AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 
93 
_ eurious. Two or three sorts are found com- 
monly growing wild here, the description 
_ of two of which I shall give you. 
Descript.]| The first is a smooth, low 
plant, not a foot high, very bitter in taste, 
_ with many square stalks, diversly branched 
_ from the bottom to the top, with divers 
_ joints, and two small Jeaves at each joint, 
_ broader at the bottom than they are at the 
_ end, a little dented about the edges, of a 
_ sad green colour, and full of veins. The 
flowers stand at the joints, being of a fair 
purple colour, with some white spots in 
. them, in fashion like those of dead nettles. 
_ The seed is small and yellow, and the roots 
spread much under ground. 
The second seldom grows half a foot 
high, sending up many small branches, 
whereon grow many small leaves, set one 
against the other, somewhat broad, but 
_ Very short. The flowers are like the flowers 
of the other fashion, but of a pale reddish 
colour. The seeds are small and yellowish. 
The root spreads like the other, neither will 
it yield to its fellow one ace of bitterness. 
Place.] They grow in wet low grounds, 
and by the water-sides; the last may be 
found among the bogs on Hampstead Heath. 
Time.] They flower in June or July, and 
the seed is ripe presently after. 
Government and virtues.| They are 
Wow the belly anointed 
ith it, and are excellently good to cleanse 
) old and filthy ulcers. 
| 
= BLACK HELLEBORE. 
: 
e 
grass, Bear’s-foot, Christmas-herb, and 
Christmas-flowers. 
Descript.] It hath sundry fair green 
leaves rising from the root, each of them 
standing about an handful high from the 
earth; each leaf is divided into seven, eight, 
or nine parts, dented from the middle of 
the leaf to the point on both sides, abiding 
green all the Winter; about Christmas- 
time, if the weather be any thing temper- 
ate, the flowers appear upon foot stalks, also 
consisting of five large, round, white leaves 
a-piece, which sometimes are purple to- 
wards the edges, with many pale yellow 
thumbs in the middle; the seeds are divided 
into several cells, like those of Columbines, 
save only that they are greater; the seeds 
are in colour black, and in form long and 
round. The root consists of numberless 
blackish strings all united into one head. 
There is another Black Hellebore, which 
grows up and down in the woods very like 
this, but only that the leaves are smaller 
and narrower, and perish in the Winter, 
which this doth not. 
Place.| The first is maintained in gar- 
dens. The second is commonly found in 
the woods in Northamptonshire. 
Time.| The first flowers in December 
or January; the second in February or 
March. 
Government and virtues.] It is an herb 
of Saturn, and therefore no marvel if it has 
some sullen conditions with it, and would 
be far safer, being purified by the art of the 
alchymist than given raw. If any have 
taken any harm by taking it, the common 
cure is to take goat’s milk: If you cannot — 
get goat’s milk, you must make a shift with 
such as you can get. The roots are very 
effectual against all melancholy diseases, 
especially such as are of long standing, as ce 
falling sickness, the leprosy, both the yel- : 
low and black jaundice, the gout, sciatica, — 
~ ae: also . called Setter-wort, Setter- 
and convulsions ; and this was found 
quartan agues and madness; it helps ta 
