Some of them are quite clever, and some of them are terribly wrong about the simplest things. My favorite is old Gerard. He had such a way of putting things.

[Will closes his eyes as he tries to remember the quote exactly.]

The leaves and bark of the ash tree are dry and moderately hot. The juice of the leaves, or the leaves themselves being applied or taken with wine, cure the bitings of vipers, as Dioscorides says. The leaves of this tree are of such great virtue against serpents, as that they dare not so much as touch the morning and evening shadows of the tree, but shun them afar off, as Pliny reports.