The roots condited or preserued with sugar, as hereafter followeth, are exceeding good to be gi∣uen [ C] vnto old and aged people that are consumed and withered with age, and which want naturall moisture: they are also good for other sorts of people that haue no delight or appetite to venerie, nourishing and restoring the aged, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 amending the defects of nature in the younger.
¶ The manner to condite Eryngos:
Refine sugar fit for the purpose, and take a pound of it, the white of an egge, and a pint of cleere [ D] water, boile them together and scum it, then let it boile vntill it be come to good strong syrrup, and when it is boiled, as it cooleth, adde thereto a saucer full of Rose-water, a spoone full of Cinnamon water, and a graine of Muske, which haue been infused together the night before, and now strained; into which syrrup being more than halfe cold, put in your roots to soke and infuse vntill the next day; your roots being ordered in manner hereafter following:
These your roots being washed and picked, must be boiled in faire water by the space of foure [ E] houres, vntill they be soft, then must they be pilled cleane, as ye pill parsneps, and the pith must bee drawne out at the end of the root; and if there be any whose pith cannot be drawne out at the end, then you must slit them, and so take out the pith: these you must also keepe from much hand∣ling, that they may be cleane, let them remaine in the syrrup till the next day, and then set them on the fire in a faire broad pan vntill they be verie hot, but let them not boile at all: let them there remaine ouer the fire an houre or more, remoouing them easily in the pan from one place to ano∣ther with a woodden slice. This done, haue in a readinesse great cap or royall papers, whereupon you must straw some Sugar, vpon which lay your roots after that you haue taken them out of the pan. These papers you must put into a Stoue, or hot house to harden; but if you haue not such a place, lay them before a good fire. In this manner if you condite your roots, there is not any that can prescribe you a better way. And thus may you condite any other root whatsoeuer, which will not onely bee exceeding delicate, but very wholesome, and effectuall against the diseases aboue named.
A certaine man affirmeth, saith Aetius, that by the continual vse of Sea Holly, he neuer afterward [ F] voided any stone, when as before he was very often tormented with that disease.
It is drunke, saith Dioscorides, with Carrot seed against very many infirmities, in the weight of a [ G] dramme.
The iuice of the leaues pressed forth with wine is a remedie for those that are troubled with the [ H] running of the reines.
They report that the herbe Sea Holly, if one Goat take it into her mouth, it causeth her first to [ I] stand still, and afterwards the whole flocke, vntill such time as the Shepheard take it forth of her mouth, as Plutarch writeth.