A nievve herball, or historie of plantes wherin is contayned the vvhole discourse and perfect description of all sortes of herbes and plantes: their diuers [and] sundry kindes: their straunge figures, fashions, and shapes: their names, natures, operations, and vertues: and that not onely of those whiche are here growyng in this our countrie of Englande, but of all others also of forrayne realmes, commonly vsed in physicke. First set foorth in the Doutche or Almaigne tongue, by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens, physition to the Emperour: and nowe first translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte Esquyer.

Of Cinquefoyle / or Fiue fingar grasse. Chap. lvi.

❀ The Kyndes.

THere are foure sortes of Pentaphyllon, or Cinquefoyle: two kindes therof beareth yellow floures, wherof the one is great, the other smal. The third kinde beareth white floures, and the fourth kinde redde floures, all are like one an other in leaues and fasshion.

[illustration]

Pentaphyllon luteum maius. Yellow Cinquefoyle the greater.

[illustration]

Pentaphyllon luteum minus. Yellow Cinquefoyle the lesser.

❀ The Description.

[ 1] THe great yellow Cinquefoyle, hath rounde tender stalkes, creeping by the ground, and running abroade, like the stalkes or branches of wilde Tansie,

and taking holde in diuers places of the ground, vpon whiche slender branches groweth long leaues snipt or dented round about y^e edges, alwaies fiue grow∣ing togither vpon a stem, or at the ende of a stem. The floures be yellow, and parted into fiue leaues. The which whan they are vanisshed do turne into smal round, and harde bearies, like Strawberies, in which groweth the seede. The roote is blackish, long and slender.

[ 2] The small yellow Cinquefoyle is much like the other, in his leaues, & cree∣ping vpon the ground, also in his stalkes, floures, and seede, sauing that it is a greate deale smaller, and doth not lightly take holdfast & cleaue to the ground, as the other doth. The leaues are smaller then the others, and of a whitish co∣lour vnderneth, next to the grounde.

[illustration]

Pentaphyllon album. White Cinquefoyle.

[illustration]

Pentaphyllon Rubrum. Redde Cinquefoyle.

[ 3] The white Cinquefoyle, is like the great yellow Cinquefoyle, in his small and slender branches creeping by the grounde, and in his leaues diuided into fiue partes, but that his stalkes or branches be rough. The leaues be long, and not snipt or dented rounde about, but before onely. The floures be white, and the roote is not single, but hath diuers other small rootes hanging by.

[ 4] The redde Cinquefoyle also, is somewhat like to the others, especially like the great yellow kinde. The leaues be also parted in fiue leaues, and nicte or snipte round about, the whiche are whitish vnderneth, and of aswarte greene colour aboue. The stalke is of a spanne or foote long, of colour browne, or red∣dishe, with certayne ioyntes or knots, but not hearie. The floures grow at the toppe of the stalkes, most cōmonly two togither, of a browne redde colour, after

the whiche there commeth vp small round beries, of a swarte redde colour like Strawberies, but harder: within whiche the seede is conteyned. The roote is tender, and spreading about here and there.

❀ The Place.

Pentaphyllon or Cinquefoyle groweth low and in shadowie places, some∣times also by water sides, especially the redde kinde, whiche is onely founde in diches, or aboute diches of standing water.

❀ The Tyme.

Cinquefoyle floureth in May, but chiefly in Iune.

❀ The Names.

Cinquefoyle is called in Greeke 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: in Latine & in Shoppes Pen∣taphyllum, and Quinquefolium: in Italian Cinquefolio: in Spanish Cinco en rama: in English Cinquefoyle, or Sinkefoyle, of some Fyueleaued grasse, or Fiuefin∣gred grasse: in French Quintefueille: in high Douch Funfffingerkraut, & Funff∣blat: in base Almaigne, Vijfvingercruyt.

❀ The Nature.

Cinquefoyle is dry in the thirde degree.

❀ The Vertues.

[ A] The roote of Synkefoyle boyled in water vntill the thirde parte be consu∣med, doth appease the aking, and raging payne of the teeth. Also if one hold in his mouth the decoction of the same, and the mouth be well wasshed therewith∣all, it cureth the sores and vlcers of the same.

[ B] The same decoction of the roote of Sinkefoyle dronken, cureth the bloudy flixe, and all other fluxe of the bellie, and stancheth all excessiue bleeding, and is good against the goute Sciatica.

[ C] The roote boyled in vineger, doth mollifie and appeace fretting and consu∣ming sores, and dissolueth wennes and colde swellings, it cureth euilfauored nayles, and the inflammation and swelling about the siege, and all naughtie scuruinesse, if it be applied thereto.

[ D] The iuyce of the roote being yet yong and tender, is good to be dronken a∣gainst the disseases of the Liuer, the Lunges, and al poyson.

[ E] The leaues dronken in honied water, or wine wherein some Pepper hath bene mengled, cureth Tertian, and Quartaine feuers: And dronken after the same maner, by the space of thirtie dayes, it helpeth the falling sicknesse.

[ F] The leanes pound & layde too healeth filine burstings, or the falling doune of the bowelles or other mater into the Coddes, and mengled with salte and Hony, they close vp woundes, Fistulas and spreading vlcers.

[ G] The iuyce of the leaues dronken doth cure the Iaunders, and comforte the Lyuer.