The use of complexion washes was a custom on which Turner was alarmingly severe. There are fewer beauty recipes in his herbal than in any other--only four altogether. "Some weomen," we find, "sprinkle ye floures of cowslip w{ t} whyte wine and after still it and wash their faces w{ t} that water to drive wrinkles away and to make them fayre in the eyes of the worlde rather then in the eyes of God, whom they are not afrayd to offend." And of marygold we learn that "Summe use to make theyr here yelow with the floure of this herbe, not beyng contēt with the naturall colour which God hath geven thē."
There is curiously little folk lore in this herbal, and most of it is guarded by "some do say" or "some hold." Nevertheless, with this qualification, Turner gives us fragments of folk lore not to be found in other herbals. For instance, that nutshells burnt and bound to the back of a child's head will make grey eyes black, and that parsley thrown into fish ponds will heal the sick fishes therein. Again, this is the first herbal in which any account is to be found of the very old custom of curing disease in cattle by boring a hole in the ear and inserting the herb bearfoot.[70]
"They say it should be used thus. The brodest part of the ear must have a round circle made about it w{ t} the blood that rinneth furth with a brasen botken and the same circle must be round lyke unto the letter O, and when this is done without and in the higher part of the ear the halfe of the foresaid circle is to be bored thorowe with the foresaid botken and the roote of the herbe is to be put in at the hole, when y{ t} newe wounde that hath receyued it holdeth it so fast, that it will not let it go furth, then all the mighte and pestilent poison of the disease is brought so into the eare. And whilse the part which is circled aboute dyeth and falleth awaye y{ t} hole beast is saved with the lose of a very small parte."
Another piece of folk lore is remarkable because it is the only instance in an English herbal of a belief in the effect of a human being on a plant: "If ye woulde fayne have very large and greate gourdes, then take sedes that growe there [in the sides].... And let weomen nether touche the yonge gourdes nor loke upon them, for the only touchinge and sighte of weomen kille the yonge gourdes." This belief he quotes from Pliny.