Of white Lillies.
The kindes.
There be sundry sorts of Lillies whereof some be wilde, or of the field; others tame, or of the garden; some white; others red; some of our owne countries growing; others from beyond the seas, and bicause of the variable sorts we will deuide them into Chapters, beginning with the two white Lillies, which differ little but in the natiue place of growing. 1 Lilium album. The white Lillie. 2 Lilium album Byzantinum. The white Lillie of Constantinople.
The description.
1 The white Lilly (which in beauty and brauerie excelled Salomon in his greatest roialtie) hath long, smooth, and full bodied leaues, of a grassie or light greene colour. The stalkes be two cubits high, and sometimes more, set or garnished with the like leaues, but growing smaller and smaller toward the top: and vpon them do grow faire white flowers, strong of smell, narrow toward the foote of the stalke whereon they do grow, wide or open in the mouth like a bell. In the middle part of them do grow small tender pointels tipped with a dustie yellow colour, ribbed or chamfered on the backe side, consisting of sixe small leaues thicke and fat. The roote is a bulbe made of scaly cloues, full of tough and clammie iuice wherewith the whole plant doth greatly abound. 2 The white Lillie of Constantinople hath very large and fat leaues like the former, but narrower and lesser. The stalke riseth vp to the height of three cubits, set and garnished with leaues also like the precedent, but much lesser. Which stalke oftentimes doth alter and degenerate from his naturall roundnesse to a flat forme, as it were a lath of wood furrowed or chaneled alongst the same, as it were ribbes or welts. The flowers growe at the top like the former, sauing that the leaues doe turne themselues themselues more backward like the Turkes cap, and beareth many more flowers than our English white Lillie doth.
The place.
Our English white Lillie groweth in most gardens of England. The other groweth naturally in Constantinople and the parts adiacent, from whence we had plants for our English gardens, where they flourish as in their owne countrey.
The time.
The Lillies do flower from May to the end of Iune.
The names.
The Lillie is called in Greeke κρίνον: in Latine Lilium, and also Rosa Iunonis, or Iunos rose, bicause as it is reported, it came vp of her milke that fell vpon the ground. For the Poets faine that Hercules whom Iupiter had by Alcumena, was put to Iunos brests whilest she was a sleepe; & after the sucking, there fell away abundance of milke, and that one part was spilt in the heauens, and the other on the earth, and that of this sprang the Lillie, and the circle in the heauens called Lacteus Circulus, or the milkie way, or otherwise in English Watling streete. D. Basilius in the explication of the 44. Psalme saith, that no hearbe doth so liuely set foorth the frailtie of mans life as the Lillie. It is called in high Dutch Weissz Gilgen: in low Dutch Witte Lilien: in Italian Giglio: in Spanish Lirio blanco: in French Lys blanc: in English the white Lillie. The other is called Lilium album Bizantinum, and also Martagon album Bizantinum: in English the white Lillie of Constantinople: of the Turkes themselves Sultan Zambach, with this addition that it might be the better knowen which kinde of Lillie they ment, when they sent rootes of them into these countries Fa fiori grandi Bianchi, so that Sultan Zambach, Fa fiori grandi Bianchi, is as much to say, Sultans great Lillie with white flowers.
The temperature.
The white Lillie is hot and partly of a subtile substance. But if you regard the roote, it is drie in the first degree, and hot in the second.
The vertues.
The roote of the garden Lillie stamped with honie, gleweth togither sinewes that be cut in sunder. It consumeth or scoureth away the vlcers of the head called Achores, and likewise all scurvinesse of the beard and face. The roote stamped with vineger, the leaues of Henbane, or the meale of barly, cureth the tumors and apostemes of the priuie members. It bringeth the haire againe vpon places which haue beene burned or scalded, if it be mingled with oile or grease, and the place therewith annointed. The same rosted in the embers and stamped with some leuen of rie bread and hogs grease, breaketh pestilentiall botches. It ripeneth apostemes in the flankes comming of venerie and such like. The flowers steeped in oile oliue and shifted two or three times during sommer, and set in the sunne in a strong glasse, is good to soften the hardnesse of sinewes and the hardnes of the matrix. Florentinus scriptor rei rusticæ saith, that if the roote be curiously opened, and therein be put some red, blew or yellow colour that hath no causticke or burning qualitie, will cause the flowers to be of the same colour. Iulius Alexandrinus saith, that the water thereof distilled and drunke, causeth easie and spedie deliuerance, and expelleth the secondine or after burthen in most speedie maner. Casarius Archiater saith, the leaues boiled in sower wine, and deepe and perillous wounds fomented or bathed therewith, doe greatly helpe the working of the other medicines that are applied thereto, comforting the parts adioining, as Galen likewise doth report in his 7. booke de Simpl. med. facultati. The roote of the white Lillie stamped and strained with wine, and giuen to drinke for two or three daies togither, expelleth poison of the pestilence, and causeth it to breake forth in blisters in the outward part of the skin, according to the experience of a learned gentleman master VVilliam Godorus, Sergeant Chirurgion to the Queenes Maiestie: who also hath cured many of the dropsie with the iuice thereof, tempered with barly meale and baked in cakes, and so eaten ordinarily for some month or fixe weekes togither with meate, but no other bread during the time.
Text in Gerard's own spelling (the long s is printed as s), transcribed by the Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). A chapter may run onto pages not yet transcribed. Gerard wrote within Galenic medicine; nothing here is advice.