KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. 139 



both varied and comprehensive. For instance, the decoctions 

 of " Blessed Thistle " or carduus benedictus, either the leaves 

 ground, or the juice drunk, or the leaves applied outwardly, were 

 supposed to cure deafness, giddiness, loss of memory, the plague, 

 ague, swellings or wounds, the bites of serpents, or mad dogs, 

 and many other complaints. With faith in such a catalogue of 

 its .uses, it is not astonishing that the "Blessed Thistle" was 

 cultivated in every garden. Another plant that was grown in 

 all gardens, from the tenth century onwards, was the Mandrake 

 (Mandr agora vernalis and autumnalis). More ridiculous super- 

 stitions cluster round this plant than are attached to any other. 

 The roots were supposed to resemble the figure of a man, 

 and to possess certain mystic powers, therefore spurious roots 

 were manufactured in this form, and sold as charms. It was said 

 to shriek when pulled from the ground, and the sound was so 

 horrible that anyone who heard it went out of his mind, or died. 

 Shakespeare refers to this superstition : 



" And shrieks like Mandrakes torn out of the earth, 

 That living mortals, hearing" them, run mad." 



Romeo and Juliet, act iv. scene 3. 



Not only in the Herbals proper, but in almost every practical 

 work on gardening, the " vertues and physic helps" of each 

 flower are enumerated. Thomas Hill devotes four pages to the 

 " physicke helps and worthie secrets of the Colewort," or 

 cabbage. Even Parkinson finds some medicinal use for nearly 

 every plant, and only a few " are wholly spent for their flowers 

 sake " ; * even of tulips he confesses 'to have " made trial," and 

 preserved the bulbs in sugar, and found them pleasant. " That 

 the roots are nourishing, there is no doubt .... for divers have 

 had them sent by their friends from beyond sea, and mistaking 

 them to be onions, have used them as onions in their pottage 

 or broth, and never found any cause of mislike, or any sense 

 of evil quality produced by them, but accounted them sweet 

 onions." t 



By far the most important introduction into the kitchen garden 

 was the potato. The generally received idea is that the potato 



* Larkspur, Paradisus, p. 278. f Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 77. 



