215 FAMILY HERBAL. 



where they will be soraef imes in part covered wilh 

 anew bark, and so look nafuraL All the story 

 that they shriek, when they are pulled up, and 

 they use a dog to draw them out of the ground^ 

 hecause it is fatal to any person to do it and 

 the like^ are idle, false, and groundless ; calculated 

 Dniy to surprise ignorant people, and get niotiey 

 by the shew : there is nothing singular m the root 

 t)f the mandrake; and as to the terms male and 

 female, the two kinds would be better distinguish- 

 ed, by calling the one, the broader leaved man- 

 drake, with round fruit, and the other, the narrow- 

 er leaved mandrake, with oval fvuit. There are 

 plants which are separately male and female, as 

 hemp, spinach, the date tree, and the like: but 

 tbere is nothing of this distinction in the niandrakts. 



The fresh root of mandrake, is a violent me- 

 dicine; it operates both by vomit and stool, and few 

 constitutions are able to bear it. The bark of the 

 root dried works by vomit alone, but very roughly* 

 The fruit may be eaten, but it has a sleepy quality^ 

 though not strong. The leaves are used in foment- 

 ations and "pultices, to allay pains in swellings, 

 and they do very vvelh 



Most of the idle stories concerning the man- 

 drake, have taken their origin from its being named 

 in scripture. And from the account therri given 

 of it, some have imagined, it would make women 



fruitful ; but this plant does not seem to be the 

 thing intended bj the word, nor has it any such 

 virtues. What the vegetable is, which is named 

 in the scripture, and translated mandrake, wc do 

 not know. 



Sweet Marjoram. Majoranai 

 A COMMON garden plant, of no great beaut/. 



