Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging.

Seager, H. W. (Herbert West), 1848-

Date:: 1896

Credit: Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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$Carduus is a manner herb or a weed with pricks. The kind thereof is biting and cruel. Therefore the juice thereof cureth the falHng of the hair. The root thereof sod in water giveth appetite to drinkers, and is most profit- able to the mother, and therefore it is no wonder though women desire it. And in drawing up of carduus men's fingers be oft grieved with pricks. Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xvii. § 36. Carduus Benedictus is diligently cherished in gardens in these Northern parts. [It is called] in English Blessed Thistle, but more commonly by the Latin name Carduus Benedictus. Blessed Thistle taken in meat or drink is good for the swimming and giddiness of the head, it strengtheneth memory and is a singular remedy against deafness. The juice of the said Carduus is singular good against all poison. Gerard's Herbal, s.v. Sec also Lupton's Notable Things, bk. ii. § 84, and bk. iv. § 53. Bilberry. Where fires thou find'st unraked, and hearths unswept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5, 48-9. [Bilberries ( Vacciniuni myrtillits) are identified by Gerard with worts (V. uliginosuiii) or whortleberries, and he says that the red worts have purple berries, and that the people of Cheshire do eat the black whortles in cream and milk (bk, iii. ch, Ixxiii.) —as is done in the West of England at this day.] Birch. As fond fathers, Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children's sight For terror, not to use, in time the rod Becomes more mock'd than fear'd. Measure for Measure, i. 3, 23-7. In times past the Magistrates' rods were made hereof; and in our time also the schoolmasters and parents do terrify their children with rods made of Birch. It serveth well to the decking up of houses, and banqueting rooms, for places of pleasure, and beautifying of streets in the cross or gang week, and such like. Gerard's Herbal, bk. iii. ch. cxi\%$