AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 161 



from the head to the eyes, nose, and teeth, i did describe it, they would presently say, 

 being bruised green and bound thereto ; or * I might as well have spared that labour. 



green 



the forehead, temples, or the nape of the 

 neck behind, bathed with the decoction of 

 the dried herb. It also dries up the mois- 



ture of fistulous ulcers, or any other that are. Jeaven thereof ripens and breaks impos- 



foul and spreading. 



might as well have spare< 

 Its virtue follows. 



Government and virtues.] Rye is more 

 digesting than wheat; the bread and the 



thumes, boils, and other swellings : The 



a USHES jmeal of Rye put between a double cloth, 



j and moistened with a little vinegar, and 



ALTHOUGH there are many kinds of {heated in a pewter dish, set over a chafing 

 Rushes, yet I shall only here insist upon j dish of coals, and bound fast to the head 

 those which are best known, and most I while it is hot, doth much ease the continual 

 medicinal ; as the bulrushes, and other of? pains of the head. Matthiolus saith, that 

 the soft and smooth kinds, which grow so I the ashes of Rye straw put into water, and 

 commonly in almost every part of this land, | steeped therein a day and a night, and the 

 and are so generally noted, that I suppose j chops of the hands or feet washed therewith, 

 it needless to trouble you with any des- i doth heal them, 

 cription of them : Briefly then take the 

 virtues of them as follows : 



Government and virtues^] The seed of 

 the soft Rushes, (saith Dioscorides and 



SAFFRON. 



THE herb needs no description, it being 

 known generally where it grows. 



Galen, toasted, saith Pliny) being drank in j Place.'] It grows frequently at Walden 

 wine and water, stays the lask and women's j in Essex, and in Cambridgeshire, 

 courses, when they come down too abun- \ Government and virtues.] It is an herb 

 daily : but it causes head-ache ; it pro- j of the Sun, and under the Lion, and there- 

 vokes sleep likewise, but must be given 5 fore you need not demand a reason why it 

 with caution. The root boiled in water, to j strengthens the heart so exceedingly. Let 

 the consumption of one third, helps the 1 not above ten grains be given at one time, 

 cough. | for the Sun, which is the fountain of light, 



Thus you see that conveniences have may dazzle the eyes, and make them blind ; 



their inconveniences, and virtue is seldom 

 unaccompanied with some vices. What 



a cordial being taken in an immoderate 

 quantity, hurts the heart instead of help- 



I have written concerning Rushes, is to \ ing it. It quickens the brain, for the Sun 

 satisfy my countrymen's questions : Are j is exalted in Aries, as he hath his house in 

 our Rushes good for nothing ? Yes, and as \ Leo. It helps consumptions of the lungs. 



good let them alone as taken. There are 

 remedies enough without them for any dis- 

 ease, and therefore as the proverb is, I care 



and difficulty of breathing. It is excellent 

 in epidemical diseases, as pestilence, small- 

 pox, and measles. It is a notable expul- 



not a rush for them ; or rather they will do \ sive medicine, and a notable remedy for the 

 you as much good as if one had given you *. yellow jaundice. My opinion is, (but I 

 a Rush. 5 have no author for it) that hermodactyls are 



| nothing else but the roots of Saffron dried ; 



land my reason is, that the roots of all 



THIS is so well known in all the counties! crocus, both white and yellow, purge 

 of this land, and especially to the country- 1 phlegm as hermodactyls do ; and if yon 

 people, who feed much thereon, that if 1 1 please to dry the roots of any crocus, neither 



