CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

CHERVIL

Names. It is called cerefolium, mirrhis, and mirrha, chervel, sweet chervil, and sweet cicely.

Description. The garden chervil doth at first somewhat resemble parsley, but after it is better grown, the leaves are much cut in and jagged, resembling hemlock, being a little hairy and of a whitish green colour, sometimes turning reddish in the summer, with the stalks also; it riseth a little above half a foot high, bearing white flowers in spiked tufts, which turn into long and round seeds pointed at the ends, and blackish when they are ripe; of a sweet taste, but no smell, though the herb itself smelleth reasonably well. The root is small and long, and perisheth every year, and must be sown anew in spring, for seed after July for Autumn fails.

The wild chervil groweth two or three feet high, with yellow stalks and joints, set with broader and more hairy leaves, divided into sundry parts, nicked about the edges, and of a dark green colour, which likewise grow reddish with the stalks; at the tops whereof stands small white tufts of flowers, afterwards smaller and longer seed. The root is white, hard, and enduring long. This hath little or no scent.

Place. The first is sown in gardens for a sallad herb; the second groweth wild in many of the meadows of this land, and by the hedge-sides, and on heaths.

Time. They flower and seed early, and thereupon are sown again in the end of summer.

Government and virtues. The garden chervil being eaten, doth moderately warm the stomach, and is a certain remedy (saith Tragus) to dissolve congealed or clotted blood in the body, or that which is clotted by bruises, falls, &c. The juice or distilled water thereof being drank, and the bruised leaves laid to the place, being taken either in meat or drink, it is good to help to provoke urine, or expel the stone in the kidneys, to send down women's courses, and to help the pleurisy and pricking of the sides.

The wild chervil bruised and applied, dissolveth swellings in any part, or the marks of congealed blood by bruises or blows in a little space.