CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

MANURED SERVICE TREE

Description. The common service-tree will, in good ground, grow considerably tall, having a whitish bark, and leaves that differ from those of the former, in not being winged, but somewhat like the maple, though larger and longer, being cut into seven sharp-pointed and serrated segments, the two next the stalk being cut in deepest, of a pale green above, and whitish underneath. The flowers grow in clusters like the former, of a yellowish white colour; and the fruit is set in the same manner on long footstalks, more than as big again as the common haws; they are likewise umbilicated at the top, of a harsh restringent taste when green, but when mellowed, sweet and pleasant, having a stony substance in the middle, including two seeds.

Place. It grows frequently in woods and thickets, and flowers with the former, the fruit being ripe as late.

Government and virtues. It is under the dominion of Saturn. The fruit, as I said, is used for the former, being of the same nature, or rather more restringent and binding, being good for all kinds of fluxes, either of blood or homours; when ripe, it is pleasant and grateful to the stomach, promoting digestion, and preventing the too hasty passage of the food out of the bowels; and is commended in fevers attended with a diarrhœa. If they be dried before they be mellow, and kept all teh year, they may be used in decoctions for the same purpose, either to drink, or to bathe the parts requiring it; and are profitably used in that manner to stay the bleeding of wounds, and of the mouth or nose, to be applied to the forehead, and nape of the neck.