Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

¶Of Lino. chap. 97.

BOth Flexe and séede is called Linum,* 1.1 & hath that name, for it is both softe and smooth, and full liking, as Isid. saith li. 19. Li. 12. ca. 2. Plin saith, that flaxe is sowen in grauelly places and plaine, and that in springing time and is gathered in Summer. Flaxe groweth in euen stalks, and be yeolow floures or blew and after commeth hoppes, and therein is the seede, and when the hoppe beginneth to were, then the flaxe is drawen vp and gathe∣red all whole, and is then lyned, and af∣terward made to knots and lyttle bun∣dells, and so laid in water, and lyeth ther long time, and then it is taken out of the water, and layed abroad, till it be dryed, and turned and woond in the Sunne, and then bound in pretie nitches & bundles, and afterward knocked, beaten and brai∣ed,

and carfled, rudded and gnodded, rib∣bed and heckled, and at the last sponne. Then the thred is sod and bleaked, and bucked and ofte layed drieng, wetted, and washed, and sprinkled with water, vntill that it be white, after diuers wor∣king and crauayle. And there be manye manner Flexes, but the fairest of all, groweth in Aegypt, for thereof is Bislus made right faire, and white as snowe, as Plin. saith li. 19. ca. 12. This flaxe is not most strong, but thereof commeth most winning, for thereof be kinde vestments made for Priests. Flaxe is néedfull to di∣uers vses. For thereof is made clothing to weare, and sayles to sayle, and nets to fish and to hunt, and thred to sew, ropes to binde, and strings to shoote, bondes to binde, lines to meate and to measure, and shéetes to rest in, and sackes, bagges, and purses, to put and kéepe things in: and so not hearbe is so néedfull, to so manye di∣uers vses to mankinde, as is the flaxe.

And the séede thereof is hot and moyst, or els temperate betwéene moyst & drie, and so thereof is oyle made, that is more needfull to other vse than to meate. For Isaac saith, Line seede nourisheth but lyt∣tle, and is harde to digest, and grieueth the stomacke, and bréedeth much swel∣lyng, but it tempereth and softeneth if it be parched, and is the better if it be ta∣ken with honie. It helpeth against the cough, and exciteth Venus, and moueth to loue, if it be eaten with honie and pep∣per, and is good for postumes, for it ripeth them, and swageth and easeth, and ma∣keth thicke humour cléere and thin, and so it dissolueth & destroyeth postumes of the mother, if the patient be ofte nouri∣shed with the broth therof, as Isaac saith in Dietis.

(* 1.2Of Lin commeth the Linséed, wher of is made Painters oyle, besides sun∣dry other vses.)

Notes

• * 1.1

  Flexe or Lin.
• * 1.2

  Additiō.