LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS 169 



Ocean of Infirmities Yet the mercy of God which is over all his 

 Workes Maketh Grasse to grow upon the Mountaines and Herbs 

 for the use of Men and hath not onely stemped upon them (as 

 upon every man) a distinct forme, but also given them particular 

 signatures, whereby a Man may read even in legible Characters 

 the Use of them. Heart Trefoyle is so called not onely because 

 the Leafe is Triangular like the Heart of a Man, but also because 

 each leafe contains the perfect Icon of an Heart and that in its 

 proper colour viz a flesh colour. Hounds tongue hath a forme 

 not much different from its name which will tye the Tongues of 

 Hounds so that they shall not barke at you : if it be laid under 

 the bottomes of ones feet. Wallnuts bear the whole Signature 

 of the Head, the outwardmost green barke answerable to the 

 thick skin whereunto the head is covered, and a salt made of 

 it is singularly good for wounds in that part, as the Kernell is 

 good for the braines, which it resembles being environed with a 

 shell which imitates the Scull, and then it is wrapped up againe 

 in a silken covering somewhat representing the Pia Mater." 



Of those plants that have no signatures he warns the reader 

 not to conclude hastily that therefore they have no use. " We 

 must cast ourselves," he says, " with great Courage and Industry 

 (as some before us have done), upon attempting the vertues 

 of them, which are yet undiscovered. For man was not brought 

 into the world to live like an idle Loyterer or Truant, but to 

 exercise his minde in those things, which are therefore in some 

 measure obscure and intricate, yet not so much as otherwise 

 they would have been, it being easier to adde than invent at 

 first." He then gives his own curious but naively interesting 

 theory of plants " commonly accounted useless and unprofitable." 

 " They would not be without their use," he argues, " if they 

 were good for nothing else but to exercise the Industry of Man 

 to weed them out who, had he nothing to struggle with, the fire 

 of his Spirit would be halfe extinguished in the Flesh." After 

 pointing out that weeding them out is in itself excellent exercise, 

 he proceeds : — " But further why may not poysonous plants 



