180 THE COMPLETE HERBAL 



Government and virtues.'] Surely Mars i being drank, expels superfluous melancholy 

 rules it, it is such a prickly business. All \ out of the body, and makes a man as merry 

 these thistles are good to provoke urine, i as a cricket : superfluous melancholy cause* 

 md to mend the stinking smell thereof; as i care, fear, sadness, despair, envy, and many 

 also the rank smell of the arm-pits, or the! evils more besides ; but religion teaches to 

 whole body ; being boiled in wine and \ wait upon God's providence, and cast our 

 Irank, and are said to help a stinking! care upon him who cares for us. What a 

 breath, and to strengthen the stomach. ; fine thing were it if- men and women coula 

 Piiny saith, That the juice bathed on the j live so? And yet seven years' care and fear 

 place that wants hair, it being fallen off, : makes a man never the wiser, nor a farlhing 

 will cause it to grow speedily. : richer. Dioscorides saith, the root borne 



THF MFTANPH r ' ' j about one doth the like, and removes all 



i diseases of melancholy. Modern writers 



Descript.] IT rises up with tender single ; laugh at him ; Let them laugh that Kin : my 

 hoary green stalks, bearing thereon four or opinion is, that it is the best remedy against 

 five green leaves, dented about the edges;; all melancholy diseases that grows; they 

 the points thereof are little or nothing! that please may use it. 

 prickly, and at the top usually but one head, j 



yet sometimes from the bosom of the upper- j OUR LADY s THISTLE. 



most leaves there shoots forth another small \ Descript] OUR Lady's Thistle hath 

 head, scaly and prickly, with many reddish j divers very large and broad leaves lying on 

 thrumbs or threads in the middle, which | the ground cut in, and as it were crumpled, 

 being gathered fresh, will keep the colour; but somewhat hairy on the edges, of a white 

 a long time, and fades not from the stalk a > green shining colour, wherein are many 

 long time, while it perfects the seed, which \ lines and streaks of a milk white colour, 

 is of a mean bigness, lying in the down, i running all over, and set with many sharp 

 The root hath many strings fastened to the | and stiff' prickles all about, among which 

 head, or upper part, which is blackish, and i rises up one or more strong, round, and 

 perishes not. j prickly stalks, set full of the like leaves up 



There is another sort little differing from | to the top, whereat the end of every branch, 

 the former, but that the leaves are more ! comes forth a great prickly Thistle-like 

 green above, and more hoary underneath, j head, strongly armed with prickles, and 

 and the stalk being about two feet high, | with bright purple thumbs rising out of the 

 bears but one scaly head, with threads and j middle ; after they are past, the seed grows 

 seeds as the former. j in the said heads, lying in soft white down, 



Place] They grow in many moist mea- j which is somewhat flattish in the ground, 

 dows of this land, as well in the southern, as j and many strin'gs and fibres fastened there- 

 in the northern parts. \ unto. All the whole plant is bitter in taste. 



Time] They flower about July or : Place] It is frequent on the banks of 

 August, and their seed ripens quickly after. j almost every ditch. 



Government and virtues.] It is under i Time.] It flowers and seeds in June, 

 Capricorn, and therefore under both Saturn | July, and August. 



and Mars, one rids melancholy by sympa- j Government and virtues.] Our Lad/ 

 thy, the other by antipathy. Their virtues'; Thistle is under Jupiter, and thought to be 

 are but few, but those not to be despised ; i as effectual as Carduus Benedictus for 

 for the decoction of the thistle in wine {agues, and to prevent and cure the infection 



