AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 41 



them and correcting the putrefaction of 5 



humours offending them. CARROTS. 



CARDUUS BENEDICTS. 



IT is called Carduus Benedictus, or } that they need no description ; but because 

 Blessed Thistle, or Holy Thistle. I sup- j they are of less physical use than the wild 

 pose the name was put upon it by some j kind (as indeed almost in all herbs the wild 

 that had little holiness themselves. \ are most effectual in physic, as being more 



I shall spare a labour in writing a | powerful in operation than the garden 

 description of this as almost every one that j kinds,) I shall therefore briefly describe the 

 can but write at all, may describe them ? Wild Carrot. 

 from his own knowledge. Descript.'] It grows in a manner al- 



Time.~\ They flower in August, and seed ? together like the tame, but that the leaves 

 not long after. $ and stalks are somewhat whiter and rougher 



Government and virtues. It is an herb of j The stalks bear large tufts of white flowers, 

 Mars, and under the sign Aries. Now, in j with a deep purple spot in the middle, 

 handling this herb, I shall give you a j which are contracted together when the 

 rational pattern of all the rest ; and if you j seed begins to ripen, that the middle part 

 please to view them throughout the book, \ being hollow and low, and the outward 

 you shall, to your content, find it true. It \ stalk rising high, makes the whole umbel 

 helps swimming and giddiness of the head, j to show like a bird's nest. The roots small, 

 or the disease called vertigo, because Aries { long, and hard, and unfit for meat, being 

 is in the house of Mars. It is an excellent 5 some\v hat sharp and strong. 

 remedy against the yellow jaundice and ; Place.~\ The wild kind grows in divers 

 other infirmities of the gall, because Mars! parts of this land plentifully by the field- 

 governs choler. It strengthens the attrac- ! sides, and untilled places. 

 live faculty in man, and clarifies the blood, j Time.'] They flower and seed in the end 

 because the one is ruled by Mars. The of Summer. 



continual drinking the decoction of it, helps 



Government and virtues.^ Wild Carrots 



red faces, tetters, a-nd ring-worms, because ? belong to Mercury, and therefore break 

 Mass causes them. It helps the plague, 5 wind, and remove stitches in the sides, pro- 

 sores, boils, and itch, the bitings of mad jvoke urine and women's courses, and helps 

 dogs and venomous beasts, all which in- i to break and expel the stone ; the seed also 

 firmities are under Mars; thus you see $ of the same works the like effect, and is 

 what it doth by sympathy. ! good for the dropsy, and those whose bellies 



By antipathy to other planets it cures the i are swollen with wind; helps the cholic, 

 French pox. By antipathy to Venus, who j the stone in the kidneys, and rising of the 

 governs it, it strengthens the memory, and j mother ; being taken in wine, or boiled in 

 cures deafness by antipathy to Saturn, who j wine, and taken, it helps conception. The 

 has his fall in Aries, which rules the head. j leaves being applied with honey to running 

 It cures quartan agues, and other diseases j sores or ulcers, do cleanse them, 

 of melancholy, and adust choler, by sym-j I suppose the seeds of them perform this 

 pathy to Saturn, Mars being exalted in better than the roots ; and though Galen 

 Capricorn. Also provokes urine, the stopp- j commended garden Carrots highly to break 

 ing of which is usually caused by Mars or {wind, yet experience teaches they breed it 

 the Moon. \ first, and we may thank nature for expelling 



