AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 



57 



anutmeg eaten every morning, is a sufficient 

 dose for inward diseases ; but for wounds, 

 spots, wrinkles, and sunburnings, an oint- 

 ment is made of the leaves, and hog's 

 grease. 



CRAB'S CLAWS. 



CALLED also Water Sengreen, Knight's 

 Pond Water, Water House-leek, Pond 

 Weed, and Fresh- water Soldier. 



Descript.'] It has sundry long narrow 

 leaves, with sharp prickles on the edges of 

 them, also very sharp pointed ; the stalks 

 which bear flowers, seldom grow so high as 

 the leaves, bearing a forked head, like a 

 Crab's Claw, out of which comes a white 

 flower, consisting of three leaves, with divers 

 yellowish hairy threads in the middle ; it 

 takes root in the mud at the bottom of the 

 water. 



Placed] It grows plentifully in the fens 

 in Lincolnshire. 



Time.'] It flowers in June, and usually 

 from thence till August. 



Government and virtues.^ It is a plant 

 under the dominion of Venus, and there- 

 fore a great strengthener of the reins ; it is 

 excellently good for inflammation which is 

 commonly called St. Anthony's Fire ; it 

 assuages inflammations, and swellings in 

 wounds : and an ointment made of it is 

 excellently good to heal them ; there is 

 scarcely a better remedy growing than this 

 is, for such as have bruised their kidneys, 

 and upon that account discharge blood ; a 

 dram of the powder of the herb taken 

 every morning, is a very good remedy to 

 stop the terms. 



BLACK CRESSES. 



Descript.'] IT as long leaves, deeply 

 cut and jagged on both sides, not much 

 unlike wild mustard ; the stalk small, very 

 limber, though very tough : you may twist 

 them round us you may a willow before they 

 Urcak. The flowers are very small and yel- 



low, after which comes small pods, which 

 contains the seed. 



Place J] It is a common herb, grows 

 usually by the way-side, and sometimes 

 upon mud walls about London, but it 

 delights to grow most among stones and 

 rubbish. 



Time.'] It flowers in June and July, 

 and the seed is ripe in August and Sep- 

 tember. 



Government and virtues.^ It is a plant of 

 a hot and biting nature, under the dominion 

 of Mars. The seed of Black Cresses 

 strengthens the brain exceedingly, being, 

 in performing that office, little inferior to 

 mustard seed, if at all ; they are excellently 

 good to stay those rheums which may fall 

 down from the head upon the lungs ; you 

 may beat the seed into powder, if you 

 please, and make it up into an electuary 

 with honey ; so you have an excellent 

 remedy by you, not only for the premises, 

 but also for the cough, yellow jaundice and 

 sciatica. This herb boiled into a poultice, 

 is an excellent remedy for inflammations ; 

 both in women's breast, and men's testicles. 



SCIATICA CRESSES. 



Descript. ] THESE are of two kinds ; 

 The first rises up with a round stalk about 

 two feet high, spreads into divers branches, 

 whose lower leaves are somewhat larger 

 than the upper, yet all of them cut or torn 

 on the edges, somewhat like the garden 

 Cresses, but smaller, the flowers are small 

 and white, growing at the tops of branches, 

 where afterwards grow husks with small 

 brownish seeds therein very strong and 

 sharp in taste, more than the Cresses of the 

 garden ; the root is long, white, and woody. 



The other has the lower leaves whole 

 somewhat long and broad, not torn at all, 

 but only somewhat deeply dented about 

 the edges towards the ends ; but those that 

 grow up higher are smaller. The flowers 

 and seeds are like the former, and so is 



