v] 



Early Herbals 



121 



and inadequate accounts of the characters of the plants 

 enumerated, although their descriptions often have a certain 

 naive charm. It is scarcely worth while to give actual 

 examples of their methods. It will perhaps suffice to quote 

 a few specimens from the English ' Grete Herball 1 ,' which 

 is a work of much the same class. The Wood Sorrel 2 is 



Text-fig. 56. " Cardamom urn "=? Solatium dulcamara L., 

 Bittersweet [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1 49 1 ]. 



dealt with as follows : " This herbe groweth in thre places, 

 and specyally in hedges, woodes and under walles sydes 

 and hath leves lyke iii leved grasse and hath a soure smell 



1 The descriptions here quoted are from the edition of 1529. 



2 The expression "yelowe flowre" is an indication of the Continental origin 

 of the Grete Herball. The plant intended is obviously not our British Oxalis 

 acetosella L. ; it may possibly be O. corniculata L. 



