THE VIRTUE OF THE IRIS.

§ 786. The iris is a herb, having a white flower, and its virtues are, that its juice, mixed with honey and wine will dissolve urinary calculus. It will also cure the ague and jaundice, as well as nervousness. When you have no wine, take the juice in strong sound mead, or strong malt wort. It is hot and dry.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE VIRTUES OF THE NETTLE.

§ 787. Take the juice of this herb mixed with white wine, strain carefully, and let it cool. Drink some thereof night and morning; it will cure you of the jaundice, renovate the blood, and remove any disease existing therein. If the juice is taken, mixed half and half with barley wort, it will cure the pleurisy in the side, and will renovate and invigorate an aged man in body and mind. If the seed of the nettle in powder is taken, mixed with wine, it is very useful for wind colic, strangury, or a chronic cough, and will reduce a swelling, producing a flow of urine without harm to the bladder.

THESE ARE THE VIRTUES OF THE BETONY.

§ 788. He who will habituate himself to drink the juice, will escape the strangury. If it is boiled in white wine, and drank, it will cure the colic, and swelling of the stomach. Pounding it small, expressing the juice and applying it with a feather to the eye of a man, will clear and strengthen his sight, and remove specks from the eye. The juice is a good thing to drop into the ears of those who are deaf. The powder mixed with honey is useful for those who cough; it will remove the cough and benefit many diseases of the lungs. It is good for the ague when it comes, and if taken in its absence, it will not attack a man that year. If boiled with leek seed, it will cure the eye, and brighten as well as strengthen the sight. And a wise man has said that if reduced to powder, a snake would rather be broken to pieces, than pass through the powder; and should there be swelling in the stomach, it will reduce it, if boiled with wine and figs, and then given the patient in bed. It is a good thing

to mix it with the juice of red fennel, and clear honey, for it will certainly clear the eyes; curing them if diseased, and strengthening the five senses wonderfully.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE VIRTUES OF PARSLEY, CALLED PETROSILIWM* IN LATIN.

§ 789. The parsley is a good herb of a warm hot nature, and moist in the third degree. It is useful in all food as a generator of blood. It will remove obstructions of the veins and arteries in a man's body, so that the humors may circulate properly as they should. This it will certainly do.

It is also well to employ parsley for the relief of fainting, tertian ague, pleurisy, and dropsy, the juice being taken for three days successively, without any other drink, It will stimulate the spirits greatly, and strengthen the stomach.

There is a kind of parsley called in Welsh perllys yr hel, because it grows in such places as are occasionally overflowed by the tide, and is of a salt nature. In Latin it is called petroselinum marinum, and is good in all obstructions of the urine and humors of the body, as well as colic and strangury, the juice being taken. The juice is useful to destroy unhealthy granulations in a wound. It will grow in gardens, where it should be kept wherever the sea is distant.

THE VIRTUES OF THE FENNEL, CAlled funiCULWM+ IN LATIN.

$ 790. The fennel is warm and dry in the second degree, and is useful for diseases of the eye. It is good for every kind of poison in a man's body, being drank in the form of powder mixed with white wine or strong old mead. It is useful for tertian ague, and inflammatory fever; and if the seed or herb is boiled in water, till it is strong of the virtues of the herb, and the head, when subject to the headache, washed therewith, it will greatly benefit and cure the same, when the headache is occasioned by cold or fever. It will remove the headache very quickly.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE VIRTUES OF ROSEMARY, CALLED YSBWYNWYDD, AND ROSA MARINA* IN LATIN.

§ 791. Rosemary is warm and dry in the third degree, and it is termed a shrub, because it is of a kind between a herb and a tree.

Take the flowers of rosemary, mix with honey, and eat them daily fasting. You will not suffer from nausea, or any other noxious condition, as long as you use this remedy.

The flowers also are specially useful, being boiled with honey, or white wine to the half, and strained carefully. A spoonful or two should be drank cold in the morning, a little honey being taken with it. A small quantity taken when one is attacked by the colic, will remove it in three hours. If you wish to apply it to your stomach externally, no honey should be added thereto.

Take also the leaves of rosemary, and wood sage; making them into a potion, and adding honey in the same way. It is an excellent remedy for the strangury, stone, and catarrh. It will disintegrate and expel it in the water.

Also, put their flowers or leaves under your head in bed, and you will not be troubled with disagreeable dreams, or oppressed with anxiety of mind.

Also, if you carry a stick or fragment of this shrub, no evil spirit can come near you, or any one do

you any harm. The rosemary has all the virtues of the stone, called jet. Also, if you procure a spoon made of the stock or root of this shrub, in the day you drink some broth with it, you will not receive harm from poison, and you will be preserved all that day from thunder and lightning, as well as all injurious assaults.

Also, gather the leaves of the rosemary, pound them small, strain, and drink the juice; it will remove all phlegm from the head and lungs, curing it with all certainty.

Also, if a man has an urinary obstruction, let him seek the flower or leaves, boiling them with white wine, and drink thereof as a potion, the first thing in the morning, and the last at night.

* Rosa Maria.

Also, if the flowers are put with white wine in a distillery, and distilled, the product will be equal to spirits of wine, and will prove a fit substitute in all cases. It is useful as a lotion for the head when affected with a headache from cold or fever, or when a man is threatened with insanity. A spoonful of this liquid with a spoonful of honey, and a spoonful of melted butter, or thick fresh cream is useful for a cough, or the expulsion of phlegm from the lungs.

Also, a decoction thereof is helpful to an insane person, or one threatened with delirium; indeed it is good for every disorder which can exist in the human body.

It is also well to boil the flowers and leaves in water, and to wash yourself well therewith every morning, omitting to dry it with a cloth, but leaving it to do so naturally. By washing thus with perseverance, the aged will retain a youthful look as long as they live. This water will expel phlegm from the brain, and restrain griping in the use of purgatives. It will expel dropsy, cure the liver, bring warmth to the nerves. and veins, disperse an impostume, elevate the spirits, strengthen the bones, and increase the quantity, and improve the quality of the marrow therein. It improves the sight, and constipates the bowels, when boiled in vinegar, and applied to the stomach of the patient. It will promote the formation of blood, and cure the tertian ague. Should a man have debilitated himself by venery, he will be restored to his usual strength, if he confines himself to this as his only drink for nine days.

It will also cure impotence, in either sex, if used with food. When a couple are childless, let the wife, if young,

use rosemary.

Also, if a man has a cold attended with fever, let him take rosemary, burn it, and convey the smoke into his nostrils. It will cure him perfectly.

Let him also take the water in which the flowers and leaves shall have been boiled, adding a little honey and pepper, drinking it warm. It is useful for all kinds of coughs; this is true. Also, take the roots of the shrub, roast

them till they become a powder, then put dpu 636 dàpūt d4l6766 pr of dóрdózó (4zo in truth.

The bark is useful for intolerable cutaneous irritation, in consequence of a deteriorated condition of the blood.

Its root also boiled in vinegar is good to foment painful joints with. Also rosemary and betony pounded and mixed with pure water, is a good wash for all venomous bites, whether animal or reptile. It will cure them without the help of any other ointment.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE VIRTUES OF THE SAGE, WHICH IS CALLED SALVIA* IN LATIN.

§ 792. The sage is a herb of a hot and dry nature. Boiled in all kinds of food and drink it is useful in nervous cases. It is well to take a decoction thereof as the sole drink; honey being added renders it more useful for the stomach. If a woman has a dead fœtus in utero, let her boil sage in white wine, and drink it cold; she will be safely delivered of her burden. When carefully bruised, and applied to a poisoned wound, it will extract the poison, and heal the wound.

If a wound also be full of blood, let it be applied well bruised to the same, and it will cleanse it.

When a man also has pain under his rib, let him obtain some sage, boil it on the fire as hot as he can drink it, and it will cure him.

Also the decoction in water, or a potion prepared with wine, mead, or ale, is a very excellent drink for the cure of dropsy, whooping cough, or headache.

HERE FOLLOW THE VIRTUES OF THE NETTLE.

§ 793. The nettle is a very hot and dry herb. If it is boiled in white wine, and strained carefully through linen, left to cool, and drank in the morning and night, it will help a man in the jaundice.

Take the seed of nettles, make into a powder, and boil well in spring water, goat's milk, good white wine, or strong

* Saluia.