120 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
were supposed to cure deafness, giddiness, loss of memory, the 
plague, ague, swellings or wounds, the bites of serpents or 
mad dogs, and many other complaints. With faith in such 
a catalogue of its uses, it is not astonishing that the “ Blessed 
Thistle ” was cultivated in every garden. Another plant that 
was grown in all gardens, from the tenth century onwards, 
was the Mandrake (Mandragora vernalis and autumnalis). 
More ridiculous superstitions cluster round this plant than are 
attached to any other. The roots were supposed to resemble 
the figure of a man, and to possess certain mystic powers, there¬ 
fore spurious roots were manufactured in this form, and sold as 
charms. It was said to shriek when pulled from the ground, 
and the sound was so horrible that anyone who heard it went 
out of his mind or died. Shakespeare refers to this superstition : 
“ And shrieks like Mandrakes torn out of the earth, 
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad.” 
Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Scene 3. 
Not only in the Herbals proper, but in almost every practical 
work on gardening, the “ vertues and physic helps ” of each 
flower are enumerated. Thomas Hill devotes four pages to the 
“ physicke helps and worthie secrets of the Colewort,” or 
cabbage. Even Parkinson finds some medicinal use for nearly 
every plant, and only a few “ are wholly spent for their flowers 
sake ,, _; 1 even of tulips he confesses to have “ made trial,’’ and 
preserved the bulbs in sugar, and found them pleasant. “ That 
the roots are nourishing there is no doubt ... for divers have 
had them sent by their friends from beyond sea, and mis¬ 
taking them to be onions, have used them as onions in their 
pottage or broth, and never found any cause of mislike, or any 
sense of evil quality produced by them, but accounted them 
sweet onions.” 2 
By far the most important introduction into the kitchen 
garden was the potato. The generally received idea is that the 
potato was first brought to Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh, from 
Virginia, but this is doubtful. There have been great discus¬ 
sions among botanists on the subject of its native habitat. 
That Sir Walter Raleigh and his companion, Thomas Herriott, 
1 Larkspur, Paradisus, p. 278. 2 Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 77. 
