V] 



Early Herbals 



121 



and inadequate accounts of the characters of the plants 

 enumerated, ahhough their descriptions often have a certain 

 naive charm. It is scarcely worth while to give actual 

 examples of their methods. It will perhaps suffice to quote 

 a few specimens from the English ' Crete Herball\' which 

 is a work of much the same class. The Wood SorreP is 



Text-fig. 56. " Cardamomum"=.'' ^o/a^z^OT dulcamara L., 

 Bittersweet [Ortus Sanitatis, Mainz, 1491]. 



dealt with as follows : " This herbe groweth in thre places, 

 and specyally in hedges, woodes and under walles sydes 

 and hath leves lyke iii leved grasse and hath a soure smell 



1 The descriptions here quoted are from the edition of 1529. 



2 The expression " yelowe flowre " is an indication of the Continental origin 

 of the Crete Herball. The plant intended is obviously not our British Oxalis 

 acetosella L. ; it may possibly be O. coriiiculata L. 



