ene
It makyth ye syth bryth and clene
Wyscely to lokyn on his flowris
Drawyth owt of ye heed wikked hirores [humours].
. . . . . . .
Loke wyscely on golde erly at morwe [morning]
Yat day fro feueres it schall ye borwe:
Ye odour of ye golde is good to smelle."

The instructions for the picking of this joyous flower are given at
length. It must be taken only when the moon is in the sign of the
Virgin, and not when Jupiter is in the ascendant, for then the herb
loses its virtue. And the gatherer, who must be out of deadly sin,
must say three Pater Nosters and three Aves. Amongst its many virtues
we find that it gives the wearer a vision of anyone who has robbed
him. The virtues of vervain also are many; it must be picked "at
Spring of day" in "ye monyth of May." Periwinkle is given its
beautiful old name "joy of the ground" ("men calle it ye Juy of
Grownde") and the description runs thus:--

"Parwynke is an erbe grene of colour
In tyme of May he beryth blo flour,
His stalkys ain [are] so feynt [weak] and feye
Yet never more growyth he heye [high]."

Under sage we find the old proverb--"How can a man die who has sage in
his garden?"

"Why of seknesse deyeth man
Whill sawge [sage] in gardeyn he may han."

A manuscript of exceptional interest is one describing the virtues of
rosemary which was sent by the Countess of Hainault to her daughter
Philippa, Queen of England, and apart from its intrinsic interest it
is important from the fact that it is obviously the original of the
very poetical discourse on rosemary in the first printed English
herbal, commonly known as Banckes's herbal. Moreover, in this MS.
there is recorded an old tradition which I have not found in any other
herbal, but which is still current amongst old-fashioned country folk,
namely, that rosemary "passeth not commonly in highte the highte of
Criste whill he was man on Erthe," and that when the plant attains the
age of thirty-three years it will increase in breadth but not in
height. It is the oldest MS. in which we find many other beliefs about
rosemary that still survive in England. There is a tradition that
Queen Philippa's mother sent the first plants of rosemary to England,
and in a copy of this MS. in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge, the translator, "danyel bain," says that rosemary was
unknown in England until the Countess of Hainault sent some to her
daughter.

The only