AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



35 



nor the lust of Venus be repelled by none 

 but Saturn; but I am not of opinion this 

 is done this way, and my reason is, because 

 these vapours though in quality melan- 

 choly, yet by their flying upward, seem to 

 be something aerial; therefore I rather think 

 it is done by antipathy; Saturn being 

 exalted in Libra, in the house of Venus. 



BURNET. 



IT is called Sanguisorbia, Pimpinella, 

 Bipulo, Solbegrella, &c. The common 

 garden Burnet is so well known, that it 

 needs no description. There is another sort 

 which is wild, the description whereof take 

 as follows: 



DescriptJ] The great wild Burnet has 

 winged leaves arising from the roots like the 

 garden Burnet, but not so many ; yet each 

 of these leaves are at the least twice as 

 large as the other, and nicked in the same 

 manner about the edges, of a greyish colour 

 on the under side ; the stalks are greater, 

 and rise higher, with many such leaves set 

 thereon, and greater heads at the top, of a 

 brownish colour, and out of them come 

 small dark purple flowers, like the former, 

 but greater. The root is black and long 

 like the other, but greater also : it has almost 

 neither scent nor taste therein, like the 

 garden kind. 



Place.~] It first grows frequently in gar- 

 dens. The wild kind grows in divers 

 counties of this land, especially in Hunting- 

 don, in Northamptonshire, in the meadows 

 there : as also near London, by Pancras 

 church, and by a causeway-side in the middle 

 of a field by Paddington. 



Time.'} They flower about the end of 

 June and beginning of July, and their seed 

 is ripe in August. 



Government and virtues] This is an herb 

 the Sun challenges dominion over, and is 

 a most precious herb, little inferior to 

 Betony ; the continual use of it preserves 



the body in health, and the spirits in vigour; 

 for if the Sun be the preserver of life under 

 God, his herbs are the best in the world to 

 do it by. They are accounted to be both of 

 one property, but the lesser is more effectual 

 because quicker and more aromatic: It 

 is a friend to the heart, liver, and other 

 principal parts of a man's body. Two or 

 three of the stalks, with leaves put into a 

 cup of wine, especially claret, are known 

 to quicken the spirits, refresh and cheer the 

 heart, and drive away melancholy : It is a 

 special help to defend the heart from noi- 

 some vapours, and from infection of the 

 pestilence, the juice thereof being taken in 

 some drink, and the party laid to sweat 

 thereupon. They have also a drying and 

 an astringent quality, whereby they are 

 available in all manner of fluxes of blood 

 or humours, to staunch bleedings inward or 

 outward, lasks, scourings, the bloody -flux, 

 women's too abundant flux of courses, the 

 whites, and the choleric belchings and cast- 

 ings of the stomach, and is a singular 

 wound-herb for all sorts of wounds, both 

 of the head and body, either inward or out- 

 ward, for all old ulcers, running cankers, 

 and most sores, to be used either by the 

 juice or decoction of the herb, or by the 

 powder of the herb or root, or the water of 

 the distilled herb, or ointment by itself, or 

 with other things to be kept. The seed is 

 also no less effectual both to stop fluxes, 

 and dry up moist sores, being taken in 

 powder inwardly in wine, or steeled water, 

 that is, wherein hot rods of steel have been 

 quenched; or the powder, or the seed 

 mixed with the ointments. 



THE BUTTER-BUR, OR PETASITIS. 



Descript.~\ THIS rises up in February, 

 with a thick stalk about a foot high, where- 

 on are set a few small leaves, or rather 

 pieces, and at the top a long spiked head , 

 flowers of a blue or deep red colour, ac- 



