aloe

Linseed

Linseed...wasteth away & mollifieth all inflammations or hot swellings, as well inward as outward, if it be boiled with honey, oil, and a little fair water, and made up with clarified honey; it taketh away blemishes of the face, and the Sun burning, being raw and unboiled; and also foul spots, if it be mixed with salt-peter and figs; it causeth rugged and ill favored nails to fall off, mixed with honey and water-Cresses....

Being taken largely with pepper and honey made into a cake, it stirreth up lust....

The seeds stamped with the roots of wild Cucumbers, draweth forth splinters, thorns, broken bones, or any other thing fixed in any part of the body....

The seed of Lin and Fenugreek made into powder, boiled with Mallows, Violet leaves, Smallage, and Chickweed, until the herbs be soft; then stamped in a stone mortar with a little hogs greases to the form of a cataplasm or poultice, appeaseth all manner of pain, softeneth all cold humors or swellings, mollifieth and bringeth to suppuration all apostumes; defends wounded members from swelling and rankling, and when they be already rankled, it taketh the same away, being applied very warm evening and morning.

Gerard, p. 557.

Cataplasm: A poultice: formerly also a plaster. Oxford English Dictionary

Blackwell, A curious herbal, p. 160. Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

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