ii8S Of the Hiftory of Plants. Lib. z, 
*([ The Names. 
Nicander calleth this Trefoile in Latine,7 ’fifolium acutum, or fharpe pointed Trefoile : of 
P liny ptri folium odor at um , but not properly ; of others, Trifolium Afphaltaumfwe Bituminofum or 
Stone Pitch Trefoile. * 
Auicen calleth it T irfilon, and not Handacocha . Atiiccn doth comprehend Diofcorides his Loti that 
is to fay, Lotus vrbana JyluefrispnA ^Egyjjf/Wjwhich Diofcorides confoundeth one with another in one 
chapter: in Englifh it is called Clauer gentle, Pitch Trefoile, Sinking Trefoile, & Treacle Clauer. 
The Temperature. 
This Trefoile, called Ajp halt wimps Galen faith, is hot and drie,as Bitumen is,and that in the third 
degree. 
«[ The Venues. 
A Being drunke, it takethavvay the pain of the Tides, which commeth by obdruftionsor doppings. 
prouoketh vrine,and bringeth downe the defired ficknelfe. 
B Hippocrates writeth,that it doth notonely bring them downe, but likevvife the birth, not onely 
inwardly taken, but alfo outwardly applied. Ifa woman, faith he,bc not well clenfed after her child 
bearing.giue her this Trefoile todrinkein white wine. 
C Diofcorides faith, that the feeds and leaues being drunke in water, are a remedie for the pleur ifie 
difficultie of making water, the falling ficknefle,the dropfie when it fird beginneth, and for thofe 
that are troubled with the mother: the quantity to be taken at once is three drams of the feeds and 
foureof the leaues. 
p The leaues drunke in Oxymel,orafyrrupofvinegerniadewithhonie, is good for thofe that are 
bittenvvith ferpents. 
E Some arfirine that the decoction of the whole plant, root and leaues, taketh away paine from 
thofe whom ferpents haue bitten, if they be wailied therewith ; but if any other man hailing anvl- 
cerbe wafhed with that waterwherwith he was bathed that was bitten of the ferpent,tliey fay that 
he (hall be troubled in the fame manner that the dinged partie was. 
F Some alfo giue with wine three Ieaues,or a fmallquantitie of the feeds in tertian a<nies,and in 
quartaine foure,as a lure remedie againd the fits. 
G ' The root alfo is put into antidotes or counterpoifons, faith Diofcorides : but other antient Ph 
tions do not onely mix the root with them, but alfo the feed, as we may fee in Galen ', by a great n, , 
ny compofitions in his 2 . booke of Antidotes •, that is to fay, in theTreacles oi'^Elius Gatins, Zeno 
Laudoceus , Claudius Apollonius, F.udemus, Heraclides,Dorothwispnd Herat. 
H The herbe damped and applied vpon any enuenomed wound,or made with poifoned weapon, it 
draweth the poifon from the depth mod apparantly.Butif it be applied vpon a wound where' the're 
is no venomous matter to work vpon,it doth no lefle infeft that part, than if it had been bitten with 
Tome ferpent or venomous bead : which wonderfull effeftit doth not performe in refpe&ofany 
vitious qualitie that it hath in it felfe,but becaufe it doth not finde that venomous matter to work 
vpon, which it naturally draweth(as the Load-done doth iron) wherupon it is conflrained through 
his attra&iue qualitie, to draw and gather together humours from farvntothe place, whereby the 
paine is greatly increafed. 
Chap. 4 96. Of diners other Trefoiles. 
The Defcription, 
o 
1 'T’ Hree leaued s raffi: of America hath diners crooked round dalks, leaning this way and 
J. t * iat way, and diuided into diuers branches : whereon do grow leaues like thofe of the 
medow Trefoile, of a black greene colour, and of the fmel ofPitch Trefoile, or Treacle 
Clauer : the domes grow at the top of the branches, made vp in a long fpiked chaffieeare, of a white 
colour : alter which commeth the feed, lomewhat fiat,almod like to thofe of Tares : the roots are 
long drings of a wooddie fubdance. 
2 1 his ; three leafed grade (which Dodonaus in his lad Edition calleth Trifolium cochleatum pi- 
mum and Lobel, Fasnnm Burgundiacttm) hath diuers round vpright dalks, of awooddierough fub- 
dance yet not able otic felfe to dand without a prop or day: which dalks are diuided into diuers 
lmall branches, whereupon do grow leaues ioined three together like the other Trefoiles, but ofa 
darkefwart greene colour : the domes grow at the top of the dalks in ihape like thofe of the cod- 
ded Treioile, butoi a darke purple colour: the feede followeth, contained in fmall wrinckled 
huskes 
