Rue (Herb-grace)

Boiled with vinegar it easeth pains, is good against the stitch of the side and chest, and shortness of breath upon a cold cause, and also against the pain in the joints and huckle bones....

The juice of Rue made hot in the rind of a pomegranate and dropped into the ears, takes away the pain of thereof....

Dioscorides saith, That Rue put up in the nostrils stayeth bleeding.

So saith Pliny also: when notwithstanding it is of power rather to procure bleeding, through its sharp and biting quality.

The leaves of Rue beaten and drunk with wine are an antidote against poisons, as Pliny saith.

Dioscorides writeth, That a twelve penny weight of the seed drunk in wine is a counterpoison against deadly medicines or the poison of Wolfs-bane, Ixia, Mushrooms or Toad-stools, the biting of Serpents, the stinging of Scorpions, Bees, hornets, and wasps; and is reported, That if a man be anointed with the juice of Rue, these will not hurt him; and that the serpent is driven away at the smell thereof when it is burned: insomuch that when the Weasel is to fight with the serpent, she armeth her self by eating Rue, against the might of the Serpent.

The leaves of Rue eaten with the kernels of Walnuts or figs stamped together and made into a mass or paste, is good against all evil airs, the pestilence or plague, resists poison and all venom.

Gerard, p. 1257.

Köhler, 24. Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden.