L ILV ()!• Till: V Al.Ll.Y. 1 G3 



that Gerald considers its name to have originated. 

 It appears to have been a plant of great medical 

 celebrity in the reign of Elizabeth, for a medical 

 author of her clay gravely tells us, " The roots of 

 Salomon's Scale, stamped while it is fresh and 

 greene, and applied, taketh away in one night or 

 two at the most, any bruse, blacke or blew spots 

 gotten by fals, or woman's wilfulness, in stumbling 

 vpon their hastie husband's fists, or such like." 

 The same author adds, u Galen saith, that neither 

 herb nor root hereof is to be giuen inwardly ; bat 

 note what experience has found out, and of late 

 daies, especially among the vulgar sort of people of 

 Hampshire, which Galen, Dioscorides, or any other 

 that hath written of plants, haue not so much as 

 dreamed of, which is : That if any, of what sexe or 

 age soeuer, that chance to haue any bones broken, 

 in what part of their bodies it be, their refuge is to 

 stampe the rootes heereof, and giue it vnto the 

 patient in ale to drinke, which soldcreth and 

 gleweth together the bones in very short space, and 

 very strongely, yea, although the bones be but 

 slenderly and vnhandsomely wrapt vp. [Moreover 

 the said people do giue it in like manner vnto their 

 cattle, if they chance to haue any bones broken, 

 with good successe, which they do also stampe, and 

 apply outwardly in manner of a pultis, as well vnto 

 themselves as their cattle.' 1 He continues, " That 



