The Description.

            1. The plant which we have called Buphthalmum, or Ox-Eye, hath slender stalks growing from the roots, three, four, or more, a foot high, or higher, about which be green leaves finely jagged like to the leaves of Fennel, but much lesser: the flowers in the tops of the stalks are great, much like to Marigolds, of a light yellow colour, with yellow threads in the middle, after which cometh up a little head or knop like to that of Red Maythes before described, called Adonis, consisting of many seeds set together. The roots are slender, and nothing but strings, like to the roots of Black Hellebore, whereof it hath been taken to be a kind.

            2. The Ox-eye which is generally holden to be the true Buphthalmum hath many leaves spread upon the ground, of a light green colour, laid far abroad like wings, consisting of very many fine jags, set upon a tender middle rib: among which spring up divers stalks, stiff and brittle, upon the top whereof do grow fair yellow leaves, set about a head or ball of thrummy matter such as in the middle of Camomile, like a border or pale. The root is tough and thick, with certain strings fastened thereto.

Fig. 1109. White Ox-Eye (3)

            3. The White Ox-Eye hath small upright stalks of a foot high, whereon do grow long leaves: composed of divers small leaves, and those snipped about the edges like the teeth of a saw. The flowers grow on the tops of the stalks, in shape like those of the other Ox-Eye; the middle part whereof is likewise made of a yellow substance, but the pale or border of little leaves, are exceeding white, like those of great Daisy, called Consolida media vulnerariorum. The root is long, creeping alongst under the upper crust of the earth, whereby it greatly increaseth. This by the common consent of all writers that have delivered the history thereof, hath not the pale or out leaves of the flower white, as our author affirms, but of a bright and perfect yellow colour. And this is the Buphthalmum of Tragus, Matthiolus, Lobel, Clusius, and others.

The Place.

            The two first grow of themselves in Germany, Bohemia, and in the gardens of the Low Countries; of the first I have a plant in my garden.

            The last groweth in barren pastures and fields almost everywhere, saith our author, but it is also a stranger with us, for any thing that I know or can learn; neither can I conjecture what our author meant here: first in that he said the flowers of this were white, and secondly in that it grew in barren pastures and fields almost everywhere.

The Time.

            They flower in May and June. The last in August.

The Names.

            Touching the naming of the first of those plants the late writers are of divers opinions: some would have it to be a kind of Veratrum nigrum, Black Hellebore: other some Consiligo, or Bear-Foot; and again, others, Sesamoides; and some, Elleborastrum:  But there be found two kinds of Black Hellebore among the old writers, one with a leaf like unto Laurel, with the fruit of Sesamum: the other with a leaf like that of the Plane tree, with the seed of Carthamus or Bastard Saffron. But it is most evident, that this Buphthalmum, in English, Ox-eye, which in this chapter we in the first place have described, doth agree with neither of these: what form Consiligo is of, we find not among the old writers. Pliny 26, cap. 7, saith, That in his time it was found amongst the Marsi, and was a present remedy for the infirmity of the lungs of swine, and of all kind of cattle, though it were but drawn through the ear. Columella in his 6th book, Chap. 5, doth also say, that in the mountains called Marsi there is very great store thereof, and that it is very helpful to all kind of cattle, and he telleth how and in what manner it must be put into the ear; the roots also of Ox-Eye are said to cure certain infirmities of cattle, if they be put into the slit or bored ear: but it followeth not that for the same reason it should be Consiligo; and it is an ordinary thing to find out plants that are of a like force and quality: for Pliny doth testify in his 25^th book, 5^th chapter, That the roots also of Black Hellebore can do the same: it cureth (saith he) the cough in cattle, if it be drawn through the ear, and taken out again the next day at the same hour: which is likewise most certain by experiments of the countrymen of our age; who do cure the diseases of their cattle with the roots of common Black Hellebore. The roots of White Hellebore also do the like, as Absyrtus, and after him Hierocles doth write: who notwithstanding do not thrust the roots of White Hellebore into the ear, but under the skin of the breast called the dewlap: after which manner also Vegetius Renatus doth use Consiligo, in his first book of the curing of cattle, chapter 12, entitled, Of the Cure of the Infirmities under the Skin: although in his 3^rd book, 2nd Chapter, de Malleo, he writeth, that they also must be fastened through the ear: which things do sufficiently declare, that sundry plants have oftentimes like faculties: and that it doth not at all follow by the same reason, that our Ox-Eye is Consiligo, because it doth cure diseases in cattle as well as Consiligo doth. But if we must conjecture by the faculties, Consiligo then should be White Hellebore: for Vegetius useth Consiligo in the very same manner that Absyrtus and Hierocles do use White Hellebore. This suspicion is made the greater, because it is thought that Vegetius hath taken this manner of curing from the Grecians; for which cause also most do take Consiligo to be nothing else but White Hellebore: the which if it be so, then shall this present Ox-eye much differ from Consiligo; for it is nothing at all like to White Hellebore.

            And that the same is not Sesamoides, either the first or the second, it is better known, than needful to be confuted.

            This same also is unproperly called Helleborastrum; for that may aptly be called Helleborastrum which hath the form and likeness of Hellebore: and this Ox-Eye is nothing at all like to Hellebore. For all which causes it seemeth that none of these names agree with this plant, but only the name Buphthalmum, with whose description which is extant in Dioscorides this plant doth most aptly agree. We take it to be the right Ox-Eye; for Ox-Eye bringeth forth slender soft stalks, and hath leaves of the likeness or similitude of Fennel leaves: the flower is yellow, bigger than that of Camomile, even such an one is this present plant, which doth so exquisitely express that form or likeness of Fennel leaves, both in slenderness and manifold jaggedness of the leaves, as no other little leafed herb can do better; so that without all doubt this plant seemeth to be the true and right Ox-Eye. Ox-Eye is called Cachla, or rather Caltha; but Caltha is Calendula, or Marigold, which we said that our Ox-Eye in flower did nearest represent. There are some that would have Buphthalmum or Ox-Eye to be Chrysanthemum, Yellow Camomile, & say that Dioscorides hath in sundry places, and by divers names entreated of this herb; but if those men had somewhat more diligently weighed Dioscorides his words, they would have been of another mind: for although descriptions of either of them do in many things agree, yet there is no property wanting that may show the plants to differ. The leaves of Chrysanthemum are said to be divided and cut into many fine jags: and the leaves of Buphthalmum to be like the leaves of Fennel: for all things that be finely jagged and cut into many parts have not the likeness of the leaves of Fennel. Moreover, Dioscorides saith, that Chrysanthemum doth bring forth a flower much glittering, but he telleth not that the flower of Buphthalmum or Ox-Eye is much glittering, neither doth the flower of that which we have set down glitter, so that it can or ought not to be said to glitter much. Do not these things declare a manifest difference between Buphthalmum and Chrysanthemum, and confirm that which we have set down to be the true and right Ox-Eye? We are of that mind, let others think as they will: and they that would have Chrysanthemum to be Buphthalmum, let them seek out another, if they deny this to be Ox-Eye: for that which we and others have described for Chrysanthemum cannot be the true Buphthalmum or Ox-Eye: for the leaves of it are not like Fennel, such as those of the true Buphthalmum ought to be.

The Temperature.

            But concerning the faculties Matthiolus saith, that all the physicians and apothecaries in Bohemia, use the roots of this Ox-Eye instead of those of Black Hellebore, namely for diseases in cattle: but he doth not affirm that the roots hereof in medicines are substitutes, or quid pro quo; for, saith he, I do remember that I once saw the roots hereof in a sufficient big quantity put by certain physicians into decoctions which were made to purge by siege, but they purged no more than if they had not been put in at all: which thing maketh it most plain, that it cannot be any of the Hellebores, although it hath been used to be fastened through the ears of cattle for certain diseases, and doth cure them as Hellebore doth. The roots of Gentian do mightily open the orifices of fistulas, which be too narrow, so do the roots of Aristolochia, or Birthwort, or Bryony, or pieces of sponges, which notwithstanding do much differ one from another in other operations: wherefore though the roots of Ox-Eye can do something like unto Black Hellebore, yet for all that they cannot perform all those things that the same can. We know that thorns, stings, splinters of wood, and such like, bring pain, cause inflammations, draw unto them humours from the parts near adjoining, if they be fastened in any part of the body; no part of the body is hurt without pain; the which is increased if any thing be thrust through, or put into the wound: peradventure also if any other thing beside be put into the slit or bored ear, the same effect would follow which happened by the root of this plant thrust in, notwithstanding we here affirm nothing, we only make way for curious men to make more diligent search touching the operations hereof.

            Clusius affirms that when he came to Vienna in Austria, this was vulgarly bought, sold, and used for the true Black Hellebore, the ignorance of the physicians and apothecaries in the knowledge of simples was such to make use of this so far different plant, when as they had the true Black Hellebore growing plentifully wild within seven miles of the city, the which afterward upon his admonition, they made use of.

The Virtues.

            A. Dioscorides saith, that the flowers of Ox-Eye made up in a cerecloth do assuage and waste away cold hard swellings; and it is reported that if they be drunk by and by after bathing, they make them in short time well coloured that have been troubled with the yellow jaundice.