37^ The Garden of p leaf ant Flowers. 



There is likewife another fort of thefe male Mandrakes, which I firft faw at Canter- 

 bury, with my very louing and kinde friende lohn Tradefcante, in the garden of the 

 Lord Wotton, whofe gardiner he was at that time ; the leaues whereof were of a 

 more grayifh greene colour, and fomewhat folded together, when as the former kind 

 that grew hard by it, was of the fame forme that is before defcribed, and ordinary in 

 all others : but whether the apples were differing from the other, I know not, nor did 

 they remember that euer it had borne any. 



Mandragoras feemina. The female Mandrake. 



The female Mandrake doth likewife put vp many leaues together, from the head of 

 the roote, but they are nothing fo large, and are of a darker greene colour, narrower 

 alfo and mining, more crumpled, and of a ftronger fent : the flowers are many, rifing 

 vp in the middle of the leaues, vpon {lender ftalkes, as in the male kind, but of a blew- 

 im purple colour, which turne into fmall round fruite or apples, and not long like a 

 peare (as Clufius reporteth that faw them naturally growing in Spaine) greene at the 

 firft, and of a pale yellowim colour, when they are full ripe ; of a more pleafing, or if 

 you will, of a lefTe heady fent then the apples of the male, wherein is contained fuch 

 like feede, but fmaller and blacker : the rootes are like the former, blacke without and 

 white within, and diuided in the fame manner as the male is, fometimes with more, 

 and fometimes with fewer parts or branches. 



The Place. 



They grow in many places of Italic, as Matthiolus reporteth, but efpe- 

 cially on Mount Garganus in Apulia. Clufius faith hee found the female in 

 many wet grounds of Spaine, as alfo in the borders of thofe medowes that 

 lye neere vnto riuers and water courfes. The male is cherifhed in many 

 Gardens, for pleafure as well as for vfe : but the female as is faid, is both ve- 

 ry rare, and farre more tender. 



The Time. 



The Male flowreth in March, and the fruit is ripe in luly. The Female, if 

 it be well preferued, flowreth not vntill Auguft, or September ; fo that with- 

 out extraordinary care, we neuer fee the fruite thereof in our gardens. 



The Names. 



Mandragoras mas is called albus, as the Fczmtna is called niger, which titles 

 of blacke and white, are referred vnto the colour of the leaues : the fe- 

 male is called alfo Thridacias, from the likeneffe of Lettice, whereunto they 

 fay in forme it doth carry fome fimilitude. Diofcorides faith, that in his time 

 the male was called Morion, and both of them Antimelum, and Circcea. Wee 

 call them in Engliih, The male, and the female Mandrake. 



The Vertues. 



The leaues haue a cooling and drying qualitie, fit for the oyntment Po- 

 puleon, wherein it is put. But the Apples haue a foporiferous propertie, as 

 Leuinus Lemnius maketh mention in his Herball to the Bible, of an expe- 

 riment of his owne. Befides, as Diofcorides firft, and then Serapio, Auicen, 

 Paulus /Egineta, and others alfo do declare, they conduce much to the coo- 

 ling and cleanling of an hot matrix. And it is probable, that Rachel know- 

 ing that they might be profitable for her hot and dry body, was the more 

 earned with Leah for her Sonne Rubens Apples, as it is fet downe Genefo 

 30. ixrfe 14. The ftrong fent of thefe apples is remembred alfo, Cant. j. 13. 

 although fome would diuert the fignification of the Hebrew word, o'Wrn, 



vnto 



