July 9. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



37 



makes old men to read small letters without spec- 

 tacles, who could scarcely read great letters with 

 spectacles before; but that it did restore their 

 sight who had been a long time blind. Truly a 

 most wonderful plant ; and, if he freely used it, 

 must have been a great drawback to spectacle- 

 makers. 



3. Primula veris, he says, more properly belongs 

 to the primrose than cowslip. The root is hau- 

 matic, and helps pains in the back. The herb is 

 cephalic, neurotic, and arthritic. The juice or 

 essence, with spirits of wine, stops all manner of 

 fluxes, is excellent against palsy, gout, and pains, 

 and distempers of the nerves and joints. A cata- 

 plasm of the juice, with rye meal, is good against 

 luxations and ruptures. The flowers are good 

 against palsy, numbness, convulsions, and cramps, 

 being given in a sulphurous or a saline tincture, 

 or an oily tincture, or an essence of the juice with 

 spirits of wine. The juice of the flowers, or an 

 ointment of the jiower or its juice, cleanses the 

 skin from spots, though the worthy old physician 

 only gives a receipt for making essence as follows : 

 Beat the whole plant well in a mortar ; add to it 

 an equal quantity of brandy or spirits of wine; 

 close up tight in a large bolt-head, and set it to 

 digest in a very gentle sand-heat for three months. 

 Strain out all the liquor, which close up in a bolt- 

 head again, and digest in a gentle sand-heat for 

 two months more. Rather a troublesome and 

 slow process this. 



4. Geutn urbanum he calls Cajyophyllata, Herha 

 hencdicta, and Geum Plinii^ and should be gathered, 

 he says, in the middle of March, for then it smells 

 sweetest, and is most aromatic. Hot and dry in 

 the 2°, binding, strengthening, discussive, cepha- 

 lic, neurotic, and cardiac. Is a good preservative 

 against epidemic and contagious disease ; helps 

 digestion. The powder of the root, dose 5j' The 

 decoction, in wine, stops spitting of blood, dose 5ss 

 to 5jss. The saline tincture opens all obstructions 

 of the viscera, dose 5j to ^i'j- 



Should Enivri wish to know the medical virtues 

 of our wild plants, I have no doubt but that this 

 ■worthy old physician will tell him what virtues 

 they were considered to possess in his day, at least 

 by himself; and I can assure him that 1195 of the 

 JErtglish Physician's pages ascribe marvellous pro- 

 perties, not only to plants, but to animals, fish, and 

 even the bones of a stag's heart. E,. J. Shaw. 



JACOB BOB ART. 



(Vol. vii., pp. 428. 578.) 



I am exceedingly obliged for the information 

 afforded by Dr. E. F. Rimbault concerning the 

 Bobarts. Can he give me any moi'e communication 

 concerning them ? I am anxious to learn all I can. 

 I have old Jacob Bobart's signature, bearing date 



1659, in which he spells his name with an e in- 

 stead of a, which seems to have been altered to an 

 a by his son Jacob. ^ 



In Vertumnus it says Bobart's Horius Siccus 

 was in twenty volumes ; but the Oxford Botanic 

 Garden Guide only mentions twelve quarto vo- 

 lumes : which is correct, and where is it ? In 

 one of my copies of Vertumnus, a scrap of paper is 

 fixed to p. 29., and the following is Avritten upon 

 it: 



" The Hortus Siccus here alluded to was sold at the 

 Rev. Mr. Hodgkinson's sale at Sarsden, to Mrs. De 

 Salis, wife of Dr. De Sails." 



Is there any pedigree of the family ? 



In a letter of Jno. Ray's to Mr. Aubrey Is the 

 following : 



" I am glad that Mr. Bobart hath been so diligent 

 in observing and making a collection of insects." 



Is there any collection extant ? 



" He may give me much assistance in my intended 

 Synopsis of our English Animals, and contribute much 

 to the perfecting of it." 



Did he do so ? 



Is the print of old Jacob Bobart, by "W. Ri- 

 chardson, valuable ? 



Where can I pick up a print of him by Loggan 

 del.. Burghers sculp. ? There is a portrait of Jacob 

 Bobart the younger in Oxford Almanack for 

 1719 ; can I procure it ? H. T. Bobart. 



HERALDIC QUERIES. 



(Vol. vii., p. 571.) 



Cetbep is informed, 1st, That a shield in the 

 form of a lozenge was appropriated exclusively to 

 females, both spinsters and widows, in order to 

 distinguish the sex of the bearer of a coat of arms. 

 It is of doubtful origin, though supposed, from the 

 form, to symbolise the spindle with yarn wound 

 round it ; of good authdt-ity, and not of very modern 

 date. Many instances may be seen in Fuller, in 

 the coats of arms appended to the dedications of 

 the various chapters of his Church History. In 

 sect. ii. book vi. p. 282. ed. 1655, he has separated 

 the coats of man and wife, and placed them side by 

 aide ; that of the latter upon a lozenge- shaped 

 shield — Party per pale arg. and gules, two eagles 

 displayed, counterchanged. 



2ndly, No one has a right to inscribe a motto 

 upon a garter or riband, except those dignified 

 with one of the various orders of knighthood. For 

 any other person to do so, is a silly assumption. 

 The motto should be upon a scroll, either over the 

 crest, or beneath the shield. 



3rdly, I cannot find that it was ever the custom 

 in this country for ecclesiastics to bear their pa- 

 ternal coat on an oval or circular shield. For- 

 bidden, as they were, by the first council of Mas- 



