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Borage and Bugloss
These are so well known to be inhabitants of every garden, that I think it needless to describe them.
To these I may add a third sort, which is not so common, nor yet so well known, and therefore I shall give you its name and description. Name. It is called langue de boeuf; but why they should call one herb by the name of bugloss, and another by the name of langue de boeuf, is to me a question, seeing one signifies ox-tongue in Greek, and the other signifies the same in French.
Description. The leaves thereof are smaller than those of bugloss, but much rougher, the stalk rising up about a foot and a half high, and is most commonly of a red colour: the flowers stand in scaly rough heads, being composed of many small yellow flowers, not much unlike to those of dandelion, and the seed flieth away in down as that doth: you may easily know the flowers by the taste, for they are very bitter.
Place. It groweth wild in many places of the land, and may be plentifully found near London, as between Rotherhithe and Deptford, by the ditch sides; its virtues are held to be the same with borage and bugloss, only this is something hotter.
Time. They flower in June and July, and the seed is ripe shortly after. Government and virtues. They are all three herbs of Jupiter, and under Leo, all great cordials and strengtheners of nature. The leaves or roots are to very good purpose used in putrid and pestilential fevers, to defend the heart, and help to resist and expel the poison or the venom of other creatures: the seed is of like effect; and the seed and leaves are good to increase milk in women's breasts: the leaves, flowers, and seed, all or any of them, are good to expel pensiveness and melancholy; to clarify the blood, and to mitigate heat in fevers. The juice made into a syrup prevaileth much to all the purposes aforesaid, and is put with other cooling, opening, cleansing herbs to open obstructions, and help the yellow jaundice, and mixed with fumitory, to cool, cleanse, and temper the blood, whereby it helpeth the itch, ringworms, and tetters, or other spreading scabs or sores. The flowers candied, or made into a conserve, are helpful in the former cases, but are chiefly used as a cordial, and are good for those that are weak with long sickness, and to comfort the heart and spirits of those that are in a consumption, or troubled with often swooning' or passions of the heart: the distilled water is no less effectual to all the purposes aforesaid, and helpeth the redness and inflammation of the eyes, being washed therewith; the dried herb is never used, but the green; yet the ashes thereof boiled in mead, or honey-water, are available against inflammations and ulcers in the mouth or throat, to wash and gargle it therewith. The roots of bugloss are effectual, being made into a licking electuary, for the cough, and to condensate thin phlegm, and rheumatic distillations upon the lungs.