Home › Contents › Rattle-Grass

Rattle-Grass

Of this there are two kinds, the red and the yellow. Description. The common red rattle-grass hath sundry reddish hollow stalks, and sometimes green, rising from the root, lying for the most part on the ground, yet some growing more upright, with many small reddish or greenish leaves set on both sides of a middle-rib finely dented about the edges; the flowers stand at the tops of the stalks and branches, of a fine purplish red colour; after which come flat blackish seed in small husks, which lying loose therein, will rattle with shaking. The root consists of two or three small whitish strings, with some fibres thereat.

The common yellow rattle hath seldom above one round green stalk, rising from the root, about half a yard or two feet high, and but few branches thereon, having two long and somewhat broad leaves set at a joint, deeply cut in on the edges, resembling the comb of a cock, broadest next the stalk. The flowers grow at the tops of the stalks, with some shorter leaves with them, hooded after the same manner as the others, but many of a fair yellow colour, in some paler, in some whiter. The seed is contained in large husks; the root is smaller and slender, perishing every year.

Place. They grow in meadows and woods throughout England. Time. They are in flower from Midsummer till August. Government and virtues. They are both under the dominion of the moon The red rattle is reckoned good to heal fistulas and hollow ulcers, and to stay the flux of humours to them, or any other flux of blood, being boiled in red or white wine and drank.

The yellow rattle, or cock's comb, is held to be good for those that are troubled with a cough, or dimness of sight; if the herb, being boiled with beans, and some honey put thereto, be drunk, or dropped into the eyes, it draweth forth any skin, dimness, or film, from the sight, without trouble or pain.