ALDER (Common) ALNUS GLUTINOSA
The leaves gathered while the morning dew is on them and brought into a chamber troubled with fleas will gather them thereunto, which being suddenly cast out, will rid the chamber of these troublesome bedfellows.
The Common Alder grows to about 65 feet (20 M) in height. It produces purplish-red catkins which change to greenish-yellow.
Where to find it: It grows in rnoist woods and watery places.
Flowering time: From mid to late spring. It yields a ripe seed in early autumn.
Astrology: It is under the dominion of Venus, and of some water sign, one supposes Pisces.
Medicinal virtues: The decoction, or distilled water of the leaves, is excellent to bathe inflamed or burnt skin and wounds with. It is especially recommended for that inflammation of the chest, which the vulgar call an ague. In winter make use of the bark in the same manner. The leaves and bark are cooling, drying and binding. The fresh leaves laid upon swellings dissolve them and stay the inflammations. The leaves put under the bare feet galled with travelling are refreshing to them.
Modern uses: The bark and leaves are used as a tonic. A decoction is made from 1 OZ (28 g) of the dried bark to 1 Pt (568 ml) of boiling water. This has astringent properties and is used as a gargle for sore throats and pharyngitis in doses Of 2-3 fl Oz (56-85 ml). The bark can be taken as a tonic powder in doses of a half to one teaspoonful or mixed with a little Goldenseal and infused in a pint (568 ml) of water and taken in doses of2 fl oz (56 ml) for dyspepsia.

ALEHOOF    GLECHOMA HEDERACEA
The juice dropped into the ear doth wonderfully help the noise and singing of them, and helpeth the hearing which is decayed.
It is also called Cat's-foot, Ground-ivy, Gill-go-by-ground, Gill-creep- by-ground , Turn-hoof and Hay-maids. This well-known herb spreads and creeps along the ground. Roots shoot forth at the corners of tender-jointed stalks, set with two round leaves at every joint. The hollow, long flowers are of a blueish-purple colour with small white spots on the lips that hang down.
Where to find it.. It is found under hedges, on the sides of ditches, in shadowy lanes and on waste land. Flowering time: Early to late spring. The leaves stay green until the winter.
Astrology: It is a herb of Venus and therefore cures, by sympathy, the diseases she causes; and those of Mars by antipathy.
Medicinal virtues: A herb for all inward wounds, exulecrated lungs, or other parts, either by itself, or boiled with other similar herbs. It easeth griping pains, windy and choleric humours in the stomach, spleen or belly; it helps the yellow jaundice by opening the stoppings of the gall and liver, and melancholy by opening the stoppings of the spleen. It expels venom or poison and also the plague.
It provokes urine and women's courses. The decoction of it in wine drank for some time eases those that are troubled by sciatica, or hip gout, and also the gout in the hands, knees or feet. If you add to the decoction some honey and a little burnt alum, it is excellent as a gargle for any sore mouth or throat, and to wash the sores and ulcers in the privy parts of man or woman.
It speedily helps green wounds, if bruised and bound thereto. The juice of it boiled with a little honey and verdigris doth wonderfully cleanse fistulas, ulcers and stayeth the spreading or eating of cancers and ulcers. It helpeth the itch, scabs, wheals and other breakings out in any part of the body.
The juice of Celandine, Field Daisies, and Ground-ivy clarified and a little fine sugar dissolved therein, and dropped into the eyes, is a sovereign remedy for all pains, redness and watering of them; also for the pin and web, skins and films growing over the sight. It helps beasts as well as men. The juice dropped into the ear helpeth the hearing.
Modern uses: Generally known as Ground-ivy among modern herbalists, the herb is collected in late spring when the flowers are still fresh. It is used in the treatment of dyspepsia, kidney disease, abscesses, gatherings and tumours, eye problems and freckles. For abscesses, it is combined in equal parts with Chamomile flowers and used as a poultice. For treating coughs, it is combined in equal parts with Horehound and Colt's Foot and made into a syrup. An infusion can be made by adding 1 oz (28 g) of the herb to 1 pt (568 ml) of boiling water. Strain and administer in doses of 2 fl oz (56 ml) three times a day.

ALEXANDERS
SMYRNIUM OLUSATRUM
It warmeth a cold stomach and openeth a stoppage to the liver and spleen.
It is also called Horse Parsley, Wild Parsley and the Black Pot-herb. Similar to Wild Angelica, it is sometimes mistaken for it by collectors. It is a biennial growing to about four feet (1.2 m) high and producing yellowish- green flowers.
Where to find it: It is usually cultivated in gardens, but prefers coastal regions.
Flowering time: Early to midsummer. The seed is ripe in late summer, and is almost black, hence the name Black Pot-herb.
Astrology: It is a herb of Jupiter and therefore friendly to nature.
Medicinal virtues: It is good to move women's courses, to expel the afterbirth, to break wind, to provoke urine, and helpeth the strangury. These things the seeds will do likewise. Boiled in wine or bruised and taken in wine the herb or seeds are effectual in the biting of serpents.
Modern uses: This herb is not used by professional herbalists at the present time; other remedies for flatulence, such as Fennel and Aniseed, are more popular.

A LKANET ALKANNA TINCTORIA
If you apply the herb to the privities, it draws forth the dead child.
Besides the common name, it is called Orchanct and Spanish Bugloss, and by the apothecaries, Enchusa. It has a great and thick root of a reddish colour, long, narrow hairy leaves, and small blue or reddish-purple flowers.
Where to find it: It grows in weedy places along the verges of roads and on waste land. It likes a dry sandy soil. It is cultivated commercially for the red dye extracted from the roots.
Flowering time: It flowers from mid to late summer, but the root is in its prime, as are Carrots and Parsnips, before the herb runs up to stalk.
Astrology: It is under the dominion of Venus, and is indeed one of her darlings.
Medicinal virtues: It helps old ulcers, hot inflammations, burnings by common fire and St Anthony's fire, by antipathy to Mars. For these uses your best way is to make it into an ointment. If you make a vinegar of it, as you make Vinegar of Roses, it helps the morphy and leprosy. It helps the yellow jaundice, spleen and gravel in the kidneys. Dioscorides saith, it helps such as are bitten by venomous beasts, whether it he taken inwardly or applied to the wound; nay, he saith further, if any that hath newly eaten it do but spit into the mouth of a serpent, the serpent instantly dies.
It stays the flux of the belly, kills worms and helps the fits of the mother. Its decoction made in wine, and drank, strengthens the back, and easeth the pains thereof. It helps bruises and falls, and is as gallant a remedy to drive out the smallpox and rneasles as any is. An ointment made of it is excellent for green wounds, pricks or thrusts.
Modern uses: The red dye is used to colour-ointments. The flowers, roots and seeds have expectorant properties. It is also used by some as a blood purifier. But it is not in general use and not recommended for internal use domestically.

AMARANTHUS
AMARANTHUS HYBRIDUS (=A.HYPOCHONDRIACUS)
I wonder in my heart how the virtue of herbs came at first to be known, if not by their signatures. The moderns have them from the writings of the ancients; the ancients had no writings to have them from.
Amaranth is also called Flower-gentle, Flower-velure, Floramor, Velvet- flower and Prince's Feather. It runneth up with a stalk which is streaked and somewhat reddish towards the root. It has long, broad reddish-green leaves and flowers which are more like tufts, very beautiful to behold.
Where to find it: A garden plant, commonly known as Love Lies Bleeding.

Flowering time: Continues in flower from late summer till the frost nips it. Astrology: It is under the dominion of Saturn and is, an excellent qualifier of the unruly actions and passions of Venus, though Mars should also join with her.
Medicinal virtues: The flowers, dried and beaten into powder, stop the terms in women. The flowers stop all fluxes of blood, whether in man or woman, bleeding either at the nose or wound. There is also a sort of Amaranthus that bears a white flower, which stops the whites in women, and the running of the reins in men, and is a most gallant anti-venereal, and a singular remedy for the French pox.
Modern uses: Classified today as an astringent and used to check diarrhoea, dysentery and rectal bleeding. Also used for treating heavy menstrual periods. The flowering herb is used for these purposes in the form of a decoction - 1 oz (28 g) of herb to 1 Pt (568 ml) of boiling water - in doses of 2 fl Oz (56 ml). The same can he used as a mouthwash for ulcerated conditions, and as a vaginal injection for leucorrhoea.

ANEMONE   ANEMONE NEMOROSA
And when all is done, let physicians prate what they please, all the pills in the dispensary purge not the head like to hot things held in the mouth.
It is called the Wind-flower because they say the flowers never open unless the wind bloweth. But it is also known as the Wood Anemone of Great Britain.
Where to find it: A beautiful low-growing plant which naturalizes itself in open woodland beneath leaf-losing trees and in shady places in rock gardens.

Flowering time. Spring.
Astrology. It is under the dominion of Mars.
Medicinal virtues: The leaves provoke the terms, being boiled, and the decoction drank. The body bathed with the decoction cures the leprosy. The leaves stamped, and the juice snuffed up the nose, purgeth the head mightily; so doth the root, chewed in the mouth, for it procureth much spitting and bringeth away watery and phlegmatic humours and is therefore excellent for the lethargy. Made into an ointment and the eyelids anointed with it, it helps inflammations of the eyes. The same ointment is excellent to cleanse malignant and corroding ulcers.
Modern uses: Medical herbalists use the Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla vulgaris, as a nervine and anti-spasmodic for nervous headaches and asthrna. The tincture available from them is given a few drops at a time, in water every two or three hours.