Cowslips

The wild and garden cowslips, are so well known, that they need no description. They flower in april and may. The flowers are held to be more effectual than the leaves. An ointment being made with them, taketh away spots and wrinkles of the skin, sun-burning and freckles, and increases personal beauty; they remedy diseases of the head arising from heat and wind, as vertigo, phrenzics, falling sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramp, and pains in the nerves. The roots allay pains in the back and bladder, and are a good diuretic. The leaves are good in wounds, and the flowers take away trembling.

Because they strengthen the brain and nerves, and remedy palsies, the greeks gave them the name paralysis. The flowers preserved or conserved, and the size of a nutmeg taken every morning, is a sufficient dose for inward diseases. The ointment is made of the flowers and hog's lard.

Allow 4 pounds of sugar to a gallon of water, and boil and skin it till it be quite clear. Add a gallon of the flowers, picked from the stalks, and the rind of a lemon; and let them boil three minutes. Put into a vessel to cool, and then into the cask; add the juice of the lemon, and a little brandy.