KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. 135 



account of their medicinal properties, which were in many cases 

 both varied and comprehensive. For instance, the decoctions 

 of " Blessed Thistle " or carduus henedictiis, either the leaves 

 ground, or the juice drunk, or the leaves applied outwardly, were 

 supposed to cure deafness, giddiness, loss of memory, the plague, 

 ague, swellings or wounds, the bites of serpents, or mad dogs, 

 and many other complaints. With faith in such a catalogue of 

 its uses, it is not astonishing that the " Blessed Thistle " was 

 cultivated in every garden. Another plant that was grown in 

 all gardens, from the tenth century onwards, was the Mandrake 

 {Mandragora vernalis and autmnnalis). More ridiculous super- 

 stitions cluster round this plant than are attached to any other. 

 The roots were supposed to resemble the figure of a man, 

 and to possess certain mystic powers, therefore spurious roots 

 were manufactured in this form, and sold as charms. It was said 

 to shriek when pulled from the ground, and the sound was so 

 horrible that anyone who heard it went out of his mind, or died. 

 Shakespeare refers to this superstition : 



" And shrieks like Mandrakes torn out of the earth, 

 That Hving mortals, hearing' them, run mad." 



Romeo and Juliet, act iv. scene 3. 



Not only in the Herbals proper, but in almost every practical 

 work on gardening, the " vertues and physic helps" of each 

 flower are enumerated. Thomas Hill devotes four pages to the 

 " physicke helps and worthie secrets of the Colewort," or 

 cabbage. Even Parkinson finds some medicinal use for nearly 

 every plant, and only a few " are wholly spent for their flowers 

 sake " ; "^ even of tulips he confesses to have "made trial," and 

 preserved the bulbs in sugar, and found them pleasant. " That 

 the roots are nourishing, there is no doubt .... for divers have 

 had them sent by their friends from beyond sea, and mistaking 

 them to be onions, have used them as onions in their pottage or 

 broth, and never found any cause of mislike, or any sense of evil 

 quality produced by them, but accounted them sweet onions." f 

 By far the most important introduction into the kitchen garden 

 was the potato. The generally received idea is that the potato 



* Larkspur, Paradisus, p. 278. f Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 77. 



