35  CULPEPER’s ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
plant lies in its milky juice, which is of great value in difficulty of hearing. This 
often arifes from obftructing wax, often from inflammation, and fometimes from 
both thefe caufes conjoined, - 
/ 
MG SOUTHERNWOOD. 
SOUTHERN WOOD is fo well known to be an ordinary inhabitant i in, 
almoft all gardens, that it needeth no defcription. - 
Time. It flowereth for the moft part in July and Auguft. 
GoveRNMENT AND Virtues. It isa Mercurial plant, worthy of more wines o 
than it hath. Diofcorides faith, that the feed bruifed, heated in warm water and — 
drunk, helpeth thofe that are troubled with the cramps, or convulfions of the finews, 
the fciatica, or difficulty in making water. The fame taken in wine is an antidote, 
or counter-poifon, and driveth away ferpents and.other venomous creatures ; as alfo 
the fmell of the herb, being burnt, doth the fame. The oil thereof, anointed on the 
back-bone:before the fits of agues come, preventeth them; it taketh away inflam- 
mations in the eyes, if it be put with fome part of a roafted quince, and boiled with — 
a few crumbs of bread and-applied. Boiled with barley-meal, it taketh away pim- 
ples, puthes, or wheals, that rife in the face or other part of the body. The feed as 
_ well as the dried herb is often given to kill worms in children.. The herb bruifed a ie 
_ helpeth to draw forth fplinters and thorns out of the feth. The afhes thereof dry 
_ up and heal eld ulcers that are without inflammation, although by the fharpnefs 7 
_ thereof it makes them fmart. The afhes, mingled with old fallad oil, help thofe 
that have their hair fallen, and are bald, caufing the hair to crow again either on 
the head or beard. Durantes faith, that the oil made of fouthernwood, and put 
x : likewife killeth lice in the head. The diftilled water of the herb is faid to help them 
muc shat are troubled with the ftone, as alfo for the difeafes of the fpleen and mo- — 
the r e \hhe Germans commend it for a fingular wound-herb, and therefore call it 
: AD: Wort: - ‘tis held by all writers, ancient and modern, to be more. offenfive to the 
mac oe aes which has thrown it into difrepute. ; 
‘Splservoweu ho 
‘ Bacernan THE roots of common fpignel do fpread much and ep in 
the ground, many ftrings or branches growing from one head, which is hairy at ae” | 
he of a blackifh brown colour on the outfide, and white within, of a pleafant fmell zs 
cet aromatic tafte, whence rife fundry long ftalks of fine cut leaves like hairs, fmaller 
I than 
among the ointments that are ufed againft the French difeafe, is very effectual, and 
