ANGELICA     ANGELICA ARCHANGELICA
Our physicians ... blasphemously call Tansies or Heart's Ease, an herb for the Trinity, because it is of three colours, and they call a certain ointment, an ointment of the Apostles, because it consists of 12 ingredients. Alas! 1 am sorry for their folly and grieved at their blasphemy. God send them wisdom the rest of   their age, for they have their share of  ignorance already. Some call this an herb of the Holy Ghost; others more moderate called it Angelica, because of its angelical virtues.
A perennial plant growing five or six feet (1.5 or 1.8 m ) high with large leaves and flat heads of greenish-white flowers.
Where to find it: A common garden plant, but it also grows wild, preferring humid habitats.

Flowering time: It flowers from early to late summer.
Astrology. It is a herb of the Sun in Leo. Gather it when he is there, the Moon applying to his good aspect. Let it be gathered either in his hour, or in the hour of Jupiter.
Medicinal virtues: For all epidemical diseases caused by Saturn. It resists poison by defending and comforting the heart, blood and spirits. It doth the like against the plague. The root is taken in powder to the weight of half a dram (89o mg) at a time with some good treacle in Carduus water, and the party laid to sweat in his/her bed. The stalks and roots candied and eaten fasting are good preservatives in time of infection, and will warm and comfort a cold stomach. The root steeped in vinegar and a little of the vinegar taken fasting and the root smelled is good for the same purpose. A water distilled from the root, as steeped in wine and distilled, and drank two or three spoonfuls at a time easeth all pains and torments coming of cold and wind, and taken with some of the root in powder, helpeth the pleurisy, as also all other diseases of the lungs and breast, as coughs, phthisic and shortness of breath. A syrup of the stalks doth the like.
It helps pains of the colic, the strangury and stoppage of the urine, procureth women's courses, and expelleth the afterbirth, openeth the stop- page of the liver and spleen, and briefly easeth and discusseth all windiness and inward swellings.
The decoction drank before the fit of an ague, that they may sweat, if possible, before the fit comes will, in two or three tinies taking, rid it quite away. It helps digestion and is a remedy for a surfeit. The juice or the water dropped into the eyes or ears helps dimness of sight and deafness. The juice put into the hollow of the teeth easeth their pain. The root in powder, made up into a plaster and laid on the biting of mad dogs or any other venomous creature doth wonderfully help. The juice or water dropped into dead ulcers, or the powder of the root in want of either, doth cause them to heal quickly by covering the naked bones with flesh. The distilled water applied to places pained with gout or sciatica doth give a great deal of ease.
Modern uses: Angelica is still widely used as an anti-dyspeptic, and for flatulence. For this an infusion is made from the bruised root or whole herb. Use 1 Oz (28 g) to 1 Pt (568 ml) of boiling water and administer in doses of 2 fl Oz (56 ml). An ointment can be made from the root by boiling it in paraffin wax and straining it before it cools. Use for minor skin problems and for rheumatic pain. The stems preserved with sugar are used as a confection.

ARCHANGEL    (or DEAD-NETTLE)    LAMIUM
To put a gloss on their practice, the physicians call a herb (which  people vulgarly know by the name of the Dead-nettle) Archangel.
The White, with the Red and Yellow Dead-nettles, are nettles that do not sting. Yet except their flowers they resemble the Stinging Nettle.
Whereto find them: They grow almost everywhere unless it be in the middle of the street. The Yellow is most usually found in the wet grounds of woods.

F lowering time: From the beginning of spring and through the summer.
Astrology: The chief use of them is for women, it being a herb of Venus.
Medicinal virtues: The Archangels are somewhat hot and drier than the Stinging Nettles and better used for the stopping and hardness of the spleen. Flowers of the White Archangel are preserved or conserved to be used to stay the whites, and the flowers of the Red to stay the reds, in women. It makes the heart merry, drives away melancholy, quickens the spirits, is good against the quartan agues, stauncheth bleeding at the mouth and nose if it be stamped and applied to the nape of the neck. The herb bruised and with salt and vinegar and hog's-grease laid upon a hard tumour or swelling, or that vulgarly called the king's-evil, do help to dissolve or discuss them. In like manner applied, it doth much allay the pains and give ease to the gout, sciatica and other pains of the joints and sinews. It is also very effectual to heal green wounds and old ulcers. It draweth forth splinters and is very good against bruises and burnings. The Yellow Archangel is most commanded for old, filthy, corrupt sores and ulcers, although they be hollow, and to dissolve tumours.
Modern uses: The flowering tips of the White Dead-nettles are prescribed for menstrual problems and leucorrhoea in women, and for prostatitis in men. 1t is also used for catarrhal conditions and where liver stimulation is required. It is given in the form of an infusion which is made by steeping 1 OZ (28 g) Of the dried flowers in 1 Pt (568 ml) of boiling water for 20 minutes, straining and administering in doses Of 2 fl OZ (56 ml) three times a day.

ARSSMART   POLYGONUM
The Hot Arssmart is called also the Water-pepper. The Mild Arssmart is called Dead Arssmart, or Peachwort. Our college Physicians mistake the one for the other in their new Master-piece, whereby they discover their ignorance, their carelessness; and he that hath but an eye may see their pride without a pair of spectacles.
A very common creeping weed, the Mild Arssmart (also called Red- shank) has broad leaves at the great red joints of the stalks, with semicircular blackish marks on them. The root is long with many strings and perishes yearly. The taste is rather sour like Sorrel.
Where to find it: It grows in watery places, ditches and the like, which for the most part are dry in summer.
Flowering time: It flowers in early summer and the seed is ripe at the end of the summer
Astrology: As the virtue of both of these is various so also is their government; for that which is hot andbiting is under the dominion of Mars, but Saturn challenges the other as appears by that leaden-coloured spot he hath placed on the leaf.
Medicinal virtues: The Mild is very effectual for putrid ulcers in man or beast, to kill worms andcleanse putrefied places. The juice, dropped in, or applied, consumes all cold swellings and dissolves the congealed blood of bruises by strokes, falls etc.
A piece of the root, or some of the seeds bruised, held to an aching tooth, takes away the pain. The leaves bruised and laid to the joint that hath a fell thereon, takes it away. The juice destroy s worms in the ears, being dropped into them. The Mild Arssmart is good against all imposthumes and inflammations at the beginning, and to heal all green wounds. The Hot Arssmart grow s not so high or so tall as the Mild, but hath many leaves of the colour of Peach leaves, seldom or never spotted. If you will be pleased to break a leaf of it across your tongue, it will make your tongue smart.
If the Hot Arssmart be strewed in a chamber, it will soon kill all the fleas. A good handful put under a horse's saddle will make him travel the better, although he were half tired before.
Modern uses: A homoeopathic tincture is made from the hot Polygonum hydropiper and used for diarrhoea and dysentery. The milder Polygonum persicaria is not widely used, but an infusion of the plant has been reco m mended for lung disorders, rheumatism, eczema and liver disease.. The plants contain an irritant oil.

ASARABACCA   ASARUM EUROPAEUM
If any purging and vomiting medicine as little as any man breathing doth for they weaken nature, nor shall ever advise them to be used unless upon urgent necessity. If a physician be nature's servant, it is his duty to strengthen his mistress as much as he can, and weaken her as little as may be.
A creeping perennial plant, Asarabacca is now rare in most places, but still grows abundantly in South America. It has many small leaves each upon its own foot-stalk and the roots are small and whitish, spreading divers ways but not running or creeping under the ground. It bath dull purple, solitary flowers.
Where to find it: It grows in gardens, but its natural habitat is woodland.

Flowering time: Spring. The seed ripens about midsummer on.
Astrology: 'Tis under the dominion of Mars and therefore inimical to nature.
Medicinal virtues: This herb being drunk not only provokes vomiting, but purgeth downward, and by urine also, purgeth both choler and phlegm. The common use is to take the juice of five or seven leaves in a little drink to cause vomiting. The roots have the same virtue, though they do not operate so forcibly. 1 shall desire ignorant people to forbear the use of the leaves. The roots purge more gently and. may prove beneficial to such as have cancers, putrefied ulcers, or fistulas upon their bodies.
Modern uses: Many over-the-counter medicines contain an emetic to prevent overdosage. Asarabacca was an official emetic, but has now been replaced by ipecacuanha. It is not recommended for domestic use as it isan abortifacient. It also causes internal bleeding and gastroenteritis. A homoeopathic tincture of Asarum is used to treat gastroenteritis.

ASH TREE     FRAXINUS EXCELSIOR
This is so well known that time will be misspent in writing a description of it; and therefore 1 shall only insist upon the virtues of it.
Where to find it: It is a large, deciduous woodland tree common throughout Europe.
Flowering time: Mid to late spring.
Astrology: It is governed  by the Sun.
Medicinal virtues: The young tender tops, with the leaves taken inwardly, and some outwardly applied, are singularly good against the biting of an adder, viper or any other venomous beast. The water distilled therefrom and taken in small quantity each morning fasting is a singular medicine to those that are subject to the dropsy, or to abate the greatness of those that are too gross or fat.
The decoction of the leaves in white wine helpeth to break the stone and expel it, and cure the jaundice. The ashes of the bark made into lye, and those heads bathed therewith which are leprous, scabby or scald, they are thereby cured. The kernels within the husks, commonly called ashen key, prevail against stitches and pains in the side, proceeding of wind and voiding away the stone by provoking the urine.
1 can justly except against none of this, save only the first - that Ash Tree tops and leaves are good against the biting of serpents and vipers. The rest are virtues something likely, only if it be in winter when you cannot get the leaves, you may safely use the bark instead. The keys you may easily keep all the year, gathering them when they are ripe.
Modern uses: It has laxative and diuretic properties. Also useful for intermittent fever. An infusion of the dried leaves is used in rheumatic disease and gout.

Asparagus   (asparagus officinalis)
The decoction taken fasting several mornings together, it stirs up bodily lust in man or woman, whatever some have written to the contrary.
   Astrology: under Jupiter.
   Medicinal virtues: The young buds or branches boiled in ordinary broth, make the belly soluble and open. Boiled in white wine they prevent the urine being stopped. It is good against strangury or difficulty of making water. It expels the gravel and stone out of the kidneys and helps pains in the reins. Boiled in white wine or vinegar it is prevalent for them that have their arteries loosened, or are troubled with the hip-gout or sciatica.
The decoction of the roots boiled in wine and taken, is good to clear the sight and being held in the mouth eases the toothache. The back and belly bathed with the decoction, or sitting therein as a bath, has been found effectual against pains of the reins and bladder, pains of the mother and colic, and generally against all pains that happen to the lower parts of the body. It is no less effectual against stiff and benumbed sinews, or those that are shrunk by cramps and convulsions, and sciatica.
Modern uses : Used by homeopaths in the treatment of rheumatism and oedema due to heart failure. It is a diuretic and will clear sediment from the bladder. It also has laxative properties