THE COMPLETE HERBAL 
COMFREY.,. 
Tus is a very common but a very neg- 
lected plant. It contains very great virtues. 
Descript.| The common Great Comfrey 
has divers very large hairy green leaves 
lying on the ground, so hairy or prickly, 
that if they touch any tender parts of the 
hands, face, or body, it will cause it to itch; 
the stalks that rise from among them, being 
_two or three feet high, hollow and cornered, 
is very hairy also, having many such like 
leaves as grow below, but less and less up 
to the top: At the joints of the stalks it is 
divided into many branches, with some 
leaves thereon, and at the ends stand many 
flowers in order one above another, which 
are somewhat long and hollow like the 
finger of a glove, of a pale whitish colour, 
after which come small black seeds. The 
roots are great and long, spreading great 
thick branches under ground, black on the 
outside, and whitish within, short and easy 
to break, and full of glutinous or clammy 
juice, of little or no taste at all. 
There is another sort in all things like 
this, only somewhat less, and bears flowers 
of a pale purple colour. 
Place.] They grow by ditches and 
water-sides, and in divers fields that are 
moist, for therein they chiefly delight to 
grow. The first generally through all the 
land, and the other but in some places. By 
the leave of my authors, I know the first 
grows in dry places. 
Time.] They flower in June or July, 
and give their seed in August. 
Government and virtues.] This is an herb 
of Saturn, and I Suppose under the sign 
Capricorn, cold, dry, and earthy in quality. 
_ What was spoken of Clown’s Woundwort 
__ may be said of this. The Great Comfrey 
_ helps those that spit blood, or make a 
eo bloody urine. The root boiled in water or 
: _ wine, and the decoction drank, helps all | 
of the lungs, and causes the phlegm that — 
oppresses them to be easily spit forth: It 
helps the defluction of rheum from the — 
head upon the lungs, the fluxes of blood or — 
humours by the belly, women’s immoderate 
courses, as well the reds as the whites, 
and the running of the reins, happening by 
what cause soever. A syrup made thereof — 
is very effectual for all those inward griefs — 
and hurts, and the distilled water for the 
same purpose also, and for outward wounds | 
and sores in the fleshy or sinewy part of the 
body whatsoever, as also to take away the | 
fits of agues, and to allay the sharpness of — 
humours. A decoction of the leaves here- 
of is available to all the purposes, though 
not so effectual as the roots. The roots — 
being outwardly applied, help fresh wounds — 
or cuts immediately, being bruised and laid | 
thereto; and is special good for ruptures 
and broken bones; yea, it is said to be so | 
powerful to consolidate and knit together, © 
that if they be boiled with dissevered pieces 
of flesh in a pot, it will join them together _ 
again. It is good to be applied to women’s 
breasts that grow sore by the abundance 
of milk coming into them; also to repress 
the overmuch bleeding of the hemorrhoids, 
to cool the inflammation of the parts there- 
abouts, and to give ease of pains. The 
roots of Comfrey taken fresh, beaten small, — 
and spread upon leather, and laid upon any 
place troubled with the gout, doth presently _ 
give ease of the pains; and applied in the — 
Same manner, gives ease to pained joints, — 
and profits very much for running and 
moist ulcers, gangrenes, mortifications, and © 
the like, for which it hath by often experi- 
ence been found helpful. 
CORALWORT. 
Ir is also called by some Toothwort, 
Tooth Violet, Dog-Teeth Violet; and 
Dentaria. 
_ Deseript.] Of the many sorts of this 
