The Description.

            1. Pyrethrum, in English, Pellitory of Spain (by the name whereof some do unproperly call another plant, which is indeed the true Imperatoria, or Masterwort, and not Pellitory) hath great and fat leaves like unto Fennel, trailing upon the ground: amongst which, immediately from the root riseth up a fat great stem, bearing at the top a goodly flower, fashioned like the great single white Daisy, whose bunch or knob in the midst is yellow like that of the Daisy, and bordered about with a pale of small leaves, exceeding white on the upper side, and under of a fair purple colour: the root is long, of the bigness of a finger, very hot, and of a burning taste.

            2. The Wild Pellitory groweth up like unto Wild Chervil, resembling the leaves of Caucalis, of a quick and nipping taste, like the leaves of Dittander, or Pepperwort: the flowers grow at the top of slender stalks in small tufts or spoky umbels, of a white colour: the root is tough, and of the bigness of a little finger, with some threads thereto belonging, and of a quick biting taste.

The Place.

            It groweth in my garden very plentifully.

The Time.

            It flowereth and seedeth in July and August.

The Names.

            Pellitory of Spain is called in Greek Pyrethron, by reason of his hot and fiery taste: in shops also Pyrethrum: in Latin, Salivaris; in Italian Pyrethro: in Spanish, Pelitre: in French, Pied d'Alexandre, that is to say, Pes Alexandrinus, or Alexander's Foot: in High and Low Dutch, Bertram: in English, Pellitory of Spain; and of some, Bertram, after the Dutch name: and this is the right Pyrethrum, or Pellitory of Spain, for that which divers here in England take to be the right, is not so, as I have before noted.

The Temperature and Virtues.

            A. The root of Pellitory of Spain is very hot and burning, by reason whereof it taketh away the cold shivering of agues, that have been of long continuance, and is good for those that are taken with a dead palsy, as Dioscorides writeth.

            B. The same is with good success mixed with antidotes or counterpoisons which serve against if the megrim or continual pain of the head, the dizziness called vertigo, the apoplexy, the falling sickness, the trembling of the sinews, and palsies, for it is a singular good and effectual remedy for all cold and continual infirmities of the head and sinews.

            C. Pyrethrum taken with honey is good against all cold diseases of the brain.

            D. The root chewed in the mouth draweth forth great store of rheum, slime, and filthy waterish humours, and easeth the pain of the teeth, especially if it be stamped with a little Stavesacre, and tied in a small bag, and put into the mouth, and there suffered to remain a certain space.

            E. If it be boiled in vinegar, and kept warm in the mouth it hath same effect.

            F. The oil wherein Pellitory hath been boiled is good to anoint the body to procure sweating, and is excellent good to anoint any part that is bruised and black, although the member be declining to mortification: it is good also for such as are stricken with the palsy.

            G. It is most singular for the surgeons of the hospitals to put into their unctions contra Neapolitanum morbum ["against the Neapolitan disease" i.e. syphilis], and such other diseases that be cousin-germans thereunto.