350 Direfiions for making Sijnips^ Sfc. 



3. The leaves of such herbs as run up to seed, arc not so good 

 when lliey are in flower as before, (some few excepted, the leaves 

 of which are seldom or never used) in snch cases, if through neg- 

 ligence forgotten, you had better take the top and the flowers, 

 than tho leaf. 



4. Drv them well in the sun, and not in the shade, as the sav- 

 ing of physicians is; for if the sun draw away the virtues of the 

 herb, it must needs do the like by hay, by the same rule, which 

 the experience of every country farmer will explode for a notable 

 piece of nonsense. 



5. Such as are artists in astrology, (and indeed none else ar« fit 

 to make physicians) such I advise; let the planet that governs 

 the herb he angular, and the stronger the better ; if they can, in 

 herbs of Saturn, let Saturn be in the ascendant ; in the herbs of 

 Man, let Mars be in the mid heaven, for in those houses they de- 

 light ; let the Moon apply to them by good aspect, and let her not 

 be in the housci of her enemies ; if you cannot well stay till she 

 apply to them, let her apply to a planet of the same treplicity ; if 

 you cannot wait that time neither, let her be with a fixed star of 

 their nature. 



6. Having well dried them, put them up in brown paper, sew- 

 ing the paper up like a sack, and press them not too hard to- 

 gether, and keep them in a dry place near the fire. 



7. As for the duration of dried herbs, a just time cannot be 

 given, let authors prate their pleasure ; for 



1st. Such as grow upon dry grounds, will keep better than such 

 as grow on moist. 



2dly, Such herbs as are full of juice, will not keep so long as 

 such as are drier. 



Sdly, Such herbs as are well dried will keep longer than sucli as 

 are slack dried. Yet you may know when they are corrupted, by 

 their loss of colour, or smell, or both ; and if they be corrupted, 

 reason will telt you that they must needs corrupt the bodies of 

 those people that take them. 



8. Gather all leas es in the h«ur of that planet that governs 

 Ihem. See the Table of the planetary hours at the end of this 

 Book. 



CHAP. II. Of Flower t. 



1. The flower, which is the beauty of the plant, and of none 

 of the least use in physic, groweth yearly, and is to be gathered 

 when it is in its prime. 



2. As for the time of gathering them, let the planetary hour 

 and the plant they come of, be observed, as we shewed you in the 

 foregoing clapter; as for the time of the day, let it be when the 

 sun shines upon them, so that they may be dry; for if you gather 

 either flowers or herbs when they are wet or dewy, they will not 

 keep. 



