COWSLIPS, OR PEAGLES.

COWSLIPS, OR PEAGLES.Boththe wild and garden Cowslips are so well known, that I neither trouble myself nor the reader with a description of them.Time.] They flower in April and May.Government and virtues.] Venus lays claim to this herb as her own, and it is under the sign Aries, and our city dames know well enough the ointment or distilled water of it adds beauty, or at least restores it when it is lost. The flowers are held to be more effectual than the leaves, and the roots of little use. An ointment being made with them, takes away spots and wrinkles of the skin, sun-burning, and freckles, and adds beauty exceedingly; they remedy all infirmities of the head coming of heat and wind, as vertigo, ephialtes, false apparitions, phrensies, falling-sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, pains in the nerves; the roots ease pains in the back and bladder, and open the passages of urine. The leaves are good in wounds, and the flowers take away trembling. If the flowers be not well dried, and kept in a warm place, they will soon putrefy and look green: Have a special eye over them; If you let them see the Sun once a month, it will do neither the Sun nor them harm.Because they strengthen the brain and nerves, and remedy palsies, Greeks gave them the name Paralysis. The flowers preserved or conserved, and the quantity ofa nutmeg eaten every morning, is a sufficient dose for inward diseases; but for wounds, spots, wrinkles, and sunburnings, an ointment is made of the leaves, and hog’s grease.CRAB’S CLAWS.Calledalso Water Sengreen, Knight’s Pond Water, Water House-leek, Pond Weed, and Fresh-water Soldier.Descript.] It has sundry long narrow leaves, with sharp prickles on the edges of them, also very sharp pointed; the stalks which bear flowers, seldom grow so high as the leaves, bearing a forked head, like a Crab’s Claw, out of which comes a white flower, consisting of three leaves, with divers yellowish hairy threads in the middle; it takes root in the mud at the bottom of the water.Place.] It grows plentifully in the fens in Lincolnshire.Time.] It flowers in June, and usually from thence till August.Government and virtues.] It is a plant under the dominion of Venus, and therefore a great strengthener of the reins; it is excellently good for inflammation which is commonly called St. Anthony’s Fire; it assuages inflammations, and swellings in wounds: and an ointment made of it is excellently good to heal them; there is scarcely a better remedy growing than this is, for such as have bruised their kidneys, and upon that account discharge blood; a dram of the powder of the herb taken every morning, is a very good remedy to stop the terms.BLACK CRESSES.Descript.]Ithas long leaves, deeply cut and jagged on both sides, not much unlike wild mustard; the stalk small, very limber, though very tough: you may twist them round as you may a willow before they break. The flowers are very small and yellow, after which comes small pods, which contains the seed.Place.] It is a common herb, grows usually by the way-side, and sometimes upon mud walls about London, but it delights to grow most among stones and rubbish.Time.] It flowers in June and July, and the seed is ripe in August and September.Government and virtues.] It is a plant of a hot and biting nature, under the dominion of Mars. The seed of Black Cresses strengthens the brain exceedingly, being, in performing that office, little inferior to mustard seed, if at all; they are excellently good to stay those rheums which may fall down from the head upon the lungs; you may beat the seed into powder, if you please, and make it up into an electuary with honey; so you have an excellent remedy by you, not only for the premises, but also for the cough, yellow jaundice and sciatica. This herb boiled into a poultice, is an excellent remedy for inflammations; both in women’s breast, and men’s testicles.SCIATICA CRESSES.Descript.]Theseare of two kinds; The first rises up with a round stalk about two feet high, spreads into divers branches, whose lower leaves are somewhat larger than the upper, yet all of them cut or torn on the edges, somewhat like the garden Cresses, but smaller, the flowers are small and white, growing at the tops of branches, where afterwards grow husks with small brownish seeds therein very strong and sharp in taste, more than the Cresses of the garden; the root is long, white, and woody.The other has the lower leaves whole somewhat long and broad, not torn at all, but only somewhat deeply dented about the edges towards the ends; but those that grow up higher are smaller. The flowers and seeds are like the former, and so is theroot likewise, and both root and seeds as sharp as it.Place.] They grow in the way-sides in untilled places, and by the sides of old walls.Time.] They flower in the end of June, and their seed is ripe in July.Government and virtues.] It is a Saturnine plant. The leaves, but especially the root, taken fresh in Summer-time, beaten or made into a poultice or salve with old hog’s grease, and applied to the places pained with the sciatica, to continue thereon four hours if it be on a man, and two hours on a woman; the place afterwards bathed with wine and oil mixed together, and then wrapped with wool or skins, after they have sweat a little, will assuredly cure not only the same disease in hips, knuckle-bone, or other of the joints, as gout in the hands or feet, but all other old griefs of the head, (as inveterate rheums,) and other parts of the body that are hard to be cured. And if of the former griefs any parts remain, the same medicine after twenty days, is to be applied again. The same is also effectual in the diseases of the spleen; and applied to the skin, takes away the blemish thereof, whether they be scars, leprosy, scabs, or scurf, which although it ulcerate the part, yet that is to be helped afterwards with a salve made of oil and wax. Esteem this as another secret.WATER CRESSES.Descript.]Ourordinary Water Cresses spread forth with many weak, hollow, sappy stalks, shooting out fibres at the joints and upwards long winged leaves made of sundry broad sappy almost round leaves, of a brownish colour. The flowers are many and white standing on long foot-stalks after which come small yellow seed, contained in small long pods like horns. The whole plant abides green in the winter, and tastes somewhat hot and sharp.Place.] They grow, for the most part, in small standing waters, yet sometimes in small rivulets of running water.Time.] They flower and seed in the beginning of Summer.Government and virtues.] It is an herb under the dominion of the Moon. They are more powerful against the scurvy, and to cleanse the blood and humours, than Brooklime is, and serve in all the other uses in which Brooklime is available, as to break the stone, and provoke urine and woman’s courses. The decoction thereof cleanses ulcers, by washing them therewith. The leaves bruised, or the juice, is good, to be applied to the face or other parts troubled with freckles, pimples, spots, or the like, at night, and washed away in the morning. The juice mixed with vinegar, and the fore part of the head bathed therewith, is very good for those that are dull and drowsy, or have the lethargy.Water-cress pottage is a good remedy to cleanse the blood in the spring, and help headaches, and consume the gross humours winter has left behind; those that would live in health, may use it if they please; if they will not, I cannot help it. If any fancy not pottage, they may eat the herb as a sallad.CROSSWORT.Thisherb receives its name from the situation of its leaves.Descript.] Common Crosswort grows up with square hairy brown stalks a little above a foot high, having four small broad and pointed, hairy yet smooth thin leaves, growing at every joint, each against other one way, which has caused the name. Towards the tops of the stalks at the joints, with the leaves in three or four rows downwards, stand small, pale yellow flowers, after which come small blackish round seeds, four for the most part, set in every husk. The root is very small, and full offibres, or threads, taking good hold of the ground, and spreading with the branches over a great deal of ground, which perish not in winter, although the leaves die every year and spring again anew.Place.] It grows in many moist grounds, well in meadows as untilled places, about London, in Hampstead church-yard, at Wye in Kent, and sundry other places.Time.] It flowers from May all the Summer long, in one place or other, as they are more open to the sun; the seed ripens soon after.Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Saturn. This is a singularly good wound herb, and is used inwardly, not only to stay bleeding of wounds, but to consolidate them, as it doth outwardly any green wound, which it quickly solders up, and heals. The decoction of the herb in wine, helps to expectorate the phlegm out of the chest, and is good for obstructions in the breast, stomach, or bowels, and helps a decayed appetite. It is also good to wash any wound or sore with, to cleanse and heal it. The herb bruised, and then boiled applied outwardly for certain days together, renewing it often: and in the mean time the decoction of the herb in wine, taken inwardly every day, doth certainly cure the rupture in any, so as it be not too inveterate; but very speedily, if it be fresh and lately taken.CROWFOOT.Manyare the names this furious biting herb has obtained, almost enough to make up a Welchman’s pedigree, if he fetch no farther than John of Gaunt, or William the Conquerer; for it is called Frog’s-foot, from the Greek name Barrakion: Crowfoot, Gold Knobs, Gold Cups, King’s Knob, Baffiners, Troilflowers, Polts, Locket Gouions, and Butterflowers.Abundance are the sorts of this herb, that to describe them all would tire the patience of Socrates himself, but because I have not yet attained to the spirit of Socrates, I shall but describe the most usual.Descript.] The most common Crowfoot has many thin great leaves, cut into divers parts, in taste biting and sharp, biting and blistering the tongue: It bears many flowers, and those of a bright, resplendent, yellow colour. I do not remember, that I ever saw any thing yellower. Virgins, in ancient time, used to make powder of them to furrow bride beds; after which flowers come small heads, some spiked and rugged like a Pine-Apple.Place.] They grow very common every where; unless you turn your head into a hedge you cannot but see them as you walk.Time.] They flower in May and June, even till September.Government and virtues.] This fiery and hot-spirited herb of Mars is no way fit to be given inwardly, but an ointment of the leaves or flowers will draw a blister, and may be so fitly applied to the nape of the neck to draw back rheum from the eyes. The herb being bruised and mixed with a little mustard, draws a blister as well, and as perfectly as Cantharides, and with far less danger to the vessels of urine, which Cantharides naturally delight to wrong; I knew the herb once applied to a pestilential rising that was fallen down, and it saved life even beyond hope; it were good to keep an ointment and plaister of it, if it were but for that.CUCKOW-POINT.Itis called Aron, Janus, Barba-aron, Calve’s-foot, Ramp, Starchwort, Cuckow-point, and Wake Robin.Descript.] This shoots forth three, four or five leaves at the most, from one root, every one whereof is somewhat large and long, broad at the bottom next the stalk,and forked, but ending in a point, without a cut on the edge, of a full green colour, each standing upon a thick round stalk, of a hand-breadth long, or more, among which, after two or three months that they begin to wither, rises up a bare, round, whitish green stalk, spotted and streaked with purple, somewhat higher than the leaves: At the top whereof stands a long hollow husk close at the bottom, but open from the middle upwards, ending in a point: in the middle whereof stands the small long pestle or clapper, smaller at the bottom than at the top, of a dark purple colour, as the husk is on the inside, though green without; which, after it hath so abided for some time, the husk with the clapper decays, and the foot or bottom thereof grows to be a small long bunch of berries, green at the first, and of a yellowish red colour when they are ripe, of the bigness of a hazel-nut kernel, which abides thereon almost until Winter; the root is round, and somewhat long, for the most part lying along, the leaves shooting forth at the largest end, which, when it bears its berries, are somewhat wrinkled and loose, another growing under it, which is solid and firm, with many small threads hanging thereat. The whole plant is of a very sharp biting taste, pricking the tongue as nettles do the hands, and so abides for a great while without alteration. The root thereof was anciently used instead of starch to starch linen with.There is another sort of Cuckow-point, with less leaves than the former, and some times harder, having blackish spots upon them, which for the most part abide longer green in Summer than the former, and both leaves and roots are more sharp and fierce than it: In all things else it is like the former.Place.] These two sorts grow frequently almost under every hedge-side in many places of this land.Time.] They shoot forth leaves in the Spring, and continue but until the middle of Summer, or somewhat later; their husks appearing before the fall away, and their fruit shewing in April.Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mars. Tragus reports, that a dram weight, or more, if need be, of the spotted Wake Robin, either fresh and green, or dried, having been eaten and taken, is a present and sure remedy for poison and the plague. The juice of the herb taken to the quantity of a spoonful has the same effect. But if there be a little vinegar added thereto, as well as to the root aforesaid, it somewhat allays the sharp biting taste thereof upon the tongue. The green leaves bruised, and laid upon any boil or plague sore, doth wonderfully help to draw forth the poison: A dram of the powder of the dried root taken with twice so much sugar in the form of a licking electuary, or the green root, doth wonderfully help those that are pursy and short-winded, as also those that have a cough; it breaks, digests, and rids away phlegm from the stomach, chest, and lungs. The milk wherein the root as been boiled is effectual also for the same purpose. The said powder taken in wine or other drink, or the juice of the berries, or the powder of them, or the wine wherein they have been boiled, provokes urine, and brings down women’s courses and purges them effectually after child-bearing, to bring away the after-birth. Taken with sheep’s milk, it heals the inward ulcers of the bowels. The distilled water thereof is effectual to all the purposes aforesaid. A spoonful taken at a time heals the itch; an ounce or more taken a time for some days together, doth help the rupture: The leaves either green or dry, or the juice of them, doth cleanse all manner of rotten and filthy ulcers, in what part of the body soever; and heals the stinking sores in the nose, called Polypus. The water wherein the root has been boiled, droppedinto the eyes, cleanses them from any film or skin, cloud or mists, which begin to hinder the sight, and helps the watering and redness of them, or when, by some chance, they become black and blue. The root mixed with bean-flour, and applied to the throat or jaws that are inflamed, helps them. The juice of the berries boiled in oil of roses, or beaten into powder mixed with the oil, and dropped into the ears, eases pains in them. The berries or the roots beaten with the hot ox-dung, and applied, eases the pains of the gout. The leaves and roots boiled in wine with a little oil, and applied to the piles, or the falling down of the fundament, eases them, and so doth sitting over the hot fumes thereof. The fresh roots bruised and distilled with a little milk, yields a most sovereign water to cleanse the skin from scurf, freckles, spots, or blemishes whatsoever therein.Authors have left large commendations of this herb you see, but for my part, I have neither spoken with Dr. Reason nor Dr. Experience about it.CUCUMBERS.Government and virtues.]Thereis no dispute to be made, but that they are under the dominion of the Moon, though they are so much cried out against for their coldness, and if they were but one degree colder they would be poison. The best of Galenists hold them to be cold and moist in the second degree, and then not so hot as either lettuce or purslain: They are excellently good for a hot stomach, and hot liver; the unmeasurable use of them fills the body full of raw humours, and so indeed the unmeasurable use of any thing else doth harm. The face being washed with their juice, cleanses the skin, and is excellently good for hot rheums in the eyes; the seed is excellently good to provoke urine, and cleanses the passages thereof when they are stopped: there is not a better remedy for ulcers in the bladder growing, than Cucumbers are; The usual course is, to use the seeds in emulsions, as they make almond milk; but a far better way (in my opinion) is this; When the season of the year is, take the Cucumbers and bruise them well, and distil the water from them, and let such as are troubled with ulcers in the bladder drink no other drink. The face being washed with the same water, cures the reddest face that is; it is also excellently good for sun-burning, freckles, and morphew.DAISIES.Theseare so well known almost to every child, that I suppose it needless to write any description of them. Take therefore the virtues of them as follows.Government and virtues.] The herb is under the sign Cancer, and under the dominion of Venus, and therefore excellently good for wounds in the breast, and very fitting to be kept both in oils, ointments, and plaisters, as also in syrup. The greater wild Daisy is a wound herb of good respect, often used in those drinks or salves that are for wounds, either inward or outward. The juice or distilled water of these, or the small Daisy, doth much temper the heat of choler, and refresh the liver, and the other inward parts. A decoction made of them and drank, helps to cure the wounds made in the hollowness of the breast. The same also cures all ulcers and pustules in the mouth or tongue, or in the secret parts. The leaves bruised and applied to the privities, or to any other parts that are swoln and hot, doth dissolve it, and temper the heat. A decoction made thereof, of Wallwort and Agrimony, and the places fomented and bathed therewith warm, gives great ease to them that are troubled with the palsy, sciatica, or the gout. The same also disperses and dissolves the knots or kernels that grow in the flesh of any part of the body, and bruises and hurts that come offalls and blows; they are also used for ruptures, and other inward burnings, with very good success. An ointment made thereof doth wonderfully help all wounds that have inflammations about them, or by reason of moist humours having access unto them, are kept long from healing, and such are those, for the most part, that happen to joints of the arms or legs. The juice of them dropped into the running eyes of any, doth much help them.DANDELION, VULGARLY CALLED PISS-A-BEDS.Descript.]Itis well known to have many long and deep gashed leaves, lying on the ground round about the head of the roots; the ends of each gash or jag, on both sides looking downwards towards the roots; the middle rib being white, which being broken, yields abundance of bitter milk, but the root much more; from among the leaves, which always abide green, arise many slender, weak, naked foot-stalks, every one of them bearing at the top one large yellow flower, consisting of many rows of yellow leaves, broad at the points, and nicked in with deep spots of yellow in the middle, which growing ripe, the green husk wherein the flowers stood turns itself down to the stalk, and the head of down becomes as round as a ball: with long seed underneath, bearing a part of the down on the head of every one, which together is blown away with the wind, or may be at once blown away with one’s mouth. The root growing downwards exceedingly deep, which being broken off within the ground, will yet shoot forth again, and will hardly be destroyed where it hath once taken deep root in the ground.Place.] It grows frequently in all meadows and pasture-grounds.Time.] It flowers in one place or other almost all the year long.Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Jupiter. It is of an opening and cleansing quality, and therefore very effectual for the obstructions of the liver, gall and spleen, and the diseases that arise from them, as the jaundice and hypocondriac; it opens the passages of the urine both in young and old; powerfully cleanses imposthumes and inward ulcers in the urinary passage, and by its drying and temperate quality doth afterwards heal them; for which purpose the decoction of the roots or leaves in white wine, or the leaves chopped as pot-herbs, with a few Alisanders, and boiled in their broth, are very effectual. And whoever is drawing towards a consumption or an evil disposition of the whole body, called Cachexia, by the use hereof for some time together, shall find a wonderful help. It helps also to procure rest and sleep to bodies distempered by the heat of ague fits, or otherwise: The distilled water is effectual to drink in pestilential fevers, and to wash the sores.You see here what virtues this common herb hath, and that is the reason the French and Dutch so often eat them in the Spring; and now if you look a little farther, you may see plainly without a pair of spectacles, that foreign physicians are not so selfish as ours are, but more communicative of the virtues of plants to people.DARNEL.Itis called Jam and Wray: in Sussex they call it Crop, it being a pestilent enemy among corn.Descript.] This has all the winter long sundry long, flat, and rough leaves, which, when the stalk rises, which is slender and jointed, are narrower, but rough still; on the top grows a long spike, composed of many heads set one above another, containing two or three husks, with a sharp but short beard of awns at the end; theseed is easily shaken out of the ear, the husk itself being somewhat rough.Place.] The country husbandmen do know this too well to grow among their corn, or in the borders and pathways of the other fields that are fallow.Government and virtues.] It is a malicious part of sullen Saturn. As it is not without some vices, so hath it also many virtues. The meal of Darnel is very good to stay gangrenes, and other such like fretting and eating cankers, and putrid sores: It also cleanses the skin of all leprosies, morphews, ringworms, and the like, if it be used with salt and raddish roots. And being used with quick brimstone and vinegar, it dissolves knots and kernels, and breaks those that are hard to be dissolved, being boiled in wine with pigeon’s dung and Linseed: A decoction thereof made with water and honey, and the places bathed therewith, is profitable for the sciatica. Darnel meal applied in a poultice draws forth splinters and broken bones in the flesh: The red Darnel, boiled in red wine and taken, stays the lask and all other fluxes, and women’s bloody issues; and restrains urine that passes away too suddenly.DILL.Descript.]Thecommon Dill grows up with seldom more than one stalk, neither so high, nor so great usually as Fennel, being round and fewer joints thereon, whose leaves are sadder, and somewhat long, and so like Fennel that it deceives many, but harder in handling, and somewhat thicker, and of a strong unpleasant scent: The tops of the stalks have four branches and smaller umbels of yellow flowers, which turn into small seed, somewhat flatter and thinner than Fennel seed. The root is somewhat small and woody, perishes every year after it hath borne seed: and is also unprofitable, being never put to any use.Place.] It is most usually sown in gardens and grounds for the purpose, and is also found wild in many places.Government and virtues.] Mercury has the dominion of this plant, and therefore to be sure it strengthens the brain. The Dill being boiled and drank, is good to ease swellings and pains; it also stays the belly and stomach from casting. The decoction therefore helps women that are troubled with the pains and windiness of the mother, if they sit therein. It stays the hiccough, being boiled in wine, and but smelled unto being tied in a cloth. The seed is of more use than the leaves, and more effectual to digest raw and vicious humours, and is used in medicines that serve to expel wind, and the pains proceeding therefrom. The seed, being roasted or fried, and used in oils or plasters, dissolve the imposthumes in the fundament; and dries up all moist ulcers, especially in the fundament; an oil made of Dill is effectual to warm or dissolve humours and imposthumes, and the pains, and to procure rest. The decoction of Dill, be it herb or seed (only if you boil the seed you must bruise it) in white wine, being drank, it is a gallant expeller of wind, and provoker of the terms.DEVIL’S-BIT.Descript.]Thisrises up with a round green smooth stalk, about two feet high, set with divers long and somewhat narrow, smooth, dark green leaves, somewhat nipped about the edges, for the most part, being else all whole, and not divided at all, or but very seldom, even to the tops of the branches, which yet are smaller than those below, with one rib only in the middle. At the end of each branch stands a round head of many flowers set together in the same manner, or more neatly than Scabions, and of a bluish purple colour, which being past, there follows seed which falls away. The root is somewhat thick, butshort and blackish, with many strings, abiding after seed time many years. This root was longer, until the devil (as the friars say) bit away the rest of it for spite, envying its usefulness to mankind; for sure he was not troubled with any disease for which it is proper.There are two other sorts hereof, in nothing unlike the former, save that the one bears white, and the other bluish-coloured flowers.Place.] The first grows as well in dry meadows and fields as moist, in many places of this land: But the other two are more rare, and hard to be met with, yet they are both found growing wild about Appledore, near Rye in Kent.Time.] They flower not usually until August.Government and virtues.] The plant is venereal, pleasing, and harmless. The herb or the root (all that the devil hath left of it) being boiled in wine, and drank, is very powerful against the plague, and all pestilential diseases or fevers, poisons also, and the bitings of venemous beasts: It helps also those that are inwardly bruised by any casuality, or outwardly by falls or blows, dissolving the clotted blood; and the herb or root beaten and outwardly applied, takes away the black and blue marks that remain in the skin. The decoction of the herb, with honey of roses put therein, is very effectual to help the inveterate tumours and swellings of the almonds and throat, by often gargling the mouth therewith. It helps also to procure women’s courses, and eases all pains of the mother and to break and discuss wind therein, and in the bowels. The powder of the root taken in drink, drives forth the worms in the body. The juice or distilled water of the herb, is effectual for green wounds, or old sores, and cleanses the body inwardly, and the seed outwardly, from sores, scurf, itch, pimples, freckles, morphew, or other deformities thereof, especially if a little vitriol be dissolved therein.DOCK.Manykinds of these are so well known, that I shall not trouble you with a description of them: My book grows big too fast.Government and virtues.] All Docks are under Jupiter, of which the Red Dock, which is commonly called Bloodwort, cleanses the blood, and strengthens the liver; but the yellow Dock-root is best to be taken when either the blood or liver is affected by choler. All of them have a kind of cooling (but not all alike) drying quality, the sorrel being most cold, and the Blood-worts most drying. Of the Burdock, I have spoken already by itself. The seed of most of the other kinds, whether the gardens or fields, do stay lasks and fluxes of all sorts, the loathing of the stomach through choler, and is helpful for those that spit blood. The roots boiled in vinegar help the itch, scabs, and breaking out of the skin, if it be bathed therewith. The distilled water of the herb and roots have the same virtue, and cleanses the skin from freckles, morphews, and all other spots and discolourings therein.All Docks being boiled with meat, make it boil the sooner: Besides Blood-wort is exceeding strengthening to the liver, and procures good blood, being as wholesome a pot herb as any growing in a garden; yet such is the nicety of our times, forsooth, that women will not put it into a pot, because it makes the pottage black; pride and ignorance (a couple of monsters in the creation) preferring nicety before health.DODDER OF THYME, EPITHYMUM, AND OTHER DODDERS.Descript.]Thisfirst from seed gives roots in the ground, which shoot forth threads or strings, grosser or finer as theproperty of the plant wherein it grows, and the climate doth suffer, creeping and spreading on that plant whereon it fastens, be it high or low. The strings have no leaves at all on them, but wind and interlace themselves, so thick upon a small plant, that it takes away all comfort of the sun from it; and is ready to choak or strangle it. After these strings are risen to that height, that they may draw nourishment from that plant, they seem to be broken off from the ground, either by the strength of their rising, or withered by the heat of the Sun. Upon these strings are found clusters of small heads or husks, out of which shoot forth whitish flowers, which afterwards give small pale white coloured seed, somewhat flat, and twice as big as Poppy-seed. It generally participates of the nature of the plant which it climbs upon; but the Dodder of Thyme is accounted the best, and is the only true Epithymum.Government and virtues.] All Dodders are under Saturn. Tell not me of physicians crying up Epithymum, or that Dodder which grows upon Thyme, (most of which comes from Hemetius in Greece, or Hybla in Sicily, because those mountains abound with Thyme,) he is a physician indeed, that hath wit enough to choose the Dodder according to the nature of the disease and humour peccant. We confess, Thyme is the hottest herb it usually grows upon; and therefore that which grows upon Thyme is hotter than that which grows upon cold herbs; for it draws nourishment from what it grows upon, as well as from the earth where its root is, and thus you see old Saturn is wise enough to have two strings to his bow. This is accounted the most effectual for melancholy diseases, and to purge black or burnt choler, which is the cause of many diseases of the head and brain, as also for the trembling of the heart, faintings and swoonings. It is helpful in all diseases and griefs of the spleen, and melancholy that arises from the windiness of the hypochondria. It purges also the reins or kidneys by urine; it opens obstructions of the gall, whereby it profits them that have the jaundice; as also the leaves, the spleen: Purging the veins of the choleric and phlegmatic humours, and helps children in agues, a little worm seed being put thereto.The other Dodders do, as I said before, participate of the nature of those plants whereon they grow: As that which hath been found growing upon nettles in the west-country, hath by experience been found very effectual to procure plenty of urine where it hath been stopped or hindered. And so of the rest.Sympathy and antipathy are two hinges upon which the whole mode of physic turns; and that physician who minds them not, is like a door off from the hooks, more like to do a man mischief, than to secure him. Then all the diseases Saturn causes, this helps by sympathy, and strengthens all the parts of the body he rules; such as be caused by Sol, it helps by antipathy. What those diseases are, see my judgment of diseases by astrology; and if you be pleased to look at the herb Wormwood, you shall find a rational way for it.DOG’S-GRASS, OR COUGH GRASS.Descript.]Itis well known, that the grass creeps far about under ground, with long white joined roots, and small fibres almost at every joint, very sweet in taste, as the rest of the herb is, and interlacing one another, from whence shoot forth many fair grassy leaves, small at the ends, and cutting or sharp on the edges. The stalks are jointed like corn, with the like leaves on them, and a large spiked head, with a long husk in them, and hard rough seed in them. If you know it not by this description, watch the dogs when they are sick, and they will quickly lead you to it.Place.] It grows commonly through this land in divers ploughed grounds to the no small trouble of the husbandmen, as also of the gardeners, in gardens, to weed it out, if they can; for it is a constant customer to the place it get footing in.Government and virtues.] ’Tis under the dominion of Jupiter, and is the most medicinal of all the Quick-grasses. Being boiled and drank, it opens obstructions of the liver and gall, and the stopping of urine, and eases the griping pains of the belly and inflammations; wastes the matter of the stone in the bladder, and the ulcers thereof also. The roots bruised and applied, do consolidate wounds. The seed doth more powerfully expel urine, and stays the lask and vomiting. The distilled water alone, or with a little wormseed, kills the worms in children.The way of use is to bruise the roots, and having well boiled them in white wine, drink the decoction: ’Tis opening but not purging, very safe: ’Tis a remedy against all diseases coming of stopping, and such are half those that are incident to the body of man; and although a gardener be of another opinion, yet a physician holds half an acre of them to be worth five acres of Carrots twice told over.DOVE’S-FOOT, OR CRANE’S-BILL.Descript.]Thishas divers small, round, pale-green leaves, cut in about the edges, much like mallow, standing upon long, reddish, hairy stalks lying in a round compass upon the ground; among which rise up two or three, or more, reddish, jointed, slender, weak, hairy stalks, with some like leaves thereon, but smaller, and more cut in up to the tops, where grow many very small bright red flowers of five leaves a-piece; after which follow small heads, with small short beaks pointed forth, as all other sorts of those herbs do.Place.] It grows in pasture grounds, and by the path-sides in many places, and will also be in gardens.Time.] It flowers in June, July, and August, some earlier and some later; and the seed is ripe quickly after.Government and virtues.] It is a very gentle, though martial plant. It is found by experience to be singularly good for wind cholic, as also to expel the stone and gravel in the kidneys. The decoction thereof in wine, is an excellent good cure for those that have inward wounds, hurts, or bruises, both to stay the bleeding, to dissolve and expel the congealed blood, and to heal the parts, as also to cleanse and heal outward sores, ulcers, and fistulas; and for green wounds, many do only bruise the herb, and apply it to the places, and it heals them quickly. The same decoction in wine fomented to any place pained with the gout, or to joint-aches, or pains of the sinews, gives much ease. The powder or decoction of the herb taken for some time together, is found by experience to be singularly good for ruptures and burstings in people, either young or old.DUCK’S MEAT.Thisis so well known to swim on the tops of standing waters, as ponds, pools, and ditches, that it is needless further to describe it.Government and virtues.] Cancer claims the herb, and the Moon will be Lady of it; a word is enough to a wise man. It is effectual to help inflammations, and St. Anthony’s Fire, as also the gout, either applied by itself, or in a poultice with Barley meal. The distilled water by some is highly esteemed against all inward inflammations and pestilent fevers; as also to help the redness of the eyes, and swellings of privities, and of the breasts before they be grown too much. The fresh herb applied to the forehead, eases the pains of the head-ache coming of heat.DOWN, OR COTTON-THISTLE.Descript.]Thishas large leaves lying on the ground, somewhat cut in, and as it were crumpled on the edges, of a green colour on the upper side, but covered with long hairy wool, or Cotton Down, set with most sharp and cruel pricks, from the middle of whose head of flowers, thrust forth many purplish crimson threads, and sometimes (although very seldom) white ones. The seed that follows in the heads, lying in a great deal of white down, is somewhat large, long, and round, like the seed of ladies thistle, but paler. The root is great and thick, spreading much, yet it usually dies after seed-time.Place.] It grows in divers ditches, banks, and in corn-fields, and highways, generally every where throughout the land.Time.] It flowers and bears seed about the end of Summer, when other thistles do flower and seed.Government and virtues.] Mars owns the plant, and manifest to the world, that though it may hurt your finger, it will help your body; for I fancy it much for the ensuing virtues. Pliny and Dioscorides write, That the leaves and roots thereof taken in drink, help those that have a crick in their neck; whereby they cannot turn their neck but their whole body must turn also (sure they do not mean those that have got a crick in their neck by being under the hangman’s hand.) Galen saith, that the root and leaves hereof are of a healing quality, and good for such persons as have their bodies drawn together by some spasm or convulsion, as it is with children that have the rickets.DRAGONS.Theyare so well known to every one that plants them in their gardens, they need no description; if not, let them look down to the lower end of the stalks, and see how like a snake they look.Government and virtues.] The plant is under the dominion of Mars, and therefore it would be a wonder if it should want some obnoxious quality or other: In all herbs of that quality, the safest way is either to distil the herb in an alembick, in what vehicle you please, or else to press out the juice, and distil that in a glass still, in sand. It scours and cleanses the internal parts of the body mightily, and it clears the external parts also, being externally applied, from freckles, morphew, and sun-burning: Your best way to use it externally, is to mix it with vinegar; an ointment of it is held to be good in wounds and ulcers; it consumes cankers, and that flesh growing in the nostrils, which they call Polypus: Also the distilled water being dropped into the eyes, takes away spots there, or the pin and web, and mends the dimness of sight; it is excellently good against pestilence and poison. Pliny and Dioscorides affirm, that no serpent will meddle with him that carries this herb about him.THE ELDER TREE.I holdit needless to write any description of this, since every boy that plays with a pop-gun will not mistake another tree instead of Elder: I shall therefore in this place only describe the Dwarf-Elder, called also Dead-wort, and Wall-wort.THE DWARF-ELDER.Descript.]Thisis but an herb every year, dying with his stalks to the ground, and rising afresh every Spring, and is like unto the Elder both in form and quality, rising up with square, rough, hairy stalks, four feet high, or more sometimes. The winged leaves are somewhat narrower than the Elder, but else like them. The flowers are white with a dash of purple, standing in umbels, very like the Elder also, but moresweet is scent; after which come small blackish berries, full of juice while they are fresh, wherein is small hard kernels, or seed. The root doth creep under the upper crust of the ground, springing in divers places, being of the bigness of one’s finger or thumb sometimes.Place.] The Elder-tree grows in hedges, being planted there to strengthen the fences and partitions of ground, and to hold the banks by ditches and water-courses.The Dwarf Elder grows wild in many places of England, where being once gotten into a ground, it is not easily gotten forth again.Time.] Most of the Elder Trees, flower in June, and their fruit is ripe for the most part in August. But the Dwarf Elder, or Wall-wort, flowers somewhat later, and his fruit is not ripe until September.Government and virtues.] Both Elder and Dwarf Tree are under the dominion of Venus. The first shoots of the common Elder boiled like Asparagus, and the young leaves and stalks boiled in fat broth, doth mightily carry forth phlegm and choler. The middle or inward bark boiled in water, and given in drink, works much more violently; and the berries, either green or dry, expel the same humour, and are often given with good success to help the dropsy; the bark of the root boiled in wine, or the juice thereof drank, works the same effects, but more powerfully than either the leaves or fruit. The juice of the root taken, doth mightily procure vomitings, and purges the watery humours of the dropsy. The decoction of the root taken, cures the biting of an adder, and biting of mad dogs. It mollifies the hardness of the mother, if women sit thereon, and opens their veins, and brings down their courses: The berries boiled in wine perform the same effect; and the hair of the head washed therewith is made black. The juice of the green leaves applied to the hot inflammations of the eyes, assuages them; the juice of the leaves snuffed up into the nostrils, purges the tunicles of the brain; the juice of the berries boiled with honey and dropped into the ears, helps the pains of them; the decoction of the berries in wine, being drank, provokes urine; the distilled water of the flowers is of much use to clean the skin from sun-burning, freckles, morphew, or the like; and takes away the head-ache, coming of a cold cause, the head being bathed therewith. The leaves or flowers distilled in the month of May, and the legs often washed with the said distilled water, it takes away the ulcers and sores of them. The eyes washed therewith, it takes away the redness and bloodshot; and the hands washed morning and evening therewith, helps the palsy, and shaking of them.The Dwarf Elder is more powerful than the common Elder in opening and purging choler, phlegm, and water; in helping the gout, piles, and women’s diseases, colours the hair black, helps the inflammations of the eyes, and pains in the ears, the biting of serpents, or mad dogs, burnings and scaldings, the wind cholic, cholic, and stone, the difficulty of urine, the cure of old sores and fistulous ulcers. Either leaves or bark of Elder, stripped upwards as you gather it, causes vomiting. Also, Dr. Butler, in a manuscript of his, commends Dwarf Elder to the sky of dropsies,viz.to drink it, being boiled in white wine; to drink the decoction I mean, not the Elder.THE ELM TREE.Thistree is so well known, growing generally in all counties of this land, that it is needless to describe it.Government and virtues.] It is a cold and saturnine plant. The leaves thereof bruised and applied, heal green wounds, being bound thereon with its own bark. The leaves or the bark used with vinegar, cures scurf and leprosy very effectually; Thedecoction of the leaves, bark, or root, being bathed, heals broken bones. The water that is found in the bladders on the leaves, while it is fresh, is very effectual to cleanse the skin, and make it fair; and if cloaths be often wet therein, and applied to the ruptures of children, it heals them, if they be well bound up with a truss. The said water put into a glass, and set into the ground, or else in dung for twenty-five days, the mouth thereof being close stopped, and the bottom set upon a layer of ordinary salt, that the fœces may settle and water become clear, is a singular and sovereign balm for green wounds, being used with soft tents: The decoction of the bark of the root, fomented, mollifies hard tumours, and the shrinking of the sinews. The roots of the Elm, boiled for a long time in water, and the fat arising on the top thereof, being clean skimmed off, and the place anointed therewith that is grown bald, and the hair fallen away, will quickly restore them again. The said bark ground with brine or pickle, until it come to the form of a poultice, and laid on the place pained with the gout, gives great ease. The decoction of the bark in water, is excellent to bathe such places as have been burnt with fire.ENDIVE.Descript.]Commongarden Endive bears a longer and larger leaf than Succory, and abides but one year, quickly running up to a stalk and seed, and then perishes; it has blue flowers, and the seed of the ordinary Endive is so like Succory seed, that it is hard to distinguish them.Government and virtues.] It is a fine cooling, cleansing, jovial plant. The decoction of the leaves, or the juice, or the distilled water of Endive, serve well to cool the excessive heat of the liver and stomach, and in the hot fits of agues, and all other inflammations in any part of the body; it cools the heat and sharpness of the urine, and excoriation in the urinary parts. The seeds are of the same property, or rather more powerful, and besides are available for fainting, swoonings, and passions of the heart. Outwardly applied, they serve to temper the sharp humours of fretting ulcers, hot tumours, swellings, and pestilential sores; and wonderfully help not only the redness and inflammations of the eyes, but the dimness of the sight also; they are also used to allay the pains of the gout. You cannot use it amiss; a syrup of it is a fine cooling medicine for fevers.ELECAMPANE.Descript.]Itshoots forth many large leaves, long and broad, lying near the ground, small at both ends, somewhat soft in handling of a whitish green on the upper side, and grey underneath, each set upon a short footstalk, from among which arise up divers great and strong hairy stalks, three or four feet high, with some leaves thereupon, compassing them about at the lower end, and are branched towards the tops, bearing divers great and large flowers, like those of the corn marigold, both the border of leaves, and the middle thrum being yellow, which turn into down, with long, small, brownish seeds amongst it, and is carried away with the wind. The root is great and thick, branched forth divers ways, blackish on the outside and whitish within, of a very bitter taste, and strong, but good scent, especially when they are dried, no part else of the plant having any smell.Place.] It grows on moist grounds, and shadowy places oftener than in the dry and open borders of the fields and lanes, and in other waste places, almost in every county of this land.Time.] It flowers in the end of June and July, and the seed is ripe in August. The roots are gathered for use, as well in theSpring before the leaves come forth, as in Autumn or Winter.Government and virtues.] It is a plant under the dominion of Mercury. The fresh roots of Elecampane preserved with sugar, or made into a syrup or conserve, are very effectual to warm a cold windy stomach, or the pricking therein, and stiches in the sides caused by the spleen; and to help the cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing in the lungs. The dried root made into powder, and mixed with sugar, and taken, serves to the same purpose, and is also profitable for those who have their urine stopped, or the stopping of women’s courses, the pains of the mother and the stone in the reins, kidneys, or bladder; it resists poison, and stays the spreading of the venom of serpents, as also putrid and pestilential fevers, and the plague itself. The roots and herbs beaten and put into new ale or beer, and daily drank, clears, strengthens, and quickens the sight of the eyes wonderfully. The decoction of the roots in wine, or the juice taken therein, kills and drives forth all manner of worms in the belly, stomach, and maw; and gargled in the mouth, or the root chewed, fastens loose teeth, and helps to keep them from putrefaction; and being drank is good for those that spit blood, helps to remove cramps or convulsions, gout, sciatica, pains in the joints, applied outwardly or inwardly, and is also good for those that are bursten, or have any inward bruise. The root boiled well in vinegar beaten afterwards, and made into an ointment with hog’s suet, or oil of trotters is an excellent remedy for scabs or itch in young or old; the places also bathed or washed with the decoction doth the same; it also helps all sorts of filthy old putrid sores or cankers whatsoever. In the roots of this herb lieth the chief effect for the remedies aforesaid. The distilled water of the leaves and roots together, is very profitable to cleanse the skin of the face, or other parts, from any morphew, spots, or blemishes therein, and make it clear.ERINGO, OR SEA-HOLLY.Descript.]Thefirst leaves of our ordinary Sea-holly, are nothing so hard and prickly as when they grow old, being almost round, and deeply dented about the edges, hard and sharp pointed, and a little crumpled, of a bluish green colour, every one upon a long foot stalk; but those that grow up higher with the stalk, do as it were compass it about. The stalk itself is round and strong, yet somewhat crested, with joints and leaves set thereat, but more divided, sharp and prickly; and branches rising from thence, which have likewise other small branches, each of them having several bluish round prickly heads, with many small jagged prickly leaves under them, standing like a star, and sometimes found greenish or whitish: The root grows wonderfully long, even to eight or ten feet in length, set with rings and circles towards the upper part, cut smooth and without joints down lower, brownish on the outside, and very white within, with a pith in the middle; of a pleasant taste, but much more, being artificially preserved, and candied with sugar.Place.] It is found about the sea coast in almost every county of this land which borders upon the sea.Time.] It flowers in the end of Summer, and gives ripe seed within a month after.Government and virtues.] The plant is venereal, and breeds seed exceedingly, and strengthens the spirit procreative; it is hot and moist, and under the celestial Balance. The decoction of the root hereof in wine, is very effectual to open obstructions of the spleen and liver, and helps yellow jaundice, dropsy, pains of the loins, and wind cholic, provokes urine, and expels the stone, procures women’s courses. The continueduse of the decoction for fifteen days, taken fasting, and next to bedward, doth help the stranguary, the difficulty and stoppage of urine, and the stone, as well as all defects of the reins and kidneys; and if the said drink be continued longer, it is said that it cures the stone; it is found good against the French pox. The roots bruised and applied outwardly, help the kernels of the throat, commonly called the king’s evil; or taking inwardly, and applied to the place stung or bitten by any serpent, heal it speedily. If the roots be bruised, and boiled in old hog’s grease, or salted lard, and broken bones, thorns &c. remaining in the flesh, they do not only draw them forth, but heal up the place again, gathering new flesh where it was consumed. The juice of the leaves dropped into the ear, helps imposthumes therein. The distilled water of the whole herb, when the leaves and stalks are young, is profitable drank for all the purposes aforesaid; and helps the melancholy of the heart, and is available in quartan and quotidian agues; as also for them that have their necks drawn awry, and cannot turn them without turning their whole body.EYEBRIGHT.Descript.]CommonEyebright is a small low herb, rising up usually but with one blackish green stalk a span high, or not much more, spread from the bottom into sundry branches, whereon are small and almost round yet pointed dark green leaves, finely snipped about the edges, two always set together, and very thick: At the joints with the leaves, from the middle upward, come forth small white flowers, marked with purple and yellow spots, or stripes; after which follow small round heads, with very small seed therein. The root is long, small and thready at the end.Place.] It grows in meadows, and grassy land.Government and virtues.] It is under the sign of the Lion, and Sol claims dominion over it. If the herb was but as much used as it is neglected, it would half spoil the spectacle maker’s trade; and a man would think, that reason should teach people to prefer the preservation of their natural before artificial spectacles; which that they may be instructed how to do, take the virtues of Eyebright as follows.The juice or distilled water of Eyebright, taken inwardly in white wine or broth, or dropped into the eyes for divers days together, helps all infirmities of the eyes that cause dimness of sight. Some make conserve of the flowers to the same effect. Being used any of the ways, it also helps a weak brain, or memory. This tunned up with strong beer, that it may work together, and drank, or the powder of the dried herb mixed with sugar, a little Mace, and Fennel seed, and drank, or eaten in broth; or the said powder made into an electuary with sugar, and taken, has the same powerful effect to help and restore the sight, decayed through age; and Arnoldus de Ville Nova saith, it hath restored sight to them that have been blind a long time before.FERN.Descript.]Ofthis there are two kinds principally to be treated of,viz.the Male and Female. The Female grows higher than the Male, but the leaves thereof are smaller, and more divided and dented, and of as strong a smell as the male; the virtue of them are both alike, and therefore I shall not trouble you with any description or distinction of them.Place.] They grow both in heaths and in shady places near the hedge-sides in all counties of this land.Time.] They flower and give their seed at Midsummer.The Female Fern is that plant which is in Sussex, called Brakes, the seed of whichsome authors hold to be so rare: Such a thing there is I know, and may be easily had upon Midsummer Eve, and for ought I know, two or three days after it, if not more.Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mercury, both Male and Female. The roots of both these sorts of Fern being bruised and boiled in Mead, or honeyed water, and drank, kills both the broad and long worms in the body, and abates the swelling and hardness of the spleen. The green leaves eaten, purge the belly of choleric and waterish humours that trouble the stomach. They are dangerous for women with child to meddle with, by reason they cause abortions. The roots bruised and boiled in oil, or hog’s grease, make a very profitable ointment to heal wounds, or pricks gotten in the flesh. The powder of them used in foul ulcers, dries up their malignant moisture, and causes their speedier healing. Fern being burned, the smoke thereof drives away serpents, gnats, and other noisome creatures, which in fenny countries do in the night time, trouble and molest people lying in their beds with their faces uncovered; it causes barrenness.OSMOND ROYAL, OR WATER FERN.Descript.]Thisshoots forth in Spring time (for in the Winter the leaves perish) divers rough hard stalks, half round, and yellowish, or flat on the other side, two feet high, having divers branches of winged yellowish green leaves on all sides, set one against another, longer, narrower, and not nicked on the edges as the former. From the top of some of these stalks grow forth a long bush of small and more yellow, green, scaly aglets, set in the same manner on the stalks as the leaves are, which are accounted the flowers and seeds. The root is rough, thick and scabby: with a white pith in the middle, which is called the heart thereof.Place.] It grows on moors, bogs, and watery places, in many parts of this land.Time.] It is green all the summer, and the root only abides in winter.Government and virtues.] Saturn owns the plant. This has all the virtues mentioned in the former Ferns, and is much more effectual than they, both for inward and outward griefs, and is accounted singularly good in wounds, bruises, or the like. The decoction to be drank, or boiled into an ointment of oil, as a balsam or balm, and so it is singularly good against bruises, and bones broken, or out of joint, and gives much ease to the cholic and splenetic diseases: as also for ruptures or burstings. The decoction of the root in white wine, provokes urine exceedingly, and cleanses the bladder and passages of urine.FEVERFEW OR FEATHERFEW.Descript.]CommonFeatherfew has large, fresh, green leaves, much torn or cut on the edges. The stalks are hard and round, set with many such like leaves, but smaller, and at the tops stand many single flowers, upon small foot stalks, consisting of many small white leaves standing round about a yellow thrum in the middle. The root is somewhat hard and short, with many strong fibres about it. The scent of the whole plant is very strong, and the taste is very bitter.Place.] This grows wild in many places of the land, but is for the most part nourished in gardens.Time.] It flowers in the months of June and July.Government and virtues.] Venus commands this herb, and has commended it to succour her sisters (women) and to be a general strengthener of their wombs, and remedy such infirmities as a careless midwife hath there caused if they will but bepleased to make use of her herb boiled in white wine, and drink the decoction; it cleanses the womb, expels the after-birth, and doth a woman all the good she can desire of an herb. And if any grumble because they cannot get the herb in winter, tell them, if they please, they may make a syrup of it in summer; it is chiefly used for the disease of the mother, whether it be the strangling or rising of the mother, or hardness, or inflammation of the same, applied outwardly thereunto. Or a decoction of the flowers in wine, with a little Nutmeg or Mace put therein, and drank often in a day, is an approved remedy to bring down women’s courses speedily, and helps to expel the dead birth and after-birth. For a woman to sit over the hot fumes of the decoction of the herb made in water or wine, is effectual for the same; and in some cases to apply the boiled herb warm to the privy parts. The decoction thereof made with some sugar, or honey put thereto, is used by many with good success to help the cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse the reins and bladder, and helps to expel the stone in them. The powder of the herb taken in wine, with some Oxymel, purges both choler and phlegm, and is available for those that are short winded, and are troubled with melancholy and heaviness, or sadness of spirits. It is very effectual for all pains in the head coming of a cold cause, the herb being bruised and applied to the crown of the head: As also for the vertigo, that is a running or swimming in the head. The decoction thereof drank warm, and the herb bruised with a few corns of Bay salt, and applied to the wrists before the coming of the ague fits, doth take them away. The distilled water takes away freckles, and other spots and deformities in the face. The herb bruised and heated on a tile, with some wine to moisten it, or fried with a little wine and oil in a frying-pan, and applied warm outwardly to the places, helps the wind and cholic in the lower part of the belly. It is an especial remedy against opium taken too liberally.FENNEL.Everygarden affords this so plentifully, that it needs no description.Government and virtues.] One good old fashion is not yet left off,viz.to boil Fennel with fish; for it consumes that phlegmatic humour, which fish most plentifully afford and annoy the body with, though few that use it know wherefore they do it; I suppose the reason of its benefit this way is because it is an herb of Mercury, and under Virgo, and therefore bears antipathy to Pisces. Fennel is good to break wind, to provoke urine, and ease the pains of the stone, and helps to break it. The leaves or seed, boiled in barley water and drank are good for nurses, to increase their milk, and make it more wholesome for the child. The leaves, or rather the seeds, boiled in water, stays the hiccough, and takes away the loathings which oftentimes happen to the stomachs of sick and feverish persons and allays the heat thereof. The seed boiled in wine and drank, is good for those that are bitten with serpents, or have eaten poisonous herbs, or mushrooms. The seed and the roots much more, help to open obstructions of the liver, spleen, and gall, and thereby help the painful and windy swellings of the spleen, and the yellow jaundice; as also the gout and cramps. The seed is of good use in medicines to help shortness of breath and wheezing by stopping of the lungs. It helps also to bring down the courses, and to cleanse the parts after delivery. The roots are of most use in physic drinks, and broth that are taken to cleanse the blood, to open obstructions of the liver, to provoke urine, and amend the ill colour in the face after sickness, and to cause a good habit through the body.Both leaves, seeds, and roots thereof are much used in drink or broth, to make people more lean that are too fat. The distilled water of the whole herb, or the condensate juice dissolved, but especially the natural juice, that in some counties issues out hereof of its own accord, dropped into the eyes, cleanses them from mists and films that hinder the sight. The sweet Fennel is much weaker in physical uses than the common Fennel. The wild Fennel is stronger and hotter than the tame, and therefore most powerful against the stone, but not so effectual to encrease milk, because of its dryness.SOW-FENNEL, OR HOG’S-FENNEL.Besidesthe common name in English, Hog’s Fennel, and the Latin name Peucidanum, is called Hoar-strange, and Hoar-strong, Sulphur-wort, and Brimstone-wort.Descript.] The common Sow-Fennel has divers branched stalks of thick and somewhat long leaves, three for the most part joined together at a place, among which arises a crested straight stalk, less than Fennel, with some joints thereon, and leaves growing thereat, and towards the tops some branches issuing from thence; likewise on the tops of the stalks and branches stand divers tufts of yellow flowers, whereafter grows somewhat flat, thin, and yellowish seed, bigger than Fennel seed. The roots grow great and deep, with many other parts and fibres about them of a strong scent like hot brimstone, and yield forth a yellowish milk, or clammy juice, almost like a gum.Place.] It grows plentifully in the salt low marshes near Feversham in Kent.Time.] It flowers plentifully in July and August.Government and virtues.] This is also an herb of Mercury. The juice of Sow-Fennel (saith Dioscorides, and Galen,) used with vinegar and rose water, or the juice with a little Euphorbium put to the nose, helps those that are troubled with the lethargy, frenzy, giddiness of the head, the falling sickness, long and inveterate head-aches, the palsy, sciatica, and the cramp, and generally all the diseases of the sinews, used with oil and vinegar. The juice dissolved in wine, or put into an egg, is good for a cough, or shortness of breath, and for those that are troubled with wind in the body. It purges the belly gently, expels the hardness of the spleen, gives ease to women that have sore travail in child-birth, and eases the pains of the reins and bladder, and also the womb. A little of the juice dissolved in wine, and dropped into the ears, eases much of the pains in them, and put into a hollow tooth, eases the pain thereof. The root is less effectual to all the aforesaid disorders; yet the powder of the root cleanses foul ulcers, being put into them, and takes out splinters of broken bones, or other things in the flesh, and heals them up perfectly: as also, dries up old and inveterate running sores, and is of admirable virtue in all green wounds.FIG-WORT, OR THROAT-WORT.Descript.]Commongreat Fig-wort sends divers great, strong, hard, square brown stalks, three or four feet high, whereon grow large, hard, and dark green leaves, two at a joint, harder and larger than Nettle leaves, but not stinking; at the tops of the stalks stand many purple flowers set in husks, which are sometimes gaping and open, somewhat like those of Water Betony; after which come hard round heads, with a small point in the middle, wherein lie small brownish seed. The root is great, white, and thick, with many branches at it, growing aslope under the upper crust of the ground, which abides many years, but keeps not his green leaves in Winter.Place.] It grows frequently in moistand shadowy woods, and in the lower parts of the fields and meadows.Time.] It flowers about July, and the seed will be ripe about a month after the flowers are fallen.Government and virtues.] Some Latin authors call it Cervicaria, because it is appropriated to the neck; and we Throat-wort, because it is appropriated to the throat. Venus owns the herb, and the Celestial Bull will not deny it; therefore a better remedy cannot be for the king’s evil, because the Moon that rules the disease, is exalted there. The decoction of the herb taken inwardly, and the bruised herb applied outwardly, dissolves clotted and congealed blood within the body, coming by any wounds, bruise, or fall; and is no less effectual for the king’s evil, or any other knobs, kernel, bunches, or wens growing in the flesh wheresoever; and for the hæmorrhoids, or piles. An ointment made hereof may be used at all times when the fresh herb is not to be had. The distilled water of the whole plant, roots and all, is used for the same purposes, and dries up the superfluous, virulent moisture of hollow and corroding ulcers; it takes away all redness, spots, and freckles in the face, as also the scurf, and any foul deformity therein, and the leprosy likewise.

Boththe wild and garden Cowslips are so well known, that I neither trouble myself nor the reader with a description of them.

Time.] They flower in April and May.

Government and virtues.] Venus lays claim to this herb as her own, and it is under the sign Aries, and our city dames know well enough the ointment or distilled water of it adds beauty, or at least restores it when it is lost. The flowers are held to be more effectual than the leaves, and the roots of little use. An ointment being made with them, takes away spots and wrinkles of the skin, sun-burning, and freckles, and adds beauty exceedingly; they remedy all infirmities of the head coming of heat and wind, as vertigo, ephialtes, false apparitions, phrensies, falling-sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, pains in the nerves; the roots ease pains in the back and bladder, and open the passages of urine. The leaves are good in wounds, and the flowers take away trembling. If the flowers be not well dried, and kept in a warm place, they will soon putrefy and look green: Have a special eye over them; If you let them see the Sun once a month, it will do neither the Sun nor them harm.

Because they strengthen the brain and nerves, and remedy palsies, Greeks gave them the name Paralysis. The flowers preserved or conserved, and the quantity ofa nutmeg eaten every morning, is a sufficient dose for inward diseases; but for wounds, spots, wrinkles, and sunburnings, an ointment is made of the leaves, and hog’s grease.

Calledalso Water Sengreen, Knight’s Pond Water, Water House-leek, Pond Weed, and Fresh-water Soldier.

Descript.] It has sundry long narrow leaves, with sharp prickles on the edges of them, also very sharp pointed; the stalks which bear flowers, seldom grow so high as the leaves, bearing a forked head, like a Crab’s Claw, out of which comes a white flower, consisting of three leaves, with divers yellowish hairy threads in the middle; it takes root in the mud at the bottom of the water.

Place.] It grows plentifully in the fens in Lincolnshire.

Time.] It flowers in June, and usually from thence till August.

Government and virtues.] It is a plant under the dominion of Venus, and therefore a great strengthener of the reins; it is excellently good for inflammation which is commonly called St. Anthony’s Fire; it assuages inflammations, and swellings in wounds: and an ointment made of it is excellently good to heal them; there is scarcely a better remedy growing than this is, for such as have bruised their kidneys, and upon that account discharge blood; a dram of the powder of the herb taken every morning, is a very good remedy to stop the terms.

Descript.]Ithas long leaves, deeply cut and jagged on both sides, not much unlike wild mustard; the stalk small, very limber, though very tough: you may twist them round as you may a willow before they break. The flowers are very small and yellow, after which comes small pods, which contains the seed.

Place.] It is a common herb, grows usually by the way-side, and sometimes upon mud walls about London, but it delights to grow most among stones and rubbish.

Time.] It flowers in June and July, and the seed is ripe in August and September.

Government and virtues.] It is a plant of a hot and biting nature, under the dominion of Mars. The seed of Black Cresses strengthens the brain exceedingly, being, in performing that office, little inferior to mustard seed, if at all; they are excellently good to stay those rheums which may fall down from the head upon the lungs; you may beat the seed into powder, if you please, and make it up into an electuary with honey; so you have an excellent remedy by you, not only for the premises, but also for the cough, yellow jaundice and sciatica. This herb boiled into a poultice, is an excellent remedy for inflammations; both in women’s breast, and men’s testicles.

Descript.]Theseare of two kinds; The first rises up with a round stalk about two feet high, spreads into divers branches, whose lower leaves are somewhat larger than the upper, yet all of them cut or torn on the edges, somewhat like the garden Cresses, but smaller, the flowers are small and white, growing at the tops of branches, where afterwards grow husks with small brownish seeds therein very strong and sharp in taste, more than the Cresses of the garden; the root is long, white, and woody.

The other has the lower leaves whole somewhat long and broad, not torn at all, but only somewhat deeply dented about the edges towards the ends; but those that grow up higher are smaller. The flowers and seeds are like the former, and so is theroot likewise, and both root and seeds as sharp as it.

Place.] They grow in the way-sides in untilled places, and by the sides of old walls.

Time.] They flower in the end of June, and their seed is ripe in July.

Government and virtues.] It is a Saturnine plant. The leaves, but especially the root, taken fresh in Summer-time, beaten or made into a poultice or salve with old hog’s grease, and applied to the places pained with the sciatica, to continue thereon four hours if it be on a man, and two hours on a woman; the place afterwards bathed with wine and oil mixed together, and then wrapped with wool or skins, after they have sweat a little, will assuredly cure not only the same disease in hips, knuckle-bone, or other of the joints, as gout in the hands or feet, but all other old griefs of the head, (as inveterate rheums,) and other parts of the body that are hard to be cured. And if of the former griefs any parts remain, the same medicine after twenty days, is to be applied again. The same is also effectual in the diseases of the spleen; and applied to the skin, takes away the blemish thereof, whether they be scars, leprosy, scabs, or scurf, which although it ulcerate the part, yet that is to be helped afterwards with a salve made of oil and wax. Esteem this as another secret.

Descript.]Ourordinary Water Cresses spread forth with many weak, hollow, sappy stalks, shooting out fibres at the joints and upwards long winged leaves made of sundry broad sappy almost round leaves, of a brownish colour. The flowers are many and white standing on long foot-stalks after which come small yellow seed, contained in small long pods like horns. The whole plant abides green in the winter, and tastes somewhat hot and sharp.

Place.] They grow, for the most part, in small standing waters, yet sometimes in small rivulets of running water.

Time.] They flower and seed in the beginning of Summer.

Government and virtues.] It is an herb under the dominion of the Moon. They are more powerful against the scurvy, and to cleanse the blood and humours, than Brooklime is, and serve in all the other uses in which Brooklime is available, as to break the stone, and provoke urine and woman’s courses. The decoction thereof cleanses ulcers, by washing them therewith. The leaves bruised, or the juice, is good, to be applied to the face or other parts troubled with freckles, pimples, spots, or the like, at night, and washed away in the morning. The juice mixed with vinegar, and the fore part of the head bathed therewith, is very good for those that are dull and drowsy, or have the lethargy.

Water-cress pottage is a good remedy to cleanse the blood in the spring, and help headaches, and consume the gross humours winter has left behind; those that would live in health, may use it if they please; if they will not, I cannot help it. If any fancy not pottage, they may eat the herb as a sallad.

Thisherb receives its name from the situation of its leaves.

Descript.] Common Crosswort grows up with square hairy brown stalks a little above a foot high, having four small broad and pointed, hairy yet smooth thin leaves, growing at every joint, each against other one way, which has caused the name. Towards the tops of the stalks at the joints, with the leaves in three or four rows downwards, stand small, pale yellow flowers, after which come small blackish round seeds, four for the most part, set in every husk. The root is very small, and full offibres, or threads, taking good hold of the ground, and spreading with the branches over a great deal of ground, which perish not in winter, although the leaves die every year and spring again anew.

Place.] It grows in many moist grounds, well in meadows as untilled places, about London, in Hampstead church-yard, at Wye in Kent, and sundry other places.

Time.] It flowers from May all the Summer long, in one place or other, as they are more open to the sun; the seed ripens soon after.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Saturn. This is a singularly good wound herb, and is used inwardly, not only to stay bleeding of wounds, but to consolidate them, as it doth outwardly any green wound, which it quickly solders up, and heals. The decoction of the herb in wine, helps to expectorate the phlegm out of the chest, and is good for obstructions in the breast, stomach, or bowels, and helps a decayed appetite. It is also good to wash any wound or sore with, to cleanse and heal it. The herb bruised, and then boiled applied outwardly for certain days together, renewing it often: and in the mean time the decoction of the herb in wine, taken inwardly every day, doth certainly cure the rupture in any, so as it be not too inveterate; but very speedily, if it be fresh and lately taken.

Manyare the names this furious biting herb has obtained, almost enough to make up a Welchman’s pedigree, if he fetch no farther than John of Gaunt, or William the Conquerer; for it is called Frog’s-foot, from the Greek name Barrakion: Crowfoot, Gold Knobs, Gold Cups, King’s Knob, Baffiners, Troilflowers, Polts, Locket Gouions, and Butterflowers.

Abundance are the sorts of this herb, that to describe them all would tire the patience of Socrates himself, but because I have not yet attained to the spirit of Socrates, I shall but describe the most usual.

Descript.] The most common Crowfoot has many thin great leaves, cut into divers parts, in taste biting and sharp, biting and blistering the tongue: It bears many flowers, and those of a bright, resplendent, yellow colour. I do not remember, that I ever saw any thing yellower. Virgins, in ancient time, used to make powder of them to furrow bride beds; after which flowers come small heads, some spiked and rugged like a Pine-Apple.

Place.] They grow very common every where; unless you turn your head into a hedge you cannot but see them as you walk.

Time.] They flower in May and June, even till September.

Government and virtues.] This fiery and hot-spirited herb of Mars is no way fit to be given inwardly, but an ointment of the leaves or flowers will draw a blister, and may be so fitly applied to the nape of the neck to draw back rheum from the eyes. The herb being bruised and mixed with a little mustard, draws a blister as well, and as perfectly as Cantharides, and with far less danger to the vessels of urine, which Cantharides naturally delight to wrong; I knew the herb once applied to a pestilential rising that was fallen down, and it saved life even beyond hope; it were good to keep an ointment and plaister of it, if it were but for that.

Itis called Aron, Janus, Barba-aron, Calve’s-foot, Ramp, Starchwort, Cuckow-point, and Wake Robin.

Descript.] This shoots forth three, four or five leaves at the most, from one root, every one whereof is somewhat large and long, broad at the bottom next the stalk,and forked, but ending in a point, without a cut on the edge, of a full green colour, each standing upon a thick round stalk, of a hand-breadth long, or more, among which, after two or three months that they begin to wither, rises up a bare, round, whitish green stalk, spotted and streaked with purple, somewhat higher than the leaves: At the top whereof stands a long hollow husk close at the bottom, but open from the middle upwards, ending in a point: in the middle whereof stands the small long pestle or clapper, smaller at the bottom than at the top, of a dark purple colour, as the husk is on the inside, though green without; which, after it hath so abided for some time, the husk with the clapper decays, and the foot or bottom thereof grows to be a small long bunch of berries, green at the first, and of a yellowish red colour when they are ripe, of the bigness of a hazel-nut kernel, which abides thereon almost until Winter; the root is round, and somewhat long, for the most part lying along, the leaves shooting forth at the largest end, which, when it bears its berries, are somewhat wrinkled and loose, another growing under it, which is solid and firm, with many small threads hanging thereat. The whole plant is of a very sharp biting taste, pricking the tongue as nettles do the hands, and so abides for a great while without alteration. The root thereof was anciently used instead of starch to starch linen with.

There is another sort of Cuckow-point, with less leaves than the former, and some times harder, having blackish spots upon them, which for the most part abide longer green in Summer than the former, and both leaves and roots are more sharp and fierce than it: In all things else it is like the former.

Place.] These two sorts grow frequently almost under every hedge-side in many places of this land.

Time.] They shoot forth leaves in the Spring, and continue but until the middle of Summer, or somewhat later; their husks appearing before the fall away, and their fruit shewing in April.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mars. Tragus reports, that a dram weight, or more, if need be, of the spotted Wake Robin, either fresh and green, or dried, having been eaten and taken, is a present and sure remedy for poison and the plague. The juice of the herb taken to the quantity of a spoonful has the same effect. But if there be a little vinegar added thereto, as well as to the root aforesaid, it somewhat allays the sharp biting taste thereof upon the tongue. The green leaves bruised, and laid upon any boil or plague sore, doth wonderfully help to draw forth the poison: A dram of the powder of the dried root taken with twice so much sugar in the form of a licking electuary, or the green root, doth wonderfully help those that are pursy and short-winded, as also those that have a cough; it breaks, digests, and rids away phlegm from the stomach, chest, and lungs. The milk wherein the root as been boiled is effectual also for the same purpose. The said powder taken in wine or other drink, or the juice of the berries, or the powder of them, or the wine wherein they have been boiled, provokes urine, and brings down women’s courses and purges them effectually after child-bearing, to bring away the after-birth. Taken with sheep’s milk, it heals the inward ulcers of the bowels. The distilled water thereof is effectual to all the purposes aforesaid. A spoonful taken at a time heals the itch; an ounce or more taken a time for some days together, doth help the rupture: The leaves either green or dry, or the juice of them, doth cleanse all manner of rotten and filthy ulcers, in what part of the body soever; and heals the stinking sores in the nose, called Polypus. The water wherein the root has been boiled, droppedinto the eyes, cleanses them from any film or skin, cloud or mists, which begin to hinder the sight, and helps the watering and redness of them, or when, by some chance, they become black and blue. The root mixed with bean-flour, and applied to the throat or jaws that are inflamed, helps them. The juice of the berries boiled in oil of roses, or beaten into powder mixed with the oil, and dropped into the ears, eases pains in them. The berries or the roots beaten with the hot ox-dung, and applied, eases the pains of the gout. The leaves and roots boiled in wine with a little oil, and applied to the piles, or the falling down of the fundament, eases them, and so doth sitting over the hot fumes thereof. The fresh roots bruised and distilled with a little milk, yields a most sovereign water to cleanse the skin from scurf, freckles, spots, or blemishes whatsoever therein.

Authors have left large commendations of this herb you see, but for my part, I have neither spoken with Dr. Reason nor Dr. Experience about it.

Government and virtues.]Thereis no dispute to be made, but that they are under the dominion of the Moon, though they are so much cried out against for their coldness, and if they were but one degree colder they would be poison. The best of Galenists hold them to be cold and moist in the second degree, and then not so hot as either lettuce or purslain: They are excellently good for a hot stomach, and hot liver; the unmeasurable use of them fills the body full of raw humours, and so indeed the unmeasurable use of any thing else doth harm. The face being washed with their juice, cleanses the skin, and is excellently good for hot rheums in the eyes; the seed is excellently good to provoke urine, and cleanses the passages thereof when they are stopped: there is not a better remedy for ulcers in the bladder growing, than Cucumbers are; The usual course is, to use the seeds in emulsions, as they make almond milk; but a far better way (in my opinion) is this; When the season of the year is, take the Cucumbers and bruise them well, and distil the water from them, and let such as are troubled with ulcers in the bladder drink no other drink. The face being washed with the same water, cures the reddest face that is; it is also excellently good for sun-burning, freckles, and morphew.

Theseare so well known almost to every child, that I suppose it needless to write any description of them. Take therefore the virtues of them as follows.

Government and virtues.] The herb is under the sign Cancer, and under the dominion of Venus, and therefore excellently good for wounds in the breast, and very fitting to be kept both in oils, ointments, and plaisters, as also in syrup. The greater wild Daisy is a wound herb of good respect, often used in those drinks or salves that are for wounds, either inward or outward. The juice or distilled water of these, or the small Daisy, doth much temper the heat of choler, and refresh the liver, and the other inward parts. A decoction made of them and drank, helps to cure the wounds made in the hollowness of the breast. The same also cures all ulcers and pustules in the mouth or tongue, or in the secret parts. The leaves bruised and applied to the privities, or to any other parts that are swoln and hot, doth dissolve it, and temper the heat. A decoction made thereof, of Wallwort and Agrimony, and the places fomented and bathed therewith warm, gives great ease to them that are troubled with the palsy, sciatica, or the gout. The same also disperses and dissolves the knots or kernels that grow in the flesh of any part of the body, and bruises and hurts that come offalls and blows; they are also used for ruptures, and other inward burnings, with very good success. An ointment made thereof doth wonderfully help all wounds that have inflammations about them, or by reason of moist humours having access unto them, are kept long from healing, and such are those, for the most part, that happen to joints of the arms or legs. The juice of them dropped into the running eyes of any, doth much help them.

Descript.]Itis well known to have many long and deep gashed leaves, lying on the ground round about the head of the roots; the ends of each gash or jag, on both sides looking downwards towards the roots; the middle rib being white, which being broken, yields abundance of bitter milk, but the root much more; from among the leaves, which always abide green, arise many slender, weak, naked foot-stalks, every one of them bearing at the top one large yellow flower, consisting of many rows of yellow leaves, broad at the points, and nicked in with deep spots of yellow in the middle, which growing ripe, the green husk wherein the flowers stood turns itself down to the stalk, and the head of down becomes as round as a ball: with long seed underneath, bearing a part of the down on the head of every one, which together is blown away with the wind, or may be at once blown away with one’s mouth. The root growing downwards exceedingly deep, which being broken off within the ground, will yet shoot forth again, and will hardly be destroyed where it hath once taken deep root in the ground.

Place.] It grows frequently in all meadows and pasture-grounds.

Time.] It flowers in one place or other almost all the year long.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Jupiter. It is of an opening and cleansing quality, and therefore very effectual for the obstructions of the liver, gall and spleen, and the diseases that arise from them, as the jaundice and hypocondriac; it opens the passages of the urine both in young and old; powerfully cleanses imposthumes and inward ulcers in the urinary passage, and by its drying and temperate quality doth afterwards heal them; for which purpose the decoction of the roots or leaves in white wine, or the leaves chopped as pot-herbs, with a few Alisanders, and boiled in their broth, are very effectual. And whoever is drawing towards a consumption or an evil disposition of the whole body, called Cachexia, by the use hereof for some time together, shall find a wonderful help. It helps also to procure rest and sleep to bodies distempered by the heat of ague fits, or otherwise: The distilled water is effectual to drink in pestilential fevers, and to wash the sores.

You see here what virtues this common herb hath, and that is the reason the French and Dutch so often eat them in the Spring; and now if you look a little farther, you may see plainly without a pair of spectacles, that foreign physicians are not so selfish as ours are, but more communicative of the virtues of plants to people.

Itis called Jam and Wray: in Sussex they call it Crop, it being a pestilent enemy among corn.

Descript.] This has all the winter long sundry long, flat, and rough leaves, which, when the stalk rises, which is slender and jointed, are narrower, but rough still; on the top grows a long spike, composed of many heads set one above another, containing two or three husks, with a sharp but short beard of awns at the end; theseed is easily shaken out of the ear, the husk itself being somewhat rough.

Place.] The country husbandmen do know this too well to grow among their corn, or in the borders and pathways of the other fields that are fallow.

Government and virtues.] It is a malicious part of sullen Saturn. As it is not without some vices, so hath it also many virtues. The meal of Darnel is very good to stay gangrenes, and other such like fretting and eating cankers, and putrid sores: It also cleanses the skin of all leprosies, morphews, ringworms, and the like, if it be used with salt and raddish roots. And being used with quick brimstone and vinegar, it dissolves knots and kernels, and breaks those that are hard to be dissolved, being boiled in wine with pigeon’s dung and Linseed: A decoction thereof made with water and honey, and the places bathed therewith, is profitable for the sciatica. Darnel meal applied in a poultice draws forth splinters and broken bones in the flesh: The red Darnel, boiled in red wine and taken, stays the lask and all other fluxes, and women’s bloody issues; and restrains urine that passes away too suddenly.

Descript.]Thecommon Dill grows up with seldom more than one stalk, neither so high, nor so great usually as Fennel, being round and fewer joints thereon, whose leaves are sadder, and somewhat long, and so like Fennel that it deceives many, but harder in handling, and somewhat thicker, and of a strong unpleasant scent: The tops of the stalks have four branches and smaller umbels of yellow flowers, which turn into small seed, somewhat flatter and thinner than Fennel seed. The root is somewhat small and woody, perishes every year after it hath borne seed: and is also unprofitable, being never put to any use.

Place.] It is most usually sown in gardens and grounds for the purpose, and is also found wild in many places.

Government and virtues.] Mercury has the dominion of this plant, and therefore to be sure it strengthens the brain. The Dill being boiled and drank, is good to ease swellings and pains; it also stays the belly and stomach from casting. The decoction therefore helps women that are troubled with the pains and windiness of the mother, if they sit therein. It stays the hiccough, being boiled in wine, and but smelled unto being tied in a cloth. The seed is of more use than the leaves, and more effectual to digest raw and vicious humours, and is used in medicines that serve to expel wind, and the pains proceeding therefrom. The seed, being roasted or fried, and used in oils or plasters, dissolve the imposthumes in the fundament; and dries up all moist ulcers, especially in the fundament; an oil made of Dill is effectual to warm or dissolve humours and imposthumes, and the pains, and to procure rest. The decoction of Dill, be it herb or seed (only if you boil the seed you must bruise it) in white wine, being drank, it is a gallant expeller of wind, and provoker of the terms.

Descript.]Thisrises up with a round green smooth stalk, about two feet high, set with divers long and somewhat narrow, smooth, dark green leaves, somewhat nipped about the edges, for the most part, being else all whole, and not divided at all, or but very seldom, even to the tops of the branches, which yet are smaller than those below, with one rib only in the middle. At the end of each branch stands a round head of many flowers set together in the same manner, or more neatly than Scabions, and of a bluish purple colour, which being past, there follows seed which falls away. The root is somewhat thick, butshort and blackish, with many strings, abiding after seed time many years. This root was longer, until the devil (as the friars say) bit away the rest of it for spite, envying its usefulness to mankind; for sure he was not troubled with any disease for which it is proper.

There are two other sorts hereof, in nothing unlike the former, save that the one bears white, and the other bluish-coloured flowers.

Place.] The first grows as well in dry meadows and fields as moist, in many places of this land: But the other two are more rare, and hard to be met with, yet they are both found growing wild about Appledore, near Rye in Kent.

Time.] They flower not usually until August.

Government and virtues.] The plant is venereal, pleasing, and harmless. The herb or the root (all that the devil hath left of it) being boiled in wine, and drank, is very powerful against the plague, and all pestilential diseases or fevers, poisons also, and the bitings of venemous beasts: It helps also those that are inwardly bruised by any casuality, or outwardly by falls or blows, dissolving the clotted blood; and the herb or root beaten and outwardly applied, takes away the black and blue marks that remain in the skin. The decoction of the herb, with honey of roses put therein, is very effectual to help the inveterate tumours and swellings of the almonds and throat, by often gargling the mouth therewith. It helps also to procure women’s courses, and eases all pains of the mother and to break and discuss wind therein, and in the bowels. The powder of the root taken in drink, drives forth the worms in the body. The juice or distilled water of the herb, is effectual for green wounds, or old sores, and cleanses the body inwardly, and the seed outwardly, from sores, scurf, itch, pimples, freckles, morphew, or other deformities thereof, especially if a little vitriol be dissolved therein.

Manykinds of these are so well known, that I shall not trouble you with a description of them: My book grows big too fast.

Government and virtues.] All Docks are under Jupiter, of which the Red Dock, which is commonly called Bloodwort, cleanses the blood, and strengthens the liver; but the yellow Dock-root is best to be taken when either the blood or liver is affected by choler. All of them have a kind of cooling (but not all alike) drying quality, the sorrel being most cold, and the Blood-worts most drying. Of the Burdock, I have spoken already by itself. The seed of most of the other kinds, whether the gardens or fields, do stay lasks and fluxes of all sorts, the loathing of the stomach through choler, and is helpful for those that spit blood. The roots boiled in vinegar help the itch, scabs, and breaking out of the skin, if it be bathed therewith. The distilled water of the herb and roots have the same virtue, and cleanses the skin from freckles, morphews, and all other spots and discolourings therein.

All Docks being boiled with meat, make it boil the sooner: Besides Blood-wort is exceeding strengthening to the liver, and procures good blood, being as wholesome a pot herb as any growing in a garden; yet such is the nicety of our times, forsooth, that women will not put it into a pot, because it makes the pottage black; pride and ignorance (a couple of monsters in the creation) preferring nicety before health.

Descript.]Thisfirst from seed gives roots in the ground, which shoot forth threads or strings, grosser or finer as theproperty of the plant wherein it grows, and the climate doth suffer, creeping and spreading on that plant whereon it fastens, be it high or low. The strings have no leaves at all on them, but wind and interlace themselves, so thick upon a small plant, that it takes away all comfort of the sun from it; and is ready to choak or strangle it. After these strings are risen to that height, that they may draw nourishment from that plant, they seem to be broken off from the ground, either by the strength of their rising, or withered by the heat of the Sun. Upon these strings are found clusters of small heads or husks, out of which shoot forth whitish flowers, which afterwards give small pale white coloured seed, somewhat flat, and twice as big as Poppy-seed. It generally participates of the nature of the plant which it climbs upon; but the Dodder of Thyme is accounted the best, and is the only true Epithymum.

Government and virtues.] All Dodders are under Saturn. Tell not me of physicians crying up Epithymum, or that Dodder which grows upon Thyme, (most of which comes from Hemetius in Greece, or Hybla in Sicily, because those mountains abound with Thyme,) he is a physician indeed, that hath wit enough to choose the Dodder according to the nature of the disease and humour peccant. We confess, Thyme is the hottest herb it usually grows upon; and therefore that which grows upon Thyme is hotter than that which grows upon cold herbs; for it draws nourishment from what it grows upon, as well as from the earth where its root is, and thus you see old Saturn is wise enough to have two strings to his bow. This is accounted the most effectual for melancholy diseases, and to purge black or burnt choler, which is the cause of many diseases of the head and brain, as also for the trembling of the heart, faintings and swoonings. It is helpful in all diseases and griefs of the spleen, and melancholy that arises from the windiness of the hypochondria. It purges also the reins or kidneys by urine; it opens obstructions of the gall, whereby it profits them that have the jaundice; as also the leaves, the spleen: Purging the veins of the choleric and phlegmatic humours, and helps children in agues, a little worm seed being put thereto.

The other Dodders do, as I said before, participate of the nature of those plants whereon they grow: As that which hath been found growing upon nettles in the west-country, hath by experience been found very effectual to procure plenty of urine where it hath been stopped or hindered. And so of the rest.

Sympathy and antipathy are two hinges upon which the whole mode of physic turns; and that physician who minds them not, is like a door off from the hooks, more like to do a man mischief, than to secure him. Then all the diseases Saturn causes, this helps by sympathy, and strengthens all the parts of the body he rules; such as be caused by Sol, it helps by antipathy. What those diseases are, see my judgment of diseases by astrology; and if you be pleased to look at the herb Wormwood, you shall find a rational way for it.

Descript.]Itis well known, that the grass creeps far about under ground, with long white joined roots, and small fibres almost at every joint, very sweet in taste, as the rest of the herb is, and interlacing one another, from whence shoot forth many fair grassy leaves, small at the ends, and cutting or sharp on the edges. The stalks are jointed like corn, with the like leaves on them, and a large spiked head, with a long husk in them, and hard rough seed in them. If you know it not by this description, watch the dogs when they are sick, and they will quickly lead you to it.

Place.] It grows commonly through this land in divers ploughed grounds to the no small trouble of the husbandmen, as also of the gardeners, in gardens, to weed it out, if they can; for it is a constant customer to the place it get footing in.

Government and virtues.] ’Tis under the dominion of Jupiter, and is the most medicinal of all the Quick-grasses. Being boiled and drank, it opens obstructions of the liver and gall, and the stopping of urine, and eases the griping pains of the belly and inflammations; wastes the matter of the stone in the bladder, and the ulcers thereof also. The roots bruised and applied, do consolidate wounds. The seed doth more powerfully expel urine, and stays the lask and vomiting. The distilled water alone, or with a little wormseed, kills the worms in children.

The way of use is to bruise the roots, and having well boiled them in white wine, drink the decoction: ’Tis opening but not purging, very safe: ’Tis a remedy against all diseases coming of stopping, and such are half those that are incident to the body of man; and although a gardener be of another opinion, yet a physician holds half an acre of them to be worth five acres of Carrots twice told over.

Descript.]Thishas divers small, round, pale-green leaves, cut in about the edges, much like mallow, standing upon long, reddish, hairy stalks lying in a round compass upon the ground; among which rise up two or three, or more, reddish, jointed, slender, weak, hairy stalks, with some like leaves thereon, but smaller, and more cut in up to the tops, where grow many very small bright red flowers of five leaves a-piece; after which follow small heads, with small short beaks pointed forth, as all other sorts of those herbs do.

Place.] It grows in pasture grounds, and by the path-sides in many places, and will also be in gardens.

Time.] It flowers in June, July, and August, some earlier and some later; and the seed is ripe quickly after.

Government and virtues.] It is a very gentle, though martial plant. It is found by experience to be singularly good for wind cholic, as also to expel the stone and gravel in the kidneys. The decoction thereof in wine, is an excellent good cure for those that have inward wounds, hurts, or bruises, both to stay the bleeding, to dissolve and expel the congealed blood, and to heal the parts, as also to cleanse and heal outward sores, ulcers, and fistulas; and for green wounds, many do only bruise the herb, and apply it to the places, and it heals them quickly. The same decoction in wine fomented to any place pained with the gout, or to joint-aches, or pains of the sinews, gives much ease. The powder or decoction of the herb taken for some time together, is found by experience to be singularly good for ruptures and burstings in people, either young or old.

Thisis so well known to swim on the tops of standing waters, as ponds, pools, and ditches, that it is needless further to describe it.

Government and virtues.] Cancer claims the herb, and the Moon will be Lady of it; a word is enough to a wise man. It is effectual to help inflammations, and St. Anthony’s Fire, as also the gout, either applied by itself, or in a poultice with Barley meal. The distilled water by some is highly esteemed against all inward inflammations and pestilent fevers; as also to help the redness of the eyes, and swellings of privities, and of the breasts before they be grown too much. The fresh herb applied to the forehead, eases the pains of the head-ache coming of heat.

Descript.]Thishas large leaves lying on the ground, somewhat cut in, and as it were crumpled on the edges, of a green colour on the upper side, but covered with long hairy wool, or Cotton Down, set with most sharp and cruel pricks, from the middle of whose head of flowers, thrust forth many purplish crimson threads, and sometimes (although very seldom) white ones. The seed that follows in the heads, lying in a great deal of white down, is somewhat large, long, and round, like the seed of ladies thistle, but paler. The root is great and thick, spreading much, yet it usually dies after seed-time.

Place.] It grows in divers ditches, banks, and in corn-fields, and highways, generally every where throughout the land.

Time.] It flowers and bears seed about the end of Summer, when other thistles do flower and seed.

Government and virtues.] Mars owns the plant, and manifest to the world, that though it may hurt your finger, it will help your body; for I fancy it much for the ensuing virtues. Pliny and Dioscorides write, That the leaves and roots thereof taken in drink, help those that have a crick in their neck; whereby they cannot turn their neck but their whole body must turn also (sure they do not mean those that have got a crick in their neck by being under the hangman’s hand.) Galen saith, that the root and leaves hereof are of a healing quality, and good for such persons as have their bodies drawn together by some spasm or convulsion, as it is with children that have the rickets.

Theyare so well known to every one that plants them in their gardens, they need no description; if not, let them look down to the lower end of the stalks, and see how like a snake they look.

Government and virtues.] The plant is under the dominion of Mars, and therefore it would be a wonder if it should want some obnoxious quality or other: In all herbs of that quality, the safest way is either to distil the herb in an alembick, in what vehicle you please, or else to press out the juice, and distil that in a glass still, in sand. It scours and cleanses the internal parts of the body mightily, and it clears the external parts also, being externally applied, from freckles, morphew, and sun-burning: Your best way to use it externally, is to mix it with vinegar; an ointment of it is held to be good in wounds and ulcers; it consumes cankers, and that flesh growing in the nostrils, which they call Polypus: Also the distilled water being dropped into the eyes, takes away spots there, or the pin and web, and mends the dimness of sight; it is excellently good against pestilence and poison. Pliny and Dioscorides affirm, that no serpent will meddle with him that carries this herb about him.

I holdit needless to write any description of this, since every boy that plays with a pop-gun will not mistake another tree instead of Elder: I shall therefore in this place only describe the Dwarf-Elder, called also Dead-wort, and Wall-wort.

Descript.]Thisis but an herb every year, dying with his stalks to the ground, and rising afresh every Spring, and is like unto the Elder both in form and quality, rising up with square, rough, hairy stalks, four feet high, or more sometimes. The winged leaves are somewhat narrower than the Elder, but else like them. The flowers are white with a dash of purple, standing in umbels, very like the Elder also, but moresweet is scent; after which come small blackish berries, full of juice while they are fresh, wherein is small hard kernels, or seed. The root doth creep under the upper crust of the ground, springing in divers places, being of the bigness of one’s finger or thumb sometimes.

Place.] The Elder-tree grows in hedges, being planted there to strengthen the fences and partitions of ground, and to hold the banks by ditches and water-courses.

The Dwarf Elder grows wild in many places of England, where being once gotten into a ground, it is not easily gotten forth again.

Time.] Most of the Elder Trees, flower in June, and their fruit is ripe for the most part in August. But the Dwarf Elder, or Wall-wort, flowers somewhat later, and his fruit is not ripe until September.

Government and virtues.] Both Elder and Dwarf Tree are under the dominion of Venus. The first shoots of the common Elder boiled like Asparagus, and the young leaves and stalks boiled in fat broth, doth mightily carry forth phlegm and choler. The middle or inward bark boiled in water, and given in drink, works much more violently; and the berries, either green or dry, expel the same humour, and are often given with good success to help the dropsy; the bark of the root boiled in wine, or the juice thereof drank, works the same effects, but more powerfully than either the leaves or fruit. The juice of the root taken, doth mightily procure vomitings, and purges the watery humours of the dropsy. The decoction of the root taken, cures the biting of an adder, and biting of mad dogs. It mollifies the hardness of the mother, if women sit thereon, and opens their veins, and brings down their courses: The berries boiled in wine perform the same effect; and the hair of the head washed therewith is made black. The juice of the green leaves applied to the hot inflammations of the eyes, assuages them; the juice of the leaves snuffed up into the nostrils, purges the tunicles of the brain; the juice of the berries boiled with honey and dropped into the ears, helps the pains of them; the decoction of the berries in wine, being drank, provokes urine; the distilled water of the flowers is of much use to clean the skin from sun-burning, freckles, morphew, or the like; and takes away the head-ache, coming of a cold cause, the head being bathed therewith. The leaves or flowers distilled in the month of May, and the legs often washed with the said distilled water, it takes away the ulcers and sores of them. The eyes washed therewith, it takes away the redness and bloodshot; and the hands washed morning and evening therewith, helps the palsy, and shaking of them.

The Dwarf Elder is more powerful than the common Elder in opening and purging choler, phlegm, and water; in helping the gout, piles, and women’s diseases, colours the hair black, helps the inflammations of the eyes, and pains in the ears, the biting of serpents, or mad dogs, burnings and scaldings, the wind cholic, cholic, and stone, the difficulty of urine, the cure of old sores and fistulous ulcers. Either leaves or bark of Elder, stripped upwards as you gather it, causes vomiting. Also, Dr. Butler, in a manuscript of his, commends Dwarf Elder to the sky of dropsies,viz.to drink it, being boiled in white wine; to drink the decoction I mean, not the Elder.

Thistree is so well known, growing generally in all counties of this land, that it is needless to describe it.

Government and virtues.] It is a cold and saturnine plant. The leaves thereof bruised and applied, heal green wounds, being bound thereon with its own bark. The leaves or the bark used with vinegar, cures scurf and leprosy very effectually; Thedecoction of the leaves, bark, or root, being bathed, heals broken bones. The water that is found in the bladders on the leaves, while it is fresh, is very effectual to cleanse the skin, and make it fair; and if cloaths be often wet therein, and applied to the ruptures of children, it heals them, if they be well bound up with a truss. The said water put into a glass, and set into the ground, or else in dung for twenty-five days, the mouth thereof being close stopped, and the bottom set upon a layer of ordinary salt, that the fœces may settle and water become clear, is a singular and sovereign balm for green wounds, being used with soft tents: The decoction of the bark of the root, fomented, mollifies hard tumours, and the shrinking of the sinews. The roots of the Elm, boiled for a long time in water, and the fat arising on the top thereof, being clean skimmed off, and the place anointed therewith that is grown bald, and the hair fallen away, will quickly restore them again. The said bark ground with brine or pickle, until it come to the form of a poultice, and laid on the place pained with the gout, gives great ease. The decoction of the bark in water, is excellent to bathe such places as have been burnt with fire.

Descript.]Commongarden Endive bears a longer and larger leaf than Succory, and abides but one year, quickly running up to a stalk and seed, and then perishes; it has blue flowers, and the seed of the ordinary Endive is so like Succory seed, that it is hard to distinguish them.

Government and virtues.] It is a fine cooling, cleansing, jovial plant. The decoction of the leaves, or the juice, or the distilled water of Endive, serve well to cool the excessive heat of the liver and stomach, and in the hot fits of agues, and all other inflammations in any part of the body; it cools the heat and sharpness of the urine, and excoriation in the urinary parts. The seeds are of the same property, or rather more powerful, and besides are available for fainting, swoonings, and passions of the heart. Outwardly applied, they serve to temper the sharp humours of fretting ulcers, hot tumours, swellings, and pestilential sores; and wonderfully help not only the redness and inflammations of the eyes, but the dimness of the sight also; they are also used to allay the pains of the gout. You cannot use it amiss; a syrup of it is a fine cooling medicine for fevers.

Descript.]Itshoots forth many large leaves, long and broad, lying near the ground, small at both ends, somewhat soft in handling of a whitish green on the upper side, and grey underneath, each set upon a short footstalk, from among which arise up divers great and strong hairy stalks, three or four feet high, with some leaves thereupon, compassing them about at the lower end, and are branched towards the tops, bearing divers great and large flowers, like those of the corn marigold, both the border of leaves, and the middle thrum being yellow, which turn into down, with long, small, brownish seeds amongst it, and is carried away with the wind. The root is great and thick, branched forth divers ways, blackish on the outside and whitish within, of a very bitter taste, and strong, but good scent, especially when they are dried, no part else of the plant having any smell.

Place.] It grows on moist grounds, and shadowy places oftener than in the dry and open borders of the fields and lanes, and in other waste places, almost in every county of this land.

Time.] It flowers in the end of June and July, and the seed is ripe in August. The roots are gathered for use, as well in theSpring before the leaves come forth, as in Autumn or Winter.

Government and virtues.] It is a plant under the dominion of Mercury. The fresh roots of Elecampane preserved with sugar, or made into a syrup or conserve, are very effectual to warm a cold windy stomach, or the pricking therein, and stiches in the sides caused by the spleen; and to help the cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing in the lungs. The dried root made into powder, and mixed with sugar, and taken, serves to the same purpose, and is also profitable for those who have their urine stopped, or the stopping of women’s courses, the pains of the mother and the stone in the reins, kidneys, or bladder; it resists poison, and stays the spreading of the venom of serpents, as also putrid and pestilential fevers, and the plague itself. The roots and herbs beaten and put into new ale or beer, and daily drank, clears, strengthens, and quickens the sight of the eyes wonderfully. The decoction of the roots in wine, or the juice taken therein, kills and drives forth all manner of worms in the belly, stomach, and maw; and gargled in the mouth, or the root chewed, fastens loose teeth, and helps to keep them from putrefaction; and being drank is good for those that spit blood, helps to remove cramps or convulsions, gout, sciatica, pains in the joints, applied outwardly or inwardly, and is also good for those that are bursten, or have any inward bruise. The root boiled well in vinegar beaten afterwards, and made into an ointment with hog’s suet, or oil of trotters is an excellent remedy for scabs or itch in young or old; the places also bathed or washed with the decoction doth the same; it also helps all sorts of filthy old putrid sores or cankers whatsoever. In the roots of this herb lieth the chief effect for the remedies aforesaid. The distilled water of the leaves and roots together, is very profitable to cleanse the skin of the face, or other parts, from any morphew, spots, or blemishes therein, and make it clear.

Descript.]Thefirst leaves of our ordinary Sea-holly, are nothing so hard and prickly as when they grow old, being almost round, and deeply dented about the edges, hard and sharp pointed, and a little crumpled, of a bluish green colour, every one upon a long foot stalk; but those that grow up higher with the stalk, do as it were compass it about. The stalk itself is round and strong, yet somewhat crested, with joints and leaves set thereat, but more divided, sharp and prickly; and branches rising from thence, which have likewise other small branches, each of them having several bluish round prickly heads, with many small jagged prickly leaves under them, standing like a star, and sometimes found greenish or whitish: The root grows wonderfully long, even to eight or ten feet in length, set with rings and circles towards the upper part, cut smooth and without joints down lower, brownish on the outside, and very white within, with a pith in the middle; of a pleasant taste, but much more, being artificially preserved, and candied with sugar.

Place.] It is found about the sea coast in almost every county of this land which borders upon the sea.

Time.] It flowers in the end of Summer, and gives ripe seed within a month after.

Government and virtues.] The plant is venereal, and breeds seed exceedingly, and strengthens the spirit procreative; it is hot and moist, and under the celestial Balance. The decoction of the root hereof in wine, is very effectual to open obstructions of the spleen and liver, and helps yellow jaundice, dropsy, pains of the loins, and wind cholic, provokes urine, and expels the stone, procures women’s courses. The continueduse of the decoction for fifteen days, taken fasting, and next to bedward, doth help the stranguary, the difficulty and stoppage of urine, and the stone, as well as all defects of the reins and kidneys; and if the said drink be continued longer, it is said that it cures the stone; it is found good against the French pox. The roots bruised and applied outwardly, help the kernels of the throat, commonly called the king’s evil; or taking inwardly, and applied to the place stung or bitten by any serpent, heal it speedily. If the roots be bruised, and boiled in old hog’s grease, or salted lard, and broken bones, thorns &c. remaining in the flesh, they do not only draw them forth, but heal up the place again, gathering new flesh where it was consumed. The juice of the leaves dropped into the ear, helps imposthumes therein. The distilled water of the whole herb, when the leaves and stalks are young, is profitable drank for all the purposes aforesaid; and helps the melancholy of the heart, and is available in quartan and quotidian agues; as also for them that have their necks drawn awry, and cannot turn them without turning their whole body.

Descript.]CommonEyebright is a small low herb, rising up usually but with one blackish green stalk a span high, or not much more, spread from the bottom into sundry branches, whereon are small and almost round yet pointed dark green leaves, finely snipped about the edges, two always set together, and very thick: At the joints with the leaves, from the middle upward, come forth small white flowers, marked with purple and yellow spots, or stripes; after which follow small round heads, with very small seed therein. The root is long, small and thready at the end.

Place.] It grows in meadows, and grassy land.

Government and virtues.] It is under the sign of the Lion, and Sol claims dominion over it. If the herb was but as much used as it is neglected, it would half spoil the spectacle maker’s trade; and a man would think, that reason should teach people to prefer the preservation of their natural before artificial spectacles; which that they may be instructed how to do, take the virtues of Eyebright as follows.

The juice or distilled water of Eyebright, taken inwardly in white wine or broth, or dropped into the eyes for divers days together, helps all infirmities of the eyes that cause dimness of sight. Some make conserve of the flowers to the same effect. Being used any of the ways, it also helps a weak brain, or memory. This tunned up with strong beer, that it may work together, and drank, or the powder of the dried herb mixed with sugar, a little Mace, and Fennel seed, and drank, or eaten in broth; or the said powder made into an electuary with sugar, and taken, has the same powerful effect to help and restore the sight, decayed through age; and Arnoldus de Ville Nova saith, it hath restored sight to them that have been blind a long time before.

Descript.]Ofthis there are two kinds principally to be treated of,viz.the Male and Female. The Female grows higher than the Male, but the leaves thereof are smaller, and more divided and dented, and of as strong a smell as the male; the virtue of them are both alike, and therefore I shall not trouble you with any description or distinction of them.

Place.] They grow both in heaths and in shady places near the hedge-sides in all counties of this land.

Time.] They flower and give their seed at Midsummer.

The Female Fern is that plant which is in Sussex, called Brakes, the seed of whichsome authors hold to be so rare: Such a thing there is I know, and may be easily had upon Midsummer Eve, and for ought I know, two or three days after it, if not more.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mercury, both Male and Female. The roots of both these sorts of Fern being bruised and boiled in Mead, or honeyed water, and drank, kills both the broad and long worms in the body, and abates the swelling and hardness of the spleen. The green leaves eaten, purge the belly of choleric and waterish humours that trouble the stomach. They are dangerous for women with child to meddle with, by reason they cause abortions. The roots bruised and boiled in oil, or hog’s grease, make a very profitable ointment to heal wounds, or pricks gotten in the flesh. The powder of them used in foul ulcers, dries up their malignant moisture, and causes their speedier healing. Fern being burned, the smoke thereof drives away serpents, gnats, and other noisome creatures, which in fenny countries do in the night time, trouble and molest people lying in their beds with their faces uncovered; it causes barrenness.

Descript.]Thisshoots forth in Spring time (for in the Winter the leaves perish) divers rough hard stalks, half round, and yellowish, or flat on the other side, two feet high, having divers branches of winged yellowish green leaves on all sides, set one against another, longer, narrower, and not nicked on the edges as the former. From the top of some of these stalks grow forth a long bush of small and more yellow, green, scaly aglets, set in the same manner on the stalks as the leaves are, which are accounted the flowers and seeds. The root is rough, thick and scabby: with a white pith in the middle, which is called the heart thereof.

Place.] It grows on moors, bogs, and watery places, in many parts of this land.

Time.] It is green all the summer, and the root only abides in winter.

Government and virtues.] Saturn owns the plant. This has all the virtues mentioned in the former Ferns, and is much more effectual than they, both for inward and outward griefs, and is accounted singularly good in wounds, bruises, or the like. The decoction to be drank, or boiled into an ointment of oil, as a balsam or balm, and so it is singularly good against bruises, and bones broken, or out of joint, and gives much ease to the cholic and splenetic diseases: as also for ruptures or burstings. The decoction of the root in white wine, provokes urine exceedingly, and cleanses the bladder and passages of urine.

Descript.]CommonFeatherfew has large, fresh, green leaves, much torn or cut on the edges. The stalks are hard and round, set with many such like leaves, but smaller, and at the tops stand many single flowers, upon small foot stalks, consisting of many small white leaves standing round about a yellow thrum in the middle. The root is somewhat hard and short, with many strong fibres about it. The scent of the whole plant is very strong, and the taste is very bitter.

Place.] This grows wild in many places of the land, but is for the most part nourished in gardens.

Time.] It flowers in the months of June and July.

Government and virtues.] Venus commands this herb, and has commended it to succour her sisters (women) and to be a general strengthener of their wombs, and remedy such infirmities as a careless midwife hath there caused if they will but bepleased to make use of her herb boiled in white wine, and drink the decoction; it cleanses the womb, expels the after-birth, and doth a woman all the good she can desire of an herb. And if any grumble because they cannot get the herb in winter, tell them, if they please, they may make a syrup of it in summer; it is chiefly used for the disease of the mother, whether it be the strangling or rising of the mother, or hardness, or inflammation of the same, applied outwardly thereunto. Or a decoction of the flowers in wine, with a little Nutmeg or Mace put therein, and drank often in a day, is an approved remedy to bring down women’s courses speedily, and helps to expel the dead birth and after-birth. For a woman to sit over the hot fumes of the decoction of the herb made in water or wine, is effectual for the same; and in some cases to apply the boiled herb warm to the privy parts. The decoction thereof made with some sugar, or honey put thereto, is used by many with good success to help the cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse the reins and bladder, and helps to expel the stone in them. The powder of the herb taken in wine, with some Oxymel, purges both choler and phlegm, and is available for those that are short winded, and are troubled with melancholy and heaviness, or sadness of spirits. It is very effectual for all pains in the head coming of a cold cause, the herb being bruised and applied to the crown of the head: As also for the vertigo, that is a running or swimming in the head. The decoction thereof drank warm, and the herb bruised with a few corns of Bay salt, and applied to the wrists before the coming of the ague fits, doth take them away. The distilled water takes away freckles, and other spots and deformities in the face. The herb bruised and heated on a tile, with some wine to moisten it, or fried with a little wine and oil in a frying-pan, and applied warm outwardly to the places, helps the wind and cholic in the lower part of the belly. It is an especial remedy against opium taken too liberally.

Everygarden affords this so plentifully, that it needs no description.

Government and virtues.] One good old fashion is not yet left off,viz.to boil Fennel with fish; for it consumes that phlegmatic humour, which fish most plentifully afford and annoy the body with, though few that use it know wherefore they do it; I suppose the reason of its benefit this way is because it is an herb of Mercury, and under Virgo, and therefore bears antipathy to Pisces. Fennel is good to break wind, to provoke urine, and ease the pains of the stone, and helps to break it. The leaves or seed, boiled in barley water and drank are good for nurses, to increase their milk, and make it more wholesome for the child. The leaves, or rather the seeds, boiled in water, stays the hiccough, and takes away the loathings which oftentimes happen to the stomachs of sick and feverish persons and allays the heat thereof. The seed boiled in wine and drank, is good for those that are bitten with serpents, or have eaten poisonous herbs, or mushrooms. The seed and the roots much more, help to open obstructions of the liver, spleen, and gall, and thereby help the painful and windy swellings of the spleen, and the yellow jaundice; as also the gout and cramps. The seed is of good use in medicines to help shortness of breath and wheezing by stopping of the lungs. It helps also to bring down the courses, and to cleanse the parts after delivery. The roots are of most use in physic drinks, and broth that are taken to cleanse the blood, to open obstructions of the liver, to provoke urine, and amend the ill colour in the face after sickness, and to cause a good habit through the body.Both leaves, seeds, and roots thereof are much used in drink or broth, to make people more lean that are too fat. The distilled water of the whole herb, or the condensate juice dissolved, but especially the natural juice, that in some counties issues out hereof of its own accord, dropped into the eyes, cleanses them from mists and films that hinder the sight. The sweet Fennel is much weaker in physical uses than the common Fennel. The wild Fennel is stronger and hotter than the tame, and therefore most powerful against the stone, but not so effectual to encrease milk, because of its dryness.

Besidesthe common name in English, Hog’s Fennel, and the Latin name Peucidanum, is called Hoar-strange, and Hoar-strong, Sulphur-wort, and Brimstone-wort.

Descript.] The common Sow-Fennel has divers branched stalks of thick and somewhat long leaves, three for the most part joined together at a place, among which arises a crested straight stalk, less than Fennel, with some joints thereon, and leaves growing thereat, and towards the tops some branches issuing from thence; likewise on the tops of the stalks and branches stand divers tufts of yellow flowers, whereafter grows somewhat flat, thin, and yellowish seed, bigger than Fennel seed. The roots grow great and deep, with many other parts and fibres about them of a strong scent like hot brimstone, and yield forth a yellowish milk, or clammy juice, almost like a gum.

Place.] It grows plentifully in the salt low marshes near Feversham in Kent.

Time.] It flowers plentifully in July and August.

Government and virtues.] This is also an herb of Mercury. The juice of Sow-Fennel (saith Dioscorides, and Galen,) used with vinegar and rose water, or the juice with a little Euphorbium put to the nose, helps those that are troubled with the lethargy, frenzy, giddiness of the head, the falling sickness, long and inveterate head-aches, the palsy, sciatica, and the cramp, and generally all the diseases of the sinews, used with oil and vinegar. The juice dissolved in wine, or put into an egg, is good for a cough, or shortness of breath, and for those that are troubled with wind in the body. It purges the belly gently, expels the hardness of the spleen, gives ease to women that have sore travail in child-birth, and eases the pains of the reins and bladder, and also the womb. A little of the juice dissolved in wine, and dropped into the ears, eases much of the pains in them, and put into a hollow tooth, eases the pain thereof. The root is less effectual to all the aforesaid disorders; yet the powder of the root cleanses foul ulcers, being put into them, and takes out splinters of broken bones, or other things in the flesh, and heals them up perfectly: as also, dries up old and inveterate running sores, and is of admirable virtue in all green wounds.

Descript.]Commongreat Fig-wort sends divers great, strong, hard, square brown stalks, three or four feet high, whereon grow large, hard, and dark green leaves, two at a joint, harder and larger than Nettle leaves, but not stinking; at the tops of the stalks stand many purple flowers set in husks, which are sometimes gaping and open, somewhat like those of Water Betony; after which come hard round heads, with a small point in the middle, wherein lie small brownish seed. The root is great, white, and thick, with many branches at it, growing aslope under the upper crust of the ground, which abides many years, but keeps not his green leaves in Winter.

Place.] It grows frequently in moistand shadowy woods, and in the lower parts of the fields and meadows.

Time.] It flowers about July, and the seed will be ripe about a month after the flowers are fallen.

Government and virtues.] Some Latin authors call it Cervicaria, because it is appropriated to the neck; and we Throat-wort, because it is appropriated to the throat. Venus owns the herb, and the Celestial Bull will not deny it; therefore a better remedy cannot be for the king’s evil, because the Moon that rules the disease, is exalted there. The decoction of the herb taken inwardly, and the bruised herb applied outwardly, dissolves clotted and congealed blood within the body, coming by any wounds, bruise, or fall; and is no less effectual for the king’s evil, or any other knobs, kernel, bunches, or wens growing in the flesh wheresoever; and for the hæmorrhoids, or piles. An ointment made hereof may be used at all times when the fresh herb is not to be had. The distilled water of the whole plant, roots and all, is used for the same purposes, and dries up the superfluous, virulent moisture of hollow and corroding ulcers; it takes away all redness, spots, and freckles in the face, as also the scurf, and any foul deformity therein, and the leprosy likewise.

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