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CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

 

BURDOCK

Names. They are also called personata, bardona, lappa major, great burdock and clot bur. It is so well known even to the little boys who pull off the burs to throw and stick upon each other, that I shall omit writing any description of it.

Place. It grows plentifully by ditches and water sides, and by the highways, almost every where throughout this land.

Government and virtues. Venus challengeth this herb for her own; and by its seed or leaf, you may draw the womb which way you please, either upward by applying it to the crown of the head, in case it falls out, or downward in fits of the mother, by applying it to the soles of the feet; or, if you would stay it in its place, apply it to the navel, and that is likewise a good way to stay the child in it; the bur leaves are cooling, moderately drying, and discussing withal whereby they are good for old ulcers and sores. A drachm of the roots, taken with pine-kernels, helpeth them that spit foul, mattery, and bloody phlegm; the leaves applied to the places troubled with the shrinking of the sinews or arteries, give much ease: the juice of the leaves, or rather the roots themselves, given to drink with old wine, doth wonderfully help the bitings of serpents: and the root beaten with a little salt, and laid on the place, suddenly easeth the pain thereof, and helpseth those that are bit by a mad dog: the juice of the leaves, taken with honey, provoketh urine, and remedieth the pain of the bladder: the seed being drunk in wine forty days together, doth wonderfully help the sciatica: the leaves bruised with the white of an egg, and applied to any place burnt with fire, take out the fire, give sudden ease, and heal it up afterwards. The decoction of them, fomented on any fretting sore or canker, stayeth the corroding quality, which must be afterwards anointed, with an ointment made of the same liquor, hog's-grease, nitre, and vinegar boiled together. Its roots may be preserved with sugar, and taken fasting, or at other times, for the said purposes, and for consumptions, the stone, and the lask: the seed is much commended to break the stone, and causeth it to be expelled by urine and is often used with other seeds, and things to that purpose.


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