DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0161
KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. 139
both varied and comprehensive. For instance, the decoctions
of “ Blessed Thistle ” or carduus benedictus, either the leaves
ground, or the juice drunk, or the leaves applied outwardly, were
supposed to cure deafness, giddiness, loss of memory, the plague,
ague, swellings or wounds, the bites of serpents, or mad dogs,
and many other complaints. With faith in such a catalogue of
its uses, it is not astonishing that the “Blessed Thistle” was
cultivated in every garden. Another plant that was grown in
all gardens, from the tenth century onwards, was the Mandrake
(Mandragora vernalis and autumnalis). More ridiculous super-
stitions cluster round this plant than are attached to any other.
The roots were supposed to resemble the figure of a man,
and to possess certain mystic powers, therefore spurious roots
were manufactured in this form, and sold as charms. It was said
to shriek when pulled from the ground, and the sound was so
horrible that anyone who heard it went out of his mind, or died.
Shakespeare refers to this superstition :
“ And shrieks like Mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad.”
Romeo and Jziliet, act iv. scene 3.
Not only in the Herbals proper, but in almost every practical
w'ork on gardening, the “ vertues and physic helps” of each
flowTer are enumerated. Thomas Hill devotes four pages to the
“ physicke helps and worthie secrets of the Colewort,” or
cabbage. Even Parkinson finds some medicinal use for nearly
every plant, and only a few “ are wholly spent for their flowers
sake”;* even of tulips he confesses to have “made trial,” and
preserved the bulbs in sugar, and found them pleasant. “ That
the roots are nourishing, there is no doubt .... for divers have
had them sent by their friends from beyond sea, and mistaking
them to be onions, have used them as onions in their pottage
or broth, and never found any cause of mislike, or any sense
of evil quality produced by them, but accounted them sweet
onions.” f
By far the most important introduction into the kitchen garden
was the potato. The generally received idea is that the potato
Larkspur, Paradisus, p. 278.
f Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 77.
both varied and comprehensive. For instance, the decoctions
of “ Blessed Thistle ” or carduus benedictus, either the leaves
ground, or the juice drunk, or the leaves applied outwardly, were
supposed to cure deafness, giddiness, loss of memory, the plague,
ague, swellings or wounds, the bites of serpents, or mad dogs,
and many other complaints. With faith in such a catalogue of
its uses, it is not astonishing that the “Blessed Thistle” was
cultivated in every garden. Another plant that was grown in
all gardens, from the tenth century onwards, was the Mandrake
(Mandragora vernalis and autumnalis). More ridiculous super-
stitions cluster round this plant than are attached to any other.
The roots were supposed to resemble the figure of a man,
and to possess certain mystic powers, therefore spurious roots
were manufactured in this form, and sold as charms. It was said
to shriek when pulled from the ground, and the sound was so
horrible that anyone who heard it went out of his mind, or died.
Shakespeare refers to this superstition :
“ And shrieks like Mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad.”
Romeo and Jziliet, act iv. scene 3.
Not only in the Herbals proper, but in almost every practical
w'ork on gardening, the “ vertues and physic helps” of each
flowTer are enumerated. Thomas Hill devotes four pages to the
“ physicke helps and worthie secrets of the Colewort,” or
cabbage. Even Parkinson finds some medicinal use for nearly
every plant, and only a few “ are wholly spent for their flowers
sake”;* even of tulips he confesses to have “made trial,” and
preserved the bulbs in sugar, and found them pleasant. “ That
the roots are nourishing, there is no doubt .... for divers have
had them sent by their friends from beyond sea, and mistaking
them to be onions, have used them as onions in their pottage
or broth, and never found any cause of mislike, or any sense
of evil quality produced by them, but accounted them sweet
onions.” f
By far the most important introduction into the kitchen garden
was the potato. The generally received idea is that the potato
Larkspur, Paradisus, p. 278.
f Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 77.