CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

WHEAT

Description. The root is fibrous. The stalk is hollow, jointed, and five feet high; the leaves are grassy, and of a fine green. The ear is long, large, and naked. Of Wheat there are six other kinds cultivated, but as they are well known, their particular descriptions may well be omitted here.

Place. Wheat is sown in fields every where.

Time. It is reaped in July and August.

Government and virtues. It is under Venus. Dioscorides says, that to eat the corn of green Wheat is hurtful to the stomach, and breeds worms. Pliny saith, That the corn of Wheat, roasted upon an iron pan, and eaten, are a present remedy for those that are chilled with cold. The oil pressed from wheat, between two thick plates of iron, or copper heated, heals all tetters and ring-worms, being used warm; and thereby Galen saith, he hath known many to be cured. Matthiolus commends the same to be put into hollow ulcers to heal them up, and it is good for chops in the hands and feet, and to make rugged skin smooth. The green corns of Wheat being chewed, and applied to the place bitten by a mad dog, heals it; slices of Wheat bread soaked in red rose water, and applied to the eyes that are hot, red, and inflamed, or blood-shotten, helps them. Hot bread applied for an hour, at times, for three days together, perfectly heals the kernels in the throat, commonly called the king's evil. The flour of Wheat mixed with the juice of henbane, stays the flux of humours to the joints, being laid thereon. The said meal boiled in vinegar, helps the shrinking of the sinews, saith Pliny; and mixed with vinegar, and boiled together, heals all freckles, spots and pimples on the face. Wheat flour, mixed with the yolk of an egg, honey, and turpentine, doth draw, cleanse and heal any boil, plague, sore, or foul ulcer. The bran of Wheat meal steeped in sharp vinegar, and then bound in a linen cloth, and rubbed on those places that have the scurf, morphew, scabs or leprosy, will take them away, the body being first well purged and prepared. The decoction of the bran of Wheat or barley, is of good use to bathe those places that are bursten by a rupture; and the said bran boiled in good vinegar, and applied to swollen breasts, helps them, and stays all inflammations. It helps also the biting of vipers (which I take to be no other than our English adder) and all other venomous creatures. The leaves of Wheat meal applied with some salt, take away hardness of the skin, warts, and hard knots in the flesh. Starch moistened with rose-water, and laid to the testicles, takes away their itching. Wheat ears put in water, and drank, stays the lask and bloody flux, and are profitably used both inwardly and outwardly for the ruptures in children. Boiled in water unto a thick jelly, and taken, it stays spitting of blood; and boiled with mint and butter, it helps the hoarseness of the throat. Wheat is more generally used, and the best grain we have in England; the bread made of it is more pleasant and nourishing than of any other grain. It is more used for food than medicine: though a poultice made of it, boiled in milk, eases pains, and ripens tumours and imposthumations; and a piece of toasted bread dipped in wine, and applied to the stomach, is good to stay vomiting. Bran is sometimes made use of in cataplasms, and applied hot, in bags, for pains in the sides. There was formerly kept in the shops an emplastrum de crusta panis, but it has been out of use a great while.