The Natural History of Pliny, Volume IV

BOOK XIX. THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF FLAX, AND AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GARDEN PLANTS. — CHAP. 1.—THE NATURE OF FLAX—MARVELLOUS FACTS RELATIVE THERETO. — CHAP. 2. (1.)—HOW FLAX IS SOWN: TWENTY-SEVEN PRINCIPAL VARIETIES OF IT. — CHAP. 3.—THE MODE OF PREPARING FLAX. — CHAP. 4.—LINEN MADE OF ASBESTOS. — CHAP. 5.—AT WHAT PERIOD LINEN WAS FIRST DYED. — CHAP. 6.—AT WHAT PERIOD COLOURED AWNINGS WERE FIRST EMPLOYED IN THE THEATRES. — CHAP. 7. (2.)—THE NATURE OF SPARTUM. — CHAP. 8.—THE MODE OF PREPARING SPARTUM. — CHAP. 9.—AT WHAT PERIOD SPARTUM WAS FIRST EMPLOYED. — CHAP. 10.—THE BULB ERIOPHORUS. — CHAP. 11.—PLANTS WHICH SPRING UP AND GROW WITHOUT A ROOT—PLANTS WHICH GROW, BUT CANNOT BE REPRODUCED FROM SEED. — CHAP. 12. (3.)—MISY; ITON; AND GERANION. — CHAP. 13.—PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE TRUFFLE. — CHAP. 14.—THE PEZICA. — CHAP. 15.—LASERPITIUM, LASER, AND MASPETUM. — CHAP. 16.—MAGYDARIS. — CHAP. 17.—MADDER. — CHAP. 18.—THE RADICULA. — CHAP. 19. (4.)—THE PLEASURES OF THE GARDEN. — CHAP. 20.—THE LAYING OUT OF GARDEN GROUND. — CHAP. 21.—PLANTS OTHER THAN GRAIN AND SHRUBS. — CHAP. 22.—THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TWENTY DIFFERENT KINDS OF PLANTS WHICH GROW IN GARDENS—THE PROPER METHODS TO BE FOLLOWED IN SOWING THEM RESPECTIVELY. — CHAP. 23. (5.)—VEGETABLES OF A CARTILAGINOUS NATURE—CUCUMBERS. PEPONES. — CHAP. 24.—GOURDS. — CHAP. 25.—RAPE. TURNIPS. — CHAP. 26.—RADISHES. — CHAP. 27.—PARSNIPS. — CHAP. 28.—THE SKIRRET. — CHAP. 29.—ELECAMPANE. — CHAP. 30.—BULBS, SQUILLS, AND ARUM. — CHAP. 31. (6.)—THE ROOTS, FLOWERS, AND LEAVES OF ALL THESE PLANTS. GARDEN PLANTS WHICH LOSE THEIR LEAVES. — CHAP. 32.—VARIETIES OF THE ONION. — CHAP. 33.—THE LEEK. — CHAP. 34.—GARLIC. — CHAP. 35. (7.)—THE NUMBER OF DAYS REQUIRED FOR THE RESPECTIVE PLANTS TO MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE ABOVE GROUND. — CHAP. 36.—THE NATURE OF THE VARIOUS SEEDS. — CHAP. 37.—PLANTS OF WHICH THERE IS BUT A SINGLE KIND. PLANTS OF WHICH THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS. — CHAP. 38.—THE NATURE AND VARIETIES OF TWENTY-THREE GARDEN PLANTS. THE LETTUCE; ITS DIFFERENT VARIETIES. — CHAP. 39.—ENDIVE. — CHAP. 40.—BEET: FOUR VARIETIES OF IT. — CHAP. 41—CABBAGES; THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THEM. — CHAP. 42.—WILD AND CULTIVATED ASPARAGUS. — CHAP. 43.—THISTLES. — CHAP. 44.—OTHER PLANTS THAT ARE SOWN IN THE GARDEN: OCIMUM; ROCKET; AND NASTURTIUM. — CHAP. 45.—RUE. — CHAP. 46.—PARSLEY. — CHAP. 47.—MINT. — CHAP. 48.—OLUSATRUM. — CHAP. 49.—THE CARAWAY. — CHAP. 50.—LOVAGE. — CHAP. 51.—DITTANDER. — CHAP. 52.—GITH. — CHAP. 53.—THE POPPY. — CHAP. 54.—OTHER PLANTS WHICH REQUIRE TO BE SOWN AT THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX. — CHAP. 55.—WILD THYME; SISYMBRIUM. — CHAP. 56. (9.)—FOUR KINDS OF FERULACEOUS PLANTS. HEMP. — CHAP. 57. (10.)—THE MALADIES OF GARDEN PLANTS. — CHAP. 58.—THE PROPER REMEDIES FOR THESE MALADIES. HOW ANTS ARE BEST DESTROYED. THE BEST REMEDIES AGAINST CATERPILLARS AND FLIES. — CHAP. 59.—WHAT PLANTS ARE BENEFITTED BY SALT WATER. — CHAP. 60. (12.)—THE PROPER METHOD OF WATERING GARDENS. — CHAP. 61.—THE JUICES AND FLAVOURS OF GARDEN HERBS. — CHAP. 62.—PIPERITIS, LIBANOTIS, AND SMYRNIUM.

We have now imparted a knowledge801 of the constellations and of the seasons, in a method unattended with difficulty for the most ignorant even, and free from every doubt; indeed, to those who understand these matters aright, the face of the earth contributes in no less a degree to a due appreciation of the celestial phænomena, than does the science of astronomy to our improvement in the arts of agriculture.

Many writers have made it their next care to treat of horticulture; but, for my own part, it does not appear to me altogether advisable to pass on immediately to that subject, and, indeed, I am rather surprised to find that some among the learned, who have either sought the pleasures of knowledge in these pursuits, or have grounded their celebrity upon them, have omitted so many particulars in reference thereto; for no mention do we find in their writings of numerous vegetable productions, both wild as well as cultivated, many of which are found, in ordinary life, to be of higher value and of more extended use to man than the cereals even.

To commence, then, with a production which is of an utility that is universally recognized, and is employed not only upon dry land but upon the seas as well, we will turn our attention to flax,802 a plant which is reproduced from seed, but which can neither be classed among the cereals nor yet among the garden plants. What department is there to be found of active life in which flax is not employed? and in what production of the earth are there greater marvels803 revealed to us than in this? To think that here is a plant which brings Egypt in close proximity to Italy!—so much so, in fact, that Galerius804 and Balbillus,805 both of them prefects of Egypt, made the passage to Alexandria from the Straits of Sicily, the one in six days, the other in five! It was only this very last summer, that Valerius Marianus, a senator of prætorian rank, reached Alexandria from Puteoli in eight days, and that, too, with a very moderate breeze all the time! To think that here is a plant which brings Gades, situate near the Pillars of Hercules, within six days of Ostia, Nearer Spain within three, the province of Gallia Narbonensis within two, and Africa within one!—this last passage having been made by C. Flavius, when legatus of Vibius Crispus, the proconsul, and that, too, with but little or no wind to favour his passage!

What audacity in man! What criminal perverseness! thus to sow a thing in the ground for the purpose of catching the winds and the tempests, it being not enough for him, forsooth, to be borne upon the waves alone! Nay, still more than this, sails even that are bigger than the very ships themselves will not suffice for him, and although it takes a whole tree to make a mast to carry the cross-yards, above those cross-yards sails upon sails must still be added, with others swelling at the prow and at the stern as well—so many devices, in fact, to challenge death! Only to think, in fine, that that which moves to and fro, as it were, the various countries of the earth, should spring from a seed so minute, and make its appearance in a stem so fine, so little elevated above the surface of the earth! And then, besides, it is not in all its native strength that it is employed for the purposes of a tissue; no, it must first be rent asunder, and then tawed and beaten, till it is reduced to the softness of wool; indeed, it is only by such violence done to its nature, and prompted by the extreme audacity of man, and806 * * * that it is rendered subservient to his purposes. The inventor of this art has been already mentioned by us on a more appropriate occasion;807 not satisfied that his fellow-men should perish upon land, but anxious that they should meet their end with no sepulchral rites to await them, there are no execrations808 to be found that can equal his demerits!

It is only in the preceding Book809 that I was warning the agriculturist, as he values the grain that is to form our daily sustenance, to be on his guard against the storm and the tempest; and yet, here we have man sowing with his own hand, man racking his invention how best to gather, an object the only aspirations of which upon the deep are the winds of heaven! And then, too, as if to let us understand all the better how highly favoured is this instrument of our punishment, there is no vegetable production that grows with greater facility;810 and, to prove to us that it is in despite of Nature herself that it exists, it has the property of scorching811 the ground where it is grown, and of deteriorating the quality of the very soil itself.

Flax is mostly sown in sandy812 soils, and after a single ploughing only. There is no plant that grows more rapidly813 than this; sown in spring,814 it is pulled up in summer, and is, for this reason as well, productive of considerable injury to the soil.815 There may be some, however, who would forgive Egypt for growing it, as it is by its aid that she imports the merchandize of Arabia and India; but why should the Gallic provinces base any of their reputation upon this product?816 Is it not enough, forsooth, for them to be separated by mountains from the sea, and to have, upon the side on which they are bounded by the Ocean, that void and empty space, as it is called?817 The Cadurci,818 the Caleti, the Ruteni,819 the Bituriges,820 and the Morini,821 those remotest of all mankind, as it is supposed, the whole of the Gallic provinces, in fact, are in the habit of weaving sail-cloth; and at the present day our enemies even, who dwell beyond the Rhenus, have learned to do the same; indeed, there is no tissue that is more beautiful in the eyes of their females than linen. I am here reminded of the fact, that we find it stated by M. Varro, that it is a custom peculiar to the family of the Serrani822 for the women never to wear garments of linen. In Germany it is in caves823 deep under-ground that the linen-weavers ply their work; and the same is the case, too, in the Alian territory, in Italy, between the rivers Padus and Ticinus, the linen of which holds the third rank among the kinds manufactured in Europe, that of Sætabis824 claiming the first, and those of Retovium825 and of Faventia, in the vicinity of Alia, on the Æmilian Way, the second, place in general estimation. The linens of Faventia are preferred for whiteness to those of Alia, which are always un-bleached: those of Retovium are remarkable for their extreme fineness, combined with substance, and are quite equal in whiteness to the linens of Faventia; but they have none of that fine downy nap826 upon them, which is so highly esteemed by some persons, though equally disliked by others. A thread is made, too, from their flax, of considerable strength, smoother and more even, almost, than the spider’s web; when tested with the teeth, it emits a sharp, clear twang; hence it is, that it sells at double the price of the other kinds.

But it is the province of Nearer Spain that produces a linen of the greatest lustre, an advantage which it owes to the waters of a stream which washes the city of Tarraco827 there. The fineness, too, of this linen is quite marvellous, and here it is that the first manufactories of cambric828 were established. From the same province, too, of Spain, the flax of Zoëla829 has of late years been introduced into Italy, and has been found extremely serviceable for the manufacture of hunting-nets. Zoëla is a city of Callæcia, in the vicinity of the Ocean. The flax, too, of Cumæ, in Campania, has its own peculiar merits in the manufacture of nets for fishing and fowling; it is employed, also, for making hunting-nets. For it is from flax, in fact, that we prepare various textures, destined to be no less insidious to the brute creation than they are to ourselves. It is with toils made from the flax of Cumæ that wild boars are taken, the meshes being proof against their bristles,830 equally with the edge of the knife: before now, too, we have seen some of these toils of a fineness so remarkable831 as to allow of being passed through a man’s ring, running ropes and all, a single individual being able to carry an amount of nets sufficient to environ a whole forest—a thing which we know to have been done not long ago by Julius Lupus, who died prefect of Egypt. This, however, is nothing very surprising, but it really is quite wonderful that each of the cords was composed of no less than one hundred and fifty threads. Those, no doubt, will be astonished at this, who are not aware that there is preserved in the Temple of Minerva, at Lindus, in the Isle of Rhodes, the cuirass of a former king of Egypt, Amasis by name, each thread employed in the texture of which is composed of three hundred and sixty-five other threads. Mucianus, who was three times consul, informs us that he saw this curiosity very recently, though there was but little then remaining of it, in consequence of the injury it had experienced at the hands of various persons who had tried to verify the fact. Italy, too, holds the flax of the Peligni in high esteem, though it is only employed by fullers; there is no kind known that is whiter than this, or which bears a closer resemblance to wool. That grown by the Cadurci832 is held in high estimation for making mattresses;833 which, as well as flock,834 are an invention for which we are indebted to the Gauls: the ancient usage of Italy is still kept in remembrance in the word “stramentum,”835 the name given by us to beds stuffed with straw.

The flax of Egypt, though the least strong836 of all as a tissue, is that from which the greatest profits are derived. There are four varieties of it, the Tanitic, the Pelusiac, the Butic, and the Tentyritic—so called from the various districts in which they are respectively grown. The upper part of Egypt, in the vicinity of Arabia, produces a shrub, known by some as “gossypium,”837 but by most persons as “xylon;” hence the name of “xylina,” given to the tissues that are manufactured from it. The shrub is small, and bears a fruit, similar in appearance to a nut with a beard, and containing in the inside a silky substance, the down of which is spun into threads. There is no tissue known, that is superior to those made from this thread, either for whiteness, softness, or dressing: the most esteemed vestments worn by the priests of Egypt are made of it. There is a fourth kind of tissue, known by the name of “othoninum,” which is made from a kind of marsh-reed,838 the panicule only being employed for the purpose. In Asia, again, there is a thread made from broom,839 which is employed in the construction of fishing-nets, being found to be remarkably durable; for the purpose of preparing it, the shrub is steeped in water for ten days. The Æthiopians, also, and the people of India, prepare a kind of thread from a fruit which resembles our apple, and the Arabians, as already840 mentioned, from gourds that grow upon trees.

In our part of the world the ripeness of flax is usually ascertained by two signs, the swelling of the seed, and its assuming a yellowish tint. It is then pulled up by the roots, made up into small sheaves that will just fill the hand, and hung to dry in the sun. It is suspended with the roots upwards the first day, and then for the five following days the heads of the sheaves are placed, reclining one against the other, in such a way that the seed which drops out may fall into the middle. Linseed is employed for various medicinal841 purposes, and it is used by the country-people of Italy beyond the Padus in a certain kind of food, which is remarkable for its sweetness: for this long time past, however, it has only been in general use for sacrifices offered to the divinities. After the wheat harvest is over, the stalks of flax are plunged in water that has been warmed in the sun, and are then submitted to pressure with a weight; for there is nothing known that is more light and buoyant than this. When the outer coat is loosened, it is a sign that the stalks have been sufficiently steeped; after which842 they are again turned with the heads downwards, and left to dry as before in the sun: when thoroughly dried, they are beaten with a tow-mallet on a stone.

The part that lies nearest to the outer coat is known by the name of “stuppa;” it is a flax of inferior quality, and is mostly employed for making the wicks of lamps. This, however, requires to be combed out with iron hatchels, until the whole of the outer skin is removed. The inner part presents numerous varieties of flax, esteemed respectively in proportion to their whiteness and their softness. Spinning flax is held to be an honourable843 employment for men even: the husks, or outer coats, are employed for heating furnaces and ovens. There is a certain amount of skill required in hatchelling flax and dressing it: it is a fair proportion for fifty pounds in the sheaf to yield fifteen pounds of flax combed out. When spun into thread, it is rendered additionally supple by being soaked in water and then beaten out upon a stone; and after it is woven into a tissue, it is again beaten with heavy maces: indeed, the more roughly it is treated the better it is.

There has been invented also a kind of linen which is incombustible by flame. It is generally known as “live”844 linen, and I have seen, before now, napkins845 that were made of it thrown into a blazing fire, in the room where the guests were at table, and after the stains were burnt out, come forth from the flames whiter and cleaner than they could possibly have been rendered by the aid of water. It is from this material that the corpse-cloths of monarchs are made, to ensure the separation of the ashes of the body from those of the pile. This substance grows846 in the deserts of India,847 scorched by the burning rays of the sun: here, where no rain is ever known to fall, and amid multitudes of deadly serpents, it becomes habituated to resist the action of fire. Rarely to be found, it presents considerable difficulties in weaving it into a tissue, in consequence of its shortness; its colour is naturally red, and it only becomes white through the agency of fire. By those who find it, it is sold at prices equal to those given for the finest pearls; by the Greeks it is called “asbestinon,”848 a name which indicates its peculiar properties. Anaxilaüs849 makes a statement to the effect that if a tree is surrounded with linen made of this substance, the noise of the blows given by the axe will be deadened thereby, and that the tree may be cut down without their being heard. For these qualities it is that this linen occupies the very highest rank among all the kinds that are known.

The next rank is accorded to the tissue known as “byssus,”850 an article which is held in the very highest estimation by females, and is produced in the vicinity of Elis, in Achaia.851 I find it stated by some writers that a scruple of this sold formerly at four denarii, the same rate, in fact, as gold. The downy nap of linen, and more particularly that taken from the sails of sea-going ships, is very extensively employed for medicinal purposes, and the ashes of it have the same virtues as spodium.852 Among the poppies, too,853 there is a variety which imparts a remarkable degree of whiteness to fabrics made of linen.

Attempts, too, have even been made to dye linen, and to make it assume the frivolous colours854 of our cloths. This was first done in the fleet of Alexander the Great, while sailing upon the river Indus; for, upon one occasion, during a battle that was being fought, his generals and captains distinguished their vessels by the various tints of their sails, and astounded the people on the shores by giving their many colours to the breeze, as it impelled them on. It was with sails of purple, too, that Cleopatra accompanied M. Antonius to the battle of Actium, and it was by their aid that she took to flight: such being the distinguishing mark of the royal ship.

In more recent855 times linens alone have been employed for the purpose of affording shade in our theatres; Q. Catulus having been the first who applied them to this use, on the occasion of the dedication by him of the Capitol. At a later period, Lentulus Spinther, it is said, was the first to spread awnings of fine linen856 over the theatre, at the celebration of the Games in honour of Apollo. After this, Cæsar, when Dictator, covered with a linen awning the whole of the Roman Forum, as well as the Sacred Way, from his own house as far as the ascent to the Capitol, a sight, it is said, more wonderful even than the show of gladiators which he then exhibited. At a still later period, and upon the occasion of no public games, Marcellus, the son of Octavia, sister of Augustus, during his ædileship, and in the eleventh consulship of his uncle, on the * * * day before the calends of August, covered in the Forum with awnings, his object being to consult the health of those assembled there for the purposes of litigation—a vast change, indeed, from the manners prevalent in the days of Cato the Censor, who expressed a wish that the Forum was paved with nothing else but sharp pointed stones.

Awnings have been lately extended, too, by the aid of ropes, over the amphitheatres of the Emperor Nero, dyed azure, like the heavens, and bespangled all over with stars. Those which are employed by us to cover the inner court857 of our houses are generally red: one reason for employing them is to protect the moss that grows there from the rays858 of the sun. In other respects, white fabrics of linen have always held the ascendancy in public estimation. Linen, too, was highly valued as early as the Trojan war; for why else should it not have figured as much in battles as it did in shipwrecks? Thus Homer,859 we find, bears witness that there were but few among the warriors of those days who fought with cuirasses860 on made of linen; while, as for the rigging of the ships, of which that writer speaks, it is generally supposed by the more learned among the commentators, that it was made of this material; for the word “sparta,”861 which he employs, means nothing more than the produce of a seed.

For the fact is that spartum862 did not begin to be employed till many ages after the time of Homer; indeed, not before the first war that the Carthaginians waged in Spain. This, too, is a plant that grows spontaneously,863 and is incapable of being reproduced by sowing, it being a species of rush, peculiar to a dry, arid soil, a morbid production confined to a single country only; for in reality it is a curse to the soil, as there is nothing whatever that can be sown or grown in its vicinity. There is a kind of spartum grown in Africa,864 of a stunted nature, and quite useless for all practical purposes. It is found in one portion of the province of Carthage865 in Nearer Spain, though not in every part of that; but wherever it is produced, the mountains, even, are covered all over with it.

This material is employed by the country-people there for making866 their beds; with it they kindle their fires also, and prepare their torches; shoes867 also, and garments for the shepherds, are made of it. As a food for animals, it is highly injurious,868 with the sole exception of the tender tops of the shoots. When wanted for other uses, it is pulled up by the roots, with considerable labour; the legs of the persons so employed being protected by boots, and their hands with gloves, the plant being twisted round levers of bone or holm-oak, to get it up with the greater facility. At the present day it is gathered in the winter, even; but this work is done with the least difficulty between the ides of May869 and those of June, that being the period at which it is perfectly ripe.

When taken up it is made into sheaves, and laid in heaps for a couple of days, while it retains its life and freshness; on the third day the sheaves are opened out and spread in the sun to dry, after which it is again made up into sheaves, and placed under cover. It is then put to soak in sea-water, this being the best of all for the purpose, though fresh water will do in case sea-water cannot be procured: this done, it is again dried in the sun, and then moistened afresh. If it is wanted for immediate use, it is put in a tub and steeped in warm water, after which it is placed in an upright position to dry: this being universally admitted to be the most expeditious method of preparing it. To make it ready for use, it requires to be beaten out. Articles made of it are proof, more particularly, against the action of fresh or sea-water; but on dry land, ropes of hemp are generally preferred. Indeed, we find that spartum receives nutriment even from being under water, by way of compensation, as it were, for the thirst it has had to endure upon its native soil.

By nature it is peculiarly well adapted for repairing, and however old the material may be, it unites very well with new. The person, indeed, who is desirous duly to appreciate this marvellous plant, has only to consider the numerous uses to which, in all parts of the world, it is applied: from it are made, the rigging of ships, various appliances of mechanism employed in building, and numerous other articles which supply the wants of daily life. To suffice for all these requirements, we find it growing solely on a tract of ground which lies upon the sea-line of the province of New Carthage, somewhat less than thirty miles in breadth by one hundred in length. The expense precludes its being transported to any very considerable distance.

The Greeks used formerly to employ the rush for making ropes; so, at least, we are led to believe, from the name870 given by them to that plant; and at a later period they made them, it is very clear, from the leaves of the palm, and the inner bark of the linden-tree. It seems to me very probable, too, that it was from them that the Carthaginians borrowed the first hint for applying spartum to a similar purpose.

Theophrastus871 informs us, that there is a kind of bulb, which grows on the banks of rivers, and which encloses between the outer coat and the portion that is eaten a sort of woolly substance, of which felt socks, and other articles of dress, are made; but, in the copies, those at least which have fallen in my way, there is no mention made of the country in which it grows, or of any details in connection with it, beyond the fact that the name given to it is “eriophoron.”872 As to spartum, he makes no873 mention of it whatever, although he has given the history, with the greatest exactness, of all the known plants, three hundred and ninety years before our time—a fact to which I have already874 alluded on other occasions: from this it would appear that spartum has come into use since his day.

As we have here made a beginning of treating of the marvels of Nature, we shall proceed to examine them in detail; and among them the very greatest of all, beyond a doubt, is the fact that any plant should spring up and grow without a root. Such, for instance, is the vegetable production known as the truffle;875 surrounded on every side by earth, it is connected with it by no fibres, not so much as a single thread even, while the spot in which it grows, presents neither protuberance nor cleft to the view. It is found, in fact, in no way adhering to the earth, but enclosed within an outer coat; so much so, indeed, that though we cannot exactly pronounce it to be composed of earth, we must conclude that it is nothing else but a callous876 concretion of the earth.

Truffles generally grow in dry, sandy soils, and spots that are thickly covered with shrubs; in size they are often larger than a quince, and are found to weigh as much877 as a pound. There are two kinds of them, the one full of sand, and consequently injurious to the teeth, the other free from sand and all impurities. They are distinguished also by their colour, which is red or black, and white within; those of Africa878 are the most esteemed. Whether the truffle grows gradually, or whether this blemish of the earth—for it can be looked upon as nothing else—at once assumes the globular form and magnitude which it presents when found; whether, too, it is possessed of vitality or not, are all of them questions, which, in my opinion, are not easy to be solved. It decays and rots in a manner precisely similar to wood.

It is known to me as a fact, that the following circumstance happened to Lartius Licinius, a person of prætorian rank, while minister of justice,879 a few years ago, at Carthage in Spain; upon biting a truffle, he found a denarius inside, which all but broke his fore teeth—an evident proof that the truffle is nothing else but an agglomeration of elementary earth. At all events, it is quite certain that the truffle belongs to those vegetable productions which spring up spontaneously, and are incapable of being reproduced from seed.880

Of a similar nature, too, is the vegetable production known in the province of Cyrenaica by the name of “misy,”881 remarkable for the sweetness of its smell and taste, but more fleshy than the truffle: the same, too, as to the iton882 of the Thracians, and the geranion of the Greeks.

The following peculiarities we find mentioned with reference to the truffle. When there have been showers in autumn, and frequent thunder-storms, truffles are produced, thunder883 contributing more particularly to their developement; they do not, however, last beyond a year, and are considered the most delicate eating when gathered in spring. In some places the formation of them is attributed to water; as at Mytilene,884 for instance, where they are never to be found, it is said, unless the rivers overflow, and bring down the seed from Tiara, that being the name of a place at which they are produced in the greatest abundance. The finest truffles of Asia are those found in the neighbourhood of Lampsacus and Alopeconnesus; the best in Greece are those of the vicinity of Elis.

Belonging to the mushroom genus, also, there is a species, known to the Greeks by the name of “pezica,”885 which grows without either root or stalk.

Next to these, laserpitium886 claims our notice, a very remarkable plant, known to the Greeks by the name of “silphion,” and originally a native of the province of Cyrenaica. The juice of this plant is called “laser,” and it is greatly in vogue for medicinal as well as other purposes, being sold at the same rate as silver. For these many years past, however, it has not been found in Cyrenaica,887 as the farmers of the revenue who hold the lands there on lease, have a notion that it is more profitable to depasture flocks of sheep upon them. Within the memory of the present generation, a single stalk888 is all that has ever been found there, and that was sent as a curiosity to the Emperor Nero. If it so happen that one of the flock, while grazing, meets with a growing shoot889 of it, the fact is easily ascertained by the following signs; the sheep, after eating of it, immediately falls asleep, while the goat is seized with a fit of sneezing.890 For this long time past, there has been no other laser imported into this country, but that produced in either Persis, Media, or Armenia, where it grows in considerable abundance, though much inferior891 to that of Cyrenaica; and even then it is extensively adulterated with gum, sacopenium,892 or pounded beans. I ought the less then to omit the facts, that in the consulship893 of C. Valerius and M. Herennius, there was brought to Rome, from Cyrenæ, for the public service, thirty pounds’ weight of laserpitium, and that the Dictator Cæsar, at the beginning of the Civil War, took from out of the public treasury, besides gold and silver, no less than fifteen hundred pounds of laserpitium.

We find it stated by the most trustworthy among the Greek writers,894 that this plant first made its appearance in the vicinity of the gardens of the Hesperides and the Greater Syrtis, immediately after the earth had been soaked on a sudden by a shower as black as pitch. This took place seven years before the foundation of the city of Cyrenæ, and in the year of Rome 143. The virtues of this remarkable fall of rain extended, it is said, over no less than four thousand stadia of the African territory; and upon this soil laserpitium began universally to grow, a plant that is in general wild and stubborn, and which, if attempted to be cultivated, will leave the spot where it has been sown quite desolate and barren. The roots of it are numerous and thick, the stalk being like that of fennel-giant, and of similar thickness. The leaves of this plant were known as “maspetum,” and bore a considerable resemblance to parsley; the seeds of it were foliaceous, and the plant shed its leaves every year. They used to feed the cattle there upon it; at first it purged them, but afterwards they would grow fat, the flesh being improved in flavour in a most surprising degree. After the fall of the leaf, the people themselves were in the habit of eating895 the stalk, either roasted or boiled: from the drastic effects of this diet the body was purged for the first forty days, all vicious humours being effectually removed.896

The juices of this plant were collected two different ways, either from the root or from the stalk; in consequence of which these two varieties of the juice were known by the distinguishing names of “rhizias” and “caulias,”897 the last being of inferior quality to the other, and very apt to turn putrid. Upon the root there was a black bark, which was extensively employed for the purposes of adulteration. The juice of the plant was received in vessels, and mixed there with a layer of bran; after which, from time to time it was shaken, till it had reached a proper state of maturity; indeed, if this precaution was neglected, it was apt to turn putrid. The signs that it had come to maturity were its colour, its dryness, and the absorption of all humidity.

There are some authors, however, who state that the root of laserpitium was more than a cubit in length, and that it presented a tuberosity above the surface of the earth. An incision, they say, was made in this tuberosity, from which a juice would flow, like milk in appearance; above the tuberosity grew a stalk, to which they give the name of “magydaris;”898 the leaves that grew upon this stalk were of the colour of gold, and, falling at the rising of the Dog-star, when the south winds begin to prevail, they acted as seed for the purposes of reproduction. It was from these leaves, too, they say, that laserpitium899 was produced, the root and the stalk attaining their full growth in the space of one year. The same writers also state, that it was the practice to turn up the ground about the plant, and that it had no such effect as purging the cattle that were fed upon it; though one result of using it as food was, that such cattle as were ailing were either cured of their distempers, or else died immediately upon eating of it, a thing, however, that but rarely happened. The first description, however, is found to agree more nearly with the silphium that comes from Persis.

There is another900 variety of this plant, known as “magydaris,”901 of a more delicate nature, less active in its effects, and destitute of juice. It grows in the countries adjacent to Syria,902 but is not to be found in the regions of Cyrenaica. There grows also upon Mount Parnassus,903 in great abundance, a plant to which some persons give the name of “laserpitium:” by means of all these varieties, adulterations are effected of a production that is held in the highest esteem for its salutary qualities and its general usefulness. The chief proofs of its genuineness consist in its colour, which ought to be slightly red without, and when broken quite white and transparent within; the drops of it, too, should melt very rapidly on the application of spittle. It is extensively employed for medicinal purposes.904

There are two other plants also, which are but little known to any but the herd of the sordid and avaricious, and this because of the large profits that are derived from them. The first of these is madder,905 the employment of which is necessary in dyeing wool and leather. The madder of Italy is the most esteemed, and that more particularly which is grown in the suburbs of the City; nearly all our provinces, too, produce it in great abundance.906 It grows spontaneously, but is capable of reproduction by sowing, much after the same manner as the fitch. The stem,907 however, is prickly, and articulated, with five leaves arranged round each joint: the seed is red. Its medicinal properties we shall have occasion to mention in the appropriate place.908

The plant known to us by the name of “radicula,”909 is the second of these productions. It furnishes a juice that is extensively employed in washing wool, and it is quite wonderful how greatly it contributes to the whiteness and softness of wool. It may be produced anywhere by cultivation, but that which grows spontaneously in Asia and Syria,910 upon rugged, rocky sites, is more highly esteemed. That, however, which is found beyond the Euphrates has the highest repute of all. The stalk of it is ferulaceous911 and thin, and is sought by the inhabitants of those countries as an article of food. It is employed also for making unguents, being boiled up with the other ingredients, whatever they may happen to be. In leaf it strongly resembles the olive. The Greeks have given it the name of “struthion.” It blossoms in summer, and is agreeable to the sight, but entirely destitute of smell. It is somewhat thorny, and has a stalk covered with down. It has an extremely diminutive seed, and a large root, which is cut up and employed for the purposes already mentioned.

Having made mention of these productions, it now remains for us to return to the cultivation of the garden,912 a subject recommended by its own intrinsic merits to our notice: for we find that in remote antiquity, even, there was nothing looked upon with a greater degree of admiration than the gardens of the Hesperides,913 those of the kings Adonis914 and Alcinoüs,915 and the Hanging Gardens, whether they were the work of Semiramis, or whether of Cyrus, king of Assyria, a subject of which we shall have to speak in another work.916 The kings of Rome cultivated their gardens with their own hands; indeed, it was from his garden that Tarquinius Superbus917 sent to his son that cruel and sanguinary message of his. In our laws of the Twelve Tables, we find the word “villa,” or “farm,” nowhere mentioned; it is the word “hortus” that is always used with that signification, while the term “heredium” we find employed for “garden.”

There are certain religious impressions, too, that have been attached to this species of property,918 and we find that it is in the garden and the Forum only that statues of satyrs are consecrated, as a protection against the evil effects919 of spells and sorcery; although in Plautus, we find the gardens spoken of as being under the tutelage of Venus. At the present day, under the general name of gardens,920 we have pleasure-grounds situate in the very heart of the City, as well as extensive fields and villas.

Epicurus, that connoisseur921 in the enjoyments of a life of ease, was the first to lay out a garden at Athens;922 up to his time it had never been thought of, to dwell in the country in the middle of the town. At Rome, on the other hand, the garden923 constituted of itself the poor man’s field, and it was from the garden that the lower classes procured their daily food—an aliment how guiltlessly obtained! But still, it is a great deal better, no doubt,924 to dive into the abysses of the deep, and to seek each kind of oyster at the risk and peril of shipwreck, to go searching for birds beyond the river Phasis925 even, which, protected as they are by the terrors invented by fable,926 are only rendered all the more precious thereby—to go searching for others, again, in Numidia,927 and the very sepulchres of Æthiopia,928 or else to be battling with wild beasts, and to get eaten one’s self while trying to take a prey which another person is to eat! And yet, by Hercules! how little do the productions of the garden cost us in comparison with these! How more than sufficient for every wish and for every want!—were it not, indeed, that here, as in every thing else, turn which way we will, we find the same grounds for our wrath and indignation. We really might be content to allow of fruits being grown of the most exquisite quality, remarkable, some of them for their flavour, some for their size, some, again, for the monstrosities of their growth, morsels all of them forbidden to the poor!929 We might allow of wines being kept till they are mellowed with age, or enfeebled by being passed through930 cloth strainers, of men, too, however prolonged their lives, never drinking any but a wine that is still older than themselves! We might allow of luxury devising how best to extract the very aroma, as it were, and marrow931 only from grain; of people, too, living upon nothing but the choicest productions of the confectioner, and upon pastes fashioned in fantastic shapes: of one kind of bread being prepared for the rich, and another for the multitude; of the yearly produce of the field being classified in a descending scale, till it reaches the humble means of the very lowest classes—but do we not find that these refined distinctions have been extended to the very herbs even, and that riches have contrived to establish points of dissimilarity in articles of food which ordinarily sell for a single copper coin?932

In this department even, humble as it is, we are still destined to find certain productions that are denied to the community at large, and the very cabbages pampered to such an enormous extent that the poor man’s table is not large enough to hold them. Asparagus, by Nature, was intended to grow wild,933 so that each might gather it where he pleased—but, lo and behold! we find it in the highest state of cultivation, and Ravenna produces heads that weigh as much as three pounds934 even! Alas for the monstrous excess of gluttony! It would be surprising indeed, for the beasts of the field to be forbidden the thistle for food, and yet it is a thing forbidden935 to the lower classes of the community! These refined distinctions, too, are extended to the very water even, and, thanks to the mighty influence of money, there are lines of demarcation drawn in the very elements themselves. Some persons are for drinking ice, others for quaffing snow, and thus is the curse of the mountain steep turned into an appetizing stimulus for the palate!936 Cold is carefully treasured up for the summer heats, and man’s invention is racked how best to keep snow freezing in months that are not its own. Some again there are who first boil the water,937 and then bring it to the temperature of winter—indeed, there is nothing that pleases man in the fashion in which Nature originally made it.

And is it the fact, then, that any herb of the garden is reared only for the rich man’s table? It is so—but still let no one of the angered populace think of a fresh secession to Mount Sacer or Mount Aventine; for to a certainty, in the long run, all-powerful money will bring them back to just the same position as they were in when it wrought the severance. For, by Hercules!938 there was not an impost levied at Rome more grievous than the market-dues, an impost that aroused the indignation of the populace, who repeatedly appealed with loud clamours to all the chief men of the state to be relieved from it. At last they were relieved from this heavy tax upon their wares; and then it was found that there was no tax more lucrative, more readily collected, or less obnoxious to the caprices of chance, than the impost that was levied in exchange for it, in the shape of a property-tax, extended to the poorest classes: for now the very soil itself is their surety that paid the tax will be, their means are patent to the light of day, and the superficial extent of their possessions, whatever the weather may chance to be, always remains the same.

Cato,939 we find, speaks in high praise of garden cabbages:—indeed, it was according to their respective methods of garden cultivation that the agriculturists of early times were appreciated, and it was immediately concluded that it was a sign of a woman being a bad and careless manager of her family, when the kitchen-garden—for this was looked upon as the woman’s department more particularly—was negligently cultivated; as in such case her only resource was, of course, the shambles or the herb-market. But cabbages were not held in such high esteem in those days as now: indeed, all dishes were held in disrepute which required something else to help them down, the great object being to economize oil as much as possible; and as to the flesh-market, so much as a wish even to taste its wares was visited with censure and reproach. The chief thing that made them so fond of the garden was the fact that its produce needs no fire and ensures economy in fuel, and that it offers resources which are always ready and at hand. These articles of food, which from their peculiar nature we call “vinegar-diets,”940 were found to be easy of digestion, by no means apt to blunt and overload the senses, and to create but little craving for bread as an accompaniment. A portion of them which is still used by us for seasonings, attests that our forefathers used only to look at home for their resources, and that no Indian peppers were in request with them, or any of those other condiments which we are in the habit of seeking beyond the seas. In former times the lower classes of Rome, with their mimic gardens in their windows, day after day presented the reflex of the country to the eye, when as yet the multitudes of atrocious burglaries, almost innumerable, had not compelled us to shut out all such sights with bars to the passers by.

Let the garden, then, have its due meed of honour, and let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration—and the more so, as we find that from it men of the very highest rank have been content to borrow their surnames even; thus in the Valerian family, for instance, the Lactucini have not thought themselves disgraced by taking their name from the lettuce. Perhaps, too, our labours and research may contribute some slight recommendation to this our subject; although, with Virgil,941 we are ready to admit how difficult it is, by language however elevated, to ennoble a subject that is so humble in itself.

There is no doubt that the proper plan is, to have the gardens adjoining the country-house; and they should be watered, more particularly, by a river running in front of it, if possible; or else with water drawn from a well by the aid of a wheel or of pumps, or by swipes.942 The ground should be opened just as the west winds are beginning to prevail; fourteen days after which it should be got ready for autumn, and then before the winter solstice it should have another turning up. It will require eight men to dig a jugerum, manure being mixed with the earth to a depth of three feet: the ground, too, should be divided into plots or beds with raised and rounded edges, each of which should have a path dug round it, by means of which access may be afforded to the gardener and a channel formed for the water needed for irrigation.

Among the garden plants there are some that recommend themselves by their bulbs, others by the head, others by the stalk, others by the leaf, others by both: some, again, are valued for their seed, others for the outer coat, others for their membranous tissues, others for their cartilaginous substance, others for the firmness of their flesh, and others for the fleshy tunics in which they are enveloped.

Of some plants the fruits943 are in the earth, of others both in the earth and out of it, and of others, again, out of the earth solely. Some of them increase as they lie upon the ground, gourds and cucumbers, for instance; the same products will grow also in a hanging position, but they are much heavier even then than any of the fruits that grow upon trees. The cucumber, however, is composed of cartilage and a fleshy substance, while the gourd consists of rind and cartilage: this last is the only vegetable production the outer coat of which becomes of a ligneous nature, when ripe. Radishes, turnips, and rape are hidden in the earth, and so, too, are elecampane,944 skirrets,945 and parsnips,946 though in a different manner. There are some plants, again, to which we shall give the name of “ferulaceous,” anise947 and mallows, for instance; indeed, we find it stated by some writers that in Arabia948 the mallow becomes arborescent at the sixth month, so much so, in fact, as to admit of its being used for walking-sticks. We have another instance, again, in the mallow-tree of Mauretania, which is found at Lixus, a city built upon an æstuary there; and at which spot, it is said, were formerly the gardens of the Hesperides, at a distance of two hundred paces from the Ocean, near the shrine of Hercules, more ancient, tradition says, than the temple at Gades. This mallow-tree949 is twenty feet in height, and of such a thickness that there is not a person in existence who is able with his arms to span its girth.

In the class of ferulaceous plants we must include hemp950 also. There are some plants, again, to which we must give the appellation of “fleshy;”951 such as those spongy952 productions which are found growing in damp meadows. As to the fungus, with a hard, tough flesh, we have already953 made mention of it when speaking of wood and trees; and of truffles, which form another variety, we have but very recently given a description.954

The cucumber955 belongs to the cartilaginous class of plants, and grows above the ground. It was a wonderful favourite with the Emperor Tiberius, and, indeed, he was never without it; for he had raised beds made in frames upon wheels, by means of which the cucumbers were moved and exposed to the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn, and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirror-stone.956 We find it stated, also, by the ancient Greek writers, that the cucumber ought to be propagated from seed that has been steeped957 a couple of days in milk and honey, this method having the effect of rendering them all the sweeter to the taste. The cucumber, while growing, may be trained to take any form that may be wished: in Italy the cucumbers are green958 and very small, while those grown in some of the provinces are remarkably large, and of a wax colour or black.959 Those of Africa, which are also remarkably prolific, are held in high esteem; the same, too, with the cucumbers of Mœsia, which are by far the largest of all. When the cucumber acquires a very considerable volume, it is known to us as the “pepo.”960 Cucumbers when eaten remain on the stomach till the following day, and are very difficult961 of digestion; still, for all that, in general they are not considered very unwholesome. By nature they have a wonderful hatred to oil, and no less affection for water, and this after they have been cut from the stem even.962 If water is within a moderate distance of them, they will creep towards it, while from oil, on the other hand, they will shrink away; if any obstacle, too, should happen to arrest their progress, or if they are left to hang, they will grow curved and crooked. Of these facts we may be satisfactorily convinced in a single night even, for if a vessel filled with water is placed at four fingers’ distance from a cucumber, it will be found to have descended to it by the following morning; but if the same is done with oil, it will have assumed the curved form of a hook by the next day. If hung in a tube while in blossom, the cucumber will grow to a most surprising length.963 It is only of late, too, that a cucumber of entirely new shape has been produced in Campania, it having just the form of a quince.964 It was quite by accident, I am told, that the first one acquired this shape in growing, and it was from the seed of this that all the others have been reproduced. The name given to this variety is “melopepo.” These last do not grow hanging, but assume their round shape as they lie on the ground. A thing that is very remarkable in them, in addition to their shape, colour, and smell, is the fact that, when ripe, although they do not hang from the stem, they separate from it at the stalk.

Columella965 has given us a plan of his, by which we may have cucumbers the whole year round: the largest bramble-bush that can be procured is transplanted to a warm, sunny spot, and then cut down, about the time of the vernal equinox, to within a couple of fingers of the ground; a cucumber-seed is then inserted in the pith of the bramble, and the roots are well moulded up with fine earth and manure, to withstand the cold. According to the Greeks, there are three kinds of cucumbers, the Laconian, the Scytalic, and the Bœotian,966 the Laconian being the only one among them that is fond967 of the water.

There are some persons who recommend steeping the seed of the cucumber in the juice of the herb known as the “culix;”968 the produce, they say, will be sure to grow without seeds.

Gourds resemble the cucumber in nature, at least in their manner of growing; they manifest an equal aversion to the winter, too, while they require constant watering and manure. Both cucumbers and gourds are sown in holes a foot and a half969 deep, between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, at the time of the Parilia970 more particularly. Some persons, however, think it better to sow gourds after the calends of March,971 and cucumbers after the nones,972 and at the time of the Quinquatria.973 The cucumber and the gourd climb upwards in a precisely similar manner, their shoots creeping along the rough surface of the walls, even to the very roof, so great is their fondness for elevated spots. They have not sufficient strength, however, to support themselves without the aid of stays. Shooting upwards with the greatest rapidity, they soon cover with their light shade the arched roofs of the houses and the trellises on which they are trained. From this circumstance it is that we find the gourd classified into two primary kinds, the roof-gourd,974 and the common gourd, which creeps upon the ground. In the first kind, from a stalk of remarkable thinness is suspended a fruit of considerable weight and volume, and quite immoveable by the action of the wind. The gourd, too, as well as the cucumber, admits of being lengthened to any extent, by the aid of osier tubes more particularly. Just after the blossom has fallen off, the plant is introduced into these tubes, and as it grows it can be made to assume any form that may be wished, that of a serpent coiled up being the one that is mostly preferred; if left at liberty to grow as it hangs, it has been known before now to attain to no less than975 nine feet in length.

The cucumber flowers gradually, blossom succeeding blossom; and it adapts itself perfectly well to a dry soil. It is covered with a white down, which increases in quantity as the plant gains in size.

The gourd admits of being applied to more numerous uses than the cucumber even: the stem is used as an article of food976 when young, but at a later period it changes its nature, and its qualities become totally different: of late, gourds have come to be used in baths for jugs and pitchers, but for this long time past they have been employed as casks977 for keeping wine. The rind is tender while the fruit is green, but still it is always scraped off when the gourd is used for food. It admits of being eaten several ways, and forms a light and wholesome aliment, and this although it is one of those fruits that are difficult of digestion by the human stomach, and are apt to swell out those who eat of them. The seeds which lie nearest to the neck of the gourd produce fruit of remarkable978 length, and so do those which lie at the lower extremities, though not at all comparable with the others. Those, on the other hand, which lie in the middle, produce gourds of a round shape, and those on the sides fruit that are thick and short. The seeds are dried by being placed in the shade, and when wanted for sowing, are steeped in water first. The longer and thinner the gourd is, the more agreeable it is to the palate, and hence it is that those which have been left to grow hanging are reckoned the most wholesome: these, too, have fewer seeds than the others, the hardness of which is apt to render the fruit less agreeable for eating.

Those which are intended for keeping seed, are usually not cut before the winter sets in; they are then dried in the smoke, and are extensively employed for preserving979 garden seeds, and for making other articles for domestic use. There has been a method discovered, also, of preserving the gourd for table, and the cucumber as well, till nearly the time when the next year’s crop is ripe; this is done by putting them in brine. We are assured, too, that if put in a hole dug in a place well shaded from the sun, with a layer of sand beneath, and dry hay and earth on the top of them, they may be kept green for a very long time. We also find wild980 cucumbers and gourds; and, indeed, the same is the case with pretty nearly all the garden plants. These wild varieties, however, are only possessed of certain medicinal properties, and for this reason we shall defer any further mention of them till we come to the Books appropriated to that subject.

The other plants that are of a cartilaginous nature are concealed, all of them, in the earth. In the number of these is the rape, a subject upon which it would almost appear that we have treated981 at sufficient length already, were it not that we think it as well to observe, that medical men call those which are round “male,”982 while those which are larger and more elongated, are known to them as “female” rape: these last are superior in sweetness, and better for keeping, but by successive sowings they are changed into male rape.983

The same authors, too, have distinguished five different varieties of the turnip:984 the Corinthian, the Cleonæan, the Liothasian, the Bœotian, and the one which they have characterized as peculiarly the “green,” turnip. The Corinthian turnip985 grows to a very large size, and the root is all but out of the ground; indeed, this is the only kind that, in growing, shoots upwards, and not as the others do, downwards into the ground. The Liothasian is known by some persons as the Thracian turnip;986 it is the one that stands extreme cold the best of all. Next to it, the Bœotian kind is the sweetest; it is remarkable, also, for the roundness of its shape and its shortness; while the Cleonæan turnip,987 on the other hand, is of an elongated form. Those, in general, which have a thin, smooth leaf, are the sweetest; while those, again, the leaf of which is rough, angular, and prickly, have a pungent taste. There is a kind of wild turnip,988 also, the leaves of which resemble those of rocket.989 At Rome, the highest rank is given to the turnips of Amiternum,990 and those of Nursia; after them, those grown in the neighbourhood of the City991 are held in the next degree of esteem. The other particulars connected with the sowing of the turnip have been already mentioned992 by us when speaking of the rape.

Radishes are composed of an outer coat and a cartilaginous substance, and in many instances the rind is found to be thicker than the bark of some trees. This plant is remarkable for its pungency, which increases in proportion to the thickness of the rind: in some cases, too, the surface of it assumes a ligneous nature. Radishes are flatulent993 to a remarkable degree, and are productive of eructations; hence it is that they are looked upon as an aliment only fit for low-bred people,994 and this more particularly if coleworts are eaten directly after them. If, on the other hand, they are eaten with green olives, the eructations produced are not so frequent, and less offensive. In Egypt the radish is held in very high esteem, on account of the abundance of oil995 that is extracted from the seed. Indeed, the people of that country sow this plant in preference to any other, whenever they can get the opportunity, the profits derived from it being larger than those obtained from the cultivation of corn, and the imposts levied upon it considerably less: there is no grain known that yields a larger quantity of oil.

The Greeks have distinguished the radish996 into three different kinds, according to the characteristic features of the leaves, there being the crisped leaf, the smooth leaf, and the wild radish, the leaf of which is smooth, but shorter than that of the others; it is round also, grows in great abundance, and spreads like a shrub. The taste of this last variety is acrid, and it acts medicinally as a strong purgative. In the first kind, again, there are certain differences, determined by the seed, for in some varieties the seed is of an inferior quality, and in others remarkably small: these defects, however, are only found to exist in the kind that has the crisped leaf.

Our own people, again, have found other varieties of the radish: there is the Algidan997 radish, long and transparent, so called from the place of its growth: another, similar to the rape in form, is known as the Syrian radish; it is pretty nearly the mildest and the most tender of them all, and is well able to bear the winter. The very best of all, however, is the one that has been brought from Syria, very recently it would seem, as we do not find it mentioned by any of our writers: it lasts the whole of the winter through. In addition to these kinds, there is another, a wild variety, known by the Greeks as “agrion,”998 and to the people of Pontus as “armon,” while others, again, call it “leuce,”999 and our people “armoracia;”1000 it has more leaves, however, than root.

In testing the quality of the radish, it is the stem more particularly, that is looked at; in those which are acrid to the taste, for instance, it is rounder and thicker than in the others, and grooved with long channels, while the leaves are more unsightly to the eye, being angular and covered with prickles.

The radish requires to be sown in a loose, humid soil, has a great aversion to manure, and is content with a dressing solely of chaff: so fond is it of the cold, that in Germany it is known to grow as large as an infant in size.1001 For the spring crop, it is sown immediately after the ides of February;1002 and then again about the time of the Vulcanalia,1003 this last crop being looked upon as the best: many persons, however, sow radishes in March, April, and September. When the plant begins to grow to any size, it is considered a good plan to cover up the leaves successively, and to earth up the root as well; for the part of it which appears above ground is apt to become hard and pithy. Aristomachus recommends the leaves to be taken off in winter, and the roots to be well moulded up, to prevent the water from accumulating about them; and he says, that by using these precautions, they will be all the finer in summer. Some authors have mentioned a plan of making a hole with a dibble, and covering it at the bottom with a layer of chaff, six fingers in depth; upon this layer the seed is put, and then covered over with manure and earth; the result of which is, according to their statement, that radishes are obtained full as large as the hole so made. It is salt, however, that conduces more particularly to their nutriment, and hence it is that they are often watered with brine; in Egypt, too, the growers sprinkle nitre1004 over them, the roots being remarkable for their mildness. The salt, too, has the similar effect of removing all their pungency, and when thus treated, they become very similar in their qualities to radishes that have been boiled: for when boiled they become sweet and mild, and eat, in fact, just like turnips.

Medical men recommend raw radishes to be eaten fasting, with salt, for the purpose1005 of collecting the crude humours of the viscera; and in this way they prepare them for the action of emetics. It is said, too, that the juices of this plant are absolutely necessary for the cure of certain diseases of the diaphragm; for it has been found by experiment, in Egypt, that the phthiriasis1006 which attaches itself to the internal parts of the heart, cannot possibly be eradicated by any other remedy, the kings of that country having ordered the bodies of the dead to be opened and examined, for the purpose of enquiring into certain diseases.

Such, too, is the frivolity of the Greeks, that, in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, it is said, the radish is so greatly preferred to all other articles of diet, as to be represented there in gold, the beet in silver, and the rape in lead.—You might be very sure that Manius Curius was not a native of that country, the general whom, as we find stated in our Annals, the ambassadors of the Samnites found busy roasting rape at the fire, when they came to offer him the gold which he so indignantly refused. Moschion, too, a Greek author, has written a volume on the subject of the radish. These vegetables are considered a very useful article of food during the winter, but they are at all times very injurious to the teeth, as they are apt to wear them away; at all events, they give a polish to ivory. There is a great antipathy between the radish1007 and the vine; which last will shrink from the radish, if sown in its vicinity.

The other kinds which have been classified by us among the cartilaginous plants, are of a more ligneous nature; and it is a singular thing, that they have, all of them, a strong flavour. Among these, there is one kind of wild parsnip which grows spontaneously; by the Greeks it is known as “staphylinos.”1008 Another kind1009 of parsnip is grown either from the root transplanted, or else from seed, at the beginning of spring or in the autumn; Hyginus says that this may be done in February, August, September, and October, the ground being dug to a very considerable depth for the purpose. The parsnip begins to be fit for eating at the end of a year, but it is still better at the end of two: it is reckoned more agreeable eating in autumn, and more particularly if cooked in the saucepan; even then, however, it preserves its strong pungent flavour, which it is found quite impossible to get rid of.

The hibiscum1010 differs from the parsnip in being more slender: it is rejected as a food, but is found useful for its medicinal properties. There is a fourth kind,1011 also, which bears a similar degree of resemblance to the parsnip; by our people it is called the “gallica,” while the Greeks, who have distinguished four varieties of it, give it the name of “daucus.” We shall have further occasion1012 to mention it among the medicinal plants.

The skirret,1013 too, has had its reputation established by the Emperor Tiberius, who demanded a supply of it every year from Germany. It is at Gelduba,1014 a fortress situate on the banks of the Rhenus, that the finest are grown; from which it would appear that they thrive best in a cold climate. There is a string running through the whole length of the skirret, and which is drawn out after it is boiled; but still, for all this, a considerable proportion of its natural pungency is retained; indeed, when modified by the addition of honied wine, this is even thought to impart to dishes an additional relish. The larger parsnip has also a similar sting inside, but only when it is a year old. The proper time for sowing the skirret is in the months of February, March, April, August, September, and October.

Elecampane1015 is not so elongated as the preceding roots, but more substantial and more pungent; eaten by itself it is very injurious to the stomach, but when mixed with other condiments of a sweet nature, it is extremely wholesome. There are several methods employed for modifying1016 its natural acridity and rendering it agreeable to the palate: thus, for instance, when dried it is reduced to a fine flour, and then mixed with some sweet liquid or other, or else it is boiled in vinegar and water, or kept in soak in it; it is also steeped in various other ways, and then mixed with boiled1017 grape-juice, or else incorporated with honey or raisins, or dates with plenty of meat on them. Other persons, again, have a method of preparing it with quinces, or else sorbs or plums, while sometimes the flavour is varied by the addition of pepper or thyme.

This plant is particularly good for weakness of the stomach, and it has acquired a high reputation from the circumstance that Julia1018 Augusta used to eat it daily. The seed of it is quite useless, as the plant is reproduced, like the reed, from eyes extracted from the root. This vegetable, as well as the skirret and the parsnip, is sown both in spring and autumn, a considerable distance being left between the plants; indeed, for elecampane, a space of no less than three feet is required, as it throws out its shoots to a very considerable distance.1019 Skirrets, however, are best transplanted.

Next in affinity to these plants are the bulbs,1020 which Cato, speaking in high terms of those of Megara,1021 recommends most particularly for cultivation. Among these bulbs, the squill,1022 we find, occupies the very highest rank, although by nature it is medicinal, and is employed for imparting an additional sharpness to vinegar:1023 indeed, there is no bulb known that grows to a larger size than this, or is possessed of a greater degree of pungency. There are two varieties of it employed in medicine, the male squill, which has white leaves, and the female squill, with black1024 ones. There is a third kind also, which is good to eat, and is known as the Epimenidian1025 squill; the leaf is narrower than in the other kinds, and not so rough. All the squills have numerous seeds, but they come up much more quickly if propagated from the offsets that grow on the sides. To make them attain a still greater size, the large leaves that grow around them are turned down and covered over with earth; by which method all the juices are carried to the heads. Squills grow spontaneously and in vast numbers in the Baleares and the island of Ebusus, and in the Spanish provinces.1026 The philosopher Pythagoras has written a whole volume on the merits of this plant, setting forth its various medicinal properties; of which we shall have occasion to speak more at length in the succeeding Book.1027

The other species of bulbs are distinguished by their colour, size, and sweetness; indeed, there are some that are eaten raw even—those found in the Tauric Chersonesus, for instance. Next to these, the bulbs of Africa are held in the highest esteem, and after them those of Apulia. The Greeks have distinguished the following varieties: the bulbine,1028 the setanion,1029 the opition,1030 the cyix,1031 the leucoion,1032 the ægilips,1033 and the sisyrinchion1034—in the last there is this remarkable feature, that the extremities of the roots increase in winter, but during the spring, when the violet appears, they diminish in size and gradually contract, and then it is that the bulb begins to increase in magnitude.

Among the varieties of the bulb, too, there is the plant known in Egypt by the name of “aron.”1035 In size it is very nearly as large as the squill, with a leaf like that of lapathum, and a straight stalk a couple of cubits in length, and the thickness of a walking-stick: the root of it is of a milder nature, so much so, indeed, as to admit of being eaten raw.

Bulbs are taken up before the spring, for if not, they are apt to spoil very quickly. It is a sign that they are ripe when the leaves become dry at the lower extremities. When too old they are held in disesteem; the same, too, with the long and the smaller ones; those, on the other hand, which are red and round are greatly preferred, as also those of the largest size. In most of them there is a certain degree of pungency in the upper part, but the middle is sweet. The ancients have stated that bulbs are reproduced from seed only, but in the champaign country of Præneste they grow spontaneously, and they grow to an unlimited extent in the territory of the Remi.1036

Nearly all1037 the garden plants have a single1038 root only, radishes, beet, parsley, and mallows, for example; it is lapathum, however, that has the longest root of them all, it attaining the length of three cubits even. The root of the wild kind is smaller and of a humid nature, and when up it will keep alive for a considerable period. In some of these plants, however, the roots are fibrous, as we find the case in parsley and mallows, for instance; in others, again, they are of a ligneous nature, as in ocimum, for example; and in others they are fleshy, as in beet, and in saffron even more so. In some, again, the root is composed of rind and flesh, as in the radish and the rape; while in others it is jointed, as in hay grass.1039 Those plants which have not a straight root throw out immediately a great number of hairy fibres, orage1040 and blite,1041 for instance: squills again, bulbs, onions, and garlic never have any but a vertical root. Among the plants that grow spontaneously, there are some which have more numerous roots than leaves, spalax,1042 for example, pellitory,1043 and saffron.1044

Wild thyme, southernwood, turnips, radishes, mint, and rue blossom all1045 at once; while others, again, shed their blossom directly they have begun to flower. Ocimum1046 blossoms gradually, beginning at the lower parts, and hence it is that it is so very long in blossom: the same is the case, too, with the plant known as heliotropium.1047 In some plants the flower is white, in others yellow, and in others purple. The leaves fall first1048 from the upper part in wild-marjoram and elecampane, and in rue1049 sometimes, when it has been injured accidentally. In some plants the leaves are hollow, the onion and the scallion,1050 more particularly.

Garlic and onions1051 are invoked by the Egyptians,1052 when taking an oath, in the number of their deities. The Greeks have many varieties1053 of the onion, the Sardian onion, the Samothracian, the Alsidenian, the setanian, the schistan, and the Ascalonian,1054 so called from Ascalon,1055 a city of Judæa. They have, all of them, a pungent smell, which1056 draws tears from the eyes, those of Cyprus more particularly, and those of Cnidos the least of all. In all of them the body is composed of a cartilage of an unctuous1057 nature. The variety known as the setanian is the smallest of them all, with the exception of the Tusculan1058 onion, but it is sweet to the taste. The schistan1059 and the Ascalonian kinds are used for storing. The schistan onion is left during the winter with the leaves on; in the spring it is stripped of them, upon which offsets make their appearance at the same divisions as the leaves; it is to this circumstance that this variety owes its name. Taking the hint from this fact, it is recommended to strip the other kinds of their leaves, to make them bulb all the better, instead of running to seed.

The Ascalonian onion is of a peculiar nature, being barren in some measure in the root; hence it is that the Greeks have recommended it to be reproduced from seed, and not from roots: the transplanting, too, they say, should be done later in the spring, at the time the plant germinates, the result being that it bulbs with all the greater rapidity, and hastens, as it were, to make up for lost time; great dispatch, however, is requisite in taking it up, for when ripe it rots with the greatest rapidity. If propagated from roots, it throws out a long stalk, runs rapidly to seed, and dies.

There are considerable differences, too, in the colour of the onion; the whitest of all are those grown at Issus and Sardes. The onions, too, of Crete are held in high esteem, but there is some doubt whether they are not the same as the Ascalonian variety; for when grown from seed they produce a fine bulb, but when planted they throw out a long stalk and run to seed; in fact, they differ from the Ascalonian kind only in the sweetness of their flavour.

Among us there are two principal varieties known of the onion; the scallion, employed for seasonings, is one, known to the Greeks by the name of “gethyon,” and by us as the “pallacana;” it is sown in March, April, and May. The other kind is the bulbed or headed1060 onion; it is sown just after the autumnal equinox, or else after the west winds have begun to prevail. The varieties of this last kind, ranged according to their relative degrees of pungency, are the African onion, the Gallic, the Tusculan, the Ascalonian, and the Amiternian: the roundest in shape are the best. The red onion, too, is more pungent than the white, the stored than the fresh, the raw than the cooked, and the dried than the preserved. The onion of Amiternum is cultivated in cold, humid localities, and is the only one that is reproduced from heads,1061 like garlic, the other kinds being grown from seed. This last kind yields no seed in the ensuing summer, but a bulb only, which dries and keeps; but in the summer after, the contrary is the case, for seed is produced, while the bulb very quickly spoils. Hence it is that every year there are two separate sowings, one of seed for the reproduction of bulbs, and one of bulbs for the growth of seed; these onions keep best in chaff. The scallion has hardly any bulb at all, but a long neck only—hence it is nothing but leaf, and is often cut down, like the leek; for this reason, too, like the leek, it is grown from seed, and not from plants.

In addition to these particulars, it is recommended that the ground intended for sowing onions should be turned up three times, care being taken to remove all roots and weeds; ten pounds of seed is the proper proportion for a jugerum. Savory too, they say, should be mixed with them, the onions being all the finer for it; the ground, too, should be stubbed and hoed four times at least, if not oftener. In Italy, the Ascalonian onion is sown in the month of February. The seed of the onion is gathered when it begins to turn black, and before it becomes dry and shrivelled.

While upon this subject, it will be as well, too, to speak of the leek,1062 on account of the affinity which it bears to the plants just mentioned, and more particularly because cut-leek has recently acquired considerable celebrity from the use made of it by the Emperor Nero. That prince, to improve his voice,1063 used to eat leeks and oil every month, upon stated days, abstaining from every other kind of food, and not touching so much as a morsel of bread even. Leeks are reproduced from seed, sown just after the autumnal equinox; if they are intended for cutting,1064 the seed is sown thicker than otherwise. The leeks in the same bed are cut repeatedly, till it is quite exhausted, and they are always kept well manured. If they are wanted to bulb before being cut, when they have grown to some size they are transplanted to another bed, the extremities of the leaves being snipped off without touching the white part, and the heads stripped of the outer coats. The ancients were in the habit of placing a stone or potsherd upon the leek, to make the head grow all the larger, and the same with the bulbs as well; but at the present day it is the usual practice to move the fibrous roots gently with the weeding-hook, so that by being bent they may nourish the plant, and not withdraw the juices from it.

It is a remarkable fact, that, though the leek stands in need of manure and a rich soil, it has a particular aversion to water; and yet its nature depends very much upon the natural properties of the soil. The most esteemed leeks are those grown in Egypt, and next to them those of Ostia and Aricia.1065 Of the leek for cutting, there are two varieties: that with grass-green1066 leaves and incisions distinctly traced on them, and the leek with paler and rounder leaves, the incisions being more lightly marked. There is a story told, that Mela,1067 a member of the Equestrian order, being accused of mal-administration by order of the Emperor Tiberius, swallowed in his despair leek-juice to the amount of three denarii in weight of silver, and expired upon the spot without the slightest symptom of pain. It is said, however, that a larger dose than this is productive of no injurious effects whatever.1068

Garlic1069 is generally supposed, in the country more particularly, to be a good specific1070 for numerous maladies. The external coat consists of membranes of remarkable fineness, which are universally discarded when the vegetable is used; the inner part being formed by the union of several cloves, each of which has also a separate coat of its own. The flavour of it is pungent, and the more numerous the cloves the more pungent it is. Like the onion, it imparts an offensive smell to the breath; but this is not the case when it is cooked. The various species of garlic are distinguished by the periods at which they ripen: the early kind becomes fit for use in sixty days. Another distinction, too, is formed by the relative size of the heads. Ulpicum,1071 also, generally known to the Greeks as “Cyprian garlic,” belongs to this class; by some persons it is called “antiscorodon,” and in Africa more particularly it holds a high rank among the dishes of the rural population; it is of a larger size than ordinary garlic. When beaten up with oil and vinegar, it is quite surprising what a quantity of creaming foam is produced.

There are some persons who recommend that neither ulpicum nor garlic should be sown on level ground, but say that they should be planted in little mounds trenched up, at a distance of three feet apart. Between each clove, they say, there should be a distance of four fingers left, and as soon as ever three leaves are visible, the heads should be hoed; the oftener they are hoed, the larger the size they will attain. When they begin to ripen, the stalks are bent downwards, and covered over with earth, a precaution which effectually prevents them from running to leaf. In cold soils, it is considered better to plant them in spring than in autumn.

For the purpose of depriving all these plants of their strong smell, it is recommended to set them when the moon is below the horizon, and to take them up when she is in conjunction. Independently of these precautions, we find Menander, one of the Greek writers, recommending those who have been eating garlic to eat immediately afterwards a root of beet roasted on hot coals; if this is done, he says, the strong smell of the garlic will be effectually neutralized. Some persons are of opinion, that the proper period for planting garlic and ulpicum is between the festival of the Compitalia1072 and that of the Saturnalia.1073 Garlic, too, can be grown from seed, but it is very slow, in such case, in coming to maturity; for in the first year, the head attains the size only of that of a leek, in the second, it separates into cloves, and only in the third it arrives at maturity; there are some, however, who think that garlic grown this way is the best. Garlic should never be allowed to run to seed, but the stalk should be twisted, to promote its growth, and to make the head attain a larger size.

If garlic or onions are wanted to keep some time, the heads should be dipped in salt water, made luke-warm; by doing this, they will be all the better for keeping, though quite worthless for reproduction. Some persons content themselves with hanging them over burning coals, and are of opinion that this is quite sufficient to prevent them from sprouting: for it is a well-known fact, that both garlic and onions sprout when out of the ground, and that after throwing out their thin shoots they shrivel away to nothing. Some persons are of opinion, too, that the best way of keeping garlic is by storing it in chaff. There is a kind1074 of garlic that grows spontaneously in the fields, and is known by the name of “alum.” To preserve the seeds that are sown there from the remorseless ravages of the birds, this plant is scattered over the ground, being first boiled, to prevent it from shooting. As soon as ever they have eaten of it, the birds become so stupefied as to be taken with the hand even,1075 and if they remain but a few moments only on the spot, they fall fast asleep. There is a wild garlic, too, generally known as “bear’s” garlic;1076 it has exactly the smell of millet, with a very small head and large leaves.

Among the garden1077 plants which make their appearance most speedily above ground, are ocimum, blite, the turnip, and rocket; for they appear above the surface the third day after they are sown. Anise, again, comes up on the fourth day, the lettuce on the fifth, the radish on the sixth, the cucumber and the gourd on the seventh—the cucumber rather the first of the two—cresses and mustard on the fifth, beet on the sixth day in summer and the tenth in winter, orage on the eighth, onions on the nineteenth or twentieth, and scallions on the tenth or twelfth. Coriander, again, is more stubborn in its growth, cunila and wild marjoram do not appear till after the thirtieth day, and parsley comes up with the greatest difficulty of all, for at the very earliest it is forty days before it shows itself, and in most instances as much as fifty.

The age,1078 too, of the seed is of some importance in this respect; for fresh seed comes up more rapidly in the case of the leek, the scallion, the cucumber, and the gourd, while in that of parsley, beet, cardamum, cunila, wild marjoram, and coriander, seed that has been kept for some time is the best.

There is one remarkable circumstance1079 in connection with the seed of beet; it does not all germinate in the first year, but some of it in the second, and some in the third even; hence it is that a considerable quantity of seed produces only a very moderate crop. Some plants produce only in the year in which they are set, and some, again, for successive years, parsley, leeks, and scallions1080 for instance; indeed, these plants, when once sown, retain their fertility, and produce for many years.

In most plants the seed is round, in some oblong; it is broad and foliaceous in some, orage for instance, while in others it is narrow and grooved, as in cummin. There are differences, also, in the colour of seeds, which is either black or white; while some seeds are woody and hard, in radishes, mustard, and rape, the seeds are enclosed in pods. In parsley, coriander, anise, fennel, and cummin, the seed has no covering at all, while in blite, beet, orage, and ocimum, it has an outer coat, and in the lettuce it is covered with a fine down. There is no seed more prolific than that of ocimum;1081 it is generally recommended1082 to sow it with the utterance of curses and imprecations, the result being that it grows all the better for it; the earth, too, is rammed down when it is sown, and prayers offered that the seed may never come up. The seeds which are enveloped in an outer coat, are dried with considerable difficulty, that of ocimum more particularly; hence it is that all these seeds are dried artificially, their fruitfulness being greatly promoted thereby.

Plants in general come up better when the seed is sown in heaps than when it is scattered broad-cast: leeks, in fact, and parsley are generally grown by sowing the seed in little bags;1083 in the case of parsley, too, a hole is made with the dibble, and a layer of manure inserted.

All garden plants grow either from seed or from slips, and some from both seed and suckers, such as rue, wild marjoram, and ocimum,1084 for example—this last being usually cut when it is a palm in height. Some kinds, again, are reproduced from both seed and root, as in the case of onions, garlic, and bulbs, and those other plants of which, though annuals themselves, the roots retain their vitality. In those plants which grow from the root, it lives for a considerable time, and throws out offsets, as in bulbs, scallions, and squills for example.—Others, again, throw out offsets, though not from a bulbous root, such as parsley and beet, for instance. When the stalk is cut, with the exception1085 of those which have not a rough stem, nearly all these plants put forth fresh shoots, a thing that may be seen in ocimum,1086 the radish,1087 and the lettuce,1088 which are in daily use among us; indeed, it is generally thought that the lettuce which is grown from a fresh sprouting, is the sweetest. The radish, too, is more pleasant eating when the leaves have been removed before it has begun to run to stalk. The same is the case, too, with rape; for when the leaves are taken off, and the roots well covered up with earth, it grows all the larger for it, and keeps in good preservation till the ensuing summer.

Of ocimum, lapathum, blite, cresses, rocket, orage, coriander, and anise respectively, there is but a single kind, these plants being the same everywhere, and no better in one place than in another. It is the general belief that stolen1089 rue grows the best, while, on the other hand, bees1090 that have been stolen will never thrive. Wild mint, cat-mint, endive, and pennyroyal, will grow even without any cultivation. With reference to the plants of which we have already spoken, or shall have occasion to speak, there are numerous varieties of many of them, parsley more particularly.

(8.) As to the kind of parsley1091 which grows spontaneously in moist localities, it is known by the name of “helioselinum;”1092 it has a single leaf1093 only, and is not rough at the edges. In dry places, we find growing the kind known as “hipposelinum,”1094 consisting of numerous leaves, similar to helioselinum. A third variety is the oreoselinum,1095 with leaves like those of hemlock, and a thin, fine, root, the seed being similar to that of anise, only somewhat smaller.

The differences, again, that are found to exist in cultivated parsley,1096 consist in the comparative density of the leaves, the crispness or smoothness of their edges, and the thinness or thickness of the stem, as the case may be: in some kinds, again, the stem is white, in others purple, and in others mottled.

The Greeks have distinguished three varieties of the lettuce;1097 the first with a stalk so large, that small garden gates,1098 it is said, have been made of it: the leaf of this lettuce is somewhat larger than that of the herbaceous, or green lettuce, but extremely narrow, the nutriment seeming to be expended on the other parts of the plant. The second kind is that with a rounded1099 stalk; and the third is the low, squat lettuce,1100 generally known as the Laconian lettuce.

Some persons1101 have made distinctions in reference to their respective colours, and the times for sowing them: the black lettuce is sown in the month of January, the white in March, and the red in April; and they are fit for transplanting, all of them, at the end of a couple of months. Those, again, who have pursued these enquiries even further than this, have distinguished a still greater number of varieties of them—the purple, the crisped, the Cappadocian,1102 and the Greek lettuce, this last having a longer leaf than the rest, and a broad stalk: in addition to which, there is one with a long, narrow leaf, very similar to endive in appearance. The most inferior kind, however, of all, is the one to which the Greeks, censuring it for its bitterness, have given the name of “picris.”1103 There is still another variety, a kind of white lettuce, called “meconis,”1104 a name which it derives from the abundance of milk, of a narcotic quality, which it produces; though, in fact, it is generally thought that they are all of them of a soporific tendency. In former times, this last was the only kind of lettuce that was held in any esteem1105 in Italy, the name “lactuca” having been given it on account of the milk1106 which it contains.

The purple kind, with a very large root, is generally known as the Cæcilian1107 lettuce; while the round one, with an extremely diminutive root and broad leaves, is known to some persons as the “astytis,”1108 and to others as the “eunychion,” it having the effect, in a remarkable degree, of quenching the amorous propensities. Indeed, they are, all of them, possessed of cooling and refreshing properties, for which reason it is, that they are so highly esteemed in summer; they have the effect, also, of removing from the stomach distaste for food, and of promoting the appetite. At all events, we find it stated, that the late Emperor Augustus, when ill, was saved on one occasion,1109 thanks to the skill of his physician, Musa,1110 by eating lettuces, a food which the excessive scruples of his former physician, C. Æmilius, had forbidden him. At the present day, however, lettuces have risen into such high estimation, that a method has been discovered even of preserving them during the months in which they are out of season, by keeping them in oxymel.1111 It is generally supposed, also, that lettuces have the effect of making blood.

In addition to the above varieties, there is another kind of lettuce known as the “goats’ lettuce,”1112 of which we shall have occasion to make further mention when we come to the medicinal plants: at the moment, too, that I am writing this, a new species of cultivated lettuce has been introduced, known as the Cilician lettuce, and held in very considerable esteem; the leaf of it is similar to that of the Cappadocian lettuce, except that it is crisped, and somewhat larger.

Endive, though it cannot exactly be said to be of the same genus as the lettuce, still cannot be pronounced to belong to any other.1113 It is a plant better able to endure the rigours of the winter than the lettuce,1114 and possessed of a more acrid taste, though the flavour of the stalk1115 is equally agreeable. Endive is sown at the beginning of spring, and transplanted at the end of that season. There is also a kind of spreading1116 endive, known in Egypt as “cichorium,”1117 of which we shall have occasion1118 to speak elsewhere more at length.

A method has been discovered of preserving all the thyrsi or leaves of the lettuce in pots, the object being to have them fresh when wanted for boiling. Lettuces may be sown all the year1119 through in a good soil, well-watered and carefully manured;1120 two months being allowed to intervene between sowing and transplanting, and two more between transplanting and gathering them when ripe. The rule is, however, to sow them just after the winter solstice, and to transplant when the west winds begin to prevail, or else to sow at this latter period, and to plant out at the vernal equinox. The white lettuce is the best adapted for standing the rigours of the winter.

All the garden plants are fond of moisture; lettuces thrive, more particularly, when well manured, and endive even more so. Indeed, it is found an excellent plan to plant them out with the roots covered up in manure, and to keep up the supply, the earth being cleared away for that purpose. Some, again, have another method of increasing their size; they cut them1121 down when they have reached half a foot in height, and cover them with fresh swine’s dung. It is the general opinion that those lettuces only will admit of being blanched which are produced from white seed; and even then, as soon as they begin to grow, sand from the sea-shore should be spread over them, care being taken to tie the leaves as soon as ever they begin to come to any size.

Beet1122 is the smoothest of all the garden plants. The Greeks distinguish two kinds of beet, according to the colour, the black and the white. The last, which is the kind generally preferred, has but very little seed, and is generally known as the Sicilian1123 beet; just as it is the white lettuce that is held in the highest degree of esteem. Our people, also, distinguish two varieties of beet, the spring and the autumn kinds, so called from the periods of sowing; although sometimes we find beet sown in June even. This is a plant, too, that is sometimes transplanted; and it thrives all the better, like the lettuce, if the roots are well covered with manure, in a moist soil. Beet is mostly eaten1124 with lentils and beans; it is prepared also in the same way as cabbage, with mustard more particularly, the pungency of which relieves its insipidity. Medical men are of opinion that beet is a more unwholesome1125 vegetable than cabbage; hence it is that I never remember seeing it served at table. Indeed, there are some persons who scruple to taste it even, from a conviction that it is a food suitable only for persons of a robust constitution.

Beet is a vegetable with twofold characteristics, partaking of the nature of the cabbage in its leaves and resembling a bulb in the root; that which grows to the greatest breadth being the most highly esteemed. This plant, like the lettuce, is made to grow to head by putting a light weight upon it the moment it begins to assume its proper colour. Indeed, there is no garden plant that grows to a larger head than this, as it sometimes spreads to a couple of feet in breadth, the nature of the soil contributing in a very considerable degree to its size: those found in the territory of Circeii attain the largest size. Some persons1126 think that the best time for sowing beet is when the pomegranate is in flower, and are of opinion that it ought to be transplanted as soon as it has thrown out five leaves. There is a singular difference—if indeed it really exists—between the two varieties of beet, the white kind being remarkable for its purgative qualities, and the black being equally astringent. When wine in the vat has been deteriorated by assuming a flavour like1127 that of cabbage, its original flavour is restored, it is said, by plunging beet leaves into it.

Cabbage and coleworts, which at the present day are the most highly esteemed of all the garden vegetables, were held in little repute, I find, among the Greeks; but Cato,1128 on the other hand, sings the wondrous praises of the cabbage, the medicinal properties of which we shall duly enlarge1129 upon when we come to treat of that subject. Cato distinguishes three varieties of the cabbage; the first, a plant with leaves wide open, and a large stalk; a second, with crisped leaves, to which he gives the name of “apiaca;”1130 and a third, with a thin stalk, and a smooth, tender leaf, which with him ranks the lowest of all. Cabbages may be sown the whole year through, as we find that they are cut at all periods of the year; the best time, however, for sowing them is at the autumnal equinox, and they are usually transplanted as soon as five leaves are visible. In the ensuing spring after the first cutting, the plant yields sprouts, known to us as “cymæ.”1131 These sprouts, in fact, are small shoots thrown out from the main stem, of a more delicate and tender quality than the cabbage itself. The exquisite palate, however, of Apicius1132 rejected these sprouts for the table, and his example was followed by the fastidious Drusus Cæsar; who did not escape, however, the censures of his father, Tiberius, for being so over-nice. After the cymæ have made their appearance the cabbage throws out its summer and autumn shoots, and then its winter ones; after which, a new crop of cymæ is produced, there being no plant so productive as this, until, at last, it is quite exhausted by its extreme fertility. A second time for sowing cabbages is immediately after the vernal equinox, the plants of this growth being transplanted at the end of spring, that they may not run up into sprouts before coming to a top: and a third sowing takes place about the summer solstice, the transplanting being done in summer if the soil is moist, but, if too dry, in autumn. When moisture and manure are supplied in small quantities, the flavour of the cabbage is all the more agreeable, but when they are supplied in greater abundance, the plants attain a larger size. Asses’ dung is the best adapted for its growth.

The cabbage, too, is one of those articles so highly esteemed by epicures; for which reason it will not be amiss if we speak of it at somewhat greater length. To obtain plants equally remarkable for their size and flavour, care must be taken first of all to sow the seed in ground that has had a couple of turnings up, and then to follow up the shoots as they appear above ground by moulding them up, care being taken to throw up the earth over them as they increase in luxuriance, and to let nothing but the summit appear above the surface. This kind is known as the Tritian1133 cabbage: in money and labour it costs twice as much as any of the others.

The other varieties of the cabbage1134 are numerous—there is the Cumanian cabbage, with leaves that lie close to the ground, and a wide, open head; the Aricinian1135 cabbage, too, of no greater height, but with more numerous leaves and thinner—this last is looked upon as the most useful of them all, for beneath nearly all of the leaves there are small shoots thrown out, peculiar to this variety. The cabbage, again, of Pompeii1136 is considerably taller, the stalk, which is thin at the root, increasing in thickness as it rises among the leaves, which are fewer in number and narrower; the great merit of this cabbage is its remarkable tenderness, although it is not able to stand the cold. The cabbage of Bruttium,1137 on the other hand, thrives all the better for cold; the leaves of it are remarkably large, the stalk thin, and the flavour pungent. The leaves, again, of the Sabine1138 cabbage are crisped to such a degree as to excite our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite exhaust the stem; in sweetness, however, it is said to surpass all the others.

There have lately come into fashion the cabbages known as the “Lacuturres;”1139 they are grown in the valley of Aricia, where there was formerly a lake, now no longer in existence, and a tower which is still standing. The head of this cabbage is very large, and the leaves are almost without number, some of them being round and smooth, and others long and sinewy; indeed, there is no cabbage that runs to a larger head than this, with the sole exception of the Tritian variety, which has a head sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and throws out its cymæ the latest of all.

In all kinds of cabbages, hoar-frost contributes very materially to their sweetness; but it is apt to be productive of considerable injury, if care is not taken to protect the pith by cutting them aslant. Those plants which are intended for seed are never cut.

There is another kind, again, that is held in peculiar esteem, and which never exceeds the height of an herbaceous plant; it is known by the name of “halmyridia,”1140 from the circumstance of its growing on the sea-shore1141 only. It will keep green and fresh during a long voyage even, if care is taken not to let it touch the ground from the moment that it is cut, but to put it into oil-vessels lately dried, and then to bung them so as to effectually exclude all air. There are some1142 who are of opinion, that the plant will come to maturity all the sooner if some sea-weed is laid at the root when it is transplanted, or else as much pounded nitre as can be taken up with three fingers; and others, again, sprinkle the leaves with trefoil seed and nitre pounded together.1143 Nitre, too, preserves the greenness of cabbage when cooked, a result which is equally ensured by the Apician mode of boiling, or in other words, by steeping the plants in oil and salt before they are cooked.

There is a method of grafting vegetables by cutting the shoots and the stalk, and then inserting in the pith the seed of another plant; a plan which has been adopted with the wild cucumber even. There is another kind of wild cabbage, also, the lapsana,1144 which has become famous since the triumphs of the late Emperor Julius, in consequence of the songs and jokes of his soldiers more particularly; for in the alternate lines sung by them, they used to reproach him for having made them live on lapsana at the siege of Dyrrhachium, and to rally him upon the parsimonious scale on which he was in the habit of recompensing their services. The lapsana is nothing more than a wild cyma.1145

Of all the garden plants, asparagus is the one that requires the most delicate attention in its cultivation. We have already1146 spoken at considerable length of its origin, when treating of the wild plants, and have mentioned that Cato1147 recommends it to be grown in reed-beds. There is another kind, again, of a more uncultivated nature than the garden asparagus, but less pungent than corruda;1148 it grows upon the mountains in different countries, and the plains of Upper Germany are quite full of it, so much so, indeed, that it was a not unhappy remark of Tiberius Cæsar, that a weed grows there which bears a remarkably strong resemblance to asparagus. That which grows spontaneously upon the island of Nesis, off the coast of Campania, is looked upon as being by far the best of all.

Garden asparagus is reproduced from roots,1149 the fibres of which are exceedingly numerous, and penetrate to a considerable depth. When it first puts forth its shoots, it is green; these in time lengthen out into stalks, which afterwards throw out streaked branches from the head: asparagus admits, also, of being grown from seed.

Cato1150 has treated of no subject with greater care than this, the last Chapter of his work being devoted to it, from which we may conclude that it was quite new to him, and a subject which had only very recently occupied his attention. He recommends that the ground prepared for it should be a moist or dense soil, the seed being set at intervals of half a foot every way, to avoid treading upon the heads; the seed, he says, should be put two or three into each hole, these being made with the dibble as the line runs—for in his day, it should be remembered, asparagus was only grown from seed—this being done about the vernal equinox. It requires, he adds, to be abundantly manured, and to be kept well hoed, due care being taken not to pull up the young plants along with the weeds. The first year, he says, the plants must be protected from the severity of the winter with a covering of straw, care being taken to uncover them in the spring, and to hoe and stub up the ground about them. In the spring of the third year, the plants must be set fire to, and the earlier the period at which the fire is applied, the better they will thrive. Hence it is, that as reed-beds1151 grow all the more rapidly after being fired, asparagus is found to be a crop remarkably well suited for growing with them. The same author recommends, however, that asparagus should not be hoed before the plants have made their appearance above-ground, for fear of disturbing the roots; and he says that in gathering the heads, they should be cut close to the root, and not broken off at the surface, a method which is sure to make them run to stalk and die. They should be cut, he says, until they are left to run to seed, and after the seed is ripe, in spring they must be fired, care being taken, as soon as they appear again, to hoe and manure them as before. After eight or nine years, he says, when the plants have become old, they must be renewed, after digging and manuring the ground, by replanting the roots at intervals of a foot, care being taken to employ sheep’s dung more particularly for the purpose, other kinds of manure being apt to produce weeds.

No method of cultivating this plant that has since been tried has been found more eligible than this, with the sole exception that the seed is now sown about the ides of February, by laying it in heaps in small trenches, after steeping it a considerable time in manure; the result of which is that the roots become matted, and form into spongy tufts, which are planted out at intervals of a foot after the autumnal equinox, the plants continuing to be productive so long as ten years even. There is no soil more favourable to the growth of asparagus, than that of the gardens of Ravenna.1152

We have already1153 spoken of the corruda, by which term I mean the wild asparagus, by the Greeks called “orminos,” or “myacanthos,” as well as by other names. I find it stated, that if rams’ horns are pounded, and then buried in the ground, asparagus will come up.1154

It really might have been thought that I had now given an account of all the vegetable productions that are held in any degree of esteem, did there not still remain one plant, the cultivation of which is extremely profitable, and of which I am unable to speak without a certain degree of shame. For it is a well-known fact, that some small plots of land, planted with thistles,1155 in the vicinity of Great Carthage and of Corduba more particularly, produce a yearly income of six thousand sesterces;1156 this being the way in which we make the monstrous productions even of the earth subservient to our gluttonous appetites, and that, too, when the very four-footed brutes1157 instinctively refuse to touch them.

Thistles are grown two different ways, from plants set in autumn, and from seed sown before the nones of March;1158 in which latter case they are transplanted before the ides of November,1159 or, where the site is a cold one, about the time that the west winds prevail. They are sometimes manured even, and if1160 such is the will of heaven, grow all the better for it. They are preserved, too, in a mixture of honey and vinegar,1161 with the addition of root of laser and cummin—so that a day may not pass without our having thistles at table.1162

For the remaining plants a brief description will suffice. The best time for sowing ocimum,1163 it is said, is at the festival of the Parilia;1164 though some say that it may be done in autumn as well, and recommend, when it is sown in winter, to drench the seed thoroughly with vinegar. Rocket,1165 too, and nasturtium1166 may be grown with the greatest facility either in summer or winter. Rocket, more particularly, is able to stand the cold, and its properties are quite different from those of the lettuce, as it is a great provocative of lust. Hence it is that we are in the habit of mixing these two plants in our dishes, the excess of cold in the one being compensated by the equal degree of heat in the other. Nasturtium has received that name from1167 the smarting sensation which its pungency causes to the nostrils, and hence it is that a certain notion of smartness has attached itself to the word, it having become quite a proverbial saying, that a sluggish man should eat nasturtium, to arouse him from his torpidity. In Arabia, it is said, this plant attains a size that is quite marvellous.

Rue,1168 too, is generally sown while the west winds prevail, as well as just after the autumnal equinox. This plant has an extreme aversion to cold, moisture, and dung; it loves dry, sunny localities, and a soil more particularly that is rich in brick clay; it requires to be nourished, too, with ashes, which should be mixed with the seed as well, as a preservative against the attacks of caterpillars. The ancients held rue in peculiar esteem; for I find that honied wine flavoured with rue was distributed to the people, in his consulship,1169 by Cornelius Cethegus, the colleague of Quintus Flamininus, after the closing of the Comitia. This plant has a great liking1170 for the fig-tree, and for that tree only; indeed, it never thrives better than when grown beneath that tree. It is generally grown from slips, the lower end of which is inserted in a perforated1171 bean, which holds it fast, and so nurtures the young plant with its juices. It also reproduces itself;1172 for the ends of the branches bending downwards, the moment they reach the ground, they take root again. Ocimum1173 is of a very similar nature to rue, except that it dries with greater difficulty. When rue has once gained strength, there is considerable difficulty in stubbing it, as it causes itching ulcerations on the hands, if they are not covered or previously protected by being rubbed with oil. Its leaves, too, are preserved, being packed in bundles for keeping.

Parsley is sown immediately after the vernal equinox, the seed being lightly beaten1174 first in a mortar. It is thought that, by doing this, the parsley will be all the more crisped, or else by taking care to beat it down when sown with a roller or the feet. It is a peculiarity of this plant, that it changes colour: it has the honour, in Achaia, of forming the wreath of the victors in the sacred contests of the Nemean Games.

It is at the same season, too, that mint1175 is transplanted; or, if it has not yet germinated, the matted tufts of the old roots are used for the purpose. This plant, too, is no less fond of a humid soil than parsley; it is green in summer and turns yellow in winter. There is a wild kind of mint, known to us as “mentastrum:”1176 it is reproduced by layers, like the vine, or else by planting the branches upside down. It was the sweetness of its smell that caused this plant to change its name among the Greeks, its former name with them being “mintha,” from which the ancient Romans derived their name1177 for it; whereas now, of late, it has been called by them ἡδύοσμον.1178 The mint that is used in the dishes at rustic entertainments pervades the tables far and wide with its agreeable odour. When once planted, it lasts a considerable length of time; it bears, too, a strong resemblance to pennyroyal, a property of which is, as mentioned by us more than once,1179 to flower when kept in our larders.

These other herbs, mint, I mean, and catmint, as well as pennyroyal, are all kept for use in a similar manner; but it is cummin1180 that is the best suited of all the seasoning herbs to squeamish and delicate stomachs. This plant grows on the surface of the soil, seeming hardly to adhere to it, and raising itself aloft from the ground: it ought to be sown in the middle of the summer, in a crumbly, warm soil, more particularly. There is another wild kind1181 of cummin, known by some persons as “rustic,” by others as “Thebaic” cummin: bruised and drunk in water, it is good for pains in the stomach. The cummin most esteemed in our part of the world is that of Carpetania,1182 though elsewhere that of Africa and Æthiopia is more highly esteemed; with some, indeed, this last is preferred to that of Egypt.

But it is olusatrum,1183 more particularly, that is of so singular a nature, a plant which by the Greeks is called “hipposelinum,”1184 and by others “smyrnium.” This plant is reproduced from a tear-like gum1185 which exudes from the stem; it is also grown from the roots as well. Those whose business it is to collect the juice of it, say that it has just the flavour of myrrh; and, according to Theophrastus,1186 it is obtained by planting myrrh. The ancients recommended that hipposelinum should be grown in uncultivated spots covered with stones, and in the vicinity of garden walls; but at the present day it is sown in ground that has been twice turned up, between the prevalence of the west winds and the autumnal equinox.

The caper,1187 too, should be sown in dry localities more particularly, the plot being hollowed out and surrounded with an embankment of stones erected around it: if this precaution is not taken, it will spread all over the adjoining land, and entail sterility upon the soil. The caper blossoms in summer, and retains its verdure till the setting of the Vergiliæ; it thrives the best of all in a sandy soil. As to the bad qualities of the caper which grows in the parts beyond the sea, we have already1188 enlarged upon them when speaking of the exotic shrubs.

The caraway1189 is an exotic plant also, which derives its name, “careum,” from the country1190 in which it was first grown; it is principally employed for culinary purposes. This plant will grow in any kind of soil, and requires to be cultivated just the same way as olusatrum; the most esteemed, however, is that which comes from Caria, and the next best is that of Phrygia.

Lovage1191 grows wild in the mountains of Liguria, its native country, but at the present day it is grown everywhere. The cultivated kind is the sweetest of the two, but is far from powerful; by some persons it is known as “panax.” Crateuas, a Greek writer, gives this name, however, to the plant known to us as “cunila bubula;”1192 and others, again, call the conyza1193 or cunilago, cunila, while they call cunila,1194 properly so called, by the name of “thymbra.” With us cunila has another appellation, being generally known as “satureia,” and reckoned among the seasoning plants. It is usually sown in the month of February, and for utility rivals wild marjoram. These two plants are never used together, their properties being so extremely similar; but it is only the wild marjoram of Egypt that is considered superior to cunila.

Dittander,1195 too, was originally an exotic plant: it is usually sown after the west winds have begun to prevail. As soon as it begins to shoot, it is cut down close to the ground, after which it is hoed and manured, a process which is repeated the succeeding year. After this, the shoots are fit for use, if the rigour of the winter has not injured them; for it is a plant quite unable to withstand any inclemency1196 of the weather. It grows to the height of a cubit, and has a leaf like that of the laurel,1197 but softer; it is never used except in combination with milk.

Gith1198 is employed by bakers, dill and anise by cooks and medical men. Sacopenium,1199 so extensively used for adulterating laser, is also a garden plant, but is only employed for medicinal purposes.

There are certain plants which are grown in company1200 with others, the poppy, for instance, sown with cabbages and purslain, and rocket with lettuce. Of the cultivated poppy1201 there are three kinds, the first being the white1202 poppy, the seed of which, parched, and mixed with honey, used to be served up in the second course at the tables of the ancients; at the present day, too, the country people sprinkle it on the upper crust of their bread, making it adhere by means of the yolk of eggs, the under crust being seasoned with parsley and gith to heighten the flavour of the flour. The second kind is the black1203 poppy, from which, upon an incision being made in the stalk, a milky juice distils; and the third is that known to the Greeks by the name of “rhœas;”1204 and by us as the wild poppy. This last grows spontaneously, but in fields, more particularly, which have been sown with barley: it bears a strong resemblance to rocket, grows to the height of a cubit, and bears a red flower, which quickly fades; it is to this flower that it is indebted for its Greek name.1205

As to the other kinds of poppies which spring up spontaneously, we shall have occasion to speak of them when treating of the medicinal plants.1206 That the poppy has always been held in esteem among the Romans, we have a proof in the story related of Tarquinius1207 Superbus, who, by striking down the tallest poppies in his garden, surreptitiously conveyed, unknown to them, his sanguinary message through the envoys who had been sent by his son.

There are some other plants, again, which require to be sown together at the time of the autumnal equinox; coriander, for instance, anise, orage, mallows, lapathum, chervil, known to the Greeks as “pæderos,”1208 and mustard,1209 which has so pungent a flavour, that it burns like fire, though at the same time it is remarkably wholesome for the body. This last, though it will grow without cultivation, is considerably improved by being transplanted; though, on the other hand, it is extremely difficult to rid the soil of it when once sown there, the seed when it falls germinating immediately. This seed, when cooked in the saucepan,1210 is employed even for making ragouts, its pungency being rendered imperceptible by boiling; the leaves, too, are boiled just the same way as those of other vegetables.

There are three different kinds of mustard,1211 the first of a thin, slender form, the second, with a leaf like that of the rape, and the third, with that of rocket: the best seed comes from Egypt. The Athenians have given mustard the name of “napy,”1212 others, “thapsi,”1213 and others, again, “saurion.”1214

Most mountains abound with wild thyme and sisymbrium, those of Thrace, for example, where1215 branches of these wild plants are torn up and brought away for planting. So, too, the people of Sicyon seek for wild thyme on their mountains, and the Athenians on the slopes of Hymettus. Sisymbrium, too, is planted in a similar manner; it grows to the greatest perfection upon the walls of wells, and around fish preserves and ponds.1216

The other garden plants are of the ferulaceous kind, such as fennel, for instance, very grateful to serpents, as already stated,1217 and used for numerous seasonings when dried; thapsia, too, which bears a close resemblance to fennel, and already mentioned by us when speaking1218 of the exotic shrubs. Then, too, there is hemp,1219 a plant remarkably useful for making ropes, and usually sown after the west winds have begun to prevail: the more thickly it is sown, the thinner are the stalks. The seed is gathered when ripe, just after the autumnal equinox, and is dried by the agency of the sun, the wind, or smoke.1220 The hemp itself is plucked just after vintage-time, and is peeled and cleaned by the labourers at night.

The best hemp is that of Alabanda,1221 which is used more particularly for making hunting-nets, and of which there are three varieties. The hemp which lies nearest the bark or the pith is the least valuable, while that which lies in the middle, and hence has the name of “mesa,” is the most esteemed. The hemp of Mylasa1222 occupies the second rank. With reference to the size to which it grows, that of Rosea,1223 in the Sabine territory, equals the trees in height.1224

We have already mentioned two kinds of fennel-giant when speaking1225 of the exotic shrubs: the seed of it is used in Italy for food; the plant, too, admits of being preserved, and, if stored in earthen pots, will keep for a whole year. There are two parts of it that are used for this purpose, the upper stalks and the umbels of the plant. This kind of fennel is sometimes known by the name of “corymbia,” and the parts preserved are called “corymbi.”

The garden plants, too, like the rest of the vegetable productions, are subject to certain maladies. Thus, for1226 instance, ocimum, when old, degenerates into wild thyme, and sisymbrium1227 into mint, while the seed of an old cabbage produces rape, and vice versâ. Cummin, too, if not kept well hoed, is killed by hæmodorum,1228, a plant with a single stalk, a root similar to a bulb in appearance, and never found except in a thin, meagre soil. Besides this, cummin is liable to a peculiar disease of its own, the scab:1229 ocimum, too, turns pale at the rising of the Dog-star. All plants, indeed, will turn of a yellow complexion on the approach of a woman who has the menstrual discharge1230 upon her.

There are various kinds of insects,1231 too, that breed upon the garden plants—fleas, for instance, upon turnips, and caterpillars and maggots upon radishes, as well as lettuces and cabbages; besides which, the last two are exposed to the attacks of slugs and snails. The leek, too, is infested with peculiar insects of its own; which may very easily be taken, however, by laying dung upon the plants, the insects being in the habit of burrowing in it. Sabinus Tiro says, in his book entitled “Cepurica,”1232 which he dedicated to Mæcenas, that it is not advisable to touch rue, cunila, mint, or ocimum with any implement of iron.

The same author recommends as a remedy against ants, which are by no means the slightest plague in a garden that is not kept well watered, to stop up the mouths of their holes with sea-slime or ashes. But the most efficient way of destroying them is with the aid of the plant heliotropium;1233 some persons, too, are of opinion that water in which an unburnt brick has been soaked is injurious to them. The best protection for turnips is to sow a few fitches with them, and for cabbages chickpeas, these having the effect of keeping away caterpillars. If, however, this precaution should have been omitted, and the caterpillars have already made their appearance, the best remedy is to throw upon the vegetables a decoction of wormwood,1234 or else of house-leek,1235 known to some as “aïzoüm,” a kind of herb already mentioned by us. If cabbage-seed, before it is sown, is steeped in the juice of house-leek, the cabbages, it is said, are sure not be attacked by any insect.

It is said, too, that all caterpillars may be effectually exterminated, if the skull1236 of a beast of burden is set up upon a stake in the garden, care being taken to employ that of a female only. There is a story related, too, that a river crab, hung up in the middle of the garden, is a preservative against the attacks of caterpillars. Again, there are some persons who are in the habit of touching with slips of blood-red cornel1237 such plants as they wish to preserve from caterpillars. Flies,1238 too, infest well-watered gardens, and more particularly so, if there happen to he any shrubs there; they may be got rid of, however, by burning galbanum.1239

(11.) With reference to the deterioration to which seed is subject,1240 there are some seeds which keep better than others, such, for instance, as that of coriander, beet, leeks, cresses, mustard, rocket, cunila, nearly all the pungent plants in fact. The seed, on the other hand, of orage, ocimum, gourds, and cucumbers, is not so good for keeping. All the summer seeds, too, last longer than the winter ones; but scallion seed is the very worst for keeping of them all. But of those, even, which keep the very longest, there is none that will keep beyond four years—for sowing1241 purposes, at least; for culinary purposes, they are fit for use beyond that period.

A peculiar remedy for the maladies to which radishes, beet, rue, and cunila are subject, is salt water, which has also the additional merit of conducing very materially to their sweetness and fertility. Other plants, again, are equally benefitted by being watered with fresh water, the most desirable for the purpose being that which is the coldest and the sweetest to drink: pond and drain-water, on the other hand, are not so good, as they are apt to carry the seeds of weeds along with them. It is rain,1242 however, that forms the principal aliment of plants; in addition to which, it kills the insects as they develope themselves upon them.

The proper times1243 for watering are the morning and the evening, to prevent the water from being heated1244 by the sun; with the sole exception, however, of ocimum, which requires to be watered at midday; indeed, this plant, it is generally thought, will grow with additional rapidity, if it is watered with boiling water when sown. All plants, when transplanted, grow all the better and larger for it, leeks and turnips more particularly. Transplanting, too, is attended with certain remedial effects, and acts as a preservative to certain plants, such as scallions, for instance, leeks, radishes, parsley, lettuces, rape, and cucumbers. All the wild plants1245 are generally smaller in the leaf and stalk than the cultivated ones, and have more acrid juices, cunila, wild marjoram, and rue, for example. Indeed, it is only the lapathum1246 that is better in a wild state than cultivated: in its cultivated state it is the same plant that is known to us as the “rumix,” being the most vigorous1247 by far of all the plants that are grown; so much so, indeed, that it is said that when it has once taken root, it will last for ever, and can never be extirpated from the soil, more particularly if water happens to be near at hand. Its juices, which are employed only in ptisans,1248 as an article of food, have the effect of imparting to them a softer and more exquisite flavour. The wild variety1249 is employed for many medicinal purposes.

So true it is, that the careful research of man has omitted nothing, that I have even met with a poem,1250 in which I find it stated, that if pellets of goats’ dung, the size of a bean, are hollowed out, and the seed of leeks, rocket, lettuces, parsley, endive, and cresses is inserted in them, and then sown, the plants will thrive in a marvellous degree. Plants1251 in a wild state, it is generally thought, are more dry and acrid than when cultivated.

This, too, reminds me that I ought to make some mention of the difference between the juices and flavours of the garden herbs, a difference which is more perceptible here than in the fruits even.1252 In cunila, for instance, wild marjoram, cresses, and mustard, the flavour is acrid; in wormwood1253 and centaury,1254 bitter; in cucumbers, gourds, and lettuces, watery; and in parsley, anise, and fennel, pungent and odoriferous. The salt flavour is the only one that is not to be found1255 in plants, with the sole exception, indeed, of the chicheling1256 vetch, though even then it is to be found on the exterior surface only of the plant, in the form of a kind of dust which settles there.

To come to a full understanding, too, both here as elsewhere, how unfounded are the notions which are generally entertained, I shall take this opportunity of remarking that panax1257 has the flavour of pepper, and siliquastrum even more so, a circumstance to which it owes its name of piperitis:1258 libanotis,1259 again, has just the odour of frankincense, and smyrnium1260 of myrrh. As to panax, we have spoken of it at sufficient length already.1261 Libanotis grows in a thin, crumbly soil, and is generally sown in spots exposed to the falling dews; the root, which is just like that of olusatrum,1262 has a smell in no way differing from that of frankincense; when a year old, it is extremely wholesome for the stomach; some persons give it the name of rosmarinum.1263 Smyrnium is a garden herb that grows in similar soils, and has a root which smells like myrrh: siliquastrum too, is grown in a similar manner.

Other plants, again, differ from the preceding ones, both in smell and taste, anise1264 for example; indeed, so great is the difference in this respect, and in their relative virtues, that not only are the properties of each modified by the other, but quite neutralized even. It is in this way that our cooks correct the flavour of vinegar in their dishes with parsley, and our butlers employ the same plant, enclosed in sachets, for removing a bad odour in wine.

1265Thus far, then, we have treated of the garden plants, viewed as articles of food only; it remains for us now (for up to the present we have only spoken of their various methods of cultivation, with some succinct details relative thereto), to enlarge upon the more elaborate operations of Nature in this respect; it being quite impossible to come to a full understanding as to the true characteristics of each individual plant, without a knowledge of its medicinal effects, a sublime and truly mysterious manifestation of the wisdom of the Deity, than which nothing can possibly be found of a nature more elevated. It is upon principle that we have thought proper not to enlarge upon the medicinal properties of each plant when treating of it; for it is a quite different class of persons that is interested in knowing their curative properties, and there is no doubt that both classes of readers would have been inconvenienced in a very material degree, if these two points of view had engaged our attention at the same moment. As it is, each class will have its own portion to refer to, while those who desire to do so, will experience no difficulty in uniting them, with reference to any subject of which we may happen to treat.

Summary.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, one thousand one hundred and forty-four.

Roman authors quoted.—Maccius Plautus,1266 M. Varro,1267 D. Silanus,1268 Cato the Censor,1269 Hyginus,1270 Virgil,1271 Mucianus,1272 Celsus,1273 Columella,1274 Calpurnius Bassus,1275 Mamilius Sura,1276 Sabinus Tiro,1277 Licinius Macer,1278 Quintus Hirtius,1279 Vibius Rufus,1280 Cæsennius1281 who wrote the Cepurica, Castritius1282 who wrote on the same subject, Firmus1283 who wrote on the same subject, Petrichus1284 who wrote on the same subject.

Foreign authors quoted.—Herodotus,1285 Theophrastus,1286 Democritus,1287 Aristomachus,1288 Menander1289 who wrote the Biochresta, Anaxiläus.1290

BOOK XX. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE GARDEN PLANTS. — CHAP. 1.—INTRODUCTION. — CHAP. 2. (1.)—THE WILD CUCUMBER; TWENTY-SIX REMEDIES. — CHAP. 3.—ELATERIUM; TWENTY-SEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 4. (2.)—THE ANGUINE OR ERRATIC CUCUMBER: FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 5.—THE CULTIVATED CUCUMBER: NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 6.—PEPONES: ELEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 7. (3.)—THE GOURD: SEVENTEEN REMEDIES. THE SOMPHUS: ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 8.—THE COLOCYNTHIS: TEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 9.—RAPE; NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 10.—WILD RAPE: ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 11. (4.)—TURNIPS; THOSE KNOWN AS BUNION AND BUNIAS: FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 12.—THE WILD RADISH, OR ARMORACIA: ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 13.—THE CULTIVATED RADISH: FORTY-THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 14.—THE PARSNIP: FIVE REMEDIES. THE HIBISCUM, WILD MALLOW, OR PLISTOLOCHIA: ELEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 15. (5.)—THE STAPHYLINOS, OR WILD PARSNIP: TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES. — CHAP. 16.—GINGIDION: ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 17.—THE SKIRRET: ELEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 18.—SILE, OR HARTWORT: TWELVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 19.—ELECAMPANE: ELEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 20.—ONIONS: TWENTY-SEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 21. (6.)—CUTLEEK: THIRTY-TWO REMEDIES. — CHAP. 22.—BULBED LEEK: THIRTY-NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 23.—GARLIC: SIXTY-ONE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 24.—THE LETTUCE: FORTY-TWO REMEDIES. THE GOAT-LETTUCE: FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 25.—CÆSAPON: ONE REMEDY. ISATIS: ONE REMEDY. THE WILD LETTUCE: SEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 26.—HAWK-WEED: SEVENTEEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 27. (8.)—BEET: TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 28.—LIMONION, OR NEUROIDES: THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 29.—ENDIVE: THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 30.—CICHORIUM OR CHRESTON, OTHERWISE CALLED PANCRATION, OR AMBULA: TWELVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 31.—HEDYPNOÏS: FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 32.—SERIS, THREE VARIETIES OF IT: SEVEN REMEDIES BORROWED FROM IT. — CHAP. 33. (9).—THE CABBAGE: EIGHTY-SEVEN REMEDIES. RECIPES MENTIONED BY CATO. — CHAP. 34.—OPINIONS OF THE GREEKS RELATIVE THERETO. — CHAP. 35.—CABBAGE-SPROUTS. — CHAP. 36.—THE WILD CABBAGE: THIRTY-SEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 37.—THE LAPSANA: ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 38.—THE SEA-CABBAGE: ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 39.—THE SQUILL: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 40.—BULBS: THIRTY REMEDIES. — CHAP. 41.—BULBINE; ONE REMEDY. BULB EMETIC. — CHAP. 42. (10.)—GARDEN ASPARAGUS; WITH THE NEXT TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 43.—CORRUDA, LIBYCUM, OR ORMINUM. — CHAP. 44. (11.)—PARSLEY; SEVENTEEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 45.—APIASTRUM, OR MELISSOPHYLLUM. — CHAP. 46.—OLUSATRUM OR HIPPOSELINON: ELEVEN REMEDIES. OREOSELINON; TWO REMEDIES. HELIOSELINON; ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 47. (12.)—PETROSELINON; ONE REMEDY. BUSELINON; ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 48.—OCIMUM; THIRTY-FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 49.—ROCKET: TWELVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 50.—NASTURTIUM: FORTY-TWO REMEDIES. — CHAP. 51.—RUE: EIGHTY-FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 52. (14.)—WILD MINT: TWENTY REMEDIES. — CHAP. 53.—MINT: FORTY-ONE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 54.—PENNYROYAL: TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 55.—WILD PENNYROYAL: SEVENTEEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 56.—NEP: NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 57.—CUMMIN: FORTY-EIGHT REMEDIES. WILD CUMMIN: TWENTY-SIX REMEDIES. — CHAP. 58.—AMMI: TEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 59.—THE CAPPARIS OR CAPER: EIGHTEEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 60.—LIGUSTICUM, OR LOVAGE: FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 61. (16.)—CUNILA BUBULA: FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 62.—CUNILA GALLINACEA, OR ORIGANUM: FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 63.—CUNILAGO: EIGHT REMEDIES. — CHAP. 64.—SOFT CUNILA: THREE REMEDIES. LIBANOTIS: THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 65.—CULTIVATED CUNILA; THREE REMEDIES. MOUNTAIN CUNILA; SEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 66. (17.)—PIPERITIS, OR SILIQUASTRUM: FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 67.—ORIGANUM, ONITIS, OR PRASION: SIX REMEDIES. — CHAP. 68.—TRAGORIGANUM: NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 69.—THREE VARIETIES OF HERACLEOTIC ORIGANUM: THIRTY REMEDIES. — CHAP. 70.—DITTANDER: THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 71.—GITH, OR MELANTHION: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 72.—ANISE: SIXTY-ONE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 73.—WHERE THE BEST ANISE IS FOUND: VARIOUS REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THIS PLANT. — CHAP. 74. (18.)—DILL: NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP 75.—SACOPENIUM, OR SAGAPENON: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 76.—THE WHITE POPPY: THREE REMEDIES. THE BLACK POPPY: EIGHT REMEDIES. REMARKS ON SLEEP. OPIUM. REMARKS IN DISFAVOUR OF THE POTIONS KNOWN AS “ANODYNES, FEBRIFUGES, DIGESTIVES, AND CŒLIACS.” IN WHAT WAY THE JUICES OF THESE PLANTS ARE TO BE COLLECTED. — CHAP. 77. (19.)—THE POPPY CALLED RHŒAS: TWO REMEDIES. — CHAP. 78.—THE WILD POPPY CALLED CERATITIS, GLAUCIUM, OR PARALIUM: SIX REMEDIES. — CHAP. 79.—THE WILD POPPY CALLED HERACLIUM, OR APHRON: FOUR REMEDIES. DIACODION. — CHAP. 80.—THE POPPY CALLED TITHYMALON, OR PARALION: THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 81. (20.)—PORCILLACA OR PURSLAIN, OTHERWISE CALLED PEPLIS: TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 82.—CORIANDER: TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 83.—ORAGE: FOURTEEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 84. (21.)—THE MALLOW CALLED MALOPE: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. THE MALLOW CALLED MALACHE: ONE REMEDY. THE MALLOW CALLED ALTHÆA, OR PLISTOLOCHIA: FIFTY-NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 85.—WILD LAPATHUM OR OXALIS, OTHERWISE CALLED LAPATHUM CANTHERINUM, OR RUMEX: ONE REMEDY. HYDROLAPATHUM: TWO REMEDIES. HIPPOLAPATHUM: SIX REMEDIES. OXYLAPATHUM: FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 86.—CULTIVATED LAPATHUM: TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES. BULAPATHUM: ONE REMEDY. — CHAP. 87. (22.)—MUSTARD, THE THREE KINDS OF IT: FORTY-FOUR REMEDIES. — CHAP. 88.—ADARCA: FORTY-EIGHT REMEDIES. — CHAP. 89.—MARRUBIUM OR PRASION, OTHERWISE LINOSTROPHON, PHILOPAIS, OR PHILOCHARES: TWENTY-NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 90.—WILD THYME: EIGHTEEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 91.—SISYMBRIUM OR THYMBRÆUM: TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 92.—LINSEED: THIRTY REMEDIES. — CHAP. 93.—BLITE: SIX REMEDIES. — CHAP. 94. (23.)—MEUM, AND MEUM ATHAMANTICUM: SEVEN REMEDIES. — CHAP. 95.—FENNEL: TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES. — CHAP. 96.—HIPPOMARATHRON, OR MYRSINEUM: FIVE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 97.—HEMP: NINE REMEDIES. — CHAP. 98.—FENNEL-GIANT: EIGHT REMEDIES. — CHAP. 99.—THE THISTLE OR SCOLYMOS: SIX REMEDIES. — CHAP. 100. (24.)—THE COMPOSITION OF THERIACA.

We are now about to enter upon an examination of the greatest of all the operations of Nature—we are about to discourse to man upon his aliments,1291 and to compel him to admit that he is ignorant by what means he exists. And let no one, misled by the apparent triviality of the names which we shall have to employ, regard this subject as one that is frivolous or contemptible: for we shall here have to set forth the state of peace or of war which exists between the various departments of Nature, the hatreds or friendships which are maintained by objects dumb and destitute of sense, and all, too, created—a wonderful subject for our contemplation!—for the sake of man alone. To these states, known to the Greeks by the respective appellations “sympathia” and “antipathia,” we are indebted for the first principles1292 of all things; for hence it is that water has the property of extinguishing fire, that the sun absorbs water, that the moon produces it, and that each of those heavenly bodies is from time to time eclipsed by the other.

Hence it is, too, descending from the contemplation of a loftier sphere, that the loadstone1293 possesses the property of attracting iron, and another stone,1294 again, that of repelling it; and that the diamond, that pride of luxury and opulence, though infrangible by every other object, and presenting a resistance that cannot be overcome, is broken asunder by a he-goat’s blood1295—in addition to numerous other marvels of which we shall have to speak on more appropriate occasions, equal to this or still more wonderful even. My only request is that pardon may be accorded me for beginning with objects of a more humble nature, though still so greatly conducive to our health—I mean the garden plants, of which I shall now proceed to speak.

We have already stated1296 that there is a wild cucumber, considerably smaller than the cultivated one. From this cucumber the medicament known as “elaterium” is prepared, being the juice extracted from the seed.1297 To obtain this juice the fruit is cut before it is ripe—indeed, if this precaution is not taken at an early period, the seed is apt to spirt1298 out and be productive of danger to the eyes. After it is gathered, the fruit is kept whole for a night, and on the following day an incision is made in it with a reed. The seed, too, is generally sprinkled with ashes, with the view of retaining in it as large a quantity of the juice as possible. When the juice is extracted, it is received in rain water, where it falls to the bottom; after which it is thickened in the sun, and then divided into lozenges, which are of singular utility to mankind for healing dimness1299 of sight, diseases of the eyes, and ulcerations of the eyelids. It is said that if the roots of a vine are touched with this juice, the grapes of it will be sure never to be attacked by birds.

The root,1300 too, of the wild cucumber, boiled in vinegar, is employed in fomentations for the gout, and the juice of it is used as a remedy for tooth-ache. Dried and mixed with resin, the root is a cure for impetigo1301 and the skin diseases known as “psora”1302 and “lichen:”1303 it is good, too, for imposthumes of the parotid glands and inflammatory tumours,1304 and restores the natural colour to the skin when a cicatrix has formed.—The juice of the leaves, mixed with vinegar, is used as an injection for the ears, in cases of deafness.

The proper season for making elaterium is the autumn; and there is no medicament known that will keep longer than this.1305 It begins to be fit for use when three years old; but if it is found desirable to make use of it at an earlier period than this, the acridity of the lozenges may be modified by putting them with vinegar upon a slow fire, in a new earthen pot. The older it is the better, and before now, as we learn from Theophrastus, it has been known to keep1305 so long as two hundred years. Even after it has been kept so long as fifty1306 years, it retains its property of extinguishing a light; indeed, it is the proper way of testing the genuineness of the drug to hold it to the flame and make it scintillate above and below, before finally extinguishing it. The elaterium which is pale, smooth, and slightly bitter, is superior1307 to that which has a grass-green appearance and is rough to the touch.

It is generally thought that the seed of this plant will facilitate conception if a woman carries it attached to her person, before it has touched the ground; and that it has the effect of aiding parturition, if it is first wrapped in ram’s wool, and then tied round the woman’s loins, without her knowing it, care being taken to carry it out of the house the instant she is delivered.

Those persons who magnify the praises of the wild cucumber say that the very best is that of Arabia, the next being that of Arcadia, and then that of Cyrenæ: it bears a resemblance to the heliotropium,1308 they say, and the fruit, about the size of a walnut, grows between the leaves and branches. The seed, it is said, is very similar in appearance to the tail of a scorpion thrown back, but is of a whitish hue. Indeed, there are some persons who give to this cucumber the name of “scorpionium,” and say that its seed, as well as the elaterium, is remarkably efficacious as a cure for the sting of the scorpion. As a purgative, the proper dose of either is from half an obolus to an obolus, according to the strength of the patient, a larger dose than this being fatal.1309 It is in the same proportions, too, that it is taken in drink for phthiriasis1310 and dropsy; applied externally with honey or old olive oil, it is used for the cure of quinsy and affections of the trachea.

Many authors are of opinion that the wild cucumber is identical with the plant known among us as the “anguine,” and by some persons as the “erratic”1311 cucumber. Objects sprinkled with a decoction of this plant will never be touched by mice. The same authors1312 say, too, that a decoction of it in vinegar, externally applied, gives instantaneous relief in cases of gout and diseases of the joints. As a remedy, too, for lumbago, the seed of it is dried in the sun and pounded, being given in doses of twenty denarii to half a sextarius of water. Mixed with woman’s milk and applied as a liniment, it is a cure for tumours which have suddenly formed.

Elaterium promotes the menstrual discharge; but if taken by females when pregnant, it is productive of abortion. It is good, also, for asthma, and, injected into the nostrils, for the jaundice.1313 Rubbed upon the face in the sun, it removes freckles1314 and spots upon the skin.

Many persons attribute all these properties to the cultivated cucumber1315 as well, a plant which even without them would be of very considerable importance, in a medicinal point of view. A pinch of the seed, for instance, in three fingers, beaten up with cummin and taken in wine, is extremely beneficial for a cough: for phrenitis, also, doses of it are administered in woman’s milk, and doses of one acetabulum for dysentery. As a remedy for purulent expectorations, it is taken with an equal quantity of cummin;1316 and it is used with hydromel for diseases of the liver. Taken in sweet wine, it is a diuretic; and, in combination with cummin,1316 it is used as an injection for affections of the kidneys.

The fruit known as pepones1317 are a cool and refreshing diet, and are slightly relaxing to the stomach. Applications are used of the pulpy flesh in defluxions or pains of the eyes. The root, too, of this plant cures the hard ulcers known to us as “ceria,” from their resemblance to a honeycomb, and it acts as an emetic.1318 Dried and reduced to a powder, it is given in doses of four oboli in hydromel, the patient, immediately after taking it, being made to walk half a mile. This powder is employed also in cosmetics1319 for smoothing the skin. The rind, too, has the effect1320 of promoting vomiting, and, when applied to the face, of clearing the skin; a result which is equally produced by an external application of the leaves of all the cultivated cucumbers. These leaves, mixed with honey, are employed for the cure of the pustules known as “epinyctis;”1321 steeped in wine, they are good, too, for the bites of dogs and of multipedes,1322 insects known to the Greeks by the name of “seps,”1323 of an elongated form, with hairy legs, and noxious to cattle more particularly; the sting being followed by swelling, and the wound rapidly putrifying.

The smell of the cucumber itself is a restorative1324 in fainting fits. It is a well-known fact, that if cucumbers are peeled and then boiled in oil, vinegar, and honey, they are all the more pleasant eating1325 for it.

There is found also a wild gourd, called “somphos” by the Greeks, empty within (to which circumstance it owes its name),1326 and long and thick in shape, like the finger: it grows nowhere except upon stony spots. The juice of this gourd, when chewed, is very beneficial to the stomach.1327

There is another variety of the wild gourd, known as the “colocynthis:”1328 this kind is full of seeds, but not so large as the cultivated one. The pale colocynthis is better than those of a grass-green colour. Employed by itself when dried, it acts as a very powerful1329 purgative; used as an injection, it is a remedy for all diseases of the intestines, the kidneys, and the loins, as well as for paralysis. The seed being first removed, it is boiled down in hydromel to one half; after which it is used as an injection, with perfect safety, in doses of four oboli. It is good, too, for the stomach, taken in pills composed of the dried powder and boiled honey. In jaundice seven seeds of it may be taken with beneficial effects, with a draught of hydromel immediately after.

The pulp of this fruit, taken with wormwood and salt, is a remedy for toothache, and the juice of it, warmed with vinegar, has the effect of strengthening loose teeth. Rubbed in with oil, it removes pains of the spine, loins, and hips: in addition to which, really a marvellous thing to speak of! the seeds of it, in even numbers, attached to the body in a linen cloth, will cure, it is said, the fevers to which the Greeks have given the name of “periodic.”1330 The juice, too, of the cultivated gourd1331 shred in pieces, applied warm, is good for ear-ache, and the flesh of the inside, used without the seed, for corns on the feet and the suppurations known to the Greeks as “apostemata.”1332 When the pulp and seeds are boiled together, the decoction is good for strengthening loose teeth, and for preventing toothache; wine, too, boiled with this plant, is curative of defluxions of the eyes. The leaves of it, bruised with fresh cypress-leaves, or the leaves alone, boiled in a vessel of potters’ clay and beaten up with goose-grease, and then applied to the part affected, are an excellent cure for wounds. Fresh shavings of the rind are used as a cooling application for gout, and burning pains in the head, in infants more particularly; they are good, too, for erysipelas,1333 whether it is the shavings of the rind or the seeds of the plant that are applied to the part affected. The juice of the scrapings, employed as a liniment with rose-oil and vinegar, moderates the burning heats of fevers; and the ashes of the dried fruit applied to burns are efficacious in a most remarkable degree.

Chrysippus, the physician, condemned the use of the gourd as a food: it is generally agreed, however, that it is extremely good1334 for the stomach, and for ulcerations of the intestines and of the bladder.

Rape, too, has its medicinal properties. Warmed, it is used as an application for the cure of chilblains,1335 in addition to which, it has the effect of protecting the feet from cold. A hot decoction of rape is employed for the cure of cold gout; and raw rape, beaten up with salt, is good for all maladies of the feet. Rape-seed, used as a liniment, and taken in drink, with wine, is said to have a salutary effect1336 against the stings of serpents, and various narcotic poisons; and there are many persons who attribute to it the properties of an antidote, when taken with wine and oil.

Democritus has entirely repudiated the use of rape as an article of food, in consequence of the flatulence1337 which it produces; while Diocles, on the other hand, has greatly extolled it, and has even gone so far as to say that it acts as an aphrodisiac.1338 Dionysius, too, says the same of rape, and more particularly if it is seasoned with rocket;1339 he adds, also, that roasted, and then applied with grease, it is excellent for pains in the joints.

Wild rape1340 is mostly found growing in the fields; it has a tufted top, with a white1341 seed, twice as large as that of the poppy. This plant is often employed for smoothing the skin of the face and the body generally, meal of fitches,1342 barley, wheat, and lupines, being mixed with it in equal proportions.

The root of the wild rape is applied to no useful purpose whatever.

The Greeks distinguish two kinds of turnips,1343 also, as employed in medicine. The turnip with angular stalks and a flower like that of anise, and known by them as “bunion,”1344 is good for promoting the menstrual discharge in females and for affections1345 of the bladder; it acts, also, as a diuretic. For these purposes, a decoction of it is taken with hydromel, or else one drachma of the juice of the plant.1346 The seed, parched, and then beaten up, and taken in warm water, in doses of four cyathi, is a good remedy for dysentery; it will stop the passage of the urine, however, if linseed is not taken with it.

The other kind of turnip is known by the name of “bunias,”1347 and bears a considerable resemblance to the radish and the rape united, the seed of it enjoying the reputation of being a remedy for poisons; hence it is that we find it employed in antidotes.

We have already said,1348 that there is also a wild radish.1349 The most esteemed is that of Arcadia, though it is also found growing in other countries as well. It is only efficacious as a diuretic, being in other respects of a heating nature. In Italy, it is known also by the name of “armoracia.”

The cultivated radish, too, in addition to what we have already said1350 of it, purges the stomach, attenuates the phlegm, acts as a diuretic, and detaches the bilious secretions. A decoction of the rind of radishes in wine, taken in the morning in doses of three cyathi, has the effect of breaking and expelling calculi of the bladder. A decoction, too, of this rind in vinegar and water, is employed as a liniment for the stings of serpents. Taken fasting in the morning with honey, radishes are good1351 for a cough. Parched radish-seed, as well as radishes themselves, chewed, is useful for pains in the sides.1352 A decoction of the leaves, taken in drink, or else the juice of the plant taken in doses of two cyathi, is an excellent remedy for phthiriasis. Pounded radishes, too, are employed as a liniment for inflammations1353 under the skin, and the rind, mixed with honey, for bruises of recent date. Lethargic persons1354 are recommended to eat them as hot as possible, and the seed, parched and then pounded with honey, will give relief to asthmatic patients.

Radishes, too, are useful as a remedy for poisons, and are employed to counteract the effects of the sting of the cerastes1355 and the scorpion: indeed, after having rubbed the hands with radishes or radish-seed, we may handle1356 those reptiles with impunity. If a radish is placed upon a scorpion, it will cause its death. Radishes are useful, too, in cases of poisoning by fungi1357 or henbane; and according to Nicander,1358 they are salutary against the effects of bullock’s blood,1359 when drunk. The two physicians of the name of Apollodorus, prescribe radishes to be given in cases of poisoning by mistletoe; but whereas Apollodorus of Citium recommends radish-seed pounded in water, Apollodorus of Tarentum speaks of the juice. Radishes diminish the volume of the spleen, and are beneficial for maladies of the liver and pains in the loins: taken, too, with vinegar or mustard, they are good for dropsy and lethargy, as well as epilepsy1360 and melancholy.1361 Praxagoras recommends that radishes should be given for the iliac passion, and Plistonicus for the cœliac1362 disease.

Radishes are good, too, for curing ulcerations of the intestines and suppurations of the thoracic organs,1363 if eaten with honey. Some persons say, however, that for this purpose they should be boiled in earth and water; a decoction which, according to them, promotes the menstrual discharge. Taken with vinegar or honey, radishes expel worms from the intestines; and a decoction of them boiled down to one-third, taken in wine, is good for intestinal hernia.1364 Employed in this way, too, they have the effect of drawing off the superfluous blood. Medius recommends them to be given boiled to persons troubled with spitting of blood, and to women who are suckling, for the purpose of increasing the milk. Hippocrates1365 recommends females whose hair falls off, to rub the head with radishes, and he says that for pains of the uterus, they should be applied to the navel.

Radishes have the effect, too, of restoring the skin, when scarred, to its proper colour; and the seed, steeped in water, and applied topically, arrests the progress of ulcers known as phagedænic.1366 Democritus regards them, taken with the food, as an aphrodisiac; and it is for this reason, perhaps, that some persons have spoken of them as being injurious to the voice. The leaves, but only those of the long radish, are said to have the effect of improving the eye-sight.

When radishes, employed as a remedy, act too powerfully, it is recommended that hyssop should be given immediately; there being an antipathy1367 between these two plants. For dulness of hearing, too, radish-juice is injected into the ear. To promote vomiting, it is extremely beneficial to eat radishes fasting.

The hibiscum, by some persons known as the wild mallow,1368 and by others as the “plistolochia,” bears a strong resemblance to the parsnip;1369 it is good for ulcerations of the cartilages, and is employed for the cure of fractured bones. The leaves of it, taken in water, relax the stomach; they have the effect, also, of keeping away serpents, and, employed as a liniment, are a cure for the stings of bees, wasps, and hornets. The root, pulled up before sunrise, and wrapped in wool of the colour known as “native,”1370 taken from a sheep which has just dropped a ewe lamb, is employed as a bandage for scrofulous swellings, even after they have suppurated. Some persons are of opinion, that for this purpose the root should be dug up with an implement of gold, and that care should be taken not to let it touch the ground.

Celsus,1371 too, recommends this root to be boiled in wine, and applied in cases of gout unattended with swelling.

The staphylinos, or, as some persons call it, “erratic1372 parsnip,” is another kind. The seed1373 of this plant, pounded and taken in wine, reduces swelling of the abdomen, and alleviates hysterical suffocations and pains, to such a degree as to restore the uterus to its natural condition. Used as a liniment, also, with raisin wine, it is good for pains of the bowels in females; for men, too, beaten up with an equal proportion of bread, and taken in wine, it may be found beneficial for similar pains. It is a diuretic also, and it will arrest the progress of phagedænic ulcers, if applied fresh with honey, or else dried and sprinkled on them with meal.

Dieuches recommends the root of it to be given, with hydromel, for affections of the liver and spleen, as also the sides, loins, and kidneys; and Cleophantus prescribes it for dysentery of long standing. Philistio says that it should be boiled in milk, and for strangury he prescribes four ounces of the root. Taken in water, he recommends it for dropsy, as well as in cases of opisthotony,1374 pleurisy, and epilepsy. Persons, it is said, who carry this plant about them, will never be stung by serpents, and those who have just eaten of it will receive no hurt from them. Mixed with axle-grease,1375 it is applied to parts of the body stung by reptiles; and the leaves of it are eaten as a remedy for indigestion.

Orpheus has stated that the staphylinos acts as a philtre,1376 most probably because, a very-well-established fact, when employed as a food, it is an aphrodisiac; a circumstance which has led some persons to state that it promotes conception. In other respects the cultivated parsnip has similar properties; though the wild kind is more powerful in its operation, and that which grows in stony soils more particularly. The seed, too, of the cultivated parsnip, taken in wine, or vinegar and water,1377 is salutary for stings inflicted by scorpions. By rubbing the teeth with the root of this plant, tooth-ache is removed.

The Syrians devote themselves particularly to the cultivation of the garden, a circumstance to which we owe the Greek proverb, “There is plenty of vegetables in Syria.”1378

Among other vegetables, that country produces one very similar to the staphylinos, and known to some persons as “gingidion,”1379 only that it is smaller than the staphylinos and more bitter, though it has just the same properties. Eaten either raw or boiled, it is very beneficial to the stomach, as it entirely absorbs all humours with which it may happen to be surcharged.

The wild1380 skirret, too, is very similar to the cultivated kind,1381 and is productive of similar effects. It sharpens1382 the stomach, and, taken with vinegar flavoured with silphium, or with pepper and hydromel, or else with garum, it promotes the appetite. According to Opion, it is a diuretic, and acts as an aphrodisiac.1383 Diocles is also of the same opinion; in addition to which, he says that it possesses cordial virtues for convalescents, and is extremely beneficial after frequent vomitings.

Heraclides has prescribed it against the effects of mercury,1384 and for occasional impotence, as also generally for patients when convalescent. Hicesius says that skirrets would appear to be prejudicial1385 to the stomach, because no one is able to eat three of them following; still, however, he looks upon them as beneficial to patients who are just resuming the use of wine. The juice of the cultivated skirret, taken in goats’-milk, arrests looseness of the stomach.

As the similitude which exists between their Greek names1386 has caused most persons to mistake the one for the other, we have thought it as well to give some account here of sile or hartwort,1387 though it is a plant which is very generally known. The best hartwort is that of Massilia,1388 the seed of it being broad and yellow; and the next best is that of Æthiopia, the seed of which is of a darker hue. The Cretan hartwort is the most odoriferous of the several kinds. The root of this plant has a pleasant smell; the seed of it is eaten by vultures, it is said.1389 Hartwort is useful to man for inveterate coughs, ruptures, and convulsions, being usually taken in white wine; it is employed also in cases of opisthotony, and for diseases of the liver, as well as for griping pains in the bowels and for strangury, in doses of two or three spoonfuls at a time.

The leaves of this plant are useful also, and have the effect of aiding parturition—in animals even: indeed, it is generally said that roes,1390 when about to bring forth, are in the habit of eating these leaves in particular. They are topically applied, also, in erysipelas; and either the leaves or the seed, taken fasting in the morning, are very beneficial to the digestion. Hartwort has the effect, too, of arresting looseness in cattle, either bruised and put into their drink, or else eaten by them after it has been chewed with salt. When oxen are in a diseased state, it is beaten up and poured into their food.

Elecampane,1391 too, chewed fasting, has the effect of strengthening the teeth, if, from the moment that it is plucked, it is not allowed to touch the ground: a confection of it is a cure for cough. The juice of the root boiled is an expellent of intestinal tapeworm; and dried in the shade and reduced to powder, the root1392 is curative in cases of cough, convulsions, flatulency, and affections of the trachea. It is useful too, for the bites of venomous animals; and the leaves steeped in wine are applied topically for pains in the loins.

There are no such things in existence as wild onions. The cultivated onion is employed for the cure of dimness1393 of sight, the patient being made to smell at it till tears come into the eyes: it is still better even if the eyes are rubbed with the juice. It is said, too, that onions are soporific,1394 and that they are a cure for ulcerations of the mouth, if chewed with bread. Fresh onions in vinegar, applied topically, or dried onions with wine and honey, are good for the bites of dogs, care being taken not to remove the bandage till the end of a couple of days. Applied, too, in the same way, they are good for healing excoriations. Roasted in hot ashes, many persons have applied them topically, with barley meal, for defluxions of the eyes and ulcerations of the genitals. The juice, too, is employed as an ointment for sores of the eyes, albugo,1395 and argema.1396 Mixed with honey, it is used as a liniment for the stings1397 of serpents and all kinds of ulcerous sores. In combination with woman’s milk, it is employed for affections of the ears; and in cases of singing in the ears and hardness of hearing, it is injected into those organs with goose-grease or honey. In cases where persons have been suddenly struck dumb, it has been administered to them to drink, mixed with water. In cases, too, of toothache, it is sometimes introduced into the mouth as a gargle for the teeth; it is an excellent remedy also for all kinds of wounds made by animals, scorpions more particularly.

In cases of alopecy1398 and itch-scab, bruised onions are rubbed on the parts affected: they are also given boiled to persons afflicted with dysentery or lumbago. Onion peelings, burnt to ashes and mixed with vinegar, are employed topically for stings of serpents and multipedes.1399

In other respects, there are remarkable differences of opinion among medical men. The more modern writers have stated that onions are good for the thoracic organs and the digestion, but that they are productive of flatulency and thirst. The school of Asclepiades maintains that, used as an aliment, onions impart a florid1400 colour to the complexion, and that, taken fasting every day, they are promoters of robustness and health; that as a diet, too, they are good for the stomach by acting upon the spirits, and have the effect of relaxing the bowels. He says, too, that, employed as a suppository, onions disperse piles, and that the juice of them, taken in combination with juice of fennel, is wonderfully beneficial in cases of incipient dropsy. It is said, too, that the juice, taken with rue and honey, is good for quinsy, and has the effect of dispelling lethargy.1401 Varro assures us that onions, pounded with salt and vinegar and then dried, will never be attacked by worms.1402

Cutleek1403 has the effect of stanching bleeding at the nose, the nostrils being plugged with the plant, pounded, or else mixed with nut-galls or mint. The juice of it, taken with woman’s milk, arrests floodings after a miscarriage; and it is remedial in cases even of inveterate cough, and of affections of the chest1404 and lungs. The leaves, applied topically, are employed for the cure of pimples, burns, and epinyctis1405—this last being the name given to an ulcer, known also as “syce,”1406 situate in the corner of the eye, from which there is a continual running: some persons, however, give this name to livid pustules, which cause great restlessness in the night. Other kinds of ulcers, too, are treated with leeks beaten up with honey: used with vinegar, they are extensively employed also for the bites of wild beasts, as well as of serpents and other venomous creatures. Mixed with goats’ gall, or else honied wine in equal proportions, they are used for affections of the ears, and, combined with woman’s milk, for singing in the ears. In cases of head-ache, the juice is injected into the nostrils, or else into the ear at bed-time, two spoonfuls of juice to one of honey.

This juice is taken too with pure wine,1407 for the stings of serpents and scorpions, and, mixed with a semi-sextarius of wine, for lumbago. The juice, or the leek itself, eaten as a food, is very beneficial to persons troubled with spitting of blood, phthisis, or inveterate catarrhs; in cases also of jaundice or dropsy, and for nephretic pains, it is taken in barley-water, in doses of one acetabulum of juice. The same dose, too, mixed with honey, effectually purges the uterus. Leeks are eaten, too, in cases of poisoning by fungi,1408 and are applied topically to wounds: they act also as an aphrodisiac,1409 allay thirst, and dispel the effects of drunkenness; but they have the effect of weakening the sight and causing flatulency, it is said, though, at the same time, they are not injurious to the stomach, and act as an aperient. Leeks impart a remarkable clearness to the voice.1410

Bulbed leek1411 produces the same effects as cut-leek,1412 but in a more powerful degree. To persons troubled with spitting of blood, the juice of it is given, with powdered nut-galls1413 or frankincense, or else gum acacia.1414 Hippocrates,1415 however, prescribes it without being mixed with anything else, and expressed himself of opinion that it has the property of opening the uterus when contracted, and that taken as an aliment by females, it is a great promoter of fecundity. Beaten up and mixed with honey, it cleanses ulcerous sores. It is good for the cure of coughs, catarrhs, and all affections of the lungs and of the trachea, whether given in the form of a ptisan, or eaten raw, the head excepted: it must be taken, however, without bread, and upon alternate days, and this even if there should be purulent expectorations.

Taken in this form, it greatly improves the voice, and acts as an aphrodisiac, and as a promoter of sleep. The heads, boiled in a couple of waters, arrest looseness of the bowels, and fluxes of long standing; and a decoction of the outer coat acts as a dye upon grey hair.1416

Garlic1417 has very powerful1418 properties, and is of great utility to persons on changes of water or locality. The very smell of it drives away serpents and scorpions, and, according to what some persons say, it is a cure for wounds made by every kind of wild beast, whether taken with the drink or food, or applied topically. Taken in wine, it is a remedy for the sting of the hæmorrhoïs1419 more particularly, acting as an emetic. We shall not be surprised too, that it acts as a powerful remedy for the bite of the shrew-mouse, when we find that it has the property of neutralizing aconite, otherwise known as “pardalianches.”1420 It neutralizes henbane, also, and cures the bites of dogs, when applied with honey to the wound. It is taken in drink also for the stings of serpents; and of its leaves, mixed with oil, a most valuable liniment is made for bruises on the body, even when they have swelled and formed blisters.

Hippocrates1421 is of opinion also, that fumigations made with garlic have the effect of bringing away the after-birth; and he used to employ the ashes of garlic, mixed with oil, for the cure of running ulcers of the head. Some persons have prescribed boiled garlic for asthmatic patients; while others, again, have given it raw. Diocles prescribes it, in combination with centaury, for dropsy, and to be taken in a split fig, to promote the alvine evacuations: taken fresh, however, in unmixed wine, with coriander, it is still more efficacious for that purpose. Some persons have given it, beaten up in milk, for asthma. Praxagoras used to prescribe garlic, mixed with wine, for jaundice, and with oil and pottage for the iliac passion: he employed it also in a similar form, as a liniment for scrofulous swellings of the neck.

The ancients used to give raw garlic in cases of madness, and Diocles administered it boiled for phrenitis. Beaten up, and taken in vinegar and water, it is very useful as a gargle for quinsy. Three heads of garlic, beaten up in vinegar, give relief in toothache: and a similar result is obtained by rinsing the mouth with a decoction of garlic, and inserting pieces of it in the hollow teeth. Juice of garlic is sometimes injected into the ears with goose-grease,1422 and, taken in drink, or similarly injected, in combination with vinegar and nitre, it arrests phthiriasis1423 and porrigo.1424 Boiled with milk, or else beaten up and mixed with soft cheese, it is a cure for catarrhs. Employed in a similar manner, and taken with pease or beans, it is good for hoarseness, but in general it is found to be more serviceable cooked than raw, and boiled than roasted: in this last state, however, it is more beneficial to the voice. Boiled in oxymel, it has the effect of expelling tape-worm and other intestinal worms; and a pottage made of it is a cure for tenesmus. A decoction of garlic is applied topically for pains in the temples; and first boiled and then beaten up with honey, it is good for blisters. A decoction of it, with stale grease, or milk, is excellent for a cough; and where persons are troubled with spitting of blood or purulent matter, it may be roasted in hot ashes, and taken with honey in equal proportions. For convulsions and ruptures it is administered in combination with salt and oil; and, mixed with grease, it is employed for the cure of suspected tumours.

Mixed with sulphur and resin, garlic draws out the humours from fistulous sores, and employed with pitch, it will extract an arrow even1425 from the wound. In cases of leprosy, lichen, and eruptions of the skin, it acts as a detergent, and effects a cure, in combination with wild marjoram, or else reduced to ashes, and applied as a liniment with oil and garum.1426 It is employed in a similar manner, too, for erysipelas; and, reduced to ashes, and mixed with honey, it restores contused or livid spots on the skin to their proper colour. It is generally believed, too, that taken in the food and drink, garlic is a cure for epilepsy, and that a clove of it, taken in astringent wine, with an obolus’ weight of silphium,1427 will have the effect of dispelling quartan fever. Garlic cures coughs also, and suppurations of the chest, however violent they may be; to obtain which result, another method is followed, it being boiled with broken beans, and employed as a diet till the cure is fully effected. It is a soporific also, and in general imparts to the body an additional ruddiness of colour.

Garlic acts as an aphrodisiac, beaten up with fresh coriander, and taken in pure wine. The inconveniences which result from the use of it, are dimness of the sight and flatulency; and if taken in too large quantities, it does injury to the stomach, and creates thirst. In addition to these particulars, mixed with spelt flour, and given to poultry in their food, it preserves them from attacks of the pip.1428 Beasts of burden, it is said, will void their urine all the more easily, and without any pain, if the genitals are rubbed with garlic.

The first kind of lettuce which grows spontaneously, is the one that is generally known as “goat1429-lettuce;” thrown into the sea, this vegetable has the property of instantaneously killing all the fish that come into its vicinity. The milky juice of this lettuce,1430 left to thicken and then put into vinegar, is given in doses of two oboli, with the addition of one cyathus of water, to patients for dropsy. The stalk and leaves, bruised and sprinkled with salt, are used for the cure of wounds of the sinews. Pounded with vinegar, and employed as a gargle in the morning twice a month, they act as a preventive of tooth-ache.

There is a second kind of wild lettuce, known by the Greeks is “cæsapon.”1431 The leaves of this lettuce, applied as a liniment with polenta,1432 are used for the cure of ulcerous sores. This plant is found growing in the fields. A third kind, again, grows in the woods; the name given to it is “isatis.”1433 The leaves of this last, beaten up and applied with polenta, are very useful for the cure of wounds. A fourth kind is used by dyers of wool; in the leaves it would resemble wild lapathum, were it not that they are more numerous and darker. This lettuce has the property of stanching blood, and of healing phagedænic sores and putrid spreading ulcers, as well as tumours before suppuration. Both the root as well as the leaves are good, too, for erysipelas; and a decoction of it is drunk for affections of the spleen. Such are the properties peculiar to each of these varieties.

The properties which are common to all the wild varieties1434 are whiteness, a stem sometimes as much as a cubit in length, and a roughness upon the stalk and leaves. Among these plants there is one with round, short leaves, known to some persons as “hieracion;”1435 from the circumstance that the hawk tears it open and sprinkles1436 its eyes with the juice, and so dispels any dimness of sight of which it is apprehensive. The juice of all these plants is white, and in its properties resembles that of the poppy.1437 It is collected at harvest-time, by making incisions in the stalk, and is kept in new earthen vessels, being renowned as a remedy for numerous maladies.1438 Mixed with woman’s milk, it is a cure for all diseases of the eyes, such as argema for instance, films on the eyes, scars and inflammations1439 of all kinds, and dimness of the sight more particularly. It is applied to the eyes, too, in wool, as a remedy for defluxions of those organs.

This juice also purges the bowels, taken in doses of two oboli in vinegar and water. Drunk in wine it is a cure for the stings of serpents, and the leaves and stalk of the plant are pounded and taken in vinegar. They are employed also as a liniment for wounds, the sting of the scorpion more particularly; combined, too, with oil and vinegar, they are similarly applied for the bite of the phalangium.1440 They have the effect, also, of neutralizing other poisons, with the exception of those which kill by suffocation or by attacking the bladder, as also with the exception of white lead. Steeped in oxymel, they are applied to the abdomen for the purpose of drawing out vicious humours of the intestines. The juice is found good, also, in cases of retention of the urine. Crateuas prescribes it to be given to dropsical patients, in doses of two oboli, with vinegar and one cyathus of wine.

Some persons collect the juice of the cultivated lettuce as well, but it is not so efficacious1441 as the other. We have already made mention,1442 to some extent, of the peculiar properties of the cultivated lettuce, such as promoting sleep, allaying the sexual passions, cooling the body when heated, purging1443 the stomach, and making blood. In addition to these, it possesses no few properties besides; for it has the effect of removing flatulency, and of dispelling eructations, while at the same time it promotes the digestion, without ever being indigestible itself. Indeed, there is no article of diet known that is a greater stimulant to the appetite, or which tends in a greater degree to modify it; it being the extent, either way, to which it is eaten that promotes these opposite results. In the same way, too, lettuces eaten in too large quantities are laxative, but taken in moderation they are binding. They have the effect, also, of attenuating the tough, viscous, phlegm, and, according to what some persons say, of sharpening the senses. They are extremely serviceable, too, to debilitated stomachs; for which purpose * *1444 oboli of sour sauce1445 is added to them, the sharpness of which is modified by the application of sweet wine, to make it of the same strength as vinegar-sauce.1446 If, again, the phlegm with which the patient is troubled is extremely tough and viscous, wine of squills or of wormwood is employed; and if there is any cough perceptible, hyssop wine is mixed as well.

Lettuces are given with wild endive for cœliac affections, and for obstructions of the thoracic organs. White lettuces, too, are prescribed in large quantities for melancholy and affections of the bladder. Praxagoras recommends them for dysentery. Lettuces are good, also, for recent burns, before blisters have made their appearance: in such cases they are applied with salt. They arrest spreading ulcers, being applied at first with saltpetre, and afterwards with wine. Beaten up, they are applied topically for erysipelas; and the stalks, beaten up with polenta, and applied with cold water, are soothing for luxations of the limbs and spasmodic contractions; used, too, with wine and polenta, they are good for pimples and eruptions. For cholera lettuces have been given, cooked in the saucepan, in which case it is those with the largest stalk and bitter that are the best: some persons administer them, also, as an injection, in milk. These stalks boiled, are remarkably good, it is said, for the stomach: the summer lettuce, too, more particularly, and the bitter, milky lettuce, of which we have already1447 made mention as the “meconis,” have a soporific effect. This juice, in combination with woman’s milk, is said to be extremely beneficial to the eyesight, if applied to the head in good time; it is a remedy, too, for such maladies of the eyes as result from the action of cold.

I find other marvellous praises lavished upon the lettuce, such, for instance, as that, mixed with Attic honey, it is no less beneficial for affections of the chest than abrotonum;1448 that the menstrual discharge is promoted in females by using it as a diet; that the seed, too, Of the cultivated lettuce is administered as a remedy for the stings of scorpions, and that pounded, and taken in wine, it arrests all libidinous dreams and imaginations during sleep; that water, too, which affects1449 the brain will have no injurious effects upon those who eat lettuce. Some persons have stated, however, that if lettuces are eaten too frequently they will prove injurious to the eyesight.

Nor are the two varieties of the beet without their remedial properties.1450 The root of either white or black beet, if hung by a string, fresh-gathered, and softened with water, is said to be efficacious for the stings of serpents. White beet, boiled and eaten with raw garlic, is taken for tapeworm; the root, too, of the black kind, similarly boiled in water, removes porrigo; indeed, it is generally stated, that the black beet is the more efficacious1451 of the two. The juice of black beet is good for inveterate head-aches and vertigo, and injected into the ears, it stops singing in those organs. It is a diuretic, also, and employed in injections is a cure for dysentery and jaundice.

This juice, used as a liniment, allays tooth-ache, and is good for the stings of serpents; but due care must be taken that it is extracted from this root only. A decoction, too, of beet-root is a remedy for chilblains.

A liniment of white beet-root applied to the forehead, arrests defluxions of the eyes, and mixed with a little alum it is an excellent remedy for erysipelas. Beaten up, and applied without oil, it is a cure for excoriations. In the same way, too, it is good for pimples and eruptions. Boiled, it is applied topically to spreading ulcers, and in a raw state it is employed in cases of alopecy, and running ulcers of the head. The juice, injected with honey into the nostrils, has the effect of clearing the head. Beet-root is boiled with lentils and vinegar, for the purpose of relaxing the bowels; if it is boiled, however, some time longer, it will have the effect of arresting fluxes of the stomach and bowels.

There is a wild beet, too, known by some persons as “limonion,”1452 and by others as “neuroides;” it has leaves much smaller and thinner than the cultivated kind, and lying closer together. These leaves amount often to eleven1453 in number, the stalk resembling that of the lily.1454 The leaves of this plant are very useful for burns, and have an astringent taste in the mouth: the seed, taken in doses of one acetabulum, is good for dysentery. It is said that a decoction of beet with the root has the property of taking stains out of cloths and parchment.

Endive,1455 too, is not without its medicinal uses. The juice of it, employed with rose oil and vinegar, has the effect of allaying headache; and taken with wine, it is good for pains in the liver and bladder: it is used, also, topically, for defluxions of the eyes. The spreading endive has received from some persons among us the name of “ambula.” In Egypt, the wild endive is known as “cichorium,”1456 the cultivated kind being called “seris.” This last is smaller than the other, and the leaves of it more full of veins.

Wild endive or cichorium has certain refreshing qualities,1457 used as an aliment. Applied by way of liniment, it disperses abscesses, and a decoction of it loosens the bowels. It is also very beneficial to the liver, kidneys, and stomach. A decoction of it in vinegar has the effect of dispelling the pains of strangury; and, taken in honied wine, it is a cure for the jaundice, if unattended with fever. It is beneficial, also, to the bladder, and a decoction of it in water promotes the menstrual discharge to such an extent as to bring away the dead fœtus even.

In addition to these qualities, the magicians1458 state that persons who rub themselves with the juice of the entire plant, mixed with oil, are sure to find more favour with others, and to obtain with greater facility anything they may desire. This plant, in consequence of its numerous salutary virtues, has been called by some persons “chreston,”1459 and “pancration”1460 by others.

There is a sort of wild endive, too, with a broader leaf, known to some persons as “hedypnoïs.”1461 Boiled, it acts as an astringent upon a relaxed stomach, and eaten raw, it is productive of constipation. It is good, too, for dysentery, when eaten with lentils more particularly. This variety, as well as the preceding one, is useful for ruptures and spasmodic contractions, and relieves persons who are suffering from spermatorrhœa.

The vegetable, too, called “seris,”1462 which bears a considerable resemblance to the lettuce, consists of two kinds. The wild, which is of a swarthy colour, and grows in summer, is the best of the two; the winter kind, which is whiter than the other, being inferior. They are both of them bitter, but are extremely beneficial to the stomach, when distressed by humours more particularly. Used as food with vinegar, they are cooling, and, employed as a liniment, they dispel other humours besides those of the stomach. The roots of the wild variety are eaten with polenta for the stomach: and in cardiac diseases they are applied topically above the left breast. Boiled in vinegar, all these vegetables are good for the gout, and for patients troubled with spitting of blood or spermatorrhœa; the decoction being taken on alternate days.

Petronius Diodotus, who has written a medical Anthology,1463 utterly condemns seris, and employs a multitude of arguments to support his views: this opinion of his is opposed, however, to that of all other writers on the subject.

It would be too lengthy a task to enumerate all the praises of the cabbage, more particularly as the physician Chrysippus has devoted a whole volume to the subject, in which its virtues are described in reference to each individual part of the human body. Dieuches has done the same, and Pythagoras too, in particular. Cato, too, has not been more sparing in its praises than the others; and it will be only right to examine the opinions which he expresses in relation to it, if for no other purpose than to learn what medicines the Roman people made use of for six hundred years.

The most ancient Greek writers have distinguished three1464 varieties of the cabbage: the curly1465 cabbage, to which they have given the name of “selinoïdes,”1466 from the resemblance of its leaf to that of parsley, beneficial to the stomach, and moderately relaxing to the bowels; the “helia,” with broad leaves running out from the stalk—a circumstance, owing to which some persons have given it the name of “caulodes”—of no use whatever in a medicinal point of view; and a third, the name of which is properly “crambe,” with thinner leaves, of simple form, and closely packed, more bitter than the others, but extremely efficacious in medicine.1467

Cato1468 esteems the curly cabbage the most highly of all, and next to it, the smooth cabbage with large leaves and a thick stalk. He says that it is a good thing for headache, dimness of the sight, and dazzling1469 of the eyes, the spleen, stomach, and thoracic organs, taken raw in the morning, in doses of two acetabula, with oxymel, coriander, rue, mint, and root of silphium.1470 He says, too, that the virtue of it is so great that the very person even who beats up this mixture feels himself all the stronger for it; for which reason he recommends it to be taken mixed with these condiments, or, at all events, dressed with a sauce compounded of them. For the gout, too, and diseases of the joints, a liniment of it should be used, he says, with a little rue and coriander, a sprinkling of salt, and some barley meal: the very water even in which it has been boiled is wonderfully efficacious, according to him, for the sinews and joints. For wounds, either recent or of long standing, as also for carcinoma,1471 which is incurable by any other mode of treatment, he recommends fomentations to be made with warm water, and, after that, an application of cabbage, beaten up, to the parts affected, twice a-day. He says, also, that fistulas and sprains should be treated in a similar way, as well as all humours which it may be desirable to bring to a head and disperse; and he states that this vegetable, boiled and eaten fasting, in considerable quantities, with oil and salt, has the effect of preventing dreams and wakefulness; also, that if, after one boiling, it is boiled a second time, with the addition of oil, salt, cummin, and polenta, it will relieve gripings1472 in the stomach; and that, if eaten in this way without bread, it is more beneficial still. Among various other particulars, he says, that if taken in drink with black wine, it has the effect of carrying off the bilious secretions; and he recommends the urine of a person who has been living on a cabbage diet to be preserved, as, when warmed, it is a good remedy for diseases of the sinews. I will, however, here give the identical words in which Cato expresses himself upon this point: “If you wash little children with this urine,” says he, “they will never be weak and puny.”

He recommends, also, the warm juice of cabbage to be injected into the ears, in combination with wine, and assures us that it is a capital remedy for deafness: and he says that the cabbage is a cure for impetigo1473 without the formation of ulcers.

As we have already given those of Cato, it will be as well to set forth the opinions entertained by the Greek writers on this subject, only in relation, however, to those points upon which he has omitted to touch. They are of opinion that cabbage, not thoroughly boiled, carries off the bile, and has the effect of loosening the bowels; while, on the other hand, if it is boiled twice over, it will act as an astringent. They say, too, that as there is a natural1474 enmity between it and the vine, it combats the effects of wine; that, if eaten before drinking, it is sure to prevent1475 drunkenness, being equally a dispellent of crapulence1476 if taken after drinking: that cabbage is a food very beneficial to the eyesight, and that the juice of it raw is even more so, if the corners of the eyes are only touched with a mixture of it with Attic honey. Cabbage, too, according to the same testimony, is extremely easy of digestion,1477 and, as an aliment, greatly tends to clear the senses.

The school of Erasistratus proclaims that there is nothing more beneficial to the stomach and the sinews than cabbage; for which reason, he says, it ought to be given to the paralytic and nervous, as well as to persons affected with spitting of blood. Hippocrates prescribes it, twice boiled, and eaten with salt, for dysentery and cœliac affections, as also for tenesmus and diseases of the kidneys; he is of opinion, too, that, as an aliment, it increases the quantity of the milk in women who are nursing, and that it promotes the menstrual discharge.1478 The stalk, too, eaten raw, is efficacious in expelling the dead fœtus. Apollodorus prescribes the seed or else the juice of the cabbage to be taken in cases of poisoning by fungi; and Philistion recommends the juice for persons affected with opisthotony, in goats’-milk, with salt and honey.

I find, too, that persons have been cured of the gout by eating cabbage and drinking a decoction of that plant. This decoction has been given, also, to persons afflicted with the cardiac disease and epilepsy, with the addition of salt; and it has been administered in white wine, for affections of the spleen, for a period of forty days.

According to Philistion, the juice of the raw root should be given as a gargle to persons afflicted with icterus1479 or phrenitis, and for hiccup he prescribes a mixture of it, in vinegar, with coriander, anise, honey, and pepper. Used as a liniment, cabbage, he says, is beneficial for inflations of the stomach; and the very water, even, in which it has been boiled, mixed with barley-meal, is a remedy for the stings of serpents1480 and foul ulcers of long standing; a result which is equally effected by a mixture of cabbage-juice with vinegar or fenugreek. It is in this manner, too, that some persons employ it topically, for affections of the joints and for gout. Applied topically, cabbage is a cure for epinyctis, and all kinds of spreading eruptions on the body, as also for sudden1481 attacks of dimness; indeed, if eaten with vinegar, it has the effect of curing the last. Applied by itself, it heals contusions and other livid spots; and mixed with a ball of alum in vinegar, it is good as a liniment for leprosy and itch-scabs: used in this way, too, it prevents the hair from falling off.

Epicharmus assures us that, applied topically, cabbage is extremely beneficial for diseases of the testes and genitals, and even better still when employed with bruised beans; he says, too, that it is a cure for convulsions; that, in combination with rue, it is good for the burning heats of fever and maladies of the stomach; and that, with rue-seed, it brings away the after-birth. It is of use, also, for the bite of the shrew-mouse. Dried cabbage-leaves, reduced to a powder, are a cathartic both by vomit and by stool.

In all varieties of the cabbage, the part most agreeable to the taste is the cyma,1482 although no use is made of it in medicine, as it is difficult to digest, and by no means beneficial to the kidneys. At the same time, too, it should not be omitted, that the water in which it has been boiled,1483 and which is so highly praised for many purposes, gives out a very bad smell when poured upon the ground. The ashes of dried cabbage-stalks are generally reckoned among the caustic substances: mixed with stale grease, they are employed for sciatica, and, used as a liniment, in the form of a depilatory, together with silphium1484 and vinegar, they prevent hair that has been once removed from growing again. These ashes, too, are taken lukewarm in oil, or else by themselves, for convulsions, internal ruptures, and the effects of falls with violence.

And are we to say then that the cabbage is possessed of no evil qualities whatever? Certainly not, for the same authors tell us, that it is apt to make the breath smell, and that it is injurious to the teeth and gums. In Egypt, too, it is never eaten, on account of its extreme bitterness.1485

Cato1486 extols infinitely more highly the properties of wild or erratic cabbage;1487 so much so, indeed, as to affirm that the very powder of it, dried and collected in a scent-box, has the property, on merely smelling at it, of removing maladies of the nostrils and the bad smells resulting therefrom. Some persons call this wild cabbage “petræa:”1488 it has an extreme antipathy to wine, so much so, indeed, that the vine invariably1489 avoids it, and if it cannot make its escape, will be sure to die. This vegetable has leaves of uniform shape, small, rounded, and smooth: bearing a strong resemblance to the cultivated cabbage, it is whiter, and has a more downy1490 leaf.

According to Chrysippus, this plant is a remedy for flatulency, melancholy, and recent wounds, if applied with honey, and not taken off before the end of six days: beaten up in water, it is good also for scrofula and fistula. Other writers, again, say that it is an effectual cure for spreading sores on the body, known as “nomæ;” that it has the property, also, of removing excrescences, and of reducing the scars of wounds and sores; that if chewed raw with honey, it is a cure for ulcers of the mouth and tonsils; and that a decoction of it used as a gargle with honey, is productive of the same effect. They say, too, that, mixed in strong vinegar with alum, in the proportion of three parts to two of alum, and then applied as a liniment, it is a cure for itch scabs and leprous sores of long standing. Epicharmus informs us, that for the bite of a mad dog, it is quite sufficient to apply it topically to the part affected, but that if used with silphium and strong vinegar, it is better still: he says, too, that it will kill a dog, if given to it with flesh to eat.

The seed of this plant, parched, is remedial in cases of poisoning, by the stings of serpents, eating fungi, and drinking bulls’ blood. The leaves of it, either boiled and taken in the food or else eaten raw, or applied with a liniment of sulphur and nitre, are good for affections of the spleen, as well as hard tumours of the mamillæ. In swelling of the uvula, if the parts affected are only touched with the ashes of the root, a cure will be the result; and applied topically with honey, they are equally beneficial for reducing swellings of the parotid glands, and curing the stings of serpents. We will add only one more proof of the virtues of the cabbage, and that a truly marvellous one—in all vessels in which water is boiled, the incrustations which adhere with such tenacity that it is otherwise impossible to detach them, will fall off immediately if a cabbage is boiled therein.

Among the wild cabbages, we find also the lapsana,1491 a plant which grows a foot in height, has a hairy leaf, and strongly resembles mustard, were it not that the blossom is whiter. It is eaten cooked, and has the property of soothing and gently relaxing the bowels.

Sea-cabbage1492 is the most strongly purgative of all these plants. It is cooked, in consequence of its extreme pungency, with fat meat, and is extremely detrimental to the stomach.

In medicine, we give the name of white squill to the male plant, and of black1493 to the female: the whiter the squill, the better it is for medicinal1494 purposes. The dry coats being first taken off of it, the remaining part, or so much of it as retains life, is cut into pieces, which are then strung and suspended on a string, at short distances from each other. After these pieces are thoroughly dried, they are thrown into a jar of the very strongest vinegar, suspended in such a way, however, as not to touch any portion of the vessel. This is done forty-eight days before the summer solstice. The mouth of the jar is then tightly sealed with plaster; after which it is placed beneath some tiles which receive the rays of the sun the whole day through. At the end of forty-eight days the vessel is removed, the squills are taken out of it, and the vinegar poured into another jar.

This vinegar has the effect of sharpening the eyesight, and, taken every other day, is good for pains in the stomach and sides: the strength of it, however, is so great, that if taken in too large a quantity, it will for some moments produce all the appearance of death. Squills, too, if chewed by themselves even, are good for the gums and teeth; and taken in vinegar and honey they expel tapeworm and other intestinal worms. Put fresh beneath the tongue, they prevent persons afflicted with dropsy from experiencing thirst.

Squills are cooked in various ways; either in a pot with a lining of clay or grease, which is put into an oven or furnace, or else cut into pieces and stewed in a saucepan. They are dried also in a raw state, and then cut into pieces and boiled with vinegar; in which case, they are employed as a liniment for the stings of serpents. Sometimes, again, they are roasted and then cleaned; after which, the middle of the bulb is boiled again in water.

When thus boiled, they are used for dropsy, as a diuretic, being taken in doses of three oboli, with oxymel: they are employed also in a similar manner for affections of the spleen, and of the stomach, when it is too weak to digest the food, provided no ulcerations have made their appearance; also for gripings of the bowels, jaundice, and inveterate cough, accompanied with asthma. A cataplasm of squill leaves, taken off at the end of four days, has the effect of dispersing scrofulous swellings of the neck; and a decoction of squills in oil, applied as a liniment, is a cure for dandriff and running ulcers of the head.

Squills are boiled with honey also for the table, with the view of aiding the digestion more particularly; used in this way, too, they act upon the inside as a purgative. Boiled with oil, and then mixed with resin, they are a cure for chaps on the feet; and the seed, mixed with honey, is applied topically, for the cure of lumbago. Pythagoras says that a squill, suspended at the threshold of the door, effectually shuts all access to evil spells and incantations.1495

Bulbs,1496 steeped in vinegar and sulphur, are good for the cure of wounds in the face;1497 beaten up and used alone, they are beneficial for contractions of the sinews, mixed with wine, for porrigo, and used with honey, for the bites of dogs; in this last case, however, Erasistratus says that they ought to be mixed with pitch. The same author states that, applied topically with honey, they stanch the flowing of blood; other writers say, however, that in cases of bleeding at the nose, coriander and meal should be employed in combination with them. Theodorus prescribes bulbs in vinegar for the cure of lichens, and for eruptions in the head he recommends bulbs mixed with astringent wine, or an egg beaten up; he treats defluxions of the eyes also with bulbs, applied topically, and uses a similar method for the cure of ophthalmia. The red bulbs more particularly, will cause spots in the face to disappear, if rubbed upon them with honey and nitre in the sun; and applied with wine or boiled cucumber they will remove freckles. Used either by themselves, or as Damion recommends, in combination with honied wine, they are remarkably efficacious for the cure of wounds, care being taken, however, not to remove the application till the end of four days. The same author prescribes them, too, for the cure of fractured ears, and collections of crude humours in the testes.1498

For pains in the joints, bulbs are used with meal; boiled in wine, and applied to the abdomen, they reduce hard swellings of the viscera. In dysentery, they are given in wine mixed with rain water; and for convulsions of the intestines they are employed, in combination with silphium, in pills the size of a bean: bruised, they are employed externally, for the purpose of checking perspirations. Bulbs are good, too, for the sinews, for which reason it is that they are given to paralytic patients. The red bulb, mixed with honey and salt, heals sprains of the feet with great rapidity. The bulbs of Megara1499 act as a strong aphrodisiac, and garden bulbs, taken with boiled must or raisin wine, aid delivery.

Wild bulbs, made up into pills with silphium, effect the cure of wounds and other affections of the intestines. The seed, too, of the cultivated kinds is taken in wine as a cure for the bite of the phalangium,1500 and the bulbs themselves are applied in vinegar for the cure of the stings of serpents. The ancients used to give bulb-seed to persons afflicted with madness, in drink. The blossom, beaten up, removes spots upon the legs, as well as scorches produced by fire. Diocles is of opinion that the sight is impaired by the use of bulbs; he adds, too, that when boiled they are not so wholesome as roasted, and that, of whatever nature they may be, they are difficult of digestion.

The Greeks give the name bulbine1501 to a plant with leaves resembling those of the leek, and a red bulbous root. This plant, it is said, is marvellously good for wounds, but only when they are of recent date. The bulbous plant known as the “emetic” bulb,1502 from the effects which it produces, has dark leaves,1503 and longer than those of the other kinds.

Asparagus1504 is said to be extremely wholesome as an aliment to the stomach. With the addition of cummin, it dispels flatulency of the stomach and colon; it sharpens the eyesight also, acts as a mild aperient upon the stomach, and, boiled with wine, is good for pains in the chest and spine, and diseases of the intestines. For pains in the loins and kidneys asparagus-seed1505 is administered in doses of three oboli, taken with an equal proportion of cummin-seed. It acts as an aphrodisiac, and is an extremely useful diuretic, except that it has a tendency to ulcerate the bladder.1506

The root, also, pounded and taken in white wine, is highly extolled by some writers, as having the effect of disengaging calculi, and of soothing pains in the loins and kidneys; there are some persons, too, who administer this root with sweet wine for pains in the uterus. Boiled in vinegar the root is very beneficial in cases of elephantiasis. It is said that if a person is rubbed with asparagus beaten up in oil, he will never be stung by bees.

Wild asparagus is by some persons called “corruda,” by others “libycum,” and by the people of Attica “orminus.”1507 For all the affections above enumerated it is more efficacious even than the cultivated kind, that which is white1508 more particularly. This vegetable has the effect of dispelling the jaundice, and a decoction of it, in doses of one hemina, is recommended as an aphrodisiac; a similar effect is produced also by a mixture of asparagus seed and dill in doses of three oboli respectively. A decoction of asparagus juice is given also for the stings of serpents; and the root of it, mixed with that of marathrum,1509 is reckoned in the number of the most valuable remedies we are acquainted with.

In cases of hæmaturia, Chrysippus recommends a mixture of asparagus, parsley, and cummin seed, to be given to the patient every five days, in doses of three oboli, mixed with two cyathi of wine. He says, however, that though employed this way, it is a good diuretic, it is bad for dropsy, and acts as an antaphrodisiac; and that it is injurious to the bladder, unless it is boiled first.1510 He states also, that if the water in which it is boiled is given to dogs, it will kill them;1511 and that the juice of the root boiled in wine, kept in the mouth, is an effectual cure for tooth-ache.

Parsley1512 is held in universal esteem; for we find sprigs of it swimming in the draughts of milk given us to drink in country-places; and we know that as a seasoning for sauces, it is looked upon with peculiar favour. Applied to the eyes with honey, which must also be fomented from time to time with a warm decoction of it, it has a most marvellous efficacy in cases of defluxion of those organs or of other parts of the body; as also when beaten up and applied by itself, or in combination with bread or with polenta. Fish, too, when found to be in an ailing state in the preserves, are greatly refreshed by giving them green parsley. As to the opinions entertained upon it among the learned, there is not a single production dug out of the earth in reference to which a greater diversity exists.

Parsley is distinguished as male and female:1513 according to Chrysippus, the female plant has a hard leaf and more curled than the other, a thick stem, and an acrid, hot taste. Dionysius says, that the female is darker than the other kind, has a shorter root, and engenders small worms.1514 Both of these writers, however, agree in saying that neither kind of parsley should be admitted into the number of our aliments; indeed, they look upon it as nothing less than sacrilege to do so, seeing that parsley is consecrated to the funereal feasts in honour of the dead. They say, too, that it is injurious to the eyesight, that the stalk of the female plant engenders small worms, for which reason it is that those who eat of it become barren—males as well as females; and that children suckled by females who live on a parsley diet, are sure to be epileptic. They agree, however, in stating that the male plant is not so injurious in its effects as the female, and that it is for this reason that it is not absolutely condemned and classed among the forbidden plants. The leaves of it, employed as a cataplasm, are used for dispersing hard tumours1515 in the mamillæ; and when boiled in water, it makes it more agreeable to drink. The juice of the root more particularly, mixed with wine, allays the pains of lumbago, and, injected into the ears, it diminishes hardness of hearing. The seed of it acts as a diuretic, promotes the menstrual discharge, and brings away the after-birth.

Bruises and livid spots, if fomented with a decoction of parsley-seed, will resume their natural colour. Applied topically, with the white of egg, or boiled in water, and then drunk, it is remedial for affections of the kidneys; and beaten up in cold water it is a cure for ulcers of the mouth. The seed, mixed with wine, or the root, taken with old wine, has the effect of breaking calculi in the bladder. The seed, too, is given in white wine, to persons afflicted with the jaundice.

Hyginus gave the name of “apiastrum” to melissophyllum:1516 but that which grows in Sardinia is poisonous, and universally condemned. I speak here of this plant, because I feel it my duty to place before the reader every object which has been classified, among the Greeks, under the same name.

Olusatrum,1517 usually known as hipposelinon,1518 is particularly repulsive to scorpions. The seed of it, taken in drink, is a cure for gripings in the stomach and intestinal complaints, and a decoction of the seed, drunk in honied wine, is curative in cases of dysuria.1519 The root of the plant, boiled in wine, expels calculi of the bladder, and is a cure for lumbago and pains in the sides. Taken in drink and applied topically, it is a cure for the bite of a mad dog, and the juice of it, when drunk, is warming for persons benumbed with cold.

Some persons make out oreoselinon1520 to be a fourth species of parsley: it is a shrub about a palm in height, with an elongated seed, bearing a strong resemblance to that of cummin, and efficacious for the urine and the catamenia. Helioselinon1521 is possessed of peculiar virtues against the bites of spiders: and oreoselinon is used with wine for promoting the menstrual discharge.

Another kind again, which grows in rocky places, is known by some persons as “petroselinon:”1522 it is particularly good for abscesses, taken in doses of two spoonfuls of the juice to one cyathus of juice of horehound, mixed with three cyathi of warm water. Some writers have added buselinon1523 to the list, which differs only from the cultivated kind in the shortness of the stalk and the red colour of the root, the medicinal properties being just the same. Taken in drink or applied topically, it is an excellent remedy for the stings of serpents.

Chrysippus has exclaimed as strongly, too, against ocimum1524 as he has against parsley, declaring that it is prejudicial to the stomach and the free discharge of the urine, and is injurious to the sight; that it produces insanity, too, and lethargy, as well as diseases of the liver; and that it is for this reason that goats refuse to touch it. Hence he comes to the conclusion, that the use of it ought to be avoided by man. Some persons go so far as to say, that if beaten up, and then placed beneath a stone, a scorpion will breed there;1525 and that if chewed, and then placed in the sun, worms will breed in it. The people of Africa maintain, too, that if a person is stung by a scorpion the same day on which he has eaten ocimum, his life cannot possibly be saved. Even more than this, there are some who assert, that if a handful of ocimum is beaten up with ten sea or river crabs, all the scorpions in the vicinity will be attracted to it. Diodotus, too, in his Book of Recipes,1526 says, that ocimum, used as an article of food, breeds lice.

Succeeding ages, again, have warmly defended this plant; it has been maintained, for instance, that goats do eat it, that the mind of no one who has eaten of it is at all affected, and, that mixed with wine, with the addition of a little vinegar, it is a cure for the stings of land scorpions, and the venom of those found in the sea. Experience has proved, too, that the smell of this plant in vinegar is good for fainting fits and lethargy, as well as inflammations; that employed as a cooling liniment, with rose oil, myrtle oil, or vinegar, it is good for head-ache; and that applied topically with wine, it is beneficial for defluxions of the eyes. It has been found also, that it is good for the stomach; that taken with vinegar, it dispels flatulent eructations; that applications of it arrest fluxes of the bowels; that it acts as a diuretic, and that in this way it is good for jaundice and dropsy, as well as cholera and looseness of the bowels.

Hence it is that Philistio has prescribed it even for cœliac affections, and boiled, for dysentery. Some persons, too, though contrary to the opinion of Plistonicus, have given it in wine for tenesmus and spitting of blood, as also for obstructions of the viscera. It is employed, too, as a liniment for the mamillæ, and has the effect of arresting the secretion of the milk. It is very good also for the ears of infants, when applied with goose-grease more particularly. The seed of it, beaten up, and inhaled into the nostrils, is provocative of sneezing, and applied as a liniment to the head, of running at the nostrils: taken in the food, too, with vinegar, it purges the uterus. Mixed with copperas1527 it removes warts. It acts, also, as an aphrodisiac, for which reason it is given to horses and asses at the season for covering.

(13.) Wild ocimum has exactly the same properties in every respect, though in a more active degree. It is particularly good, too, for the various affections produced by excessive vomiting, and for abscesses of the womb. The root, mixed with wine, is extremely efficacious for bites inflicted by wild beasts.

The seed of rocket1528 is remedial for the venom of the scorpion and the shrew-mouse: it repels, too, all parasitical insects which breed on the human body, and applied to the face, as a liniment, with honey, removes1529 spots upon the skin. Used with vinegar, too, it is a cure for freckles; and mixed with ox-gall it restores the livid marks left by wounds to their natural colour. It is said that if this plant is taken in wine by persons who are about to undergo a flogging, it will impart a certain degree of insensibility to the body. So agreeable is its flavour as a savouring for food, that the Greeks have given it the name of “euzomon.”1530 It is generally thought that rocket, lightly bruised, and employed as a fomentation for the eyes, will restore the sight to its original goodness, and that it allays coughs in young infants. The root of it, boiled in water, has the property of extracting the splinters of broken bones.

As to the properties of rocket as an aphrodisiac, we have mentioned them already.1531 Three leaves of wild rocket plucked with the left hand, beaten up in hydromel, and then taken in drink, are productive of a similar effect.

Nasturtium,1532 on the other hand, is an antiaphrodisiac;1533 it has the effect also of sharpening the senses, as already stated.1534 There are two1535 varieties of this plant: one of them is purgative, and, taken in doses of one denarius to seven of water, carries off the bilious secretions. Applied as a liniment to scrofulous sores, with bean-meal, and then covered with a cabbage-leaf, it is a most excellent remedy. The other kind, which is darker than the first, has the effect of carrying off vicious humours of the head, and sharpening the sight: taken in vinegar it calms the troubled spirits, and, drunk with wine or taken in a fig, it is good for affections of the spleen; taken in honey, too, fasting daily, it is good for a cough. The seed of it, taken in wine, expels all kinds of intestinal worms, and with the addition of wild mint, it acts more efficaciously still. It is good, too, for asthma and cough, in combination with wild marjoram and sweet wine; and a decoction of it in goats’ milk is used for pains in the chest. Mixed with pitch it disperses tumours, and extracts thorns from the body; and, employed as a liniment, with vinegar, it removes spots upon the body. When used for the cure of carcinoma, white of eggs is added to it. With vinegar it is employed also as a liniment for affections of the spleen, and with honey it is found to be very useful for the complaints of infants.

Sextius adds, that the smell of burnt nasturtium drives away serpents, neutralizes the venom of scorpions, and gives relief in head-ache; with the addition too, of mustard, he says, it is a cure for alopecy, and applied to the ears with a fig, it is a remedy for hardness of hearing. The juice of it, he says, if injected into the ears, will effect the cure of tooth-ache, and employed with goose-grease it is a remedy for porrigo and ulcerous sores of the head. Applied with leaven it brings boils1536 to a head, and makes carbuncles suppurate and break: used with honey, too, it is good for cleansing phagedænic ulcers. Topical applications are made of it, combined with vinegar and polenta, in cases of sciatica and lumbago: it is similarly employed, too, for lichens and malformed1537 nails, its qualities being naturally caustic. The best nasturtium of all is that of Babylonia; the wild1538 variety possesses the same qualities as the cultivated in every respect, but in a more powerful degree.

One of the most active, however, of all the medicinal plants, is rue.1539 The cultivated kind has broader leaves and more numerous branches than the other. Wild rue is more violent in its effects, and more active in every respect. The juice of it is extracted by beating it up, and moistening it moderately with water; after which it is kept for use in boxes of Cyprian copper. Given in large doses, this juice has all the baneful effects of poison,1540 and that of Macedonia more particularly, which grows on the banks of the river Aliacmon.1541 It is a truly wonderful thing, but the juice of hemlock has the property of neutralizing its effects. Thus do we find one thing acting as the poison of another poison, for the juice of hemlock is very beneficial, rubbed upon the hands and face1542 of persons employed in gathering rue.

In other respects, rue is one of the principal ingredients employed in antidotes, that of Galatia more particularly. Every species of rue, employed by itself, has the effect also of an antidote, if the leaves are bruised and taken in wine. It is good more particularly in cases of poisoning by wolf’sbane1543 and mistletoe, as well as by fungi, whether administered in the drink or the food. Employed in a similar manner, it is good for the stings of serpents; so much so, in fact, that weasels,1544 when about to attack them, take the precaution first of protecting themselves by eating rue. Rue is good, too, for the injuries by scorpions and spiders, the stings of bees, hornets, and wasps, the noxious effects produced by cantharides and salamanders,1545 and the bites of mad dogs. The juice is taken in doses of one acetabulum, in wine; and the leaves, beaten up or else chewed, are applied topically, with honey and salt, or boiled with vinegar and pitch. It is said that people rubbed with the juice of rue, or even having it on their person, are never attacked by these noxious creatures, and that serpents are driven away by the stench of burning rue. The most efficacious, however, of all, is the root of wild rue, taken with wine; this too, it is said, is more beneficial still, if drunk in the open air.

Pythagoras has distinguished this plant also into male and female, the former having smaller leaves than the other, and of a grass-green colour; the female plant, he says, has leaves of a larger size and a more vivid hue. The same author, too, has considered rue to be injurious to the eyes; but this is an error, for engravers and painters are in the habit of eating it with bread, or else nasturtium, for the benefit of the sight; wild goats, too, eat it for the sight, they say. Many persons have dispersed films on the eyes by rubbing them with a mixture of the juice of rue with Attic honey, or the milk of a woman just delivered of a male child: the same result has been produced also by touching the corners of the eyes with the pure juice of the plant. Applied topically, with polenta, rue carries off defluxions of the eyes; and, taken with wine, or applied topically with vinegar and rose oil, it is a cure for head-ache. If, however, the pain attacks the whole of the head,1546 the rue should be applied with barley-meal and vinegar. This plant has the effect also of dispelling crudities, flatulency, and inveterate pains of the stomach; it opens the uterus, too, and restores it when displaced; for which purpose it is applied as a liniment, with honey, to the whole of the abdomen and chest. Mixed with figs, and boiled down to one half, it is administered in wine for dropsy; and it is taken in a similar manner for pains of the chest, sides, and loins, as well as for coughs, asthma, and affections of the lungs, liver, and kidneys, and for shivering fits. Persons about to indulge in wine, take a decoction of the leaves, to prevent head-ache and surfeit. Taken in food, too, it is wholesome, whether eaten raw or boiled, or used as a confection; boiled with hyssop, and taken with wine, it is good for gripings of the stomach. Employed in the same way, it arrests internal hæmorrhage, and, applied to the nostrils, bleeding at the nose: it is beneficial also to the teeth if rinsed with it. In cases of ear-ache, this juice is injected into the ears, care being taken to moderate the dose, as already stated, if wild rue is employed. For hardness of hearing, too, and singing in the ears, it is similarly employed in combination with oil of roses, or oil of laurel, or else cummin and honey.

Juice of rue pounded in vinegar, is applied also to the temples and the region of the brain in persons affected with phrenitis; some persons, however, have added to this mixture wild thyme and laurel leaves, rubbing the head and neck as well with the liniment. It has been given in vinegar to lethargic patients to smell at, and a decoction of it is administered for epilepsy, in doses of four cyathi, as also just before the attacks in fever of intolerable chills. It is likewise given raw to persons for shivering fits. Rue is a provocative1547 of the urine to bleeding even: it promotes the menstrual discharge, also, and brings away the after-birth, as well as the dead fœtus even, according to Hippocrates,1548 if taken in sweet red wine. The same author, also, recommends applications of it, as well as fumigations, for affections of the uterus.

For cardiac diseases, Diocles prescribes applications of rue, in combination with vinegar, honey, and barley-meal: and for the iliac passion, he says that it should be mixed with meal, boiled in oil, and spread upon the wool of a sheep’s fleece. Many persons recommend, for purulent expectorations, two drachmæ of dried rue to one and a half of sulphur; and, for spitting of blood, a decoction of three sprigs in wine. It is given also in dysentery, with cheese, the rue being first beaten up in wine; and it has been prescribed, pounded with bitumen, as a potion for habitual shortness of breath. For persons suffering from violent falls, three ounces of the seed is recommended. A pound of oil, in which rue leaves have been boiled, added to one sextarius of wine, forms a liniment for parts of the body which are frost-bitten. If rue really is a diuretic, as Hippocrates1549 thinks, it is a singular thing that some persons should give it, as being an anti-diuretic, for the suppression of incontinence of urine.

Applied topically, with honey and alum, it cures itch-scabs, and leprous sores; and, in combination with nightshade and hogs’-lard, or beef-suet, it is good for morphew, warts, scrofula, and maladies of a similar nature. Used with vinegar and oil, or else white lead, it is good for erysipelas; and, applied with vinegar, for carbuncles. Some persons prescribe silphium also as an ingredient in the liniment; but it is not employed by them for the cure of the pustules known as epinyctis. Boiled rue is recommended, also, as a cataplasm for swellings of the mamillæ, and, combined with wax, for eruptions of pituitous matter.1550 It is applied with tender sprigs of laurel, in cases of defluxion of the testes; and it exercises so peculiar an effect upon those organs, that old rue, it is said, employed in a liniment, with axle-grease, is a cure for hernia. The seed pounded, and applied with wax, is remedial also for broken limbs. The root of this plant, applied topically, is a cure for effusion of blood in the eyes, and, employed as a liniment, it removes scars or spots on all parts of the body.

Among the other properties which are attributed to rue, it is a singular fact, that, though it is universally agreed that it is hot by nature, a bunch of it, boiled in rose-oil, with the addition of an ounce of aloes, has the effect of checking the perspiration in those who rub themselves with it; and that, used as an aliment, it impedes the generative functions. Hence it is, that it is so often given in cases of spermatorrhœa, and where persons are subject to lascivious dreams. Every precaution should be taken by pregnant women to abstain from rue as an article of diet, for I find it stated that it is productive of fatal results to the fœtus.1551

Of all the plants that are grown, rue is the one that is most generally employed for the maladies of cattle, whether arising from difficulty of respiration, or from the stings of noxious creatures—in which cases it is injected with wine into the nostrils—or whether they may happen to have swallowed a horse-leech, under which circumstances it is administered in vinegar. In all other maladies of cattle, the rue is prepared just as for man in a similar case.

Mentastrum, or wild mint,1552 differs from the other kind in the appearance of the leaves, which have the form of those of ocimum and the colour of pennyroyal; for which reason, some persons, in fact, give it the name of wild pennyroyal.1553 The leaves of this plant, chewed and applied topically, are a cure for elephantiasis; a discovery which was accidentally made in the time of Pompeius Magnus, by a person affected with this malady covering his face with the leaves for the purpose of neutralizing the bad smell that arose therefrom. These leaves are employed also as a liniment, and in drink, with a mixture of salt, oil, and vinegar, for the stings of scorpions; and, in doses of two drachmæ to two cyathi of wine, for those of scolopendræ and serpents. A decoction, too, of the juice is given for the sting of the scolopendra.1554 Leaves of wild mint are kept, dried and reduced to a fine powder, as a remedy for poisons of every description. Spread on the ground or burnt, this plant has the effect of driving away scorpions.

Taken in drink, wild mint carries off the lochia in females after parturition; but, if taken before, it is fatal to the fœtus, It is extremely efficacious in cases of rupture and convulsions, and, though in a somewhat less degree, for orthopnœa,1555 gripings of the bowels, and cholera: it is good, too, as a topical application for lumbago and gout. The juice of it is injected into the ears for worms breeding there; it is taken also for jaundice, and is employed in liniments for scrofulous sores. It prevents1556 the recurrence of lascivious dreams; and taken in vinegar, it expels tape-worm.1557 For the cure of porrigo, it is put in vinegar, and the head is washed with the mixture in the sun.

The very smell of mint1558 reanimates the spirits, and its flavour gives a remarkable zest to food: hence it is that it is so generally an ingredient in our sauces. It has the effect of preventing milk from turning sour, or curdling and thickening; hence it is that it is so generally put into milk used for drinking, to prevent any danger of persons being choked1559 by it in a curdled state. It is administered also for this purpose in water or honied wine. It is generally thought, too, that it is in consequence of this property that it impedes generation, by preventing the seminal fluids from obtaining the requisite consistency. In males as well as females it arrests bleeding, and it has the property, with the latter, of suspending the menstrual discharge. Taken in water, with amylum,1560 it prevents looseness in cœliac complaints. Syriation employed this plant for the cure of abscesses of the uterus, and, in doses of three oboli, with honied wine, for diseases of the liver: he prescribed it also, in pottage, for spitting of blood. It is an admirable remedy for ulcerations of the head in children, and has the effect equally of drying the trachea when too moist, and of bracing it when too dry. Taken in honied wine and water, it carries off purulent phlegm.

The juice of mint is good for the voice when a person is about to engage in a contest of eloquence, but only when taken just before. It is employed also with milk as a gargle for swelling of the uvula, with the addition of rue and coriander. With alum, too, it is good for the tonsils of the throat, and, mixed with honey, for roughness of the tongue. Employed by itself, it is a remedy for internal convulsions and affections of the lungs. Taken with pomegranate juice, as Democrites tells us, it arrests hiccup and vomiting. The juice of mint fresh gathered, inhaled, is a remedy for affections of the nostrils. Beaten up and taken in vinegar, mint is a cure for cholera, and for internal fluxes of blood: applied externally, with polenta, it is remedial for the iliac passion and tension of the mamillæ. It is applied, too, as a liniment to the temples for head-ache; and it is taken internally, as an antidote for the stings of scolopendræ, sea-scorpions, and serpents. As a liniment it is applied also for defluxions of the eyes, and all eruptions of the head, as well as maladies of the rectum.

Mint is an effectual preventive, too, of chafing of the skin, even if held in the hand only. In combination with honied wine, it is employed as an injection for the ears. It is said, too, that this plant will cure affections of the spleen, if tasted in the garden nine days consecutively, without plucking it, the person who bites it saying at the same moment that he does so for the benefit of the spleen: and that, if dried, and reduced to powder, a pinch of it with three fingers taken in water, will cure stomach-ache.1561 Sprinkled in this form in drink, it is said to have the effect of expelling intestinal worms.

Pennyroyal1562 partakes with mint, in a very considerable degree, the property1563 of restoring consciousness in fainting fits; slips of both plants being kept for the purpose in glass bottles1564 filled with vinegar. It is for this reason that Varro has declared that a wreath of pennyroyal is more worthy to grace our chambers1565 than a chaplet of roses: indeed, it is said that, placed upon the head, it materially alleviates head-ache.1566 It is generally stated, too, that the smell of it alone will protect the head against the injurious effects of cold or heat, and that it acts as a preventive of thirst; also, that persons exposed to the sun, if they carry a couple of sprigs of pennyroyal behind the ears, will never be incommoded by the heat. For various pains, too, it is employed topically, mixed with polenta and vinegar.

The female1567 plant is the more efficacious of the two; it has a purple flower, that of the male being white. Taken in cold water with salt and polenta it arrests nausea, as well as pains of the chest and abdomen. Taken, too, in water, it prevents gnawing pains of the stomach, and, with vinegar and polenta, it arrests vomiting. In combination with salt and vinegar, and polenta, it loosens the bowels. Taken with boiled honey and nitre, it is a cure for intestinal complaints. Employed with wine it is a diuretic, and if the wine is the produce of the Aminean1568 grape, it has the additional effect of dispersing calculi of the bladder and removing all internal pains. Taken in conjunction with honey and vinegar, it modifies the menstrual discharge, and brings away the after-birth, restores the uterus, when displaced, to its natural position, and expels the dead1569 fœtus. The seed is given to persons to smell at, who have been suddenly struck dumb, and is prescribed for epileptic patients in doses of one cyathus, taken in vinegar. If water is found unwholesome for drinking, bruised pennyroyal should be sprinkled in it; taken with wine it modifies acridities1570 of the body.

Mixed with salt, it is employed as a friction for the sinews, and with honey and vinegar, in cases of opisthotony. Decoctions of it are prescribed as a drink for persons stung by serpents; and, beaten up in wine, it is employed for the stings of scorpions, that which grows in a dry soil in particular. This plant is looked upon as efficacious also for ulcerations of the mouth, and for coughs. The blossom of it, fresh gathered, and burnt, kills fleas1571 by its smell. Xenocrates, among the other remedies which he mentions, says that in tertian fevers, a sprig of pennyroyal, wrapped in wool, should be given to the patient to smell at, just before the fit comes on, or else it should be put under the bed-clothes and laid by the patient’s side.

For all the purposes already mentioned, wild pennyroyal1572 has exactly the same properties, but in a still higher degree. It bears a strong resemblance to wild marjoram,1573 and has a smaller leaf than the cultivated kind: by some persons it is known as “dictamnos.”1574 When browsed upon by sheep and goats, it makes them bleat, for which reason, some of the Greeks, changing a single letter in its name, have called it “blechon,”1575 [instead of “glechon.”]

This plant is naturally so heating as to blister the parts of the body to which it is applied. For a cough which results from a chill, it is a good plan for the patient to rub himself with it before taking the bath; it is similarly employed, too, in shivering fits, just before the attacks come on, and for convulsions and gripings of the stomach. It is also remarkably good for the gout.

To persons afflicted with spasms, this plant is administered in drink, in combination with honey and salt; and it renders expectoration easy in affections of the lungs.1576 Taken with salt it is beneficial for the spleen and bladder, and is curative of asthma and flatulency. A decoction of it is equally as good as the juice: it restores the uterus when displaced, and is prescribed for the sting of either the land or the sea scolopendra, as well as the scorpion. It is particularly good, too, for bites inflicted by a human being. The root of it, newly taken up, is extremely efficacious for corroding ulcers, and in a dried state tends to efface the deformities produced by scars.

Nep1577 has also some affinity in its effects with pennyroyal. Boiled down in water to one third, these plants dispel sudden chills: they promote the menstrual discharge also in females, and allay excessive heats in summer. Nep possesses certain virtues against the stings of serpents; at the very smoke and smell of it they will instantly take to flight, and persons who have to sleep in places where they are apprehensive of them, will do well to place it beneath them. Bruised, it is employed topically for lacrymal fistulas1578 of the eye: fresh gathered and mixed in vinegar with one third part of bread, it is applied as a liniment for head-ache. The juice of it, injected into the nostrils, with the head thrown back, arrests bleeding at the nose, and the root has a similar effect. This last is employed also, with myrtle-seed, in warm raisin wine, as a gargle for the cure of quinsy.

Wild cummin is a remarkably slender plant, consisting of four or five leaves indented like a saw; like the cultivated1579 kind, it is much employed in medicine, among the stomachic remedies more particularly. Bruised and taken with bread, or else drunk in wine and water, it dispels phlegm and flatulency, as well as gripings of the bowels and pains in the intestines. Both varieties have the effect, however, of producing paleness1580 in those who drink these mixtures; at all events, it is generally stated that the disciples of Porcius Latro,1581 so celebrated among the professors of eloquence, used to employ this drink for the purpose of imitating the paleness which had been contracted by their master, through the intensity of his studies: and that Julius Vindex,1582 in more recent times, that assertor of our liberties against Nero, adopted this method of playing upon1583 those who were looking out for a place in his will. Applied in the form of lozenges, or fresh with vinegar, cummin has the effect of arresting bleeding at the nose, and used by itself, it is good for defluxions of the eyes. Combined with honey, it is used also for swellings of the eyes. With children of tender age, it is sufficient to apply it to the abdomen. In cases of jaundice, it is administered in white wine, immediately after taking the bath.

(15.) The cummin of Æthiopia,1584 more particularly, is given in vinegar and water, or else as an electuary with honey. It is thought, too, that the cummin of Africa has the peculiar property of arresting incontinence of urine. The cultivated plant is given, parched and beaten up in vinegar, for affections of the liver, as also for vertigo. Beaten up in sweet wine, it is taken in cases, also, where the urine is too acrid; and for affections of the uterus, it is administered in wine, the leaves of it being employed topically as well, in layers of wool. Parched and beaten up with honey, it is used as an application for swellings of the testes, or else with rose oil and wax.

For all the purposes above-mentioned, wild cummin1585 is more efficacious than cultivated; as also, in combination with oil, for the stings of serpents, scorpions, and scolopendræ. A pinch of it with three fingers, taken in wine, has the effect of arresting vomiting and nausea; it is used, too, both as a drink and a liniment for the colic, or else it is applied hot, in dossils of lint,1586 to the part affected, bandages being employed to keep it in its place. Taken in wine, it dispels hysterical affections, the proportions being three drachmæ of cummin to three cyathi of wine. It is used as an injection, too, for the ears, when affected with tingling and singing, being mixed for the purpose with veal suet or honey. For contusions, it is applied as a liniment, with honey, raisins, and vinegar, and for dark freckles on the skin with vinegar.

There is another plant, which bears a very strong resemblance to cummin, known to the Greeks as “ammi;”1587 some persons are of opinion, that it is the same as the Æthiopian cummin. Hippocrates gives it1588 the epithet of “royal;” no doubt, because he looks upon it as possessed of greater virtues than Egyptian cummin. Many persons, however, consider it to be of a totally different nature from cummin, as it is so very much thinner, and of a much whiter colour. Still, it is employed for just the same purposes as cummin, for we find it used at Alexandria for putting under loaves of bread, and forming an ingredient in various sauces. It has the effect of dispelling flatulency and gripings of the bowels, and of promoting the secretion of the urine and the menstrual discharge. It is employed, also, for the cure of bruises, and to assuage defluxions of the eyes. Taken in wine with linseed, in doses of two drachmæ, it is a cure for the stings of scorpions; and, used with an equal proportion of myrrh, it is particularly good for the bite of the cerastes.1589

Like cummin, too, it imparts paleness of complexion to those who drink of it. Used as a fumigation, with raisins or with resin, it acts as a purgative upon the uterus. It is said, too, that if women smell at this plant during the sexual congress, the chances of conception will be greatly promoted thereby.

We have already spoken1590 of the caper at sufficient length when treating of the exotic plants. The caper which comes1591 from beyond sea should never be used; that of Italy1592 is not so dangerous. It is said, that persons who eat this plant daily, are never attacked by paralysis or pains in the spleen. The root of it, pounded, removes white eruptions of the skin, if rubbed with it in the sun. The bark1593 of the root, taken in wine, in doses of two drachmæ, is good for affections of the spleen; the patient, however, must forego the use of the bath. It is said, too, that in the course of thirty-five days the whole of the spleen may be discharged under this treatment, by urine and by stool. The caper is also taken in drink for lumbago and paralysis; and the seed of it boiled, and beaten up in vinegar, or the root chewed, has a soothing effect in tooth-ache. A decoction of it in oil is employed, also, as an injection for ear-ache.

The leaves and the root, fresh out of the ground, mixed with honey, are a cure for the ulcers known as phagedænic. In the same way, too, the root disperses scrofulous swellings; and a decoction of it in water removes imposthumes of the parotid glands, and worms. Beaten up and mixed with barley-meal, it is applied topically for pains in the liver; it is a cure, also, for diseases of the bladder. In combination with oxymel, it is prescribed for tapeworm, and a decoction of it in vinegar removes ulcerations of the mouth. It is generally agreed among writers that the caper is prejudicial to the stomach.

Ligusticum,1594 by some persons known as “panax,” is good for the stomach, and is curative of convulsions and flatulency. There are persons who give this plant the name of “cunila bubula;” but, as we have already1595 stated, they are in error in so doing.

In addition to garden cunila,1596 there are numerous other varieties of it employed in medicine. That known to us as “cunila bubula,” has a very similar seed to that of pennyroyal. This seed, chewed and applied topically, is good for wounds: the plaster, however, must not be taken off till the fifth day. For the stings of serpents, this plant is taken in wine, and the leaves of it are bruised and applied to the wound; which is also rubbed with them as a friction. The tortoise,1597 when about to engage in combat with the serpent, employs this plant as a preservative against the effects of its sting; some persons, for this reason, have given it the name of “panacea.”1598 It has the effect also of dispersing tumours and maladies of the male organs, the leaves being dried for the purpose, or else beaten up fresh and applied to the part affected. For every purpose for which it is employed it combines remarkably well with wine.

There is another variety, again, known to our people as “cunila gallinacea,”1599 and to the Greeks as Heracleotic origanum.1600 Beaten up with salt, this plant is good for the eyes; and it is a remedy for cough and affections of the liver. Mixed with meal, and taken as a broth, with oil and vinegar, it is good for pains in the side, and the stings of serpents in particular.

There is a third species, also, known to the Greeks as “male cunila,” and to us as “cunilago.”1601 This plant has a fœtid smell, a ligneous root, and a rough leaf. Of all the varieties of cunila, this one, it is said, is possessed of the most active properties. If a handful of it is thrown anywhere, all the beetles in the house, they say, will be attracted to it; and, taken in vinegar and water, it is good for the stings of scorpions more particularly. It is stated, also, that if a person is rubbed with three leaves of it, steeped in oil, it will have the effect of keeping all serpents at a distance.

The variety, on the other hand, known as soft1602 cunila, has a more velvety leaf, and branches covered with thorns; when rubbed it has just the smell of honey, and it adheres to the fingers when touched. There is another kind, again, known to us as “libanotis,”1603 a name which it owes to the resemblance of its smell to that of frankincense. Both of these plants, taken in wine or vinegar, are antidotes for the stings of serpents. Beaten up in water, also, and sprinkled about a place, they kill fleas.1604

Cultivated cunila1605 has also its medicinal uses. The juice of it, in combination with rose oil, is good for the ears; and the plant itself is taken in drink, to counteract the effects of violent blows.1606

A variety of this plant is the mountain cunila, similar to wild thyme in appearance, and particularly efficacious for the stings of serpents. This plant is diuretic, and promotes the lochial discharge: it aids the digestion, too, in a marvellous degree. Both varieties have a tendency to sharpen the appetite, even when persons are troubled with indigestion, if taken fasting in drink: they are good, too, for sprains, and, taken with barley-meal, and vinegar and water, they are extremely useful for stings inflicted by wasps and insects of a similar nature.

We shall have occasion to speak of other varieties of libanotis1607 in their appropriate places.

Piperitis,1608 which we have already mentioned as being called “siliquastrum,” is taken in drink for epilepsy. Castor1609 used to give a description of it to the following effect: “The stalk of it is long and red, with the knots lying close together; the leaves are similar to those of the laurel, and the seed is white and slender, like pepper in taste.” He described it also as being beneficial to the gums and teeth, imparting sweetness to the breath, and dispelling flatulency.

Origanum,1610 which, as we have already stated, rivals cunila in flavour, includes many varieties employed in medicine. Onitis,1611 or prasion,1612 is the name given to one of these, which is not unlike hyssop in appearance: it is employed more particularly, with warm water, for gnawing pains at the stomach, and for indigestion. Taken in white wine it is good for the stings of spiders and scorpions; and, applied with vinegar and oil, in wool, it is a cure for sprains and bruises.

Tragoriganum1613 bears a strong resemblance to wild thyme. It is diuretic, disperses tumours, and taken in drink is extremely efficacious in cases of poisoning by mistletoe and stings by serpents. It is very good for acid eructations from the stomach, and for the thoracic organs. It is given also for a cough, with honey, as well as for pleurisy and peripneumony.

Heraclium,1614 again, comprehends three varieties; the first,1615 which is the darkest, has broader leaves than the others, and is of a glutinous nature; the second,1616 which has leaves of a more slender form, and not unlike sampsuchum1617 in appearance, is by some persons called “prasion,” in preference: the third1618 is of an intermediate nature between the other two, but is less efficacious for medicinal purposes than either. But the best kind of all is that of Crete, for it has a particularly agreeable smell; the next best being that of Smyrna, which has even a more powerful odour than the last. The Heracleotic origanum, however, known by the name of “onitis,” is the one that is the most esteemed for taking in drink.

Origanum, in general, is employed for repelling serpents; and it is given boiled to persons suffering from wounds. Taken in drink, it is diuretic; and mixed with root of panax, it is given for the cure of ruptures and convulsions. In combination with figs or hyssop, it is prescribed for dropsical patients in doses of one acetabulum, being reduced by boiling to one sixth. It is good also for the itch,1619 prurigo, and leprosy, taken just before the bath. The juice of it is injected into the ears with milk; it being a cure, also, for affections of the tonsils and the uvula, and for ulcers of the head. A decoction of it, taken with the ashes in wine, neutralizes poison by opium or gypsum.1620 Taken in doses of one acetabulum, it relaxes the bowels. It is applied as a liniment for bruises and for tooth-ache; and mixed with honey and nitre, it imparts whiteness to the teeth. It has the effect, also, of stopping bleeding at the nose.

A decoction of this plant, with barley-meal, is employed for imposthumes of the parotid glands; and, beaten up with nut-galls and honey, it is used for roughness of the trachea: the leaves of it, with honey and salt, are good, too, for the spleen. Boiled with vinegar and salt, and taken in small doses, it attenuates the phlegm, when very thick and black; and beaten up with oil, it is injected into the nostrils for jaundice. When persons are affected with lassitude, the body is well rubbed with it, care being taken not to touch the abdomen. Used with pitch, it is a cure for epinyctis, and, applied with a roasted fig, it brings boils to a head. Employed with oil and vinegar, and barley-meal, it is good for scrofulous swellings; and applied topically in a fig, it is a cure for pains in the sides. Beaten up, and applied with vinegar, it is employed as a liniment for bloody fluxes of the generative organs, and it accelerates the lochial discharge after child-birth.

Dittander1621 is generally considered to rank among the caustic plants. It is owing to this property that it clears the skin of the face, not, however, without excoriating it; though, at the same time, the excoriations are easily healed by employing wax and rose oil. It is owing to this property, too, that it always removes, without difficulty, leprous sores and itch-scabs, as well as the scars left by ulcers. It is said, that in cases of tooth-ache, if this plant is attached to the arm on the suffering side, it will have the effect of drawing the pain to it.

Gith1622 is by some Greek writers called “melanthion,”1623 and by others “melaspermon.”1624 That is looked upon as the best which has the most pungent odour and is the darkest in appearance. It is employed as a remedy for wounds made by serpents and scorpions: I find that for this purpose it is applied topically with vinegar and honey, and that by burning it serpents are kept at a distance.1625 It is taken, also, in doses of one drachma for the bites of spiders. Beaten up, and smelt at in a piece of linen cloth, it is a cure for running at the nostrils; and, applied as a liniment with vinegar and injected into the nostrils, it dispels head-ache. With oil of iris it is good for defluxions and tumours of the eyes, and a decoction of it with vinegar is a cure for tooth-ache. Beaten up and applied topically, or else chewed, it is used for ulcers of the mouth, and combined with vinegar, it is good for leprous sores and freckles on the skin. Taken in drink, with the addition of nitre, it is good for hardness of breathing, and, employed as a liniment, for indurations, tumours of long standing, and suppurations. Taken several days in succession, it augments the milk in women who are nursing.

The juice of this plant is collected1626 in the same manner as that of henbane; and, like it, if taken in too large doses, it acts as a poison, a surprising fact, seeing that the seed is held in esteem as a most agreeable seasoning for bread.1627 The seed cleanses the eyes also, acts as a diuretic, and promotes the menstrual discharge; and not only this, but I find it stated also, that if thirty grains only are attached to the body, in a linen cloth, it will have the effect of accelerating the after-birth. It is stated, also, that beaten up in urine, it is a cure for corns on the feet; and that when burnt it kills gnats and flies with the smell.

Anise,1628 too, one of the comparatively small number of plants that have been commended by Pythagoras, is taken in wine, either raw or boiled, for the stings of scorpions. Both green and dried, it is held in high repute, as an ingredient in all seasonings and sauces, and we find it placed beneath the under-crust of bread.1629 Put with bitter-almonds into the cloth strainers1630 for filtering wine, it imparts an agreeable flavour to the wine: it has the effect, also, of sweetening the breath, and removing all bad odours from the mouth, if chewed in the morning with smyrnion1631 and a little honey, the mouth being then rinsed with wine.

This plant imparts a youthful look1632 to the features; and if suspended to the pillow, so as to be smelt by a person when asleep, it will prevent all disagreeable dreams. It has the effect of promoting the appetite, also—for this, too, has been made by luxury one of the objects of art, ever since labour has ceased to stimulate it. It is for these various reasons that it has received the name of “anicetum,”1633 given to it by some.

The most esteemed anise is that of Crete, and, next to it, that of Egypt. This plant is employed in seasonings to supply the place of lovage; and the perfume of it, when burnt and inhaled, alleviates headache. Evenor prescribes an application of the root, pounded, for defluxions of the eyes; and Iollas employs it in a similar manner, in combination with saffron and wine, or else beaten up by itself and mixed with polenta, for violent defluxions and the extraction of such objects as have got into the eyes: applied, too, as a liniment in water, it arrests cancer of the nose. Mixed with hyssop and oxymel, and employed as a gargle, it is a cure for quinsy; and, in combination with rose oil, it is used as an injection for the ears. Parched anise purges off phlegm from the chest, and, if taken with honey, it is better still.

For a cough, beat up fifty bitter almonds, shelled, in honey, with one acetabulum of anise. Another very easy remedy, too, is to mix three drachmæ of anise with two of poppies and some honey, a piece the size of a bean being taken three times a-day. Its main excellence, however, is as a carminative; hence it is that it is so good for flatulency of the stomach, griping pains of the intestines, and cœliac affections. A decoction of it, smelt at and drunk, arrests hiccup, and a decoction of the leaves removes indigestion. A decoction of it with parsley, if applied to the nostrils, will arrest sneezing. Taken in drink, anise promotes sleep, disperses calculi of the bladder, arrests vomiting and swelling of the viscera, and acts as an excellent pectoral for affections of the chest, and of the diaphragm, where the body is tightly laced. It is beneficial, also, to pour a decoction of it, in oil, upon the head for head-ache.

It is generally thought that there is nothing in existence more beneficial to the abdomen and intestines than anise; for which reason it is given, parched, for dysentery and tenesmus. Some persons add opium to these ingredients, and prescribe three pills a-day, the size of a bean, with one cyathus of wine. Dieuches has employed the juice of this plant for lumbago, and prescribes the seed of it, pounded with mint, for dropsy and cœliac affections: Evenor recommends the root, also, for affections of the kidneys. Dalion, the herbalist, employed it, with parsley, as a cataplasm for women in labour, as also for pains of the uterus; and, for women in labour, he prescribes a decoction of anise and dill to be taken in drink. It is used as a liniment also in cases of phrenitis, or else applied fresh gathered and mixed with polenta; in which form it is used also for infants attacked with epilepsy1634 or convulsions. Pythagoras, indeed, assures us that persons, so long as they hold this plant in the hand, will never be attacked with epilepsy, for which reason, as much of it as possible should be planted near the house; he says, too, that women who inhale the odour of it have a more easy delivery, it being his advice also, that, immediately after they are delivered, it should be given them to drink, with a sprinkling of polenta.

Sosimenes employed this plant, in combination with vinegar, for all kinds of indurations, and for lassitude he prescribes a decoction of it in oil, with the addition of nitre. The same writer pledges his word to all wayfarers, that, if they take aniseed in their drink, they will be comparatively exempt from fatigue1635 on their journey. Heraclides prescribes a pinch of aniseed with three fingers, for inflations of the stomach, to be taken with two oboli of castoreum1636 in honied wine; and he recommends a similar preparation for inflations of the abdomen and intestines. In cases of orthopnœa, he recommends a pinch of aniseed with three fingers, and the same quantity of henbane, to be mixed in asses’-milk. It is the advice of many to those who are liable to vomit,1637 to take, at dinner, one acetabulum of aniseed and ten laurel-leaves, the whole to be beaten up and drunk in water.

Anise, chewed and applied warm, or else taken with castoreum in oxymel, allays suffocations of the uterus. It also dispels vertigo after child-birth, taken with a pinch of cucumber seed in three fingers and the same quantity of linseed, in three cyathi of white wine. Tlepolemus has employed a pinch of aniseed and fennel in three fingers, mixed with vinegar and one cyathus of honey, for the cure of quartan fever. Applied topically with bitter almonds, aniseed is beneficial for maladies of the joints. There are some persons who look upon it as, by nature, an antidote to the venom of the asp. It is a diuretic, assuages thirst, and acts as an aphrodisiac. Taken in wine, it promotes a gentle perspiration, and it has the property of protecting cloth from the ravages of moths. The more recently it has been gathered, and the darker its colour, the greater are its virtues: still, however, it is injurious to the stomach, except when suffering from flatulency.

Dill1638 acts also as a carminative, allays gripings of the stomach, and arrests looseness of the bowels. The roots of this plant are applied topically in water, or else in wine, for defluxions of the eyes. The seed of it, if smelt at while boiling, will arrest hiccup; and, taken in water, it dispels indigestion. The ashes of it are a remedy for swellings of the uvula; but the plant itself weakens the eyesight and the generative powers.

The sacopenium which grows in Italy is totally different from that which comes from beyond sea. This last, in fact, is similar to gum ammoniac, and is known as “sagapenon.”1639

1640Sacopenium is good for pains of the sides and chest, for convulsions, coughs of long standing, expectorations, and swellings of the thoracic organs: it is a cure also for vertigo, palsy, opisthotony, affections of the spleen and loins, and for shivering fits. For suffocations of the uterus, this plant is given in vinegar to smell at; in addition to which, it is sometimes administered in drink, or employed as a friction with oil. It is a good antidote, also, for medicaments of a noxious nature.

We have already1641 stated that there are three varieties of the cultivated poppy, and, on the same occasion, we promised to describe the wild kinds. With reference to the cultivated varieties, the calyx1642 of the white1643 poppy is pounded, and is taken in wine as a soporific; the seed of it is a cure, also, for elephantiasis. The black1644 poppy acts as a soporific, by the juice which exudes from incisions1645 made in the stalk—at the time when the plant is beginning to flower, Diagoras says; but when the blossom has gone off, according to Iollas. This is done at the third1646 hour, in a clear, still, day, or, in other words, when the dew has thoroughly dried upon the poppy. It is recommended to make the incision just beneath the head and calyx of the plant; this being the only kind, in fact, into the head of which the incision is made. This juice, like that of any other plant, is received in wool;1647 or else, if it is in very minute quantities, it is scraped off with the thumb nail just as it is from the lettuce, and so again on the following day, with the portion that has since dried there. If obtained from the poppy in sufficiently large quantities, this juice thickens, after which it is kneaded out into lozenges, and dried in the shade. This juice is possessed not only of certain soporific qualities, but, if taken in too large quantities, is productive of sleep unto death even: the name given to it is “opium.”1648 It was in this way, we learn, that the father of P. Licinius Cæcina, a man of Prætorian rank, put an end to his life at Bavilum1649 in Spain, an incurable malady having rendered existence quite intolerable to him. Many other persons, too, have ended their lives in a similar way. It is for this reason that opium has been so strongly exclaimed against by Diagoras and Erasistratus; for they have altogether condemned it as a deadly poison, forbidding it to be used for infusions even, as being injurious to the sight. Andreas says, in addition to this, that the only reason why it does not cause instantaneous blindness, is the fact that they adulterate it at Alexandria. In later times, however, the use of it has not been disapproved of—witness the celebrated preparation known as “diacodion.”1650 Lozenges are also made of ground poppy-seed, which are taken in milk as a soporific.1651 The seed is employed, too, with rose-oil for head-ache; and, in combination with that oil, is injected into the ears for ear-ache. Mixed with woman’s milk, this seed is used as a liniment for gout: the leaves, too, are employed in a similar manner. Taken in vinegar, the seed is prescribed as a cure for erysipelas and wounds.

For my own part, however, I do not approve of opium entering into the composition of eye-salves,1652 and still less of the preparations from it known as febrifuges,1653 digestives, and cœliacs: the black poppy, however, is very generally prescribed, in wine, for cœliac affections. All the cultivated1654 poppies are larger than the others, and the form of the head is round. In the wild poppy the head is elongated and small, but it is possessed of more active1655 properties than the others in every respect. This head is often boiled, and the decoction of it taken to promote sleep, the face being fomented also with the water. The best poppies are grown in dry localities, and where it seldom rains.

When the heads and leaves of the poppy are boiled together, the name given to the decoction is “meconium;”1656 it is much less powerful, however, in its effects than opium.

The principal test1657 of the purity of opium is the smell, which, when genuine, is so penetrating as to be quite insupportable. The next best test is that obtained by lighting it at a lamp; upon which it ought to burn with a clear, brilliant flame, and to give out a strong odour when extinguished; a thing that never happens when opium has been drugged, for, in such case, it lights with the greatest difficulty, and the flame repeatedly goes out. There is another way of testing its genuineness, by water; for, if it is pure, it will float like a thin cloud upon the surface, but, if adulterated, it will unite in the form of blisters on the water. But the most surprising thing of all is the fact, that the sun’s heat in summer furnishes a test; for, if the drug is pure, it will sweat and gradually melt, till it has all the appearance of the juice when fresh gathered.

Mnesides is of opinion that the best way of preserving opium is to mix henbane seed with it; others, again, recommend that it should be kept with beans.

The poppy which we have1658 spoken of under the names of “rhœas” and the “erratic” poppy, forms an intermediate variety between the cultivated and the wild poppy; for it grows in the fields, it is true, but it is self-set nevertheless. Some persons eat1659 it, calyx and all, immediately after it is gathered. This plant is an extremely powerful purgative: five heads of it, boiled in three semi-sextarii of wine, and taken in drink, have the effect of producing sleep.

There is one variety of wild poppy known as “ceratitis.”1660 It is of a black colour, a cubit in height, and has a thick root covered with bark, with a head resembling a small bud, bent and pointed at the end like a horn. The leaves of this plant are smaller and thinner than those of the other wild poppies, and the seed, which is very diminutive, is ripe at harvest. Taken with honied wine, in doses of half an acetabulum, the seed acts as a purgative. The leaves, beaten up in oil, are a cure for the white1661 specks which form on the eyes of beasts of burden. The root, boiled down to one half, in doses of one acetabulum to two sextarii of water, is prescribed for maladies of the loins and liver, and the leaves, employed with honey, are a cure for carbuncles.

Some persons give this kind of poppy the name of “glaucion,” and others of “paralium,”1662 for it grows, in fact, in spots exposed to exhalations from the sea, or else in soils of a nitrous nature.

There is another kind1663 of wild poppy, known as “heraclion” by some persons, and as “aphron” by others. The leaves of it, when seen from a distance, have all the appearance of sparrows;1664 the root lies on the surface of the ground, and the seed has exactly the colour of foam.1665 This plant is used for the purpose of bleaching linen1666 cloths in summer. It is bruised in a mortar for epilepsy, being given in white wine, in doses of one acetabulum, and acting as an emetic.

This plant is extremely useful, also, for the composition of the medicament known as “diacodion,”1667 and “arteriace.” This preparation is made with one hundred and twenty heads1668 of this or any other kind of wild poppy, steeped for two days in three sextarii of rain water, after which they are boiled in it. You must then dry the heads; which done, boil them down with honey to one half, at a slow heat. More recently, there have been added to the mixture, six drachmæ of saffron, hypocisthis,1669 frankincense, and gum acacia, with one sextarius of raisin wine of Crete. All this, however, is only so much ostentation; for the virtue of this simple and ancient preparation depends solely upon the poppy and the honey.

There is a third kind, again, called “tithymalon;”1670 some persons give it the name of “mecon,” others of “paralion.” It has a white leaf, resembling that of flax, and a head the size of a bean. It is gathered when the vine is in blossom, and dried in the shade. The seed, taken in drink, purges the bowels, the dose being half an acetabulum, in honied wine. The head of every species of poppy, whether green or dry, used as a fomentation, assuages defluxions1671 of the eyes. Opium, if taken in pure wine immediately after the sting of a scorpion, prevents any dangerous results. Some persons, however, attribute this virtue to the black poppy only, the head or leaves being beaten up for the purpose.

There is a wild purslain,1672 too, called “peplis,” not much superior in its virtues to the cultivated1673 kind, of which such remarkable properties are mentioned. It neutralizes the effects, it is said, of poisoned arrows, and the venom of the serpents known as hæmorrhois and prester;1674 taken with the food and applied to the wound, it extracts the poison. The juice, too, they say, taken in raisin wine, is an antidote for henbane. When the plant itself cannot be procured, the seed of it is found to be equally efficacious. It is a corrective, also, of impurities in water; and beaten up in wine and applied topically, it is a cure for head-ache and ulcers of the head. Chewed in combination with honey, it is curative of other kinds of sores. It is similarly applied to the region of the brain in infants, and in cases of umbilical hernia; as also for defluxions of the eyes, in persons of all ages, being applied to the forehead and temples with polenta. If employed as a liniment for the eyes, milk and honey are added, and when used for proptosis1675 of the eyes, the leaves are beaten up with bean-shells. In combination with, polenta, salt, and vinegar, it is employed as a fomentation for blisters.

Chewed raw, purslain reduces ulcerations of the mouth and gum-boils, and cures tooth-ache; a decoction of it is good, too, for ulcers of the tonsils. Some persons have added a little myrrh to it, when so employed. Chewed, it strengthens such teeth as may happen to be loose, dispels crudities, imparts additional strength to the voice, and allays thirst. Used with nut-galls, linseed, and honey, in equal proportions, it assuages pains in the neck; and, combined with honey or Cimolian1676 chalk, it is good for diseases of the mamillæ. The seed of it, taken with honey, is beneficial for asthma. Eaten in salads,1677 this plant is very strengthening to the stomach. In burning fevers, applications of it are made with polenta; in addition to which, if chewed, it will cool and refresh the intestines. It arrests vomiting, also, and for dysentery and abscesses, it is eaten with vinegar, or else taken with cummin in drink: boiled, it is good for tenesmus. Taken either in the food or drink, it is good for epilepsy; and, taken in doses of one acetabulum in boiled wine,1678 it promotes the menstrual discharge. Employed, also, as a liniment with salt, it is used as a remedy for fits of hot gout and erysipelas.

The juice of this plant, taken in drink, strengthens the kidneys and bladder, and expels intestinal worms. In conjunction with oil, it is applied, with polenta, to assuage the pain of wounds, and it softens indurations of the sinews. Metrodorus, who wrote an Abridgment of Botany,1679 says that it should be given after delivery, to accelerate the lochial discharge. It is also an antaphrodisiac, and prevents the recurrence of lascivious dreams. One of the principal personages of Spain, whose son has been Prætor, is in the habit of carrying the root of it, to my knowledge, suspended by a string from his neck, except when he is taking the bath, for an incurable affection of the uvula; a precaution by which he has been spared all inconvenience.

I have found it stated, too, in some authors, that if the head is rubbed with a liniment of this plant, there will be no defluxions perceptible the whole year through. It is generally thought, however, that purslain weakens the sight.

There is no wild coriander1680 to be found; the best, it is generally agreed, is that of Egypt. Taken in drink and applied to the wound, it is a remedy for the sting1681 of one kind of serpent, known as the amphisbæna:1682 pounded, it is healing also for other wounds, as well as for epinyctis and blisters. Employed in the same state with honey or raisins, it disperses all tumours and gatherings, and, beaten up in vinegar, it removes abscesses of an inflammatory nature. Some persons recommend three grains of it to be taken for tertian fevers, just before the fit comes on, or else in larger quantities, to be bruised and applied to the forehead. There are others, again, who think that it is attended with excellent results, to put coriander under the pillow before sunrise.

While green, it is possessed of very cooling and refreshing properties. Combined with honey or raisins, it is an excellent remedy for spreading ulcers, as also for diseases of the testes, burns, carbuncles, and maladies of the ears. Applied with woman’s milk, it is good for defluxions of the eyes; and for fluxes of the belly and intestines, the seed is taken with water in drink; it is also taken in drink for cholera, with rue. Coriander seed, used as a potion with pomegranate juice and oil, expels worms in the intestines.

Xenocrates states a very marvellous fact, if true; he says, that if a woman takes one grain of this seed, the menstrual discharge will be retarded one day, if two grains, two days, and so on, according to the number of grains taken. Marcus Varro is of opinion, that if coriander is lightly pounded, and sprinkled over it with cummin and vinegar, all kinds of meat may be kept in summer without spoiling.

Orage,1683 again, is found both wild and cultivated. Pythagoras has accused this plant of producing dropsy, jaundice, and paleness of the complexion, and he says that it is extremely difficult of digestion. He asserts, also, to its disparagement, that every thing that grows near it in the garden is sure to be drooping and languid. Diocles and Dionysius have added a statement, that it gives birth to numerous diseases, and that it should never be boiled without changing the water repeatedly; they say, too, that it is prejudicial to the stomach, and that it is productive of freckles and pimples on the skin.

I am at a loss to imagine why Solo of Smyrna has stated that this plant is cultivated in Italy with the greatest difficulty. Hippocrates1684 prescribes it with beet, as a pessary for affections of the uterus; and Lycus of Neapolis recommends it to be taken in drink, in cases of poisoning by cantharides. He is of opinion, also, that either raw or boiled, it may be advantageously employed as a liniment for inflammatory swellings, incipient boils, and all kinds of indurations; and that, mixed with oxymel and nitre, it is good for erysipelas and gout. This plant, it is said, will bring away mal-formed nails, without producing sores. There are some persons who give orage-seed with honey for jaundice, and rub the throat and tonsils with it, nitre being added as well. They employ it, also, to purge the bowels, and use the seed, boiled, as an emetic,1685 either taken by itself, or in conjunction with mallows or lentils.

Wild orage is used for dyeing the hair, as well as the other purposes above enumerated.

Both kinds of mallows,1686 on the other hand, the cultivated and the wild, are held in very general esteem. These kinds are subdivided, each of them, into two varieties, according to the size of the leaf. The cultivated mallow with large leaves is known to the Greeks by the name of “malope,”1687 the other being called “malache,”1688—from the circumstance, it is generally thought, that it relaxes1689 the bowels. The wild1690 mallow, again, with large leaves and white roots, is called “althæa,” and by some persons, on account of its salutary properties, “plistolochia.”1691 Every soil in which mallows are sown, is rendered all the richer thereby. This plant is possessed of remarkable virtues,1692 as a cure for all kinds of stings,1693 those of scorpions, wasps, and similar insects, as well as the bite of the shrew-mouse, more particularly; nay, what is even more than this, if a person has been rubbed with oil in which any one of the mallows has been beaten up, or even if he carries them on his person, he will never be stung. A leaf of mallow put upon a scorpion, will strike it with torpor.

The mallow is an antidote, also, against the poisonous effects of white1694 lead; and applied raw with saltpetre, it extracts all kinds of pointed bodies from the flesh. A decoction of it with the root, taken in drink, neutralizes the poison of the sea-hare,1695 provided, as some say, it is brought off the stomach by vomiting.

Other marvels are also related in connection with the mallow, but the most surprising thing of all is, that if a person takes half a cyathus of the juice of any one of them daily, he will be exempt from all diseases.1696 Left to putrefy in wine, mallows are remedial for running sores of the head, and, mixed with honey, for lichens and ulcerations of the mouth; a decoction of the root, too, is a remedy for dandriff1697 of the head and looseness of the teeth. With the root of the mallow which has a single stem,1698 it is a good plan to prick the parts about a tooth when it aches, until the pain has ceased. With the addition of human saliva, the mallow cleanses scrofulous sores, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and inflammatory tumours, without producing a wound. The seed of it, taken in red wine, disperses phlegm and relieves nausea; and the root, attached to the person with black wool, is a remedy for affections of the mamillæ. Boiled in milk, and taken as a pottage, it cures a cough within five days.

Sextius Niger says that mallows are prejudicial to the stomach, and Olympias, the Theban authoress, asserts that, employed with goose-grease, they are productive of abortion. Some persons are of opinion, that a good handful of the leaves, taken in oil and wine, promotes the menstrual discharge. At all events, it is a well-known fact, that if the leaves are strewed beneath a woman in labour, the delivery will be accelerated; but they must be taken away immediately after the birth, or prolapsus of the uterus will be the consequence. Mallow-juice, also, is given to women in labour, a decoction of it being taken fasting in wine, in doses of one hemina.

Mallow seed is attached to the arms of patients suffering from spermatorrhœa; and, so naturally adapted is this plant for the promotion of lustfulness, that the seed of the kind with a single stem, sprinkled upon the genitals, will increase the sexual desire in males to an infinite degree, according to Xenocrates; who says, too, that if three roots are attached to the person, in the vicinity of those parts, they will be productive of a similar result. The same writer informs us also, that injections of mallows are good for tenesmus and dysentery, and for maladies of the rectum even, if used as a fomentation only. The juice is given warm to patients afflicted with melancholy, in doses of three cyathi, and to insane persons1699 in doses of four. One hemina of the decoction is prescribed, also, for epilepsy.1700 A warm decoction of the juice is employed, too, as a fomentation for calculus, flatulency, gripings of the stomach, and opisthotony. The leaves are boiled, and applied with oil, as a poultice for erysipelas and burns, and raw, with bread, to arrest inflammation in wounds. A decoction of mallows is beneficial for affections of the sinews and bladder, and for gnawing pains of the intestines; taken, too, as an aliment, or an injection, they are relaxing to the uterus, and the decoction, taken with oil, facilitates the passage of the urine.1701

The root of the althæa1702 is even more efficacious for all the purposes above enumerated, and for convulsions and ruptures more particularly. Boiled in water, it arrests looseness of the bowels; and taken in white wine, it is a cure for scrofulous sores, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and inflammations of the mamillæ. A decoction of the leaves in wine, applied as a liniment, disperses inflammatory tumours; and the leaves, first dried, and then boiled in milk, are a speedy cure for a cough, however inveterate. Hippocrates prescribes a decoction of the root to be drunk by persons wounded or thirsty from loss of blood, and the plant itself as an application to wounds, with honey and resin. He also recommends it to be employed in a similar manner for contusions, sprains, and tumours of the muscles, sinews, and joints, and prescribes it to be taken in wine for asthma and dysentery. It is a singular thing, that water in which this root has been put, thickens when exposed in the open air, and congeals1703 like ice. The more recently, however, it has been taken up, the greater are the virtues of the root.1704

Lapathum, too, has pretty nearly the same properties. There is a wild1705 variety, known to some as “oxalis,” very similar in taste to the cultivated kind, with pointed leaves, a colour like that of white beet, and an extremely diminutive root: our people call it “rumex,”1706 while others, again, give it the name of “lapathum cantherinum.”1707 Mixed with axle-grease, this plant is very efficacious for scrofulous sores. There is another kind, again, hardly forming a distinct variety, known as “oxylapathon,”1708 which resembles the cultivated kind even more than the last, though the leaves are more pointed and redder: it grows only in marshy spots. Some authors are found who speak of a “hydrolapathon,”1709 which grows in the water, they say. There is also another variety, known as “hippolapathon,”1710 larger than the cultivated kind, whiter, and more compact.

The wild varieties of the lapathum are a cure1711 for the stings of scorpions, and protect those who carry the plant on their person from being stung. A decoction of the root in vinegar, employed as a gargle, is beneficial to the1712 teeth, and if drunk, is a cure for jaundice. The seed is curative of the most obstinate maladies of the stomach.1713 The root of hippolapathum, in particular, has the property of bringing off malformed nails; and the seed, taken in wine, in doses of two drachmæ, is a cure for dysentery. The seed of oxylapathum, washed in rain-water, with the addition of a piece of gum acacia, about the size of a lentil, is good for patients troubled with spitting of blood.1714 Most excellent lozenges are made of the leaves and root of this plant, with the addition of nitre and a little incense. When wanted for use, they are first steeped in vinegar.

As to garden lapathum,1715 it is good in liniments on the forehead for defluxions of the eyes. The root of it cures lichens and leprous sores, and a decoction of it in wine is remedial for scrofulous swellings, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and calculus of the bladder. Taken in wine it is a cure for affections of the spleen, and employed as a fomentation, it is equally good for cœliac affections, dysentery, and tenesmus. For all these purposes, the juice of lapathum is found to be even still more efficacious. It acts as a carminative and diuretic, and dispels films on the eyes: put into the bath, or else rubbed upon the body, without oil, before taking the bath, it effectually removes all itching sensations. The root of it, chewed, strengthens the teeth, and a decoction of it in wine arrests1716 looseness of the stomach: the leaves, on the other hand, relax it.

Not to omit any particulars, Solo has added to the above varieties a bulapathon,1717 which differs only from the others in the length of the root. This root, taken in wine, is very beneficial for dysentery.

Mustard, of which we have mentioned1718 three different kinds, when speaking of the garden herbs, is ranked by Pythagoras among the very first of those plants the pungency of which mounts upwards; for there is none to be found more penetrating to the brain and nostrils.

Pounded with vinegar, mustard is employed as a liniment for the stings of serpents and scorpions, and it effectually neutralizes the poisonous properties of fungi. To cure an immoderate secretion of phlegm it is kept in the mouth till it melts, or else it is mixed with hydromel, and employed as a gargle. Mustard is chewed for tooth-ache, and is taken as a gargle with oxymel for affections of the uvula; it is very beneficial, also, for all maladies of the stomach. Taken with the food, it facilitates expectoration1719 from the lungs: it is given, too, for asthma and epileptic fits, in combination with cucumber seed. It has the effect of quickening the senses, and effectually clears the head by sneezing, relaxes the stomach, and promotes the menstrual discharge and the urinary secretions: beaten up with figs and cummin, in the proportion of one-third of each ingredient, it is used as an external application for dropsy.

Mixed with vinegar, mustard resuscitates by its powerful odour persons who have swooned in fits of epilepsy or lethargy, as well as females suffering from hysterical suffocations. For the cure of lethargy tordylon is added—that being the name given to the seed of hartwort1720—and if the lethargic sleep should happen to be very profound, an application of it, with figs and vinegar, is made to the legs, or to the head1721 even. Used as an external application, mustard is a cure for inveterate pains of the chest, loins, hips, shoulders, and, in general, for all deep-seated pains in any part of the body, raising blisters1722 by its caustic properties. In cases of extreme indurations of the skin, the mustard is applied, to the part without figs; and a cloth is employed doubled, where it is apprehended that it may burn too powerfully. It is used also, combined with red-earth,1723 for alopecy, itch-scabs, leprosy, phthiriasis, tetanus, and opisthotony. They employ it also as a liniment with honey for styes1724 on the eyelids and films on the eyes.

The juices of mustard are extracted in three different ways, in earthen vessels in which it is left to dry gradually in the sun. From the thin stem of the plant there exudes also a milky juice,1725 which when thus hardened is remedial for tooth-ache. The seed and root, after they have been left to steep in must, are beaten up together in a mortar; and a good handful of the mixture is taken to strengthen1726 the throat, stomach, eyes, head, and all the senses. This mixture is extremely good, too, for fits of lassitude in females, being one of the most wholesome medicines in existence. Taken in vinegar, mustard disperses calculi in the bladder; and, in combination with honey and goose-grease, or else Cyprian wax, it is employed as a liniment for livid spots and bruises. From the seed, first steeped in olive-oil, and then subjected to pressure, an oil is extracted, which is employed for rigidity of the sinews, and chills and numbness in the loins and hips.

It is said that adarca, of which we have already made mention1727 when speaking of the forest-trees, has a similar nature1728 to that of mustard, and is productive of the same effects: it grows upon the outer coat of reeds, below the head.

Most medical writers have spoken in high terms of marrubium, or horehound, as a plant of the very greatest utility. Among the Greeks, it is called “prasion”1729 by some, by others “linostrophon,”1730 and by others, again, “philopais”1731 or “philochares:”1732 it is a plant too well known to require any description.1733 The leaves1734 and seed beaten up, together, are good for the stings of serpents, pains of the chest and side, and inveterate coughs. The branches, too, boiled in water with panic,1735 so as to modify its acridity, are remarkably useful for persons troubled with spitting1736 of blood. Horehound is applied also, with grease, to scrofulous swellings. Some persons recommend for a cough, a pinch of the fresh seed with two fingers, boiled with a handful of spelt1737 and a little oil and salt, the mixture to be taken fasting. Others, again, regard as quite incomparable for a similar purpose an extract of the juices of horehound and fennel. Taking three sextarii of the extract, they boil it down to two, and then add one sextarius of honey; after which they again boil it down to two, and administer one spoonful of the preparation daily, in one cyathus of water.

Beaten up with honey, horehound is particularly beneficial for affections of the male organs; employed with vinegar, it cleanses lichens, and is very salutary for ruptures, convulsions, spasms, and contractions of the sinews. Taken in drink with salt and vinegar, it relaxes the bowels, promotes the menstrual discharge, and accelerates the after-birth. Dried, powdered, and taken with honey, it is extremely efficacious for a dry cough, as also for gangrenes and hang-nails.1738 The juice, too, taken with honey, is good for the ears and nostrils: it is a remedy also for jaundice, and diminishes the bilious secretions. Among the few antidotes1739 for poisons, it is one of the very best known.

The plant itself, taken with iris and honey, purges the stomach and promotes expectorations: it acts, also, as a strong diuretic, though, at the same time, care must be taken not to use it when the bladder is ulcerated and the kidneys are affected. It is said, too, that the juice of horehound improves the eyesight. Castor speaks of two varieties of it, the black horehound and the white, which last he considers to be the best. He puts the juice of it into an empty eggshell, and then mixes the egg with it, together with honey, in equal proportions: this preparation used warm, he says, will bring abscesses to a head, and cleanse and heal them. Beaten up, too, with stale axle-grease and applied topically, he says, horehound is a cure for the bite of a dog.

Wild thyme, it is said, borrows its name, “serpyllum,” from the fact that it is a creeping1740 plant, a property peculiar to the wild kind, that which grows in rocky places more particularly. The cultivated1741 thyme is not a creeping plant, but grows upwards, as much a palm in height. That which springs up spontaneously, grows the most luxuriantly, its leaves and branches being whiter than those of the other kinds. Thyme is efficacious as a remedy for the stings of serpents, the cenchris1742 more particularly; also for the sting of the scolopendra, both sea and land, the leaves and branches being boiled for the purpose in wine. Burnt, it puts to flight all venomous creatures by its smell, and it is particularly beneficial as an antidote to the venom of marine animals.

A decoction of it in vinegar is applied for head-ache, with rose oil, to the temples and forehead, as also for phrenitis and lethargy: it is given, too, in doses of four drachmæ, for gripings of the stomach, strangury, quinsy, and fits of vomiting. It is taken in water, also, for liver complaints. The leaves are given in doses of four oboli, in vinegar, for diseases of the spleen. Beaten up in two cyathi of oxymel, it is used for spitting of blood.

Wild1743 sisymbrium, by some persons called “thymbræum,” does not grow beyond a foot in height. The kind1744 which grows in watery places, is similar to nasturtium, and they1745 are both of them efficacious for the stings of certain insects, such as hornets and the like. That which grows in dry localities is odoriferous, and is employed1746 for wreaths: the leaf of it is narrower than in the other kind. They both of them alleviate head-ache, and defluxions of the eyes, Philinus says. Some persons, however, employ bread in addition; while others, again, use a decoction of the plant by itself in wine. It is a cure, also, for epinyctis, and removes spots on the face in females, by the end of four days; for which purpose, it is applied at night and taken off in the day-time. It arrests vomiting, hiccup, gripings, and fluxes of the stomach, whether taken with the food, or the juice extracted and given in drink.

This plant, however, should never be eaten by pregnant women, except in cases where the fœtus is dead, for the very application of it is sufficient to produce abortion. Taken with wine, it is diuretic, and the wild variety expels calculi even. For persons necessitated to sit up awake, an infusion of it in vinegar is applied as a liniment to the head.

Linseed1747 is not only used in combination with other substances, but, employed by itself, it disperses spots on the face in women: its juice, too, is very beneficial to the sight. Combined with incense and water, or else with myrrh and wine, it is a cure for defluxions of the eyes, and employed with honey, grease, or wax, for imposthumes of the parotid glands. Prepared1748 like polenta, it is good for fluxes of the stomach; and a decoction of it in water and oil, applied topically with anise, is prescribed for quinsy. It is sometimes used parched, also, to arrest looseness of the bowels, and applications of it are used, with vinegar, for cœliac affections and dysentery. It is eaten with raisins, also, for pains in the liver, and excellent electuaries are made of it for the treatment of phthisis.

Linseed-meal, with the addition of nitre, salt, or ashes, softens rigidities of the muscles, sinews, joints, and vertebræ, as well as of the membranous tissues of the brain. Employed with figs, linseed-meal ripens abscesses and brings them to a head: mixed with the root of wild cucumber, it extracts1749 all foreign bodies from the flesh, as well as splinters of broken bones. A decoction of linseed-meal in wine prevents ulcers from spreading, and mixed with honey, it is remedial for pituitous eruptions. Used with nasturtium, in equal quantities, it rectifies1750 malformed nails; mixed with resin and myrrh, it cures affections of the testes and hernia,1751 and with water, gangrenous sores. A decoction of linseed-meal with fenugreek, in the proportion of one sextarius of each, in hydromel, is recommended for pains in the stomach; and employed as an injection, with oil or honey, it is beneficial for dangerous affections of the chest and intestines.

Blite1752 seems to be a plant of an inert nature, without flavour or any pungency whatever; hence it is that, in Menander, we find husbands giving this name to their wives, by way of1753 reproach. It is1754 prejudicial to the stomach, and disturbs the bowels to such a degree, as to cause cholera in some. It is stated, however, that, taken in wine, it is good for the stings of scorpions; and that it is sometimes used as a liniment for corns on the feet, and, with oil, for affections of the spleen and pains in the temples. Hippocrates is of opinion, that if taken with the food,1755 it will arrest the menstrual discharge.

Meum1756 is never cultivated in Italy except by medical men, and by very few of those. There are two varieties of it, the finer kind being known as “athamanticum,” because, according to some, it was first discovered by Athamas; or else because, as others think, that of the best quality is found upon Mount Athamas.1757 The leaf of it is similar to that of dill, and the stem is sometimes as much as two cubits in length: the roots, which run obliquely, are numerous and mostly black, though sometimes white: it is not of so red a hue as the other kind.

The root of this plant, pounded or boiled, and taken in water, is diuretic, and is marvellously efficacious for dispelling flatulency of the stomach. It is good, too, for gripings of the bowels and affections of the bladder: applied with honey to the region of the uterus, it acts as a diuretic; and used as a liniment with parsley, upon the lower regions of the abdomen in infants, it has a similar effect.

Fennel has been rendered famous by the serpent, which tastes it, as already1758 stated, when it casts its old skin, and sharpens its sight with the juice of this plant: a fact which has led to the conclusion that this juice must be beneficial, also, in a high degree to the human sight. Fennel-juice is gathered when the stem is swelling with the bud; after which it is dried in the sun and applied as an ointment with honey. This plant is to be found in all parts of the world. The most esteemed preparation from it, is that made in Iberia, from the tear-like drops which exude1759 from the stalk and the seed fresh-gathered. The juice is extracted, also, from incisions made in the root at the first germination of the plant.

There is, also, a wild1760 variety of fennel, known by some persons as “hippomarathron,” and by others as “myrsineum;” it has a larger leaf and a more acrid taste than the other kind. It is taller, also, about the thickness of a walking-stick, and has a white root: it grows in warm, but stony localities. Diocles speaks, too, of another1761 variety of hippomarathron, with a long narrow leaf, and a seed like that of coriander.

The seed of the cultivated fennel is medicinally employed in wine, for the stings of scorpions and serpents, and the juice of it, injected into the ears, has the effect of destroying small worms that breed there. Fennel is employed as an ingredient in nearly all our seasonings,1762 vinegar1763 sauces more particularly: it is placed also beneath the undercrust of bread. The seed, in fevers even, acts as an astringent upon a relaxed stomach, and beaten up with water, it allays nausea: it is highly esteemed, also, for affections of the lungs and liver. Taken in moderate quantities, it arrests looseness of the bowels, and acts as a diuretic; a decoction of it is good for gripings of the stomach, and taken in drink, it restores the milk. The root, taken in a ptisan,1764 purges the kidneys—an effect which is equally produced by a decoction of the juice or of the seed; the root is good too, boiled in wine, for dropsy and convulsions. The leaves are applied to burning tumours, with vinegar, expel calculi of the bladder, and act as an aphrodisiac.

In whatever way it is taken in drink, fennel has the property of promoting the secretion of the seminal fluids; and it is extremely beneficial to the generative organs, whether a decoction of the root in wine is employed as a fomentation, or whether it is used beaten up in oil. Many persons apply fennel with wax to tumours and bruises, and employ the root, with the juice of the plant, or else with honey, for the bites of dogs, and with wine for the stings of multipedes.

Hippomarathron is more efficacious, in every respect, than cultivated fennel;1765 it expels calculi more particularly, and, taken with weak wine, is good for the bladder and irregularities of the menstrual discharge.

In this plant, the seed is more efficacious than the root; the dose of either of them being a pinch with two fingers, beaten up, and mixed with the usual drink. Petrichus, who wrote a work “On Serpents,”1766 and Micton, who wrote a treatise “On1767 Botany,” are of opinion that there is nothing in existence of greater efficacy against serpents than hippomarathron: indeed, Nicander1768 has ranked it by no means among the lowest of antidotes.

Hemp originally grew in the forests,1769 where it is found with a blacker and rougher leaf than in the other1770 kinds. Hempseed,1771 it is said, renders men impotent: the juice of this seed will extract worms from the ears, or any insect which may have entered them, though at the cost of producing head-ache. The virtues of hemp, it is said, are so great, that an infusion of it in water will cause it to coagulate:1772 hence it is, that if taken in water, it will arrest looseness in beasts of burden. A decoction of the root in water, relaxes contractions of the joints, and cures gout and similar maladies. It is applied raw to burns, but it must be frequently changed, so as not to let it dry.

Fennel-giant1773 has a seed similar to that of dill. That which has a single stem, bifurcated1774 at the top, is generally thought to be the female plant. The stalks of it are eaten boiled;1775 and, pickled in brine and honey, they are recommended as particularly beneficial to the stomach;1776 if taken, however, in too large quantities, they are apt to produce head-ache. The root of it in doses of one denarius to two cyathi of wine, is used in drink for the stings of serpents, and the root itself is applied topically for the same purpose, as also for the cure of gripings of the stomach. Taken in oil and vinegar, it is used as a check for excessive perspirations, in fevers even. The inspissated juice of fennel-giant, taken in quantities the size of a bean, acts as a purgative;1777 and the pith1778 of it is good for the uterus, as well as all the maladies previously mentioned. To arrest hæmorrhage, ten of the seeds are taken in drink, bruised in wine, or else with the pith of the plant. There are some persons who think that the seed should be administered for epilepsy, from the fourth to the seventh day of the moon, in doses of one spoonful.

Fennel-giant is naturally so inimical to the muræna, that the very touch of it even will kill that fish. Castor was of opinion that the juice of the root is extremely beneficial to the sight.

We have already1779 spoken, when treating of the garden plants, of the cultivation of the thistle; we may as well, therefore, not delay to mention its medicinal properties. Of wild thistles there are two varieties; one1780 of which throws out numerous stalks immediately it leaves the ground, the other1781 being thicker, and having but a single stem. They have, both of them, a few leaves only, and covered with prickles, the head of the plant being protected by thorny points: the last mentioned, however, puts forth in the middle of these points a purple blossom, which turns white with great rapidity, and is carried off by the wind; the Greeks give it the name of “scolymos.”

This plant, gathered before it blossoms, and beaten up and subjected to pressure, produces a juice, which, applied to the head, makes the hair grow again when it has fallen off through alopecy. The root of either kind, boiled in water, creates thirst, it is said, in those who drink it. It strengthens the stomach also, and if we are to believe what is said, has some influence upon the womb in promoting the conception of male offspring: at all events, Glaucias, who seems to have paid the most attention to the subject, has written to that effect. The thin juice, like mastich, which exudes from these plants, imparts sweetness to the breath.

But as we are now about to leave the garden plants, we will take this opportunity of describing a very famous preparation extracted from them as an antidote against the stings of all kinds of venomous animals: it is inscribed in verse1782 upon a stone in the Temple of Æsculapius at Cos.

Take two denarii of wild thyme, and the same quantity of opopanax and meum respectively; one denarius of trefoil seed; and of aniseed, fennel-seed, ammi, and parsley, six denarii respectively, with twelve denarii of meal of fitches. Heat up these ingredients together, and pass them through a sieve; after which they must be kneaded with the best wine that can be had, and then made into lozenges of one victoriatus1783 each: one of these is to be given to the patient, steeped in three cyathi of wine. King Antiochus1784 the Great, it is said, employed this theriaca1785 against all kinds of venomous animals, the asp excepted.

Summary.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, one thousand, five hundred, and six.

Roman authors quoted.—Cato1786 the Censor, M. Varro,1787 Pompeius Lenæus,1788 C. Valgius,1789 Hyginus,1790 Sextius Niger1791 who wrote in Greek, Julius Bassus1792 who wrote in Greek, Celsus,1793 Antonius Castor.1794

Foreign authors quoted.—Democritus,1795 Theophrastus,1796 Orpheus,1797 Menander1798 who wrote the “Biochresta,” Pythagoras,1799 Nicander.1800

Medical authors quoted.—Chrysippus,1801 Diocles,1802 Ophelion,1803 Heraclides,1804 Hicesius,1805 Dionysius,1806 Apollodorus1807 of Citium, Apollodorus1808 of Tarentum, Praxagoras,1809, Plistonicus,1810 Medius,1811 Dieuches,1812 Cleophantus,1813 Philistion,1814 Asclepiades,1815 Crateuas,1816 Petronius Diodotus,1817 Iollas,1818 Erasistratus,1819 Diagoras,1820 Andreas,1821 Mnesides,1822 Epicharmus,1823 Damion,1824 Dalion,1825 Sosimenes,1826 Tlepolemus,1827, Metrodorus,1828 Solo,1829 Lycus,1830 Olympias1831 of Thebes, Philinus,1832 Petrichus,1833 Micton,1834 Glaucias,1835 Xenocrates.1836