102 



THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



throat, called the king's evil : healing kibes 

 and chilblains if they be bathed with the 

 juice, or anointed with ointment made 

 thereof, and some of the skin of the leaf 

 upon them : it is also used in green wounds 

 to stay the blood, and to heal them quickly. 



KNAPWEED. 



DescriptJ] THE common sort hereof 

 has many long and somewhat dark green 

 leaves, rising from the root, dented about 

 the edges, and sometimes a little rent or 

 torn on both sides in two or three places, 

 and somewhat hairy withal ; amongst 

 which arises a long round stalk, four or five 

 feet high, divided into many branches, at 

 the tops whereof stand great scaly green 

 heads, and from the middle of them thrust 

 forth a number of dark purplish red thrumbs 

 or threads, which after they are withered 

 and past, there are found divers black 

 seeds, lying in a great deal of down, some- 

 what like unto Thistle seed, but smaller ; 

 the root is white, hard and woody, and divers 

 fibres annexed thereunto, which perishes 

 not, but abides with leaves thereon all the 

 Winter, shooting out fresh every spring. 



Place."] It grows in most fields and mea- 

 dows, and about their borders and hedges, 

 and in many waste grounds also every 



w 



here. 



Time.'] It usually flowers in June and 

 July, and the seed is ripe shortly after. 



Government and virtues.] Saturn chal- 

 lenges the herb for his own. This Knap- 

 weed helps to stay fluxes, both of blood at 

 the mouth or nose, or other outward parts, 

 and those veins that are inwardly broken, 

 or inward wounds, as also the fluxes of the 

 belly; it stays distillation of thin and sharp 

 humours from the head upon the stomach 

 and lungs ; it is good for those that are 

 bruised by any fall, blows or otherwise, and 

 w profitable for those that are bursten, and 

 have ruptures, by drinking the decoction: 



of the herb and roots in wine, and applying 

 the same outwardly to the place. It is 

 singularly good in all running sores, can- 

 cerous and fistulous, drying up of the mois- 

 ture, and healing them up so gently, with- 

 out sharpness; it doth the like to i mining 

 sores or scabs of the head or other parts. 

 It is of special use for the soreness of the 

 throat, swelling of the uvula and jaws, and 

 excellently good to stay bleeding, and heal 

 up all green wounds. 



KNOTGRASS. 



IT is generally known so well that it 

 needs no description. 



Place.] It grows in every county of 

 this land by the highway sides, and by 

 foot-paths in fields ; as also by the sides of 

 old walls. 



Time.'] It springs up late in the Spring, 

 and abides until the Winter, when all the 

 branches perish. 



Government and virtues.'] Saturn seems 

 to me to own the herb, and yet some hold 

 the Sun; out of doubt 'tis Saturn. The 

 juice of the common kind of Knotgrass 

 is most effectual to stay bleeding of the 

 mouth, being drank in steeled or red wine ; 

 and the bleeding at the nose, to be applied 

 to the forehead or temples, or to be squirted 

 up into the nostrils. It is no less effectual 

 lo cool and temper the heat of the blood 

 and stomach, and to stay any flux of the 

 blood and humours, as lasks, bloody-flux, 

 women's courses, and running of the reins. 

 It is singularly good to provoke urine, help 

 the stranguary, and allays the heat that 

 comes thereby ; and is powerful by urine 

 to expel the gravel or stone in the kidneys 

 and bladder, a dram of the powder of 

 the herb being taken in wine for many 

 days together. Being boiled in wine and 

 drank, it is profitable lo those that are stung 

 or bitten by venemous creatures, and very 

 effectual to stay all dcfluxions of rheumatic 

 humours upon the stomach, and kills worms 



