4.4.4 The Garden of p leaf ant Flowers. 



CHAP. CXXIIII. 

 Periploca refta Virginiana. Virginian Silke. 



LEft this ftranger fhould find no hofpitality with vs, being fo beautifull a plant, 

 or not finde place in this Garden, let him be here receiued, although with the 

 laft, rather then not at all. It rifeth vp with one or more ftrong and round 

 ftalkes, three or foure foote high, whereon are fet at the feuerall ioynts thereof two 

 faire, long, and broad leaues, round pointed, with many veines therein, growing 

 clofe to the flemme, without any foote-ftalke : at the tops of the ftalkes, and fome 

 times at the ioynts of the leaues, groweth forth a great bum of flowers out of a 

 thinne skinne, to the number of twenty, and fometimes thirty or forty, euery one 

 with a long foote-ftalke, hanging downe their heads for the moft part, efpecially 

 thofe that are outermoft, euery one (landing within a fmall huske of greene leaues, 

 turned to the ftalkeward, like vnto the Lyfimachia flower of Virginia before de- 

 fcribed, and each of them confiding of fiue fmall leaues a peece, of a pale pur- 

 plifh colour on the vpperfide, and of a pale yellowim purple vnderneath, both fides 

 of each leafe being as it were folded together, making them feeme hollow and 

 pointed, with a few fhort chiues in the middle : after which come long and crooked 

 pointed cods ftanding vpright, wherein are contained flat brownifh feede, difper- 

 fedly lying within a great deale of fine, foft, and whitifh browne filke, very like vnto 

 the cods, feede, and filke of AJclepias, or Swallow-wort, but that the cods are greater 

 and more crooked, and harder alfo in the outer mell : the roote is long and white, of 

 the bigneffe of a mans thumbe, running vnder ground very far, and fhooting vp in di- 

 uers places, the heads being fet full of fmall white grumes or knots, yeelding forth 

 many branches, if it ftand any time in a place : the whole plant, as well leaues as 

 ftalkes, being broken, yeeld a pale milke. 



The Place. 



It came to me from Virginia, where it groweth aboundantly, being rai- 

 fed vp from the feede I receiued. 



The Time. 

 It flowreth in luly, and the feede is ripe in Auguft. 



The Names. 



It may feeme very probable to many, that this plant is the fame that Pro- 

 fper Alpinus in the twenty fift Chapter of his Booke of Egyptian plants, 

 nameth Beidelfar ; and Honorius Bellus in his third and fourth Epiftles vn- 

 to Clufius (which are at the end of his Hiftory of plants) calleth Offar fru- 

 tex : And Clufius himfelfe in the fame Booke calleth Apocynurn Syriacum, 

 Paltzftinum, and Mgyptiacum, becaufe this agreeth with theirs in very many 

 and notable parts ; yet verily I thinke this plant is not the fame, but rather 

 another kinde of it felfe : Firft, becaufe it is not frutex, a fhrub or wooddy 

 plant, nor keepeth his leaues all the yeare, but lofeth both leaues and ftalks, 

 dying down to the ground euery yeare : Secondly, the milke is not caufticke 

 or violent, as Alpinus and Bellus fay OJ/ar is : Thirdly, the cods are more 

 crooked then thofe of Clufius, or of Alpinus, which Honorius Bellus ac- 

 knowledgeth to be right, although greater then thofe he had out of Egypt : 

 And laftly, the rootes of thefe doe runne, whereof none of them make any 

 mention. Gerard in his herball giueth a rude figure of the plant, but a very 

 true figure of the cods with feede, and faith the Virginians call it Wijanck, 

 and referreth it to the Afclepias, for the likenefTe of the cods fluffed with 



filken 



