It may seeme very probable to many, that this plant is the same that Prosper Alpinus in the twenty fift Chapter of his Booke of Egyptian plants, nameth Beidelsar; and Honorius Bellus in his third and fourth Epistles vnto Clusius (which are at the end of his History of plants) calleth Ossar frutex: And Clusius himselfe in the same Booke calleth Apocynum Syriacum, Palæstinum, and Ægyptiacum, because this agreeth with theirs in very many and notable parts; yet verily I thinke this plant is not the same, but rather another kinde of it selfe: First, because it is not frutex, a shrub or wooddy plant, nor keepeth his leaues all the yeare, but loseth both leaues and stalks, dying down to the ground euery yeare: Secondly, the milke is not causticke or violent, as Alpinus and Bellus say Ossar is: Thirdly, the cods are more crooked then those of Clusius, or of Alpinus, which Honorius Bellus acknowledgeth to be right, although greater then those he had out of Egypt: And lastly, the rootes of these doe runne, whereof none of them make any mention. Gerard in his herball giueth a rude figure of the plant, but a very true figure of the cods with seede, and saith the Virginians call it Wisanck, and referreth it to the Asclepias, for the likenesse of the cods stuffed with silken doune. But what reason Caspar Bauhinus in his Pinax Theatri Botanici had, to call it (for it is Clusius his Apocynum Syriacum) by the name of Lapathum Ægyptiacum lactescens siliqua Asclepiadis, I know none in the world: for but that he would shew an extreame singularity in giuing names to plants, contrary to all others (which is very frequent with him) how could he thinke, that this plant could haue any likenesse or correspondencie, with any of the kindes of Dockes, that euer he had seene, read, or heard of, in face, or shew of leaues, flowers, or seede; but especially in giuing milke. I haue you see (and that not without iust and euident cause) giuen it a differing Latine name from Gerard, because the Asclepias giueth no milke, but the Periploca or Apocymum doth; and therefore fitter to be referred to this then to that. And because it should not want an English name answerable to some peculiar property thereof, I haue from the silken doune called it Virginian Silke: but I know there is another plant growing in Virginia, called Silke Grasse, which is much differing from this.
The Vertues.
I know not of any in our Land hath made any tryall of the properties hereof. Captaine Iohn Smith in his booke of the discouery and description of Virginia, saith, that the Virginians vse the rootes hereof (if his be the same with this) being bruised and applyed to cure their hurts & diseases.
Chap. CXXV.
Ligustrum. Primme or Priuet.
Because the vse of this plant is so much, and so frequent throughout all this Land, although for no other purpose but to make hedges or arbours in Gardens, &c. whereunto it is so apt, that no other can be like vnto it, to bee cut, lead, and drawne into what forme one will, either of beasts, birds, or men armed, or otherwise: I could not forget it, although it be so well knowne vnto all, to be an hedge bush growing from a wooddy white roote, spreading much within the ground, and bearing manie long, tough, and plyant sprigs and branches, whereon are set long, narrow, and pointed sad greene leaues by couples at euery ioynt: at the tops whereof breake forth great tufts of sweete smelling white flowers, which when they are fallen, turne into small blacke berries, hauing a purple iuyce within them, and small seede, flat on the one side, with an hole or dent therein: this is seene in those branches that are not cut, but suffered to beare out their flowers and fruit.
The Place.
This bush groweth as plentifully in the Woods of our owne Countrey, as in any other beyond the Seas.
The Time.
It flowreth sometimes in Iune,and in Iuly; the fruit is ripe in August and September.