culpbper's ooxflste herbal. 241 



Time, — It flowers in June and July, when it is readj 

 for use ; the seed is ripe at the end of summer. 



OovemmerU and Virtues. — This is an herb of Venus. Its 

 tope, leaves and flowers are full of virtue ; they are aro- 

 matic, and most safe and excellent in female disorders. 

 For this purpose the flowers and buds should be put into 

 a teapot, ana boiling water poured over them, and when 

 just cool, be drunk with a little sugar and milk ; this may 

 De repeated twice a day, or oftener, as occasions require. 

 Itis boiled among other herbs for drawing down the courses, 

 by sitting over it, and for hastening the delivery, and helps 

 to expel the afterbirth, and is good for the obstructions 

 and inflammations of the mother. It breaks the stone and 

 provokes water. The juice made up with myrrh, and put 

 under as a pessary, works the same eflfects, and so does the 

 root Made up ^vith hogVgrease into an ointment, it 

 takes away wens, hard knots and kernels that grow about 

 the neck, more efi'ectually if some daisies be put with it. 

 The herb itself being fresh, or the juice, is a special reme- 

 dy upon the over-much taking of opium. Three drams of 

 the powder of the dried leaves taken in wine, is a speedy 

 and certain help for the sciatica. A decoction made with 

 camomile and agrimony, and the place bathed therewith 

 while it is warm, takes away the pains of the sinews, and 

 the cramp. The moxa, so famous in the eastern countries 

 for curing the gout by burning the part affected, is the 

 down which grows upon the under side of this herb. 



MULBERRY-TREE.— (^JTortw JVigra,) 



Detcrip. — There are two kinds of mulberries, the com- 

 mon black, and the white. It grows to a large tree, with 

 a brown rugged bark, shooting out its leaves very late in 

 the spring, which are large, and rough or scabious, broad 

 at the bajie, and growing narrower towards the end, ser- 

 rated about the edges, and set on sho^ footstalks. The 

 flowers stick close to the branches, each composed of four 

 small leaves, growing in clusters. The fruit is oblong, con- 

 sisting of a great number of acini, set together in a round 

 form, of a dark purple, almost black when ripe, full of a 

 sweet, pleasant, purple juice. 



Place. — It grows in gardens. 



7Vm«.— The fruit is ripe in August and September. The 

 bftrk of the root, and the fruit are used. 



Oovemmmt and Fir^u^i.— Mercury rales the tree. It is 

 I 



