Chap. SI.] INJURIES INFLICTED BY INSECTS. 455 



CHAr. 78. — TH"E PLANT MILIARIA : ONE REMEDY. 



** ^riliaria " ''^ is the name given to a plant which kills millot : 

 tin's plant, it is said, is a cure for gout in beasts of burden, 

 beaten up and administered in wine, with the aid of a horn. 



CHAP. 79. BKOMOS: ONE REMEDY. 



Bromos"^ is the seed also of a plant which bears an ear. It 

 is a kind of oat which grows among corn, to which it is inju- 

 rious ; tjie leaves and stalk of it resemble those of wheat, and 

 at the extremity it bears seeds, hanging down, something liko 

 small locusts'^- in appearance. The seed of this ])lant is useful 

 for plasters, like barley and otber grain of a similar nature. 

 A decoction of it is good for coughs. 



CHAP. 80. OHOBANCHE, OK CYNOMORION : ONE REMEDY. 



We have mentioued^^ orobanche as the name of a ])lant 

 which kills the fitch and other leguminous plants. Some 

 persons have called it " cynomorion," from the resemblance 

 which it bears to the genitals of a dog. The stem of it is 

 leafless, thick, and red. It is eaten either raw, or boiled in the 

 saucepan, while young and tender. 



CHAP. 81. REMEDIES FOR INJURIES INFLICTED BY INSECTS WHICH 



RKEED AMONG LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



There are some venomous insects also, of the solipuga'Mdnd, 

 which breed upon leguminous plants, and which, by stinging 

 the hands, endanger life. For these stings all those remedies 

 are efficacious which have been mentioned for the bite of the 

 spider and the phalangium.'^ Such, then, are the medicinal 

 j)roperties for which the cereals are employed. 



'■^ Fee identifies this plant with the Cuscuta Europsea of Linnseus. 

 Spren.s:el takes it to be the Panicum verticillatmn of Linnaeus. 



'1 The Avena sativa of LimiiBus ; the cultivated oat, and not the Greek 

 oat of I), xviii. c. 42. 



''■- The term " locusta" has been borrowed by botanists to cliaracterizii 

 the fructification of gramineous plants. 



''^ In B. xviii. c. 44. The present, Fee thinks, is a different plant from 

 the Cuscuta Europsea, and he identifies it with the Orobanche caryophyU 

 lacea of Smith, or else the Orobanche ramosa of Liunieus. The Oro- 

 banche is so called from its choking (dyxn) the orobus or ervum. It is 

 also found to be injurious to beans, trefoil, and hemp. In Italy, the stalks 

 are eaten as a substitute for asparagus. 



7* See B. viii. c. 43. -* See B. x. c. 95, and B. ii. cc. 24, 28. 



