FAMILY HERBAL. 45 



waters^ with a thick stalk, roundish leaves, and 

 spikes cf litde bright blue flowers. Brooklime 

 grows to a foot high. The stalk is round, fleshy 

 and large, yet it does not grow very upright : it 

 strikes root at the lower joints. The leaves are 

 broad, oblong, blunt at the end, and a little 

 indented on the edges. The flowers stand singly 

 on short foot-stalks one over another, so that they 

 form a kind of loose spike ; the roots are fibrous. 



Brooklime has great virtues, but must be used 

 fresh gathered, for they are all lost in drvinff. The 

 juice in spring is very good against the scurvy ; 

 but it must be taken for some time. It works 

 gently by urine, but its great virtue is in sweetening 

 the blood. 



i 



Broom. Genuicu 



A COMMON naked-looking shrub that growi 



on waste grounds^ and bears yellow flowers in 

 May. It is two or three feet high. The stalks 

 are very toughs, angular^ and green. The leaves 

 jare few, and they are also small ; they grow three 

 together^ and stand at distances on the long and 

 slender stalks. The flowers are numerous, they 

 arc shaped like a pea-blossom^ and are of a beautiful 

 i)right yellow. The pods are flat and hairy. 



The green stalks of broom, infused in ale or 

 beer for the common drink, operal^e by urine, and 

 remove obstructions of the liver and other parts ; 

 they are famous in the dropsy and jaundice. It is 

 a common practice to burn them to ashes and infuse 

 those ashes in white-wine ; thus the fixed gait is 

 extracted, and the wine becomes a kind of lee. This 

 also works by urine more powerfully than the other, 



but the other is preferable for removing obstructions. 



