Of Sauorie.
The kindes.
There be two kinds of Sauorie, the one that endureth winter & is of long continuance: the other an annuall or yeerly plant, that perisheth at the time when it hath perfected his seede, and must be sowen againe the next yeere, which we call Sommer Sauorie, or Sauorie of a yeere. There is likewise another, which is a stranger in England, called of L'Obelius Thymbra S. Iuliani, denying it to be the right Satureia, or Sauorie; whether that of L'Obelius, or that we haue in our English gardens be the true Winter Sauorie, is yet disputable: for we thinke that of S. Iulians rocke, to be rather a wilde kinde, than otherwise.
The description.
1 Winter Sauorie is a plant resembling Hyssope, but lower, more tender, and brittle: it bringeth foorth very many branches, compassed on euerie side with narrowe and sharpe pointed leaues, longer than those of Time; among which growe the flowers, from the bottom to the top, out of small huskes, of colour white, tending to a light purple. The roote is hard and wooddie, as is the rest of the plant. 2 Sommer Sauorie groweth up with a slender brittle stalke a foote high, diuided into little branches: the leaues are narrow, lesser than those of Hysope, like the leaues of Winter Sauorie, but thinner set upon the branches. The flowers stand hard to the branches, of a light purple tending to whitenes. The roote is small, full of strings, and perisheth when it hath perfected his seede. This small kinde of Sauorie, which L'Obel hath set foorth under the title Thymbra S. Iuliani, bicause it groweth plentifully upon the rough cliffes of the Tyrrhenian sea in Italie, called Saint Iulians rocke, it hath tender twiggie branches an handfull high, of a wooddie substance, set full of leaues from the bottom to the top, very thicke thrust togither like unto those of Time, sauing that they be smaller and narrower, bringing foorth at the top of the sprigs a round spikie tuft, of small purplish flowers. The whole plant is whitish tending to a bleake colour, and of a hot and sharpe taste, and well smelling. 1 Satureia hortensis. Winter Sauorie. <column-break/> 2 Satureia hortensis æstiua. Sommer Sauorie. <column-break/> 3 Satureia Sancti Iuliani. Rocke Sauorie. <column-break/>
The place.
They are sowen in gardens, and bring foorth their flowers the first yeere of their sowing.
The time.
They flower in Iuly and August.
The names.
Sauorie is called in Greek Θύμβρα, neither hath it any other true name in Latine than Thymbra. The interpreters would haue it called Satureia, wherein they are repugnant to Columella a Latine writer, who doth shew a manifest difference betweene Thymbra and Satureia, in his tenth booke where he writeth, that Sauorie hath the taste of Time, and of Thymbra, or Winter Sauorie. > Et Satureia Thymi referens Thymbræq; saporem. > Sauorie is like Thyme in taste, but not in sent: > So winter Sauorie from it is different. Notwithstanding the contradiction of Columella, or whosoeuer, our Winter Sauorie may be that Thymbra, called also Cunila: in high Dutch Kunel Saturey, and Sadaney; in lowe Dutch Ceulen: which name, as it seemeth, is drawen out of Cunila: in Italian Sauoreggia: in Spanish Axedrea, and Sagorida: in French Sarriette: in English Sauorie, Winter Sauorie, and Sommer Sauorie.
The vertues.
Winter Sauorie is of temperature hot and drie in the third degree, it maketh thinne, cutteth; it clenseth clenfeth the passages, to be briefe, it is altogither of like vertue with Time. Sommer Sauorie is not full so hot as Winter Sauorie, and therefore saith Dioscorides, more fit to be vsed in medicine: it maketh thin, and doth maruellously preuaile against winde: therefore it is with good successe boiled and eaten with beanes, peason, and other windie pulses, yea if it be applied to the belly in a fomentation, it foorthwith helpeth the mother proceeding of winde.
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.