Botanologia the Brittish physician, or, the nature and vertues of English plants, exactly describing such plants as grow naturally in our land, with their several names Greek, Latine, or English, natures, places where they grow ... : by means whereof people may gather their own physick under every hedge ... : with two exact tables, the one of the English and Latine names of the plants, the other of the diseases and names of each plant appropriated to the diseases, with their cures / by Robert Turner.

Gentian, or Felwort, Gentiana.

MAster Coles reckons six sorts hereof to grow within Great Brittain, [Description.] Master Culpepper but two, which I shall onely describe.

The first hollow leaved Felwort, or English Gentian hath small long roots, deep in the ground, and abiding all Winter, having stalks of a brownish green colour, with long narrow dark green leaves set by couples up to the top: the flowers are long and hollow, of a purple colour, with five corners.

The other smaller sort hath many stalks not a foot high, with several branches; the leaves very like those of the lesser Centaury, of a whitish green colour; the flowers are blue, growing on the tops of the stalks: the root is small and fibrous.

Names.] Gentiana in Latine, and Gentianella the lesser sort; in English, Gentian, Felwort, Bitterwort, and Baldmony.

Place and Time.] The first grows in divers places of Kent, as about Southfleet, and Long Field near Gravesend; so likewise doth the other, and upon Barton Hills in Bed∣fordshire, and not far from St. Albans, upon a piece of waste chalky ground as you go out of Dunstable way to∣wards Gothambury: They flower in August, and the seed is ripe in September,

Nature and Vertues.] The root which is chiefly in use, is hot and dry in the third degree, a Martial plant; it strength∣ens the Heart and Stomach, resists poison, putrefaction, and the

Pestilence, and helps digestion; the powder of the dry roots helps bitings of mad Dogs and Venomous Beasts, opens the Li∣ver, and procures an Appetite: Wine wherein the herb hath been steeped being drunk, refreshes such as are overwearied by Travel, or are lame in their Joynts by cold or bad Lodgings; it is good for bruises, and to help stitches and pains in the sides: the decoction is good against Cramps and Convulsions, provokes Ʋrine, and the Terms; so that it is not to be given to women with Childe: it dissolves congealed Blood, is good in the Drop∣sie, strangling of the Mother, drives down the dead Childe, and After-birth, helps falling Sickness, Worms, Cough, and shortness of Breath; it expells Winde, and is profitable in all cold Diseases, the juyce or powder of the root heals green Wounds, and cleanses and heals up fretting rotten Ʋlcers, Fi∣stula's and Cancers. The root is used by Chyrurgions to enlarge the orifice of a Sore. The herb applyed helps swellings of the Kings Evil, and the juyce clears the sight, being dropped into the Eyes; it helps the bots in Cattle, and the swelling of a Cows Ʋdder, being bitten by a Venomous Creature, the place being stroaked, and fomented with the decoction of this Herb.