Fig. 865. Kinds of Hyssop (1-4)

The Description.

            1. Dioscorides that gave so many rules for the knowledge of simples, hath left Hyssop altogether without description, as being a plant so well known that it needed none: whose example I follow not only in this plant, but in many others which be common, to avoid tediousness to the reader.

            2. The second kind of Hyssop is like the former, which is our common Hyssop, and differeth in that, that this Hyssop hath his small and slender branches decked with fair red flowers.

            3. The third kind of Hyssop hath leaves, stalks, branches, seed, and root, like the common Hyssop, and differeth in the flowers only, which are as white as snow.

            4. This kind of Hyssop of all the rest is of the greatest beauty; it hath a woody root, tough, and full of strings; from which rise up small, tough, and slender flexible stalks whereupon do grow infinite numbers of small Fennel-like leaves, much resembling those of the smallest grass, of a pleasant sweet smell, & aromatic taste, like unto the rest of the Hyssops but much sweeter; at the top of the stalks do grow amongst the leaves small hollow flowers, of a bluish colour tending to purple. The seeds as yet I could never observe.

Fig. 866. Dwarf Narrow-leaved Hyssop

            5. This differs from the first described, in that the stalks are weaker and shorter, the leaves also narrower, and of a darker colour; the flowers grow after the same manner, & are of the same colour as those of the common kind.

            We have in England in our gardens another kind, whose picture it shall be needless to express, considering that in few words it may be delivered. It is like unto the former, but the leaves are some of them white, some green, as the other; and some green and white mixed and spotted, very goodly to behold.

            Of which kind we have in our gardens moreover another sort, whose leaves are wonderfully curled, rough, and hairy, growing thick thrust together, making as it were a tuft of leaves; in taste and smell, and in all other things like unto the common Hyssop.

            I have likewise in my garden another sort of Hyssop, growing to the form of a small woody shrub, having very fair broad leaves like unto those of Nummularia, or Moneywort, but thicker, fuller of juice, and of a darker green colour; in taste and smell like the common Hyssop.

The Place.

            All these kinds of Hyssop do grow in my garden, and in some others also.

The Time.

            They flower from June to the end of August.

The Names.

            Hyssop is called in Latin Hyssopus: the which name is likewise retained among the Germans, Brabanters, Frenchmen, Italians, and Spaniards. Therefore that shall suffice which hath been set down in their several titles.

            This is by most writers judged to be Hyssop used by the Arabian physicians, but not that of the Greeks, which is nearer to Origanum and Marjoram, as this is to Satureia or Savory.

The Temperature and Virtues.

            A. A decoction of Hyssop made with figs, and gargled in the mouth and throat, ripeneth & breaketh the tumors and impostumes of the mouth and throat, and easeth the difficulty of swallowing, coming by cold rheums.

            B. The same made with figs, water, honey, and rue, and drunken, helpeth the inflammation of the lungs, the old cough, and shortness of breath, and the obstructions or stoppings of the breast.

            C. The syrup or juice of Hyssop taken with the syrup of vinegar, purgeth by stool tough and clammy phlegm, and driveth forth worms if it be eaten with figs.

            D. The distilled water drunk, is good for those diseases before named, but not with that speed and force.