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 Medica 
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 waiterish.” 
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 mediemes, 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 ”’ (7.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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