Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
in a Succade, doth ingender good blode, and doth set a man in a
temporaunce."--A. Boorde's Dyetary, E.E.T. Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 278.
[E200] "Burnet, a term formerly applied to a brown cloth, Fr.
_brunette_, It. _brunetta_, and given to the plant so called from its
brown flowers."--Dr. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants, 1870.
Called also _Pimpinell_.--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 138.
[E201] "Burrage." Fr. _bourache_, M. Lat. _borago_. Apuleius says that
its original name was "_corrago_, quia cordis affectibus medetur," a
word that the herbalists suppose to have become, by change of _c_ to
_b, borrago_. See A. Boorde's Dyetary, ed. Furnivall, pp. 278-280.
[E202] "Clarie." M. Lat. _sclarea_, from _clarus_ = clear, and prefix
_ex_. Called by the apothecaries _clear-eye_, translated into _Oculus
Christi, Godes-eie_, and _See-bright_, and eye-salves made of it.
_Salvia Sclarea_, Linn. "Called in French _Ornale_ or _Fonte-bonne_;
it maketh men dronke and causeth headache, and therefore some Brewers
do boyle it with their Bier in steede of Hoppes."--Lyte's Dodoens, ed.
1578, p. 253.
[E203] "Coleworts." Dioscorides (quoted in Cogan's Haven of Health,
p. 49) says (lib. 2, cap. 113) that "if they be eaten last after
meats, they preserue the stomacke from surfetting, and the head from
drunkennesse. Yea some write, that if one would drinke much wine for a
wager, and not be drunke, but to haue also a good stomacke to meate,
that he should eate before the banquet raw Cabage leaues with Vinegar
so much as he list, and after the banquet to eate againe foure or fiue
raw leaues, which practice is much vsed in Germanie.... The Vine and
the Coleworts be so contrarie by nature that if you plant Coleworts
neere to the rootes of the Vine, of it selfe it will flee from them.
Therefore it is no maruaile if Colewortes be of such force against
drunkennesse; But I trust no student will prooue this experiment,
whether he may be drunken or not, if he eate Coleworte leaues before
and after a feast."
[E204] The numerous virtues of this herb are thus summed up in the
King's Coll. MS. of the Promptorium:
"Bis duo dat maratrum, febres fugat atque venenum,
Et purgat stomacum, sic reddit lumen acutum."
Macer gives a detailed account, in which the following remarkable
passages occur: "þe edderes wole ete fenel, when her yen dasnyþ, and
so she getiþ ayene her clere sighte; and þer þoroghe it is founde and
preved þat fenel doþ profit to mannis yene: þe yen þat ben dusked,
and dasniþ, shul be anoynted with þe ius of fenelle rotis medeled
with hony; and þis oynement shalle put a-way alle þe dasewenesse of
hem, and make hem bryȝt." The virtue of fennel in restoring youth,
was a discovery attributed by Macer to serpents; "Þis prouiþ auctours
and filisoferis, for serpentis whan men _(sic)_ olde, and willeth
to wexe stronge, myghty, and yongly a-yean, þei gon and eten ofte
fenel, and þei become yongliche and myghty."--MS. in the possession
of H. W. Diamond, Esq. This herb is called in German _Fenchel_, Dutch
_Venckel_. In Piers Plowman mention occurs of: "A ferthyng worth of
fynkel-sede for fastinge daies;" C. vii. 360; spelt fenel in the other
texts. "Fenkylle or fenelle, _feniculum_."--Prompt. Parv. "Fenelle or
fenkelle, _feniculum, maratrum_."--Catholicon Anglicum.
[E205] "Andreas the Herborist writeth that the root of the Langdebeefe
tyed or bounde to the diseased place, swageth the ache of the veynes
(called _Varix_) being to muche opened or enlarged and fylled with
grosse blood."--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 568. See also Gerard's Herbal,
1633.
This is no doubt _Helminthia echioides_, Linn., of which Parkinson
(_Paradisus_) gives a good description and figure under this name, and
says, "The leaves are onely used ... for an herbe for the pot among
others." Lyte's reference is to some other plant which has "a purple
flower."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E206] "Leek." A remnant of A.S. _porleac_, from Lat. _porrum_ and
_leac_ = a plant, Ger. _lauch_.
[E207] "Longwort," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 125, Sage of Jerusalem,
"whiche herbe hath no particular vse in Physicke, but it is much vsed
in Meates and Salades with egges, as is also Cowslippes and Prymeroses,
whervnto in temperature it is much like." See also Gerard's Herbal,
1633, where it is called "Cowslips of Jerusalem."
[E208] "Liuerwort," so called from the liver shape of the thallus,
and its supposed effects in disease of the liver. O. L. Ger.
_Steenleuerwnyt_. According to Lyte's Dodoens, p. 59, "a soueraigne
medicine against the heate and inflammation of the Lyuer, and all hoate
Feuers or Agues." _Anemone Hepatica_, Linn.
The first portion of this note refers to a Cryptogam called Liverwort,
having nothing to do with the plant meant by Tusser.--Note by Mr. J.
Britten, F.L.S.
[E209] "Marigolds are hote and drye, an herbe well knowen and as vsual
in the kitchin as in the hal: the nature whereof is to open at the
Sunne rising, and to close vp at the Sunne setting. It hath one good
propertie and very profitable for Students, that is by the vse thereof
the sight is sharpened. And againe the water distilled of Marigolds
when it flowreth, doth help the rednesse and inflammation of the eyes
if it be dropped into them, or if a linnen cloth wet in the water be
laid upon them. Also the powder of Marigolds dried, being put into the
hollownesse of the teeth, easeth toothach. And the juice of the herbe
mingled with a little salt, and rubbed often times vpon Warts, at
length weareth them away."--Cogan's Haven of Health, ch. 63. Called in
the Grete Herbal _Mary Gowles_, a name that seems to have originated in
the A.S. _mersc-mear-gealla_ = marsh-horse-gowl, the marsh marigold,
or _caltha_, transferred to the exotic plant of our gardens and
misunderstood as _Mary Gold_. It is often mentioned as Gold simply by
our older poets:
"That she sprunge up out of the molde
Into a floure was named _golde_."
--Gower, ed. 1554, f. 120.
"The yellow marigold, the sunne's own flower," says Heywood in Marriage
Triumphe, and "so called," says Hyll (Art of Gard. ch. xxx.), "for that
after the rising of the sun unto noon, this flower openeth larger and
larger; but after the noontime unto the setting of the sun the flower
closeth more and more, so that after the setting thereof it is wholly
shut up."
"The marigold observes the sun,
More than my subjects me have done."
--K. Charles I.
[E210] "Mercurie." A name rather vaguely applied in old works,
probably the "Good Henry, _Chenopodium Bonus Henricus_." Called also
"Allgood," Dutch _algoede_, Ger. _allgut_, from Lat. _tota bona_,
Cotgrave and Palsgrave _toutte bonne_, on account of its excellent
qualities as a remedy and as an esculent; hence the proverb: "Be thou
sick or whole, put _Mercury_ in thy koale."--Cogan, Haven of Health,
ch. 28. "The Barons Mercury, or male Phyllon dronken, causeth to
engender male children, and the Mayden Mercurie, or gyrles Phyllon
dronken, causeth to engender Gyrles or Daughters."--Lyte's Dodoens, p.
78.
It is still much grown in some districts, as in Lincolnshire (where it
is called "Marquerry"), being boiled and eaten as spinach.--Note by Mr.
J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E211] "Nep," common Cat-mint. "Dronken with honied water is good
for them that haue fallen from a lofte, and haue some bruse or
squat, and bursting, for it digesteth the congeled and clotted
bloud, and is good for the payne of the bowels, the shortnesse of
breath, the oppillation or stopping of the breast, and against the
Jaundice."--Lyte, p. 148. See also Gerard's Herbal, 1633. "Nepe, herbe,
_Coloquintida, cucurbita_."--Prompt. Parv. "Neppe, an herbe, _herbe du
chat_."--Palsgrave. Forby gives the Norfolk simile "as white as _nep_,"
in allusion to the white down which covers this plant.
The plant referred to in the quotation from the Prompt. Parv. is not
that meant by Tusser.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E212] "Orach," _Atriplex hortensis_, or _sativa_, formerly _Arach_,
Prompt. Parv. _Arage_, in MS. Harl. 979 _Arasches_, Fr. _arroche_, from
Low Lat. _aurago_ from _aurum_ = gold, by the addition to it of _ago_
= wort, as in plantago, lappago, etc. At the same time its use in the
cure of jaundice, _aurugo_, may have fixed upon the plant the name of
the disease.
"_Atriplicem_ tritam cum nitro, melle, et aceto,
Dicunt appositam calidam sedare podagram:
_Ictericis_ dicitque Galenus tollere morbum
Illius semen cum vino sæpius haustum."
--Macer, cap. xxviii. l. 7, quoted by Dr. Prior.
[E213] "Patience," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 559, "Wild Docke," and
stated to be a remedy for jaundice, the "bitinges and stinginges of
Scorpions," and the tooth ache, and if "hanged about the necke it doth
helpe the kinges euill or swelling in the throte."
[E214] If the virtues of Penny Royal, as stated in Lyte's Dodoens, p.
232, be true, the use of it might now be advantageously adopted by the
consumers of London drinking water. He says: "If at any time men be
constrayned to drinke _corrupt, naughtie, stinking,_ or salte water,
throw Penny royal into it, or strow the pouder thereof into it, and it
shall not hurte any bodie." It is sometimes called Pudding-grass, from
its being used to make stuffings for meat, formerly called _puddings_.
It is recommended by Andrew Boorde (Dyetary, ed. E.E.T. Soc. p. 281) as
a remedy for melancholy, and to comfort the spirits of men.
[E215] "Primerose," from _Pryme rolles_, the name it bears in old
books and MSS. The Grete Herball, ch. cccl. says: "It is called _Pryme
Rolles_ of _pryme tyme_, because it beareth the first floure in _pryme
tyme_." It is also so called in Frere Randolph's Catalogue. Chaucer
writes it in one word _primerole_. (See also MS. Addit. 11, 307, f. 37:
"He shal ben lyk the lytel bee
That seketh the blosme on the tre,
And souketh on the _prumorole_.")
_Primerole_ is an abbreviation of Fr. _primeverole_, It. _primaverola_,
dimin. of _prima vera_, from _fior di prima vera_ = the first spring
flower. Primerole, as an outlandish unintelligible word, was soon
familiarized into _prime rolles_, and this into _primrose_. This is
explained in popular works as meaning the first rose of the spring,
a name that never could have been given to a plant that in form and
colour is so unlike a rose. But the rightful claimant is, strange
to say, the _daisy_, which in the South of Europe is a common and
conspicuous flower in early spring, while the _primrose_ is an
extremely rare one, and it is the _daisy_ that bears the name in
all the old books. See Fuchs, Hist. Stirpium, 1542, p. 145, where
there is an excellent figure of it, titled _primula veris_; and the
Ortus Sanitatis, ed. Augsb. 1486, ch. cccxxxiii., where we have a
very good woodcut of a daisy titled "masslieben, _Premula veris_,
Latine." Brunfelsius, Novum Herbarium, ed. 1531, speaking of the
Herba paralysis, the cowslip, says, p. 1590, expressly, "Sye würt von
etlichen Doctores _Primula veris_ genaunt, das doch falsch ist wann
_Primula veris_ ist matsomen oder zeitlosen." Brunschwygk (De Arte
Distillandi, 1500, book ii. c. viii.) uses the same words. The Zeitlose
is the daisy. Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 531) assigns the name to both the
daisy and the primrose. Matthioli (ed. Frankfort, 1586, p. 653) calls
his Bellis Major "_Primo fiore maggiore_, seu _Fiore di prima vera_,
nonnullis _Primula veris major_" and figures the moon-daisy. His Bellis
minor, which seems to be our daisy, he calls "_Primo fiore minore,
Fior di primavera_, Gallis _Marguerites_, Germanis _Masslieben_." At
p. 883, he figures the cowslip, and calls that also "_Primula veris_,
Italis _Fiore di primavera_, Gallis _primevere_."--Dr. Prior's Pop.
Names of British Plants. "_Petie Mulleyn_ (whiche we call _Cowslippe_