Garden Tansie.
THis also is so well known, that it nee∣deth no Description.
Time.
It Flowreth in June and July.
Vertues and Use.
Thee Decoction of the common Tansie, or the Juyce drunk in Wine is a singular Reme∣dy for all the griefs that come by stopping of the Urine, helpeth the Strangury and those that have weak Reins and Kidneys:* 1.1 It is also very profitable to dissolve and expel Wind in the Stomach, Belly, or Bowels, to procure Womens Courses, and expel windiness in the Matrix. If it be bruised and often smelled un∣to, as also applied to the lower part of the Belly, it is very profitable for such Women as are given to miscarry in Childbearing, to caus them to go out their full time: It is used also against the Stone* 1.2 in the Reins, especially to men. The Herb fried with Eggs (as is accu∣stomed in the Spring time) which is called a Tansie, helpeth to digest, and carry downward those bad Humors that trouble the Stomach:* 1.3 The Seed is very profitably given to Children for the Worms,* 1.4 and the Juyce in Drink is as effectual. Being boyled in Oyl it is good for the sinews shrunk by Cramps,* 1.5 or pained with cold, if thereto applied.
Dame Venus was minded to pleasure Wo∣men with Child by this Herb, for there grows not an Herb fitter for their uses than this is, it is just as though it were cut out for the pur∣pose, the Herb bruised and applied to the Navil staies miscarriage, I know no Herb like it for that use; boyled in ordinary Beer, and the Decoction drunk, doth the like, and if her Womb be not as she would have, this Deco∣ction will make it as she would have it, or at least as she should have it; let those Women that desire Children love this Herb, 'tis their best Companion, their Husband excepted. 〈…〉〈…〉 Also it consumes the Flegmatick Humors, the cold and moist coustitution of Winter most usually infects the Body of Man with, and that was the first reason of eating Tansies in the Spring, at last the world being over run with Popery, a Monster called Superstition perks up his head, and as a just Judgment of God obscures the bright beams of Knowledge by his dismal looks (Pysitians seeing the Pope and his Imps selfish they began to be so too) and now forsooth Tansies must be eaten only on Palm and Easter Sundaies, and their neighbor daies; as last Superstion being too hot to hold, and the selfishness of Physitians walking in the clouds, after the Fryars and Monks had made the people ignorant, the Superstion of the time was found out, but the Vertue of the Herb hidden, and now 'tis almost, if not altogether, left off: Surely our Physitians are beholding to none so much as they are to Monks and Fryars, for want of eating this Herb in Spring, make people sickly in Sum∣mer, and that makes work for the Physitian. If it be against any man or womans Consci∣ence to eat a Tansie in the Spring, I am as un∣willing to burden their consciences as I am that they should burden mine, they may boyl it in Wine and drink the Decoction, it will work the same effect.