Gerard's Herbal
Fig. 1480. Dill
The Description.
Dill hath a little stalk of a cubit high, round and jointed ; whereupon do grow leaves very finely cut, like to those of Fennel, but much smaller : the flowers be little and yellow, standing in a spoky tuft or roundel: the seed is round, flat and thin : the whole plant is of a strong smell: the root is thready.
The Place.
It is sown in gardens, and is also sometimes found wild.
The Time.
It bringeth forth flowers and seed in August.
The Names.
Dill is called in Latin Anethum, and Anetum: in High Dutch Dyllen: in Low Dutch Dille: in Italian, Anetho: in Spanish, Eneldo: in French, Anet: in English, Dill, and Anet.
The Temperature.
Dill, as Galen saith, is hot in the end of the second degree, and dry in the beginning of the same, or in the end of the first degree.
The Virtues.
A. The decoction of the tops of dried Dill, and likewise of the seed, being drunk, engendereth milk in the breasts of nurses, allayeth gripings and windiness, provoketh urine, increaseth seed, stayeth the yex, hicket, or hicquet, as Dioscorides teacheth.
B. The seed likewise if it be smelled unto stayeth the hicket, especially if it be boiled in wine, but chiefly if it be boiled in wormwood wine, or wine and a few branches of wormwood, and rose leaves, and the stomach bathed therewith.
C. Galen saith, that being burnt and laid upon moist ulcers, it cureth them, especially those in the secret parts, and likewise those sub pręputio,[under the foreskin] though they be old and of long continance.
D. Common oil, in which Dill is boiled or sunned, as we do oil of Roses, doth digest, mitigate pain, procureth sleep, bringeth raw and unconcocted humours to perfect digestion, and provoketh bodily lust.
E. Dill is of great force or efficacy against the suffocation or strangling of the mother, if the woman do receive the fume thereof being boiled in wine, and put under a close stool or hollow seat fit for the purpose.
