Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris, or, A garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed vp / a kitchen garden of all manner of herbes, rootes & fruites for meate or sauce vsed with vs, and, an orchard of all sorte of fruitbearing trees and shrubbes fit for our land, together with the right orderinge, planting & preseruing of them and their vses & vertues

Chap. XLIII.
Linum siluestre & Linaria. Wilde Flaxe and Tode Flaxe.

Although neither the manured Line or Flaxe is a plant fit for our Garden, nor many of the wilde sorts, yet there are some, whose pleasant and delightfull aspect doth entertaine the beholders eyes with good content, and those I will set downe here for varietie, and adioyne vnto them some of the Linarias, or Tode Flaxe, for the neare affinity with them.

1. Linum siluestre flore albo. Wilde Flaxe with a white flower.

This kinde of wilde Flaxe riseth vp with diuers slender branches, a foote high or better, full of leaues, standing without order, being broader and longer then the manured Flaxe: the tops of the branches haue diuers faire white flowers on them, composed of fiue large leaues a peece, with many purple lines or strikes in them: the seede vessell as well as the seede, is like vnto the heads and seede of the manured Flaxe: the rootes are white strings, and abide diuers yeares, springing fresh branches and leaues euery yeare, but not vntill the Spring of the yeare.

2. Linum siluestre luteum. Wilde Flaxe with a yellow flower.

This wilde Flaxe doth so well resemble a kinde of St. Iohns wort, that it will soone deceiue one that doth not aduisedly regard it: For it hath many reddish stalkes, and small leaues on them, broader then the former wilde Flaxe, but not so long, which are well stored with yellow flowers, as large as the former, made of fiue leaues a peece, which being past, there come small flattish heads, containing blackish seede, but not shining like the former: the rootes hereof dye not euery yeare, as many other of the wilde kindes doe, but abide and shoote out euery yeare.

3. Linaria purpurea. Purple Tode Flaxe.

This purple Tode Flaxe hath diuers thicke, small, long, and somewhat narrowish leaues, snipt about the edges, of a whitish greene colour, from among which rise vp diuers stalkes, replenished at the tops with many small flowers, standing together one aboue another spike-fashion, which are small and somewhat sweete, while they are fresh, fashioned somewhat like the common Tode flaxe that groweth wilde abroad almost euery where, but much smaller, with a gaping mouth, but without any crooked spurre behinde, like vnto them, sometimes of a sad purple neare vnto a Violet, and sometimes of a paler blew colour, hauing a yellow spot in the middle or gaping place: after the flowers are past, there come small, hard, round heads, wherein are contained small, flat, and grayish seede: the roote is small and perisheth for the most part euery yeare, and will spring againe of it owne sowing, if it be suffered to shed it selfe, yet some hard Winters haue killed the seede it should seeme, in that sometimes it faileth to spring againe, and therefore had neede to be sowne anew in the Spring.

4. Linaria purpurea odorata. Sweete purple Tode Flaxe.

The lower leaues of this purple Tode Flaxe are nothing like any of the rest, but are long and broad, endented about the edges, somewhat resembling the leaues of the greater wilde white Daisie: the stalke is set at the bottome with such like leaues, but a little more diuided and cut in, and still smaller and smaller vpward, so that the vppermost leaues are very like the common Tode Flaxe, the toppe whereof is branched, hauing diuers small flowers growing along vpon then, in fashion and colour almost like the last described Tode Flaxe, but not altogether so deepe a purple: the heads and seedes are very like the former, but that the seede of this is reddish; the flowers in their naturall hot Countries haue a fine sent, but in these colder, little or none at all: the rootes are small and threadie, and perish after they haue flowred and seeded.

5. Linaria Valentina. Tode Flaxe of Valentia.

This Spanish Tode Flaxe hath three or foure thicker and bigger stalkes then the former, bearing small broad leaues, like vnto the small Centory, two or three together at a ioynt, round about the lower end of the stalkes, but without any order vpwards, at the toppes whereof stand many flowers, in fashion like vnto the common kinde, and almost as large, of a faire yellow colour, but the gaping mouth is downie, and the spurre behinde of a purplish colour.

6. Scoparia siue Beluidere Italorum. Broome Tode Flaxe.

Although this plant haue no beautifull flowers, yet because the greene plant full of leaues is so delightfull to behold, being in Italy and other places planted not onely in their Gardens, but set likewise in pots to furnish their Windowes, and euen with vs also hath growne to be so dainty a greene bush, that I haue thought it worthy to be among the delights of my Garden; the description whereof is as followeth: This pleasant Broome Flaxe riseth vp most vsually with one straight vpright square stalke, three foote and a halfe high or better in our Gardens, branching it selfe out diuers waies, bearing thereon many long narrow leaues, like the Garden Line or Flaxe, very thicke set together, like vnto a bush, or rather like vnto a faire greene Cypresse tree, growing broad belowe, and spire-fashion vpwards, of a very faire greene colour: at the seuerall ioynts of the branches, towards the tops, and among the leaues, there come forth small reddish flowers, not easily seene nor much regarded, being of no beauty, which turne into small round blackish gray seede: the rootes are a number of blackish strings set together, and the whole plant perisheth euery yeare at the first approach of any cold ayre, as if it neuer had beene so faire a greene bush.