Part 24

This Plant was brought to me by a neighbour, who (wandering in the Woods to find out his strayed Cattle,) lost himself {69} for two Dayes, being as he ghessed eight or ten Miles from the Sea-side. The Root was pretty thick and black, having a number of small black strings growing from it, the stalks of the Leaves about a handful long, the Leaves were round and as big as a Silver five Shilling piece, of a sap or dark green Colour, with a line or ribb as black as Jeat round the Circumference, from whence came black lines or ribs at equal distance, all of them meeting in a black spot in the Center. If I had staid longer in the Country, I should have purposely made a Journey into those Parts where it was gathered, to discover if possible, the Stalk and Flower; but now I shall refer it to those that are younger, and better able to undergo the pains and trouble of finding it out; for I understood by the Natives, that it is not common, that is, every where to be found, no more then the embroydered Pirola, which also is a most elegant Plant, and which I did endeavour to bring over, but it perished at Sea.

For Wounds.

Clownes all heal, of New-England, is another Wound Herb not Inferiour to {70} ours, but rather beyond it: Some of our English practitioners take it for Vervene, and use it for the same, wherein they are grosly mistaken.

The Leaf is like a Nettle Leaf, but narrower and longer; the stalk about the bigness of a Nettle stalk, Champhered and hollow, and of a dusky red Colour; the Flowers are blew, small, and many, growing in spoky tufts at the top, and are not hooded, but having only four round Leaves, after which followeth an infinite of small longish light brown Seed; the Roots are knotty and matted together with an infinite number of small white strings; the whole Plant is commonly two Cubits high, bitter in taste, with a Rosenie favour.

{71} [Illustration]

(3.)

This Plant is one of the first that springs up after White Hellibore, in the like wet and black grounds, commonly by Hellibore, with a sheath or Hood like Dragons, but the pestle is of another shape, that is, having a round Purple Ball on the top of it, beset (as it were) with Burs; the hood shoots forth immediately from the Root, before any Leaf appears, having a Green {72} sprig growing fast by it, like the smaller Horse Tayl, about the latter end of April the Hood and Sprig wither away, and there comes forth in the room a Bud, like the Bud of the Walnut Tree, but bigger; the top of it is of a pale Green Colour, covered with brown skins like an Onion, white underneath the Leaves, which spread in time out of the Bud, grow from the root with a stalk a Foot long, and are as big as the great Bur Dock Leaves, and of the colour; the Roots are many, and of the bigness of the steel of a Tobacco Pipe, and very white; the whole Plant sents as strong as a Fox; it continues till August.

{73} [Illustration: A Branch of the Humming Bird Tree.]

{74} (4.)

This Plant the Humming Bird feedeth upon, it groweth likewise in wet grounds, and is not at its full growth till July, and then it is two Cubits high and better, the Leaves are thin, and of a pale green Colour, some of them as big as a Nettle Leaf, it spreads into many Branches, knotty at the setting on, and of a purple Colour, and garnished on the top with many hollow dangling Flowers of a bright yellow Colour, speckled with a deeper yellow as it were shadowed, the Stalkes are as hollow as a Kix, and so are the Roots, which are transparent, very tender, and full of a yellowish juice.

For Bruises and Aches upon stroaks.

The Indians make use of it for Aches, being bruised between two stones, and laid to cold, but made (after the English manner) into an unguent with Hogs Grease, there is not a more soveraign remedy for bruises of what kind soever; and for Aches upon Stroaks.

In August, 1670. in a Swamp amongst Alders, I found a fort of Tree Sow Thistle, the Stalks of some two or three Inches, {75} about, as hollow as a Kix and very brittle, the Leaves were smooth, and in shape like Sonchus lævis, i.e. Hares Lettice, but longer, some about a Foot, these grow at a distance one from another, almost to the top, where it begins to put forth Flowers between the Leaves and the Stalk, the top of the stalk runs out into a spike, beset about with Flowers like Sow Thistle, of a blew or azure colour: I brought home one of the Plants which was between twelve and thirteen Foot in length, I wondered at it the more for that so large and tall a Plant should grow from so small a Root, consisting of slender white strings little bigger than Bents, and not many of them, and none above a Finger long, spreading under the upper crust of the Earth; the whole Plant is full of Milk, and of a strong favour.

{76} [Illustration: The Plant when it springs up first.]

{77} [Illustration: The Figure of the Plant when it is at full growth.]

(5.)

This Plant I found in a gloomy dry Wood under an Oak, 1670. the 18th of August, afterwards I found it in open Champain grounds, but yet somewhat scarce: The Root is about the bigness of a French Walnut, the Bark thereof is brown, and rugged, within of a yellowish Colour, from whence ariseth a slender stalk, no bigger than an Oat straw, about two Cubits in height, somewhat better than a handful above the Root shooteth out one Leaf of a Grass Green colour, and an Inch or two above that, another Leaf, and so four or five at a greater distance one from another, till they come within a handful of the top, where upon slender foot stalks grow the Flowers four or five, more or fewer, clustering together in pale long green husks milk white, consisting of ten small Leaves, snipt a little on the edges with purple hair threads in the midst; the whole Plant is of a brakish tast: When it is at its full growth the stalks are as red as Blood.

{78} [Illustration]

{79} (6.)

This Plant Flowers in August, and grows in wet Ground; it is about three or four foot in height, having a square slender stalk, chamfered, hollow and tuff, the Leaves grow at certain distances one against another, of the colour of Egrimony Leaves sharpe pointed, broadest in the midst about an Inch and half, and three or four Inches in length, snipt about the edges like a Nettle Leaf, at the top of the Stalk for four or five Inches thick, set with pale green husks, out of which the Flowers grow, consisting of one Leaf, shaped like the head of a Serpent, opening at the top like a mouth, and hollow throughout, containing four crooked pointels, and on the top of every pointel a small, glistering, green button, covered with a little white woolly matter, by which they are with the pointels fastened close together and shore up the tip of the upper chap, the crooked pointels are very stiff and hard, from the bottom of the husks, wherein the Flower stands, from the top of the Seed Vessel shoots out a white thread which runs in at the bottom of the Flower, and so {80} out at the mouth; the whole Flower is milk white, the inside of the chaps reddish, the Root I did not observe.

{81} (7.)

This Plant I take for a varigated Herb Paris, True Love or One Berry, or rather One Flower, which is milk white, and made up with four Leaves, with many black threads in the middle, upon every thread grows a Berry (when the Leaves of the Flower are fallen) as big as a white pease, of a light red colour when they are ripe, and clustering together in a round form as big as a Pullets Egg, which at distance shews but as one Berry, very pleasant in taste, and not unwholsome; the Root, Leaf, and Flower differ not from our English kind, and their time of blooming and ripening agree, and therefore doubtless a kind of Herba Paris.

{82} [Illustration: The small Sun Flower, or Marygold of America.]

{83} [Illustration]

{84} (8.)

This Plant is taken by our Simplists to be a kind of Golden Rod, by others for Sarazens Consound. I judge it to be a kind of small Sun Flower, or Marygold of the West Indies; the Root is brown and slender, a foot and half in length, running a slope under the upper face of the Earth, with some strings here and there, the stalk as big as the steal of a Tobacco pipe, full of pith, commonly brownish, sometimes purple, three or four foot high, the Leaves grow at a distance one against another, rough, hard, green above, and gray underneath, slightly snipt and the ribs appear most on the back side of the Leaf, the Flower is of a bright yellow, with little yellow cups in the midst, as in the Marygold of Peru, with black threads in them with yellow pointels, the Flower spreads it self abroad out of a cup made up of many green beards, not unlike a Thistle; Within a handful of the top of the stalk (when the Flower is fallen), growes an excrense or knob as big as a Walnut, which being broken yieldeth a kind of Turpentine or rather Rosen.

What Cutchenele is.

The stalk beneath and above the knob, covered with a multitude of small Bugs, about the bigness of a great flea, which I presume will make good Cutchenele, ordered as they should be before they come to have Wings: They make a perfect Scarlet Colour to Paint with, and durable.