There are divers sorts of sweete garden Marjeroms, some growing onely in the summer; others abiding the winter, and one that groweth wilde: there are some other sorts called Marum, that I have intituled strange Marjerom, all which shall be comprehended in this chapter.
1. Majorana vulgaris aestiva. The ordinary garden sweete Marjerome.
Origanum majorana. -Henriette
Our common sweete Marjerome, that is commonly sowen in our countrey, is a small low herbe, little above a foote high, full of branches, and small whitish and soft roundish leaves on them, smelling very sweete: at the toppes of the branches, stand divers smal long and round scaly heads or knots (and therefore of some called Knotted Marierom) of a whitish greene colour, out of which come here and there small white flowers, and after them small reddish seede: the roote is composed of divers small threads or strings which perisheth with the whole plant every yeere.
2. Majorana tenuifolia. Marjerome gentle.
Origanum majorana. -Henriette
This Marjerome likewise hath divers small branches growing low, and not higher then the former, but having finer and smaller leaves, hoary and soft, but much sweeter; the heads are like unto the former, and so are the flowers and seede, the whole plant being more tender then the former, abiding but a Summer in like manner.
3. Majorana odorata perennis. Winter sweete Marjerom.
Origanum majorana. -Henriette
Wee have also another sweete Marjerom that abideth greene all the winter, if it bee not two violent, growing in the same manner that the first doth, whose leaves are a little, smaller and greener then it, but with the like heads and knots: yet some take this to be but the ordinary Summer Marjerom, which by transplanting is made the more strong, and able to abide the winter.
4. Majorana latifolia sive major Anglica. Winter or pot Marjerom.
Origanum onites? -Henriette
The Winter or pot Marjerom, is a small low bushing herbe growing not much higher, but spreading the branches wider, whereon doe grow broader and greener leaves, set by couples with some smaller leaves likewise at the severall joynts all along the branches; at the toppes whereof growe a number of small purplish white flowers, set together in a tuft, which turne into small & round seede bigger then sweet Marjerome seede; the whole plant is of a small and fine sent, but much inferiour to the other, being also nothing so bitter as the sweete Marjerome, and therby the fitter and the more willingly used for meates, the roote is white and threddye perishing not in the winter, but abideth many yeares, and is to be encreased by slipping rather then sowing the seede.
5. Majorana latifola aurea. Yellow Marjerom.
Origanum onites? -Henriette
This Marjerome is of the same sort with the last described, differing onely in the colour of the leaves, which are in Summer wholy yellow in some, or but a little greene, or parted with yellow and greene, more or lesse as nature listeth to play, the sent being small like the other. We have also an other sort parted with white and greene.
6. Majorana sylvestris. Wilde or field Marjerome.
Origanum vulgare. -Henriette
The wild or fielde Marjerome sendeth forth sundry brownish hard square stalks, with small darke greene leaves set by couples on them, very like those of the sweete Marjerome, but harder and somewhat broader: at the toppes of the stalkes stand tufts of darke or deepe purplish red flowers, which turne into a small seede as the garden Marjerom seede, but blacker; the roote creepeth under ground, and encreaseth much, abiding from yeere to yeere: the whole plant smelleth strong.
7. Marum vulgare. Hearbe Masticke.
Thymus mastichina. -Henriette
The neerer resemblance that this hearbe hath with Marjerome, then with Tyme, (as some have taken it) doth make mee joyne it in the same chapter. It riseth up with greater & more wooddy stalkes then any of the former Marjeroms, being two foote high or better in some places, where it liketh the ground and ayre branching it selfe on all sides towards the upper parts, leaving the stemme bare below if it be old, otherwise being yong, thinly furnishing the branches from the bottome, with small greene leaves bigger then the leaves of any Tyme, and neere the bignes of the leaves of the Marjerome gentle: at the toppes of the branches, stand small flowers on a head, which afterwards turne into a loose tuft, of along white hoarie matter like unto soft down, with some leaves under and about them, which abide not long on the stalkes, but are blowne away with the winde: the seede is so small if it have any, that I have not observed it; the roote is threaddy, the whole plant is of a sweet resinous sent, stronger then Marjerome, and abideth our winters, if it bee carefully planted and regarded afterwardes.
8. Marum supinum. Creeping strang Marjerome:
Teucrium supinum. -Henriette
This strange Marjerome hath divers slender weake stalkes, lying upon the ground, and not standing upright as all the sweete Marjeroms & hearbe Masticke do, therin resembling the wild Tyme rather then Marjerome: the leaves are many and smaller than those of Mother of Time, growing at several distances upon the branches, the flowers are small and purplish, growing at the tops, with leaves among them, the smell whereof is very sweet, and neerest unto Marjerome.
9. Marum Syriacum vel Creticum. The Syrian or Candye Mastick.
Origanum syriacum. -Henriette
This Candye or Syrian Marjerome, hath sundry upright stalkes, not so wooddy as the hearb Mastick, but more tender and slender also, about a foot and a halfe high, whereon are set divers small whitish greene leaves, very like unto the small fine sweet Marjerome, but somewhat rougher up to the very tops, which beare smaller heads or knots then the sweet Marjerome, & white flowers out of them, all the hearbe is of a most fragrant sweet smel, enduring a long time after it hath beene dryed: it is very tender to keepe, and will not endure any of our cold nights that come in August or September, but will quickly perish by them.
The Place and Time.
The sweet Marjeromes grow wild on the mountaines in Spaine; and in other places, and the wild Marjerome, in the borders of corne fields and pastures in sundry places of this Land: the rest are all nursed up in Gardens, their naturall places being not well knowne to us, saving that the last, Lobel saith he had out of Syria, and Prosper Alpinus saith he saw it in Candye. The former seven sorts doe flower in the end of Summer at the furthest, but the two last much later if they come any yeere to flower with us.
The Names.
Marjerome is called in Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉&〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Latine Majorana a majori cura, Sampsuchum also, and Amaracus after the Greeke, of the Arabians Mersenius, or Morsangus, of the Italians Maiorana & Persa, of the Spaniards Moiorana, of the French Mariolaine, of the Germanes Maiaron & Mijoran, of the Dutch Mariolaine, and of us Marjerome, and sweet Marjerome.
Marum is called in Greeke 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and so in Latine: Sunt inquit Poena, qui regi Thraciae cui nomen Maroni esset, Mari herbae appellationem acceptum ferunt: veruntamen potuit etiā ab Amaraco per apocopen dici, utpote cū Amaraci species videatur Marum. The French call it Marone and Mastic, and wee in English Mastick or hearbe Mastick, to make a distinction betweene it and the Mastick Time.
There is much controversie among the moderne Writers about these two hearbes. First whether Sampsuchum and Amaracum should be but one or differing hearbes, and whether our Marjerome should be either: for Galen and Paulus Aegineta in their records and censures of simples, mention them both in severall chapters as differing hearbs, and the suspition hereof is encreased the more, in that Dioscorides himselfe in the composition of his oyntments, maketh Oleum Sampsuchinum and Amaracinum to beare two names, as of two severall simples, although he had said in the chapter of Sampsuchum that the Sicilians and those of Cyzicena call that Amaracus, which those of Cyprus and Egypt call Sampsuchum: but Dioscorides thereby rather sheweth the diversitie of the compositions, and the more excellency of the one from the other, which hee could not doe without diversitie of names, but especially because those of Cyzicen being the chiefest compositors of such oyles, according to their Country name gave it that title:
Some have thought that the Amaracus of Galen is not the same of Dioscorides or Theophrastus, but Parthenium, because Dioscorides saith that by some in his time it was called Amaracus, and the rather because he maketh no mention of Parthenium in the censure of his simples: which how erronious it is, appeareth by Galens owne words of the Oleum Amaracinum, which he calleth a sweet oyle, although not so sweet as Marum; and Dioscorides termeth the smell of Parthenium, subvirosus, having leaves like Coriander:
then whether the Sampsuchum of Dioscorides be our Marjerome, for I finde that Lobel in Adversaria termeth his Marum supinum Sampsuchus forte Dioscorides, and Bauhinus in his Pinax entituleth our ordinary Marum or hearbe Mastick Sampsuchus, sive Marum Mastichen redolens, which two authors thought Marum better to argue with his Sampsuchum then Marjerome, because Dioscorides saith that his Sampsuchum is an haerbe full of branches creeping on the ground with hairy round leaves, like the smaller or finer leafed Calamint, smelling very sweet, and in the composition of the Oleum Sampsuchinum hee adviseth to chuse that Sampsuchum that hath darke greene leaves, neither of which properties are in our Marjerome, nor yet in either of Lobels or Bauhinus their Marum, for although Lobel his Marum supinum creepe on the ground, yet it hath not hairy round leaves but small and long, and Bauhinus his and our Marum creepeth not upon the ground, but standeth upright as Marjerome doth.
The next controversie is, whether the Marum of Dioscorides be answerable to any of those hearbes, are called Marum by any of our moderne Writers: that none of them can be his Marum, this sheweth plainely, that he saith his Marum hath whiter leaves by much then Origanum, and a sweeter flower, and neither the Marum supinum of Lobel, no nor our ordinary Marum hath whitish leaves, or is sweeter then Marjerome.
Clusius therefore thought good to call our ordinary Marum, Tragoriganum rather then Marum, and saith that the seed thereof was sent him by the name of Ambradulcis, and Bauhinus calleth the Marum Syriacum of Lobel Majorana Syriaca, and yet by Bauhinus leave, his Syriacum or Alpinus Creticum commeth neerer to Dioscorides his Marum, then to his Sampsuchum:
most Writers call the sweet Marjeromes Amaracus and Sampsuchus, and some Majorana vulgatior, and the smaller or finer sort tenuior: but I doe not finde that any of them hath made mention of my living sweet sort, although both Camerarius and Bauhinus doe entitle the fourth Majorana perennis, as I doe the next before it, but they adde Sylvestris as Tragus and Gesner doe, and Majorana major, or latifolia as others doe, and Anglica, and Camerarius saith he found a sort thereof about Bononia, going a simpling with Vlisses Aldroandus that had larger and softer leaves:
the sixt is called by many Authors Origanum vulgare, and by others Origanum sylvestre; Lobel, Origanum Onitis majus, and Agrioriganum, Caesalpinus Origanum Italicum; and Gerarde Anglicum: but I as you see number it rather among the Marjeromes, as a wilde kind thereof, as we usually call it in English, and as we doe the fourth and fift, this having leaves like Marjerome, but greener. Pliny as I said before calleth it Cunila bubula, and so doth Dioscorides his also.
But take them here as wee usually call them, the seventh is commonly called Marum by most Authors, yet Dodonaeus, Gesner in hortis, and Camerarius take it to be Clinopodium, Anguilara and Lobel to be Helenium odorum of Theophrastus, Clusius to be Tragoriganum, and Bauhinus to be Sampsuchus Dioscoridis, it is called Mastic both by the French and us.
The eight is called by Lobel, Marum supinum, by Caesalpinus, Marum ex Sicilia allatum, Sampsuchum Dioscoridis, Lobel in Adversarijs calleth it Sampsuchus Dioscorid Amaracus serpens, and Bauhinus, Marum repens verticillatum.
The last is called by Lobel, Marum Syriacum, and so doe after him Dodonaeus and Tabermontanus, but Alpinus calleth it Cretense finding it in Candye, and Bauhinus as I said before, Majorana Syriaca vel Cretica.
The Vertues.
Our common sweet Marjerome is hot and dry in the second degree, and is warming and comfortable in cold diseases of the head, stomack, sinewes, and other parts, taken inwardly, or applyed outwardly:
it digesteth saith Matthiolus, attenuateth, openeth, and strengthneth:
the decoction thereof, being drunke helpeth all the diseases of the chest, which hinder the freenesse of breathing:
it is likewise profitable for the obstructions of the liver and spleene, for it not onely cleareth them of those humours did stuffe them, but strengthneth also and confirmeth the inward parts:
it helpeth the cold griefes of the wombe, and the windines thereof, or in any other inward part;
it helpeth the losse of speech by the resolution of the tongue:
the decoction thereof made with some Pelletory of Spaine, and long pepper, or with a little Acorus or Origanum:
Dioscorides and Galens Sampsuchum is hot and dry in the third degree of thin parts, and of a digesting quality:
the decoction thereof drunke is good for those that are beginning to fall into a dropsie; for those that cannot make their water, and against paines and torments in the belly,
it provoketh also womens courses, if it be put up, being made into a pessary,
and applyed with salt and vinegar, it taketh away the venome of the Scorpions sting:
being made into powder and mixed with hony, it taketh away the black markes of blowes or bruises applied thereto:
it is good for the inflammations and watering of the eyes, being mixed with fine flower, and laid unto them:
the juyce thereof dropped into the eares easeth the paines in them, and helpeth the singing noyse of them:
it is profitably put into those oyntments and salves, that are made to warme and comfort the outward parts or members, the joynts also and sinewes, for swellings also and places out of joynt:
the powder thereof snuffed up into the nose, provoketh neesing, and thereby purgeth the braine, and chewed in the mouth draweth forth much flegme.
The oyle made thereof is very warming and comfortable to the joynts that are stiffe, and the sinewes that are hard, to molifie, supple, and stretch them forth.
Our Marjerome is much used in all odoriferous waters, powders, &c. that are for ornament and delight.
The great or pot Marjerome because it is more mild and lesse bitter than the former, is lesse used in Physicke, but more in meates and brothes to give a rellish unto them, and to helpe to warme a cold stomack, and to expell winde:
the wilde Marjerome is more hot than it, and therefore more effectual to heat, warme, comfort, and strengthen both inwardly and outwardly in all things whereunto it is applyed:
Hearb Mastick is more temperate in heat than Marjerome, and is used by our Apothecaries, in stead of the true Marum (which may well bee admitted untill a truer may be knowne in the composition of the Trochisci Hedychroi which Andromachus thought fit to make a principal part of his Treacle, accounting it effectuall against all poisons, especially of vipers, and other Serpents.
Our daintiest women doe put it to still among their other sweet hearbs, to make sweet washing water.
