Of wilde water Cresses or Cuckow flowers.
The kindes (las clases).
There be sixe kindes of wilde herbes numbred among the water Cresse which followe in order. | 1 Cardamine. | 2 Cardamine altera. | |----------------|-----------------------| | Cuckowe flowers, | Ladies smockes. | 3 Cardamine Trifolia. Three leafed Ladie smocks. 5 Cardamine lactea. Milke white Ladie smocks. <column-break/> 4 Cardamine latifolia. Great Ladie smocks. 6 Cardamine Alpina. Mountaine Ladie smocks.
The description (la descripción).
The first of the Cuckowe flowers, hath leaues at his springing vp somewhat rounde, and those that spring afterward grow iagged like the leaues of Greeke Valerian: among which riseth vp a stalke a foote long, set with the like leaues, but smaller and more iagged, resembling the leaues of Rocket. The flowers grow at the top in small bundels, white of colour, hollowe in the middle, resembling the white sweete Iohn: after which do come small chaffie huskes, or seede vessels, wherein the seede is conteined. The roote is small and threddie. The second sort of Cuckowe flowers, hath small iagged leaues like those of small water Valerian, agreeing with the former in stalkes and rootes. The flowers be white, ouerdasht or declining to-ward a light carnation. The thirde sort of Cuckowe flowers groweth creeping vpon the ground, with small threddie stalkes, whereon do growe leaues like those of the fielde Clauer, or three leafed grasse: among which do come vp small and tender stalkes two handfuls high, hauing flowers at the top in greater quantitie than any of the rest, of a light fleshie colour dasht with white. The roote is nothing else but as it were a bundell of thrums or threds. The fourth groweth likewise flat vpon the grounde: the leaues growe vpon a slender ribbe, as doth the leaues of Setwall, or rather water Trefoyle, among which do rise vp stalkes a cubite high. The flowers growe at the top, tuft or feather fashion, with a threddie roote like the former. Milke white Ladie smockes hath stalkes rising immediately from the roote, deuiding themselues into sundrie small twiggie and hard braunches, set with leaues like those of Serpillum. The flowers growe at the top, made of fower leaues of a yellowish colour. The roote is tough and wooddy, with some fibres annexed thereto. Mountaine Ladie smockes hath many rootes, nothing else but as it were a bundell of threddy strings, from the which do come foorth three or fower small, weake or tender leaues, made of sundrie small leaues, in shewe like those of small water Valerian. The stalkes bee small and brittle, whereupon do growe small flowers like the first kinde.
The place (el lugar).
These kinds of Cuckowe flowers, grow not so much in waters as they do in moist medowes, and in such places as be verie often ouerflowen not onely with raine water, but also with riuers and ponds. That of the Alpish mountaines is a stranger in these colde countries, the rest are to be found euerie where, as aforesaid, especially in the castle ditch at Clare in Essex.
The time (la época).
These flower for the most part in Aprill and Maie, when the Cuckowe doth begin to sing her pleasant notes without stammering.
The names (los nombres).
They are commonly called in Latine Flos Cuculi, for the reason aforesaid, and also Nasturtium aquaticum minus, or the lesser water Cresse: of some Cardamine, and Sisymbrium alterum of Dioscorides: it is called in the Germaine toong Wildercretsz: in French Passerage sauuage: in English Cuckowe flowers in Northfolke, Caunterburie bels: at the Namptwich in Cheshire where I had my beginning, Ladie smockes, which hath giuen me cause to christen it after my countrie fashion.
The vertues (las virtudes).
These herbes be hot and drie in the second degree: we haue no certaine proofe or authoritie of their vertues, but surely from the kindes of water Cresse they cannot much differ, and therefore to them they may be referred in their vertues.
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.