Adam in Eden, or, Natures paradise the history of plants, fruits, herbs and flowers with their several names ... the places where they grow, their descriptions and kinds, their times of flourishing and decreasing as also their several signatures, anatomical appropriations and particular physical vertues together with necessary observations on the seasons of planting and gathering of our English simples with directions how to preserve them in their compositions or otherwise : ... there is annexed a Latin and English table of the several names of simples, with another more particular table of the diseases and their cures ... / by William Coles ...

CHAP. CLXVII. Of Flax.

The Names.

IT is called in Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Latine Linum, both which signifie as well the Herb as it groweth, as the same prepared to be spun, and when it is made into Cloth also. And its Linnen is so called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, because the finest substantiall Cloth is made thereof. It was formerly used to make Sailes for Ships (but now we make Hemp serve for that, reserving this for better uses) and therefore said to be the thing that joyned the most remote Regions together. It is called in English Fl••x and Line.

The Kinds.

Clusius and others make mention of eleven several sorts of Flaxes, 1. Manured Flax. 2. The more common wild Flax. 3. Broad-leafed blew wild Flax. 4. Broad leafed yellow flowred Flax. 5. Narrow leafed wild Flax, with either white or blew Flowers. 6. Narrow leafed wild Flax, with small Flowers. 7. Narrow leafed wild Flax, with yellow Flowers. 8. Ever-living wild Flax. 9. The yellow shrub Flax of Candy. 10. Chamalinum, that is, Dwarf wild Flax, with white Flowers, or Mill-Mountain. 11. Dwaf wild Flax, with Starre-like Flowers.

The Form.

The manured Flax hath a slender round pliant Stalk, about three foot high, be∣s••t with narrow, long, and soft Leaves, without Order, branched at the top, into

three or four small Branches, each of them bearing two or three fair blew Flow∣ers, made of five pointed Leaves a peece, with some threds in the middle, after which come found Buttons, pointed above, wherein is contained flat, shining, smooth, brown Seed: the Root is small and threddy, perishing every year.

The Places and Time.

The first is sowen in divers places of this Land, as well as in most Countries beyond the Seas. It prospereth best in a fat and fruitful Soyle, and in moyst places especially; yet, if it be sowne thick in a lean ground, it will be the finer, though not yielding so much: neverthelesse, it is said to burn up the ground, and make it barren: and of this Opinion was Virgil, which he testifieth in these words, Ʋrit Lini Campum Seges. The time of sowing is the Spring, of flowring June and Ju∣ly of gathering about Bartholomewtide; after which time it is steeped in water, where the Sun commeth till it will peele, and then it is dryed & braked, and then hatchelled, which being done, it is fit to be spun at any time. The other sorts are said to grow some in France, some in Spain, some in Germany, and some in our own Land, also as Mill-Mountain, almost every where, Blew wild Flax, on New-Market-Heath; as also Broad-leafed wild Flax, and thin-leafed wild Flax. They are all in Flower from Midsummer untill August, and some abide longer, the Seed ripening in the mean time.

The Temperature.

The Seed of Flax, commonly called Linseed, which is only used in Medicines, is hot in the first degree, and in a mean between moyst and dry, as some say; yet Dodonaeus saith, that it hath a superfluous moysture, causing windiness, as he in∣stances in the Inhabitants of Middleborough in Zealand, who for want of Corn, eat thereof, to the great endammagement of their healths.

The Vertues.

Linseed boyled in water, and some Honey put unto it, and drunk, is said to ease the pains of the Body, as the Cholick and Stitches, & all Inflammations. A Pultis being made thereof with Fenugreek and Mallowes, is of good use to mollifie and discusse any Tumour, or hardness in any part of the Body, or of the Mother, by fitting in a warm decoction of the Seed or to receive the hot fumes through a Seat for the purpose. Being taken with Raisins, saith Pliny, it helpeth the Obstructi∣ons of the Liver, mixed with Nitre, or Salt, and Fig-Tree-Ashes, it easeth the pains and hardness of the Muscles, Sinews, and Arteries, and used with Figs, it ri∣peneth and digesteth, mixed with wild Cowcumber-Root, it draweth forth splin∣ters, thorns, nails, or any other thing sticking in the flesh, and broken bones al∣so. The decoction thereof made in Wine, and applyed to any fretting or running Sore, stayeth it from spreading further: used with as much Cresses, it taketh away the ruggedness of the nails, & with Myrrh & Rosin, it helpeth Ruptures & swel∣lings of the Cods; used with Olibanum & water, or Myrth & Wine it helpeth watering Eyes, and mixed with Honey or Suet and Waxe and applied, it helpeth the hard Kernells, and swellings under the Eares or Throat; it taketh away also the Spots and Blemishes of the skin, Sunburne, and other discolourings. The Oyle of Lin∣seed (besides that it is of much use for Painters to fasten their colour, either on Cloth, Wood, Stone, Iron, or Glasse, and to burne in Lamps) is good to mol∣lify the hardnesse and shrinking of the Sinewes, helpeth the Piles, the Chaps of the Fundament, and the hardnesse and paines thereof, and of the Mother; being beaten with red-Rose-water, it is good against burnings: The Wild Flax is of like use in most things, and more effectuall in some by reason of the bitternesse: the

decoction hereof with the flowers doth resolve tumours, & lenify inflammations, the arteries, also when they grow hard and stiffe, and the swellings and sores of the Grain. Mill-Mountaine is said to move the body to Stoole. Thus much be∣ing ser down, touching the sides and the distempers thereof, I must now creepe through them underneath the Diaphragma or Midriffe; and there the first thing that presents it selfe is the Stomack, which is the common receptacle both of Physick that is ta∣ken inwardly, as well as Aliment: in both which respects, I shall treate of those Plants which are there unto most appropriated, reserving some of them for the use of the parts below. And because it is more cleanly to wash the Pot before the meat be put in, I shall present you with somwhat to cleanse it, and then to strengthen it, and the other parts of the Body.