266 oulpeper's complete hbrbal. 



whorles ; thej are of a pale purple colour, small and galat- 

 ed, set in small downy caiices^ in which are small seeds. The 

 whole plant has a strong smell, and a hot aromatic taste. 



Place. — It grows on moist commons and dried pools. It is 

 cultivated in gardens, where it grows tall and large. 



There is a greater kind than that found wild with us, but 

 it differs from it only in the largeness of the leaves and 

 Btalks, in rising higher, and not creeping on the ground so 

 much. The flowers are purple, crowing in rundles about 

 the stalks like the others. It is found wild by the high- 

 ways from London to Colchester, and in other counties, and 

 is planted in gardens in Essex. 



Place. — They flower about August. 



Government and Virtues. — This herb is under Venus. It 

 makes thin, tough phlegm, warms any part to which it is 

 applied, and digests corrupt matter ; if boiled and drank, it 

 provokes womens' courses, and expels the dead child and 

 afterbirth, and stays the disposition to vomit, if taken in 

 water and vinegar mingled together. Being mingled with 

 honey and salt, it voids phlegm out of the lungs, and purg- 

 es by stool. Drank with wine, it is good for venomous bites, 

 and applied to the nostrils with vinegar, revives those who 

 faint and swoon. Dried and burnt, it strengthens the gums, 

 helps the gout, if applied of itself to the place until it is red; 

 and appli^ in a plaster, it takes away spots or marks on 

 the face ; applied with salt, it profits those who are splen- 

 etic, or liver-grown. The decoction helps the itch, if wash- 

 ed therewith : it helps the swellings and hardness of the 

 mother, if the patient bathe by sitting therein. The green 

 herb bruised and put into vinegar, cleanses foul ulcers, and 

 takes away the marks of bruises and blows about the eyes, 

 and burns in the face, and the leprosy, if drank, and appli- 

 ed outwardly ; boiled in wine with honey and salt, it helps 

 the tooth-ache. It helps the cold griefs of the joints, tak- 

 ing away the pains, and warming the cold part, being safe 

 bound to the place, after a bathing or sweating in a hot- 

 house. Penny-R >yal and mints together, help those who 

 swoon and faint, if smelled at, or put into the mouth. It 

 eases head-ache, pains of the breast and belly, and gnawing 

 of the stomach : applied with honey, salt, and vinegar, it 

 helps cramps or convulsions of the sinews ; boiled in milk, 

 and drank, it is effectual for coughs, and for ulcers and sores 

 in the mouth ; the decoction if drank, helps the jaundice 

 and dropsy, and clears the eye-sight It helps the lethargy, 



