oulpspbr's complstb herbal. 161 



is of a ruddy brown ; the leaves are short, small, and of 

 a dull dead green ; the flowers are small, very poor, and 

 ot a dirty yellow. 



Time. — They bloom in August. 



0<yvemment and Virtues.— The smell of this and the 

 former is supposed delightful to insects, and the juice de- 

 structive to them, for they never leave it till the season 

 of their deaths. 



FLEA-WORT.— ^.fiV^eiwi viscosum.) 



Dt9crxp. — Ordinary Flea-wort rises up with a stalk two 

 feet high or more, full of joints and tranches on every 

 side up to the top, and at every joint two small, long, and 

 narrow whitish green leaves somewhat hairy : at the top 

 of every branch stand divers small, short, scaly, or 

 chaffy heads, out of which come forth small whitish yel- 

 low threads, like those of the plantain herbs, which are 

 the bloomings of flowers. The seed inclosed in these 

 heads is small and shining while it is fresh, very like 

 onto fleas both for colour and bigness, but turning black 

 when it grows old. The root is not long, but white, hard, 

 and woody, perishing every year, and rising again of its 

 own seed for divers years, if it be suffered to shed : the 

 whole plant is somewhat whitish and hairy, smelling like 

 rosin. 



There is another sort hereof, differing not from the 

 former in the manner of growing, but only that this stalk 

 and branches being somewhat greater, do a little more 

 bow down to the ground : the leaves are somewhat 

 greater, the heads somewhat lesser, the seed alike ; and 

 the root and leaves abide all winter, and perish not as the 

 former 



Place. — The first grows only in gardens, the second 

 plentifully in fields that are near the sea. 



Time. — They flower in July, or thereabouts. 



Government and Virtues,— The herb is cold, dry, and 

 Saturnine. I suppose it obtained the name of Flea-wort, 

 because the seeds are so like fleas. The seed dried, and 

 taken, stays the flux or lax of the belly, and the corro- 

 sions that come by reason of hot choleric, or sharp and 

 malignant humours, or by too much purging of any vio- 

 lent medicine, as scammony, or the like. The mucilage 

 of the seed made with rose water, and a little sugar-candy 

 pat thereto, is very good in all hot agues and burning f»- 



