114 THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



MARIGOLDS. j * ai ? Ao dee f the ground, shooting 



'forth sundry heads, which taste sharp, 



THESE being so plentiful in every gar- j biting on the tongue, and is the hottest and 

 den, and so well known that they need no j sharpest part of the plant, and the seed 

 description. tnext unto it being somewhat blackish on 



Time.~\ They flower all the Summer 

 long, and sometimes in Winter, if it be 

 mild. 



the outside, and smelling well. 



Place.] It is usually kept in gardens with 

 { us in England. 



Government and virtues.] It is an herb | Time] It flowers and seeds about the 

 of the Sun, and under Leo. They strengthen \ end of August. 



the heart exceedingly, and are very ex- ! Government and virtues] It is an herb of 

 pulsive, and a little less effectual in the small- 1 Mars. The root of Masterwort is hotter 

 pox and measles than saffron. The juice than pepper, and very available in cold 

 of Marigold leaves mixed with vinegar, and griefs and diseases both of ihe stomach and 

 any not swelling bathed with it, instantly j body, dissolving very powerfully upwards 

 gives ease, and assuages it. The flowers, ; and downwards. It is also used in a de- 

 either green or dried, are much used in i coction with wine against all cold rheums, 

 possets, broths, and drink, as a comforter! distillations upon the lungs, or shortness of 

 of the heart and spirits, and to expel any \ breath, to be taken morning and evening, 

 malignant or pestilential quality which j It also provokes urine, and helps to break 

 might annoy them. A plaister made with .'the stone, and expel the gravel from the 

 the dry flowers in powder, hog's-grease, \ kidneys ; provokes women's courses, and 

 turpentine, and rosin, applied to the breast, i expels the dead birth. It is singularly good 

 strengthens and succours the heart infi- 1 for strangling of the mother, and other such 

 nitely in fevers, whether pestilential or not. \ like feminine diseases. It is effectual also 



$ against the dropsy, cramps, and falling 

 i sickness; for the decoction in wine being 



Descript] COMMON Masterwort has: gargled in the mouth, draws down much 

 divers stalks of winged leaves divided into j water and phlegm, from the brain, purging 

 sundry parts, three for the most part stand- \ and easing it of what oppresses it. It is of 

 ing together at a small foot-stalk on both \ a rare quality against all sorts of cold poi- 

 sides of the greater, and three likewise at; son, to be taken as there is cause; it pio- 

 the end of the stalk, somewhat broad, and j yokes sweat. But lest the taste hereof, or 

 cut in on the edges into three or more j of the seed (which works to the like effect, 

 divisions, all of them dented about the \ though not so powerfully) should be too 

 brims, of a dark green colour, somewhat j offensive, the best way is to take the water 

 resembling the leaves of Angelica, but that I distilled both from the herb and root. The 

 these grow lower to the ground, and on 1 juice hereof dropped, or tents dipped there- 

 lesser stalks; among which rise up two or Jin, and applied either to green wounds or 

 three short stalks about two feet high, and \ filthy rotten ulcers, and those that come by 



slender, with such like leaves at the joints 

 which grow below, but with lesser and fewer 

 divisions, bearing umbels of white flowers, 



envenomed weapons, doth soon cleanse 

 and heal them. The same is also very good 

 to help the gout coming of a cold cause. 



and after them thin, flat blackish seeds, ; 



TVii rri SWEET MAUDLIN. 



bigger than Dill seeds. 1 he root is some- j 



what greater and growing rather side-ways 5 Descript.~] COMMON Maudlin hath some- 



