John Gerard was a London barber-surgeon and leading horticulturalist. His Herball was the first and most popular herbal ever written in England, and it remained influential until the eighteenth century. Here, he discusses ‘Dog’s Stones’ (the Early-purple orchid, Orchis mascula), observing: ‘It is further reported that in Thessalia the women give the ful and tender root to be drunk in goats milk, to move bodily lust; and the dry to restrain the same’.