938 Chap. 35 * 
'Theatrum Botanicam• 
Tribe 8* 
j. Laferpitium GaUicum. 
French Laferwort. 
1 ; Liferpimm Alpino. 
sdlpiws his Laferwort. 
flared with water quickly becommeth white ,if any (hall taile the Cjrenian fort it will move and (litre all the hu¬ 
mours in the body to a fweate, with a moift fweet fent, fo that his breath fhalllmell wcllthathath tailed but a < 
little ' that of CVledia and Syria is not fo forcible or good, and giveih a ftrangerunwholfome ien*, All the forts 
f Lafer are adulterated with Sa^apen, or with Beane flower before they are dried, the falfchood « hereof may be 
found ouc by the tafte,by the toll, by fight, otby the wetting or walhing it in water. Some doe call the Ilalke 
Silphisim, the roote CMapjdarit, and the leaves Majpetum ; the mod effeauall is the Lafer, the next are the leaves 
and the Italkes laft. This is Diafcorides his text ; but Theophraftm doth more largely expreffeit; and Pliny f rom 
him which is too tedious to infert here: I will therefore but onely mention a few of thofe things that are moft 
oertinent and not expreffed before, which are thefe : the feede is broad fpread like a leafe, and called folium and 
is as yellow as gold • the Ilalke is annuall as is that of Ferula; the fldhofthe catcle that feede thereon doth tafte 
moll lavcury, the ftalke is eaten by men fundry wayes drefled or boyled ;it groweth wilde by nature, and will not 
abide to be manured or tranfplanted. Pliny faith that in his time it was not to be had but after the weight of lilver, 
and that it was lb much deftroyed, that onely one branch was bi ought unto the Empercur Piero of all that could 
be found in his time; and Pliny faith alfo that it groweth in plenty on mount Faniajfw. Thus farre Theophrajtus 
and Pliny whereby i’t may be feene what Ioffe thereis of it by the great efleeme was made of it, andby the ver¬ 
ities it had which they have expreffed, and how hard a thing it is to find out thetiue plant of all that are knewne 
now untoii' although divers have referred fundry’herbes thereunto as is formerly fetdowne, and yet ftilhis hy 
divers; (or fome would make Benzoin the fweetegummeto be the Lalcr, and called it Afadttlcv, which is a 
word lint derived (torn Lafer as it is moftlikely, and is fo fatre fom reafon, thatlwonder how men could be 
cirawcn fo to thinke,the'Sc»«;»being the gumme of a great tree in the Fuji Indies, as all may know that will cn- 
ciVc after it, and is neither hot, (harpe, nor bitter as Lafer is faid to be: hue it is very probable that the Apothc- 
c ‘ ar j e , who had many of theit names from the Arabian authors, had thefe likewifeofbfjpirf«*«, and AJfafasti- 
'd< ai d peradventure rofe from Serapia his two forts of Lafer, one pure, and the other impure, but that he faith 
the pure is of a flronger fent, and the impure of fmall fent. The Arabians call the plant Anjuden, the j'uycc Alntb 
and Avicen Almarnt, and the Indians Imga and Imgara. 
The ’Place and Time. 
This former fort was found about Marfelles in France , as Label in ._s4dver{aria faith, and adjudged the trueft by 
Kondeletcut of any other that he had feene before, flowring and feeding in the end of the y care as Ferula doth, the 
other is expreffed in the narration before, Alpirnu faith it was firft: feene in Catdinall Pemba his Garden, and af¬ 
terwards in that or the Muffares. Tbe Names, 
it hath not found any other name fince the firft invention, than Laftrpitm and Silpmum which was given it at 
the firft by Label, onely hanhir.iu calleth it Gallicism, and Tabermcntanui Mafftlioticum ; the other is declared in 
the delcription fufficitntly. 
Tbe Verities. . A 
There is not extant in any that hath written of the French kinde for what difeafe it is effectual!, and tberefofe 
we can fay no more thereof: but of the true Lafer Diafcorides hath given a very ample recital!, which although I 
thinke it almoftneedlefle tofet downetbe venues ofan herbewhichis fo little likely to be had as this is,tor 
Ignott 
