AND COMPLETE HERBAL. 289 
"The ordinary female peony hath many ftalks, and more leaves than the male ; the 
leaves not fo large, but nicked on the edges, fome with great and deep, others with 
fmaller, cuts and divifions, of a dark or dead green colour. The flowers are of a 
ftrong heady fcent, moft ufually fmaller, and of a more purple colour, than the male, 
with yellow thrums about the head as the male hath. The feed-veflels are like horns 
as in the male, but {maller, the feed is black, but lefs thining. The roots confift 
of many thick and fhort tuberousclogs, faftened at the ends of long ftrings, and all 
* from the head of the root, which is thick and fhort, and of the like fcent with the male. 
race AND Time. They grow in gardens, and flower ufually about May, 
~ GovERNMENT AND Virtues. It isan herb of the fun, and under the lion, Phy- 
ficians fay, male peony roots are belt ; but male peony is beft for men, and female 
peony for women. The roots are held to be of moft virtue; then the feeds ; next 
the flowers ; and, laft of all, the leaves. The root of the male peony, frefh gathered, ; 
hath been found by experience to cure the falling ficknefs ; but the fureft way is 
(befides hanging it about the neck, by which children have been cured) to take the 
root of the male peony wafhed clean and ftamped fomewhat fmall, and infufe itio 
‘fack for twenty-four hours at leaft ; afterwards ftrain it, and take, morning and 
evening, a good draught for fundry days together before and after a full moon.;; 
and this will alfo cure older perfons, if the difeafe be not grown too old and paft 
cure, efpecially if there be a due and orderly preparation of the. body, with poffer- 
drink made of betony, &c. The root is alfo effectual for women that are not 
fufficiently cleanfed after childbirth, and fuch as are troubled with the mother ; for 
which likewife the black feed, beaten to powder and given in wine, isalfo available. 
The black feed alfo, taken before bed-time and in the morning, is very effectual for 
fuch asin their fleep are troubled with the difeafe called ephialtes or incubus, but we 
docommonly call it the night-mare, a difeafe which melancholy perfons are fubjeét. 
. unto: it is alfo good againft melancholy dreams. The diftilled water, or fyrup. 
made of the flowers, worketh the fame effects that the root and the feed do, al-. 
though more weakly. The female is often ufed for the purpofes aforefaid, by reafon: ag 
the male i is fo {carce. : 
-PEPPER- WORT, oR DITTANDER: | : 
Dectiiias, THE common pepper-wort fendeth. forth fomewhat long endl 
~ broad. leaves, of .a light bluith-green, colour, finely dented about the edges, and) et 
_ pointed atthe ends, ftanding upon round hard ftalks, three or four feet high, {preg 
many branches on all fides, and having many {mall white flowers at the tops of 
