CLap. 29.] THE HELIOTllOPIUiT. 413 



never attacked by dysentery, tenesmus, or other affections of 

 the bowels ; hence it is, that this plant is reckoned among the 

 remedies for that class of diseases. 



CHAP. 29. — THE HELIOTEOPITJM, HELIOSCOPIUM, OR VERRUCARTA : 

 TWELVE REMEDIES. THE HELIOTROPIUM, TKICOCCUil, OR SCOR- 

 PIURON: FOURTEEN REMEDIES. 



"We have spoken more than once^* of the marvels of the helio- 

 tropium, which turns ^^ with the sun, in cloudy weather even, 

 so great is its sympathy with that luminary. At night, as 

 though in regret, it closes its blue flower. 



There are two species of heliotropium, the tricoccum *~ and 

 the helioscopium,*^ the latter being the taller of the two, 

 though they neither of them exceed half *^ a foot in height. The 

 helioscopium throws out branches from the root, and the seed 

 of it, enclosed in follicules,^ is gathered at harvest-time. It 

 grows nowhere but in a rich soil, a highly- cultivated one more 

 particularly ; the tricoccum, on the other hand, is to be found 

 growing everywhere. I And it stated, that the helioscopium, 

 boiled, is considered an agiec able food, and that taken in milk, 

 it is gently laxative^^ to the bowels ; while, again, a decoction of 

 it, taken as a potion, acts as a most effectual purgative. The 



*^ B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xix. c. 58. 



^s This apparent marvel is owing to the necessity of light to certain 

 flowers for the purposes of fecundation, while those which open at night 

 require more moisture than light for their reproduction. 



*^ Or ".three-grained," probably, Fee says, from the three cells in the 

 capsule. He identifies this plant with the "Croton tinctorium of Linnaeus^ 

 the turnsole, or sun-flower. 



*8 Fee identifies it with the Heliotropium Europaeum of Linnasus, the 

 heliotrope, or verrucaria. The Heliotropium of Ovid and other poets, 

 with a violet or blue flower, is, no doubt, a different plant, and is identified 

 by Sprengel, Desfontaines, and Fee with the Hesperis matronalis of Lin- 

 naeus, rocket or Julian, or, as we not inaptly call it, from its pleasant smell, 

 cherry-pie. Pliny speaks of his Heliotropium as having a " blue flower," 

 coeruleura. This is probably an error on his part, and it is supposed by 

 commentators that he read in the Greek text vTroiropfvpov, " somewhat 

 purple," by mistake for vTTOTrvppov, "somewhat red," as we find it. 



*2 As known at the present day, tliey grow to a much greater height 

 than this. 



^ This, Fee remarks, cannot apply to either the Heliotropium Euro- 

 paeum or the Croton tinctorium. He thinks it not improbable that Pliny 

 may have named one plant, and given a description of another. 



^'^ The Heliotropium Europaeum, Fee says, has no medicinal properties. 



