The Description.

            1. Cerinthe or Honeywort riseth forth of the ground after the sowing of his seed, with two small leaves like those of Basil, between the which leaves cometh forth a thick, fat, smooth, tender, and brittle stalk full of juice, that divideth itself into many other branches; which also are divided in sundry other arms or branches likewise, crambling or leaning toward the ground, being not able without props to sustain itself, by reason of the great weight of leaves, branches, & much juice, the whole plant is surcharged with; upon which branches are placed many thick rough leaves, set with very sharp prickles like the rough skin of a Thornback, of a bluish green colour, spotted very notably with white streaks and spots, like those leaves of the true Pulmonaria or Cowslips of Jerusalem, and in shape like those of the codded Thoroughwax, which leaves do clip or embrace the stalks round about: from the bosom whereof come forth small clusters of flowers, yellow, or purple, and sometimes of both commixed, with a hoop or band of bright purple round about the middle of the yellow flower. The flower is hollow, fashioned like a little box, of the taste of honey when it is sucked, in the hollowness whereof are many small chives or threads; which being past, there succeed round black seed, contained in soft skinny husks. The root perisheth at the first approch of winter.

            2. The leaves of this other great Honeywort (of Clusius' description) are shaped like those last described, but that they are narrower at their setting on, and rougher; the flowers are also yellow of colour, but in shape & magnitude like the former, as it is also in the seeds, & all the other parts thereof.

Fig. 809. Small Honeywort (3)

            3. This other Cerinth or Honeywort hath small, long and slender branches, reeling this way and that way, as not able to sustain itself, very brittle, beset with leaves not much unlike the precedent, but lesser, neither so rough nor spotted, of a bluish green colour. The flowers be small, low, and yellow. The seed is small, round, and as black as jet: the root is white, with some fibres, the which dieth as the former. There is a taste as it were of new wax in the flowers or leaves chewed, as the name doth seem to import.

The Place.

            These plants do not grow wild in England, yet I have them in my garden; the seeds whereof I received from the right honourable the Lord Zouch, my honorable good friend.

The Time.

            They flower from May to August, and perish at the first approach of winter, and must be sown again the next spring.

The Names.

            1. The first of these by Gesner is called Cynoglossa montana and Cerinthe: Dodonæus calleth it Maru herba and Lobel and others, Cerinthe maior.

            2. The second is Cerinthe quorundam maior flavo flore of Clusius.

            3. The third by Dodonæus is called Maru herba minor: and by Clusius, Cerinthe quorundam minor flavo flore: Lobel also calls it Cerinthe minor.

The Temperature and virtues.

            Pliny and Avicenna seem to agree, that these herbs are of a cold complexion; notwithstanding there is not any experiment of their virtues worth the writing.