t86 OULPBPBB'S COMPLETE HERBAL. 



7Vwi«.— They flourish In the beginning of summer. 



Oovemment and Virtues. — These are plants of Mercury. 

 The Quick Grass, the root of which is of temperature cold 

 and dry, and has a little mordacity in it and some tenuity 

 of parts, is the most medicinal of all other sorts : a decoc- 

 tion thereof drank, opens obstructions of the spleen and 

 liver, stoppings of urine, to ease the griping pains in the 

 belly and inflammations, and to waste the excrementitious 

 matter of the stone in the bladder and the ulcers thereof : 

 the root being bruised and applied, knits together and con- 

 solidates wounds. The seed more powerfully expels wind, 

 binds the belly, and stays vomiting. The distilled water 

 is good to be given to children for worms. 



QUINCE TREE.—(Pyru8 (Cydonia.) 



Detcrip, — This tree grows to the height of a good-sized 

 apple-tree, crooked, with a rough bark, spreading branches 

 far abroad. The leaves resemble those of the apple-tree, 

 but thicker, broader, and fuller of veins, and whiter on the 

 under-side, not dented about the edges. The flowers are 

 large and white, somewhat dashed over with a blush. The 

 fruit is yellow, being near ripe, and covered with a white 

 frieze ; thick set on the younger, growinjjj less as they get 

 nearer ripe, bunched out oftentimes in some places : some 

 being like an apple, some like a pear, of a strong heady 

 scent, and not durable to keep ; it is sour, harsh, and of 

 an unpleasant taste to eat fresh ; but being scalded, roast- 

 ed, baKed, or preserved, becomes more pleasant. 



PJace. — It grows plentifully near ponds and water sides. 



Tims, — It flowers not until the leaves come forth. The 

 fruit is ripe in September or October. 



Oovemment arid Virtttes. — Saturn owns this tree. The 

 fruit has a strong, very pleasant smell, and acid taste. Its 

 expressed juice, taken in small quantities, is a mild, astrin- 

 gent stomachic medicine, and is of ef&cacy, in sickness, vo- 

 miting, eructations, and purgings. A grateful cordial, and 

 lightly restringent syrup, is made by digesting three pints 

 of the clarified juice, with a dram of cinnamon, half a dram 

 of ginger, the same of cloves, in warm s^hes, for six hours, 

 then adding a pint of red port, and dissolving nine pounds 

 of sugar in liquor, and straining it And a useful jelly is 

 made by boiling the juice with a sufficient quantity of su- 

 gar, till it attains a due consistence. The seeds abound 

 with a ioft mucilaginous substance, which they readily im- 



