THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED, 131 



juice dissolved in wine, or put into an egg, is good for a 

 cough, or shortness of breath, and for those that are 

 troubled with wind in the body. It purgeth the belly- 

 gently, expelleth the hardness of the spleen, giveth ease 

 to women that have sore travail in child-birth, and easeth 

 the pains of the reins and bladder, and also the ■vvomb. 

 A little of the juice dissolved in wine, and dropped into 

 the ears, easeth the pains in them, and put into a hollow 

 tooth, easeth the pains thereof. The root is less effectual 

 to all the aforesaid disorders ;yct the powder of the root 

 cleanseth foul ulcers, being put into them, and taketh 

 out splinters of broken bones, or other things in the 

 flesh, and healeth them up perfectly ; as also drieth up 

 old and inveterate running sores, and is of adairarble Yir=. 

 tue in all green wounds. 



Fig-AVort, or Throat-Wort. ? and \s, (lud.A.} 



Some Latin authors call it Cervicaria, because it is ap» 

 propriated to the neck ; and the throat-wort, because it 

 is appropriated to the throat. 



DescriptJ^ Common great Fig-wort sendeth divers great^ 

 strong, hard, square brown stalks, three or four feet 

 high, whereon grow large, hard, and dark green leaves, 

 two at a joint, harder and larger than nettle leaves, but 

 not stinging; at the tops of the stalks stand many pur-- 

 plc tlowers set in husks, which are sometimes gaping and 

 open, somewhat like those of Water Betony ; after Avhich 

 come hard round heads, with a small point in the middle, 

 wherein lie small brownish seed. The root is great, white, 

 and thick, with many branches at it, growing aslope 

 under the upper crust of the ground, which abideth many- 

 years, but keepeth not his green leaves in winter. 



Place.'] It groweth frequently in moist and shadowy 

 •woods, and in the lower parts of the fields and meadows, 



Time.'\ it flowereth about July, and the seed will be 

 ripe about a month after the flowers are fallen. 



Government and Virtues.] Venus owns the herb, and 

 the Celestial Bull will not deny it; therefore a better re- 

 medy cannot be for the king's evil, because the Moon that 

 rules the disease is exalted there. The deco6lion of th« 

 herb taken inwardly, and the bruised herb applied outo 

 c6 



