AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



25 



and thereby very good to be used in wound 

 drinks, as also to^ apply outwardly for the 

 same purpose. But the latter Bird's Foot 

 is found by experience to break the stone 

 in the back or kidneys, and drives them 

 forth, if the decoction thereof be taken ; 

 and it wonderfully helps the ruptures, be- 

 ing taken inwardly, and outwardly applied 

 to the place. 



All sorts have best operations upon the 

 stone, as ointments and plaisters have upon 

 wounds: and therefore you may make a 

 salt of this for the stone; the way how to 

 do so may be found in my translation of the 

 London Dispensatory ; and it may be 1 

 may give you it again in plainer terms at 

 the latter end of this book. 



BISHOP'S-WEED. 



BESIDES the common name Bishop's- 

 weed, it is usually known by the Greek 

 name Ammi and Ammois; some call it 

 Ethiopian Cummin-seed, and others Cum- 

 min-royal, as also Herb William, and Bull- 

 wort. 



Descript^] Common Bishop's-weed rises 

 up with a round straight stalk, sometimes 

 as high as a man, but usually three or four 

 feet high, beset with divers small, long and 

 somewhat broad leaves, cut in some places, 

 and dented about the edges, growing one 

 against another, of a dark green colour, 

 having sundry branches on them, and at the 

 top small umbels of white flowers, which 

 turn into small round seeds little bigger than 

 Parsley seeds, of a quick hot scent and 

 taste; the root is white and stringy; perish- 

 ing yearly, and usually rises again on its 

 own sowing. 



Place.'] It grows wild in many places in 

 England and Wales, as between Green- 

 hithe and Gravesend. 



Government and virtues. .] It is hot and 

 dry in the third degree, of a bitter taste, 

 and somewhat sharp withal; it provokes 

 lust to purpose ; I suppose Venus owns it. 



It digests humours, provokes urine and 

 women's courses, dissolves wind, and being 

 taken in wine it eases pains and griping in 

 the bowels, and is good against the biting 

 of serpents ; it is used to good effect in 

 those medicines which are given to hinder 

 the poisonous operation of Cantharides, 

 upon the passage of the urine : being 

 mixed with honey and applied to black 

 and blue marks, coming of blows or bruises, 

 it takes them away ; and being drank or 

 outwardly applied, it abates a high colour, 

 and makes it pale; and the fumes thereof 

 taken with rosin or raisins, cleanses the 

 mother. 



BISTORT, OR SNAKEWEED. 



IT is called Snakeweed, English Serpen- 

 tary, Dragon-wort, Osterick, and Passions. 



Descript.~] This has a thick short knobbed 

 root, blackish without, and somewhat red- 

 dish within, a little crooked or turned 

 together, of a hard astringent taste, with 

 divers black threads hanging therefrom, 

 whence springs up every year divers leaves, 

 standing upon long footstalks, being some- 

 what broad and long like a dock leaf, and 

 a little pointed at the ends, but that it is ot 

 a blueish green colour on the upper side, 

 and of an ash-colour grey, and a little pur- 

 plish underneath, with divers veins therein, 

 from among which rise up divers small and 

 slender stalks, two feet high, and almost 

 naked and without leaves, or with a very 

 few, and narrow, bearing a spiky bush of 

 pale-coloured flowers; which being past, 

 there abides small seed, like unto Sorrel 

 seed, but greater. 



There are other sorts of Bistort growing 

 in this land, but smaller, both in height 

 root, and stalks, and especially in the leaves. 

 The root blackish without, and somewhat 

 whitish within ; of an austere binding taste, 

 as the former. 



Place.'] They grow in shadowy moist 

 woods, and at the foot of hills, but are 



