Cbap. 35.] THE ELDEE. 23 



bring them to a head :^^ the same, too, is the effect produced by 

 the inner bark. 



Many persons are of opinion that the bark of this tree, 

 chewed, is a very useful application for wounds, and that the 

 leaves, bruised and moistened with water, are good for gout. 

 The moisture too that exudes from the pitVi of the tree, 

 as already*^ stated, on an incision being made, applied 

 to the head, causes the hair to grow and prevents it from 

 falling off. 



CHAP. 34. THE LTNDEN-TREE ! FIVE REMEDIES. 



The linden-tree^^ is useful, though in a less marked degree, 

 for nearly all the same purposes as the wild olive. The leaves, 

 liowever, are the only part that is made use of for ulcers upon 

 infants ; chewed, too, or employed in the form of a decoction, 

 they are diuretic. Used as a liniment they arrest menstruation 

 w^hen in excess, and an infusion of them, taken in drink, carries 

 oft" superfluous blood. 



CHAP. 35. THE ELDER : FIFTEEN REMEDIES. 



There are two kinds of elder, one of w^hich grows wild and 

 is much smaller than the other ; by the Greeks it is known as 

 the *' chamaeacte," or " helion."'*^ A decoction of the leaves,^ 

 seed, or root of either kind, taken in doses of two cyathi, in 

 old wine, though bad for the upper regions of the stomach, 

 carries off all aqueous' humours by stool. This decoction is 

 very cooling too for inflammations, those attendant upon recent 

 burns in particular. A poultice is made also of the more 



4s " Extrahuntque per fistulas." 



47 In B. xvi. c. 74. 



4^ See B. xvi. c. 25. The blossoms of the linden-tree are the only part 

 of it employed in modern medicine. Fee thinks, with Ilardouin, that 

 Pliny has here attributed to the linden, or Philyra of the Greeks, the pro- 

 perties which in reality were supposed to belong to tlie Pliillyrea latifolia, 

 a slirub resembling the wild olive. Dioscorides, in his description of its 

 properties, has not fallen into the same error. 



43 " Ground elder " or "marsh elder ;" the Sarabucus ebulus of Lin- 

 naeus, or dwarf elder. The other kind mentioned by Pliny is the Sambu- 

 cus nigra of Linnaeus, or black elder. 



5*^ Fee says that though some of the assertions as to its medicinal pro- 

 perties made by Pliny are unfounded, it is still an opinion among the 

 moderns that the leaves of the elder are purgative, the inner bark an 

 emetic and hydragogue, the berries laxative, and the flowers emollient. 



