The Time.
They flower about the middle or end of May, and their seede is ripe in August. The bladders of the first will abide a great while on the tree, if they be suffered, and vntill the winde cause them to rattle, and afterwards the skins opening, the seede will fall away.
The Names.
The name Colutæa is imposed on them, and by the iudgement of most writers, the first is taken to bee that Colutæa of Lipara that Theophrastus maketh mention of, in the seuenteenth chapter of his third booke. But I should rather thinke that the Scorpioides were the truer Colutæa of Theophrastus, because the long pods thereof are more properly to bee accounted filiquæ, then the former which are vesicæ tumentes, windy bladders, and not filiquæ: and no doubt but Theophrastus would haue giuen some peculiar note of difference if he had meant those bladders, and not these cods. Let others of iudgement be vmpeeres in this case; although I know the currant of writers since Matthiolus, doe all hold the former Colutæa vesicaria to be the true Colutæa Liparæ of Theophrastus. Wee call it in English, Bastard Sena, from Ruellius, who as I thinke first called it Sena, from the forme of the leaues. The second and third (as I said before) from the forme of the cods receiued their names, as it is in the titles and descriptions; yet they may as properly be called Siliquosæ, for that their fruite are long cods.
The Vertues.
Theophrastus saith it doth wonderfully helpe to fatten sheepe: But sure it is found by experience, that if it be giuen to man it causeth strong purgings both vpwards and downwards; and therefore let euery one beware that they vse not this in steede of good Sena, lest they feele to their cost the force thereof.
Chap. CXXIII.
Spartum Hispanicum frutex. Spanish Broome.
Although Clusius and others haue found diuers sorts of this shrubby Spartum or Spanish Broome, yet because our Climate will nourse vp none of them, and euen this very hardly, I shall leaue all others, and describe vnto you this one only in this manner: Spanish Broome groweth to bee fiue or sixe foote high, with a woody stemme below, couered with a darke gray, or ash-coloured barke, and hauing aboue many pliant, long and slender greene twigs, whereon in the beginning of the yeare are set many small long greene leaues, which fall away quickly, not abiding long on; towards the tops of these branches grow the flowers, fashioned like vnto Broom flowers, but larger, as yellow as they, and smelling very well; after which come small long cods, crested at the backe, wherein is contained blackish flat seede, fashioned very like vnto the Kidney beanes: the roote is woody, dispersing it selfe diuers waies.