colour on the vpperside, and of a pale yellowish purple vnderneath, both sides of each leafe being as it were folded together, making them seeme hollow and pointed, with a few short chiues in the middle: after which come long and crooked pointed cods standing vpright, wherein are contained flat brownish seede, dispersedly lying within a great deale of fine, soft, and whitish browne silke, very like vnto the cods, seede, and silke ofAsclepias, or Swallow-wort, but that the cods are greater and more crooked, and harder also in the outer shell: the roote is long and white, of the bignesse of a mans thumbe, running vnder ground very far, and shooting vp in diuers places, the heads being set full of small white grumes or knots, yeelding forth many branches, if it stand any time in a place: the whole plant, as well leaues as stalkes, being broken, yeeld a pale milke.The Place.It came to me from Virginia, where it groweth aboundantly, being raised vp from the seede I receiued.The Time.It flowreth in Iuly, and the seede is ripe in August.The Names.It may seeme very probable to many, that this plant is the same thatProsper Alpinus in the twenty fift Chapter of his Booke of Egyptian plants, namethBeidelsar; andHonorius Bellus in his third and fourth Epistles vnto Clusius (which are at the end of his History of plants)callethOssar frutex: And Clusius himselfe in the same Booke callethApocynum Syriacum,Palæstinum, andÆgyptiacum, because this agreeth with theirs in very many and notable parts; yet verily I thinke this plant is not the same, but rather another kinde of it selfe: First, because it is notfrutex, a shrub or wooddy plant, nor keepeth his leaues all the yeare, but loseth both leaues and stalks, dying down to the ground euery yeare: Secondly, the milke is not causticke or violent, as Alpinus and Bellus sayOssaris: Thirdly, the cods are more crooked then those of Clusius, or of Alpinus, which Honorius Bellus acknowledgeth to be right, although greater then those he had out of Egypt: And lastly, the rootes of these doe runne, whereof none of them make any mention. Gerard in his herball giueth a rude figure of the plant, but a very true figure of the cods with seede, and saith the Virginians call itWisanck, and referreth it to theAsclepias, for the likenesse of the cods stuffed withsilken doune. But what reason Caspar Bauhinus in hisPinax Theatri Botanicihad, to call it (for it is Clusius hisApocynum Syriacum) by the name ofLapathum Ægyptiacum lactescens siliqua Asclepiadis, I know none in the world: for but that he would shew an extreame singularity in giuing names to plants, contrary to all others (which is very frequent with him) how could he thinke, that this plant could haue any likenesse or correspondencie, with any of the kindes of Dockes, that euer he had seene, read, or heard of, in face, or shew of leaues, flowers, or seede; but especially in giuing milke. I haue you see (and that not without iust and euident cause) giuen it a differing Latine name from Gerard, because theAsclepiasgiueth no milke, but thePeriplocaorApocymumdoth; and therefore fitter to be referred to this then to that. And because it should not want an English name answerable to some peculiar property thereof, I haue from the silken doune called it Virginian Silke: but I know there is another plant growing in Virginia, called Silke Grasse, which is much differing from this.The Vertues.I know not of any in our Land hath made any tryall of the properties hereof.Captaine Iohn Smith in his booke of the discouery and description of Virginia, saith, that the Virginians vse the rootes hereof (if his be the same with this) being bruised and applyed to cure their hurts & diseases.
Chap. CXXIIII.Periploca recta Virginiana.Virginian Silke.Lest this stranger should find no hospitality with vs, being so beautifull a plant, or not finde place in this Garden, let him be here receiued, although with the last, rather then not at all. It riseth vp with one or more strong and round stalkes, three or foure foote high, whereon are set at the seuerall ioynts thereof two faire, long, and broad leaues, round pointed, with many veines therein, growing close to the stemme, without any foote-stalke: at the tops of the stalkes, and some times at the ioynts of the leaues, groweth forth a great bush of flowers out of a thinne skinne, to the number of twenty, and sometimes thirty or forty, euery one with a long foote-stalke, hanging downe their heads for the most part, especially those that are outermost, euery one standing within a small huske of greene leaues, turned to the stalkeward, like vnto the Lysimachia flower of Virginia before described, and each of them consisting of fiue small leaues a peece, of a pale-purplish colour on the vpperside, and of a pale yellowish purple vnderneath, both sides of each leafe being as it were folded together, making them seeme hollow and pointed, with a few short chiues in the middle: after which come long and crooked pointed cods standing vpright, wherein are contained flat brownish seede, dispersedly lying within a great deale of fine, soft, and whitish browne silke, very like vnto the cods, seede, and silke ofAsclepias, or Swallow-wort, but that the cods are greater and more crooked, and harder also in the outer shell: the roote is long and white, of the bignesse of a mans thumbe, running vnder ground very far, and shooting vp in diuers places, the heads being set full of small white grumes or knots, yeelding forth many branches, if it stand any time in a place: the whole plant, as well leaues as stalkes, being broken, yeeld a pale milke.The Place.It came to me from Virginia, where it groweth aboundantly, being raised vp from the seede I receiued.The Time.It flowreth in Iuly, and the seede is ripe in August.The Names.It may seeme very probable to many, that this plant is the same thatProsper Alpinus in the twenty fift Chapter of his Booke of Egyptian plants, namethBeidelsar; andHonorius Bellus in his third and fourth Epistles vnto Clusius (which are at the end of his History of plants)callethOssar frutex: And Clusius himselfe in the same Booke callethApocynum Syriacum,Palæstinum, andÆgyptiacum, because this agreeth with theirs in very many and notable parts; yet verily I thinke this plant is not the same, but rather another kinde of it selfe: First, because it is notfrutex, a shrub or wooddy plant, nor keepeth his leaues all the yeare, but loseth both leaues and stalks, dying down to the ground euery yeare: Secondly, the milke is not causticke or violent, as Alpinus and Bellus sayOssaris: Thirdly, the cods are more crooked then those of Clusius, or of Alpinus, which Honorius Bellus acknowledgeth to be right, although greater then those he had out of Egypt: And lastly, the rootes of these doe runne, whereof none of them make any mention. Gerard in his herball giueth a rude figure of the plant, but a very true figure of the cods with seede, and saith the Virginians call itWisanck, and referreth it to theAsclepias, for the likenesse of the cods stuffed withsilken doune. But what reason Caspar Bauhinus in hisPinax Theatri Botanicihad, to call it (for it is Clusius hisApocynum Syriacum) by the name ofLapathum Ægyptiacum lactescens siliqua Asclepiadis, I know none in the world: for but that he would shew an extreame singularity in giuing names to plants, contrary to all others (which is very frequent with him) how could he thinke, that this plant could haue any likenesse or correspondencie, with any of the kindes of Dockes, that euer he had seene, read, or heard of, in face, or shew of leaues, flowers, or seede; but especially in giuing milke. I haue you see (and that not without iust and euident cause) giuen it a differing Latine name from Gerard, because theAsclepiasgiueth no milke, but thePeriplocaorApocymumdoth; and therefore fitter to be referred to this then to that. And because it should not want an English name answerable to some peculiar property thereof, I haue from the silken doune called it Virginian Silke: but I know there is another plant growing in Virginia, called Silke Grasse, which is much differing from this.The Vertues.I know not of any in our Land hath made any tryall of the properties hereof.Captaine Iohn Smith in his booke of the discouery and description of Virginia, saith, that the Virginians vse the rootes hereof (if his be the same with this) being bruised and applyed to cure their hurts & diseases.
Lest this stranger should find no hospitality with vs, being so beautifull a plant, or not finde place in this Garden, let him be here receiued, although with the last, rather then not at all. It riseth vp with one or more strong and round stalkes, three or foure foote high, whereon are set at the seuerall ioynts thereof two faire, long, and broad leaues, round pointed, with many veines therein, growing close to the stemme, without any foote-stalke: at the tops of the stalkes, and some times at the ioynts of the leaues, groweth forth a great bush of flowers out of a thinne skinne, to the number of twenty, and sometimes thirty or forty, euery one with a long foote-stalke, hanging downe their heads for the most part, especially those that are outermost, euery one standing within a small huske of greene leaues, turned to the stalkeward, like vnto the Lysimachia flower of Virginia before described, and each of them consisting of fiue small leaues a peece, of a pale-purplish colour on the vpperside, and of a pale yellowish purple vnderneath, both sides of each leafe being as it were folded together, making them seeme hollow and pointed, with a few short chiues in the middle: after which come long and crooked pointed cods standing vpright, wherein are contained flat brownish seede, dispersedly lying within a great deale of fine, soft, and whitish browne silke, very like vnto the cods, seede, and silke ofAsclepias, or Swallow-wort, but that the cods are greater and more crooked, and harder also in the outer shell: the roote is long and white, of the bignesse of a mans thumbe, running vnder ground very far, and shooting vp in diuers places, the heads being set full of small white grumes or knots, yeelding forth many branches, if it stand any time in a place: the whole plant, as well leaues as stalkes, being broken, yeeld a pale milke.
The Place.It came to me from Virginia, where it groweth aboundantly, being raised vp from the seede I receiued.
It came to me from Virginia, where it groweth aboundantly, being raised vp from the seede I receiued.
The Time.It flowreth in Iuly, and the seede is ripe in August.
It flowreth in Iuly, and the seede is ripe in August.
The Names.It may seeme very probable to many, that this plant is the same thatProsper Alpinus in the twenty fift Chapter of his Booke of Egyptian plants, namethBeidelsar; andHonorius Bellus in his third and fourth Epistles vnto Clusius (which are at the end of his History of plants)callethOssar frutex: And Clusius himselfe in the same Booke callethApocynum Syriacum,Palæstinum, andÆgyptiacum, because this agreeth with theirs in very many and notable parts; yet verily I thinke this plant is not the same, but rather another kinde of it selfe: First, because it is notfrutex, a shrub or wooddy plant, nor keepeth his leaues all the yeare, but loseth both leaues and stalks, dying down to the ground euery yeare: Secondly, the milke is not causticke or violent, as Alpinus and Bellus sayOssaris: Thirdly, the cods are more crooked then those of Clusius, or of Alpinus, which Honorius Bellus acknowledgeth to be right, although greater then those he had out of Egypt: And lastly, the rootes of these doe runne, whereof none of them make any mention. Gerard in his herball giueth a rude figure of the plant, but a very true figure of the cods with seede, and saith the Virginians call itWisanck, and referreth it to theAsclepias, for the likenesse of the cods stuffed withsilken doune. But what reason Caspar Bauhinus in hisPinax Theatri Botanicihad, to call it (for it is Clusius hisApocynum Syriacum) by the name ofLapathum Ægyptiacum lactescens siliqua Asclepiadis, I know none in the world: for but that he would shew an extreame singularity in giuing names to plants, contrary to all others (which is very frequent with him) how could he thinke, that this plant could haue any likenesse or correspondencie, with any of the kindes of Dockes, that euer he had seene, read, or heard of, in face, or shew of leaues, flowers, or seede; but especially in giuing milke. I haue you see (and that not without iust and euident cause) giuen it a differing Latine name from Gerard, because theAsclepiasgiueth no milke, but thePeriplocaorApocymumdoth; and therefore fitter to be referred to this then to that. And because it should not want an English name answerable to some peculiar property thereof, I haue from the silken doune called it Virginian Silke: but I know there is another plant growing in Virginia, called Silke Grasse, which is much differing from this.
It may seeme very probable to many, that this plant is the same thatProsper Alpinus in the twenty fift Chapter of his Booke of Egyptian plants, namethBeidelsar; andHonorius Bellus in his third and fourth Epistles vnto Clusius (which are at the end of his History of plants)callethOssar frutex: And Clusius himselfe in the same Booke callethApocynum Syriacum,Palæstinum, andÆgyptiacum, because this agreeth with theirs in very many and notable parts; yet verily I thinke this plant is not the same, but rather another kinde of it selfe: First, because it is notfrutex, a shrub or wooddy plant, nor keepeth his leaues all the yeare, but loseth both leaues and stalks, dying down to the ground euery yeare: Secondly, the milke is not causticke or violent, as Alpinus and Bellus sayOssaris: Thirdly, the cods are more crooked then those of Clusius, or of Alpinus, which Honorius Bellus acknowledgeth to be right, although greater then those he had out of Egypt: And lastly, the rootes of these doe runne, whereof none of them make any mention. Gerard in his herball giueth a rude figure of the plant, but a very true figure of the cods with seede, and saith the Virginians call itWisanck, and referreth it to theAsclepias, for the likenesse of the cods stuffed withsilken doune. But what reason Caspar Bauhinus in hisPinax Theatri Botanicihad, to call it (for it is Clusius hisApocynum Syriacum) by the name ofLapathum Ægyptiacum lactescens siliqua Asclepiadis, I know none in the world: for but that he would shew an extreame singularity in giuing names to plants, contrary to all others (which is very frequent with him) how could he thinke, that this plant could haue any likenesse or correspondencie, with any of the kindes of Dockes, that euer he had seene, read, or heard of, in face, or shew of leaues, flowers, or seede; but especially in giuing milke. I haue you see (and that not without iust and euident cause) giuen it a differing Latine name from Gerard, because theAsclepiasgiueth no milke, but thePeriplocaorApocymumdoth; and therefore fitter to be referred to this then to that. And because it should not want an English name answerable to some peculiar property thereof, I haue from the silken doune called it Virginian Silke: but I know there is another plant growing in Virginia, called Silke Grasse, which is much differing from this.
The Vertues.I know not of any in our Land hath made any tryall of the properties hereof.Captaine Iohn Smith in his booke of the discouery and description of Virginia, saith, that the Virginians vse the rootes hereof (if his be the same with this) being bruised and applyed to cure their hurts & diseases.
I know not of any in our Land hath made any tryall of the properties hereof.Captaine Iohn Smith in his booke of the discouery and description of Virginia, saith, that the Virginians vse the rootes hereof (if his be the same with this) being bruised and applyed to cure their hurts & diseases.