CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

TURNEP

Description. Turneps are of various kinds, but the most common sort is that which is produced in gardens. The root is long, thick, whate, and furnished with fibres. The first leaves are long, and moderately broad; they are of a pale green, and very deeply divided in an irregular manner on the edges. The stalk is round, firm, upright, of a pale blueish green, and three foot high. The leaves stand irregularly on it, and have no foot-stalks; they are unlike those at the root, broadest at the base, where they surround or inclose the stalk, and smaller to the point; sometimes a little divided, but more frequently only a little waved at the edges. The stalks are terminated by long spikes of four-leaved, bright, yellow flowers, which are succeeded by long slender pods, containing round black seed.

Place. They are sown in fields and gardens.

Time. They flower in April.

Government and virtues. Turneps are deemed under the Moon in Pisces. Turneps are much eaten with all sorts of flesh, in the winter season especially, and are a wholesome nourishing root, though somewhat windy, and are more used in the kitchen than the apothecary's shop; some commend a syrup made with slices of Turneps and brown sugar-candy, stratum super stratum, baked in an oven, as a good pectoral, and helpful for coughs and consumptions.