CHAP. XXIII. Of Elecampane, Turnsole, and Hiuoa.

ELecampane is a yearly Plant, that growes higher than a man▪ Sometimes 24 foot in height: it growes up in 6. moneths after the seed is sown; on the top of the stalk there growes a head like an Artichoke, but it is rounder and broader, and it extends it self with a flower as big as a great Dish, Bauhin. ad lib. 4. Dioscor. c. 182. Some∣times the diameter of the dish is more than a foot and half; and it is compassed about with long leaves of a golden colour, or as it were Sun-beams, and the plain of it in the middle is purple colour. The seed is disposed of in the holes of the dish; it hath a black rind and sweet substance within: so great is the abundance of it, that some∣times you shall find above a thousand in one dish: Some there are, that take the tender stalks of the leaves; and scraping away the Down, they boyl them on a grid-iron, and season them with Salt, Oyl, and Spices, and they are better tasted than Artichokes. It is a won∣der, that it turns with the Sun East and West; for when the Sun ri∣seth, as if it did adore the Sun, it bows down the head, and it riseth with it, alwaies pointing toward the Sun, and opening it self very much at the root of it, till the Sun sets. Turnsole kills Pismires, if you stop their holes with it. If a Scorpions hole be compassed about with the juice of it, he will never come forth; but if you put in the herb, he dies, Mathiol. ad l. 4. c. 186. Hiuca is as great as a mans thigh, it goes about with the Sun, though it be a clowdy day, and at night it is contracted as sad for the Suns absence, Plin. l. 22. c. 21. They break it into fine meal by rubbing it with Pumex stones or whet∣stones; then they put it into an Hippocras bag, and pour water to it, and presse forth the juice: The Liquor is deadly, but the meal that is left, is set in the Sun, as they do Sugar-Candy; when the meal is dry they temper it with water, and make bread of it, Scalig. Ex•rc. 153. l. 8.