[E213] "Patience," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 559, "Wild Docke," and stated to be a remedy for jaundice, the "bitinges and stinginges of Scorpions," and the tooth ache, and if "hanged about the necke it doth helpe the kinges euill or swelling in the throte."
[E214] If the virtues of Penny Royal, as stated in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 232, be true, the use of it might now be advantageously adopted by the consumers of London drinking water. He says: "If at any time men be constrayned to drinke corrupt, naughtie, stinking, or salte water, throw Penny royal into it, or strow the pouder thereof into it, and it shall not hurte any bodie." It is sometimes called Pudding-grass, from its being used to make stuffings for meat, formerly called puddings. It is recommended by Andrew Boorde (Dyetary, ed. E.E.T. Soc. p. 281) as a remedy for melancholy, and to comfort the spirits of men.
[E215] "Primerose," from Pryme rolles, the name it bears in old books and MSS. The Grete Herball, ch. cccl. says: "It is called Pryme Rolles of pryme tyme, because it beareth the first floure in pryme tyme." It is also so called in Frere Randolph's Catalogue. Chaucer writes it in one word primerole. (See also MS. Addit. 11, 307, f. 37:
"He shal ben lyk the lytel bee
That seketh the blosme on the tre,
And souketh on the prumorole.")
Primerole is an abbreviation of Fr. primeverole, It. primaverola, dimin. of prima vera, from fior di prima vera = the first spring flower. Primerole, as an outlandish unintelligible word, was soon familiarized into prime rolles, and this into primrose. This is explained in popular works as meaning the first rose of the spring, a name that never could have been given to a plant that in form and colour is so unlike a rose. But the rightful claimant is, strange to say, the daisy, which in the South of Europe is a common and conspicuous flower in early spring, while the primrose is an extremely rare one, and it is the daisy that bears the name in all the old books. See Fuchs, Hist. Stirpium, 1542, p. 145, where there is an excellent figure of it, titled primula veris; and the Ortus Sanitatis, ed. Augsb. 1486, ch. cccxxxiii., where we have a very good woodcut of a daisy titled "masslieben, Premula veris, Latine." Brunfelsius, Novum Herbarium, ed. 1531, speaking of the Herba paralysis, the cowslip, says, p. 1590, expressly, "Sye würt von etlichen Doctores Primula veris genaunt, das doch falsch ist wann Primula veris ist matsomen oder zeitlosen." Brunschwygk (De Arte Distillandi, 1500, book ii. c. viii.) uses the same words. The Zeitlose is the daisy. Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 531) assigns the name to both the daisy and the primrose. Matthioli (ed. Frankfort, 1586, p. 653) calls his Bellis Major "Primo fiore maggiore, seu Fiore di prima vera, nonnullis Primula veris major" and figures the moon-daisy. His Bellis minor, which seems to be our daisy, he calls "Primo fiore minore, Fior di primavera, Gallis Marguerites, Germanis Masslieben." At p. 883, he figures the cowslip, and calls that also "Primula veris, Italis Fiore di primavera, Gallis primevere."—Dr. Prior's Pop. Names of British Plants. "Petie Mulleyn (whiche we call Cowslippe and Primerose) is of two sortes. The smaller sorte, which we call Primerose, Herbasculum minus, is of diuers kindes, as yellow and greene, single and dubble."—Lyte's Dodoens, p. 122.
Lupton (Book of Notable Things, v. 89) speaks of "Primroses, which some take to be Daisies."—Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E216] "Rosemary," Lat. rosmarinus, sea-spray, from its usually growing on the sea-coast and its odour, is recommended by Lyte for fastening loose teeth. "Take of rewe a grete quantite, and sawge halfe als mekille, and rosemaryne the same quantitee."—MS. Linc. Med. f. 283. According to Andrew Boorde it is a remedy for "palses and for the fallynge syckenes, and for the cowghe, and good agaynst colde."
[E217] "Safron," Sp. azafran, from Arabic al zahafaran. On the cultivation, etc., of Saffron in England, there is a long account in Harrison's Description of England, book iii. cap. 24. See note [E354].
[E218] "Spinage." "Called in Arabic Hispanach; 'Arabicæ factionis principes Hispanach, hoc est, Hispanicum olus nominant.'—Fuchs, Hist. Stirp. p. 668. Dodoens (bk. v. 1. 5) tells us, 'Spinachiam nostra ætas appellat, nonnulli spinacheum olus. Ab Arabibus et Serapione Hispanac dicitur.' Brunfelsius (ed. 1531) says expressly at p. 16, 'Quæ vulgo spinachia hodie, Atriplex Hispaniensis dicta est quondam; eo quod ab Hispania primum allata est ad alias exteras nationes.' Tragus also calls it Olus Hispanicum; Cotgrave, Herbe d'Espaigne; and the modern Greeks σπαναχιον [Greek: spanachion]."—Dr. R. A. Prior.