FAMILY HERBAL. 215 



perly speaking, two kinds of mandrake ; the one 

 with round fruit, and broad leaves, called the male ; 

 the other with oblong fruit, and narrower leaves, 

 called the female : their virtues are the same, but the 

 male is generally preferred. They are natives ot 

 Italy, where they grow in woods, and on the banks of 

 rivers : we keep them in gardens ; but they grow 

 there as freely as if native. 



The mandrake has no stalk. The leaves rise im- 

 mediately from the root, and they are very large : 

 they are a foot long, four inches broad in the mid- 

 dle, and of a dusky green colour, and bad smell. 

 The flowers stand upon foot stalks, of four inches 

 high, slender, and hairy, and rising immediately 

 from the root : these flowers are large, of a dingy 

 purplish colour, and of a very bad smell. The 

 fruit which follows, is of the bigness and shape 

 of a small apple, or like a small pear, according 

 to the male or female kind : this is yellow when 

 ripe, and is also of a very bad smell. The root 

 is long and thick ; it is largest at the head, and 

 smaller all the way down ; sometimes it is divided 

 into two parts, from the middle downwards, if a 

 stone have lain in the way, or any other accident 

 occasioned it ; but usually it is single. This is 

 the root which is pictured to be like the human 

 form : it is when single, no more like a man than 

 a carrot or a parsnip is, and when by some accident 

 it is divided, 'tis no more tike, than any long 

 root, which happens to have met the same acci- 

 dent. Those roots which are shewn about for 

 money and have the head, limbs, and figure, of 

 a human form, are made so by art, and they sel- 

 dom use the real mandrake root for that purpose : 

 they are often made of white briony root, some- 

 time? of angelica. The people cut them into 

 this shape, and put them into the ground again, 



