The Kinds.

            Here be two Chamæleons, and both black: the virtues of their roots do differ, and the roots themselves do differ in kind; as Theophrastus declareth.

The Description.

            1, The leaves of Black Chamæleon are lesser and slenderer than those of the prickly Artichoke, and sprinkled with red spots: the stalk is a cubit high, a finger thick, and somewhat red: it beareth a tufted roundel, in which are slender prickly flowers of a blue colour like the Hyacinth. The root is thick, black without, of a close substance, sometimes eaten away, which being cut is of a yellowish colour within, and being chewed it bites the tongue.

            2. This Black Chamæleon hath many leaves, long and narrow, very full of prickles, of a light green, in a manner white: the stalk is chamfered, a foot high, and divided into branches, on the tops whereof stand purple flowers growing forth of prickly heads: the root is black, and sweet in taste. This is described by Clusius in his Spanish Observations, by the name of Chamæleon salmanticensis, of the place wherein he found it: for he saith that this groweth plentifully in the territory of Salamanca a city in Spain: but it is very manifest that this is not Black Chamæleon neither doth Clusius affirm it.

The Place.

            It is very common, saith Bellonius, in Lemnos, where it beareth a flower of so gallant a blue, as that it seemeth to contend with the sky in beauty; and that the flower of Blue-Bottle being of this colour, seems in comparison of it to be but pale. It groweth also in the fields near Abydum, and hard by the rivers of Hellespont, and in Heraclea in Thracia.

            Chamæleon salmanticensis groweth plentifully in the territory of Salamanca a city in Spain.

The Time.

            They flower and flourish when the other Thistles do.

The Names.

            The Black Chamæleon is called in Latin, Chamæleon niger: of the Romans, Carduus niger, and Vernilago: of some, Crocodilion: in English, the Chamæleon Thistle, or the Thistle that changeth itself into many shapes and colours.

The Temperature and Virtues.

            A. The root hereof, as Galen saith, containeth in it a deadly quality: it is also by Nicander numbered arnong the poisonous herbs, in his book Of Treacles; by Dioscorides, lib. 6. and by Paulus Ægineta: and therefore it is used only outwardly, as for scabs, morphews, tetters, and to be brief for all such things as stand in need of cleansing: moreover, it is mixed with such things as do dissolve and mollify, as Galen saith.