88 THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



and made into a poultice, applied to the and a gallant remedy for the inflammation 



breasts of women that are swollen with pain j of the lungs and breasts, pleurisy, scabs, 



and heat, as also the privy parts of man or j itch, &c. It is under the celestial sign 



woman, the seat or fundament, or the ar- i Cancer. 



teries, joints, and sinews, when they are i 



inflamed and swollen, doth much ease them; j: ARTICHOKES. 



ami used with some salt, helps to dissolve I m 



knots or kernels in any part of the body. I HE L J ti ? cafl A them Clnera > onl J our 



The juice of the herb, or as (Dioscorides \ co " e e calls them Artichocus 



saith) the leaves and flowers, with some fine j , Government and virtues.] They are under 



Frankincense in powder, used in wounds ofi the d mi nion of Venus, and therefore it is 



the body, nerves or sinews, doth singulaily n u Carvel if they provoke lust, as indeed 



help to heal them. The distilled water of! the / d \ bem somewhat windy meat; 



the herb performs well all the aforesaid \ and ?<* they stay the involuntary course of 



cures, but especially for inflammations orj na1 : ural seed in man which is commonly 



watering of the eyes, by reason of the de- \ called nocturnal pollutions And here I 



fluxion of rheum unto them. \ care not g reat ^ lf T H uotea lttle of Gale!n ' s 



nonsense in his treatise of the faculties of 



HEART'S-EASE. j nourishment. He saith, they contain plenty 



THIS is that herb which such physicians I ? f ch oleric juice (which notwithstanding 

 as are licensed to blaspheme by authority,! 1 can scarce > b 1 eliev l e >) of which he saith 

 without danger of having their tongues I ls engendered melancholy juice, and of that 

 burned through with an hot iron, called an 1 melancholy juice thin choleric blood. But, 

 herb of the Trinity. It is also called by | to P"? 6 *' this is certain, that the decoc- 

 those that are more moderate, Three Faces i f )n of , the l .^ ed ln wmc ' or ^ e root 

 in a Hood, Live in Idleness, Cull me to bruised and distilled in wine in an alembic, 



you; and in Sussex we call them Fancies. and bem S drank ' P ur S es b ? urme exceed - 



Place] Besides those which are brought ! 



up in gardens, they grow commonly wildj HART'S-TONGUE. 



in the fields, especially in such as are very \ 



barren: sometimes you may find it on the i Descript] THIS has divers leaves arising 

 tops of the high hil-ls. | from the root, every one severally, which 



Time] They flower all the Spring and j fold themselves in their first springing and 

 Summer long. j spreading : when they are full grown, are 



Government and virtues] The herb is \ about a foot long, smooth and green above, 

 really saturnine, something cold, viscous, j but hard and with little sap in them, and 

 and slimy. A strong decoction of the herbs I streaked on the back, athwart on both sides 

 and flowers (if you will, you may make itjof the middle rib, with small and some- 

 into syrup) is an excellent cure for the French | what long and brownish marks; the bot- 

 pox, the herb being a gallant antivenereal : j toms of the leaves are a little bowed on 

 and that antivenereals are the best cure for ; each side of the middle rib, somewhat 

 that disease, far better and safer than to small at the end. The root is of many 

 torment them with the flux, divers foreign j black threads, folded or interlaced together 

 physicians have confessed. The spirit of? Time] It is green all the Winter ; but 

 it is excellently good for the convulsions in t new leaves spring every year. 

 children, as also for the falling sickness, j Government and virtues] Jupiter claims 



