AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



41 



them and correcting the putrefaction of 

 humours offending them. 



CARDUUS BENEDICTUS. 



IT is called Carduus Benedictus, or 

 Blessed Thistle, or Holy Thistle. I sup- 

 pose the name was put upon it by some 

 that had little holiness themselves. 



I shall spare a labour in writing a 

 description of this as almost every one that 

 can but write at all, may describe them 

 from his own knowledge. 



Time.'] They flower in August, and seed 

 not long after. 



Government and virtues.~\ It is an herb of 

 Mars, and under the sign of Aries. Now, in 

 handling this herb, I shall give you a 

 rational pattern of all the rest ; and if you 

 please to view them throughout the book, 

 you shall, to your content, find it true. It 

 helps swimming and giddiness of the head, 

 or the disease called vertigo, because Aries 

 is in the house of Mars. It is an excellent 

 remedy against the yellow jaundice and 

 other infirmities of the gall, because Mars 

 governs choler. It strengthens the attrac- 

 tive faculty in man, and clarifies the blood, 

 because the one is ruled by Mars. The 

 continual drinking the decoction of it, helps 

 red faces, tetters, and ring-worms, because 

 Mars causes them. It helps the plague, 

 sores, boils, and itch, the bitings of mad 

 dogs and venomous beasts, all which in- 

 firmities are under Mars; thus you see 

 what it doth by sympathy. 



By antipathy to other planets it cures the 

 French pox. By antipathy to Venus, who 

 governs it, it strengthens the memory, and 

 cures deafness by antipathy to Saturn, A,yho 

 has his fall in Aries, which rules the head. 

 It cures quartan agues, and other diseases 

 of melancholy, and adust choler, by sym- 

 pathy to Saturn, Mars being exalted in 

 Capricorn. Also provokes urine, the stop- 

 ping of which is usually caused by Mars or 

 the Moon. 



CARROTS. 



GARDEN Carrots are so well known, 

 that they need no description ; but because 

 they are of less physical use than the wild 

 kind (as indeed almost in all herbs the wild 

 are the most effectual in physic, as being more 

 powerful in operation than the garden 

 kinds,) I shall therefore briefly describe the 

 Wild Carrot. 



DescriptJ] It grows in a manner al- 

 together like the tame, but that the leaves 

 and stalks are some what whiter and rougher. 

 The stalks bear large tufts of white flowers, 

 with a deep purple spot in ' the middle, 

 which are contracted together when the 

 seed begins to ripen, that the middle part 

 being hollow and low, and the outward 

 stalk rising high, makes the whole umbel 

 to show like a bird's nest. The root small, 

 long, and hard, and unfit for meat, being 

 somewhat sharp and strong. 



Placed] The wild kind grows in divers 

 parts of this land plentifully by the field- 

 sides, and untilled places. 



Time.'] They flower and seed in the end 

 of Summer. 



Government and virtues.'] Wild Carrots 

 belong to Mercury, and therefore break 

 wind, and remove stitches in the sides, pro- 

 voke urine and women's courses, and helps 

 to break and expel the stone ; the seed also 

 of the same works the like effect, and is 

 good for the dropsy, and those whose bellies 

 are swelling with wind; helps the cholic, 

 the stone in the kidneys, and rising of the 

 mother ; being taken in wine, or boiled in 

 wine and taken, it helps conception. The 

 leaves being applied with honey to running 

 sores or ulcers, do cleanse them. 



I suppose the seeds of them perform this 



better than the roots; and though Galen 



commended garden Carrots highly to break 



wind, yet experience teaches they breed it 



' first, and we may thank nature for expelling 



