The curious distillatory, or, The art of distilling coloured liquors, spirits, oyls, &c. from vegitables, animals, minerals and metals ... containing many experiments ... relating to the production of colours, consistence and heat ... : together with several experiments upon the blood (and its serum) of diseased persons, with divers other collateral experiments / written originally in Latin by Jo. Sigis. Elsholt ; put into English by T.S. ...

CHAP. XI.

Of wild Flower-de-luce.

IT is called Iris, and receiveth its name from the similitude it hath to the Rainbow, it being variously painted with the colours of divers Flowers. From the Form of the Roots it may conveniently be divided into Classes, the first of which is contained under that of the Bulbous, or round rooted, and are in number twenty: the other sort is tuberous, or full of swel∣lings, and of this sort truly there is but one: The third sort is Geniculate, knot∣ted, or jointed on the stems, of which there is about sixty four; the jointed are are subdivided into broad leav'd, narrow leav'd, and dwarfs. First the broad leav'd, which is called by Casper Bauhinus, the com∣mon wild German Flower-de-luce, which is so well known, that it is called in the Shops our Orris, or flower-de-luce. They commonly reserve only its root, from whence they make juice, Oyl by infusion, and a Powder called Faecula: The blewish Flowers are beheld for their neatness, but

never preserved or kept. Moreover, Ioachi∣mus Camerarius in his Notes upon Petr. An∣drea, Mathiolus German Herbal, which was printed 1590 at Frankfort, to wit, upon the first Book, cap. 1. fol. 2. layeth down an observation concerning these blew Flowers worthy our noting, in these words, Das Basser aus den Blumen der schonen jris destilliret, ist gut fur die Bassersucht: and ist solches viel ••raffti∣ger, Wann also dasselbe destilliret wird, dak es der blvmen natvrlich Iarbe be∣halte, tvie den solches ohne allen fremb∣den Busa Bivictlich geschehen-san. Water (says he) distilled from Flower-de-luce Flowers is available in the Dropsy, and is the more efficacious if it be so distilled that it re∣tains the native colour of the Flowers: as also it may easily be perform'd without any strange additament. And truly except we will im∣pute the crime of falshood to Camerarius, there is a way to be found by which a blew Water may be distilled from that Plant, but the way of doing this Camera∣rius himself ought to have discovered to have freed himself from censure, lest there arise a suspition in the Readers, that the thing is done by the Artifice mention'd above, in Chap. 4. for whether or no the

Water distilled by the common method will be Blew, we have not yet had lea∣sure to try.

Curcuma, or Turmerick roots are vulgar∣ly known, but the entire Plant few are acquainted with. The figure or picture shews it to be Indian Saffron (to which the name of Curcuma is added) also it is clearly described by Iacob Bontius in lib. 6. Histor. Oriental. cap. 30. put out by Gu∣lielmus Piso in his Works printed 1658. He attributes to it the Leaves of white Hellebore, and purple Flowers, with a fruit prickly, or like the outward hairy barks of Chessnuts, which includes a Seed of the form of a Pea. If there be poured well rectified Spirit of Wine upon the Powder of common Turmerick, the Liquor being di∣stilled somewhat swifter than ordinary, will be of a light yellow Colour, which yellowness will continue so long only as it shall be kept in a cold and shady place: but it is easily dissipated, and caus∣ed to vanish, by the rayes of the Sun, or any other heat. But if any do contend that this yellowness is caused by the com∣ing over of very small particles of the Turmerick with the Spirit, by reason of the swiftness of the distillation, I will not stiffly deny it.