172 THE INGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



vinegar, dcauscth and hcalcth tetters. There is a syrup 

 mado of llorchound to be had at the apothecaries, very 

 good for old coughs, to rid phlegm; as also to void cold 

 rheums from the lungs of old folks, and for those that are 

 asthmatic or short-winded. 



Horsetail. Tj . (c. d. 2.) 



Or that there are many kinds, but 1 shall not trouble you 

 nor myself with any large description of them, which to 

 do, were but as the proverb is, To find a knot in a rush, 

 all the kinds thereof being nothing else but knotted 

 rushes, some with leaves, and some without. Take the 

 description of the most eminent sort as followeth. 



Dcscript.^ The great Horsetail at the first springing 

 hath heads somewhat like those of asparagus, and after 

 grow to be hard, rough, hollow stalks, jointed at sundry 

 places up to the top, a foot high, so made as if the lower 

 parts were put into the upper, where grow on each side 

 a bush of small long rush-like hard leaves, each part re- 

 sembling a horse-tail, from whence it is so called. At 

 the tops of the stalks come forth small catkins, like those 

 of trees. The root crecpeth under ground, having joints 

 at sundry places. 



Place.'] This (as most of the other sorts hereof) groweth 

 in wet grounds. 



Time.'] They spring up in April, and their blooming 

 catkins in July, seeding for the most part in August, and 

 then perish down to the ground, rising afresh in the 

 Spring. 



Government and Virtues."] The herb belongs to Saturn, 

 yet is very harmless, and excellent good for the things 

 following: Horsetail, the smoother rather than the rough, 

 and the leaved rather than the bare, is most physical. It 

 is very powerful to staunch bleeding either inward or 

 outward, the juice or the decoftion thereof being drank, 

 or the juice, decodtion, or distilled water applied out- 

 wardly. It also stayeth all sorts of lasks and fluxes iu 

 man or woman, and also bloody nrine; and healcth 

 also not only the inward ulcers, and the excoriation of 

 the entrails, bladder, &c. but all other sorts of foul, 

 moist, and running ulcers, and soon sodcreth together 



