CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

DRAGONS

They are so well known to everyone that plants them in their gardens, they need no description; if not, let them look down to the lower end of the stalks, and see how like a snake they look.

Government and virtues. The plant is under the dominion of Mars, and therefore it would be a wonder if it should want some obnoxious quality or other: In all herbs of that quality, the safest way is either to distil the herb in an alembick, in what vehicle you please, or else to press out the juice and distil that in a glass still, in sand. It scoureth and cleanseth the internal parts of the body mightily, and it cleareth the external parts also, being externally applied, from freckles, morphew, and sun-burning. Your best way to use it externally, is to mix it with vinegar; an ointment of it is held to be good in wounds and ulcers: it consumes cankers, and that flesh growing in the nostrils, which they call polypus: Also the distilled water being dropped into the eyes, taketh away spots there, or the pin and web, and mends the dimness of sight; it is excellently good against pestilence and poison. Pliny and Dioscorides affirm, that no serpent will meddle with him that carries this herb about him.