Chap. 5,i.] BARLEi'. 445 



the grain"^ of it, however, is bitter, and the leaf more dimi- 

 nutive : it is found growing in sandy soils. Taken in water, 

 it carries off bile, and, with the seed, a liniment is made for 

 er3-sipelas : it disperses inflamed swellings also. Besides this, 

 there is another^® sesamoides, which grows at Anticyra, and, 

 for that reason, is known by some as '' anticyricon." In 

 other respects, it is similar to the plant erigeron, of which we 

 shall have to speak-^ on a future occasion; but the seed of it 

 is like that of sesame. It is given in sweet wine as an eva- 

 cuant, in doses of a pinch in three fingers, mixed with an 

 obolus and a half of white hellebore ; this .preparation being- 

 employed principally as a purgative, in cases of insanity, me- 

 lancholy, epilepsy, and gout. Taken alone, in doses of one 

 drachma, it purges by stool. 



CHAP. 65. BAKLEY : ITINE REMEDIES. MOTJSE-BAKLET, BY 1>HE 



GREEKS CALLED PHCE^flCE : ONE REMEDY. 



The whitest barley is the best. Boiled^^ in rain-water, the 

 pulp of it is divided into lozenges, which are used in injec- 

 tions for ulcerations of tlie intestines and the uterus. The 

 ashes of barley are applied to burns, to bones da*uded of the 

 flesh, to purulent eruptions, and to the bite of the shrew- 

 mouse : sprinkled with, salt and honey they impart whiteness 

 to the teeth, and sweetness to the breath. It is alleged that 

 persons who are in the habit of eating barley-bread are never 

 troubled with gout in the feet : they say, too, that if a person 

 takes nine grains of barley, and traces three times round a 

 boil, with each of them in the left hand, and then throws 

 them all into the fire, he will exiperience an immediate cure. 

 There is another plant, too, known as "phoenice" by the 



25 Sprengel has identified this plant, the '* smaller" Sesamoides of Dios- 

 eorides, with the Astragalus sesameus of Linnaeus, or tlse with tlie Reseda 

 canescens. Other naturalists have mentioned the Catanauche caeruLa of 

 Linnaeus, the Passerina hirsuta of Linnasus, and the Passerina polvgalte- 

 ofolia of Lapeyrouse. Fee is of opinion that it has not been identified. 



28 Altogethe'r a different plant; Sprengel identifies it with the Paseda 

 Iklediterranca, but Fee dissents from that opinion, and is inclined to agree 

 with the opinion of Dalechamps, that it is the Daplme Tartonraira of Liu- 

 naens, which is a strong pargative. 



'-^7 In B. XXV c. 106. 



28 Fee remarks that this Chapter includes a number of gross prejudices 

 which it is not worth while to examine or contradict. 



