Of Betony
“Sell your coat and buy betony.” ~Italian proverb
Betony, wood betony, purple betony,
Bishop’s wort, common hedgenettle,
Stachys officinalis.
Betony groweth with long, broad, dark greene leaves,
Indented about the edges like a saw.
The root consisteth of many strings, the four-square stalke
Rough and slender, a foot high more or less.
It beareth eared floures, of a purplish colour,
Sometimes reddish, white floures seldome seene.
After the floures, commeth in place long cornered seed.
Betony loves shadowie woods,
Hedge-rowes, copses, the borders
Of pastures, and such like places.
I found it in a wood by a Village, Hampstead,
Neere unto a Worshipfull Gentleman’s house,
Mr. Wade, a Clerke of the Queenes counsell,
From whence I brought plants for my Garden,
Where they flourish as in their natural place of growing.
Betony is good for them that be subject to the falling sickenesse,
For those that have ill heads upon a cold cause.
It maketh a man to have a good stomacke
And appetite to his meate.
Most singular against poison,
It is good for ruptures, cramps, convulsions,
A remedy against the biting of mad dogs,
Venomous serpents, being drunk.
It is commended against the paine of the Sciatica,
The ache of the huckle bone.
There is a conserve made of the floures and sugar
Good for many things, especially for the headache.
It maketh a man to piss well.
The Marigold of Peru
The floure of the Sun is called in Latine Flos Solis,
Whereupon some have called it Corona Solis, and
Sol Indianus, the Indian Sunne-floure, and
Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, the Golden floure of Peru.
In English, the floure of the Sun, the Sun-floure,.
A plant of such stature and talnesse that in one summer,
Being sowne of a seed in Aprill,
It has risen to the height of fourteene foot in my garden,
Where one floure was in weight three pound and two ounces,
& crosse overthwart the floure by measure sixteen inches broad.
The stalks are upright, straight, the bignesse of a strong mans arme,
Beset with large leaves even to the top.
At the top of the stalk commeth forth one floure
In shape like to the Camomil floure,
Beset round about with a pale of goodly yellow leaves,
In shape like the leaves of the floures of white Lillies.
The middle is made as it were of unshorn velvet,
Or some curious cloath wrought with the needle,
Grave works which seemeth to be innumerable small floures,
Resembling the nose of a candlestick broken from the foot,
From which small nosle sweats forth
Excellent fine and cleare turpentine
In sight, substance, savor, and tast.
When the plant groweth to maturitie
The floures fall away, in placewhereof
Appeareth the seed, black and large, like the seed of Gourds,
Set as though a cunning workman had of purpose
Placed them in very good order,
Much like the hony-combs of Bees
These plants grow of themselves without setting or sowing
In Peru and divers other provinces of America,
From whence the seeds have been brought to Europ.
There hath bin seen in Spain and other hot regions
A plant sowne in April, nourished in the most fertill ground,
Where the Sun hath most power the whole day,
To attain the height of 24 foot in one yeare.
There hath not any thing bin set down
Either of the antient or later writers,
Concerning the vertues of these plants, notwithstanding
We have found by trial that the buds
Boiled and eaten with butter, vinegar, and pepper,
After the manner of Artichokes,
Are exceeding pleasant meat.