Department of Botany
Library

University of Glasgow

Acc. No.

7/90

Glasgow

University Library

i

0

I

■

/

*

THE

BRITISH HERBAL

AND

FAMILY PHYSICIAN.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A DISPENSATORY

FOR THE USE OF PRIVATE FAMILIES.

BY NICHOLAS CULPEPPER, *

STUDENT IN PHYSIC AND 4STB0I.0GY.

HALIFAX :

‘PRINTED AND SOLD BY J. NICHOLSON.

MDCCCXXXIV.

THE

ENGLISH PHYSICIAN

ENLAR GED .

AMARA DULCIS.

Considering divers shires in this nation give divers
names to one and the same herb, and that the common name
which it bears in one county, is not known to another; I shall
take the pains to set down all the names that I know of each
herb: Pardon me for setting that name first, which is most
common to myself. Besides amara dulcis, some call it mortal,
others bitter-sweet ; some woody night-shade, and others felon-
wort.

Description.'] It grows up with woody stalks even to a man’s
height, and sometimes higher. The leaves fall off at the approach
of winter, and spring out of the same stalk at springtime; The
branch is compassed about with a whitish bark, and hath a pith
in the middle of it : The main branch brancheth itself into many
small ones with claspers, laying hold on what is next to them, as
vines do: it bears many leaves, they grow in no order at all, at
least in no regular order: The leaves are longish, though some-
what broad, and pointed at the ends: many of them have two
little leaves growing at the end of their foot-stalk ; some have
but one, and some none. The leaves are of a pale green colour ;
the flowers are of a purple colour, or of a perfect blue like to
violets, and they stand many of them together in knots; the
berries are green at first, but when they are ripe they are very
red; if you taste them, you shall find them just as the crabs

2 The English Physician Enlarged.

which we in Sussex call bitter-sweets, viz. sweet at first, and
bitter afterwards.

Place.] They grow commonly almost throughout England,
especially in moist and shady places.

Time.] The leaves shoot out about the latter end of March
if the temperature of the air be ordinary; it flowereth in July,
and the seeds are ripe soon after, usually in the next month.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the planet Mercury,
and a notable herb of his also, if it be rightly gathered under
his influence. It is excellent to remove witchcraft both in men
and beasts, as also all sudden diseases whatsoever. Being tied
round about the neck, is one of the most admirable remedies
for the vertigo or dizziness in the head that is; and that is the
reason (as Tragus saith) the people in Germany commonly
hang it about their cattle’s necks, when they fear any such evil
hath betided them: Country people commonly use to take the
berries of it, and having bruised them, they apply them to fe-
lons, and thereby soon rid their fingers of such troublesome
guests.

We have now shewed you the external use of the herb ; we
shall speak a word or two of the internal, and so conclude.
Take notice, it is ft mercurial herb, and therefore of very sub-
tle parts, as indee 1 all mercurial plants are ; therefore take a
pound of the wood and leaves together, bruise the wood (which
you may easily do, for it is not so hard as oak) then put it into a
pot, and put to it three pints of white wine, put on the pot-lid
and shut it close; and let it infuse hot over a gentle fire twelve
hours, then strain it out, so have you a most excellent drink to
open obstructions of the liver and spleen, to help difficulty of
breath, bruises and falls, and congealed blood in any part of
the body, it helps the yellow jaundice, the dropsy and black
jaundice, and to cleanse women newly brought to bed. You
may drink a qnarter of a pint of the infusion every morning.
It purgelh the body very gently, and not churlishly, as some
hold. And when you find good by this, remember me.

Those who think what I have said concerning the use of these

The English Physician Enlarged.

medicines too brief, let them read those books of mine, of the
last edition, viz. Reverius, Veslingus, Riolanus, Johnson, Sen-
nertus, and Physic for the Poor.

ALL-HEAL.

It is called all-heal, Hercules’s all-heal, and Hercules’s wound-
wort, because it is supposed that Hercules learned the herb and
its virtues from Chiron, when he learned physic of him. Some
call it paney, and others opopane wort.

Descript .] Its root is long, thick, and exceeding full of juice,
of a hot and biting taste, the leaves are great and large, and
winged almost like ash-tree leaves, but that they are something
hairy, each leaf consisting of five or six pair of such wings set
one against the other upon foot-stalks, broad below, but narrow
towards the end ; one of the leaves is a little deeper at the bot-
tom than the other, of a fair yellowish, fresh green colour : they
are of a bitterish taste, being chewed in the mouth. From among
these ariseth up a stalk, green in colour, round in form, great
and strong in magnitude, five or six feet high, with many joints,
and some leaves thereat; towards the top come forth umbels
of small yellow flowers, after which are passed away, you may
find whitish, yellow, short, flat seeds, bitter also in taste.

Place.] Having given you the description of the herb from
the bottom to the top, give me leave to tell you, that there are
other herbs called by this name ; but because they are strangers
in England, I give only the description of this, which is easily
to be had in the gardens of divers places.

Time.] Although Gerrard saith, That they flower from the
beginning of May to the end of December, experience teacheth
them that keep it in their gardens, that it flowers not till the
latter end of the summer, aud sheds its seed presently after.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mars,
hot, biting, choleric; and lemedies what evils Mars afflicts
the body of man with, by sympathy, as viper’s flesh attracts poi-
son, and the loadstone iron. It kills the worms, helps the gout.

4

The English Physician Enlarged.

cramp, and convulsions, provokes urine, and helps all joint
aches. It helps all cold griefs of the head, the vertigo, falling
sickness, the lethargy, the wind cholic, obstructions of the liver
and spleen, and stone in the kidneys and bladder. It provokes
the terms, expels the dead birth: It is excellent good for the
griefs of the sinews, itch, stone, and tooth-ach, the biting of mad
dogs and venomous beasts, and purgeth choler very gently.

ALKANET.

Besides the common name, it is called orchanpt, and Spa-
nish bugloss, and by apothecaries, enchusa.

Descript .] Of the many sorts of this herb there is but one
known to grow commonly in this nation ; of which one take this
description ; it hath a great and thick root, of a reddish colour,
long, narrow, hairy leaves, green like the leaves of buglos3,
which lie very thick upon the ground ; the stalks rise up com-
passed round about, thick with leaves, which are lesser and nar-
rower than the former; they are tender, and slender, the flowers
are hollow, small, and of a reddish colour.

Place.] It grows near Rochester in Kent, and in many
places in the west country, both in Devonshire and Cornwall.

Time.] They flower in July, and the beginning of August,
and the seed is ripe soon after, but the root is in its prime, as
carrots and parsnips are, before the herb runs up to stalk.

Government and Virtues . ] It is an herb under the dominion
of Venus, and indeed one of her darlings, though somewhat hard
to come by. It helps old ulcers, hot inflammations, burnings by
common fire, and St. Anthony’s fire, by antipathy to Mars; for
these uses, your best way is to make it into an ointment; also,
if you make a vinegar of it, as yon make vinegar of roses, it
helps the morphew and leprosy ; it you apply the herb to the
privities, it draws forth the dead child. It helps the yellow jaun-
dice, spleen and gravel in the kidneys. Dioscorides saith, it
helps such as are bitten by a venomous beast, whether it be taken

The English Physician Enlarged. 5

inwardly, or applied to the wound ; nay, he saith further, if any
one that hath newly eaten it, doth but spit into the mouth of a
serpent, the serpent instantly dies. It stays the flux of the belly,
kills worms, helps the fits of the mother. Its decoction made in
wine, and drank, strengthens the back, and easeth the pains
thereof: It helps bruises and falls, and is as gallant a remedy
to drive out the small pox and meazles as any is ; an ointment
made of it, is excellent for green wounds, pricks or thrusts.

ADDER’S TONGUE, OR SERPENT’S TONGUE.

Descript. ^ HIS herb hath but one leaf, which grows with
the stalk a finger’s length above the ground, being flat and of a
fresh green colour; broad like water plantain, but less, without
, any rib in it ; from the bottom of which leaf, on the inside, ris-
eth up, (ordinarily) one, sometimes two or three slender stalks,
the upper half whereof is somewhat bigger, and dented with
small dents of a yellowish green colour, like the tongue of an
adder serpent (only this is as useful as they are formidable.)
The roots continue all the year.

Place . J It grows in moist meadows, and such like places.

Time.] It is to be found in May or April, for it quickly per-
ishetli with little heat.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb under the dominion
of the Moon and Cancer, and therefore if the weakness of the
retentive faculty be caused by an evil influence of Saturn in any
part of the body governed by the Moon, or under the domin-
ion of Cancer, this herb cures it by sympathy: It cures these
diseases after specified, in any part of the body under the in-
fluence of Saturn, by antipathy.

It is temperate in respect of heat, but dry in the second de-
gree. The juice of the leaves drank with the distilled water of
horse-tail, is a singular remedy for all manner of wounds in the
breasts, bowels, or other parts of the body, and is given with
good success unto those that are troubled with casting, vomiting,
or bleeding at the mouth or nose, or otherwise downwards. The

6

The English Physician Enlarged.

said juice given in the distilled water of oaken-buds, is very
good for women who have their usual courses, or the whites
flowing down too abundantly. It helps sore eyes. Of the leaves
infused or boiled in oil, omphacine, or unripe olives, set in the
sun for certain days, or the green leaves sufficiently boiled in the
said oil, is made an excellent green balsam, not only for green
and fresh wounds, but also for old and inveterate ulcers, espe-
cially if a little fine, clear turpentine be dissolved therein. It al-
so stayeth and refresheth all inflammations that arise upon pains
by hurts and wounds.

What parts of the body are under each planet and sign, and
also what disease may be found in my astrological judgment of
diseases; and for the internal work of nature in the body of
man; as vital, animal, natural and procreative spirits of man;
the apprehension, judgment, memory ; the external senses, viz.
Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling; the virtuous at-
tractive, retentive, digestive, expulsive, &c. under the dominion
of what planets they are, may be found in my Ephemeris for the
year 1651. In both which you shall find the chaff of authors
blown away by the fame of Dr. Reason, and nothing but ration-
al truths left for the ingenious to feed upon.

Lastly, To avoid blotting paper with one thing many times,
and also to ease your purses in the price of the book, and withal
to make you studious in physic; you have at the latter end ol
the book, the way of preserving all herbs either in juice, con-
serve, oil, ointment or plaister, electuary, pills or troches.

AGRIMONY.

Descript.] TTfflS hath divers long leaves (some greater, some
smaller) set upon a stalk, all of them dented about the edges,
green above, and greyish underneath, and a little hairy withal.
Among which ariseth up usually but one strong, round, hairy
brown stalk, two or three feet high, with smaller leaves set her*
and there upon it. At the top hereof grow many small yellow
flowers, one above another, in long spikes; after which come

The English Physician Enlarged.

round heads of seed, hanging downwards, which will cleave to
and stick upon garments, or any thing that shall rub against
them. The knot is black, long and somewhat woody, abiding
many years, and shooting afresh every spring; which root,
tho’ small hath a reasonable good scent.

Place . ] It groweth upon banks, near the sides of hedges.

Time.] It flowereth in July and August, the seed being ripe
shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb under Jupiter, and
the sign Cancer; and strengthens those parts under the planet
and sign, and removes diseases in them by sympathy, and those
under Saturn, Mars and Mercury, by antipathy, if they happen
in any part of the body governed by Jupiter, or under the signs
Cancer, Sagitary or Pisces, and therefore must needs be good
for the gout, either used outwardly in oil or ointment, or in-
wardly in an electuary, or syrup, or concerved juice; for which
see the latter end of this book.

It is of a cleansing and cutting faculty, without any manifest
heat, moderately drying and binding. It openeth and cleanseth
the liver, helpeth the jaundice, and is very beneficial to the bow-
els, healing all inward wounds, bruises, hurts, and other distem-
pers. The decoction of the herb made with wine, and drank, is
good against the biting and stinging of serpents, and helps them
that make foul, troubled or bloody water, and makes them piss
very clearly speedily. It also helpeth the cholic, cleanseth the
breast, and rids away the cough. A draught of the decoction
taken warm before the fit, first removes, and in time rids away
the tertian or quartan agues. The leaves and seeds taken in
wine, stays the bloody flux; outwardly applied, being stamped
with old swine's grease, it helpeth old sores, cancers, and inve-
terate ulcers, and draweth forth thorns and splinters of wood,
nails, or any other such things gotten into the flesh. It helpeth
to strengthen the members that be out of joint: and being
bruised and applied, or the juice dropped in it helpeth foul
and imposthumed ears.

8

The English Physician Enlarged.

The distilled water of the herb is good for all the said pur-
poses, either inward or outward, but a great deal weaker.

It is a most admirable remedy for such whose liver is annoy-
ed either by heat or cold. The liver is the former of blood,
and blood the nourisher of the body, and agrimony a strength-
ener of the liver.

I cannot stand to give you a reason in every herb why it
cureth such diseases; but if you peruse my judgment in the
herb wormwood, you shall find them there, and it will be well
worth your while to consider it in every herb, you shall find
them true throughout the book.

WATER AGRIMONY.

It is called in some countries, water hemp, bastard liernp,
and bastard agrimony, eupatorium, and hepatorium, because it
strengthens the liver.

Descript .] The root continues a long time, having many
long slender strings. The stalk grows up about two feet high,
sometimes higher. They are of a dark purple colour. The
branches are many, growing at distances the one from the
other, the one from one side of the stalk, the other from the
opposite point. The leaves are winged, and much indented at
the edges. The flowers grow at the top of the branches, of a
brown yellow colour, spotted with black spots, having a sub-
stance within the midst of them, like that of a daisy : If you
rub them between your fingers, they smell like rosin or cedar
when it is. burnt. The seeds are long, and easily stick to any
woollen thing they touch.

Place.] They delight not in heat, and therefore they are not
so frequently found in the southern parts of England as in the
northern, where they grow frequently: You may look for them
in cold grounds, by ponds and ditches’ sides, as also by running
waters ; sometimes you shall find them grow in the midst of
waters.

Time.] They all flower in July or August, and the seed is
npe presently after.

The English Physician Enlarged. 9

Government and Virtues.] It is a plant of Jupiter, as well as
the other agrimony, only this belongs to the celestial sign Can-
cer. It healeth and drieth, cutteth and cleanseth thick and tough
humours of the breast, and for this I bold it inferior to but few
herbs that grow. It helps the cachexia or evil disposition of the
body, the dropsy and yellow jaundice. It opens obstructions of
the liver, mollifies the hardness of the spleen, being applied out-
wardly. It breaks imposthumes taken inwardly : It is an excel-
lent remedy for the third day ague. It provokes urine and the
terms ; it kills worms, and cleanseth the body of sharp humours,
which are the cause of itch and scabs ; the herb being burnt,
the smoke thereof drives away flies, wasps, &c. It strengthens
the lungs exceedingly. Country people give it to the cattle
when they are troubled with the cough, or broken winded.

ALEHOOF, OR GROUND-IVY.

Several counties give it several names, so that there rs
scarce an herb growing of that bigness that has got so many : It
is called cats-foot, ground-ivy, gill-go-by-ground, and gill-creep-
by-ground, turnhoof, liay-maids, and alehoof.

Descript.] This well known herb lieth, spreadeth, and creep-
eth upon the ground, shooteth forth roots, at the corners of ten-
der jointed stalks, set with two round leaves at every joint some-
what hairy, crumpled, and unevenly dented about the edges
with round dents ; at the joints likewise, with the leaves towards
the ends of the branches, come forth hollow, long flowers, of a
blueish purple colour, with small white spots upon the lips
that hang down. The root is small with strings.

Place.] It is commonly found under hedges, and on the sides
of ditches, under houses, or in shadowed lanes, and other waste
grounds, in almost every part of this land.

Time.] They flower somewhat early, and abide a great while ;
the leaves continue green until winter, and sometimes abide,
except the winter be very sharp and cold.

10

The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues . ] It is an herb of Venus, and there-
fore cures the diseases she causes by sympathy, and those of
Mars by antipathy ; you may usually find it all the year long
except the year be extremely frosty ; it is quick, sharp, and
bitter in taste, and is therefore found to be hot and dry ; a singu-
lar herb for all inward wounds, exulcerated lungs, or other parts,
either by itself, or boiled with other the like herbs ; and being
drank, in a short time it easeth all griping pains, windy, and
choleric humours in the stomach, spleen, or belly ; helps the yel-
low jaundice, by opening the stoppings of the gall and liver, and
melancholy, by opening the stoppings of the spleen ; expelleth
venom or poison, and also the plague ; it provokes urine and
women’s courses ; the decoction of it in wine drank for some
time together, procureth ease unto them that are troubled with
the sciatica, or hip-gout : as also the gout in hands, knees, or
feet ; if you put to the decoction some honey and a little burnt
allum, it is excellent good to gargle any sore mouth or throat,
and to wash the sores and ulcers in the privy parts of man or
woman ; it speedily helpeth green wounds, being bruised and
bound thereto. The juice ofit hoiled with a little honey and ver-
digrease, doth wonderfully cleanse fistulas, ulcers, and stayeth
the spreading or eating of cancers and ulcers ; it helpeth the
itch, scabs, wheals, and other breakings out in any part of the
body. The juice of celandine, field-daisies, and ground-ivy
clarified, and a little fine sugar dissolved therein, and dropped
into the eyes, is a sovereign remedy for all pains, redness, and
watering of them ; as also for the pin and web, skins and films
growing over the sight; it helpeth beasts as well as men. The
juice dropped into the ears, doth wonderfully help the noise and
singing of them, and helpeth the hearing which is decayed. It
is good to tun up with new drink, for it will clarify it in a night,
that it will be the fitter to be drank the next morning ; or if any
drink be thick with removing, or any other accident, it will do
the like in a few hours.

11

The English Physician Enlarged.

ALEXANDER.

It is called alisander, horse-parsley, and wild-parsley, and the
black pot-herb; the seed of it is that which is usually sold in
apothecaries' shops for Macedonian parsley-seed.

Descript . ] It is usually sown in all the gardens in Europe,
and so well kuown, that it needs no farther description.

Time.] It flowereth iu June and July; the seed is ripe in
August.

Government and Virtues.'] It is an herb of Jupiter, and there-
fore friendly to nature, for it warmeth a cold stomach, and open-
eth a stoppage of the liver and spleen; it is good to move wo-
men’s courses, to expel the after-birth to break wind, to provoke
urine and helpeth strangury ; and these things the seeds will do
likewise. If either of them be boiled in wine, or being bruised
and taken in wine, is also effectual against the biting of serpents.
And you know what alexander pottage is good for, that you may
no longer eat it out of ignorance, but out of knowledge.

THE BLACK ALDER-TREE.

Descript.] JThIS tree seldom groweth to any great bigness,
but for the most part abideth like a hedge-bush, or a tree spread-
ing its branches, the woods of the body being white, and a dark
red core, or heart ; the outward bark is of a blackish colour, with
many whitish spots therein; but the inner bark next the wood
is yellow, which being chewed, will turn the spittle near into a
saifron colour. The leaves are somewhat like those of an ordi-
nary alder-tree, or the female cornet, or dogberry-tree, called in
Sussex dog-wood, but blacker, and not so long. The flowers are
white, coming forth with the leaves at the joints, which turn in-
to small round berries, first green, afterwards red, but blackish
when they are thorough ripe, divided, as it were, into two parts,
wherein is contained two small round and flat seeds. The root

12 The English Physician Enlarged.

runneth not deep into the ground, but spreads rather under the
upper crust of the earth.

Place.] This tree or shrub may be found plentifully in St.
John’s wood by Hornsey, and the woods upon Hamstead heath ;
as also a wood called the Old Park in Barcomb in Essex, near
the brooks’ sides.

Time.] It flowereth in May, and the berries are ripe in
September.

Government and Virtues.] It is a tree of Venus, and perhaps
under the celestial sign Cancer. The inner yellow bark hereof
purgeth downwards both choler and phlegm, and the watery hu-
mours of such that have the dropsy, and strengthens the inward
parts again by binding. If the bark hereof be boiled with agri-
mony, wormwood, dodder, hops and some fennel, with smallage,
endive, and succory-roots, and a reasonable draught taken every
morning for some time together, it is very effectual against the
jaundice, dropsy, and the evil disposition of the body, especially
if some suitable purging medicines have been taken before, to
avoid the grosser excrements ; It purgeth and strengthened the
liver and spleen, cleansing them from such evil humours and
hardness as they are afflicted with. It is to be understood that
these things are performed by the dried bark; for the fresh
green bark taken inwardly provokes strong vomitings, pains in
the stomach, and gripings in the belly ; yet if the decoction may
stand and settle two or three days, until the yellow colour be
changed black, it will not work so strongly as before, but will
strengthen the stomach, and procure an appetite to meat. The
outward bark contrariwise doth bind the body, and is helpful
for all lasks and fluxes thereof, but this also must be dried first,
whereby it will work the better. The inner bark thereof boiled
in vinegar is an approved remedy to kill lice, to cure the itch,
and take away scabs, by drying them up in a short time. It is
singularly good to wash the teeth, to take away the pains, to
fasten those that are loose, to cleanse them, and keep them
sound. The leaves are good fodder for kine, to make them
give more milk.

The English Physician Enlarged.

13

If in the spring-time you use the herbs before mentioned, and
will take but a handful of each of them, and to them add an
handful of elder buds, and having bruised them all, boil them in
a gallon of ordinary beer, when it is new; and having boiled
them half an hour, add to this three gallons more, and let them
work together, and drink a draught of it every morning, halt a
pint, or thereabouts, it is an excellent purge for the spring, to
consume the phlegmatic quality the winter hath left behind it,
and withal to keep your body in health, and consume those evil
humours which the heat of summer will readily stir up. Esteem
it as a jeweL

THE COMMON ALDER-TREE.

Descript .] Groweth to a reasonable height, and spreads
much if it like the place. It is so generally well known unto
country people, that I conceive it needless to tell that which is
no news.

Place and Time.] It delighteth to grow in moist w’oods and
watery places : flowering in April or May, and yielding ripe
seed in September.

Government and Use.] It is a tree under the dominion of Venus
and of some watery sign or other, I suppose Pisces ; and there-
fore the decoction, or distilled water of the leaves, is excellent
against burnings and inflammations, either with wounds or with-
out, to bathe the place grieved with, and especially for that in-
flammation in the breast, which the vulgar call an ague.

If you cannot get the leaves (as in winter it is impossible)
make use of the bark in the same manner.

The leaves and bark of the alder-tree are cooling, drying, and
binding. The fresh leaves laid upon swellings dissolve them,
and stay the inflammations. The leaves put under the bare feet
galled with travelling, are a great refreshing to them. The said
leaves gathered while the morning dew is on them, and brought
into a chamber troubled with the fleas, will gather them thereun-

14

The English Physician Enlarged.

to, which being suddenly cast out, will rid the chamber of those
troublesome bedfellows.

ANGELICA.

T O write a description of that which is so well known to be
growing almost in every garden I suppose is altogether needless,
yet for its virtues it is of admirable use.

In time of Heathenism, when men had found out any excellent'
herb, they dedicated it to their gods; as the bay-tree to Apollo,
the oak to Jupiter, the vine to Bacchus, the poplar to Hercules.
These the papists following as the Patriarchs they dedicate to
their saints ; as our lady’s thistle to the Blessed Virgin, St. John’s
wort to St. John, and another wort to St. Peter, &c. Our phy-
sicians must imitate like apes (though they cannot come off half
so cleverly) for they blasphemously call pansies or hearts-ease,
an herb of the Trinity, because it is of three colours. And a
certain ointment, an ointment of the Apostles, because it consists
of twelve ingredients: Alas, I am sorry for their folly, and
grieved at their blasphemy. God send them wisdom the rest of
their age, for they have their share ofignorance already. Oh !
w hy must ours be blasphemous, because the heathens and papists
w r erc idolatrous? Certainly they have read so much in old rusty
authors, that they have lost all their divinity ; for unless it were
amongst the ranters, I never read or heard of such blasphemy.
The heathens and papists were bad, and ours worse : the papists
giving idolatrous names to herbs for their virtues’ sake, not for
their fair looks, and therefore some called this an herb of the
Holy Ghost; others more moderate called it Angelica, because
of its angelical virtues, and that name it retains still, and all na-
tions follow it so near as their dialect will permit.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of the Sun in Leo;
let it be gathered when he is there, the Moon applying to his
good aspect : let it be gathered either in his hour, or in the hour
of Jupiter, let Sol be angular: observe the like in gathering the
herbs of other planets, and you may happen to do winders. In

The English Physician Enlarged. 15

all epidemical diseases caused by Saturn, that is as good a preser-
vative as grows ; It resists poison, by defending and comforting
the heart, blood, and spirits; it doth the like against the plague
and all epidemical diseases, if the root be taken in powder to the
weight of half a dram at a time, with some good treacle in carduus
■water, and the party thereupon laid to sweat in his bed; if
treacle be not to be had, take it alone in carduus or angelica-
water. The stalks or roots candied and eaten fasting, are good
preservatives in time of infection; and at other times to warm
and comfort a cold stomach. The root also steeped in vinegar,
and a little of that vinegar taken sometimes fasting, and the root
smelled unto, is good for the same purpose. A water distilled
from the root simply, as steeped in wine, and distilled in a glass,
is much more effectual than the water of the leaves ; and this
water, drank two or three spoonfuls at a time, easeth all pains
and torments coming of cold and wind, so that the body be not
bound ; and taken with some of the root in powder at the begin-
ning, helpeth the pleurisy, as also all other diseases of the lungs
and breasts, as coughs, phthysic, and shortness of breath; and
a syrup of the stalks do the like. It helps pains of the cholic,
the strangury and the stoppage of the urine ; procureth women's
courses, and expelleth the after birth, openeth the stoppings of
the liver and spleen, and briefly easeth and discusseth all windi-
ness and inward swellings. The decoction drunk before the fit
of an ague, that they may sweat (if possible) before the fit
comes, will in two or three times taking, rid it quite away; it
helps digestion, and is a remedy for a surfeit. The juice, or
the water being dropped into the eyes or ears, helps dimness of
sight and deafness; the juice put into the hollow teeth, easeth
their pains. The roots in powder, made up into a plaister with
a little pitch, and laid on the biting of mad dogs, or any other
venomous creature, doth wonderfully help. The juice or the
water dropped, or tents wet therein, and put into filthy dead
ulcers, or the powder of the root (in want of either) dotli cleanse
and cause them to heal quickly, by covering the naked bones

16 The English Physician Enlarged.

w— m am 1 w rT—wwMiyiiCTf r ■aEPfcar.Aaca* ■ » -£»■-«»>- -va^zMH PWBgaoB

with flesh ; the distilled water applied to places pained with the
gout, or sciatica, doth give a great deal of ease.

The wild angelica is not so effectual as the garden ; although
it may be safely used to all the purposes aforesaid.

AMARANTHUS.

Besides its common name, by which it is best known to
the florists of our days, it is called flower gentle, flower velure,
floramour, and velvet flower.

Descript.] It being a garden flower, and well known to
every one that keeps it, I might forbear the description; yet,
notwithstanding, because some desire it, I shall give it. It run-
neth up with a stalk a cubit high, streaked, and somewhat
reddish towards the root, but very smooth, divided towards the
top with small branches, among which stand long broad leaves of
a reddish green colour, slippery ; the flowers are not properly
flowers, but tufts, very beautiful to behold, but of no smell, of
a reddish colour; if you bruise them, they yield juice of the
same colour ; being gathered, they keep their beauty a long time ;
the seed is of a shining black colour.

Time.] They continue in flower from August till the time the
frost nips them.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Saturn,
and is an excellent qualifier of the unruly actions and passions
of Venus, though Mars also should join with her. The flowers
dried and beaten into powder stop the terms in women, and so
do almost all other red things. And by the icon, or image of
every herb, the ancients at first found out their virtues. Modern
writers laugh at them for it; but I wonder in my heart, how the
virtues of herbs came at first to be known, if not by their signa-
tures ; the moderns have them from the writings of the ancients ;
the ancients had not writings to have them from : But to pro-
ceed. The flowers stop all fluxes of blood ; whether in man or
woman, bleeding either at the nose or wound. There is also a
sort of amaranthus that bears a white flower, which stops the

The English Physician Enlarged.

17

whites in women* and the running of the reins in men, and is
a most gallant antivenereal, and a singular remedy for the
French pox.

ANEHOME.

C/ALLED also wind flower, because they say the flowers
never open but when the wind bloweth; Pliny is my author,
if it be not so, blame him. The seed also (if it bears any at
all) flies away with the wind.

Place and Time.] They are sown usually in the gardens of
the curious, and flower in the spring-time. As for description
I shall pass it, being well known to all those that sow them.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mars,
being supposed to be a kind of crow-foot. The leaves provoke
the terms mightily, being boiled, and the decoction drunk. The
body being bathed with the decoction of them, cures the lepro-
sy. The leaves being stamped and the juice snuffed up in the
nose, purgeth the head mightily;, so doth the root, being chewed
in the mouth, for it procureth much spitting, and bringeth away
many watery and phlegmatic humours, and is therefore excellent
for the lethargy. And when all is done, let physicians prate
what they please, all the pills in the dispensatory purge not the
head like to hot things held in the mouth. Being made into an
ointment, and the eye-lids anointed with it, it helps inflamma-
tions of the eyes, whereby it is palpable, that every stronger
draw eth its weaker like. The same ointment is excellent good
to cleanse malignant and corroding ulcers.

GARDEN ARRACH.

(yALLED also orach, and arage.

Descript.] It is so commonly known to every house-wife,
it were labour lost to describe it.

Time.] It flowereth aud seedeth from June to the end of
August.

C

The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues .] It is under the government of the
Moon; in quality cold and moist like unto her. It softeneth and
looseneth the body of man being eaten, and fortifieth the expul-
sive faculty in him. The herb, whether it be bruised and ap-
plied to the throat, or boiled, and in like manner applied, it
matters not much, it is excellent good for swellings in the throat;
the best way I suppose, is to boil it, and having drunk the de-
coction inwardly, apply the herb outwardly : The decoction of
it besides, is an excellent remedy for the yellow jaundice.

ARRACH, WILD AND STINKING.

Called also vulvaria, from that part of the body, upon
which the operation is most; also dog’s arrach, goat’s arrach,
and stinking motherwort.

Descript.} This hath small and almost round leaves, yet a
little pointed and without dent or cut, of a dusky mealy colour,
growing on the slender stalks and branches that spread on the
ground, with small flowers in clusters set with the leaves, and
small seed succeeding like the rest perishing yearly, and rising
again with its own sowing. It smells like rotten fish, or some-
thing worse.

Place.] It grows usually upon dunghills.

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

Government and Virtues.] Stinking arrach is used as a reme-
dy to help women pained, and almost strangled with the mother
by smelling to it; but inwardly taken there is no better remedy
under the moon for that disease. I would be large in commen-
dation of this herb ; were I but eloquent. It is an herb under
the dominion of Venus, and under the sign Scorpio; it is com-
mon almost upon every dunghill. The works of God are given
freely to man, his medicines are common and cheap, and easy
to be found. (’Tis the medicines* of the College of Physicians
that are so dear and scarce to find.) I commend it for an uni-
versal medicine for the womb, and such a medicine as will easily.

The English Physician Enlarged.

19

safely, and speedily cure any disease thereof, as the fits of the
mother, dislocation, or falling out thereof; it cools the womb,
being overheated. And let me tell you this, and I will tell you
the truth, heat of the womb is one of the greatest causes of hard
labour in child-birth. It makes barren women fruitful. Itcleans-
eth the womb if it be foul, and strengthens it exceedingly; it
provokes the terms if they be stopped, and stops them if they
flow immoderately; you can desire no good to your womb, but
this herb will effect it; therefore if you love children, if you
love health, if you love ease, keep a syrup always by you, made
of the juice of this herb, and sugar, (or honey if it be to cleanse
the womb) and let such as be rich keep it for their poor neigh-
bours; and bestow it as freely as I bestow my studies upon
them, or else let them look to answer it another day, when the
Lord shall come to make inquisition of blood.

ARCHANGEL.

To put a gloss upon their practice, the physicians call an
herb (which country people vulgarly know by the name of dead
nettle) archangel; whether they savour more of superstition or
folly, I leave to the judicious reader. There is more curiosity
than courtesy to my countrymen used by others in the explana-
tion as well of the names, as description of this so well known
herb, which that I may not also be guilty of, take this short
description first of the red archangel.

Descript . ] This has divers square stalks somewhat hairy, at
the joiuts whereof grow two sad green leaves dented about the
edges, opposite to one another to the lowermost upon long foot
stalks, but without any toward the tops, which are somewhat
round, yet pointed, and a little crumpled and hairy; round
about the upper joints, where the leaves grow thick, are sundry
gaping flowers of a pale reddish colour; after which come the
seeds three or four in a husk. The root is small and thready,
perishing every year: the whole plant hath a strong scent, but
not stinking.

20 The English Physician Enlarged.

White archangel hath divers square stalks, none standing
straight upward, but bending downward, whereon stand two
leaves at a joint, larger and more pointed than the other, dented
about the edges, and greener also, more like unto nettle leaves,
but not stinking, yet hairy. At the joints with the leaves stand
larger and more open gaping white flowers, husks round about
the stalks, but not with such a bush of leaves and flowers set in
the top, as is on the other, wherein stand small roundish black
seeds : the root is white, with many strings at it, not growing
downward, but lying under the upper crust of the earth, and
abideth many years increasing; this hath not so strong a scent
as the former.

Yellow archangel is like the white in the stalks and leaves;
but that the stalks are more-straight and upright, and the joints
with the leaves are farther asunder, having longer leaves than the
former, and the flowers a little larger and more gaping, of a fair
yellowish colour in most, in some paler. The roots are like
the white, only they creep not -so much under the ground.

Place.] They grow almost every where (except it be in the
middle of the street) the yellow most usually in the wet grounds
of w oods, and sometimes in the dryer, in divers counties of this
nation.

Time.] They flower from the beginning of the spring all the
summer long.

Virtues and Use.] The archangels are somewhat hot and drier
than the stinging nettles, and used with better success for the
stopping and hardness of the spleen than they, by using the de-
coction of the herb in wine, and afterwards applying the herb
hot into the region of the spleen as a plaister, or the decoction
with spunges. Flowers of the white archangel are preserved or
conserved to be used to stay the whites, and the flowers of the
red to stay the reds in women. It makes the heart merry, drives
away melancholy, quickens the spirits, is good against quartan
agues, stauncheth bleeding at mouth and nose, if it be stamped
and applied to the nape of the neck ; the herb also bruised, and

The English Physician Enlarged.

21

with some salt and vinegar and hog-grease, laid, upon an hard
tumour or swelling, or that vulgarly called the king’s evil, doth
help to dissolve or discuss them ; and being in like manner ap-
plied, doth much allay the pains, and give ease to the gout, sci-
atica, and other pains of the joints and sinews. It is also very
effectual to heal green wounds, and old ulcers ; also to stay their
fretting, gnawing and spreading. It draweth forth splinters, and
such like things gotten into the flesh, and is very good against
bruises and burnings. But the yellow archangel is most com-
mended for old, filthy, corrupt sores and ulcers, yea, although
they grow to be hollow, and to dissolve tumours. The chief
use of them is for women, it being an herb of Venus, and may
be found in my Guide for women.

ARSSMART.

TThE hot arssmart is called also water-pepper, or culrage.
The mild arssmart is called dead arssmart, percicaria, or peach-
wort, because the leaves are so like the leaves of a peach-tree ;
it is also called plumbago.

Description of the Mild . ] This hath broad leaves set at the
great red joint of the stalks; with semi-circular blackish marks
on them, usually either blueish or whitish, with such like seed
following. The root is long, with many strings thereat, pe-
rishing yearly; this hath no sharp taste (as another sort hath,
which is quick and biting) but rather sour like sorrel, or else a
little drying, or without taste.

Place.] It groweth in watery places, ditches and the like,
which for the most part are dry in summer.

Time.] It flowereth in June, and the seed is ripe in August.

Government and Virtues.] As the virtue of both these is
various, so is also their government; for that which is hot and
biting, is under the dominion of Mars, but Saturn challengeth
the other, as appears by that leaden coloured spot he hath
placed upon the leaf.

It is of a cooling and drying quality, and very effectual for

22 The English Physician Enlarged.

putrified ulcers in man or beast, to kill worms and cleanse the
putrified places. The juice thereof dropped in, or otherwise
applied, consumeth all cold swellings, and dissolveth the con-
gealed blood of bruises by strokes, falls, &c. A piece of the
root, or some of the seeds bruised, and held to an aching tooth,
taketh away the pain. The leaves bruised and laid to the joint
that hath a felon thereon taketh it away. The juice destroyeth
worms in the ears, being dropped into them ; if the hot arssinart
be strewed in a chamber, it will soon kill all the. fleas ; and the
herb or juice of the cold arssmart, put to a horse or other cat-
tle’s sores, will drive away the fly in the hottest time of summer;
a good handful of the hot biting arssmart put under a horse’s
saddle, will make him travel the better, although he were half
tired before. The mild arssmart is good against all impos-
thumes and inflammations at the beginning and to heal green
wounds.

All authors chop the virtues of both sorts of arssmart together,
as men chop herbs to the pot, when both of them are of clean
contrary qualities. The hot arssmart groweth not so high or
tall as the mild doth, but hath many leaves of the colour of
peach leaves, very seldom or never spotted : in other particulars
it is like the former, but may easily be known from it, if you
will but be pleased to break a leaf of it cross your tongue, for
the hot will make your tongue, to smart, so will not the cold.
If you see them both together, you may easily distinguish them,
because the mild hath far broader leaves; and our College of
Physicians, out of the learned care of the public good, Anglice,
their own gain, mistake the one for the other in their Neiv Mas-
ter-piece, whereby they discover, 1. Their ignorance, 2. Their
carelessness; and he that hath but half an eye, may see their
pride, without a pair of spectacles. I have done what I could
to distinguish them in the virtues, and when you find not the
contrary named, use the cold. The truth is, I have not yet
spoken with Dr. Reason, nor his brother Dr. Experience, con-
cerning either of them.

The English Physician Enlarged.

ASARABACCA.

Descript.-] AsARABACCA hath many heads rising from the
roots, from whence come many smooth leaves, every one upon
his own foot-stalk, which are rounder and bigger than violet
leaves, thicker also, and of a dark green shining colour on the
upper side, and of a pale yellow green underneath, little or no-
thing dented about the edges, from among which rise small,
round, hollow, brown green husks, upon short stalks, about an
inch long, divided at the brims into five divisions, very like the
cups or heads of the henbane seed, but that they are smaller;
and these be all the flowers it carrieth, which are somewhat
sweet, being smelled unto, and wherein, when they are ripe, is
contained small cornered rough seeds, very like the kernels or
stones of grapes or raisins. The roots are small and whitish,
spreading divers ways in the ground, increasing into divers
heads ; but not running or creeping under the ground, as some
other creeping herbs do. They are somewhat sweet in smell,
resembling nardus, but more when they are dry than green;
and of a sharp but not unpleasant taste.

Place.] It groweth frequently in gardens.

Time.] They keep their leaves green all winter; but shoot
forth new in the spring, and with them come forth those heads
or flowers which give ripe seed about midsummer, or somewhat
after.

Government and Virtues.] 'Tis a plant under the dominion of
Mars, and therefore inimical to nature. This herb being drank,
not only provoketh vomiting but purgeth downward, and by
urine also, purgeth both choler and phlegm : if you add to it.
some spikenard, with the whey of goat’s milk, or honeyed water,
it is made more strong, but it purgeth phlegm more manifestly
than choler, and therefore doth much help pains in the hips, and
other parts ; being boiled in whey, they wonderfully help the
obstructions of the liver and spleen, and are therefore profitable
for the dropsy and jaundice; being steeped in wine and drank,

24 The English Physician Enlarged.

it helps those continual agues that come by the plenty of stub-
born huinonrs; an oil made thereof by setting in the sun, with
some laudanum added to it, provoketh sweating, (the ridge of
the back being anointed therewith) and thereby driveth away
the shaking fits of the ague. It will not abide any long boiling,
for it loseth its chief strength thereby; nor much beating, for
the finer powder doth provoke vomits and urine, and the coar-
ser purgeth downwards.

The common use hereof is, to take the juice of five or seven
leaves in a little drink to cause vomiting; the roots have also
the same virtue, though they do not operate so forcibly; they
are very effectual against the biting of serpents, and therefore
are put as an ingredient both into mithridite and Venice treacle.
The leaves and roots being boiled in lee, and the head often
w ashed therew ith while it is warm, comforteth the head and brain
that is ill affected by taking cold, and helpeth the memory.

I shall desire ignorant people to forbear the use of the leaves ;
the roots purge more gently, and may prove beneficial in such
as have cancers, or old putrified ulcers, or fistulas upon their
bodies, to take a dram of them in pow der in a quarter of a pint
of white wine in the morning. The truth is, I fancy purging and
vomiting medicines as little as any man breathing doth, for they
weaken nature, nor shall ever advise them to be used, unless
upon urgent necessity. If a physician be nature’s servant, it is
his duty to strengthen his mistress as much as he can, and
weaken her as little as may be.

ASPARAGUS, SPARAGUS, OR SPERAGE.

Descript .] Xt riseth up at first with divers white and green
scaly heads, very brittle and easy to break while they are young,
which afterward rise up in very long and slender green stalks, of
the bigness of an ordinary riding wand, at the bottom of most,
or bigger or lesser, as the roots are of growth : on which are set
divers branches of green leaves shorter and smaller than fennel

The English Physician Enlarged. 25

to the top ; at the joints whereof come forth small yellowish flow-
ers, which turn into round berries, green at first, and of an ex-
cellent red colour when they are ripe, shewing like bead or co-
ral, wherein are contained exceeding hard black seeds, the roots
are dispersed from a spongeousdiead into many long, thick, and
round strings, wherein is sucked much nourishment out of the
ground, and increaseth plentifully thereby. '

PRICKLY ASPARAGUS, OR SPERAGE.

Descript.] Xt groweth usually in gardens, and some of it
grows wild in Appleton meadows in Gloucestershrre, where the
poor people do gather the buds of young shoots, and sell them
cheaper than our garden asparagus is sold at London.

Time. They do for the most part flower, and bear their
berries late in the year, or not at all, although they are housed
in winter.

Government and Virtues.] They are both under the do-
minion of Jupiter. The young buds or branches boiled in or-
dinary broth, make the belly soluble and open, and boiled in
white wine, provoke urine, being stopped, and is good against
tire strangury or difficulty of making water, it expelleth the gra-
vel and stone out of the kidneys, and helpeth pains in the reins.
And boiled in white wine or vinegar, it is prevalent for them
that have their arteries loosened, or are troubled with the hip-
gout or sciatica. The decoction of the roots boiled in wine and
taken is good to clear the sight, and being held in the mouth ea-
seth the tooth-ach ; and being taken fasting several mornings to-
gether, stirreth up bodily lust in man or woman (whatever some
have written to the contrary.) The garden asparagus nourish-
eth more than the wild, yet hath it the same effects in all the
afore mentioned diseases : The decoction of the roots in white
wine, and the back and belly bathed therewith, or kneeling or
lying down in the same, or sitting therein as a bath hath been
found effectual against pains of the reins and bladder, pains of
the mother and cholic, and generally against all pains that hap-

D

26 The English Physician Enlarged.

pen to the lower parts of the body, and no less effectual against
stiff and benumbed sinews, or those that are shrunk by cramps
and convulsions, and helpeth the sciatica.

ASH TREE.

This is so well known, that time will be mispent in writing
a description of it ; and therefore I shall only insist upon the
virtues of it.

Government and Virtues .] It is governed by the Sun ; and the
young tender tops, with the leaves taken inwardly, and some of
them outwardly applied, are singularly good against the biting
of viper, adder, or any other venomous beast ; and the water dis-
tilled therefrom being taken a small quantity every morning fast-
ing, is a singular medicine for those that are subject to dropsy,
or to abate the greatness of those that are too gross or fat. The
decoction of the leaves in white wine helpeth to break the stone,
and expel it, and cureth the jaundice. The ashes of the bark of
the ash made into a lee, and those heads bathed therewith, which
are leprous, scabby, or scald, they are thereby cured. The ker-
nels within the husks, commonly called ashen keys, prevail
against stitches and pains in the sides, proceeding of wind, and
voideth away the stone by provoking urine.

I can justly except against all of this, save only the first, viz.
That ash-tree tops and leaves are good against the bitings of ser-
pents and vipers. I suppose this had its rise from Gerard or
Pliny, both which hold. That there is such an antipathy between
an adder and an ash-tree, that if an adder be encompassed round
with ash-tree leaves, she will sooner run through the fire than
through the leaves : The contrary to which is the truth, as both
my eyes are witness. The rest are virtues something likely, only
if it be in winter when you cannot get the leaves, you may safely
use the bark instead of them. The keys you may easily keep
all the year, gathering them when they are ripe.

The English Physician Enlarged. 27

AVENS, CALLED ALSO COLEWORT, and HERB BONET.

Descript. ]\ L HE ordinary avens hath many long, rough, dark,
green winged leaves, rising from the root, every one made of
many leaves set on each side of the middle rib, the largest three
thereof grow at the end, and are snipped, or dented round about
the edges ; the other being small pieces, sometimes two and some-
times four, standing on each side of the middle rib underneath
them. Among which do rise up divers rough or hairy stalks about
two feet high, branching forth with leaves at every joint not so
long as those below, but almost as much cut in on the edges,
some into three parts, some into more. On the tops of the
branches stand small, pale, yellow flowers, consisting of five
leaves, like the flowers of cinquefoil, but larger, in the middle
whereof standeth a small green herb, which when the flower is
fallen groweth to be round, being made of many long greenish
purple seeds (like grains) which will stick upon your clothes.
The root consists of many brownish strings or fibres, smelling
somewhat like unto cloves, especially those which grow in the
higher, hotter, and drier grounds, and in free and clear air.

Place.] They grow wild in many places under hedges’ sides,
and by the path ways in fields ; yet they rather delight to grow
in shadowy than sunny places.

Time.] They flower in May and June for the most part, and
their seed is ripe in July at the farthest.

Government and Virtues.] It is governed by Jupiter, and that
gives hopes of a wholesome healthful herb. It is good for the
diseases of the chest or breast, for pains, and stitches in the side,
and to expel crude and raw humours from the belly and sto-
mach, by its sweet savour and warming quality. It dissolves the
inward congealed blood happening by falls or bruises, and the
spitting of blood, if the roots, either green or dry, be boiled in
wine and drank; as also all manner of inward wounds or out-
ward, if washed or bathed therewith. The decoction also being
drank, comforts the heart, and strengthened! the stomach and a

58

The English Physician Enlarged.

cold brain, and therefore is good in the spring-time to open ob-
structions of the liver, and helpeth the wind cholic ; it also helps
those that have fluxes, or are bursten, or have a rupture ; it
taketh away spots or marks in the face, being washed therewith.
The juice of the fresh root, or powder of the dried root, hath
the same effect with the decoction. The root in the spring-time
steeped in wine, doth give it a delicate savour and taste, and
being drank fasting every morning, comforteth the heart, and is
a good preservative against the plague, or any other poison. It
helpeth digestion, and warmeth a cold stomach, and openeth
obstructions of the liver and spleen.

It is very safe; you need have no dose prescribed; and is
very fit to be kept in every body’s house.

JBALM.

This herb is so well known to be an inhabitant almost in
every garden, that I shall not need to write any description there-
of, although the virtues thereof, which are many, may not be
omitted.

Government and Virtues .] It is an herb of Jupiter, and under
Cancer, and strengthens nature much in all its actions. Let a
syrup made with the juice of it and sugar (as you shall be taught
at the latter end of this book) be kept in every gentlewoman’s
house to relieve the weak stomachs and sick bodies of their
poor sickly neighbours ; as also the herb kept dry in the house,
that so with other convenient simples, you may make it into an
electuary with honey, according as the disease is, as you shall be
taught at the latter end of my book. The Arabian physicians
have extolled the virtues thereof to the skies; although the
Greeks thought it not worth mentioning. Seraphio saith, It
causeth the mind and heart to become merry, and reviveth the
heart, faintings and swoonings, especially of such who are over-
taken in sleep, and driveth away all troublesome cares and
thoughts out of the mind, arising from melancholy or black
clioler ; which Avicen slso confirmeth. It is very good to help

The English Physician Enlarged. 29

digestion, and open obstructions of the brain, and hath so much
purging quality in it (saith Avicen) as to expel those melancholy
vapours from the spirits and blood which are in the heart and ar-
teries, although it cannot do so in other parts of the body.
Dioscorides saith, That the leaves steeped in wine, and the wine
drank, and the leaves externally applied, is a remedy against the
stings of a scorpion, and the bitings of mad dogs ; and com-
mendeth the decoction thereof for women to bathe or sit in to
procure their courses ; it is good to wash aching teeth therewith,
and profitable for those that have the bloody-flux. The leaves
also, with a little nitre taken in drink, are good against the sur-
feit of mushrooms, helps the griping pains of the belly ; and be-
ing made into an electuary, it is good for them that cannot fetch
their breath : Used with salt, it takes away wens, kernels, or

hard swellings in the flesh or throat; it cleanseth foul sores, and
easeth pains of the gout It is good for the liver and spleen. A
tansy, or caudle made with eggs, and juice thereof while it is
young, putting to it some sugar and rosewater, is good for a
woman in child-bed, when the after-birth is not throughly void-
ed, and for their faintings upon or in their sore travail. The
herb bruised and boiled in a little wine and oil, and laid on a
boil, will ripen it, and break it

BARBERRY.

This shrub is so well known by every boy and girl thai
hath but attained to the age of seven years, that it needs no de -
scription.

Government and Virtues .] Mars owns the shrub, and pre-
sents it to the use ot my countrymen to purge their bodies of
choler. The inner rind of the barberry-tree boiled in white wine,
and a quarter of a pint drank each morning, is an excellent re-
medy to cleanse the body of choleric humours, and free it from
such diseases as choler causetb, such as scabs, itch, tetters, ring-
worms, yellow jaundice, boils, &c. It is excellent for hot agues,
burnings, scaldings, heat of the blood, heat of the liver, bloody-

30 The English Physician Enlarged.

flux : for the berries are as good as the bark, and more pleasing ;
they get a man a good stomach to his victuals, by strengthening
the attractive faculty which is under Mars, as you may see more
at large at the latter end of my Ephemeris for the year 1651 :
The hair washed with the lee made of ashes of the tree and water,
will make it turn yellow, viz. of Mars’ own colour. The fruit
and rind of the shrub, the flowers of broom and of heath, or
furze, cleanse the body of choler by sympathy, as the flowers,
leaves, and bark of the peach-tree do by antipathy; because
these are under Mars, that under Venus.

BARLEY.

The continual usefulness hereof hath made all in general so
acquainted herewith, that it is altogether needless to describe it,
several kinds hereof plentifully growing, being yearly sown in
this land. The virtues thereof take as followeth.

Government and~Virtnes.] It is a notable plant of Saturn:
if you view diligently its effects by sympathy and antipathy,
you may easily perceive a reason of them ; as also why barley
bread is so unwholesome for melancholy people. Barley in all
the parts and compositions thereof (except malt) is more cooling
than wheat, and a little cleansing : And all the preparations
thereof, as barley-water and other things made thereof do give
great nourishment to persons troubled with fevers, agues, and
heats in the stomach. A poultice made of barley meal or flour
boiled in vinegar and honey, and a few dry figs put into them,
dissolveth all hard imposthumes, and assuagetli inflammations,
being thereto applied. And being boiled with melilot and ca-
momile flowers, and some lineseed, fenugreek, and rue in pow-
der, mid applied warm, it easeth pains in side and stomach, and
windiness of the spleen. The meal of barley and fleawort boil-
ed in water, and made a poultice with honey and oil of lilies ap-
plied warm, cureth swellings under the ears, throat, neck, and
such like ; and a plaister made thereof with tar, wax, and oil
helpeth the king’s evil in the throat ; boiled with sharp vinegar

The English Physician Enlarged. 31

into a poultice, and laid on hot, helpeth the leprosy ; being boil
ed in red wine with pomegranate rinds, and myrtles, stayeth the
[ask or other flux of the belly ; boiled with vinegar and quince,
it easeth the pains, of the gout ; barley, flour, white salt, honey,
and vinegar mingled together, taketh away the itch speedily and
certainly. The water distilled from the green barley in the end
of May, is very good for those that have deductions of humours
fallen into their eyes, and easeth the pain being dropped into
them ; or white bread steeped therein, and bound on the eyes,
doth the same.

GARDEN BAZIL, OR SWEET BAZIL.

Descript .] Tl HE greater or ordinary bazil riseth up usually
with one upright stalk diversely branching forth on all sides, with
two leaves at every joint, which are somewhat broad and round,
yet pointed, of a pale green colour, but fresh ; a little snipped
about the edges, and of a strong healthy scent. The flowers are
small and white, and standing at the tops of the branches, with
two small leaves at the joints, in some places green, in others
brown, after which come black seed. The root perisheth at the
approach of winter, and therefore must be new sown every
year.

Place.] It grow r eth in gardens.

Time.] It must be sowed late, and flowers in the heart of Sum-
mer, being a very tender plant.

Government and Virtues.] This is the herb which all authors
are together by the ears about, and rail at one another (like
lawyers.) Galen and Dioscorides hold it not fitting to be taken
inwardly ; and Chrysippus rails at it with downright Billingsgate
rhetoric ; Pliny, and the Arabian physicians, defend it.

For my own part, I presently found that speech true;

Non nostrum inter nos tantas componere lites.

And away to Dr . Reason went I, who told me it was an herb
of Mars, and under the scorpion, and perhaps therefore called
basilicon, and it is no marvel if it carry a kind of virulent

32 The English Physician Enlarged.

quality with it. Being applied to the place bitten by veno-
mous beasts, or stung by a wasp or hornet, it speedily draws the
poison to it. Every like draws his like. Mizeldus affirms, that
being laid to rot in horse-dung, it will breed venomous beasts.
Hilorius, a French physician, affirms upon his own knowledge,
that an acquaintance of his, by common smelling to it, had a
scorpion bred in his brain. Something is the matter, this herb
and rue will not grow together, no, nor near one another, and
we know rue is as great au enemy to poison as any that grows.

To conclude. It expelleth both birth and after-birth ; and as
it helps the deficiency of Venus in one kind, so it spoils all her
actions in another. I dare write no more of it.

THE BAY TREE.

T^HIS is so well known that it needs no description ; I shall
therefore only write the virtues thereof, which are many.

Government and virtues i] I shall but only add a word or two
to what my friend hath written, viz. That it is a tree of the Sun,
and under the celestial sign Leo, and resisteth witchcraft very
potently, as also all the evils old Saturn can do the body of man,
and they are not a few ; for it is the speech of one, and I am
mistaken if it were not Mizeldus, that neither witch nor devil,
thunder or lightning, will hurt a man in the place where a bay-
tree is. Galen said, That the leaves or bark do dry and heal
very much, and the berries more than the leaves ; the bark of
the root is less sharp and hot, but more bitter, and hath some
astriction withal, whereby it is effectual to break the stone, and
good to open odstructions of the liver, spleen and other inward
parts, which bring the jaundice, dropsy, &c. The berries are
very effectual against all poison of venomous creatures, and
the sting of wasps and bees ; as also against the pestilence, or
other infectious diseases and therefore put into sundry treacles
for that purpose ; they likewise procure women’s courses ; and
seven of them given to a woman in sore travail of child-birth,
doth cause a speedy delivery, and expel the after-birth, and

The English Physician Enlarged.

33

therefore not to be taken by such as have not gone out their
time, lest they procure abortion, or cause labour too soon. They
wonderfully help all cold and rheumatic distillations from the
brain, to the eyes, lungs or other parts ; and being made into an
electuary with honey, do help the consumption, old coughs,
shortness of breath, and thin rheums ; as also the meagrim.
They mightily expel the wind, and provoke urine ; help the mo-
ther, and kill the worms. The leaves also work the like effects.
A bath of the decoction of the leaves and berries, is singularly
good for women to sit in, that are troubled with the mother, or
the diseases thereof, or the stoppings of their courses, or for the
diseases of the bladder, pains in the bowels by wind and stopping
of urine. A decoction likewise of equal parts of bay-berries,
cummin seed, hyssop, origanum, and euphorbium, with some ho-
ney, and the head bathed therewith, doth wonderfully help dis-
tillations and rheums, and settleth the palate of the mouth into
its place. The oil made of the berries is very comfortable in all
cold griefs of the joints, nerves, arteries, stomach, belly, or
womb, and helpeth palsies, convulsions, cramp, aches, trem-
blings, and numbness in any part, weariness also, and pains that
come by sore travelling. All griefs and pains proceeding from
wind, either in the head, stomach, back, belly, or womb, by
anointing the parts affected therewith : And pains in the ears are
also cured by dropping in some of the oil, or by receiving into
the ears the fume of the decoction of the berries through a fun-
nel. The oil takes away the marks of the skin and flesh by bruis-
es, falls, &c. and dissolveth the congealed blood in them. It
helpeth also the itch, scabs, and wheals in the skin.

BEANS.

Both the garden and field beans are so well known, that it
savetli me the labour of writing any description of them. Their
virtues follow.

Government and Virtues .] They are plants of Venus, and the
distilled water of the flower of garden beans is good to clean the

E

34 The English Physician Enlarged.

face and skin from spots and wrinkles, and the meal or flour of
them, or the small beans doth the same. The water distilled
from the green husks, is held to be very effectual against the
stone, and to provoke urine. Bean flour is used in poultices to
assuage inflammations arising from wounds, and the swelling of
women’s breasts caused by the curdling of their milk, and re-
presseth their milk ; flour of beans and fenugreek mixed with
honey, and applied to felons, boils, bruises, or blue marks by
blows, or the imposthumes in the kernels of the ears, heipeth
them all, and with rose leaves, frankincense and the white of an
egg, being applied to the eyes, heipeth them that are swollen or
do water, or have received any blow upon them, if used with
wine. If a bean be parted into two, the skin being taken away
and laid on the place where the leech hath been set that bleedeth
too much, stayeth the bleeding. Bean flour boiled to a poultice
with wine and vinegar, and some oil put thereto, easetli both
pains and swelling of the cods. The husks boiled in water to
the consumption of a third part thereof, stayeth a lask ; and the
ashes of the husks, made up with old hog’s grease, heipeth the
old pains, contusions, and wounds of the sinews, the sciatica and
gout. The field beans have all the aforementioned virtues as
the garden beans.

Beans eaten are extreme windy meat ; but if after the Dutch
fashion, when they are half boiled you husk them and then stew
them, (I cannot tell you how, for I never was cook in all my
life) they are wholesome food.

FRENCH BEANS.

Descript. This French or kidney bean ariseth at first but
with one stalk, which afterwards divides itself into many arms
or branches, but all so weak that if they be not sustained with
sticks or poles, they will be fruitless on the ground. At several
places of these branches grow footstalks, each with three bioad
round and pointed green leaves at the end of them ; towards the
top come forth divers flowers made like unto pease blossoms, of

The English Physician Enlarged. 35

the same colour for the most part that the fruit will be of; that
is to say, white, yellow, red, blackish, or of a deeper purple,
but white is the most usual ; after which come long and slender
flat cods, some crooked, some straight, with a string running
down the back thereof, wherein is flattish round fruit made
like a kidney ; the root is long, spreadeth with many strings an-
nexed to it, and perisheth every year.

There is another sort of French beans commonly growing
with us in this laud, which is called the scarlet flower bean.
This ariseth with sundry branches as the other, but runs high-
er to the length of hop-poles, about which they grow twining,
but turning contrary to the sun, having footstalks with three
leaves on each, as on the other ; the flowers also are like the
other, and of a most orient scarlet colour. The beans are larg-
er than the ordinary kind, of a dead purple colour, turning
black when ripe and dry ; the root perisheth in winter.

Government and Virtues .] These also belong to dame Ve-
nus, and being dried and beat to powder, are as great strength-
ened of the kidneys as any are ; neither is there a better reme-
dy than it ; a dram at a time taken in white wine to prevent the
stone, or to cleanse the kidneys of gravel or stoppage. The or-
dinary French beans are of an easy digestion; they move the
belly, provoke urine, enlarge the breast that is straitened with
shortness of breath, engender sperm, and incite to venery. And
the scarlet-coloured beans, in regard to the glorious beauty of
their colour, being set near a quickset hedge, will bravely adorn
the same, by climbing up thereon, so that they may be discern-
ed a great way, not without admiration of the beholders at a
distance. But they will go near to kill the quicksets by cloath-
ing them in scarlet.

LADIES BED STRAW.

Besides the common name above written, it is called
cheese-rennet, because it performs the same office, as also gal-

(

36 The English Physician Enlarged.

lion, pettimugget, aud maid-hair ; and by some wild rosemary.

Descript.] This riseth up with diverse small, brown and
square upright stalks a yard high or more ; sometimes branch-
es forth into diverse parts, full of joints, and with divers very
fine small leaves at every one of them, little or nothing rough
at all ; at the tops of the branches grow many long tufts or
branches of yellow flowers very thick set together, from the
several joints which consist of four leaves a-piece, which smell
somewhat strong, but not unpleasant. The seed is smali and
black like poppy seed, two for the most part joined together.
The root is reddish, with many small threads fastened unto it,
which take strong hold of the ground, and creepeth a little ;
and the branches leaning a little down to the ground, take root
at the joints thereof, whereby it is easily increased.

There is another sort of Ladies bed-straw, growing frequently
in England which beareth white flowers as the other doth
yellow ; but the branches of this are so weak, that unless it be
sustained by the hedges, or other things near which it groweth,
it will lie down to the ground ; the leaves a little bigger than
the former, and the flowers not so plentiful as these ; and the
root hereof is also thready and abiding.

Place.] They grow in meadows and pastures, both wet and
dry, and by the hedges.

Time.] They flower in May for the most part, and the seed
is ripe in July and August.

Government and Virtues.] They are both herbs of Venus,
and therefore strengthening the parts both internal and external,
which she rules. The decoction of the former of those being
drank, is good to fret and break the stone, provoke urine, stay-
eth inward bleeding, and healeth inw ard wounds. The herb or
flow'er bruised and put up into the nostrils, stayeth their bleeding
likewise : The flowers aud herbs being made into an oil, by being
set into the sun, and changed after it hath stood ten or twelve
days ; or into an ointment being boiled in Arunga, or sallad oil,
with some wax melted therein, after it is strained ; either the oil
made thereof, or the ointment, do help burnings with fire, or

The English Physician Enlarged. 37

scaldings with water. The same also, or the decoction of the
herb and flower, is good to bathe the feet of travellers and lac-
quies whose long running causeth weariness and stiffness in their
sinews and joints. If the decoction be used warm, and the
joints afterwards anointed with ointment, it helpeth the dry
scab, and the itch in children ; and the herb with the white
flower is also very good for the sinews, arteries, and joints, to
comfort and strengthen them after travel, cold, and pains.

BEETS.

Of beets there are two sorts, which are best known gene-
rally, and whereof I shall principally treat at this time, viz. the
white and red beets, and their virtues.

Descript .] The common white beet hath many great leaves
next the ground, somewhat large and of a whitish green colour.
The stalk is great, strong, and ribbed, bearing great store of
leaves upon it, almost to the very top of it ; The flowers grow
in very long tufts, small at the end, and turning down their
heads, which are small, pale greenish, yellow buds, giving cor-
nered prickly seed. The root is great, long, and hard, and
when it hath given seed is of no use at all.

The common red beet differeth not from the white, but only
it is less, and the leaves and the roots are somewhat red ; the
leaves are differently red, some only with red stalks or veins ;
some of a fresh red, and others of a dark red. The root there-
of is red, spungy, and not used to be eaten.

Government and Virtues .] The government of these two sorts
of beets are far different ; the red beet being under Saturn, and
the white under Jupiter ; therefore take the virtues of them apart,
each by itself ; the white beet doth much loosen the belly, and
is of a cleansing digesting quality, and provoketh urine. The
juice of it openeth obstructions both of the liver and spleen, and
is good for the head-ach and swimmings therein, and turnings of
the brain ; and is effectual also against all venomous creatures ;
and applied unto the temples, stayeth inflammations in the eyes;

38 The English Physician Enlarged.

it helpeth burnings, being used without oil, and with a littlelH
lum put to it, is good for St. Anthony’s fire. It is good for all
wheals, pushes, blisters, and blains, in the skin : the herb boil-
ed, and laid upon chilblains or kibes helpeth them. The de-
coction thereof in water and some vinegar, healeth the itch if
bathed therewith, and cleanseth the head of dandruff, scurf,
and dry scabs, and doth much good for fretting and running
sores, ulcers, and cankers in the head, legs or other parts, and
is much commended against baldness and shedding the hair.

The red beet is good to stay the bloody flux, women’s cour-
ses and the whites, and to help the yellow jaundice ; the juice
of the root put into the nostrils, purgeth the head, helpeth the
noise in the ears, and the tooth-ach ; the juice snuffed up the
nose, helps a stinking breath, if the cause lies in the nose, as
many times it doth, if any bruise hath been there; as also want
of smell coming that way.

WATER BETONY.

Called also brown-wort, and in Yorkshire, bishop’s
leaves.

Descript.'] First, of the water betony, which riseth up, with
square, hard, greenish stalks, sometimes brown, set with broad
dark green leaves, dented about the edges with notches some-
what resembling the leaves of the wood betony, but much larger
too, for the most part set at a joint. The flowers are many, set
at the tops of the stalks and branches, being round bellied and
open at the brims, and divided into two parts, the uppermost
being like a hood, and the lowermost like a hip hanging down,
of a dark red colour, which passing, there come in their places
small round heads with small points at the ends, wherein lie
small and brownish seeds ; the root is a thick bush of strings
and shreds growing from the head.

Place.] It groweth by the ditch side, brooks, and other wa-
ter-courses, generally through this land, and is seldom found
far from the water-side.

The English Physician Enlarged. 39

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

Government and Virtues.] Water betony is an herb of Jupiter
in Cancer, and is appropriated more to wounds and hurts in the
breast than wood-betony, which follows : it is an excellent re-
medy for sick hogs. It is of a cleansing quality ; the leaves
bruised and applied are effectual for all old and filthy ulcers :
and especially if the juice of the leaves be boiled with a little
honey, and dipped therein, and the sores dressed therewith ; as
also for bruises or hurts, whether, inward or outward ; the dis-
tilled water of the leaves is used for the same purpose ; as also
to bathe the face and hards spotted or blemished, or discolour-
ed by sun-burning.

I confess I do not much fancy distilled waters, I mean such
waters as are distilled cold ; some virtues of the herb they may
haply have (it were a strange thing else ;) but this I am confident
of, that being distilled in a pewter still, as the vulgar and apish
fashion is, both chemical oil and salt is left behind, unless you
burn them, and then all is spoiled, water and all, which was
good for as little as can be by such a distillation in my transla-
tion of the London Dispensatory.

WOOD BETONY.

Descript.] C^ OMMON or wood betony hath many leaves ri-
sing from the root, which are somewhat broad and round at the
end, roundly dented about the edges, standing upon a long foot-
stalk, from among which arise up small, square, slender, but up-
right hairy stalks with some leaves thereon to a piece at the
joints, smaller than the lower, whereon are set several spiked
heads of flowers like lavender, but thicker and shorter, for the
most part, and of a reddish or purple colour, spotted with white
spots both in the upper and lower part. The seeds being con-
tained within the husks that hold the flowers, are blackish, some-
what long and uneven. The roots are many white thready
strings: the stalk perisheth, but the roots with some leaves
thereon, abide all the winter. The whole plant is something
small.

40 The English Physician Enlarged.

Place.] It groweth frequently in woods, and delighteth in
shady places.

Time.] AnditflowerethinJuly; after which the seed is quick-
ly ripe, yet in its prime in May.

Government and Virtues.] The herb is appropriated to the
planet Jupiter, and the sign Aries, Antonins Musa, physician
to the emperor Augustus Cajsar, wrote a peculiar book of the
virtues of this herb; and among other virtues saith of it, that it
preserveth the liver and bodies of men from the danger of epi-
demical diseases, and from witchcrafts also ; it helpeth those
that loath and cannot digest their meat, those that have weak
stomachs and sour belchings, or continual rising in their stomach,
using it familiarly either green or dry ; either the herb, or root,
or the flowers, in broth, drink, or meat, or made into conserve,
syrup, water, electuary, or powder, as every one may best frame
themselves unto, or as the time and season requireth ; taken
any of the aforesaid ways, it helpeth the jaundice, falling sick-
ness, the palsy, convulsions, or shrinking of the sinews' the gout
and those that are inclined to dropsy, those that have continual
pains in their heads, although it turn to phrensy. The powder
mixed with pure honey, is no less available for all sorts of coughs
or colds, wheesing, or shortness of breath, distillation of thin
rheum upon the lungs, which causeth consumptions. The de-
coction made with mead, and a little penny-royal, is good for
those that are troubled with putrid agues, whether quotidian
tertian, or quartan, and to draw down and evacuate the blood,
and humours, that by falling into the eyes, do hinder the sight ;
the decoction thereof made in wine and taken, killeth the worms
in the belly, openeth obstructions both of the spleen and liver ;
cureth stitches, and pains in the back and sides, the torments and
griping pains in the bowels, and the wind colic ; and mixed with
honey, purgeth the belly, helpeth to bring down women’s cour-
ses, and is of special use for those that are troubled with the fall-
ing down of the mother, and pains thereof, and causeth an easy
and speedy delivery of women in child-birth. It helpeth also to
break and expel the stone, either in the bladder or kidneys. The

The English Physician Enlarged.

41

decoction with wine gargled in the mouth easeth the tooth-ach.
It is commended against the stinging or biting of venomous ser-
pents, or mad dogs, being used inwardly and applied outwardly
to the place. A dram of the powder of betony taken with a little
honey in some vinegar, doth wonderfully refresh those that are
overwearied by travel. It stayeth the bleeding at the mouth or
nose, and helpeth those that piss or spit blood, and those that
are bursten or have a rupture, and is good for such as are bruis-
ed by any fall or otherwise. The green herb bruised, or the
juice applied to any inward hurt, or outward green wound in the
head or body, will quickly heal and close it up : as also any
veins or sinews that are cut, and will draw forth any broken
bone or splinter, thorn or other things got into the flesh. It is no
less profitable for old sores or filthy ulcers, yea, though they be
fistulous and hollow. But some do advise to put a little salt to
this purpose ; being applied with a little hog’s lard, it helpeth a
plague or sore, and other boils and pushes. The fumes of the
decoction* while it is warm, received by a funnel into the ears,
easeth the pain of them, destroyeth the worms and cureth the
running sore in them. The juice dropped into them doth the
same. The root of betony is displeasing both to the taste and
stomach, whereas the leaves and flowers, by their sw eet and spicy
taste, are comfortable both to meat and medicine.

These are some of the many virtues Anthony Muse, an expert
physician, (for it was not the practice of Octavius Ca;sar to keep
fools about him) appropriates to betony ; it is a very precious
herb, that is certain, and most fitting to be kept in a man’s house,
both in syrup, conserve, oil, ointment, and plaister ; The flowers
are usually conserved.

THE BEECH TREE.

In treating of this tree, you must understand, that I mean the
green mast beech, which is by w ay of distinction from that other
small rough sort, called in Sussex the smaller beech, but in Es-
sex, horn-bean.

F

42 The English Physician Enlarged.

I suppose it needless to describe it, being already too well
known to my countrymen.

Place.] It groweth in woods amongst oaks and other trees,
and in parks, forests, and chases, to feed deer ; and in other
places to fatten swine.

Time.] It bloometh in the end of April, or beginning of May,
for the most part, and the fruit is ripe in September.

Government and Virtues.] It is a plant of Saturn, and there-
fore performs his qualities and proportion in these operations.
The leaves of the beech-tree are cooling and binding, and there-
fore good to be applied to hot swellings to discuss them ; the
nuts do much nourish such beasts as feed thereon. The water
that is found in the hollow places of decaying beeches will cure
both man and beast of any scurf, scab, or running tetters, if
they be washed therewith ; you may boil the leaves into a poul-
tice, or make an ointment of them when time of year serves.

BILBERRIES, called by some WHORTS, and
WHORTLE BERRIES.

Descript . ] Of these I shall only speak of two sorts which
are common in England, viz. The black and red berries. And
first of the black.

The small bush creepeth along upon the ground, scarce rising
half a yard high, with divers small dark green leaves set in the
green branches, not always one against the other, and a little
dented about the edges ; At the foot of the leaves come forth
small, hollow, pale, blueish coloured flowers, the brims ending
in five points, with a reddish thread in the middle, which pass
into small round berries of the bigness and colour of juniper
berries, but of a purple, sweetish sharp taste ; the juice of them
giveth a purplish colour to the hands and lips that eat and handle
them, especially if they break them. The root groweth aslope
under ground, shooting forth in sundry places as it creepeth.
This losetli its leaves in winter.

The red bilberry, or whortle-bush, riseth up like the former.

The English Physician Enlarged. 43

having sundry hard leaves, like the box-tree leaves, green and
round pointed, standing on the several branches, at the top
whereof only, and not from the sides, as in the former, come
forth divers round, recfclish, sappy berries, when they are ripe,
of a sharp taste. The root runneth in the ground, as in the
former, but the leaves of this abide all the winter.

Place .] The first groweth in forests, on the heatjp, and such
like barren places : the red grows in the north parts of this land,
as Lancashire, Yorkshire, &c.

Time.] They flower in March and April, and the fruit of the
black is ripe in July and August.

Government and Virtues.] They are under the dominion of
Jupiter. It is a pity they are used no more in physic than they
are. The black bilberries are good in hot agues and to cool the
heat of the liver and stomach ; they do somewhat bind the belly,
and stay vomitings and loathings ; the juice of the berries made
in a syrup, or the pulp made into a conserve with sugar, is good
for the purposes aforesaid, as also for an old cough, or an ulcer
in the lungs, or other diseases therein. The red worts are more
binding, and stop women’s courses, spitting of blood, or any
other flux of blood or humours, being used as well outwardly a*
inwardly.

BIFOIL, OR TWABLADE.

Descript.] This small herb, from a root somewhat sweet
shooting downward many long strings, riseth up a round green
stalk, bare or naked, next the ground for an inch, two or three
to the middle thereof as it is in age or growth ; as also from the
middle upward to the flowers, having only two broad plantain-
like leaves (but whiter) set at the middle of the stalk one against
another, compasseth it round at the bottom of them.

Place.] It is an usual inhabitant in woods, copses, and in
many other places in this land.

There is another sort groweth in wet grounds and marshes,
which is somewhat different from the former. It is a smaller

44

The English Physician Enlarged.

plant, and greener, having sometimes three leaves : the spike of
the flowers is less than the former, and the roots of this do run
or creep in the ground.

They are much and often used by many to good purpose for
wounds, both green and old, to consolidate or knit ruptures ;
and well it may, being a plant of Saturn.

•

THE BIRCH TREE.

Descript .] This groweth a goodly tall straight, tree, fraught
with many boughs, and slender branches bending downward :
the old being coloured with discoloured chapped bark, and the
younger being browner by much. The leaves at the first break-
ing out are crumpled, and afterw ards like the beech leaves, but
smaller and greener, and dented about the edges. It beareth
small short cat-skins, somew hat like those of the harel-nut-tree,
which abide oil the branches a long time, until growing ripe,
.they fall on the ground, and their seed with them.

Place.} It usually grow r eth in w'oods.

Government and Virtues .] It is a tree of Venus, the juice of
the leaves, w hile they are young’ or the distilled w ater of them,
or the water that comes from the tree being bored with an auger,
and distilled afterwards ; any of these being drank for some days
together, is available to break the stone in the kidneys and
bhidder, and is good also to wash sore mouths.

^1

BIRD’S FOOT.

m ’

HIS small herb grow eth not above a span high, with many
branches spread upon the ground, set witli many w ings of small
leaves. The flowers grow upon the branches, many small ones
of a pale yellow colour being set a-head together, which after-
wards turneth into small jointed cods, well resembling the claw r s
of small birds, whence it took its name.

There is anothet sort of bird’s foot in all things like the for-
mer, but a larger; the flow-er of a pale whitish red colour, and

The. English Physician Enlarged.

45

the cods distinct by joints like the other, but a little more crook-
ed ; and the roots do carry many small white knots or kernels
amongst the strings.

Place.] These grow on heaths, and many open untilled places
of this land.

Time.] They flower and seed in the end of summer.

Government and Virtues.] They belong to Saturn, and are of
a drying, binding quality, and therefore very good to be used
in wound drinks ; as also to apply outwardly for the same pur-
pose. But the latter bird’s-foot is found by experience to break
the stone in the back or kidneys, and drives them forth, if the
decoction thereof be taken ; and it wonderfully helpeth the rup-
ture, being taken inwardly, and outwardly applied to the
place.

All salts have best operations upon the stone, as ointments
and plaisters have upon wounds : and therefore you may make
a salt of this for the stone ; the way how to do so may be found
in my translation of the London Dispensatory ; and it may be
I may give you it again in plainer terms at the latter end of this
book.

BISHOP’S- WEED.

Besides the common name bishops-weed, it is usually
known by the Greek name Ammi and Ammois ; some call it
^Ethiopian cummin-seed, and others cummin-royal, as also herb-
william, and bull-wort.

Descript.] Common bishops-weed riseth up with a round
straight stalk, sometimes as high as a man, but usually three or
four feet high, beset with divers small, long and somewhat broad
leaves, cut in some places, and deuted about the edges, growing
one against another, of a dark green colour, having sundry
branches on them, and at the top small umbels of white flow-
ers, which turn into small round seeds, little bigger than pars-
ley seeds, of a quick hot scent and taste; the root is white

46 The English Physician Enlarged.

and stringy ; perishing yearly, and usually riseth again on its own
sowing.

Place.'] It groweth wild in many places of England and
Wales, as between Greenliithe and Gravesend.

Government and Virtues.] It is hot and dry in the third de-
gree, of a bitter taste, and somew hat sharp withal ; it provokes
lust to purpose ; I suppose Venus owns it. It digesteth humours,
provoketh urine and women’s courses, dissolveth w'ind, and be-
ing taken in wine it easetli pain and griping in the bowels, and
is good against the biting of serpents ; it is used to good effect
in those medicines which are given to hinder the poisonous opera-
tion of cantharides upon the passage of the urine : being mixed
"'ith honey and applied to black and blue marks, coming of
blows or bruises, it takes them away ; and being drank or out-
wardly applied, it abateth an high colour, and makes it pale ;
and the fumes thereof taken with rosin or raisins, cleanseth the
mother.

BISTORT, OR SNAKEWEED.

It is called snakeweed, English serpentary, dragon-wort, oste-
rick, and passions.

Descript.] This hath a thick short knobbed root, blackish
without, and somewhat reddish within, a little crooked or turned
together, of a hard astringent taste, with divers black threads
hanging there, from whence spring up every year divers leaves,
standing upon long footstalks, being somewhat broad and long
like a dock leaf, and a little pointed at the ends, but that it
is of a blueish green colour on the upper side, and of an ash-co-
lour grey, and a little purplish underneath, with divers veins
therein, from among which rise up divers small and slender stalks,
two feet high, and almost naked and without leaves, or with a
very few', and narrow', bearing a spikey bush of pale coloured
flowers, which being past, there abideth small seed, like unto
sorrel seed, but greater.

There are other sorts of bistort growing in this land, but
smaller, both in height, root, and stalks, and especially in the

The English Physician Enlarged. 47

leaves. The root blackish without, and somewhat whitish with-
in; of an austere binding taste, as the former.

Placed] They grow in shadowy moist woods, and at the foot
of hills, but are chiefly nourished up in gardens. The narrow-
leaved bistort groweth in the north, in Lancashire, Yorkshire,
and Cumberland.

Time.] They flower about the end of May, and the seed is
ripe about the beginning of July.

Government and Virtues .] It belongs to Saturn, and is in
operation cold and dry ; both the leaves and roots have a power-
ful faculty to resist all poison. The root in powder taken in
drink expelleth the venom of the plague, the small pox, measles,
purples, or any other infectious disease, driving it out by sweat-
ing. The root in powder, the decoction thereof in wine being
drank stayeth all manner of inward bleeding, or spitting of blood,
and any fluxes in the body of either man or woman, or vomiting.
It is also very availing against ruptures, or burstings, or all
bruises of falls, dissolving the congealed blood, and easing the
pains that happen thereupon; it also helpeth the jaundice.

The water distilled from both leaves and roots, is a singular
remedy to wash any place bitten or stung by any venomous crea-
ture ; as also for any of the purposes before spoken of, and is
very good to wash any running sores or ulcer. The decoction
of the root in w ine being drank, hindereth abortion or miscar-
riage in child-bearing. The leaves also kill the worms in chil-
dren, and is a great help to them that cannot keep their water;
if the juice of plantain be added thereto, and outwardly applied
much helpeth the gonorrhea, or running of the reins. A dram
of the pow der of the root taken in water thereof, w herein some
red hot iron or steel hath been quenched, is also an admirable
help thereto, so as the body be first prepared and pnrged from
the offensive humours. The leaves, seed, or roots are all very
good in decoctions, drinks, or lotions, for inward or outward
wounds, or other sores. And the powders strewed upon any cut
or wound in a vein, stayeth the immoderate bleeding thereof.
The decoction of the root in water, whereunto some pomegran-

48 The English Physician Enlarged.

ate peels and flowers are added, injected m to the matrix, stayeth
the immoderate flnx of the courses. The root thereof with
pelitory of Spain, and burnt allum, of each a little quantity,
beaten small and made into paste, with some honey, and a little
piece thereof put into a hollow tooth, or held between the teeth,
if there be no hollowness in them, stayeth the deduction of
rheum upon them which causeth pains, and helps to cleanse the
head, and void much offensive water. The distilled water is
very effectual to wash sores or cankers in the nose, or any other
parts : if the powder of the root be applied thereunto afterw ards.
It is good also to fasten the gums and to take away the heat
and inflammations that happen in the jaws, almonds or the throat,
or mouth, if the decoction of the leaves, roots, or seeds bruised,
or the j uice of them be applied ; but the roots are most effectual
to the purposes aforesaid.

ONE BLADE.

Descript . ] ^ B ^1 IIS small plant never beareth any more than

one leaf, but only when it riseth up with its stalk, which there-
on beareth another, and seldom more, which are of a blueish
green colour, broad at the bottom, and pointed with many ribs
or veins like plantain ; at the top of the stalk grow many
small flowers star-fashion, smelling somewhat sweet; after
which cometh small reddish berries when they are ripe ; the
root small, of the bigness of a rush, lying and creeping un-
der the upper crust of the earth, shooting forth in divers
places.

Place.] It glow's in moist, shadowy, grassy places of woods,
in many places of this realm.

Time.] It flowereth about May, and the berries be ripe in
June, and then qnickly perislieth, until the next year it springeth
from the same again.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herh of the Sun, and
therefore cordial : half a dram or a dram at most, of the roots
hereof in pow der, taken in wine and vinegar, of each a like quanti-

The English Physician Enlarged.

4>J

ty, and the party presently laid to sweat, is held to be a sov-
ereign remedy for those that are infected with the plague, and
have a sore upon them, by expelling the poison, and defending
the heart and spirits'from danger. It is also accounted a sin-
gular good wound herb,, and therefore used with other herbs in
making such balms as are necessary for curing of wounds, either
green or old, and especially if the nerves be hurt.

THE BRAMBLE, OR BLACKBERRY BUSH.

It is so well known that it needeth no description. The vir-
tues thereof are as followeth :

Government and Virtues .] It is a plant of Venus in Aries,
You shall have some directions at the latter end of the book for
the gathering of all herbs and plants, &c. If any ask the reason
why Venus is so prickly] Tell them it is because she is in the
house of Mars. The buds, leaves, and branches, while they
are green, are of a good use in the ulcers and putrid sores of the
mouth and throat, and of the quiusev, and likewise to heal
other fresh w ounds and sores ; but the flowers and fruits unripe
are very binding, and so profitable for the blody flux, lasks,
and a fit remedy for spitting of blood. Either the decoctiou
of the powder or of the root taken, is good to break or drive
forth gravel and the stone in the reins and kidneys. The leaves
and brambles, as well green as dry, are excellent good lotions
for sores in the mouth or secret parts. The decoction of them,
and of the dried branches, do much bind the belly, and are
good for too much flow ing of women’s courses ; the berries of
the flow ers are a powerful remedy against the poison of the most
venomous serpents ; as well drank as outw ardly applied, helpeth
the sores of the fundament and the piles; the juice of the ber-
ries mixed with the juice ofmulberries, do bind more effectually,
and help all fretting and eating sores and ulcers whatsoever.
The distilled water of the branches, leaves, and flowers, or of
the fruit is very pleasant in taste, and very effectual in fevers
and hot distempers ot the body, head, eyes, and other parts,

G

50 The English Physician Enlarged.

and for the purposes aforesaid. The leaves boiled in lee, and
the head washed therewith, healeth the itch and the running
sores thereof, and maketh the hair black. The powder of the
leaves-strewed on cankers and running ulcers, wonderfully help,
to heal them. Some use to condensate the juice of the leaves
and some the juice of the berries, to keep for their use all the
year, for the purposes aforesaid.

BLITES.

Discript . ](^)f these there are two sorts commonly known,
viz. white and red. The white hath leaves somewhat like unto
beets, but smaller, rounder, and of a whitish green colour, every
one standing upon a small long footstalk ; the stalk riseth up
two or three feet high, with such like leaves thereon ; the flow-
ers grow at the top in long round tufts or clusters, wherein are
contained small and round seed ; the root is very full of threads
or strings.

The red blite is in all things like the white, but that its leaves
and tufted heads are exceeding red at first, and after turn more
purplish.

There are other kinds of blites which grow different from the
two former sorts but little, but only the wild are smaller in eve-
ry part.

Place.] They grow in gardens, and wild in many places in
this land.

Time.] They seed in August and September.

Government and Virtues.] They are all of them cooling, dry-
ing and binding, serving to restrain the fluxes of blood in either
man or woman, especially the red ; which also stayeth the over-
flowing of woman’s reds, as the white blites stayeth the whites
in woman ; it is an excellent secret ; you cannot well fail in tire
use ; they are all under the dominion of Venus.

There is another sort of wild blites like the other wild kinds,
but have long and spikey heads of greenish seeds seeming by
the thick setting together to be all seed.

51

The English Physician Enlarged.

^ — — — aiaai

This sort fishes are delighted with, and it is a good and usual
bait ; for fishes will bite fast enough at them, if you have wit
enough to catch them when they bite.

BORAGE AND BUGLOSS.

These are so well known to the inhabitants of every garden,
that I hold it needless to describe them.

To these I may add a third sort, which is not so common,
nor yet so well known, and therefore I shall give you its name
and description.

It is called langue de benf ; but why then should they call
one herb by the name of bugloss, and another by the name langue
de bcvf? It is some question to me, seeing one signifies ox-tongue
in Greek, and the other signifies the same in French.

Descript.] The leaves thereof are smaller than those of Bug-
loss, but much rougher ; the stalks arising up about a foot and
a half high, and is most commonly of a red colour ; the flowers
stand in scaly rough heads, being composed of many small yel-
low flowers, not much unlike to those of dandelions, and the seed
flieth away in down as that doth ; you may easily know the flow-
ers by their taste, for they are very bitter.

Place.] It groweth wild in many places of this land, and may
be plentifully found near London as between Rotherhithe and
Deptford, by the ditch side. Its virtues are held to be the same
with borage and bugloss, only this is somewhat hotter.

Time.] They flower in June and July, and the seed is ripe
shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] They are all three herbs of Jupiter,
and under Leo, all great cordials, and great strengtheners of na-
ture. The leaves and roots are to very good purpose used in pu-
trid and pestilential fevers, to defend the heart, and help to resist
and expel the poison or the venom of other creatures ; the seed
is of the like effects ; and the seed and leaves are good to encrease
milk in womens breasts ; the leaves, flowers, and seed, all or
any of them, are good to expell pensiveness and melancholy ; it

52 The English Physician Enlarged.

helpeth to clarify the blood, and mitigate heat in fevers. The
juice made into a syrup prevaileth much to all the purposes
aforesaid, and is put with other cooling, opening and cleansing
herbs to open obstructions and help the yellow jaundice, and
mixed with fumitory, to cool, cleanse, and temper the blood
thereby ; it helpeth the itch, ring-worms and tetters, or other
spreading scabs or sores. The flowers candied or made into a
conserve, are helpful in the former cases, but are cheifly used as
a cordial, and are good for those that are weak in long sickness,
and to comfort the heart and spirits of those that are in a con-
sumption or troubled with often swoonings, or passions of the
heart. The distilled water is no less effectual to all the purposes
aforesaid, and helpeth the redness and inflamations of the eyes
being washed therewith ; the herb dried is never used, but the
green ; yet the ashes thereof boiled in mead, or honeyed water, is
available against the inflammations and ulcers in the mouth or
throat to gargle it therewith; the roots of bugloss are effectual,
being made into a licking electuary for the cough, and to con-
densate thick phlem, and the rheumatic distillations upon the
lungs.

BLUE-BOTTLE.

T T is called Cyanus, I suppose from the colour of it: Hurt-
sickle, because it turns the edge of the sickles that reap the corn ;
Blue-blow, corn-flower, and blue-bottle.

Descript.] I shall only describe that which is commonest and
in my opinion most useful ; its leaves spread upon the ground,
being of a whitish green colour, somewhat on the edges like
those of corn scabious, amongst which ariseth up a stalk divided
into divers branches, beset with long leaves of a greenish colour,
either but very little indented, or not at all ; the flowers are of a
blue colour, whence it took its name, consisting of an innumer-
able company of small flowers set in a scaly head not much un-
like those of knap-weed ; the seed is smooth, is bright, and shin-
ing, wrapped up in a wooly mantle; the root perisheth every
year.

53

The English Physician Enlarged.

^ nggama — ju iiz—BaaMg

Place .] They grow in corn fields, amongst all sorts of corn
(pease, beans, and tares excepted.) If you please to take them
yp from thence and transplant them in your garden, especially
towards the full of the moon, they will grow more double than
they are, and many times change colour.

Time.] They flow er from the beginning of May to the end of
harvest.

Government and Virtues .] As they are naturally cold, dry,
and binding, so they are under the dominion of Saturn. The
powder or dried leaves of the b4ie-bottle, or corn-flower, is
given with good success to those that are bruised by a fall, or
have broken a vein inwardly, and void much blood at the mouth ;
being taken in the water of plantain, horse tail, or the greater
comfrey, it is a remedy against the poison of the scorpion, and
resisteth all venoms and poison. The seed or leaves taken in
wine, is very good against the plague, and all infectious diseases,
and is very good in pestilential fevers. The juice put into fresh
or green wounds, doth quickly solder up the lips of them toge-
ther, and is very effectual to heal all ulcers and sores in the
mouth. The juice dropped into the eyes takes away the heat
and inflammation of them. The distilled water of this herb,
hath the same properties, and may be used for the effects afore-
said.

BRANK URSINE.

Beside the common name brank-ursine, it is also called
bears-breech, and acanthus, though I think our English names
to be more proper ; For the Greek word acanthus, signifies any
thistle whatsoever.

Descript.] This thistle shooteth forth very many large, thick,
and green smooth leaves upon the ground, with a very thick and
juicy middle rib ; the leaves are parted with sundry deep gashes
on the edges ; the leaves remain a long time before any stalk
appears, afterwards a reasonable big stalk, three or four feet
high, and bravely decked with flowers from the middle of the

The English Physician Enlarged.

stalk upwards ; for on the lower part of the stalk, there is nei-
ther branches nor leaf. The flowers are hooded and gaping,
being white in colour, and standing in brownish husks, with a
long small undivided leaf under each leaf ; they seldom seed in
our country. Its roots are many, great and thick, blackish with-
out and whitish within, full of a clammy sap ; a piece of them
if you see it in the garden, and defend it from the first winter
cold, will grow and flourish.

Place.] They are only nursed up in the gardens in England,
where they will grow very well.

Time.] It flowereth in June and July.

Government and Virtues.] It is an excellent plant under the
dominion of the Moon : I could wish such as are studious
would labour to keep it in their gardens. The leaves being boil-
ed and used in glisters, is excellent good to mollify the belly, and
make the passage slippery. The decoction drank inwardly, is
excellent and good for the bloody flux. The leaves being bruis-
ed, or rather boiled, and applied like a poultice, are excellent
good to unite broken bones and strengthen joints that have been
put out. The decoction of either leaves or roots being drank
and the decoction of leaves applied to the place, is excellent
good for the king’s evil that is broken and runneth ; for by the
influence of the Moon, it reviveth the ends of the veins which
are relaxed ; there is scarce a better remedy to be applied to such
places as are burnt with fire than this is, for it fetches out the
fire and heals it without a scar. This is an excellent remedy for
such as are busrten, being either taken inwardly, or applied to
the place. In like manner used, it helps the cramp and the
gout. It is excellent good in hectic fevers, and restores radical
moisture to such as are in consumptions.

BRIONY, OR WILD VINE.

It is called wild, and wood vine, tamus, or ladies’ seal. The
white is called white vine by some ; and the black, black vine.

Descript.] The common white briony groweth ramping upon

The English Physician Enlarged.

55

the hedges, sending forth many long, rough, very tender branch-
es at the beginning, with many very rough, and broad leaves
thereon, cut (for the most part) into five partitions, in form like
a vine leaf, but smaller, rough, and of a whitish hoary green co-
lour, spreading very far and twining with his small claspers (that
come forth at the joints with the leaves) very far on whatsoever
standeth next to it. At the several joints also (especially to-
wards the top of the branches) cometh forth a long stalk bearing
many whitish flowers together on a long tuft, consisting of five
small leaves a-piece, laid open like a star, after which come the
berries separated one from another, more than a cluster of
grapes, green at the first, and very red when they are thorough
ripe of no good scent, but of a most loathsome taste, provoking
vomit. The root groweth to be exceeding great, with m^ny long
twines or branches going from it, of a pale whitish colour on
the outside, and more white within, and of a sharp bitter, loath-
some taste.

Place.] It groweth on banks, or under edges through this
land ; the roots lie very deep.

Time.] It flowereth in July and August, some earlier and
some later than the other.

Government and Virtues.] They are furious Martial plants.
The root of briony purges the belly with great violence, troubling
the stomach and burning the liver, and therefore not rashly to
be taken ; but being corrected, is very profitable for the diseases
of the head, as falling sickness, giddiness and swimmings, by
drawing away much phlegm and rheumatic humours that oppress
the head, as also the joints and sinews, and is therefore good
for palsies, convulsions, cramps, and stiches in the sides, and
the dropsy, and in provoking urine; it cleanseth the reins
and kidneys from gravel and stone by opening the obstructions
of the spleen, and consumeth the hardness and swelling thereof.
The decoction of the root in wine, drank once a week at going
to bed, cleanseth the mother, and hclpeth the rising thereof, ex-
pelleth the dead child, a dram of the root in powder taken in
white wine, bringeth down the courses. An electuary made of

56 The English Physician Enlarged.

the roots and honey, doth mightily cleanse the chest and rotten
phlegm, and wonderfully helpeth any old strong cough, to those
that are troubled with shortness of breath, and is very good for
them that are bruised inwardly, to help to expel the clotted or
congealed blood. The leaves, fruit and root to cleanse old and
filthy sores, are good against all fretting and running cankers,
gangrenes, and tetters, and therefore the berries are by some
country people called tetter-berries. The root cleanseth the
skin wonderfully from all black and blue spots, freckles, mor-
phew, leprosy, foul scars, or other deformity whatsoever ; also
all running scabs and manginess are healed by the powder of
the dried root, or the juice thereof, but especially by the fine
white hardened juice. The distilled water of the root work-
eth the pame effects, but more weakly ; the root bruised and ap-
plied of itself to any place where the bones are broken, helpeth
to draw them forth, as also splinters and thorns in the flesh ;
and being applied with a little wine mixed therewith, it breaketh
boils arfd helpeth whitlows on the joints. For all these latter,
beginning at sores, cankers, &c, apply it outwardly, and take
my advice in my translation of the London Dispensatory, among
the preparations at the latter end, where you have a medicine
called Fcecula Brionia, which take and use, mixing it with a
little hog’s grease, or other convenient ointment.

As for the former diseases where it must be taken inwardly,
it purgeth very violently, and needs an abler hand to correct it
than most country people have ; thereof it is a better way for
them in my opinion to let the simple alone, and take the com-
pound water of it mentioned in my Dispensatory, and that is far
more safe, being wisely corrected.

BROOK LIME, OR WATER-PIMPERNAL.

Descript. ] ThIS sendeth forth from a creeping root that
shooteth forth strings at every joint, as it runneth, divers and
sundry green stalks, round and sappy, with some branches on

The English Physician Enlarged. 57

them somewhat broad, round, deep green, and thick leaves set
by couples thereon ; from the bottom whereof shoot forth long
foot-stalks, with sundry small blue flowers on them, that consist
of five small round pointed leaves a-piece.

There is another sort nothing differing from the former, but
that it is greater, and the flowers of a paler green colour.

Place.] They grow in small standing waters, and usually
near water cresses.

Time.] And flowereth in June and July, giving seed the next
month after.

Government and Virtues.] It is a hot and biting- Martial plant.
Brook-lime and water-cresses are generally used together in
diet-drink, with other things serving to purge the blood and body
from all ill humours that would destroy health, and are helpful
to the scurvey. they do all provoke urine, and help to break
the stone, and pass it away ; they procure women’s courses, and
expel the dead child. Being fried with butter and vinegar, and
applied warm, it helpeth all manners of tumours, swellings, and
inflammations.

Such drinks ought to be made of sundry herbs, according to
the malady. I shall give a plain and easy rule at the latter end
of this book.

BUTCHERS’ BROOM.

It is called ruscus, and bruscus, kneeholm, kneeholy, knee-
hulver, and pettigree.

Descript.] The first shoots that sprout from the root of butch-
ers’ broom, are thick, whitish and short, somewhat like those of
asparagus, but greater, they rising up to be a foot and a half high,
are spread into divers branches, green, and somewhat cressed
with the roundness, tough and flexible, whereon are set some-
what broad and almost round hard leaves, and prickly, pointed
at the end, of a dark green colour, two for the most part set at
a place, very close and near together ; about the middle of the
leaf, on the back and lower side from the middle rib, breaketli

58 The English Physician Enlarged.

forth a small whitish green flower, consisting of four small round
pointed, leaves, standing upon little or no foot-stalk, and in the
place whereof cometh a small berry, green at first, and red
when it is ripe, wherein are two or three white, hard, round
seeds contained. The root is thick, white, and great at the head,
and from thence sendeth forth divers thick, white, long tough
strings.

Place.) It groweth in copses, and upon heaths and waste
grounds, and oftentimes under or near the holly bushes.

Time.) It shooteth forth its young buds in the spring, and the
berries are ripe about September, the branches of leaves abiding
green all the winter.

Government and Virtues.) It is a plant of Mars, being of a
gallant cleansing and opening quality. The decoction of the root
made with wine openeth obstructions, provoketh urine, helps
to expel gravel and the stone, the strangury and women’s cours-
es, also the yellow jaundice and the head-ach : And w'ith some
honey or sugar put thereunto, cleanseth the breast of phelgra,
and the chest of clammy humours gathered therein. The de-
coction of the root drank, and a poultice made of the berries
and leaves being applied, are effectual in knitting and consolida-
ting broken bones or parts out of joint. The common w ay of
using it, is to boil the root of it, and parsley and fennel and
smallage in white wine, and drink the decoction, adding the like
quantity of grass-root to them : The more of the root you boil
the stronger will the decoction be ; it works no ill effects, yet I
hope you have w it enough to give the strongest decoction to the
strongest bodies.

BROOM, AND BROOM-RAPE.

To spend time in w riting a description hereof is altogether
needless, it being so generally used by all the good house-wives
almost through this land to sweep their houses with, and there-
fore very well known to all sorts of people.

The broom-rape springeth up on many places from the roots

The English Physician Enlarged.

58

of the broom (but more often in fields, as by hedge-sides and on
heaths.) The stalk whereof is of the bigness of a finger or
thumb, above two feet high, having a shew of leaves on them,
and many flowers at the top, of a reddish yellow colour, as also
the stalks and leaves are.

Place.] They grow in many places of this land commonly,
and as commonly spoil all the land they grow in.

Time.] And flower in the summer months, and give their seed
before winter.

Government and Virtues.] The juice or decoction of the young
branches or seed, or the powder of the seed taken in drink, purg-
eth downwards, and draweth phlegmatic and watery humours
from the joints, whereby it helpeth the dropsy, gout, sciatica,
and pains of the hips and joints ; it also provoketh strong vomits,
and helpeth the pains of the sides, and swelling of the spleen,
cleanseth also the reins or kidneys and bladder of the stone,
provoketh urine abundantly, and hindereth the growing again of
the stone in the body. The continual use of the powder of the
leaves and seed doth cure the black jaundice. The distilled
water of the flowers is profitable for all the same purposes : it
also helpeth surfeits, and altereth the fits of agues, if three or
four ounces thereof, with as much of the water of the lesser cen-
taury, and a little sugar put therein, be taken a little before the
fit cometh, and the party be laid down to sweat in his bed. The
oil or water that is drawn from the end of the green sticks heat-
ed in the fire, helpeth the tooth-ach. The juice of young
branches made into an ointment of old hog’s grease, and anoint-
ed, or the young branches bruised and heated in oil or hog’s
grease, and laid to the sides pained by wind, as in stitches, or the
spleen, easeth them in once or twice using it. The same boiled
in oil is the safest and surest medicine to kill lice in the head or
body of any ; and is an especial remedy for joint aches, and
swollen knees, that come by the falling down of humours.

60

The English Physician Enlarged.

Th Broom Rape also is not without its Virtues.

The dw oction thereof in wine, is thought to be as effectual
to void the stone in the kidneys and bladder, and to provoke
urine, as the broom itself. The juice thereof is a singular good
help to cure as well green wounds, as old and filthy sores and
malignant ulcers. The insolate oil, wherein there hath been
three or four repetitions of infusion of the top stalks, with flow-
ers strained and declared, cleanseth the skin from all manner of
spots, marks, freckles that rise either by the heat of the sun, or
the malignity of humours. As for the broom and broom-rape,
Mars owns them, and is exceedingly prejudicial to the liver;
I suppose by reason of antipathy between Jupiter and Mars,
therefore if the liver be disaffected, minister none of it.

BUCK’S-HORN PLANTAIN.

'Descript .] This being sown of seed, riseth up at first with
small, long, narrow, hairy dark green leaves like grass, without
any divisionor gash in them, but those that follow are gashed in
on both sides the leaves into three or four gashes, and pointed
at the ends, resembling the knags of a bnck’s horn, (whereof it
took its name) and being well ground round about the root upon
the ground, in order one by another, thereby resembling the
form of a star, from among which rise up divers hairy stalks
about a hand’s breadth high, bearing every one a long small,
spikey head, like to those of the common plantain, having such
like bloomings and seed after them. The root is single, long,
and small, with divers strings at it.

Place.] They grow in sandy grounds, as inTothillfields by
Westminster, and divers other places of this land.

Time.] They flower and seed in May, June, and July, and
their green leaves do in a manner abide fresh all the winter.

Governme?it and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Saturn,
and it of a gallant drying and binding quality. This boiled in

The English Physician Enlarged. 61

wine and drank, and some of the leaves put to the hurt place, is
an excellent remedy for the biting of the viper or adder, which I
take to be one and the same : The same being also drank, help-
e.th those that are troubled with the stone in the reins or kidneys,
by cooling the heat of the parts afflicted, and strengthening
them ; also weak stomachs that cannot retain, but cast up their
meat. It stayeth all bleeding both at mouth and nose ; bloody
urine, or the bloody flux, and stoppeth the lask of the belly and
bowels. The leaves hereof bruised and laid to their sides that
have an ague, suddenly easeth the fit : and the leaves and roots
being beaten with some bay-salt and applied to the wrists, work-
eth the same effects. The herb boiled in ale or wine, and given
for some mornings and evenings together, stayeth the distillation
of hot and sharp rheums falling into the eyes from the head, and
helpeth all sorts of sore eyes.

BUCK’S HORN.

It is ealled hart’s-horn, herba-stella, and herba-stellaria, san-
guinaria, herb-eve, herb-ivy, wort-cresses, and swine-cresses.

Descript .] They have many small and weak straggling bran-
ches trailing here and there upon the ground ; the leaves are
many, small and jagged, not much unlike to those of buck’s
horn plantain, but much smaller, and not so hairy. The flowers
grow among the leaves in small, rough, whitish clusters : The
seeds are smaller and brownish, of a bitter taste.

Place.] They grow in dry, barren, sandy grounds.

Time.] They flower and seed when the rest of the plan-
tains do.

Government and Virtues.] This is also under the dominion
of Saturn ; the virtues are held to be the same as buck’s horn
plantain, and therefore by all authors it is joined with it : The
leaves bruised and applied to the place, stop bleeding : the
herbs bruised and applied to warts, will make them consume
and waste away in a short time.

The English Physician Enlarged.

BUGLE.

J3eSIDES the name bugle, it is called middle confound and
middle comfrey, brown bugle, and by some sicklewort, and
herb-carpenter; though in Essex we call another herb by that
name.

Descript.] This hath larger leaves than those of the self heal,
but else of the same fashion, or rather longer, in some green on
the upper side, and in others more brownish, dented about the
edges, somewhat hairy, as the square stalk is also which riseth
up to be half a yard high sometimes, with the leaves set by cou-
ples, from the middle almost whereof upwards stand the flowers,
together with many smaller and browner leaves than the rest,
on the stalk below, set at a distance, and the stalk bare between
them : among which flowers are also small ones of a blueish and
sometimes of an ash-colour, fashioned like the flowers of ground-
ivy, after which come small, round, blackish seeds. The root is
composed of many strings, and spreadeth upon the ground.

The white flowered bugle differeth not in form or greatness
from the former, saving that the leaves and stalks are always
green, and never brown, like the other, and the flowers thereof
are white.

Place.] They grow in woods, copses, and fields, generally
throughout England, but the white flowered bugle is not so
plentiful as the former.

Time.] They flower from May until July, and in the mean time
perfect their seed. The roots and leaves next thereunto upon
the ground abiding all the winter.

Government and Virtues.] This herb belongeth to dame Ve-
nus : If the virtues of it make you fall in love with it (as they will
if you be wise) keep a syrup of it to take inwardly, and an oint-
ment and plaister of it to use outwardly, always by you.

The decoction of the leaves and flowers made in wine, and
taken, dissolves the congealed blood in those that are bruised in-
wardly by a fall, or otherwise is very effectual for any inward
wounds, thrusts or stabs in the body or bowels ; and is an espe-

The English Physician Enlarged.

63

cial help in all wound drinks, and for those that are livergrown
(as they call it.) It is wonderful in curing all manner of ulcers
and sores, whether new and fresh, or old and inveterate ; yea
gangrenes and fistulas also, if the leaves bruised and applied, or
their juice be used to wash and bathe the place, and the same
made into a lotion, and some honey and allum, cureth all sores
in the mouth and gums, be they never so foul, or of long contin-
uance ; and worketh no less powerfully and effectually for such
ulcers and sores as happen in the secret parts of men and wo-
men. Being also taken inwardly, or outwardly applied, it helpeth
those that have broken any bone, or have any member out of
joint. An ointment made with the leaves of bugle, scabious and
sanicle bruised and boiled in hog’s grease, until the herbs be dry,
and then strained forth into a pot for such occasions as shall re-
quire ; it is so singularly good for all sorts of hurts in the body,
that none that know its usefulness will be without it.

The truth is, I have known this herb cure some diseases of
Saturn, of which I thought good to quote one. Many times such
as give themselves much to drinking, are troubled with strange
fancies, strange sights in the night time, and some with voices,
as also with the disease ephialtes, or the mare. I take the reason
of this to be (according to Fernelius) a melancholy vapour made
thin by excessive drinking strong liquor, and so flies up and dis-
turbs the fancy, and breeds immaginations like itself, viz. fearful
and troublesome. These I have known cured by taking only two
spoonsful of the syrup of this herb, after supper two hours, when
you go to bed. But whether this does it by sympathy or antipa-
thy, is some doubt in astrology. I know there is a great antipa-
thy between Saturn and Venus in matter of procreation: yea,
such a one, that the barrenness of Saturn can be removed by
none but Venus ; nor the lust of Venus be repelled by none but
Saturn ; but I am not of opinion this is done this way, and my
reason is, because these vapours, though in quality melancholy,
yet by their flying upward, seem to be something aerial ; there-
fore I rather think it is done by sympathy ; Saturn being exalt-
ed in Libra, in the house of Venus.

64 The English Physician Enlarged.

BURNET.

Xt is called sanguisorbia, pimpinella, bipulo, solbegrella, &c.
The common garden burnet is so well known that it needeth no
description. — There is another sort which is wild, the descrip-
tion whereof take as followeth.

Descript . ] The great wild burnet hath winged leaves rising
from the roots like the garden burnet, but not so many ; yet each
of these leaves are at the least twice as large as the other, and
nicked in the same manner about the edges, of a greyish colour
on the under side; the stalks are greater, and rise higher, with
many such like leaves set thereon, and greater heads at the top,
of a brownish colour, and out of them come small dark purple
flowers, like the former, but greater. The root is black arid
long like the other, but great also ; it hath almost neither scent
nor taste therein, like the garden kind.

Place.] The first grows frequently in gardens! The wild
kind groweth in divers counties of this island, especially in
Huntingdon, in Northamptonshire, in the meadows there : as al-
so near London, by Pancras church, and by a causeway-side in
the middle of a field by Paddington.

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

Government and Virtues.] This is an herb the sun challeng-
ed dominion over, and is a most precious herb, little inferior
to betony ; the continual use of it preserves the body in health,
and the spirit in vigour ; for if the sun be the preserver of life
under God, his herbs are the best in the world to do it by. They
are accounted to be both of one property, but the lesser is more
effectual because quicker and more aromatical : It is a friend to
the heart, liver, and other principal parts of a man’s body. Two
or three of the stalks, with leaves put into a cup ot wine, espe-
cially claret, are known to quicken the spirits, refresh and
clear the heart, and drive away melancholy : It is a special help
to defend the heart from noisome vapours, and from infection ot

The English Physician Enlarged.

65

tfte pestilence, the juice thereof being taken in some drink, and
the party laid to sweat thereupon. They have also a drying and
an astringent quality whereby they are available in all manner
of fluxes of blood or humours, to staunch bleedings inward or
outward, lasks, scourings, the bloody-flux, women's too abun-
dant flux or courses, the whites, and the choleric belchings and
castings of the stomach, and is a singular wound herb for all
sorts of wounds, both of the head and body, either inward or
outward, for all old ulcers, running cankers, and most sores, to
be used either by the juice or decoction of the herb, or by the
powder of the herb or root, or the water of the distilled herb
or ointment by itself, or with other things to be kept. The seed
is also no less efiectual both to stop fluxes, and dry up moist
sores, being taken in powder inwardly, in wine, or steeled water,
that is, wherein hot gads of steel have been quenched ; or the
powder, or the seed mixed with the ointment.

THE BUTTER BUR, OR PETASIT1S

rp

Descript .] JLHIS riseth up in February, with a thicK stalk

about a foot high, whereon are set a few small leaves, or rather
pieces, and at the tops a long spiked head ; flowers of a blush or
deep red colour, according to the soil where it groweth, and be-
fore the stalk with the flowers have abiden a month above ground,
it will be withered and gone, and blown away with the wind, and
the leaves will begin to spring, which being full grown, are very
large and broad, being somewhat thin and almost round, whose
thick red foot-stalks above a foot long, stand towards the middle
of the leaves. The lower part being divided into two round parts,
close almost one to another, and are of a pale green colour,
and hairy underneath. The root is long, and spreadeth under
ground, being in some places no bigger than one’s finger, in
others much bigger, blackish on the outside, and whitish within,
of a bitter and unpleasant taste.

Place and Time.\ They grow in low and wet grounds by

I

m

The English Physician Enlarged.

rivers and water sides. Their flowers (as is said) rising and de-
caying in February and March, before their leaves, which ap-
pear in April.

Government and Virtues .] It is under the dominion of the
Sun, and therefore is a great strengthener of the heart, and
cheerer of the vital spirits. The roots thereof are by long ex-
perience found to be very available against the plague and pesti-
lential fevers by provoking sweat; if the powder thereof be
taken in wine, it also resisteth the force of any other poison.
The root hereof taken with zodory and angelica, or without
them, helps the rising of the mother. The decoction of the
root in wine, is singularly good for those that wheeze much, or
are short winded. It provoketh urine also, and women’s
courses, and killeth the flat and broad worms in the belly. The
powder of the root doth wonderfully help to dry up the moisture
of the sores that are hard to be cured, and taketh away all spots
and blemishes of the skin. It were well if gentlewomen would
keep this root preserved, to help their poor neighbours. It is
Jit the rich should help the poor, for the poor cannot help them-
selves.

THE BURDOCK.

They are also called personata, and loppy-major, great bur-
dock and clod-bur ; it is so well known, even by the little boys,
who pull off the burs to throw and stick upon one another, that
1 shall spare to write any description of it.

Place.] They grow plentifully by ditches and water-sides,
and by the highways almost every where through this land.

Government and Virtues.] Venus challenged] this herb for
her own, and by its leaf or seed you may draw the womb which
way you please, either upwards by applying it to the crown of

the head, in case it falls out ; or downwards in fits of the mo-
ther, by applying it to the soles of the feet ; or if you would stay
it in its place, apply it to the navel, and that is one good way to
stay the child in it. See more of it in my Guide for Women. The

The English Physician Enlarged.

67

burdock leaves are cooling, moderately drying, and discussing
withal, whereby it is good for old ulcers and sores. A dram of
the roots taken with pine kernels, helpeth them that spit foul,
mattery, and bloody phlegm. The leaves applied to the places
troubled with the shrinking of the sinews or arteries, give much
ease. The juice of the leaves, or rather the roots themselves,
given to drink with old wine, doth wonderfully help the biting
of any serpents : and the root beaten with a little salt, and laid
on the place, suddenly easeth the pain thereof, and helpeth those
that are bit by a mad dog. The juice of the leaves being drank
with honey, provoketh urine, and remedieth the pain of the blad-
der. The seed being drank in wine forty days together, doth
wonderfully help the sciatica. The leaves bruised with the
white of an egg, and applied to any place burnt with fire, taketh
out the fire, gives sudden ease, and heals it up afterwards. The
decoction of them fomented on any fretting sore or cankers
stayeth the corroding quality, which must be afterwards anoint-
ed with an ointment made of the same liquor, hog’s-grease, nitre
and vinegar bolied together. The roots may he preserved with
sugar, and taken fasting, or at other times, for the same purposes,
and for consumptions, the stone and the lask. The seed is
much commended to break the stone, and cause it to be expell-
ed by urine, and is often used with other seeds and things to
that purpose.

CABBAGES AND COLEWORTS.

1 SHALL spare labour in writing a description of these, since
almost every one that can but write at all, may describe them
lrom his own knowledge, they being generally so well known,
that descriptions are altogether needless.

Place.] They are generally planted in gardens.

Time.] Their flower time is towards the middle or end of
July, and the seed is ripe in August.

Government and Virtues.] The cabbages or colew'orts hoihd
gently in broth, and eaten, do open the body, but the second de-
coction doth hind the body. The juice thereof drank in wine,

68 The English Physician Enlarged,.

\

helpeth tliose that are bitten by an adder, and the decoction of
the flowers bringeth down women’s courses : Being taken, with
honey, it recovereth hoarseness or loss of the voice. The of-
ten eating of them well boiled, helpeth those that are entering
into a consumption. The pulp or the middle ribs of coleworts
boiled in ahnond milk, and made up into an electuary with honey,
being taken often, is very profitable for those that are puffy and
short-winded. Being boiled twice, and an old cock boiled in the
broth and drank, it helpeth the pains, and the obstructions of the
liver and spleen, and the stone in the kidneys. The juice boiled
with honey, and dropped into the corner of the eyes, cleareth
the sight, by consuming auy film or cloud beginning to dim it ;
it also consumeth the canker growing therein. They are much
commended, being eaten before meat to keep one from surfeiting,
as also from being drunk with too much wine, or qnickly make
a man sober again that is drunk before. For (as they say) there
is such an antipathy or enmity between the vine and the cole-
worts, that the one will die where the other groweth. The decoc-
tion of coleworts taketh away the pain and ache, and allayeth
the swellings of sores and gouty legs and knees, wherein many
gross and watery humours are fallen, the place being bathed
therewith warm. It helpeth also old and filthy sores, being bath-
ed therewith, and healeth all small scabs, pushes, and wheals,
that break out in the skin. The ashes of colewort stalks mixed
with old hogs grease, are very effectual to anoint the sides of
those that have had long pains therein, or any other place pained
with melancholy and windy humours. This was surely Chrysip-
pus’s God, and therefore he wrote a volume of them and their
virtues, and that none of the least neither, for he would be no
small fool : He appropriates them to every part of the body, and
to every disease in every part; and honest old Cato (they say)
used no other physic. I know not what metal their bodies were
made of ; this I am sure, cabbages are extremely windy, whether
you take them as meat or as medicine : yea, as windy meat as
can be eaten, unless you eat bag pipes or bellows, and they are
but seldom eateu in our days ; and colewort flowers are something

The English Physician Enlarged.

69

more tolerable, and the wholesomer food of the two. The Moon
challeageth the dominion of the herb.

THE SEA COLEWORTS.

Descript. ^JjHIS hath divers somewhat long and broad large
and thick wrinkled leaves, somewhat crumpled about the edges,
and growing each upon a thick footstalk, very brittle, of a grey-
ish green colour, from among which riseth up a strong thick stalk,
two feet high and better, with some leaves thereon to the top,
where it brancheth forth much ; and on every branch standeth
a large bush of pale whitish flowers, consisting ot four leaves
a-piece : The root is somewhat great, shooteth forth many
branches underground, keeping the leaves green all the winter.

Place.] They grow in many places upon the sea-coasts as
well on the Kentish as Essex shores ; as at Lid in Kent, Col-
chester in Essex, and divers other places, and in other coun-
ties of this land.

Time.] They flower and seed about the time that other kinds
do.

Government and Virtues.] The Moon claims the dominion of
these also. The broth, or first decoction of the sea-colewort,
doth by the sharp, nitrous, and bitter qualities therein, open the
belly, and purge the body ; it cleanseth and digests more power-
fully than the other kind : The seed hereof bruised and drank
killeth the worms. The leaves or the juice of them applied to
sores or ulcers, cleanseth and healeth them, and dissolveth swel-
lings, and taketh away inflammations.

CALAMINT, OR MOUNTAIN-MINT.

rr

Descript. HIS is a small herb, seldom rising above a foot
high, with square hairy, and woody stalks, and two small hoary
leaves set at a joint, about the bigness of marjoram, or not much
bigg ( ' r > a little dented about the edges, and of a very fierce or

70 The English Physician Enlarged.

WW W HIWC WI M l I I iM W — illi mW 1 1 ■— ■—

quick scent, as the whole herb is. The flowers stand at several
spaces of the stalks, from the middle almost upwards, which are
small and gaping, like to those of mints, and of a pale blueish
colour : After u hich follow small, round blackish seeds. The
root is small and woody, with divers small strings spreading
within the ground, and dieth not, but abidetfc many years.

Place.] It groweth on heaths, and uplands, and dry giounds
in many places of this land.

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

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Mercury, and a
strong one too, therefore excellent good in all afflictions of the
brain ; the decoction of the herb being drank, bringeth dow n
women’s courses, and provoketh urine. It is profitable for those
that are bursten, or troubled with convulsions or cramps, with
shortness of breath, or choleric torments and pains in their bellies
or stomach ; it also helpeth the yellow jaundice, and stayeth vo-
miting, being taken in wine. Taken with salt and honey, it kill-
eth all manner of worms in the body. It helpeth such as have
the leprosy, either taken inw ardly, drinking whey after it, or the
green herb outw ardly applied. It hindereth conception in wo-
men, but either burned or strewed in the chamber, it driveth
away venomous serpents. It takes away black and blue marks in
the face, and maketh black scars become well coloured, if the
green herb (not the dry) be boiled in w ine, and laid to the place,
or the place washed therewith. Being applied to the buckle- bone,
by continuance of time, it spends the humours, which cause the
pain of the sciatica. The j uice being dropped into the ears, killetk
the worms in them. The leaves boiled in wine, and drank, pro-
voke sw eat, and open obstructions of the liver and spleen. It
helpeth them that have a tertian ague (the body being first purg-
ed) by taking aw ay the cold fits. The decoction hereof, with some
sugar put thereto afterwards, is very profitable for those that are
troubled with the overflowing of the gall, and that have an old
cough, and that are scarce able to breathe by shortness of their

The English Physician Enlarged.

71

wind ; that have any cold distemper in their bowels, and are
troubled with the hardness of the spleen, for all which purpo-
ses, both the powder, called diacalumintlies, and the compound
syrup of calamint (which are to be had at the apothecaries) are
the most effectual. Let not women be too busy with it, for it
works very violent upon the feminine part.

CAMOMILE.

It is so w'ell known every where, that it is but lost time
and labour to describe it. The virtues thereof are as follow-
eth :

A decoction made of Camomile, and drank, taketh aw ay all
pains and stitches in the side. The flowers of Camomile beaten,
and made up into balls with oil, drive away all sorts of agues, if
the part grieved be anointed with that oil, taken from the flowers,
from the crow'n of the head to the sole of the foot, and afterwards
laid to sweat in his bed, and that he sweats well. This is Ne-
chessor, an Egyptian’s medicine. It is profitable for all sorts of
agues that come either from phlegm, or melancholy, or from an
inflammation of the bowels, being applied when the humours
causing them shall be concocted ; and there is nothing more pro-
fitable to the sides and region of the liver and spleen than it. The
bathing with a decoction of camomile taketh away weariness,
easeth pains, to what part of the body soever they be applied.
It comforteth the sinews that are over-strained, molifieth all
swellings : It moderately comforteth all parts that have need of
warmth, digesteth and dissolveth whatsoever hath need thereof,
by a wonderful speedy property. It easeth all the pains of the
cholic and stone, and all pains and torments of the belly, and
gently provoketh urine. The flowers boiled in posset drink pro-
voke sweat, and help to expel all colds, aches and pains whatso-
ever, and is an excellent help to bring down women’s courses,
isyrup made of the juice of camomile, with the flowers in white
wine, is a remedy against the jaundice and dropsy. The flowers
boded ill lee, are good to wash the head, and comfort both it

f

72 The English Physician Enlarged.

and the brain. The oil made of the flowers of camomile, is much
used against all hard swellings, pains or aches, shrinking of the
sinews, or cramps, or pains in the joints, or any other part of
the body. Being used in glysters, it helps to dissolve the wind
and pains in the belly ; anointed also, it helpeth stitches and
pains in the sides.

Nechessor said, the Egyptians dedicated it to the Sun, because
it cured agues, and they were like enough to do it, for they
were the arrantest apes in their religion I ever read of. Bachinus,
Bena, and Lobel, commend the syrup made of the juice of it and
sugar, taken inwardly, to be excellent for the spleen. Also this
is certain, that it most wonderfully breaks the stone ; Some take
it in syrup or decoction, others inject the juice of it into the
bladder with a syringe. My opinion is, that the salt of it taken
half a dram in the morning in a little white or rhenish wine, is
better than either ; that it is excellent for the stone, appears in
this which I have seen tried, viz. that a stone that hath been
taken out of the body of a man being wrapped in camomile,
will in time dissolve, and in a little time too.

WATER CALTROPS.

T \ HEY are called also tribulus aquaticus, tribulus lacusoris,
tribulus marinus, caltrop, saligos, water nuts, and water ches-
nuts.

Dcscript .] As for the greater sort of water caltrop it is not
found here, or very rarely. Tw o other sorts there are which I
shall here describe. The first hath a long creeping and jointed
root, sending forth tufts at each joint, from which joints rise
long, flat, slender knotted stalks, even to the top of the water,
divided towards the top into many branches, each carrying two
leaves on both sides, being about two inches long, and half an
inch broad, thin, and almost transparent, they look as though
they were torn : the flowers are long, thick and whitish, set
together almost like a bunch of grapes, which being gone, there
succeeds for the most part sharp pointed grains altogether, con-
taining a small white kernel in them.

The English Physician Enlarged.

73

The second differs not much from this, save that it delights
in more clear water; its stalks are not flat, but round : its leaves
are not so long, but more pointed; as for the place, we need
not determine, for their name sheweth they grow in the water.

Government and Virtues .] They are under the dominion of the
Moon, and being made into a poultice, are excellent good for
hot inflammations, swellings, cankers, sore mouths and throats,
being washed with the decoction; itcleanseth and strengtheneth
the neck, and throat, and helps those swellings, which, w hen
people have, they say the almonds of their ears are fallen dow r n ;
it is excellent good for the rankness of the gums, a safe and pre-
sent remedy for the king’s evil ; they are excellent good for the
stone and gravel, especially the nuts being dried ; they also re-
sist poison, and bitings of venomous beasts.

CAMPION WILD.

Descript.'] The wild white campion hath many long and
somewhat broad dark green leaves, lying upon the ground, and
divers ribs therein, somewhat like plantain, but somewhat hairy,
broader, but not so long: The hairy stalks rise up in the middle
of them three or fbur feet high, and sometimes more, with divers
great white joints at several places thereon, and two such like
leaves thereat up to the top, sending forth branches at several
joints also: All which bear on several footstalks, white flowers
ai the tops of them, consisting of five broad pointed leaves, eve-
ry one cut m on the end unto the middle, making them seem to
be two a-p:ece, smelling somewhat sweet, and each of them
standing in a large green striped hairy husk, large and round
below next to the stalk. The seed is small and greyish in the
haid heads that come up afterwards. The root is white and
long, spreading divers fangs in the ground.

The led wild campion groweth in the same manner as the
white, but the leaves are not so plainly ri bbed, somewhat shorter,

rounder, and more w oolly in handling. The flowers are of the

K

74 r J'he English Physician Enlarged.

same form and bigness: but in some of a pale, in others of a
bright red colour, cut in at the ends more finely, which makes
the leaves look more in number than the other. The seeds and
the roots are alike, the loots of both sorts abiding many years.

There are forty-five kinds of campion more, those of them
w hich are of a physical use, having the like virtues with those
above described, which I take to be the chiefest kinds.

Place.] They grow commonly through this land by fields
and hedge-sides and ditches.

Time.] They flower in summer, some earlier than others,
and some abiding longer than others.

Government and Virtues.] They belong unto Saturn, and it is
found by experience, that the decoction of the herb, either in
w lute or red wine, being drank, doth stay inward bleedings, and
applied outwardly, it doth the like; and being drank, helpeth
to expel urine, being stopped, and gravel or stone in the reins or
kidneys. Two drams of the seed drank in wine, purgeth the body
of choleric humours, and helpeth those that are stung by scor-
pions, or other venomous beasts, and may be as effectual for the
plague. It is of very good use in old sores, ulcers, cankers, fis-
tulas, and the like, to cleanse and heal them, by consuming the
moist humours falling into them, and correcting the putrifaction
of humours offending them.

CARDUUS BENEDICTUS.

I t is called carduus benedictus, or blessed thistle, or holy
thistle ; I suppose the name was put upon it by some that bad
little holiness in themselves.

I shall spare labour in w riting a description of this, as almost
everv one that can write at all, may describe them from his own
knowledge.

Time.] They flower in August, and seed not long after.

Goveanment and Virtties.] It is an herb of Mars, and under
the sign of Aries. Now, in handling this herb, I shall give you
a rational pattern of all the rest ; and if you please to view them

The English Physician Enlarged.

75

throughout the book, you shall, to your content, find it true. It
helps swimming and giddiness of the head, or the disease called
vertigo, because Aries is in the house of Mars. It is an excel-
lent remedy against the yellow jaundice and other infirmities of
the gall, because Mars governs choler. It strengthens the at-
tractive faculty in man, and clarifies the blood, because the one
is ruled by Mars. The continually drinking the decoction of it,
helps red faces, tetters, and ringworms, because Mars causeth
them. It helps the plague, sores, boils, and itch, the bitings of
mad-dogs and venomous beasts, all which infirmities are under
Mars; thus you see what it doth by sympathy.

By antipathy to other planets it cures the F rench-pox. By an-
tipathy to Venus, who governs it, it strengthens the memory, and
cures deafness by antipathy to Saturn, who hath his tall in Aries,
which rules the head. It cures quartan agues, and other diseases
of melancholy, and adjusts choler, by sympathy to Saturn, Mars
being exalted in Capricorn. Also it provokes urine, the stop-
ping of which is usually caused by Mars or the Moon.

CARROTS.

Garden carrots are so well known, that they need no de-
scription ; but because they are of less physical use than the wild
kind (as indeed almost in all herbs the wild are most effectual in
physic, as being more powerful in operation than the garden
kinds,) I shall therefore briefly describe the wild carrot.

Descript .] It groweth in a manner altogether like the tame,
but that the leaves and stalks are somewhat whiter and rougher.
The stalks bear large tufts of white flowers, with a deep purple
spot in the middle, which are contracted together when the seed
begins to ripen, that the middle part being hollow and low, and
the outward stalk rising high, maketh the whole umbel to shew
like a bird’s nest. The root small, long and hard, and unfit tor
meat, being somewhat sharp and strong.

Place .] The wild kind groweth in divers parts of this land,
plentifully by the field sides and untilled places.

76

77/e English Physician Enlarged.

Time.] They dower and seed iu the end of summer.

Government and Virtues.] Wild carrots belong to Mercury,
and therefore break wind, and remove stitches in the sides, pro-
voke urine and women’s courses, and helpeth to break and expel
the stone ; the seed also of the same worketh the like effect, and
is good for the dropsy, aud those whose bellies are swoln with
wind ; helpeth the cholic, the stone in the kidneys, and rising of
the mother; being taken iu wine, or boiled in wine, and taken,
it helpeth conception. The leaves being applied with honey to
running sores or ulcers, do cleanse them.

I suppose the seeds of them perform this better than the roots ;
and though Galen commended garden carrots highly to break
wind, yet experience teacheth they breed it first, and we may
thank nature for expelling it, not they: the seeds of them expel
wind indeed, and so mend what the root marreth.

CARR A WAY.

Descript .j It beareth divers stalks of fine cut leaves, lying

upon the ground, somewhat like to the fiow'ers of carrots, but
not bushing so thick, of a little quick taste in them, from among
which riseth up a square stalk, not so high as the carrot, at
w hose joints are set the like leaves, but smaller and fitter, and at
the top small open tufts, or umbels of white flowers, which turn
into small blackish seed, smaller than the anniseed, and of a
quicker and better taste. The root is whitish, small and long,
somewhat like unto a parsnip, but with more wrinkled bark, and
much less, of a little hot and quick taste, and stronger than the
parsnip, and abideth after seed time.

Place.] It is usually sown with us in gardens.

Time.] They fiow'er in June and July, and seed quickly after.

Government and Virtues.] This is also a Mercurial plant. Car-
raway seed hath a moderate sharp quality, whereby it breaketh
wind, and provoketh urine, which also the herb doth. The root
is better food than the parsnips; it is pleasant and comfortable

The English Physician Enlarged.

77

to the stomach and helpeth digestion. The seed is conducing
to all cold griefs of the head and stomach, bowels, or mother,
as also the wind in them, and helpeth to sharpen the eyesight.
The powder of the seed put into a poultice, taketli away black
and blue spots of blows and bruises. The herb itself, or with
some of the seed bruised and fried, laid hot in a bag or double
cloth, to the lower parts of the belly, easeth the pains of the
wind cholic.

The roots of carraway eaten as men eat parsnips, strengthen
the stomach of ancient people exceedingly, and they need not
to make a whole meal of them neither, and are fit to be planted
in every garden.

Carraway confects, once only dipped in sugar, and a spoon-
ful of them eaten in the morning fasting, and as many after each
meal, is a most admirable remedy for those that are troubled
with wind.

CELANDINE.

Descript.'] X HIS hath divers tender, round, whitish green
stalks, with greater joints than ordinary in other herbs, as it
were knees, very brittle and easy to break, from whence grow
branches with large tender broad leaves, divided into many
parts, each of them cut in on the edges, set at the joint on both
sides of the branches, of a dark blueish green colour, on the up-
per side like columbines, and of a more pale blueish green under-
neath, full of yellow sap when any part is broken, is of a bitter
taste, and strong scent. The root is somewhat great at the head,
shooting forth divers long roots and small strings, reddish on the
outside, and yellow within, full of yellow sap therein.

Place.] They grow in many places by old walls, hedges, and
way-sides, in untilled places; and being once planted in a gar-
den, especially some shady place, it will remain there.

Time.] They flower all the summer long, and the seed ripen
eth in the mean time.

78 The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues .] This is an herb of the Sun, and un-
der the celestial Lion, and is one of the best cures for the eyes;
for all that know any thing in astrology, know that the eyes are
subject to the luminaries : let it then be gathered when the Sun
is in Leo, and the Moon in Aries, applying to this time ; let Leo
arise, then may you make it into an oil or ointment, which you
please, to anoint your sore eyes with : I can prove it doth both
by my own experience, and the experience of those to whom I
have taught it, that most desperate sore ones have been cured
by this only medicine ; and then I pray, is not this far better than
endangering the eyes by the art of the needle'? For if this doth
not absolutely take away the film, it will so facilitate the work,
that it might be done without danger. The herb or root boiled
in white wine and drank, a few anniseeds being boiled therewith,
openeth obstructions of the liver and gall, helpeth the yellow
jaundice; and often using it, helps the dropsy and the itch, and
those that have old sores in their legs, or other parts of the body.
The juice thereof taken fasting, is held to be of singularly good
use against the pestilence. The distilled water, with a little su-
gar, and a little good treacle mixed therewith (the party upon
the taking being laid down to sweat a little) hath the same effect.
The juice dropped in the eyes, cleanseth them from films, and
cloudiness which darken the sight, but it is best to allay the
sharpness of the juice with a little breast milk. It is good in all
old filthy, corroding, creeping ulcers wheresoever, to stay their
malignity of fretting and running, and to cause them to heal
more speedily. The juice often applied to tetters, ring- worms,
or other such like spreading cankers, will quickly heal them, and
rubbed often upon warts, will take them away. The herb with
the roots bruised and bathed with oil of camomile, and applied
to the navel, taketh away, the griping pains in the belly and
bowels, and all the pains of the mother ; and applied to women's
breasts, stayeth the overmuch flowing of the courses. The juice
or decoction of the herb gargled between the teeth that ache,
easeth the pain, and the powder of the dried root laid upon any

The English Physician Enlarged.

79

aching, hollow or loose tooth, will cause it to fall out. The
juice mixed with some powder of brimstone is not only good
against the itch, but taketh away all discolourings of the skin
whatsoever; and if it chance that in a tender body it causeth any
itchings or inflammations, by bathing the place with a little vine-
gar it is helped.

Another ill favoured trick have physicians got to use to the
eye, and that is worse than the needle; which is, to take away
films by corroding or gnawing medicines. This I absolutely
protest against;

1. Because the tunicles of the eyes are very thin, and there-
fore soon eaten asunder.

2. The calus or film that they would eat away, is seldom of
an equal thickness in every place, and then the tunicle may be
eaten asunder in one place, before the film be consumed in an-
other, and so be a readier way to extinguish the sight than to
restore it.

It is called chelidonium, from the Greek word clielison, which
signifies a swallow, because they say, that if you put out the
eyes of young swallows when they are in the nest, the old ones
will recover their eyes again with this herb. This I am confi-
dent, for I have tried it, that if we mar the very apple of their
eyes with the needle, she will recover them again ; but whether
with this herb or not, I know not.

Also I have read (and it seems to be somewhat probable) that
the herb being gathered as I shewed before, and the elements
drawn apart from it by art of the alchymist, and after they are
drawn apart rectified, the earthy quality, still in rectifying them,
added to the terra demnata (as alchymists call it) or ierra sa-
cratissima (as some philosophers call it) the elements so rectified
are sufficient for the cure ol all diseases, the humours offendine
beiitg known, and the contrary elements given : It is an experi-
ment worth the trying, and can do no harm.

The English Physician Enlarged.

THE LESSER CELANDINE,

usually known by the. names of Pilewort, and Fogwort.

I WONDER what ailed the ancients to give this the name of
celandine, which resembles it neither in nature nor form ; it ac-
quired the name of pilewort from its virtues, and it being no
great matter where I set it down, so I set it down at all, I hu-
moured Dr. Tradition so much, as to set him down here.

Descript. ] This celandine or pilewort (which you please) doth
spread many round pale green leaves, set on weak and trailing
branches, which lie upon the ground, and are flat, smooth, and
somewhat shining, and in some places (though seldom) marked
with black spots, each standing on a long foot stalk, among which
rise small yellow flowers, consisting of nine or ten small narrow
leaves, upon slender foot stalks, very like unto crowsfoot, where-
unto the seed also is not unlike, being many small kernels like a
grain of corn, sometimes twice as long as others, of a whitish
colour, with some fibres at the end of them.

Place.] It groweth for the most part in moist corners of fields
and places that are near water sides, yet will abide in drier
grouud if they be but a little shady.

Time.] It flowereth betimes about March or April, is quite
gone by May; so it cannot be found till it spring again.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mars,
and behold here another verification of the learning of the an-
cients, viz. that the virtue of an herb may be known by its sig-
nature, as plainly appears in this; for if you dig up the root of
it, you shall perceive the perfect image of the disease which they
commonly call the piles. It is certain by good experience, that
the decoction of the leaves and roots doth wonderfully help piles
and luEmorrhoides, also kernels by the ears and throat, called
the king's evil, or any other hard wens or tumours.

Here is another secret for my countrymen and women, a cou-
ple of them together; pilewort made into an oil, ointment, or
plaister, readily cures both the piles, or haemorrhoides, and the

The English Physician Enlarged.

81

evil : The very herb borne about one’s body next the skin, helps
in such diseases, though it never touch the place grieved; let
poor people make much of it for those uses ; with this I cured
my own daughter of the king’s evil, broke the sore, drew out a
quarter of a pint of corruption, cured without any scar at all
in one week’s time.

THE ORDINARY SMALL CENTAURY.

Descript. ] _ThIS groweth up most usually but with one round
and somewhat crusted stalk, about a foot high or better, branch-
ing forth at the top into many sprigs, and some also from the
joints of the stalks below; the flowers thus stand at the tops as
it were in one umbel or tuft, are of a pale red,- tending to carna-
tion colour, consisting of five, sometimes six email leaves, very
like those of St. John’s wort, opening themselves in the day time
and closing at night, after which come seeds in little short husks,
in form like unto wheat corn. The leaves are small and some-
what round; the root small and hard, perishing every year.
The whole plant is of an exceeding bitter taste.

There is another sort in all things like the former, save only
it beareth white flowers.

Place . ] They grow ordinarily in fields, pastures and woods,
but that with the white flowers not so frequently as the other.

Time.] They flower in July or thereabouts, and seed within a
month after.

Government and Virtues.] They are under the dominion of the
Sun, as appears in that their flowers open and shut as the sun
either sheweth or hicleth its face. This herb, boiled and drank,
purgeth choleric and gross humours, and helpeth the sciatica : it
openeth obstructions of the liver, gall, and spleen, helpeth the
jaundice, and easeth the pains in the sides and hardness of the
spleen, used outwardly, and is given with very good effect in
agues. It helpeth those that have the dropsy, or the green sick-
ness, being much used by the Italians in powder for that purpose.

82 The English Physician Enlarged.

It killeth the worms in the belly, as is found by experience. The
decoction thereof, viz. the tops of the stalks, with the leaves and
flowers, is good against the cholic, and to bring down women’s
courses, helpeth to avoid the dead birth, and easeth pains of the
mother, and is very effectual in all old pains of the joints, as the
gout, cramps, or convulsions. A dram of the powder thereof ta-
ken in wine, is a wonderful good help against the biting and poi-
son of an adder. The juice of the herb, with a little honey put to
it, is good to clear the eyes from dimness, mists and clouds that
offend or hinder sight. It is singularly good both for green and
fresh wounds, as also for old ulcers and sores, to close up the
one, and cleanse the other, and perfectly to cure them both, al-
though they are hollow or fistulous; the green herb especially
being bruised and laid thereto. The decoction thereof drop-
ped into the ears, cleanseth them from worms, cleanseth the foul
ulcers and spreading scabs of the head, and takcth away all
freckles, spots, and marks in the skin, being washed with it ;
the herb is so safe you cannot fail in the using of it, only giving
it inwardly for inward diseases. ’Tis very wholesome, but not
very toothsome.

There is, besides these, another small centaury, which beareth
a yellow flower; in all other respects it is like the former, save
that the leaves are bigger, and of a darker green, and the stalk
passeth through the midst of them, as it doth the herb thorowan.
They are all of them, as I told you, under the government of the
Sun ; yet this, if you observe it, you shall find as excellent
truth ; in diseases of the blood, use the red centaury ; if of cho-
ler, use the yellow ; but if phlegm or water, you will find the
white best.

THE CHERRY-TREE.

X SUPPOSE there are few but know this tree, for its’ fruit’s
sake ; and therefore I shall spare writing a description thereof.

Place.] For the place of its growth, it is afforded room in
every orchard.

' The English Physician Enlarged.

83

Government and Virtues .] It is a tree of Venus. Cherries as
they are of different tastes, so they are of different qualities.
The sweet pass through the stomach and the belly more speedi-
ly, but are of little nourishment; the tart or sour are more pleas-
ing to an hot stomach, procure appetite to meat, and help to cut
tough plielgm, and gross humours; but when these are dried,
they are more binding to the belly than when they are fresh
being cooling in hot diseases, and welcome to the stomach, and
provoke urine. The gum of the cherry-tree, dissolved in wine,
is good for a cold, cough, and hoarseness of the throat ; mend-
eth the colour in the face, sharpeneth the eye-sight, provoketh
appetite, and helpeth to break and expel the stone ; the black
cherries bruised with the stones, and dissolved, the water
thereof is much used to break the stone, and to expel gravel
and wind.

WINTER CHERRIES.

Descript .] The winter cherry hath a running or creeping
root in the ground, of the bigness many times of one’s little lin-
ger, shooting forth at several joints in several places, w hereby it
quickly spreads over a great compass of ground. The stalk
riseth not above a yard high, whereon are set many broad and
long green leaves, somewhat like nightshade, but larger : at the
joints whereof come forth whitish Rowers made of five leaves
a-piece, which afterwards turn into green berries inclosed with
thin skins, which change to be reddish when they grow ripe,
the berry likewise being reddish, and as large as a cherry;
wherein are contained many flat and yellowish seeds lying within
the pulp, which being gathered and strung up, are kept all the
year to he used upon occasion.

Place.'] They grow not naturally in this land, but are cher-
ished in gardens for their virtues.

Time.] They flower not until the middle or latter end of July ;
and the fruit is ripe about August, or the beginning of Sep-
tember.

04 The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues.] This also is a plant of Venus.
They are of great use in physic: The leaves being cooling, may
be used in inflammations, but not opening as the berries and
fruit are: which by drawing down the urine, provoke it to be
voided plentifully when it is stopped or grown hot, sharp, and
painful in the passage; it is good also to expel stone and gravel
out of the reins, kidneys and bladder; helping to dissolve the
stone, and voiding it by grit or gravel sent forth in the urine;
it also helpeth much to cleanse inward impostluimes or ulcers in
the reins or bladder, or in those that void a bloody or foul urine.
The distilled water of the fruit, or the leaves together with them,
or the berries, green or dry, distilled with a little milk and drank
morning and evening with a little sugar, is effectual to all
the purposes before specified, and especially against the heat
and sharpness of the urine. I shall only mention one way,
amongst many others, which might be used for ordering the ber-
ries, to be helpful for the urine and the stone; which is this:
Take three or four good handfuls of the berries, either green or
fresh, or dried, and having bruised them, put them into so many
gallons of beer or ale when it is new tunned up : This drink, ta-
ken daily, hath been found to do much good to many, both to
ease the pains, and expel utine and the stone, and to cause the
stone not to engender. The decoction of the berries in wine and
w ater is the most usual w ay : but the powder of them taken in
drink is more effectual.

CHERVIL.

Jt is called cerefoliuin, inirrhis, and mirrha, chervel, sweet
chervil, and sweet cicely.

Descript.] The garden chervil doth at first somewhat resem-
ble parsley, but after it is better grown, the leaves are much cut
in and jagged, resembling hemlock, being a little hairy and of a
whitish green colour, sometimes turning reddish in the summer,
with the stalks also: it risetli a little above half a foot high,
bearing white flowers in spiked tufts, which turn into long and

The English Physician Enlarged.

85

round seeds pointed at the ends and blackish when they are ripe :
of a sweet taste, but no smell, though the herb itself smellelh
reasonably well. The root is small and long, and perisheth every
year, and must be sown a-new in spring, for seed after July or
autumn fails.

The wild chervil groweth two or three feet high, w r ith yellow
stalks and joints, set with broader and more hairy leaves, divid-
ed into sundry parts, nicked about the edges, and of a dark
green colour, which likewise grow reddish with the stalks; at
the tops whereof stand small white tufts of flowers, afterwards
smaller and longer seed. The root is white, hard, and enduring
long. This hath little or no scent.

Place . ] The first is sown in gardens for a sallad herb; the
second grow eth wild in many of the meadows of this land, and
by the hedge sides, and on heaths.

Time.] They flow-er and seed early, and thereupon are sown
again in the end of summer.

Government and Virtues.] The garden chervil being eaten,
doth moderately warm the stomach, and is a certain remedy
(saith Tragus) to dissolve congealed or clotted blood in the bo-
dy, or that which is clotted by bruises, falls, &c. The juice or
distilled water thereof being drank, and the bruised leaves laid
to the place, being taken either in meat or drink, it is a good
help to provoke urine, or expel the stone in the kidneys, to
send down women’s courses, and to help the pleurisy and prick-
ing of the sides.

The w ild chervil bruised and applied, dissolveth swellings in
any part, or the marks of congealed blood by bruises or blows
in a little space.

SWEET CHERVIL, OR SWEET CICELY,
nn

Descript.] J HIS groweth very like the great hemlock, hav-
ing large spread leaves cut into divers parts, but of a fresher
green colour than the hemlock, tasting as sweet as the anniseed.
The stalks rise up a yard high, or better, being cressed or hoi-

80 r Phe English Physician Enlarged.

low, having leaves at the joints, but lesser; and at the tops of
the branched stalks, umbels or tufts of white flowers ; after
which come large and long crested black shining seed, point-
ed at both ends, tasting quick, yet sweet and pleasant. The
root is great and white, growing deep in the ground, and
spreading sundry long branches therein, in taste and smell
stronger than the leaves or seeds, and continuing many
years.

Place.] This groweth in gardens.

Government and Virtues .] These are all three of them of
the nature of Jupiter, and under his dominion. This whole plant,
besides its pleasantness in sallads, hath its physical virtue. The
roots boiled and eaten with oil and vinegar, (or without oil) do
much please and warm old and cold stomachs oppressed with
wind or phlegm, or those that have the phthisic or consump-
tion of the lungs. The same drank with wine is a preservation
from the plague. It provoketh women’s courses, and expelleth
the afterbirth, procureth an appetite to meat, and expelleth
wind. The juice is good to heal the ulcers of the head and
face ; the candied roots hereof are held as effectual as angelica,
to preserve from infection in the time of a plague, and to warm
and comfort a cold weak stomach. It is so harmless, you can-
not use it amiss.

CHESNUT TREE.

Xt were as needless to describe a tree so commonly known
as to tell a man he hath gotten a mouth : therefore take the go-
vernment and virtues of them thus :

The tree is abundantly under the dominion of Jupiter, and
therefore the fruit must needs breed good blood, and yield com-
mendable nourishment to the body ; yet, if eaten overmuch,
they make the blood thick, procure head-ach, and bind the bo-
dy ; the inner skin, that covereth the nut, is of so binding a quali-
ty, that a scruple of it being taken by a man, or ten grains by a
child, soon stops any flux whatsoever: The whole nut being

The English Physician Enlarged.

87

dried and beaten into powder, and a dram taken at a time, is a
good remedy to stop the terms in women. If you dry chesnuts,
(only the kernels I mean) both the barks being taken away,
beat them into powder, and make the powder into an electuary
with honey, so have you an admirable remedy for the cough and
spitting of blood. /

EARTH CHESNUTS.

They are called earth-nuts, earth chesnuts, ground nuts,
ciper-nuts, and in Sussex pig-nuts. A description of them were
needless, for every child knows them.

Government and Virtues .] They are something hot and dry in
quality, under the dominion of Venus, they provoke lust exceed-
ingly, and stir up to those sports she is mistress of; the seed is
excellent good to provoke urine; and so also is the root, but it
doth not perform it so forcibly as the seed doth. The root being
dried and beaten into powder, and the powder being made into
an electuary is a singular remedy for spitting and pissing of
blood, as the former chesuut was for coughs.

CHICKWEED.

It is so generally known to most people, that I shall not trou-
ble you with the description thereof, nor myself with setting
forth the several kinds, since but only two or three are consid-
erable for their usefulness.

Place.] They are usually found in moist and watery places,
by wood sides, and elsewhere.

Time.] They flower about June, and their seed is ripe in
July.

Government and Virtues.] It is a fine soft pleasing herb, un-
der the dominion of the Moon. It is found to be effectual as
purslain to all the purposes whereunto it serveth, except for meat
only. The herb bruised, or the juice applied (with cloths or

88 The Jhngtish Physician Enlarged.

sponges dipped therein) to the region of the liver, and as they
dry, to have it fresh applied, doth wonderfully temperate the
heat of the liver, and is effectual for all imposthumes and swell-
ings whatsoever, for all redness in the face, wheals, pushes, itch,
scabs; the juice either simply used or boiled with hog’s grease
and applied, helpeth cramps, convulsions, and palsy. The juice,
or distilled water, is of much good use for all heats and redness
in the eyes, to drop some thereof into them; as also into the
ears, to ease pains in them; and is of good effect to ease pains
from the heat and sharpness of the blood in the piles, and general-
ly all pains in the body, that arise from heat. It is used also
in hot and virulent ulcers and sores in the privy parts of men
or women, or on the legs, or elsewhere. The leaves boiled with
marsh-mallows, and made into a poultice with fenugreek and
linseed, applied to swellings or imposthumes, ripen and break
them, or assuage the swellings and ease the pains. It helpeth
the sinews when they are shrunk by cramps, or otherwise, and

to extend and make them pliable again by this medicine. Boil

*

a handful of chickweed, and a handful of red rose leaves dried,
in a quart of muscadine, until a fourth part be consumed : then
put to them a pint of oil of trotters or sheep’s feet, let them
boil a good while, still stirring them well; which being strained,
anoint the grieved place therewith, warm against the fire, rub-
bing it well with one hand: and bind also some of the herb (if
you will) to the place, and with God’s blessing, it will help it in
three times dressing.

CHICK-PEASE, OR CICERS.

Descript, j The garden sorts, whether red, black, or white,
bring forth stalks a yard long, whereon do grow many small and
almost round leaves, dented about the edges, set on both sides
of a middle rib: At the joints come forth one or two flowers,
upon sharp foot-stalks, pease-fashion, either white or whitish,
or purplish red, lighter or deeper, according as the pease that
follow w ill be, that are contained in small, thick, and short pods.

The English Physician Enlarged. 8.0

— — — W l 11 '■ ■■ «

wherein lie one or two pease, more usually pointed at the lower
end, and almost round at the head, yet a little cornered or sharp ;
the root is small, and perisheth yearly.

Place and Time.} They are sown in gardens or fields, as pease,
being sown later than pease, and gathered at the same time with
them, or presently after.

Government and Virtues.} They are both under the dominion
of Venus. They are less windy than beans, but nourish more;
they provoke urine, and are thought to increase sperm; they
have a cleansing faculty, whereby they break the stone in the
kidneys. To drink the cream of them, being boiled in water,
is the best way. It moves the belly downwards, provokes
women’s courses and urine, increases both milk and seed. One
ounce of cicers, two ounces of French barley, and a small hand-
ful of marsh-mallow roots, clean washed and cut, being boiled
in the broth af a chicken, and four ounces taken in the morning,
and fasting two hours after, is a good medicine for pain in the
sides. The white cicers are used more for meat than medicine,
yet have the same effect, and are thought more powerful to in-
crease milk and seed. The wild cicers are so much more pow-
erful than the garden kinds, by how much they exeeed them in
heat and dryness; whereby they do more open obstructions,
break the stone, and have all the properties of cutting, opening,
digesting, and dissolving; and this more speedily and certain-
ly than the former.

CINQUEFOIL, OR FIVE-LEAVED GRASS,
called in some Counties, Five-jingered Grass.

Descript. 3 T spreads and creeps far upon the ground, with
long slender strings like strawberries, which take root again, and
shoot forth many leaves, made of five parts, and sometimes of
seven, dented about the edges, and somewhat hard. The stalks
are slender, leaning downwards, and bear many amall yellow
flowers thereon, with some yellow threads in the middle, standing

90

The English Phi/sician Enlarged.

about a smooth green head, which, when it is ripe, is a little
rough, and containeth small brownish seed. The root is of a
blackish brown colour, as big as one’s little finger, but growing
long, with some threads thereat; and by the small strings it
quickly spreadetli over the ground.

Place.] It groweth by wood sides, hedge-sides, the pathway
in fields, and in the borders and corners of them almost through
all this land.

Time.] It flowereth in summer, some sooner, some later.

Government and Virtues.] This is an herb of Jupiter, and
therefore strengthens the part of the body it rules; let Jupiter
be angular and strong when it is gathered ; and if you give but a
scruple (which is but twenty grains) of it at a time, either in
white wine, or in white wine vinegar, you shall very seldom miss
the cure of an ague, be it what ague soever, in three fits, as I
have often proved to the admiratiou both of myself and others;
let no man despise it because it is plain and easy, the ways of
God are all such. It is an especial herb used in all inflammations
and fevers, whether infectious or pestilential; or among other
herbs to cool and temper the blood and humours in the body.
As also for all lotions, gargles, infections, and the like, for sore
mouths, ulcers, cancers, fistulas, and other corrupt, foul, and
running sores. The juice hereof drank, about four ounces at
a time, for certain days together, cureth the quinsey, and yellow
jaundice ; and takeu for thirty days together, cureth the falling
sickness. The roots bolied in milk, and drank, is a most effec-
tual remedy for all fluxes in a man or a woman, whether the
white or red, as also the bloody flux. The roots boiled in vine-
gar, and the decoction thereof held in the mouth, easeth the pains
of the tooth-ach. The juice or decoction taken with a little ho-
ney, helpeth the hoarseness of the throat, and is very good for
the cough of the lungs. The distilled water of both roots
and leaves is also effectual to all the purposes aforesaid :
and if the hands be often washed therein, and suffered at eveiy
time to dry in of itself without wiping, it will in a short time

The Ew.gUsh Physician Enlarg ed.

91

help the palsy, or shaking in them. The root boiled in vinegar,
helpeth all knots, kernels, hard swellings, and lumps growing in
any part of the flesh, being thereto applied ; as also inflam-
mations, and St. Anthony’s fire, all imposthumes, and painful
sores with heat and putrefaction, the shingles also, and all other
sorts of running and foul scabs, sores, and itch. The same also
boiled in wine, and applied to any joint full of pain, ache, or
the gout in the hands or feet, or the hip gout, called the sciatica,
and the decoction thereof drank the while doth cure them, and
easeth much pain in the bowels. The roots are likewise effectual
to help ruptures or bursting, being used with other things avail-
able to that purpose, taken either inwardly, or outwardly, or
both; as also bruises or hurts by blows, falls, or the like, and to
stay the bleeding of wounds in any parts inward or outward.

Some hold that one leaf cures a quotidian, three a tertian,
and four a quartan ague, and a hundred to one if it be not Dios-
corides: for he is full of whimsies. The truth is, I never stood
so much upon the number of the leaves, nor whether I give it
in powder or decoction: If Jupiter were strong, and the Moon
applying to him, or his good aspect at the gathering, I never
knew it miss the desired effects.

CIVES.

C^AjlLED also rush leeks, chives, civet, and sweth.

Temperature and Virtues .] I confess I had not added these,
had it not been for a country gentleman, who by a letter, certi-
fied me, that amongst other herbs, I had left these out; they are
indeed a kind of leeks, hot and dry in the fourth degree as they
arc, and so under the dominion of Mars : if they be eateu raw,
(1 do not mean raw opposite to roasted or boiled, but raw, op-
posite to chemical preparation) they send up very hurtful va-
pours to the brain, causing troublesome sleep, and spoiling the
eye-sight, yet of them, prepared by the art of the alchymist,
may be made an excellent remedy for the stoppage of urine.

92

The Eng lish Physician Enlarged.

CLARY, or more properly, CLEAR-EYE.

Descript .] Our ordinary garden clary hath four square
stalks, with broad, rough, wrinkled, whitish, or hoary green
leaves, somewhat evenly cut in on the edges, and of a strong
sweet scent, growing some near the ground, and some by couples
upon stalks. The flowers grow at certain distances, with two
small leaves at the joiuts under them, somewhat like the flowers
of sage, but smaller, and of a whitish blue colour. The seed is
brownish, and somewhat flat, or not so round as the wild.
The roots are blackish, and spread not far, and perish after the
seed time. It is usually sown, for it seldom rises of its own
sowing.

Place.] This groweth in gardens.

Time.] It flowereth in June and J uly, some a little later than
others, and their seed is ripe in August, or thereabouts.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of the
Moon. The seed put into the eyes clears them from motes, and
sueh like things gotten within the lids to offend them, as also
clears them from white and red spots on them. The mucilage
of the seed made with water, and applied to tumours or swel-
lings, disperseth and taketh them away; as also draweth forth
splinters, thorns, and other tnings gotten into the flesh. The
leaves used with vinegar, either by itself, or with a little honey,
doth help boils, felons, and the hot inflammations that are gather-
ed by their pains, if applied before it be grown too great. The
pow der of the dried root put into the nose, provoketh sneezing,
and thereby purgeth the head and brain of much rheum and
corruption. The seed or leaves taken in wine, provoketh to
venery. It is of much use both for men and women that have
weak backs, and helpeth to strengthen the reins ; used either by
itself, or with other herbs conducing to the same effect, and in
tansies often. The fresh leaves dipped in a batter of flour,
eggs, and a little milk, and fried in butter, and served to the table.

The English Physician Enlarged. 93

is not unpleasant to any, but exceeding profitable for those that
are troubled with weak backs, and the effects thereof. The
juice of the herb put into ale or beer, and drank, bringeth down
women’s courses, and expelleth the after-birth.

It is an usual course with many men, when they have gotten
the running of the reins, or women the whites, they run to the
bush of Clary ; maid, bring hither the frying-pan, fetch me some
butter quickly, then for eating fried clary, just as hogs eat
acorns; and this they think will cure their disease (forsooth)
whereas when they have devoured as much clary as will grow
upon an acre of ground, their backs are as much the better
as though they had pissed in their shoes; nay, perhaps much
worse.

We will grant that clary strengthens the back ; but this we
deny, that the cause of the running of the reins in men, or the
whites in women, lies in the back, (though the back may some-
times be weakened by them) and therefore the medicine is as
proper, as for me when my toe is sore to lay a plaister on my
nose.

WILD CLARY.

Wild clary is most blasphemously called Christ's eye, be-
cause it cures diseases of the eyes. I could wish from my soul,
blasphemy, ignorance, and tyranny, were ceased among physici-
ans, that they may be happy and 1 joyful.

Descript.] It is like the other clary, but lesser, with many
stalks about a foot and a half high. The stalks are square, and
somewhat hairy ; the flowers of a blush colour : He that knows
the common clary cannot be ignorant of this.

Place.] It grows commonly in this nation, in barren places;
you may find it plentifully, if you look in the fields near Grey’s
Inn, and the fields near Chelsea.

Time.] They flower from the beginning of June, till the latter
end of Aufiust.

O

Government and Virtues. ] It is something hotter and drier

94

The English Physician Enlarged.

than the garden clary is, yet nevertheless under the dominion of
the Moon, as well as that ; the seeds of it being beaten to powder,
and drank with wine, is an admirable help to provoke lust. A
decoction of the leaves being drank, warms the stomach, and it
is a wonder if it should not, the stomach being under Cancer,
the house of the Moon. Also it helps digestion, and scatters con-
gealed blood in any part of the body. The distilled water hereof
cleauscth the eyes of redness, waterishness, and heat: It is a
gallant remedy for dimness of sight, to take one of the seeds of
it, and put it into the eyes, and there let it remain till it drops
out of itself, (the pain will be nothing to speak on), it will cleanse
the eyes of all filthy and putrified matter; and in often repeat-
ing it, will take off a film which covereth the sight; a hand-
somer, safer, and easier remedy by a great deal, than to tear it
off with a needle.

CLEAVERS

Xt is aiso called apcrine, goose-share, goose-grass, and clea-
vers.

Descript .] The common cleavers have divers very rough,
square stalks, not so big as the top of a pint, but rising up to
be two or three yards high sometimes, if it meet with any tall
bushes or trees whereon it may climb, yet without auy claspers,
or else much lower, and lying on the ground full of joints, and
at every one of them shooteth forth a branch, besides the leaves
thereat, which are usually six, set in a round compass like a star,
or a roWel of a spur: From between the leaves or the joints to-
wards the tops of the branches, come forth very small white
flowers, at every end, upon small thready foot-stalks, which af-
ter they have fallen, there do shew two small round and rough
seeds joined together like two testicles, which, when they are
ripe, grow hard and whitish, having a little hole on the side,
something like unto a navel. Both stalks, leaves, and seeds, are
so rough, that they will cleave to any thing that will touch them.
The root is small and thready, spreading much to the ground,
but dieth every year.

95

The English Physician Enlarged.

— — — I II I I I ^ IMIKIfmg

Place] It growetli by the hedge and ditch side in many
places of this land, and is so troublesome an inhabitant in gar-
dens, that it rampeth upon, and is ready to clioak whatever
grows near it.

Time] It flowereth in June or July, and the seed is ripe and
falleth again in the end of July or August, from whence it
springeth up again, and not from the old roots.

Government and Virtues] It is under the dominion of the
Moon. The juice of the herb and the seed together taken in
wine helpeth those bitten with an adder, by preserving the heart
from the venom. It is familiarly taken in broth, to keep them
lean and lank that are apt to grow fat. The distilled water
drank twice a-day, helpeth the yellow jaundice, and the decoc-
tion of the herb, in experience, is found to do the same, and
stayeth lasks and bloody fluxes. The juice of the leaves, or they
a little bruised, and applied to any bleeding wounds, stayeth
the bleeding. The juice also is very good to close up ihe lips
of green wounds, and the powder of the dried herb' strewed
thereupon doth the same, and likewise helpeth old ulcers. Being
boiled in hog s grease, it helpeth all sorts of hard swellings or
kernels in the throat, being anointed therewith. The juice
dropped into the ears, taketh away the pain of them.

It is a good remedy in the spring, eaten (being first chopped
small, and boiled well) in water-gruel, to cleanse the blood, and
strengthen the liver, thereby to keep the body in health, and
fitting it for that change of season that is coming.

CLOWN’S WOUNDWORT.

Descript] iTgroweth up sometimes to two or three feet high,
but usually about two feet, with square, green rough stalks, but
slender, joined somewhat far asunder, and two very long;, some-
what narrow, dark green leaves, bluntly dented about the edges
thereof, ending in a long point. The flowers stand towards the
tops, compassing the stalks at the joints with the leaves, and end

96 The English Physician Enlarged.

likewise in a spiked top, having long and much gaping hoods of
a purplish red colour, with whitish spots in them, standing in
somewhat round husks, wherein afterwards stand blackish round
seeds. The root is composed of many long strings, with some
tuberous long knobs growing among them, of a pale yellowish
or whitish colour, yet some times of the year these knobby roots
in many places are not seen in this plant: the plant smelleth
somewhat strong.

Place.] It groweth in sundry counties of this land, both north
and west, and frequently by path-sides in the fields near about
London, and within three or four miles distant about it, yet it
usuallv grows in or near ditches.

Time.] It flowereth in June or July, and the seed is ripo soon
after.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of the
planet Saturn. It is singularly effectual in all fresh and green
wounds, and therefore beareth not this name for nought. And
it is very available in staunching the blood, and to dry up the
fluxes of humours in old fretting ulcers, cankers, &c. that hinder
the healing of them.

A syrup made of the juice of it is inferior to none for inward
wounds, ruptures of veins, bloody flux, vessels broken, spitting,
pissing, or vomiting blood : Ruptures art excellently and speedi-
ly, even to admiration, cured by taking now r and then a little of
the syrup, and applying an ointment or plaister of this herb to
the place. Also, if any vein or muscle be sw elled, apply a plais-
ter of this herb to it, and if you add a little comfrey to it, it
will not do amiss. I assure thee the herb deserves commenda-
tions, though it has gotten such a clownish name ; and whoso-
ever reads this, (if he try it as I have done) will commend it;
only take notice that it is of a dry earthy quality.

COCK’S HEAD, RED FITCHING, OR MEDICK FETCH.

Descript.] JThIS hath divers weak but rough stalks, half a
yard long, leaning downw ards, but set with w inged leaves, long-

The English Physician Enlarged. 97

er, and more pointed than those of lintels, and whitish under-
neath ; from the tops of these stalks arise up other slender stalks,
naked without leaves unto the tops, where there grow many small
flowers in manner of a spike, of a pale reddish colour, with some
blueness among them • after which rise up in their places, round,
rough, and somewhat flat heads. The root is tough, and some-
what woody, yet liveth and shooteth a-new every year.

Place.] It groweth under hedges, and sometimes in the open
fields, in divers places of this land.

Time.] They flower all the months of July and August, and the
seed ripeneth in the mean while.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Venus.
It hath power to rarefy and digest; and therefore the green
leaves bruised and laid as a plaister, disperse knots, nodes, or
kernels in the flesh ; and if when dry it be taken in wine, it help-
eth the strangury : and being anointed with oil, it provoketh
sweat. It is a singular food for cattle, to cause them to give
store of milk : and why then may it not do the like, being boiled
in ordinary drink, for nurses?

that I think I may save the expence of time in writing a de-
scription of then}.

Ti me.] They flower in May, and abide not for the most part
when June is past, perfecting their seed in the mean time.

Government and Virtues.] It is also an herb of Venus. The
leaves of columbines are commonly used in lotions with good
success for sore mouths and throats. Tragus saith, that a.dram
of the seed taken in wine, with a little saffron, openeth obstruc-
tions of the liver, and is good for the yellow jaundice, if the party
after the taking thereof be laid to sweat well in bed. The seed
also taken in wine, causeth a speedy deli very of women in child-
birth ; if one draught suffice not, let her drink the second, and
it is effectual : The Spaniards used to eat a piece of the root

COLUMBINES.

are so well known, growing almost in every garden.

N

98 The English Physician Enlarged.

thereof in a morning fasting, many days together, to help them
when troubled with the stone in the reins or kidneys.

COLTSFOOT.

Called also coughwort, foal's-foot, horse-hoof, and bull’s-
foot.

Descript .] This shooteth up a tender stalk, with small yellow-
ish flowers somewhat earlier, which fall away quickly, and after
they are past, come up somewhat round leaves, sometimes dent-
ed about the edges, much lesser, thicker, and greener than those
of butter-bur, with a little down or frize over the green leaf on
the upper side, which may be rubbed away, and whitish or mealy
underneath. The root is small and white, spreading much
under ground, so that where it taketh it will hardly be driven
away again, if any little piece be abiding therein ; and from
thence spring fresh leaves.

Place .] It groweth as well in wet grounds as in drier
places.

Time.] It flowereth in the end of February, the leaves begin
to appear in March.

Government and Virtues.] The plant is under Venus, the fresh
leaves or juice, or a syrup thereof is good for a hot, dry cough,
or wheezing, and shortness of breath. The dry leaves are best
for those that have thin rheums and distillations upon their lungs,
causing a cough, for which also the dried leaves taken as tobacco,
or the root is very good. The distilled water hereof simply, or
with elder flowers and night-shade, is a singularly good remedy
against all hot agues to drink two ounces at a time, and apply
cloths wet therein to the head and stomach, which also does much
good, being applied to any hot swellings and inflammations: It
helpeth St. Anthony’s fire, and burnings, and is singularly good
to take away wheals and small pushes that arise through heat ;
as also the burning heat of the piles, or privy parts, cloths wet
therein being thereunto applied.

The English Physician Enlarged.

99

COMFREY.

'.Descript.] The common great comfrey hath divers very large
hairy green leaves lying on the ground, so hairy or prickly, that
if they touch any tender parts of the hands, face, or body, it
will cause it to itch ; the stalk that riseth from among them,
being two or three feet high, hollowed and cornered, is very
hairy also, having many such like leaves as grow below, but
lesser and lesser up to the top : At the joints of the stalks it is
divided into many branches, with some leaves thereon, and at
the end stand many flowers in order one above another, which
are somewhat long and hollow like the finger of a glove, of a
pale whitish colour, after which come small black seeds. The
roots are great and long, spreading great thick branches under
ground, black on the outside, and whitish within, short and easy
to break, and full of glutinous or clammy juice, of little or no
taste at all.

There is another sort in all things like this, only somewhat
less, and beareth flowers of a pale purple colour.

Place.] They grow by ditches and water-sides, and in divers
fields that are moist, for therein they chiefly delight to grow.
The first generally through all the land, and the other but in
some places. By the leave of my authors, I know the first grows
in dry places.

Time.] They flower in June or July, and give their seed in
August.

Government and Virtues.] This is an herb of Saturn, and I
suppose under the sign Capricorn, cold, dry, and earthy in qual-
ity. What was spoken of clown’s woundwort may be said of
this. The great comfrey helpeth those that spit blood, or make
a bloody urine. The root boiled in water or wine and the de-
coction drank, helps all inward hurts, bruises, w'ounds, and ul-
cers ot the lungs, and causeth the phlegm that oppresseth them
to he easily spit forth : It helpeth the deduction of rheum from
the head upon the lungs, the fluxes of blood or humours by the

100 The English Physician Enlarged.

belly, women's immoderate courses, as well the reds as the
whites, and the running of the reins, happening by what cause
soever. A syrup made thereof is very effectual for all those
inward griefs and hurts, and the distilled water for the same
purposes also, arid for outward wounds and sores in the fleshy
or sinewy part of the body whatsoever, as also to take away the
fits of.agues, and to allay the sharpness of humours. A decoc-
tion of the leaves hereof is available to all the purposes, though
not so effectual as the roots. The roots being outwardly applied,
help fresh wounds or cuts immediately, being bruised and laid
thereto: and is special good for ruptures and broken bones; yea,
it is said to be so powerful to consolidate and knit together, that
if they be boiled with dissevered pieces of flesh in a pot, it will
join them together again. It is good to be applied to women’s
breasts that grow sore by the abundance of milk coming into
them; also, to repress the overmuch bleeding of the heemor-
rhoids, to cool the inflammation of the parts thereabouts, and
to give ease of paius. The roots of comfrey taken fresh, beat-
en small, and spread upon leather, and laid upon any place
troubled with the gout, doth presently give ease of the pains ;
and applied in the same manner, giveth ease to pained joints,
and profiteth very much for running and moist ulcers, gangrenes,
mortifications, and the like, for which it hath by often experi-
ence been found helpful.

CORALWORT.

Xt is also called by some, toothwort, tooth violet, dog-teeth
violet, and dentaria.

Descript .] Of the many sorts of this herb two of them may
be found growing in this nation ; the flrst of which shooteth
forth one or two winged leaves, upon long brownish foot-stalks,
which are doubled down at their first coming out of the ground ;
when they are fully opened they consist of seven leaves, most,
commonly of a sad green colour, dented about the edges, set on

The English Physician Enlarged. 101

both sides the middle rib one against another, as the leaves of
the ash-tree ; the stalk beareth no leaves on the lower half of it ;
the upper half beareth sometimes three or four, each consisting
of five leaves, sometimes of three ; on the top stand four or five
flowers upon short footstalks, with long husks; the flowers are
very like the flowers of stockgilliflowers, of a pale purplish co-
lour, consisting of four leaves a piece, after which come small
pods, which contain the seed ; the root is very smooth, white
and shining; it doth not grow downwards, but creeping along
under the upper crust of the ground, and consisteth of divers
small round knobs set together; towards the top of the stalks
there grow some single leaves, by each of which cometh a small
cloven bulb, which when it is ripe, if it be set in the ground it
will grow to be a root.

As for the other corahvort, which groweth in this nation, it is
more scarce than this, being a very small plant, much like crow-
foot, therefore some think it to be one of the sorts of crowfoot;
I know not where to direct you to it, therefore I shall forbear
the description.

Place.] The first groweth in Mayfield in Sussex, in a wood
called Highread, and in another wood there also, called Fox-
holes.

Time.] They flower from the latter end of April to the mid-
dle of May, and before the middle of July they are gone, and
not to be found.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of the
Moon. It cleanseth the bladder, and provoketh urine, expels
gravel, and the stone ; it easeth pains in the sides and bowels,
is excellent good for inward wounds, especially such as are made
in the breast or lungs, by taking a dram of the powder of the
root every morning in wine ; the same is excellent good for rup-
tures, as also to stop fluxes ; an ointment made of it is excel-
lent good for wounds and ulcers, for it soon dries up the wa-
tery humours which hinder the cure.

102 The English Physician Enlarged.

*

COSTMARY, or ALCOST, or BALSAM HERB.

_I HIS is so frequently known to be an inhabitant in almost
every garden, that I suppose it needless to write a description
thereof.

Time.] It floweretb in June and July.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Jupi-
ter. The ordinary costmary, as well as maudlin, provoketh urine
abundantly, and moisteneth the hardness of the mother ; it gen-
tly purgeth choler and phlegm, extenuating that which is gross,
and cutting that which is tough and glutinous, cleanseth that
which is foul, and hindereth putrefaction and corruption; it
dissolveth without attraction, openeth obstructions, and helpeth
their evil effects, and it is a wonderful help to all sorts of dry
agues. It is astringent to the stomach, and strengtheneth the
liver, and all the other inward parts ; and taken in whey work-
eth more effectually. Taken fasting in the morning, it is very
profitable for pains in the head that are continual, and to stay,
dry up, and consume all thin rheums or distilations from the
head into the stomach, and helpeth much to digest raw humours
that are gathered therein. It is very profitable for those that
are fallen into a continual evil disposition of the whole body,
called cachexia, but especially in the beginning of the disease.
It is an especial friend and help to evil, weak and cold livers.
The seed is familiarly given to children for the worms, and so is
the infusion of the flowers in white wine given them to the quan-
tity of two ounces at a time; it maketh an excellent salve to
cleanse and heal old ulcers, being boiled with oil of olive, and
adder’s tongue with it, and after it is strained, put a little wax,
rosin, and turpentine, to bring it to a convenient body.

CUDWEED, or COTTONWEED.

Besides cudweed and cotton-weed, it is also called chaff-
weed, dwarf cotton, and petty cotton.

The English Physician Enlarged. 103

Descript .] The common cudweed riseth up with one stalk
sometimes, and sometimes with two or three, thick set on all
sides with small, long and narrow whitish or woody leaves, from
the middle of the stalk almost up to the top; with every leaf
standeth a small flower of a dun or brownish yellow colour, or
not so yellow as others; in which herbs, after the flowers are
fallen, come small seed wrapped up, with the down therein,
and is carried away with the wind ; the root is small and
thready.

There are other sorts hereof, which are somewhat lesser than
the former, not much different, save only that the stalks and
leaves are shorter, so the flowers are paler and more open.

Place.'] They grow in dry, barren, sandy and gravelly
grounds, in most places of this land.

Time.] They flower about July, some earlier, some later,
and their seed is ripe in August.

Government and Virtues.] Venus is lady of it. The plants
are all astringent, binding, or drying, and therefore profitable
for defluctions of rheum from the head, and to stay fluxes of
blood wheresoever, the decoction being made into red wine and
drank, or the powder taken therein. It also helpeth the bloody-
flux, and easeth the torments that come thereby, stayeth the
immoderate courses of women, and is also good for inward or
outward wounds, hurts, and bruises, and helpeth children both
of burstings and the worms, and being either drank or injected,
for the disease called tenesmus, which is an often provokation to
stool withont doing any thing. The green leaves bruised, and
laid to any green wound, stayeth the bleeding and healeth it
up quickly. The juice of the herb taken iu wine and milk, is,
as Pliny saith, a sovereign remedy against the mumps and quin-
sey ; and further saith, That whosoever shall so take it, shall
never be troubled with that disease again.

COWSLIPS, or PEAGLES.

Both the wild and garden cowslips are so well known, that

1 04 The English Physician Enlarged.

I will neither trouble myself nor the reader with a description
of them.

Time.] They flower in April and May.

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

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

CRABS CLAWS.

(yALLED also water seagreen, knight's pond water, water
house-leek, pond weed, and fresh-water soldier.

Descript.] It hath sundry long narrow leaves, with sharp
piickles on the edges of them, also very sharp pointed ; the
stalks which bear flowers, seldom grow so high as the leaves.

The English Physician Enlarged. 105

bearing a forked head, like a crab’s claw, out of which comes a
white flower, consisting of three leaves, with divers yellowish
hairy threads in the middle; it taketh root in the mud in the
bottom of the water.

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

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

Government and Virtues.] ’Tis a plant under the dominion of
Venus, and therefore a great strengthener of the reins : it is ex-
cellent good in that inflammation which is commonly called St.
Anthony’s fire ; it assuageth all inflammations, and swellings in
wounds; and an ointment made of it, is excellent good to heal
them ; there is scarce a better remedy growing than this is, for
such as have bruised their kidneys, and upon that account pis-
sing blood ; a dram of the powder of the herb taken every morn-
ing, is a very good remedy to stop the terms.

BLACK CRESSES.

Descript.] It hath long leaves, deeply cut and jagged on both
sides, not much unlike wild mustard ; the stalk small, very lim-
ber, though very tough ; you may twist them round as you may
a willow before they break. The stones are very small and
yellow, after which come small pods, which contain the seed.

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

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

Government and Virtues.] It is a plant of a hot and biting na-
ture, under the dominion of Mars. The seed of black cresses
strengthens the brain exceedingly, being, in performing that of-
fice, little inferior to mustard-seed, if at all ; they are excellent
good to stop those rheums which may fall down from the head
upon the lungs ; you may beat the seed into powder, if yon

106 r The English Physician Enlarged.

please, and make it up into an electuary with honey; so you
have an excellent remedy by you, not only for the premises, but
also for the cough, yellow jaundice, and the sciatica. The
herb boiled into a poultice, is an excellent remedy for inflam-
mations, both in women’s breasts, and men’s testicles.

SCIATICA CRESSES.

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

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

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

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

Government and Virtues.] It is a Saturnine plant. The leaves,
but especially the root, taken fresh in summer time, beaten or
made into a poultice or salve with old hog’s grease, and applied
to the places pained with the sciatica, to continue thereon four
hours if it be on a man, and two hours on a woman ; the place
afterwards bathed with wine and oil mixed together, and then
wrapped with wool or skins, after they have sweat a little, will
assuredly cure not only the same disease in hips, huckle-bone, or
other of the joints, as gout in the hands or feet, but all other old

The English Physician Enlarged. 107

griefs of the head, (as inveterate rheums) and other parts of the
body that are hard to be cured. And if of the former griefs any
parts remain, the same medicine after twenty days, is to be ap-
plied again. The same is also effectual in the diseases of the
spleen : and applied to the skin, taketh away the blemishes there-
of, whether they be scars, leprosy, scabs, or scurf, which although
it ulcerate the part, yet that is to be helped afterwards with a
salve made of oil and wax. Esteem this as another secret.

WATER CRESSES.

Descript.] Our ordinary water cresses spread forth with
many weak, hollow, sappy stalks, shooting out fibres at the
joints, and upwards long winged leaves made of sundry broad
sappy almost round leaves, of a brownish colour. The flowers
are many and white, standing on long foot-stalks, after which
come small yellow seeds, contained in small long pods likeborns.
The whole plant abideth green in the winter, and tasteth some-
what hot and sharp.

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

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

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

Water-cress pottage is a good remedy to cleanse the blood in
the spring, and help head-achs, and consume the gross humours

108 l 1 he English Physician Enlarged.

winter hath left behind ; those that would live in health, may
use it if they please ; if they will not, I cannot help it. If any
fancy not pottage, they may eat the herb as a salad.

CROSSWORT.

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

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

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

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Saturn.
This is a singular good wound herb, and is used inwardly, not
only to stay bleeding of wounds, but to consolidate them, as it
doth outwardly any green wound, which it quickly soldereth up,
and healeth. The decoction of the herb in wine, helpeth to ex-
pectorate the phlegm out of the chest, and is good for obstruc-
tions ill the breast, stomach or bowels, and helpeth a decayed
appetite. It is also good to wash any wounds or sore with, to
cleanse and heal it. The herb bruised, and then boiled, appli-
ed outwardly, for certain days together, renewing it often ; and
in the mean time the decoction of the herb in wine, taken in-

The English Physician Enlarged . 109

wardly every day, doth certainly cure the rupture in any, so as

it be not too inveterate; but very speedily, if it be fresh and
lately taken.

ed, almost enough to make up a Welchman’s pedigree, if he fetch
-no farther than John of Gaunt, or William the Conqueror; for
it is called frog’s-foot, from the Greek name Barrakion : crow-
foot, gold knobs, gold cups, king’s knob, baffiners, troilflowers,
polts, locket goulions, and butterflowers.

So abundant are the sorts of this herb, that to describe them
all, would tire the patience of Socrates himself, but because I
have not yet attained to the spirits of Socrates, I shall but de-
scribe the most usual.

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

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

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

Government and Virtues.] This fiery and hot-spirited herb of
Mars is no ways fit to be given inwardly, but an ointment of the
leaves or flowers will draw a blister, and may be so fitly applied
to the nape of the neck to draw back rheum from the eyes. The
herb being bruised and mixed with a little mustard, draws a blis-
ter as well, and as perfectly as cantharides, and with far less
danger to tire vessels of urine, which cantharides naturally de-
light to wrong ; I knew the herb once applied to a pestilential

CROWFOOT.

are the names this furious biting herb hath obtain-

110 The English Physician Enlarged.

rising that was fallen down, and it saved life even beyond hope ;
it were good to keep an ointment and plaister of it, if it were
but for that.

CUCKOW-PINT OR ARUM.

It is called alron, janus, barba-aron, calfs-foot, ramp, starch-
wort, cuckow-pintle, priest’s-pintle, and wake-robin.

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

There is another sort of cuckow-pint, with lesser leaves than
the former, and sometimes harder, having blackish spots upon

The English Physician Enlarged. Ill

them, which for the most part abide longer green in summer than
the former, and both leaves and roots are more sharp and fierce
than it: In all things else it is like the former.

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

Time.] They shoot forth leaves in the spring, and continue but
until the middle of summer, or somewhat later ; their husks ap-
pearing before they fall away, and their fruit shewing in April.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Ma-s.
Tragus reporteth, that a dram weight, or more, if need be, of
the spotted wake robin, either fresh and green, or dried, being
eaten or taken, is a present and sure remedy for poison, and the
plague. The juice of the herb taken to the quantity of a spoon-
ful hath the same effect. But if there be a little vinegar added
thereto, as well as to the root aforesaid, it somewhat allayeth
the sharp biting taste thereof upon the tongue. The green leaves
bruised, and laid upon any boil, plague, or sore, doth wonder-
fully help to draw forth the poison: A dram of the powder ol
the dried root, taken with twice s© much sugar, in the form of a
licking electuary, or the green root, doth wonderfully help those
that are purfy and shortwinded, as also those that have a cough ;
it breaketh, digesteth, and riddeth away phlegm from the sto-
mach, chest, and lungs. The milk wherein the root hath been
boiled is effectual also for the same purpose. The said powder
taken in wine or other drink, or the juice of the berries, or the
powder of them, or the wine wherein they have been boiled, pro-
voketh urine, and bringeth down women’s courses, and purge th
them effectually after child-bearing, to bring away the afterbirth.
Taken with sheep’s milk, it healeth the inward ulcers of the bow-
els. The distilled water thereof is effectual to all the purposes
aforesaid. A spoonful taken at a time bealeth the itch ; and an
ounce or more taken at a time for some days together doth help
the rupture: The leaves, either green or dry, or the juice ot
them, doth cleanse all manner of rotten and filthy ulcers, in what
part of the body soever; and healeth the stinking sores in the

112 The English Physician Enlarged.

nose, called polypus. The water wherein the root hath been
boiled, dropped into the eyes, cleanseth them from any film or
skin, cloud or mists, which begin to hinder the sight, and help-
eth the watering and redness of them, or when, by some chance,
they become black and blue. The root mixed with bean flour,
and applied to the throat or jaws that are inflamed, helpeth
them. The juice of the berries boiled in oil of roses, or beaten
into powder mixed with the oil, and dropped into the ears, eas-
eth pains in them. The berries, or the roots beaten with hot ox-
dung, and applied, easeth the pains of the gout. The leaves and
roots boiled in wine with a little oil, and applied to the piles, or
the falling down of the fundament, easeth them, and so doth sit-
ting over the hot fumes thereof. The fresh roots bruised and
distilled with a little milk, yieldeth a most sovereign water to
cleanse the skin from scurfj freckles, spots, or blemishes what
soever therein.

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

CUCUMBERS.

Government and Virtues .] There is no dispute to be made,
but that they are under the dominion of the Moon, though they
are so much cried out against for their coldness, and if they
were but one degree colder they would be poison. The best
of Galenists hold them to be cold and moist in the second de-
gree, and then not so hot as either lettuces or purslain : They
are excellent good for a hot stomach, and hot liver; the un-
measurable use of them fills the body full of raw humours, and
so indeed the unmeasurable use of any thing else doth harm.
The face being washed with their juice, cleanseth the skin, and
is excellent good for hot rheums in the eyes ; the seed is excellent
good to provoke urine and cleanseth the passages thereof when
they are stopped ; there is not a better remedy foi ulcers in the

The English Physician Enlarged. 113

bladder growing,’ than cucumbers are. The usual course is,
to use the seeds in emulsions, as they make almond milk ; but a
far better way (in my opinion) is this; When the season of the
year is, take the cucumbers and bruise them well, and distil the
water from them, and let such as are troubled with ulcers in the
bladder drink no other drink. The face being washed with
the same water, cureth the reddest face that is; it is also ex-
cellent good for sun-burning, freckles, and morphew.

DAISIES.

T HESEareso well known almost to every child, that I suppose
it needless to write any description of them. Take therefore the
virtues of them as followeth.

Government and Virtues .] The herb is under the sign Cancer,
and under the dominion of Venus, and therefore excellent good
for wounds in the breast, and very fitting to be kept both in oils,
ointments, and plaisters, as also in syrup. The greater wild daisy
is a wound herb of good respect, often used in those drinks or
salves that are for wounds, either inward or outward. The juice
or distilled water of these, or the small daisy, doth much tem-per
the heat of choler, and refresh the liver, and other inward parts.
A decoction made of them, and drank, helpeth to cure the
wounds made in the hollowmess of the breast. The same also
cureth all ulcers and pustules in the mouth or tongue, or in the
secret parts. The leaves bruised and applied to the cods, or to
any other parts that are swoln and hot, doth dissolve it, and
temper the heat. A decoct-ion made thereof, of wallwort and
agrimony, and the places fomented or bathed therewith warm,
giveth great ease to them that are troubled with the palsy, scia-
tica, or the gout. The same also disperseth and dissolveth the
knots or kernels that grow in the flesh of any part of the body,
and bruises and hurts that come of falls and blows; they are
also used for ruptures, and other inward burnings, with very
good success. An ointment made thereof doth wonderfully help
all wounds that have inflammations about them, or by reason of

114 The English Physician Enlarged.

moist humonrs having access unto them, are kept long from heal-
ing, and such are those, for the most part, that happen to joints
of the arms or legs. The juice of them dropped into the run
ning eyes of any, doth much help them.

DANDELION, vulgarly called P1SS-A-BEDS.

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

Place.] It groweth frequently in all meadow's and pasture-
grounds.

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

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Jupiter.
It is of an opening and cleansing quality, and therefore very ef-
fectual for the obstructions of the liver, gall, and spleen, and the
diseases that arise from them, as the jaundice, and hypochondt i-
ac; it openeth the passages of (he urine both in young and old :
powerfully cleanseth imposthumes and inw'ard ulcers in the uri-

The English Physician Enlarged. 115

nary passages, and by its drying and temperate quality doth af-
terwards heal them; for which purpose the decoction of the
roots or leaves in white wine, or the leaves chopped as pot herbs,
with a few alisanders, and boiled in their broth, are very effec-
tual. And whoever is drawing towards a consumption, or an
evil disposition of the whole body, called cachexia, by the use
hereof for some time together, shall find a wonderful help. It
helpeth also to procure rest and sleep to bodies distempered by
the heat of ague fits, or otherwise: The distilled water is effec-
tual to drink in pestilential fevers, and to wash the sores.

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

DARNEL.

Xt is called jum and wray ; in Sussex they call it cropit, be-
ing a pestilent enemy among corn.

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

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

Government and Virtues.] It is a malicious part of sullen Sa-
turn. As it is not without some vices, so hath it also many vir-
tues. The meal of darnel is very good to stay gangrenes, and
othei such like fretting and eating cankers, and putrid sores : It
also cleanseth the skin of all leprosies, ruorphews, ringworms.

1 If) Fhe English Physician Enlarged.

and the like, if it be used with salt and reddish roots. And be-
ing used with quick brimstone and vinegar, it dissolveth knots
and kernels, and breaketh those that are hard to be dissolved,
being boiled in wine with pigeon’s dung and linseed : A decoc-
tion thereof made with water and honey, and the places bathed
therewith, is profitable for the sciatica. Darnel meal applied in
a poultice draweth forth splinters and broken bones in the flesh :
The red darnel, boiled in red wine and taken, stayeth the lask'
and all other fluxes, and women’s bloody issues; and restraineth
urine that passeth away too suddenly.

DILL.

Descript.] HE common dill groweth up with seldom more
than one stalk, neither so high, nor so great usually as fennel,
being round and fewer joints thereon, w hose leaves are sadder,
and somewhat long, and so like fennel that it deceiveth many,
but harder in handling, and somew'hat thicker, and of a stronger
unpleasant scent : The tops of the stalks have four branches and
smaller umbels of yellow' flowers, which turn into small seed,
somewhat flatter and thinner than fennel seed. The root is
somewhat small and woody, perishing every year after it hath
borne seed ; and is also unprofitable, being never put to any
use.

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

Government and Virtues.] Mercury hath the dominion of this
plant, and therefore to be sure it strengthens the brain. The dill
being boiled and drank, is good to ease swellings and pains; it
also stayeth the belly and stomach from casting. The decoction
thereof helpeth women that are troubled with the pains and win-
diness of the mother, if they sit therein. It stayeth the hiccough,
being boiled in wine, and but smelled unto, being tied in a cloth.
The seed is of more use than the leaves, and more effectual to
digest raw and viscous humours, and is used in medicines that
gerve to expel the pains and wind, proceeding therefrom. The

The English Physician Enlarged. 117

seed being roasted or fried, and used in oils or plaisters, dis-
solves the imposthumes in the fundament; and drieth up all
moist ulcers, especially in the fundament ; an oil made of dill is
effectual to warm or dissolve humours and imposthumes, to ease
pains, and to procure rest. The decoction of dill, be it herb or
seed (only if you boil the seed you must bruise it) in white wine,
being drank, it is a gallant expeller of wind, and provoker of
the terms.

DEVIL’S BIT.

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

There are two other sorts hereof, in nothing unlike the for-
mer, save that the one beareth white, and the other blush-co-
loured flowers.

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

Time.] They flower not usually until August.

Government and Virtues.] The plant is venereal, pleasing, and

118 The English Physician Enlarged.

Bw— — a— htj; izm -, nr- ■ ■■ill ■ ' ibib ib m

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

DOCK.

ANY kinds of these are so well known, that I shall not trou-
ble you with a description of them: My book grows big too
fast.

Government and Virtues .] All docks are under Jupiter, of
which the red dock, which is commonly called blood-wort, clean-
seth the blood, and strengthens the liver; but the yellow dock-
root is best to be taken when either the blood or liver is affected
by eholer. All of them have a kind of cooling (but not all alike)
drying quality, the sorrel being most cold, and the bloodworts
most drying. Of the burdock, I have spoken already by itself.
The seed of most of the other kinds whether the gardens or
fields, do stay lasks and fluxes of all sorts, the loathing of the
stomach through eholer, and is helpful for those that spit blood.
The roots boiled in vinegar helpeth the itch, scabs, and breaking
out of the skin, if it be bathed therewith. The distilled water of

The English Physician Enlarged. 119

the herb and roots have the same virtue, and cleanseth the skin
from freckles, morphew, and all other spots and discolouring
therein.

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

DODDER OF THYME, EPITIIYMUM, AND
OTHER DODDERS.

Descript .] This first from seed giveth roots in the ground,
which shooteth forth threads or strings, grosser or finer, as the
property of the plant wherein it groweth, and the climate doth
suffer, creeping and spreading on that plant whereon it fasteneth,
be it high or low. The strings have no leaves at all upon them,
but wind and interlace themselves, so thick upon a small plant,
that it taketli away all comfort of the sun from it; and is ready
to choak or strangle it. After these strings are risen up tr
that height, that they may draw nourishment from that plant,
they seem to be broken off from the ground either by the strength
of their rising, or withered by the heat of the sun. Upon these
strings are found clusters of small heads or husks, out of which
shoot forth whitish flowers, which afterwards give small pale
white coloured seed, somewhat flat, and twice as big as poppy-
seed. It generally participates of the nature of the plant which
it climbeth upon ; but the dodder of thyme is accounted the
best, and is the only true epithymum.

Government and Virtues.'] All dodders are under Saturn. Tell
not me of physicians crying epithymum, or that dodder which
grows upon thyme, (most of which comes from Hemetius in
Greece, or Hybla in Sicily, because those mountains abound

(

20 The English Physician Enlarged.

with thyme) he is a physician indeed, that hath wit enough to
choose his dodder according to the nature of the disease and hu-
mour peccant. We confess, thyme is the hottest herb it usually
grows upon ; and therefore that which grows upon thyme is
hotter than that which grows upon colder herbs; for it draws
nourishment from what it grows upon, as well as from the earth
where its root is, and thus you see old Saturn is wise enough to
have two strings to his bow. This is accounted the most effectual
for melancholy diseases, and to purge black or burut choler,
which is the cause of many diseases of the head and brain, as also
for the trembling of the heart, faintings and swoonings. It is help-
ful in all diseases and griefs of the spleen, and melancholy that
arise from the windiness of the hypochondria. It purge th also the
reins or kidnies by urine ; it openeth obstructions of the gall,
whereby it profiteth them that have the jaundice •. as also the
leaves the apieen : purging the veins of the choleric and phleg-
matic humours, and helpeth children, in agues, a little worm
seed being put thereto.

The other dodders do, as I said before, participate of the na-
ture of those plants whereon they grow; as that which hath
been found growing on nettles in the west country, hath by ex-
perience been found very effectual to procure plenty of urine
where it hath been stopped or hindered. And so of the rest.

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

DOG’S GRASS, OR COUCH GRASS.
rescript] It is well known that this grass creepetli far about

The English Physician Enlarged. Til

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

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

Government and Virtues.] ’Tis under the dominion of Jupiter,
and is the most medicinal of all the quick grasses. Being bod-
ed and drank, it openeth obstructions of the liver and gall, and
the Stopping of urine, and easeth the griping pains of the belly
and inflammations ; wasteth the matter of the stone, in the blad-
der, and the ulcers thereof also. The roots bruised and applied,
do consolidate wounds. The seed doth more powerfully ex-
pel urine, and stayeth the lask and vomiting. The distilled
water alone, or with a little worm-seed, kilieth the worms in
children.

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

DOVE’S FOOT, or CRANE’S-BILL.

rp

Descript.] I HIS hath divers small, round pale-green leaves,
cut in about the edges, much like mallows, standing upou long.

122

1 'he English Physician Enlarged.

reddish hairy stalks, lying in a round compass upon the ground ;
among which rise up two or three, or more, reddish jointed,
slender, weak, hairy stalks, with such like leaves thereon, but
smaller, and more cut in up to the tops, where grow many very
small bright red flowers of five leaves a-piece; after which fol-
low small heads, with small short beaks pointed forth, as all
other sorts of those herbs do.

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

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

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

DUCK’S MEAT.

This is so well known to swim on the tops of standing wa-
ters, as ponds, pools, and ditches, that it is needless further to
describe it.

Government and Virtues.] Cancer claims the herb, and the
Moon will be lady of it; a word is enough to a wise man. It is
effectual to help inflammations, and St. Anthony’s fire, as also
the gout, either applied by itself, or in a poultice with barley
meal. The distilled water is highly esteemed by some, against all
inward inflammations and pestilent fevers: as also to help the

The English Physician Enlarged. 123

Wi* r ^ xjktwtwt -is. < , a g^f^nr J«a iwr ■ mmtwm

redness of the eyes, and swelling of the cods, and of the breasts
before they be grown too much. The fresh herb applied to the
forehead, easetli the pains of the head-ach coming of heat.

DOWN, or COTTON-THISTLE.

Descript,] i HIS hath large leaves lying on the ground, some-
v hat cut in, and as it were crumbled on the edges, of a green
colour on the upper side, but covered with .ong hairy wool, or
cotton down, set with most sharp and cruel pricks, from the
middle of whose heads of flowers, thrust forth many purplish
crimson threads, and sometimes (although very seldom) white
ones. The seed that followeth in the heads, lying in a great deal
of white down, is somewhat large, long, and round, like the seed
of lady's thistle, but somewhat paler. The root is great and
thick, spreading much, yet it usually dieth after seed time.

Place.] It groweth in divers ditches, banks, and in corn-fields
and high ways, generally every way throughout the land.

Time.] It flowereth and beareth seed about the end of sum-
mer, when other thistles do flower and seed.

Government and Virtues.] Mars owns the plant, and manifests
to the world, that though it may hurt your finger, it will help
your body; for I fancy it much for the ensuing virtues. Pliny
and Dioscorides write, That the leaves and roots thereof taken
in drink, help those that have a crick in their neck; whereby
they cannot turn their neck but their whole body must turn also
(sure they do not mean those that have got a crick in their neck
by being under the hangman’s hand.) Galen saith, that the root
and leaves hereof are of a healing quality, and good for such
persons as have their bodies drawn together by some spasm or
convulsions, as it is with children that have the rickets, or ra-
ther, as the college of physicians will have it, the rachites, for
which name of the disease, they have (in a particular treatise late-
ly set forth by them) learnedly disputed and brought forth to
public view, that the world may see that they have taken much
pains to little purpose.

124 The English lltysician Enlarged.

DRAGONS.

T HEY are so well known to all those who plant them in
their gardens, they need no description ; if not, let them look
down to the lower end of the stalks, and see how like a snake
they look.

Government and Virtues .] The plant is under tire dominion of
Mars, and therefore it would be a wonder if it should want some
obnoxious quality or other ; In all herbs of that quality, the saf-
est way is either to distil the herb in an alembick, in what vehi-
cle you please, or else to press out the juice and distil that in a
glass still in sand. It scoureth and cleanseth the internal parts
of the body mightily, and it cleareth the external parts also, be-
ing externally applied, from freckles, morphew and sun-burning ;
Your best way to use it externally, is to mix it with vinegar; an
ointment of it is held to be good in wounds and ulcers : it con-
sumes cankers, and that flesh growing in the nostrils, which they
call polypus: Also the distilled water being dropped into the
eyes, taketh away spots there, nr the pin and web, and mends
the dimness of sight ; it is excellent good against pestilence and
poison. Pliny and Dioscorides affirm, that no serpent will med-
dle with him that carries this herb about him.

THE ELDER TREE.

IhOLD it needless to write any description of this, since eve
ry boy that plays with a pop-gun will not mistake another tree
instead of elder: I shall therefore in this place only, describe
the dwarf elder, called also dead-wort and wall-wo.rt.

THE DWARF ELDER.

Descript .] This is but an herb, every year dying with his
stalks to the ground, and rising fresh every spring, and is like
unto the elder both in form and quality, rising up with a square
rough hairy stalk, four feet high, or more sometimes. The wing-

The English Physician Enlarged. 125

ed leaves are somewhat narrower than the elder, but else like
them. The dowers are white with a dash of purple, standing in
umbels, very like the elder also, but more sweet in scent ; alter
which come small blackish berries, full of juice while they are
fresh, wherein is small hard kernels, or seed, the root doth creep
under the upper crust of the ground, springing in divers places,
being of the bigness of one's finger or thumb sometimes.

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

The dwarf-elder groweth wild in many places of England,
where being once gotten into a ground, it is not easily gotten
forth again.

Time.] Most of the elder trees flow'er in June, and their fruit
is ripe for the most part in August. But the dwarf-elder, or
wall-wort, flowereth somewhat later, and his fruit is not ripe
until September.

Government and Virtues.] Both the elder and dw arf tree are
under the dominion of Venus. The first shoots of the common
elder boiled like asparagus, and the young leaves and stalks boil-
ed in fat broth, doth mightily carry forth phlegm and choler.
The middle or inward bark boiled in water, and given in drink,
worketh much more violently; and the berries, either green or
dry, expel the same humour, and are often given with good suc-
cess to help the dropsy ; the bark of the root boiled in wine, or
the juice thereof drank, worketh the same effects, but more pow-
erfully than either the leaves or fruit. The juice of the root taken,
doth mightily procure vomitings, and purgeth the w'atery hu-
mours of the dropsy. The decoction of the loot taken, cureth
the biting of an adder, and biting of mad dogs. It mollifieth the
hardness of the mother, if women sit thereon, and openeth their
veins, and bringeth down their courses: The berries boiled in
wine performeth the same effect ; and the hair of the head wash-
ed therewith is made black. The juice of the green leaves ap-
plied to the hot inflammations of the eyes, assuageth them ; the
juice of the leaves snuffed up into the nostrils, purgeth the tu-

126 The English Physician Enlarged.

nicies of the brain; the juice of the berries boiled with honey,
and dropped into the ears, helpeth the pains of them; the de-
coction of the berries in wine being drank provoketh urine ; the
dtstilled water, of the flowers is of much use to clean the skin
from sun-burning, freckles, morphew, or the like; and taketh
away the head-ach, coming of a cold cause, the head being bath-
ed therewith. The leaves or flowers distilled in the month of
May, and the legs often washed with the said distilled water, it
taketh away the ulcers and sores of them. The eyes washed
therewith, it taketh away the redness and bloodshot; and the
hands washed morning and evening therew ith, helpeth the pal-
sy, and shaking of them.

The dwarf elder is more powerful than the common elder in
opening and purging choler, phlegm, and w'ater; in helping the
gout, piles, and women’s diseases, coloureth the hair black, help-
eth the inflammations of the eyes, and pains in the ears, the bit-
ing of serpents, or mad dogs, burnings and scaldings, the wind
cholic, cholic and stone, the difficulty of urine, the cure of old
sores and fistulous ulcers. Either leaves or bark of elder, strip-
ped upwards as you gather it causeth vomiting. Also Dr. But-
ler, in a manuscript of his, commends dwarf elder to the sky for
dropsies, viz. to drink it, being boiled in white wine: to drink
the decoction I mean, not the elder.

THE ELM TREE.

This tree is so well known, growing generally in all coun-
ties of this land, that it is needless to describe it.

Government and Virtues .] It is a cold and Saturnine plant.
The leaves thereof bruised and applied heal green wounds, being
bound thereon with its own bark. The leaves of the bark used
with vinegar cureth scurf and leprosy very effectually : The de-
coction of the leaves, bark, or root, being bathed, heals broken
bones. The water that is found in the bladders on the leaves,
while it is fresh, is very effectual to cleanse the skin, and make
it fair: and if cloths be often wet therein, and applied to the
ruptures of children, it healeth them, if they be well bound up

The English Physician Enlarged. 127

with a truss. The said water put into a glass, and set into the
ground or else in dung for twenty-five days, the mouth thereof
being close stopped, and the bottom set upon a lay of ordinary
salt, that the fceces may settle and water become clear, is a sin-
gular and sovereign balm for green wounds, being used with soft
tents : The decoction of the bark of the root fomented, mollifi-
eth hard tumours, and the shrinking of the sinews. The roots
of the elm, boiled for a long time in water, and the fat arising on
the top thereof, being clean scummed off, and the place anointed
therewith that is grown bald, and the hair fallen away, will quick-
ly restore them again. The said bark ground with brine and
pickle, until it come to the form of a poultice, and laid on the
place pained with the gout, giveth great ease. The decoction of
the bark in water, is excellent to bathe such places as have been
burnt with fire.

ENDIVE.

Descript .] Cy OMMON garden endive beareth a longer and lar-
ger leaf than succory, and abideth but one year, quickly running
uj) to a stalk and seed, and then perisheth ; it hath blue flowers,
and the seed of the ordinary endive is so like succory seed, that it
is hard to distinguish them.

O

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

128 The English Physician Enlarged.

— — g— — Pgg— — ■ Ilf IIIMI— —

it is a fine cooling medicine for fevers. See the end of this book,
and the English Dispensatory.

ELECAMPANE.

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

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

Time.] It flowereth in the end of June and July, and the
seed is ripe in August. The roots are gathered for use, as well
in the spring before the leaves come forth, as in autumn or
winter.

Government and Virtues.] It is a plant under the dominion
of Mercury. The fresh roots of elecampane preserved with
sugar, or made into a syrup or conserve, are very effectual to
warm a cold windy stomach, or the prickling therein, and stitches
in the sides caused by the spleen; and to help the cough, short-
ness of breath, and wheezing in the lungs. The dried root
made into powder, and mixed with sugar, and taken, serveth to

The English Physician Enlarged. 129

the same purpose, and is also profitable for those who have their
urine stopped, or the stopping of women’s courses, the pains oi
the mother, and of the stone in the reins, kidneys or bladder;
it resisteth poison, and stayeth the spreading of the venom ot
serpents, as also putrid and pestilential fevers, and the plague
itself. The roots and herbs beaten and put into new ale or beer,
and daily drank, clearetb, strengthened, and quickeneth the
sight of the eyes wonderfully. The decoction of the roots in
wine, or the juice taken therein, killeth and driveth forth all
manner of worms in the belly, stomach and maw; and gargled
in the mouth, or the root chewed, fasteneth loose teeth, and
helps to .keep them from putrefaction ; and being drank is good
for those that spit blood, helpeth to remove cramps or convul-
sions, gout, sciatica, pains to the joints, applied outwardly or
*

inwardly, and is also good for those that are bursten, or have
any inward bruise. The root boiled welkin vinegar, beaten af
terwards, and made into an ointment with hog’s suet, or oil of
trotters, is an excellent remedy for scabs or itch in young or
old ; the places also bathed or washed with the decoction doth
the same; it also helpeth all sorts of filthy old putrid sores or
cankers whatsoever. In the roots of this herb lieth the chief
effect for the remedies aforesaid. The distilled water of the
leaves and roots together, is very profitable to cleanse the skin
of tire face, or other parts, from any morphew, spots, or blem-
ishes therein, and make it clear.

ERINGO, OR SEA-HOLLY.

Descript . J HE first leaves of our ordinary sea-holly, are

nothing so hard and prickly as when they grow old, being al-
most round, and deeply dented about the edges, hard and sharp
pointed, and a little crumpled, of a bluish green colour, every
one upon a long footstalk ; but those that grow up higher with
the stalk, do as it were compass it aHbut. The stalk itself is
round and strong, yet somewhat crested, with joints and leaves

130 The English Physician Enlarged.

set thereat, but more divided, sharp and prickly; and branches
rising from thence, which have likewise other small branches,,
each of them having several blueish, round prickly heads, with
many small jagged prickly leaves under them, standing like a
star, and sometimes found greenish or whitish : The root grow-
eth wonderfully long even to eight or ten feet in length, set
with rings and circles toward the upper-part, cut smooth and
without joints down lower, brownish on the outside, and very
white within, with a pith in the middle ; of a pleasant taste,
but much more being artificially preserved, and candied with
sugar.

Place.] It is found about the sea coast in almost every coun-
try of this land which bordereth upon the sea.

Time.] It flowereth in the end of summer, and giveth ripe
seed within a month after.

Government and Virtues.] The plant is venereal, and breed-
eth seed exceedingly, and strengthens the spirits procreative;
it is hot and moist, and under the celestial Balance. The decoc-
tion of the root hereof in wine, is very effectual to open obstruc-
tions of the spleen and liver, and helpeth yellow jaundice, drop-
sy, pains of the loins, and wind cholic, provoketh urine, and
expelleth the stone, procureth women’s courses. The continu-
ed use of the decoction for fifteen days, taken fasting, and
next to bedward, doth help the strangury, the pissing by drops,
the stopping of urine, and stone, and all defects of the reins and
kidneys; and if the said drink be continued longer, it is said
thatitcureth the stone; it is found good against the French pox.
The roots bruised and applied outwardly, helpeth the kernels of
the throat, commonly called the king’s evil; or taken inwardly,
and applied to the place stung or bitten by any serpent, healeth
it speedily. If the roots be bruised, and boiled in old hog’s
grease, or salted lard, and applied to broken bones, thorns, &c,
remaining in the flesh, they do not only draw them forth, but
heal up the place again, gathering new flesh where it was con-
sumed. The juice of the leaves dropped into the ear, helpeth
imposthumes therein. The distilled water of the whole herb.

The English Physician Enlarged. 131

when the leaves and stalks are young, is profitably drank for all
the pnrposes aforesaid ; and helpeth the melancholy of the
heart, and is available in quartan and quotidian agues ; as also
for them that have their necks drawn a-wry, and cannot turn
them without turning their whole body,

EYEBRIGHT.

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

Place.] It groweth in meadows and grassy places in this
land.

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

The juice, or distilled water of eyebright, taken inwardly ia
white wine or broth, or dropped into the eyes for divers days
together, helpeth all infirmities of the eyes, that cause dimness
of sight. Some make conserve of the flowers to the same ef-
fect. Being used any of the ways, it also helpeth a w eak brain
or memory. This tunned up with strong beer that it may work
together, and drank, or the powder of the dried herb mixed w'ith
sugar, a little mace, and fennel seed, and drank, or eaten in

132 77/e English Physician Enlarged.

broth; or the said powder made into an electuary with sugar,
and taken, hath the same powerful effect to l\elp and restore
the sight decayed through age; and Arnoldus de Villa Nova
saith, it hath restored to sight them that have been blind a long
time before.

FERN.

Descript .] v)f this there are two kinds principally to be treat-
ed of, viz. the male and female. The female groweth higher
than the male, but the leaves thereof are lesser and more divid-
ed and dented, and of as strong a smell as the male ; the vir-
tue of them are both alike, and therefore I shall not trouble you
with any description or distinction of them.

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

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

The female fern is that plant which is in Sussex called brakes
the seed of which some authors hold to be so rare. Such a
thing there is I know, and may be easily had upon midsummer
eve, and for ought I know, two or three days after it, if not
more.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mer-
cury, both male and female. The roots of both these sorts
of fern being bruised and boiled in mead, or honeyed water, and
drank, killeth both the broad and long worms in the body, and
abateth the swelling and hardness of the spleen. The green
leaves -eaten, purge the belly of choleric and waterish humours
that trouble the stomach. They are dangerous for women with
child to meddle with, by reason they cause abortions. The roots
bruised and boiled in oil, or hog’s grease, make a very profitable
ointment to heal wounds or pricks gotten in the flesh. The
powder of them used in foul ulcers, drieth up their malignant
moisture, and causeth their speedier healing. Fern being burned
the smoke thereof driveth away serpents, gnats, and other noi-

The English Physician Enlarged. 133

some creatures, which in fenny countries do, in the night time,
trouble and molest people lying in their beds with their faces
uncovered ; it causeth barreness.

OSMOND ROYAL, OR WATER FERN.

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

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

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

Government and Virtues.] Saturn owns the plant. This hath
all the virtues mentioned in the former ferns, and is much more
effectual than they, both for inward and outward griefs, and is
accounted singular good in wounds, bruises, or the like. The
decoction to be drank, or boiled into an ointment of oil, as a bal-
sam or balm, and so it is singular good against bruises, and bones
broken, or out of joint, and giveth much ease to the cholic and
splenetic diseases; as also for ruptures or burstings. The de-
coction of the root in white wine, provokes urine exceedingly,
and cleanseth the bladder and passages of urine.

FEVERFEW, OR FEATHERFEW.

Descript.] CoMMON featherfew hath large, fresh, green

134 The English Physician Enlarged.

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

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

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

Government and Virtues.] Venus commands this herb, and
hath commended it to succour her sisters (women) and to be a
general strengthener of their wombs, and remedy such infirmities
as a careless midwife hath there caused ; if they will but be
pleased to make use of her herb boiled in white wine, and drink
the decoction; it cleanseth the womb, expels the after birth,
and doth a woman all the good she can desire of an herb. And
if any grumble because they cannot get the herb in winter, tell
them, if they please, they may make a syrup of it in summer ; it
is chiefly used for the diseases of the mother, whether it be the
strangling or rising of the mother, or hardness, or inflammations
of the same, applied outwardly thereunto. Or a decoction of
the flowers in wine, with a little nutmeg or mace put therein,
and drank often in a day, is an approved remedy to bring down
women’s courses speepily, and helpeth to expel the dead birth
and after birth. For a woman to sit over the hot fumes of the
decoction of the herb, made in w ater or wine, is effectual for the
same; aud in some cases, to apply the boiled herb warm to the
privy parts. The decoction thereof made, with some sugar or
honey put thereto, is used by many with good success to help
the cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse
the reins and bladder, and helps to expel the stone in them. The
powder of the herb taken in wine, w ith some oxymel, purgeth
both choler and phlegm, and is available for those that are short-
winded, and are troubled with melancholy and heaviness, or sad-
ness of spirits. It is very effectual for all pains in the head com-

T'he English Physician Enlarged. 135

ing of a cold cause, the herb being bruised and applied to the
crown of the head ; as also for the vertigo, that is, a running or
swimming of the head. The decoction thereof drank warm, and
the herb bruised with a few corns of bay-salt, and applied to the
wrists before the coming of the ague fits, doth take them away.
The distilled water taketh away freckles, and other spots and
deformities in the face. The herb bruised and heated on a tile,
with some wine to moisten it, or fried with a little wine and oil
in a frying-pan, and applied warm outwardly to the places,
helpeth the wind and cholic in the lower part of the belly.
It is an especial remedy against opium taken too liberally.

FENNEL.

HiVERY garden affordeth this so plentifully, that it needs no
description.

Government and Virtues*] One good old fashion is not yet
left oft, viz, to boil fennel with fish, for it consumes that phleg-
matic humour, which fish most plentifully afford and annoy the
body with, though few that use it know wherefore they doit: I
suppose the reason of its benefit this way is because it is an herb
of Mercury, and under Virgo, and therefore bears antipathy
to Pisces. Fennel is good to break wind, to provoke urine,
and ease the pains of the stone, and helps to break it. The
leaves or seed, boiled in barley water and drank are good for
nurses, to increase their milk, and make it more wholesome for
the child. The leaves, or rather the seeds, boiled in water,
stayeth tbe hiccough, and taketh away the loathings which of-
tentimes happen to the stomachs of sick and feverish persons,
and allayeth the heat thereof. The seed boiled in wine and drank,
is good for those that are bitten with serpents, or have eaten poi
sonous herbs, or mushrooms. The seed and the roots much
more help to open obstructions of the liver, spleen, and gall,
and thereby help the painful and windy swellings of the spleen,
and the yellow jaundice; and also the gout and cramps. The
seed is of good use in medicines to help shortness of breath and

136 The English Physician Enlarged.

wheezing by stopping of the lungs. Tt helpeth also to bring
down the courses, and to cleanse the parts after delivery. The
roots are of most use in physic, drinks and broths, that are ta-
ken to cleanse the blood, to open obstructions of the liver, to
provoke urine, and amend the ill colour of the face after sickness,
and to cause a good habit through the body. Both leaves, seeds,
and roots thereof are much used in drink or broth, to make peo-
ple more lean that are too fat. The distilled water of the
whole herb, or the condensate juice dissolved, but especially the
natural juice, that in some counties issueth out hereof of its own
accord, dropped into the eyes, cleanseth them from mists and
films that hinder the sight. The sweet fennel is much weaker in
physical uses than the common fennel. The wild fennel is stron-
ger and hotter than the tame, and therefore most powerful
against the stone, but not so effectual to increase milk, because
of its dryness.

SOW-FENNEL, OR HOG’S FENNEL.

S ^ESIDES the common name in English, hog’s fennel, and
the Latin name peucidanum, it is called hoar-strange, and hoar-
strong, sulphur-wort, and brimstone wort.

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

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

Time.] it flowereth plentifully in July and August.

.

The English Physician Enlarged. 137

Government and Virtues .] This is also an herb of Mercury,
The juice of sow fennel (saith Dioscorides and Galen,) used
with vinegar and rose water, or the juice with a little euphor-
bium put to the nose, helpeth those that are troubled with the
lethargy, frenzy, giddiness of the head, the falling sickness,
long and inveterate head-ach, the palsy, sciatica, and the cramp,
and generally all the diseases of the sinews, used with oil and
vinegar. The juice dissolved in wine, or put into an egg, is
good for a cough, or shortness of breath, and for those that are
troubled w'ith wind in the body. It purgeth the belly gently
expelleth the hardness of the spleen, giveth ease to women that
have sore travail in child-birth, and easeth the pains of the reins
and bladder, and also the womb. A little of the juice dissolved
in wine, and dropped into the ears, easeth much of the pains in
them, and put into a hollow tooth, easeth the pains thereof.
The root is less effectual to all the aforesaid disorders; yet the
pow der of the root cleanseth foul ulcers, being put into them,
and taketh out splinters of broken bones, or other things in the
flesh, and healeth them up perfectly ; as also drieth up old
and inveterate running sores, and is of admirable virtue in all
green wounds.

FIG-WORT, OR THROAT-WORT.

Deseript .] d OMMON great fig-wort sendeth divers great
strong, hard, square brown stalks, three or four feet high,
whereon grow large, hard, and dark green leaves, two at a joint,
harder and larger than nettle leaves, but not stinking; at the
tops of the stalks stand many purple flowers set in husks, w hich
are sometimes gaping and open, somew hat like those of water
betony ; after which come hard round heads, with a small point
in the middle, wherein lie small brownish seed. The root is great,
white, and thick, with many branches at it, growing aslope un-
der the upper crust of the ground, which abideth many years
but keepeth not its green leaves in winter.

S

138 1'he English Physician Enlarged.

Place.] Tt groweth frequently in moist and shadowy woods,
and in the lower parts of fields and meadows.

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

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

FILIPENDULA, OR DROP-WORT.

Descripl.] ^ HIS sendeth forth many leaves, some bigger
some lesser, set on each side of a middle rib, and each of them
dented about the edges, somewhat resembling wild tansy, or ra-
ther agrimony, but harder in handling ; among which rise np one
or more stalks, two or three feet high, with the leaves growing
thereon, and sometimes also divided into other branches spread-
ing at the top into many white, sweet smelling flowers, consisting
of five leaves a piece, with some threads in the middle of them
standing together in a pith or umbel, each upon a small foot-
stalk, which, after they have been blown upon a good while, do

The English Physician Enlarged. 139

fall away, and in their places appear small, round, chaffy heads
like buttons, wherein are the chaffy seeds set and placed. The
root consists of many small, black, tuberous pieces fastened to-
gether by many small, long, blackish strings, which run from
one to another.

Place.] It groweth in many places of this land, in the corners
of dry fields, and meadows, and the hedge sides.

Time.] They flower in June and July, and their seed is ripe
in August.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Venus.
It effectually opens the passages of the urine, helpeth the stran-
gury; the stone in the kidneys or bladder, the gravel, and all
other pains of the bladder and reins, by taking the roots in pow-
der, or the decoction of them in white wine, with a little honey.
The roots made into powder, and mixed with honey in the form
of an electuary doth much help them whose stomachs are swollen
dissolving and breaking the wind which was the cause thereof;
and is also very effectual for all the diseases of the lungs, as short-
ness of breath, wheezing, hoarseness of the throat, the cough,
and to expectorate tough phlegm, or any other parts thereabout.
It is called drop-wort, because it helps such as piss by drops.

THE FIG-TREE.

OR to give a description of a tree so well known to every
body that keeps it in his garden, were needless. They prosper
very w ell in our English gardens, yet are fitter for medicine than
for any other profit which is gotten by the fruit of them.

Government and Virtues.] The tree is under the dominion of
Jupiter. The milk that issueth out from the leaves or branches
where they are broken off, being dropped upon warts, taketh
them away. The decoction of the leaves is excellent good to
w ash sore heads with ; and there is scarcely a better remedy for
the leprosy than it is. It clears the face also of morphew, and the
body of white scurf, scabs, and running sores. If it be dropped
into old fretting ulcers, it cleanseth out the moisture, and bring-
eth up the flesh; because you cannot have the leaves green all

140 The English Physician Enlarged.

the year, you may make an ointment of them whilst you may.
A decoction of the leaevs being drank inwardly, or rather a syrup
made of them, dissolves congealed blood caused by bruises or
falls, and helps the bloody flux. The ashes of the wood made
into an ointment with hog’s grease, helps kibes and chilblains.
The juice being put into an hollow tooth, easeth pain; as also
pain and noise in the ears, being dropped into them ; and deaf-
ness. An ointment made of the juice and hog’s grease, is as
excellent a remedy for the biting of mad dogs, or other ven-
omous beasts as most are. A syrup made of the leaves, or green
fruit, is excellent good for coughs, hoarseness, or shortness of
breath, and all diseases of the breast and lungs; it is also ex-
cellent good for the dropsy and falling sickness. They say that
the figtree, as well as the bay-tree is never hurt by lightning:
as also if you tie a bull, be he ever so mad, to a fig-tree he will
quickly become tame and gentle. As for such figs as come from
beyond the sea, I have little to say, because I write not of ex-
otics ; yet some authors say, the eating of them makes people
lousy.

THE YELLOW WATER FLAG, OR FLOWER-DE-LUCE.

Descript .] This groweth like the flower-de-luce, but it
hath much longer and narrower sad green leaves jointed toge-
ther in that fashion; the stalk also growing oftentimes as high,
bearing small yellow flowers shaped like the flower-de-luce,
with three falling leaves, and other three arched that cover their
bottoms; but instead of the three upright leaves, as the flower-
de-luce hath, this hath only three short pieces standing in ther' 1
places, after which succeed thick and long three square heads,
containing in each part somewhat big and flat seed, like those of
the flower-de-luce. The root is long and slender, of a pale
brownish colour on the outside, and of a horseflesh colour on
the inside, with many hard fibres thereat, and very harsh in
taste.

The English Physician Enlarged. 141

Place.] It usually grows in watery ditches, ponds, lakes, and
moor sides, which are always overflowed with water.

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

Government and, Virtues.] It is under the dominion of the
Moon. The root of this water-flag is very astringent, cooling
and drying; and thereby helps all lasks and fluxes, whether of
blood or humours, as bleeding at the mouth, nose, or other
parts, bloody flux, and the immoderate flux of women’s courses.
The distilled water of the whole herb, flowers and roots, is a
sovereign good remedy for watering eyes, both to be dropped
into them, and to have cloths or sponges wetted therein, and
applied to the forehead : it also helpeth the spots and blemish-
es that happen in and about the eyes, or in any other parts :
The said water fomented on swellings and hot inflammations
of women’s breasts, upon cankers also, and those spreading
ulcers called Noli me tangere, will do much good : It helpeth
also foul ulcers in the privities of men or women; but an oint-
ment made of the flowers is better for those external applica-
tions.

FLAX-WEED, or TOAD-FLAX.

Descript.] Our common flax-weed hath divers stalks full
fraught with long and narrow ash-colon red leaves, and from
the middle of them almost upward, stored with a number of
pale yellow flowers, of a strong unpleasant scent, with deeper
yellow mouths, and blackish flat seed in round heads. The
root is somewhat woody and white, especially the main down-
right one, with many fibres, abiding many years, shooting forth
roots every way round about, and new branches every year.

Place.] This groweth throughout this land, both by the way
sides, and in meadows, also by hedge-sides, and upon the sides
of banks, and borders of fields.

Time.] It flowereth in Summer, and the seed is ripe usually
before the end of August.

142 The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues .] Mars owns the herb : In Sussex
we call it gall-wort, and lay it in our chickens’ water to cure
them of the gall; it relieves them when they are drooping.
This is frequently used to spend the abundance of those watery
humours by urine, which cause the dropsy. The decoction
of the herb, both leaves and flowers, in wine taken and drank,
doth somewhat move the belly downwards, openelli obstruc-
tions of the liver, and helpeth the yellow jaundice ; expelleth
poison, provoketh women’s courses, driveth forth the dead child,
and after. birth. The distilled water of the herb and flowers is
effectual for all the same purposes ; being drank with a dram
of the powder of the seeds of bark or the roots of wall-wort,
and a little cinnamon, for certain days together, it is held a sin-
gular remedy for the dropsy. The juice of the herb, or the
distilled water, dropped into the eyes, is a certain remedy for
all heat, inflammations, and redness in them. The juice or
water put into foul ulcers, whether they be cancerous or fistu-
lous, with tents rolled therein, or parts washed and injected
therewith, cleanseth them thoroughly from the bottom, and heal-
etli them up safely. The same juice or water also cleanseth
the skin wonderfully of all sorts of deformity, as leprosy, mor-
phew, scurf, w heals, pimples, or spots, applied of itself, or used
with some pow'der of lupines.

FLEA-WORT.

Descript .] ORDINARY flea-wort risrth up with a stalk
two feet high or more, full of joints and branches on every
side up to the top, and at every joint two small, long, and nar-
row whitish green leaves somewhat hairy ; at the top of every
branch stand divers small, short scaly, or chaffy heads, out of
which come forth small whitish yellow threads, like to those of
the plantain herbs, which are the blooming of flowers. The seed
nclosed in these heads is small and shining while it is fresh,
very like unto fleas both for colour and bigness, but turning black
when it groweth old. The root is not long, but white, hard and

The English Physician Enlarged. 143

woody, perishing every year, and rising again of its own seed
for divers years, if it be suffered to shed : The whole plant is
somewhat whitish and hairy, smelling somewhat like rosin.

There is another sort hereof, differing not from the former in
the manner of growing, but only that this stalk and branches
being somewhat greater, do a little more bow down to the
ground : The leaves are somewhat greater, the heads somewhat
lesser, the seed alike ; and the root and leaves abide all winter,
and perish not as the former.

Place.] The first groweth only in gardens, the second plenti-
fully in fields that are near the sea.

Time.] They flower in July, or thereabouts.

Government and Virtues.] The herb is cold, dry, and Saturn-
ine. I suppose it obtained the name of flea-wort, because the
seeds are so like fleas. The seed fried, and taken, stayeth the
flux or lask of the belly, and the corrosions that come by reason
of hot choleric, or sharp and malignant humours, or by too
much purging of any violent medicine, as scammony, or the like.
The mucilage of the seed made with rose-water, and a little su-
garcandy put thereto, is very good in all hot agues and burning
fevers, and other inflammations, to cool the thirst, and lenify the
dryness and roughness of the tongue and throat. It helpeth also
hoarseness of the voice, and diseases of the breast and lungs, caus-
ed by heat, or sharp salt humours, and the pleurisy also. The
mucilage of the seed made with plantain water, whereunto the
yolk of an egg or two, and a little populeon are put, is a most
safe and sure remedy to ease the sharpness, pricking, and pains
of the haemorrhoids or piles, if it be laid on a cloth, and bound
thereto. It helpeth all inflammations in any part of the body,
and the pains that come thereby, as the head-ach and megrims,
and all hot imposthumes, swellings, or breaking out of the skin,
as blains, wheals, pushes, purples, and the like ; as also the joints
of those that are out of joint, the pains of the gout and sciatica,
the burstings of young children, and the swellings of the navel,
applied w ith oil of roses and vinegar. It is also good to heal the
nipples and sore breasts of women, being often applied thereim-

144 The English Physician Enlarged.

to. Tlie juice of the herb with a little honey put into the ears
helpeth the running of them, and the worms breeding in them:
Idle same also mixed with hog’s grease, and applied to corrupt
and filthy ulcers, cleanseth them and healeth them.

FLUXWEED.

Descript .] Tt riseth up with a round upright hard stalk, four
or five feet high, spreading into sundry branches, whereon grow
many greyish green leaves, very finely cut and severed into a
number of short and almost round parts. The flowers are very
small and yellow, growing spike fashion, after which come small
long pods, with small yellowish seed in them. The root is long
t:nd woody, perishing every year.

There is another sort, differing in nothing, save only it hath
somewhat broader leaves ; they have a strong evil savour, being
smelled unto, and are of a drying taste.

Place.] They grow wild in the fields by hedge sides, and
highways, and among rubbish and other places.

Time.] They flower and seed quickly after, namely in June
and July.

Government and Virtues.] This herb is Saturnine also. Both
the herb and seed of fluxweed is of excellent use to stay the flux
or lask of the belly, being drank in water wherein gads of steel
heated have been often quenched ; and is no less effectual for
the same purpose than plantain or comfrey, and to restrain any
other flux of blood in man or woman, as also to consolidate bones
broken or out of joint. The juice thereof drank in wine, or the
decoction of the herb drank, doth kill the worms in the stomach
or belly, or the worms that grow in putrid and filthy ulcers:
and made into a salve doth quickly heal all old sores how foul or
malignant soever they be. The distilled water of the herb work-
eth the same effects, although somewhat weaker, yet it is a fair
medicine, and more acceptable to be taken. It is called flnxweed
because it cures the flux, and for its uniting broken bones, &c.
Paracelsus extols it to the skies. It is fitting that syrup, oint
ment and plaisters of it were kept in your houses.

The English Physician Enlarged. 145

FLOWER-DE-LUCE.

It is so well known, being nourished up in most gardens,
that I shall not need to spend time in writing a description
thereof.

Time.] The flaggy kinds thereof have the most physical
uses ; the dwarf kinds thereof flower in April, the greater sorts
in May.

Government and Virtues.] The herb is Lunar. The juice or
decoction of the green root or flaggy kind of flower-de-luce,
with a little honey drank, doth purge and cleanse the stomach
of gross and tough phlegm, and choler therein; it helpeth the
jaundice and the dropsy, evacuating those humours both up-
wards and downwards; and because it somewhat hurts the sto-
mach, is not to be taken without honey and spikenard. The
same being drank doth ease the pains and torments of the belly
and sides, the shaking of agues, the diseases of the liver and
spleen, the worms of the belly ; the stone in the reins, convulsions
and cramps that come of old humours ; it also helps those whose
seed passeth from them unawares; It is a remedy against the
bitings and stingings of venomous creatures, being boiled in
water and vinegar and drank: boiled in water and drank, it
provoketh urine, helpeth the cholic, bringeth down women’s
courses; and made up into a pessary with honey, and put up in-
to the body, draweth forth the dead child. It is much commend-
ed against the cough, to expectorate tough phlegm ; It much eas-
eth pains in the head, and procureth sleep; being put into the
nostrils it procureth sneezing, and thereby purgeth the head of
phlegm; the juice of the root applied to the piles or haemorr-
hoids, giveth much ease. The decoction of the roots gargled
in the mouth, easeth the tooth-ach, and helpeth the stinking
breath. Oil called oleum irinum, if it be rightly made of the great
broad flag flower-de-luce, (and not of the great bulbous blue
flower-de-luce, as is used by some apothecaries) and the
roots of the same of the flaggy kinds, is very effectual to warm

No. 7. T

146 The English Physician Enlarged.

and comfort all cold joints and sinews, as also the gout and scia-
tica, and mollifieth dissolved) and consumeth tumoursand swell-
ings in any part of the body, as also of the matrix ; it helpeth
the cramp, or convulsions of the sinews; the head and temples
anointed therewith, helpeth the catarrh or thin rheum distilled
from thence ; and used upon the breast or stomach, helpeth to
extenuate the cold tough phlegm ; it helpeth also the pains and
noise in the ears, and the stench of the nostrils. The root itself,
eidier greenor in powder, helpeth tncleanse, heal, and incarnate
wounds, and to cover the naked bones with flesh again, that ul-
cers have made bare ; and is also very good to cleanse and heal
up fistulas and cankers that are hard to be cured.

FLUELLIN, OR LLUELLIN.

Descript . ] It shooteth forth many long branches, partly
lying upon the ground, and partly standing upright, set with al-
most red leaves, yet a little pointed, and sometimes more long
than round, without order thereon, somewhat hairy, and of an
evil greenish white colour; at the joints all along the stalks, and
with the leaves come forth small flowers, one at a place, upon a
very small short footstalk, gaping somewhat like snap-dragons,
or rather like toad-flax, with the upper jaw of a yellow colour,
and the lower of a purplish, with a small heel or spur behind ;
after which come forth small round heads, containing small black
seed. The root is small and thready, dying every year, and rais-
cth itself again of its own sowing.

There is another sort of lluellin which hath longer branches
wholly trailing upon the ground, two or three feet long, and
somewhat more thin; set with leaves thereon, upon small foot-
stalks. The leaves are a little larger, and somewhat round, and
cornered sometimes in some places on the edges ; but the lower
part of them being the broadest, hath on each side a small point,
making it seem as if they were ears, sometimes hairy, but not
hoary, and of a better green colour than the former. The flow-
ers come forth like the former, but the colours therein are more

The English Physician Enlarged. 147

white than yellow, and the purple not so fair: The flower is
larwe. and so are the seed and seed-vessels. The root is like

o *

the other, and perisheth every year.

Place.] They grow abundantly in divers corn-fields, and ia
borders about them, and in other fertile grounds about South-
fleet in Kent; at Buchrite, Hamerton, and Richmanworth
in Huntingdonshire, and in divers other places.

Time.] They are in flower about June and July, and the
whole plant is dry and withered before August be over.

Government and Virtues.] It is a Lunar herb. The leaves
bruised and applied with barley meal to watering eyes that are
hot and inflamed by deductions from the head, do very much
help them, as also the fluxes of blood or humours, as the lask,
bloody flux, women’s courses, and stayeth all manner of bleed-
ing at the nose, mouth, or any other place, or that eometh by
any bruise or hurt, or bursting a vein; it wonderfully helpeth
all those inward parts that need consolidating or strengthening,
and is no less effectual both to heal and close green wounds, and
to cleanse and heal all foul or old ulcers, fretting or spreading
cankers, or the like. Bees are industrious, and go abroad to
gather honey from each plant or flower, but drones lie at home,
and eat up what the bees have taken pains for: Just so do the
college of physicians lie at home and domineer, and suck out
the sweetness of other men’s labours and studies, themselves
being as ignorant in the knowledge of herbs as a child of four
years old, as I can make appear to any rational man by their
last dispensatory. Now then to hide their ignorance, there is no
readier way in the world than to hide knowledge from their
countrymen, that so no body might be able so much as to smell
out their ignorance. When simples were in use, men’s bodies
were better in health by far than now they are, or shall be, if the
college can help it. The truth is, this herb is of a fine cooling,
drying quality, and an ointment or plaister of it might do a man
a courtesy that hath any hot virulent sores; It is admirable for
the ulcers of the French pox; if taken inwardly, may cure the
disease. It was first called female speedwell, but a shentleman

148 The English Physician Enlarged.

of Wales, whose nose was almost eaten off with the pox, and so
near the matter, that the doctors commanded it to be cut off,
being cured only by the use of this herb; and to honour the
herb, for saving bur nose whole, gave it, one of bur .country
names, Fluellin.

FOXGLOVES.

Descript .] It hath many long and broad leaves'lying upon
the ground dented upon the edges, a little soft or woolly and of a
hoary green colour, among which riseth up sometimes sundry
stalks, but one very often, bearing such leaves thereon from
the bottom to the middle, from whence to the top it is stored
with large and long hollow reddish purple flowers, a little more
long and eminent at the lower edge, with some white spots with-
in them, one above another, with small green leaves at every one,
but all of them turning their heads one way, and hanging down-
wards, having some threads also in the middle, from whence
rise round heads, pointed sharp at the ends, wherein small brown
seed lieth. The roots are so many small fibres, and some great-
er strings among them ; the flowers have no acent, but the leaves
Lave a bitter hot taste.

Place.] It groweth on dry sandy ground for the most part,
and as well on the higher as the lower places under hedge-sides
in almost every county of this land.

Time.] It seldom flowereth before July, and the seed is ripe
in August.

Government and Virtues.] The plant is under the dominion
of Venus, being of a gentle cleansing nature, and withal very
friendly to nature. The herb is familiarly and frequently used
by the Italians to heal any fresh or green wound, the leaves be-
ing but bruised and bound thereon ; and the juice thereof is also
used in old sores, to cleanse, drj, and heal them. The decoction
hereof made up with some sugar or lainey, is available to cleanse
and purge the body both upwards and downwards, sometimes
of tough phlegm and clammy humours, and to open obstructions

The English Pnysician Enlarged. 149

of the liver and spleen. It hath been found by experience to be
available for the king’s evil, the herb bruised and applied, or an
ointment made with the juice thereof, and so used; and a de-
coction of two handfuls thereof, with four ounces of polipody
in ale, hath been found by late experience to cure divers of the
falling sickness, that have been troubled with it above twenty
years. I am confident that an ointment of it is one of the best
remedies for a scabby head that is.

FUMITORY.

Descript .] Our common fumitory is a tender sappy herb,
sending from one square, a slender weak stalk, and leaning
downwards on all sides, many branches two or three feet long,
with finely cut and jagged leaves of whitish, or rather blueish
sea green colour; At the tops of the branches stand many small
flowers, as it were in a long spike one above another, made like
little birds, of a reddish purple colour, with whitish bellies,
after which come small round husks, containing small black
seeds. The root is yellow, small, and not very long, full of
juice while it is green, but quickly perishes with the ripe
seed. In the corn-fields in Cornwall, it beareth white flowers.

Place.] It groweth in corn-fields almost every where, as
well as in gardens.

Time.] It flowereth in May, for the. most part, and the seed
ripeneth shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn owns the herb, and presents
it to the world as a cure for his owm disease, and strengthener
of the parts of the body he rules. If by my astrological judg-
ment of diseases, from the decumbiture, you find Saturn author
of the disease, or if by direction from a nativity you fear a Sa-
turnine disease approaching, you may by this herb prevent it
in the one, and cure it in the other, and therefore it is fit you
keep a syrup of it always by you. The juice or syrup made
thereof, or the decoction made in whey by itself, with some

150 'Tlit English Physician Enlarged.

other purging or opening herbs and roots to cause it to work the
better (itself being but weak) is very effectual for the liver and
spleen, opening the obstructions thereof, and clarifying the
blood from saltish, choleric, and adust humours, which cause le-
prosy scabs, tetters, and itches, and such like breakings-out of
the skin, and after the purgings doth strengthen all the inward
parts. It is also good against the yellow jaundice, and spendeth
it by urine, which it procureth in abundance. The powder of
the dried herb given for some time together, cureth melancho-
ly, but the seed is strongest in operation for all the former dis-
eases. The distilled water of the herb is also of good effect in
the former diseases, and conduceth much against the plague and
pestilence, being taken with good treacle. The distilled wa-
ter also, with a little water and honey of roses, helpeth all the
sores of the mouth or throat, being gargled often therewith.
The juice dropped into the eyes, cleareth the sight, and tak-
eth away redness and other defects in them, although it pro-
cureth some pain for the present, and cause tears. Dioscor-
ides saith it hindereth any fresh springing of hairs on the eye-
lids (after they are pulled away) if the eye-lids be anointed with
the juice hereof, with gum arabic dissolved therein. The juice
of the fumitory and docks mingled with vinegar, and the places
gently washed or wet therewith, cureth all sorts of scabs, pim-
ples, blotches, wheals, and pushes which arise on the face or
hands, or any other parts of the body.

THE FURZE BUSH.

It is so well known by this name, as it is in some counties
by the name of gorz or whins, that I shall not need to write
any description thereof, my intent being to teach my country-
men what they know not, rather than tell them again of that
which is generally known before.

Place.] They are known to grow on dry barren heaths, and
other waste, gravelly or sandy grounds, in all counties of this
land.

The English Physician Enlarged. 15 1

Time.] They also flower in the summer months.

Government and Virtues.] Mars owns the herb. They are
hot and dry, and open obstructions of the liver and spleen. A
decoction made with the flowers thereof hath been found effec-
tual against the jaundice, as also to provoke urine, and cleanse
the kidneys from gravel or stone engendered in them, Mars
doth also this by sympathy,

GARLICK.

The offensiveness of the breath of him that hath eaten gar-
lick, will lead you by the nose to the knowledge thereof, and (in-
stead of a description) direct you to the place where it groweth
in gardens, which kinds are the best, and most physical.

Government and Virtues.] Mars owns this herb. This was an-
ciently accounted the poor man’s treacle, it being a remedy for
all diseases and hurts (except those which itself breed.) It pro-
voketh urine and women’s courses, helpeth the biting of mad
dogs and other venomous creatures ; killeth worms in children,
cutteth and voideth tough phlegm, purgeth the head, helpeth
the lethargy, is a good preservative against, and a remedy for
any plague, sore, or foul ulcer; takethaway spots and blemislies
in the skin, easeth pains in the ears, ripeneth and breaketh im-
posthumes, or other swellings. And for all those diseases the
onions are as effectual. But the garlic hath some more peculiar
virtues besides the former, viz. it hath especial quality to discuss
inconveniences coming by corrupt agues or mineral vapours, or
by drinking corrupt and stinking waters ; as also by taking wolf-
bane, hen-bane, hemlock, or other poisonous and dangerous
herbs. It is also held good in hydropic diseases, the jaundice,
falling sickness, cramps, convulsions, the piles or haemorrhoids,
or other cold diseases. Many authors quote many diseases this
is good for • but conceal its vices. Its heat is very vehement,
and all vehement hot things send up but ill favoured vapours to
the brain. In choleric men it will add fuel to the fire; in men
oppressed by melancholy, it will attenuate the humour, and send

152 Phe English Physician Enlarged.

up strong fancies, and as many strange visions to the head ;
therefore let it be taken inwardly with great moderation; out-
wardly you may make more bold with it.

GENTAIN, FELWORT, OR BALDMONY.

Xt is confessed that gentain, which is most used among us, is
brought over beyond sea, yet we have two sorts of it growing
frequently in our nation, which, besides the reasons so fre-
quently alledged why English herbs should be fittest for English
bodies, hath been proved by the experience of divers physi-
cians, to be not a whit inferior in virtue to that which cometh
from beyond sea, therefore be pleased to take the description
of them as followeth :

Descript .] The greater of the two hath many small, long
roots, thrust down deep into the ground, and abiding all the
winter. The stalks are sometimes more, sometimes fewer, of a
brownish green colour, which is sometimes two feet high, if the
ground be fruitful, having many long, narrow, dark green leaves,
set by couples up to the top; the flowers are long and hollow,
of a purple colour, ending in fine corners. The smaller sor.t,
which is to be found in our land, groweth up with sundry stalks,
not a foot high, parted into several small branches, whereon
grow divers small leaves together, very like those of the lesser
centaury, of a whitish green colour ; on the tops of these stalks
grow divers perfect blue flowers, standing in long husks, but
not so big as the other; the root is very small, and full of
threads.

Place.'] The first groweth in divers places of both the east
and west countries, and as well in wet as in dry grounds; as
near Longfield by Gravesend ; near Cobham in Kent ; near
Lillinstone in Kent ; also in a chalk pit hard by a paper-mill, not
far from Dartford in Kent. The second groweth also in divers
places in Kent, as about Southfleet and Longfield ; upon Bar-
ton’s hills in Bedfordshire; also not far from St. Albans; up-

The English Physician Enlarged. 153

on a piece of waste chalky ground, as you go out of Dunstable
way towards Gorhambury.

Time.] They flower in August.

Government and Virtues.] They are under the dominion of
Mars, and one of the most principal herbs he is ruler of. They
resist putrefactions, poison, and a more sure remedy cannot be
found to prevent the pestilence than it is; it strengthens the
stomach exceedingly, helps digestion, comforts the heart, and
preserves it against huntings and swoonings: The powder of
the dry roots helps the biting of mad dogs and venomous beasts,
opens obstructions of the liver, and restoreth an appetite of their
meat to such as have lost it. The herb steeped'in wine, and the
wine drank, refresheth such as be over-weary with travel, and
grow lame in their joints, either by cold or evil lodgings; it helps
stitches, and griping pains in the sides; is an excellent remedy
for such as are bruised by falls; it provokes urine and the terms
exceedingly, therefore let it not be given to women with child :
The same is very profitable for such as are troubled with cramps
and convulsions, to drink the decoction : Also they say it breaks
the stone, and helps ruptures most certainly; it is excellent in
all cold diseases, and such as are troubled with tough phlegm,
scabs, itch, or any fretting sores and ulcers; it is an admirable
remedy to kill the worms, by taking half a dram of the powder in
a morning in any convenient liquor; the same is excellent good
to be taken inwardly for the king's evil. It helps agues of all
sorts, and the yellow jaundice, as also the bots in cattle; when
kine are bitten on the udder by any venomous beast ; do but
stroke the place with the decoction of any of these, and it will
instantly heal them.

GLOVE GILLIFLOWERS.

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

Government and Virtues.] They are gallant, fine temperate
flowers, of the nature and under the dominion of Jupiter; yea.

No. 7. u

154 The English Physician Enlarged.

so temperate, that no excess, either in heat, cold, dryness, noi
moisture^ can be perceived in them ; they are great strengthen-
ed both of the brain and heart, and will therefore serve either
for cordials or cephalics as your occasion will serve. There is
both a syrup and a conserve made of them alone, commonly to
be had at every apothecary's. To take now and then a little of
either, strengthens nature much, in such as are in consumptions.
They are also excellent good in hot pestilent fevers, and expel
poison.

GERMANDER.

Descript .] CyOMMON germander shooteth forth sundry
stalks* with small and somewhat round leaves, dented about
the edges* The flowers stand at the tops, of a deep purple
colour. The root is composed of divers sprigs, which shoot
forth a great way round about, quickly overspreading a gar-
den.

Place."] It groweth usually with us in gardens.

Time.] And flowereth in June and July.

Government and Virtues.] It is a most prevalent herb of Mer-
cury, and strengthens the brain and apprehension exceeding-
ly ; (you may see what human virtues are under Mercury, in the
latter end of my Ephemeris for 1652,) strengthens them when
weak, and relieves them when drooping. This taken with honey
(saith Dioscorides,) is a remedy for coughs, hardness of the
spleen, and difficulty of urine, and helpeth those that are fallen
into a dropsy, especially at the beginning of the disease, a de-
coction being made thereof when it is green, and drank. It also
brinseth down women’s courses, and expelleth the dead child.
It is most effectual against the poison of all serpents, being
drank in wine, and the bruised herb outwardly applied ; used
with honey, it cleauseth old and foul ulcers; and made into an
oil, and the eyes anointed therewith, taketh away the dimness
and moistness. It is likewise good for the pains in the sides and

7 he English Physician Enlarged. 155

cramps. The decoction thereof taken for four days together,
driveth away and cureth both tertian and quartan agues. It is al-
so good against all diseases of the brain, as continual head ach,
falling sickness, melancholy, drowsiness and dulness of the spi-
rits, convulsions and palsies. A dram of the seed taken in powder
purgeth by urine, and is good against the yellow jaundice. The
juice of the leaves dropped into the ears killeth the worms in
them. The tops thereof, when they are in flower, steeped twen-
ty-four hours in a draught of white wine, and drank, killeth the
worms in the belly.

STINKING GLADWIN.

Descript.] 1 HIS is one of the kinds of flower-de-luce, hav-
ing divers leaves arising from the roots, very like a flower-de-
luce, but that they are sharp-edged on both sides, and thicker
in the middle, of a deeper green colour, narrower and sharper
pointed, and a strong ill scent, if they be bruised between the
fingers. In the middle riseth up a reasonable strong stalk, a
yard high at the least, bearing three or four flowers at the top,
made somewhat like the flowers of the flower-de-luce, with
three upright leaves, of a dead purplish ash-colour, with some
veins discoloured in them: the other three do not fall down,
nor are the three other small ones so arched, nor cover the low-
er leaves as the flower-de-luce doth, but stand loose or asunder
from them. After they are past, there come up three square
hard husks, opening wide into three parts when they are ripe,
wherein lie reddish seed, turning black when it hath abiden
long. The root is like that of the flower-de-luce, but reddish
on the outside, and whitish within, very sharp and hot in the
taste, of as evil scent as the leaves.

Place.] This groweth as well in upland grounds, as in moist
places, woods, and shadowy places by the sea side in many
places of this land, and is usually nursed up in gardens.

Time.] It flowereth not until July, and the seed is ripe in

T56 2 'he English Physician Enlarged.

August or September, yet the husks after they are ripe, open-
ing themselves, will hold their seed with them for two or three
months, and not shed them.

Government and Virtues .] It is supposed to be under the do-
minion of Saturn. It is used by many country people to purge
corrupt phlegm and choler, which they do by drinking the de-
coction of the roots ; and some to make it more gentle, do but
infuse the sliced roots in ale; and some take the leaves
which serve well for the weaker stomachs ; The juice hereof
put up, or stuffed up the nose, causetb sneezing, anddiaweth
from the head much corruption ; and the powder thereof doth
the same. The powder thereof drank in wine, helpeth those
that aire troubled with cramps and convulsions, or with the gout
and sciatica, and giveth ease to those that have griping pains in
their body and belly, and helpeth those that have the strangury.
It is given with much profit to those that have had long fluxes
by the sharp and evil quality of humours, which it stayeth, hav-
ing first, cleansed and purged them by the drying and binding
property therein. The root boiled in wine and drank, doth effec-
tually procure women’s courses, and used as a pessary, worketh
the same effect, butcauseth abortion in women with child. Half
a dram of the seed beaten to powder, and taken in wine, doth
speedily cause one to piss, which otherwise cannot. The same
taken with vinegar, dissolveth the hardness and swellings of the
spleen. The root is very effectual in all wounds, especially of
the head ; as also to draw forth any splinters, thorns, or broken
bones, or any other thing slicking in the flesh, without causing
pains, being used with a little verdigrease and honey, and the
great centaury root. The same boiled in vinegar, and laid upon
any tumour or swelling, doth very effectually dissolve and con-
sume them; yea even the swellings of the throat called the king’s
evil; the juice of the leaves or roots healeth the itch, and all
running or spreading scabs, sores, blemishes, or scars in the
skin, wheresoever they be.

The English Physician Enlarged. 157

OOLDEN ROD.

Descript .] TThIS ariseth up with brownish small round
stalks, two feet high, and sometimes more, having thereon many
narrow and long dark green leaves, very seldom with any dents
about the edges, or any stalks of white spots therein, yet they
are sometimes so found divided at the tops into many small bran-
ches, with divers small yellow flowers on every one of them,
all which are turned one way, and being ripe, do turn into down,
and are carried away by the wind. The root consists of many
small fibres, which grow not deep in the ground, but abideth all
the winter therein, shooting forth new branches every year, the
old ones lying down to the ground.

Place.] It groweth in the open places of woods and
copses, both moist aud dry grounds, in many places of this
land.

Time.] It flowereth about the month of July.

Government and Virtues.] Venus claims the herb, and there-
fore to be sure it respects beauty lost. Arnoldus de Villa Nova
commends it much against the stone in the reins and kidneys,
and to provoke urine in abundance, whereby also the gravel
and stone may be voided. The decoction of the herb, green or
dry, or the distilled water thereof, is very effectual for inward
bruises, as also to be outwardly applied, it stayeth bleeding in
any part of the body, and of wounds; also the fluxes of humours,
the bloody flux, and women’s courses; and is no less prevalent
in all ruptures or burstings, being drank inwardly, aud out-
wardly applied. It is a sovereign wound herb, inferior to none,
both for inward and outward hurts; green wounds, old sores
and ulcers, are quickly cured therewith. It is also of especial
use in all lotions for sores or ulcers in the mouth, throat, or
privy parts of man or woman. The decoction also helpeth to
fasten the teeth that are loose in the gums.

J58 The English Physician Enlarged.

GOUT-WORT, OR HERB GERRARD.

Descript .] It is a low . herb, seldom rising half a yard
high, having sundry leaves standing on brownish green stalks
by threes, snipped about, and of a strong unpleasant savour :
The umbels of the flowers are white, and the seed blackish,
the root runneth in the ground, quickly taking a great deal of
room.

Place.'] It groweth by hedge and wall-sides, and often in
the borders and corners of fields, and in gardens also.

Time.] It flowereth and seedeth about the end of July.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn rules it. Neither is it to
be supposed gout-wort hath its name for nothing but upon ex-
periment to heal the gout and sciatica; as also joint-achs, and
other cold griefs. The very bearing of it about one easeth
the pains of the gout, and defends him that bears it from the
disease.

GROMEL.

Of this I shall briefly describe the kinds, which are prin-
cipally used in physic, the virtues whereof are alike, though
somewhat different in their manner and form of growing.

Descript.] The greater gromel groweth up with slender hard
and hairy stalks, trailing and taking root in the ground, as it
lieth thereon, and parted into many other small branches with
hairy dark green leaves thereon. At the joints with the leaves
come forth very small blue flowers, and after them hard stony
roundish seed. The root is long and woody, abiding the winter,
and shooteth forth fresh stalks in the spring.

The smaller wild gromel sendeth forth divers upright hard
branched stalks, two or three feet high, full of joints, at every
one of which groweth small, long, hard, and rough leaves like
t he f, rmer, but lesser; among which leaves come forth

The English Physician Enlarged. 159

small white flowers, and after them greyish round seed
like the former; the root is not very big, but with many
strings thereat.

The garden grornel hath divers upright, slender, w’oody,
hairy stalks, blown and cressed, very little branched, with leaves
like the former, and white flowers ; after which in rough brown
husks, is contained a white, hard, round seed, shining like pearls,
and greater than either of the former; the root is like the first
described, with divers branches and sprigs thereat, which con-
tinueth (as the first doth) all the winter.

Place.] The two first grow w ild in barren or untilled places,
and by the way sides in many places of this land. The last is a
nursling in the gardens of the curious.

Time.] They all flower from Midsummer until September,
sometimes, and in the mean time the seed ripeneth.

Government and Virtues.] The herb belongs to Dame Venus;
and therefore if Mars cause the cholic or stone, as usually he
doth if in Virgo, this is your cure. These are accounted to be
of as singular force as any herb or seed whatsoever, to break
the stone and to void it, and the gravel either in the reins or
bladder, as also to provoke urine, being stopped, and to help
the strangury. The seed is of greater use, being bruised and
boiled in white wine or in broth, or the like, or the powder of
the seed taken therein. Two drams of the seed in powder tak-
en with women’s breast milk, is very effectual to procure a very
speedy delivery to such women as have sore pains in their tra-
vail, and cannot be delivered : The herb itself, (when the seed
is to be had) either boiled,, or the juice thereof drank, is effec-
tual to all the purposes aforesaid, but not so powerful or speedy
in operation.

GOOSEBERRY BUSH.

(yALLED also feadberry, and in Sussex dewberry-bush, and
in some counties wineberry.

Government and Virtues.] They ar< inder the dominion of

160 The English Physician Enlarged.

Venus The berries, while they are unripe, being scalded, or

baked, are good to stir up a fainting or decaying appetite, es-
pecially such whose stomachs are afflicted by choleric humours:
They are excellent good to stay longings of women with child.
You may keep them preserved with sugar all the year long.
The decoction of the leaves of the tree cools hot swellings
and inflammations; as also St. Anthony’s fire. The ripe
gooseberries being eaten, are an excellent remedy to allay the
violent heat both of the stomach and liver. The young and
tender leaves break the stone, and expel gravel both from the
kidneys and bladder. All the evils they do to the body of man
is, they are supposed to breed crudities, and by crudities,
worms.

from a small brown creeping root, every one standing upon a
long foot-stalk, which are almost as broad as long, round point-
ed, of a sad green colour, and hard in handling, and like the
leaf of a pear-tree; from whence ariseth a slender weak stalk,
yet standing upright, bearing at the top many small white sweet-
smelling flowers, laid open like a star, consisting of five round
pointed leaves, with many yellowish threads standing in the
middle about a green head, and a long stalk with them, which in
time grovveth to be the seed-vessel, which being ripe is found
five square, with a small point at it, wherein is contained seed
as small as dust.

Place.'] It groweth seldom in fields, but frequently in
the woods northwards, viz. in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and
Scotland.

Time.] It flowereth about June and July.

Government and Virtues.] Winter green is under the domi-
nion of Saturn, and is a singular good wound herb, and an es-
pecial remedy for to heal green wounds speedily, the green

WINTER-GREEN.

Descript.]

seven, eight, or nine leaves

The English Physician Enlarged. 161

leaves being bruised and applied, or the juice of them. A salve
made of the green herb stamped; or the juice boiled with hog’s
lard or with salad oil and wax, and some turpentine added unto
it, is a sovereign salve, and highly extolled by the Germans,
who use it to heal all manner of wounds and sores. The herb
boiled in wine and water, and given to drink to them that have
any inward ulcers in their kidneys, or neck of the bladder, doth
wonderfully help them. It stayeth all fluxes, as the lask, bloody
fluxes, women’s courses, and bleeding of wounds, and taketh
away any inflammations rising upon pains of the heart ; it is no
less helpful for foul ulcers, hard to be cured ; as also for cankers
or fistulas. The distilled water of the herb doth effectually per-
form the same things.

GROUNDSEL.

Descript . ] Our common groundsel hath a round green and
somewhat brownish stalk, spreading toward the top into branch-
es, set with long and somewhat narrow green leaves, cut in on
the edges, somewhat like the oak leaves, but lesser and round
at the end. At the tops of the branches stand many small green
heads, out of which grow many small, yellow threads or thumbs,
which are the flowers, and continue many days blown in that
manner, before it pass away into down, and, with the seed, is
carried away in the wind. The root is small and thready, and
soon perisheth, and as soon riseth again of its own sowing, so
that it may be seen many months in the year, both green and
in flower, and seed ; for it will spring and seed twice in a year
at least, if it be suffered in a garden.

Place.} This groweth almost every where, as well on tops of
walls, as at the foot, amongst rubbish and untilled grounds,
but especially in gardens.

Time.] It flowereth, as is said before, almost in every month
throughout the year.

Government and Virtues.] This herb is Venus’s mistress-

No. 7. x

162 The English Physician Enlarged.

piece, and is as gallant and universal a medicine for all diseases
coming of heat, in what part of the body soever they he, as the
sun shines upon ; it is very safe and friendly to the body of man ;
yet causeth vomiting if the stomach be afflicted; if not, purg-
ing ; and it doth it with more gentleness than can be expected ;
it is moist, and something cold withal, thereby causing expul-
sion, and repressing the heat caused by the motion of the inter-
nal parts in purges and vomits. Lay by our learned receipts,
“ take so much sena, so much scammony, so much colocynthis,
so much infusion of crocus metallorum,” &c. ; this herb alone
served in a syrup, in a distilled water or in an ointment, shall
do the deed for you in all hot diseases, and, shall do it, 1. Safe-
ly, 2. Speedily.

The decoction of the herb (saith Dioscorides) made with
wine, and drank, helpeth the pains of the stomach, proceeding
of choler, (which it may well do by a vomit) as daily experience
shewcth. The juice thereof taken in drink, or the decoction of
it in ale, gently perfonneth the same. It is good against the
jaundice and falling sickness, being taken in wine; as also
against difficulty of making water. It provokes urine, expelleth
gravel in the reins or kidneys, a dram thereof given in oxymcl,
after some walking or stirring of the body. It helpeth also the
sciatica, griping of the belly, the cholic, defects of the liver,
and provoketh women’s courses. The fresh herb boiled, and
made into a poultice, applied to the breasts of women that are
swollen with pain and heat, as also the privy parts of man or
woman, the seat or fundament, or the arteries, joints and sinews,
when they are inflamed and swollen, doth much ease them ; and
used with some salt, helpeth to dissolve knots or kernels in any
part of the body. The juice of the herb, or (as Dioscorides
saith) the leaves and flowers, with some fine frankinceuce in
powder, used in wounds of the body, nerves or sinews, doth
singularly help to heal them. The distilled water of the herb
performeth well all the aforesaid cures, but especially for in-
flammations or watering of the eyes, by reason of the deduction
of rheum unto them.

The English Physician Enlarged. 163

HEART’S-EASE.

T HIS is that herb, which such physicians as are licensed to
plaspheme by authority, without danger of having their tongues
burned through with an hot iron, call an herb of the Trinity.
It is also called by those that are more moderate, three faces in
a hood, live in idleness, cull me to you; and in Sussex we call
them pancies.

Place.] Besides those which are brought up in gardens,
they grow commonly wild in the fields, especially in such as
are very barren : sometimes you may find it on the tops of the
high hills.

Time.] They flower all the spring and summer long.

Government and Virtues.] The herb is really Saturnine,
something cold, viscous, and slimy. A strong decoction of the
herbs and flowers (if you will, you may make it into syrup) is
an excellent cure for the French-pox, the herb being a gallant
antivenerean : and that antivenereans are the best cure for that
disease, far better and safer than to torment them with the flux,
divers foreing physicians have confessed. The spirit of it is ex-
cellent good for the convulsions in children, as also for the fall-
ing sickness, and a gallant remedy for the inflammation of the
lungs and breasts, pleurisy, scabs, itch, &c. It is under the ce-
lestial sign cancer.

*

ARTICHOKES.

The Latins call them cinera, only our college calls them
antichocus.

Government and Virtues.] They are under the dominion of
Venus, and therefore it is no marvel if they provoke lust, as
indeed they do, being something windy meat; and yet they stay
the involuntary course of natural seed in man, which is com-
monly called nocturnal pollutions. And here I care not greatly
if I quote a little of Galen’s nonsense in his treatise of the facul-

164 The English Physician Enlarged.

ties of nourishment. He saith, they contain plenty of choleric
juice (which notwithstanding I can scarcely believe) of which
he saith is engendered melancholy juice, and of that melancholy
juice thin choleric blood. But to proceed ; this is certain that
the decoction of the root boiled in wine, or the root bruised and
distilled in wine in an alembic, and being drank, purgeth by urine
exceedingly.

HART’S-TONGUE.

This hath divers leaves arising from the root every one se-
verally, which fold themselves to their first springing and spread-
ing : when they are full grown, are about a foot long, smooth
and green above, hut hard and with little sap in them, and
streaked on the back, thwart on both sides of the middle rib,
with small and somewhat long and brownish marks ; the bottoms
of the leaves are a little bowed on each side of the middle rib,
somewhat narrow with the length, and somewhat small at the
end. The root is of many black threads, folded or interlaced
together.

Time.] It is green all the winter; but new leaves spring
every year.

Government and Virtues.] Jupiter claims dominion over this
herb, therefore it is a singular remedy for the liver, both to
strengthen it when weak, and to ease it when afflicted, you shall
do well to keep it in a syrup all the year : for though, authors say
it is green all the year, 1 scarce believe it. Hart’s tongue is
much commended against the hardness and stoppings of the
spleen and liver, and against the heat of the liver and stomach,
and against lasks, and the bloody flux. The distilled water
thereof is also very good against the passions of the heart, and
to stay hiccough, to help the falling of the palate, and to stay
the bleeding of the gums, being gargled in tlu. mouth. Dios-
corides saith, 'it is good against the stinging or biting of ser-
pents. As for the use of it, my direction at the latter end will

The English Physician Enlarged. 165

he sufficient, and enough for those that are studious in physic,
to whet their brains upon for one year or two.

HAZEL-NUT.

H AZEL nuts are so well known to every body, that they
need no description.

Government and Virtues .] They are under the dominion of
Mercury. The parted kernels made into an electuary, or the
milk drawn from the kernels with mead or honeyed water, is
very good to help an old cough ; and being parched, and a little
pepper put to them and drank, divesteth the distillations of
rheum from the head. The dried husks and shells, to the weight
of two drams, taken in red wine, stayeth lasks and women’s
courses, and so doth the red skin that covers the kernels, which
is more effectual to stay women’s courses.

And if this be true, as it is, then why should the vulgar so
familiarly affirm, that eating nuts causeth shortness of breath,
than which nothing is falser? For, how can that which strength-
ens the lungs, cause shortness of breath? I confess, the opinion
is far older than I am ; I knew tradition was a friend to error be-
fore, but never that he was the father of slander: Or are men’s
tongues so given to slandering one another, that they must
slander nuts too, to keep their tongues in use? If any thing
of the hazel nut be stopping, it is the husks and shells, and no-
body is so mad to eat them, unless physically ; and the red skin
which covers the kernel, you may easily pull off. And so thus
have I made an apology for nuts, which cannot speak for them-
selves.

HAWK WEED.

Descript .] iThath many large leaves lying upon the ground,
much rent or torn on the sides into gashes like dandelion, but
with greater parts, more like the smooth sow thistle, from

166 r Vhe English Physician Enlarged .

among which riseth a hollow, rough stalk, two or three feet
high, branched from the middle upward, whereon are set at
every joint longer leaves, little or nothing rent or cut, bearing
on their top sundry pale, yellow flowers, consisting of many
small, narrow leaves, broad pointed, and nicked in at the ends,
set in a double row or more, the outermost being larger than the
inner, which form most of the hawk-weeds (for there are many
kinds of them) which turn into down, and, with the small brown-
ish seed, is blown away with the wind. The root is long, and
somewhat greater, with many small fibres thereat. The whole
plant is full of bitter milk.

Place .] It groweth in divers places about the field sides, and
the path-ways in dry grounds.

Time.] It flowereth and flieth away in the summer months.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn owns it. Hawk-weed (saith
Dioscorides) is cooling, somewhat drying and binding, and
therefore good for the heat of the stomach, and gnawings t here-
in; for inflammations, and the hot fits of agues. The juice
thereof in wine, helpeth digestion, discusseth wind, hindereth
crudities abiding in the stomach, and helpeth the difficulty of
making water, and biting of venomous serpents, and stinging of
the scorpion, if the herb be also outwardly applied to the place,
and is very good against all other poisons. A scruple of the
dried root given in wine and vinegar, is profitable for those that
have the dropsy. The decoction of the herb taken with honey,
digesteth the phlegm in the chest or lungs, and with hyssop
helpeth the cough. The decoction thereof, and of wild succory,
made with wine, and taken, helpeth the wind cholic and hard-
ness of the spleen ; it procureth rest and sleep, hindereth venery
and venerous dreams, cooling heats, purgeth the stomach, in-
creaseth blood, and helpeth the diseases of the reins and blad-
der. Outwardly applied, it is singularly good for all the defects
and diseases of the eyes, used with some women’s milk; and
is used with good success in fretting or creeping ulcers, espe-
cially in the beginning. The green leaves bruised , and with

The English Physician Enlarged. 167

a little salt applied to any place burnt with fire, before blis-
ters do arise, helpeth them; as also inflammations, St. Antho-
ny’s fire, and all pushes and eruptions, hot and salt phlegm.
The same applied with meal and fair water in manner of a poul-
tice, to any place, affected with convulsions and the cramp, such
as are out of joint, doth give help and ease. The distilled wa-
ter cleanseth the skin, and taketh away freckles, spots, mor-
phew, or wrinkles in the face.

HAWTHORN.

It is not my intent to trouble you with a description of this
tree, which is so well known that it needeth none. It is ordina-
rily but a hedge bush, although being pruned and dressed, it
groweth to a tree of a reasonable height.

As for the hawthorn tree at Glastenbury, which is said to
flower yearly on Christmas-day, it rather shews the superstition
of those that observe it for the time of its flowering, than any
great wonder, since the like may be found in divers other places
of this land; as in Whey-street in Romney Marsh, and near
unto Nantwich in Cheshire, by a place called White Green,
where it flowereth about Christmas and May. If the weather be
frosty, it flowereth not until January, or until the hard weather
be over.

Government and Virtues .] It is a tree of Mars. The seeds
in the berries beaten to powder being drank in wine, are held
singular good against the stone, and are good for the dropsy.
The distilled water of the flowers stayeth the lask. The seed
cleared from the down, bruised and boiled in wine, and drank,
is good for inward tormenting pains. If clothes and spunges be
wet in the distilled water, and applied to any place wherein
thorns and splinters or the like, do abide in the flesh, it will
notably draw them forth.

And thus you see the thorn gives a medicine for his own
pricking, and so doth almost every thing else.

168 7'fie English Physician Enlarged.

HEMLOCK.

Descript.'] The common great hemlock groweth up with
a green stalk, four or five feet high, or more, full of red spots
sometimes, and at the joints very large winged leaves set at
them, which are divided into many other winged leaves one set
against the other, dented about the edges, of a sad green
colour, branched towards the top, where it is full of umbels
of white flowers, and afterwards with whitish flat seed • The
root is long, white, and sometimes crooked, and hollow
within. The whole plant, and every part hath a strong, heady,
and ill-savoured scent, much offending the senses.

Place.] It groweth in all countries of this land, by walls and
hedge-sides, in waste grounds and unfilled places.

Time.] It flowereth and seedetti in July, or thereabouts.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn claims dominion over this
herb, yet I wonder why it may not be applied to the privities in
a priapism, or continual standing of the yard, it being very be-
neficial to that disease; I suppose, my author’s judgment was
first upon the opposite disposition of Saturn to Venus in those
faculties, and therefore he forbad the applying of it to those
parts, that it might not cause barrenness, or spoil the spirit pro-
creative; which if it do, yet applied to the privities, it stops its
lustful thoughts. Hemlock is exceedingly cold, and very dan-
gerous, especially to be taken inwardly. It may safely be ap-
plied to inflammations, tumours, and swellings in any part of
the body, (save the privy parts) as also to St. Anthony’s fire,
wheals, pushes, and creeping ulcers that arise of hot sharp hu-
mours, by cooling and repelling the heat ; the leaves bruised
and laid to the brow or forehead are good for their eyes that
are red and swollen; as also to take away a pin and web grow-
ing in the eye; this is a tried medicine; Take a small handful
of this herb, and half as much bay salt, beaten together, and
applied to the contrary wrist of the hand for 24 hours, doth

The English Physician Enlarged. 169

remove it in thrice dressing. If the root thereof be roasted
under the embers, wrapped in double wet paper, until it be soft
and tender, and then applied to the gout in the hands or fingers,
it will quickly help this evil. If any through mistake eat the
herb hemlock instead of parsley, or the roots instead of par-
snip (both of which it is very like) whereby happeneth a kind
of frenzy, or perturbation of the senses, as if they were stupid
and drunk, the remedy is (as Pliny saith) to drink of the best
and strongest pure wine, before it strikes to the heart, or
gentain put in wine, or a draught of vinegar, wherewith
Tragus doth affirm, that he cured a woman that had eaten the
root.

HEMP.

This is so well known to every good house-wife in the coun-
try, that I shall not need to write any description of it.

Time.] It is sown in the end of March or beginning of April,
and is ripe in August or September.

Government and Virtues.] It is a plant of Saturn, and good
for something else, you see, than to make halters only. The
seed of hemp eonsumeth wind, and by too much use thereof
disperseth it so much, that it drieth up the natural seed for pro-
creation ; yet, being boiled in milk, and taken, helpeth such as
have a hot dry cough. The Dutch make an emulsion out of
the seed, and give it with good success to those that have the
jaundice, especially in the beginning of the disease, if there be
no ague accompanying it, for it opeueth obstructions of the
gall, and causeth digestion of choler. The emulsion or decoc-
tion of the seed stayeth lasks and continual fluxes, easeth the
cholic, and allayeth the troublesome humours in the bowels,
and stayeth bleeding at the mouth, nose, or other places, some
of the leaves being fried with the blood of them that bleed, and
so given them to eat. It is held very good to kill the worms in
men or beasts ; and the juice dropped into the ears killeth worms
in them, and draweth forth earwigs, or other living creatures

No. 8.

Y

170 The English Physician Enlarged.

gotten into them. The decoction of the root allayeth inflamma-
tions of the head, or any other parts ; the herb itself, or the dis-
tilled water thereof, doth the like. The decoction of the roots
easeth the pains of the gout, the hard humours or knots in the
joints, the pains and slirinkings of the sinews, and the pains of
the hips. The fresh juice mixed with a little oil and butter, is
good for any place that hath been burnt with fire, being thereto
applied.

HENBANE.

Descript .] Our common henbane hath very large, thick,
soft woolly leaves, lying on the ground, much cut in, or torn on
the edges, of a dark, ill greyish green colour; among which
arise up divers thick and short stalks, two or three feet high,
spread into divers small branches, with lesser leaves on them,
and many hollow flowers, scarcely appearing above ihe husks,
and usually torn on one side, ending in five round points,
growing one above another, of a deadish yellow colour, some-
what paler towards the edges, with many purplish veins therein,
and of a dark, yellowish purple in the bottom of the flower,
with a small point of the same colour in the middle, each of
them standing in a hard close husk, which after the flowers are
past, groweth very like the husk of asarabacca, and somewhat
sharp at the top points, wherein is contained much small seed,
very like poppy seed, but of a dusky, greyish colour. The
root is great, white, and thick, branching forth divers ways
under ground, so like a parsnip root, (but that it is not so
white) that it hath deceived others. The whole plant more
than the root, hath a very heavy, ill, soporiferous smell, some-
what offensive.

Place.] It commonly groweth by the way-sides, and under
hedge-sides and walls.

Time.] It flowereth in July, and springeth again yearly of
its own seed. I doubt my authors mistook July for June, if
not for May.

The English Physician Enlarged. 171

Government and Virtues.] I wonder how astrologers could
take on them to make this an herb of Jupiter; and yet Mezal-
dus, a man of penetrating brain, was of that opinion as well as
the rest; the herb is indeed under the dominion of Saturn, and
I prove it by this argument: All the herbs which delight most to
grow in Saturnine places, are Saturnine herbs. But henbane
delights most to grow in Saturnine places, and whole cart loads
of it may be found near the places where they empty the com-
mon jacques, and scarce a ditch to be found without it growing
by it : Ergo, it is an herb of Saturn. The leaves of henbane do
cool all hot inflammations in the eyes, or any other part of the
body ; and are good to assuage all manner of swellings of the
cods, or women’s breasts or elsewhere, if they be boiled in
wine, and either applied themselves, or the fomentation warm ;
it also assuageth the pain of the gout, the sciatica, and other
* pains in the joints, which arise from a hot cause. And applied
with vinegar to the forehead and temples, helpeth the head ache
and want of sleep in hot fevers. The juice of the berb or seed,
or the oil drawn from the seed, does the like. The oil of the
seed is helpful for deafness, noise, and worms in the ears, being
dropped therein ; the juice of the berb or root doth the same.
The decoction of the herb or seed, or both, killeth lice in
man or beast. The fume of the dried herb, stalks and seed,
burned, quickly healeth swellings, chilblains or kibes in the
hands or feet, by holding them in the fume thereof. The reme-
dy to help those that have taken henbane is to drink goat’s milk,
honeyed water, or pine kernels, with sweet wine; or, in the ab-
sence of these, fennel seed, the seed of cresses, mustard, or
raddish ; as also onions or garlic taken in wine, do all help to
free them from danger, and restore them to their due temper
again.

Take notice, that this herb must never be taken inwardly ;
outwardly, an oil, ointment, or plaister of it, is most admirable
for the gout, to cool the venereal heat of the reins in the French
pox; to stop the tooth ache, being applied to the aching

172 The English Physician Enlarged.

side; to allay all inflammations, and to help the diseases before
promised*

HEDGE HYSSOP.

Descript.] Divers sorts there are of this plant; the first
of which is an Italian by birth, and only nursed up here in the
gardens of the curious. Two or three sorts are found common-
ly growing wild here, the description of two of which I shall
give you. The first is a smooth, low plant, not a foot high,
very bitter in taste, with many square stalks, diversely branched
from the bottom to the top, with divers joints, and two small
leaves at each joint, broader at the bottom than they are at the
end, a little deDted about the edges, of a sad green colour, and
full of veins. The flowers stand at the joints, being of a fair
purple colour, with some white spots in them, in fashion like
those of dead nettles. The seed is small and yellow, and the
roots spread much under ground.

The second seldom groweth half a foot high, sending up many
small branches, whereon grow many small leaves, set one
against the other, somewhat broad, but very short. The flow-
ers are like the flowers of the other fashion, but of a pale red-
dish colour. The seeds are small and yellowish. The root
spreadeth like the other, neither will it yield to its fellow one
ace of bitterness.

Place.] They grow in wet low grounds, and by the water-
sides; the last may be found among the bogs on Hamstead
heath.

Time.] They flower in June and July, and the seed is ripe
presently after.

Government and Virtues.] They are herbs of Mars, and as
choleric and churlish as he is, being most violent purges, es-
pecially of choler and phlegm. It is not safe taking them in-
wardly, unless they be well rectified by the art of the alchymist,
and only the purity of them given ; so used they may be very
helpful both for the dropsy, gout, and sciatica; outwardly used

The English Physician Enlarged. 173

in ointment they kill worms, the belly anointed with it, and are
excellent good to cleanse old and filthy ulcers.

BLACK HELLEBORE.

Xt is called setter-wort, setter-grass, bear’s-foot, christmas-
herb, and christmas-flower.

Descript.] It hath sundry, fair, green leaves rising from the
root, each of them standing about an handful high from the
earth ; each leaf is divided into seven, eight, or nine parts,
dented from the middle of the leaf to the point on both sides,
abiding green all the winter, about christmas time, if the wea-
ther be any thing temperate, the flowers appear upon foot-stalks,
also consisting of five large, round, white leaves a-piece, which
sometimes are purple towards the edges, with many pale yellow
thumbs in the middle; the seeds are divided into several cells,
like those of columbines, save only that they are greater; the
seeds are in colour black, and in form long and round. The
root consisteth of numberless blackish strings all united into one
head. There is another black hellebore, which grows up and
down in the woods very this, but ouly that the leaves
are smaller and narrower, and perish in the winter, which this
doth not.

Place.] The first is maintained in gardens. The second
as commonly found in the woods in Northamptonshire.

Time.] The first flowereth in December or January: the
second in February or March.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Saturn, and there-
fore no marvel if it hath some sullen condition with it, and
would be far safer being purified by the art of the alchymist than
given raw. If any have taken any harm by taking it, the com-
mon cure is to take goat’s milk: if you cannot get goat’s milk,
you must make shift with such as you can get. The roots are
very effectual against all melancholy diseases, especially, such
as are of long standing, as quartan agues and madness; it help a

174 The English Physician Enlarged.

the falling sickness, the leprosy, botli the yellow and black jaun-
dice, the gout, sciatica, and convulsions ; and this was found out
by experience, that the root of that which growetk wild in our
country, works not so churlishly as those do which are brought
from beyond sea, as being maintained by a more temperate air.
The root used as a pessary, pravokes the terms exceedingly;
also being beaten into powder, and strewed upon foul ulcers, it
consumes the dead flesh, and instantly heals them; nay, it will
help gangrenes in the beginning. Twenty grains taken inwardly
is a sufficient dose for one time, and let that be corrected with
half so much cinnamon ; country people used to rowel their cat-
tle with it. If a beast be troubled with a cough, or have taken
any poison, they bore a hole through his ear, and put a piece
of the root in it, this will help him in 24 hours. Many other
uses farriers put it to which I shall forbear.

HERB ROBERT.

Descript .] It riseth up with a reddish stalk, two feet high,
having divers leaves thereon upon very long and reddish foot-
stalks, divided at the ends into three or five divisions, each of
them cut in on the edges, some deeper than others, and all dent-
ed likewise about the edges, which sometimes turn reddish. At
the tops of the stalks come forth divers flowers made of five
leaves, much larger than the dove’s foot, and of a more reddish
colour ; after which come, black heads, as in others. The root
is small and thready, and smelleth as the whole plant, very strong,
almost stinking.

Place.] This groweth frequently every where by the way-
sides, upon ditch banks and waste grounds wheresoever one
goetli.

Time.] It flowereth in June or July chiefly, and the seed is
ripe shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Venus.
Herb robert is commended not only against the stone, but to stay

The English Physician Enlarged. 175

blood, where or howsoever flowing; it speedily healeth all green
wounds, and is effectual in old ulcers in the privy parts, or else-
where. You may persuade yourself this is true, and also conceive
a good reason for it, if you do but consider it is an herb of Venus,
for all it hath a man’s name.

HERB TRUE-LOVE, OR ONE-BERRY.

Descript.'] ORDINARY herb true-love, hath a small creep-
ing root running under the uppermost crust of the ground, some-
what like couch grass root, but not so white, shooting forth stalks
with leaves, some whereof carry no berries, the others do ; every
stalk smooth without joints, and blackish green, rising about half
a foot high, if it bear berries, otherwise seldom so high, bearing
at the top four leaves set directly one against another, in manner
>f a cross or ribband tied (as it is called) in a true-love’s knot,
which are each of them apart somewhat like unto a nightshade
leaf, but somewhat broader, having sometimes three leaves,
sometimes five, sometimes six, and those sometimes greater than
in others; in the middle of the four leaves riseth up one small
slender stalk, about an inch high, bearing at the tops thereof
one flower spread open like a star, consisting of four small and
long narrow pointed leaves of a yellowish green colour, and four
others lying between them lesser than they ; in the middle where-
of stands a round dark purplish button or head, compassed about
with eight small yellow mealy threads w ith three colours, mak-
ing it the more conspicuous, and lovely to behold. This but-
ton or head in the middle, w hen the other leaves are withered,
becometh a blackish purple berry, full of juice, of the bigness
of a reasonable grape, having within it many white seeds. The
whole plant is without any manifest taste.

Place.] It groweth in woods and copses, and sometimes in the
corners or borders of fields, and waste grounds in very many pla-
ces of this land, and abundantly in the woods, copses, and other
places about Chislehurst and Maidstone in Kent.

1 7 6 The English Physician Enlarged.

Time.] They spring up in the middle of April or May, and
are in flower soon after. The berries are ripe in the end of
May, and in some places in June.

Government and Virtues.] Venus owns it; the leaves or ber-
ries hereof are effectual to expel poison of all sorts, especially
that of the aconites; as also the plague, and other pestilential
disorders : Matthiolus saith, that some that have lain long in lin-
gering sickness, and others that by witchcraft (as it was thought)
were become half foolish, by taking a dram of the seeds or ber-
ries hereof in powder every day for 20 days, together, were re-
stored to their former health. The roots in powder taken in wine,
easeth the pains of the cholic speedily. The leaves are very ef-
fectual, as well for green wounds, as to cleanse and heal up fil-
thy old sores and ulcers; and are very powerful to discuss all
tumours and swellings in tbe cods, privy parts* tire groin, or in
any part of the body, and speedily to allay all inflammations.
The juice of the leaves applied to felons, or those nails of the
hands or toes that have imposthumes or sores gathered together
at the roots of them, healeth them in a short space. This herb
is not to be described for the premises, but is fit to be nourished
in every good woman’s gardem

HYSSOP.

Hyssop is so well known to be an inhabitant in every gar-
den, that it will save me labour in writing a description thereof.
The virtues are as follow:

Temperature and Virtues.] The herb is Jupiter’s, and the
sign Cancer. It strengthens all the parts of the body under
Cancer and Jupiter; which what they may be, is found amply
discussed in my astrological judgment of diseases. Dioscorides
saith that hyssop boiled with rue and honey, and drank, helpeth
those that are troubled with coughs, shortness of breath, wheez-
ing and rheumatic distillations upon the lungs ; taken also with
oxymel, it purgeth gross humours by stool; and with honey
killeth worms in the belly ; and with fresh and new figs bruised'.

The English Physician Enlarged. 177

belpeth to loosen the belly, and more forcibly if the root of flow-
er-de-luce, and cresses be added thereto. It amendeth and che-
risheth the native colour of the body, spoiled by the yellow jaun-
dice; and being taken with figs and nitre, helpeth the dropsy
and spleen ; being boiled with wine, it is good to wash inflamma-
tions, and taketh away the black and blue spots, and marks that
come by strokes, bruises, or falls, being applied with warm wa-
ter. It is an excellent medicine for the quinsy, or swelling in the
throat, to wash and gargle it, being boiled in figs ; it helpeth the
tooth-ache, being boiled in vinegar and gargled therewith. The
hot vapours of the decoction taken by a funnel in at the ears,
easeth the inflammations and singing noise of them. Being bruis
ed, and salt, honey, and cummin seed put to it, helpeth those that
are stung by serpents. The oil thereof (the head being anointed)
killeth lice, and taketh away itching of the head. It helpeth
those that have the falling sickness, which way soever it be ap
plied. It helpeth to expectorate tough phlegm, and is effectu-
al in all cold griefs or diseases of the chest or lungs, being ta-
ken either in syrup or licking medicine. The green herb bruis-
ed and a little sugar put thereto doth quickly heal any cut or
green wound, being thereunto applied.

HOPS.

^I\lESE are so well known that they need no description; I
mean the manured kind, which every good husband or house-
wife is acquainted with»

Descript.] The wild bop groweth up as the other doth, ram-
ping upon trees or hedges, that stand next to them, with rough
branches and leaves like the former but it giveth smaller heads,
and in far less plenty than it, so that there is scarce a head or
two seen in a year on divers of this wild kind, wherein consisteth
the chief difference.

Place.] They delight to grow in low moist grounds, and are
found in all parts of this land.

Time.] They spring not up until April, and flower not until

Z

178 The English Physician Enlarged.

the latter end of June ; the heads are not gathered until the mid-
dle or latter end of September.

Government and Virtues .] It is under the dominion of
Mars. This, in physical operations, is to open obstructions of
the liver and spleen, to cleanse the blood, to loosen the belly,
to cleanse the reins from gravel, and provoke urine. The de-
coction of the tops of hops, as well of the tame as the wild,
worketh the same effects. In cleansing the blood they help to
cure the French disease, and all manner of scabs, itch, and over
breakings-out of the body ; as also all tetters, ringworms, and
spreading sores, the morphew, and all discolouring of the
skin. The decoction of the flowers and tops do help to expel
poison that any one hath drank. Half a dram of the seed in
powder taken in drink, killeth worms in the body, bringeth
down women's courses, and expelleth urine. A syrup made
of the juice and sugar, cureth the yellow jaundice, easeth the
head-ache that comes of heat, and tempereth the heat of the
liver and stomach, and is profitably given in long and hot agues
that rise in choler and blood. Both the wild and the manured
are of one property, and alike effectual in all the aforesaid
diseases. By all these testimonies beer appears to be better
than ale.

Mars owns the plant, and then Dr. Reason will tell you how
it performs these actions.

HOREHOUND.

Descript .] CoMMON horehound groweth up with square
hairy stalks, half a yard or two feet high, set at the joints with
two round crumpled rough leaves of a sullen hoary green co-
lour, of a reasonable good scent, but a very bitter taste. The
flowers are small, white, and gaping, set in a rough, hard prick-
ly husk round about the joints, with the leaves from the middle
of the stalk upward, wherein afterward is found small round
blackish seed. The root is blackish, hard and woody, with ma-
ny strings, and abideth many years.

The English Physician Enlarged. 179

Place.'] It is found in many parts of this land, in dry
grounds, and waste green places.

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

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Mercury. A
decoction of the dried herb, with the seed, or the juice of the
green herb taken with honey, is a remedy for those that are
short-winded, have a cough, or are fallen in a consumption,
either through long sickness, or thin distillations or rheum upon
the lungs. It helpeth to expectorate tough phlegm from the
chest, being taken from the roots of Iris or Orris. It is given
to women to bring down their courses, to expel their after-
birth, and to them that have sore and long travails ; as also to
those that have taken poison, or are stung or bitten by venomous
serpents. The leaves used with honey, purge foul ulcers, stay
running or creeping sores, and the growing of the flesh over
the nails. It also helpeth pains of the sides. The juice thereof
with wine and honey, helpeth to clear the eye-sight, and snuffed
up into the nostrils, purgeth away the yellow jaundice, and with
a little oil of roses dropped into the ears, easeth the pains of
them. Galen saith, it openeth obstructions both of the liver
and spleen, and purgeth the breast and lungs of phlegm; and
used outwardly it both cleanseth and digesteth. A decoction of
horehouud (saith Matthiolus) is available for those that have
hard livers, and for such as have itches and running tetters.
The powder hereof taken, or the decoction, killeth worms.
The green leaves bruised, and boiled in old hog’s grease into
an ointment, healeth the biting of the dogs, abateth the swellings
and pains that come by any pricking of thorns, or such like
mean; and used with vinegar cleanseth and healeth tetters.
There is a syrup made of horehound to be had at the apothe-
caries, very good for old coughs, to rid the tough phlegm; as
also to void cold rheums from the lungs of old folks, and for
those that are asthmatic or short-winded.

HORSETAIL.

Of that there are many kinds, but I shall not trouble you

180 The English Physician Enlarged.

nor myself with any large description of them, which to do,
were but, as the proverb is, To find a knot in a rush, all the
kinds thereof being nothing else but knotted rushes, some with
leaves and some without. Take the description of the most
eminent sort as followeth :

Descript . ] The great horsetail, at the first springing, hath
heads somewhat like those of asparagus, and after grow to be
hard, rough, hollow stalks jointed at sundry places up to the
top, a foot high, so made as if the lower parts were put into
the upper, where grow on each side a bush of small long rush-
like hard leaves, each part resembling a horsetail, from whence
it is called so. At the tops of the stalks come forth small cat-
kins, like those of trees. The root creepeth under ground
having joints at sundry places.

Place .] This (as most of the other sorts hereof) groweth in
wet grounds.

Time.] They spring up in April, and their blooming catkins
in July, seeding for the most part in August, and then perish
down to the ground, rising afresh in the spring.

Government and. Virtues.] The herb belongs to Saturn, yet
is very harmless, and excellent good for the things following:
Horsetail, the smoother rather than the rough and the leaved
rather than the bare, is most physical. It is very powerful to
staunch bleeding either inward or outward, the juice of the de-
coction thereof being drank, or the juice, decoction, or dis-
tilled water applied outwardly. It also stayeth all sorts of lasks
and fluxes in man or woman, and the pissing of blood; and
healeth also not only the inward ulcers, and the excoriation of
the entrails, bladder, &c. but all other sorts of foul, moist,
and running ulcers, and soon soldereth together the tops of
green wounds. It cureth all ruptures in children. The de-
coction thereof in wine being drank, provoketh urine, and
helpeth the stone and strangury ; and the distilled water thereof
drank two or three times in a day, .and a small quantity at a
time, also easeth the entrails or guts, and is effectual against a
©ough that comes by distillation from the head. The juice or

The English Physician Enlarged. 181

distilled water being warmed, and hot inflammations, pustules
or red wheals and other breakings out in the skin, being bathed
therewith, doth help them, and doth no less ease the swelling
heat and inflammation of the fundament, or privy parts in men
and women.

j '

HOUSELEEK, OR SENGREEN.

Both these are so well known to my countrymen that I
shall not need to write any description of them.

Place .] It groweth commonly upon walls and house-sides,
and flowereth in July.

Government and Virtues.'] It is an herb of Jupiter, and it is
reported by Mezaldus, to preserve what it grows upon from
fire and lightning. Our ordinary houseleek is good for all in-
ward heats as well as outward, and in the eyes or other parts of
the body ; a posset made with the juice of houseleek, is singular
good in all hot agues, for it cooleth and tempereth the blood and
spirits, and quencheth the thirst; and is also good to stay all hot
deductions or sharp and salt rheums in the eyes, the juice being
dropped into them, or into the ears, helpeth them. It helpeth
also other fluxes of humours in the bowels, and the immoderate
courses in women. It cooleth and restraineth all other hot in-
flammations, St. Anthony’s fire, scaldings and burnings, the
shingles, fretting ulcers, cankers, tetters, ringworms, and the
like; and much easeth the pains of the gout proceeding from a
hot cause. The juice also taketh away warts and corns in the
hands or feet, being often bathed therewith, and the skin and
leaves being laid on them afterwards. It easeth also the head-
ache, and distempered heat of the brain in phrenzies, or through
want of sleep, being applied to the temples and forehead. The
leaves bruised and lain upon the crown or seam of the head,
stayeth bleeding at the nose very quickly. The distilled water
of the herb is profitable for all the purposes aforesaid. The
leaves being gently rubbed on any place stung with nettles or
bees, doth quickly take away the pain.

182 The English Physician Enlarged.

r~

HOUND’S TONGUE.

Descript.'] The great ordinary hound’s tongue hath many
long and somewhat narrow, soft, hairy, darkish green leaves,
lying on the. ground, somewhat like unto buglos leaves, from
amongst which riseth up a rough hairy stalk about two feet
high, with some smaller leaves thereon, and branched at the
tops into divers parts, with a small leaf at the foot of every
branch, which is somewhat long, with many flowers set along
the same, which branch is crooked or turned inwards before it
flowereth, and openeth by degrees as the flower doth blow,
which consists of small purplish red leaves of a dead colour
rising out of the husks wherein they stand with some threads
in the middle. It hath sometimes a white flower. After the
flowers are past, there cometh rough flat seed, with a small
pointal in the middle, easily cleaving to any garment that it
toucheth, and not so easily pulled off - again. The root is black,
thick, and long, hard to break, and full of clammy juice, smell-
ing somewhat strong, of an evil scent, as the leaves also do.

Place.] It grovveth in most places of this land, in waste
grounds, and untilled places, by highway-sides, lanes, and
hedge-sides.

Time.] It flowereth about May or June, and the seed is
ripe shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] It is a plant under the dominion
of Mercury. The root is very effectually used in pills, as well
as the decoction, or otherwise, to stay all sharp and thin deduc-
tions of rheum from the head into the eyes, or nose, or upon the
stomach or lungs, as also for coughs and shortness of breath. The
leaves boiled in wine (saith Dioscorides, but others do rather ap-
point it to be made with water, and to add thereto oil and salt)
mollifieth or openeth the belly downwards. It also helpeth to
cure the biting of a mad dog, some of the leaves being also ap-
plied to the wound: The leaves bruised, or the juice of them
boiled in hog’s lard, and applied, helpeth the falling away of the

The English Physician Enlarged. 183

hair, which cometh of hot and sharp humours ; as also for any
place that is scalded or burnt ; the leaves bruised and laid to any
green wound doth heal it up quickly ; the root baked under the
embers, wrapped in paste or wet paper, or in wet double cloth,
and thereof a suppository made, and put up into or applied to the
fundament, doth very effectually help the painful piles or
haemorrhoids. The distilled water of the herbs and roots is very
good to all the purposes aforesaid, to be used as well inwardly
to drink, as outwardly to wash any sore place, for it healeth all
manner of wounds and punctures, and those foul ulcers that
arise by the French pox. Mizaldus adds that the leaves laid
under the feet, will keep the dogs from barking at you. It is
called hound’s tongue, because it ties the tongues of hounds;
whether true or not, I never tried, yet I cured the biting of
a mad dog with this only medicine.

HOLLY, HOLM, OR HULVER BUSH.

I^OR to describe a tree so well known is needless.

Government and Virtues .] The tree is Saturnine. The berries
expel wind, and therefore are held to be profitable in the cholic.
The berries have a strong faculty with them ; for if you eat a do-
zen of them in the morning fasting when they are ripe and not
dried, they purge the body of gross and clammy phlegm ; but if
you dry the berries, and, beat them into powder, they bind the
body, and stop fluxes, bloody-fluxes, and the terms in women.
The bark of the tree, and also the leaves, are excellent good,
being used in fomentations for broken bones, and such members
as are out of joint. Pliny saith the branches of the tree defend
houses from lightning, and men from witchcraft.

ST. JOHN’S WORT.

Descript .] Common St. John’s wort shooteth forth brown-
ish, upright, hard, round stalks, two feet high, spreading many
branches from the sides up to the tops of them, with two small
leaves set one against another at every place, which are of a deep

184 The English Physician Enlarged.

green colour, somewhat like the leaves of the lesser centaury,
but narrow, and full of small holes in every leaf, which cannot
be so well perceived, as when they are held up to the light; at
the tops of the stalks and branches stand yellow flowers of five
leaves a-piece, with many yellow threads in the middle, which
being bruised, do yield a reddish juice like blood: after which
come small round heads, wherein is contained small blackish
seed, smelling like rosin. The root is hard and woody, with
divers, strings and fibres at it, of a brownish colour, which
abideth in the ground many years, shooting anew every
spring.

Place.] This growcth in woods and copses, as well those
that are shady, as open to the sun.

Time.] They flower about midsummer and July, and their
seed is ripe in the latter end of July or August.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the celestial sign Leo,
and the dominion of the Sun. It may be, if you meet a Papist,
he will tell you, especially if he be a lawyer, that St. John made
it over to him by a letter of attorney. It is a singular wound
herb; boiled in wine and drank, it healeth inward hurts or
bruises ; made into an ointment, it opens obstructions, dissolves
swellings, and closes up the lips of wounds. The decoction of
the herb and flowers, especially of the seed, being drank in
wine, with the juice of knot-grass, helpeth all mauner of vomit-
ing and spitting of blood, is good for those that are bitten or
stung by any venomous creature, and for those that cannot make
water. Two drams of the seed of St. John’s wort made into
powder, and drank in a little broth, doth gently expel choler
or congealed blood in the stomach. The decoction of the leaves
and seeds drank somewhat warm before the fits of agues, whe-
ther they be tertians or quartans, alters the fits, and, by often
using, doth take them quite away. The seed is much commend-
ed, being drauk for forty days together, to help the sciatica,
the falling-sickness, and the palsy.

The English Physician Enlarged. , 185

IVY.

It is so well known, to every child almost, to grow in woods
upon the trees, and upon the stone walls of churches, hou-
ses, &c. and sometimes to grow alone of itself, though but
seldom.

Time.] It flowereth not until July, and the berries are not
ripe till Christmas, when they have felt winter frosts.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of
Saturn. A pugil of the flowers, which may be about a dram,
(saith Dioscorides) drank twice a day in red wine, helpeth the
lask, and bloody-flux. It is an enemy to the nerves and sinews,
being much taken inwardly, but very helpful unto them, being
outwardly applied. Pliny saith, the yellow berries are good
against the jaundice ; and taken before one be set to drink hard,
preserveth from drunkenness, and helpeth those that spit blood ;
and that the white berries being taken inwardly, or applied out-
wardly, killeth worms in the belly. The berries are a sin-
gular remedy to prevent the plague, as also to free them from it
that have got it, by drinking the berries thereof made into a
powder, for two or three days together. They being taken in
wine, do certainly help to break the stone, provoke urine, and
women’s courses. The fresh leaves of ivy, boiled in vinegar,
and applied warm to the sides of those that are troubled with the
spleen, ach, or stitch in the sides, do give much ease : The
same applied with some rose-water, and oil of roses, to the
temples and forehead, easetb the head-ach, though it be of long
continuance. The fresh leaves boiled in wine, and old filthy
ulcers hard to be cured washed therewith, do wonderfully help
to cleanse them. It also quickly healeth green wounds, and is
effectual to heal all burnings and scaldings, and all kinds of ex-
ulcerations coming thereby, or by salt phlegm or humours in
other parts of the body. The juice of the berries or leaves
snuffed up into the nose, purgeth the head and brain of thin
rheum that maketh defluctions into the eyes and nose, and curetli
No. 8. A a

186 The English Physician Enlarged.

the ulcers and stench therein; the same dropped into the ears,
helpeth the old and running sores of them ; those that are trou-
bled with the spleen, shall find much ease by continual drink-
ing out of a cup made of ivy, so as the drink may stand some
small time therein before it be drank. Calo saith, that wine
put into such a cup, will soak through it, by reason of the an-
tipathy that is between them.

There seems to be a very great antipathy between wine and
ivy; for if one hath got a surfeit by drinking of wine, his
speediest cure is to drink a draught of the same wine where-
in a handful of ivy leaves, being first bruised, have been
boiled.

JUNIPER BUSH.

For to give a description of a bush so commonly known is
needless.

Place .} They grow plentifully in divers woods in Kent,
Warney Common near Brentwood in Essex, upon Finchley
Common without Highgate; hard by the New-found Wells
near Dulwich, upon a Common between Mitcham and Croy-
don, in the Highgate, near Amersham in Buckinghamshire, and
many other places.

Time.] The berries are not ripe the first year, but continue
green two summers and one winter before they are ripe ; at
which time they are all of a black colour, and therefore you shall
always find upon the bush green berries; the berries are ripe
about the fall of the leaf.

Government and Virtues.] This admirable Solar shrub is
scarce to be paralleled for its virtues. The berries are hot in
the third degree, and dry but in the first, being a most admirable
counter poison, and as great resister, of the pestilence, as any that
grows ; they are excellent good against the bitings of venomous
beasts; they provoke urine exceedingly, and therefore are very
available to dysuries and stranguries. It is so powerful a remedy
against the dropsy, that the very lee made of the ashes of the

The English Physician Enlarged. 187

herb being drank, cures the disease. It provokes the terms,
helps the fits of the mother, strengthens the stomach exceeding-
ly, and expels the wind. Indeed there is scarce a better remedy
for wind in any part of the body, or the cholic, than the chy-
mical oil drawn from the berries; such country people as know
not how to draw the chymical oil, may content themselves by
eating ten or a dozen of the ripe berries every morning fasting.
They are admirable good for a cough, shortness of breath, and
consumption, pains in the belly, ruptures, cramps, and convul-
sions. They give safe and speedy delivery to women with child,
they strengthen the brain exceedingly, help the memory, and
fortify the sight by strengthening the optic nerves ; are excel-
lent good in all sorts of agues; help the gout and sciatica, and
strengthen all the limbs of the body. The ashes of the wood is
a speedy remedy to such as have the scurvy, to rub their gums
with. The berries stay all fluxes, help the haemorrhoids or piles,
and kill worms in children. A lee made of the ashes of the
wood, and the body bathed with it, cures the itch, scabs and
leprosy. The berries break the stone, procure appetite when
it is lost, and are excellent good for all palsies, and falling-
sickness.

KIDNEYWORT, OR WALL PENNYROYAL, OR
WALL PENNYWORT.

Descript .] It hath many thick, flat, and round leaves grow-
ing from the root, every one having a long foot-stalk fastened un-
derneath, about the middle of it, and a little unevenly weaved
sometimes about the edges, of a pale green colour, and some-
what yellow on the upper side like a saucer : from among which
rise one or more tender, smooth, hollow stalks half a foot high,
with two or three small leaves thereon, usually not round us those
below, but somewhat long, and divided at the edges; the tops
are somewhat divided into long branches, bearing a number
of flowers, set round about a long spike one above another,
which are hollow and like a little bell of a whitish green colour,
after which come small heads, containing very small brownish

1 88 The English Physician Enlarged.

seed, which falling on the ground, will plentifully spring up be-
fore winter, if it have moisture. The root is round and most
usually smooth, greyish without, and white within, having
small fibres at the head of the root, and bottom of the
stalk.

P lace . ] It groweth very plentifully in many places of this land,
but especially in all the west parts thereof, upon stone and mud
walls, upon rocks also, and in stony places, upon the ground,
at the bottom of old trees, and sometimes on the bodies of them
that are decayed and rotten.

Time.] It usually flowereth in the beginning of May, and the
seed ripeneth quickly after, shedding itself ; so that about the end
of May, usually the leaves and stalks are withered, dry, and
gone until September, that the leaves spring up again, and so
abide all winter.

Government and Virtues.] Venus challengeth the herb under
Libra. The juice or the distilled water being drank, is very
effectual for all inflammations, and unnatural heats, to cool a
fainting hot stomach, a hot liver, or the bowels ; the herb,
juice, or distilled water whereof, outwardly applied, healeth
pimples, St. Anthony’s fire, and other outward heats. The
said juice or water helpeth to heal sore kidneys, torn or fretted
by the stone, or exulcerated within; it also provoketh urine, is
available for the dropsy, and helpeth to break the stone. Being
used as a bath, or made into an ointment, it eooleth the painful
piles or haemorrhoidal veins. It is no less effectual to give ease
in pains of the hot gout, the sciatica and the inflammations and
swellings in the cods ; it helpeth the kernels or knots in the
neck or throat, called the king’s evil ; healeth kibes and chil-
blains if they be bathed with the juice, or anointed with oint-
ment made thereof, and some of the skin of the leaf upon them ;
it is also used in green wounds to stay the blood, and to heal
them quickly.

KNAPWEED.

Descript.] T HE common sort hereof hath many long and

The English Phycician Enlarged. 189

somewhat broad dark green leaves, rising from the root, dented
about the edges, and sometimes a little rent or torn on both sides
in two or three places, and somewhat hairy withal ; amongst
which ariseth a long round stalk four or five feet high, divided
into many branches, at the tops whereof stand great scaly green
heads, and from the middle of them thrust forth a number of
dark purplish red thrums or threads, which after they are with-
ered and past, there are found divers black seeds, lying in a great
deal of down, somewhat like unto thistle seed, but smaller; the
root is white, hard and woody, and divers fibres annexed there-
unto, which perisheth not, but abideth with leaves thereon all
the winter, shooting out fresh every spring.

Place.] It groweth in most fields and meadows, and about
their borders and hedges, and in many waste grounds also every
where.

Time.] It usually flowereth in June and July, and the seed
is ripe shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn challengeth the herb for
his own. The knapweed helpeth to stay fluxes, both of blood
at the mouth or nose, or other outward parts, and those veins
that are inwardly broken, or inward wounds, as also the fluxes
of the belly; it stayeth distillations of thin and sharp humours
from the head upon the stomach and lungs ; it is good for those
that are bruised by any falls, blows, or otherwise, and is pro-
fitable for those that are bursten, and have ruptures, by drinking
the decoction of the herb and roots in wine, and applying the
same outwardly to the place. It is singularly good for all run-
ning sores, cancerous or fistulous, drying up the moisture and
healing them up gently, without sharpness; it doth the like to
running sores or scabs of the head or other parts. It is of spe-
cial use for the soreness of the throat, swelling of the uvula and
jaws, and excellent good to stay bleeding, and heal up all green
wounds.

KNOTGRASS.

It is generally known so well that it needeth no description.

190 The English Physician Enlarged.

Place.] It groweth in every county of this land, by the
highway sides, and by foot-paths in fields; as also by the sides
of old walls.

Time.] It springeth up late in the spring, and abideth until
the winter, when all the branches perish.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn seems to me to own the
herb, and yet some hold the Sun; out of doubt ’tis Saturn. The
juice of the common kind of knotgrass is most effectual to stay
bleeding of the mouth, being drank in steeled or red wine ; and
the bleeding at the nose, to be applied to the forehead or
temples, or to be squirted up into the nostrils. It is no less ef-
fectual to cool and temper the heat of the blood and stomach,
and to stay any flux of the blood and humours, as lask, bloody-
flux, women’s courses and running of the reins. It is singular
good to provoke urine, help the strangury, aud allay the heat
that cometh thereby ; and is powerful by urine to expel the
gravel or stone in the kidneys and bladder, a dram of the powder
of the herb being taken in wine for many days together ; Being
boiled in wine and drank, it is profitable to those that are stung
or bitten by venomous creatures and very effectual to stay all
defluctions of rheumatic humours upon the stomach, and killeth
worms in the belly or stomach, quieteth inward pains that arise
from the heat, sharpness and corruption of blood and choler.
The distilled water hereof taken by itself or with the powder
of the herb or seed, is very effectual to all the purposes aforesaid,
and is accounted one of the most sovereign remedies to cool all
manner of inflammation, breaking out through heat, hot swel-
lings and imposthumes, gangrene and fistulous cankers, or fonl
filthy ulcers, being applied or put into them ; but especially for
all sorts of ulcers and sores happening in the privy parts of men
or women. It helpeth all fresh and green wounds, and speedily
healeth them. The juice dropped in the ears, cleanseth them
being foul, and having running matter in them.

It is very prevalent for the premises ; as also for broken joints

and ruptures.

The English Physician Enlarged. 191

LADY’S MANTLE,

Descript . ] _T T hath many leaves rising from the root standing
upon long hairy foot-stalks, being almost round, and a little cut
on the edges, into eight or ten parts, making it seem like a star,
with so many corners or points, and dented round about, of a
light green colour, somewhat hard in handling, and as it were
folded or plaited at first, and then crumpled in divers places,
and a little hairy, as the stalk is also, which riseth up among
them to the height of two or three feet; and being weak, is not
able to stand upright, but bendeth to the ground, divided at the
top into two or three small branches, with small yellowish green
heads, and flowers of a whitish colour breaking out of them;
which being past, there cometh a small yellowish seed like a
poppy seed : The root is somewhat long and black, with ma-
ny strings and fibres thereat.

Place.] It groweth naturally in many pastures and wood
sides in Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, and Kent, and other places
of this land.

Time.] It flowereth in May and June, and abideth after
seed-time green all the winter.

Government and Virtues.] Venus claims the herb as her
own. Lady’s mantle is very proper for those wounds that have
inflammations, and is very effectual to stay bleeding, vomitings,
fluxes of all sorts, bruises by falls or otherwise, and helpeth
ruptures ; and such women or maids as have over great flagging
breasts, causing them to grow less and hard, being both drank
and outwardly applied; the distilled water drank for 20 days
together helpeth conception, and to retain the birth: if the
w oman do sometimes also sit in a bath made of the decoction
of the herb. It is one of the most singular wound herbs, and
therefore highly prized and praised by the Germans, who
use it in all wounds inward and outward, to drink a decoction
thereof, and wash the wounds therewith, or dip tents therein,
and put them into the wounds, which wonderfully drieth up all

192 The English Physician Enlarged.

humidity of the sores, and abateth inflammations therein. It
quickly healeth all green wounds, not suffering any corruption
to remain behind, and cureth all old sores, though fistulous and
hollow.

LAVENDER.

JOEING an inhabitant almost in every garden, it is so well
known, that it needeth no description.

Time.} It flowereth about the end of June, and beginning
of July.

Government and Virtues .] Mercury owns the herb, and
it carries his effects very potently. Lavender is of a special
good use for all the griefs and pains of the head and brain that
proceed of a cold cause, as the apoplexy, falling sickness, the
dropsy, or sluggish malady, cramps, convulsions, palsies, and'
often faintings. It strengthens the stomach; and freeth the liver
and spleen from obstructions, provoketh women’s courses, and
expelleth the dead child and after-birth. The flowers of laven-
der steeped in wine, helpeth them to make water that are stop-
ped, or are troubled with the wind or cholic, if the place be
bathed therewith. A decoction made with the flowers of laven-
der, horehound, fennel, asparagus root, and a- little cinnamon;
is very profitably used to help the falling sickness, and the
giddiness or turning of the brain ; to gargle the mouth with the
decoction thereof, is good against the tooth-ach. Two spoon-
fuls of the distilled water of the flowers taken, helpeth them
that have lost their voice, as also the tremblings and passions
of the heart, and faintings and swooning, not only being drank,
but applied to the temples, or nostrils to be smelt unto; but
it is not safe to use it where the body is replete with blood
and humours, because of the hot and subtile spirits wherewith
it is possessed. The chymical oil drawn from lavender, usually
called oil of spike, is of so fierce and piercing a quality, that it
is cautiously to be used, some few drops being sufficient,
to be given with other things, either for inward or outward
griefs.

The English Physician Enlarged. 103

LAVENDER COTTON.

It being a common garden herb, I shall forbear the descrip-
tion, only take notice, that it flowereth in June and July.

Government and Virtues .] It is under the dominion of Mer-
cury. It resisteth poison, putrefaction, and heals the bitings
of venomous beasts: A dram of the powder of the dried leaves
taken every morning fasting, stops the running of the reins in
men, and whites in women. The seed beaten into powder, and
taken as worm-seed, kills the worms, not only in children, but
also in people of riper years ; the like doth the herb itself, being
steeped in milk, and the milk drank; the body bathed with the
decoction of it, helps scabs and itch.

LADY’S-SMOCK, OR CUCKOW FLOWERS.

Descript.] I. HE root is composed of many small white
threads, from whence spring up divers long stalks of winged
leaves, consisting of round, tender, dark green leaves, set one
against another upon a middle rib, the greatest being at the end,
amongst which arise up divers tender, weak, round, green stalks,
somewhat streaked, with longer and smaller leaves upon them,
on the tops of which stand flowers, almost like the stock gilli-
flowers, but rounder, and not so long, of a blushing, white co-
lour;: the seed is- reddish, and groweth to 1 small bunches, being
of a sharp biting taste, and so hath the herb.

Place.] They grow in moist places, and near to brook-
sides.

Time.] They flower in April and May, and the lower leaves
continue green all the winter.

Govei'nment and Virtues.] They are under the dominion of the
Moon, and very little inferior to water cresses in all their ope-
rations; they are excellent good for the scurvy; they provoke
urine, and break the stone, and excellently warm a cold and

weak stomach, restoring lost appetite, and help digestion.

No. 9. B b

194 The English Physician Enlarged.

LETTUCE.

It is so well known, boing generally used as a salad-herb,
that it is altogether needless to write any description thereof.

Government and Virtues.] The Moon owns them, and that
is the reason they cool and moisten what heat and dryness Mars
causeth, because Mars hath his fall in Cancer ; and they cool
the heat because the Sun rules it, between whom and the
Moon is a reception in the generation of men, as you may see
in my guide for women. The juice of lettuce mixed or boiled
with oil of roses, applied to the forehead and temples procureth
sleep, and easeth the head-ach proceeding of an hot cause:
Being eaten boiled, it helpeth to loosen the belly. It help-
eth digestion, quencheth thirst, increaseth milk in nurses,
easeth griping pains in the stomach or bowels, that come of
clioler. It abateth bodily lust, represseth venereous dreams,
being outwardly applied to the cods with a little camphire. Ap-
plied in the same manner to the region of the heart, liver
or reins, or by bathing the said place with the juice of distilled
water, wherein some white sanders, or red roses are put; also
it not only represseth the heat and inflammations therein, but
comforts and strengthens those parts, and also tempereth the
heat of urine. Galen adviseth old men to use it with spice ;
and where spices are wanting, to add mints, rochet, and such
like hot herbs, or else citron, lemon, or orange seeds, to
abate the cold of one and heat of the other. The seed and dis-
tilled water of the lettuce work the same effects in all things ;
but the use of lettuce is chiefly forbidden to those that are
shortwinded, or have any imperfection in the lungs, or spit
blood.

WATER LILY.

Of these there are two principally noted kinds, viz. the white
and the yellow.

Descript.] The white lily hath very large and thick, dark

The English Physician Enlarged. 195

green leaves lying on the water, sustained by long and thick
foot-stalks, that arise from a great, thick, round, and long tu-
berous black root, spungy or loose, with many knobs thereon,
like eyes, and whitish within ; from amidst which rise other the
like thick, green stalks, sustaining one large great flower there-
on, green on the outside, but as white as snow within, con-
sisting of divers rows of long and somewhat thick and narrow
leaves, smaller and thinner the more inward they be, encompass-
ing a head with many yellow threads or thrums in the middle;
where, after they are past, stand round poppy-like heads, full
of broad, oily and bitter seed.

The yellow kind is little different from the former, save only
that it hath fewer leaves on the flowers, greater and more shin-
ing seed, and a whitish root, both within and without. The
root of both is somewhat sweet in taste.

Place.] They are fouud growimg in great pools, and stand-
ing waters, and sometimes in slow running rivers, and lesser
ditches of water, in sundry places of this land.

Time.] They flower more commonly about the end of May,
and their seed is ripe in August.

Government and Virtues.] The herb is under the dominion
of the moon, and therefore cools and moistens like the former.
The leaves and flowers of the water lily are cold and moist,
but the roots and seeds are cold and dry ; the leaves do cool all
inflammations ; both outward and inward heat of agues ; and so
doth the flowers also, either by the syrup or conserve ; the syrup
helpeth much to procure rest, and to settle the brain of frantic
persons, by cooling the hot distemperature of the head. The
seed as well as the root is effectual to stay fluxes of blood or hu-
mours, either of wounds or of the belly: but the roots are
most used, and more effectual to cool, bind, and restrain all
fluxes in man or woman; also running of the reins, and passing
away of the seed when one is asleep ; but the frequent use here-
of extinguisheth venereous actions. The root is likewise very
good for those whose urine is hot and sharp, to be boiled in wine
and water, and the decoction drank. The distilled water of the

196 r lhe English Physician Enlarged.

flowers is very effectual for all the diseases aforesaid, both in
wardly taken, and outwardly applied, and is much commended
to take away freckles, spots, sunburn, and morphew from the
face, or other parts of the body. The oil made of the flowers,
as oil of roses is made, is profitably used to cool hot tumours,'
and to ease the pains, and help the sores.

LILY OF THE VALLEY,

Called also conyal lily, male lily, and lily constancy.

Descript .] The root is small, and creepeth far in the ground,
as grass roots do. The leaves are many, against which riseth
up a stalk half a foot high, with many white flowers, like little
bells with turned edges, of a strong, though pleasing smell ; the
berries are red, not much unlike those of asparagus.

Place.] They grow plentifully upon Hamstead-heath, and
many other places of this nation.

Time.] They flower in May, and the seed is ripe in Septem-
ber.

Temperature and Virtues. It is under the dominion of Mer-
cury, and therefore strengthens the brain, recruits a weak me-
mory, and makes it strong again: The distilled water dropped
into the eyes, helps inflammations there ; as also that infirmity
which they call a pin and web. The spirit of the flowers distilled
in wine, restoreth lost speech, helps the palsy, is exceedingly
good in the apoplexy, and comforteth the heart and vital spirits.
Gerrard saith, that tlieilowers being close stopped up in a glass,
put into an ant-hill, and taken away again a month after, ye
shall find a liquor in the glass, which, being outwardly applied,
helps the gout.

WHITE LILIES.

It were in vain to describe a plant so commonly known in
every one’s garden ; therefore I shall not tell you what they are,
but what they are good for.

Government and Virtues.] They are under the dominion of

The English Physician Enlarged. 197

the Moon, and by antipathy to Mars expel poison; they are ex
cellently good in pestilential fevers, the roots being bruised and
boiled in wine, and the decoction drank ; for it*expels the venom
to the exterior parts of the body: The juice of it being tempered
with barley meal, baked, and so eaten for ordinary bread, is an
excellent cure for the dropsy. An ointment made of the r(#t
and hog’s grease, is excellent good for scald heads, unites the
sinews when they are cut, and eleanses ulcers. The root boiled
in any convenient decoction, gives speedy delivery to women in
travail, and expels the after-birth. The root roasted, and
mixed with a little hog’s grease, makes a gallant poultice to
ripen and break plague-sores. The ointment is excellent good
for swellings in the privites, and will cure burnings and scald-
ngs without a scar, and trimly deck a blank place with hair.

LIQUORICE.

Descript .] Our English liquorice riseth up with divers
woody stalks, whereon are set at several distances many nar-
row, long, green leaves, set together on both sides of the
stalk, and an odd one at the end, very well resembling a young
ash tree sprung up from the seed. This by many years continu-
ance in a place without removing, and not else, will bring
forth flowers, many standing together spike fashion, one
above another upon the stalk, of the form of pease blossoms,
but ot a very pale blue colour, which turn into long, somew hat
flat and smooth cods, wherein is contained a small, round hard
seed : The roots run dow r n exceedingly deep into the ground,
with divers other small roots and fibres growing with them, and
shoot out suckers from the main roots all about, whereby it is
much increased, of a brownish colour on the outside, and yel-
.ow within.

Place.] It is planted in fields and gardens, in divers places
cf this land, and thereof good profit is made.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of
Mercury. Liquorice boiled in fair water, with some maiden-

198 The English Physician Enlarged.

hair and figs, maketh a good drink for those that have a dry
cough or hoarseness, wheezing or shortness of breath, and for
all the griefs of tire breasts and lungs, phthisic or consumptions
caused by the distillation of salt humours on them. It is also
good in all pains of the reins, the strangury, and heat of urine:
The fine powder of liquorice blown through a quill into the
eyes that have a pin and web (as they call it) or rheumatic dis-
tillations in them, doth cleanse and help them: The juice of li-
quorice is as effectual in all the diseases of the breast and lungs,
the reins and the bladder, as the decoction. The juice distilled
m rose-water, with some gum tragacanth, is a fine licking me-
dicine for hoarseness, wheezing, &c.

LIVERWORT.

Descript. ] C OMMON liverwort groweth close, and spread-
eth much upon the moist and sandy places with many small
green leaves, or rather (as it were) sticking flat to one another,
very unevenly cut in on the edges, and crumpled ; from among
which arise small slender stalks an inch or two high at most,
bearing small star-like flowers at the top; the roots are very
fine and small.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of
Jupiter, and under the sign Cancer. It is a singularly good
herb for all the diseases of the liver, both to cool and cleause it,
and helpeth the inflammations in any part, and the yellow jaun-
dice likewise: Being bruised and boiled in small beer, and
drank, it cooleth the heat of the liver and kidneys, and helpeth
the running of the reins in men, and the whites in women; it
is a singular remedy to stay the spreading of tetters, ringworms,
and other fretting and running sores and scabs, and is an excel-
lent remedy for such whose livers are corrupted by surfeits,
which cause their bodies to break out, for it fortifieth the liver
exceedingly, and makes it impregnable.

LOOSESTRIFE, OR WILLOWHERB.

Descript.] C OMMON yellow Iooi*estrife groweth to be four

The English Physician Enlarged. 199

or five feet high, or more, with great round stalks a little cres-
ted, diversely branched from the middle of them to the tops in-
to great and long branches, on all which at the joints there
grow long and narrow leaves, but broader below, and usually
two at a joint, yet sometimes three or four, somewhat like wil-
low leaves, smooth on the edges, and of a fair green colour
from the upper joints of the branches, and at the tops of them
also stand, many yellow flowers of five leaves a-piece, with divers
yellow threads in the middle, which turn into small round heads,
containing small cornered seeds ; the root creepeth under
ground, almost like couchgrass, but greater, and shooteth up
every spring brownish heads, which afterwards grow up into
stalks. It hath no scent or taste, but only astringent.

Place.'] It groweth in many places of this land in moist mea-
dows, and by water sides.

Time.] It flowereth from June to August.

Government and Virtues.] This herb is good for all man-
ner of bleeding at the mouth, nose, or wounds, and all fluxes
of the belly, and the bloody-flux, given either to drink or taken
by clyster; it stayeth also the abundance of women’s courses;
it is a singularly good wound herb for green wounds, to stay
the bleeding, and quickly close together the lips of the wound
if the herb be bruised, and the juice only applied. It is often
used in gargles for sore mouths, as also for the secret parts.
The smoke hereof being burned, driveth away flies and gnats,
which in the night time molest people inhabiting near marshes,
and in the fenny countries.

LOOSESTRIFE, with spiked Heads of Flowers.

Descript.] This groweth with many woody square stalks,
full of joints, about three feet high at least; at every one where-
of stand two long leaves, shorter, narrower, and a larger green
colour than the former, and some brownish. The stalks are
branched into many long stems of spiked flowers half a foot long,
growing in bundles one above another, out of small husks, very

200 The English Physician Enlarged.

like the spiked heads of lavender, each of which flowers have
five round pointed leaves of a purple violet colour, or somewhat
inclining to redness; in white husks stand small round heads
after the flowers are f allen, wherein is contained small seed. The
root creepeth under ground like unto the yellow, but is greater
than it, and so are the heads of the leaves when they first appear
out of the ground, and more brown than the other.

Place.] It groweth usually by rivers, and ditch-sides in wet
ground, as about the ditches at and near Lambeth, and in many
other places of this land.

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

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of the Moon, and
under the sign Cancer; neither do I know a better preserver of
the sight when it is well, nor a better cure for sore eyes than
eyebright, taken inwardly, and this used outwardly; it is cold
in quality. This herb is not a whit inferior to the former, it
having not only all the virtues which the former hath, but some
peculiar virtues of its own, found out by experience; as name-
ly, the distilled water is a present remedy for hurts and blows on
the eyes, and for blindness, so as the christaline humour be not
perished or hurt; and this hath been sufficiently proved true
by the experience of a man of judgment, who kept it long to
himself as a great secret. It cleareth the eyes of dust, or any
thing gotten into them, and preserveth the sight. It is also
very available against wounds and thrusts, being made into an
ointment in this manner : To every ounce of the water, add
two drams* of May butter without salt, and of sugar and wax,
of each as much also; let them boil gently together. Let tents
dipped into the liquor that remaineth after it is cold, be put into
the wounds, and the place covered with a linen cloth doubled
and anointed with the ointment; and this is also an approved
medicine. It likewise cleanseth and healeth all foul ulcers, and
sores whatsoever, and stayeth their inflammations by washing
them with the water, and laying on them a green leaf or two
in the summer, or dry leaves in the winter. This water gar-
gled warm in the mouth, and sometimes drank also, doth

T’lie English Physician Enlarged. 201

cure the quinsy, or king’s evil, in the throat. The said water
applied warm, taketh away all spots, marks, and scabs in the
skin; and a little of it drank, quencheth thirst when it is ex-
traordinary.

LOVAGE.

Descript .] It hath many long and green stalks of large wing-
ed leaves, divided into many parts, like smallage, but much
larger and greater, every leaf being cut about the edges, broad-
est forward, and smallest at the stalk, of a sad green colour,
smooth and shining; from among which rise up sundry strong,
hollow green stalks, five or six, some-times seven or eight feet
high, full of joints, but lesser leaves set on them than grow be-
low ; and with them towards the tops come forth large branches,
bearing at their tops large umbels of yellow flowers, and after
them flat brownish seed. The root groweth thick, great and
deep, spreading much, and enduring long, of a brownish co-
lour on the outside, and whitish within. The whole plant and
every part of it smelling strong and aromatically, and is of a
hot, sharp, biting taste.

Place.] It is usually planted in gardens, where, if it be suf-
fered, it groweth huge and great.

Time.] It flowereth in the end of July, and seedeth in Au-
gust. .

Government and l irtues.] It is an herb of the Sun, under
the sign Taurus. If Saturn offend the throat (as he always
doth if he be the occasion of the malady, and in Taurus is
the Genesis) this is your cure. It openeth, cureth, and di-
gesteth humours, and mightily provoketh women’s courses and
urine. Half a dram at a time of the dried root in powder, taken
in wine, doth wonderfully warm a cold stomach, helpeth diges-
tion, and consumeth all raw and superfluous moisture therein ;
easeth all inward gripings and pains, dissolveth wind and re-
sisteth poison and infection. It is a known and much praised
remedy to drink the decoction of the herb for any sort of ague,

C c

202 The English Physician Enlarged.

and to help the pains and torments of the body and bowels com-
ing of cold. The seed is effectual to all the purposes aforesaid
(except the last) and worketh more powerfully. The distilled
water of the herb helpeth the quinsy in the throat, if the mouth
and throat be gargled and washed therewith, and helpeth the
pleurisy, being drank three or four times. Being dropped into
the eyes, it taketh away the redness or dimness of them ; it like-
wise taketh away spots or freckles in the face. The leaves
bruised, and fried with a little hog’s lard, and laid hot to any
blotch or boil, will quickly break it.

LUNGWORT.

Descript .] This is a kind of moss that groweth on sundry
sorts of trees, especially oaks and beeches, with broad, grey-
ish, tough leaves diversely folded, crumpled, and gashed in on
the edges, and some spotted also with many small spots on the
upper side. It was never seen to bear any stalk or flower at
any time.

Government and Virtues .] Jupiter seems to own this herb.
It is of great use to physicians to help the diseases of the lungs,
and for coughs, wheezings, and shortness of breath, which it
cureth both in man and beast. It is very profitable to put into
lotions that are taken to stay the moist humours that flow to
ulcers, and hinder their healing, as also to wash all other ulcers
in the privy parts of a man or women. It is an excellent rem-
edy boiled in beer for broken-winded horses.

MADDER.

Descript .] (jTARDEN madder shooteth forth many very
long, weak, four-square, reddish stalks, trailing on the ground a
great way, very rough or hairy, and full of joints: At every one
of these joints come forth divers long and narrow leaves, stand-
ing like a star about the stalks, rough also and hairy, towards
the tops whereof come forth many small pale yellow flowers, af-
ter which come small round heads, green at first and reddish.

The English Physician Enlarged. 203

afterwards, but black when they are ripe, wherein is contained
the seed. The root is not very great, but exceeding long, run-
ning down half a man’s length into the ground, red and very
clear, while it is fresh, spreading divers ways.

Place.] It is only manured in gardens, or large fields, for
the profit that is made thereof.

Time . ] It flowereth towards the end of summer, and the
seed is ripe quickly after.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Mars. It hath
an opening quality, and afterwards to bind and strengthen. It
is a sure remedy for the yellow jaundice, by opening the ob-
structions of the liver and gall, and cleansing those parts: it
openeth also the obstructions of the spleen, and dimiuisheth the
melancholy humour: It is available for the palsy and sciatica,
and effectual for bruises inward and outward, and is therefore
much used in vulnerary drinks. The root for all those aforesaid
purposes, is to be boiled in wine or water, as the cause re-
quired), and some honey and sugar put thereunto afterwards^
The seed hereof taken in vinegar and honey, helpeth the swell-
ing and hardness of the spleen. The decoction of the leaves
and branches is a good fomentation for women to sit over that
have not their courses. The leaves and roots beaten and ap-
plied to any part that is discoloured with freckles, morphew, the
white scurf, or any such deformity of the skin, cleanseth tho-
roughly, and taketh them away.

MAIDENHAIR.

Descript.] Our common maiden-hair doth, from a number
of hard black fibres, send forth a great many blackish shining
brittle stalks, hardly a span long, in many not half so long, on
each side set very thick with small, round, dark green leaves,
and spitted on the back of them like a fern.

Place.] It groweth upon old stone walls in the west parts in
Kent, and divers other places of this laud ; it delighteth likewise
to grow by springs, wells, and rocky moist and shady places,
and is always green

204 The English Physician Enlarged.

WALL RUE, OR WHITE MAIDEN HAIR.

Descript.] This hath very fine pale green stalks, almost as
fine as hairs, set confusedly with divers pale green leaves on
every short footstalk, somewhat near unto the colour of garden
rue, and not much differing in form, but more diversely cut in on
the edges, and thicker, smooth on the upper part, and spotted
finely underneath.

Place.] It groweth in many places of this land, at Dart-
ford, and the bridge at Ashford in Kent; at Beaconsfield in
Buckinghamshire; at Wholly in Huntingdonshire, on Framing-
ham castle in Suffolk ; on the church walls at Mayfield in Sus-
sex; in Somersetshire; and divers other places of this land;
and is green in winter as well as summer.

Government and Virtues.] Both this and the former are
under the dominion of Mercury, and so is that also which fol-
lowetli after, and the virtues of both these are so near alike, that
though 1 have described them and their places of growing se-
verally, yet I shall, in writing the virtues of them, join them
both together as followeth :

The decoction of the herb maiden-hair being drank, helpeth
those that are troubled with the cough, shortness of breath, the
yellow jaundice, diseases of the spleen, stopping of urine, and
helpeth exceedingly to break the stone in the kidneys (in all
which diseases the wall rue is also very effectual) : It provoketh
women’s courses, and stays both bleedings and fluxes of the
stomach and belly, especially when the herb is dry; for being
green, it looseneth the belly, and voideth choler and phlegm
from the stomach and liver ; it cleanseth the lungs, and by rec-
tifying the blood, causeth a good colour to the whole body.
The herb boiled in oil of camomile, dissolveth knots, allayeth
swellings, and drieth up moist ulcers. The lee made thereof is
singularly good to cleanse the head from scurf, and from dry
and running sores, stayeth the falling or shedding of the hair,
and causeth it to grow thick, fair, and well-coloured ; for which

The English Physician Enlarged. 205

purpose some boil it in wine, putting some smallage seed thereto,
and afterwards some oil. The wall rue is as effectual as maiden-
hair, in all diseases of the head, or falling and recovering of the
hair again, and generally for all the aforementioned diseases :
And besides, the powder of it taken in drink for forty days to-
gether, helpeth the burstings in children.

GOLDEN MAIDEN HAIR.

T O the former give me leave to add this, and I shall no
more but only describe it unto you, and for the virtues refer
you to the former, since whatsoever is said of them, may be
also said of this.

Descript .] It hath many small, brownish, red hairs to make
up the form of leaves growing about the ground from the root;
and in the middle of them, in summer, rise small stalks of the
same colour, set with very fine yellowish green hairs on them,
and bearing a small gold, yellow head, lesser than the wheat
corn, standing in a great husk. The root is very small and
thready.

Time.] It groweth in bogs and moorish places, and also on
dry shady places, as Hampstead heath, and elsewhere.

MALLOWS AND MARSHMALLOWS.

Common mallows are generally so well known that they
need no description.

Our common marshmallows have divers soft hairy white
stalks, rising to be three or four feet high, spreading forth many
branches, the leaves whereof are soft and hairy, somewhat
lesser than the other mallow leaves, but longer pointed, cut
(for the most part) into some few divisions, but deep. The
flowers are many, but smaller also than the other mallows, and
white, or tending to a blueish colour. After which come such
long, round cases and seeds, as in the other mallows. The
roots are many and long, shooting from one head, of the bigness
of a thumb or finger, very pliant, tough, and being like

206 The English Physician Enlarged.

liquorice, of a whitish yellow colour ou the outside, and more
white within, full of a slimyjuice, which being laid in water,
will thicken, as if it were a jelly.

Place . ] The common mallows grow in every county of
this land. 1 he common marshmallows in most of the salt
marshes, from Woolwich down to the sea, both on-the Kentish
and Essex shores, and in divers other places of this land.

Time.} They flower all the summer months, even until the
winter do pull them down.

Government and Virtues .] Venus owns them both. The
leaves of either of the sorts before specified, and the roots also
boiled in wine or water, or in broth with parsley or fennel roots,
do help to open the body, and are very convenient in hot agues,
or other distempers of the body, to apply the leaves so boiled
warm to the belly. It not only voideth hot, choleric, and other
offensive humours, but easeth the pains and torments of the
belly coming thereby : and are therefore used in all clysters
conducing to those purposes. The same used by nurses pro-
cureth them store of milk. The decoction of the seed of any
of the common mallows made in milk or wine, doth marvellous-
ly help excoriations, the phthisic, pleurisy, and other diseases
of the chest and lungs, that proceed of hot causes, if it be con-
tinued takiug for some time together. The leaves and roots
work with the same effects. They help much also in the exco-
riations of the guts and bowels, and hardness of the mother, and
in all hot and sharp diseasee thereof. The juice drank in w ine,
or the decoction of them therein, do help women to a speedy
and easy delivery. Pliny saith, that whosoever shall take a spoon-
ful of any of the mallows, shall that day be free from all dis-
eases that may come unto him; and that it is special good for
the falling sickness. The syrup also and conserve made of the
flowers, are very effectual for the same diseases, and to open
the body, being costive. The leaves bruised, and laid to the
eyes with a little honey, taketh away the imposthumations of
them. The leaves bruised or rubbed upon any place stung with

The English Physician Enlarged. 207

bees, wasps, or the like, presently take away the pains, redness,
and swelling that rise thereupon. And Dioscorides saith, the
decoction of the roots and leaves helpeth all sorts of poison, so
as the poison may be presently voided by vomit. A poultice
made of the leaves boiled and bruised, with some bean or barley
flour, and oil of roses added, is an especial remedy against all
hard tumours and inflammations, or imposthumes, or swellings of
the cods, and other parts, and easeth the pains of them; as also
against the hardness of the liver or spleen, being applied to the
places. The juice of mallows boiled in old oil and applied,
taketh away all roughness of the skin, as also the scurf, daudriff,
or dry scabs in the head, or other parts, if they be anointed
therewith, or washed with the decoction, and preserveth the
hair from falling off. It is also effectual against scaldings and
burnings, St. Anthony’s fire, and all other hot, red and painful
swellings in any part of the body. The flowers boiled in oil or
water (as every one is disposed) whereunto a little honey and
allum is put, is an excellent gargle to wash, cleanse or heal any
sore mouth or throat in a short time. If the feet be bathed or
washed with the decoction of the leaves, roots and flowers, it
helpeth much the defluction of rheum from the head; if the
head be washed therewith it stayeth the falling and shedding
of the hair. The green leaves (saith Pliny) beaten with nitre,
and applied, draw out thorns or prickles in the flesh.

The marshmallows are more effectual in all the diseases before
mentioned : The leaves are likewise used to loosen the belly
gently, and in decoctions for clysters to ease all pains of the body,
opening the strait passages, and making them slippery, whereby
the stone may descend the more easily, and without pain, out
of the reins, kidneys, and bladder, and to ease the torturing pains
thereof. But the roots are of more special use for those pur-
poses, as well for coughs, hoarseness, shortness of breath, and
wheezings, being boiled in wine, or honeyed water, and drank.
The roots and seeds hereof boiled in wine or water, are with
good success used by them that have excoriations in the guts, or

208 The English Physician Enlarged.

the bloody flux, by qualifying the violence of sharp, fretting hu-
mours, easing the pains, and healing the soreness. It is pro-
fitably taken by them that are troubled wtih ruptures, cramps,
or convulsions of the sinews; and boiled in white wine, for the
imposthumes of the throat, commonly called the king’s evil, and
of those kernels that rise behind the ears, and inflammations or
swellings in women’s breasts. The dried roots boiled in milk
and drank, is special good for the chin-cougli. Hippocrates
used to give the decoction of the roots, or the juice thereof, to
drink, to those that are wounded, and ready to faint through loss
of blood, and applied the same mixed with honey and rosin to
the wounds. As also, the roots boiled in wine to those that
have received any hurt by bruises, falls, or blows, or had any
bone or member out of joint, or any swelling pain, or ache
in the muscles, sinews, or arteries. The mucilage of the roots,
and of linseed and fenugreek put together, is much used in poul-
tices, ointments, and plaisters, to mollify and digest all hard
swellings, and the inflammation of them, and to ease pains in any
part of the body. The seed, either green or dry, mixed with
vinegar, cleanseth the skin of morphew, and all other discolour-
ings, being boiled therewith in the sun.

You may remember, that not long since, there was a raging
disease called the bloody-flux; the college of physicians not
knowing what to make of it, called it the plague of the guts,
for their wits were at Ne plus ultra about it: My son was taken
with the same disease, and the excoriation of his bowels was ex-
ceeding great ; myself being in the country, was sent for up :
the only thing I gave him, was mallows bruised and boiled both
in milk and drink; in two days (the blessing of God being
upon it) cured him. And I here, to show my thankfulness
to God, in communicating it to his creatures, leave it to
posterity.

MAPLE TREE.

Government and Virtues .] Jt is under the dominion of Ju-

piter. The decoction either of the leaves or bark, must needs

The English Physician Enlarged. 209

strengthen the liver much, and so you shall find it to do, it
you use it. It is excellent good to open obstructions both of
the liver and spleen, and easeth pains of the sides thence pro-
ceeding.

WIND MARJORAM.

C^ALLED also origane, origanum, eastward marjoram, wild
marjoram, and grove marjoram.

Descript .] Wild or field marjoram hath a root which creep-
eth much under ground, which continueth a long time, sending
up sundry brownish, hard, square stalks, with small dark green
leaves, very like those of sweet marjoram, but harder, and
somewhat broader ; at the top of the stalks stand tufts of flowers,
of a deep purplish red colour. The seed is small and something
blacker than that of sweet marjoram.

Place.] It groweth plentifully in the borders of corn-fields,
and in some copses.

Time.] It flowereth towards the latter end of summer.

Government and Virtues.] This is also under the dominion
of Mercury. It strengthens the stomach and head much, there
being scarce a better remedy growing for such as are troubled
with a sour humour in the stomach; it restores the appetite,
being lost; helps the cough, and consumption of the lungs ; it
cleanseth the body of choler, expelleth poison, and remedieth
the infirmities of the spleen; helps the bitings of venomous
beasts, and helps such as have poisoned themselves by eating
hemlock, henbane, or opium. It provoketh urine and the terms
in women, helps the dropsy, and the scurvy, scabs, itch, and
yellow jaundice. The juice being dropped into the ears, helps
deafnesa, pain and noise in the ears. And thus much for
this herb, between which and adders, there is a deadly an-
tipathy.

SWEET MARJORAM.

Sweet

marjoram

is so well known, being an inhabitant
D d

210 The English Physician Enlarged.

in every garden, that it is needless to write any descrip-
tion thereof, neither of the winter sweet marjoram, or pot
marjoram.

Place.] They grow commonly in gardens; some sorts there
are that grow wild in the borders of the corn fields and pas-
tures, in sundry places of this land; but it is not my purpose
to insist upon them, the garden kinds being most used and
useful.

Time.] They flower in the end of summer.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Mercury, and
under Aries, and therefore is an excellent remedy for the brain
and other parts of the body and mind, under the dominion of
the same planet. Our common sweet marjoram is warming
and comfortable in cold diseases of the head, stomach, sinews,
and other parts, taken inwardly or outwardly applied. The de-
coction thereof being drank, helpeth all diseases of the chest,
which hinder the freeness of breathing, and is also profitable for
the obstructions of the liver and spleen. It helpeth the cold
griefs of the womb, and the windiness thereof, and the loss of
speech, by resolution of the tongue. The decoction thereof
made with some pelitory of Spain, and long pepper, or with a
little acorns or origanum, being drank, is good for those that
are beginning to fall into a dropsy ; for those that cannot make
water ; and against paihs and torments in the belly ; it pro-
voketh women’s courses, if it be put up as a pessary. Being
made into a powder, and mixed with honey, it taketh away the
black marks of blows and bruises, being thereunto applied ; it is
good for the inflammations and watering of the eyes, being
mixed with fine flour, and laid unto them. The juice dropped
into the ears, easeth the pains and singing noise in them. It is
profitably put into those ointments and salves that are warm,
and comfort the outward parts, as the joints and sinews ; for
swellings also, and places out of joint. The pow der thereof
snuffed up into the nose provoketh sneezing, and thereby
purgeth the brain; and chewed in the mouth, draweth forth

The English Physician Enlarged. 211

much phlegm. The oil made thereof, is very warm and oom-
fortable to the joints that are stiff, and the sinews that are hard,
to molify and supple them. Marjoram is much used in all odor-
iferous waters, powders, &c. that are for ornament or delight.

MARIGOLDS.

These being so plentiful in every garden, are so well known,
that they need no description.

Time.] They flower all the summer long, and sometimes in
winter, if it be mild.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of the Sun, and
under Leo. They strengthen the heart exceedingly, and are
very expulsive, and little less effectual in the small-pox and
measles than saffron. The juice of marigold leaves mixed with
vinegar, and any hot swellings bathed with it, instantly giveth
ease and aswageth it. The flowers, either green or dried, are
much used in possets, broths, and drink, as a comforter ofthe
heart and spirits; and to expel any malignant or pestilential
quality which might annoy them. A plaister made with the dry
flowers in powder, hog’s grease, turpentine, and rosin, applied to
the breast, strengthens and succours the heart infinitely in fe-
vers, whether pestilential or not pestilential.

MASTERWORT.

Descript.] C OMMON masterwort hath divers stalks of wing-
ed leaves, divided into sundry parts, three for the most part
standing together with small footstalks on both sides of the great-
er, and three likewise at the end of the stalk, somewhat broad,
and cut in on the edges into three or more divisions, all of them
dented about the brims, of a dark green colour, somewhat re-
sembling the leaves of angelica, but that these grow lower to the
ground, and on lesser stalks; among which rise up two or three
short stalks about two feet high, and slender, with such like
leaves at the joints which grow below, but with lesser and few
er divisions, bearing umbels of white flowers, and after them.

*212 IT he English Physician Enlarged.

thin, flat blackish seeds, bigger than dill seeds. The root is some-
what greater and growing rather sideways than down deep in
the ground, shooting forth sundry heads, which taste sharp, bi-
ting on the tongue, and is the hottest and sharpest part of the
plant, and the seed next unto it being somewhat blackish on
the outside, and smelling well.

Place.] It is usually kept in gardens with us in England.

Time.] It flowereth and seedeth about the end of August.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Mars. The
root of masterwort is hotter than pepper, and very available in
cold griefs and diseases both of the stomach and body, dissolving
very powerfully upwards and downwards. It is also used in a
decoction with wine against all cold rheums, distillation upon
the lungs, or shortness of breath, to be taken morning and even-
ing. It also provoketh urine, and helpeth to break the stone,
and expel the gravel from the kidneys; provoketh women’s
courses, and expelleth the dead birth. It is singularly good for
strangling of the mother, and other such like feminine diseases.
It is effectual also against the dropsy, cramps, and falling sick-
ness; for the decoction in wine being gargled in the mouth,
draweth down much water and phlegm from the brain, purg-
ing and easing it of what oppresseth it. It is ot a rare quality
against all sorts of cold poison, to be taken as there is cause;
it provoketh sweat. But lest the taste hereof, or of the seed
(which worketh to the like effect, though not so powerfully)
should be too effensive, the best way is to take the water diss-
tilied both from the herb and root. The juice hereof dropped,
or tents dipped therein, and applied either to green wounds or
filthy rotten ulcers, and those that come by envenomed weapons,
doth soon cleanse and heal them. The same is also very good
to help the gout coming of a cold cause.

SWEET MAUDLIN.

Descript.] C^OMMON maudlin hath somewhat long and
narrow leaves, snipped about the edges. The stalks aie two

The English Physician Enlarged. 213

feet high, bearing at the tops many yellow flowers set round to-
gether, and all of an equal height, in umbels or tufts like unto
tansy; after which followeth small whitish seed, almost as big
as wormseed.

Place and Time.] It groweth in gardens, and flowereth in
June and July.

Government and Virtues.] The virtues hereof being the
same with costmary or alecost, I shall not make any repetition
thereof, lest my book grow too big, but rather refer you unto
costmary for satisfaction.

THE MEDLAR.

Descript.] Tl HE tree groweth near the bigness of the quince
free, spreading branches reasonably large, with longer and nar-
rower leaves than either the apple or quince, and not dented
about the edges. At the end of the sprigs stand the flowers,
made of five white, great, broad pointed leaves, nicked in the
middle, with some white threads also; after which cometh the
fruit, of a brownish green colour, being ripe, bearing a crown
as it were on the top, which were the five green leaves ; and be-
ing rubbed off, or fallen away, the head of the fruit is seen to
be somewhat hollow. The fruit is very harsh before it is mel-
lowed, and hath usually five hard kernels within it— There is
another kind hereof nothing differing from the former, but that
it hath some thorns on it in several places, which the other hath
not; and usually the fruit is small and not so pleasant.

Time and Place.] They grow in this land, and flow'er in
May for the most part, and bear fruit in September and Oc-
tober.

Government and Virtues.] The fruit is old Saturn’s, and
sure a better medicine he hardly hath tostrenghteu the retentive
faculty ; therefore it stays womeri’s longings : The good old
man cannot endure women’s minds should run a gadding. Also
a plaister made of the fruit dried before they are rotten, and
other convenient things, and applied to the reins of the back,

214 The English Physician Enlarged.

stops miscarriage in women with child. They are very powerful
to stay any fluxes of blood, or humours in men or women; the
leaves also have this quality. The fruit eaten by women with
child, stayeth their longing after unusual meats, and is very
effectual for them that are apt to miscarry, and be delivered be-
fore their time, to help that malady, and make them joyful mo-
thers. The decoction of them is good to gargle and wash the
mouth, throat and teeth, when there is any defections of blood
to stay it, or of humours, which causeth the pains and swel-
lings. It is a good bath for women to sit over, that have their
courses flowing too abundant ; or for the piles when they bleed
too much. If a poultice or plaister be made with dried medlars,
beaten and mixed with the juice of red roses, whereunto a
few cloves and nutmegs may be added, and a little red coral
also, and applied to the stomach that is given to casting or
loathing of meat, it effectually helpeth. The dried leaves in
powder, strewed on fresh bleeding wounds, restraineth the
blood, and healeth up the wound quickly. The medlar-stones
made into powder, and drank in wine, wherein some parsley-
roots have lain infused all night, or a little boiled, do break
the stone in the kidneys, helping to expel it,

MELLILOT, OR KING’S CLAVER.

Descript .] TjHIS hath many green stalks, two or three feet
high, rising from a tough, long, white root, which dieth not
every year, set round about at the joints with small and some-
what long, well smelling leaves, set three together unevenly dent-
ed about the edge. The flowers are yellow, and well smell-
ing also, made like other trefoil, but small, standing in long
spikes one above another, of an hand breadth long or better,
which afterwards turn into long crooked cods, wherein is con-
tained flat seed, somewhat brown.

Place.] It groweth plentifully in many places of this land,
as in the edge of Suffolk, and in Essex, as also in|Juntingdon-
sliire, and in other places, but most usually in corn-fields, and
k in corners of meadows.

The English Physician Enlarged. 215

Time.] It flowereth in June and July, and is ripe quickly
after.

Government and Virtues.] Mellilot, boiled in wine, and
applied, mollifieth all hard tumours and inflammations that
happen in the eyes, or other parts of the body, as the funda-
ment, or privy parts of men and women; and sometimes the
yolk of a roasted egg, or fine flour, or poppy seed, or endive,
is added unto it. It helpeth the spreading ulcers in the head, it
being washed with a lee made thereof. It helpeth the pains of
the stomach, being applied fresh ; or boiled with any of the
aforenamed things; also, the pains of the ears, being dropped
into them ; and steeped in vinegar, or rosewater, it mitigateth
the head-ache. The flowers of mellilot and camomile are much
used to be put together in clysters to expel wind, and ease pains ;
and also in poultices for the same purposes, and to assuage swell-
ing tumours in the spleen or other parts, and helpeth inflam-
mations in any part of the body. The juice dropped into the
eyes, is a singular good medicine to take away the film or skin
that cloudeth or dimmeth the eye-sight. The head often
washed with the distilled water of the herb and flower, or a lee
made therewith, is effectual for those that suddenly lose their
senses : as also to strengthen the memory, to comfort the
head and brain, and to preserve them from pain, and the
apoplexy.

FRENCH AND DOG MERCURY.

Descript.] T HIS riseth up with a square great stalk full of
joints, two feet high, or thereabouts, with two leaves at every
joint, and the branches likewise from both sides of the stalk,
set with fresh green leaves, somewhat broad and long, about
the bigness of the leaves of basil, finely dented about the ed-
ges ; towards the tops of the stalks and branches, come forth at
every joint in the male mercury two small, round geern heads,
standing together upon a short footstalk, which growing ripe,
are seeds, not having flowers. The female stalk is longer spike-

216 The English Physician Enlarged .

fashion, set round about with small green husks, which are the
flowers, made like small bunches of grapes, which give no seed,
but abide long upon the stalks without shedding. The root
is composed of many small fibres, which perisheth every year
at the first approach of winter, and riseth again of its own sow-
ing ; aud it once it is suffered to sow itself, the ground will ue-
ver want afterwards, even both sorts of it.

DOG MERCURY

Having described unto you that which is called French
mercury, I come now to shew you a description of this kind
also.

Descript . ] This is likewise of two kinds, male and female,
having many stalks slender and lower than mercury, without
any branches at all upon them ; the root is set with two leaves
at every joint, somewhat greater than the female, but more
pointed and full of veins, aud somewhat harder in handling ; of
a dark green colour, and less dented or snipped about the edges.
At the joints with the leaves come forth longer stalks than the
former, with two hairy round seeds upon them, twice as big as
those of the former mercury. The taste hereof is herby, and
the smell somewhat strong, and virulent. The female has much
harder leaves standing upon longer footstalks, and the stalks are
also longer: from the joints come forth spikes of flowers like
the French female mercury. The roots of them both are many,
and full of small fibres which run under ground, and mat them-
selves very much, not perishing as the former mercuries do, but
abiding the winter, and shoot forth new branches every year,
for the old lie down to the ground.

Place.] The male and female French mercury are found
wild in divers places of this land, as by a village called Brook-
land, in Romney Marsh in Kent.

The dog mercury in sundry places of Kent alsc, and else-
where; but the female more seldom than the male.

Time.] They flower in the summer months, and therein give
their seed.

The English Physician Enlarged. 217

Government and Virtues.] Mercury, they say, owns the
herb, but I rather think it is Venus’s, and I am partly confident
of it too, for I never heard that Mercury ever minded women’s
business so much : I believe he minds his study more. The de-
coction of the leaves of mercury, or the juice thereof in broth,
or drank with a little sugar put to it, purgeth choleric and wa-
terisli humours. Hippocrates commended it wonderfully for
women’s diseases, and applied to the secret parts, to ease the
pains of the mother; and used the decoction of it, both to pro-
cure women’s courses, and to expel the after-birth ; and gave the
decoction thereof with myrrh or pepper, or used to apply the
leaves outwardly against the strangury, and diseases of the reins
and bladder. He used it also for sore and watering eyes, and
for deafness and pains in the ears, by dropping the juice
thereof into them, and bathing them afterwards in white wine.
The decoction thereof made with water and a cock chicken, is
a most safe medicine against the hot fits of agues. It also cleanseth
the breast and lungs of phlegm, but a little offendeth the stomach.
The juice or distilled water snuffed up into the nostrils, purgeth
the head and eyes of catarrhs and rheums. Some use to drink
two or three ounces of the distilled water, with a little sugar put
to it, in the morning, fasting, to open and purge the body of
gross, viscous, and melancholy humours. It ts wonderful, (if
it be not fabulous) what Dioscorides and Theophrastus do relate
of it, viz. That if women use these herbs either inwardly or
outwardly, for three days together after conception, and their
courses be past, they shall bring forth male or female children,
according to that kind of herb they use. Matthiolus saith, that
both the seed of the male and female mercury boiled with worm-
wood and drank, cureth the yellow jaundice in a speedy manner.
The leaves or the juice rubbed upon warts, taketh them away.
The juice mingled with some vinegar, helpeth all running scabs,
tetters, ringworms, and the itch. Galen saith, that being ap-
plied in manner of a poultice to any swelling or inflammation,
it digesteth the swellings, and allayeth the inflammation, and is
therefore given in clysters to evacuale from the bellv offensive

No. 10. e e

218 The English Physician Enlarged.

humours. The dog mercury, although it be less used, yet may
serve in the same manner, to the same purpose, to purge water-
ish and melancholy humours.

MINT.

O F all tne kinds of mint, the spear mint, or heart mint, being
most usual, I shall only describe as follows :

Descript.] Spear mint hath divers round stalks, and long
but narrowish leaves set thereon, of a dark green colour. The
flowers stand in spiked heads at the tops of the branches, being
of a pale blue colour. The smell or scent thereof is somewhat
near unto basil; it increaseth by the root under ground as all
the others do.

Place.] It is an usual inhabitant in gardens; and because
it seldom giveth any good seed, the defect is recompensed by
the plentiful increase of the root, which being once planted in
a garden, will hardly be rid out again.

Time.] It flowereth not until the beginning of August, for
the most part.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Venus. Dios-
corides saitli it hath a heating, binding and drying quality, and
therefore the juice taken in vinegar, stayeth bleeding: Itstirreth
up venery, or bodily lust; two or three branches thereof taken
in the juice of four pomegranates, stayeth the hiccough, vomit-
ing, and allayeth the choler. It dissolveth imposthumes, being
laid to with barley-meal. It is good to repress the milk in wo-
men’s breasts, and for such as have swollen, flagging, or great
breasts. Applied with salt, it helpeth the biting of a mad dog;
with mead and honeyed water, it easeth the pains of the ears, and
taketh away the roughness of the tongue, being rubbed there-
upon. It sufFereth not milk to curdle in the stomach, if the
leaves thereof be steeped or boiled in it before you drink it:
Briefly, it is very profitable to the stomach. The often use
heroof is a very powerful medicine to stay women’s courses and
the whites. Applied to the forehead and temples, it easeth the

The English Physician Enlarged. 219

pains in the head, and is good to wash the heads of young
children therewith, against all manner of breakings-out, sores or
scabs therein, and healeth the chops of the fundament. It is
also profitable against the poison of venomous creatures. The
distilled water from mint is available to all the purposes afore-
said, yet more weakly. But if a spirit thereof be rightly and
chemically drawn, it is much more powerful than the herb itself.
Simeon Sethi saith, it helpeth a cold liver, strengtheneth the
belly, causeth digestion, stayeth vomits and the hiccough; it
is good against the gnawing of the heart, provoketh appetite,
taketh away obstructions of the liver, and stirreth up bodily
lust ; but therefore too much must not be taken, because it
maketh the blood thin and wheyish, and turneth it into choler,
and therefore choleric persons must abstain from it. It is a
safe medicine for the biting of a mad dog, being bruised with
salt and laid thereon. The powder of it being dried and taken
after meat, helpeth digestion, and those that are splenetic. Ta-
ken with wine, it helpeth women in their sore travail in child-
bearing. It is good against the gravel and stone in the kidneys,
and the strangury. Being smelled unto, it is comfortable for
the head and memory. The decoction hereof gargled in the
mouth, cureth the gums and mouth that is sore, and mendeth
an ill-savoured breath ; as also the rue and coriander, canseth
the palate of the mouth to turn to its place, the decoction being
gargled and held in the mouth.

The virtues of the wind or horse mint, such as grow in
ditches (whose description I purposely omitted, in regard they
are well enough known) are espeeial to dissolve wind in the
stomach, to help the cholic, and those that are short winded,
and are an especial remedy for those that have venereal dreams
and pollutions in the night, being outwardly applied to the tes-
ticles or cods. The juice dropped into the ears easetli the pains
of them, and destroyeth the worms that breed therein. They
are good against the venomous biting of serpents. The juice
laid on warm, helpeth the king’s evil, or kernels in the throat.
The decoction or distilled water helpeth a stinking breath, pro-

220 r Phe English Physician Enlarged.

ceeding from corruption of the teeth, and snuffed up the nose
purgeth the head. Pliny saith, the eating of the leaves hath
been found by experience to cure the leprosy, applying some of
them to the face, and to help the scurf or dandriff of the head
used with vinegar. They are extremely bad for wounded
people ; and they say a wounded man that eats mint, his wound
will never be cured, and that is a long day.

MISSELTO.

Descript. ] This riseth up from the branch or arm of the
tree whereon it groweth, with a woody stem, putting itself into
sundry branches, and they again divided into many other small-
er twigs, interlacing themselves one within another, very
much covered with a greyish green bark, having two leaves set
at every joint, and at the end likewise, which are somewhat
long and narrow, small at the bottom, but broader towards the
end. At the knots or joints of the boughs and branches
grow small yellow flowers, which run into small, round, white
transparent berries, three or four together, full of a glutinous
moisture, with a blackish seed in each of them, which was ne-
ver yet known to spring, being put into the ground, or any
where else to grow.

Place . ] It groweth very rarely on oaks with us; but upon
sundry other, as well timber as fruit-trees plentifully in woody
groves, and the like, through all this land.

Time.] It flowereth in the spring-time, but the berries
are not ripe until October, and abideth on the branches all the
winter, unless the blackbirds, and other birds, do devour
them.

Government and Virtues.] This is under the dominion of
the Sun, I do not question ; and can also take for granted, that
that which grows upon oaks, participates something of the nature
of Jupiter, because an oak is one of his trees; as also that
which grows upon pear trees and apple trees, participates some-
thing of his nature, because he rules the tree it grows upon,
havirnr no root of its own. But why that should have most

The English Physician Enlarged. 221

virtues that grows upon oaks I know not, unless because it is
rarest andiiardest to come by; and our college's opinion is in
this contrary to scripture, which saith, God’s tejider mercies
are over all his works: and so it is, let the college of phy-
sicians walk as contrary to him as they please, and that is as
contrary as the east to the west. Clusius affirms that which
grows upon pear trees to be as prevalent, and gives order, that
it should not touch the ground after it is gathered ; and also saith,
that, being hung about fhe neck, it remedies witchcraft. Both
the leaves and berries of misseko do heat and dry, and are of
subtile parts; the birdlime doth mollify hard knots, tumours,
and imposthumes: ripeneth and discusseth them, and draweth
forth thick as well as thin humours from the remote parts of the
body, digesting and separating them. And being mixed with
equal parts of rosin and wax, doth mollify the hardness of the.
spleen, and helpeth old ulcers and sores. Being mixed with
sandaric and orpiment, it helpeth to drawoff foul nails; and if
quick-lime and wine lees be added thereto, it worketh the
stronger. The misselto itself of the oak (as the best) made
into powder, and given in drink to those that have the falling
sickness, doth assuredly heal them, as Mutthiolus saith; but it
is fit to use it for forty days together. Some have so highly es-
teemed it for the virtues thereof, that they have called it Lignum
Sanctce Crucis, w'ood of the holy cross, believing it helps the
falling sickness, apoplexy and palsy very speedily, not only to
be inwardly taken, but to be hung at their neck. Tragus saith,
that the fresh wood of any misselto bruised, and the juice drawn
forth and dropped in the ears that have imposthumes in them,
doth help and ease them within a few days

MONEYWORT, OR HERB TWOPENCE.

Dcscript .] T HE common moneywort sendeth forth from a
small thready root divers long, weak, and slender branches, ly-
ing and running upon the ground two or three feet long or
more, set with leaves two at a joint, one agaius* another at

222 The English Physician Enlarged .

equal distances, which are almost round, but pointed at the
ends, smooth, and of a good green colour. At the joints with
the leaves, from the middle forward, come forth at every point
sometimes one yellow flower, and sometimes two, standing each
on a small footstalk, and made of five leaves, narrow pointed at
the end, with some yellow threads in the middle, which being
past, there stand in their places small round heads of seed.

Place.] It groweth plentifully in almost all places of this
land, commonly in moist grounds by hedge-sides, and in the
middle of grassy fields.

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

Government and Virtues .] Venus owns it. Moneywort

is singularly good to stay all fluxes in man or woman, whether
they be lasks, bloody fluxes, the flowing of women’s courses,
bleeding inwardly or outwardly, and the weakness of the sto-
mach that is given to casting. It is very good also for the ul-
cers or excoriations of the lungs, or other inward parts. It is
exceeding good for all wounds, either fresh or green, to heal
them speedily, and for all old ulcers that are of spreading na-
tures. For all which purposes the juice of the herb, or the
powder drank in water wherein hot steel hath been often quench-
ed ; or the decoction of the green herb in wine or water drank,
or used to the outward place, to wash or bathe them, or to
have tents dipped therein and put into them, are effectual.

MOONWORT.

Descript .] It riseth up usually but with one dark, green,
thick and flat leaf, stauding upon a short footstalk not above
two fingers breadth ; but when it flow'ers it may be said to bear
a small slender stalk about four or five inches high, having but
one leaf in the middle thereof, which is much divided on both
sides into sometimes five or seven parts on a side, sometimes
more; each of which parts is small like the middle rib, but
broad forwards, pointed and round, resembling therein a half-

The English Physician Enlarged. 223

moon, from whence it took the name; the uppermost parts or
divisions being bigger than the lowest. The stalks rise above
this leaf two or three inches, bearing many branches of small
long tongues, every one like the spikey head of the adder’s
tongue, of a brownish colour, (which whether I shall call them
flowers, or the seed, I well know not) which after they have
continued a while, resolve into a mealy dust. The root is
small and fibrous. This hath sometimes divers such like leaves
as are before described, with so many branches or tops rising
from one stalk, each divided from the other.

Place.] It groweth on hills and heaths, yet where there is
much grass, for therein it delighteth to grow.

Time.] It is to be found only in April and May ; for in June
when any hot weather cometh, for the most part it is withered
and gone.

Government and Virtues.] The Moon owns the herb,
Moonwort is cold and drying more than adder’s tongue, and is
therefore held to be more available for all wounds, both inward
and outward. The leaves boiled in white wine, and drank, stay
the immoderate flux of women’s courses and the whites. It al-
so stayeth bleeding, vomiting and other fluxes. It helpeth all
blows and bruises, and to consolidate all fractures and disloca-
tions. It is good for ruptures, but is chiefly used by most with
other herbs to make oils or balsams to heal fresh or green
wounds (as I said before) either inward or outward, for which
it is excellent good.

Moonwort is an herb which (they say) will open locks, and
unshoe such horses as tread upon it; This some laugh to scorn,
and those no small fools neither; but country people that I
know, call it unshoe the horse. Besides, I have heard com-
manders say, that on White Down in Devonshire, near Ti-
verton, tli ere were found thirty horse shoes, pulled off from the
feet of the earl of Essex s horses, being there drawn up in a
body, many of them being but newly shod, and no reason
known, which caused much admiration, and the herb described
usually grows upon heaths.

224 The English Physician Enlarged.

MOSSES.

I SHALL not trouble the reader with a description of these,
since my intent is to speak only of two kinds, as the most prin-
cipal, viz. ground moss and tree moss, both of which are very
well known.

Place .] The ground moss groweth in our moist woods, and
in the bottom of hills, in boggy grounds and in shadowy ditch-
es, and many otliej such like places. The tree moss groweth
only on trees.

Government and Virtues .] All sorts of mosses are under
the dominion of Saturn. The ground moss is held to be singu-
larly good to break the stone, and to expel and drive it forth
by urine, being boiled in wine and drank. The herb, being
bruised and boiled in water, and applied, easeth all inflamma-
tions and pains coming from an hot cause; and is therefore
used to ease the pains of the gout.

The tree mosses are cooling and binding, and partake of a
digesting and mollifying quality withal, as Galen saith. But
each moss doth partake of the nature of the tree from whence it
is taken; therefore that of the oak is more binding, and is of
good effect to stay fluxes in man or woman ; as also vomiting or
bleeding, the powder thereof being taken in wine. The decoc-
tion thereof in wine is very good for women to be bathed, or to
sit in, that are troubled with the overflowing of their courses.
The same being drank, stayeth the stomach that is troubled with
casting, or the hiceough; and, as Avicena saith, it comforteth
the heart. The powder therefore taken in drink for some time to-
gether, is thought available for the dropsy. The oil that has
had fresh moss steeped therein for a time, and afterwards boiled
and applied to the temples and forehead, doth marvellously ease
the headache coming of a hot cause ; as also the distillations of
hot rheums or humours in the eyes, or other parts. The an-
cients much used it in their ointments and other medicines,
against the lassitude, and to strengthen and comfort the sinews :

77/ e English Physician Enlarged. 225

For which, if it was good then, I know no reason but it may be
found so still.

strong stalk, rising three or four feet high at least, spreading into
many branches, whereon grow leaves on each side, with long foot-
stalks, two at every joint, which are somewhat broad and long, as
if it were rough or crumpled, with many green veins therein of a
sad green colour, and deeply dented about the edges, and almost
divided. F rom the middle of the branches up to the tops of them
(which are long and small) grow the flowers round them at dis-
tances, in sharp-pointed, rough, hard husks, of a more red or pur-
ple colour than balm or horehound, but in the same manner or
form as the horehound, after which come small, round, blackish
seeds in great plenty. The root sendeth forth a number of long
strings and small fibres, taking strong hold in the ground, of a
dark yellowish or brownish colour, and abideth as the hoiehound
doth; the smell of this not much differeth from that.

Place.] It groweth only in gardens with us in England.

Government and Virtues.] Venus owns tire herb, and it is
undei Leo. There is no better herb to take melancholy vapours
from the heart, to strengthen it, and make a merry, chearful,
blithe soul than this herb. It may be kept in a syrup or conserve ;
therefor e the Latins called it cardiaca. Besides, it makes women
joyful mothers of children, and settles their wombs as they should
be, therefore we call it motherwort. It is held to be of much use
foi the trembling ot the heart, and faintings and swoonings ; from
whence it took the name cardiaca. The powder thereof, to the
quantity ot a spoonful, drank in wine, is a wonderful help to
women in their sore travail, as also for the suffocating or risings
of the mother, and for these effects, it is likely it took the name
of motherwort with us. It also provoketh urine and women’s
courses, deanseth the chest of cold phlegm oppressing it, and

MOTHERWORT.

square, brownish, rough.

F f

226 The English Physician Enlarged.

killeth worms in the belly. It is of good use to warm and dry
up the cold humours, to digest and disperse them that are set-
tled in the veins, joints, and sinews of the body, and to help
cramps and convulsions.

MOUSE-EAR.

Descript.] Mouse -EAR is a low herb, creeping upon the
ground by small strings, like the strawberry plant, whereby it
shooteth forth small roots, whereat grow upon the ground many
small and somewhat short leaves, set in a round form together,
and very hairy, which being broken do give a whitish milk : From
among these leaves spring up two or three small hoary stalks
about a span high, with a few smaller leaves thereon: at the
tops whereof standeth usually but one dower, consisting of
many pale yellow leaves, broad at the point, and a little dented
in, set in three or four rows (the greater uppermost) very like
a dandelion flower, and a little reddish underneath about the
edges, especially if it grow in a dry ground ; which, after they
have stood long in dower, do turn into down, which, with the
seed, is carried away with the wind.

Place.] It groweth on ditch banks, and sometimes in ditches,
if they be dry, and in sandy grounds.

Time.] It dowereth about June or July, and abideth green
all the winter.

Government and Virtues.] The Moon owns this herb also;
and though authors cry out upon alchymists, for attempting to
fix quicksilver by this herb and moonwort, a Roman would not
have jndged a thing by the success; if it be to be fixed at all,
it is by Lunar induence. The juice thereof taken in wine, or
the decoction thereof drank, doth help the jaundice, although
of long continuance, to drink thereof morning and evening, and
abstain from other drink two or three hours after. It is a special
remedy against the stone, and the tormentiug pains thereof; as
also other tortures and griping pains of the bowels. The de-
coction thereof with succory and centaury is held very effectual

The English Physician Enlarged. 227

to help the dropsy, and them that are inclining thereunto, and
the diseases of the spleen. It stayetli the fluxes of blood, either
at the mouth or nose, and inward bleeding also, for it is a sin-
gular wound herb for wounds both inward and outward: It
helpeth the bloody flux, and helpeth the abundance of women’s
courses. There is a syrup made of the juice hereof, and sugar,
by the apothecaries of Italy, and other places, which is of much
account with them, to be given to those that are troubled with
the cough or phthisic. The same also is singularly good for
ruptures or burstings. The green herb bruised and presently
bound to any cut or wound, doth quickly solder the lips thereof.
And the juice, decoction, or powder of the dried herb is most
singular to stay the malignity of spreading and fretting cankers
and ulcers whatsoever, yea in the mouth and secret parts. The
distilled water of the plant is available in all the diseases afore-
said, and to wash outward wounds and sores, and apply tents
of cloths wet therein.

MUGWORT.

Descript . ] CyOMMON mugwort hath divers leaves lying
upon the ground, very much divided, or cut deeply in about
the brims, somewhat like wormwood, but much larger, of a
dark green colour on the upper side, and very hoary white un-
derneath. Tlie stalks rise to be four or live feet high, having on
it such like leaves as those below, but somewhat smaller, branch-
ing forth very much towards the top, whereon are set very
small, pale, yellowish flowers like buttons, which fall away, and
after them come small seeds inclosed in round heads. The root
is long and hard, with many small fibres growing from it,
whereby it taketh strong hold on the ground ; but both stalks
and leaves do lie down every year, and the root shooteth
anew in the spring. The whole plant is of a reasonable scent,
and is more easily propagated by the slips than the seed.

Place.'] It groweth plentifully in many places of this land,
by the water-sides ; as also by small water courses, and in divers
other places.

228 The English Physician Enlarged.

Time.] It flowereth and seedeth in the end of summer.

Government and Virtues.] This is an herb of Venus, therefore
maintaineth the parts of the body she rules, remedies the dis-
eases of the parts that are under her signs Taurus and Libra.
Mugwort is with good success put among other herbs that are
boiled for women to sit over the hot decoction to draw down
their courses, to help the delivery of their birth, and expel the
after-birth. As also for the obstructions and inflammations of
the mother. It breaketh the stone, and causeth one to make
water where it is stopped. The juice thereof made up with
myrrh, and put under as a pessary, worketh the same effects,
and so doth the root also. Being made up with hog’s grease
into an ointment, it taketh away wens and hard knots and ker-
nels that grow about the neck and throat, and easeth the pains
about the neck more effectually, if some field daisies be put
with it. The herb itself being fresh, or the juice thereof
taken, is a special remedy upon the over much taking of opi-
um. Three drams of the powder of the dried leaves taken in
wine, is a speedy and the best certain help for the sciatica. A
decoction thereof made with camomile and agrimony, and the
place bathed therewith while it is warm, taketli away the pains
of the sinews and the cram]i.

THE MULBERRY-TREE.

r I HIS is so well known where it groweth, that it needeth no
description.

Time.] It beareth fruit in the months of July and August.

Government and Virtues.] Mercury rules the tree, there-
fore are its effects variable as his are. The mulberry is of dif-
ferent parts; the ripe berries, by reason of their sweetness and
slippery moisture, opening the body, and the unripe binding it,
especially when they are dried, and then they are good to stay
fluxes, lasks, and the abundance of women’s courses. The bark
of the root killeth the broad worms in the body. The juice or
4he syrup made of the juice of the berries, helpeth all inflam-

The English Physician Enlarged. 229

mations or sores in the mouth or throat, and palate of the mouth
when it is fallen down. The juice of the leaves is a remedy
against the biting of serpents, and for those that have taken
aconite. The leaves beaten with vinegar, are good to lay on
any place that is burnt with fire. A decoction made of the
bark and leaves is good to wash the mouth and teeth when they
ache. If the root be a little slit or cut, and a small hole made
in the ground next there unto, in the harvest time, it will give
out a certain juice, which being hardened the next day, is of
good use to help the tooth-acfa, to dissolve knots, and purge
the belly. The leaves of mulberries are said to stay bleeding at
the mouth or nose, or the bleeding of the piles, or of a wound,
being bound unto the places. A branch of the tree taken when
the moon is at the full, and bound to the w'rists of a woman’s
arm, whose courses come down too much, doth stay them in a
short space.

MULLEIN.

Descript .] CvOMMON white mullein hath many fair, large,
woolly white leaves, lying next the ground, somewhat larger
than broad, pointed at the end, and as it were dented about
the edges. The stalk riseth up to be four or five feet high, co-
vered over with such like leaves, but lesser, so that no stalk can
be seen for the multitude, of leaves thereon up to the flowers,
which come forth on all sides of the stalk, without any branches
for the most part, and are many set together in a long spike,
in some of a yellow colour, in others more pale, consisting of
five round pointed leaves, which afterwards have small round
heads, wherein is small brownish seed contained. The root is
long, white, and woody, perishing after it hath borne seed.

Place.] It groweth by way-sides and lanes, in many places of
this land.

Time.] It flowereth in July, or thereabouts.

Government and Virtues .] It is under the dominion of
Saturn. A small quantity of the root given in wine, is com-

230 The English Physician Enlarged.

mended by Dioscorides, against lasks and fluxes of the belly.
The decoction hereof drank, is profitable for those that are
bursten, and for cramps and convulsions, and for those that are
troubled with an old cough. The decoction thereof gargled,
easelh the pains of the tooth-ache. And the oil made by the
often infusion of the flowers is of very good effect for the piles.
The decoction of the root in red wine or in water, (if there be
an ague) wherein red hot steel hath been often quenehed, doth
stay the bloody flux. The same also openeth obstructions of
the bladder and veins when one cannot make water. A decoc-
tion of the leaves hereof, and of sage, marjoram, and camomile
flowers, and the places bathed therewith, that have sinews stiff
with cold or cramps, doth bring them much ease and comfort.
Three ounces of the distilled water of the flowers, drank morn-
ing and evening for some days together, is said to be a most ex-
cellent remedy for the gout. The juice of the leaves and flowers
being laid upon rough warts, as also the powder of the dried
roots rubbed on, doth easily take them away, but doth no good
to smooth warts. The powder of the dried flowers is an espe-
cial remedy for those that are troubled with the belly-acb, or
the pains of the cholic. The decoction of the root, and so like-
wise of the leaves, is of great effect to dissolve the tumours,
swellings, or inflammations of the throat. The seeds and leaves
boiled in wine, and applied, draw forth speedily thorns or splin-
ters gotten into the flesh, ease the pains, and heal them also. The
leaves bruised and wrapped in double papers, and covered with
hot ashes and embers to bake a while, and then taken forth and
laid warm on any blotch or boil happening in the groin or share,
doth dissolve and heal them. The seed bruised and boiled in
wine, and laid on any member that hath been out of joint, and
newly set again, taketh away all swelling and pain thereof.

MUSTARD.

Descript . ] common mustard hath large and broad

rough leaves, very much jagged with uneven and unorderly

The English Physician Enlarged. 231

gashes, somewhat like turnip leaves, but lesser and rougher.
The stalk riseth to be more than a foot high, and sometimes two
feet high, being round, rough, and branched at the top, bearing
such like leaves thereon as grow below, but lesser, and less di-
vided, and divers yellow flowers one above another at the tops,
after which come small rough pods, with small, lank, flat ends,
wherein is contained round yellowish seed, sharp, hot and biting
upon the tongue. The root is small, long and woody when it
beareth stalks, and perisheth every year.

Place.] This groweth with us in gardens only, and other
manured places.

Time.] It is an annual plant, flowering in July, and the seed
is ripe in August.

Government and Virtues.] It is an excellent sauce for such
whose blood wants clarifying, and for weak stomachs, being an
herb of Mars, but naught for choleric people, though as good
for such as are aged, or troubled with cold diseases. Aries
claims something to do with it, therefore it strengthens the heart,
and resisted) poison. Let such w hose stomachs are so w'eak they
cannot digest their meat, or appetite it, take of mustard seed a
dram, cinnamon as much, and having beaten them to powder,
and half as much mastic in powder, and with gum arabic dis-
solved in rose water, make it up into trotches, of w hich they
may take one of about half a dram weight an hour or two be-
fore meals; let old men and women make much of this medi-
cine, and they will either give me thanks, or shew manifest in-
gratitude. Mustard seed hath the virtue of heat, discussing,
ratifying, and drawing out splinters of bones, and other things of
the flesh. It is of good eftect to bring dow n women’s courses,
for the falling sickness or lethargy, drowsy forgetful evil, to use
it both inwardly and outwardly, to rub the nostrils, forehead
and temples, to warm and quicken the spirits; for by the fierce
sharpness, it purgeth the brain by sneezing, and draw ing down
rheum and other viscous humours, which by their distillations
upon the lungs and chest, procure coughing, and therefore,
with some honey added thereto, doth much good therein. The

232 The English Physician Enlarged.

decoction of the seed made in wine, and drank, provoketh urine,
resisteth the force of poison, the malignity of mushrooms, and
venom of scorpions, or other venomous creatures, if it be taken
in lime ; and taken before the cold fits of agues, altereth, lesseu-
eth, and curelh them. The seed taken either by itself, or with
other things, either in an electuary or drink, doth mightily stir
up bodily lust, and helpeth the spleen and pains in the sides, and
gnawings in the bowels; and used as a gargle, draweth up the
palate of the mouth, being fallen down ; and also it dissolveth the
swellings about the throat, if it be outwardly applied. Being
chewed in the mouth, it oftentimes helpeth the tooth-ach. The
outward application hereof upon the pained place of the sciatica,
discusseth the humours, and easeth the pains, as also the gout,
and other joint-achs; and is much and often used to ease pains
in the sides or loins, the shoulders, or other parts of the body,
upon the plying thereof to raise blisters, and cureth the disease
by drawing it to the outward parts of the body. It is also used
to help the falling off of the hair. The seed bruised, mixed with
honey, and applied, or made up with wax, taketh aw ay the marks
and black and blue spots of bruises, or tLe like, the roughness
or scabbiness of the skin, as also the leprosy, and lousy evil. It
helpeth also the crick in the neck. The distilled w ater of the
herb, w hen it is in flower, is much used to drink inwardly to help
in any of the diseases aforesaid, or to wash the mouth w hen the
palate is down, and for the diseases of the throat to gargle, but
outwardly also for scabs, itch, or other the like infirmities, and
cleanseth the face from morphew, spots, freckles, and other
deformities.

9

THE HEDGE-MUSTARD.

Descript. ] This groweth up usually but with one blackish
green stalk, tough, easy to bend, but not to break, branched
into divers parts, and sometimes with divers stalks, set full of
branches, whereon grow long, rough, or hard, rugged leaves.

The English Physician Enlarged. 233

very much tore or cut on the edges in many parts, some bigger,
and some lesser, and of a dirty green colour. The flowers are
small and yellow, that grow on the tops of the branches in long
spikes, flowering by degrees : so that continuing long in flower,
the stalk will have small round cods at the bottom growing up-
right and close to the stalk, while the top flowers yet shew them-
selves, in which are contained small yellow seed, sharp and
strong, as the herb is also. The root groweth down slender and
woody, yet abiding and springing again every year.

Place.] This groweth frequently in this land, by the ways
and hedge-sides, and sometimes in the open fields.

Time.] It flowereth most usually about July.

Government and Virtues.] Mars owns this herb also. It
is singularly good in all the diseases of the chest and lungs,
hoarseness of voice; and by the use of the decoction thereof for
a little space, those have been recovered who had utterly lost
their voice, and almost their spirits also. The juice thereof
made into a syrup, or licking medicine, with honey or sugar,
is no less effectual for the same purpose, and fbr all other coughs,
wheezing, and shortness of breath. The same is also profitable
for those that have the jaundice, pleurisy, pains in the back and
loins, and for torments in the belly, or cholic, being also used
in clysters. The seed is held to be a special remedy against
poison and venom. It is singularly good for the sciatica, and in
joint-achs, ulcers, and cankers in tire mouth, throat, or behind
the ears, and no less for the hardness and swelling of the
testicles, or of women’s breasts.

. ft , I j • t!‘! » "JIL C

NAILWORT, OR WITLOWGRASS.

Descript.] T'lIIS very small and common herb hath no
root, save only a few strings ; neither doth it ever grow to be
above a hand s breadth high, the leaves are very small, and some-
thing long, not much unlike those of chick weed, among which
rise up divers slender stalks, bearing many white flowers one
above another, which are exceeding small; after which come

G g

234 The English Physician Enlarged.

small flat pouches containing the seed, which is very small, but
of a sharp taste.

Place.] It grows commonly upon old stone and brick walls,
and sometimes in dry gravelly grounds, especially if there be
grass or moss near to shadow it.

Time.] They flower very early in the year, sometimes in
January, and in February; for before the end of April they are
not to be found.

Government and Virtues.] It is held to be exceedin'* s*ood
for those imposthumes in the joints, and under the nails, which
they call whitlows, felons, andicons and nailwheals. Such as
would be knowing physicians, let them read those books of mine
of the last edition, viz. Reverius, Riolanus, Johnson, Vestingus,
Sennertus.

NEP, OR CATMINT.

Descript.] (y OMMON garden nep shooteth forth hard four-
square stalks, with a hoarness on them, a yard high or more,
full of branches, bearing at every joint two broad leaves like
balm, but longer pointed, softer white and more hoary nicked
about the edges, and of a strong sweet scent. The flowers grow
in large tufts at the tops of the branches, and underneath them,
likewise on the stalks many together, of a whitish purple colour.
The roots are composed of many long strings or fibres, fasten-
ing themselves stronger in the ground, and abide with green
leaves thereon all the winter.

Place.] It is only nursed up in our gardens.

Time.] And it flowereth in July, or thereabouts.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Venus. Nep
is generally used for women to procure their courses, being
taken inwardly or outwardly, either alone, or with other con-
venient herbs in a decoction to bathe them, or sit over the hot
fumes thereof; and by the frequent use thereof, it taketh away
barrenness, and the wind, and pains of the mother. It is also
used in pains of the head coming of any cold cause, catarrhs

The English Physician Enlarged. 235

rheums, and for, swimming and giddiness thereof, and is of
special use for the windiness of the stomach and belly. It is ef-
fectual for any cramp, or cold aches, to dissolve cold and wind
that afflicteth the place, and is used for colds, coughs, aud
shortness of breath. The juice thereof drank in wine, is pro-
fitable for those that are bruised by an accident. The green
herb bruised and applied to the fundament, and lying there two
or three hours, easeth the pains of the piles ; the juice also being
made up into an ointment, is effectual for the same purpose.
The head washed with a decoction thereof, it taketh away
scabs, and may be effectual for other parts of the body also.

NETTLES.

N ETTLES are so well known, that they need no descrip-
tion ; they may be found by feeling, in the darkest night.

Government and Virtues.] This is also an herb Mars claims
dominion over. You know Mars is hot aud dry, and you know
as well that winter is cold and moist; then you may know as
well the reason why nettle tops eaten in the spring consumeth
the phlegmatic superfluities in the body of man, that the cold-
ness and moistness of winter hath left behind. The roots or
leaves boiled, or the juice of cither of them, or both, made into
an electuary with honey aud sugar, is a safe aud sure medicine
to open the pipes aud passages of the lungs, which is the cause
of wheezing and shortness of breath, and helpelh to expectorate
tough phlegm, as also to raise the imposthumed pleurisy; and
spend it by spitting; the same helpeth the swelling of the al-
monds of the throat, the mouth and throat being garbled there-
with. The juice is also effectual to settle the palate of the
mouth in its place, and to heal and temper the inflammations
and soreness of the mouth and throat. The decoction of the
leaves in wine, being drank, is singularly good to provoke wo-
men’s courses, to settle the suffocation, strangling of the mo-
ther, aud all other diseases thereof; as also applied outwardly
L with a little myrrh. The same also, or the seed, provoketh

236 The English Physician Enlarged

urine, and expelleth the gravel and stone in the reins or bladder,,
often proved to be effectual in many that have taken it. The
same killeth the worms in children, easeth pains in the sides,
and dissolveth the windiness in the spleen, as also in the body,
although others think it only powerful to provoke vcnery.
The juice of the leaves taken two or three days together, stayeth
bleeding at the mouth. The seed being drank, is a remedy
against the stinging of veuomous creatures, the biting of mad
dogs, the poisonful qualities of hemlock, henbane, nightshade,
mandrake, or other such like herbs that stupify or dull the
senses; as also the lethargy, especially to use it outwardly, to
rub the forehead or temples in the lethargy, and the places stung
or bitten with beasts, with a little salt. The distilled water of
the herb is also effectual (though not so powerful) for the dis-
eases aforesaid ; as for outward wounds and sores to wash them,
and to cleanse the skin from morphew, leprosy, and other dis-
colourings thereof. The seed or leaves bruised, and put into the
nostrils, stayeth the bleeding of them, and taketh away the flesh
growing in them called polypus. The juice of the leaves, or
the decoction of them, or of ,the root is singularly good to
wash either old, rotten, or stinking sores or fistulas, and gan-
grenes, and such as fretting, eating, .or v corroding scabs, man-
giness and itch, in any part of the body, as also green wounds,
by washing them therewith, or applying the green herb bruised
thereunto, yea, although the flesh were separated from the
bones, the same applied to our wearied members, refresh them,
or replace those that have been out of joint, being first set up
again, strengthen, drieth, and comforteth them, as also those
places troubled with aches and gouts, and the deduction of hu-
mours upon the joints or sinews ; it easeth the pains, and drieth
or dissolveth the deductions. An ointment made of the juice,
oil, and a little wax, is singularly good to rub cold and be-
numbed members. An handful of the leaves of green nettles,
and another of wallwort, or deamvort bruised and applied sim-
ply themselves to the gout, sciatica, or joint aches in any part,
hath been found to be an admirable helo thereunto.

The English Physician Enlarged. 237

NIGHTSHADE.

Descript. ] C/OMMON nightshade hath an upright, round,
green, hollow stalk, about a foot or half a yard high, bushing
forth in many branches whereon grow many green leaves, some-
what broad, and pointed at the ends, soft and full of juice,
soineu hat like unto bazil, but longer and a little unevenly dented
about the edges: At the tops of the stalks and branches come
forth three or four more white flowers made of five small point-
ed leaves a piece, standing on a stalk together, one above ano-
ther, with yellowish pointels in the middle, composed of four or
five yellow threads set together, which afterwards run into so
many pendulous green berries, of the bigness of small pease,
full of green juice, and small whitish round flat seed lying with-
in it. The root is white, and a little woody when it hath given
flower fruit, with many small fibres at it: The whole plant is
of a waterish insipid taste, but the juice within the berries is
somewhat viscous, and of a cooling and binding quality.

Place.] It grovveth wild with us under our walls, and in rub-
bish, the common paths, and sides of hedges and fields, as also
in our gardens here in England, without any planting.

Time.] It lieth down every year and riseth again of its own
sowing, but springeth not until the latter end of April at the
soonest.

Government and Virtues.] It is a cold Saturnine plant. The
common nightshade is wholly used to cool hot inflammations ei-
ther inwardly or outwardly, being no ways dangerous to any
that use it, as most of the rest of the nightshades are; yet it
must be used moderately. The distilled w ater only of the whole
herb is fittest and safest to be taken inwardly. The juice also
clarified and taken, being mingled with a little vinegar, is good
to wash the mouth and throat that is inflamed; but outwardly
the juice of the herbs or berries, with oil of roses and a little
vinegar and ceruse laboured together in a leaden mortar, is very
good to anoint all hot inflammations in the eyes. It also doth

238 Hie English Physician Enlarged.

much good for the shingles, ringworms, and in all running,
fretting, and corroding ulcers applied thereunto. A pessary
dipped in the juice, and dropped into the matrix, stayeth the
immoderate flux of women’s courses; a cloth wet therein, and
applied to the testicles or cods, upon any swelling therein, giv-
eth much ease, also to the gout that cometh of hot and sharp
humours. Thejuice dropped into the ears, easeth pains there-
of that arise of heat or inflammations. And Pliny saith, it is
good for hot swellings under the throat. Have a care you
mistake not the deadly nightshade for this; if you know it not,
you may let them both alone, and take no harm, having other
medicines sufficient in the book.

THE OAK.

It is so well known (the timber thereof being the glory and
safety of this nation by sea) that it needeth no description.

Government and Virtues.] Jupiter owns the tree. The leaves
and bark of the oak, and the acorn cups, do bind and dry
very much. The inner bark of the tree, and the thin skin that
covereth the acorn, are most used to stay the spitting of blood,
and the bloody flux. The decoction of that bark, and the pow-
der of the cups, do stay vomitings, spitting of blood, bleeding
at the mouth, or other fluxes of blood in men or women; lasks
aUo, and the involuntary flux of natural seed. The acorn in
powder, taken in wine, provoketh urine, and resisteth the poi-
son of venomous creatures. The decoction of acorns and the
bark made in milk and taken, resisteth the force of poisonous
herbs and medicines, as also the virulency of cantharides, when
one by eating them hath his bladder exulcerated, and pisseth
blood. Hippocrates saith, he used the fumes of oak leaves to
women that were troubled with the strangling of the mother;
and Galen applied them being bruised to cure green wounds.
The distilled water of the oaken bud, before they break out in-
to leaves, is good to be used either inwardly or outwardly, to
assuage inflammations, and to stop all manner of fluxes in mau

The English Physician Enlarged. 239

or woman. The same is singularly good in pestilential and hot
burning fevers: for it resisteth the force of the infection, and
allayeth the heat. It cooleth the heat of the liver, breaketh
the stone in the kidneys, and stayeth women’s courses. The
decoction of the leaves worketh the same effects. The water
that is found in the hollow places of old oaks, is very effectual
against any foul or spreading scabs. The distilled water (or
decoction, which is better) of the leaves, is one of the best re-
medies that I know of for the whites in women.

OATS.

Are so well known that they need no description.

Government and Virtues .] Oats fried with bay salt, and ap-
plied to the sides, take away the pains of stitches and wind in
the sides of the belly. A poultice made of meal of oats, and
some oil of bays put thereunto, helpeth the itch and the lepro-
sy, as also the fistulas of the fundament, and dissolveth hard
imposthumes. The meal of oats boiled with vinegar, and ap-
plied, taketh away freckles and spots in the face, and other
parts of the body.

ONE BLADE.

Descript.] T HIS small plant never beareth more than one
leaf, but only when it riseth up with his stalk, which thereon
beareth another, and seldom more, which are of a blueish green
colour, pointed, with many ribs or veins therein, like plantain.
At the top of the stalk grow many small white flowers, star
fashion, smelling somewhat sweet; after which come small red
berries, when they are ripe. The root is small, of the bigness
of a rush, lying and creeping under the upper crust of the earth,
shooting forth in divers places.

Place.] It groweth in moist, shadowy, and grassy places of
woods, in many places of this land.

Pime.] It flowereth about May, and the berries are ripe in
June, and then quickly perisheth, until the next year it spring-
eth from the same root again.

240 The Eng lish Phi/sician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues .] It is a precious herb of the Sun.
Half a dram, or a dram at most, in powder of the roots hereof
taken in wine and vinegar, of each equal parts, and the party
laid presently to sweat thereupon, is said to be a sovereign re-
medy for those that are infected with the plague, and have a
sore upon them, by expelling the poison and infection, and de-
fending the heart and spirits from danger. It is a singularly
good wound herb, and is thereupon used with other the like
effects in many compound balsams for curing of wounds, be they
fresh and green, or old and malignant, and especially if the
sinews be burnt.

ORCHIS.

It hath gotten almost as many several names attributed to the
several sorts of it, as would almost fill a sheet of paper ; as
dogstones, goat-stones, fool-stones, fox-stones, satirion, cul-
lians, together with many others too tedious to rehearse.

Descript .] To describe all the several sorts of it were an
endless piece of work ; therefore I shall only describe the roots,
because they are to be used with some discretion. They have
each of them a double root within, some of them are round, in
others like a hand ; these roots alter every year by course, when
the one riseth and waxeth full, the other waxeth lank, and pe-
risheth : Now, it is that which is full which is to be used in me-
dicines, the other being either of no use at all, or else, accord-
ing to the humour of some, it destroys and disannuls the virtues
of the other, quite undoing what that doth.

Time.] One or other of them may be found in flower from
the beginning of Apr il to the latter end of August.

Temperature and Virtues.] They are hot and moist in ope-
ration, under the dominion of dame Venus, and provoke lust
exceedingly, which they say, the dried and withered roots do
restrain. They are held to kill worms in children; as also,
being bruised and applied to the place, to heal the king’s evil.

The English Physician Enlarged. 241

ONIONS'.

They are so well known, that I need not spefid time about
writing a description of them.

Government and Virtues .] Mars owns them, and they have
gotten this quality, to draw any corruption to them, for if you
peel one, and lay it upon the dunghill, you shall find it rot-
ten in half a day, by drawing putrefaction to it; then being
bruised and applied to a plague sore, it is very probable it will
do the like. Onions are flatulent, or windy ; yet they do some-
what provoke appetite, increase thirst, ease the belly and bow-
els, provoke women’s courses, help the biting of a mad dog,
and of other venomous creatures, to be used with honev and
r-ue, increase sperm, especially the seed of them. They also
kill worms in children, if they drink the water fasting wherein
they have been steeped all night. Being roasted under the em-
bers, and eaten with honey or sugar and oil, they much conduce
to help an inveterate cough, and expectorate the tough phlegm.
The juice being snuffed up in the nostrils, purgeth the head,
and helpeth the lethargy, (yet the often eating them, is said to
procure pains in the head.) It hath been held by divers country
people a great preservative against infection, to eat onions fast-
ing with bread and salt: As also to make a great onion hollow,
filling the place with good treacle, and after to roast it well un-
der the embers, which, after taking away the outermost skin
thereof, being beaten together, is a sovereign salve for either
plague or sores, or any other putrefied ulcer. The juice of
onions is good for either scalding or burning by fire, water, or
gunpowder, and used with vinegar, taketh away all blemishes,
spots, and marks in the skin : and dropped into the ears, easeth
the pains and noise of them.. Applied also with figs beaten
together, helpeth to ripen and break impostbumes, and other
sores.

Leeks are as like them in quality, as the pome-water is like an
apple : They are a remedy against a surfeit of mushrooms, being

H h

242 The English Physician Enlarged.

baked under the embers and taken; and being boiled and ap-
plied very warm, help the piles. In other things they have the
same property as the onions, although not so effectual.

ORPINE.

Descript.] CyOMMON orpine riseth up with divers round
brittle stalks, thick set with fat and fleshy leaves, without any
order, and little or nothing dented about the edges, of a green
colour: The flowers are white, or whitish, growing in tufts,
after which come small chaffy husks, with seeds like dust in
them. The roots are divers thick, round, white tuberous clogs ;
and the plant groweth not so big in some places as in others
where it is found.

Place.] It is frequent in almost every county of this land,
and is cherished in gardens with us, where it groweth greater
than that which iS wild, and groweth in shadowy sides of flelds
and woods.

Time.] It flowereth about July, and the seed is ripe in Au-
gust.

Government and Virtues .] The Moon owns the herb, and
he that knows but her exaltation, knows what I say is true.
Orpine is seldom used in inward medicines with us, although
Tragus saith from experience in Germany, that the distilled wa-
ter thereof is profitable for gnawings or excoriations in the sto-
mach or bowels, or for ulcers in the lungs, liver, or other inward
parts, as also in the matrix, and helpeth all those diseases, being
drank for certain days together. It stayeth the sharpness of
humours in the bloody-flux, and other fluxes in the body or in
wounds. The root thereof also performeth the like effect. It
is used outwardly to cool any heat or inflammation upon any
hurt or wound, and easeth the pains of them; as also to heal
scaldings or burnings, the juice thereof being beaten with some
green salad oil, and anointed. The leaf bruised, and laid to
any green wound in the hands or legs, doth heal them quickly ;
and being bound to the throat, much helpeth the quinsy; it

The English Physician Enlarged. 243

helpeth also ruptures and burstenness. If you please to make
the juice thereof into a syrup with honey or sugar, you may
safely take a spoonful or two at a time, (let my author say what
he will) for a quinsy, and you shall find the medicine more
pleasant, and the cure more speedy, than if you had taken a
dog’s turd, which is the vulgar cure.

PARSLEY.

r THIS is so well known, that it needs no description.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mer-
cury; is very comfortable to the stomach, helpeth to provoke
urine and women's courses; to break wind both in the stomach
and bowels ; and doth a little open the body, but the root
much more. It openeth obstructions both of liver and spleen,
and is therefore accounted one of the five opening roots. Ga-
len commended it against the falling sickness, and to provoke
urine mightily, especially if the roots be boiled, and eaten like
parsnips. The seed is effectual to provoke urine and women’s
courses, to expel wind, to break the stone, and easeth the pains
and torments thereof; it is also effectual against the venom of
any poisonous creature, and the danger that cometh to them that
have the lethargy ; and is as good against the cough. The dis-
tilled water of parsley is a familiar medicine with nurses to give
their children, when they are troubled with wind in the stomach
or belly, which they call the frets; and is also much available to
them that are of great years. The leaves of parsley laid to the
eyes that are inflamed with heat, or swollen, doth much help
them, if it be used with bread or meal; and being fried with
butter, and applied to women’s breasts that are hard through the
curdling of their milk, itabateth the hardness quickly, and also it
taketh away black and blue marks coming of bruises or falls.
Thejuice thereofdropped into the ears, with a little wine, easeth
the pains. Tragus setteth down an excellent medicine to help
the jaundice and falling sickness, the dropsy, and stone in the
kidneys, in this mauner: Take of the seed of parsley, fennel.

244 The English Physician Enlarged.

— ' ■ ——■■■■ r

anise and carrawaya, of each an ounce; of the roots of parsley,

burnet, saxifrage, and carraways, of each an ounce and a half ;
let the seeds be bruised, and the roqts washed and cut small;
let them lie all night in steep in a bottle of white wine, and in
the morning be boiled in a close earthen vessel until a third
part or more be wasted ; which being strained and cleared,
take four ounces thereof morning and evening first and last,
abstaining from drink after it for three hours. This opcneth
obstructions of the liver and spleen, aud e^pqlleth . the dropsy
and jaundice by urine.

PARSLEY PIERT, OR PARSLEY BREAKSTONE

Descript.] The root, although it be very small and thready,
yet it continues many years, from whence arise many leaves
lying along qn the ground, each standing upon a long small
foot-stalk, the leaves as broad as a man’s nail, very deeply
dented on the edges, somewhat like a parsley-leaf, but of a
very dusky green colour, the stalks are very weak and slender,
about three or four fingers in length, set so full of leaves that
they can hardly be seen, either having no foot-stalk at all, or
but very short ; the flowers are so small they can hardly be
seen, and the seed as small as may be.

Place.] It is a common herb throughout the nation, and
,rejoiceth in barren, sandy, moist places. It may be found
plentifully about Hamstead Heath, Hyde Park, and in Tothill-
fields.

Tune.] It may be found all the summer-time, even from the
beginning of April to the end of October.

Government and Virtues.] Its operation is very prevalent
to provoke urine, and to break the stone. It is a very good
salad herb. It were good the gentry would pickle it up as they
pickle up samphire for their use all the winter. I cannot teach
them how to do it ; yet this I can tell them, it is a very whole-
some herb. They may also keep the herb dry, or in a syrup, if
they please. You may take a dram of the powder of it in white

The English Physician Enlarged. 245

wine; it would bring away gravel from the kidneys insensibly,
and without pain. It also helps the strangury.

PARSNIP.

ThE garden kind thereof is so well known (the root being
commonly eaten) that I shall not trouble you with any descrip-
tion of it. But the wild kind being of more physical use, 1 shall
in this place describe it unto you.

Descript .] The wild parsnip differeth little from the garden,
but groweth not so fair and large, nor hath so many leaves, and
the root is shorter, more woody, and not so fit to be eaten, and
therefore more medicinal.

Place.] The name of the first sheweth the place of its growth.
The other groweth wild in divers places, as in the marshes by
Rochester, and elsewhere, and flowereth in July; the seed being
ripe about the beginning of August, the second year after sow-
ing; for if they do flower the first year, the country people call
them madneps.

Government and Virtues .] The garden parsnips are under
Venus. The garden parsnip nourisheth much, and is good and
wholesome nourishment, but a little windy, whereby it is thought
to procure bodily lust; but it fatteneth the body much, if much
used. It is conducible to the stomach and reins, and provoketh
urine. But the wild parsnip hath a cutting, attenuating, cleans-
ing, and opening quality therein. It resisteth and helpeth the
bitings of serpents, easeth the pains and stitches in the sides,
and dissolveth wind both in the stomach and bowels, which is
the cholic, and provoketh urine. The root is often used, but
the seed much more ; the w ild being better than the tame,
shews dame Nature to be the best physician.

COW PARSNIP.

Descript.] T^HIS groweth with three or four large, spread,
winged, rough leaves, lying often on the ground, or else rais-
ed a little from it, with long, round, hairy footstalks under them.

246 The English Physician Enlarged.

parted usually into five divisions, the two couples standing each
against the other; and one at the end, and each leaf being al-
most round, yet somewhat deeply cut in on the edges in some
leaves, and not so deep in others, of a whitish green colour,
smelling somewhat strongly ; among which riseth up a round
crusted, hairy stalk, two or three feet high, with a few joints
and leaves thereon, and branched at the top, where stand large
umbels of white, and sometimes reddish flowers, and after them
flat, whitish, thin, winged seed, two always joined together.
The root is long and white, with two or three long strings grow-
ing down into the ground, smelling likewise strongly and un-
pleasant.

Place.] It groweth in moist meadows, and the borders and
corners of fields, and near ditches, through this land.

Time.] It flowereth in July, and seedeth in August.

Government and Virtues.] Mercury hath the dominion over
them. The seed thereof, as Galen saith, is of a sharp and cut-
ting quality, and therefore is a fit medicine for a cough and short-
ness of breath, the falling sickness and jaundice. The root is
available to all the purposes aforesaid, and is also of great use
to take away the hard skin that groweth on a fistula, if it be but
scraped upon it. The seed hereof being drank, cleanseth the
belly from tough phlegmatic matter therein, easeth them that
are liver-grown, women’s passions of the mother, as well being
drank as the smoke thereof received underneath, and likewise
raiseth such as are fallen into a deep sleep, or have the lethargy,
by burning it under their nose. The seed and root boiled in oil,
and the head rubbed therewith, helpeth not only those that are
fallen into a frenzy, but also the lethargy or drowsy evil, and
those that have been long troubled with the head-ache, if it be
likewise used with rue. It luelpeth also the running scab and
the shingles. The juice of the flowers dropped into the ears
that run and are full of matter, cleanseth and healeth them.

THE PEACH TREE.

Descript.] A PEACH tree groweth not so great as the

The English Physician Enlarged. 247

apricot tree, yet spreadeth branches reasonable well, from
whence spring smaller reddish twigs, whereon are set long and
narrow green leaves dented about the edges. The blossoms are
greater than the plumb, and of a light purple colour; the fruit
round, and sometimes as big as a reasonable pippin, others
smaller, as also differing in colour and taste, as russet, red, or
yellow, waterish or firm, with a frize or cotton all over, with
a cleft therein like an apricot, and a rugged, furrowed, great
stone within it, and a bitter kernel within the stone. It soon-
er waxeth old, and decayeth than the apricot, by much.

Place.] They are nursed in gardens and orchards through
this land.

Time.] They flower in the spring, and fructify in autumn.

Government and Virtues. Lady Venus owns the tree, and
by it opposeth the ill effects of Mars, and indeed for children
and young people, nothing is better to purge choler and the
jaundice, than the leaves and flowers of this tree being made into
a syrup or conserve ; let such as delight to please their lust re-
gard the fruit; but such as have lost their health, and their chil-
dren’s, let them regard what I say, they may safely give two
spoonfuls of the syrup at a time : it is as gentle as Venus herself.
The leaves of peaches bruised and laid on the belly, kill worms ;
and so they do also being boiled in ale and drank, and open the
belly likewise ; and being dried is a safer medicine to discuss hu-
mours. The powder of them strewed upon fresh bleeding
wounds stayeth their bleeding, and closeth them up. The flow-
ers steeped all night in a little wine standing warm, strained
forth in the morning, and drank fasting, doth gently open the
belly, and move it downward. A syrup made of them, as the
syrup of roses is made, worketh more forcibly than that of roses,
for it provoketh vomiting, and spendeth waterish and hydropic
humours by the continuance thereof. The flowers made into a
conserve, worketh the same effect. The liquor that droppeth
from the tree, being wounded, is given with the decoction of
coltsfoot, to those that are troubled with the cough or shortness

248 The English Physician Enlarged.

of breath, by adding thereunto some sweet wine, and putting
some saffron also therein. It is good for those that are hoarse, or
have lost their voice; helpeth all defects of the lungs, and those
that vomit and spit blood. Two drams hereof given in the juice
of lemons, or of raddish, is good for them that are troubled’ with
the stone. The kernels of the stones do wonderfully ease the
pains and wringings of the belly, through wind or sharp hu-
mours, and help to make an excellent medicine for the stone
upon all occasions, in this manner : I take fifty kernels of peachy
stones, and one hundred of the kernels of cherry-stones, a
handful of elder flowers fresh or dried, and three pints of mus-
cadef, set them in a close pot into a bed of horse dung for ten
days, after which distil in a glass with a gentle fire, and keep
it for your use: You may drink upon occasion three or four

ounces at a time. The milk or cream of these kernels being
drawn forth with some vervain water, and applied to the forehead
and temples doth much help to procure rest and sleep to sick
persons wanting it. The oil drawn from the kernels* the
temples being therewith anointed, doth the like. The said oil
put into clysters, easeth the pains of the wind cholic: and
anointed on the lower part of the body, doth the like, and drop-
ped into the ears, easeth pains in them ; the jiiiee of the leaves
doth the like. Being also anointed on the forehead and tem-
ples, it helpeth the megrim, and all other pains in the head. If
the kernels be bruised and boiled in vinegar, until they become
thick, and applied to the head, it marvellously procures the
hair to grow again upon bald places or where it is too thin.

THE PEAR TREE.

JPeAR trees are so well known, that they need no descrip-
tion.

Government and Virtues.] The tree belongs to Venus, and
so doth the apple tree. For their physical use they are best
discerned by their taste. All the sweet and luscious sorts, whe-
ther manured or wild, do help to move the belly downwards

The English Physician Enlarged. 249

' 1111 — ' J

more or less. Those that are hard and sour, do, on the con-
trary, bind the belly as much, and the leaves do so also: Those
that are moist do in some sort cool, but harsh or wild sorts much
more, and are very good in repelling medicines; and if the wild
sort be boiled with mushrooms, it makes them less dangerous.
The said pears boiled with a little honey, help much the op-
pressed stomach, as all sorts of them do, some more, some
less : but the harsher sorts do more cool and bind, serving well
to be bound to green wounds, to cool and stay the blood, and
to heal up the wound without farther trouble, or inflammation,
as Galen saith he hath found by experience. The wild pears
do sooner close up the lips of green wounds than others.

Schola and Salerni advise to drink much wine after pears, or
else (say they) they are as bad as poison; nay, and they curse
the tree for it too ; but if a poor man find his stomach oppressed
by eating pears, it is but working hard, and it will do as well
as drinking wine.

PELLITORY OF SPAIN.

Ov OMMON pellitory of Spain, if it be planted in our gardens.

it will prosper very well; yet there is one sort growing ordina-
rily here wild, which I esteem to be little inferior to the
other, if at all. I shall not deny you the description of them
both.

Descript .] Common pellitory is a very common plant, and
will not be kept in our gardens without diligent looking to.
The root goes downright into the ground bearing leaves, being
long and finely cut upon the stalk, lying on the ground, much
larger than the leaves of the camomile are. At the top it bears
one single large flower at a place, having a border of many
leaves white on the upper side, and reddish underneath, with
a yellow thrum in the middle, not landing so close as that of
camomile doth.

The other common pellitory which groweth here, hath a root
of a sharp biting taste, scarce discernible by the taste from that

The English Physician Enlarged.

before described, from whence arise divers brittle stalks, a
yard high and more, with narrow long leaves finely dented about
the edges, standing one above another up to the tops. The
flowers are many and white, standing in tufts like those of yar-
row, with a small yellowish thrum in the middle. The seed is
very small.

Place . ] The last groweth in fields by the hedge sides and
paths,, almost every where.

Time.] It flowereth at the latter end of June and in July.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the government of
Mercury, and I am persuaded it is one of the best purgers of the
brain that grows. An ounce of the juice taken in a draught of
muscadel, an hour before the fit of the ague comes, will as-
suredly drive away the ague at the second or third time taking
at the farthest. Either the herb or root dried and chewed in the
mouth, purgeth the brain of phlegmatic humours; thereby not
only easing pains in the head and teeth, but also hindereth the
distilling of the brain upon the lungs and eyes, thereby prevent-
ing coughs, phthisics and consumption, the apoplexy and falling
sickness. It is an excellent approved remedy in the lethargy.
The powder of the herb or root being snuffed up the nostrils,
procureth sneezing, and easetli the head-ach; being made into
an ointment with hog's grease, it takes away black and blue
spots occasioned by blows or falls, and helps both the gout and
sciatica.

PELLITORY OF THE WALL.

Descript.] It riseth with brownish, red, tender, weak, clear,
and almost transparent stalks, about two feet high, upon which
grow at the joints two leaves somewhat broad and long, of a
dark green colour, which afterwards turn brownish, smooth on
the edges, but rough and hairy, as the stalks are also. At the
joints with the leaves from the middle of the stalk upwards,
where it spreadeth in branches, stand many small, pale, purplish
flowers in hairy rough heads, or husks, after which come small,

The English Physician Enlarged. 251

black rough seed, which will stick to any cloth or garment tnat
shall touch it. The root is somewhat long, with small fibres
thereat, of a dark reddish colour, which abideth the winter,
although the stalks and leaves perish and spring every year.

Place.] It groweth wild generally through the land, about
the borders of fields, and by the sides of walls, and among
rubbish. It will endure well being brought up in gardens,
and planted on the shady side, where it will spring of its own
sowing.

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

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mer-
cury. The dried herb pellitory made up into an electuary with
honey, or the juice of the herb, or the decoction thereof made
up with sugar or honey, is a singular remedy for an old or dry
cough, the shortness of breath, and wheezing in the throat.
Three ounces of the juice thereof taken at a time, doth won-
derfully help stopping of the urine, and to expel the stone or
gravel in the kidneys or bladder, and is therefore usually put
among other herbs used in clysters to mitigate pains in the back,
sides, or bowels, proceeding of wind, stoppiug of urine, the
gravel or stone as aforesaid. If the bruised herb, sprinkled with
muscadel, be warmed upon a tile, or in a dish upon a few quick
coals in a chafing-dish, and applied to the belly, it worketh the
same effect. The decoction of the herb being drank, easeth
pains of the mother, and bringeth down women’s courses; It
also easeth those griefs that arise from obstructions of the liver,
spleen, and reins. The same decoction, with a little honey
added thereto, is good to gargle a sore throat. The juice held
a while in the mouth, easeth pains in the teeth. The distilled
water of the herb, drank with some sugar, worketh the same
effects, and cleauseth the skin from spots, freckles, purples,
wheals, sun-burn, morphew, &c. The juice dropped into the
ears, easeth the noise in them, and taketh away pricking and
shooting pains therein : The same, or the distilled water, assuag-

252 The English Physician Enlarged.

eth hot and swelling imposthumes, burnings and scaldings by fire
or water; as also all other hot tumours and inflammations, or
brcakings-out of heat, being bathed ofteawith wet cloths dipped
therein : The said juice made into a liniment with ceruse, and
oil of roses, and anointed therewith, cleauseth foul rotten ulcers,
and stayeth spreading or creeping ulcers, and running scabs or
sores in children’s heads; and helpeth to stay the hair from fall-
ing off" the head. The said ointment, or the herb applied to
the fundament, openeth the piles, and easeth their pains; and
being mixed with goat’s tallow, helpeth the gout: The juice U
very effectual to cleanse fistulas, and to heal them up safely^
or the herb itself bruised and applied, with a little salt. It is
likewise also effectual to heal any green wound ; if it be bruised
and bound thereto for three days, you shall need no other medi-
cine to heal it further. A poultice made hereof with mallows
and boiled in wine and wheat bran and bean flower, and some
oil put thereto, and applied warm to any bruised sinews,
tendon, or muscle, doth, in a very short time, restore them
to their strength, taking away the pains of the bruises, and dis-
solveth the congealed blood coming of blows, or falls from high
places.

The juice of pellitory of the wall clarified and boiled in a
syrup with honey, and a spoonful of it drank every morning
by such as are subject to the dropsy ; if continuing that course,
though but once a week, if ever they have the dropsy, let them
come but to me, and I will cure them gratis.

PENNYROYAL.

ENNYROYAL is so well known unto all, I mean the com-
mon kind, that it needeth no description.

There is a greater kind than the ordinary sort found wild with
us, which so abideth being brought into gardens, and differeth
not from it, but only in the largeness of the leaves and stalks, in
rising higher, and not creeping up in the ground so much. The
flowers whereof are purple, growing in ruudles about the stalks
like the other.

The English Physician Enlarged. 253

Place..'] The first, which is common in gardens, groweth
also in many moist and watery places of this land.

The second is found wild in divers places by the highways
from London to Colchester, and thereabouts, more abundantly
than in any other counties, and is also planted in their gardens
in Essex.

Time.] They flower in the latter end of summer, about Au-
gust.

Government and Virtues.] The herb is under Venus. Di-
oscorides saith, that pennyroyal maketh hin tough phlegm,
warmeth the coldness of any part whereto it is applied, and di-
gesteth raw or corrupt matter: Being boiled and drank, it pro-
voketh women’s courses, and expelleth the dead child and after-
birth, and stayeth the disposition to vomit, being taken in water
and vinegar mingled together. And being mingled with honey
and salt, it voideth phlegm out of the lungs, and purgeth me-
lancholy by stool. Drank with wine, it helpeth such as are
bitten and stung with venomous beasts, and applied to the nos-
trils with vinegar, reviveth those that are fainting and swooning.
Being dried and burnt, it strengthened the gums. It is helpful
to those that are troubled with the gout, being applied of itself
to the place until it was red, and applied in a plaister, it takes
away spots or marks in the face, applied with salt, it profited
those that are splenetic, or liver-grown. The decoction doth
help the itch, if washed therewith; being put into baths for
women to sit therein, it helpeth the swellings and hardness of
the mother. The green herb bruised and put into vinegar,
cleansed foul ulcers, and taketh away the marks of bruises and
blows about the eyes, and all discolourings of the face by fire,
yea, and the leprosy, being drank and outwardly applied :
Boiled in wine with honey and salt, it helpeth the tooth ache.
It helpeth the cold griefs of the joints, taking away the pains,
and warmeth the cold part, being fast bound to the place, after
a bathing or sweating in a hot house. Pliny addeth, that pen-
nyroyal and mints together help faiutings, being put into vine-

254 'The English Physician Enlarged.

gar, and smelled unto, or put into the nostrils or mouth. It
easeth head-aches, pains of the breast and belly, and gnawing
of the stomach ; applied with honey, salt, and vinegar, it helpeth
cramps or convulsions of the sinews : Boiled in milk, and drank,
it is effectual for the cough, and for ulcers and sores in the
mouth; drank in wine it provoketh women’s courses, and ex-
pelleth the dead child, and after-birth. Matthiolus saith, The
decoction thereof being drank, lielpeth the jaundice and d ropsy,
all pains of the head and sinews that come of a cold cause, and
cleareth the eye-sight. It helpeth the lethargy, and applied
with barley-meal, helpeth burnings ; and put into the ears easeth
the pains of them.

MALE AND FEMALE PEONY.

Descript .] Male peony riseth up with brownish stalks,
whereon grow green and reddish leaves, upon a stalk without
any particular division in the leaf at all. The flowers stand at
the top of the stalks, consisting of five or six broad leaves, of
a fair purplish red colour, with many yellow threads in the
middle, standing about the head, which after riseth up to be the
seed vessels, divideth into two, three, or four crooked pods
like horns, which being full ripe, open and turn themselves
down backward, shewing within them divers round, black, shin-
ing seeds, having also many crimson grains, intermixed with
black, whereby it maketh a very pretty show. The roots are
great, thick, and long, spreading and running dowm deep in the
ground.

The ordinary female peony hath as many stalks, and more
leaves on them than the male; the leaves not so large, but
nicked on the edges, some with great and deep, others with
smaller cuts and divisions, of a dead green colour. The flowers
are of a strong heady scent, usually smaller, and of a more
purple colour than the male, with yellow thrums about the
fiead as the male hath. The seed vessels are like horns, as in
the male, but smaller ; the seed is black, but less shining. The

The English Physician Enlarged. 2 55

roots consist of many short tuberous clogs, fastened at the end
of long strings, and all from the heads of the roots, which is
thick and short, and of the like scent with the male.

Place and Time.] They grow in gardens, and flower usu-
ally about May.

Government and Virtues .] It is an herb of the Sun, and
under the Lion. Physicians say, male peony roots are best;
but Dr. Reason told me male peony was best for men, and fe-
male peony for women, and he desires to be j udged by his brother
Dr. Experience. The roots are held to be of more virtue than
the seeds; next the flowers, and last of all, the leaves. The
root of the male peony fresh gathered, having been found by
experience to cure the falling sickness; but the surest way is,
besides hanging it about the neck, by which children have been
cured, to take the root of the male peony washed clean, and
stamped somewhat small, and laid to infuse in sack for 24 hours
at the least, afterwards strain it, and take it first and last morn-
ing and evening, a good draught for sundry days together, be-
fore and after full moon, and this will also cure older persons ;
if the disease be not grown too old, and past cure, especially if
there be a due and orderly preparation of the body with posset-
drink made of betony, &c. The root is also effectual for women
that are not sufficiently cleansed after child-birth, and such as
are troubled with the mother; for which likewise the black
seed beaten to powder, and given in wine, is also available.
The black seed also taken before bed ^ime, and in the morning,
is very effectual for such as in their sleep are troubled with the
disease called ephialtes, or incubus, but we do commonly call
it the night-mare; a disease which melancholy persons are sub-
ject unto : It is also good against melancholy dreams. The dis-
tilled water, or syrup made of the flowers, worketh the same
effects that the root and seed do, although more weakly. The
female is often used for the purposes aforesaid, by reason the
male is so scarce a plant, that it is possessed by few, and those
great lovers of rarities of this kind.

256 The English Physician Enlarged .

PEPPERWORT, OR DITTANDER.

De script.] Our common pepperwort sendeth forth some-
what long and broad leaves, of a light blueish greenish colour,
finely dented about the edges and pointed at the ends, standing
upon round hard stalks, three or four feet high, spreading ma-
ny branches on all sides, and having many small white flowers
at the tops of them, after which follow small seeds in small
heads. The root is slender, running much under ground, and
shooting up again in many places, and both leaves and roots are
very hot and sharp of taste, like pepper, for which cause it took
the name.

Place .] It groweth naturally in many places of this land, as
at Clare in Essex ; also near unto Exeter in Devonshire ; upon
Rochester Common in Kent; in Lancashire, and divers other
places; but usually kept in gardens.
gTime.] It flowereth in the end of June, and in July.

• Government and Virtues.] Here is another Martial herb for
you, make much of it. Pliny and Paulus iEgineta say, that
pepperwort is very successful for the sciatica, or any other gout
or pain in the joints, or any other inveterate grief: The leaves
hereof to be bruised, and mixed with old hog’s grease, and ap-
plied to the place, and to continue thereon four hours in men,
and two hours in women, the place being afterwards bathed
with wine and oil, mixed together, and then wrapt up with wool
or skins, after they have sweat a little. It also amendeth the
deformities or discolourings of the skin, and heipeth to take
away marks, scars, and scabs, or the fovd marks of burning with
fire or iron. The juice hereof is by some used to be given in
ale to drink, to women with child, to procure them a speedy
delivery in travail.

PERIWINKLE.

Descript.] ThE common sort hereof hath many branches

The English Physician Enlarged. 257

running upon the ground, shooting out small fibres at the joints
as it runneth, taking thereby hold in the ground, and rooteth in
divers places ; at the joints of these branches stand two small
dark-green shining leaves, somewhat like bay-leaves, but smaller,
and with them come forth also flowers, one at a joint standing
upon a tender footstalk, being somewhat long and hollow, part-
ed at the brims sometimes into four, sometimes into five, leaves ;
the most ordinary sort are of a pale blue colour, some are pure
white, and some of a dark reddish purple colour. The root is
little bigger than a rush, bushing in the ground, and creeping
with its branches far about, whereby it quickly possessed] a great
compass, and is therefore most usually planted under hedges
where it may have room to grow.

Place.] Those with the pale blue and those with the white
flowers grow in woods and orchards by the hedge sides in divers
places of this land, but those w ith the purple flowers in gardens
only.

Time.] They flower in March and April.

Government and Virtues.] Venus owns this herb, and saitli
that the leaves, eaten by man and wife together, cause love be-
tween them. The periwinkle is a great binder, staying bleeding
both at mouth and nose, if some of the leaves be chewed ; the
French use it to stay women’s courses. Dioscorides, Galen,
and iEgineta, commend it against the lask, and fluxes of the
belly, to be drunk in wine.

St. PETER’S WORT.

Jf superstition had not been the father of tradition, as well
as ignorance the mother of devotion, this herb, (as well as St.
John's Wort) had found some other name to be known by ; but
we may say of our forefathers, as St. Paul of the Athenians,
I perceive in many things you are too superstitious. Yet seeing
it is come to pass, That custom having got in possession, pleads
prescription for the name, I shall let it pass and come to the
description of the herb, which take as followeth.

No. 11. k k

258 The English Physician Enlarged.

Descript.] It risctli up with square upright stalks for the
most part, somewhat greater and higher than St. John’s Wort,
(and good reason too, St. Peter being the greater apostle, (ask
the pope else;) for though God would have the saints equal,
the pope is of another opinion) but brown in the same manner,
having two leaves at every joint, somewhat like, but larger
than St. John’s Wort; and a little rounder pointed, with few or
no holes to be seen therein, and having sometimes some smaller
leaves rising from the bosom of the greater, and sometimes a
little hairy also. At the tops of the stalks stand many star-like
flowers, with yellow' threads in the middle, very like those of St.
John’s Wort, insomuch that this is hardly to be discerned from
it, but only by the largeness and height, the seed being alike in
both. The root abideth long, sending forth new shoots every
year.

Place.] It groweth in many groves and small low woods, in
divers places of this land, as in Kent, Huntingdonshire, Cam-
bridgeshire, and Northamptonshire : as also near water-courses
in other places.

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

Government and Virtues.] There is not a straw' to choose
between this and St. John’s wort, only St. Peter must have it,
lest he should want pot herbs : It is of the same property with
St. John’s w'ort, but somewhat weak, and therefore more seldom
used. Two drachms of the seed taken at a time, in honeyed
water, purge choleric humours, assaith Dioscorides, Pliny, and
Galen, and thereby help those that are troubled with sciatica.
The leaves are used, as St. John’s wort, to heal those places of
the body that have been burnt with fire.

PIMPERNEL.

Descript.] COMMON pimpernel hath many weak square
stalks lying on the ground, beset all along with two small and

The English Physician Enlarged. 259

almost round leaves at every joint one against another, very like
cliickweed ; but hath no footstalks, for the leaves as it were
compass the stalk: the flowers stand singly, consisting of five
round small pointed leaves of a fine pale red colour, with so
many threads in the middle, in whose place succeed smooth
round heads, wherein is contained small seed. The root is
small and fibrous, perishing every year.

Place . ] It groweth every where almost, as well in the mea-
dows and corn-fields as by the way-sides, and in gardens, aris-
ing of itself.

Time.] It flowereth from May to August, and the seed ripen-
eth in the mean time and falleth.

Government and Virtues.] It is a solar herb. This is of a
cleansing and attractive quality, whereby it draweth forth thorns
or splinters, or other such like things gotten into the flesh ; and
put into the nostrils, purgeth the head ; and Galen saith also,
they have a drying faculty, whereby they are good to solder the
lips of wounds, and to cleanse foul ulcers. The distilled water
or juice is much esteemed by French dames to cleanse the skin
from any roughness, deformity, or discolouring thereof ; being
boiled in wine and given to drink, it is a good remedy against
the plague, and other pestilential fevers, if the party after taking
it be warm in his bed, and sweat for two hours after, and use
the same for twice at least. It helpeth also all stingings and
bitings of venomous beasts, or mad dogs, being used inwardly,
and applied outwardly. The same also openeth obstructions of
the liver, and is very available against the infirmities of the reins:
It provoketh urine, and helpeth to expel the stone and gravel
out of the kidneys and bladder, and helpeth much in all inward
pains and ulcers. The decoction, or distilled water, is no less
effectual to be applied to all wounds that are fresh and green,
or old, filthy, fretting, and running ulcers, which it effectually
cureth in a short space. A little honey mixed with the juice, and
dropped into the eyes, cleanseth them from cloudy mists, or thick
films which grow over them, and hinder the sight. It helpeth
the tooth-ach, being dropped into the ear on the contrary side

260 The English Physician Enlarged.

of the pain. It is also effectual to ease the pains of the haemor-
rhoids or piles.

GROUND PINE, OR CHAMEPITYS.

Descript.'] Our common ground pine groweth low, seldom
rising above an hapd’s breadth high, shooting forth divers small
branches, set with.slender, small, long, narrow, greyish, or whit-
ish leaves, somewhat hairy, and divided into three parts, many
bushing together at a joint, some growing scatteringly upon the
stalks, smelling somewhat strong, like unto rosin : The flowers
are small, and of a pale yellow colour, growing from the joint
of the stalk all along among the leaves ; after which come small
and round husks. The root is small and woody, perishing eve-
ry year.

Place.] It groweth more, plentifully in Kent than any other
county of this land ; as, namely, in many places on this side
Dartford, along to Southfleet, Chatham, and Rochester, and
upon Chatham Down, hard by the Beacon, and half a mile from
Rochester, in a field nigh a house called Selesys.

Time.] It flowereth and giveth seed in the summer months.

Government and. Virtues.] Mars owns the herb. The decoc-
tion of ground pine drank, doth wonderfully prevail against the
strangury, or any inward pains arising from the diseases of the
reins and urine, and is special good for all obstructions of the
liver and spleen, and gently openeth the body ; for which pur-
pose they were wont in former times to make pills with the pow-
der thereof, and the pulp of figs. It marvellously helpeth all
the diseases of the mother, inwardly or outwardly applied, pro-
curing women’s courses, and expelling the dead child and after-
birth; yea, it is so powerful upon those feminine parts, that it
is utterly forbidden for women witli child, for it will cause abor-
tion or delivery before the time. The decoction of the herb in
wine taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, or both, for some

The English Physician Enlarged. 261

time together, is also effectual in all pains and diseases of the
joints, as gouts, cramps, palsies, sciatica, and aches; for which
purpose the pills made with powder of ground pine, and of her-
modactyls with Venice turpentine, are very effectual. The pills
also, continued for some time, are special good for those that
have the dropsy, jaundice, and for griping pains of the joints,
belly, or inward parts. It helpeth also all diseases of the brain,
proceeding of cold and phlegmatic humours and distillations, as
also for the falling sickness. It is a special remedy for the poi-
son of the aconites, and other poisonful herbs, as also against
the stinging of any venomous creature. It is a good remedy for
a cold cough, especially in the beginning. For all the purposes
aforesaid, the herb being tunned up in new drink and drank, is
almost as effectual, but far more acceptable to weak and dainty
stomachs. The distilled water of the herb hath the same effects,
but more weakly. The conserve of the flowers doth the like,
which Matthiolus much commendeth against the palsy. The
green herb, or the decoction thereof being applied, dissolveth
the hardness of women’s breasts, and all other hard swellings in
any other part of the body. The green herb also applied, or
the juice thereof with some honey, not only cleanseth putrid,
stinking, foul, and malignant ulcers and sores of all sorts, but
healeth and soldereth up the lips of green wounds in any part
also. Let women forbear, if they be with child, for it works
violently upon the feminine part.

PLANTAIN.

r p

L HIS groweth usually in meadows and fields, and by path
sides, and is so well known, that it needeth no description.

Time.] It is in its beauty about June, and the seed ripeneth
shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] It is true, Mizaldus and others,
yea, almost all astrology-physicians hold this to be an herb of
Mars, because it cures the disease of the head and privities,

262 The English Physician Enlarged.

which are under the houses of Mars, Aries, and Scorpio: The
truth is, it is under the command of Venus, and cures tl-e head
by antipathy to Mars, and the privities by sympathy to Venus;
neither is there hardly a Martial disease but it cures.

The juice of plantain clarified and drank for divers days toge-
ther, either of itself or in other drink, prevaileth wonderfully
against all torments or excoriations in the guts or bowels, help-
er h the distillations of rheum from the head, and stayeth all man-
ner of fluxes, even women’s courses, when they flow too
abundantly. It is good to stay spitting of blood and other
bleedings at the mouth, or the making of foul and bloody water,
by reason of any ulcer in the reins or bladder, and also stayeth
the too free bleeding of wounds. It is held an especial remedy
for those that are troubled with the phthisic, or consumption of
the lungs, or ulcers of the lungs, or coughs that come of heat.
The decoction or powder of the roots or seeds, is much more
binding for all the purposes aforesaid than the leaves. Dioscori-
des saith, that three roots boiled in wine and taken, helpeth the
tertian ague, and for the quartan ague, (but letting the number
pass as fabulous) I conceive the decoction of divers roots may be
effectual. The herb (but especially the seed) is held to be profit-
able against the dropsy, the falling-sickness, the yellow jaun-
dice, and stoppings of the liver and reins. The roots of plantain,
and pellitory of Spain, beaten into powder, and put into the
hollow teeth, taketh away the pains of them. The clarified juice,
or distilled water, dropped into the eyes, cooleth the inflamma-
tions in them, and taketh away the pin and web; and dropped
into the ears, easeth the pains in them, and helpeth and reinoveth
the heat. The same also, with the juice of house-leek, is profit-
able against all inflammations and breakings-out of the skin, and
against burnings and scaldings by fire and water. The juice or
decoction made either of itself, or other things of the like nature,
is of much use and good effect for old and hollow ulcers that are
hard to be cured, and for cankers and sores in the mouth, or privy
Darts of man or woman; and helpeth also the pains of the piles

The English Physician Enlarged. 263

in the fundament. The juice mixed with oil of roses, and the
temples and forehead anointed therewith, easeth the pains of the
head proceeding from heat, and helpeth lunatic and frantic per-
sons very much: as also the biting of serpents, or a mad dog.
The same also is profitably applied to all hot gouts in the feet or
nands r especially in the beginning. It is also good to be applied
where any bone is out of joint, to hinder inflammations, swell-
ings, aud pains that presently rise thereupon. The powder of the
dried leaves taken in drink, killeth worms in the belly ; and boil-
ed in wine, killeth worms that breed in old and foul ulcers. One
part of plantain water, and two parts of the brine of powdered
beef, boiled together and clarified, is a most sure remedy to heal
all spreading scabs or itch in the head and body, all manner of tet-
ters, ringworms, the shingles, and all other running and fretting
sores. Briefly, the plantains are singularly good wound herbs to
heal fresh or old wouuds or sores, either inward or outward.

PLUMBS

Are so well known, that they need no description.

Government and, Virtues .] All plumbs are under Venus, and
are like women, some better, some worse. As there is great diver-
sity of kinds, so there is in the operation of plumbs, for some that
are sweet moisten the stomach, and make the belly soluble ; those
that are sour quench thirst more, and bind the belly; the moist
and waterish do sooner corrupt in the stomach, but the firm do
nourish more, and offend less. The dried fruit sold by the grocers
under the name of damask prunes, do somewhat loosen the belly,
and being stewed, are often used, both in health and sickness, to
relish the mouth and stomach, to procure appetite, and a little to
open the body, allay choler, and cool the stomach. Plumb-tree
leaves boiled in wine, are good to wash and gargle the mouth
and throat to dry the flux of rheum coming to the palate, gums,
or almonds of the ears. The gum of the tree is good to break the
stone. The gum or leaves boiled in vinegar, and applied, kills

264 The English Physician Enlarged

tetters and ringworms. Matthiolns saith, the oil pressed out of
the kernels of the stones, as oil of almonds is made, is good
against the inflamed piles, the tumours or swellings of ulcers,
hoarseness of the voice, roughness of the tongue and throat,
and likewise the pains in the ears; and that five ounces of the
said oil, taken with one ounce of muskadel, driveth forth the
stone, and helpeth the cholic.

POLYPODY OF THE OAK.

Descript.] This is a small herb, consisting of nothing but
roots and leaves, bearing neither stalk, flower, nor seed, as it is
thought. It hath three or four leaves rising from the root, every
one single by itself, of about a hand length, are winged, consist-
ing of many small narrow leaves, cut into the middle rib, stand-
ing on each side of the stalk, large below, and smaller up to the
top, not dented nor notched at the edges at all, as the male fern
hath, of a sad green colour, and smooth on the upper side, but
on the other side somewhat rough by reason of some yellowish
spots set thereon. The root is smaller than one’s little finger,
lying aslope, or creeping along under the upper crust of the
earth, brownish on the outside, and greenish within, of a sweetish
harshness in taste, set with certain rough knags on each side
thereof, having also much mossiness or yellow hairiness upon
it, and some fibres underneath it, whereby it is nourished.

Place.] It groweth as well upon old rotten stumps, or trunks
of trees, as oak, beech, hazel, willow, or any other, as in the
woods under them, and upon old mud walls, as also in mossy,
stony, and gravelly places near unto wood. That which grow-
eth upon oak is accounted the best; but the quantity whereof
is scarce sufficient for the common use.

Time.] It being always green, may be gathered for use at
any time.

The English Physician Enlarged. 265

Government and Virtues .] And why, I pray, must poly-
podium of the oak only be used, gentle college of physicians?
Can you give me but a glimpse of reason for it? It is only be-
cause it is dearest. Will you never leave off your covetousness
till your lives leave you? The truth is, that which grows upon .
the earth is best (it is an herb of Saturn, and he seldom climbs
trees) to purge melancholy : if the humour be otherwise, choose
you polypodiuni accordingly. Meuse (who is called the physi-
cian’s Evangelist for the certainty of his medicines, and the truth
of his opinion) saith, that it drieth up thin humours, digesteth
thick and tough, and purgeth burnt choler, and especially tough
and thick phlegm, and thin phlegm also, even from the joints,
and therefore good for those that are troubled with melancholy,
or quartan agues, especially if it be taken in whey or honeyed wa-
ter, or in barley-water, or the broth of a chicken with epithymum,
or with beets and mallows. It is good for the hardness of the
spleen, and for pricking or stitches in the sides, as also for the
colic: Some use to put to it some fennel seeds, or anise seeds
or ginger, to correct that loathing it bringeth to the stomach
which is more than needeth, it being a safe and gentle medicine
fit for all persons, which daily experience confirmeth; and an
ounce of it may be given at a time in a decoction, if there be
not senna or some other strong purger put with it. A dram or
two of the powder of the dried roots taken fasting in a cup of
honeyed water, worketh gently, and for the purposes aforesaid.
The distilled water, both of roots and leaves, is much com-
mended for the quartan ague, to be taken for many days toge-
ther, as also against melancholy, or fearful and troublesome
sleeps or dreams; and with some sugar-candy dissolved therein
is good against the cough, shortness of breath, and wheezings,
and those distillations of thin rheum upon the lungs, which
cause phthisics, and oftentimes consumptions. The fresh
roots beaten small, or the powder of the dried roots mixed
with honey, and applied to the member that is out of joint,
doth much help it ; and applied also to the nose, cureth the dis-

No. 12. l l

266 The English Physician Enlarged.

ease called polypus, which is a piece of flesh growing therein,
which in time stoppeth the passage of breath through that nos-
tril; and it helpeth those clefts or chops that come between the
fingers or toes.

THE POPLAR TREE.

TThERE are two sorts of poplars, which are most familiar
with us, viz. the black and white, both which I shall here des-
cribe unto you.

Descript .] The white poplar groweth great, and reasonably
high, covered with thick, smooth, white bark, especially the
branches, having long leaves cut into several divisions almost
like a vine leaf, but not of so deep a green on the upper side,
and hoary white underneath, of a reasonable good scent, the
whole form representing the form of coltsfoot. The catkins
which it bringeth forth before the leaves, are long, and of a
faint reddish colour, which fall away, bearing seldom good seed
with them. The wood hereof is smooth, soft, and white, very
finely waved, whereby it is much esteemed.

The black poplar groweth higher and straighter than the
white, with a greyish bark, bearing broad green leaves, somewhat
like ivy leaves, not cut in on the edges like the white, but whole
and dented, ending in a point, and not white underneath, hang-
ing by slender long footstalks, which, with the air, are contin-
ually shaken like as the aspen leaves are. The catkins hereof
are greater than those of the white, composed of many round
green berries, as if they were set together in a long cluster,
containing much downy matter, which being ripe, is blown
away with the wind. The clammy buds hereof, before they
spread into leaves, are gathered tomakeunguentumpopulneum,
and are of a yellowish green colour, and somewhat small, sweet,
but strong. The wood is smooth, tough, and white, and easy
to be cloven : On both these trees groweth a sweet kind of
musk, which in former times was used to put into sweet oint-

ments.

The English Physician Enlarged. 267

Place.] They grow in moist woods, and by water-sides in
sundry places of this land ; yet the white is not so frequent as
tiie other.

Time.] Their time is likewise expressed before: The catkins
coming forth before the leaves in the end of summer.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn hath dominion over both.
White poplar, saith Galen, is of a cleansing property : The
weight of one ounce in powder of the bark thereof being drank,
saith Dioscorides, is a remedy for those that are troubled with
the sciatica, or the strangury. The juice of the leaves dropped
warm into the ears, easeth the pains in them. The young
clammy buds or eyes, before they break out into leaves, bruised,
and a little honey put to them, is a good medicine for a dull sight.
The black poplar is held to be more cooling than the white, and
therefore the leaves bruised with vinegar and applied, help the
gout. The seed drank in vinegar, is held good against the fall-
ing-sickness. The water that droppeth from the hollow places
of this tree, taketh away warts, pushes, wheals, aud other the
like breakings-outof the body. The young black poplar buds,
saith Matthiolus, are much used by women to beautify their
hair, bruising them with fresh butter, straining them after they
have been kept for some time in the suu. The ointment called
populneum, which is made of this poplar, is singularly good
for all heat and inflammations in any part of the body, and tem-
pered) the heat of wounds. It is much used to dry up the milk
of women’s breasts, when they have weaned their children.

POPPY.

Op this I shall describe three kinds, viz. the white and
black of the garden, and the erratic wild poppy, or corn rose.

Descript.] The white poppy hath at first four or five whitish
green leaves lying upon the ground, which rise with the stalk,
compassing it at the bottom of them, and are very large, much
cut or torn on the edges, aud dented also besides : The stalk,
which is usually four or five feet high, hath sometimes no

268 7’hc English Physician Enlarged.

branches at the top, and usually but two or three at most, bear-
ing every one but one head wrapped up in a thin skin, which
boweth down before it is ready to blow r , and then rising, and
being broken, the flo,wer within it spreading itself open, and
consisting of four very large, white round leaves, with many
whitish round threads in the middle, set about a small, round,
green head, having a crown, or star like cover at the head
thereof, which growing ripe, becomes as large as a great apple,
wherein are contained a great number of small round seeds in
several partitions or divisions next unto the shell, the middle
thereof remaining hollow, and empty. The whole plant, both
leaves, stalks and heads, while they are fresh, young, and
green, yield a milk when they are broken, of an unpleasant
bitter taste, almost ready to provoke casting, and of a strong
heady smell, which being condensate, is called opium. The
root is white and woody, perishing as soon as it hath given
ripe seed.

The black poppy little differeth from the former, until it
beareth its flower, which is somewhat less, and of a black pur-
plish colour, but without, any purple spots in the bottom of the
leaf. The head of the seed is much less than the former, and
openeth itself a little round about to the top, under the crown, so
that the seed, which is very black, will fall out, if one turn the
head thereof downward.

The wild poppy, or corn rose, hath long and narrow leaves,
very much cut in on the edges into many divisions, of a light
green colour, sometimes hairy withal. The stalk is blackish
and hairy also, but not so tall as the garden-kind, having some
such like leaves thereon as grow below, parted into three or four
blanches sometimes, whereon grow small hairy heads bowing
down before the skin break, wherein the flower is inclosed,
which when it is full blown open, is of a fair yellowish red or
crimson colour, and in some much paler, without any spot in
the bottom of the leaves, having many black soft threads in the
middle, compassing a small green head, which when it is ripe,

The English Physician Enlarged. 209

is not bigger than one’s little finger’s end, wherein is contained
much black seed, smaller by halt than that of the garden. The
root perisheth every year, and springeth again of its own sow-
ing. Of this kind there is one lesser in all the parts thereof, and
differeth in nothing else.

Place.] The garden kinds do not naturally grow wild in any
place, but are all sown in gardens where they grow.

The wild poppy or corn rose, is plentiful enough, and many
times too much in the corn-fields of all counties through this
land, and also upon ditch banks, and by hedge-sides. The
smaller wild kind is also found in corn-fields, and also in some
other places, but not so plentifully as the former.

Time.] The garden kinds are usually sown in the spring,
which then flower about the end of May, and somewhat ear-
lier, if they spring of their own sowing.

The wild kind flower usually from May until July, and the
seed of them is ripe soon after the flowering.

Government and Virtues.] The herb is Lunar, and of the
juice of it is made opium; only for lucre of money they cheat
you, and tell you it is a kind of tear, or some such like thing,
that drops from poppies when they weep, and that is somewhere
beyond the seas, I know not where beyond the Moon. The
garden poppy heads, with seeds, made into a syrup, is frequently,
and to good effect, used to procure rest, and sleep, in the sick
and weak, and to stay catarrhs and deductions of thin rheums
from the head into the stomach and lungs, causing a continual
cough, the fore runner of a consumption ; it helpeth also
hoarseness of the throat, and when one hath lost his voice,
which the oil of the seed doth likewise. The black seed boiled
in wine, and drank is said also to stay the flux of the belly,
and w omen’s courses. The empty shells, or poppy heads, are
usually boiled in water, and given to procure rest and sleep
So doth the leaves in the same manner; as also if the head and
temples be bathed with the decoction warm, or with the oil ol
poppies, the green leaves or heads bruised, mid applied with a

270 The English Physician Enlarged.

little vinegar, or made into a poultice with barley meal, or hog’s
grease, cooleth and tempereth all inflammations, as also the
disease called St. Anthony’s fire. It is generally used in treacle
and mithridate, and in all other medicines that are made to pro-
cure rest and sleep, and to ease pains in the head as well as in
other parts. It is also used to cool inflammations, agues, or
frenzies, or to stay deductions which cause a cough, or con-
sumption, and also other fluxes of the belly, or women’s
courses; it is also put into hollow teeth, to ease the pain,
and hath been found, by experience, to ease the pains of the
gout.

The wild poppy, or corn rose (as Matthiolus saith) is good
to prevent the falling-sickness. The syrup made with the
flower, is with good effect given to those that have the pleurisy ;
and the dried flowers also, either boiled in water, or made into
powder and drank, either in the disttlled water of them, or some
other drink, worketh the like effect. The distilled water of the
flowers is held to be of much use against surfeits, being drank
evening and morning: It is also more cooling than any of the
other poppies, and therefore cannot but be as effectual in hot
agues, frenzies, and other inflammations either inward or out-
ward. Galen saith, the seed is dangerous to be used inwardly.

PURSLANE.

Garden purslane (being used as a salad herb) is so well
known that it needeth no description; I shall therefore only
6peak of its virtues as followeth.

Government and Virtues.] ’Tis an herb of the Moon. It
is good to cool any heat in the liver, blood, reins, and stomach,
and in hot agues nothing better: It stayeth hot and choleric
fluxes of the belly, women’s courses, the whites, and gonor-
rhaea, or running of the reins, the distillation from the head, and
pains therein proceeding from heat, want of sleep, or the frenzy.
The seed is more effectual than the herb, and is of singular good
use to cool the heat and sharpness of urine, and the outrageous

The English Physician Enlarged. 271

lust of the body, venerous dreams, and the like : Insomuch that
the over frequent use hereof extinguisheth the heat and virtue of
natural procreation. The seed bruised and boiled in wine, and
given to children, expelleth the worms. The juice of the herb
is held as effectual to all the purposes aforesaid ; as also to stay
vomitings, and taken with some sugar or honey, helpeth an
old and dry cough, shortness of breath, and the phthisic, and
stayeth immoderate thirst. The distilled water of the herb is
used by many (as the more pleasing) with a little sugar to work
the same effects. The juice also is singular good in the inflam-
mations and ulcers in the secret parts of man or woman, as also
the bowels and haemorrhoids, when they are ulcerous, or exco-
riations in them : The herb bruised and applied to the forehead
and temples, allays exeessive heat therein, that hinders rest and
sleep: and applied to the eyes, taketh away the redness and i in-
flammation in them, and those other parts where pushes, wheals,
pimples, St. Anthony’s fire and the like, break forth; if a little
vinegar be put to it, and laid to the neck, with as much of galls
and linseed together, it taketh away the pains therein, and the
crick in the neck. The juice is used with oil of roses for the
same causes, or for blasting by lightning, and burnings by gun-
powder, or for women’s sore breasts, and to allay the heat in all
other sores or hurts; applied also to the navels of children that
stick forth, it helpeth them ; it is also good for sore mouths and
gums that are swollen, and to fasten loose teeth. Camararius
saith, that the distilled water used by some, took away the pain
of their teeth, when all other remedies failed, and the thickened
juice made into pills with the powder of gum tragacanth and
arabic, being taken, prevaileth much to help those that make
bloody water. Applied to the gout it easeth pains thereof, and
helpeth the hardness of the sinews, if it some not of the cramp
or a cold cause.

PRIMROSES.

J- are 50 "ell know u, that they need no description.

272 The English Physician Enlarged.

Of the leaves of primroses is made as fine a salve to heal
wounds as any that I know ; you shall be taught to make salves
of any herb at the latter end of the book : make this as you are
taught there, and do not (you that have any ingenuity in you)
see your poor neighbours go with wounded limbs when an
halfpenny cost will heal them.

PRIVET.

Descript .] O UR common privet is carried up with many
slender branches to a reasonable height and breadth, to cover
arbours, bowers and banqueting houses, and brought, wrought,
and cut into so many forms, of men, horses, birds, &c. which
though at first supported, groweth afterwards strong of itself. It
beareth long and narrow green leaves by the couples and sweet
smelling white flowers in tufts at the end of the branches, which
turn into small black berries that have a purplish juice with
them, and some seeds that are flat on the one side with a hole
or dent therein.

Place.] It groweth in this land, in divers woods.

Time.] Our privet flowereth in June and July, the berries
are ripe in August and September.

Government and Virtues.] The Moon is lady of this. It
is little used in physic with us in these times, more than in lo-
tions, to wash sores and sore mouths, and to cool up inflamma-
tions, and dry up fluxes. Yet Matthiolus saith, it serveth to all
the uses for the which cypress, or the east privet, is appointed
by Dioscorides and Galen. He further saith, that the oil that is
made of the flowers of privet infused therein, and set in the sun,
is singular good for the inflammations of wounds' and for the
head-ach, coming of an hot cause. There is a sw eet water also
distilled from the flowers, that is good for all those diseases that
need cooling and drying, and therefore helpeth all fluxes of the
belly or stomach, bloody-fluxes, and women’s courses, being
either drank or applied ; as all those that void blood at the
mouth, or any other place, and for distillations of rheum in
the eyes, especially if it be used with tutia.

The English Physician Enlarged. 273

QUEEN OF THE MEADOWS, MEADOW SWEET,
OR MEAD SWEET.

Descript .] The stalks of this are reddish, rising to be three
feet high, sometimes four or five feet, having at the joints there-
of large winged leaves, standing one above another at distan-
ces, consisting of many and somewhat broad leaves, set on each
side of a middle rib, being hard, rough, or rugged, crumpled
much like unto elm leaves, having also some smaller leaves
with them (as agrimony hath) somewhat deeply dented about
the edges, of a sad green colour on the upper side, and grey-
ish underneath, of a pretty sharp scent and taste, somewhat like
unto the burnet, and a leaf hereof put into a cup of claret wine,
giveth also a fine relish to it. At the tops of the stalks and
branches stand many tufts of small white flowers thrust thick
together, which smell much sweeter than the leaves ; and in
their places, -being fallen, some crooked and cornered seed.
The root is somewhat woody, and blackish on the outside, and
brownish within, with divers great strings, and lesser fibres set
thereat, of a strong scent, but nothing so pleasant as the flow-
ers and leaves, and perisheth not, but abideth many years,
shooting forth anew every spring.

Place .] It groweth in moist meadows that lie much wet, or
near the courses of water.

Time.] It flowereth in some places or other all the three
summer months, that is, June, July, and August, and the seed
is ripe soon after.

Government and Virtues.] Venus claims dominion over the
herb. It is used to stay all manner of bleedings, fluxes, vomit-
ings, and women’s courses, as also their whites; It is said to
alter and take away the fits of tHe quartan agues, and to make
a merry heart, lor which purpose some use the flowers, and
some the leaves. It helpeth speedily those that are troubled with
the cholic; being boiled in wine, and with a little honey taken
"arm, it openeth the belly, but boiled in red wine, and drank.

No. 12. m m

274 The English Physician Enlarged.

it stayeth the flux of the belly. Outwardly applied, it helpeth
old ulcers that are cancerous, or hollow and fistulous, for which
it is by many much commended, as also for the sores in the
mouth or secret parts. The leaves, when they are full grown,
being laid on the skin, will in a short time, raise blisters there-
on, as Tragus saith. The water thereof helpeth the heat and
inflammation in the eyes.

TIIE QUINCE TREE.

Descript.] The ordinary quince tree groweth often to the
height and bigness of a reasonable apple tree, but more usu-
ally lower and crooked, with a rough bark, spreading arms
and branches far abroad. The leaves are somewhat like those
of the apple tree, but thicker, broader, and full of veins, and
whiter on the under side, not dented at all about the edges.
The flowers are large and white, sometimes dashed over with a
blush. The fruit that followeth is yellow, being near ripe, and
covered with a white freeze, or cotton, thick set on the younger,
and growing less as they grow to be thorough ripe, bunched
out oftentimes in some places, some being like an apple, and
some a pear, of a strong heady scent, and not durable to keep,
and is sour, harsh, and of an unpleasant taste to eat fresh ; but
being scalded, roasted, baked, or preserved, becometh more
pleasant.

Place and Time.] It best likes to grow near ponds and water
sides, and is frequent through this land; and flowereth not un-
til the leaves be come forth. The fruit is ripe in September
or October.

Government and Virtues.] Old Saturn owns the tree. Quinces
when they are green, help all sorts of fluxes in men or women,
and choleric lasks, casting, and whatever needeth astriction,
more than any way prepared by fire; yet the syrup of the juice,
or the conserve, are much conducible, much of the binding
quality being consumed by the fire ; if a little vinegar be added,
it stirreth up the languishing appetite, and the stomach given to

The English Physician Enlarged. Tib

casting; some spices being added, comforteth and strengtheneth
the decaying and fainting spirits, and helpeth the liver oppressed,
that it cannot perfect the digestion, or correcteth choler and
phlegm. If you would have them purging, put honey to them
instead of sugar; and if more laxative, for choler, rhubarb; for
phlegm, turbith, for watery humours, scammony; but if more
forcibly to bind, use the unripe quinces, with roses and acacia
hypocistis, and some torrified rhubarb. To take the crude juice
of quinces, is held a preservative against the force of deadly
poison ; for it hath been found most certainly true, that the very
smell of a quince hath taken away all the strength of the poison
of white hellebore. If there be need of any outwardly binding
and cooling of hot fluxes, the oil of quinces, or other medicines
that may be made thereof, are very available to anoint the belly
or other parts therewith ; it likewise strengtheneth the stomach
and belly, and the sinews that are loosened by sharp humours
falling on them, and restraineth immoderate sweatings. The
mucilage taken from the seeds of quinces, and boiled in a little
water, is very good to cool the heat and heal the sore breasts of
women, The same with a little sugar, is good to lenify the
harshness and hoarseness of the throat, and roughness of the
tongue. The cotton or down of quinces boiled and applied to
plague sores, healeth them up : and laid as a plaister made up
with wax, it bringeth hair to them that are bald, and keepeth
it from falling, if it be ready to shed.

RADISH, OR HORSE-RADISH.

THE garddn-radish is so well known, that it needeth no
description.

4

.Descript .] The horse-radish hath its first leaves that rise
before winter about a foot and a half long, very much cut in
or torn on the edges into many parts, of a dark green colour,
with a great rib in the middle; after these have been up a while,
others follow, which are greater, rougher, broader and longer,
whole and not divided at first, but only somewhat rougher dent-

27(3 The English Physician Enlarged.

ed about tbe edges; the stalk when it beareth flowers (which
is seldom) is great, rising up with some few lesser leaves there-
on, to three or four feet high, spreading at the top many small
branches of whitish flowers, made of four leaves a-piece; after
which come small pods, like those of shepherd's purse, but
seldom with any seed in them. The root is great, long, white
and rugged, shooting up divers heads of leaves, which may be
parted for increase, but it doth not creep in the ground, nor run
above ground, and is of a strong, sharp and bitter taste, almost
like mustard.

Place.] It is found wild in some places, but is chiefly planted
in gardens, and joyetb in moist and shadowy places.

Time.] It seldom flowereth, but when it doth, it is in July.

Government and Virtues.] They are both under Mars.
The j uice of horse-radish given to drink, is held to be very ef-
fectual for the scurvy. It killeth the worms in children, being
drank, and also laid upon the belly. The root bruised and laid
to the place grieved with the sciatica, joint-ach, or the hard swel-
lings of the liver and spleen, doth wonderfully help them all.
The distilled water of the herb and root is more familiar to be
taken with a little sugar for all the purposes aforesaid.

Garden radishes are in wantonness by the gentry eaten as a
salad, but they breed but scurvy humours in the stomach, and
corrupt the blood, and then send for a physician as fast as you
can ; that is one cause which makes the ow ners of such nice
palates so unhealthful; yet for such as are troubled with the
gravel, stone, or stoppage of urine, they are good physic, if
the body be stroug that takes them ; you may make the juice
of the roots into a syrup if you please, for that use : They purge
by urine exceedingly.

RAGWORT.

Xt is also called St. James’-wort, and stagger-wort, and stam-
mer-wort and segrum.

Descript.] The greater common ragwort hath many large

The English Physician Enlarged. 277

M— — MULiii mi ■■in ■ ii ■■ min in rT an raMgaj^jjnwrvigrers aMi i . an ai c tt irr j BrMi fc i — 1 ms tsrrjq-acz m

and long, dark green leaves, lying on the ground, very much
rent and torn on the sides in many places; from among which
rise up sometimes but one, and sometimes two or three square
or crested blackish or brownish stalks, three or four feet high,
sometimes branched, bearing divers such like leaves upon them,
at several distances unto the top, where it branches forth into
many stalks bearing yellow flowers, consisting of divers leaves,
set as a pale or border, with a dark yellow' thrum in the middle,
which do abide a great while, but at last are turned Into down,
and with the small blackish grey seed, are carried away with the
w ind. The root is made of many fibres, whereby it is firmly
fastened into the ground, and abideth many years.

There is another sort thereof different from the former only
in this, that it riseth not so high: the leaves are not so finely
jagged, nor of so dark a green colour, but rather somewhat
whitish, soft and woolly, and the flowers usually paler.

Place.] They grow both of them wild in pastures, and
unlilled grounds in many places, and sometimes both in one
field.

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

Government and Virtues.] Ragwort is under the command
of dame Venus, and cleanseth, digesteth, and discusseth. The
decoction of the herb is good to w ash the mouth or throat that
hath ulcers or sores therein; and for swellings, hardness, or irn-
posthumations, for it thoroughly cleanseth and healeth them;
as also the quinsy, and the king’s evil. It helpeth to stay ca-
tarrhs, thin rheums, and defluctions from the head into the
eyes, nose, or lungs. The juice is found, by experience, to
be singularly good to heal green wounds, and to cleanse and
heal all old and filthy ulcers in the privities, and in other parts of
the body, as also inward wounds and ulcers; stayeth the malig-
nity of fretting and running cankers, and hollow fistulas, not
suffering them to spread farther. It is also much commended to
help achs and pains either in the fleshy part, or in the nerves and
sinews, as also the sciatica, or pain of the hips or huckle-bone,

278 The English Physician Enlarged.

to bathe the places with the decoction of the herb, or to anoint
them with an ointment made of the herb, bruised and boiled
in old hog’s suet, with some mastic and olibanum in powder
added unto it after it is strained forth. In Sussex we call it
ragweed.

RATTLE GRASS.

Of this there are two kinds, which I shall speak of, viz. the
red and yellow.

Descript . ] The common red rattle hath sundry reddish, hol-
low stalks, and sometimes green, rising from the root, lying for
the most part on the ground, some growing more upright, with
many small reddish or green leaves set on both sides of a middle
rib, finely dented about the edges: The flowers stand at the
tops of the stalks and branches, of a fine purplish red colour,
like small gaping hooks ; after which come blackish seed in
small husks, which lying loose therein, will rattle, with shaking.
The roots consist of two or three small whitish strings, with
some fibres thereat.

The common yellow rattle hath seldom above one round great
stalk, rising from the foot, about half a yard, or two feet high,
and but few branches thereon, having two long and somewhat
broad leaves set at a joint, deeply cut in on the edges, resem-
bling the comb of a cock, broadest next to the stalk, and smaller
to the end. The flowers grow at the tops of the stalks, with
some shorter leaves with them, hooded after the same manner
that the others are, but of a fair yellow colour, or in some
paler, and in some more white. The seed is contained in large
husks, and being ripe will rattle or make a noise with lying
loose in them. The root is small and slender, perishing every
year.

Place.] They grow in meadows and woods generally through
this land.

Time.] They arc in flower from Midsummer until August
be past, sometimes.

The English Physician Enlarged. 279

Government and Virtues .] They are both of them under
the dominion of the Moon. The red rattle is accounted pro-
fitable to heal up fistulas and hollow ulcers, and to stay the flux
of humours in them, as also the abundance of women’s courses,
or any other flux of blood, being boiled in red wine, and
drank.

The yellow rattle, or cock’s comb, is held to be good for
those that are troubled with a cough, or dimness of sight, if
the herb, being boiled with beans, and some honey put thereto,
be drank or dropped into the eyes. The whole seed being put
into the eyes, draweth forth any skin, dimness or film, from
the sight, without trouble or pain.

1 ■ ■ r

REST HARROW, OR CAMMOCK.

Descript.] (^OMMON rest harrow riseth up with divers
rough woody twigs, half a yard or a yard high, set at the
joints without order, with little roundish leaves, sometimes
more than two or three at a place, of a dark green colour, with-
out thorns while they are young; but afterwards armed in sun-
dry places, with short and sharp thorns. The flowers come
forth at the tops of the twigs and branches, whereof it is full,
fashioned like pease or broom blossoms, but lesser, flatter, and
somewhat closer, of a faint purplish colour ; after which come
small pods containing small, flat, round seed : The root is black-
ish on the outside, and whitish within, very rough, and hard
to break when it is tresh and green, and as hard as an horn
when it is dried, thrusting down deep into the ground, aud
spreading likewise, every piece being apt to grow again if it be
left in the ground.

Place.] It groweth in many places of this laud, as well in
arable as waste ground.

Time.] It flowereth about the beginning or middle of July,
and the seed is ripe in August.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of
Mars. It is singularly good to provoke urine when it is stopped,

280 The English Physician Enlarged.

and to break and drive forth the stone, which the powder of the
bark of the root taken in wine perfornieth effectually. Matthi-
olus saith, the same helpeth the disease called hernia carnosa, the
fleshy rupture, by taking the said powder for some months to-
gether constantly, and that it hath cured some, which seemed
incurable by any other means than by cutting or burning. The
decoction thereof made with some vinegar, gargled in the
mouth, easeth the tootli-ach, especially when it comes of rheum;
and the said decoction is very powerful to open obstructions of
the liver and spleen, and other parts. A distilled water in
Balneo Marice, with four pounds of the root hereof first sliced
small, and afterwards steeped in a gallon of Canary wine, is sin-
gularly good for all the purposes aforesaid, and to cleanse the
passages of the urine. The powder of the said root made into
an electuary, or losenges, with sugar, as also the bark of the
fresh roots boiled tender, and afterwards beaten to a conserve
with sugar, worketh the like effect. The powder of the roots
strewed upon the brims of ulcers, or mixed with any other
convenient thing, and applied, consumeth the hardness, and
causeth them to heal the better.

ROCKET.

In regard the garden rocket is rather used as a salad herb than
for any physical purposes, I shall omit it, and only speak of
the common wild rocket. The description whereof take as fol-
loweth :

Descript . ] The common wild rocket hath longer and nar-
rower leaves, much more divided into slender cuts, and jags on
both sides the middle rib than the garden kinds have ; of a sad
green colour, from among which rise up divers stalks two or
three feet high, sometimes set with the like leaves, but smaller
and smaller upwards, branched from the middle into divers stiff
stalks, bearing sundry yellow flowers on them, made of four
leaves a piece, as the others are, which afterwards yield them
small reddish seed, in small long pods, of a more bitter and hot
biting taste than the garden kinds, as the leaves are also.

The English Physician Enlarged. 281

Place.] It is found wild in divers places of this land.

Time.] It flowers about June or July, and the seed is ripe

»

in August.

Government and Virtues.] The wild rockets are forbidden
to be used alone, in regard their sharpness fumeth into the head,
causing aches and pains therein, and are less hurtful to hot and
choleric persons, for fear of inflaming their blood, and there-
fore for such we may say a little doth but a little harm, for an-
gry Mars rules them, and he sometimes will be rusty when be
meets with fools. The wild rocket is more strong and effectual
to increase sperm and venomous qualities, whereunto all the seed
is more effectual than the garden kind. It serveth also to help
digestion, and provoketh urine exceedingly. The seed is used
to cure the biting of serpents, the scorpion, and the shrew
mouse, and other poisons, and expelleth worms, and other noi-
some creatures that breed in the belly. The herb boiled or
stewed, and some sugar put thereto, helpeth the cough in
children, being taken often. The seed also taken in drink,
taketh away the ill scent of the arm-pits, increaseth milk in
nurses, and wasteth the spleen. The seed mixed with honey,
and used on the face, eleanseth the skin from morphew, and
used with vinegar, taketh away freckles and redness in the face,
or other parts; and with the gall of an ox, it mendeth foul
scars, black and blue spots, and the marks of the small pox.

WINTER-ROCKET, OR CRESSES.

Descript.] Winter -rocket, or winter-cresses, hath di-
vers somewhat large sad green leaves lying upon the ground, torn
or cut in divers parts, somewhat like unto rocket, or turnip-
leaves, with smaller pieces next the bottom, and broad at the
ends, which so abide all the winter (if it spring up in autumn,
when it is used to be eaten) from among which rise up divers
small round stalks, full of branches, bearing many small vellow
flowers of four leaves a piece, after which come small pods,
with reddish seed in them. The root is stringy, and perisheth
every year after the seed is ripe.

n n

282 The English Physician Enlarged.

Place.] It groweth orf its own accord in gardens and fields,
by the way-sides, in divers places, and particularly in the next
pasture to the conduit-head behind Gray’s Inn, that brings
water to Mr. Lamb’s conduit in Holborn.

Time.] It flowereth in May, seedeth in June, and then
perisheth.

Government and Virtues.] This is profitable to provoke
urine, to help strangury, and expel gravel and the stone. It is
good for the scurvy, and found, by experience, to be a singularly
good wound herb to cleanse inward wounds; the juice or de-
coction being drank, or outwardly applied to wash foul ulcers
and sores, cleansing them by sharpness, and hindering or abat-
ing the dead flesh from growing therein, and healing them by
the drying quality.

ROSES.

X HOLD it altogether needless to trouble the reader with a
description of any of these, since both the garden roses, and the
roses of the briars are well enough known: take therefore the
virtue of them as followeth: and first I shall begin with the
garden kinds.

Government and Virtues.] What a pother have authors
made with roses! What a racket have they kept! I shall add,
red roses are under Jupiter, damask under Venus, white under
the Moon, and Provence under the king of France. The white
and red roses are cooling and drying, and yet the white is taken
to exceed the red in both the properties, but is seldom used in-
wardly in any medicine: The bitterness in the roses when they
are fresh, especially the juice, purgeth choler, and watery hu-
mours ; but being dried, and that heat which caused the bitter-
ness being consumed, they have then a binding and astringent
quality : Those also that are not full blown, do both cool and
bind more than those that are full blown, and the white rose
more than the red. The decoction of red roses made with wine
and used, is very good for the head-ache, and pains in the eyes.

The English Physician Enlarged. 283

ears, throat and gums; as also for the fundament, the lower
parts of the belly and the matrix, being bathed and put into them.
The same decoction with the roses remaining in it, is profitably
applied to the region of the heart to ease the inflammation
therein ; as also St. Anthony’s fire, and other diseases of the sto-
mach. Being dried and beaten to powder, and taken in steeled
wine or water, it helpeth to stay women’s courses. The yellow
threads in the middle of the roses (which are erroneously called
the rose seed) being powdered and drank in the distilled water
of quinces, stayeth the overflowing of women’s courses, and doth
wonderfully stay the deductions of rheum upon the gums and
teeth, preserving them from corruption, and fastening them
if they be loose, being washed and gargled therewith, and some
vinegar of squills added thereto. The heads with the seeds being
used in powder, or in a decoction, stayeth the lask and spitting of
blood. Red roses do strengthen the heart, the stomach and the
liver, and the retentive faculty: They mitigate the pains that
arise from heat, assuage inflammations, procure rest and sleep,
stay both whites and reds in women ; the gonorrhea, or running
of the reins, and fluxes of the belly; the juice of them doth
purge and cleanse the body from choler and phlegm. The husks
of the roses, with the beards and nails of the roses, are binding
and cooling, and the distilled water of either of them is good for
the heat and redness in the eyes, and to stay and dry up the
rheums and watering of them. Of the red roses are usually
made many compositions, all serving to sundry good uses, viz.
Electuary of roses, conserve, both moist and dry, which is
more usually called sugar of roses, syrup of dry roses, and ho-
ney of roses ; the cordial powder called diarrhoden abbatis
and aromatica rosarum. The distilled water of roses, vinegar
ot roses, ointment, and oil of roses, and the rose leaves dried,
are of very great use and effect. To write at large of every one
of these would make my book swell too big, it being sufficient
for a volume of itself, to speak fully of them. But briefly, the
electuary is purging, whereof two or three drams taken by itself
in some convenient liquor, is a purge sufficient for a weak con-

284 The English Physician Enlarged.

stitution, but may be increased to six drams, according to the
strength of the patient. It purgeth choler without trouble, and
it is good in hot fevers, and pains of the head arising from hot
choleric humours, and heat in the eyes, the jaundice also, and
joint-aches proceeding of hot humours. The moist conserve is
of much use, both binding and cordial; for until it be about
two years old, it is more binding than cordial, and after that,
more cordial than binding. Some of the younger conserve
taken with mithridate mixed together, is good for those that are
troubled with distillations of rheum from the brain to the nose,
and deductions of rheum into the eyes ; as also for fluxes and lasks
of the belly ; and being mixed with the powder of mastic, is
very good for the running of the reins, and for the looseness of
humours in the belly. The old conserve mixed with aromaticum
rosarum, is a very good cordial against faintiugs, swoonings,
weakness and tremblings of the heart, strengthens both it and a
weak stomach, helpeth digestion, stayeth casting, and is a very
good preservative in the time of infection. The dry conserve,
w hich is called the sugar of roses, is a very good cordial to
strengthen the heart and spirits; as also to stay deductions.
The syrup of dried red roses strengthens a stomach given to
casting, cooleth an over-heated liver, and the blood in agues,
comforteth the heart, and resisteth putrefaction and infection,
and helpeth to stay lasks and fluxes. Honey of roses is much
used in gargles and lotions to wash sores, either in the mouth,
throat, or other parts, both to cleanse and heal them, and to
stay the fluxes of humours falling upon them. It is also used in
clysters both to cool and cleanse. The cordial powders, called
diarrhoden abbatis and aromatic rosarum, do comfort and
strengthen the heart and stomach, procure an appetite, help di-
gestion, stay vomiting, and are very good for those that have
slippery bowels, to strengthen them, and to dry up their mois-
tures; red rose water is very well known, and of a familiar use
on all occasions, and better than damask rose-w ater, being cool-
ing and cordial, refreshing, quickening the weak and faint spi-
rits, used either in meats or broths, to wash the temples, to

The English Physician Enlarged. 285

smell al the nose, or to smell the sweet vapours thereof out of
a perfuming pot, or cast into a hot fire shovel. It is also of
much good use against the redness and inflammations of the eyes
to bathe them therewith, and the temples of the head ; as also
against pain and ache, for which purpose also vinegar of roses
is of much good use, and to procure rest and sleep, if some
thereof, and rose water together, be used to smell unto, or the
nose and temples moistened therewith, but more usually to mois-
ten a piece of a red rose-cake, cut for the purpose, and heated be-
tween a double folded cloth, with a little beaten nutmeg, and
poppy-seed strewed on the side that must lie next to the forehead
and temples, and bound thereto all night. The ointment of roses is
much used against heat and inflammations in the head, to anoint
the forehead and temples, and being mixt with unguentum po-
pulneum, to procure rest ; it is also used for the heat of the liver,
the back and reins, and to cool the heat of pushes, wheals, and
other red pimples rising in the face or other parts. Oil of roses
is not only used by itself to cool any hot swellings or inflam-
mations, and to bind and stay fluxes of humours unto sores,
but is also put into ointments and plaisters that are cooling and
binding, and restraining the flux of humours. The dried leaves
of the red roses are used both inwardly and outwardly, both
cooling, binding, and cordial, for with them are made both
aromaticum rosarum, diarrhoden abbatis, and saccharum roaa-
rum, each of whose properties are before declared. Rose
leaves and mint, heated and applied outwardly to the stomach,
stay castings, and very much strengthen a weak stomach ; and
applied as a fomentation to the region of the liver and heart, do
much cool and temper them, and also serve instead of a rose
cake (as is said before) to quiet the over-hot spirits, and cause
rest and sleep. The syrup of damask roses is both simple and
compound, and made with agaric. The simple solutive syrup
is a familiar, safe, gentle and easy medicine, purging choler,
taken from one ounce to three or four, yet this is remarkable
herein that the distilled w ater of this syrup should notably bind

286 The English Physician Enlarged.

^■■ag WMui i r a rwi M riirnivrvi M gwrM CMaw Mi ii i i i iiavniTwaLt^ ,,, |W| ,

the belly. The syrup with agaric, is more strong and effectual,
for one ounce thereof by itself will open the body more than
the other, and worketh as much on phlegm as choler. The
compound syrup is more forcible in working on melancholic hu-
mours; and available against the leprosy, itch, tetters, &c. and
the French disease: Also honey of roses solutive is made of the
same infusions that the syrup is made of, and therefore worketh
the same effect, both opening and purging, but is oftener given
to phlegmatic than choleric persons, and is more used in clysters
than in potions, as the syrup made with sugar is. The conserve
and preserved leaves of those roses are also operative in gently
opening the belly.

The simple water of the damask roses is chiefly used for
fumes to sweeten things, as the dried leaves thereof to make
sweet powders, and fill sweet bags; and little use they are put
to in physic, although they have some purging quality : the wild
roses also are few or none of them used in physic, but are ge-
nerally held to come near the nature of manured roses. The
fruit of the wild briar, which are called heps,, being thoroughly
ripe, and made into a conserve with sugar, besides the pleasant-
ness of the taste, doth gently bind the belly, and stay deflux-
ions from the head upon the stomach, drying up the moisture
thereof and helping digestion. The pulp of the heps dried into
a hard consistence, like to the juice of liquorice, or so dried that
it may be made into a powder and taken in drink, stayeth speed-
ily the whites in women. The briar hall is often used, being made
into powder and drank, to break the stone, to provoke urine
when it is stopped, and to ease and help the cholic; some ap-
point it to be burnt, and then taken for the same purpose. In
the middle of the balls are often found certain white worms,
which being dried and made into powder, and some of it drank,
is found by experience of many to kill and drive forth the
worms of the belly.

ROSA SOLIS, OR SUN DEW.

Dcscript . ] Tt hath divers small, round, hollow leaves some-

The. English Physician Enlarged. 287

what greenish, but full of certain red hairs, which make them
seem red, every one standing upon his own footstalk, reddish,
hairy likewise. The leaves are continually moist in the hottest
d#y, yea, the hotter the sun shines on them, the moister they
are, with a sliminess that will rope (as we say) the small hairs
always holding this moisture. Among these leaves rise up slen-
der stalks, reddish also, three or four fingers high, bearing di-
vers small white knobs one above another, which are flowers;
after which in the heads are contained small seeds. The root
is a few small hairs.

Place .] It groweth usually in bogs and wet places, and
sometimes in moist woods.

Time.] It flowereth in June, and then the leaves are fittest
to be gathered.

Government and Virtues.] The Sun rules it, and it is under
the sign Cancer. Rosa Solis is accounted good to help those
that have a salt rheum distilling on the lungs, which breedeth a
consumption, and therefore the distilled water thereof in wine is
held fit and profitable for such to drink, which water will be of a
good yellow colour. The same water is held to be good for all
other diseases of the lungs, as phthisics, wheezings, shortness
of breath, or the cough ; as also to heal the ulcers that happen
in the lungs; and it comforteth the heart and fainting spirits.
The leaves outwardly applied to the skin, will raise blisters,
which has caused some to think it dangerous to be taken in-
wardly ; but there are other things which will also draw blisters,
yet nothing dangerous to be taken inwardly. There is an usual
drink made thereof with aqua vitae and spices frequently, and
without any offence or danger, but to good purpose used in
qualms and passions of the heart.

ROSEMARY.

OlJR garden rosemary is so well known, that I need not
describe it.

Time.] It flowereth in April and May with us, sometimes
again iu August.

288 The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues.] The Sun claims privilege in it,
and it is under the celestial Ram. It is an herb of as great use
with us in these days as any whatsoever, not only for physical
but civil purposes. The physical use of it (being my present
task) is very much both for inward and outward diseases, for by
the warming and comforting heat thereof it helpeth all cold dis-
eases, both of the head, stomach, liver, and belly. The decoc-
tion thereof in wine, helpeth the cold distillations of rheums into
the eyes, and all other cold diseases of the head and brain, as the
giddiness or swimmings therein, drowsiness or dulness of the
mind and senses like a stupidness, the dumb palsy, or loss of
speecih, the lethargy, and falling-sickness, to be both drank, and
the temples bathed therewith. It helpeth the pains in the gums
and teeth, by rheum falling into them, not by putrefaction,
causing an evil smell from them, or a stinking breath. It help-
eth a weak memory, and quickeneth the senses. It is very
comfortable to the stomach in all the cold griefs thereof, helpeth
both retention of meat, and digestion, the decoction or powder
being taken in wine. It is a remedy for the windiness in the
stomach, bowels, and spleen, and expels it powerfully. It
helpeth those that are liver-grown, by opening the obstructions
thereof. It helpeth dim eyes, and procureth a clear sight, the
flowers thereof being taken all the while it is flowering, every
morning fasting, with bread and salt. Both Dioscorides and
Galen say, That if a decoction be made thereof with water, and
they that have the yellow jaundice exercise their bodies present-
ly after the taking thereof, it will certainly cure them. The
flowers, and conserve made of them, are singularly good to com-
fort the heart, and to expel the contagion of the pestilence; to
burn the herb in houses and chambers, correcteth the air in
them. Both the flower and leaves are very profitable for wo-
men that are troubled with the whites, if they be daily taken.
The dried leaves shred small, and taken in a pipe, as tobacco is
taken, helpeth those that have any cough, phthisic, or consump-
tion, by warming and drying the thin distillations which cause

The English Physician Enlarged. 289

those diseases. The leaves are very much used in bathings ; and
made into ointments or oil, are singularly good to help cold be-
numbed joints, sinews, or members. The chymical oil drawn
from the leaves and flowers, is a sovereign help for all the dis-
eases aforesaid, to touch the temples and nostrils with two or
three drops for all the diseases of the head and brain spoken of
before: as also to take one drop, two, or three, as the case re-
quired], for the inward griefs : Yet must it be done with discre-
tion, for it is very quick and piercing, and therefore but a very
little mist be taken at a time. There is also another oil made
by insolation in this manner: Take what quantity you will of
the flowers, anu put them into a strong glass close stopped, tie
a fine linen cloth over the mouth, and turn the mouth down
into another strong glass, which being set in the sun, an oil will
distil down into the lower glass, to be preserved as precious for
divers uses, both inward and outward, as a sovereign balm to
heal the diseased before-mentioned, to clear dim sights, and take
away spots, marks, and scars in the skin.

RHUBARB, OR RAPHONTIC.

Do not start and say, this grows you know not how far ofF ;
and then ask me, how it comes to pass that I bring it among
our English simples? For though the name may speak it foreign,
yet it grows with us in England, and that frequent enough in
our gardens ; and when you have thoroughly pursued its virtues,
you will conclude it nothing inferior to that which is brought
out of China, and by that time this hath been as much used as
that hath been, the name which the other hath gotten will be
eclipsed by the fame of this; take therefore a description at
large of it as followeth :

Descript .] At the first appearing out of the ground, when
the winter is past, it hath a great round brownish head, rising
from the middle or sides of the root, which openeth itself into
sundry leaves one after another, very much crumpled or folded
together at the first, and brownish ; but afterwards it spreadeth

No. 13. O O

290 The English Physician Enlarged.

itself, and becometli smooth, very large and almost round, every
one standing on a brownish stalk of the thickness of a man’s
thumb, when they are grown to their fulness, and most of them
two feet and more in length, especially when they grow in any
moist or good ground ; and the stalk of the leaf, from the bot-
tom thereof to the leaf itself, being also two feet, the breadth
thereof from edge to edge, in the broadest place, being also two
feet, of a sad or dark green colour, of a fine tart or sourish
taste, much more pleasant than the garden or wood sorrel.
From among these riseth up some, but not every year, strong
thick stalks, not growing so high as the patience, or garden
dock, with such round leaves as grow below, but smaller at
every joint up to the top, and among the flowers, which are
white, spreading forth into many branches, consisting of five or
six small leaves a piece, hardly to be discerned from the white
threads in the middle, and seeming to be all threads, after
which come brownish three square seeds, like unto other docks,
but larger, whereby it may be plainly known to be a dock.
The root grows in time to be very great, with divers and sun-
dry great spreading branches from it, of a dark brownish or
reddish colour on the outside, with a pale yellow skin under it,
which covereth the inner substance or root, which rind and
skin being pared away, the root appears of so fresh and lively
a colour, with fresh coloured veins running through it, that the
choicest of that rhubarb that is brought us from beyond the seas
cannot excel it, which root, if it be dried carefully, and as it
ought (which must be in our country by the gentle heat of a fire,
in regard the sun is not hot enough here to do it, and every piece
kept from touching one another) will hold its colour almost as
well as when it is fresh, and hath been approved of, and com-
mended by those who have oftentimes used them.

Place.] It groweth in gardens, and ftowereth about the be-
ginning or middle of June, and the seed is ripe in July.

Time.] The roots that are to be dried and kept all the year
following, aie not to be taken up before the stalk and leaves be
quite withered and gone, and that is not until the middle or end

The English Physician Enlarged. 291

of October, and if they be taken a little before the leaves do
spring or when they are sprung up, the roots will not have half
so good a colour in them.

I have given the precedence unto this, because in virtues also
it hath the pre-eminence. I come now to describe unto you that
which is called patience, or monk’s rhubarb; and next unto that,
the great round leaved dock, or bastard rhubarb, for the one of
these may haply supply in the absence of the other, being not
much unlike in their virtues, only one more powerful and effi-
cacious than the other. And lastly, shall shew you the virtues
of all the three sorts.

GARDEN PATIENCE, OR MONK’S RHUBARB.

Descript.] ^HIS is a dock, bearing the name of rhubarb
for some purging quality therein, and groweth up with large tall
stalks, set with somewhat broad and long fair green leaves, not
dented at all. The tops of the stalks being divided into many
small branc hes, bearing reddish or purplish flowers, and three
square seed, like unto other docks. The root is long, great
and yellow, like, unto the wild docks, but a little redder: and
if it be a iittle dried, sheweth less store of discoloured veins
than the next doth when it is dry.

GREAT ROUND-LEAVED DOCK, OR BASTARD
RHUBARB.

Descript.] I HIS hath divers large, round, thin, yellowish
green leaves rising from the root, a little waved about the edges,
every one standing upon a reasonable thick and long brown-
ish foot-stalk, from among which riseth up a pretty big stalk,
about two feet high, with some such like leaves growing there-
on, but smaller; at the top whereof stand in a long spike many
small brownish flowers, which turn into a hard three square shi-
ning brown seed, like the garden patience before described.
The root groweth greater than that, with many branches of
great fibres thereat, yellow' on the outside, and somewhat pale;

292 The English Physician Enlarged.

yellow within, with some discoloured veins like to the rhubarb
which is first described, but much less than it, especially when
it is dry.

Plate and Time.] These also grow in gardens, and flower
and seed at or near the same time that our true rhubarb doth,
viz. they flower in June, and the seed is ripe in July.

Temperature and Virtues .] Mars claims predominancy over
all these wholesome herbs : You cry out upon him for an unfor-
tunate, when God created him for your good (only he is angry
with fools.) What dishonour is this, not to Mars, but to God
himself ? A dram of the dried root of monk’s rhubarb, with a
scruple of ginger made into powder, and taken fasting in a
draught or mess of warm broth, purgeth choler and phlegm
downwards very gently and safely, without danger. The seed
on the contrary doth bind the belly, and helpeth to stay any sort
of lasks or bloody-flux. The distilled water thereof is very pro-
fitably used to heal scabs; also foul ulcerous sores, and to lay
the inflammation of them; the juice of the leaves or roots or
the decoction of them in vinegar, is used as a most effectual
remedy to heal scabs and running sores.

The bastard rhubarb hath all the properties of the monk’s
rhubarb, but more effectual for both inward and outward dis-
eases. The decoction thereof without vinegar dropped into the
ears, taketh away the pains; gargled in the mouth, taketh
away the tooth-ach; and being drank, healeth the jaundice.
The seed thereof taken, easeth the gnawing and griping pains
of the stomach, and taketh away the loathing thereof unto
meat. The root thereof helpeth the ruggedness of the nails,
and being boiled in wine helpeth the swelling of the throat,
commonly called the king’s evil, as also the swellings of the
kernels of the ears. It helpeth them that are troubled with the
stone, provoketh urine, and helpeth the dimness of the sight.
The roots of this bastard rhubarb are used in opening and purg-
ing diet-drinks, with other things, to open the liver, and to
cleanse and cool the blood.

The English Physician Enlarged. 2 ! >3

The properties of that which is called the English rhubarb, ar«*
the same with the former, (but much more effectual, and hath
all the properties of the true Italian rhubarbs except the force
in purging, wherein it is but of half the strength thereof, and
therefore a double quantity must be used; it likewise hath not
that bitterness and astriction ; in other things it worketh almost
in an equal quantity) which are these; It purgeth the body of
choler and phlegm, being either taken of itself, made into pow-
der, and drank in a draught of white wine, or steeped therein
all the night, and taken fasting, or put among other purges, as
shall be thought convenient, cleansing the stomach, liver, and
blood, opening obstructions, and helping those griefs that come
thereof, as the jaundice, dropsy, swelling of the spleen, tertian
and daily agues, and pricking pains of the sides; and also it
stayeth spitting of blood. The powder taken with cassia dis-
solved, and washed Venice turpentine, cleanseth the reins, and
strengthens them afterwards, and is very effectual to stay the
running of the reins, or gonorrhea. It is also given for the
pains and swellings in the head, for those that are troubled with
melancholy, and helpeth the sciatica, gout, and the cramp. The
powder of the rhubarb taken with a little mummia and madder
roots in some red wine, dissolveth clotted blood in the body,
happening by any fall or bruise, and helpeth burstings and bro-
ken parts, as well inward as outward. The oil likewise wherein it
hath been boiled, worketh the like effects, being anointed. It
is used to heal those ulcers that happen in the eyes or eyelids,
being steeped and strained ; as also to assuage the swellings and
inflammations; and applied with honey, boiled in wine, it
taketh away all blue spots or marks that happen therein. Whey
or white wine are the best liquors to steep it in, and thereby it
worketh more effectually in opening obstructions, and purging
the stomach and liver. Many do use a little Indian spikenard
as the best corrector thereof.

MEADOW-RUE.

Descript.] JVXeADOW-RUE riseth up with a yellow

294 T7ie English Physician Enlarged.

stringy root, much spreading in the ground, shooting forth new
sprouts round about, with many herby green stalks, two feet
high, crested all the length of them, set with joints here and
there, and many large leaves on them, above as well as below,
being divided into smaller leaves, nicked or dented in the fore-
part of them, of a red green colour on the upper side, and pale
green underneath: Toward the top of the stalk there shoot-
eth forth divers short branches, on every one whereof stand
two, three or four small heads, or buttons, which breaking the
skin that encloselh them, shoot forth a tuft of pale greenish yel-
low threads, which falling away, there come in their places
small three cornered cods, wherein is contained small, long
and round seed. The whole plant hath a strong unpleasant
scent.

Place.] It groweth in many places of this land, in the bor-
ders of moist meadows, and ditch-sides.

Time.] It flowereth about July, or the beginning of August.

Government and Virtues.] Dioscorides saith, that this herb
bruised and applied, perfectly healeth old sores, and the distilled
water of the herb and flowers doth the like. It is used by some
among other pot-herbs to open the body, and make it soluble;
but the roots washed clean, and boiled in ale and drank, provoke
to stool more than the leaves, but yet very gently. The root
boiled in water, and the places of the body most troubled with
vermin and lice washed therewith while it is warm, destroyeth
them utterly. In Italy it is used against the plague, and in
Saxony against the jaundice, as Camerarius saith.

GARDEN-RUE

Garden Rue is so well known by this name, and the name
herb of grace, that I shall not need to write any further de-
scription of it, but shall only shew you the virtue of it, as fol-
loweth.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of the Sun, and under
Leo. It provoketh urine and women’s courses, being taken

The English Physician Enlarged. 295

either in meat or drink. The seed thereof taken in wine, is an
antidote againstall dangerous medicines ordeadly poisons. The
leaves taken either by themselves, or with figs or walnuts, is
called Mithridates' counter-poison against the plague, and caus-
eth all venomous things to become harmless; being often taken
in meat and drink, it Sbateth venery, and destroyeth the ability
to get children. A decoction made thereof with some dried dill
leaves and flowers, easeth all pains and torments, inwardly to
be drank and outwardly to be applied warm to the place grieved.
The same being drank, helpeth the pains both of the chest and
sides, as also coughs and hardness of breathing, the inflamma-
tions of the lungs, and the tormenting pains of the sciatica and
the joints, being anointed, or laid to the places ; as also the shak-
ing fits of agues, to take a draught before the fit comes ; being
boiled or infused in oil, it is good to help the wind cholic, the
hardness and windiness of the mother, and freeth women from
the strangling or suffocation thereof, if the share and the parts
thereabouts be anointed therewith : It killeth and driveth forth
the worms in the belly, if it be drank after it is boiled in wine
to the half, with a little honey; it helpeth the gout or pains in
the joints, hands, feet or knees, applied thereunto; and with
figs it helpeth the dropsy, being bathed therewith; Being
bruised and put into the nostrils, it stayeth the bleeding thereof ;
it helpeth the swelling of the cods, if they be bathed with a de-
coction of rue and bay leaves. It taketh away wheals and pim-
ples, if, being bruised with a few myrtie leaves, it be made up
with wax and applied. It cureth the morphew, and taketh
away all sorts of warts, if boiled in wine with some pepper and
nitre, and the place rubbed therewith, and with almond and
honey, helpeth the dry scabs, or any tetter or ring-worm. The
juice thereof warmed in a pomegranate shell or rind, and drop-
ped into the ears, helpeth the pains of them. The juice of it
and fennel, with a little honey, and the gall of a cock put
thereunto, helpeth the dimness of the eye sight. An ointment
made of the juice thereof with oil of roses, ceruse, and a little
vinegar, and anointed, cureth St. Anthony’s fire, and all run-

296 The English Physician Enlarged.

ning sores in the head ; and the stinking ulcers of the nose, or
other parts. The antidote used by Mithridales, every morning
fasting, to secure himself from any poison or infection, was
this: Take twenty leaves of rue, a little salt, a couple of wab
nuts, and a couple of figs beaten together into a mass with
twenty juniper berries, which is the quantity appointed for every
day. Another electuary is made thus : Take of nitre, pepper,
and cummin seed, of each equal parts; of the leaves of rue
clean picked, as much in weight as all the other three weighed ;
beat them well together, and put as much honey as will make it
up into an electuary (but you must first steep your cummin
seed in vinegar twenty-four hours, and then dry it, or rather
roast it in a hot fire-shovel, or in an oven) and is a remedy for
the pains or griefs in the chest or stomach, of the spleen, belly,
or sides, by wind or stitches; of the liver by obstructions; of
the reins and bladder by the stopping of uriue; and helpeth also
to extenuate fat corpulent bodies.

What an infamy is cast upon the ashes of Mithridates, or Me-
thrklates (as the Augustines read his name) by unworthy peo-
ple, They that deserve no good report themselves, love to give
noire to others, viz. That renowned king of Pontius fortified his
body by poison against poison. He cast out devils by Beelze-
bub, prince of the devils. What a sot is he that knows not
if he had accustomed his body to cold poisons, hot poisons would
have dispatched him ? on the contrary, if not, corrosions would
have done it. The whole world is, at this present time, be-
holden to him for his studies in physic, and he that useth the
quantity but of an hazel-nut of that receipt every morning, to
which his name is adjoined, shall, to admiration, preserve his
body in health, if he do but consider that rue is an herb of
the Sun, and under Leo, and gather it and the rest accord-
ingly-

RUPTURE-WORT.

Descript .] ^X^HIS spreadeth many thready branches round

The English Physician Enlarged. 297

about upon the ground, about a span long, divided into many
other smaller parts full of small joints set very thick together,
whereat come forth two very small leaves of a French yellow,
green coloured branches and all, where groweth forth also a
number of exceeding small yellowish flowers scarce to be dis-
cerned from the stalks and leaves, which turn into seeds as small
as the very dust. The root is very long and small, thrusting
down deep into the ground. This hath neither smell nor taste
at first, but afterwards hath a little astringent taste, without
any manifest heat; yet a little bitter and sharp withal.

Place.] It groweth in dry, sandy, and rocky places.

Time.] It is fresh and green all the summer.

Government and Virtues.] They say Saturn causetb rup-
tures; if he do, he doth no more than he can cure; if you
want wit, he will teach you, though to your cost. This herb
is Saturn’s own, and is a noble antivenereun. Rupture-wort hath
not its name in vain ; for it is found by experience, to cure the
rupture, not only in children, but also in elder persons, if the
disease be not too inveterate, by taking a dram of the powder
of the dried herb every day in wine, or a decoction made and
drank for certain days together. The juice or distilled water of
the green herb, taken in the same manner, heipeth all other
flu-xes either of man or woman; vomitings also, and the gonor-
rhea, or running of the reins, being taken any of the ways
aforesaid. It doth also most assuredly help those that have the
strangury, or are troubled with the stone or gravel in the reins
or bladder. The same also heipeth stitches in the sides, griping
pains of the stomach or belly, the obstructions of the liver, and
cureth the yellow jaundice; likewise it kills also the worms in
children. Being outwardly applied, it conglutinateth wounds
notably, and heipeth much to stay defluxions of rheum from
the head to the eyes, nose and teeth, being bruised green, and
bound thereto; or the forehead, temples, or the nape of the
neck behind, bathed with the decoction of the dried herb. It
also drieth up the moisture of fistulous ulcers, or any other
that are foul and spreading.

No. 13. p n

298 The English Physician Enlarged.

RUSHES.

Although there are many kinds of rushes, yet I shall
only here insist upon those which are best known, and most
medicinal; as the bulrushes, and other of the soft and smooth
kinds, which grow so commonly in almost every part of this
land, and are so generally noted, that I suppose it needless to
trouble you with any description of them : Briefly then take
the virtues of them as followeth:

Government and Virtues .] The seed of the soft rushes,

(saith Dioseorides and Galen, toasted, saith Pliny) being drank
in wine and water, stayeth the lask and women’s courses, when
they come down too abundantly; but it causeth head-ach: It
provoketh sleep likewise, but must be given with caution. The
root boiled in water, to the consumption of one third, helpeth
the cough.

Thus you see that conveniences have their inconveniences,
and virtue is seldom unaccompanied with some vices. What T
have written concerning rushes, is to satisfy my countrymen’s
question: Are our rushes good for nothing? Yes, and as
good let them alone as taken, there are remedies enough without
them for any disease; and therefore as the proverb is, I care
not a rush for them; or rather they will do you as much good
as if one had given you a rush.

RYE.

This is so well known in all the counties of this land, and
especially to the country people, who feed much thereon, that
if I did describe it, they would presently say, I might as well
have spared my labour. Its virtues follow :

Government and Virtues .] Rye is more digesting than

wheat; the bread and the leaven thereof ripeneth and breaketh
imposlhumes, boils, and other swellings: the meal of rye put
between a double cloth, and moistened with a little vinegar, and
heated in a pewter dish, set over a chafing-dish of coals, and

The English Physician Enlarged. 299

brum) fast to the head while it is hot, doth much ease the con-
tinual pains of the head. Matthiolus saith, that the ashes of
rye straw put into water, and steeped therein a day and a night,
and the chops of the hands or feet washed therewith, doth heal
.them.

SAFFRON.

The herb needs no description, it being known generally
where it grows.

Place.] It grows frequently at Walden in Essex, and in
Cambridgeshire.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of the Sun, and
under the Lion, and therefore you need not demand a reason
why it strengthens the heart so exceedingly. Let not above ten
grains be given at one time, for the Sun, which is the fountain
of light, may dazzle the eyes, and make them blind; a cordial
being taken in an immoderate quantify, hurts the heart instead
of helping it. It quickeneth the brain, for the Sun is exalted in
Aries, as lie hath his house in Leo : It helps consumptions of the
lungs, and difficulty of breathing: It is excellent in epidemical
diseases, as pestilence, small pox, and measles. It is a notable
expulsive medicine, and a notable remedy for the yellow jaun-
dice. My opinion is (but I have no author for it) that hermo-
dactyls are nothing else but the roots of saffron dried ; and my
reason is, that the roots of all crocus, both white and yellow,
purge phlegm as hermodactyls do; and if you please to dry the
roots of any crocus, neither your eyes nor your taste shall dis-
tinguish them from hermodactyls.

SAGE.

Our ordinary garden sage needs no description.

Time.] It flowereth in or about July.

Government and Virtues.] Jupiter claims this, and bids me
tell you, it is good for the liver, and to breed blood. A de-
coction of the leaves and branches of sage made and drank, saith

300 The English Physician Enlarged.

Dioscorides, provoketh urine, bringeth down women’s courses,
helps to expel the dead child, and causetli the hair to become
black. It stayelh the bleeding of wounds, and cleanseth foul
ulcers or sores. The said decoction made in wine, taketh away
the itching of the cods, if they be bathed therewith. Agrippa
saith, that if women that cannot conceive by reason of the moist
slipperiness of their wombs, shall take a quantity of the juice of
sage, with a little salt, for four days before they company with
their husbands, it will help them not only to conceive, but also
to retain the birth without miscarrying. Orpheus saith, three
spoonfuls of the juice of sage taken fasting, with a little honey,
doth presently stay the spitting or casting of blood of them that
are in a consumption. These pills are much commended :
Take of spikenard, ginger, of each two drams; of the seed of
sage toasted at the fire, eight drams; of loug pepper 12 drams ;
all these being brought into powder, put thereto so much juice
of sage as may make them into a mass of pills, taking a dram of
them every morning, fasting, and so likewise at night, drinking
a little pure water after them. Matthiolus saith, it is very pro-
fitable for all manner of pains in the head, coming of cold and
rheumatic humours: as also for all pains of the joints, whether
inwardly or outwardly, and therefore helpeth the falling sick-
ness, the lethargy, such as are dull and heavy of spirit, the palsy ;
and is of much use in all deductions of rheum from the head,
and for the diseases of the chest or breast. The leaves of sage
and nettles bruised together, and laid upou the imposthume that
riseth behind the ears, doth assuage it much. The juice of sage
taken in warm water, helpeth a hoarseness and a cough. The
leaves soddened in wine, and laid upon the place afiected with
the palsy, helpeth much, if the decoction be drank: Also, sage
taken with wormwood is good for the bloody flux. Pliny saith,
it procures women’s courses, and staveth them coming down
too fast ; helpeth the stinging and biting of serpents, and killeth
the worms that breed in the ear, and in sores. Sage is of an excel-
lent use to help the memory, warming and quickening the senses ;
fn<t the conserve made of the flowers is used to the same^pur-

The English Physician Enlarged. 301

pose, and also for all the former recited diseases. The juice of
sage drank, with vinegar, hath been of good use in time of the
plague at all times. Gargles likewise are made of sage, rose-
mary, honey-suckles, and plantain, boiled in wine or water,
•with some honey or allum put thereto, to wash sore mouths
and throats, cankers, or the secret parts of man or woman, as
need requireth. And with other hot and comfortable herbs, sage
is boiled to bathe the body and the legs in the summer time,
especially to warm cold joints, or sinews, troubled with the
palsy and cramp, and to comfort and strengthen the parts. It is
much commended against the stitch, or pains in the side com-
ing of wind, if the place be fomented warm with the decoction
thereof in wine, and the herb also after boiling be laid warm
thereunto.

WOOD-SAGE.

Descript .] ~W' OOD-SAGE riseth up with square hoary
stalks, two feet high at the least, with two leaves set at every
joint, somewhat like other sage leaves, but smaller, softer,
whiter, and rounder, and a little dented about the edges, and
smelling somewhat stronger. At the tops of the stalks and bran-
ches stand the flowers, on slender-like spikes, turning them-
selves all one way when they blow, and are of a pale and whi-
tish colour, smaller than sage, but hooded and gaping like un-
to them. The seed is blackish and round ; four usually seem in
a husk together: the root is long and stringy, with divers fibres
thereat, and abideth many years.

Place.] It groweth in woods, and by wood-sides; as also
in divers fields and bye-lanes in the land.

Time.] It floweretli in June, July and August.

Government and I nines.] The herb is under Venus. The
decoction of the wood-sage provoketh urine and women’s
courses: It also provoketh sweat, digesteth humours, and dis-
cusseth swellings and nodes in the flesh, and is thereto, e thought
to be good against the French pox. The decoction of the. green

302 The English Physician Enlarged.

herb, made with wine, is a safe and sure remedy for those who
by falls, bruises, or blows, suspect some vein to be inwardly
broken, to disperse and void the congealed blood, and to consoli-
date the veins. The drink used inwardly, and the herb used
outwardly, is good for such as are inwardly or outwardly burst-
en, and is found to be a sure remedy for the palsy. The juice
of the herb, or the powder thereof dried, is good for moist ul-
cers and sores in the legs, and other parts, to dry them, and
cause them to heal more speedily. It is no less effectual also
in green wounds, to be used upon any occasion.

SOLOMON’S SEAL.

Descript.'] The common Solomon’s seal riseth up with a
round stalk, half a yard high, bowing or bending down to the
ground, set with single leaves one above another, somewhat
large, and like the leaves of the lily convally, or May-lily,
with an eye of blueish upon the green, with some ribs therein,
and more yellowish underneath. At the foot of every leaf, al-
most from the be ttom up to the top of the stalks, come forth
small, long, white and hollow pendulous flowers somewhat like
the flowers of May-lily, but ending in five long points, for the
most part two together, at the end of a long footstalk, and some-
times but one, and sometimes also two stalks, with flowers at
the foot of a leaf, which are without any scent at all, and stand
on one side of the stalk. After they are past, come in their
places small round berries, great at the first, and blackish
green, tending to bluetiess when they are ripe, wherein lie
small, white, hard, and stony seeds. The root is of the thick-
ness of one’s finger or thumb, white and knotted in some pla-
ces, a flat round circle representing a seal, whereof it took the
name, lying along under the upper crust of the earth, and not
growing downward, but with many fibres underneath.

Place.] It is frequent in divers places of this land ; as,
namely, in a wood two miles from Canterbury, by Fish-pool
Hill, as also in Bushy Close belonging to the parsonage of Al-

The English Physician Enlarged. 303

derbury, near Clarendon, two miles from Salisbury ; in Cheffon
wood, on Chesson Hill, between Newington and Sittingbourn
in Kent, and divers other places in Essex, and other counties.

Time.] It flowereth about May: the root abideth and
shooteth anew every year.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn owns the plant, for he
loves his bones well. The root of Solomon’s seal is found, by
experience, to be available in wounds, hurts, and outward sores,
to heal and close up the lips of those that are green, and to dry
up and restrain the flux of humours to those that are old. It is
singularly good to stay vomiting and bleeding wheresoever, as
also all fluxes in man or woman, whether whites or reds in wo-
men, or the running of the reins in men ; also, to knit any joint,
which, by weakness, useth to be often out of place, or will not
stay in long when it is set; also to knit and join broken bones
in any part of the body, the roots being bruised and applied to
the places; yea, it hath been found, by late experience, that
the decoction of the root in wine, or the bruised root put into
wine or other drink, and after a night’s infusion, strained forth
hard and drank, hath helped both man and beast, whose bones
have been broken by any occasion; which is the most assured
refuge of .help to people of divers counties of the land that they
can have : It is no less effectual to help ruptures and burstings,
the decoction in wine, or the powder in broth or drink, being
inwardly taken, and outwardly applied to the place. The same
is also available for inward or outward bruises, falls or blows,
both to dispel the congealed blood, and to take away both the
pains, and the black and blue marks that abide after the hurt.
The same also, or the distilled water of the w hole plant, used
to the face, or other parts of the skin, cleanseth it from mor-
pliew, freckles, spots, or marks whatsoever, leaving the place
fresh, fair, and lovely; for which purpose it is much used by
the Italian dames.

SAMPHIRE.

Descript.] Rock samphire groweth up with a tender green

304 The English Physician Enlarged.

stalk, about half a yard, or two feet high at the most, branch-
ing forth almost from the very bottom, and stored with sundry-
thick, and almost round (somewhat long) leaves of a deep green
colour, sometimes two together, and sometimes more on a stalk,
and sappy, and of a pleasant, hot, and spicy taste. At the top
of the stalks and branches stand umbels of white flowers, and
after them come large seed bigger than fennel seed, yet some-
what like it. The root is great, white, and long, continuing
many years, and is of an hot and spicy taste likewise.

Place.] It groweth on the rocks that are often moistened
at the least, if not overflowed with the sea water.

Time.] And it flowerelh and seedeth in the end of July ant
August.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Jupiter, and
was in former times wont to be used more than now it is ; the
more is the pity. It is well known almost to every body, that
ill digestions and obstructions are the cause of most of the dis-
eases which the frail nature of mail is subject to; both which
might be remedied by a more frequent use of this herb. If peo-
ple would have sauce to their meat, they may take some for pro-
fit as well as for pleasure. It is a safe herb, very pleasant both
to taste and stomach, helpeth digestion, and in some sort open-
ing obstructions of the liver and spleen; provoketh urine, and
helpeth thereby to wash away the gravel and stone engendered
in the kidneys or bladder.

SANICLE.

De script.] Ordinary sanicle sendeth forth many great
round leaves, standing upon long brownish stalks, every one
somewhat deeply cut or divided into five or six parts, and some
of these also cut in somewhat like the leaf of crow’s-foot or
dove's foot, and finely dented about the edges, smooth, and of
a dark shining colour, and sometimes reddish about the brims;
from among which arise up small, round green stalks, without
any joint or leaf thereon, saving at the top, where it branches

The English Physician Enlarged. 305

forth into flowers, having a leaf divided into three or four
parts at that joint with the flowers, which are small and white,
starting out of small round greenish yellow heads, many stand-
ing together in a tuft, in which afterwards are the seeds con-
tained, which are small round burs, somewhat like the leaves
of cleavers, and stick in the same manner upon any thing that
they touch. The root is composed of many blackish strings
or fibres, set together at a little long head, which abideth with
green leaves all the w'inter, and perisheth not.

Place.'] It is found in many shadowy woods, and other pla-
ces of this land.

Time.] It flowereth in June, and the seed is ripe shortly
after.

Government and Virtues.] This is one of Venus’ herbs,
to cure the wounds or mischiefs Mars inflicteth upon the body
of man. It heals green wounds speedily, or any ulcers, impos-
thumes, or bleedings, inward, also tumours in any part of the
body ; for the decoction or powder in drink taken, and the juice
used outwardly, dissipateth the humour; and there is not found
any herb that can give such present help either to man or beast,
when the disease faileth upon the lungs or throat, and to heal
up putrid malignant ulcers in the mouth, throat and privities,
by gargling or washing with the decoction of the leaves and roots
made in water, and a little honey put thereto. It helpeth to stay
women’s courses, and all other fluxes of blood, either by the
mouth, urine or stool, and lasks of the belly; the ulcerations of
the kidneys also, and the pains in the bowels, and gonorrhea,
or running of the reins, being boiled in wine or water, and drank,
The same also is no less powerful to help any ruptures or burst-
ings, used both inwardly and outwardly: And briefly, it is as
effectual in binding, restraining, consolidating, heating, drying
and healing, as comfrey, bugle, self-heal, or any other of the
vulnerary herbs whatsoever.

No. 13. q q

306 The English Physician Enlarged.

It . ,% J* tyi'.f. } , ..

SARACENS CONFOUND, OR SARACENS
WOUNDWORT.

Descript . ] This groweth high sometimes, with brownish
stalks, and other whiles with green, to a man's height, having
narrow green leaves snipped about the edges, somewhat like
those of the peach-tree, or willow leaves, but not of such a
white green colour. The tops of the stalks are furnished with
many yellow star-like flowers, standing in green heads, which,
when they are fallen, and the seed ripe, which is somewhat
long, small, and of a brown colour, wrapped in down, is
therewith carried away with the wind. The root is composed
of fibres set together at a head, which perish not in winter, al-
though the stalks dry away, and no leaf appeareth in the winter.
The taste hereof is strong and unpleasant ; and so is the smell
also.

Place.'] It groweth in moist and wet grounds, by wood-
sides, and sometimes in the moist places of shady groves, as
also by the water-side.

Time.] It flowereth in July, and the seed is soon ripe, and
carried away with the wind.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn owns the herb, and it
is of a sober condition, like him. Among the Germans, this
wound herb is preferred before all others of the same quality.
Being boiled in wine, and drank, it helpeth the indisposition of
the liver, and freeth the gall from obstructions; whereby it is
good for the yellow jaundice, and for the dropsy in the begin-
ning of it; for all inward ulcers, for the reins, mouth or throat,
and inward wounds and bruises, likewise for such sores as hap-
pen in the privy parts of men or women; being steeped in
wine, and then distilled, the water thereof drank, is singularly
good to ease all gnawings in the stomach, or other pains of the
body, as also the pains of the mother; and being boiled in wa-
ter, it helpeth continual agues; and the said w'ater, or the sim-
ple water of the herb distilled, or the juice or decoction, are

The English Physician Enlarged. 307

very effectual to heal any green wound, or old sore or ulcer
whatever, cleansing them from corruption, and quickly healing
them up: Briefly, whatsoever hath been said of bugle or sani-
cle, may be found herein.

SAUCE-ALONE, OR JACK BY THE HEDGE-SIDE.

Descript .] The lower leaves of this are rounder than those
that grow towards the top of the stalks, and are set singly on
a joint, being somewhat long and broad, pointed at the ends,
dented also about the edges, somewhat resembling nettle leaves
for the form, but of a fresher green colour, not rough or prick-
ing: The flowers are white growing at the top of the stalks one
above another, which being past, follow small round pods,
wherein are contained round seed somewhat blackish. The
root stringy and thready, perisheth every year after it hath
given seed, and raiseth itself again of its own sowing. The
plant or any part thereof, being bruised, smelleth of garlic, but
more pleasantly, and tasteth somewhat hot and sharp, almost
like unto rocket.

Place .] It groweth under walls, and by hedge-sides, and

path -ways in fields in many places.

Time.] It flowereth in June, July, and August.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Mercury. This
is eaten by many-country people as sauce to their salt fish, and
helpeth well to digest the crudities, and other corrupt humours
engendered thereby : It warmeth also the stomach, and causeth
digestion: The juice thereof boiled with honey is accounted to
be as good as hedge mustard for the cough, to cut and expecto-
rate the tough phlegm. The seed bruised and boiled in wine, is
a singularly good remedy for the wind colic, or the stone, being
drank warm : it is also given to women troubled with the mother,
both to drink, and the seed put into a cloth, and applied while it
is warm, is of singularly good use. The leaves also, or the seed
boiled, is good to be used in clysters to ease the pains of the
stone. The green leaves are held to be good to heal the ulcers
in the legs.

308 The English Physician Enlarged.

WINTER AND SUMMER SAVORY.

Both these are so well known (being entertained as con-
stant inhabitants in our gardens) that they need no descrip-
tion.

Government and Virtues.] Mercury claims the dominion
over this herb, neither is there a better remedy against the colic
and iliac passion, than this herb; keep it dry by you all the year,
if you love yourself and your ease, and it is a hundred pounds to
a penny if you do not; keep it dry, make conserves and syrups
of it for your use, and withal, take notice that the summer kind
is the best. They are both of them hot and dry, especially the
summer kind, which is both sharp and quick in taste, expelling
wind in the stomach and bowels, and is a present help for the
rising of the mother procured by wind; provoketh urine and
women’s courses, and is much commended for women with child
to lake inwardly, and to smell often unto. It cureth tough
phlegm in the chest and lungs, and helpeth to expectorate it the
more easily; quickens the dull spirits in the lethargy, the juice
thereof being snuffed up into the nostrijs. The juice dropped
into the eyes, cleareth a dull sight, if it proceed of thin cold
humours distilled from the brain. The juice heated with oil of
roses, and dropped into the ears, easeth them of the noise and
singing in them, and of deafness also: Outwardly applied with
wheat flour, in manner of a poultice, it giveth ease to the scia-
tica and palsied members, heating and warming them, and taketh
away their pains. It also taketh away the pain that comes by
stinging of bees, wasps, &c.

SAVINE.

^1. O describe a piant so well known is needless, it being
nursed up almost in every garden, and abiding green all the
winter.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Mars,
being hot and dry in the third degree, and being of exceeding

The English Physician Enlarged. 309

clean parts, is of a very digesting quality. If you dry the herb
into powder, and mix it with honey, it is an excellent remedy
to cleanse old filtliy ulcers and fistulas, but it hinders them from
healing. The same is excellent good to break carbuncles and
plague-sores; also helpeth the king’s evil, being applied to the
place. Being spread over a piece of leather, and applied to the
navel, kills the worms in the belly, helps scabs and itch, run-
ning sores, cankers, tetters, and ringworms; and being ap-
plied to the place, may haply cure venereal sores. This I
thought good to speak of, as it may be safely used outwardly,
for inwardly it cannot be taken without manifest danger;

THE COMMON WHITE SAXIFRAGE.

Descript .] This hath a few small reddish kernels of roots
covered with some skins, lying among divers small blackish
fibres, which send forth divers round, faint or yellow green
leaves, and greyish underneath, lying above the ground, une-
venly dented about the edges, and somewhat hairy, every one
upon a little footstalk, from whence riscth up round, brownish,
hairy, green stalks, two or three feet high, with a few such
like round leaves as grow below, but smaller, and somewhat
branched at the top, whereon stand pretty large white flowers
of five Laves a-piece, with some yellow threads in the middle,
standing in a long, crested, brownish, green bush. After the
flowers are past, there ariseth sometimes a round hard head,
forked at the top, wherein is contained small black seed, but
usually they fall away without any seed, and it is the kernels or
grains of the root wdiich are usually called the white saxifrage-
seed, and so used.

Place.] It groweth in many places of our land, as well in
the lowermost, as in the upper dry corners of meadows, and
grassy sandy places. It used to grow near Lamb’s conduit, on
the backside of Gray’s Inn.

Time.] It flowereth in May, and then gathered, as well for
that which is called the seed, as to distil, for it quickly perish-
eth down to the ground when any hot weather comes.

310 The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues .] It is very effectual to cleanse
the reins and bladder, and to dissolve the stone engendered in
them, and to expel it and the gravel bj urine ; to help the stran-
gury; for which purpose the decoction of the herb or roots in
white wine, is most usual, or the powder of the small kernelly
root, which is called the seed, taken in white wine, or in the
same decoction made with white wine, is most usual. The
distilled water of the whole herb, root and flowers, is most fami-
liar to be taken. It provoketh also women’s courses, and freeth
and cleanseth the stomach and lungs from thick and tough
phlegm that troubleth them. There are not many better med-
icines to break the stone than this.

BURNET SAXIFRAGE.

Dcscript.] ^ HE greater sort of our English Burnet saxifrage
growelh up with divers long stalks of winged leaves set direct-
ly opposite one to another on both sides, each being somewhat
broad, and a little pointed and dented about the edges, of a sad
green colour. At the top of the stalks stand umbels of white
flowers, after which come small and blackish seed. The root
is long and whitish, abiding long. Our lesser burnet saxifrage
hath much finer leaves than the former, and very small, and set
one against another, deeply jagged about the edges, and of the
same colour as the former. The umbels of the flowers are

i

white, and the seed very small, and so is the root, being also
somewhat hot and quick in taste.

Place.] These grow in moist meadows of this land, and are
easy to be found being w'ell sought for among the grass, wherein
many times they lay hid scarcely to be discerned.

Time.] They flower about July, and their seed is ripe in
August.

Government and Virtues.] They are both of them herbs
of the Moon. The saxifrages are hot as pepper; and Tragus
saith, by his experience, that they are wholesome. They have
the same properties the parsleys have, but in provoking urine.

The English Physician Enlarged. 3 1 1

and easing the pains thereof, and of the wind and cholic, are
much, more effectual, the roots or seed being used either in
powder, or in decoctions, or any other way; and likewise
helpeth the windy pains of the mother, and to procure their
courses, and to break and void the stone in the kidueys, to
digest cold, viscous, and tough phlegm in the stomach, and is
an especial remedy against all kind of venom. Castoreum being
boiled in the distilled water thereof, is singular good to be given
to those that are troubled with cramps and convulsions. Some
do use to make the seeds into comfits (as they do carraway seeds)
which is effectual to all the purposes aforesaid. The j uice of the
herb dropped into the most grievous wounds of the head drieth
up their moisture, and healeth them quickly. Some women
use the distilled water to take away freckles or spots in the skin
or face; and to drink the same sweetened with sugar for all the
purposes aforesaid.

SCABIOUS, THREE SORTS.

Descript .] COMMON field scabious groweth up with many
hairy, soft, whitish green leaves, some whereof are very little,
if at all jagged on the edges, others very much rent and torn on
the sides, and have threads in them, which upon breaking may
be plainly seen; from among which rise up divers hairy green
stalks, three or four feet high, with such like hairy green leaves
on them, but more deeply and finely divided, branched forth a
little : At the tops thereof, which are naked and bare of leaves
for a good space, stand round heads of flowers of a pale blueish
colour, set together in a head, the outermost whereof are lar-
ger than the inward, with many threads also in the middle,
somewhat flat at the top, as the head with the seed is likewise;
the root is great, white and thick, growing down deep into the
ground, and abideth many years.

There is another sort of field scabious different in nothing
from the former, but only it is smaller in all respects.

The corn scabious differeth little from the first, but that it

312 The English Physician Enlarged.

is greater in all respects, and the flowers more inclining to pur-
ple, and the root creepeth under the upper crust of the earth,
and runneth not deep into the ground as the first doth.

Place.] The first groweth more usually in meadows, es-
pecially about London every where.

The second in some of the dry fields about this city, but not
so plentifully as the former.

The third in standing corn, or fallow fields, and the borders
of such like fields.

Time.] They flower in June and July, and some abide flow-
ering until it be late in August, and the seed is ripe in the mean
time.

There are many other sorts of scabious, but I take those which
I have here described to be most familiar with us ; the virtues of
both these and the rest, being much alike, take them as fol-
lowed).

Government and Virtues.] Mercury owns the plant. Scabi-
ous is very effectual for all sorts of coughs, shortness of breath,
and all other diseases of the breast and lungs, ripening and digest-
ing cold phlegm, and other tough humours, voideth them forth
by coughing and spitting ; It ripeneth also all sorts of inward ul-
cers and imposthunies; pleurisy also, if the decoction of the herb
dry or green to be made in wine, and drank for some time toge-
ther. Fourounces of the clarified juice of scabious taken in the
morning fasting, with a dram of mithridate, or Venice treacle,
freeth the heart from any infection or pestilence, if after the tak-
ing of it the party sweat two hours in bed, and this medicine be
again and again repeated, if need require. The green herb bruis-
ed and applied to any carbuncle or plague sore, is found by cer-
tain experience to dissolve and break it in three hours space.
The same decoction also drank, helpeth the pains and stitches
in the side. The decoction of the roots taken for forty days to-
gether, or a dram of the powder of them taken at a time in
whey doth, (as Matthiolus saith) wonderfully help those that are
troubled with running or spreading scabs, tetters, ring-worms,
yea, although they proceed from the French pox, which, he saith.

The En o' Us ft Physician Enlarged. 31.3

he hath tried by experience. The juice or decoction drank,
helped) also scabs and breakings-out of the itch, and the like.
The juice also made up into an ointment and used, is effectual
for the same purpose. The same also healeth all inward wounds
Dy the drying, cleansing, and healing quality therein; And a
syrup made of the juice and sugar, is very effectual to all the
purposes aforesaid, and so is the distilled water of the herb and
flowers made in due season, especially to be used when the
green herb is not in force to be taken. The decoction of the
herb and roots outwardly applied, doth wonderfully help all
sorts of hard or cold swellings in any part of the body, is effec-
tual for shrunk sinews or veins, and healeth green wounds, old
sores and ulcers. The juice of scabious, made up with the pow-
der of borax and samphire, cleanseth the skin of the face, or
other parts of the body, not only from freckles and pimpies, but
also from morphew and leprosy; the head washed with the de-
coction, cleanseth it from dandriff, scurf, sores, itch, and the
like, used w arm. The herb bruised and applied, doth in a short
time loosen, and draw forth any splinter, broken bone, arrow
head, or other such like thing lying in the flesh.

SCURVY-GRASS.

Descript .] Our ordinary English scurvy-grass hath many
thick flat leaves more long than broad, and sometimes longer
and narrower; sometimes also smooth on the edges, and some-
times a little waved ; sometimes plain, smooth and pointed, of
a sad green, and sometimes a blueish colour, every one stand-
ing by itself upon a long foot-stalk, which is brownish or green-
ish also, from among which arise many slender stalks, bearing
few leaves thereon like the other, but longer and lesser for the
most part: At the tops whereof grow many whitish flow'ers,
with yellow threads in the middle, standing about a green head,
which becometh the seed vessel, which will be somewhat flat
w hen it is ripe, wherein is contained reddish seed, tasting some-
what hot. The root is made of many w hite strings, which stick

No. 14. r r

314 The English Physician Enlarged.

deeply into the mud, wherein it chiefly delights, yet it will well
abide in the more upland and drier ground, and tasteth a little
brackish and salt even there, but not so much as where it hath
the salt Water to feed upon.

Place.] It groweth all along the Thames sides, both on the
Essex and Kentish shores, from Woolwich round about the sea-
coasts to Dover, Portsmouth, and even to Bristol, where it is
had in plenty ; the other with round leaves groweth in the
marshes in Holland, in Lincolnshire, and other places of Lin-
colnshire by the sea side.

De script.] There is also another sort called Dutch scurvy-
grass, which is most known, and frequent in gardens, which
hath fresh green, and almost round leaves rising from the root,
not so thick as the former, yet in some rich ground, very large,
even twice as big as in others, not dented about the edges, or
hollow in the middle, standing on a long foot-stalk ; from among
these rise long, slender stalks, higher than the former, with
more white flowers at the tops of them, which turn into small
pods, and smaller brownish seed than the former. The root is
white, small and thready. The taste is nothing salt at all; it
hath a hot, aromatical, spicy taste.

Time.] It flowereth in April and May, and giveth ripe seed
quickly after.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Jupiter. The
English scurvy-grass is more used for the. salt taste it.beareth,
which doth somewhat open and cleanse; but the Dutch scurvy-
grass is of better effect, and chiefly used (if it may be had) by
those that have the scurvy, and is of singularly good effect to
cleanse the blood, liver, and spleen, taking the juice in the
spring every morning fasting in a cup of drink. The decoction
is good for the same purpose, and openeth obstructions, evacu-
ating cold, clammy, and phlegmatic humours both from the
liver and the spleen, and bringing the body to a more lively
colour. The juice also helpeth all foul ulcers and sores in the
mouth, gargled therewith; and used outwardly, cleanseth the
skin from spots, marks, or scars that happen therein.

The English Physician Enlarged . 3io

SELF-HEAL.

Calhd also Prunel, Carpenter’s Herb, Hook-heal, and
Sickle-wort.

Descript.'] TL HE common self-heal is a small, low, creeping
herb, having many small, roundish pointed leaves, like leave*
of wild mints, of a dark green colour, without dents on the ed-
ges; from among which rise square hairy stalks, scarce a foot
high, which spread sometimes into branches with small leave*
set thereon, up to the tops, where stand brown spike heads of
small brownish leaves like scales and flowers set together, al-
most like the head of cassidony, which flowers are gaping, and
of a blueish purple, or more pale blue, in some places sweet,
but not so in others. The root consists of many fibres down-
ward, and spreadeth strings also whereby it increaseth. The
small stalks, with the leaves creeping on the ground, shoot forth
fibres taking hold on the ground, whereby it is made a great
tuft in a short time.

Place.] It is found in w'oods and fields every where.

Time.] It flowereth in May, and sometimes in April.

Government and Virtues.] Here is another herb of Venus,
self-heal, whereby when you are hutt you may heal yourself :
It is a special herb for inward and outward wounds. Take it
inwardly in syrups for inward wounds: outwardly in unguents
and plaisters for outward. As self-heal is like bugle in form, so
also in the qualities and virtues, serving for all the purposes
whereto bugle is applied with good success, either inwardly or
outwardly, for inward wounds or ulcers whatsoever within the
body, for bruises or falls, and such like hurts. If to be ac-
companied with bugle, sanicle, and other the like wound
herbs, it will be more effectual to wash or inject into ulcers in
the parts outwardly. Where there is cause to repress the heat
and sharpness of humours flowing to any sore, ulcers, inflam-
mations, swellings, or the like, or to stay the fluxes of blood
in any wound or part, this is used with some good success;

316 The English Physician Enlarged.

also to cleanse the foulness of sores ; and cause them more
speedily to be healed. It is an especial remedy for all green
wounds, to solder the lips of them, and to keep the place from
any further inconveniences. The juice hereof used with oil
of roses to anoint the temples and forehead, is very effectual to
remove the head-ach, and the same mixed with honey of roses,
cleanseth and healeth all ulcers in the mouth, and throat, and
those also in the secret parts. And the proverb of the Germans,
French and others, Is verified in this, That he needeth neither
physician nor surgeon that hath self-heal and sanicle to help
himself.

THE SERVICE-TREE.

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

Time.] It floweretli before the end of May, and the fruit is
ripe in October.

Government and Virtues.] Services when they are mellow,
are fit to be taken to stay fluxes, scouring, and casting, yet less
than medlars. If they be dried before they be mellow, and kept
all the year, they may be used in decoctions for the same purpose,
either to drink, or to bathe the parts requiring it; and are pro-
fitably used in that manner to stay the bleeding of wounds, and
of the mouth or nose, to be applied to the forehead and nape
of the neck; and are under the dominion of Saturn.

SHEPHERD’S PURSE.

It is called whoreman’s permacety, shepherd's scrip, shep-
herd’s pounce, toywort, pickpurse, and casewort.

Descript.] The root is small, white, and perisheth every
year. The leaves are small and long, of a pale green colour,
and deeply cut in on both sides, among which spiing up a stalk
which is small and round, containing small leaves upon it even
to the top. The flowers are white and very small ; after which
come the little cases which hold the seed, which are flat, almost
in the form of a heart.

The English Physician Enlarged. 317

Place.] They are frequent iu this nation, almost by every
pa ill -side.

Time.] They flower all the summer long: nay some of them
are so fruitful, that they flower twice a-year.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of
Saturn, and of a cold, dry, and binding nature, like to him. It
helps all fluxes of blood, either caused by inward or outward
wounds; as also flux of the belly and bloody flux, spitting and
pissing of blood, stops the terms in women ; being bound to the
wrists of the hands, and the soles of the feet, it helps the yel-
low jaundice. The herb being made into a poultice, helps in-
flammations and St. Anthony's fire. The juice being dropped
into the ears, heals the pains, noise, and matterings thereof. A
good ointment may be made of it for all wounds, especially
wounds in the head.

SMALLAGE.

r \_ HIS is also very well known, and therefore I snail not
trouble the reader with any description thereof.

Place.] It groweth naturally in dry and marshy ground;
but if it be sown in gardens, it there prospereth very well.

Time.] It abideth green all the winter, and seedeth in
August.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Mercury.
Smaliage is hotter, drier, and much more medicinal than parsley,
for it much more openeth obstructions of the liver and spleen,
rarefieth thick phlegm, and cleanseth it and the blood withal.
It provoketh urine and women’s courses, and is singular good
against the yellow jaundice, tertian and quartan agues, if the
juice thereot be taken, but especially made into a syrup.
The juice also put to honey of roses, and barley-water, is very
good to gargle the mouth and throat of those that have sores and
ulceis in them, and will quickly heal them. The same lotion
also cleanseth and healeth all other foul ulcers and cankers else-
where, if they be washed therewith. The seed is especially

318 The English Physician Enlarged.

used to break and expel wind, to kill worms and help a stink-
ing breath. The root is effectual to all the purposes aforesaid,
and is held to be stronger in operation than the herb, but es-
pecially to open obstructions, and to rid away any ague, if the
juice thereof be taken in wine, or the decoction thereof in wine
be used.

SOPEWORT, OR BllUISEWORT.

Descript . ] HE root creepeth under ground far and near,
with many joints therein, of a brown colour on the outside and
yellowish within, shooting forth in divers places weak round
stalks, full of joints, set with two leaves a-piece at every one
of them on the contrary side, which are ribbed somewhat like
unto plantain, and fashioned like the common field white cam-
pion leaves, seldom having any branches from the sides of the
stalks, but set with flowers at the top, standing in long husks
like the wild campions, made of five leaves a-piece, round at the
ends, and dented in the middle, of a rose colour, almost white,
sometimes deeper, sometimes paler; of a reasonable scent.

Place . ] It groweth wild in many low and wet grounds of
this land, by brooks and the sides of running waters.

Time.] It flowereth usually in July, and so continueth all
August, and part of September, before they be quite spent.

Temperature and Virtues.] Venus owns it. The country
people in divers places do use to bruise the leaves of sopewort,
and lay it to their fingers, hands or legs, when they are cut, to
heal them up again. Some make great boast thereof, that it is
diuretical to provoke urine, and thereby to expel gravel and
the stone in the reins or kidneys, and do also account it singular
good to void hydropical waters; and they no less extol it to
perform an absolute cure in the French pox, more than either
sarsaparilla, guiacum, or china can do; which, how true it is,
I leave others to judge.

.

Tke English Physician Enlarged. 319

SORREL.

OuR ordinary sorrel, which grows in gardens, and also
wild iu the fields, is so well known, that it needeth no descrip-
tion.

Government and Virtues.] It is under the dominion of Ve-
nus. Sorrel is prevalent in all hot diseases, to cool any inflam-
mation and heat of blood in agues, pestilential or choleric, or
sickness and fainting, arising from heat, and to refresh the over-
spent spirits with the violence of furious or fiery fits of agues;
to quench thirst, and procure an appetite in fainting or decaying
stomachs : For it resisteth the putrefaction of the blood, killeth
worms, and is a cordial to the heart, which the seed doth more
effectually, being more drying and binding, and thereby stayeth
the hot fluxes of women’s courses, or of humours in the bloody
flux, or flux of the stomach. The root also in a decoction, or
in powder, is effectual for all the said purposes. Both roots and
seeds, as well as the herb, are held powerful to resist the poi-
son of the scorpion. The decoction of the roots is taken to
help the jaundice, and to expel the gravel and the stone
in the reins or kidneys. The decoction of the flowers
made with wine and drank, helpeth the black jaundice, as
also the inward ulcers of the body and bowels. A syrup
made with the juice of sorrel and fumitory, is a sovereign
help to kill those sharp humours that cause the itch. The
juice thereof, with a little vinegar, serveth well to be used out-
wardly for the same, cause, and is also profitable for tetters, ring-
worms, Ac. It helpeth also to discuss the kernels in the throat;
and the juice gargled in the mouth, helpeth the sores therein.
The leaves wrapt in a colew ort leaf and roasted in the embers,
and applied to a hard impost hume, botch, boil, or plague sore,
doth both ripen and break it. The distilled water of the herb
is of much good use for all the purposes aforesaid.

320 The English Physician Enlarged.

WOOD SORREL.

Descript.] This groweth upon the ground, having a num-
ber of leaves coming from the root made of three leaves, like a
trefoil, but broad at the ends, and cut in the middle, of a yel-
lowish green colour, every one standing on a long foot-stalk,
which at their first coming up are close folded together to the
stalk, but opening themselves afterwards, and are of a fine sour
relish, and yielding a juice which will turn red when it is clari-
fied, and maketh a most dainty clear syrup. Among these leaves
rise up divers slender, weak foot-stalks, with every one of them
a flower at the top, consisting of five small pointed leaves, star-
fashion, of a whitish colour, in most places, and in some dash-
ed over with a small show of blueish, on the backside only.
After the flowers are past, follow small round heads, with small
yellowish seed in them. The roots are nothing but small strings
fastened to the end of a small long piece; all of them being of
a yellowish colour.

Place.] It grow eth in many places of our land, in woods and
wood-sides, where they be moist and shadowed, and in other
places not too much open to the sun.

Time.] It flowereth in April and May.

Government and Virtues.] Venus owns it. Wood-sorrel
serveth to all the purposes that the other sorrels do, and is more
effectual in hindering putrefaction of blood, and ulcers in the
mouth and body, and to quench thirst, to strengthen a w'eak
stomach, to procure an appetite, to stay vomiting, and very
excellent in any contagious sickness or pestilential fevers. The
syrup made of the juice, is effectual in all the cases aforesaid,
and so is the distilled water of the herb. Spunges of linen
cloths wet in the juice, and applied outwardly to any hot swel-
lings or inflammations, doth much cool and help them. The
same juice taken and gargled in the mouth, and after it is spit
forth, taken afresh, doth wonderfully help a foul stinking can-
ker or ulcers therein. It is singularly good to heal w'ounds,
or to stay the bleeding of thrusts or stabs in the bodv.

The English Physician Enlarged. 32 1

SOW THISTLE.

Sow thistles are generally so well known, that they need no
description.

P/ace.] They grow in gardens and manured grounds, some-
times by old walls, path-sides of fields and high ways.

Government and Virtues.] This and the former are under
the influence of Venus. Sow thistles are cooling, and some-
what binding, and are very fit to'cool a hot stomach, and ease
the pains thereof. The herb boiled in wine, is very helpful to
stay the dissolution of the stomach, and the milk that is taken
from the stalks when they are broken, given in drink, is bene-
ficial to those that are short-winded, and have a wheezing.
Pliny saith, That it hath caused the gravel and stone to be
voided by urine, and the eating thereof helpeth a stinking breath.
The decoction of the leaves and stalks causeth abundance of
milk in nurses, and their children to be well-coloured. The
j uice or distilled w ater is good for all hot inflammations, wheals,
eruptions or heat in the skin, and itching of the haemorrhoids.
The juice boiled or thoroughly heated in a little oil of bitter
almonds in the peel of a pomegranate, and dropped into the
ears, is a sure remedy for deafness, singings, &c. Three spoon-
fuls of the juice taken warmed in white wine, and some wine
put. thereto, causeth women in travail to have so easy and spee-
dy delivery, that they may be able to walk presently after. It
is wonderfully good for women to w r ash their faces with, to
clear the skin, and give it a lustre.

SOUTHERN-WOOD,

SoUTIIERN-wood is so well known to be an ordinary in-
habitant in our gardens, that I shall not need to trouble you
with any description thereof.

Time.] It flowereth for the most part in July and August.

Government and Virtues.] It is a gallant Mercurial plant,
worthy of more esteem than it hath. Dioscorides saith, that
No. 14. S S

322 The English Physician Enlarged.

the seed bruised, heated in warm water and drank, helpeth
those that are bursten, or troubled with cramps or convulsions
of the sinews, the sciatica, or difficulty of making water, and
bringing dow n women’s courses. The same taken in wine is
an antidote, or counter poison against all deadly poison, and
driveth away serpents and other venomous creatures ; as also the
smell of the herb, being burnt, doth the same. The oil thereof
anointed on the back bone before the fits of agues come, taketh
them away. It taketh away inflammations in the eyes, if it be
put with some part of a roasted quince, and boiled with a few
crumbs of bread and applied. Boiled with barley-meal, it
taketh away pimples, pushes or wheals that arise in the face, or
other parts of the body. The seed as well as the dried herb, is
often given to kill the worms in children : The herb bruised and
laid to, helpeth to draw forth splinters and thorns out of the flesh.
The ashes thereof drieth up and healeth old ulcers, that are
without inflammation, although by the sharpness thereof it bit-
eth sore, and putteth them to sore pains; as also the sores in
the privy parts of man or woman. The ashes mingled with
old salad oil, helpeth those whose hair is fallen, and are bald,
causing the hair to grow again either on the head or beard.
Darentes saitli, that the oil made of southern-wood, and put
among the ointments that are used against the French disease,
is very effectual, and likewise killeth lice in the head. The
distilled water of the herb is said to help them much that are
troubled with the stone, as also for the diseases of the spleen
and mother. The Germans commend it for a singular wound
herb, and therefore, call it stabwort. It is held by all writers,
ancient and modern, to be more offensive to the stomach than
wormwood.

SPIGNEL.

Descript .] TThE roots of common spignel do spread much
and deep in the ground, many strings or branches growing from
one head, which is hairy at the top, of a blackish brown colour

The English Physician Enlarged. 323

on the outside, and white within, smelling well, and of an aro-
matical taste, from whence rise sundry long stalks of most fine
cut leaves like hair, smaller than dill, set thick on both sides of
the stalks, and of a good scent. Among these leaves rise up round
stiff stalks, with a few joints and leaves on them, and at the
tops an umbel of fine pure white flow-ers; and at the edges
whereof sometimes will be seen a shew of the reddish blueish
colour, especially before they be full blowm, and are succeeded
by small, somewhat round seeds, bigger than the ordinary fen-
nel, and of a brown colour, divided into two parts, and crusted
on the back, as most of the umbelliferous seeds are.

j Place.] It grow'eth wild in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other
northern counties, and is also planted in gardens.

Government and Virtues .] It is an herb of Venus. Galen
saith, The roots of spignel are available to provoke urine, and
women’s courses; but if too much thereof be taken, it causeth
head-ach. The roots boiled in wine or water, and drank, help-
eth the strangury and stoppings of the urine, the wind, swell-
ings and pains in the stomach, pains of the mother, and all joint-
achs. If the powder of the root be mixed w r ith honey, and the
same taken as a licking medicine, it breaketh tough phlegm, and
drieth up the rheum that falleth on the lungs. The roots are
accounted very effectual against the stinging or biting of any
venomous creature, and is one of the ingredients in Mithridate
and other antidotes of the same.

SPLEENWORT, OR CETERACH.

Descript.] ^1 HE smooth spleen wort, from a black, thready
and bushy root, sendeth forth many long single leaves, cut in
on both sides into round dents almost to the middle, which is
not so hard as that of polypody, each division being not alw ays
set opposite unto the other, but between each smooth, and of
a light green on the upper side, and a dark yellow ish roughness
on the hack, folding or rolling itself inward at the first spring-
ing up.

324 The English Physician Enlarged.

Place.] It groweth as well upon stone walls, as moist and
shadowy places, about Bristol, and other the west parts plenti-
fully; as also on Framlingharn Castle, on Beaconsfieid church
in Berkshire, at Stroude in Kent, and elsewhere, and abidetk
green all the winter.

Government and Virtues.] Saturn owns it. It is generally
used against infirmities of the spleen; it helpeth the strangury,
and wasteth the stone in the bladder, and is good against the yel-
low jaundice, and the hiccough; but the juice of it in women
hindereth conception. Matthiolus saith, that if a dram of the
dust that is on the backside of the leaves be mixed with half a
dram of amber in powder, and taken with the juice ofpurslain
or plantain, it helps the running of the reins speedily, and that
the herb and root being boiled and taken, helpeth all melancholy
diseases, and those especially that arise from the French
disease. Camerarius saith, That the distilled water thereof
being drank, is very effectual against the stone in the reins and
bladder; and that the lee that is made of the ashes thereof being
drank for some time together, helpeth splenetic persons. It is
used in outward remedies for the same purpose.

STAR THISTLE.

Descript.] A common star thistle hath divers narrow leaves
lying next the ground, cut on the edges somewhat deeply into
many parts, soft or a little woolly, all over green, among which
rise up divers weak stalks parted into many branches, all lying
down to the ground, that it seemeth a pretty bush, set with di-
vers the like divided leaves up to the tops, where, severally do
stand small whitish green heads, set with sharp white piicks (no
part of the plant else being prickly) which are somewhat yellow-
ish; out of the middle whereof riseth the flowers, composed of
many small reddish purple threads; and in the heads, after the
flowers are past, come small whitish round seed, lying down as
others do. The root is small, long and woody, perishing eve-
ry year, and rising again of their own sowing.

The English Physician Enlarged. 3*25

Place.] It groweth wild in the fields about London in many
places, as at Mile-End green, in Finsbury fields, beyond the
windmills, and many other places.

Time.] It flowereth early, and seedeth in July, and some-
times in August.

Government and Virtues.] This, as almost all thistles are,
is under Mars. The seed of this star thistle made into powder,
and drank in wine, provoketh urine, and helpeth to break the
stone, and driveth it forth. The root in powder, and given in
wine and drank, is good against the plague and pestilence; and
drank in the morning fasting for some time together, it is very
profitable for a fistula, in any part of the body. Babtista Sardas
doth much commend the distilled water hereof, being drank, to
help the French disease, to open the obstructions of the liver,
and cleanse the blood from corrupted humours, and is profitable
against the quotidian or tertian ague.

STRAWBERRIES.

1 HESE are so well known through this land, that they
need no description.

Time.] They flower in May ordinarily, and the fruit is ripe
shortly after.

Government and Virtues.] Venus owns the herb. Straw-
berries, when they are green, are cool and dry; but when they
are ripe they are cool and moist : the berries are excellent good
to cool the liver, the blood, and the spleen, or an hot choleric
stomach ; to refresh and comfort the fainting spirits, and quench
thirst: They are good also for other inflammations; yet it is not
amiss to refrain from them in a fever, lest by their putrifying in
the stomach they increase the fits. The leaves and roots boiled
in wine and water, and drank, do likewise cool the liver
and blood, and assuage all inflammations in the reins and blad-
der, provoke urine, and allay the heat and sharpness thereof.
The same also being drank stayeth the bloody flux and women’s
courses, and help the swellings of the spleen. The water of
the berries carefully distilled, is a sovereign remedy and cordial

326 The English Physician Enlarged.

in the panting and beating of the heart, and is good for the yel-
low jaundice. The juice dropped into foul ulcers, or they
washed therewith, or the decoction of the herb and root, doth
wonderfully cleanse and help to cure them. Lotions and gargles
for sore mouths, or ulcers therein, or in the privy parts or else-
where, are made with the leaves and roots thereof; which is
also good to fasten loose teeth, and to heal spungy foul gums.
It helpeth also to stay catarrhs, or defluxious of rheum in the
mouth, throat, teeth, or eyes. The juice or water is singular
good for hot and red inflamed eyes, if dropped into them, or they
bathed therewith. It is also of excellent property for all pushes,
wheals,, and other breakings forth of not and sharp humours in
the face and hands, and other parts of the body, to bathe them
therewith, and to take away any redness in the face, or spots, or
other deformities in the skin, and to make it clear and smooth.
Some use this medicine: Take so many strawberries as you
shall think fitting, and put them into a distillatory, or body of
glass fit for them, which being well closed, set it in a bed of
horse dung for your use. It is an excellent water for hot in-
flamed eyes, and to take away a film or skin that beginneth to
grow over them, and for such other defects in them as may be
helped by any outward medicine.

SUCCORY.

• . .r>.. ■ ■;•••

Descript.] X HE garden succory hath longer and narrower
leaves than the endive, and more cut in or torn on the edges,
and the root abideth many years. It beareth also blue flowers
like endive, and the seed is hardly distinguished from the seed
of the smooth or ordinary endive, i.

The wild succory hath diver* long leaves lying on the ground,
very much cut in or torn on the edges, on both sides, even to
the middle rib, ending in a point : sometimes it hath a rib down
to the middle of the leaves, from among which riseth up a hard
round, woody stalk, spreading into many branches, set with
smaller and lesser divided leaves on them up to the tops, where
stand the flowers, which are like the garden kind, and the seed

The Englisn Pnysician Enlarged. 327

is also (only take notice that the flowers of the garden kind are
gone in on a sunny day, they being so cold, that they are not
able to endure the beams of the sun, and therefore more de-
light in the shade) the root is white, but more hard and woody
than the garden kind. The whole plant is exceeding bitter.

Place.'] This groweth in many places of our land in waste
unfilled and barren fields. The other only in gardens.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Jupiter. Gar-
den succory, as it is more dry and less cold than endive, so it
openeth more. An handful of the leaves, or roots boiled in wine
or water, and a draught thereof drank fasting, driveth forth cho-
leric and phlegmatic humours, openeth obstructions of the liver,
gall, and spleen; helpeth the yellow jaundice, the heat of the
reins, and of the urine; the dropsy also; and those that have
an evil disposition in their bodies, by reason of long sickness,
evil diet, &c. which the Greeks call cachexia. A decoction
thereof made with wine, and drank, is very effectual against
long lingering agues; and a dram of the seed in powder, drank
in wine, before the fit of the ague, helpeth to drive it away.
The distilled water of the herb and flowers (if you can take
them in time) hath the like properties, and is especial good for
hot stomachs, and in- agues, either pestilential or of long con-
tinuance; for swooning and passions of the heart, for the heat
and head-ach in children, and for the blood and liver. The said
water, or the juice, or the bruised leaves applied outwardly,
allay swellings, inflammations, St. Anthony’s fire, pushes,
wheals and pimples, especially used with a little vinegar; as
also to wash pestiferous sores. The said water is very effectual
for sore eyes that are inflamed with redness, and for nurses’
breasts that are pained by the abundance of milk.

The wild succory, as it is more bitter, so it is more strength-
ening to the stomach and liver.

STONE-CROP, PRICK-MADAM, OR SMALL
HOUSE-LEEK.

Descript.] It groweth with divers trailing branches upon

328 The English Physician Enlarged.

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 groweth 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 flowereth 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 defluxions, especially such as fall upon the
eyes. It stops bleeding, both inward and outward, helps cank-
ers, and all fretting sores and ulcers ; It abates the heat of cho-
ler, thereby preventing diseases arising from choleric humours.
It expels poison much, resisteth pestilential fevers, being ex-
ceeding good also for tertian agues: You may drink the de-
coction 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 riseth 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 al-
so, and nothing dented about the edges. The stalk branches
forth, and beareth 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 yel-
low colour. The seed that followeth is not so bright, but larger,
contained in the like great heads. The roots are neither so
great nor woody; it perisheth every year with the hard frosts
in winter, but riseth generally of its own sowing.

Place . J This came from some part of Brazil, as it is
thought, and is more familiar in our country than any of the

The English Physician Enlarged. 329

other sorts ; early giving ripe seed, which the others seldom do.

Time .] It flowereth from June, sometimes to the end of
August, or later, and the seed ripeneth 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 smoke taken by a pipe, as
is usual, but fasting, helpeth to expel worms in the stomachy
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 en-
gendered 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
ach, 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, helpeth 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 faeces of the
herb, having been bruised before the distillation, and not dis-
tilled dry, be set in warm dung for fourteen days, and after-
wards be hung up in a bag in a wine cellar, the liquor that
distilleth therefrom is singularly good to use for cramps, achs,
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 chil-
dren’s heads. The green herb bruised and applied to any
green wounds, cureth any fresh wound or cut whatsoever j and
the juice put into old sores, both cleanseth and healeth them.
There is also made hereof a singular good salve to help impos-
thumes, hard tumours, aud other swellings by blows and falls.

T t

330 The English Physician Enlarged.

THE TAMARISK TREE.

It is so well known in the places where it grows, that it
needeth no description.

Tin.s.] It flowereth about the end of May, or in June, and
the seed is ripe and blown away in the beginning of Septem-
ber.

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 haemorrhoidal veins, the spit-
ting of blood, the too abounding of women’s courses, the jaun-
dice, the cholic, and the biting of all venomous serpents, ex-
cept the asp: and outwardly applied, is very powerful against
the hardness of the spleen, and the tooth-ach, pains in the ears,
and 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. Alphinus and Ves-
iingus affirm, that the Egyptians do with good success use the
wood of it to cure the French disease, as others do with lignum
vitae 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 leprosy, 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 thatariseth
thereof.

GARDEN TANSY.

Garden tansy is so well known that it needetft no de-
scription.

Time.] It flowereth 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 tho’ it were cut
out for the purpose. This herb bruised and applied to the navel,

The English Physician Enlarged. 331

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 con-
sumes 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. At last the
world being over-run with popery, a monster called Superstition
perks up his head, and, as a judgment of God, obscures the
bright beams of knowledge by his dismal looks; (physicians
seeing the pope and his imps selfish, they began to do so too)
and now forsooth tansies must be eaten only on Palm and Easter
Sundays, and their neighbour days: At last superstition being
too hot to hold, and the selfishness of physicians w alking in the
clouds ; after the friars and monks had made the people ignorant,
the superstition of the time w as found out, by the virtue-of the
herb hidden, and now it is almost, if not altogether, left off.
Surely our physicians are beholden to none so much as they are
to monks and friars : for want of eating this herb in spring,
maketh people sickly in summer; and that makes work for the
physician. If it be against any man or woman’s conscience to
eat tansy in the spring, I am as unwilling to burthen their con-
science, as I am that they should burthen mine; they may boil
it in wine and drink the decoction, it will work the same effect.
The decoction of the common tansy, or the juice drank in wine,
is a singular remedy for all the griefs that come by stopping of
the urine, and helpeth the strangury 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 parts of the bel-
ly. It is also very profitable for such women as are given to mis-
carry in child bearing, to cause them to go out their full time;
it is used also against the stone in the reins, especially in men.
The herb fried with eggs (as it is the custom in the spring-time)

332 The English Physician Enlarged.

which is called a tansy, helpeth to digest and carry downward
those had humours that trouble the stomach. The seed is very
profitably given to children for the worms, and thejuice 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 needeth no descrip-
tion.

Place.] It groweth in every place.

Time.] It fl owereth in June and July.

Government and Virtues . ] Now Dame Venus hath fitted
women with two herbs of one name, the one to help concep-
tion, and the other to maintain beauty, and what more can be
expected of her I What now remains for you, but to love your
husbands, and not to be wanting to your poor neighbours? Wild
tansy stayeth 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
aught I know. It stayeth also spitting or vomiting of blood.
The powder of the herb takeu in some, of the undistilled water,
helpeth 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 bursteu, and have a rupture, being
boiled in, water and salt. Being boiled in water and drank, it
easeth the griping pains of the bowels, and is good for the scia-
tica and joint-aehs. The same boiled in vinegar, with .honey
and alum, and gargled in the mouth, easeth the pains of the
tooth-ach, fasteneth loose teeth, helpeth the gums that are sore,
and setteth the palate of the mouth in its place, when it is fallen
down. It cleauseth and healeth 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 run-
ning sores in the legs or elsewhere. Being bruised and applied

v

The English Physician Enlarged L 333

to the soles of the feet and hand wrists, it wonderfully cooleth
the hot fils of agues, be they never so violent. The distilled
water cleansed) 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,
taketh 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 by the places where they grow,
tiz.

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 July 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 also to help a stinking breath, and to
strengthen the stomach. Pliny sailh, that the juice bathed on
the place that wanteth hair, it being fallen off, will cause it to
grow again speedily.

THE MELANCHOLY THISTLE.

Descript.] X T riseth up with tender single hoary green stalks,
bearing thereon four or five green leaves, dented about the ed-
ges; 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 shooleth forth another small head, sca-
ly and prickly, with many reddish thrums or threads in the mid-
dle, which being gathered fresh, will keep the colour a long
time, and fadetli not from the stalk a long time, while it per-

334 The English Physician Enlarged.

fects 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 perisheth 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 beareth but one scaly
head, with threads and seeds as the former.

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

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

Government and Virtues.] It is under Capricorn, and there-
fore under both Saturn and Mars, one rids melancholy by sym-
pathy, 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
causeth 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 careth for us. What a fine
thing w ere it if men and women could live so ! And yet seven
years care and fear makes a man never the wiser, no> a farthing
richer. Dioscorides sailh, the root borne about one do,th the
like, and removes all diseases of njelancholy. Modern writers
laugh at him; Let them laugh that win, my opinion is, that it
is the best remedy against all melancholy diseases ilia? 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 wpre crumpled,
but somewhat hairy on the edges, of a whit>green shining co-
lour, wherein are many lines and streaks of a milk white co-
lour, running all over, and set with many sharp and stiff pi ick-
les all about, among which riseth up one or more strong, rsund

The English Physician Enlarged. 535

and prickly stalks, set full of the leaves up to the top, where
at the end of every branch, comes forth a great prickly thistle
like a head, strorfgly armed with prickles, and with bright pur-
ple thrums rising out of the middle; after they are past the
seed groweth in the said heads, lying in soft white down, which
is somewhat flattish in the ground, and many stiings 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 fknvereth and seedeth in June, July, and Au-
gust.

Government and Virtues.] Our lady's thistle is under Jupi-
ter, and thought to be as effectual as cardous benidictus 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 provokelh urine, breaketh and
expelleth 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 are held powerful to all
the purposes aforesaid, and besides, it is often applied out-
wardly .With cloths or spunges to the region of the heart, against
swoonings and the passions of it. It cleanseth 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 cbangeth, and

that is the way to be safe.

^

? THE WOOELEN, OR COTTON THISTLE.

Descript.] JL HIS hath many large leaves lying upon the
ground, somewhat cut in and as it were crumpled on the edges,
of a gneei^ colour on the upper side, but covered over with a
long hairy wqpl or cotton down, set with most sharp and cruel
pricks; from the^i middle of whose h°ads of flowers come forth
many purplish crimson threads, and sometimes while, although
but seldom. The seed that follows in those white dow’ny heads,
is somewhat large and round, resembling the seed of lady’s this-

336 The English Physician Enlarged.

tie, but paler; the root is great and thick, spreading much, jet
usually dieth after seed time.

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

Government and Virtues.] It is a plant of Mars. Diosco-
rides and Pliny write, That the leaves and roots hereof taken in
drink, help those that have a crick in their neck, that they can-
not turn it, unless they turn their whole body. Galen saitli,
that the roots and leaves hereof are good for such persons as
have their bodies drawn together by some spasm or convulsion,
or other infirmities; as the rickets (or as the college of physi-
cians would have it, rachites, about which name tliev have
quarrelled sufficiently) in children, being a disease thatlunder-
eth their growth, by binding their nerves, ligaments, and whole
structure of their body^

THE FULLER’S THISTLE, OR TEASLE.

It is so w ell know n, that it needs no description, being used
with tiie cloth workers.

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 that of the manured kind, whitish.

Place.] The first groweth, being sown in gardens or fields
for the use of clotlnvorkers ; 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. Dios-
corides saitli, that the root bruised and boiled in wine, till it be
thick, and kept in a brazen vessel, and after spread as n salve,
and applied to the fundament, doth heal the cleft thereof, cank-
ers and fistulas therein, also taketli aw'ay warts and wens. The
juice of the leaves dropped into the cars, kiifeth worms in them

The English Physician Enlarged.

The distilled water of the leaves dropped into the eyes, taketh
away redness and mists in them that hinder the sight; and is
often used by women to preserve their beauty, and to takeaway
redness and inflammations, and all other heats or discolourings.

TREACLE MUSTARD.

Descript.] It riseth 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 ed-
ges, 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 blaekish brown
seed on either side, somewhat sharp in taste, and smelling of
garlic, 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, altho’ it may
seem more properly by the name to belong to M, in the
alphabet.

MITHRIDATE MUSTARD.

Descript.] TL HIS groweth higher than the former, spread-
ing more and higher branches, whose leaves are smaller and nar-
rower, sometimes unevenly dented about the edges. The flow-
ers 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 perisheth after seed time, but abi-
detli 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 Surry 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

No. 15. u u

338 The English Physician Enlarged.

downwards, and procureth women’s courses so abundantly, fhat
it suffocateth the birth. It breaketh inward imposthumes, being
taken inwardly ; and used in clysters, helpeth the sciatica. The
seed applied, doth the same. It is an especial ingredient unto
mithridate and treacle, being of itself an antidote resisting poi-
son, venom, and putrefaction. It is also available in many cases
for which the common mustard is used, but somewhat weaker.

TIIE BLACK THORN, OR SLOE-BUSH.

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

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

Time.] It flowereth in April, and sometimes in March, but
the fruit ripeneth after all other plums whatsoever, and is not
fit to be eaten until the autumn frosts 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 helpeth to ease the pains of the sides,
bowels, and guts, that come by over-much scouring, to drink
the decoction of the bark of the roots, or more usually the de-
coction of the berries, either fresh or dried. The conserve also
is of very much use, and more familiarly taken for the purpose
aforesaid. But the distilled water of the flowers first steeped in
sack for a night, and drawn therefrom by the heat of balneuin
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 deductions 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

The English Physician Enlarged. 339

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.] (y OMMON thorough- wax sendeth forth a straight
round stalk, two feet high, or better, whose lower leaves being
af a blueish colour, are smaller and narrower than those up
higher, and stand close thereto, not compassing it; but that as
they grow' higher, they do more encompass the stalks, until it
wholly pass through them, branching toward the top into ma-
ny parts, where the leaves grow smaller again, every one stand-
ing 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 flowereth in July, and the seed is ripe in August.

Temperature 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
therew ith, 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 singu-
lar good for all ruptures and burstings, especially in children be-
fore they be too old. Being applied with a little flour and wax
to children’s navels that, stick forth, it helpeth them.

340 1'he English Physician Enlarged.

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 bet-
ter remedy growing for that disease in children which they com-
monly call the Chin-cough, than it is. It purgeth 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 dulness of sight,
and takes away pains and hardness of the spleen ; 'Tis excellent
for those that are troubled with the gout; as also to anoint the
cods that are swelled. It easeth 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 needeth no
description.

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

Government and Virtues .] It is under the dominion of Ve-
nus, and under the sign Aries, and therefore chiefly appropriat-
ed to the head. It provoketh urine and the terms, and easeth
the griping pain of the belly, cramps, ruptures, and inflamma-
tion of the liver. If you make a vinegar of the herb, as vine-
gar of roses is made (you may find out the way in my transla-
tion of the London Dispensatory) and anoint the head with it,
it presently stops the pains thereof. It is excellent good to be
given either in phrenzy or lethargy, although they are two con-
trary diseases : It helps spitting and pissing of blood, coughing,

The English Physician Enlarged. 341

and vomiting; it comforts and strengthens the head, stomach,
reins, and womb, expels wind, and breaks the stone.

TORMENTIL OR SEFTFOIL.

Descript.] T HIS hath reddish, slender, weak branches ris-
ing from the root, lying on the ground, rather leaning than
standing upright, with many short leaves that stand closer to
the stalks than cinquefoil (to which this is very like) with the
foot-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 longer
and less dented about the edges, many of them divided but in-
to five leaves, but most of them into seven, whence it is also
called septfoil : yet some may have six, and some eight, accord-
ing 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 bis-
tort, somewhat thick, but blacker without, and not so red
within, yet sometimes a little crooked, having blackish fibres
thereat.

Place.] It groweth 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 flowereth all the summer long.

Government and Virtues.] Tliis is a gallant herb of the Sun.
Tormentil is most excellent to stay all kinds of fluxes of blood
or humours in man or woman, whether at nose, mouth, or
belly. The j uice 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 Valesius is of opinion,
that the decoction of this root is no less effectual to cure the
French pox than guiacum of China; and it is not unlikely, be-

342 l 1 he English Physician Enlarged.

cause it so mightily resisteth putrefaction. The root takeqdn-
'♦*vardly 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 helpeth the yellow jaundice.
The powder or decoction drank, or to sit thereon as a bath, is
an assured remedy against abortion in women, if it proceed from
the over flexibility or weakness of the inward retentive faculty;
as also a plaister 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
or falls, to be used as well outwardly as inwardly. The root
hereof made up with pellitory of Spain and alum, and put into
a hollow tooth, not only assuageth the pain, but stayeth the flux
of humours which causeth 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, healeth
the king’s evil, and easeth the pains of the sciatica; the same
used with a little vinegar, is a special remedy against the run-
ning 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
haemorrhoids, if they be washed or bathed therewith, or with
the distilled water of the herb and roots. It is found also help-
ful to dry up any sharp rheum that distilleth 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 dis-
tilled water thereof. Many women use this water as a secret,
to help themselves and others, when they are troubled with too

The English Physician Enlarged. 343

much flowing of the whites or reds, both to drink it, or inject
it with a syringe. And here is enough, only remember the Sun
challengeth this herb.

TURNSOLE, OR HELIOTROPIUM.

Descript.'] Jf HE greater turnsole riseth 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 hoary. 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, up-
on a small crooked spike, which turneth 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, perish-
ing every year, and the seed shedding every year, riseth it again
the next spring.

Place.] It groweth in gardens, and flowereth and seedeth
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,
purgeth both choler and phlegm; and boiled with cummin,
lielpetb the stone in the reins, kidneys, or bladder, provoketh
urine and women’s courses, and causeth an easy and speedy de-
livery 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 or wens,
and other kernels in the face, eye-lids, or any otlur part of the
body, will, by often using, take them away.

344 The English Physician Enlarged.

MEADOW TREFOIL, OR HONEYSUCKLES.

Tt is so well known, especially by the name of Honey suckles,
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 sorts. Dodoneds 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
allayeth 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 iu swine’s grease,
and so made into an ointment, is good to apply to the biting of
any venomous creatures. The herb also bruised and heated be-
tween tiles, and applied hot to the share, causeth 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, helpeth
women that are troubled with the whites. The seed and flowers
boiled in water, and after made into a poultice with some oil,
and applied, helpeth hard swellings and imposthumes.

HEART TREFOIL.

Resides the ordinary sort of trefoil, here are two more
remarkable, and one of which may be probably called heart
trefoil, not only because the leaf is triangular, like the heart of
a man, but also because each leaf contains the perfect icon of
a heart, and that in its proper colour; viz. a flesh colour.

Place.] It groweth between Longford and Bow, and be-
yond Southwark, by the highway and parts adjacent.

The English Physician Enlarged. 345

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

PEARL TREFOIL.

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

TUTSAN, 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 smal
brownish seed within them, and they yield a reddish juice or li-
quor, somewhat resinous, and of a harsh and styptic 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, spread-
ing well in the ground.

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

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

No. 15.

346 The English Physician Enlarged.

Government and Virtues.] It is an herb of Saturn, and a
most noble antivenerean. Tutsan purgrth choleric humours, as
St. Peter’s wort is said to do, for therein it worketh the same
effects, both to help the sciatica and gout, and to heal burning
by fire ; it stayeth 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, oint-
ments, or any other sorts of green wounds, old ulcers, or sores,
in all which the continued experience of former ages hath con-
firmed the use thereof to be admirable 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 .] Tf. HIS 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, where-
by it draweth 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 ed-
ges; 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 riseth 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 followeth small brownish white seed,
that is easily carried away with the wind. The rootsmelleth
more strong than either leaf or flower, and is of more use in
medicines.

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

The Ejiglish Physician Enlarged. 347

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

Government and Virtues.] Tiiis 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 pro-
voketh urine, and helpeth the strangury. The decoction thereof
taken, doth the like also, and taketh away pains of the sides,
provoketh women’s courses, and is used in antidotes. Pliny
saith, that the powder of the root given in drink, or the decoc-
tion thereof taken, helpeth all stoppings and stranghngs in any
part of the body, w hether they proceed of pains in the chest or
sides, and taketh them away. The root of valerian boiled with
liquorice, raisins, and aniseed, is singular good for those that
are short-winded, and for those that are troubled with a cough,
and helpeth to open the passages, and to expectorate phlegm
easily. It is given to those that are bitten or stung by any veno-
mous 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 helpeth to expel the wind in the
belly. The green herb with the root taken fresh, being bruised
and applied to the head, taketh away the pains and prickings
there, stayeth rheum and thin distillation, and being boiled in
white wine, and a drop thereof put into the eyes, taketh away
the dimness of the sight, or any pin or web therein; it is of ex-
cellent property to heal any inward sores or wounds, as also for
owtw'ard hurts or wounds, and drawing away splinters or thorns
out of the flesh.

VERVAIN.

Descript.] ^ItIE 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

,348 The English Physician Enlarged.

them, which are set on ail sides one above another, and some-
times 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, but of no use.

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

rime.] It flowereth 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 helpeth the
yellow jaundice, the dropsy and the gout; it killeth and expelleth
worms in the belly, and . cause th a good colour in the face and
body, strengtheneth as well as correcteth the diseases of the
stomach, liver, and spleen; helps the cough, wbeezings, 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 consolidateth
and healeth also all wounds, both inward and outward, stayeth
bleedings, and used with some honey, healeth 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 helpeth
the swellings and pains of the secret parts in man or woman,
also for the piles or hzemorrhoids ; applied with some oil of roses
and vinegar unto the forehead and temples, it easeth the invete-
rate pains and ach 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 taketh
away morphew, freckles, fistulas, and other such like inflamma-
tion and deformities of the skin in any part of the body. The
distilled water of the herb when it is in full strength, dropped
into the eyes, cleanseth them from films, clouds, or mists, that
darken the sight, and wonderfully strengthens the optic nerves ;

The English Physician Enlarged. 349

the said water is very powerful in all the diseases aforesaid, ei-
ther inward or outward, whether they be old corroding sores,
or green wounds.

THE VINE.

J^HE leaves of the English vine (I do not mean to send you
to the Canaries for a medicine) being boiled, make a good lo-
tion for sore mouths ; being boiled with barley meal in to a poul-
tice, 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 man, and that is the reason spirit of wine is the greatest
cordial among all vegetables.

VIOLETS.

Both the tame and the wild are so w'ell known, that they
need no description.

Time.] They flow'er 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 of the eyes, in the matrix or
fundament, in imposthumes also, and hot sw-elling, to drink the

350 The English Physician Enlarged.

decoction of the leaves and flowers made with water and wine,
or to apply them poultice-wise to the grieved places : It likewise
easeth 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
flowers of violets, but the leaves more strongly, doth purge the
body of choleric humours, and assuageth 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 chil-
dren, 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
lenefy the sharpness of hot rheums, and the hoarseness of the
throat, the heat also and sharpness of urine, and all 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 jnice 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 giveth to the drink
a claret wine colour, and a fine tart relish, pleasing the taste.
Violets taken, or made up with honey, do more cleanse and
cool, and with sugar contrary-wise. The dried flowers 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 for 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 .] r TfflS hath many long rough leaves lying on the

The English Physician Enlarged. 351

ground, from among which arise 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 be-
ing white. The flowers stand at the top of the stalk, branched
forth into many long spiked leaves of flowers, bowing or turn-
ing 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 de-
cay and withering: but in some places of a paler purple co-
lour, 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 groweth toward seed-time, and perisheth in
the winter.

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

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

Time.] They flower in summer, aud their seed is ripe quick-
ly 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 poisonful 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, aud expel sadness, or causeless
melancholy ; it tempers the blood, and allayeth hot fits of
agues. The seed drank in wine, procureth abundance of milk
in women’s breasts. The same also being taken, easeth pain 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 ap-

352 The English Physician Enlarged.

plied 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 GILLIFLOWERS.

Tf. HE garden kind are so well known tha£ they need no de-
scription.

Dcscript . ] The common single wall flowers which grow
wild abroad, have sundry small, long, narrow, dark green
leaves, set without order upou 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 groweth 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 cleanseth the blood,
and freeth the liver and reins from obstructions, provoketh
women’s courses, expelleth the fecundine, and the dead child;
helpeth the hardness and pains of the mother, and of the spleen
also: stayeth inflammations and swellings, comforteth and
strengtheneth any weak part, or out of joint; helpeth 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

The English Physician Enlarged. 353

a singular reniedy for the gout, and all achs 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 WALNUT TREE.

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

Time.] It blossometh 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 whilst 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 de-
gree, and harder of digestion than when they are fresh, which,
by reason of their sweetness, are more pleasing, and better di-
gested 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 Pom^
peius found in the treasury of Mithridates, king ofPontus, when
he was overthrown, a scroll of his own hand writing, contain-
ing a medicine against any poison or infection; which is this:
take two dry waluuts, 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 taken every morning
fasting, preserveth 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,

No. 15. Y y

354 The English Physician Enlarged.

but are then used to heal the wounds of the sinews, gangrenes
and carbuncles. The side kernels being burned, are then 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, helpeth the quinsy; and bruised
with some honey, and applied to the ears, easeth the pains and
inflammations of them. A piece of the green husks put
into a hollow tooth, easeth the pain. The catkins hereof,
taken before they fall oft', dried and given a dram thereof
in powder with white wine, wonderfully helpeth those that
are troubled with the rising of the mother. The oil that
is pressed out of thd kernels, is very profitable taken inwardly
like oil of almonds, to help the cholic, and to expel wind
very effectually ; an ounce or tw6 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 defluxions thereon. The distilled
water of the green husks, before they be half ripe, is of excel-
lent 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
cooleth the heat of green wounds and old ulcers, and healeth
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 plague, 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 helpeth deafness, the noise, and other pains in
the ears. The distilled water of the young green leaves in the
end of May, performeth a singular cure on foul running ulcers
and sores, to be bathed with wet cloths or sponges applied U>
them every morning.

The English Physician Enlarged. 355

WOLD, WELD, OR DYER’S WEED.

The common kind groweth bushing with many leaves, long
narrow and flat upon the ground ; of a dark blueish green co-
lour, 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 changeth to be yellow af-
ter it hath been in flower a while.

Place.] It groweth 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 flowereth about June.

Government and Virtues.] Mattfaiolus saith, that the root
hereof curetli tough phlegm, digesteth raw phlegm, thinneth
gross humours, dissolveth hard tumours, and openeth obstruc-
tions. Some do highly commend it against the bitings of veno-
mous creatures, to be taken inwardly and applied outwardly to
the hurt place; as also for the plague or pestilence. The peo-
ple in some counties 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 al-
most all people, that it is altogether needless to write a des-
cription thereof.

Government and Virtues.] It is under Venus. Dioscorides
saith, that to eat the corn of green wheat is hurtful to the sto-

356 The English Physician Enlarged.

mach, and breedeth worms. Pliny saith, that the corns of
wheat, roasted upon an iron pan, and eaten, are a present re-
medy for those that are chilled with cold. The oil pressed from
wheat, between two thick plates of iron, or copper heated,
healeth all tetters and ringworms, being used warm ; and hereby
Galen saith, he hath known many to be cured. Matthiolus
commendeth the same to be put into hollow ulcers to heal them
up, and it is good for chaps 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, heal it; slices of
w heat bread soaked in red rose water, and applied to the eyes
that are hot, red and inflamed, or blood-shotten, helpeth them.
Hot bread applied for an hour at times, for three days together,
perfectly healeth the kernels in the throat, commonly called the
king’s evil. The flour of wheat mixed with the juice of henbane,
stayeth the flux of humours in the joints, being laid thereon.
The said meal being boiled in vinegar, helpeth the shrinking of
the sinews, saith Pliny; and mixed with vinegar, and boiled
together, healeth all freckles, spots or pimples on the face.
Wheat flour, mixed with the yolk of an egg, honey, and tur-
pentine, 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, helpeth them, and
stayeth all inflammations. It helpeth 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. Starch moistened with rose-water, and
laid to the cods, taketli away their itching. Wafers put in
water, and drank, stayeth the lasks and bloody flux, and are
profitably used both inwardly and outwardly for the ruptures in

The English Physician Enlarged. 357

—11— — B— ■ I I III — — — — PWiT i iinnM KICQ l i W— 3—

cliildren. Boiled in water unto a thick jelly, and taken, it
stayeth spitting of blood; and boiled with mint and butter, it
helpeth 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 thereof.

Government and Virtues .] The Moon owns it. Both the
leaves, bark, and the seed, are used to stanch bleeding of wounds
at the mouth and nose, spitting of blood, and other fluxes of
blood in man or woman, and to stay vomiting, and provoca-
tion thereunto, if the decoction of them in wine be drank. It
helpeth 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,
stayeth the heat of lust in man or woman, and quite extinguish-
eth it, if it be long used : the seed is also of the same effect.
Water that is gathered from the willow, when it flowereth, 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
discolour! ngs. 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, taketh away
warts, corns, and superfluous flesh, being applied to the place,
The decoction of the leaves or bark in wine, takes away scurf
and dandrif 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.

358 The English Physician Enlarged.

WOAD.

Descript.) Jt 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 riseth up a lusty stalk, three or four feet
high, with divers leaves set thereon ; the higher the stalk riseth,
the smaller are the leaves ; at the top it spreadeth divers branch-
es, 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 down-
wards. 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 pos-
sesseth 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
stancheth bleeding. A plaster 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 excellent good
in such ulcers as abound with moisture, and takes away the
corroding and fretting humours : It cools inflammations, quench-
etn St. Anthony’s fire, and stayeth defluxion of the blood to
any part of the body

The English Physician Enlarged. 359

WOODBINE, OR HONEY SUCKLES.

Xt 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
that 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 no way
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 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: the Celestial Crab claims dominion
over it, neither is it a foe to the Lion; if the lungs be afliicted
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 mor-
phew, freckles, and sun-burnings, or whatever 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,

360 The English Physician Enlarged.

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 be-
fore I was born, that it was never well in its wits since, and
there is 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, santonicon, 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 of opinion,
their giving so much holiness to herbs, is the reason there re-
mains so little in themselves. The seed of this wormwood is
that which usually women give their children for the worms.
Of all wormwoods that grow here, this is the weakest, but doc-
tors 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 worm-
wood 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 w eak bodies,
(for it is w eak 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

The English Physician Enlarged. .361

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 to the middle re-
gion 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) casteth not
such a smell as the land doth. The tender mercies of God being
over all his works, hath by his eternal providence, planted seri-
phian by the sea side, 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 con-
sumption follows; would you know the reason? It is this, a man’s
flesh is repaired by blood, by a third concoction, which trans-
mutes the blood into fiesh, it is w'ell 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 it makes not
enough, the flesh wasteth : and why must flesh always be re-
newed? Because the eternal God, when he made the creation,
made one part ol 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 aft’fections upon what is transi-
tory, 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.

No. 16. z z

362 The English Physician Enlarged.

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 southern-wood,
only broader and longer ; in taste rather salt than bitter, be-
cause 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 familiar-
ly in England? It may be so called, because it is so good for a
stinking breath which the Romans cannot be very free from,
maintaining so many bawdy-houses by authority of his Holiness.

Descript.] The stalks are slender, and shorter than the com-
mon 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 al-
together 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 groweth 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

The English Physician Enlarged. 363

•raragtg^v'n'yig . ' fc. Ta tv ■ r na » t— ataa—i

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 cleanseth the body of choler (who
dares say Mars doth no good T) It provokes urine, helps surfeits,
or swellings in the belly ; it causeth 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 unfortunate, (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 cow r ards, 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 learn,
and 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, w ormwood 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 ofSaturn, (and take one time with another,) they do
as much harm as good; if any have poisoned himself by eating

364 I he -English Physician Enlarged.

them, wormwood, an herb of Mars, cures him, because Mars is
exalted in Capricorn, the house of Saturn, and this it doth by sym-
pathy, 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 as 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 anti-
pathy 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 fields, the other sheets; then the throat is under Ve-
nus, the quinsey 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 (of which
wormwood is one; and sends them to Egypt on an errand ne-
ver to return more; this is 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;
w ormw ood, 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
her’s. Suppose a man be bitten or stung by a Martial crea-
ture, imagine a wasp, a hornet, a scorpion, w'ornnvood, an
herb of Mars, giveth you a present cure : then Mars, cholerie
as he is, hath learned that patience, to pass by your evil speech-
es of him, and tells you by my pen, that he gives you no af-
fliction, but he gives you a cure; you need not run to Apollo,
nor Aesculapius ; 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 those people that can spy his vices, and not his virtues. The
-eternal God, when he made Mars, made him for public good, and

The English Physician Enlarged. ."G5

the sons of men shall know it in the latter end of the Wor Id. Et
ceelum Mars solus habet. 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 preser-
ver. Astrologers think Mars causeth scabs and itch, and the vir-
gins 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 causeth the cholic (it is well God hath set somebody 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 Chris-
tian 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 woollen draper) yet as brave as they looked, my
opinion was, that the moths might consume them ; moths are un-
der the dominion of Mars; this herb wormwood beins laid amonsr
clothes, will make a moth scorn to meddle with the clothes, 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 ofphysicians, as they lead bears to Paris garden. Mel-
ancholy men cannot endure to be wronged in point of good fame,
and that doth solely trouble old Saturn, because they call him the
greatest infortunate ; in the body of man he rules the spleen,
(and that makes covetous men so splenetic) the poor old man
lies crying out of his left side. Father Saturn is angry, Mars

366 The English Physician Enlarged.

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 poor man : Sa-
turn consented, but spoke little, and so Mars cured him by sym-
pathy. When Mars was free from war, (for he loves to be fight-
ing, 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 be-
cause 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!

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,

Inque domus superum scandere cura facit.

Oh happy he that can the knowledge gain.

To know th’ eternal God made nought in vain.

To this I add,

I know the reason causeth such a dearth
Of knowledge; 'tis because men love the earth.

The other day Mars told me he met with Venus, and he asked
her, what was the reason that she accused him for abusing wo-
men? 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 behindhand, (neither are most

The English Physician Enlarged. 367

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 bitch; Alas! poor Venus, quoth he; What! thou a
fortune, and be drunk? I’ll give thee an antipathetical cure! take
my herb wormwood, and thou shalt never get a surfeit by drink-
ing. 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 sym-
pathy to cure this poor man with drinking a draught of worm-
wood 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 be-
gan 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 physic. There lies a key in these words
which will unlock, (if it be turned by a wise hand) the cabi-
net of physic: 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

368 The English Physician Enlarged.

physic. This shall live when I am dead. And thus I leave it to
the world, not caring a farthing whether they like 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 pride than honesty, shall never trou-
ble me. Wisdom is justified by her children. And so much
for wormwood.

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

ground, finely cut, and divided into many small parts: Its flow-
ers 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 flowereth 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, especi-
ally such as abound w ith 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 running
of the reins in men, and the whites in women, and helps such
as cannot hold their water ; and the leaves chewed in the mouth
easeth the tooth-ach ; 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 his master Chiron, the Centaur; and certainly a very
profitable herb it is in cramps, and therefore called Militaris.

Descript.]

leaves spread upon the

APPENDIX

COMMON AMMOMUM.

Descript. ] r IjHE lower leaves of this Ammonium, are long,
and pinnated, or having small holes growing opposite to one
another, on a common foot stalk, being about an inch long, and
not above half the breadth, broader at the base, and ending
sharper pointed, cut in on the edges, having a single leaf at
the end of the foot-stalk. They are of a bright green colour.
The stalk arises to the height of two or three feet, finely chan-
neled and divided into several branches, on which grow the
like leaves, but much less and finer ; on the tops grow small
umbels of white fiue-leav’d flowers, producing little striated
seed, about the bigness of parsley seed, of a pleasant, h-ot, spi-
cy smell and taste, something like a nutmeg.

Place.] It grows in ditches, banks, and moist places, flow-
ering in summer, its seed, which is the only part used, being
ripe in August.

Virtues.] The seed is hot and dry, attenuating and good to
open obstructions, to cleanse the reins of gravel, aud sometimes
given as carminatives and diuretics, like the other warm seeds,
and usually substituted in the shops for those of the following.

THE TRUE AMMOMUM,

Has been formerly sold by the druggists under the name
of Cardamomum majus, or the greater Cardamoms.

Descript.] It grows in bunches of roundish, triangular cap-
sulae, containing several black corner’d rough seed, like the
lesser Cardamoms, of a hot aromatic taste, ft can hardly be
gathered, what the true ammonium of the ancients was, their
descriptions thereof being so short and confused; but it is the
opinion of the most learned and discerning authors, that the
above-mentioned fruit answers best to the description of the
ancients, and comes nearest to its virtues.

3 A

1 '

370

APPENDIX.

Virtues.'] It is warming and comforting, strengthens the sto-
mach, helps digestion, expels wind, and is good against the
cholic and cold disorders of the stomach and bowels, as also
against the biting of venomous creatures.

EPIMEDIUM ; OR, BARRENWORT,

Is a shrub-like plant, shooting forth sundry, hard, round
stalks, half a yard or two feet high, each stalk divided for
the most part into three branches, and each of them bearing
three leaves a-piece, winch are severally, somewhat broad and
round, yet pointed at the ends, hard or dry in feeling, and a lit-
tle sharply dented about the edges, of a light green colour on
the upper side, and whiter underneath : from the middle of
some of the stalks or leaves, shooteth forth with them from the
first rising up of them, a small long footstalk of flowers, not
much higher than the stalks of leaves, divided into branches,
containing on each of them three flowers, separated into four
parts, as if the flower consisted of but four leaves, whereas
each part hath but two leaves, one lying close upon another,
the inner being yellow and smaller than the lower, which are
red, so that the red edge appeareth round about the yellow,
making it seem a yellow flower of four leaves, with red edges;
it hath also a few yellow threads in the middle, set with green,
the under side of the flowers, being of a yellowish red colour,
striped with white lines, which being past, small long pods ap-
pear, with flatfish red seed in them, the roots are small and
fibrous, hard and reddish, spreading much under ground, and
delighteth best in shadowy, rather than sunny places; the
scent of the plant is rather strong than pleasant.

Virtues.] We have not any late experience hereof to shew
but as Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen, have set down of it,
that it is moderately cold and moist, without any special pro-
perty more, than to keep women’s breasts from growing too
great, being made into a cataplasm, with oil, and applied; and
that the report went, that the root would make women barren
that took it inwardly, as also the leaves made in powder, and
take u in wine for some time.

APPENDIX.

371

WHITE BEHEN.

This herb has a long, thick, whitish, woody root, not
much branched ; from which spring several smooth weak
stalks, about two feet high, with pretty large joints ; at each
of which grow two leaves opposite to one another without foot-
stalks, two or three feet long, and about an inch broad, sharp-
pointed at the end, of a glaucous or blueish green colour,
smooth and without any indentures about the edges. The
flowers grow on the tops of long foot-stalks, several together,
of five small white leaves a-piece, standing in a loose swelled
round husk or bladder, of a greenish white colour, with seve-
ral fine darker veins; this encloses the roundish calyx, in
which are contained small brown seed.

Place.] It is frequently to be met with in meadows and corn-
fields, and flowers in July and August.

Virtues.] The roots are only used ; and as to their qualities,
they are accounted cordial, cephalic, alexipharmic, and a pro-
vocative to venery. It is but seldom used.

BUCK-BEAN, OR MARSH TREFOIL.

Marsh Trefoil has smooth round stalks three or four
inches long, on which grow three longish round leaves, some-
what resembling the leaves of beans ; among these arise stalks
about two feet high, bare of leaves, and bearing on the top a
spike of whitish purple flowers, of one leaf divided into five
segments, whose inside is covered with a curled downiness,
having five whitish chives in the middle, all set in five cornered
calyces. The seed is small and brown, growing in roundish
seed-vessels; the root is long and jointed, with many whitish
fibres at each joint.

Place.] It grows in marshy, boggy grounds, and flowers in
May and June. The leaves are used.

Virtues.] This is reckoned a great antiscorbutic, and very
serviceable for the gout, rheumatism, and dropsy, and is much

272

APPENDIX.

used in diet-drinks for those distempers. It is likewise a good
stomachic, made use of against intermitting fevers. It is like-
wise extolled against the scurvy. It is good in scorbutic con-
sumption, in the itch, and other cutaneous diseases. It is good
in gargles for the rottenness of the gums, and to fasten the
teeth. It is given in powder, from a scruple to a dram and
upwards. In broth, water, or whey, a handful or two when
decocted.

BUR REED.

Descript.] A COMMON water plant, with leaves like flags
and rough heads of seeds : it is two qr three feet high. The
stalks are round, green, thick, and upright. The leaves are
very long and narrow, sharp at the edges with a sharp ridge ou
the back along the middle; they are of a pale green, and look
fresh and beautiful. The flowers are inconsiderable and yellow-
ish : they stand in a kind of circular tufts about the upper parts
of the stalk : lower down stand the rough fruits called burs,
from whence the plant obtained its name : they are of the big-
ness of a large nutmeg, green and rough. The root is composed
of a quantity of white fibres.

Virtues.] The unripe fruit is used. They are astringent, and
good against fluxes of the belly, and bleedings of all kinds; the
best way of giving them is infused in a rough red wine, with a
little cinnamon. They use them in some parts of England ex-
ternally for wounds. A strong decoction of them is made to
wash old ulcers, and the juice is applied to fresh hurts, and
they say with great success.

CORN MARIGOLD.

Descript.] A VERY beautiful wild plant growing in corn-
fields, with large bluish leaves, and full of flowers like mari-
golds. It is two feet high ; the stalks are numerous, round, stiff,
tolerably upright, and branched ; the leaves stand irregularly,
and are long, very broad, and of a bluish green; they are small-

APPENDIX.

373

est towards the base, and larger at the end, and they are deep-
ly cut in at the sides. The flowers are as broad as half a crown,
and of a very beautiful yellow ; they have a cluster of threads
in the middle. The root is fibrous.

The flowers, fresh gathered and just opened, contain the
greatest virtue. They are good against all obstructions, and
work by urine. An infusion of them, given in the quantity of
half a pint warm, three times a day, has been known to cure a
jaundice, without any other medicine; the dried herb has the
same virtue, but in a less degree.

COW-WHEAT.

Descript.] A COMMON wild plant in our woods and thick-
ets, with narrow leaves, and bright yellow flowers. It is eight
or ten inches high. The stalks are square and slender; very
brittle, weak, and seldom quite upright. The leaves are ob-
long and narrow; sometimes of a dusky green colour, but of-
tener purplish or blackish ; they are broadest at the base, and
small all the way to the point; and they are commonly, but
not always indented a little about the edges. The flowers stand,
or rather hang, all on one side of the stalk, in a kind of loose
spike ; they are small and yellow, and grow two together. The
seeds which follow these are large, and have something of the
aspect of wheat, from whence the plant has its odd name.

Virtues.] These seeds are the part used; they are to be dri-
ed and given in powder, but in small doses. They have virtues,
which few seem to imagine ; they are a high cordial and provo-
cative to venery ; but if given in too large a dose, they occa-
sion the head-ach and a strange giddiness. I knew an instance
of a woman who had boiled the fresh tops of the plant in a
large quantity in water, as a remedy for the jaundice, (I know
not by what information,) and having drank this in large draughts
was as a person drunk and out of her senses ; she complained of
numbness in her limbs, and seemed in danger ofher life, but
nature recovered her after a few hours without other assistance.

374

appendix.

LONG CYPERUS,

Descript .] A WILD plant in our marshes, fens, and other
damp places. It is a foot and a half high. The leaves are, a
foot long or more, narrow, grassy, and of a bright green co-
lour, flat, and sharp at the ends. The stalk is triangular and
green ; there are no leaves on it, except two or three small ones
at the top, from which there rises a number of small tufts or
spikes of flowers. These are brown, light, chaffy, and in all
respects like those of the other water grasses.

L irlues.] The root is used. It is long and brown, and when
dried, is of a pleasant smell, and aromatic warm taste. It should
be taken up in spring. It is good against pains in the head,
and it promotes urine.

SWEET FLAG.

Descript .] A COMMON wild plant that grows undistin-
guished among the flags and rushes, by our ditch sides. The
old physicians meant another thing by calamus aromaticus : they
gave this name to the dried stalks of a plant, but at present it is
used as the name of the root of this. The sweet flag grows three
feet high, but consists only of leaves without a stalk. They are
long, narrow, and of a pale green colour. Among these there
are commonly three or four in all respects like the rest, but that
they have a cluster of flowers breaking out at one side, within
five or six inches of the top. This is long, brown, and thick,
and resembles a catkin of a filbert tree, only it is longer and
thicker. The root is long, flatfish, and creeping: it is of a
strong and rather unpleasant smell when fresh, but it becomes
very fragrant, and aromatic in drying. Our own has its value,
because we can have it fresh, but the dried root is better had of
the druggists; they have it from warmer countries, where it is
more fragrant.

Virtues.] The juice of the fresh root of acorus is excellent
to promote the menses, it works by urine moderately, and gives

APPENDIX.

375

no offence to the stomach. The dried rcot is cordial and su-
dorific, it warms the stomach, and is good against indigestions
and fevers.

FOOL’S STONES.

Descript.] A BEAUTIFUL wild plant in our meadows and
pastures in June. The leaves are long and spotted, and the
flowers are purple. It grows ten inches high. The leaves are
six inches long, and three quarters of an inch broad, of a very
deep green, with large and irregular blotches of black in differ-
ent parts. The stalk is round, thick, upright, single, and
fleshy; it has two or three smaller leaves of the same figure,
and at the top stand the flowers, in a spike of an inch and a
half long; they are not very large, and of a shape different
from the generality of flowers; their colour is a deep and glos-
sy purple; but sometimes they are white. The whole plant is
juicy. The root consists of two round bulbs or two round
lumps, like a pair of testicles, and is white and full of a slimy
juice.

Virtues.] The root is the only part used. It is supposed to
be a strengthener of the parts of generation, and a promoter of
veneral desires; but with what truth one cannot say. Exter-
nally applied in cataplasms, it is excellent in hard swellings.
There are a great many other kinds of orchis in our meadows,
but only this is used. The root, called salep by our druggists,
is brought from Turkey, and is the root of a plant of this kind.
It is strengthening and restorative, good in consumptions and
all decays

FROG BIT.

Descript.] A LITTLE plant, not uncommon on waters,
with round leaves and small white flowers. It has been by the
common writers called a kind of water lily, because its leaves
are round, and it floats upon the water, but it is as distinct as
any thing can be, when we regard the flower. Duck-weed has
round leaves, and floats upon the water, and it might be called

376

APPENDIX.

water lily for that reason, if that were sufficient. The leaves
are of a roundish figure, and a dusky dark green colour; they
are of the breadth of a crown piece, and they rise many toge-
ther in tufts, from the same part of the stalk. This stalk runs
along at a little distance under the surface of the water, and
from it descend the roots, but they do not reach down into the
mud, but play loose like the fibres of duckweed in the water.
The flowers stand singly upon slender foot-stalks ; they are white,
and composed of three leaves a-piece, which give them a singu-
lar appearance.

Virtues.] The fresh leaves are used in outward applications,
and are very cooling.

GOLD OF PLEASURE.

Descript.] A VERY pretty plant common in many parts of
England, and known at sight by the vast quantity of seed ves-
sels. It is two feet, high : the stalk is round, thick, firm, up-
right, and toward the top has a great many branches, all stand-
ing upright. The leaves stand irregularly, and are not nume-
rous, they are long, not very broad, and of a pale green; they
are indented about the edges, and surround the stalk at the base ;
the flowers are little and white; the seed vessels are short and
roundish, and they stand in vast quantities, forming a kind of
spikes all the way up the tops of the branches, with few flowers
at the summit.

Virtues.] The fresh tops of the plant are to be used before
it is run to seed. An infusion of them sweetened with honey,
is excellent for sore throats, and ulcerations of the mouth.
The seeds yield a great quantity of oil on pressing, and they
are so plentiful, that it might seem worth while to cultivate the
plant for them ; the oil is pleasant and well tasted.

GLASSWORT.

Descjnpt.] A COMMON w'ild plant, on the sea coasts of
many parts of Europe, but not a native of our country. It is

APPENDIX.

377

called cochleated kali, from the form of its seed-vessels, which
are twisted in the manner of a snail’s shell. It grows to a foot
and a half in height. The stalk is round, thick, fleshy, and
brittle. The leaves are few, and they stand irregularly; they
are oblong, and blunted at the ends, and of a bluish green colour.
The flowers are small, inconsiderable, and yellow.

Virtues .] The juice of the fresh plant is said to be an excel-
lent diuretic ; but we have no opportunities of knowing its vir-
tues here. Some say the seed vessels have the same virtue, and
give them in infusion, but we have better remedies of the same
kind, of our own growth. The whole plant is burnt for its fixed
salt, which is used in making glass.

GOAT’S BEARD.

Descript.] A COMMON wild plant, distinguished in our
meadows by its narrow and green leaves, and the long leaves of
the cup, about its yellow flowers. It grows to a foot and a half
in height. The leaves are very narrow ; they are broadest at the
base, and smaller all the way to the point. The stalk is round,
thick, firm, very upright, and towards the top divided into two
or three branches. The flowers stand at the extremities of the
stalks; they are of a beautiful pale yellow, very large aud sur-
rounded by a cup, composed of long and narrow green leaves,
which, for the greatest part of the day, are closed over it, so
that it seems only in bud. The seeds are winged with a fine
white down, in the manner of those of dandelion, and when ripe,
they stand upon the tops of the branches, in a round head, in
the same manner. The root is long, and white; and the whole
plant is full of a milky juice, which, after it has been a little time
exposed to the air, becomes yellow', and thick like cream.

Virtues.] The root is used. It is so pleasant in taste, that it
may be eaten in the manner of carrots, and other roots at table,
but it exceeds them all in its qualities. It is an excellent restora-
tive, and will do great service to people after long illnesses:
the best way ot giving it for this purpose, is to boil it first in
water, and then cutting it to pieces, boil it again in milk, which

3 B

378

APPENDIX.

is to be rendered palatable in the usual way ; it becomes thus
a most excellent medicine, in the form of food.

GROUND PINE.

Descript .] A VERY singular little wild plant, of a mossy ap-
pearance, and resinous smell: it grows four inches high; the
stalks are hairy, and seldom stand upright; the leaves are very
close set, and the young shoots which grow from their bosoms
perfectly obscure the stalk ; it seems a thick round tuft. These
leaves are short, narrow, and divided into three parts at their
ends, and they stand two at every joint of the stalk: they are
rough and hairy like the stalk. The flowers are little and yel-
low, and they stand at the joints.

Virtues.] The whole plant is used, and it has great virtue;
it is to be used dry in powder or infusion. It works strongly by
urine, and promotes the menses. It opens also all obstructions
of the liver and spleen, and is good-imj^ujudice, tiie-i h e t u n a 1 1 s m,
and most of the chronic disorders.

HARE’S FOOT.

Descript . j ThIS plant seldom rises very high, but spreads out
into m^iny slender branches, having small narrow hairy trefoil
leaves set at every joint ; on the tops of the branches grow short
round heads composed of small papilionaceous pale purple flow-
ers, each set in a soft woody calyx, making the heads appear
soft apd downy. The seed is small, lying at the bottom of the
calyx ; the root is little, and perishes yearly. It is found fre-
quently among corn, and in fallow fields; and flowers in June
and July. The whole plant is used, though not very often.

Virtues .] Hare’s-foot is drying and binding; accounted good
for a diarrhea and dysentery, and to stop the too great flux of
the catamenia and the fluor albus. It helps the ulceration of
the bladder, and heat and pain in making watet.

APPENDIX.

379

GOOD HENRY, or ENGLISH MERCURY.

Descript. ] TlIIS Mercury has a thick, yellowish, percunial
root, with several fibres; the leaves grow upon long foot-stalks
of a triangular shape, like spinnage, of a yellow green colour,
feeling greasy or unctuous in handling. The stalks grow to be
about a foot high, with several of the like leaves growing on
them ; and on their tops spikes of small herbaceous flowers, in-
closing little round black shining seed. It grows in waste pla-
ces, among rubbish; and flowers sometime in the spring.

Virtues.] This herb is of a detersive cleansing quality. The
young shoots, before they come to seed, boiled as spinnage or
asparagus, are pleasant to the palate, cooling, soluble, and good
for the scurvy, and provoke urine; outwardly it is much used in
clysters, and a cataplasm of the leaves helps pains of the gout.

HONEYWORT.

Descript.] A JUICY plant frequently wild in many parts of
Europe, but with us kept in gardens. It has its name from the
sweet taste of the flowers. Almost all flowers have a drop of ho-
ney juice in their bottom : this is indeed the real substance of ho-
ney, for the bees only pick it out and get it together : the hollow
flowers in general have more of it, or it is better preserved in them
than others, but scarce any in so great a degree as this plant nam-
ed from it. It is two feet high, when kept erect, but if left to itself,
is very apt to lean upon the ground. The stalk is round, thick, jui-
cy, and tender; the leaves are large, oblong, broad, they sur-
round and inclose the stalk at their base; they are of a bluish
green colour, spotted or clouded irregularly with white, and
they are full of a sort of prickles. The flowers grow at the top
of the stalks, several together, among the clusters of leaves ; they
are hollow, oblong, and very wide open at the mouth ; their co-
lour is yellow, variegated with purple in the middle, and they
have a very pretty appearance.

330

APPENDIX.

Virtues.] Tlie fresh gathered tops of the plant are to be used ;
an infusion of them is cooling, and works by urine. It is good
against scorbutic complaints, and in the jaundice.

THE JACINTH, OR HYACINTH.

nr

Descript.] fi HE common spring plant our children gather
with their cowslips and May flowers, and call blue bells. The root
is white and roundish ; the leaves are narrow and long, like grass,
but of a deep green colour, and smooth surface: the stalks are
round, upright, and smooth ; they have no leaves on them. The
flowers are large, and of a beautiful blue; they are hollow, ob-
long, and turn up at the rim. The root is the part used.

Virtues.] It abounds in a slimy juice, but it is to be dried,
and this must be done carefully ; the decoction of it operates
well by urine; and the powder is balsamic, and somewhat styp-
tic. It is not enough known. There is hardly a more power-
ful remedy for the whites.

FLEABANE.

Descript.] A PRETTY wild plant, frequent about damp
places, with whitish leaves and large yellow flowers in autumn.
It is two feet high. The stalk is round and erect, very firm
and strong, and is often of a reddish colour. The leaves are
numerous, and stand irregularly; they are above an inch long,
moderately broad, of a rough surface, and whitish green. The
flowers stand at the top of the branches ; they are broader than
a shilling, yellow, and composed of many narrow petals. The
whole plant has a disagreeable smell.

Virtues.] It is disputed whether this kind of fleabane, or
another which is smaller, and has globous flowers, have the
greater virtue; but most give it for this. The juice of the
whole plant cures the itch, applied externally ; and the very
smell of the herb is said to destroy fleas.

APPENDIX.

381

BLACK HOREHOUND.

Descript.'] A COMMON wild plant of a disagreeable smell,
thence also called by some stinking horehound. The stalks
are square, the leaves grow two at every joint, and are broad,
short, and of a blackish green colour, but in shape not unlike
those of the white kind. The flowers stand in clusters round
the stalk at the joints, as in the other, but they are red. The
whole plant has a dismal aspect. The root is fibrous.

Virtues.] The plant is to be used fresh and dried, and it
has more virtue than most imagine. It is to be given in the
form of tea : it promotes the menses, and is superior to most
things as a remedy in hysteric cases, faintings, convulsions, and
loyv-spiritedness, and all the train of those disorders.

MILKWORT.

Descript.] A COMMON little plant upon our heaths, and in
dry pastures, with numerous leaves and blue or white flowers, (for
this is a variety and caused by accident) disposed in loose spikes.
The root is long, and divided into several parts, the stalks are ve-
ry numerous, and very much branched, they are slender and
w'eak, and they spread themselves upon the ground, forming a lit-
tle green tuft. There is great variety in the appearance of the
plant, beside what has been already named in the colour of the
flower ; nor is that indeed the only variation there : so that it has
been divided into two or three kinds by some writers, but as all
these will rise from the same seed, and only are owing to the soil
and exposure, the plant is without doubt the same in every ap-
pearance, and its virtues are the same in which ever state it is ta-
ken. When it grows in barren places, the stalks are not more than
three or four inches in length, and the leaves are very numerous,
short, and of an oval figure. The flowers are in this case small
and blue, sometimes whitish, striated with blue, and sometimes

382

APPENDIX.

intirely white. When the plant grows in-a somewhat more favour-
ablesoil, the leaves are oblong and narrow, pointed at the ends,
and of a beautiful green, the stalks are five or six inches long, and
the flowers in this case are commonly blue, and this is the most
ordinary state of the plant. When it grows in very favourable
places, as upon the damp side of a hill, where there are springs,
and among the tall grass, then its leaves are longer, its stalks more
robust and more upright, and its flowers are red. These are the
several appearances of this little plant, and it is all one in which
of them it is taken. The root is often of a considerable thick-
ness, and single, but it is more usually divided and smaller; it
is whitish, and of a disagreeable acrid taste.

Virtues .] This plant had passed unregarded as to any medi-
cinal use, till Dr. Tennent brought into England the senekka
root, famous in America against the effects of the bite of the rat-
tle-snake, and found here to be of service in pleurisies : but
when it was found, that this was the root of a kind of milkwort,
not very different from our own, we tried the roots of our own
kind, and found them effectual in the same cases : as to the poi-
sonous bites of a serpent, they are so uncommon here, that we
need not regard that part of the qualities, but we find it good in
the other disorder, and in all diseases in which the blood is thick
and sizy. The fresh root isbest, but it has not its full virtue except
in spring, when the stalks are just shooting out of the ground,
for this reason it is most proper to take it up at that time, and
dry it for the service of the year. When fresh, it is best given in
infusion : but when dried, it is kept in powder.

WATER MINT.

Descript .] A COMMON wild plant of the mint kind, not so
much regarded as it deserves. It is frequent by ditch sides. It is
a foot and half high. The stalks are square, upright, firm, and
strong, and generally of a brown colour; the leaves are broad
and short ; they stand two at a joint, and are of a brownish or

APPENDIX.

383

deep green colour, somewhat hairy, and serrated about the ed-
ges. The flowers are larger than those of common mint, and are
of a pale red colour; they stand in round thick clusters at the
tops of the stalks, and round the upper joints. The whole plant
has a strong smell, not disagreeable, but of a mixed kind be-
tween that of mint, and penny royal: and the taste is strong
and acrid, but it is not to be called disagreeable.

Virtues .] A distilled water of this plant is excellent against
colics, pains in the stomach and bowels, and it will bring down
the menses. A single dose of it often cures the colic. The
use of peppermint has excluded this kind from the present prac-
tice, but all three ought to be used. Where a simple weak-
ness of the stomach is the complaint, the common mint should
be used ; when colicy pains alone, the peppermint; and where
suppressions of the menses are in the case, this wild water mint :
they may all be given in the way of tea, but a simple water
distilled from them, and made sufficiently strong, is by much
the most efficacious.

MILK THISTLE.

Descript .] A VERY beautiful plant, common by road-sides,
but wanting only to have been a native of Greece, or the In-
dies, to be esteemed one of the most elegant vegetables in the
world. The leaves rising from the root are two feet long, and
more than a foot broad, of a beautiful deep green, variegated
all over with irregular lines of a milk white, dentated deeply
at the edges, and prickly. They spread themselves into a round
of more than a yard diameter, and when they grow out of the
way of dust, make a most charming appearance. A single
stalk rises in the midst of these. It is five feet high, round,
thick, very firm, upright, and divided at the top into a few
branches. The leaves on it are like those from the root, and
variegated with white in the same manner. At the tops stand
the flowers, which are of the nature of those of other thistles,
but twice as big, ami vastly more beautiful. The flowery part

384

APPENDIX.

is of a deep and fine purple ; the head itself is composed of
beautiful scales arranged with great regularity, and each ter-
minating in a single and very strong prickle ; the root is long
and thick; the seeds are winged with down.

Virtues .] The root and seeds are used.' An infusion of the
fresh root removes obstructions, and works by urine : it is good
against the jaundice. The seeds beaten up into an emulsion
with barley-water are good in pleurisies. The young leaves
with the prickles cut oft', are excellent boiled in the way of
cabbage ; they are very wholesome, and exceed all other greens
in taste.

OXEYE.

Descript.] A VERY beautiful wild plant, common in the
North of England, but not in other parts of the kingdom. It
grows a foot and a half high. Thestalk is round, firm, and blanch-
ed ; the leaves are numerous ; they are divided each into a mul-
titude of fine segments, so that at a distance they somewhat re-
semble the leaves of yarrow, but they are whitish. The flowers
are large and yellow ; they somewhat resemble a marigold in
form, and they stand at the tops of the branches.

Virtues.] The fresh herb is used ; they boil it in ale, and
give it as a remedy for the jaundice : it works by urine.

INDIAN SPIKENARD.

Descript.] .A.N East Indian plant, of the grass kind, with
triangular stalks, and yellowish flowers. It resembles not a
little that common yellow tufted grass, which is frequent in our
meadows in spring. It is six or eight inches high. The leaves
are long, narrow, and of a pale green; they are very numerous,
and stand in a tliick tuft almost growing together at the bases.
The stalks rise among these; they are naked, triangular, and
of a pale, green colour; the flowers stand in tufts, of the big-
ness of an horsebean, on the tops of the stalks; they are black-

APPENDIX.

385

ish, but ornamented with yellow threads, which give the whole
a yellowish appearance. This is the plant, some samples of
which have been of late brought over as the Indian spikenard,
and there is reason and authority for supposing they are so.
The tops of the roots have that sort of tuft of hairy matter,
which we call Indian spikenard, growing to them ; and it is of
the nature of the hairy top of the spignel root, owing to the
fibres of decayed leaves. Breynius also calls the plant which
affords the Indian spikenard, a kind of cyperus grass.

Virtues.] The tuft of fibres at the tops of the root of this
plant, is what we call Indian spikenard; they are brown, flat-
fish, matted together, and of a pleasant smell : they are good
in disorders of the nerves, and hysteric cases; but so many bet-
ter medicines are at hand, that it is rarely used.

SNEEZEWORT, WITH SERRATED LEAVES.

Descript.] ROM a woody, creeping fibrous root, of a hot bit-
ing taste, this plant sends out upright stalks, a foot or more high,
stiff', and not much branched, having long narrow leaves, finely
serrated about the edges, growing on them without any order;
the flowers grow umbel-fashion on the tops of the stalks, consist-
ing of a border of white petela, set about a fistular thrum ; they
are larger than the flowers of the yarrow.

Place.] It grows in moist meadows, and watery places, and
flowers in July.

Virtues.] It is of a hot biting taste ; and therefore it is sometimes
put into sallads to correct the coldness of other herbs. The roots
held in the mouth helps the tooth ach, by evacuating the rheum,
like pellitory of Spain ; the powder of the herb snuffed up the nose
causes sneezing, and cleanses the head of tough slimy humours.

SPEEDWELL.

Descript.] .A. COMMON little plant in our dry pastures, and
on heaths. The stalks are six or eight inches long; the leaves are
short, and of an oval figure. The stalks are not upright: they

3 c

386

APPENDIX.

trail along the ground, only risingat their upper parts. The leaves
are of a pale green colour, a little hairy and dentated at the edges :
the flowers are small and blue ; they grow in slender spikes, aris-
ing from the bosoms of the leaves; the root is small and fibrous.

Virtues .] The whole herb is used, and it is best fresh. An
infusion of it drank in quantities, works by urine, and opens all
obstructions ; it promotes the menses. There was an opinion late-
ly that this plant would cure the gout. The dried leaves picked
from the stalks, were sold in our markets, and people made a tea of
them. The opinion was so prevalent, that the plant was in a man-
ner destroyed for many miles about London, but like all other
things, that want truth for their foundation, it came to nothing.

WHITLOW-GRASS.

Descript .] A COMMON little plant, early in spring, on our
walls and houses, and of a very singular aspect; it is red, and
has pretty white flowers. It is not more than four inches high ;
the stalks are round, upright, and a little hairy; and they are
covered with an unctuous clamminess, which makes them stick
to the fingers in handling. The leaves are little, and also red ;
they are each divided into three parts at the extremity, in the
way of fingers: they stand irregularly on the stalks, and they
are thick, fleshy, and clammy in handling. The flowers stand
at the tops of the branches; they are little, but of a very bright
white, and look very conspicuous. The whole plant dies away
as soon as it has ripened the seed, and is not to be seen again
till the next spring.

Virtues.] The fresh gathered plant is to be used entire:
a strong infusion of it is a very great sweetener of the blood.
It is excellent against the scurvy in whatever form; and there
are accounts of its curing the king’s evil, that seem very well
attested. A syrup may be made of its juice, or of a very strong
infusion of it; or a conserve of the leaves: for the dried plant
has very little virtue, and it is to be had fresh only a very small
part of the year.

APPENDIX.

387

WATER ARROW HEAD.

Descript.] VERY pretty plant, common in our ditches,

with leaves like the bearded heads of arrows, and with pretty
white flowers. It is two feet and a half high, but generally the
greatest part of the stalk is buried in water, very little appear-
ing above, except the spike of flowers. The leaves stand each
upon a pedicle, which is round, thick, and very long; they are
of a beautiful green, and are broad, and bearded at the base,
and sharp at the point; the flowers are white, tolerably large,
and very bright ; and the stalk, on which they are supported,
is also round and thick.

Virtues.] The common people in many places have a custom
of applying these leaves bruised to inflammations; they cool
and give ease, but it is not always right.

WATER PLANTAIN.

Descript.] A VERY common tall plant in ditches, and hav-
ing not the least resemblance of any kind of plantain, except in
the leaves; from which, however, it has received its name.
The root is composed of a great quantity of fibres. From this,
there rise in spring a number of leaves, oblong, broad, smooth,
and of a beautiful green colour, and having in shape, though
not at all in colour or consistence, some slight resemblance of
plantain: they are perfectly smooth, of a glossy surface, and
brittle. These stand for many months without the stalk; and
doubtless in this state it got the name. The stalk is two feet
or more in height; round, firm, and upright; and at the top it
sends out a vast number of branches, which send out' others
smaller; and even these last are again divided. On the tops
of the last divisions stand the flowers with their Uuds, and the
seed-vessels; so that the whole has the appearance of a cone.
The flow ers are little and white, and consist of three leaves each :
they stand but a little time, and only a few' are seen together.

Virtues.] The seed is the part used : the plant is to be suffer-
ed to stand, till this is thoroughly ripe, and then cut up gently.

388

APPENDIX.

and laid to dry two or three days upon a table: a smart stroke
or two, will dislodge a great quantity of the seeds; they are
very good against the overflowing of the menses, and all other
bleedings ; and are given in powder, in electuaries, small doses
being to be taken at a time, and often repeated.

WOODRUFFE.

Descript.] A COMMON little wild plant, in our woods and
thickets : it is ten inches high. The stalk is square, slender,
weak, and not able to support itself perfectly upright. The
leaves stand several at each joint, encompassing the stalk in the
manner of a star; they are oblong, broad, and of a deep green.
In their form and manner of growth they much resemble those
of common cleavers, but they are larger, though the plant is so
much less, and they are not rough as in that plant, but nearly
smooth. The flowers stand at the tops of the stalks in little
clusters; they are small and white; the seeds stand two toge-
ther in a globular form. The roots are little and fibrous.

Virtues.] The fresh herb is used, and is best given in a strong
decoction; it opens obstructions of the liver and spleen, and is
a cordial, and stomachic. It is good in the jaundice.

SEA WORMWOOD.

Descript.] A PLANT common in our salt-marshes, and
about ditches, where salt water comes. It has somewhat the as-
pect of wormwood, but the leaves are much narrower in the
divisions, and the whole plant is smaller. The stalks are woody,
firm, upright, very much branched, and a foot and a half high.
The leaves are whitish and small. The flowers stand in loose
spikes at the tops of the stalks; they are little and brown ; and
.they very fnuch resemble those of the common w'ormwood, ex-
cept for the size. The whole plant has a bitter taste but not
disagreeable, and it lias a pleasant aromatic smell.

Virtues.] The tops fresh gathered, and the whole plant dry, are
used. They call it Roman wormwood at the markets and in the

Directions for making Syrups, <SfC. 389

shops; and it is used for the other; it has the same general vir-
tues. All the three kinds indeed possess them in common ; but
the common wormwood is the most disagreeable to the taste, and
sits worst upon the stomach : this is better than that, but it is
much more disagreeable than the true Roman wormwood. It
is very strengthening to the stomach ; it assists digestion, and
prevents wind. It is commonly an ingredient in the bitter in-
fusions, and tinctures of the shops, but it does very well alone ;
boiling water poured upon it, and suffered to stand till it is cold,
then strained off, is an excellent medicine to cause an appetite.
Put into white wine, it also gives a pleasant bitter flavour, with
the same virtues.

DIRECTIONS.

Having in divers places of this treatise promised you the
way of making syrups, conserves, oils, ointments, &c. of herbs,
roots, flowers, &c. whereby you may have them ready for your
use at such times when they cannot be had otherwise ; I come
now to perform what I promised, and you shall find me rather
better than worse than my word.

That this may be done methodically, I shall divide my direc-
tions into two grand sections, and each section into several
chapters, and then you shall see it look with such a counte-
nance as this is.

SECT. I.

Of gathering, drying, and keeping Simples, and their

Juices.

\

Chap. 3. Of Seeds.

Chap. 4. Of Roots.

Chap. 5. Of Barks.

Chap. 6. Oj Juices.

C

'HAP. I. Of leaves of
Herbs, Sfc.

Chap. 2. Of Flowers.

390 Directions for making Syrups, fyc.

SECT. II.

Of making and keeping Compounds.

OyHAP. l. Of distilled
Waters.

Chap. 2. Of Syrups.
Chap. 3. Of Juleps.

Chap. 4. Of Decoctions.
Chap. 5. Of Oils.

Chap. 6. Of Electuaries.
Chap. 7. Of Conserves.
Chap. 8. Of Preserves.

Chap. 9. Of Lohochs.
Chap. 10. Of Ointments.
Chap. 11. Of Plaisters.
Chap. 12. Of Poultices.
Chap. 13. Of Troches.

Chap. 14. Of Pills.

Chap. 15. The way of fitting
Medicines to Compound
Diseases.

Of all these in order.

CHAP. 1.

Of leaves of Herbs, or Trees.

1* Of leaves, choose only such as are green, and full of
juice; pick them carefully, and castaway such as are any way de-
clining, for they will putrify the rest. So shall one handful be
worth ten of those you buy in Cheapside.

2. Note what places they most delight to grow in, and gather
them there ; for betony that grows in the shade, is far better than
that which grows in the Sun, because it delights in the shade ; so
also such herbs as delight to grow near the water, shall be ga-
thered near it, though haply you may find some of them upon
dry ground : The treatise will inform you where every herb
delights to grow.

3. The leaves of such herbs as run up to seed, are not so
good when they are in flower as before (some few excepted, the
leaves of which are seldom or never used) in such cases, if
through ignorance they were not known, or through negligence
forgotten, you had better take the top and the flowers, than
the leaf.

4. Dry them well in the Sun, and not in the shade, as the say-
ing of the physician is; for if the Sun draw away the virtues of
the herb, it must needs do the like by hay, by the same rule, which

Directions for making Syrups, fyc. 39 1

the experience of every country farmer will explode for a notable
piece of nonsense.

5. Such as are artists in astrology (and indeed none else are
fit to make physicians) such I advise; let the planet that go-
verns the herb be angular, and the stronger the better; if they
can, in herbs of Saturn, let Saturn be in the ascendant; in the
herbs of Mars, let Mars be in the mid-heaven, for in those
houses they delight; let the Moon apply to them bv good as-
pect, and let her not be in the houses of her enemies ; if you
cannot well stay till she apply to them, let her apply to a planet
of the same triplicity; if you cannot wait that time neither,
let her be with a fixed star of their nature.

6. Having well dried them, put them up in brown paper,
sewing the paper up like a sack, and press them not too hard
together, and keep them in a dry place near the fire.

7. As for the duration of dried herbs, a just time cannot be
given, let authors prate their pleasure ; for,

1st, Such as grow upon dry grounds will keep better than
such as grow on moist.

2dly. Such herbs as are full of juice, will not keep so long as
such as are drier.

3dly. Such herbs as are well dried, will keep longer than such
as are slack dried. Yet you may know when they are corrupted,
by their loss of colour, or smell, or both; and, if they be cor-
rupted, reason will tell you that they must needs corrupt the
bodies of those people that take them.

8. Gather all leaves in the hour of that planet that governs
them.

CHAP. II. Of Flowers.

TPhE flower, which is the beauty of the plant, and of none
of the least use in physic, groweth yearly, and is to be gather-
ed when it is in its prime.

2. As for the time of gathering them, let the planetary hour,
and the plant they come off, be observed, as we shewed you in
the foregoing chapter : as for the time of the day, let it be when

392 Directions for making Syrups , SfC.

the sun shines upon them, that so they may be dry; for, if you
gather either flowers or herbs when they are wet or dewy, they
will not keep.

3. Dry them well in the sun, and keep them in papers near
the fire, as I shewed you in the foregoing chapter.

4. So long as they retain the colour and smell, they are good ;
either of them being gone, so is their virtue also.

CHAP. III. Of Seeds.

1. JThE seed is that part of the plant which is endowed with
a vital faculty to bring forth its like, and it contains potentially
the whole plant in it.

2. As for place, let them be gathered from the place where
they delight to grow.

3. Let them be full ripe when they are gathered ; and forget
not the celestial harmony before mentioned, for I have found,
by experience, that their virtues are twice as great at such times
as at others: “ There is an appointed time for every thing un-
der the sun.”

4. When you have gathered them, dry them a little, and but
a little, in the sun before you lay them up.

5. You need not be so careful of keeping them so near the
fire, as the other before mentioned, because they are fuller of
spirit, and therefore not so subject to corrupt.

6. As for the time of their duration, it is palpable they will
keep a good many years; yet they are best the first year, and
this I make appear by a good argument. They will grow soon-
est the first year they be set, therefore then they are in their
prime; and it is an easy matter to renew them yearly.

CHAP. IV. Of Roots.

Of roots, choose such as are neither rotten nor worm-eaten,
but proper in their taste, colour, and smell; such as exceed
neither in softness nor hardness.

2. Give me leave to be a little critical against the vulgar rfr-

Directions for making Syrups, Sec. 393

ceiveci opinion, which is, that the sap falls down into the roots
in the autumn, and rises again in the spring, as men go to bed at
night, and rise in the morning; and this idle talk of untruth is
so grounded in the heads, not only of the vulgar, but also of the
learned, that a man cannot drive it out by reason. I pray let
such sapmongers answer me this argument: If the sap falls into
the roots in the fall of the Jeff, and lies there all the winter, then
must the root grow only in the winter. But the root grows
not at all in the winter, as^xperience teacheth, but only in the
summer : Therefore, if you set an apple-kernel in the spring,
you shall find the root to grow to a pretty biguess in that sum-
mer, and be not a whit bigger next spring. What doth the sap
do in the root all that while ? Pick straws ? It is as rotten as
a rotten post.

The truth is, w hen the Sun declines from the tropic of Can-
cer, the sap begins to congeal both in root and branch ; when
he touches the tropic of Capricorn, and ascends to us-ward, it
begins to w'ax thin again, and by degrees, as it is congealed.
But to proceed,

3 . The drier time you gather the roots in, the better they
are ; for they have the less excrementitious moisture in them.

4 . Such roots as are soft, your best way is to dry in the Sun,
or else hang them in (he chimney corner upon a string; as for
such as are hard, you may dry them any where.

5 Such roots as are great, will keep longer than such as are
small; yet most of them will keep a year.

6. Such roots as are soft, it is your best way to keep them

always near the fire, and to take this general rule for if If in
winter-time you find any of your roots, herbs or flowers begin
to be moist, as many times you shall (for it is your best way to
look to them once a month) dry them by a very gentle fire • or
if you can, with convenience keep them near the fire, you may
save yourself the labour. J

7. It i. in vain to dr, roots tfiat may commonly be had, as para-
ley, fennel, plantain, dc. but gather them only for present need

3 D

394 Directions for making Syrups, tyc.

CHAP. V. Of Bark*.

13 ARKS, which physicians use in medicine, are of these sorts :
Of fruits, of roots, of boughs.

2. The barks of fruits are to be taken when the fruit is full
ripe, as oranges, lemons, &c. but because l have nothing to do
with exotics here, I pass them without any more words.

3. The barks of trees are best gathered in the spring, if of
oaks, or such great trees; because then they come easier off,
and so you may dry them if you please; but indeed the best
way is to gather all barks only for present use.

4. As for the hark of roots, it is thus to he gotten. Take
the roots of such herbs as have a pith in them, as parsley, fennel,
&c. slit them in tire middle, and when you have taken out the
pith (which you may easily do) that which remains is called
(though improperly) the bark, and indeed is only to be used.

CIIAP. VI. Of Juices.

1. J UICES are to be pressed out of herbs when they are
young and tender, out of some stalks and tender tops of herbs
and plants, and also out of some flowers.

2. Having gathered the herb, if you would preserve the juice
of it, when it is very dry, (for otherwise the juice will not be
worth a button) bruise it very well in a stone mortar, with a
wooden pestle, then having put it into a canvas bag, (the herb
I mean not the mortar, for that will give hut little juice,) press
it hard in a press, then take the juice and clarify it.

3. The manner of clarifying it is this: Put it into a pipkin
or skillet, or some such thing, and set it over the lire; and
when the scum ariseth, take it ofl’; let it stand over the fire till
no more scum arise; when you have your juice clarified, cast
awav the scum as a thing of no use.

4. When you have thus clarified it, you have two ways to
preserve it all the year.

(1.) When it is cold, put it into a glass, and put so much oil
on it as will cover it to the thickness of two fingers : the oil will

Directions for making Syrups , fyc. 395

swim at the top, and so keep the air from coming to putrefy it:
When vou intend to use it, pour it into a porringer, and if any
oil come out with it, you may easily skim it oft' with a spoon,
and put the juice you use not into the glass agaiu ; it will quickly
sink under the oil. This is the first way.

(2.) The second way is a little more difficult, and the juice
of fruits is usually preserved this way. When you have clarified
it, boil it over the fire, till (being cold) it be of the thickness of
honey : This is most commonly used for diseases of the mouth,
and is called roba and saba. And thus much for the first sec-
tion, the second follows.

SECT. II.

The way of making and keeping all necessary Compounds.

CHAP. I. Of distilled Waters.

Hitherto we have spoken of medicines which consist in
their own nature, which authors .vulgarly call simples, though
something improperly; for in, truth nothing is simple but pure
elements: all things else are compounded of them. We come
now to treat of the artificial medicines, in the form of which
(because we must begin somewhere) we shall place distilled
waters; in which consider,

1. Waters are distilled of herbs, flowers, fruits, and roots.

2. We treat not of strong waters, but of cold, as being to act
Galen’s part, and not Paracelsus’s.

3. The herbs ought to be distilled when they are in the great-
est vigour, and so ought the flowers also.

4. The vulgar way of distillations which people use, because
they know no better, is in a pewter still; and although distilled
waters are the w eakest of art ificial medicines, and good for little
but mixtuies of other medicines, yet they are weaker by many
degrees, than they would be were they distilled in sand. If I
thought it not impossible, to teach you the way of distilling in
sand, I would attempt it.

396 Directions for making Sy rups, fyc.

5. When you have distilled your water put it into, a glass,
covered over w ith a paper pricked full of holes, so that the ex-
crementitious and fiery vapours may exhale, which cause that
settling in distilled waters called the mother, which corrupt
them, then cover it close, and keep it for your use.

6. Stopping distilled waters with a cork, makes them musty,
and so does paper, if it but touch the water: it is best to stop
them with a bladder, being first put in water, and bound over
the top of the glass.

Such cold waters as are distilled in a pewter still (if well kept)
W'ill endure a year ; such as are distilled in sand, as they are
twice as strong, so they endure twice as long.

CHAP. II. Of Syrups.

i. A SYRUP is a medicine of a liquid form, composed of
infusion, decoction, and juice. And, 1. For the more grateful
taste. 2. For the better keeping of it: with a certain quantity
of honey and sugar, hereafter mentioned, boiled to the thick-
ness of new honey.

2. You see at the first view, that this aphorism divides itself
into three branches, which deserve severally to be treated of, viz.

1. Syrups made of infusion.

2. Syrups made by decoction.

3. Syrups made by juice.

Of each of these (for your instruction-sake, kind countrymen
and women) I speak a word or two apart.

1st, Syrups made by infusion, are usually made of flow r ers,
and of such flowers as soon lose their colour and strength by
boiling, as roses, viols ts, peach flowers, &c. My translation
of the London Dispensatory w ill instruct you in the rest. They
are thus made : Having picked your flowers clean, to every
pound of them add three pounds or three pints, which you will,
(for it is all one) of spring water, made boiling hot; first put
your flowers into a pewter pot, with a cover, and pour the
water on them; then shutting the pot, let it stand by the fire,

Directions for making Syrups , fyc. ‘M)7

to keep hot twelve hours, and strain it out: (in such syiups as
purge) as damask roses, peach flowers, &c. the usual, and in-
deed the best way, is to repeat this infusion, adding fresh flow ers
to the same liquor divers times, that so it may be the stronger;
having strained it out, put the infusion into a pew ter bason, or
an earthen one well glazed, and to every pint of it add two
pounds of sugar, which being only melted over the fire, without
boiling, and scummed, w ill produce you the syrup you desire.

2dlv, Syrups made by decoction are usually made of com-
pounds, yet may any simple herb be thus converted into syrup:
Take the herb, root, or flow'ers you would make into a syrup,
and bruise it a little; then boil it in a convenient quantity of
spring water; the more water you boil it in, the weaker it will
be; a handful of the herb or root is a convenient quantity for a
pint of water; boil it till half the water be consumed, then let
it stand till it be almost cold, and strain it through a woollen
cloth, letting it run out at leisure, without pressing: To every
pint of this decoction add one pound of sugar, and boil it over
the fire till it come to a syrup, which you may know, if you
now and then cool a little of it with a spoon : Skiin it all the
while it boils, and when it is sufficiently boiled, whilst it is hot,
strain it again through a woollen cloth, but press it uot. Thus
you have the syrup perfected.

3dly, Syrups made of juice, are usually made of such herbs
as are full of juice, and indeed they are better made into a syrup
this way than any other; the operation is thus: Having beaten
the herb in a stone mortar, with a wooden pestle, press out the
juice, and clarify it, as you are taught before in the juices; then
let the juice boil away till about a quarter of it be consumed:
To a pint of this add a pound of sugar, and boil it to a syrup,
always skimming it, and when it is boiled enough, strain it
through a woollen cloth, as we taught you before, and keep it
for your use.

3. If you make a syrup of roots, that are any thing hard, as
parsley, fennel, and grass roots, &c. when you have bruised
them, lay them in steep some time in that water which vou

398 Directiojis for making Syrups, 6pc.

intend to boil them in hot, so will the virtue the better tome out.

4. Keep your syrups either in glasses or stone pots, and stop
them not with cork nor bladder, unless you would have the
glass break, and the syrup lost, only bind paper about the
mouth.

5. All syrups, if well made, continue a year with some advan-
tage; yet such as are made by infusion, keep shortest.

CHAP. III. Of Juleps.

1. «J ULEPS were first invented, as I suppose, in Arabia;
aud my reason is, because the word julep is an Arabic word.

2. It signifies only a pleasant potion, as is vulgarly used by
such as are sick, and want help, or such as are in health, aud
want no money to quench thirst.

3. Novv-a-day it is commonly used,

1. To prepare the body for purgation.

2. To open obstructions and the pore—

3. To- digest tough humours.

4. To qualify hot distempers, Arc.

4. Simple juleps (for 1 have nothing to say to compounds
here) are thus made: Take a pint of sUch distilled water as con-
duces to the cure of your distemper, which this treatise will
plentifully furnish you with, to which add two ounces of syrup,
conducing to the same effect ; (I shall give you rules for it in the
next chapter) mix them together, and drink a draught of it at
your pleasure. If you love tart things, add ten drops of oil of
vitriol to your pint, and shake it together, and it will have a fine
grateful taste.

5. All juleps are made for present use; and therefore it is in
vain to speak of their duration.

CHAP. IV. Of Decoctions.

i. A LL the difference between decoctions, and syrups made
by decoction, is this; syrups are made to keep, decoctions on-
ly for present use; for you can hardly keep a decoction a week

Directions for making Syrups, $~c. 399

#t any time; if • lie weather be hot, not half so long.

2. Decoctions are made of leaves, roots, flowers, seeds,
fruits or barks, conducing to the cure of the disease you
make them for; and are made in the same manner as we shew-
ed you in syrups.

3. Decoctions made with wine last longer than such as are
made with water; and if you take your decoction to cleanse the
passages of the urine, or open obstructions, your best way is to
make it with white wine instead of water, because this is pene-
trating.

4. Decoctions are of most use in such diseases as lie in the
passages of the body, as the stomach, bowels, kidneys, passages
of urine and bladder, because decoctions pass quicker to those
places than any other form of medicines.

5. If you will sweeten your decoction with sugar, or any
syrup fit for the occasion you take it for, which is better, you
may, and no harm.

C. If in a decoction, you boil both roots, herbs, flowers, and
seed together, let the roots boil a good while first, because they
retain their virtue longest ; then the next in order by the same
rule, viz. 1. Barks. 2. Ilerbs. 3. The seeds. 4. The
flowers. 3. The spices, if you put any in, because their virtues
come soonest out.

7. Such things as by boiling, cause sliminess to a decoction,
as figs, quince-seed, linseed, <kc. your best wav is, after you
have bruised them, to lie them up in a liueu rag, as you tie up
calf’s brains, and so boil them.

8. Keep all decoctions in a glass close stopped, and in the cool-
er place you keep them, the longer they will last ere they be sour.

Lastly, The usual dose to be given at one time, is usually
two, three, four, or five ounces, according to the age and
strength of the patient, the season of the year, the strength of
the medicine, and the quality of the disease.

CHAP. V. 0/ Oils.

lich is commonly known by the name of

400 Directions for making Syrups, Sfc.

salad oil, I suppose, because it is usually eaten with salads by
them that love it, if it be pressed out of ripe olives, according
to Galen, it is temperate, and exceeds in no one quality.

2. Of oils, some are simple, and some are compound.

3. Simple oils are such as are made of fruits or seeds by ex-
pression, as oil of sweet and bitter almonds, linseed and rape-
seed oil, &c. of which see in my Dispensatory.

4. Compound oils, are made of oil of olives, and other sim-
ples, imagine herbs, flowers, roots, &c.

5. The way of making them is this: Having bruised the
herbs or flowers you would make your oil of, put them into an
earthen pot, and to two or three handfuls of them pour a pint
of oil, cover the pot with a paper, set it in the sun about a fort-
night or so, according as the sun is in hotness : then having
warmed it very well by the fire, press out the herb, &c. very
hard in a press, and add as many more herbs to the same oil;
bruise the herbs (I mean not the oil) in like manner, set them
in the sun as before; the oftener you repeat this, the stronger
your oil will be: At last, when you conceive it strong enough,
boil both herbs and oil together, till the juice be consumed,
which you may know by its leaving its bubbling, and the herbs
will be crisp; then strain it while it is hot, and keep it in a stone
or glass vessel for your use.

6. As for chymical oils, I have nothing to say here.

7. The general use of these oils is for pains in the limbs,
roughness of the skin, the itch, &c. as also for ointments and
plaisters.

8. If you have occasion to use it for wounds or ulcers, in
two ounces of oil, dissolve half an ounce of turpentine, the
heat of the fire will quickly do it ; for oil itself is offensive to
wounds, and the turpentine qualifies it.

CHAP. VI. Of Electuaries.

Physicians make more a quoil than needs by half, about
electuaries. I shall prescribe but one general way of making

Directions J'or making Syrups, <SfC . 401

them up; as for ingredients, you may vary them as you please,
and as you find occasion, by the last chapter.

1. That you may make the electuaries when you need them,
it is requisite that you keep always herbs, roots, flowers, seeds,
&c. ready dried in your house, that so you may be in readiness
to beat them into powder when you need them.

2. It is better to keep them whole than beaten: for being
beaten, they are more subject to lose their strength; because
the air soon penetrates them.

3. If they be not dry enough to beat into powder when you
need them, dry them by a gentle fire till they are so.

4. Having beaten them, sift them through a fine tiffany searce,
that no great pieces may be found in your electuary.

5. To one ounce of your powder add three ounces of clarified
honey ; this quantity I hold to be sufficient. If you would make
more or less electuary, vary your proportion accordingly.

6. Mix them well together in a mortar, and take this for a
truth, you cannot mix them too much.

7. The way to clarify honey, is to set it over the fire in a
convenient vessel till the scum rise, and when the scum is taken
off, it is clarified.

8. The usual dose of cordial electuaries, is from half a dram
to two drams : of purging electuaries, from half an ounce to
an ounce.

9. The manner of keeping them is in a pot.

10. The time of taking them, is either in a morning fasting,
and fasting an hour after them ; or at night going to bed, three
or four hours after supper.

CHAP. VII. Of Conserves.

The way of making conserves is twofold, one of herbs and
flowers, and the other of fruits.

2. Conserves of herbs and flowers, are thus made : If you
make your conserve of herbs, as of scurvy-grass, wormwood,
rue, and the like, take only the leaves and tender tops (for you

3 E

402 Directions for making Syrups , Sfc.

■■...I-'.. ■ ' .'..1'.. L.— 11 ’ — —

may beat your heart out, before you can beat ihe stalks small)
and having beaten them, weigh them, and to every pound of
them add three pounds of sugar: you cannot beat them too much.

3. Conserves of fruits, as of barberries, sloes, and the like,
are thus made : First, scald the fruit, then rub the pulp through a
thick hair sieve made for the purpose, called a pulping sieve ;
you may do it for a need with the back of a spoon ; then take
this pulp thus drawn, and add to it its weight of sugar, and no
more ; put it into a pewter vessel, and over a charcoal tire ; stir
it up aud down till the sugar Ue melted, and your conserve
is made.

4. Thus you have the way of making conserves ; the way
of keeping them is in earthen pots.

5. The dose is usually the quantity of a nutmeg at a time
morning and evening, or (unless they are purging) when you
please.

6. Of conserves, some keep many years, as conserves of roses :
others but a year, as conserves of borage, bugloss, cowslips,
and the like.

7. Have a care of the working of some conserves presently
after they are made; look to them once a day, and stir them
about : conserves of borage, bugloss, and wormwood, have got
an excellent faculty at that sport.

8. You may know when your conserves are almost spoiled
by this: you shall tind a hard crust at top, with little holes in
it, as though worms had been eating there.

CHAP. VIII. Of Preserves.

Of preserves are sundry sorts, and the operation of all being
somewhat different, we shall handle them all apart. These aie
preserved with sugar:

1. Flowers. I 3. Roots.

2. Fruits. I 4. Barks.

1. Flowers are very seldom preserved : I never saw any that
I remember, save only cowslip flowers, and that was a great
fashion in Sussex when I was a boy. It is thus done: Take a

Directions for making Syrups, &fc. 403

flat "lass, we call them jar glasses; strew on a laying of fine
sugar, on that a laying of flowers, and on that another laying
of sugar, ou that another laying of flowers, so do till your glass
be full; then tie it over with a paper, and in a little time, you
shall have very excellent and pleasant preserves.

There is another way of preserving flowers ; namely, with
vinegar and salt, as they pickle capers and broom-buds; but as
I have little skill in it myself, I cannot teach you.

2. Fruits, as quinces, and the like, are preserved two waysi

(1.) Boil them well in water, and then pulp them through a

sieve, as we shewed you before; then with the like quantity of
sugar, boil the water they were boiled^ ia into a syrup, viz. a
pound of sugar to a pint of liquor; to every pound of this sy-
rup, add four ounces of the pulp; then boil it with a very gen-
tle fire to their right consistence, which you may easily know
if you drop a drop of it upon a trencher; if it be enough, it
will not stick to your fingers when it is cold.

(2.) Another way to preserve fruits is this; First, pare oflf
the rind ; then cut them in halves, and take out the core ; then
boil them in water till they are soft; if you know when l-eef i&
boiled enough, you may easily know when they are : Then boil
the water with its like weight of sugar into a syrup; put the
syrup into a pot, and put the boiled fruit as whole as you left
it when you cut into it, and let it remain until you have occa-
sion to use it

3. lloots are thus preserved : First, scrape them very clean,
and cleanse them from the pith, if they have any, for some roots
have not, as eringo and the like: boil them in water till they
be sott, as we shewed you before in the fruits; then boil the
water you boiled the root in into a syrup, as we slrewed you
before, then keep the root whole in the syrup till you use them.

4. As for barks, we have but few' come to our hands to he
done, and of those, the few that I can remember are oranges,
lemons, citrons, and the outer bark of walnuts, which «row
without-side the shell, for the shells themselves would make

404 Directions for making Syrups, fyc.

but scurvy preserves ; these be they I can remember, if there
be any more put them into the number.

The way of preserving these, is not all one in authors, for
some are bitter, some are hot; such as are.bitter, say authors,
must be soaked in warm water, oftentimes changing till their
bitter taste be fled: but I like not this way, and my reason is
this; because I doubt when their bitterness is gone, sols their
virtue also ; I shall then prescribe one common way, namely,
the same with the former, viz. First boil them whole till they
be soft, then make a syrup with sugar and the liquor you boil
them in, and keep the barks in the syrup.

5. They are kept ic. glasses, or glazed pots.

6. The preserved flowers will keep a year, if you can for-
bear eating of them; the roots and barks much longer.

7. This art was plainly and first invented for delicacy, yet
came afterwards to be of excellent use in physic : For,

(1.) Hereby medicines are made pleasant for sick and
squeamish stomachs, which else would loath them.

(2.) Hereby they are preserved from decaying a long time.

CHAP. IX. Of Lohocks.

1. That which the Arabians call lohocks, and the Greeks
eclegma, the Latins call linctus, and in plain English, signifies
nothing else but a thing to be licked up.

2. They are in body thicker than a syrup, and not so thick
as an electuary.

3. The manner of taking them is, often to take a little with
a liquorice stick, and let it go down at leisure.

4. They are easily thus made: Make a decoction of pectoral
herbs, and the treatise will furnish you with enough ; and w hen
you have strained it, with twice its weight of honey or sugar,
boil it to a lohock ; if you are molested with much phlegm,
honey is better than sugar, and if you add a little vinegar to it,
you will do well; if not, I hold sugar to be better than honey.

3. It is kept in pots, and may be kept a year and longer.

Directions for making Syrups, fyc. 405

6. It is excellent for roughness of the wind-pipe; inflamma-
tions and ulcers of the lungs, difficulty of breathing, asthmas,
coujrhs, and distillations of humours.

O 9

CHAP. X. Of Ointments.

1. "V ARIOUS are the ways of making ointments, which
authors have left to posterity, which I shall omit, and quote
one which is easiest to be made, and therefore most beneficial
to people that are ignorant in physic, for whose sake I write
this. It is thus done:

Bruise those herbs, flowers, or roots, you will make an oint-
ment of, and to two handfuls of your bruised herbs add a pound
of hog’s grease dried, or cleansed from the skins, beat them
very well together in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle, then
put it into a stone pot, (the herb and grease I mean, not the
mortar) cover it with a paper, and set it either in the sun, or
some other warm place, three, four, or five days, that it may
melt; then take it out and boil it a little; then while it is hot,
strain it out, pressing it out very hard in a press; to this grease
add as many more herbs bruised as before ; let them stand in like
manner as long, then boil them as you did the former: If you
think your ointment is uot strong enough, you may do it the
third and fourth time; yet this I will tell you, the fuller efjuice
the herbs are, the sooner will your ointment be strong: the last
time you boil it, boil it so long till your herbs be crisp, and the
juice consumed, then strain it, pressing it hard in a press,
and to every pound of ointment add two ounces of turpentine,
and as much wax, because grease is offensive to wounds, as
well as oil.

2. Ointments are vulgarly known to be kept in pots, and
will last above a year, some above two years.

CHAP. XI. Of Planters.

1. J. HE Greeks made their plaisters of divers simples, and
put metals into the most of them, if not all; for having reduc-

406 Directions for making Syrups , fyc.

ed their metals into powder, they mixed them with that fatty
substance whereof the rest of the plaits ter consisted, whilst it
was yet hot, continually stirring it tip and down, lest it should
sink to the bottom; so they continually stirred it till it was
stiff; then they made it up in rolls, which, when they needed
for use, they could melt it by the fire again.

2. The Arabians made up theirs w ith oil and fat, which need-
ed not so long boiling.

3. The Greeks emplaisfers consisted of these ingredients:
metals, stones, divers sorts of earth, feces, juices, liquors, seeds,
roots, herbs, excrements of creatures, wax, rosin, gums.

CHAT. XII. Of Poultices.

1. OULTICES are those kind of things which the Latins
call cataplasmata, and our learned fellow's, that if they can read
English, that's all, call them cataplasms, because it is a crabbed
word few understand ; it is indeed a very fine kind of medicine
to ripen sores.

2. They are made of herbs and roots, fitted for the disease,
and members afflicted, being chopped small, and boiled in w ater
almost to a jelly; then by adding a little barley-meal, or meal
of lupins and a little oil, or rough sweet suet, which I hold
to be better spread upon a cloth, and apply to the grieved
place.

3. Their use is to ease pain, to break sores, to cool inflam-
mations, to dissolve hardness, to ease the spleen, to concoct
humours, and dissipate swellings.

4. I beseech you take this caution along with you : Use no
poultices (if you can help it) that are o( an healing nature,
before you have first cleansed the body, because they are sub-
ject to draw the humours to them from every part of the body.

CHAP. XIII. Of Troches.

1. HE Latins call them placenlufa, or little cakes, and the
Greeks prochilcois, kukliscoi, and artiscoi ; they are usually

Directions for making Syrups, Sfc. 407

little round flat cakes, or you may make them square if you will.

2. Their first invention was, that powders being so kept,
mi*dit resist the intermission of air, and so endure pure the

O

longer.

3. Besides they are easier carried in the pockets of such as
travel; as many a man (for example) is forced to travel whose
stomach is too cold, or at least not so hot as it should be, which
is most proper, for the stomach is never cold till a man be dead ;
in such case, it is better to carry troches of wormwood, or ga-
langal, in a paper, in his pocket, than to lay a gallipot along
with him.

4. They are made thus: At night when you go to bed, take
two drams of fine gum tragacanth; put it into a gallipot, and
put half a quarter of a pint of any distilled water fitting for the
purpose you would make your troches for to cover it, and the
next morning you shall find it in such a jelly as the physicians
call mucilage: with this you may (with a little pains taken) make
a powder into a paste, and that paste into cakes called troches.

5. Having made them, dry them in the shade, and keep them
in a pot for your use.

CHAP. XIV. Of Pills.

1. T^HEY arc called pilule, because they resemble little
balls; the Greeks call them catapolia.

2. It is the opinion of modern physicians, that this way of
making medicines, was invented only to deceive the palate, that
so by swallowing them down whole, the bitterness of the me-
dicine might not be perceived, or at least it might not be un-
sufferable: and indeed most of their pills, though not all, are
very bitter.

3. I am of a clean contrary opinion to this. I rather think
they were done up in this hard form, that so they might be the
longer in digesting; and my opinion is grounded on reason too,
not upon fancy, or hearsay. The first invention of pills was to
purge the head; now, as I told you before, such infirmities as

40H Directions for making Syrups, fyc.

lie near the passages were best removed by decoctions, because
they pass to the grieved part soonest; so here, if the infirmity
lies in the head, or any other remote part, the best way is to
use pills, because they are longer tn digestion, and therefore
the better able to call the offending humour to them.

4. If I should tell you here a long tale of medicines working
by sympathy and antipathy, you would not understand a word
of it: They that are set to make physicians may find it in the
treatise. All modern physicians know not what belongs to a
sympathetieal cure, no more than a cuckow what belongs to flats
and sharps in music, but follow the vulgar road, and call it a
hidden quality, because it is hidden from the eyes of dunces,
and indeed none but astrologers can give a reason for it: and
physic without reason, is like a pudding without fat.

5. The way to make pills is very easy, for with the help of a
pestle and mortar, and a little diligence, you may make any
powder into pills, either with syrup, or the jelly I told you
before.

CHAP. XV. The way of mixing Medicines, according to

the Cause of the Disease , and Part of the Body afflicted.

This being indeed the key of the work, I shall be somewhat
the more diligent in it. I shall deliver myself thus ;

1. To the vulgar.

2. To such as study astrology or such as study physic astro-
logically.

1st, To the vulgar. Kind souls, I am sorry it hath been your
hard mishap to have been so long trained in such Egyptian dark-
ness, even darkness which to your sorrow may be felt: The
vulgar road of physic is not my practice, and I am therefore the
more unfit to give you advice. I have now published a little
book, (Galen’s Art of Physic) which will fully instruct you,
not only in the knowledge of your own bodies, but also in fit
medicines to remedy each part of it when afflicted ; in the mean
season take these few rules to stay your stomachs.

Directions Jor making syrups, fyc.

409

1. With the disease, regard the cause, and the pa/ 1 ox the
body afflicted: for example, suppose a woman je subject to
miscarry, through wind, thus do :

(1.) Look abortion in the table of diseases, and you shall be
directed by that, how many herbs prevent miscarriage.

(2.) Look wind in the same table, and you shall see how ma-
ny of these herbs expel wind.

These are herbs medicinal for your grief.

2. In all diseases strengthen the part of the body afflicted.

3. In mixed diseases there lies some difficulty, for sometimes
two parts of the body are afflicted with contrary humours, ’as
sometimes the liver is afflicted with choler and water, as when
a man hath both the dropsy and the yellow jaundice ; and this
is usually mortal.

In the former, suppose the brain be too cool and moist, and
the liver be too hot and dry - r thus do ;

1. Keep your head outwardly warm.

2. Accustom yourself to the smell of hot herbs.

3. Take a pill that heats the head at night going to bed.

4. In the morning take a decoction that cools the liver, for
that quickly passeth the stomach, and is at theliver immediately.

You must not think, courteous people, that I can spend time
to give you examples ot all diseases : These are enough to let
you see so much light as you without art are able to receive : If
I should set you to look at the sun, I should dazzle your eyes,
and make you blind.

2nd, lo such as study astrology (who are the only men I know
that are fit to study physic, physic without astrology being like
a lamp without oil) ; you are the men I exceedingly respect, and
such documents as my brain can give you at present (being ab-
sent from my study) I shall give you..

1. Fortify the body with herbs of the nature of the lord of
the ascendant, it is no matter whether he be a fortune or infor-
tune in this case.

2. Let your medicine be something antipathetical to the lord
of the sixth.

No. 18. 3 F

410 Directions for making Syrups, fyc.

3. Let your medicine be something- of the nature of the sign
ascending.

4. If the lord of the tenth be strong, make use of his medi-
cines.

5. If this cannot well be, make use of the medicines of the
light of time.

6. Be sure always to fortify the grieved part of the body by
sympathetic remedies.

7. Regard the heart, keep that upon the wheels, because the
Sun is the foundation of life, and therefore those universal reme-
dies, i Aurum Potabile, and the philosopher’s stone, cure all
diseases by fortifying the heart.

.

«r

-Pcrs/e^yO

'rrs/.i

'teaCj/Ytr/r

V

■

-

V

JCt M *711

f tatncmt/c

1

% f

-

' •

■x~- :

'

■

i. ■ •

.

•v .

■ V ; v-'' • :

• . 3 ’

V

- tidin'

om/isC

> /? . - //sr i 1/ sys'/tf

a/

filc/sSir.j/’e///' 1

(f'jcr/i- //Xr<e /-j

JcTi

r e /

’dr-esece/^)

Taye/o6

5 ‘

\ • . V

;•> '• ’ - ‘

,

t

■

\ ; • ':

: i

' •• /• • ,

v

>s

v*

'(

>

r. . '

i

\ *

*?

\ r rjf

Ar t/ / . S'/a

a '

/ /a y , Sr.

//'

/‘ape

*

-

I

.

■

V ■' ’ ...

>

/

■

\

" / ' ■ j

<?

V C '

,>UOJ

!h nr ){'■'.)

.

\

*

7

/ . ?

f /

. \

/

/

>

5.. j

•

J •.

* l

*

{

i

. s V
\

•* ’i

***

*

thgt 200

4

TagiWO

/

//, ;/-

, j/nS//'.,

X

i

IP L-fl

r/U

VL-9

+. ,

w<

■

(iCTfAtJ'-f