Of Wall flowers, or yellow stocke Gilloflowers.
The kindes (las clases).
Of Wall flowers there be two kindes, one with single flowers, the other with double, both which are comprehended under the title Viola, deriued of the Greeke worde ιον, ion, which signifieth to go, to be foorth comming, or to come foorth first: they are also called Κειρι, with the pleasantnesse whereof many being delighted, haue giuen it a common name Leucoium, of the whitenesse of the flowers as some haue deemed, but although λευκος, Leucos, signifieth white, it was not bicause the flowers of Violets, or stocke Gilloflowers be white, being euident that those plants do differ in colour, as much as any other plants do; but as I take it of the colour of the leaues, which are for the most part grayish or ashe coloured.
The description (la descripción).
The stalkes of the Wall flower are full of greene branches; the leaues are long, narrow, smooth, slipperie, of a blackish greene colour, and lesser than the leaues of stocke Gilloflowers. The flowers are small, yellow, very sweete of smell, and made of fower little leaues; which being past, there succeede long slender cods, in which is contained long reddish seede. The whole plant is shrubbie, of a wooddie substance, and can easily endure the cold of winter. The double Wall flower hath long leaues greene and smooth, set upon stiffe branches, of a wooddie substance: whereupon do growe most pleasant sweete yellow flowers very double; which plant is so well knowen to all, that it shall be needlesse to spend much time about the description. | 1 Viola lutea. | 2 Viola lutea multiplex. | | :--- | :--- | | Wall flower. | Double Wall flower. | *
The place (el lugar).
The first groweth vpon bricke and stone wals, in the corners of churches euery where among rubbish, and other stonie places. The double Wall flower groweth in most gardens of England: whereof we haue another sort that bringeth his flowers open all at once, whereas the other doth flower by degrees, by meanes whereof it is long in flowring. *
The time (la época).
They flower for the most part all the yeere long, but especially in winter, whereupon the people in Cheshire do call them Winter Gilloflowers. *
The names (los nombres).
The Wall flower is called in Greeke Λευκόϊον: in Latine Viola lutea, and Leucoium luteum: in the Arabicke toong Keyri: in Spanish Violettas Amarilhas: in Dutch Violieren: in French Girofflees iaulnes, Violiers des murailles: in English Wall Gilloflower, Wall flower, Yellow stocke Gilloflower, and Winter Gilloflower. *
The temperature (el temperamento).
All the whole shrub of Wall Gilloflower, as Galen saith, is of a clensing facultie, and of thinne partes. *
The vertues (las virtudes).
Dioscorides writeth that the yellowe Wall flower is most vsed in phisicke, and more then the rest of stocke Gilloflowers, whereof this is holden to be a kinde; which hath mooued me to preferre it vnto the first place. He saith, that the iuice mixed with some vnctious or oilie thing, and boiled to the forme of a lyniment, helpeth the choppes or riftes of the fundament. The herbe boiled with white wine, honie, and a little allom, doth cure hot vlcers, and cankers of the mouth. The leaues stamped with a little baie salt, and bound about the wrests of the hands, taketh awaie the shaking fits of the agewe.
Texto en la ortografía original de Gerard, en inglés de 1597 (la s larga se imprime como s), transcrito por la Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Un capítulo puede continuar en páginas aún no transcritas. Gerard escribía dentro de la medicina galénica; nada de esto es un consejo.