The Place.
All these Bell-flowers do grow in our Gardens, where they are cherished for the beautie of their flowers. The Couentry Bels doe not grow wilde in any of the parts about Couentry, as I am credibly informed by a faithfull Apothecary dwelling there, called Master Brian Ball, but are noursed in Gardens with them, as they are in other places. The last groweth neere the riuer of Canada, where the French plantation in America is seated.
The Time.
They flower from May vntill the end of Iuly or August, and in the mean time the seed is ripe: But the Peache-leafed Bell-flowers, for the most part, flower earlier then the other.
The Names.
The first is generally called Campanula Perficifolia, in English Peach-leafed Bell-flower. The second is called Campanula maior, Campanula lactescens Pyramidalis, and Pyramidalis Lutetiana of Lobel, in English, Great or Steeple Bell-flower. The third is vsually called Viola Mariana, and of some Viola Marina. Lobel putteth a doubt whether it be not Medium of Dioscorides, as Matthiolus and others doe thinke; but in my opinion the thicknesse of the roote, as the text hath it, contradicteth all the rest. We call it generally in English Couentry Bels. Some call it Marian, and some Mercuries Violets. The fourth and fift are called Trachelium or Cervicaria, of some Vvularia, because many haue vsed it to good purpose, for the paines of the Vvula, or Throate: Yet there is another plant, called also by some Vvularia, which is Hippoglossum, Horse tongue, or Double tongue. The sixt hath his title to descipher it out sufficiently, as is declared. The seuenth is called Trachelium minus, and Ceruicaria minor, of some Saponaria altera; in English, Small Throateworte, or Small Canterbury Bels. The last hath his name in the title, as it is called in France, from whence I receiued plants for my Garden with the Latine name: but I haue giuen it in English.
The Vertues.
The Peach-Bels as well as the others may safely bee vsed in gargles and lotions for the mouth, throate, or other parts, as occasion serueth. The rootes of many of them, while they are young, are often eaten in sallets by diuers beyond the Seas.