Chap. 45.] APIASTEUM, OE MELTSSOPHTLLUM. 247 



Parsley is distinguished as male and female :^ according to 

 Chrysippus, the female plant has a hard leaf and more curled 

 than the other, a thick stem, and an acrid, hot taste. Dio- 

 nysius says, that the female is darker than the other kind, 

 has a shorter root, and engenders small worms.-^ 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 eye- 

 sight, 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 inju- 

 rious in its effects as the female, and that it is for this reason 

 that it is not absolutely condemned and classed among the for- 

 bidden plants. The leaves of it, employed as a cataplasm, are 

 used for dispersing hard tumours-^ in the mamillae ; 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 diui;etic, pro- 

 motes the menstrual discharge, and brings away the after- 

 birth. 



Bruises and lind spots, if fomented with a decoction of 

 parsley- seeed, will resume their natural colour. Applied to- 

 pically, 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. 



i CHAP. 45. APIASTEUM, OE MELISSOPHYLLUM. 



Hyginus gave the name of *'apiastrum" to melissophyl- 

 lum :^ but that which grows in Sardinia is poisonous, and 



"^ This distinction, Fee says, cannot be admitted. 



^^ Or maggots. 



26 This belief in its eflBcacy, Fee says, still exists. 



^ See B. XXL c. 86 : this is the Melissa officinalis of Linnaeus, or balm- 



