Of Turneps
The Kindes.
THere be sundry sorts of Turneps, some wild, some of the garden; some with round roots globe fashion, other ovall or peare-fashion; and another sort longish or somewhat like a Radish: and of all these there are sundry varieties, some being great, and some of a smaller sort. The Description. 1 THe Turnep hath long rough and greene leaves, cut or snipt about the edges with deepe gashes. The stalke divideth it selfe into sundry branches or armes, bearing at the top small floures of a yellow colour, and sometimes of a light purple: which being past, there do succeed long cods full of small blackish seed like Rape seed: the root is round like a bowle, and sometimes a little stretched out in length, growing very shallow in the ground, and often shewing it selfe above the face of the earth. 2 The small Turnep is like unto the first described, saving that it is lesser. The root is much sweeter in taste, as my selfe have often proved. The Place.
The Turnep prospereth well in a light loose and fat earth, and so loose, as Petrus Crescentius saith, that it may be turned almost into dust. It groweth in fields and divers vineyards and hop-gardens in most places of England. The small Turnep growes by Hackney in a sandy ground, and those that are brought to Cheapside market from that village are the best that ever I tasted. The Time.
Turneps are sown in the spring, as also in the end of August. They floure and seed the second yeare after they are sowne: for those that floure the same yeare that they are sown, are a degenerat kind, called in Cheshire about the Namptwich, Madneps, of their evill qualitie in causing frensie and giddinesse of the brain for a season.
The Names.
The Turnep is called in Latine, Rapum: the name commonly used in shops and every where, is Rapa.
The Temperature and Vertues.
The bulbous or knobbed root, which is properly called Rapum or Turnep, and hath given name to the plant, is many times eaten raw, especially of the poore people in Wales, but most commonly boiled.
The decoction of Turneps is good against the cough and hoarsenesse of the voice, being drunke in the evening with a little sugar, or a quantitie of clarified hony.
Dioscorides writeth, That the Turnep it selfe being stamped, is with good successe applied upon mouldy or kibed heeles, and that also oile of Roses boiled in a hollow turnep under the hot embers doth cure the same. The seed is mixt with Counterpoisons and Treacles, and beeing drunke it is a remedie against poisons.