16 



THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



made with the juice of it and sugar (as you 

 shall be taught at the latter end of this 

 book) be kept in every gentlewoman's house 

 to relieve the weak stomachs and sick bodies 

 of their poor sickly neighbours ; as also 

 the herb kept dry in the house, that so 

 with other convenient simples, you may 

 make it into an electuary with honey, ac- 

 cording as the disease is you shall be taught 

 at the latter end of my book. The Arabian 

 physicians have extolled the virtues thereof 

 to the skies ; although the Greeks thought 

 it not worth mentioning. Seraphio says, 

 it causes the mind and heart to become 

 merry, and revives the heart, faintings and 

 swoonings, especially of such who are over- 

 taken in sleep, and drives away all trou- 

 blesome cares and thoughts out of the mind, 

 arising from melancholy or black choler ; 

 which Avicen also confirms. It is very 

 good to help digestion, and open obstruc- 

 tions of the brain, and hath so much purg- 

 ing quality in it (saith Avicen) as to expel 

 those melancholy vapours from the spirits 

 and blood which are in the heart and 

 arteries, although it cannot do so in other 

 parts of the body. Dioscorides says, 

 that the leaves steeped in wine, and the 

 wine drank, and the leaves externally ap- 

 plied, is a remedy against the stings of a 

 scorpion, and the bitings of mad dogs ; 

 and commends the decoction thereof for 

 women to bathe or sit in to procure their 

 courses ; it is good to wash aching teeth 

 therewith, and profitable for those that 

 have the bloody flux. The leaves also, with 

 a little nitre taken in drink, are good against 

 the surfeit of mushrooms, helps the griping 

 pains of the belly ; and being made into an 

 electuary, it is good for them that cannot 

 fetch their breath : Used with salt, it takes 

 away wens, kernels, or hard swelling in 

 the flesh or throat ; it cleanses foul sores, 

 and eases pains of the gout. It is good 

 for the liver and spleen. A tansy or caudle 

 made with eggs, and juice thereof while it 



is young, putting to it some sugar and rose- 

 water, is good for a woman in child-birth, 

 when the after-birth is not thoroughly 

 voided, and for their faintings upon or m 

 their sore travail. The herb bruised and 

 boiled in a little wine and oil, and laid warm 

 on a boil, will ripen it, and break it. 



BARBERRY. 



The shrub is so well known by every 

 boy or girl that has but attained to the 

 age of seven years, that it needs no des- 

 cription. 



Government and virtues J\ Mars owns the 

 shrub, and presents it to the use of my 

 countrymen to purge their bodies of choler. 

 The inner rind of the Barberry-tree boiled 

 in white wine, and a quarter of a pint drank 

 each morning, is an excellent remedy to 

 cleanse the body of choleric humours, and 

 free it from such diseases as choler causes, 

 such as scabs, itch, tetters, ringworms, yel- ' 

 low jaundice, boils, &c. It is excellent for 

 hot agues, burnings, scaldings, heat of 

 the blood, heat of the liver, bloody-flux ; 

 for the berries are as good as the bark, and 

 more pleasing : they get a man a good 

 stomach to his victuals, by strengthening the 

 attractive faculty which is under Mars. 

 The hair washed with the lye made of 

 the tree and water, will make it turn yellow, 

 viz. of Mars' own colour The fruit and 

 ! rind of the shrub, the flowers of broom 

 ' and of heath, or furz, cleanse the body of 

 choler by sympathy, as the flowers, leaves, 

 and bark of the peach-tree do by antipathy, 

 because these are under Mars, that under 

 Venus. 



BARLEY. 



The continual usefulness hereof hath 

 made all in general so acquainted herewith 

 that it is altogether needless to describe it, 

 several kinds hereof plentifully growing, 

 being yearly sown in this land, The virtues 

 thereof take as follow. 



