in] ' The Grete Herbair 45 



Greek mythology find a place in the Grete Herball. The 

 discovery of Artemisia and its virtues is attributed to Diana 

 and the Centaurs, but in the event of being bitten by a 

 mad dog, the sufferer is recommended to appeal to the 

 Virgin Mary before employing any remedy. "As sone as 

 ye be byten go to the chyrche, and make thy offrynge to 

 our lady, and pray here to helpe and heale the. Than 

 rubbe ye sore with a newe clothe," etc. 



Ouite a number of medicines enumerated in the Grete 

 Herball still hold their own in modern practice. Liquorice 

 is recommended for coughs ; laudanum, henbane, opium 

 and lettuces as narcotics ; olive oil and slaked lime for 

 scalds ; cuttle-fish bone for whitening the teeth, and borax 

 and rose water for the complexion. 



This book throws an interesting light on the early 

 names of British plants. The Primrose is called " Prymer- 

 olles" or "saynt peterworte." The " devylles bytte " is 

 said to be "so called by cause the rote is blacke and 

 semeth that it is iagged with bytynge, and some say that 

 the devyll had envy at the vertue therof and bete the 

 rote so for to have destroyed it." Duckweed is called 

 " Lentylles of the water" or " frogges fote," while Cuckoo- 

 pint is known by the picturesque name of "prestes 

 hode," and Wood-sorrel is called " Alleluya" or "cukowes 



meate." 



One of the most noticeable features of the herbal is the 

 exposure of methods of "faking" drugs, for the protection 

 of the public, " to eschew ye frawde of them that selleth it." 

 This is a great step in advance from the days of the old 

 Greek herbalists, when secrecy was part of the stock-in- 

 trade of a druggist, and, as we have pointed out in a 

 previous chapter, the credulous public was warned off by 

 threats of the miraculous and fearful ills, which would follow 

 any unskilled meddling with the subject. 



Another work, which was illustrated with the same 

 figures as those of the Grete Herball, was ' The vertuose 

 boke of Distillacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes,' 

 which appeared in 1527. This was a translation by 

 Laurence Andrew from the ' Liber de arte distillandi ' 

 of Hieronymus Braunschweig, to which we have already 

 referred. It was almost entirely occupied with an account 



