THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



COMFREY. 



THIS is a very common but a very neg- 

 lected plant. It contains very great virtues. 



DescriptJ] The common Great Com- 

 frey has divers very large hairy green leaves 

 lying on the ground, so hairy or prickly, 

 that if they touch any tender parts of the 

 hands, face, or body, it will cause it to itch ; 

 the stalks that rise from among them, being 

 two or three feet high, hollow and cornered, 

 is very hairy also, having many such like 

 leaves as grow below, but less and less up 

 to the top : At the joints of the stalks it is 

 divided into many branches, with some 

 leaves thereon, and at the ends stand many 

 flowers in order one above another, which 

 are somewhat long and hollow like the 

 finger of a glove, of a pale whitish colour, 

 after which come small black seeds. The 

 roots are great and long, spreading great 

 thick branches under ground, black on the 

 outside, and whitish within, short and easy 

 to break, and full of glutinous or clammy 

 juice, of little or no taste at all. 



There is another sort in all things like 

 this, only somewhat less, and bears flowers 

 of a pale purple colour. 



PlaceJ] They grow by ditches and 

 water-sides, and in divers fields that are 

 moist, for therein they chiefly delight to 

 grow. The first generally through all the 

 land, and the other but in some places. By 

 the leave of my authors, I know the first 

 grows in dry places. 



Time.~\ They flower in June or July, 

 and give their seed in August. 



Government and virtues^] This is an herb 

 of Saturn, and I suppose under the sign 

 Capricorn, cold, dry, and earthy in quality. 

 What was spoken of Clown's Woundwort 

 may be said of this. The Great Comfrey 

 helps those that spit blood, or make a 

 bloody urine. The root boiled in water or 

 wine, and the decoction drank, helps all 

 inward hurts, bruises, wounds, and ulcer 



of the lungs, and causes the phlegm that 

 oppresses them to be easily spit forth : It 

 helps the defluction of rheum from the 

 head upon the lungs, the fluxes of blood or 

 humours by the belly, women's immoderate 

 courses, as well the reds as the whites, and 

 the running of the reins happening by what 

 cause soever. A syrup made thereof is 

 very effectual for all those inward griefs 

 and hurts, and the distilled water for the 

 same purpose also, and for outward wounds 

 and sores in the fleshy or sinewy part of the 

 body whatsoever, as also to take away the 

 fits of agues, and to allay the sharpness of 

 humours. A decoction of the leaves here- 

 of is available to all the purposes, though 

 not so effectual as the roots. The roots 

 being outwardly applied, help fresh wounds 

 or cuts immediately , being bruised and laid 

 thereto ; and is special good for ruptures 

 and broken bones ; yea, it is said to be so 

 powerful to consolidate and knit together, 

 that if they be boiled with dissevered pieces 

 of flesh in a pot, it will join them together 

 again. It is good to be applied to women's 

 breasts that grow sore by the abundance 

 of milk coming into them ; also to repress 

 the over much bleeding of the haemorrhoids, 

 to cool the inflammation of the parts there- 

 abouts, and to give ease of pains. The 

 roots of Comfrey taken fresh, beaten small, 

 and spread upon leather, ^and laid upon 

 any place troubled with the gout, doth 

 presently give ease of the pains ; and ap- 

 plied in the same manner, gives ease to 

 pained joints, and profits very much for 

 running and moist ulcers, gangrenes, mor- 

 tifications, and the like, for which it hath 

 by often experience been found helpful. 



CORALWORT. 



IT is also called by some Tootlnvort, 

 Tooth Violet, Dog-Teeth Violet, and 

 Dentaria. 



Descript.'] Of the many sorts of this 

 herb two of them may be found growing 



