Of Panick.
The kindes.
There be sundrie sorts of Panick, although of the ancients there hath beene set downe but two, that is to say, the wilde or fielde Panick, and the garden or manured Panick: the which kinds haue degenerate into other sorts differing in stature, as also in colour, according to the soile, climate, or countrey, as shall be declared. | | | |---|---| | 1 Panicum Indicum. | 2 Panicum Cæruleum. | | Indian Panick or Otemeale. | Blew Panicke. |
The description.
1 The Panick of India groweth vp like Millet, whose strawe is knottie or full of ioints; the eares be round, and hanging downward, in which is conteined a white or yellowish seede, like Canarie seede or Alpisti. 2 Blew Panick hath a reddish stalke like to sugar Cane, as tall as a man, thicker than a finger, full of a fungious pith, of a pale colour: the stalks be vpright and knottie, those that grow neere the root are of a purple colour: on the top of the stalke commeth foorth a spike or eare like the water Cats taile, but of a purple colour: the seede is like to naked Otes: the rootes are very small in respect of the other parts of the plant. 4 Panicum Melyne. Germaine Panick. 5 Panicum sylvestre. Wilde Panick. 3 Germaine Panick hath many hairie rootes, growing thicke togither like vnto Wheate, as is all the rest of the plant, as well leaues or blades, as strawe or stalke. The eare groweth at the top single, not vnlike vnto Indian Panick, but much lesser. The graines are conteined in chaffie scales, red declining to tawnie. 4 The wilde Panick groweth vp with long reeden stalks, full of ioints, set with long leaues like those of Sorghum, or Indian Panick: the tuft or featherlike top is like vnto the common reede or the eare of the grasse called Ischæmon or Manna grasse: the roote is small and threddie.
The place.
The kinds of Panick are sowen in the spring, and are ripe in the beginning of August: they prosper best in hot and drie regions, and wither for the most part with much watering, as doth Mill and Turkie Wheate: they quickly come to ripenes, and may be kept good a long time.
The names.
Panick is called in Greeke ἔλυμος : Diocles the phisition nameth it Mel Frugum: the Spaniards Panizo: the Latines Panicum of Pannicula: in English, Indian Otemeale.
The temperature.
Pannickes nourish little, and are driers as Galen saith.
The vertues.
Pannick stoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milke and drunke twise in a day. Bread made of Pannick nourisheth little, and is cold and dry, verie brittle, hauing in it neither clamminesse, nor fatnesse; and therefore it drieth a moist belly.
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.