ENGLISH I1ERBALS. 65 



ENGLISH HERBALS. 



By AGNES ROBERTSON, B. Sc, 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 



riST the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there was a renewal of the 

 -■- scientific spirit, as well as the more obvious revival in art and 

 letters of which we commonly speak as the Eenaissance. Among the 

 most striking of the many visible fruits of this revival were numerous 

 herbals, in which all the plants then known were enumerated, described 

 and often beautifully figured. The earliest English example with 

 which I am acquainted is a small, black-letter, anonymous volume 

 published in 1525. The title is 'Here begynneth a newe mater, the 

 whiche sheweth and treateth of ye vertues and propeytes of herbes, 

 the whiche is called an Herball.' There are scarcely any descriptions 

 of the plants, but long and elaborate dissertations on their virtues. 

 Even such a commonplace weed as the plantain is credited with con- 

 siderable powers : ' ' For heed ache take Plantayne and bynde it aboute 

 thy necke and ye ache shall go out of thy heed." Of rosemary we 

 read : ' ' Take the flowres and make powder thereof and bynde it to the 

 ryght arme in a lynen clothe, and it shall make thee lyght and mery. 

 Also boyle the leves in whyte wyne and washe thy face therwith, and 

 thou shall have a fayre face. Also put the leves under thy beddes 

 heed, and thou shal be delyvered of all evyll dremes. Also make thee 

 a box of the wood and smell to it, and it shall preserve thy youthe." 

 In the following year was published one of the most famous of 

 the old herbals, 'The Grete Herball which geveth parfyt knowlege 

 and understandyng of all maner of herbes and there gracyous vertues.' 

 This includes in addition to plants, descriptions of a number of sub- 

 stances, such as gold, silver, asphalt, starch, vinegar, butter, honey 

 and the lodestone ! It contains delightful prescriptions for healing 

 all manner of ailments. For instance, Apium 'is good for lunatyke 

 folke yf it be bounde to the pacyentes heed with a lynen clothe dyed 

 reed the moone beynge in cresaunt in the sygne of Taurus or Scorpion 

 in ye fyrst parte of the sygne, and he shal be hole anone'; and as a 

 cure 'for werynesse' we read, "To them that be wery of goynge gyve 

 to drink a dragme of the powdre of Bethony with warm water and an 

 once of orimell." The following statement gives an inkling of the 

 condition of plant-geography at the time: Balsam 'is founde towarde 

 Babylon, in a field whereas VII welles or fountaynes be, and is carried 

 from thens' ! 

 vol. lxv. — 5. 



