The Description.

            Dittany of Crete now called Candy (as Dioscorides saith) is a hot and sharp herb, much like unto Pennyroyal, saving that his leaves be greater and somewhat hoary, covered over with a soft down or white woolly cotton: at the top of the branches grow small spiky ears or scaly aglets, hanging by little small stems, resembling the spiky tufts of Marjoram, of a white colour: amongst which scales there do come forth small flowers like the flowering of wheat, of a red purple colour; which being past, the knop is found full of small seed, contrary to the saying of Dioscorides, who saith, it neither beareth flower nor seed, but myself have seen it bear both in my garden. The whole plant perished in the next winter following.

            2. The second kind called Pseudodictamnum, that is, Bastard Dittany, is much like unto the first saving that it is not sweet of smell, neither doth it bite the tongue, having round soft woolly stalks with knots and joints, and at every knot two leaves somewhat round, soft, woolly, and somewhat bitter: the flowers be of a light purple color compassing the stalks by certain spaces like garlands or whorls, and like the flowers of Pennyroyal. The root is of a woody substance: the whole plant groweth to the height of a cubit and an half, and lasteth long.

The Place.

            The first Dittany cometh from Crete, an island which we call Candy, where it grows naturally: I have sown it in my garden, where it hath flowered and borne seed; but it perished by reason of the injury of our extraordinary cold winter that then happened: nevertheless Dioscorides writeth against all truth, that it neither beareth flowers nor seed: after Theophrastus, Virgl witnesseth that it doth bear flowers in the twelfth of his Æneidos:

Dictamnum genitrix Cretæa carpit ab Ida,
Puberibus caulem foliis, & flore comantem
Purpureo. ----

In English thus:

His mother from the Cretan Ida crops
Dictamnus having soft and tender leaves,
And purple flowers upon the bending tops, &c.
[Virgil, Æneid Bk. 12. l. 412-414]

The Time.

            They flower and flourish in the summer months, their seed is ripe in September.

The Names.

            It is called in Latin, Dictamnus and Dictamnum: of some, Pulegium sylvestre, or wild Pennyroyal: the apothecaries of Germany for Dictamnum with c, in the first syllable, do read Diptamnum with p: but (saith Dodonæus) this error might have been of small importance, if instead of the leaves of Dittany, they did not use the roots of Fraxinella for Dittany, which they falsely call Dictamnum: in English, Dittany, and Dittany of Candy.

            The other is called Pseudodictamnum, or bastard Dittany, of the likeness it hath with Dittany, it skilleth not, though the shops know it not: the reason why let the reader guess.

The Temperature.

            These plants are hot and dry of nature.

The Virtues.

            A. Dittany being taken in drink, or put up in a pessary, or used in a fume, bringeth away dead children: it procureth the monthly terms, and driveth forth the secondine or the afterbirth.

            B. The juice taken with wine is a remedy against the stinging of serpents.

            C. The same is thought to be of so strong an operation, that with the very smell also it driveth away venomous beasts, and doth astonish them.

            D. It is reported likewise that the wild goats and deer in Candy when they be wounded with arrows, do shake them out by eating of this plant, and heal their wounds.

            E. It prevaileth much against all wounds, and especially those made with envenomed weapons, arrows shot out of guns, or such like, and is very profitable for chirurgeons that use the sea and land wars to carry with them and have in readiness: it draweth forth also splinters of wood, bones, or such like.

            F. The bastard Dittany, or Pseudodictamnum, is somewhat like in virtues to the first, but not of so great force, yet it serveth exceeding well for the purposes aforesaid.