168 THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



They have the same properties the pars- j great, white and thick, growing clown deep 



leys have, but in provoking urine, and 1 into the ground, and abides many years. 



causing the pains thereof, and of the wind : There is another sort of Field Scabious 



and colic, are much more effectual, the! different in nothing from the former, but 



roots or seed being used either in powder, only it is smaller in all respects. 



or in decoctions, or any other way ; and The Corn Scabious differs little from the 



likewise helps the windy pains of the first, but that it is greater in all respects, 



mother, and to procure their courses, and | and the flowers more inclining to purple, 



to break and void the stone in the kidneys, -and the root creeps under the upper crust 



to digest cold, viscous, and tough phlegm j of the earth, and runs not deep into the 



in the stomach, and is an especial remedy > ground as the first doth. 



against all kind of Venom. Castoreurn j Place.'] The first grows more usually in 



being boiled in the distilled water thereof, meadows, especially about London every 



is singularly good to be given to those that! where. 



are troubled with cramps and convulsions. ! The second in some of the dry fields 



about this city, but not so plentifully as the 

 former. 



Some do use to make the seeds into comfits 

 (as they do carraway seeds) which is effec- 

 tual to all the purposes aforesaid. The The third in standing corn, or fallow 

 juice of the herb dropped into the most fields, and the borders of such like fields, 

 grievous wounds of the head, dries up their \ Time.'] They flower in June and July, 

 moisture, and heals them quickly. Some t and some abide flowering until it be late in 



women use the distilled water to take away 

 freckles or spots in the skin or face ; and 

 to drink the same sweetened with sugar for 

 all the purposes aforesaid. 



August, and the seed is ripe in the mean 



time. 



There are many other sorts of Scabious, 

 but I take these which I have here des- 



cribed to be most familiar with us. The 

 SCABIOUS, THREE SORTS. virtues of both these and the rest, being 



Descnpt.~] COMMON field Scabious grows ; 



. i i . i i 



much alike, take them as follow. 



Government and mrtues.'] Mercury owns 



up with many hairy, soft, whitish ^green \ the plant. Scabious is very effectual for 

 leaves, some whereof are very little, if at ] all sorts of coughs, shortness of breath, and 

 all jagged on the edges, others very much jail other diseases of the breast and lungs, 

 rent and torn on the sides, and have threads ; ripening and digesting cold phlegm, and 

 in them, ^ which upon breaking may be I other tough humours, voids them forth by 

 plainly seen; from among which rise up J coughing and spitting: It ripens also all 

 divers hairy green stalks, three or four feet {sorts of inward ulcers and impostlunnes ; 

 high, with such like hairy green leaves on j pleurisy also, if the decoction of the her!) 

 them, but more deeply and finely divided and j dry or green be made in wine, and drank 

 branched forth a little : At the tops thereof,; for some time together. Four ounces of 

 which are naked and bare of leaves for ajthe clarified juice of Scabious taken in the 

 good space, stand round heads of flowers,] morning fasting, with a dram of mithridate, 

 of a pale blueish colour, set together in a -or Venice treacle, frees the heart from any 

 head, the outermost whereof are larger than | infection of pestilence, if after the taking 

 the inward, with many threads also in the; of it the party sweat two hours in bed, and 

 middle, somewhat flat at the top, as the \ this medicine be again and again repeated, 

 head with the seed is likewise ; the root is i if need require. The green herb bruised 



