Muiopotmos.
Then balm and mint help to make up
My chaplet and for trial
Costmary that so likes the cup,
And next it penny-royal.
Muses’ Elysium.
Then hot muscado oil, with milder maudlin cast,
Strong tansey, fennel cool, they prodigally waste.
Polyolbion, Song xv.
Costmary or Alecost, and Maudeline (Balsamita Vulgaris), have so close a semblance that they may be taken together. The German name for Costmary, Frauen münze, supports the natural idea that it was dedicated to the Virgin, but Dr Prior says that the Latin name used to be Costus amarus, not Costus Marie, and that it was really appropriated to St Mary Magdaleine, as its English name Maudeline declares. Both plants were much used to make “sweete washing water; the flowers are tyed up with small bundles of lavender toppes; these they put in the middle of them, to lye upon the toppes of beds, presses, etc., for the sweet sent and savour it casteth.”[72] They were also used for strewing. In France Costmary is sometimes used in salads, and it was formerly put into beer and negus; “hence the name Alecost.”
[72] Parkinson.
Germander (Teucrium Chamœdrys).
Clear hysop and therewith the comfortable thyme,
Germander with the rest, each thing then in her prime.
Polyolbion, Song xv.