Pd/M vet Nux ladita c$tosfaeu. 

 The Indian Cekar Nut tree. 



Parkinson is very fulsome in the praise of the coconut tree: "There 

 cannot be found in the world, a tree that hath so many necessary com- 

 modities for mens uses . . ." In addition to increasing potency it is 

 listed as valuable in easing sore throat and hoarseness. 



and then dyeth, or else will perish if the grasse round about 

 it bee cut away of purpose : it hath foure legges also hanging 

 downe; the Wolves much affect to feede on them." It is 

 assumed that this myth grew out of descriptions of the cotton 

 plant by Herodotus, Pliny, and other ancient authors. 



Parkinson pours scorn on a good many contemporary 

 beliefs, but accepts others unquestioningly, especially those 

 concerning amulets. He tells us that the custom of placing 

 a piece of mistletoe around the necks of children "against 

 W'itchcraft and the illusion of Sathan" is worthless but that 

 a wreath of periwinkle "worne about the legs defendeth 

 them [that wear it] from the crampe." Despite his belief 

 that the use of herbs against witchcraft was foolish, he is, as 

 Eleanour Sinclair Rohde points out in her book The Old 

 English Herbals (London, 1922), "the only herbalist who 

 gives us a potion which 'resisteth such charmes or the like 

 witchery that is used in such drinkes that are given to pro- 

 duce love.' " 



The Theatrum Botanicum also has a large number of 

 beauty hints. The golden flowers of mullein "boyled in lye, 

 dyeth the haires of the head yellow, and maketh them faire 

 and smooth"; a decoction of bramble leaves, on the other 

 hand, will darken hair. French women, he tells us, account 

 the distilled water of pimpernell "mervailous good to dense 

 the skinne from any roughnesses, deformity or discoloring 

 thereof, and to make it smooth neate and cleere." The 

 ashes of southernwood, mixed with old salad oil, "helpeth 

 those that have their haire fallen, or their heads bald, to 

 cause the haires to grow againe, either upon the head or 

 beard." The powder of the seede of elder, "first prepared 

 in vinegar, and then taken in wine, halfe a dramme at a 

 time, for certaine dayes together, is a meanes to abate and 

 consume the fat flesh of a corpulent body, andkeepeitleane." 



Among many other useful things Parkinson tells us that 

 the female fern was used by the women of Warwickshire "in 

 steed of Sope" and that it was always gathered about Mid- 

 summer "into good big balls, which when they will use them 

 they burne them in the fire, until it becomes blewish, which 

 being then layd by, will dissolve into powder, of it selfe, like 

 imto Lime: foure of these balles being dissolved in warme 

 water is sufficient to wash a whole bucke full of cloathes." 

 Purslane is given as a remedy for "blastings by lightening, 

 or planets, and for burnings by Gunpowder." Willow- 

 herb, being burned, "driveth away flies and gnats, and other 

 such like small creatures, which use in diverse places, that 

 are neere to Fennes, Marshes, or water sides, to infest them 

 that dwell there, in the night season to sting and bite them." 

 The bruised root of crowfoote "applied to the finger, by 

 causing more paine therein, than is felt by the touthach 

 [toothache], it taketh away the paine!" 



In a more pungent vein he notes that the fruit of the 

 bead tree "being drilled . . . and drawne on stringes, serve 

 people beyond Sea to number their prayers on, least they 

 forget themselves and give God too many." He gives us a 

 "good jest for a bold unwelcome guest," a "smellfeast" : 

 nightshade should be infused in a little wine for six or seven 

 hours and served to the guest, who then "shall not be able 

 to eate any meate for that mcale, nor untill they drinke 

 some vinegar, which will presently dispell that quality, and 

 cause them fall to their viands, with as good a stomacke, 

 as they had before." 



These are but a few selections culled from this "stately 

 Fabrique, collected and coniposed with excessive paines . . . 

 [this] curious pourtrait, and description of th'Earths flowred 

 mantle, the Botanique Pandects, and the Herbarists Oracle, 

 a rich Magazin of soveraigne Medicines, physicall experi- 

 ments, and other rarities," as John Bainbridge writes in a 

 commendatory letter. There are so many interesting and 

 curious things that it is difficult to choose. 



Parkinson concluded his preface to the Theatrum Bo- 

 tanicum with these words: "Goe forth now therefore thou 

 issue artificial! of mine, and supply the defect of a Naturall, 

 to beare up thy Fathers name and memory to succeeding 

 ages . . ." Three hundred years later we can still say, in 

 the words of one of the sets of verses prefixed to the volume, 

 "No night of Age shall cloude bright Park-in-sunne." 



DECEMBER Page 5 



