GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



his medical knowledge, though it brought him high patronage, 

 could not possibly have been founded on leisurely observation, 

 and personal practice. Therefore classical scholar as he was 

 it is not surprising that in his herbal, which is certainly a monu- 

 ment to his industry and patience, he rests his faith in the virtues 

 of certain plants, on the stated experience of the ancients, and 

 constantly quotes Discorides, who wrote on the Materia Medico, 

 in the first and second centuries. 



John Gerarde, before mentioned, a surgeon and citizen of 

 London, and gardener to Lord Burleigh, did the same, and 

 their two herbals make curious reading. We find that in the 

 sixteenth century strawberries were more esteemed for medicinal 

 properties than as fruit to be eaten. They " quench thirst and 

 are good for a cholerick stomack," writes Turner. " There is a 

 juice pressed out of strawberries, which by continuance of tyme 

 encreaseth in strength and that is a present remedie against the 

 sores and wheales of the face." 



Gerarde remarks that " the leaves boiled in manner of a pultis, 

 taketh away the burning heat in wounds, a decoction thereof 

 strengtheneth the gums, fastneth the teeth," etc. ' The distilled 

 water " of strawberries " drunke with white wine is good against 

 the passion of the hart raiseth the spirits and maketh the hart 

 merrie." And it is also " reported to scower the face and take 

 away spots, and to make the face faire and smooth," thus recalling 

 the poet's refrain that " strawberry leaves make maidens fair." 

 Gerarde, like Turner, tells us that " strawberries quench thirst, 

 and alaie the inflammation and heate of the stomacke," but adds 

 that "the nourishment- they yield is little, thinne, and waterish." 

 Roses, medicinally used, " strengthen the hart, and helpe the 

 trembling and beating thereof. They are put into all kinds of 

 counter poysons and other like medicines, whether they be to 

 be outwardly applied or inwardly taken." He quotes Pliny to 

 prove that " the roote of a wilde Rose is a singular remedie (found 

 out by oracle) against the bite of a mad dog." 



Hydrophobia was apparently a common disease, therefore many 

 are its suggested cures. " Horehound stamped " (i.e., mixed or 

 crushed) " with salt and applied, cureth the bite of a mad dog 

 as Discorides writeth." But, that one dog's meat is another dog's 

 poison, and that salt is not good for sane dogs, we have the ancient 



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