wives, and how much culled from books—from Gerarde and Dodoens to wit—we need hardly stay to inquire.[1]
The hermit of Arden, whose praise is in Polyolbion, sallies forth with a little maund to gather herbs which have sundry strange effects upon mankind.[2] He finds "on an oak, rheum-purging polypode" (Polypodium vulgare), which, according to Clarinax, another recluse herbalist, is also good "to purge old rotten humours."[3] After remarking that the kind which grows on an oak is accounted best, though its rarity interferes with the common use of it, Culpepper quaintly exclaims,[4] "And why, I pray you, must Polypodium of the oak only be used? Gentle Colledge of Physitians, can you give me but a glimpse of reason for it? Is it only because it is dearest? Will you never leave your Covetousness till your lives leave you? The truth is, That which grows on earth is best ('tis an Herb of Saturn, and he seldom climbs Trees) to purge Melancholy; if the humour be otherwise, choose your Polypodium accordingly."
Keeping an interested eye on the selections of the hermit, and comparing them with the simples in favour with Clarinax, we learn that fumitory (Fumaria officinalis) and eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis) are good for the sight. Yarrow figures as a styptic, though curiously enough it has for centuries been popularly called nose-bleed, and it has the reputation of producing sanguinary results in any nostril into which it may be introduced. Its fame as a medicinal agent is of very ancient date: it actually owes its botanical name, Achillea millefolium, to the legend that Achilles discovered it, and applied it for the benefit of wounded men, who, to return to Drayton, may also be helped by centory (Chlora perfoliata). Tutsan (Clymenon Italiorum) is thought by Gerarde[5] to signify Tout sain,
- ↑
"Of these most helpful herbs yet tell we but a few
To those unnumb'red sorts of simples here that grew,
Which justly to set down even Dodon short doth fal,
Nor skilful Gerard yet shall ever find them all."—Pol. xiii. [iii. 920]. - ↑ Pol. xiii. [iii. 919, &c.]
- ↑ Nymph. v. [iv. 1490].
- ↑ The English Physitian Enlarged (1661), p. 193.
- ↑ The Theater of Plants, or an Universell and Compleat Herball (1597), p. 435.
