THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. (continued 8)

The wild Succory, as it is more bitter, so it is more strengthening to the stomach and liver.

STONE-CROP, PRICK-MADAM, OR SMALL-HOUSELEEK.

Descript.] It grows with divers trailing branches upon the ground, set with many thick, flat, roundish, whitish green leaves, pointed at the ends. The flowers stand many of them together, somewhat loosely. The roots are small, and run creeping under ground.

Place.] It grows upon the stone walls and mud walls, upon the tiles of houses and pent-houses, and amongst rubbish, and in other gravelly places.

Time.] It flowers in June and July, and the leaves are green all the Winter.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of the Moon, cold in quality, and something binding, and therefore very good to stay defluctions, especially such as fall upon the eyes. It stops bleeding, both inward and outward, helps cankers, and all fretting sores and ulcers; it abates the heat of choler, thereby preventing diseases arising from choleric humours. It expels poison much, resists pestilential fevers, being exceeding good also for tertian agues: You may drink the decoction of it, if you please, for all the foregoing infirmities. It is so harmless an herb, you can scarce use it amiss: Being bruised and applied to the place, it helps the king’s evil, and any other knots or kernels in the flesh; as also the piles.

ENGLISH TOBACCO.

Descript.] This rises up with a round thick stalk, about two feet high, whereon do grow thick, flat green leaves, nothing so large as the other Indian kind, somewhat round pointed also, and nothing dented about the edges. The stalk branches forth, and bears at the tops divers flowers set on great husks like the other, but nothing so large: scarce standing above the brims of the husks, round pointed also, and of a greenish yellow colour. The seed that follows is not so bright, but larger, contained in the like great heads. The roots are neither so great nor woody; it perishes every year with the hard frosts in Winter, but rises generally from its own sowing.

Place.] This came from some parts of Brazil, as it is thought, and is more familiar in our country than any of the other sorts; early giving ripe seed, which the others seldom do.

Time.] It flowers from June, sometimes to the end of August, or later, and the seed ripens in the mean time.

Government and virtues.] It is a martial plant. It is found by good experience to be available to expectorate tough phlegm from the stomach, chest, and lungs. The juice thereof made into a syrup, or the distilled water of the herb drank with some sugar, or without, if you will, or the smoak taken by a pipe, as is usual, but fainting, helps to expel worms in the stomach and belly, and to ease the pains in the head, or megrim, and the griping pains in the bowels. It is profitable for those that are troubled with the stone in the kidneys, both to ease the pains by provoking urine, and also to expel gravel and the stone engendered therein, and hath been found very effectual to expel windiness, and other humours, which cause the strangling of the mother. The seed hereof is very effectual to expel the tooth ache, and the ashes of the burnt herb to cleanse the gums, and make the teeth white. The herb bruised and applied to the place grieved with the king’s evil, helps it in nine or ten days effectually. Monardus saith, it is a counter poison against the biting of any venomous creature, the herb also being outwardly applied to the hurt place. The distilled water is often given with some sugar before the fit of an ague, to lessen it, and take it away in three or four times using. If the distilled fæces of the herb, having been bruised before the distillation, and not distilled dry, be set in warm dung for fourteen days, and afterwards be hung in a bag in a wine cellar, the liquor that distills therefrom is singularly good to use in cramps, aches, the gout and sciatica, and to heal itches, scabs, and running ulcers, cankers, and all foul sores whatsoever. The juice is also good for all the said griefs, and likewise to kill lice in children’s heads. The green herb bruised and applied to any green wounds, cures any fresh wound or cut whatsoever: and the juice put into old sores, both cleanses and heals them. There is also made hereof a singularly good salve to help imposthumes, hard tumours, and other swellings by blows and falls.

THE TAMARISK TREE.

It is so well known in the place where it grows, that it needs no description.

Time.] It flowers about the end of May, or June, and the seed is ripe and blown away in the beginning of September.

Government and virtues.] A gallant Saturnine herb it is. The root, leaves, young branches, or bark boiled in wine, and drank, stays the bleeding of the hæmorrhodical veins, the spitting of blood, the too abounding of women’s courses, the jaundice, the cholic, and the biting of all venomous serpents, except the asp; and outwardly applied, is very powerful against the hardness of the spleen, and the tooth-ache, pains in the ears, red and watering eyes. The decoction, with some honey put thereto, is good to stay gangrenes and fretting ulcers, and to wash those that are subject to nits and lice. Alpinus and Veslingius affirm, That the Egyptians do with good success use the wood of it to cure the French disease, as others do with lignum vitæ or guiacum; and give it also to those who have the leprosy, scabs, ulcers, or the like. Its ashes doth quickly heal blisters raised by burnings or scaldings. It helps the dropsy, arising from the hardness of the spleen, and therefore to drink out of cups made of the wood is good for splenetic persons. It is also helpful for melancholy, and the black jaundice that arise thereof.

GARDEN TANSY.

Garden Tansy is so well known, that it needs no description.

Time.] It flowers in June and July.

Government and virtues.] Dame Venus was minded to pleasure women with child by this herb, for there grows not an herb, fitter for their use than this is; it is just as though it were cut out for the purpose. This herb bruised and applied to the navel, stays miscarriages; I know no herb like it for that use: Boiled in ordinary beer, and the decoction drank, doth the like; and if her womb be not as she would have it, this decoction will make it so. Let those women that desire children love this herb, it is their best companion, their husbands excepted. Also it consumes the phlegmatic humours, the cold and moist constitution of Winter most usually affects the body of man with, and that was the first reason of eating tansies in the Spring. The decoction of the common Tansy, or the juice drank in wine, is a singular remedy for all the griefs that come by slopping of the urine, helps the stranguary and those that have weak reins and kidneys. It is also very profitable to dissolve and expel wind in the stomach, belly, or bowels, to procure women’s courses, and expel windiness in the matrix, if it be bruised and often smelled unto, as also applied to the lower part of the belly. It is also very profitable for such women as are given to miscarry. It is used also against the stone in the reins, especially to men. The herb fried with eggs (as it is the custom in the Spring-time) which is called a Tansy, helps to digest and carry downward those bad humours that trouble the stomach. The seed is very profitably given to children for the worms, and the juice in drink is as effectual. Being boiled in oil, it is good for the sinews shrunk by cramps, or pained with colds, if thereto applied.

WILD TANSY, OR SILVER WEED.

This is also so well known, that it needs no description.

Place.] It grows in every place.

Time.] It flowers in June and July.

Government and virtues.] Now Dame Venus hath fitted women with two herbs of one name, the one to help conception, and the other to maintain beauty, and what more can be expected of her? What now remains for you, but to love your husbands, and not to be wanting to your poor neighbours? Wild Tansy stays the lask, and all the fluxes of blood in men and women, which some say it will do, if the green herb be worn in the shoes, so it be next the skin; and it is true enough, that it will stop the terms, if worn so, and the whites too, for ought I know. It stays also spitting or vomiting of blood. The powder of the herb taken in some of the distilled water, helps the whites in women, but more especially if a little coral and ivory in powder be put to it. It is also recommended to help children that are bursten, and have a rupture, being boiled in water and salt. Being boiled in water and drank, it eases the griping pains of the bowels, and is good for the sciatica and joint-aches. The same boiled in vinegar, with honey and allum, and gargled in the mouth, eases the pains of the tooth-ache, fastens loose teeth, helps the gums that are sore, and settles the palate of the mouth in its place, when it is fallen down. It cleanses and heals ulcers in the mouth, or secret parts, and is very good for inward wounds, and to close the lips of green wounds, and to heal old, moist, and corrupt running sores in the legs or elsewhere. Being bruised and applied to the soles of the feet and hand wrists, it wonderfully cools the hot fits of agues, be they never so violent. The distilled water cleanses the skin of all discolourings therein, as morphew, sun-burnings, &c. as also pimples, freckles, and the like; and dropped into the eyes, or cloths wet therein and applied, takes away the heat and inflammations in them.

THISTLES.

Of these are many kinds growing here in England which are so well known, that they need no description: Their difference is easily known on the places where they grow, viz.

Place.] Some grow in fields, some in meadows, and some among the corn; others on heaths, greens, and waste grounds in many places.

Time.] They flower in June and August and their seed is ripe quickly after.

Government and virtues.] Surely Mars rules it, it is such a prickly business. All these thistles are good to provoke urine, and to mend the stinking smell thereof; as also the rank smell of the arm-pits, or the whole body; being boiled in wine and drank, and are said to help a stinking breath, and to strengthen the stomach. Pliny saith, That the juice bathed on the place that wants hair, it being fallen off, will cause it to grow speedily.

THE MELANCHOLY THISTLE.

Descript.] It rises up with tender single hoary green stalks, bearing thereon four or five green leaves, dented about the edges; the points thereof are little or nothing prickly, and at the top usually but one head, yet sometimes from the bosom of the uppermost leaves there shoots forth another small head, scaly and prickly, with many reddish thrumbs or threads in the middle, which being gathered fresh, will keep the colour a long time, and fades not from the stalk a long time, while it perfects the seed, which is of a mean bigness, lying in the down. The root hath many strings fastened to the head, or upper part, which is blackish, and perishes not.

There is another sort little differing from the former, but that the leaves are more green above, and more hoary underneath, and the stalk being about two feet high, bears but one scaly head, with threads and seeds as the former.

Place.] They grow in many moist meadows of this land, as well in the southern, as in the northern parts.

Time.] They flower about July or August, and their seed ripens quickly after.

Government and virtues.] It is under Capricorn, and therefore under both Saturn and Mars, one rids melancholy by sympathy, the other by antipathy. Their virtues are but few, but those not to be despised; for the decoction of the thistle in wine being drank, expels superfluous melancholy out of the body, and makes a man as merry as a cricket; superfluous melancholy causes care, fear, sadness, despair, envy, and many evils more besides; but religion teaches to wait upon God’s providence, and cast our care upon him who cares for us. What a fine thing were it if men and women could live so? And yet seven years’ care and fear makes a man never the wiser, nor a farthing richer. Dioscorides saith, the root borne about one doth the like, and removes all diseases of melancholy. Modern writers laugh at him; Let them laugh that win: my opinion is, that it is the best remedy against all melancholy diseases that grows; they that please may use it.

OUR LADY’S THISTLE.

Descript.] Our Lady’s Thistle hath divers very large and broad leaves lying on the ground cut in, and as it were crumpled, but somewhat hairy on the edges, of a white green shining colour, wherein are many lines and streaks of a milk white colour, running all over, and set with many sharp and stiff prickles all about, among which rises up one or more strong, round, and prickly stalks, set full of the like leaves up to the top, where at the end of every branch, comes forth a great prickly Thistle-like head, strongly armed with prickles, and with bright purple thumbs rising out of the middle; after they are past, the seed grows in the said heads, lying in soft white down, which is somewhat flattish in the ground, and many strings and fibres fastened thereunto. All the whole plant is bitter in taste.

Place.] It is frequent on the banks of almost every ditch.

Time.] It flowers and seeds in June, July, and August.

Government and virtues.] Our Lady’s Thistle is under Jupiter, and thought to be as effectual as Carduus Benedictus for agues, and to prevent and cure the infection of the plague: as also to open the obstructions of the liver and spleen, and thereby is good against the jaundice. It provokes urine, breaks and expels the stone, and is good for the dropsy. It is effectual also for the pains in the sides, and many other inward pains and gripings. The seed and distilled water is held powerful to all the purposes aforesaid, and besides, it is often applied both outwardly with cloths or spunges to the region of the liver, to cool the distemper thereof, and to the region of the heart, against swoonings and the passions of it. It cleanses the blood exceedingly: and in Spring, if you please to boil the tender plant (but cut off the prickles, unless you have a mind to choak yourself) it will change your blood as the season changes, and that is the way to be safe.

THE WOOLLEN, OR, COTTON THISTLE.

Descript.] This has many large leaves lying upon the ground, somewhat cut in, and as it were crumpled on the edges, of a green colour on the upper side, but covered over with a long hairy wool or cotton down, set with most sharp and cruel pricks; from the middle of whose heads of flowers come forth many purplish crimson threads, and sometimes white, although but seldom. The seed that follow in those white downy heads, is somewhat large and round, resembling the seed of Lady’s Thistle, but paler. The root is great and thick, spreading much, yet usually dies after seed time.

Place.] It grows on divers ditch-banks, and in the corn-fields, and highways, generally throughout the land, and is often growing in gardens.

Government and virtues.] It is a plant of Mars. Dioscorides and Pliny write, That the leaves and roots hereof taken in drink, help those that have a crick in their neck, that they cannot turn it, unless they turn their whole body. Galen saith, That the roots and leaves hereof are good for such persons that have their bodies drawn together by some spasm or convulsion, or other infirmities; as the rickets (or as the college of physicians would have it, Rachites, about which name they have quarrelled sufficiently) in children, being a disease that hinders their growth, by binding their nerves, ligaments, and whole structure of their body.

THE FULLER’S THISTLE, OR TEASLE.

It is so well known, that it needs no description, being used with the clothworkers.

The wild Teasle is in all things like the former, but that the prickles are small, soft, and upright, not hooked or stiff, and the flowers of this are of a fine blueish, or pale carnation colour, but of the manured kind, whitish.

Place.] The first grows, being sown in gardens or fields for the use of clothworkers: The other near ditches and rills of water in many places of this land.

Time.] They flower in July, and are ripe in the end of August.

Government and virtues.] It is an herb of Venus. Dioscorides saith, That the root bruised and boiled in wine, till it be thick, and kept in a brazen vessel, and after spread as a salve, and applied to the fundament, doth heal the cleft thereof, cankers and fistulas therein, also takes away warts and wens. The juice of the leaves dropped into the ears, kills worms in them. The distilled water of the leaves dropped into the eyes, takes away redness and mists in them that hinder the sight, and is often used by women to preserve their beauty, and to take away redness and inflammations, and all other heat or discolourings.

TREACLE MUSTARD.

Descript.] It rises up with a hard round stalk, about a foot high, parted into some branches, having divers soft green leaves, long and narrow, set thereon, waved, but not cut into the edges, broadest towards the ends, somewhat round pointed; the flowers are white that grow at the tops of the branches, spike-fashion, one above another; after which come round pouches, parted in the middle with a furrow, having one blackish brown seed on either side, somewhat sharp in taste, and smelling of garlick, especially in the fields where it is natural, but not so much in gardens: The roots are small and thready, perishing every year.

Give me leave here to add Mithridate Mustard, although it may seem more properly by the name to belong to M, in the alphabet.

MITHRIDATE MUSTARD.

Descript.] This grows higher than the former, spreading more and higher branches, whose leaves are smaller and narrower, sometimes unevenly dented about the edges. The flowers are small and white, growing on long branches, with much smaller and rounder vessels after them, and parted in the same manner, having smaller brown seeds than the former, and much sharper in taste. The root perishes after seed time, but abides the first Winter after springing.

Place.] They grow in sundry places in this land, as half a mile from Hatfield, by the river side, under a hedge as you go to Hatfield, and in the street of Peckham on Surrey side.

Time.] They flower and seed from May to August.

Government and virtues.] Both of them are herbs of Mars. The Mustards are said to purge the body both upwards and downwards, and procure women’s courses so abundantly, that it suffocates the birth. It breaks inward imposthumes, being taken inwardly; and used in clysters, helps the sciatica. The seed applied, doth the same. It is an especial ingredient in mithridate and treacle, being of itself an antidote resisting poison, venom and putrefaction. It is also available in many cases for which the common Mustard is used, but somewhat weaker.

THE BLACK THORN, OR SLOE-BUSH.

It is so well known, that it needs no description.

Place.] It grows in every county in the hedges and borders of fields.

Time.] It flowers in April, and sometimes in March, but the fruit ripens after all other plums whatsoever, and is not fit to be eaten until the Autumn frost mellow them.

Government and virtues.] All the parts of the Sloe-Bush are binding, cooling, and dry, and all effectual to stay bleeding at the nose and mouth, or any other place; the lask of the belly or stomach, or the bloody flux, the too much abounding of women’s courses, and helps to ease the pains of the sides, and bowels, that come by overmuch scouring, to drink the decoction of the bark of the roots, or more usually the decoction of the berries, either fresh or dried. The conserve also is of very much use, and more familiarly taken for the purposes aforesaid. But the distilled water of the flower first steeped in sack for a night, and drawn therefrom by the heat of Balneum and Anglico, a bath, is a most certain remedy, tried and approved, to ease all manner of gnawings in the stomach, the sides and bowels, or any griping pains in any of them, to drink a small quantity when the extremity of pain is upon them. The leaves also are good to make lotions to gargle and wash the mouth and throat, wherein are swellings, sores, or kernels; and to stay the defluctions of rheum to the eyes, or other parts; as also to cool the heat and inflammations of them, and ease hot pains of the head, to bathe the forehead and temples therewith. The simple distilled water of the flowers is very effectual for the said purposes, and the condensate juice of the Sloes. The distilled water of the green berries is used also for the said effects.

THOROUGH WAX, OR THOROUGH LEAF.

Descript.] Common Thorough-Wax sends forth a strait round stalk, two feet high, or better, whose lower leaves being of a bluish colour, are smaller and narrower than those up higher, and stand close thereto, not compassing it; but as they grow higher, they do not encompass the stalks, until it wholly pass through them, branching toward the top into many parts, where the leaves grow smaller again, every one standing singly, and never two at a joint. The flowers are small and yellow, standing in tufts at the heads of the branches, where afterwards grow the seed, being blackish, many thick thrust together. The root is small, long and woody, perishing every year, after seed-time, and rising again plentifully of its own sowing.

Place.] It is found growing in many corn-fields and pasture grounds in this land.

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

Government and virtues.] Both this and the former are under the influence of Saturn. Thorough-Wax is of singular good use for all sorts of bruises and wounds either inward or outward; and old ulcers and sores likewise, if the decoction of the herb with water and wine be drank, and the place washed therewith, or the juice of the green herb bruised, or boiled, either by itself, or with other herbs, in oil or hog’s grease, to be made into an ointment to serve all the year. The decoction of the herb, or powder of the dried herb, taken inwardly, and the same, or the leaves bruised, and applied outwardly, is singularly good for all ruptures and burstings, especially in children before they be too old. Being applied with a little flour and wax to children’s navels that stick forth, it helps them.

THYME.

It is in vain to describe an herb so commonly known.

Government and virtues.] It is a noble strengthener of the lungs, as notable a one as grows; neither is there scarce a better remedy growing for that disease in children which they commonly call the Chin-cough, than it is. It purges the body of phlegm, and is an excellent remedy for shortness of breath. It kills worms in the belly, and being a notable herb of Venus, provokes the terms, gives safe and speedy delivery to women in travail, and brings away the after birth. It is so harmless you need not fear the use of it. An ointment made of it takes away hot swellings and warts, helps the sciatica and dullness of sight, and takes away pains and hardness of the spleen. ’Tis excellent for those that are troubled with the gout. It eases pains in the loins and hips. The herb taken any way inwardly, comforts the stomach much, and expels wind.

WILD THYME, OR MOTHER OF THYME.

Wild Thyme also is so well known, that it needs no description.

Place.] It may be found commonly in commons, and other barren places throughout the nation.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of Venus, and under the sign Aries, and therefore chiefly appropriated to the head. It provokes urine and the terms, and eases the griping pain of the belly, cramps, ruptures, and inflamation of the liver. If you make a vinegar of the herb, as vinegar of roses is made (you may find out the way in my translation of the London Dispensatory) and anoint the head with it, it presently stops the pains thereof. It is excellently good to be given either in phrenzy or lethargy, although they are two contrary diseases: It helps spitting and voiding of blood, coughing, and vomiting; it comforts and strengthens the head, stomach, reins, and womb, expels wind, and breaks the stone.

TORMENTIL, OR SEPTFOIL.

Descript.] This hath reddish, slender, weak branches rising from the root, lying on the ground, rather leaning than standing upright, with many short leaves that stand closer to the stalk than cinquefoil (to which this is very like) with the root-stalk compassing the branches in several places; but those that grow to the ground are set upon long foot stalks, each whereof are like the leaves of cinquefoil, but somewhat long and lesser dented about the edges, many of them divided into five leaves, but most of them into seven, whence it is also called Septfoil; yet some may have six, and some eight, according to the fertility of the soil. At the tops of the branches stand divers small yellow flowers, consisting of five leaves, like those of cinquefoil, but smaller. The root is smaller than bistort, somewhat thick, but blacker without, and not so red within, yet sometimes a little crooked, having blackish fibres thereat.

Place.] It grows as well in woods and shadowy places, as in the open champain country, about the borders of fields in many places of this land, and almost in every broom field in Essex.

Time.] It flowers all the Summer long.

Government and virtues.] This is a gallant herb of the Sun. Tormentil is most excellent to stay all kind of fluxes of blood or humours in man or woman, whether at nose, mouth, or belly. The juice of the herb and root, or the decoction thereof, taken with some Venice treacle, and the person laid to sweat, expels any venom or poison, or the plague, fever, or other contagious diseases, as pox, measles, &c. for it is an ingredient in all antidotes or counter poisons. Andreas Urlesius is of opinion that the decoction of this root is no less effectual to cure the French pox than Guiacum or China; and it is not unlikely, because it so mightily resists putrefaction. The root taken inwardly is most effectual to help any flux of the belly, stomach, spleen, or blood; and the juice wonderfully opens obstructions of the liver and lungs, and thereby helps the yellow jaundice. The powder or decoction drank, or to sit thereon as a bath, is an assured remedy against abortion, if it proceed from the over flexibility or weakness of the inward retentive faculty; as also a plaster made therewith, and vinegar applied to the reins of the back, doth much help not only this, but also those that cannot hold their water, the powder being taken in the juice of plantain, and is also commended against the worms in children. It is very powerful in ruptures and burstings, as also for bruises and falls, to be used as well outwardly as inwardly. The root hereof made up with pellitory of Spain and allum, and put into a hollow tooth, not only assuages the pain, but stays the flux of humours which causes it. Tormentil is no less effectual and powerful a remedy against outward wounds, sores and hurts, than for inward, and is therefore a special ingredient to be used in wound drinks, lotions and injections, for foul corrupt rotten sores and ulcers of the mouth, secrets, or other parts of the body. The juice or powder of the root put in ointments, plaisters, and such things that are to be applied to wounds or sores, is very effectual, as the juice of the leaves and the root bruised and applied to the throat or jaws, heals the king’s evil, and eases the pain of the sciatica; the same used with a little vinegar, is a special remedy against the running sores of the head or other parts; scabs also, and the itch or any such eruptions in the skin, proceeding of salt and sharp humours. The same is also effectual for the piles or hæmorrhoids, if they be washed or bathed therewith, or with the distilled water of the herb and roots. It is found also helpful to dry up any sharp rheum that distills from the head into the eyes, causing redness, pain, waterings, itching, or the like, if a little prepared tutia, or white amber, be used with the distilled water thereof. And here is enough, only remember the Sun challengeth this herb.

TURNSOLE, OR HELIOTROPIUM.

Descript.] The greater Turnsole rises with one upright stalk, about a foot high, or more, dividing itself almost from the bottom, into divers small branches, of a hoary colour; at each joint of the stalk and branches grow small broad leaves, somewhat white and hairy. At the tops of the stalks and branches stand small white flowers, consisting of four, and sometimes five small leaves, set in order one above another, upon a small crooked spike, which turns inwards like a bowed finger, opening by degrees as the flowers blow open; after which in their place come forth cornered seed, four for the most part standing together; the root is small and thready, perishing every year, and the seed shedding every year, raises it again the next spring.

Place.] It grows in gardens, and flowers and seeds with us, notwithstanding it is not natural to this land, but to Italy, Spain, and France, where it grows plentifully.

Government and virtues.] It is an herb of the Sun, and a good one too. Dioscorides saith, That a good handful of this, which is called the Great Turnsole, boiled in water, and drank, purges both choler and phlegm; and boiled with cummin, helps the stone in the reins, kidneys, or bladder, provokes urine and women’s courses, and causes an easy and speedy delivery in child-birth. The leaves bruised and applied to places pained with the gout, or that have been out of joint and newly set, and full of pain, do give much ease; the seed and juice of the leaves also being rubbed with a little salt upon warts and wens, and other kernels in the face, eye-lids, or any other part of the body, will, by often using, take them away.

MEADOW TREFOIL, OR HONEYSUCKLES.

It is so well known, especially by the name of Honeysuckles, white and red, that I need not describe them.

Place.] They grow almost every where in this land.

Government and virtues.] Mercury hath dominion over the common sort. Dodoneus saith, The leaves and flowers are good to ease the griping pains of the gout, the herb being boiled and used in a clyster. If the herb be made into a poultice, and applied to inflammations, it will ease them. The juice dropped in the eyes, is a familiar medicine, with many country people, to take away the pin and web (as they call it) in the eyes; it also allays the heat and blood shooting of them. Country people do also in many places drink the juice thereof against the biting of an adder; and having boiled the herb in water, they first wash the place with the decoction, and then lay some of the herb also to the hurt place. The herb also boiled in swine’s grease, and so made into an ointment, is good to apply to the biting of any venomous creature. The herb also bruised and heated between tiles, and applied hot to the share, causes them to make water who had it stopt before. It is held likewise to be good for wounds, and to take away seed. The decoction of the herb and flowers, with the seed and root, taken for some time, helps women that are troubled with the whites. The seed and flowers boiled in water, and afterwards made into a poultice with some oil, and applied, helps hard swellings and imposthumes.

HEART TREFOIL.

Besides the ordinary sort of Trefoil, here are two more remarkable, and one of which may be properly called Heart Trefoil, not only because the leaf is triangular, like the heart of a man, but also because each leaf contains the perfection of a heart, and that in its proper colour, viz. a flesh colour.

Place.] It grows between Longford and Bow, and beyond Southwark, by the highway and parts adjacent.

Government and virtues.] It is under the dominion of the Sun, and if it were used, it would be found as great a strengthener of the heart, and cherisher of the vital spirits as grows, relieving the body against fainting and swoonings, fortifying it against poison and pestilence, defending the heart against the noisome vapours of the spleen.

PEARL TREFOIL.

It differs not from the common sort, save only in this particular, it hath a white spot in the leaf like a pearl. It is particularly under the dominion of the Moon, and its icon shews that it is of a singular virtue against the pearl, or pin and web in the eyes.

TUSTAN, OR PARK LEAVES.

Descript.] It hath brownish shining round stalks, crested the length thereof, rising two by two, and sometimes three feet high, branching forth even from the bottom, having divers joints, and at each of them two fair large leaves standing, of a dark blueish green colour on the upper side, and of a yellowish green underneath, turning reddish toward Autumn. At the top of the stalks stand large yellow flowers, and heads with seed, which being greenish at the first and afterwards reddish, turn to be of a blackish purple colour when they are ripe, with small brownish seed within them, and they yield a reddish juice or liquor, somewhat resinous, and of a harsh and stypick taste, as the leaves also and the flowers be, although much less, but do not yield such a clear claret wine colour, as some say it doth, the root is brownish, somewhat great, hard and woody, spreading well in the ground.

Place.] It grows in many woods, groves, and woody grounds, as parks and forests, and by hedge-sides in many places in this land, as in Hampstead wood, by Ratley in Essex, in the wilds of Kent, and in many other places needless to recite.

Time.] It flowers later than St. John’s or St. Peter’s-wort.

Government and virtues.] It is an herb of Saturn, and a most noble anti-venerean. Tustan purges choleric humours, as St. Peter’s-wort, is said to do, for therein it works the same effects, both to help the sciatica and gout, and to heal burning by fire; it stays all the bleedings of wounds, if either the green herb be bruised, or the powder of the dry be applied thereto. It hath been accounted, and certainly it is, a sovereign herb to heal either wound or sore, either outwardly or inwardly, and therefore always used in drinks, lotions, balms, oils, ointments, or any other sorts of green wounds, ulcers, or old sores, in all which the continual experience of former ages hath confirmed the use thereof to be admirably good, though it be not so much in use now, as when physicians and surgeons were so wise as to use herbs more than now they do.

GARDEN VALERIAN.

Descript.] This hath a thick short greyish root, lying for the most part above ground, shooting forth on all other sides such like small pieces of roots, which have all of them many long green strings and fibres under them in the ground, whereby it draws nourishment. From the head of these roots spring up many green leaves, which at first are somewhat broad and long, without any divisions at all in them, or denting on the edges; but those that rise up after are more and more divided on each side, some to the middle rib, being winged, as made of many leaves together on a stalk, and those upon a stalk, in like manner more divided, but smaller towards the top than below; the stalk rises to be a yard high or more, sometimes branched at the top, with many small whitish flowers, sometimes dashed over at the edges with a pale purplish colour, of a little scent, which passing away, there follows small brownish white seed, that is easily carried away with the wind. The root smells more strong than either leaf or flower, and is of more use in medicines.

Place.] It is generally kept with us in gardens.

Time.] It flowers in June and July, and continues flowering until the frost pull it down.

Government and virtues.] This is under the influence of Mercury. Dioscorides saith, That the Garden Valerian hath a warming faculty, and that being dried and given to drink it provokes urine, and helps the stranguary. The decoction thereof taken, doth the like also, and takes away pains of the sides, provokes women’s courses, and is used in antidotes. Pliny saith, That the powder of the root given in drink, or the decoction thereof taken, helps all stoppings and stranglings in any part of the body, whether they proceed of pains in the chest or sides, and takes them away. The root of Valerian boiled with liquorice, raisins, and anniseed, is singularly good for those that are short-winded, and for those that are troubled with the cough, and helps to open the passages, and to expectorate phlegm easily. It is given to those that are bitten or stung by any venomous creature, being boiled in wine. It is of a special virtue against the plague, the decoction thereof being drank, and the root being used to smell to. It helps to expel the wind in the belly. The green herb with the root taken fresh, being bruised and applied to the head, takes away the pains and prickings there, stays rheum and thin distillation, and being boiled in white wine, and a drop thereof put into the eyes, takes away the dimness of the sight, or any pin or web therein. It is of excellent property to heal any inward sores or wounds, and also for outward hurts or wounds, and drawing away splinters or thorns out of the flesh.

VERVAIN.

Descript.] The common Vervain hath somewhat long broad leaves next the ground deeply gashed about the edges, and some only deeply dented, or cut all alike, of a blackish green colour on the upper side, somewhat grey underneath. The stalk is square, branched into several parts, rising about two feet high, especially if you reckon the long spike of flowers at the tops of them, which are set on all sides one above another, and sometimes two or three together, being small and gaping, of a blue colour and white intermixed, after which come small round seed, in small and somewhat long heads. The root is small and long.

Place.] It grows generally throughout this land in divers places of the hedges and way-sides, and other waste grounds.

Time.] It flowers in July, and the seed is ripe soon after.

Government and virtues.] This is an herb of Venus, and excellent for the womb to strengthen and remedy all the cold griefs of it, as Plantain doth the hot. Vervain is hot and dry, opening obstructions, cleansing and healing. It helps the yellow jaundice, the dropsy and the gout; it kills and expels worms in the belly, and causes a good colour in the face and body, strengthens as well as corrects the diseases of the stomach, liver, and spleen; helps the cough, wheezings, and shortness of breath, and all the defects of the reins and bladder, expelling the gravel and stone. It is held to be good against the biting of serpents, and other venomous beasts, against the plague, and both tertian and quartan agues. It consolidates and heals also all wounds, both inward and outward, stays bleedings, and used with some honey, heals all old ulcers and fistulas in the legs or other parts of the body; as also those ulcers that happen in the mouth; or used with hog’s grease, it helps the swellings and pains of the secret parts in man or woman, also for the piles or hæmorrhoids; applied with some oil of roses and vinegar unto the forehead and temples, it eases the inveterate pains and ache of the head, and is good for those that are frantic. The leaves bruised, or the juice of them mixed with some vinegar, doth wonderfully cleanse the skin, and takes away morphew, freckles, fistulas, and other such like inflamations and deformities of the skin in any parts of the body. The distilled water of the herb when it is in full strength, dropped into the eyes, cleanses them from films, clouds, or mists, that darken the sight, and wonderfully strengthens the optic nerves. The said water is very powerful in all the diseases aforesaid, either inward or outward, whether they be old corroding sores, or green wounds. The dried root, and peeled, is known to be excellently good against all scrophulous and scorbutic habits of body, by being tied to the pit of the stomach, by a piece of white ribband round the neck.

THE VINE.

The leaves of the English vine (I do not mean to send you to the Canaries for a medicine) being boiled, makes a good lotion for sore mouths; being boiled with barley meal into a poultice, it cools inflammations of wounds; the dropping of the vine, when it is cut in the Spring, which country people call Tears, being boiled in a syrup, with sugar, and taken inwardly, is excellent to stay women’s longings after every thing they see, which is a disease many women with child are subject to. The decoction of Vine leaves in white wine doth the like. Also the tears of the Vine, drank two or three spoonfuls at a time, breaks the stone in the bladder. This is a very good remedy, and it is discreetly done, to kill a Vine to cure a man, but the salt of the leaves are held to be better. The ashes of the burnt branches will make teeth that are as black as a coal, to be as white as snow, if you but every morning rub them with it. It is a most gallant Tree of the Sun, very sympathetical with the body of men, and that is the reason spirit of wine is the greatest cordial among all vegetables.

VIOLETS.

Both the tame and the wild are so well known, that they need no description.

Time.] They flower until the end of July, but are best in March, and the beginning of April.

Government and virtues.] They are a fine pleasing plant of Venus, of a mild nature, no way harmful. All the Violets are cold and moist while they are fresh and green, and are used to cool any heat, or distemperature of the body, either inwardly or outwardly, as inflammations in the eyes, in the matrix or fundament, in imposthumes also, and hot swellings, to drink the decoction of the leaves and flowers made with water in wine, or to apply them poultice-wise to the grieved places: it likewise eases pains in the head, caused through want of sleep; or any other pains arising of heat, being applied in the same manner, or with oil of roses. A dram weight of the dried leaves or flower of Violets, but the leaves more strongly, doth purge the body of choleric humours, and assuages the heat, being taken in a draught of wine, or any other drink; the powder of the purple leaves of the flowers, only picked and dried and drank in water, is said to help the quinsy, and the falling-sickness in children, especially in the beginning of the disease. The flowers of the white Violets ripen and dissolve swellings. The herb or flowers, while they are fresh, or the flowers when they are dry, are effectual in the pleurisy, and all diseases of the lungs, to lenify the sharpness in hot rheums, and the hoarseness of the throat, the heat also and sharpness of urine, and all the pains of the back or reins, and bladder. It is good also for the liver and the jaundice, and all hot agues, to cool the heat, and quench the thirst; but the syrup of Violets is of most use, and of better effect, being taken in some convenient liquor: and if a little of the juice or syrup of lemons be put to it, or a few drops of the oil of vitriol, it is made thereby the more powerful to cool the heat, and quench the thirst, and gives to the drink a claret wine colour, and a fine tart relish, pleasing to the taste. Violets taken, or made up with honey, do more cleanse and cool, and with sugar contrary-wise. The dried flower of Violets are accounted amongst the cordial drinks, powders, and other medicines, especially where cooling cordials are necessary. The green leaves are used with other herbs to make plaisters and poultices to inflammations and swellings, and to ease all pains whatsoever, arising of heat, and for the piles also, being fried with yolks of eggs, and applied thereto.

VIPER’S BUGLOSS.

Descript.] This hath many long rough leaves lying on the ground, from among which rises up divers hard round stalks, very rough, as if they were thick set with prickles or hairs, whereon are set such like rough, hairy, or prickly sad green leaves, somewhat narrow; the middle rib for the most part being white. The flowers stand at the top of the stalk, branched forth in many long spiked leaves of flowers bowing or turning like the turnsole, all opening for the most part on the one side, which are long and hollow, turning up the brims a little, of a purplish violet colour in them that are fully blown, but more reddish while they are in the bud, as also upon their decay and withering; but in some places of a paler purplish colour, with a long pointel in the middle, feathered or parted at the top. After the flowers are fallen, the seeds growing to be ripe, are blackish, cornered and pointed somewhat like the head of a viper. The root is somewhat great and blackish, and woolly, when it grows toward seed-time, and perishes in the Winter.

There is another sort, little differing from the former, only in this, that it bears white flowers.

Place.] The first grows wild almost every where. That with white flowers about the castle-walls at Lewis in Sussex.

Time.] They flower in Summer, and their seed is ripe quickly after.

Government and virtues.] It is a most gallant herb of the Sun; it is a pity it is no more in use than it is. It is an especial remedy against the biting of the Viper, and all other venomous beasts, or serpents; as also against poison, or poisonous herbs. Dioscorides and others say, That whosoever shall take of the herb or root before they be bitten, shall not be hurt by the poison of any serpent. The root or seed is thought to be most effectual to comfort the heart, and expel sadness, or causeless melancholy; it tempers the blood, and allays hot fits of agues. The seed drank in wine, procures abundance of milk in women’s breasts. The same also being taken, eases the pains in the loins, back, and kidneys. The distilled water of the herb when it is in flower, or its chief strength, is excellent to be applied either inwardly or outwardly, for all the griefs aforesaid. There is a syrup made hereof very effectual for the comforting the heart, and expelling sadness and melancholy.

WALL FLOWERS, OR WINTER GILLI-FLOWERS.

The garden kind are so well known that they need no description.

Descript.] The common single Wall-flowers, which grow wild abroad, have sundry small, long, narrow, dark green leaves, set without order upon small round, whitish, woody stalks, which bear at the tops divers single yellow flowers one above another, every one bearing four leaves a-piece, and of a very sweet scent: after which come long pods, containing a reddish seed. The roots are white, hard and thready.

Place.] It grows upon church walls, and old walls of many houses, and other stone walls in divers places; The other sort in gardens only.

Time.] All the single kinds do flower many times in the end of Autumn; and if the Winter be mild, all the Winter long, but especially in the months of February, March, and April, and until the heat of the spring do spend them. But the double kinds continue not flowering in that manner all the year long, although they flower very early sometimes, and in some places very late.

Government and virtues.] The Moon rules them. Galen, in his seventh book of simple medicines, saith, That the yellow Wall-flowers work more powerfully than any of the other kinds, and are therefore of more use in physic. It cleanses the blood, and fretteth the liver and reins from obstructions, provokes women’s courses, expels the secundine, and the dead child; helps the hardness and pain of the mother, and of spleen also; stays inflammations and swellings, comforts and strengthens any weak part, or out of joint; helps to cleanse the eyes from mistiness or films upon them, and to cleanse the filthy ulcers in the mouth, or any other part, and is a singular remedy for the gout, and all aches and pains in the joints and sinews. A conserve made of the flowers, is used for a remedy both for the apoplexy and palsy.

THE WALLNUT TREE.

It is so well known, that it needs no description.

Time.] It blossoms early before the leaves come forth, and the fruit is ripe in September.

Government and virtues.] This is also a plant of the Sun. Let the fruit of it be gathered accordingly, which you shall find to be of most virtues while they are green, before they have shells. The bark of the Tree doth bind and dry very much, and the leaves are much of the same temperature: but the leaves when they are older, are heating and drying in the second degree, and harder of digestion than when they are fresh, which, by reason of their sweetness, are more pleasing, and better digesting in the stomach; and taken with sweet wine, they move the belly downwards, but being old, they grieve the stomach; and in hot bodies cause the choler to abound and the head-ach, and are an enemy to those that have the cough; but are less hurtful to those that have a colder stomach, and are said to kill the broad worms in the belly or stomach. If they be taken with onions, salt, and honey, they help the biting of a mad dog, or the venom or infectious poison of any beast, &c. Caias Pompeius found in the treasury of Mithridates, king of Pontus, when he was overthrown, a scroll of his own hand writing, containing a medicine against any poison or infection; which is this; Take two dry walnuts, and as many good figs, and twenty leaves of rue, bruised and beaten together with two or three corns of salt and twenty juniper berries, which take every morning fasting, preserves from danger of poison, and infection that day it is taken. The juice of the other green husks boiled with honey is an excellent gargle for sore mouths, or the heat and inflammations in the throat and stomach. The kernels, when they grow old, are more oily, and therefore not fit to be eaten, but are then used to heal the wounds of the sinews, gangrenes, and carbuncles. The said kernels being burned, are very astringent, and will stay lasks and women’s courses, being taken in red wine, and stay the falling of the hair, and make it fair, being anointed with oil and wine. The green husks will do the like, being used in the same manner. The kernels beaten with rue and wine, being applied, help the quinsy; and bruised with some honey, and applied to the ears, ease the pains and inflammation of them. A piece of the green husks put into a hollow tooth, eases the pain. The catkins hereof, taken before they fall off, dried, and given a dram thereof in powder with white wine, wonderfully helps those that are troubled with the rising of the mother. The oil that is pressed out of the kernels, is very profitable, taken inwardly like oil of almonds, to help the cholic, and to expel wind very effectually; an ounce or two thereof may be taken at any time. The young green nuts taken before they be half ripe, and preserved with sugar, are of good use for those that have weak stomachs, or defluctions thereon. The distilled water of the green husks, before they be half ripe, is of excellent use to cool the heat of agues, being drank an ounce or two at a time: as also to resist the infection of the plague, if some of the same be also applied to the sores thereof. The same also cools the heat of green wounds and old ulcers, and heals them, being bathed therewith. The distilled water of the green husks being ripe, when they are shelled from the nuts, and drank with a little vinegar, is good for the place, so as before the taking thereof a vein be opened. The said water is very good against the quinsy, being gargled and bathed therewith, and wonderfully helps deafness, the noise, and other pains in the ears. The distilled water of the young green leaves in the end of May, performs a singular cure on foul running ulcers and sores, to be bathed, with wet cloths or spunges applied to them every morning.

WOLD, WELD, OR DYER’S WEED.

The common kind grows bushing with many leaves, long, narrow and flat upon the ground; of a dark blueish green colour, somewhat like unto Woad, but nothing so large, a little crumpled, and as it were round-pointed, which do so abide the first year; and the next spring from among them, rise up divers round stalks, two or three feet high, beset with many such like leaves thereon, but smaller, and shooting forth small branches, which with the stalks carry many small yellow flowers, in a long spiked head at the top of them, where afterwards come the seed, which is small and black, inclosed in heads that are divided at the tops into four parts. The root is long, white and thick, abiding the Winter. The whole herb changes to be yellow, after it hath been in flower awhile.

Place.] It grows every where by the way sides, in moist grounds, as well as dry, in corners of fields and bye lanes, and sometimes all over the field. In Sussex and Kent they call it Green Weed.

Time.] It flowers in June.

Government and virtues.] Matthiolus saith, that the root hereof cures tough phlegm, digests raw phlegm, thins gross humours, dissolves hard tumours, and opens obstructions. Some do highly commend it against the biting of venomous creatures, to be taken inwardly and applied outwardly to the hurt place; as also for the plague or pestilence. The people in some countries of this land, do use to bruise the herb, and lay it to cuts or wounds in the hands or legs, to heal them.

WHEAT.

All the several kinds thereof are so well known unto almost all people, that it is all together needless to write a description thereof.

Government and virtues.] It is under Venus. Dioscorides saith, That to eat the corn of green Wheat is hurtful to the stomach, and breeds worms. Pliny saith, That the corn of Wheat, roasted upon an iron pan, and eaten, are a present remedy for those that are chilled with cold. The oil pressed from wheat, between two thick plates of iron, or copper heated, heals all tetters and ring-worms, being used warm; and hereby Galen saith, he hath known many to be cured. Matthiolus commends the same to be put into hollow ulcers to heal them up, and it is good for chops in the hands and feet, and to make rugged skin smooth. The green corns of Wheat being chewed, and applied to the place bitten by a mad dog, heals it; slices of Wheat bread soaked in red rose water, and applied to the eyes that are hot, red, and inflamed, or blood-shotten, helps them. Hot bread applied for an hour, at times, for three days together, perfectly heals the kernels in the throat, commonly called the king’s evil. The flour of Wheat mixed with the juice of henbane, stays the flux of humours to the joints, being laid thereon. The said meal boiled in vinegar, helps the shrinking of the sinews, saith Pliny; and mixed with vinegar, and boiled together, heals all freckles, spots and pimples on the face. Wheat flour, mixed with the yolk of an egg, honey, and turpentine, doth draw, cleanse and heal any boil, plague, sore, or foul ulcer. The bran of Wheat meal steeped in sharp vinegar, and then bound in a linen cloth, and rubbed on those places that have the scurf, morphew, scabs or leprosy, will take them away, the body being first well purged and prepared. The decoction of the bran of Wheat or barley, is of good use to bathe those places that are bursten by a rupture; and the said bran boiled in good vinegar, and applied to swollen breasts, helps them, and stays all inflamations. It helps also the biting of vipers (which I take to be no other than our English adder) and all other venomous creatures. The leaves of Wheat meal applied with some salt, take away hardness of the skin, warts, and hard knots in the flesh. Wafers put in water, and drank, stays the lask and bloody flux, and are profitably used both inwardly and outwardly for the ruptures in children. Boiled in water unto a thick jelly, and taken, it stays spitting of blood; and boiled with mint and butter, it helps the hoarseness of the throat.

THE WILLOW TREE.

These are so well known that they need no description. I shall therefore only shew you the virtues therof.

Government and virtues.] The Moon owns it. Both the leaves, bark, and the seed, are used to stanch bleeding of wounds, and at mouth and nose, spitting of blood, and other fluxes of blood in man or woman, and to stay vomiting, and provocation thereunto, if the decoction of them in wine be drank. It helps also to stay thin, hot, sharp, salt distillations from the head upon the lungs, causing a consumption. The leaves bruised with some pepper, and drank in wine, helps much the wind cholic. The leaves bruised and boiled in wine, and drank, stays the heat of lust in man or woman, and quite extinguishes it, if it be long used: The seed also is of the same effect. Water that is gathered from the Willow, when it flowers, the bark being slit, and a vessel fitting to receive it, is very good for redness and dimness of sight, or films that grow over the eyes, and stay the rheums that fall into them; to provoke urine, being stopped, if it be drank; to clear the face and skin from spots and discolourings. Galen saith, The flowers have an admirable faculty in drying up humours, being a medicine without any sharpness or corrosion; you may boil them in white wine, and drink as much as you will, so you drink not yourself drunk. The bark works the same effect, if used in the same manner, and the Tree hath always a bark upon it, though not always flowers; the burnt ashes of the bark being mixed with vinegar, takes away warts, corns, and superfluous flesh, being applied to the place. The decoction of the leaves or bark in wine, takes away scurff and dandriff by washing the place with it. It is a fine cool tree, the boughs of which are very convenient to be placed in the chamber of one sick of a fever.

WOAD.

Descript.] It hath divers large leaves, long, and somewhat broad withal, like those of the greater plantain, but larger, thicker, of a greenish colour, somewhat blue withal. From among which leaves rises up a lusty stalk, three or four feet high, with divers leaves set thereon; the higher the stalk rises, the smaller are the leaves; at the top it spreads divers branches, at the end of which appear very pretty, little yellow flowers, and after they pass away like other flowers of the field, come husks, long and somewhat flat withal; in form they resemble a tongue, in colour they are black, and they hang bobbing downwards. The seed contained within these husks (if it be a little chewed) gives an azure colour. The root is white and long.

Place.] It is sowed in fields for the benefit of it, where those that sow it, cut it three times a year.

Time.] It flowers in June, but it is long after before the seed is ripe.

Government and virtues.] It is a cold and dry plant of Saturn. Some people affirm the plant to be destructive to bees, and fluxes them, which, if it be, I cannot help it. I should rather think, unless bees be contrary to other creatures, it possesses them with the contrary disease, the herb being exceeding dry and binding. However, if any bees be diseased thereby, the cure is, to set urine by them, but set it in a vessel, that they cannot drown themselves, which may be remedied, if you put pieces of cork in it. The herb is so drying and binding, that it is not fit to be given inwardly. An ointment made thereof stanches bleeding. A plaister made thereof, and applied to the region of the spleen which lies on the left side, takes away the hardness and pains thereof. The ointment is excellently good in such ulcers as abound with moisture, and takes away the corroding and fretting humours: It cools inflammations, quenches St. Anthony’s fire, and stays defluxion of the blood to any part of the body.

WOODBINE, OR HONEY-SUCKLES.

It is a plant so common, that every one that hath eyes knows it, and he that hath none, cannot read a description, if I should write it.

Time.] They flower in June, and the fruit is ripe in August.

Government and virtues.] Doctor Tradition, that grand introducer of errors, that hater of truth, lover of folly, and the mortal foe to Dr. Reason, hath taught the common people to use the leaves or flowers of this plant in mouth-water, and by long continuance of time, hath so grounded it in the brains of the vulgar, that you cannot beat it out with a beetle: All mouth-waters ought to be cooling and drying, but Honey Suckles are cleansing, consuming and digesting, and therefore fit for inflammations; thus Dr. Reason. Again if you please, we will leave Dr. Reason a while, and come to Dr. Experience, a learned gentleman, and his brother. Take a leaf and chew it in your mouth, and you will quickly find it likelier to cause a sore mouth and throat than to cure it. Well then, if it be not good for this, What is it good for? It is good for something, for God and nature made nothing in vain. It is an herb of Mercury, and appropriated to the lungs; Crab claims dominion over it; neither is it a foe to the Lion; if the lungs be afflicted by Jupiter, this is your cure: It is fitting a conserve made of the flowers of it were kept in every gentlewoman’s house; I know no better cure for an asthma than this: besides, it takes away the evil of the spleen, provokes urine, procures speedy delivery of women in travail, helps cramps, convulsions, and palsies, and whatsoever griefs come of cold or stopping; if you please to make use of it as an ointment, it will clear your skin of morphew, freckles, and sun-burnings, or whatsoever else discolours it, and then the maids will love it. Authors say, The flowers are of more effect than the leaves, and that is true; but they say the seeds are least effectual of all. But Dr. Reason told me, That there was a vital spirit in every seed to beget its like; and Dr. Experience told me, That there was a greater heat in the seed than there was in any other part of the plant; and withal, That heat was the mother of action, and then judge if old Dr. Tradition (who may well be honoured for his age, but not for his goodness) hath not so poisoned the world with errors before I was born, that it was never well in its wits since, and there is a great fear it will die mad.

WORMWOOD.

Three Wormwoods are familiar with us; one I shall not describe, another I shall describe, and the third be critical at; and I care not greatly if I begin with the last first.

Sea Wormwood hath gotten as many names as virtues, (and perhaps one more) Seriphian, Santomeon, Belchion, Narbinense, Hantonicon, Misneule, and a matter of twenty more which I shall not blot paper withal. A papist got the toy by the end, and he called it Holy Wormwood; and in truth I am opinion, their giving so much holiness to herbs, is the reason there remains so little in themselves. The seed of this Wormwood is that which women usually give their children for the worms. Of all Wormwoods that grow here, this is the weakest, but Doctors commend it, and apothecaries sell it; the one must keep his credit, and the other get money, and that is the key of the work. The herb is good for something, because God made nothing in vain: Will you give me leave to weigh things in the balance of reason; Then thus: The seeds of the common Wormwood are far more prevalent than the seed of this, to expel worms in children, or people of ripe age; of both some are weak, some are strong. The Seriphian Wormwood is the weakest, and haply may prove to be fittest for the weak bodies, (for it is weak enough of all conscience.) Let such as are strong take the common Wormwood, for the others will do but little good. Again, near the sea many people live, and Seriphian grows near them, and therefore is more fitting for their bodies, because nourished by the same air; and this I had from Dr. Reason. In whose body Dr. Reason dwells not, dwells Dr. Madness, and he brings in his brethren, Dr. Ignorance, Dr. Folly, and Dr. Sickness, and these together make way for Death, and the latter end of that man is worse than the beginning. Pride was the cause of Adam’s fall; pride begat a daughter, I do not know the father of it, unless the devil, but she christened it, and called it Appetite, and sent her daughter to taste these wormwoods, who finding this the least bitter, made the squeamish wench extol it to the skies, though the virtues of it never reached the middle region of the air. Its due praise is this; It is weakest, therefore fittest for weak bodies, and fitter for those bodies that dwell near it, than those that dwell far from it; my reason is, the sea (those that live far from it, know when they come near it) casts not such a smell as the land doth. The tender mercies of God being over all his works, hath by his eternal Providence, planted Seriphian by the seaside, as a fit medicine for the bodies of those that live near it. Lastly, It is known to all that know any thing in the course of nature, that the liver delights in sweet things, if so, it abhors bitter; then if your liver be weak, it is none of the wisest courses to plague it with an enemy. If the liver be weak, a consumption follows; would you know the reason? It is this, A man’s flesh is repaired by blood, by a third concoction, which transmutes the blood into flesh, it is well I said, (concoction) say I, if I had said (boiling) every cook would have understood me. The liver makes blood, and if it be weakened that if it makes not enough, the flesh wastes; and why must flesh always be renewed? Because the eternal God, when he made the creation, made one part of it in continual dependency upon another; and why did he so? Because himself only is permanent; to teach us, That we should not fix our affections upon what is transitory, but what endures for ever. The result of this is, if the liver be weak, and cannot make blood enough, I would have said, Sanguify, if I had written only to scholars, the Seriphian, which is the weakest of Wormwoods, is better than the best. I have been critical enough, if not too much.

Place.] It grows familiarly in England, by the sea-side.

Descript.] It starts up out of the earth, with many round, woody, hairy stalks from one root. Its height is four feet, or three at least. The leaves in longitude are long, in latitude narrow, in colour white, in form hoary, in similitude like Southernwood, only broader and longer; in taste rather salt than bitter, because it grows so near the salt-water; at the joints, with the leaves toward the tops it bears little yellow flowers; the root lies deep, and is woody.

Common Wormwood I shall not describe, for every boy that can eat an egg knows it.

Roman Wormwood; and why Roman, seeing it grows familiarly in England? It may be so called, because it is good for a stinking breath, which the Romans cannot be very free from, maintaining so many bad houses by authority of his Holiness.

Descript.] The stalks are slender, and shorter than the common Wormwood by one foot at least; the leaves are more finely cut and divided than they are, but something smaller; both leaves and stalks are hoary, the flowers of a pale yellow colour; it is altogether like the common Wormwood, save only in bigness, for it is smaller; in taste, for it is not so bitter; in smell, for it is spicy.

Place.] It grows upon the tops of the mountains (it seems ’tis aspiring) there ’tis natural, but usually nursed up in gardens for the use of the apothecaries in London.

Time.] All Wormwoods usually flower in August, a little sooner or later.

Government and virtues.] Will you give me leave to be critical a little? I must take leave. Wormwood is an herb of Mars, and if Pontanus say otherwise, he is beside the bridge; I prove it thus: What delights in martial places, is a martial herb; but Wormwood delights in martial places (for about forges and iron works you may gather a cart-load of it,) ergo, it is a martial herb. It is hot and dry in the first degree, viz. just as hot as your blood, and no hotter. It remedies the evils choler can inflict on the body of man by sympathy. It helps the evils Venus and the wanton Boy produce, by antipathy; and it doth something else besides. It cleanses the body of choler (who dares say Mars doth no good?) It provokes urine, helps surfeits, or swellings in the belly; it causes appetite to meat, because Mars rules the attractive faculty in man: The sun never shone upon a better herb for the yellow jaundice than this; Why should men cry out so much upon Mars for an infortunate, (or Saturn either?) Did God make creatures to do the creation a mischief? This herb testifies, that Mars is willing to cure all diseases he causes; the truth is, Mars loves no cowards, nor Saturn fools, nor I neither. Take of the flowers of Wormwood, Rosemary, and Black Thorn, of each a like quantity, half that quantity of saffron; boil this in Rhenish wine, but put it not in saffron till it is almost boiled; This is the way to keep a man’s body in health, appointed by Camerarius, in his book intitled Hortus Medicus, and it is a good one too. Besides all this, Wormwood provokes the terms. I would willingly teach astrologers, and make them physicians (if I knew how) for they are most fitting for the calling; if you will not believe me, ask Dr. Hippocrates, and Dr. Galen, a couple of gentlemen that our college of physicians keep to vapour with, not to follow. In this our herb, I shall give the pattern of a ruler, the sons of art rough cast, yet as near the truth as the men of Benjamin could throw a stone: Whereby, my brethren, the astrologers may know by a penny how a shilling is coined: As for the college of physicians, they are too stately to college or too proud to continue. They say a mouse is under the dominion of the Moon, and that is the reason they feed in the night; the house of the Moon is Cancer; rats are of the same nature with mice, but they are a little bigger; Mars receives his fall in Cancer, ergo, Wormwood being an herb of Mars, is a present remedy for the biting of rats and mice. Mushrooms (I cannot give them the title of Herba, Frutex, or Arbor) are under the dominion of Saturn, (and take one time with another, they do as much harm as good;) if any have poisoned himself by eating them, Wormwood, an herb of Mars, cures him, because Mars is exalted in Capricorn, the house of Saturn, and this it doth by sympathy, as it did the other by antipathy. Wheals, pushes, black and blue spots, coming either by bruises or beatings. Wormwood, an herb of Mars, helps, because Mars, (as bad you love him, and as you hate him) will not break your head, but he will give you a plaister. If he do but teach you to know yourselves, his courtesy is greater than his discourtesy. The greatest antipathy between the planets, is between Mars and Venus: one is hot, the other cold; one diurnal, the other nocturnal; one dry, the other moist; their houses are opposite, one masculine, the other feminine; one public, the other private; one is valiant, the other effeminate; one loves the light, the other hates it; one loves the field, the other sheets; then the throat is under Venus, the quinsy lies in the throat, and is an inflammation there; Venus rules the throat, (it being under Taurus her sign.) Mars eradicates all diseases in the throat by his herbs (for wormwood is one) and sends them to Egypt on an errand never to return more, this done by antipathy. The eyes are under the Luminaries; the right eye of a man, and the left eye of a woman the Sun claims dominion over: the left eye of a man, and the right eye of a woman, are privileges of the Moon, Wormwood, an herb of Mars cures both; what belongs to the Sun by sympathy, because he is exalted in his house; but what belongs to the Moon by antipathy, because he hath his fall in hers. Suppose a man be bitten or stung by a martial creature, imagine a wasp, a hornet, a scorpion, Wormwood, an herb of Mars, gives you a present cure; that Mars, choleric as he is, hath learned that patience, to pass by your evil speeches of him, and tells you by my pen, That he gives you no affliction, but he gives you a cure; you need not run to Apollo, nor Æsculapius; and if he was so choleric as you make him to be, he would have drawn his sword for anger, to see the ill conditions of these people that can spy his vices, and not his virtues. The eternal God, when he made Mars, made him for public good, and the sons of men shall know it in the latter end of the world. Et cælum Mars solus babet. You say Mars is a destroyer; mix a little Wormwood, an herb of Mars, with your ink, neither rats nor mice touch the paper written with it, and then Mars is a preserver. Astrologers think Mars causes scabs and itch, and the virgins are angry with him, because wanton Venus told them he deforms their skins; but, quoth Mars, my only desire is, they should know themselves; my herb Wormwood will restore them to the beauty they formerly had, and in that I will not come an inch behind my opposite, Venus: for which doth the greatest evil, he that takes away an innate beauty, and when he has done, knows how to restore it again? or she that teaches a company of wanton lasses to paint their faces? If Mars be in a Virgin, in the nativity, they say he causes the cholic (it is well God hath set some body to pull down the pride of man.) He in the Virgin troubles none with the cholic, but them that know not themselves (for who knows himself, may easily know all the world.) Wormwood, an herb of Mars, is a present cure for it; and whether it be most like a Christian to love him for his good, or hate him for his evil, judge ye. I had almost forgotten, that charity thinks no evil. I was once in the Tower and viewed the wardrobe, and there was a great many fine clothes: (I can give them no other title, for I was never either linen or woolen draper) yet as brave as they looked, my opinion was that the moths might consume them; moths are under the dominion of Mars; this herb Wormwood being laid among cloaths, will make a moth scorn to meddle with the cloaths, as much as a lion scorns to meddle with a mouse, or an eagle with a fly. You say Mars is angry, and it is true enough he is angry with many countrymen, for being such fools to be led by the noses by the college of physicians, as they lead bears to Paris garden. Melancholy men cannot endure to be wronged in point of good fame, and that doth sorely trouble old Saturn, because they call him the greatest infortunate; in the body of man he rules the spleen, (and that makes covetous man so splenetic) the poor old man lies crying out of his left side. Father Saturn’s angry, Mars comes to him; Come, brother, I confess thou art evil spoken of, and so am I; thou knowest I have my exaltation in thy house, I give him an herb of mine, Wormwood, to cure the old man: Saturn consented, but spoke little, and so Mars cured him by sympathy. When Mars was free from war, (for he loves to be fighting, and is the best friend a soldier hath) I say, when Mars was free from war, he called a council of war in his own brain, to know how he should do poor sinful man good, desiring to forget his abuses in being called an infortunate. He musters up his own forces, and places them in battalia. Oh! quoth he, why do I hurt a poor silly man or woman? His angel answers him, It is because they have offended their God, (Look back to Adam:) Well, says Mars, though they speak evil of me, I will do good to them; Death’s cold, my herb shall heat them: they are full of ill humours (else they would never have spoken ill of me;) my herb shall cleanse them, and dry them; they are poor weak creatures, my herb shall strengthen them; they are dull witted, my herb shall fortify their apprehensions; and yet among astrologers all this does not deserve a good word: Oh the patience of Mars!

The other day Mars told me he met with Venus, and he asked her, What was the reason that she accused him for abusing women? He never gave them the pox. In the dispute they fell out, and in anger parted, and Mars told me that his brother Saturn told him, that an antivenerean medicine was the best against the pox. Once a month he meets with the Moon. Mars is quick enough of speech, and the Moon not much behind hand, (neither are most women.) The Moon looks much after children, and children are much troubled with the worms; she desired a medicine of him, he bid her take his own herb, Wormwood. He had no sooner parted with the Moon, but he met with Venus, and she was as drunk as a hog; Alas! poor Venus, quoth he; What! thou a fortune, and be drunk? I’ll give thee antipathetical cure; Take my herb Wormwood, and thou shall never get a surfeit by drinking. A poor silly countryman hath got an ague, and cannot go about his business: he wishes he had it not, and so do I; but I will tell him a remedy, whereby he shall prevent it; Take the herb of Mars, Wormwood, and if infortunes will do good, what will fortunes do? Some think the lungs are under Jupiter; and if the lungs then the breath; and though sometimes a man gets a stinking breath, and yet Jupiter is a fortune, forsooth; up comes Mars to him; Come brother Jupiter, thou knowest I sent thee a couple of trines to thy house last night, the one from Aries, and the other from Scorpio; give me thy leave by sympathy to cure this poor man with drinking a draught of Wormwood beer every morning. The Moon was weak the other day, and she gave a man two terrible mischiefs, a dull brain and a weak sight; Mars laid by his sword, and comes to her; Sister Moon, said he, this man hath angered thee, but I beseech thee take notice he is but a fool; prithee be patient, I will with my herb wormwood cure him of both infirmities by antipathy, for thou knowest thou and I cannot agree; with that the Moon began to quarrel; Mars (not delighting much in women’s tongues) went away, and did it whether she would or no.

He that reads this, and understands what he reads, hath a jewel of more worth than a diamond; he that understands it not, is as little fit to give physick. There lies a key in these words which will unlock, (if it be turned by a wise hand) the cabinet of physick: I have delivered it as plain as I durst; it is not only upon Wormwood as I wrote, but upon all plants, trees, and herbs; he that understands it not, is unfit (in my opinion) to give physic. This shall live when I am dead. And thus I leave it to the world, not caring a farthing whether they like it or dislike it. The grave equals all men, and therefore shall equal me with all princes; until which time the eternal Providence is over me: Then the ill tongue of a prating fellow, or one that hath more tongue than wit, or more proud than honest, shall never trouble me. Wisdom is justified by her children. And so much for Wormwood.

YARROW, CALLED NOSE-BLEED, MILFOIL AND THOUSAND-LEAL.

Descript.] It hath many long leaves spread upon the ground, finely cut, and divided into many small parts. Its flowers are white, but not all of a whiteness and stayed in knots, upon divers green stalks which rise from among the leaves.

Place.] It is frequent in all pastures.

Time.] It flowers late, even in the latter end of August.

Government and virtues.] It is under the influence of Venus. An ointment of them cures wounds, and is most fit for such as have inflammations, it being an herb of Dame Venus; it stops the terms in women, being boiled in white wine, and the decoction drank; as also the bloody flux; the ointment of it is not only good for green wounds, but also for ulcers and fistulas, especially such as abound with moisture. It stays the shedding of hair, the head being bathed with the decoction of it; inwardly taken it helps the retentive faculty of the stomach: it helps the gonorrhea in men, and the whites in women, and helps such as cannot hold their water; and the leaves chewed in the mouth eases the tooth-ache, and these virtues being put together, shew the herb to be drying and binding. Achilles is supposed to be the first that left the virtues of this herb to posterity, having learned them of this master Chiron, the Centaur; and certainly a very profitable herb it is in cramps, and therefore called Militaris.