The Description.

Gale is a low and little shrub or woody plant, having many brown & hard branches: whereupon do grow leaves somewhat long, hard, thick, and oleous, of an hot savour or smell somewhat like Myrtus: among the branches come forth other little ones, whereupon do grow many spoky ears or tufts, full of small flowers, and after them succeed great store of square seeds clustering together, of a strong and bitter taste. The root is hard, and of a woody substance.

The Place.

This Gale groweth plentifully in sundry places of England, as in the Isle of Ely, & in the fenny countries thereabouts, whereof there is such store in that country, that they make faggots of it and sheaves, which they call Gale sheaves, to burn and heat their ovens. It groweth also by Colebrooke, and in sundry other places.

The Time.

The Gale flowereth in May and June, and the seed is ripe in August.

The Names.

This tree is called of divers in Latin, Myrtus brabantica, and Pseudomyrsine; and Cordus calleth it Elæagnus, Chamæleagnus and Myrtus brabantica. Elæagnus is described by Theophrastus to be a shrubby plant like unto the Chaste tree, with a soft and downy leaf, and with the flower of the Poplar tree: and that which we have described is no such plant. It hath no name among the old writers for aught we know, unless it be Rhus sylvestris plinii, or Pliny his wild Sumach, of which he hath written in his 24th book, 11th chap. [There is, saith he, a wild herb with short stalks, which is an enemy to poison, and a killer of moths.] It is called in Low Dutch, Gagel: in English, Gale.

The Temperature.

Gale or the wild Myrtle, especially the seed, is hot and dry in the third degree: the leaves be hot and dry, but not so much.

The Virtues.

A. The fruit is troublesome to the brain; being put into beer or ale whilst it is in boiling (which many use to do) it maketh the same heady, fit to make a man quickly drunk.

B. The whole shrub, fruit and all, being laid among clothes, keepeth them from moths and worms.