The herball or Generall historie of plantes. Gathered by Iohn Gerarde of London Master in Chirurgerie very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Iohnson citizen and apothecarye of London

CHAP. 47. Of Rie.

¶ The Description.

THe leafe of Rie when it first commeth vp, is somewhat reddish, afterward greene, as be the other graines. It groweth vp with many stalks, slenderer than those of wheat, and longer, with knees or ioynts by certaine distances like vnto Wheat: the eares are orderly framed vp in rankes, and compassed about with short beards, not sharpe but blunt, which when it floureth standeth vpright, and when it is filled vp with seed it leaneth and hangeth downward. The seed is long, blackish, slender, and naked, which easily falleth out of the huskes of it selfe. The roots be many, slender, and full of strings.

¶ The place.

Rie groweth very plentifully in the most places of Germany and Polonia, as appeareth by the great quantitie brought into England in times of dearth, and scarcitie of corne, as hapned in the yeare 1596, and at other times, when there was a generall want of corne, by reason of the aboun∣dance of raine that fell the yeare before; whereby great penurie ensued, as well of cattell and all other victuals, as of all manner of graine. It groweth likewise very wel in most places of England, especially towards the North.

[illustration]

Secale. Rie.

¶ The time.

It is for the most part sowen in Autumne, and sometimes in the Spring, which proueth to be a Graine more subiect to putrifaction than that which was sowen in the fall of the leafe, by reason the Winter doth ouertake it before it can attaine to his perfect maturitie and ripenesse.

¶ The Names.

Rie is called in high Dutch, 〈◊〉〈◊〉: in Low∣Dutch, 〈◊〉〈◊〉: in Spanish, Centeno: in Italian, Se∣gala: in French, Seigle: which soundeth after the old Latine name which in Pliny is Secale and Farra∣go, lib. 18. cap. 16.

¶ The temperature.

Rie as a medicine is hotter than wheat, and more forcible in heating, wasting, and consuming away that whereto it is applied. It is of a more clammy and obstructing nature than Wheat, and harder to digest; yet to rusticke bodies that can well digest it, it yeelds good nourishment.

¶ The vertues.

Bread, or the leauen of Rie, as the Belgian [ A] Physitians affirme vpon their practise, doth more forcibly digest, draw, ripen, and breake all A∣postumes, Botches, and Byles, than the leuen of Wheat.

Rie Meale bound to the head in a Linnen [ B] Cloath, doth asswage the long continuing paines thereof.