The Description.

            1. The common Reed hath long strawy stalks full of knotty joints or knees like unto corn, whereupon do grow very long rough flaggy leaves. The tuft or spoky ear doth grow at the top of the stalks, brown of colour, barren and without seed, and doth resemble a bush of feathers, which turneth into fine down or cotton which is carried away with the wind. The root is thick, long, and full of strings, dispersing themselves far abroad, whereby it doth greatly increase. Bauhin reports, That he received from D. Cargill a Scottish man a Reed whose leaves were a cubit long, and two or three inches broad, with some nerves apparently running alongst the leaf; these leaves at the top were divided into two three, or four points or parts; as yet I have not observed it. Bauhin terms it Arundo Anglica foliis in summitate dissectis.

            2. The Cyprus Reed is a great Reed having stalks exceeding long, sometimes twenty or thirty foot high, of a woody substance, set with very great leaves like those of Turkey wheat. It carrieth at the top the like downy tuft that the former doth.

Fig. 74. Reeds and Canes (3-6)

            3. These Reeds Lobel hath seen in the Low Countries brought from Constantinople, where, as it is said, the people of that country have procured them from the parts of the Adriatic seaside where they do grow. They are full stuffed with a spongeous substance, so that there is no hollowness in the same, as in Canes & other Reeds, except here and there certain small pores or passages of the bigness of a pin's point; in manner such a pith as is to be found in the Bull-Rush, but more firm and solid.

            4. The second differeth in smallness, and that it will wind open in flakes, otherwise they are very like, and are used for darts, arrows, and such like.

            5. This great sort of Reeds or Canes hath no particular description to answer your expectation, for that as yet there is not any man which hath written thereof, especially of the manner of growing of them, either of his own knowledge or report from others so that it shall suffice that ye know that that great cane is used especially in Constantinople and thereabout, of aged and wealthy citizens, and also Noblemen and such great personages, to make them walking staves of, carving them at the top with sundry scutcheons, and pretty toys of imagery for the beautifying of them; and so they of the better sort do garnish them both with silver and gold, as the figure doth most lively set forth unto you.

            6. In like manner the smaller sort hath not as yet been seen growing of any that have been curious in herbarism, whereby they might set down any certainty thereof; only it hath been used in Constantinople and thereabout, even to this day, to make writing pens withal, for the which it doth very fitly serve, as also to make pipes, and such like things of pleasure.

The Place.

            The common Reed groweth in standing waters and in the edges and borders of rivers almost everywhere: and the other being the angling cane for fishers groweth in Spain and those hot regions.

The Time.

            They flourish and flower from April to the end of September, at what time they are cut down for the use of man, as all do know.

The Names.

            1. The common Reed is called Arundo and Harundo vallatoria: in French Roseau: in Dutch Riet: in Italian Canne a far siepo: of Diosc. Phragmitis: in English, Reed.

            2. Arundo Cypria, or after Lobel, Arundo Donax: in French Canne: in Spanish Cana: in Italian, Calami a far Connochia: In English, Pole reed, and Cane, or Canes.

The Nature.

            Reeds are hot and dry in the second degree, as Galen saith.

The Virtues

            A. The roots of reed stamped small draw forth thorns and splinters fixed in any part of man's body.

            B. The same stamped with vinegar ease all luxations and members out of joint.

            C. And likewise stamped they heal hot and sharp inflammations. The ashes of them mixed with vinegar helpeth the scales and scurf of the head and helpeth the falling of the hair.

            D. The great Reed or Cane is not used in physic, but is esteemed to make flares for Weavers, sundry sorts of pipes, as also to light candles that stand before images, and to make hedges and pales, as we do of laths and such like; and also to make certain divisions in slips to divide the sweet oranges from the sour, the pomecitron and lemons likewise in sunder, and many other purposes.