88 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



Of camomile he writes : "It hath floures wonderfully 

 shynynge yellow and resemblynge the appell of an eye . . . the 

 herbe may be called in English, golden floure. It will restore 

 a man to hys color shortly yf a man after the longe use of the 

 bathe drynke of it after he is come forthe oute of the bath. 

 This herbe is scarce in Germany but in England it is so plenteous 

 that it groweth not only in gardynes but also VIII mile above 

 London, it groweth in the wylde felde, in Rychmonde grene, 

 in Brantfurde grene. . . . Thys herb was consecrated by the 

 wyse men of Egypt unto the sonne and was rekened to be the 

 only remedy of all agues." 



Unlike modern authorities, Turner contends that our English 

 hyssop is the same plant as that mentioned in the Bible, and 

 he also describes a species which does not now exist. " We have 

 in Sumershire beside ye come Hysop that groweth in all other 

 places of Englande a kinde of Hysop that is al roughe and hory 

 and it is greater muche and stronger then the comen Hysop is, 

 som call it rough Hysop." Another plant which seems to have 

 disappeared and which, he states, no other writer describes, is 

 "the wonderful great cole with leaves thrise as thike as ever I 

 saw any other cole have. It hath whyte floures and round 

 berryes lyke yvy. This herbe groweth at douer harde by the 

 Sea-syde. I name it the Douer cole because I founde it first 

 besyde Douer." Incidentally he mentions samphire also as 

 growing at Dover. 



It is interesting to find that Turner identifies the Herba 

 Britannica of Dioscorides and Pliny (famed for having cured 

 the soldiers of Julius Caesar of scurvy in the Rhine country) with 

 Polygonum blstorta, which he observed plentifully in Friesland, 

 the scene of Pliny's observations. This herb is held by more 

 modern authorities to be Rumex aquations (great water dock). 



Throughout the Herbal there are recollections of the north 

 of England, where the author spent his boyhood. Of heath, 

 for instance, he tells us : " The hyest hethe that ever I saw 



