HISTORY OF BOTANY. J;) 



hath not had the experience thereof to beleeue : for bemg in 

 Kent about a Pacient, it chanced that a very poore man in 

 mowing of Peason did cut his leg with the Sieth, wdierein he 

 made a wound to the bones, and withal verj^ large and wide, 

 and also with great effusion of bloud, the poore man crept 

 vnto this herbe which he brused in his hands, and tied a 

 great quantitie of it vnto the wound with a peece of his shirt, 

 which presently stanched the bleeding and ceased the pain, 

 insomuch that the poore man presently went to his dales 

 work againe and so did from dale to dale, without resting 

 one day vntill he was perfectly hole, w^iich w^as accomplished 

 in a fewe dales by this herbe stamped with a little Hogs 

 grease, and so laid upon in maner of a pultis, wdiich did as 

 it were glewe or soder the lips of the wounde togither, and 

 heale it according to the first intention (as we tearme it) that 

 is without drawing or bringing the wounde to suppuration 

 or matter, which w^as fully performed in seauen dales, that 

 woulde haue required fortie dales with Balsam itselfe. I sawe 

 the wounde, and offered to heale the same for charitie, 

 which he refused, saying, that I could not heale it so well as 

 himselfe ; a clownish answer I confesse without thankes for my 

 good will, w^hereupon I haue named it Clounes Woundwoort 

 as aforesaide," — a name it bears to this day. Gerard's 

 ' Herbal ' is divided into three books, the first " Containing 

 Grasses, Rushes, Corne, Flags, Bulbose, or Onion-rooted 

 Plants." The second book contains *' the description, place, 

 time, names, nature, and vertues of all sorts of herbs for 

 meate, medicine, or sweete smelling vse, &c. ; " and the third 

 " the description, place, time, names, nature and vertues of 

 Trees, Shrubs, Bushes, Fruit-bearing plants, and other rare 

 plants not remembered in the Proeme to the first booke. 

 Also Mushroms, Corall, and their several kinds, &c." 



The w^ork concludes with an extraordinary chapter on the 

 " Goose tree," from which I make the following extract : — 



