CUap. 41.] THK MTRTCA. 29 



The seed of the plant to wliich the Greeks now give the 

 name of " sparton," grows in pods like those of the kidney- 

 bean. It is as strongly drastic'® as hellebore, and is usually 

 taken fasting, in doses of one drachma and a half, in four 

 cyathi of hydromel. The branches also, with the foliage, are 

 macerated for several days in vinegar, and are then beaten up, 

 the infusion being recommended for sciatica, in doses of one 

 cyathus. Some persons think it a better plan, however, to 

 make an infusion of them in sea- water, and to inject it as a 

 clyster. The juice of them is used also as a friction for sciatica, 

 with the addition of oil. Some medical men, too, make use 

 of the seed for strangury. Broom, bruised with axle-grease, is 

 a cure for diseases of the knees. 



CHAP. 41. THE MYRICA, OTHERWISE CALLED TAMAHICA, OR 



TAMAETX : THKEE REilEDIES. 



Lenaeus says, that the myrice,''^ otherwise known as the 

 ** erica," is a similar plant to that of which brooms are made at 

 Araeria.^ He states also that, boiled in wine and then beaten 

 up and applied with honey, it heals carcinomatous sores. I 

 would here remark, parenthetically, that some persons identify 

 it with the tamarice. Be this as it may, it is particularly 

 useful for affections of the spleen, the juice of it being ex- 

 tracted for the purpose, and taken in wine; indeed so marvellous, 

 they say, is its antipathy to this part of the viscera, and this 

 only, that if swine drink from troughs made of this wood,''^ 

 they will be found to lose the spleen. Hence it is that 



''^ Fee says that the blossoms and seed of the junciform genista and 

 other kinds are of a purgative nature ; indeed, one variety has been called 

 the Genista purgans by Lamarck. None of them, however, are so potent 

 in their effects as Pliny in the present passage would lead ns to suppose. 



'^ See B. xiii. c. 37, and Note 96 ; where it is stated that, in I'ee's 

 opinion, several plants were united by the ancients under this one collective 

 name — brooms for instance, heaths, and tamarisks. He thinks, however, 

 that under the name *' Myrica," Pliny may possibly have intended to com- 

 prehend the larger heaths and the Tamarix Gallica of Linnaeus. M. Fraas, as 

 Littre states, gives the Tamarix Africans as the probable synonym of the 

 Myrica of Pliny. 



^^^ Of this broom-plant of Ameria nothing is known. 



^^ This cannot apply to any of the heaths of Europe. The tamarisk 

 grows to a much larger siae, and barrels and drinking vessels are made of 

 the wood. 



