FxiMXLY HERBAL. 



peHy speaking, two iinds of mandrake ; ihs onp 

 with round fruit and broad leaves, called the 

 male ; the other with oblong fruil, and jmrrowep 

 leaves, called the female : their virtiies are the 



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same, but the male is generally preferred. They 



f Italy, where they gfpw in woods, 

 and on the banks of rivers : we keep them in gar-^ 

 dens ; but they grow there as freely as if native. ? 

 The mandrake has no stalk. The leavers rise iip- 

 mediatel}^ from the root, and they are very large z 

 they are a foot long, four inches broad ifl the mid- 

 dle, and of a dusky green cojpur, and bad smelL 

 The flowers stand upon foot stalks^ of four inches 

 high, slender, and hairy, and rising imra>34iately 

 Jfrom the root : these flowers are large, of a dingy 

 purplish colour, and of a very bad smell. The 

 fcuit which follows, is of the bigness ahd shape 

 of a small apple, or like a small pear, according 

 to the male or female kind : this is yellow whea 

 ripe, and is also of a very bad smell. The root 

 is long and thick ; It is largest at the head, and 

 smaller all the way down ; sometimes it is divided 

 into two parts, from the middle downwards, if ^ 

 stone have lain in the way, or any other SLCcideik 

 occasioned it ; but usually it is single. This is 

 the root which is pictured to be like the b^maa 

 form : it is when single, no more like a man than 

 a carrot or a parsnip is, and when by some Siccideut 

 it is divided, 'tis no more like, than any long 



root, which happens to have met the sapae acci- 

 dent. Those roots which are shewn about fw 

 money and have the bead, limbs, and figure, qf 

 a human form, are made so by art, and they selr 

 dorii use the real mandrake root for that purpose : 

 they arc often made of white briony root^ some- 

 times of angelica. The people cut them into 

 this shape, and put them into the gipund agaija> 



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