OCTLPBFKR'S OOMPLm HIRBlIi. lOt 



CRESSES (SCIATICA-)-(^/6«rw Sisymbrium,) 



Jhterip, — These are of two kinds ; the first risetb ap 

 with a round stalk aboat two feet high, spread into divers 

 branches, whose lower leaves are somewhat larger than 

 the upper, yet all of them cut or torn on the edges, some- 

 what like garden cresses, but smaller ; the flowers are 

 small and white, growing at the tops of branches, where 

 afterwards grow husks with small brownish seeds therein, 

 very strong and sharp in taste, more than the cresses of 

 thegarden : the root is long, white, and woody. 



The other hath the lower leaves whole, somewhat long 

 and broad, not torn at all, but only somewhat deeply 

 dented about the edges towards the ends ; but those tnat 

 mw up higher are lesser. The flowers and seeds are 

 Uke the former, and so is the root likewise, and both 

 root and seeds as sharo as it. 



Place, — They grow oy the way-sides in untilled places, 

 and by the sides of old walls. 



rime.— They flower in the end of June, and their seed 

 b ripe in July. 



OovemtMnt and Virtues. — It is a Saturnine plant. 

 The leaves, but especially the root, taken fresh in sum- 

 mer time, beaten or made into a poultice or salve with 

 old hog's grease, and applied to the places pained with 

 the sciatica, to continue thereon four hours if it be on a 

 man, and two hours on a woman ; the place afterwards 

 bathed with wine and oil mixed together and then wrap- 

 ped with wool or skins after they have sweat a little, will 

 iMuredly not only cure the same disease in hips, huckle- 

 bone, or other of the joints, as gout in the hands or feet, 

 but all other old griefs of the head, (as inveterate rheums) 

 and other parts of the body that are hard to be cured ; 

 and if of tne former griefs any parts remain, the same 

 medicine after twenty days is to oe applied again. The 

 ■une is also efl'ectual in the diseases of the spleen ; and 

 applied to the skin it taketh away the blemishes thereof, 

 whether they be scars, leprosy, scabs, or scurf, which, 

 al though it ulcerate the part, that is to be helped after- 

 varda with a salve made of oil and wax. Esteem this sm 

 another secreU 



