3obn JEvelyn 305 



drunk by itself, or mingled with wine, is not 

 only an excellent drink, but admirable in the 

 dropsy. In a word, the water of the leaves and 

 berries is approved in the dropsy, every part of 

 the tree being useful, as may be seen at large in 

 Blocwitzius' Anatomy thereof. The ointment 

 made with the young buds and leaves in May 

 with butter, is most sovereign for aches, shrunk 

 sinews, haemorrhoids, etc., and the flowers 

 macerated in vinegar, not only are of a grateful 

 relish, but good to attenuate and cut raw and 

 gross humors. Lastly, the fungus (which we 

 call Jews'-ears) decocted in milk, or macerated 

 in vinegar, is of known effect in the angina and 

 sores of the throat. And less than this I could 

 not say (with the leave of the charitable phy- 

 sician) to gratify our poor woodman ; and yet 

 when I have said all this, I do by no means 

 commend the scent of it, which is very noxious 

 to the air ; and therefore, though I do not un- 

 dertake that all things which sweeten the air 

 are salubrious, nor all ill savors pernicious, yet, 

 as not for its beauty, so neither for its smell, 

 would I plant elder near my habitation ; since 

 we learn from Biesius that a certain house in 

 Spain, seated among many elder trees, diseased 

 and killed almost all the inhabitants, which, 

 when at last they were grubbed up, became a 

 very wholesome and healthy place. The elder 



