CHAPTER V 



OF HERBS IN MEDICINE 



When bright Aurora gilds the eastern skies, 



I wake and from my squalid couch arise . . . 



Be this my topic, this my aim and end, 



Heav'n's will to obey and seek t' oblige a friend . . 



Some herbs adorn the hills — some vales below, 



Where limpid streamlets in meanders flow, 



Here's Golden Saxifrage, in vernal hours. 



Springs up when water'd well by fertile showers : 



It flourishes in bogs where waters beat. 



The yellow flowers in clusters stand complete. 



Adorn'd with snowy white, in meadows 'low. 



White Saxifrage displays a lucid show : . . . 



Why should my friends in pining grief remain. 



Or suffer with excruciating pain ? 



The wholesome medicines, if by heaven blest. 



Sure anodynes will prove and give them rest. . . . 



Here's Tormentilla, with its searching parts. 



Expels the pois'nous venom from our hearts . . . 



Wood-betony is in its prime in May, 



In June and July does its bloom display, 



A fine, bright red does this grand plant adorn. 



To gather it for drink I think no scorn ; 



I'll make a conserve of its fragrant flowers, 



Cephalick virtues in this herb remain. 



To chase each dire disorder from the brain. 



Delirious persons here a cure may find 



To stem the phrensy and to calm the mind. 



All authors own wood-betony is good, 



'Tis king o'er all the herbs that deck the wood ; 



A king's physician erst such notice took 



Of this, he on its virtues wrote a book. 



The Poor Phytotoght, — James Chambers. 



The old herbalists used so many herbs and found 

 each one good for so many disorders that one is filled 



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