Fig. 1231. Duck's Meat

The Description.

            Duck's Meat is as it were a certain green moss, with very little round leaves of the bigness of Lentils: out of the midst whereof on the nether side grow down very fine threads like hairs, which are to them instead of roots: it hath neither stalk, flower, nor fruit.

The Place.

            It is found in pounds, lakes, city ditches, and in other standing waters everywhere.

The Time.

            The time of Duck's Meat is known to all.

             The Names.

            Duck's Meat is called in Latin Lens lacustris, Lens aquatilis, and Lens palustra: of the apothecaries it is named Aqua lenticula: in High Dutch, Meerlinsen: in Low Dutch, Waterlinsen, and more usually Enden Gruen, that is to say, Anatum herba, Duck's herb, because Ducks do feed thereon; whereupon also in English it is called Duck's meat: some term it after the Greek Water Lentils; and of others it is named Grains. The Italiaans call it Lent di palude: in French, Lentille d'eau: in Spanish, Lenteias de agua.

The Temperature.

            Galen showth that it is cold and moist after a sort in the second degree.

The Virtues.

            A. Dioscorides saith that it is a remedy against all manner of inflammations, Saint Anthony's fire, and hot agues, if they be either applied alone, or else used with parched barley meal. It also knitteth ruptures in young children.

            B. Duck's Meat mingled with fine wheaten flour and applied, prevaileth much against hot swellings, as phlegmons, erysipelas, and the pains of the joints.

            C. The same doth help the fundament fallen down in young children.