Chap. 89.] matirubium: or PBAsroN. 291 



bium, or horehound, as a plant of the very greatest utility. 

 Among the Greeks, it is called " prasion "^'- by some, by 

 others "iinostrophon,*'^^ and by others, again, ''philopais"*^ or 

 ** philochares :"^° it is a plant too well known to require any 

 description.^^ The leaves ■*'' 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,^® so as to modify its acridity, are remarkably useful 

 for persons troubled with spitting ^^ 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 spelt ^ 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, convul- 

 sions, 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 efiicacious 



•^2 The "grass-green" plant. *^ The "twisted flax" plant. 



** *• Lad's-love." *^ " Love and grace," apparently. 



'^ There are two kinds of prasion mentioned by Dioscoridcs, and by 

 Pliny at the end of the present Chapter, one of which Fee is inclined to 

 identify with the Ballota nigra of Linnaeus, the fetid ballota ; and the other 

 with the Marrubium vulgare of Linnaeus, the white horehound. Bochart 

 conjectures that the word " marrubium " had a Punic origin, but Linnaeus 

 thinks that it comes from " IMaria urbs," the " City of the Marshes," si- 

 tuate on Lake Fucinus, in Italy. 



*' Though much used in ancient times, horehound is but little employed 

 in medicine at the present day : though its medicinal value, Fee thinks, 

 is very considerable. Candied horehound is employed to some extent in 

 this country, as a pectoral. 



*8 See B. xviii. c. 25. 



*9 Its medicinal properties, as recognized in modem times, are in most 

 respects dissimilar to those mentioned by Pliny. 



50 ''Far." 



u 2 



