Of stinking Gladdon.
The description.
Stinking Gladdon hath long narrow leaues like Iris, but smaller, of a darke greene colour; & being rubbed, of a stinking smell, verie lothsome. The stalks are many in number, & round toward the top, out of which do grow flowers like the Flower de-luce, of an ouerworne blewish colour, declining to grayish, or an ash colour. After the flowers be vaded, there commeth great husks or cods, wherein is contained a red berrie or seede, as big as a pease. The roote is long and threddie.
The place.
Gladdon groweth in many gardens: I haue seene it wilde in many places, as in woods and shadowy places neere the sea.
The time.
The stinking Gladdon flowreth in August: the seede whereof is ripe in September.
The names.
Stinking Gladdon is called in Latine Spatula fœtida: among the apothecaries; it is called also Xyris: in English stinking Gladdon and Spurgewoort.
The temperature.
Gladdon is hot and dry in the third degree.
The vertues.
Such is the facultie of the rootes of all the Irides before named, that in pownding them they prouoke sneesing, and purge the head: generally all the kinds haue an heating, and extenuating quality. They are effectuall against the cough: they easily digest, and consume the grosse humors, which are hardly concocted: they purge choler and tough flegme: they procure sleepe, and helpe the gripings within the bellie. It helpeth the inuoluntarie effusion of naturall seede, as Plinie saith. If it be drunke in wine it prouoketh the termes, and being put in bathes for women to sit ouer, it prouoketh the like effect most exquisitely. The roote put in maner of a pessarie, hastneth the birth. They couer with flesh, bones bones that be bare, being vsed in plaifters. The rootes boiled soft, and vsed plaisterwise, soften all old hard tumors, and the swellings of the throte, called Strumas, that is, the Kings euill; and emplastered with honie, it draweth out broken bones. The meale thereof, healeth all the rifts of the fundament, and the infirmities thereof, called Condilomata: and openeth the Hemorrhoides. The iuice sniffed or drawne vp into the nose, prouoketh sneesing, and draweth downe by the nose great store of filthie excrements, which would fall into other parts, by secret and hidden waies and conueiances of the channels. It profiteth being vsed in a pessarie, to prouoke the termes, and to cause abortion. It preuaileth much against all euill affections of the brest and lungs, being taken in a little sweete wine, with some Spiknard, or in the whaie of milke, with a little Masticke. The roote of Xyris or Gladdon, is of great force against wounds and fractures of the head, for it draweth out all thornes, stubs, pricks and arrow heads, without greefe: which qualitie it affecteth as Galen saith, by reason of his tenuitie of parts, and of his attracting, drying, and digesting facultie, which chiefely consisteth in the seede or fruite, which mightily prouoketh vrine. The roote giuen in wine, called in phisicke Passum, profiteth much against conuulsions, ruptures, the paine of the huckle bones, the strangurie, and the fluxe of the bellie. Where note, that whereas it is said, that the potion aboue named staieth the fluxe of the bellie, hauing a purging qualitie: it must be vnderstood, that it worketh in that maner as Rhabarbarum, & Asarum do, in that they concoct and take away the cause of the laske, otherwise no doubt it mooueth vnto the stoole, as Rheubarb, Asarum, and the other Irides do. Heereof the countrey people of Sommerfetshire haue good experience, who vse to drinke the decoction of this roote. Others do take the infusion thereof in ale and such like, wherewith they purge themselues, and that vnto very good purpose & effect. The seed therof mightily purgeth by vrine as Galen saith, & the cuntry people haue found it true.
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.