AVENS    GEUM URBANUM (= G. HERBANUM)
It is very safe; you need have no dose prescribed; and is very fit to be kept in everybody's house.
A common wayside plant also called Colewort and Herb Bennet. It hath long, rough, dark green winged leaves. On the tops of the branches stand small, pale yellow flowers, consisting of five leaves like the flowers of Cinquefoil.
Whereto find it: Under hedges and by pathways in fields. They rather delight to grow in shadowy than in sunny places. Flowering time: Late spring, early summer. The seed is ripe by midsummer at the latest.
Astrology: It is governed by Jupiter.
Medicinal virtues: It is good for the diseases of the chest or breast, for pains and stitches in the side, and to expel crude and raw humours from the belly and stomach, by the sweet savour and warming quality. It dissolves inward congealed blood happening by falls or bruises, and the spitting of blood, if the roots, either green or dry, be boiled in wine and drunk: as also all manner of inward wounds or outward, if washed or bathed therewith. The decoction also being drunk, comforts the heart, and strengthens the stomach and a cold brain, and therefore is good in the springtime to open obstructions of the liver, and helpeth the wind colic. It also helps those that have fluxes, or are bursten, or have a rupture. It takes away spots or marks in the face being washed therewith. The juice of the fresh root, or powder of the dried root, have the same effect as the decoction. The root in the springtime, steeped in wine, doth give it a delicate flavour and taste, and being drunk fasting every morning, comfort s the heart, and is a good preservative against the plague or any other poison. It helpeth digestion, warmeth a cold stomach and openeth obstructions of the liver and spleen.
Modern uses: Widely used because of its excellent properties as an antiseptic, aromatic, astringent, stomach tonic, febrifuge and styptic. A restorative in debilitating diseases, especially of the intestinal tract. An infusion is made from 1 oz (28 g) of the dried herb or root to 1 Pt (568 m1) of boiling water. The dose is 2 fl oz (56 ml). Herbal practitioners find it a useful remedy for colitis.

BALM   MELISSA OFFICINALIS
It is very good to help digestion and open obstructions of the brain, and hath so much purging quality in it (saith Avicen) as to expel those melancholy vapours from the spirits and blood which are in the heart and arteries, although it cannot do so in other parts of the body.
The herb is so well known as to be an inhabitant almost in every garden. It is also known as Sweet Balm or Lemon Balm. The leaves are set in pairs upon the stem, the flowers in whorls above each pair.
Where to find it. A garden plant, but its natural habitat is the rnountain e ous regions in southern Europe. Flowering time: Midsummer to early autumn.
Astrology: It is an herb of Jupiter and under Cancer and strengthens the body in all its actions.
Medicinal virtues: Let a syrup made with the juice of it and sugar be kept in every gentlewoman's house to relieve the weak stomachs and sick bodies of their poor and sickly neighbours. Also keep the dried herb in the house so that with other convenient simples you may make it into an electuary with honey. The Arabian physicians have extolled the virtues thereof to the skies, although the Greeks thought it not worth mentioning. Seraphio saith, it causes the mind and heart to become merry and revives the heart, Paintings and swoonings, especially of such who are overtaken in sleep and driveth away all troublesome cares and thoughts out of the mind, arising from melancholy and black choler, which Avicen also confirmed.
Dioscorides saith that the leaves steeped in wine, and the wine drank, and the leaves externally applied, is a remedy against the sting of a scorpion, and the biting of mad dogs; and commended the decoction, for women to bathe or sit in to procure their courses. It is good to wash aching teeth therewith, and profitable for those that have the bloody flux. The leaves also, with a little nitre taken in drink, are good against the surfeit of mushrooms, and help the griping pains of the belly; and being made into an electuary, it is good for them that cannot fetch their breath.
Used with salt it takes away the wens, kernels or hard swellings in the flesh or throat. It cleanseth foul sores and easeth the pains of the gout. It is good for the liver and spleen. A tansy or caudle made with eggs and juice thereof, while it is young putting to some sugar and Rose-water, is good for woman in child-bed, when the afterbirth is not thoroughly voided, and for their faintings upon or in their sore travail. The herb bruised and boiled in a little white wine and oil, and laid warm on a boil, will ripen and break it.
Modern uses: It is commonly prescribed as an infusion to induce mild perspiration in feverish patients. It is also used in medicines for the menopause, and for painful or suppressed menstruation, poor digestion, nausea and vomiting. The infusions can he taken freely.

BARLEY      HORDEUM VULGARE
A plaister made thereof with tar, wax and oil, helpeth the king's-evil in the throat.
Where to find it. This is the cereal that is grown all over the world, being yearly sown.
Flowering time: It does not flower, being a cereal it ripens in summer.
Astrology: It is a notable plant of Saturn. If you view diligently its effects by sympathy and antipathy, you may easily perceive a reason of them; as also why Barley-bread is so unwholesome for melancholy people.
Medicinal virtues: Barley is more cooling than Wheat and a little cleansing. All the preparations thereof, as Barley-water, do give great nourishment to persons troubled with fevers, agues and heats in the stomach. A poultice made of Barley-meal or flour boiled in vinegar and honey, and a few dried figs put in them, dissolves all hard imposthumes, and assuages inflammations. Boiled with Melilot and Chamomile flowers, and some Linseed, Fenugreek and Rue in powder and applied warm, it e ase s pains in the side and stomach and windiness of the spleen.
The meal of Barley and Flea-worts boiled in water and made into a poultice with honey and Oil of Lilies, and applied warm, cure s swellings under the ears, throat, neck and such like. Boiled with sharp vinegar, made into a poultice and laid on hot, helpeth the leprosy; boiled in red wine with Pomegranate rind, and Myrtles, stayeth the lax or other flux of the belly; boiled with vinegar and Quince, it easeth the pains of the gout. Barley-flour, white salt, honey and vinegar mingled together takes away the itch speedily and certainly.
The water distilled from the green Barley, in the end of May, is very good for those that have defluxions of humours fallen into their eyes, and easeth the pain being dropped into them. White bread steeped therein, and bound on the eyes, cloth the same.
Modern uses: Barley is nutritional and demulcent. It is rich in vitamins B and E and is recommended for those convalescing. It is given as Barley-water or as an extract of malt. Barley-water is soothing to the bowel where there is inflammation or diarrhoea. Hordenine, an alkaloid with properties similar to ephedrine, is produced in the root of the germinating grain, and is therefore of value in the treatment of asthma and bronchitis.  

BILBERRIES   VACCINIUM MYRTILLUS
It is a pity they are used no more in physic than they are,
Also known as Whortleberries. There are two sorts - the black and the red berries. The small bush bearing the black berries creeps along the ground and has small dark green leaves with small pinkish coloured flowers. The Whortle-bush has leaves like Box tree leaves, green and round-pointed which stay on all winter.
Where to find it: In forests and on heathland.

Flowering time. Early to mid spring. The fruit is ripe from mid to late summer.
Astrology: They are under the dominion of Jupiter.
Medicinal virtues: Black Bilberries are good in hot agues, and to cool the heat of the liver and stomach. They bind the belly and stay the vomitings. The .juice of the berries made into a syrup, or the pulp made into a conserve with sugar, is good for the aforesaid purposes and for an old cough, or an ulcer in the lungs. The Red Whorts are more binding and stop women's courses, spitting of blood, or any other flux of blood or humours, and are used both outwardly and inwardly.
Modern uses: Bilberries, when used medicinally, act as an astringent diuretic. The dried berries administered in the form of a decoction are effective in diarrhoea and dysentery. A tincture of the leaves is hypoglycaemic and is indicated as a diabetic remedy. For home use an infusion can be made in the ratio of one teaspoonful of the leaves to a cup of boiling water. Homoeopathic tablets are also available for use by diabetics.

BAY TREE   LAURUS NOBILIS
The berries mightily expel the wind, and provoke urine, help the mother, and kill the worms. The leaves also work the like effects.
Where to find it: It grows in woodland, and prefers warm cli m ates like the Mediterranean. 

Flowering time: Mid to late spring.
Astrology: It is a tree of the Sun and under the celestial sign Leo, and resisteth witchcraft very potently, as also all the evils old  Saturn can do the body of man, and they are not a few.
Medicinal virtues. Galen said that the leaves or bark do dry and heal very much, and the berries more than the leaves. The bark of the root is effectual to break the stone and to open obstructions of the liver, spleen, and other inward parts which bring the jaundice, dropsy, etc. The berries are effectual against all poisons of venomous creatures, and the sting of wasps and bees, as also against the pestilence, or other infectious diseases and therefore put into sundry treacles for that purpose.
They procure women's courses, and seven of them given to a woman in sore travail of childbirth do cause a speedy delivery, and expel the afterbirth. The berries should not therefore be taken by such as have not gone out of their time, lest they procure abortion, or cause labour too soon.
They wonderfully help all cold and rheumatic distillations from the brain to the eyes, lungs or other parts; and being made into an electuary with honey, do help the consumption, old coughs, shortness of breath, and thin rheums, as also the megrim.
A bath of the decoction of the leaves and berries is singularly good for women to sit in that are troubled with the mother, or the diseases thereof, or the stoppings of their courses, or for the diseases of the bladder, pains in the bowels by wind and stopping of urine. A decoction of equal parts of Bay berries, Cumin seed, Hyssop, Origanum and Euphorbium, with some honey, and the head bathed therewith, doth wonderfully help distillations and rheums, and settles the palate of the mouth into its place.
The oil made of the berries is very comfortable in all cold griefs of the joints, nerves, arteries, stomach, belly or womb; and helpeth palsies, convulsions, cramp, aches, trembling and numbness in any part, weariness also, and pains that come by sore travailing.
All griefs and pains proceeding from wind, either in the head, stomach, back, belly or womb, by anointing the parts affected therewith; and pains of the ears are also cured by dropping in some of the oil, or by receiving into the ears the funic of the decoction of the berries through a funnel. The oil takes away the marks of the skin and flesh by bruises, fails, etc. and dissolves the congealed blood in them. It helpeth also the itch, scabs and wheals in the skin.
Modern uses: Not widely used medicinally. Herbalists use the oil only for external application in the treatment of rheumatism.

BEANS (Broad) VICIA FABA
If a bean be parted in two, the skin being taken away, and laid on the place where the leech hath been set that bleed s too much, it stayeth the bleeding.
Dried and beat to a powder they are great strengtheners of the kidneys.
Where to find it: The Broad Bean is one of the hardiest vegetables grown in British gardens. Flowering time. Spring and summer.
Astrology: They are plants of Venus.
Medicinal virtues: The distilled water of the flowers is good to clean the face and skin from spots and wrinkles. The water distilled from the green husks is held to be effectual against the stone, and to provoke urine. Bean flour is used in poultices to assuage inflammations rising upon wounds, and the swelling of women's breasts caused by curding of their milk, and represses their milk.
The flour and Fenugreek mixed with honey, and applied to felons, biles, bruises, or blue marks by blows, or the imposthumes in the kernels of the cars, helpeth them all, and with Rose leaves, frankincense, and the white of an egg, being applied to the eyes, helpeth them that are swollen or do water, or have received any blows upon them, if used in wine. Beans flour boiled to a poultice with wine and vinegar, and some oil put thereto, easeth both pains and swelling of the testicles. The husks boiled in water to the consumption of a third part thereof stayeth a lax, and the ashes of the husks, made up with hog's grease, helpeth the old pains, contusions and wounds of the sinews, the sciatica and gout.
Modern uses: Broad Beans are not used medicinally in the form of extracts, but they do play an important role in dietetics, particularly in the treatment of conditions which require a vegetarian diet. They are an important source of protein.
BEANS (French)   PHASEOLUS VULGARIS
Dried and beat to a powder they are great strengtheners of the kidneys.
It grows weakly, and its shoots must be sustained on poles. The blossom is of many colours: red, white, yellow, blackish or purple.
Where to find it: French Beans or Kidney Beans, are a common garden vegetable, having been cultivated since ancient times. The natural habitat, however, is central and tropical America.
Flowering ti m e: From late spring to early autumn.
Astrology: They belong to Dame Venus.
Medicinal virtues: A dram (1.7 g) at a time of the powder taken in white wine, prevents the stone, or will cleanse the kidneys of gravel or stoppage. The ordinary French Beans move the belly, provoke urine, enlarge the breast that is straitened with shortness of breath, engender sperm, and incite to venery.
Modern uses: A homoeopathic tincture is used for rheumatism and urinary tract disorders. The pods have a diuretic action and are used as a remedy for diabetes. It is dangerous to consume beans uncooked.  

WATER BETONY   BETONICAAQUATICA
The distilled water of the leaves is used to bathe the face and hands spotted or blemished or discoloured by sun burning.
The Water Betony is also known as Water Figwort with the botanical name of Scrophularia auriculata. It is not related to the Wood Betony, although it resernb l es it. It is also called Brown-wort and, in Yorkshire, Bishop's-leaves. It rises up with square, hard stalks set with dark green leaves. The flowers are many, set at the tops of stalks and branches, and are reddish-purple.
Where to find it: By the sides of ditches, brooks and other water courses.
Flowering time: It flowers in midsummer and the seed is ripe towards the end of the summer.
Astrology: It is a herb of Jupiter in Cancer.
Medicinal virtues: It is appropriated more to wounds and hurts in breasts than Wood Betony. The leaves bruised and applied are effectual for old and filthy ulcers, especially if the juice of the leaves be boiled with a little honey and dipped therein and sores dressed therewith; also for bruises or hurts, whether inward or outward.
Modern uses: The leaves are used externally in the form of a poultice for haemorrhoids, ulcers and wounds.