68 



THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



sweet is scent; after which come small 

 blackish berries, full of juice while they are 

 fresh, wherein is small hard kernels, or seed. 

 The root doth creep under the upper crust 

 of the ground, springing in divers places, 

 being of the bigness of one's finger or 

 thumb sometimes. 



Place.'] The Elder-tree grows in hedges, 

 being planted thereto strengthen the fences 

 and partitions of ground, and to hold the 

 banks by ditches and water-courses. 



The Dwarf Elder grows wild in many 

 places of England, where being once gotten 

 into a ground, it is not easily gotten forth 



again. 



Time."] Most of the Elder Trees, flower 

 in June, and their fruit is ripe for the most 

 part in August. But the Dwarf Elder, or 

 Wall- wort, flowers somewhat later, and his 

 fruit is not ripe until September. 



Government and virtues.^ Both Elder 

 and Dwarf Tree are under the dominion of 

 Venus. The first shoots of the common 

 Elder boiled like Asparagus, and the young 

 leaves and stalks boiled in fat broth, doth 

 mightily carry forth phlegm and choler. 

 The middle or inward bark boiled in water, 

 and given in drink, works much more 

 violently ; and the berries, either green or 

 dry, expel the same humour, and are often 

 given with good success to help the dropsy; 

 the bark of the root boiled in wine, or the 

 juice thereof drank, Ttorks the same effects, 

 but more powerfully than either the leaves 

 or fruit. The juice of the root taken, doth 

 mightily procure vomitings, and purges the 

 watery humours of the dropsy. The de- 

 coction of the root taken, cures the biting 

 of an adder, and biting of mad dogs. It 

 mollifies the hardness of the mother, if 

 women sit thereon, and opens their veins, 

 and brings down their courses : The berries 

 boiled in wine perform the same effect ; 

 and the hair of the head washed therewith 

 is made black. The juice of the green 

 leaves applied to the hot inflammations of 



the eyes, 'assuages them ; the juice of the 

 leaves snuffed up into the nostrils, purges 

 the tunicles of the brain ; the juice of the 

 berries boiled with honey and dropped 

 into the ears, helps the pains of them ; the 

 decoction of the berries in wine, being 

 drank, provokes urine ; the distilled water 

 of the flowers is of much use to clean the 

 skin from sun-burning, freckles, morphew, 

 or the like ; and takes away the head-ache, 

 coming of a cold cause, the head being 

 bathed therewith. The leaves or flowers 

 distilled in the month of May, and the legs 

 often washed with the said distilled water, 

 it takes away the ulcers and sores of them. 

 The eyes washed therewith, it takes away 

 the redness and bloodshot ; and the hands 

 washed morning and evening therewith, 

 helps the palsy, and shaking of them. 



The Dwarf Elder is more powerful than 

 the common Elder in opening and purging 

 choler, phlegm, and water ; in helping the 

 gout, piles, and women's diseases, colours 

 the hair black, helps the inflammations of 

 the eyes, and pains in the ears, the biting of 

 serpents, or mad dogs, burnings and scald- 

 ings, the wind cholic, cholic, and stone, the 

 difficulty of urine, the cure of old sores and 

 fistulous ulcers. Either leaves or bark of 

 Elder, stripped upwards as you gather it, 

 causes vomiting. Also, Dr. Butler, in a 

 manuscript of his, commends Dwarf Elder 

 to the sky of dropsies, vis. to drink it, 

 being boil ad in white wine ; to drink the 

 decoction r mean, not the Elder. 



THE ELM TREE. 



THIS tree is so well known, growing 

 generally in all counties of this land, that it 

 is needless to describe it. 



Government and virtues.] It is a cold and 

 saturnine plant. The leaves thereof bruised 

 and applied, heal green wounds, being 

 bound thereon with its own bark. The 

 leaves or the bark used with vinegar, cures 

 scurf and leprosy very effectually ; The 



