ONE BLADE.
Descript.] This small plant never bears more than one leaf, but only when it rises up with his stalk, which thereon bears another, and seldom more, which are of a blueish green colour, pointed, with many ribs or veins therein, like Plantain. At the top of the stalk grow many small white flowers, star fashion, smelling somewhat sweet; after which come small red berries, when they are ripe. The root is small, of the bigness of a rush, lying and creeping under the upper crust of the earth, shooting forth in divers places.
Place.] It grows in moist, shadowy and grassy places of woods, in many parts of this land.
Time.] It flowers about May, and the berries are ripe in June, and then quickly perishes, until the next year it springs from the same root again.
Government and virtues.] It is a precious herb of the Sun. Half a dram, or a dram at most, in powder of the roots hereof taken in wine and vinegar, of each equal parts, and the party laid presently to sweat thereupon, is held to be a sovereign remedy for those that are infected with the plague, and have a sore upon them, by expelling the poison and infection, and defending the heart and spirits from danger. It is a singularly good wound herb, and is thereupon used with other the like effects in many compound balms for curing of wounds, be they fresh and green, or old and malignant, and especially if the sinews be burnt.
ORCHIS.
It has almost as many several names attributed to the several sorts of it, as would almost fill a sheet of paper; as dog-stones, goat-stones, fool-stones, fox-stones, satiricon, cullians, together with many others too tedious to rehearse.
Descript.] To describe all the several sorts of it were an endless piece of work; therefore I shall only describe the roots because they are to be used with some discretion. They have each of them a double root within, some of them are round, in others like a hand; these roots alter every year by course, when the one rises and waxes full, the other waxes lank, and perishes. Now, it is that which is full which is to be used in medicines, the other being either of no use at all, or else, according to the humour of some, it destroys and disannuls the virtues of the other, quite undoing what that doth.
Time.] One or other of them may be found in flower from the beginning of April to the latter end of August.
Government and virtues.] They are hot and moist in operation, under the dominion of Dame Venus, and provoke lust exceedingly, which, they say, the dried and withered roots do restrain. They are held to kill worms in children; as also, being bruised and applied to the place, to heal the king’s evil.