168 OULPSPER'S OOMPLBTE HERBAL. 



for twentj-four hours at the least, afterwards strain it, and 

 take a good draught morDing and evening for days together, 

 this will cure old persons as well as young ones if the disease 

 be not of too long standing and past cure, especially if the 

 body be prepared by taking a drink-posset made of betony, 

 &c. The root is effectual for cleansing the womb after child- 

 birth, and easing the mother. The seed beaten to powder, 

 and given in wine, will answer the same purpose. The black 

 seed taken morning and evening, is effectual for night-mare. 

 It is also good against melancholy dreams. The distilled 

 water or syrup made of the flowers, works the same effects 

 that the root and seed do, although more weakly. 



PEPPER-^Ptpflr.; 



There are three sorts, black, white, and long, which all 

 grow alike, and the last differs from the other two only in 

 the fruit. 



Place. — It is a native of Java, Sumatra, Malabar, &c. 



(Government and Virtues. — All the peppers are under the 

 dominion of Mars, and of temperature hot and dry, almost 

 to the fourth degree ; but the white is the hottest. It com- 

 forts and warms a cold stomach, consumes crude and moist 

 humours, and stirs up the appetite. It dissolves wind in 

 the stomach or bowels, provokes urine, helps the cough, 

 and other diseases of the breast, and is an ingredient in the 

 great antidotes ; but the white pepper is more sharp and 

 aromatical, and is more effectual in medicine, and so is the 

 long, being used for a^ues, to warm the stomach before the 

 coming of the fit. AJl are used against the quinsey, being 

 mixed with honey and taken inwardly and applied outward- 

 ly, to disperse the kernels in the throat, and other places. 



PEPPER (GUINEA-)— ("Cajtwicwm Frutescens,) 



Called also Cayenne Pepper and Bird Pepper. 



Descrip, — There are several kinds. It grows with an up- 

 right, firm, round stalk, with a certain pith within it, about 

 two or three feet high, spreading into many branches on 

 all sides, from the very bottom, which divide themselves 

 again into other smaller branches, at each joint come two 

 long leaves upon short footstalks, with several veins, not 

 dented about the edges, and of a dark green colour: the flow- 

 ers stand severally at the joints, consisting usually of five, 

 and sometimes six, white, small-pointed leaves, standing 

 >pen like a star, with yellow threads in the middle^ after 



