102 



THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



throat, called the king's evil : healing kibes 

 and chilblains if they be bathed with the 

 juice, or anointed with ointment made 

 thereof, and some of the skin of the leaf 

 upon them: it is also used in green wounds 

 to stay the blood, and to heal them quickly. 



KNAPWEED. 



of the herb and roots in wine, and applying 

 the same outwardly to the place. It is 

 singularly good in all running sores, can- 

 cerous and fistulous, drying up of the mois- 

 ture, and healing them up so gently, with- 

 out sharpness; it doth the like to miming 



KNOTGRASS. 



sores or scabs of the head or other parts. 

 i It is of special use for the soreness of the 

 ; throat, swelling of the uvula and jaws, and 

 DeacriptJ] THE common sort hereof j excellently good to stay bleeding, and heal 



has many long and somewhat dark green j up all green wounds. 



leaves, rising from the root, dented about 



the edges, and sometimes a little rent or 



torn on both sides in two or three places, 



and somewhat hairy withal ; amongst 



which arises a long round stalk, four or five 



feet high, divided into many branches, at 



the tops whereof stand great scaly green 



heads, and from the middle of them thrust 



forth a number of dark purplish red thrumbs 



or threads, which after they are withered 



and past, there are found divers black 



seeds, lying in a great deal of down, some- 

 what like unto Thistle seed, but smaller ; 



the root is white, hard and woody, and divers 



fibres annexed thereunto, which perishes 



not, but abides with leaves thereon all the 



Winter, shooting out fresh every spring. 



It grows in most fields and mea- 



1 .1*1 i 111 



IT is generally known so well that it 

 needs no description. 



Place.] It grows in every county of 

 this land by the highway sides, and by 

 foot-paths in fields ; as also by the sides of 

 old walls. 



Time.'] It springs up late in the Spring, 

 and abides until the Winter, when all the 

 branches perish. 



Government and virtues^] Saturn seems 

 to me to own the herb, and yet some hold 

 the Sun; out of doubt 'tis Saturn. The 

 juice of the common kind of Knotgrass 

 is most effectual to stay bleeding of the 

 mouth, being drank in steeled or red wine ; 

 and the bleeding at the nose, to be applied 



dows, and about their borders and hedges, \ to the forehead or temples, or to be squirted 

 and in many waste grounds also every i up into the nostrils. It is no less effectual 

 where. ' lo cool and temper the heat of the blood 



TimeJ] It usually flowers in June and; and stomach, and to stay any flux of the 

 July, and the seed is ripe shortly after. i blood and humours, as lasks, bloody-flux, 



Government and virtues.'] Saturn chal- i; women's courses, and running of the reins, 

 lenges the herb for his own. This Knap-i It is singularly good to provoke urine, help 

 weed helps to stay fluxes, both of blood at \ the stranguary, and allays the heat that 

 the mouth or nose, or other outward parts, j| comes thereby ; and is powerful by urine 

 and those veins that are inwardly broken, | to expel the gravel or stone in the kidneys 



or inward wounds, as also the fluxes of the 

 belly; it stays distillation of thin and sharp 



and bladder, a dram of the powder of 

 the herb being taken in wine for many 



humours from the head upon the stomach j days together. Being boiled in wine and 

 and lungs; it is good for those that are \ drank, it is profitable to those that are stung 

 bruised by any fall, blows or otherwise, and * or bitten by venemous creatures, and very 

 is profitable for those that are bursten, and | effectual to stay all defluxions of rheumatic 

 have ruptures, by drinking the decoction | humours upon the stomach, and kills worms 



