The Description.

            1 Although we bave great plenty of the roots of this Bindweed of Peru, which we usually cally Zarza, or Sarsa parilla, wherewith divers griefs and maladies are cured, and that these roots are very well known to all; yet such hath been the carelessness and small providence of such as have travelled into the Indies, that hitherto not any have given us instruction sufficient, either concerning the leaves, flowers, or fruit: only Monardus saith, that it hath long roots deep thrust into the ground: which is as much as if a great learned man should tell the simple, that our common carrion crow were of a black colour. For who is so blind that seeth the root itself, but can easily affirm the roots to be very long? Notwithstanding, there is in the reports of such as say they have seen the plant itself growing, some contradiction or contrariety: some report that it is a kind of Bindweed, and cspecially one of the Rough Bindweeds: others, as one Mr. White an excellent painter, who carried very many people into Virginia (or after some Norembega) there to inhabit, at which time he did see thereof great plenty, as he himself reported unto me, with this bare description; It is (saith he) the root of a small shrubby tree, or hedge tree, such as are those of our country called Hawthorns, having leaves resembling those of Ivy, but the flowers or fruit he remembereth not. So saith our author, but it is most certain, that Sarsa parilla is the root of the American Smilax aspera, both by consent of most writers, and by the relation of such as have seen it growing there.

            2. The Common Rough Bindweed hath many branches set full of little sharp prickles, with certain clasping tendrils, wherewith it taketh hold upon hedges, shrubs, and whatsoever standeth next unto it, winding and clasping itself about from the bottom to the top; whereon are placed at every joint one leaf like that of Ivy,without corners, sharp pointed, lesser and harder than those of Wood Bindweed, oftentimes marked with little white spots, and guarded or bordered about the edges with crooked prickles. The flowers grow at the top of crooked stalks, of a white colour, and sweet of smell. After cometh the fruit like those of the wild Vine, green at the first, and red when they be ripe, and of a biting taste; wherein is contained a blackish seed in shape like that of hemp. The root is long, somewhat hard, and parted into very many branches.

Fig. 1275. Portuguese Rough Bindweed (3)

            3. This rough Bindweed, found for the most part in the barren mountains of Portugal, differeth not from the precedent in stalks and flowers, but in the leaves and fruit; for the leaves are softer, and less prickly, and sometimes have no prickles at all, and they are also oftentimes much narrower: the fruit or berry is not red but black whenas it cometh to be ripe. The root hereof is one single root of a woody substance, with some fibres annexed thereto, wherein consisteth the difference.

The Place.

            Zarza parilla, or the prickly Bindweed of America, groweth in Peru a province of America, in Virginia, and in divers other places both in the East and West Indies.

            The others grow in rough and untilled places, about the hedges and borders of fields, on mountains and valleys, in Italy, Languedoc in France, Spain, and Germany.

The Time.

            They flower and flourish in the spring: their fruit is ripe in autumn, or a little before.

The Names.

            Gaza (Theophrastus his translator) names it Hedera cilicia; as likewise Pliny, who lib. 24. cap. 10. writeth, that it is also surnamed Nicophoron. Of the Etrurians, Hedera spinosa, and Rubus cervinus: of the Castilians in Spain, as Lacuna saith, Zarza parilla, as though they should say Rubus viticula, or Bramble Little Vine. Parra, as Matthiolus interpreteth it, doth signify a Vine; and Parilla, a small or little Vine.

            Divers affirm that the root (brought out of Peru a province in America) which the later herbarists do call Zarza, is the root of this Bindweed. Garcius Lopius Lusitanus granteth it to be like thereunto, but yet he doth not affirm that it is the same. Plants are oftentimes found to be like one another, which notwithstanding are proved not to be the same by some little difference; the diverse constitution of the weather and of the soil making the difference.

            Zarzaparilla of Peru is a strange plant, and is brought unto us from the countries of the new world called America; and such things as are brought from thence, although they also seem and are like to those that grow in Europe, notwithstanding, they do often differ in virtue and operation: for the diversity of the soil and of the weather doth not only breed an alteration in the form, but doth most of all prevail in making the virtues and qualities greater or lesser. Such things as grow in hot places be of more force, and greater smell; and in cold, of lesser. Some things that are deadly and pernicious, being removed wax mild, and are made wholesome: so in like manner, although Zarza parilla of Peru be like to rough Bindweed, or to Spanish Zarza parilla, notwithstanding by reason of the temperature of the weather, and also through the nature of the soil, it is of a great deal more force than that which groweth either in Spain or in Africa.

            The roots of Zarza parilla of Peru, which are brought alone without the plant, be long and slender, like to the lesser roots of common liquorice, very many oftentimes hanging from one head, in which roots the middle string is hardest. They have little taste, and so small a smell that it is not to be perceived. These are reported to grow in Honduras a province of Peru. They had their name of the likeness of Rough Bindweed, which among the inhabitants it keepeth; signifying in Spanish, a rough or prickly vine, as Garcia Lopius witnesseth.

The Temperature.

            The roots are of temperature hot and dry, and of thin and subtle parts, insomuch as their decoction doth very easily procure sweat.

The Virtues.

            A. The roots are a remedy against long continual pain of the joints and head, and against cold diseases. They are good for all manner of infirmities wherein there is hope of cure by sweating, so that there be no ague joined.

            B. The cure is perfected in few days, if the disease be not old or great; but if it be, it requireth a longer time of cure. The roots here meant are as I take it those of Zarza parilla whereof this Smilax aspera or rough Bindweed is holden for a kind: notwithstanding this of Spain and the other parts of Europe, though it be counted less worth, yet is it commended of Dioscorides and Pliny against poisons. The leaves hereof, saith Dioscorides, are a counterpoison against deadly medicines, whether they be drunk before or after.