The Kinds.

            Dioscorides affirmeth that Southernwood is of two kinds, the female and the male, which are everywhere known by the names of the greater and of the lesser: besides these there is a third kind, which is of a sweeter smell, and lesser than the others, and also others of a bastard kind.

The Description.

            1. The greater Southernwood by careful manuring doth oftentimes grow up in manner of a shrub, and cometh to be as high as a man, bringing forth stalks an inch thick, or more; out of which spring very many sprigs or branches, set about with leaves diversely jagged and finely indented, somewhat white, and of a certain strong smell: instead of flowers, little small clusters of buttons do hang on the sprigs, from the middle to the very top, of colour yellow, and at the length turn into seed. The root hath divers strings.

            2. The lesser Southernwood groweth low, full of little sprigs of a woody substance: the leaves are long, and smaller than those of the former, not so white: it beareth clustering buttons upon the tops of the stalks: the root is made of many strings.

            3. The third kind is also shorter: the leaves hereof are jagged and deeply cut after the maner of the greater Southernwood, but they are not so white, yet more sweet, wherein they are like unto Lavender Cotton. This kind is very full of seed: the buttons stand alone on the sprigs, even to the very top, and be of a glittering yellow. The root is like to the rest.

            4. The Unsavoury Southernwood groweth flat upon the ground, with broad leaves deeply cut or jagged in the edges like those of the common Mugwort: among which rise up weak and feeble stalks trailing likewise upon the ground, set confusedly here and there with the like leaves that grow next the ground, of a greyish or hoary colour, altogether without smell. The flowers grow alongst the stalks, of a yellowish colour, small and chaffy: the root is tough and woody, with some strings annexed thereto.

Fig. 1580. Wild Southernwood (5)

            5. This Wild Southernwood hath a great long thick root, tough and woody, covered over with a scaly bark like the scaly back of an adder, and of the same colour: from which rise very many leaves like those of Fennel, of an overworn green colour: among which grow small twiggy branches on the tops, and alongst the stalks do grow small clustering flowers of a yellow colour: the whole plant is of a dark colour, as well leaves as stalks, and of a strong unsavoury smell.

The Place.

            Theophrastus saith that Southernwood delighteth to grow in places open to the sun: Dioscorides affirmeth that it groweth in Cappadocia, and Galatia a country in Asia, and in Hierapolis a city in Syria: it is planted in gardens almost everywhere: that of Sicilia and Galatia is most commended of Pliny.

The Time.

            The buttons of Southernwood do flourish and be in their prime in August, and now and then in September.

The Names.

            It is called in Greek Abrotanon: the Latins and apothecaries keep the same name Abrotanum: the Italians and divers Spaniards call it Abrotano: and other Spaniards, Yerva lombriguera: in high Durch, Stabwurtz: in Low Dutch, Averoone, and Avercruyt: the French, Avrone, and Avroesme: the Englishmen, Southernwood: it hath divers bastard names in Dioscorides; the greater kind is Dioscorides his fœmina, or female Southernwood; and Pliny his montanum, or mountain Southernwood: the mountain Southernwood we take for the female, and the champion for the male. There be notwithstanding some that take Lavender Cotton to be the Female Southernwood; grounding thereupon, because it bringeth. forth yellow flowers in the top of the sprigs like cluster buttons: but if they had more diligently pondered Dioscorides his words, they would not have been of this opinion: the lesser Southernwood is mas, the male, and is also Pliny's champion Southernwood; in Latin, campestre. The third, as we have said, is likewise the female, and is commonly called Sweet Southernwood, because it is of a sweeter scent than the rest. Dioscorides seemeth to call this kind Siculum, Sicilian Southernwood.

The Temperature.

            Southernwood is hot and dry in the end of the third degree: it hath also force to distribute and to rarify.

The Virtues.

            A. The tops, flowers, or seed boiled, and stamped raw with water and drunk, helpeth them that cannot take their breaths without holding their necks straight up, and is a remedy for the cramp, and for sinews shrunk and drawn together; for the sciatica also, and for them that can hardly make water; and it is good to bring down the terms.

            B. It killeth worms, and driveth them out: if it be drunk with wine it is a remedy against deadly poisons.

            C. Also it helpeth against the stinging of scorpions and field spiders, but it hurts the stomach.

            D. Stamped and mixed with oil it taketh away the shivering cold that cometh by the ague fits, and it heateth the body if it be anointed therewith before the fits do come.

            E. If it be pounded with barley meal and laid to pushes it taketh them away.

            F. It is good for inflammations of the eyes, with the pulp of a rotted Quince, or with crumbs of bread, and applied poultice-wise.

            G. The ashes of burnt Southernwood, with some kind of oil that is of thin parts, as of Palma Christi, Radish oil, oil of sweet Marjoram, or Organy, cureth the pilling of the hair off the head, and maketh the beard to grow quickly: being strewed about the bed, or a fume made of it upon hot embers, it driveth away serpents: if but a branch be laid under the bed's head they say it provoketh venery.

            H. The seed of Southernwood made into powder, or boiled in wine and drunk, is good against the difficulty and stopping of urine; it expelleth, wasteth, consumeth, and digesteth all cold humours, tough slime and phlegm, which do usually stop the spleen, kidneys, and bladder.

            I. Southernwood drunk in wine is good against all venom and poison.

            K. The leaves of Southernwood boiled in water until they be soft, and stamped with barley meal and barrow's grease unto the form of a plaster, dissolve and waste all cold tumors and swellings, being applied or laid thereto.