Brooklime
Name. It is also called water-pimpernel.
Description. It riseth from a creeping root, that shooteth forth strings at every joint as it runneth; it hath divers and sundry green stalks, round, deep, green, and thick leaves set by couples thereon; from the bottom whereof shoot forth long footstalks, with sundry small blue flowers on them, that consist of five small round-pointed leaves each.
There is another sort nothing differing from the former, but that it is larger, and the flowers of a paler blue colour.
Place. They sometimes grow in small standing waters, but generally near water-cresses, and are sometimes sold for them in the markets. Time. They flower in June and July, giving seed the month after. Government and Virtues. It is a hot and biting martial plant: brooklime and water-cresses are generally used together in diet-drinks, with other things serving to purge the blood and body from ill-humours that would destroy health, and are helpful for the scurvy: they do also provoke urine, and help to break the stone and pass it away; they provoke women's courses, and expel the dead child. Being fried with butter and vinegar, and applied warm, it helpeth all manner of tumours, swellings, and inflammations. Such drinks ought to be made of sundry herbs according to the malady offending. I shall give a plain and easy rule for that purpose at the latter end of this book.