Chap. LVII.
Parthenium flore pleno.
Double Featherfew.
Featherfew that beareth double flowers is so like vnto the single kinde, that the one cannot be discerned from the other, vntill it come to flower, bearing broad, pale or fresh greene leaues, much cut in on the sides: the stalkes haue such like leaues on them as grow below, from the toppes whereof come forth many double white flowers, like vnto the flowers of the former wilde Pelletory, but larger, and like also vnto the flowers of the double Camomill: the sent whereof is as strong as of the single.
The Place.
We haue this kinde only in Gardens, and as it is thought by others, is peculiar only to our owne Countrey.
The Time.
It flowreth in the end of May, and in Iune and Iuly.
The Names.
It is called diuersly by diuers: Some thinke it to be Parthenium of Dioscorides, but not of Galen; for his Parthenium is a sweet herbe, and is thought to bee Amaracus, that is Marierome: others call it Matricaria; and some Amarella. Gaza translateth it Muraleum, Theoph. lib. 7. cap. 7. It is generally in these parts of our Country called Double Feaverfew, or Featherfew.
The Vertues.
It is answerable to all the properties of the single kinde which is vsed for womens diseases, to procure their monthly courses chiefly. It is held to bee a speciall remedy to helpe those that haue taken Opium too liberally. In Italy some vse to eate the single kinde among other greene herbes, as Camerarius saith, but especially fryed with egges, and so it wholly loseth his strong and bitter taste.