AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 159 



short branches, on every one whereof stand \ often taken in meat and drink, it abates 

 two, three or four small heads, or buttons, | venery. A decoction thereof with some 

 which breaking the skin that incloses them, \ dried dill leaves and flowers, eases all pains 

 shoots forth a tuft of pale greenish yellow j and torments, inwardly to be drank, and 

 threads, which falling away, there come in j outwardly to be applied warm to the place 

 their places small three-cornered cods, j grieved. The same being drank, helps the 

 wherein is contained small, long and round j pains both of the chest and sides, as also 

 seed. The whole plant has a strong un-| coughs and hardness of breathing, the in- 

 pleasant scent. j flammations of the lungs, and the torment- 



PlaceJ] It grows in many places of this \ ing pains of the sciatica and the joints, being 

 land, in the borders of moist meadows, and j anointed, or laid to the places ; as also the 

 ditch-sides. * shaking fits of agues, to take a draught be- 



Time.~\ It flowers about July, or the be- j fore the fit comes. Being boiled or infused 

 ginning of August. I in oil, it is good to help the wind cholic, 



Government and virtues.] Dioscorides j the hardness and windiness of the mother, 

 saith, That this herb bruised and applied, (and frees women from the strangling or 

 perfectly heals old sores, and the distilled \ suffocation thereof, if the share and the 

 water of the herb and flowers doth the like, j parts thereabouts be anointed therewith. It 

 It .is used by some among other pot-herbs | kills and drives forth the worms of the 

 to open the body, and make it soluble ; but j belly, if it be drank after it is boiled in wine 

 the roots washed clean, and boiled in ale j to the half, with a little honey; it helps the 

 and drank, provokes to stool more than the | gout or pains in the joint?, hands, feet or 

 leaves, but yet very gently. The root i knees, applied thereunto ; and with figs it. 

 boiled in water, and the places of the body \ helps the dropsy, being bathed therewith : 

 most troubled with vermin and lice washed Being bruised and put into the nostrils, it 

 therewith while it is warm, destroys them 5 slays the bleeding thereof. It takes away 

 utterly. In Italy it is good against thejwheals and pimples, if being bruised with a 



plague, and in Saxony against the jaundice, 

 as Camerarius saith. 



GARDEN-RUE. 



few myrtle leaves, it be made up with wax, 

 and applied. It cures the morphew, and 

 takes away all sorts of warts, if boiled in 

 | wine with some pepper and nitre, and the 

 GARDEN-RUE is so well known by this j place rubbed therewith, and with almond 

 name, and the name Herb of Grace, that I j and honey helps the dry scabs, or any 

 shall not need to write any farther descrip- \ tetter or ringworm. The juice thereof 



tion of it, but shall shew you the virtue of it, 

 as follows. 



Government and virtues."] It is an herb of 

 the Sun, and under Leo. It provokes urine 

 and women's courses, being taken either in 

 meat or drink. The seed thereof taken in 



warmed in a pomegranate shell or rind, and 

 dropped into the ears, helps the pains of 

 them. The juice of it and fennel, with a 

 little honey, and the gall of a cock put there- 

 unto, helps the dimness of the eye-sight. 

 An ointment made of the juice thereof with 



wine, is an antidote against all dangerous j oil of roses, ceruse, and a little vinegar, and 

 medicines or deadly poisons. The leaves 5 Oi A ~ iL ' 



taken either by themselves, or with figs and 

 walnuts, is called Mithridate's counter-poi- 

 son against the plague, and causes all veno- 

 mous things to become harmless; being 



anointed, cures St. Anthony's fire, and all 

 running sores in the head : and the stinking 

 ulcers of the nose, or other parts. The 

 antidote used by Mithridates, every morn- 

 ing fasting, to secure himself from any 



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