Masterwort
Description. Common masterwort hath divers stalks of winged leaves, divided into sundry parts, three for the most part standing together with small foot-stalks on both sides of the greater, and three likewise at the end of the stalk, somewhat broad, and cut in on the edges into three or more divisions, all of them dented about the brims, of a dark green colour, somewhat resembling the leaves of angelica, but that these grow lower to the ground and on lesser stalks; among which rise up two or three short stalks about two feet high, and slender with such like leaves at the joints which grow below, but with lesser and fewer divisions, bearing umbels of white flowers, and after them, thin, flat, blackish seeds, bigger than dill seeds. The root is somewhat greater and growing rather sideways than down deep in the ground, shooting forth sundry heads, which taste sharp, biting on the tongue, and is the hottest and sharpest part of the plant, and the seed next unto it being somewhat blackish on the outside, and smelling well. Place. It is usually kept in gardens with us in England. Time. It flowereth and seedeth about the end of August. Government and virtues. It is an herb of Mars. The root of masterwort is hotter than pepper, and very available in cold griefs and diseases both of the stomach and body, dissolving very powerfully upwards and downwards. It is also used in a decoction with wine against all cold rheums, distillation upon the lungs, or shortness of breath, to be taken morning and evening. It also provoketh urine, and helpeth to break the stone, and expel the gravel from the kidneys; provoketh women's courses, and expelleth the dead birth. It is singularly good for strangling of the mother, and other such like feminine diseases. It is effectual also against the dropsy, cramps, and falling sickness; for the decoction in wine being gargled in the mouth, draweth down much water and phlegm from the brain, purging and easing it of what oppresseth it. It is of a rare quality against all sorts of cold poison, to be taken as there is cause, it provoketh sweat. But lest the taste hereof, or of the seed (which worketh to the like effect, though not so powerfully) should be too offensive, the best way is to take the water distilled both from the herb and root. The juice hereof dropped, or tents dipped therein, and applied either to green wounds or filthy rotten ulcers, and those that come by evenomed weapons, doth soon cleanse and heal them. The same is also very good to help the gout coming of a cold cause.