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 Horse tongue / Double tongue / and Laurus of Alexandria. Chap. xiiij.

❀ The Description.

[ 1] DOuble tongue hath rounde stalkes lyke Salomons seale, of a foote and a halfe long, vpon which e grow vpon eache syde thicke brownish leaues, not muche vnlyke to Baye leaues, vppon the whiche there groweth in the midle of euery leafe another smal leafe fashioned like a tongue, and betwixt those smal and great leaues, there growe rounde redde beries as bigge as a pease or theraboutes. The roote is tēder, white, long and of a good sauour.

[ 2] There is founde another kinde of Double tongue, as some learned men write, the which also bringeth foorth his fruite vpon the leaues, and is lyke to the aforesayde, in stalkes, leaues, fruite, and rootes, sauing that there growe none other smal leaues by the fruit vpon the great leaues.

[ 3] The learned Matthiolus setteth foorth a thirde kinde, the whiche is much lyke to the abouesayd in rootes and leaues: but the fruite thereof groweth not vpon the leaues as in the others, but euery berie groweth vppon a stemme by it selfe comming foorth betwixt the stemme and the leaues: the sayde beries be redde, and as bigge as Ciche Peasen.

[illustration]

Hippoglossum. Horse tongue or double tongue,

[illustration]

Laurus Alexandrina. Laurus of Alexandria.

❀ The Place.

Double tongue groweth in Hungarie and Austriche, and in some darke wooddes of Italy. The Herboristes of this Countrie doo plant it in their gar∣dens.

❀ The Tyme.

It deliuereth his seede in September.

❀ The Names.

[ 1] The first of these herbes is called in Greeke 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and as some write, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: in Latine also Hippoglossum, and Hypoglossum, of the later writers vuularia, Bonifacia, Lingua pagana, and Bis•…•…ngua: in high Douche, Zapfflinkraut, Hauckblat, Auffenblat, Beerblat, & Zungenblat: and according to the same in base Almaigne, Keelcruyt, Tongē∣bladt, and Tapkenscruyt, that is to say, Tongue herbe, or Tongue worte, also the Pagane or vplandishe tongue, Horse tongue, and double tongue, & tongue blade.

[ 2] The seconde seemeth to be a kinde of Hippoglossum, and therefore some cal it Hippoglossum foemina, and the first they call Hippoglossum mas.

The third is called in Greeke 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: in Latine, Laurus Alexandrina, and Laurus Idaea, of some late writers Victoriola: in Frenche, Lau∣rier Alexandrin in base Almaigne, Laurus van Alexandrien: in Englishe also, Laurus of Alexandria, or tongue Laurell.

❀ The Nature.

Tongueblade or double tongue his nature is to asswage payne, as Galen saith.

But the Laurel of Alexandria is hoate and drie of complexion.

❧ The Vertues.

[ A] The leaues and rootes of double tongue, are much commended against the swellinges of the throote, the vuula, and the kernelles vnder the tongue, and agaynst the vlcers and sores of the same, taken in a gargarisme.

[ B] Marcellus saith, that in Italy they vse to hange this herbe about y^e neckes of young children that are sicke in the vuula: a garlande made therof & worne, or set next vpon y^e bare head, is good for the headache, as Dioscorides writeth. Baptista Sardus writeth, [ C] that this herbe is excellent for the diseases of the mother, and that a spooneful of the powder of the leaues of double tongue cau∣seth the strangled matrix or mother to descende downe to his naturall place.

[ D] The roote of Alexandria Laurel boyled in wine and dronken, helpeth the strangurie, prouoketh vrine & womens naturall sicknes, easeth them that haue harde trauell, expelleth the secondine, and all other corruption of the matrix.