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. CCXXV. Of Gromell.

The Names.

IT is called in Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Lithospermum which signifies as much as Stony-seed, for the seed is very hard like a Stone; in Latine also Lithosper∣mum, and Gorgonium, Aeginochos, and Heraclea; in Shops Milium Solis and Granum Solis, as some think, because of its glistering, when the Sun shines upon it, but Serapio saith, it should be called Misium Soler because the seedes, be∣ing like those of Millet, did grow upon the Mountaine Soler. It is called in English Gromell, Pearle-Plant, and L••chwale. Jobs Teares, which I intend to treat of also in this Chapter as being Lithospermi species, a kind of Gromel, be call∣ed in Latine Lachryma Job and Jobi, and Lachryma Christi; of some Diospyros or Jovis Triticum, the Leaves hereof being like the Blades of Corne. The Italians when they first had it, called it Lachryma simply, afterwards Lachryma Christi: and since, every Country hath added some or other Epithite thereunto, most of which are made use of in English, some calling it Jobs Teares, some Moses Teares some Jobs Drops, or Moses drops, Christs Teares, Our Ladies Teares; and some Gromel Reed, because Gesner calls it Arundo Lithospermos.

The Kinds.

To this kind may be referred these nine sorts. 1. Great upright Gromell. 2. The greater creeping Gromwell. 3. Small wild Gromell. 4. Umbellife∣rous Gromell. 5. Small Gromel, with tu••ted tops like Alkanet. 6. Small Corne Gromel. 7. The small Germane Gromell or Sparrowort. 8. French Gromel with Flaxen Leaves. 9. Job's Teares.

The Form.

Great upright Gromel which is that which usually groweth in Gardens riseth up with divers, upright, slender, wooddy, hairy, brown and crested stalles, very little or not branched at all, whereon do grow without order, long, hard, rough, sharp pointed narrow greene Leaves; at the tops of the stalkes stand di∣vers small white flowers, in rough brown huskes, wherein after they are past, is contained a white hard, stony, round, shining seed, like unto Pearles; the root is long and hard or somwhat wooddy, with divers branches and fibres there∣at, which perisheth not every yeare, as the stalkes do.

The Places and Time.

The first groweth in Gardens as I said before, whither it was brought out of Italy or the parts of France next unto it, where it groweth wild. The second and third grow wild in many places of our Land in barren grounds, whether till∣ed or untilled, and somtimes in those which are fruitfull also; The fourth grow∣eth, as Lobel saith, in the descent of the Valley of Ostia, in Piedmont. The sixt, as the same Author affirmeth, groweth in Corne-grounds by the way from Bristol, to Bath; The seaventh in the Corne-feilds of Germany. The eight about Mom∣pelier in France: The last groweth naturally in Candy, Rhodes, Syria, and

other Easterne Countryes, being brought thence into our Gardens where it grow∣eth well. The Gromels do all flower from Midsummer to September, the seed ri∣pening in the meane time; but the seed of Jobs Teares seldome come to perfecti∣on with us, unlesse it be sown betimes, and the Summer prove very hot.

The Temperature.

The seeds of Gromel are hot and dry in the second degree and so are those of Jobs Teares.

The Signature and Vertues.

The seeds of Gromel by their stony hardnesse, have given our fore-Fathers to understand that they are of singular force to break the Stone and to avoid it, and also the Gravel, either in the Reines, or Bladder; and if it be made use of in these dayes it will be found as effectuall as any other Seed or Herb whatsoever, for the said purposes; as also to provoke Urine, being stopt, and to help the Strangury, being bruised and boiled in white Wine or Broth, or the powder of it drunk in raw White-Wine or in broth or the like, but the most pleasant, safe, and effectu∣all way is to make a Barly creame with the Kernells of the four greater cold seeds, and the seeds of Gromel by boyling them in Barly water, and to take thereof in the morning fasting for three dayes together, when you are troubled with any of the aforesaid griefes. The said seeds being bruised and laid to steepe all night in White-Wine with some Fennell, Parsly, and Sena, and then boyled in a stone Vessell, strained, and sweetned with Sugar, and drunk the next morning, is a good medicine to purge Phlegme and Choler, to open and cleanse the Reines and Bladder, and to expell wind exceedingly. Two drammes of the seed in Pow∣der taken with the Milk of a Woman is very effectuall to procure a speedy deli∣very to such Women as have sore paines in their Travel, and cannot be delivered as have been found true by divers, as Matthiolus saith. Being mixed with other ingredients it helpeth the Running of the Reines. The Herb it selfe (when the seed is not to be had) being boyled in White-Wine, and the decoction thereof, or else the juice of it, being drunk worketh the same effects, but not so power∣fully nor speedily, and a Bath wherein some of it hath been boyled, being sate in, is much commended for an outward remedy. Of Jobs Teares, the most ex∣quisite Crollius, who taketh notice of the former also, saith thus, Lacrhyma Job∣baa ad deturband••s calculos nunquam satis landata, that is, Jobs-Teares can never be sufficiently commended for expelling the Stone: & then doubtlesse it perform∣eth the other effects, usually annexed, if the Powder or decoction of the seeds be taken as aforesaid. The said seeds are used by Papists beyond Sea to number their Prayers, and by others for beads, Bracelets, &c.