Bilberries

Descript : Of these I shall only speak of two sorts which are common in England, viz. the black and red berries. And first of the black.

The small bush creeps along upon the ground, scarcely rising half a yard high, with divers small green leaves set in the green branches, not always one against the other, and a little dented about the edges. At the foot of the leaves come forth small, hollow, pale, bluish coloured flowers, the brims ending at five points, with a reddish thread in the middle, which pass into small round berries of the bigness and colour of juniper berries, but of a purple, sweetish sharp taste; the juice of them gives a purplish colour in their hands and lips that eat and handle them, especially if they break them. The root grows aslope under ground, shooting forth in sundry places as it creeps. This loses its leaves in Winter.

The Red Bilberry, or Whortle-Bush, rises up like the former, having sundry hard leaves, like the Box- tree leaves, green and round pointed, standing on the several branches, at the top whereof only, and not from the sides, as in the former, come forth divers round, reddish, sappy berries, when they are ripe, of a sharp taste. The root runs in the ground, as in the former, but the leaves of this abide all Winter.

Place : The first grows in forests, on the heaths, and such like barren places: the red grows in the north parts of this land, as Lancashire, Yorkshire, &c.

Time : They flower in March and April, and the fruit of the black is ripe in July and August.

Government and virtues : They are under the dominion of Jupiter. It is a pity they are used no more in physic than they are.

The black Bilberries are good in hot agues and to cool the heat of the liver and stomach; they do somewhat bind the belly, and stay vomiting and loathings; the juice of the berries made in a syrup, or the pulp made into a conserve with sugar, is good for the purposes aforesaid, as also for an old cough, or an ulcer in the lungs, or other diseases therein. The Red Worts are more binding, and stops women's courses, spitting of blood, or any other flux of blood or humours, being used as well outwardly as inwardly.