THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 195 



Wall Ruej or White Maiden Hair. ? . (h. d. I.) 



Tjiis is generally known amongst village children, and 

 gathered by them under the name of Ladies Hair. 



Descript.'] This hath very fine pale, green stalks, almost 

 as fine as hairs, set confusedly with divers pale greea 

 leaves on very short foot-stalks, somewhat in form, 

 but more diversly cut in on the edges, and thicker, 

 smooth on the upper part, and spotted finely under- 

 neath. 



Flace.'\ It groweth in many places of this land, at 

 Dartford, and the bridge at Ashford in Kent, at Beacons- 

 field in Buckinghamshire, at Wolly in Huntingdonshire, 

 on Framingham Castle in Suffolk, on the church walls at 

 Mayfield in Sussex, in Somersetshire, and divers other 

 places of this land ', and is green in Winter as well as 

 Summer. 



Government and Virtues.'] Both this and the coramoa 

 ]\Iaiden Hair arc under the dominion of Mercury, and so 

 is that also which followeth after, and the virtue of both 

 these arc so near alike, that 1 shall, in writing the 

 virtues of them, join them both together as fol- 

 loweth : 



The deco6tion of the herb Maiden. Hair being drank, 

 helpeth those that are troubled with the cough, shortness 

 of breath, yellow jaundice, diseases of the spleen, stop- 

 ping of urine, and helpeth exceedingly to break thi'stona 

 in the kidnics, (in all which diseases the Wall Rue is also 

 "very effedlual.) It provoketh women's courses, and 

 stays both bleedings and fluxes of the stomach and beUv, 

 especially when the herb is dry ; for being green, it 

 looseneth the belly, and voideth cholcr and phlegm from 

 the stomach and liver; it cleanseth the lungs, and by 

 rectifying the blood, causeth a good colour (o the whole 

 body. The herb boiled in oil of camomile, dissolveth. 

 knots, all.ayeth swellings, and drieth up moist ulcers. 

 The lee made thereof is singular good to cleanse the head 

 from scurf, and from dry and running sores, stayeth the 

 falling or shedding of the hair, and causeth it to grow 

 thickj fair, and vvejl coloured ; for which purpose some 

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