From what place they haue beene first gathered naturally I cannot assure you, but we haue had them often and long time in our gardens, being sent from Italie and other places. The double wilde kindes came from Constantinople, which whether it groweth neere vnto it or further off, we cannot tell as yet.
The Time.
They flower in the beginning or middle of Iune at the furthest, the seede is ripe within a small while after.
The Names.
The generall knowne name to all, is Papauer, Poppie: the seuerall distinctions are according to their colours. Yet our English Gentlewomen in some places, call it by a by-name, Ione siluer pinne: subauditur, Faire without and fowle within.
The Vertues.
It is not vnknowne, I suppose to any, that Poppie procureth sleepe, for which cause it is wholly and onely vsed as I thinke: but the water of the wilde Poppies, besides that it is of great vse in Pleurisies, and Rheumatick, or thinne Distillations, is found by daily experience, to bee a soueraigne remedy against surfeits; yet some doe attribute this propertie to the water of the wilde Poppies.
Chap. LV.
Nigella. The Fenell flower, or Nigella.
Among the many sorts of Nigella, both wilde and tame, both single and double, I will onely set downe three sorts, to be noursed vp in this garden, referring the rest to a Physicke garden, or a generall Historie, which may comprehend all.