Of the gardin and wilde carot.
PAstinaca is called in Greke 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, & as I iudge in English a carot in Duche geel ruben / and in Frēche pastenad / as Rem∣bertus writeth. Dioscorides describeth not ye gardin carot but the wilde carot. After thys maner. The wilde carot hathe the leues of gingidij / but broder & somthyng bitter / a streyght stal∣ke / roughe / a spoky or beamytop lyke vnto dillwhere in ar whyt sloures & in
Page 80
[illustration] [depiction of plant]
Pastinaca I.
[illustration] [depiction of plant]
Pastinaca II.
the myddes is a certayn purple thyng / almoste resemblyng saffrō. The root is a fingre thick & a span long / hauyng a good smell / which vseth to be eatē. Thus far hath Dioscorides written. Hytherto haue I found no man that hath denied that the wild carot is pastinaca syluestris. Whiche thyng is a very great furtherance for my purpose that I go about / that is y
t the gardin or sowē or manered carot is y
e right pastinaca syluestris. But Matthiolus a man otherwyse well sene in symples erryng very far from the truthe / will haue our comon persnepe to be pastinacā noth withstandyng y
t he grāteth that our wild carot is the ryght pastinaca syluestris. In doyng where of he condēneth hys own opinion. For if wilde carot be pastinaca syluestris / then must pastinaca hortensis haue sum lyknes in leues w
t the wilde / except som autor expressedly declare y
t y
e wild or other kynde is altogether vnlyke y
e gar¦din or communer kynde as Dioscorides doth in brassica marina / and Pau¦lus Egineta in hys kynde of betony. But when there is no such exceptiō or expressed difference made of any good wryter betwene pastinacā syluestrē & domesticam pastinacā / there ought to be som lyknes betwene the leues of the one & the other. But there is no lyknes at all betwene the leues of wilde carot & the comō persnepe / therefore Matthiolus erreth in makyng the pers¦nepe to be the gardin pastinaca / when as in very dede the gardin carot is y
e ryght pastinaca hortensis. As y
e wild carot is foūd abrode in y
e feldes lyke
Page [unnumbered] vnto the gardin carot in leues / taste & smell / euen so is there found a wilde kynde of persnepe like vnto y
e gardin persnepe / both in leues / sede / rote / smell & taste. Thys wild persnepe groweth plētuously besyde Cābrydge in a lane not far frō Newnā Milles. It groweth plētuously also in Germany besyde Wormes / and I dout not but it groweth in many other places both in En∣gland & Germany / and peraduentur in Itali also / thoughe Matthiolus ne∣uer saw it nor marked it: Which if he had sene & well consydered / he wold not haue erred as he hath in pastinaca hortensi. He confuteth the opinion of Ruellius / whych Fuchsius / Rembertus & I hold alltogether / only w
t merue lyng & w
t sayng that he hath not sene nether in y
e wrytynges of y
e Grecianes nor Arabianes / y
t pastinaca domestica shoulde haue such a rede or sanguin color as the carottes haue. But I thynk he hath red / y
t allthoughe he haue forgotten it. For Theodorus Gaza a learned mā both in Greke & in Latin / and an excellent translater / whome I dout not but he hath red translatyng y
e xv. chapter of Theophrast
de historia plantarū. Where as he reherseth Theo¦phrastis wordes / speketh after thys maner.
Nascetur apud eos vter{que} elleborus, videlicet albus & niger, item pastinaca, specie lauri, colore croci, & in y
e sam chapter.
Pastinaca in patrēsi agro praestantior caeteris huic vis calfactoria, & radix nigra. Simeō Sethi also a Grecian as he is trāslated / makethe one kynde of pastinaca to haue blak or rede rootes / & an other kynde with yelow rootes. If any man suspect the translator / the wordes of Symeon in Greke ar these:
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. If y
t the trāslator be suspected agayn for turnyng daukia into pastinacas / where hath any man red in any other Greciā or Latin au∣tor / that Daucus hath rede & yelow rootes. If that cā not be founde in any good autor / Daukia ar well translated pastinace. Therefor there is no cause why / but that our comon gardin carrot shulde be pastinaca satiua.
The vertues of bothe the carotes out of Dioscorides.
THe sede of wild carot / dronken or layde to in a conuenient pla¦ce bryngeth down floures. It is good to be taken in drynk of them that can not easely make water. It is also good for the dropsey / for the pleuresi if it be takē in drynk / and so is it also good for the bytyng & styngyng of serpentes. Sum hold yt if a man take thys afore hande / that he shall not be bitten of ser∣pentes. It is good for conceptiō. The roote dryueth out water / & prouoketh men to the work of veneri. And if it be layd to the conueniēt place / it helpeth to bryng furth the childe that sticketh in the birthe. The leues broken and layd on with hony scour fretyng sores. The gardin carot hath the same ver∣tues / but not so strōg / & yet mor fit to be vsed in meat then the wilde one is.
Out of Galen de simplicibus medicamentis.
THe gardin carot is the weiker / ye wilde for all purposes is myghtier. The herb and specially ye root & sede / dryueth out water and floures. It hathe also a certayn scouryng nature / wherefore ye Surgeanes vse to lay to fretyng sores the grene leues with hony to scour them.
Out of Galenes booke of the poures and properties of norishmentes or meates.
Page 81THe rootes of carot / daucus and carowayes ar vsed comonly to be eatē / but they noryshe lesse then rapes & aron of cyrendo. Th•y heat notablely / and shew out a spicie thyng / but they ar hard of digestion as other rootes be. They stir a man to make water / and if they be vsed in very great plēty they will make a metly euell iuice. The root of corowayes is of a better iuice then ye carot is. Sum call the wilde carot Daucū / which indede moueth a man to make water more myghtely / but it is more medi∣cinable or lyke a medicine / and if a man wolde eat it / he had nede to sethe it very muche. Aueroes writeth that the gardine carot is good for them that ar slow to the worke of increasyng the world with childer.
