56 



THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



two ounces at a time; it makes an excellent 

 salve to cleanse and heal old ulcers, being 

 boiled with oil of olive, and Adder's tongue 

 with it, and after it is strained, put a little 

 wax, rosin, and turpentine, to bring it to a 

 convenient body. 



CUDWEED, OR COTTONWEED. 



BESIDES Cudweed and Cottonweed, it is 

 also Called Chaffweed, Dwarf Cotton, and 

 Petty Cotton. 



DescriptJ} The common Cudweed rises 

 up with one stalk sometimes, and some- 

 times with two or three, thick set on all 

 sides with small, long and narrow whitish 

 or woody leaves, from the middle of the 

 stalk almost up to the top, with every leaf 

 stands small flowers of a dun or brownish 

 yellow colour, or not so yellow as others ; 

 in which herbs, after the flowers are fallen, 

 come small seed wrapped up, with the down 

 therein, and is carried away with the wind ; 

 the root is small and thready. 



There are other sorts hereof, which are 

 somewhat less than the former, not much 

 different, save only that the stalks and 

 leaves are shorter, so that the flowers are 

 paler and more open. 



Place.'] They grow in dry, barren, sandy, 

 and gravelly grounds, in most places of 

 this land. 



TimeJ] They flower about July, some 

 earlier, some later, and their seed is ripe in 

 August. 



Government and virtues^] Venus is Lady 

 of it. The plants are all astringent, bind- 

 ing, or drying, and therefore profitable for 

 deductions of rheum from the head, and to 

 stays fluxes of blood wheresoever, the de- 

 coction being made into red wine and 

 drank, or the powder taken therein. It also 

 helps the bloody-flux, and eases the tor- 

 ments that come thereby, stays the immode- 

 rate courses of women, and is also good for 

 inward or outward wounds, hurts, and 

 bruises, and helps children both of bursting 



and the worms, and being either drank or 

 injected, for the disease called Tenesmus, 

 which is an often provocation to the stool 

 without doing any think. The green leaves 

 bruised, and laid to any green wound, stay3 

 the bleeding, and heals it up quickly. The 

 juice of the herb taken in wine and milk, 

 is, as Pliny, saith a sovereign remedy 

 against the mumps and quinsey; and further 

 saith, That whosoever shall so take it, shall 

 never be troubled with that disease again. 



COWSLIPS, OR PEAGLES. 



BOTH the wild and garden Cowslips are 

 so well known, that I neither trouble my- 

 self nor the reader with a description of 

 them. 



Time.~\ They flower in April and May. 



Government and virtues.] Venus lays 

 claim to this herb as her own, and it is 

 under the sign Aries, and our city dames 

 know well enough the ointment or distilled 

 water of it adds beauty, or at least restores 

 it when it is lost. The flowers are held to 

 be more effectual than the leaves, and the 

 roots of little use. An ointment being 

 made with them, takes away spots and 

 wrinkles of the skin, sun-burning, and 

 freckles, and adds beauty exceedingly; 

 they remedy all infirmities of the head 

 coming of heat and wind, as vertigo, ephi- 

 altes, false apparitions, phrensies, falling- 

 sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, pains 

 in the nerves ; the roots ease pains in the 

 back and bladder, and open the passages of 

 urine. The leaves are good in wounds, 

 and the flowers take away trembling. If 

 the flowers be not well dried, and kept in 

 a warm place, they will soon putrefy and 

 look green : Have a special eye over them ; 

 If you let them see the Sun ounce a month, 

 it will do neither the Sun nor them harm. 



Because they strengthen the brain and 

 nerves, and remedy palsies, and Greeks 

 gave them the name Paralysis. The flowers 

 preserved or conserved, and the quantity of 



