- AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 
143 
Time.| It being always green, may be 
gathered for use at any time. 
Government and virtues.| Polypodium of 
the Oak, that which grows upon the earth 
is best; it is an herb of Saturn, to purge 
melancholy; if the humour be otherwise, 
chuse you Polypodium accordingly. Meuse 
(who is called the physician’s Evangelist 
for the certainty of his medicines, and the 
truth of his opinion) saith, That it dries up 
thin humours, digests thick and tough, and 
purges burnt choler, and especially tough 
and thick phlegm, and thin phlegm also, 
even from the joints, and therefore good for 
those that are troubled with melancholy, or 
quartan agues, especially if it be taken in 
whey or honied water, or in barley-water, 
or the broth of a chicken with epithymum, 
or with beets and mallows. It is good for 
the hardness of the spleen, and for pricking 
or stitches in the sides, as also for the colic: 
Some use to put to it some fennel seeds, or 
annise seeds, or ginger, to correct that 
loathing it brings to the stomach, which is 
more than needs, it being a safe and gentle 
medicine, fit for all persons, which daily 
experience confirms; and an ounce of it 
may be given at a time in a decoction, if 
there be not sena, or some other strong 
purger put with it. A dram or two of the 
powder of the dried roots taken fasting in 
a cup of honied water, works gently, and 
for the purposes aforesaid. The distilled 
water, both of roots and leaves, is much 
commended for the quartan ague, to be 
taken for many days together, as also 
against melancholy, or fearful and trouble- 
Some sleeps or dreams; and with some 
Sugar-candy dissolved therein, is good 
against the cough, shortness of breath, and 
wheezings, and those distillations of thin 
theum upon the lungs, which cause phthi- 
Sicks, and oftentimes consumptions. The 
fresh roots beaten small, or the powder of 
: the dried roots mixed with honey, and ap- 
Plied to the, aorta ass is out of — 
* gathered to make Unguentum and 
en and pone 
doth much help it; and applied also to the 
nose, cures the disease called Polypus, 
which is a piece of flesh growing therein, 
which in time stops the passage of breath 
through that nostril; and it helps those 
clefts or chops that come between the 
fingers or toes. 
THE POPLAR TREE. 
Tuere are two sorts of Poplars, which 
are most familiar with us, viz. the Black 
and White, both which I shall here de- 
scribe unto you. 
Descript.| The White Poplar grows 
great, and reasonably high, covered with 
thick, smooth, white bark, especially the 
branches, having long leaves cut into 
several divisions almost like a vine leaf, but 
not of so deep a green on the upper side, 
and hoary white underneath, of a reason- 
able good scent, the whole form represent- 
ing the form of Coltsfoot. The catkins 
which it brings forth before the leaves, are 
long, and of a faint reddish colour, which 
fall away, bearing seldom good seed with 
them. The wood hereof is smooth, soft, 
and white, very finely waved, whereby it is 
much esteemed. 
The Black Poplar grows higher and 
straiter than the White, with a greyish 
bark, bearing broad green leaves, somewhat 
like ivy leaves, not cut in on the edges like 
the White, but whole and dented, ending 
in a point, and not white underpeath, hang- 
ing by slender long foot stalks, which with 
the air are continually shaken like as the 
aspen leaves are. The Catkins hereof are 
greater than those of the White, composed 
of many round green berries, as if they 
were set together in a long cluster, contain- _ 
ing much downy matter, which being ripe, 
is blown away with the wind. The clammy — 
buds hereof, before they spread into leaves, 
Populneum, pai ae ot 5 
