14 cttlpepeb's complete hebbal. 



head, white as bdow, and mealy when nibbed between thf 

 fiugere; it has a few fibres, and a ash-coloured rind, the 

 lower part being perforated, with small seeds in the holes. 

 The taste is tirst sweetish, then bitter, acrid, and nause- 

 ous, with a slight astringencj. There are a great variety 

 of these excrescences; they diflFer both in virtue and the sub- 

 stances on which they grow. One kind grows at the foot 

 of oak trees, which is pleasant to eat, weighing from an 

 ounce to two pounds, of a fleshy juicy substance, without 

 pores, dotted on the outside with red, tasting like the meat 

 of a lobster's claw. It ditfers in colour, the upper surface 

 is a brown red, the under approaches a buff colour, some- 

 times full of pores, the inner substance is fleshy and suc- 

 culent, streaked with deeper and paler red. Ihey are 

 about a foot and a half round, apparently nothing but 

 leaves encompassing each other ; these fungous leaves are 

 halt an inch thick, all joining in one thick basis, by which 

 it adheres to the stump of an oak tree. It consists of two 

 sorts of fibres ; those which frame the outward surface are 

 tou^h, and of a ligamentous fimiuess, place<l horizoutally; 

 the others are soft and perpendicular to the first, forming 

 the under surface, which is white and full of pores. 



Touchwood, or Spunk, is made from another kind of 

 fungus growing on willows, full of minuute pores, covered 

 with a white substance on the under side when fresh. A 

 third kind grows on the trunks of the larch trees. 



Government and V^irtues. — It is under the government 

 of Mercury in the sign of Leo. The best is white, light, 

 and brittle. It evacuates phlegm, and is given in deflux- 

 ions and disorders of the breast, but that only to strong 

 people. It is reckoned a useless medicine, or rather noxi- 

 ous, for it loads the stomach, distends the viscera, create! 

 a nausea, and causes vomiting. Its powder has been pre- 

 scribed from half a dram to two drams. 



ALL-HEAL.— ('Prvn^/Za Vulgaris.) 



It is also called HercnW All-heal, and Hercules' 

 Wound-wort, because it is supposed that Hercules learn- 

 ed the herV> and its virtues from Chiron, when he learned 

 physic of him. 



Descrip.— Its root is long, thick, and exceedingly full 

 of juice, of a hot and biting taste : the leaves are great 

 and \arge, and wingedalmost like Ash-tree leaves, but that 

 the] are something hairy, each leaf consisting of six pairs 



