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Water Gladiole
Description. This marshy plant has a thick bulbous root, furnished with many short thin fibres, the stem of the plant is round, very upright, and the leaves, which always spring from the root, are long as the whole plant, and like it wonderfully upright. The flowers grow at the top of the stalk in a very stately manner, in the umbellous form, and they are yellow, and sometimes of a greenish white.
Place and Time. We find this stately plant in and by the sides of our watery ditches issuing from the Thames, as well as on the borders of the Thames itself, flowering from July to September: a few years since it was found growing in St George's Fields, but the buildings erecting on those and other parts adjacent to the metropolis, now oblige us to go further in search of this and many other curious plants. In the marshes near Rotherhithe, Deptford, and Blackwall, it is found in great abundance, although very scarce in many parts of Great-Britain.
Government and virtues. Rushes are under Saturn. They are very seldom used in medicine. The flowers are said to be of a cooling nature, and good for hot tumours, inflammations, imposthumes, and green wounds. Fish-ponds, or other-pieces of water in which aquatic plants are desirable, would derive great beauty from the introduction of this elegant native of our isle; the handsome appearance of which did not escape our countryman, old Gerard, who describes it thus: "The water-gladiole, or grassie rush, of all others is the fairest and most pleasant to behold, and serueth very well for the decking and trimming vp of houses, bicause of the beautie and brauerie thereof." That accurate observer, Ray, describes its nine stamina, although in his time they were not viewed in that consequential light which they are in our present systems of Botany. Scarcely any sort of cattle feed on it. It is so hardy as to bear the cold of Lapland.
Authors describe a smaller kind, which can be no other than a local variety; a variety with white flowers is also mentioned, one purely so we never saw: It is not uncommon for the petals to vary in strength of colour, and for some of them to be almost without any. We have had this plant grow well, and even flower, in a border of the garden which was not very moist, and where its root was planted by mistake.
HEMP.
It is so common a plant, and so well known by almost every inhabitant of this kingdom, that a description of it would be altogether superfluous. Time. It is sown about the latter end of March or the beginning of April, and is ripe in August and September.
Government and virtues. It is under the dominion of Saturn. The seed consumeth wind, but if used too liberally it drieth up the natural seed for procreation, though, being boiled in milk, and taken a little at a time, is a good remedy for a dry cough. An emulsion made of the seed is given with good success for the jaundice, especially in the beginning of the disease, if there be no ague accompanying it, for it openeth obstructions of the gall, and causeth digestion of choler; it stayeth lasks and continual fluxes, easeth the cholic, allayeth the troublesome humours of the bowels, and stayeth bleeding at the mouth, nose, or any other place; it will destroy the worms either in man or beast, and, by dropping the juice into the ears, it will kill the worms and bring forth earwigs and other insects gotten therein. The decoction of the root allayeth inflammations, easeth the pains of the gout, the hard tumours or knots in the joints, the pains and shrinking of the sinews, and the pains of the hips. The fresh juice, mixed with a little oil and butter, is an exceeding good cure for burns.