is a sléeping hearbe, and the leaues there∣of spread on the grounde, and hath two rootes or thrée cleauing togethers, blacke without and white within, with a thick skinne. The male hath white leaues and thinne, and roote like to the other. And apples grow on ye leaues, as galls grow on Oken leaues, and be yeolow & swéet of smell, but with manner heauinesse, & be fresh in fauour, and accord not there∣fore to meat, but onely to medicine. For rindes thereof sod in Wine, cause sléepe, & abateth all maner sorenesse: and so that time a man feeleth vnneth, though he bée cut. But yet Mandragora must be wa∣rily vsed: for it flayeth if men take much therof, as he sayth. For in Plat. it is said, that it cooleth, and some deale slayeth, and maketh to sleepe stronglye, therefore the iuyce thereof with womans milke laide to the temples, maketh to sléepe, yea, though it were in the most hot ague: and for that the hearbe is colde in substance, it is sayd, that the fruit thereof quench∣eth the euill that is called holy fire, and abateth the réese of Cholera, and fluxe of the wombe. Huc vsque Plat. But there it is sayde, that by kinde no shape of man nor of woman is in the roote thereof, but it is rather so feined of Churles or of Witches. It is sayd, that it maketh wo∣men conceiue, but it seemeth Saint Au∣sten sayth nay super Gen. 2. cap. 19. He sayth there, that because of Rachel, that desired Madragora, he looked bookes of Philosophers that treate of vertues of hearbes, & found no such things in their bookes in that time. But sauing the au∣thoritie of Saint. Austen, many authors meane, that Mandragora hath this ver∣tue, and so Const. Dioscorides, Plinius, and Plat. meane, that Mandragora taken in due manner, disposeth the mothers to conceiuing, the which mothers and ma∣trices of conception were let by to much heat & drinesse. And so Mandragora dis∣poseth hot women & moist to concepti∣on and to conceiue. For Mandragora is colde and dry, as it is said in Platearius, and that in disposition, but it letteth wo∣men that be kindly colde and dry of such disposition.
Mandragora hath many other ver∣tues, & smiteth off & destroieth swelling of the bodye, as Dioscorides saith, and withstandeth venimous biting, and stan∣cheth all droppigns and running aboue and beneath.
All that is set before is sayd in Plini∣us booke. libro. 35. capit. 16. And there it is sayde, that of Mandragora bée two kindes, &c. And after it followeth in this manner.
They that digge Mandragora, be bu∣sie to beware of contrary windes, while they digge, and make thrée circles about with a swoord, & abide with the digging vntill the Sunne going downe, and sup∣pose so to haue the hearbe with the chiefe vertues. The nyre thereof is gathered and dried in the Sunne, the apples ther∣of be dried in the shadow. The smel of the apples is heuy, & bréedeth sléep only with smell, as he saith.
(Mandrake of two sorts blacke, and whitish yeolow, they cause sléepe to bée inwardly receiued, verye daungerous. There is another kinde called Mala in∣sana, raging apples, or apples of loue. Read Dodo. fol. 439.)