The Description.

            1. Narrow-Leaved Hare's Ear is reputed of the late writers to be Bupleurum plinii, from which the name or figure disagreeth not: it hath the long narrow and grassy leaves of Lachryma Iobis, or Gladiolus, streaked or balked as it were with sundry stiff streaks or ribs running along every leaf, as Pliny speaketh of in his Heptapleurum. The stalks are a cubit and a half long, full of knots or knees, very rough or stiff, spreading themselves into many branches: at the tops whereof grow yellow flowers in round tufts or heads like Dill. The root is as big as a finger, and black like Peucedanum, whereunto it is like in taste, smell, and resemblance of seed, which doth the more persuade me that it is the true Bupleurum, whereof I now speak, and by the authority of Nicander and Pliny confirmed.

            2. The second kind called broad-leaved Hare's Ear, in figure, tufts, and flowers, is the very same with the former kind, save that the leaves are broader and stiffer, and more hollow in the midst: which hath caused me to call it Hare's Ear, having in the middle of the leaf some hollowness resembling the same. The root is greater and of a woody substance.

The Place.

            They grow among oaken woods in stony and hard grounds in Narbonne. I have found them growing naturally among the bushes upon Beeston castle in Cheshire.

The Time.

            They flower and bring forth their seed in July and August.

The Names.

            Hare's Ear is called in Latin Bupleurum:: the apothecaries of Montpellier in France do call it Auricula leporis and therefore I term it in English Hare's Ear: Valerius Cordus nameth it Isophyllon, but whence he had that name, it is not known.

The Temperature.

            They are temperate in heat and dryness.

The Virtues.

            A. Hippocrates hath commended it in meats, for salads and pot-herbs: but by the authority of Glaucon and Nicander, it is effectual in medicine, having the taste and savour of Hypericon, serving in the place thereof for wounds, and is taken by Tragus for Panax chironium, who doth reckon it inter herbas vulnerarias. ["amongst the wound-herbs"]

            B. The leaves stamped with salt and wine, and applied, do consume and drive away the swelling of the neck, called the King's evil, and are used against the stone and gravel.