186 CTJLPEPKR'B COMPT.ETE HEBBiXb 



courses, and to cleanse the parts after deliverj. The roots 

 are of most use in physic drinks and broths, that are 

 taken to cleanse the blood, to open obstructions in the 

 liver, to provoke urine, and amend the ill colour in the 

 face after sickness, and to cause a good habit through the 

 body. Both leaves, seeds, and roots thereof, are much 

 used in drink or broth, to make people lean that are too 

 fat. The distilled water of the whole herb, or the con- 

 densed juice dissolved, but especially the natural juice, 

 that in some counties issues out of its own accord, drop- 

 ped into the eyes cleanses them from mists and films that 

 binder the sight. 



FENNEL (SOW or KOG'S.)-^ Peucedanum Officinale.) 



Callbd also Hoar-strange, Hoar-strong, Sulphur-wortt 

 and Brimstone-wort. 



Detcrip, — The common Sow-Fennel has divers branched 

 stalks of thick and somewhat long leaves, three for the 

 most part joined together at a place, amon^ which arises 

 a crested straight stalk, less than Fennel, with some joints 

 thereon, and leaves growing thereat, and towards the 

 tops some branches issuing from thence ; likewise on the 

 tops of the stalks and branches stand divers tufts of yel- 

 low flowers, whereafter grows somewhat flat, thin, and 

 yellowish seed, bigger than Fennel seed. 



Place. — It grows plentifully in the salt low marshes near 

 Faversham in Kent 



Time,— It flowers plentifully in July and Au^st 



Oovemment and Virtues. — This is also an herb of Mer- 

 cury. The juice of Sow-Fennel, says Dioscorides, and Ga- 

 len, used with vinegar and rose water, or the juice with a 

 little Euphorbium put to the nose, helps those that are 

 troubled with the lethargy, frenzy, giddiness of the head, 

 the falling sickness, long and inveterate head-ache, the 

 palsy, sciatica, and the cramp, and generally all the 

 diseases of the sinews, used with oil and vinegar. The 

 juice dissolved in wine, or put into an egg^ is ^od for a 

 cough, or shortness of breath, and for those that are trou- 

 bled with wind in the body. It purges the belly gently, 

 expels the hardness of the spleen, gives ease to women 

 that have sore travail in child-birth, and easeth the pains 

 of the reins and bladder, and also the womb. A little of 

 the juice dissolved in wine, and dropped into the eai-s, 

 eases much of the pains in them, and put into a hollow 

 tooth, easeth the pains thereof. 



