FOOTNOTES:

“To ye memory of ytcurious Naturalist and Learned Father, Geo JosphCamel for many Observations and Things sent me.”“To ye memory of my curious Friend Mr. Sam Browne, Surgeon at Madrass, for divers Indian Plants, Shells, Seeds, etc.”“To Mr. George Bouchere, Surgeon, For divers Minorca Plants, Seed, etc.”“To Mr. Alexander Bartlet, Surgeon, For divers Cape and Moca Plants, Shells, etc.”“To Mr. George London, Late Gardiner to K. Will and Q. Mary.”“To ye memory of Mr. WillmBrowne, Surgeon, who Presented me wthDivers Plants, Shells, etc.”“To His Hearty Friend, Mr. John Stocker, in gratitude for divers Plants, Shells, etc.”“To Mr. Claud Joseph, Geoffroy, Apothecary Chymist and Fellow of ye Academy Royall in Paris.”“To Mr. Charles Du-Bois, Treasurer of the East India Company.”“To the Honourable Dr. William Sherard, Consul of Smyrna.”“To Captain Jonathan Whicker for Divers Shells from St. Christophers.”“To his Curious Friend, Mr. John Smart, Surgeon, For Divers Plants, etc., from Hudson’s Bay.”“To his kind Friend, Capt. George Searle for divers Antego Shells, Coralls, etc.”“To Capt. Thomas Grigg at Antego in gratitude for divers Insects, Shells, etc.”“To that very obliging Gentlewoman, Madam Hannah Williams at Carolina.”

“To ye memory of ytcurious Naturalist and Learned Father, Geo JosphCamel for many Observations and Things sent me.”

“To ye memory of my curious Friend Mr. Sam Browne, Surgeon at Madrass, for divers Indian Plants, Shells, Seeds, etc.”

“To Mr. George Bouchere, Surgeon, For divers Minorca Plants, Seed, etc.”

“To Mr. Alexander Bartlet, Surgeon, For divers Cape and Moca Plants, Shells, etc.”

“To Mr. George London, Late Gardiner to K. Will and Q. Mary.”

“To ye memory of Mr. WillmBrowne, Surgeon, who Presented me wthDivers Plants, Shells, etc.”

“To His Hearty Friend, Mr. John Stocker, in gratitude for divers Plants, Shells, etc.”

“To Mr. Claud Joseph, Geoffroy, Apothecary Chymist and Fellow of ye Academy Royall in Paris.”

“To Mr. Charles Du-Bois, Treasurer of the East India Company.”

“To the Honourable Dr. William Sherard, Consul of Smyrna.”

“To Captain Jonathan Whicker for Divers Shells from St. Christophers.”

“To his Curious Friend, Mr. John Smart, Surgeon, For Divers Plants, etc., from Hudson’s Bay.”

“To his kind Friend, Capt. George Searle for divers Antego Shells, Coralls, etc.”

“To Capt. Thomas Grigg at Antego in gratitude for divers Insects, Shells, etc.”

“To that very obliging Gentlewoman, Madam Hannah Williams at Carolina.”

FOOTNOTES:[86]Joyfull Newes out of the newe founde worlde wherein is declared the rare and singular vertues of diuerse and sundrie Hearbes, etc.SeeBibliography of English Herbals, p.211. Nicolas Monardes was a Spanish doctor living in Seville and his book was written in 1569 (see p.231).[87]Published in London. SeeBibliography, p.217.

[86]Joyfull Newes out of the newe founde worlde wherein is declared the rare and singular vertues of diuerse and sundrie Hearbes, etc.SeeBibliography of English Herbals, p.211. Nicolas Monardes was a Spanish doctor living in Seville and his book was written in 1569 (see p.231).

[87]Published in London. SeeBibliography, p.217.

“For truly from all sorts of Herbes and Flowers we may draw matter at all times not only to magnifie the Creator that hath given them such diversities of formes sents and colours, that the most cunning Worke man cannot imitate, and such vertues and properties, that although wee know many, yet many more lye hidden and unknowne, but many good instructions also to ourselves. That as many herbes and flowers with their fragrant sweet smels doe comfort, and as it were revive the spirits and perfume a whole house: even so such men as live vertuously, labouring to doe good and profit the Church of God and the Commonwealth by their paines or penne, doe as it were send forth a pleasing savour of sweet instructions, not only to that time wherein they live, and are fresh, but being drye, withered and dead, cease not in all after ages to doe as much or more.”—John Parkinson,Paradisus, 1629.

The last of the great English herbalists was John Parkinson, the author of the famousParadisusand also of the largest herbal in the English language,Theatrum Botanicum, which was published when the author was seventy-three. The latter was intended to be a complete account of medicinal plants and was the author’s most important work, yet it is with theParadisus(strictly not a herbal, but a gardening book), that his name is popularly associated. Of Parkinson himself we can learn very little. We know only that he was born in 1567, probably in Nottinghamshire, and that before 1616 he was practising as an apothecary and had a garden in Long Acre “well stored with rarities.”[88]He was appointed Apothecary to James I., and after the publication of hisParadisusin 1629 Charles I. bestowed on him the title of Botanicus Regius Primarius. Amongst Parkinson’s acquaintances mentioned in his books were the learned Thomas Johnson, who in 1633 emended and brought out a new edition of Gerard’sHerball, John Tradescant,[89]the famous gardener, traveller and naturalist, and the celebrated physician, Sir Theodore Mayerne. Parkinson died in 1650 and was buried at St. Martin’s in the Fields. There is a portrait of him in his sixty-second year prefixed to hisParadisus, and a small portrait by Marshall at the bottom of the title-page of hisTheatrum Botanicum.

The full title of Parkinson’sParadisus, which in the dedicatory letter to Queen Henrietta Maria he truly describes as “this Speaking Garden,” is inscribed on a shield at the bottom of the frontispiece. The first three words, “Paradisi in Sole,” are a punning translation into Latin of his own surname.

At the top of the page is the Eye of Providence with a Hebrew inscription, and on each side a cherub symbolising the winds. In the centre is a representation of Paradise with Adam grafting an apple tree and Eve running downhill to pick up a pineapple. The flowers depicted are curiously out of proportion, for the tulip flower is a good deal larger than Eve’s head, and cyclamen in Paradise seems to have grown to a height of at least five feet.

The most interesting feature of this elaborately illustrated title-page is the representation of the “Vegetable Lamb” growing on astalk and browsing on the herbage round about it.[90]This records one of the most curious myths of the Middle Ages. The creature was also known as the Scythian Lamb and the Borametz or Barometz, a name derived from a Tartar word signifying “lamb.” It was supposed to be at once a true animal and a living plant, and was said to grow in the territory of the “Tartars of the East,” formerly called Scythia. According to some writers, the lamb was the fruit of a tree, whose fruit or seed-pod, when fully ripe, burst open and disclosed a little lamb perfect in every way. This was the subject of the illustration, “The Vegetable Lamb plant,” in Sir John Mandeville’s book. Other writers described the lamb as being supported above the ground by a stalk flexible enough to allow the animal to feed on the herbage growing near. When it had consumed all within its reach the stem withered and the lamb died. This is the version illustrated on Parkinson’s title-page. It was further reported that the lamb was a favourite food of wolves, but that no other carnivorous animals would attack it. This remarkable legend obtained credence for at least 400 years. So far as is known, the first mention of it in an English book is the account given by Sir John Mandeville, “the Knyght of Ingelond that was y bore in the toun of Seynt Albans, and travelide aboute in the worlde in many diverse countries to se mervailes and customes of countreis and diversiters of folkys and diverse shap of men and of beistis.” It is in the chapter describing the curiosities he met with in the dominions of the “Cham” of Tartary that the passage about the vegetable lamb occurs.[91]The origin of this extraordinary myth is undoubtedlyto be found in the ancient descriptions of the cotton plant by Herodotus, Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny and others.[92]The following passages in Herodotus and Pliny will suffice to show how easily the myth may have grown. “Certain trees bear for their fruit fleeces surpassing those of sheep in beauty and excellence” (Herodotus). “These trees bear gourds the size of a quince which burst when ripe and display balls of wool out of which the inhabitants make cloths like valuable linen” (Pliny).

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON’S “PARADISUS” (1629)

In hisTheatrum BotanicumParkinson describes the “Scythian Lamb,” and one gathers that he accepted the travellers’ tales about it. “This strange living plant as it is reported by divers good authors groweth among the Tartares about Samarkand and the parts thereabouts rising from a seede somewhat bigger and rounder than a Melon seede with a stalk about five palmes high without any leafe thereon but onely bearing a certaine fruit and the toppe in forme resembling a small lambe, whose coate or rinde is woolly like unto a Lambe’s skinne, the pulp or meat underneath, which is like the flesh of a Lobster, having it is sayed blood also in it; it hath the forme of an head hanging down and feeding on the grasse round about it untill it hath consumed it and then dyeth or else will perish if the grasse round about it bee cut away of purpose. It hath foure legges also hanging downe. The wolves much affect to feed on them.”

The preface to theParadisusis singularly beautiful, being typical of the simple, devout-minded author, but it is too long to quote. The book itself is truly “a speaking garden,” a tranquil, spacious Elizabethan garden, full of the loveliness, colour and scent of damask, musk and many other roses; of lilies innumerable—the crown imperial, the gold and red lilies, the Persian lily (“brought unto Constantinople and from thence sent unto us by Mr. Nicholas Lete, a worthy Merchant and a lover of all faire flowers”), the blush Martagon, the bright red Martagon ofHungary and the lesser mountain lily. Of fritillaries of every sort—of which Parkinson tells us that “although divers learned men do by the name given unto this delightful plant think it doth in some things partake with a Tulipe or Daffodill; yet I, finding it most like unto a little Lilly, have (as you see here) placed it next unto the Lillies and before them.” Of gay tulips, which were amongst his special favourites—“But indeed this flower, above many other, deserveth his true commendations and acceptance with all lovers of these beauties, both for the stately aspect and for the admirable varietie of colour, that daily doe arise in them,”—and of which he had a collection such as would be the glory of any garden—the tulip of Caffa, the greater red Bolonia tulip, the tulip of Candie, the tulip of Armenia, the Fool’s Coat tulip, the Cloth of Silver tulip and others too numerous to mention. (“They are all now made denizens in our Gardens,” he joyously tells us, “where they yield us more delight and more increase for their proportion by reason of their culture, than they did unto their owne naturals”). Of daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths in boundless profusion, amongst which are to be noted many pleasing names that we no longer use. Of asphodels, “which doe grow naturally in Spaine and France and from thence were first brought unto us to furnish our Gardens.” Of many-coloured flags, which he calls by the prettier name of “flower de luce,” and amongst which he gives pride of place “for his excellent beautie and raretie to the great Turkie Flower de luce.” Of gladioli, cyclamen and anemones. Of the last-named he writes thus:—

“The Anemones likewise or Windeflowers are so full of variety and so dainty so pleasant and so delightsome flowers that the sight of them doth enforce an earnest longing desire in the mind of anyone to be a possessoure of some of them at the leaste. For without all doubt this one kind of flower, so variable in colours, so differing in form (being almost as many sortes of them double as single), so plentifull in bearing flowers and so durable in lasting and also so easie both to preserve and to encrease is of itselfealone almost sufficient to furnish a garden with flowers for almost half the yeare. But to describe the infinite (as I may so say) variety of the colours of the flowers and to give each his true distinction and denomination it passeth my ability I confesse, and I thinke would grauell the best experienced in Europe.” (Nevertheless he writes of about fifty varieties.) Of fragrant crane’s-bills, bear’s-ears, primroses and cowslips. Of violets, borage, marigolds, campions, snapdragons, columbines and lark’s-heels (delphiniums). Of gillyflowers (why have we given up this old-fashioned English name?), and how pleasant is the mere reading of his list of varieties—“Master Bradshawe his daintie Ladie,” “Ruffling Robin,” “The Fragrant,” “The Red Hulo,” “John Witte his great tawny gillow flower,” “Lustie Gallant,” “The fair maid of Kent,” “The Speckled Tawny.” “But the most beautiful that ever I did see was with Master Ralph Tuggie,[93]the which gilliflower I must needes therefore call ‘Master Tuggies Princesse,’ which is the greatest and fairest of all these sorts of variable tawnies, being as large fully as the Prince or Chrystall, or something greater, standing comely and round, not loose or shaken, or breaking the pod as some other sorts will; the marking of the flower is in this manner: It is of a stamell colour, striped and marbled with white stripes and veines quite through every leafe, which are as deeply iagged as the Hulo: sometimes it hath more red then white, and sometimes more white then red, and sometimes so equally marked that you cannot discern which hath the mastery; yet which of these hath the predominance, still the flower is very beautifull and exceeding delightsome.” Of peonies, lupins, pinks, sea-holly and sweet-william. Of lilies of the valley, gentian, Canterbury bells, hollyhocks and mallows (“which for their bravery are entertained everywhere unto every countrey-woman’s garden”). Of foxgloves, goldilocks, valerian and mullein. Of cuckoo-flowers, “or Ladies smockes,” both the double and the trefoil. The firstkind, Parkinson tells us, “is found in divers places of our owne Countrey as neere Micham about eight miles from London;” also in Lancashire, “from whence I received a plant, which perished, but was found by the industrie of a worthy Gentlewoman dwelling in those parts called Mistresse Thomasin Tunstall, a great lover of these delights. The other was sent me by my especiall good friend John Tradescant, who brought it among other dainty plants from beyond the seas, and imparted thereof a root to me.” Of clematis and candytufts, honeysuckles and jasmine. Of double-flowered cherries, apples and peaches. “The beautiful shew of these three sorts of flowers,” he says, “hath made me to insert them into this garden, in that for their worthinesse I am unwilling to bee without them, although the rest of their kindes I have transferred into the Orchard, where among other fruit trees they shall be remembered: for all these here set downe seldome or never beare any fruite, and therefore more fit for a Garden of flowers then an Orchard of fruite. These trees be very fit to be set by Arbours.”

In this garden of pleasant flowers we find also many fragrant herbs. “After all these faire and sweete flowers,” says Parkinson, “I must adde a few sweete herbes, both to accomplish this Garden, and to please your senses, by placing them in your Nosegayes, or elsewhere as you list. And although I bring them in the end or last place, yet they are not of the least account.” He writes first of rosemary, the common, the gilded, the broad-leaved and the double-flowered. Of rosemary he tells us: “This common Rosemary is so well knowne through all our Land, being in every woman’s garden, that it were sufficient but to name it as an ornament among other sweete herbes and flowers in our Garden. It is well observed, as well in this our Land (where it hath been planted in Noblemen’s, and great men’s gardens against brick wals, and there continued long) as beyond the Seas, in the naturall places where it groweth, that it riseth up in time unto a very great height, with a great and woody stemme (of that compasse that—being clouen out into thin boards—it hath served to make lutes, or such likeinstruments, and here with us Carpenters rules, and to divers other purposes), branching out into divers and sundry armes that extend a great way, and from them againe into many other smaller branches, whereon we see at several distances, at the ioynts, many very narrow long leaves, greene above, and whitish underneath, among which come forth towards the toppes of the stalkes, divers sweet gaping flowers of a pale or bleake blewish colour, many set together standing in whitish huskes ... although it will spring of the seede reasonable well, yet it is so small and tender the first yeare, that a sharpe winter killeth it quickly, unlesse it be very well defended; the whole plant as well leaves as flowers, smelleth exceeding sweete.” Of sage and of lavender both the purple and the rare white[94](“there is a kinde hereof that beareth white flowers and somewhat broader leaves, but it is very rare and seene but in few places with us, because it is more tender, and will not so well endure our cold Winters”). “Lavender,” he says, “is almost wholly spent with us, for to perfume linnen, apparell, gloues and leather and the dryed flowers to comfort and dry up the moisture of a cold braine.” Of French lavender (“the whole plant is somewhat sweete, but nothing so much as Lavender). It groweth in the Islands Staechades which are over against Marselles and in Arabia also: we keep it with great care in our Gardens. It flowreth the next yeare after it is sowne, in the end of May, which is a moneth before any Lavender.” Of lavender cotton, of which he writes: “the whole plant is of a strong sweete sent, but not unpleasant, and is planted in Gardens to border knots with, for which it will abide to be cut into what forme you think best, for it groweth thicke and bushy, very fit for such workes, besides the comely shew the plant it selfe thus wrought doth yeeld, being alwayes greene and of a sweet sent.” Of basil, “wholly spent to make sweet or washing waters, among other sweet herbes, yet sometimes it is put into nosegayes. The Physicall properties are to procure a cheerfull and merry heart”; and marjoram, “not onely much used to please the outwardsenses in nosegayes and in the windowes of houses, as also in sweete pouders, sweete bags, and sweete washing waters.” Of all the varieties of thyme and hyssop—and of the white hyssop he writes that its striped leaves “make it delightfull to most Gentlewomen.” Hyssop, he tells us further, “is used of many people in the Country to be laid unto cuts or fresh wounds, being bruised, and applyed eyther alone, or with a little sugar.” “And thus,” he concludes this part of the book, “have I led you through all my Garden of Pleasure, and shewed you all the varieties of nature housed therein, pointing unto them and describing them one after another. And now lastly (according to the use of our old ancient Fathers) I bring you to rest on the Grasse, which yet shall not be without some delight, and that not the least of all the rest.”

From his garden of pleasant flowers he leads us to the kitchen garden, full not only of “vegetables” as we understand the term, of strawberries, cucumbers and pompions, but also of a vast number of herbs in daily use, many of them never seen in modern gardens. Besides the familiar thyme, balm, savory, mint, marjoram, and parsley, there are clary, costmary, pennyroyal, fennel, borage, bugloss, tansy, burnet, blessed thistle, marigolds, arrach, rue, patience, angelica, chives, sorrel, smallage, bloodwort, dill, chervil, succory, purslane, tarragon, rocket, mustard, skirrets, rampion, liquorice and caraway. But according to Parkinson they used fewer herbs in his day than in olden times; for under pennyroyal we find, “The former age of our great-grandfathers had all these pot herbes in much and familiar use, both for their meates and medicines, and therewith preserved themselves in long life and much health: but this delicate age of ours, which is not pleased with anything almost, be it meat or medicine, that is not pleasant to the palate, doth wholly refuse these almost, and therefore cannot be partaker of the benefit of them.” From the kitchen garden with all these herbs, “of most necessary uses for the Country Gentlewomen’s houses,” he leads us, finally, to the orchard, with its endless varieties of apple and pear trees, of cherries, medlars,plums, “apricockes” and nectarines, of figs and peaches and almonds, of quinces, walnuts, mulberries and vines (ending with the Virginian vine, of which he says, “we know of no use but to furnish a Garden and to encrease the number of rarities”), until, like the Queen of Sheba, we feel that, with all we have heard of the comfortable splendour of Elizabeth’s reign, the half has not been told us. “And thus,” Parkinson concludes, “have I finished this worke, and furnished it with whatsoever Art and Nature concurring could effect to bring delight to those that live in our Climate and take pleasure in such things; which how well or ill done, I must abide every one’s censure; the iudicious and courteous I onely respect, let Momus bite his lips and eate his heart; and so Farewell.”

Parkinson’s monumental work,Theatrum Botanicum, was completed, as already mentioned, in his seventy-third year. In it about 3800 plants are described (nearly double the number of those in the first edition of Gerard’s Herbal). In theTheatrumhe incorporated nearly the whole of Bauhin’sPinax, besides part of the unfinished work by de l’Obel mentioned before. The book remained the most complete English treatise on plants until the time of Ray. Parkinson originally intended to entitle it “A Garden of Simples”[95]and, had he done so, it is at least possible that this work, to which he devoted the greater part of his life, would have achieved the popularity it deserved. Except in the illustrations, it is a finer book than Gerard’s, but the latter remained the more popular. In fact, this herbal of Parkinson’s is an outstanding proof that a good book may be ruined by a bad title.Theatrum Botanicumsounds hard and chilling, whereasGerard’s Herballhas an attractive ring. The fact that the former never attained the popularity achieved by the latter seems the more pathetic when we read the author’sown concluding charge to this work of his lifetime:—“Goe forth now therefore thou issue artificial of mine and supply the defect of a Naturall, to beare up thy Father’s name and memory to succeeding ages and what in thee lyeth effect more good to thy Prince and Country then numerous of others, which often prove rather plagues then profits thereto, and feare not the face of thy fiercest foe.”

The ornamental title-page of theTheatrum Botanicumis both interesting and impressive. The two most important figures are those of Adam and Solomon (representing Toil and Wisdom respectively). Solomon is dressed in a long coat with an ermine cape, and he wears Roman sandals. At the four corners of the page are female figures:—Europe driving majestically in a chariot with a pair of horses; Asia clad in short skirts and shoes with curled points and riding a rhinoceros; Africa wearing only a hat, and mounted upon a zebra; and America, also unclothed, carrying a bow and arrow and riding a sheep with surprisingly long ears. Each of these figures is surrounded by specimens of the vegetation of their respective continents.

It is curious to find in the dedicatory letter to Charles I. a touch of the old belief that diseases are due to evil spirits:—

“And I doubt not of your Majesties further care of their bodies health that such Workes as deliver approved Remedyes may be divulged whereby they may both cure and prevent their diseases. Most properly therefore doth this Worke belong to your Majesty’s patronage both to further and defend that malevolent spirits should not dare to cast forth their venome or aspertions to the prejudice of any well-deserving, but that thereby under God and Good direction, all may live in health as well as wealth, peace and godliness, which God grant and that this boldnesse may be pardoned to“Your Majestyes“Loyale Subject“Servant and Herbarist“John Parkinson.”

“Your Majestyes“Loyale Subject“Servant and Herbarist“John Parkinson.”

Showing various figures, some riding different animals

TITLE-PAGE OF PARKINSON’S “THEATRUM BOTANICUM” (1640)

There are letters extolling the Herbal from three Oxford doctors, two of whom refer to the then newly-made physic garden on the Cherwell. One writes thus: “Oxford and England are happy in the foundation of a spacious illustrious physicke garden, compleately beautifully walled and gated, now in levelling and planting with the charges and expences of thousands by the many wayes Honourable Earle of Danby, the furnishing and enriching whereof and of many a glorious Tempe, with all usefull and delightfull plants will be the better expedited by your painefull happy satisfying Worke.

“Tho. Clayton, His Majesty’s prof. of Physicke, Oxon.”

One who signs himself “Your affectionate friend John Bainbridge Doctor of Physique, and Professor of Astronomy, Oxon” writes thus: “I am a stranger to your selfe but not to your learned and elaborate volumnes. I have with delight and admiration surveyed yourTheatrum Botanicum, a stately Fabrique, collected and composed with excessive paines.... It is a curious pourtrait and description of th’ Earths flowred mantle, the Herbarist’s Oracle, a rich Magazin of soveraigne Medicines, physicall experiments and other rarities.”

Parkinson divides his plants into “Classes or Tribes”:—

1. Sweete smelling Plants.2. Purging Plants.3. Venemous Sleepy and Hurtfull plants and their Counter poysons.4. Saxifrages.5. Vulnerary or Wound Herbs.6. Cooling and Succory like Herbs.7. Hot and sharpe biting Plants.8. Umbelliferous Plants.9. Thistles and Thorny Plants.10. Fearnes and Capillary Herbes.11. Pulses.12. Cornes.13. Grasses Rushes and Reeds.14. Marsh Water and Sea plants and Mosses and Mushromes.15. The Unordered Tribe.16. Trees and Shrubbes.17. Strange and Outlandish Plants.

Under “The Unordered Tribe” we find the naïve remark: “In this tribe as in a gathering campe I must take up all those straglers that have either lost their rankes or were not placed in some of the foregoing orders that so I may preserve them from losse and apply them to some convenient service for the worke”!

It is surprising how much folk lore survives even in Parkinson’s Herbal. Like Gerard, he pours scorn on a good many contemporary beliefs, but many he accepts unquestioningly, especially those concerning the use of herbs as amulets and also for the promotion of happiness. He gives also some old gardening beliefs not to be found in other herbals, but very common in contemporary books on gardening and husbandry, and more bee lore than most herbals contain. Nearly all the old herbalists believed in the value of growing balm near the beehives, and also of rubbing the hive with this herb, but Parkinson alone tells us of the harmful effects of woad:[96]“Some have sowen it but they have founde it to be the cause of the Destruction of their Bees, for it hath been observed that they have dyed as it were of a Flix that have tasted hereof.” Of balm,[97]however, he writes: “it is an hearbe wherein Bees do much delight both to have their Hives rubbed therewith to keepe them together and draw others and for them to suck and feed upon.” Elsewhere he tells us that “it hath been observed that bees will hardly thrive well where many Elmes doe grow or at least if they upon their first going forth abroad after Winter doe light on the bloomings or seed thereof.”[98]Of the sweet-smelling flag he says: “it is verily believed of many that the leavesor roots of Acorus tyed to a hive of Bees stayeth them from wandering or flying away and draweth a greater resort of others thereto.”[99]

Upon the use of herbs as amulets his views seem inconsistent. He is scornful of the custom of hanging a piece of mistletoe to children’s necks “against witchcraft and the illusion of Sathan”; yet he gravely informs us that “if the sope that is made of the lye of the ashes [of glassewort] be spread upon a piece of thicke course brown paper cut into the forme of their shooe sole, that are casually taken speechless and bound to the soles of their feete it will bring again the speech and that within a little time after the applying thereof if there be any hope of being restored while they live: this hath been tried to be effectuall upon diverse persons.”[100]The custom of wearing meadowsweet or hanging it up in living-rooms[101]he describes as a “superstitious conceit,” but he accepts without demur the tradition[102]that a wreath of periwinkle “worne about the legs defendeth them that wear it from the crampe.” Bartholomæus Anglicus tells us that Augustus Cæsar used to wear a wreath of bryony during a thunderstorm to protect himself from lightning, but the story is not repeated until, after the lapse of four hundred years, we find in Parkinson the statement that “Augustus Cæsar was wont to weare bryony with bayes made into a roule or garlande thereby to be secured from lightening.”[103]Parkinson regards the use of herbs against witchcraft as sheer foolishness, but he is the only herbalist who gives us a potion[104]which “resisteth such charmes or the like witchery that is used in such drinkes that are given to produce love.” Like Gerard, he does not question the efficacy of borage, bugloss andmany other herbs to promote happiness. Of borage[105]he tells us: “The leaves floures and seedes are very cordiall and helpe to expell pensivenesse and melancholie that ariseth without manifest cause”; and of a confection made from oak galls,[106]that it is “dayly commended and used with good effect against Melancholy passions and sorrow proceeding of no evident cause.” Water yarrow “is taken with vinegar to helpe casuall sighings also the Toothache.”[107]Under viper’s-grass[108]we find “the water distilled in glasses or the roote itself taken is good against the passions and tremblings of the heart as also against swoonings sadnes and melancholy,” and under bugloss,[109]that “the rootes or seedes are effectuall to comfort the heart and to expell sadnesse and causelesse melancholy.” In common with other herbalists he believed also that herbs could be used to strengthen the memory, to help weak brains, to quicken the senses and even to soothe “frenzied” people. Of eyebright,[110]used for so many centuries, and even until recent times, to help dull sight, he says: “it helpeth a weake braine or memory and restoreth them being decayed in a short time.” Fleabane “bound to the forehead is a great helpe to cure one of the frensie,” while “the distilled water of thyme applyed with vinegar of Roses to the forehead easeth the rage of Frensye.”[111]Lavender is of “especiall good use for all griefes and paines of the head and brain,”[112]and sage[113]is of “excellent good use to helpe the memory by warming and quickening the senses.”

Parkinson gives more beauty recipes than any other herbalist. For those who wish to darken their hair he recommends washing it with a decoction of bramble leaves.[114]The golden flowers of mullein[115]“boyled in lye dyeth the haires of the head yellow and maketh them faire and smooth.” The ashes of southernwood[116]mixed with old salad oil will cause abeard to grow or hair on a bald head, and yarrow is almost as good; garden spurge, elder flowers, broom, madder, rue, gentian, scabious, betony, elecampane, Solomon’s Seal, the great hawkweed and lupin are all excellent to “cleanse the skinne from freckles, sunburn and wrinkles.”[117]The French women “account the distilled water of pimpernell mervailous good to clense the skinne from any roughnesse deformity or discolouring thereof and to make it smooth neate and cleere.”[118]The Italian dames, however, “doe much use the distilled water of the whole plant of Solomon’s Seal.”[119]Lupin seems to have the most remarkable virtue, for not only will it take away all smallpox marks, but it will also make the user “look more amiable”! Many women, therefore, “doe use the meale of Lupines mingled with the gall of a goate and some juyce of Lemons to make into a forme of a soft ointment.”[120]Parkinson is the only herbalist who gives recipes to enable people to get thin and also to look pale. “The powder of the seedes of elder[121]first prepared in vinegar and then taken in wine halfe a dramme at a time for certaine dayes together is a meane to abate and consume the fat flesh of a corpulent body and to keepe it leane.” For those who like to look pale he recommends cumin seed and bishopsweed.[122]And “for a sweet powder[123]to lay among linnen and garments and to make sweet waters to wash hand-gloves or other things to perfume them” he recommends the roots of the sweet-smelling flag.

It is, however, the curious out-of-the-way pieces of information on all sorts of matters which are so interesting in Parkinson’s Herbal. He tells us that three several sorts of colours are made from the berries of the purging thorn; that the yellow dye is used by painters, “and also by Bookbinders to colour the edges of Bookes and by leather dressers to colour leather”; that the green dye is “usually put up into great bladders tyedwith strong thred at the head and hung up untill it is drye, which is dissolved in water or wine, but sacke is the best to preserve the colour from ‘starving,’ as they call it, that is from decaying, and to make it hold fresh the longer”; and that the purple dye is made by leaving the berries on the bushes until the end of November, when they are ready to drop off. That the best mushrooms grow under oaks or fir trees. That spurry leaves bruised and laid to a cut finger will speedily heal it, “whereof the Country people in divers places say they have had good experience,” and that it is also good for causing “the Kine to give more store of milke than ordinary otherwise, so it causeth Pullaine likewise to lay more store of egges.” That the fruit of the bead tree “being drilled and drawne on stringes serves people beyond sea to number their prayers thereon least they forget themselves and give God too many.” That in Warwickshire the female fern was always used “in steed of Sope to wash their clothes,” and that it was gathered about Midsummer, “unto good big balls which when they will use them they burne them in the fire until it becomes blewish, which being then layd by will dissolve into powder of itselfe, like unto Lime: foure of these balles being dissolved in warme water is sufficient to wash a whole bucke full of clothes.” That the burning of lupin seeds drives away gnats, and that half-sodden barley “given to Hennes that hardly or seldome lay egges will cause them to lay both greater and more often.” That country housewives use that common weed horsetail to scour their wooden, pewter and brass vessels, and sometimes boil the young tops of the same weed and eat them like asparagus. That bramble leaves do not fall until all the sharp frosts are over, “whereby the country men do observe that the extremity of Winter is past when they fall off.” That every year sacks full of violets are sent from Marseilles to Alexandria and other parts of Egypt, “where they use them boyled in water which only by their religion they are enjoined to drinke.” That if you suspect your wine is watered “you shall put some thereofinto a cup that is made of ivie wood and if there be any water therein it will remaine in the cup and the wine will soak through, for the nature of Ivie is not to hold any wine so great an antipathy there is between them.” That skilful shepherds are careful not to let their flocks feed in pastures where mouseare abounds, “lest they grow sicke and leane and die quickly after.” That writing-ink can be made of the green fruit of alder trees. That the bark of the same tree is useful for making “a blacke dye for the courser sorts of things,” and that the leaves put under the bare feet of travellers are “a great refreshing unto them.” That the rose of Jericho opened the night our Saviour was born, and that placed in any house it will open when a child is born. That mouseare if given to any horse “will cause that he shall not be hurt by the Smith that shooeth him.” That purslane is not only a sovereign remedy for crick in the neck, but also for “blastings by lightening, or planets and for burnings by Gunpowder or otherwise.” That country folk in Kent and Sussex call sopewort “Gill-run-by-the-streete.” That agrimony leaves will cure cattle suffering from coughs, and that wounded deer use this same herb to heal their hurts. That a decoction made of hemp will draw earthworms out of their holes and that fishermen thus obtain their bait. That crops of woad may be cut three times in the year, and that dyers’ weed will change to green any cloth or silk first dyed blue with woad, “and for these uses there is great store of this herbe spent in all countries and thereof many fields are sowen for the purpose.” That country-folk use goose-grass as a strainer “to clear their milke from strawes, haires, and any other thing that falleth into it.” That St. John’s wort is used by country-folk to drive away devils. That “Clownes woundwort” owes its name to a labourer who healed himself therewith of a cut with a scythe in his leg. That willow-herb, being burned, “driveth away flies and gnats and other such like small creatures which use in diverse places that are neere to Fennes, marsh or water sides to infest them that dwell there in the night season to stingand bite them, leaving the marks and spots thereof in their faces which beside the deformity, which is but for a while, leaveth them that are thus bitten not without paine for a time.” That from turnesole (heliotropium) are made “those ragges of cloth which are usually called Turnesole in the Druggists and Grocers shoppes and with all other people and serveth to colour jellies or other things as every one please.” That when French ladies coloured their faces with an ointment containing anchusa the colour did not last long. That no “good gentlewoman in the land that would do good” should be without a store of bugloss ointment either for her own family “or other her poor neighbours that want helpe and means to procure it,” and that beyond the sea in France and Germany it is a common proverb “that they neede neither Physition to cure their inward diseases nor Chirurgion to helpe them of any wound or sore that have this Bugle and Sanicle at hand by them to use.” That this is equally true of the herb self-heale. That country-folk use sanicle to anoint their hands “when they are chapt by the winde.” That goat’s rue is good for fattening hens. That Herbe True love taken every day for twenty days will help those “that by witchcraft (as it is thought) have become half foolish to become perfectly restored to their former good estate.” That the best starch is made from the root of cuckoo-pint, and that in former dayes when the making of our ordinary starch “was not knowen or frequent in use; the finest Dames used the rootes hereof to starch their linnen, which would so sting, exasperate and choppe the skinne of their servants’ hands that used it, that they could scarce get them smooth and whole with all the nointing they could doe before they should use it againe.” That the root of this same herb, cut small and mixed with a sallet of white endive or lettice, is “an excellent dish to entertain a smell-feast or unbidden unwelcome guest to a man’s table, to make sport with him and drive him from his too much boldnesse; or the pouder of the dried roote strawed upon any daintie bit of meate that may be given him to eate; for either way withina while after the taking of it, it will so burne and pricke his mouthe that he shall not be able either to eate a bit more or scarce to speak for paine and so will abide untill there be some new milk or fresh butter given, which by little and little will take away the heate and pricking and restore him againe.” That another “good jest for a bold unwelcome guest” is to infuse nightshade in a little wine for six or seven hours and serve it to the guest, who then “shall not be able to eat any meate for that meale nor untill he drinks some vinegar which will presently dispell that qualitie and cause him to fall to his viands with as good a stomach as he had before.” That sufferers from toothache should rub the bruised root of crowfoote on to their fingers; by causing “more paine therein than is felt by the toothach it taketh away the pain.” That the juice of fumitory, if dropped in the eyes, will take away the redness and other defects, “although it procure some paine for the present and bringeth forth teares.” That the hunters and shepherds of Austria commend the roots of the supposed wolf’s-bane “against the swimming or turning in the head which is a disease subject to those places rising from the feare and horroure of such steepe downfalls and dangerous places which they doe and must continually passe.” That scabious, if bruised and applied “to any place wherein any splinter, broken bone, or any such like thing lyeth in the flesh doth in short time loosen it and causeth it to be easily drawen forth.” That butcher’s broom was used in olden times to preserve “hanged meate” from being eaten by mice and also for the making of brooms, “but the King’s Chamber is by revolution of time turned to the Butcher’s stall, for that a bundle of the stalkes tied together serveth them to cleanse their stalls and from thence have we our English name of Butcher’s broom.” That the down of swallow-wort “doth make a farre softer stuffing for cushions or pillowes or the like than Thistle downe which is much used in some places for the like purpose.” That, if ivory is boiled with mandrake root for six hours, the ivory will become so soft “that it will take whatform or impression you will give it.” That fresh elder flowers, hung in a vessel of new wine and pressed every evening for seven nights together, “giveth to the wine a very good relish and a smell like Muscadine.” That the moth mullein is of no use except that it will attract moths wherever it is laid. That if pennyroyal is put into “unwholesome and stinking waters that men must drinke (as at sea in long voyages) it maketh them the less hurtful.” And to conclude, it is from Parkinson we learn that “Queen Elizabeth of famous memorie did more desire medowsweet then any other sweete herbe to strewe her chambers withall.”

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