The Vertues and Signature.
The Deco••tion of Medow Trefoile, with its Flowers, Seeds and Roots taken for some time helpeth Women that are troubled with the Whites, and consequently the extraordinary over-flowing of their ordinary courses, it being more then pro∣bable, that what is availeable for the fi••st is profitable for the second, because the first is harder to be cured. The Decoction of the Leaves and F••owers having some Honey put thereto, and used in a Clyster, easeth the fretting paines of the Guts, and bringeth forth tough and slimy humors, that cleave to the Guts. The said Leaves boyled with a little Barrowes grease, and used as a Pultis, taketh away hot swellings and Inflammations. The juice, especially of that which is spotted upon the Leaves, being strained and dropped into the Eyes, or mixed with a little Honey and applyed, is a familiar Medicine with divers, to take away the Pin and Web, (as they call it) in the Eyes, by Signature; and so it ceaseth the pain and Inflammation of them when they are bloud-shotten. The said Juice is also held to be very available against the biting of an Adder being drank, the herbe also being boiled in Water, and the place washed with the decoction, and then some of the herbe laid to the hurt place also, and so is the herbe boiled in Swines grease and made into an oyntment. The herbe also bruised and heated between two Tiles, and applyed hot to the Share, causeth them to make Water who had it stopped before. It is held likewise to be good for wounds, and to take away Scarres. The Burgundy Trefoile called also Foenum Burgundiacum, Burgundy Hay, and Meddick Fodder, is conceived by divers to be that which Dioscorides commends for its cooling property, as also that whose Oyle, as A••icen saith, is very effectuall against the trembling of the Heart. An Oyle drawn out from the Seed, as it is done from Almonds, is said to be good for the Stone. In those Countreys where it groweth plentifully, it is found so powerfull to fatten Cattle, that they are faine to be stinted, lest they should grow so fat, that suffocation sh••uld ensue. If the March Trefoile be the Isopyrum of Dioscorides, as some suppose it to be, then the Seed thereof is good against the Cough and other griefes of the Breast, or Chest; for, as Galen saith, it cleanseth and cutteth tough and grosse humors, and maketh them the easier to be expectorate or spit forth; it is also good to purge and cleanse the Liver, and to help those that spit blood. The Leaves of Purplewort stamped, and the Juice given in drinke, is very confidently administred, and that with good successe, not onely to Children, but to others also that have the dis∣ease called in English the Purples, which it doth by Signature. And if the Heart Trefolle were used, it would be found to be a great strengthner of the Heart, and cherisher of the Vitall Spirits, relieving the body against Faintings and Swoonings, fortifying it against Poysons & Pestilence, and defending the Heart against the noi∣some vapors of the Spleen, for it resembleth the heart both in forme and colour, and surely it hath no so eminent Signatures for nothing.