and abate all manner of soreness, and so that time a man feeleth
unneth though he be cut, but yet Mandragora must be warily used: for
it slayeth if men take much thereof.... They that dig Mandragora be
busy to beware of contrary winds while they dig, and make three
circles about with a sword, and abide with the digging unto the sun
going down, and trow so to have the herb with the chief virtues.

Papyrus is a manner rush, that is dried to kindle fire and lanterns,
and hight the feeding of fire. And this herb is put to burn in
prickets and in tapers. The rind is stripped off unto the pith, and is
so dried, and a little is left of the rind on the one side, to sustain
the tender pith; and the less is left of the rind, the more clear the
pith burneth in a lamp, and is the sooner kindled. And about Memphis
and in Ind be such great rushes, that they make boats thereof, as the
Gloss saith. And Alexander's Story saith the same.

And of rushes are charters made, in the which were epistles written,
and sent by messengers. Also of rushes be made paniers, boxes, and
cases, and baskets to keep letters and other things in. And also they
make thereof paper to write with.

Pepper is the seed or the fruit of a tree that groweth in the south
side of the hill Caucasus, in the strong heat of the sun. And serpents
keep the woods that pepper groweth in. And when the woods of pepper
are ripe, men of that country set them on fire, and chase away the
serpents by violence of fire. And by such burning the grain of pepper
that was white by kind, is made black and rively.

Woods be wild places, waste and desolate, that many trees grow in
without fruit, and also few having fruit. In these woods be oft wild