.06 THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



would destroy health, and are helpful <o the scurrjv 

 Ihcy do all provoke urine, and help to break the 

 sfone, and pass it away; they procure women's courses, 

 and expel (he dead child. Being fried with bnttcr and 

 •vinegar, and applied warm, it hclpeth ail manner of 

 tumours, swellings, and inflammations. 



Such drinks ought to be made of sundry herbs ac- 

 cording to the malady. 



Butchers Broom. S (h. 2. d. 1.) 



It is called Ruscus and Bruscus, Kneeholm, Knee* 

 holy, Knechuiver, and Pettigrcc. 



iJescript.'] The first shoots that sprout from the root of 

 Butcher's Broom, are thick, whitish, and short, somewhat 

 Tike those of asparagus, but greater, rising up to a, 

 foot and a half, spread into divers branches, green, and 

 somewhat cressed with the roundness, tough and flexible, 

 whereon are set somewhat broad and almost round 

 hard leaves, and prickly, pointed at the end, of a 

 dark green colour, two ior the most part set at a place 

 very close and near together ; about the middle of 

 ihe leaf, on the back and lower side from the middltt 

 rib, brcaketh forth a small whitish green flower, con- 

 sisting of four small round pointed leaves, standing 

 upon little or no footstalk, and in the place whereof 

 Cometh a small round berry, green at the first, and red 

 when it is ripe, wherein are two or three white, hard, 

 round seeds contained. The root is thick, white, and 

 great at the head, and from thence sendeth forth divert 

 thick, white, long, tough strings. 



Place.'} It groweth in copses, and upon heaths and waste 

 grounds, and oftentimes under or near the holly bushes. 



Time.'] It shooteth forth its young buds in the Spring, 

 and the berries arc ripe about September, the branches 

 of leaves abiding green all the Winter. 



Government and Virtues.'] 'Tis a plant of Mars, being of 

 a gallant cleansing and opening quality. The decoction 

 of the root made with wine, o))encth obstructions, pro- 

 ^akclh urine, helpeth to exjiel gravel and the stone, the 

 srtratiguury and women's courses, also the yellow jaundice 

 and fie head-ach ; and with some honey or sugar put 



