Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris, or, A garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed vp / a kitchen garden of all manner of herbes, rootes & fruites for meate or sauce vsed with vs, and, an orchard of all sorte of fruitbearing trees and shrubbes fit for our land, together with the right orderinge, planting & preseruing of them and their vses & vertues

by John Parkinson

The Place.

This groweth naturally in many places of France, Spaine and Italie, wee haue it as an ornament in our Gardens, among other delightfull plants, to please the senses of sight and smelling.

The Time.

It flowreth in the end of May, or beginning of Iune, and beareth seede, which ripeneth not with vs vntill it be late.

The Names.

It is called Spartium Græcorum, and Spartum frutex, to distinguish it from the sedge or rush, that is so called also. Of some it is called Genista, and thought not to differ from the other Genista, but they are much deceiued; for euen in Spaine and Italie, the ordinary Genista or Broome groweth with it, which is not pliant, and fit to binde Vines, or such like things withall as this is.

The Vertues.

There is little vse hereof in Physicke, by reason of the dangerous qualitie of vomiting, which it doth procure to them that take it inwardly: but being applyed outwardly, it is found to helpe the Sciaticæ or paine of the hippes.