Of Flowers

CHAPTER II

1. The flower, which is the beauty of the plant, and of none of the least use in physick, grows yearly, and is to be gathered when it is in its prime.

2. As for the time of gathering them, let the planetary hour, and the planet they come of, be observed, as we shewed you in the foregoing chapter: as for the time of the day, let it be when the sun shine upon them, that so they may be dry; for, if you gather either flowers or herbs when they are wet or dewy, they will not keep.

3. Dry them well in the sun, and keep them in papers near the fire, as I shewed you in the foregoing chapter.

4. So long as they retain the colour and smell, they are good; either of them being gone, so is the virtue also.