Of the Hiftorie of Plants, 
Li b„2 
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3 Smilax ajpera Lujitanic a. 
Rough Binde-weed of Portugal! . 
others, as one M ’.White an excellent painter, 
who carried very many people into Virginia , 
(orafter fome Norembega) there to inhabit, . 
at which time hee did fee thereof great plen- 
tie, as he himfelfe reported vnto me, with this ; 
bare description; It is (faith he) the root of 1 
a iiliali ifirubbie tree, or hedge tree, fuch as ; 
are thofe of our country called Haw-thorns, , 
hauing leaues refembling thofe of luy, but ■ 
the floures or fruit he remembreth not. £ It : 
is moft: certaine,.that Surf a fartlla is the root : 
of the Americane S milax a/j>era, both by con- 
fent of moft Writers, and by the relation of 
fuch as ha«e feene it growing there, f: 
2 The common rough Binde-weed hath 
many branches fet full of little fharpe pric- 
kles, with certaineclafping tendrels, where- 
with it taketh hold vpon hedges, fhrtibs, and 
vvbatfoeuerftandeth next vnto it, windino- , 
and clafping it felfe about from the bottom |i 
to the top; whereon are placed ateueryioint :| 
one leafe like that of luy , without corners ! 
fharpe pointed, lefTerancf harder rhan thofe 
of fmooth Binde-vveed , oftentimes marked 
with little white fpots, and garded or horde- ( 
red about the edges with crooked prickles, ; 
The floures grow at the top of crooked [talks i 
of a white colour, and fiveet of fmell. After > 
commeth the fruit like thofe of the wilde I 
Vine, greene at the firft , and red when they j 
be ripe, and of a biting talle ; wherein is con- 
The root is long, fomewhat hard, and parted I 
tained ablackifh feed in fhape like that ofhempe 
into very many branches. 
3 This rough Binde-weed, found for the moft part in the barren mountair.es of Portugal dif- 
fered not from the precedent in (hikes and floures, but in the leaues and fruit ; for the leaues are 
fofter, and leffe prickly, and fometimes hauc noprickles at all, and they are alfo oftentimes much 
narrower : the fruit or berry is not red but.blacke when as it commeth to be ripe. The root hereof 
is one Angle root ofa wooddy fubftance, with fome fibres annexed thereto, wherein confifteth the 
difference. 
^ The Place. 
z * r ii far Hit, or the prickly Binde-weed of America, groweth in Peru a prouince of America > 
in Virginia, and in diuers other places both in the Eaft and Weft Indies. 
The others grow in rough and vntilled places, about the hedges and borders of fields onmoun- 
taiiies and vallies, in Italy, Languedock in France, Spaine, and Germany. 
The Time. 
They floureand flouriflr in the Spring : their fruit is ripe in Autumne,oralittlebefore. 
The Names. 
r t is named in Greene 2 Gaza (Theofhrajlus his Tranflator) names it Hedera Cilicia ■ as 
likewife Pliny, whoW.24. cap. 1 o vvriteth, that it is alfo fyrnamed Nicop boron. Of the Hetrurians 
Hedera ffmofa, and Rubus ceruinuc : oftheCaftilians in Spaine, as Lacuna faith ,Zarza farilla , as 
though they fhould fay Rubus vincula, or Bramble little Vine. Parra, as Matthiolus interpreted! it 
doth figninea Vine ; and Parilla , a final! or little Vine. 
Diuers affirme that the root (brought out of Peru a prouince in America) which the later Her- 
barifts do call Zar\a, is the root of this Bindevveed. Garcias Lopius Lufitamu granteth it to belike 
thereunto, but yet he doth not affirme that it is the fame. Plants are oftentimes found to he like 
one another, which notwithftanding areproued not to be the fame.by fome little difference • the 
diuers confticution of the weather and of the foile making the difference. 
Zar^atarilia of Peru is a ftrange plant, and is brought vnto vs from the Countries of the new 
world called America ; and fuch things as are brought from thence, although they alfo feeme and 
are like to tho.e that grow in Europe, notwithftanding they doe often differ in vertue and operati- 
on : ior the diuerfitie of the foile and of the weather doth not only breed an alteration in the form, 
but 
