The Kindes.
There be likewise sundry sorts of Lillies, which we do comprehend under one generall name in English, Red Lillies, whereof some are of our owne countries growing, and others of beyond the seas, the which shall be distinguished severally.
The Description.
1 THe gold-red Lilly groweth to the height of two, and somtimes three cubits, and often higher than those of the common white Lilly. The leaves be blacker and narrower, set very thicke about the stalke. The floures in the top be many, from ten to thirty, according to the age of the plant, and fertilitie of the soile, like in forme and greatnesse to those of the white Lilly, but of a white colour tending to a Saffron, sprinckled or poudred with many little blacke specks, like to rude unperfect draughts of certaine letters. The roots be great bulbs, consisting of many cloves, as those of the white Lilly.
The Place.
These Lillies do grow wilde in the plowed fields of Italy and Languedocke, in the mountaines and vallies of Hetruria and those places adjacent. They are common in our English gardens, as also in Germanie.
The Names.
Dagger I have thought good here also to give you that discourse touching the Poets Hyacinth, which being translated out of Dodonoaeus>, was formerly unfitly put into the chapter of Hyacinths, which therefore I there omitted, and have here restored to his due place. Dagger
dagger There is a Lilly which Ovid, Metamorph. lib. 10. calls Hyacinthus, of the boy Hyacinthus, of whose bloud he feigned that this floure sprang, when hee perished as he was playing with Apollo: for whose sake he saith that Apollo did print certain letters and notes of his mourning. These are his words, which lately were elegantly thus rendered in English by Mr Sands:
Behold! the bloud which late the grasse had dy'de
Was now no bloud: from whence a floure full blowne,
Far brighter than the Tyrian skarlet shone:
Which seem'd the same, or did resemble right
A Lilly, changing but the red to white.
Nor so contented, (for the youth receiv'd
That grace from Phoebus) in the leaves he weav'd
The sad impression of his sighs, Ai, Ai,
They now in funerall characters display.
But let us return to the proper names from which we have digressed. Most of the later herbarists call this plant Hyacinthus Poeticus, or the Poets Jacinth. Pausanias in his second booke of Corinthiacks hath made mention of Hyacinthus called of the Hermonians Comosandalos, setting down the ceremonies done by them on their festivall dayes in honor of the goddesse Chthonia. The Priests (saith he) and the magistrats for that yeare do leade the troupe of the pomp; the women & men follow after; the boyes solemnly leade forth the goddesse with a stately shew: they go in white vestures, with garlands on their heads made of a floure which the inhabitants call Comosandalos, which is the blew or sky-coloured Hyacinth, having the marks and letters of mourning as aforesaid.
The Vertues.
The leaves of the herbe applied are good against the stinging of Serpents.
The same boiled and tempered with vineger are good against burnings, and heale green wounds and ulcers.
The root rosted in the embers, and pouned with oile of Roses, cureth burnings.
The same stamped with honey cureth the wounded sinewes and members out of joint. It takes away the wrinkles, and deformities of the face.
The roots boiled in Wine, saith Pliny, causeth the cornes of the feet to fall away within few dayes, with removing the medicine untill it have wrought his effect.