16 



THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



made with the juice of it and sugar (as you } 

 shall be taught at the latter end of this j 

 book) be kept in every gentlewoman's house ; 

 to relieve the weak stomachs and sick bodies | 

 of their poor sickly neighbours ; as also j 

 the herb kept dry in the house, that so j 

 with other convenient simples, you may j 

 make it into an electuary with honey, ac- j 

 cording as the disease is you shall be taught | 

 at the latter end of my book. The Arabian J 

 physicians have extolled the virtues thereof! 

 to the skies ; although the Greeks thought \ 

 it not worth mentioning. Seraphio says, I 

 it causes the mind and heart to become { 

 merry, and revives the heart, faintings and ' 

 swoonings, especially of such who are over- 

 taken in sleep, and drives away all trou- 

 blesome cares and thoughts out of the mind, 

 arising from melancholy or black choler ; 

 which Avicen also confirms. It is very 

 good to help digestion, and open obstruc- 

 tions of the brain, and hath so much purg- 

 ing quality in it (saith Avicen) as to expel ]j 

 those melancholy vapours from the spirits 

 and blood which are in the heart and 

 arteries, although it cannot do so in other 

 parts of the body. Dioscorides says, 

 That the leaves steeped in wine, and the 

 wine drank, and the leaves externally ap- ]' 

 plied, is a remedy against the stings of a ; 

 scorpion, and the bitings of mad dogs 

 and commends the decoction thereof forf 

 women to bathe or sit in to procure their; 

 courses ; it is good to wash aching teeth \ 

 therewith, and profitable for those that \ 

 have the bloody-flux. The leaves also, with j 

 a little nitre taken in drink, are good against 

 the surfeit of mushrooms, helps the griping ' 

 pains of the belly ; and being made into an 1 

 electuary, it is good for them that cannot ; 

 fetch their breath : Used with salt, it takes j 

 away wens, kernels, or hard swellings in j 

 the flesh or throat ; it cleanses foul sores, > 

 and eases pains of the gout. It is good \ 

 for the liver and spleen. A tansy or caudle \ 

 made with eggs, and juice thereof while it 



is young, putting to it some sugar and rose- 

 water, is good for a woman in child-bed, 

 when . the after-birth is not thoroughly 

 voided, and for their faintings upon or in 

 their sore travail. The herb bruised and 

 boiled in a little wine and oil, and laid warm 

 on a boil, will ripen it, and break it. 



BARBERRY 



THE shrub is so well known by ever}' 

 boy and girl that has but attained to the 

 age of seven years, that it needs no des- 

 cription. 



Government and virtues.'] Mars owns the: 

 shrub, and presents it to the use of my 

 countrymen to purge their bodies of choler. 

 The inner rind of the Barberry-tree boiled 

 in white wine, and a quarter of a pint drank 

 each morning, is an excellent remedy to 

 cleanse the body of choleric humours, and 

 free it from such diseases as choler causes, 

 such as scabs, itch, tetters, ringworms, yel- 

 low jaundice, boils, &c. It is excellent for 

 hot agues, burnings, scaldings, heat of 

 the blood, heat of the liver, bloody-flux; 

 for the berries are as good as the bark, and 

 more pleasing: they get a man a good 

 stomach to his victuals, by strengthening the 

 attractive faculty which is under Mars. 

 The hair washed with the lye made of 

 the tree and water, will make it turn yellow, 

 viz. of Mars' own colour. The fruit and 

 rind of the shrub, the flowers of broom 

 and of heath, or furz, cleanse the body of 

 choler by sympathy, as the flowers, leaves, 

 and bark of the peach-tree do by antipathy ; 

 because these are under Mars, that under 

 Venus. 



BARLEY. 



THE continual usefulness hereof hath 

 made all in general so acquainted herewith, 

 that it is altogether needless to describe it, 

 several kinds hereof plentifully growing, 

 being yearly sown in this land. The virtues 

 thereof take as follow. 



