Of the gummie Thistle called Euphorbium. Chap. 476.
✻ The description.
1 Euphorbium (whereout that liquor or gum, called in shops Euphorbium, is extracted) hath very great, thicke, grosse, and spreading rootes, dispersed far abroad in the grounde : from which arise long and round leaves, almost like the fruite of a great Cucumber, a foote and a halfe long, ribbed, walled, and furrowed like unto the Melon : these bunched ribs are set or armed for the most part with certaine prickles standing by couples, the point or sharpe end of one garding one way, and the point of another looking directly a cleane contrarie way; these pricks are often found in the gum it selfe, which is brought unto us from Libya and other parts : the leaves heereof beeing planted in the ground, will take roote wel, and bring foorth great increase, which thing I have prooved true in my garden; it hath perished againe at the first approch of winter : the sappe or liquor that is extracted out of this plant, is of the colour and substance of the creame of milke; it burneth the mouth extremely, and the dust or powder doth verie much anoie the head and the parts thereabout, causing great and vehement sneezing, and stuffing of all the pores.
2 This rare plant called Anteuphorbium, hath a very thicke, grosse, and farre spreading roote, very like unto Euphorbium : from which riseth up many round, greene, and fieshie stalkes, whereupon do grow thicke laeves like Purslane, but longer, thicker, and fatter : the whole plant is full of cold and clammie moisture, which represseth the scorching force of Euphorbium : and it wholie seemth at the first viewe to be a branch of greene corall.
3 There is not amongst the strange and admirable plants of the worlde any one, that giveth more cause of marvell, or more mooveth the minde to honor and laud the Creator, then this plant, which is called of the Indians in their mother toong Vragua, which is as much to say, a torch, taper, or waxe candle, whereupon it hath been called in Latin of those that understoode the Indian toong, Cereus, or a torch. This admirable plant riseth up to the height of a speare of 20. foote long, although the figure expresse not the same; the reason is, the plant when the figure was drawne came to our viewe broken; it hath divers bunches and valleis, even as it to be seene in the sides of the Cucumber, that is furrowed, guttered, or chamfered alongst the same, & as it were laid by a direct line, with a welt from one end unto to other : upon which welt or line do stande small starlike Thistles, sharpe as needles, & of the colour of those of the Melon Thistle, that is to say, of a browne colour : the trunke or bodie is of the bignes of a mans arme, or a cable rope; from the middle whereof, thrust foorth divers knobbie elbowes of the same substance, & armed with the like prickles that the body or truncke is set withall : the whole plant is thicke, fat, & full of a fleshie substance, having much iuice like that of Aloes, when it is hardned, and of a bitter taste : the flowers or fruit we have no certaine knowledge of, onely faith my author, the flowers growe at the top or extreme point of the plant, after wich followeth fruite in shape like figge, full of a reddish iuice, which being touched, staineth the hand of the colour of red lead : the taste is not unpleasant.
4 There hath beene brought from the Indies a prickley Reede, of the bignes of a good big staffe, of the length of sixe or eight foot, chamfered and furrowed, having upon two sides, growing unto it an uneven membrane or skinnie substance, as it were a iagge or welt set upon the wing of a garment, and upon the point of every cut or iagge armed with most sharpe prickles : the whole truncke is filled full of a spungious substance, such as is in the hollowness of the brier or bramble, amongst the which is to be seene as it were the pillings of Onions, wherein are often found liuing things, that at the first seeme to be dead. The plant is strange, and brought drie from the Indies, therfore we can not write so absolutely heerof as we desire, referring what more might be said to a further consideration, or a second Edition.
✻ The place.
These plants do grow upon the mount Atlas, in Lybia, in most of the Ilands in the Mediterranean Sea, in all the coast of Barbarie especially in Saint Crux neere unto the sea side in a barren place there, called by the English men Halfe Hanneken; which place is appointed for Merchants to conferre of their busines, even as the Exchange in London is: from which place my friend master William Martin, a right expert Chirurgion, did procure me the plants of them for my garden by his servant that he sent thither, as Chirurgion of a ship: since which time I have received plants of divers others that have travailed into other of those parts & coasts: notwithstanding they have not indured the cold of our extreme winter.
✻ The time.
They put foorth their leaves in the spring time, and wither away at the approch of winter.
✻ The names.
It is called both in Greeke and Latine ἐνφόρβιον, Euphorbium: Plinie in one place putteth the herbe in the Feminine gender, naming it Euphorbia: the iuice is called also Euphorbion, and so it is likewise in shops, we are saine in English to use the Latine worde, and to call both the herbe and iuice by the name of Euphorbium: for other name we have none; it may be called in English the gum Thistle.
✻ The temperature.
Euphorbium that is to say, the congealed iuice which we use, is of a very hot, and, as Galen saith, causticke or burning facultie, and of thinne parts: it is also hot and dry in the fourth degree.
✻ The vertues.
A An implaister made with gum Euphorbium, and 12. times so much oile, and a little waxe, is very singular against all aches of the ioints, lamenesse, palsies, cramps, and shrinking of sinewes as Galen in his forth booke de Medicamenti Secundum genera, declareth more at large, which to recite at this present, would but trouble you overmuch.
B Euphorbium mingled with oile of Bay, and Beares grease, cureth the scurfe, & scales of the head, and pildnes, causing the haire to grow again, and other bare places being annointed therewith.
C The same mingled with oile, and applied to the temples of such as are very sleepie, and troubled with the lethargie, doth awaken and quicken their spirits againe.
D If it be appied to the nuque or nape of the necke, it bringeth their speech againe that have lost it by reason of the apoplexie.
E Euphorbium mingled with vineger and applied, taketh away all foule and evill favoured spots, in what part of the bodie soever they be.
F Being mixed with oile of Walflowers, as Mesues saith, and with any other oile or ointments, it quickly heateth such parts as are over colde.
G It is likewise a remedie against old pains in the Huckle bones called the Sciatica.
H Aetius, Paulus, Actuarius and Mesues do report, that if it been inwardly taken, it purgeth by siege water and flegme, but withall it setteth on fire, scorcheth and fretteth, not onely the throte and mouth, but also the stomacke, liver, and the rest of the entrailes, an inflameth the whole bodie.
I For that cause it must not be beaten small, and it is to be tempered with such things as alay the heate and sharpnesse thereof, and make glib and flipperie, of which things there must be such a quantitie as that it may be sufficient to cour all over the superficiall or outward part thereof.
K But it is a hard thing to cover and fold it up, or mixe it, as that it will not burne nor scorch. For though it be tempered with never so much oyle, if it be outwardly applied it raiseth blister in them especially that have soft and tender flesh, and therefore it is better not to tke it inwardly.
L It is troublesome to beate it, unlesse the nostrels of him that beateth in be carefully stopped and desended, for if it happen that the hot sharpenes thereof do enter into the nose, it presently causeth itching, and mooveth neezing, and after that by reason of the extremitie of the heat, it draweth out abundance of flegme an filth, and last of all bloud, not without great quntitie of teares.
M But against the hot sharpnes of Euphorbium it is reported, that the inhabitants are remedied by a certaine herbe which of the effect and contrary faculties is named Anteuphorbium: this plant and the sharpnes of Euphorbium; we have not yet learned that the old writers have set downe anie dote or counterpoison against the poison and venome of Euphorbium.