156 



THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



are singularly good to comfort the heart, pursued its virtues, you will conclude it 

 and to ex pel the contagion of the pestilence; $ nothing inferior to that which is brought 

 to burn the herb in houses and chambers, j out of China, and by that time this hath 

 corrects the air in them. Both the flowers I been as much used as that hath been, the 

 and leaves are very profitable for women 5 name which the other hath gotten will be 

 that are troubled with the whites, if they be j eclipsed by the fame of this ; take there- 

 daily taken. The dried leaves shred small, j fore a description at large of it as follows : 

 and taken in a pipe, as tobacco is taken, Descript.~\ At the first appearing out of 



11 . 1 ,1,1 l_il_i * * 1~. A .. -__!__ *__.__* 1 - * 



helps those that have any cough, phthisic, 

 or consumption, by warming and drying 

 the thin distillations which cause those dis- 

 eases. The leaves are very much used in 

 bathings ; and made into ointments or oil, 

 are singularly good to help cold benumbed 

 joints, sinews, or members. The chymical 



the ground, when the winter is past, it hath 

 a great round brownish head, rising from 

 the middle or sides of the root, which opens 

 itself into sundry leaves one after another, 

 very much crumpled or folded together at 

 the first, and brownish : but afterwards it 

 spreads itself, and becomes smooth, very 



oil drawn from the leaves and flowers, is a \ large and almost round, every one standing 

 sovereign help for all the diseases aforesaid, j on a brownish stalk of the thickness of a 

 to touch the temples and nostrils with two Oman's thumb, when they are grown to their 

 or three drops for all the diseases of the \ fulness, and most of them two feet and 

 head and brain spoken of before ; as also i more in length, especially when they grow 

 ro take one drop, two, or three, as the case \ in any moist or good ground ; and the 

 tequires, for the inward griefs : Yet must it [ stalk of the leaf, from the bottom thereof to 

 be done with discretion, for it is very quick ? the leaf itself, being also two feet, the breadth 

 and piercing, and therefore but a little must > thereof from edge to edge, in the broadest 



-* - ' : - il - * place, being also two feet, of a sad or dark 



green colour, of a fine tart or sourish taste, 



be taken at a time. There is also another 

 oil made by insolation in this manner : 

 Take what quantity you will of the flowers, 



much more pleasant than the garden or 



and put them into a strong glass close i wood sorrel. From among these rise up 

 stopped, tie a fine linen cloth over the \ some, but not every year, strong thick 

 mouth, and turn the mouth down into J stalks, not growing so high as the Patience, 

 another strong glass, which being set in the 5 or garden Dock, with such round leaves as 



sun, an oil will distil down into the lower 

 glass, to be preserved as precious for divers 

 uses, both inward and outward, asa sovereign 

 balm to heal the disease before-mentioned, 

 to clear dim sights, and to take away spots, 

 marks, and scars in the skin. 



grow below, but small at every joint up to 

 the top, and among the flowers, which are 

 white, spreading forth into many branches, 

 consisting of five or six small leaves a-piece, 

 hardly to be discerned from the white 



RHUBARB, OR KEPHONTIC. 



threads in the middle, and seeming to be all 

 : threads, after which come brownish three 

 I square seeds, like unto other Docks, but 

 Do not start, and say, This grows you | larger, whereby it may be plainly known to 

 know not how far off : and then ask me, \ be a Dock. The root grows in time to be 

 How it comes to pass that I bring it among 5 very great, with divers and sundry great 

 our English simples ? For though the name j spreading branches from it, of a dark 

 may speak it foreign, yet it grows with us in * brownish or reddish colour on the outside, 

 England, and that frequent enough in our \ having a pale yellow skin under it, which 

 gardens ; and when you have thoroughly \ covers the inner substance or root, which 



