234 THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



attenuating, cleansing and opening qualify therein. It re- 

 sisteth and helpeth the bitings of serpents, eascth the pains 

 and stitches in the sides, and dissolveth wind, both in the 

 stomach and bowels, which is the colic, and provoketh 

 urine. The root is often used, but the seed much more. 

 The wild being better than the tame, shews Dame Na- 

 ture to be the best physician. 



Cow Parsnip. $. (h. d. 1.) 



This is a very diiferent plant from the former. 



Descript.'\ This groweth with three or four larga 

 spread-winged, rough leaves, lying often on the ground, 

 or else raised a little from it, with long, round hairy foot 

 stalks under them, parted usually into five divisions, the 

 two couple standing each against the other; and one at 

 the end, and each being almost round, yet somewhat 

 deeply cut in on the edges in some leaves, and not so 

 deep in others, of a whitish green colour, smelling some- 

 what stronj^Iy ; among which riseth up a round crusted, 

 hairy staik, two or three feet high, with a few joints 

 and leaves thereon, and branched at the top, where stand 

 large umbels of white, and sometimes reddish flowers, and 

 after them flat, whitish, thin, winged seed, two always 

 joined together. The root is long and white, with two 

 or three long strings growing down into the ground, smell- 

 ing likewise strongly and unpleasant. 



Place.^ It groweth in moist meadows, the borders and 

 corners of iields, and near ditches, through this land. 



Time.'] It flowereth in July, and seedeth in August. 



Government and Firtues.~\ Mercury hath the dominioa 

 over them. The seed thereof, as Galen saith, is of a 

 sharp and cutting quality, and therefore is a fit mediciuc 

 for a cough and shortness of breath, the falling-sickness 

 and jaundice. The root is available to all the purposes 

 aforesaid, and is also of great use to take away the hard 

 skin that groweth on a fistula, if it be but scraped upon 

 it. The seed hereof being drank, cleanseth the belly 

 from tough phlegmatic water therein, easeth them that 

 are liver-grown, women's passions of the mother, as well 

 being drank as the smoke thereof received underneath^ 

 and likewise riseth such as are fallen into a deep sleep, 



