34 pliny's natural history. [Book XXIV. 



as a depilatory, and for the cure of phthiriasis. The blossoms 

 too, of all the varieties, taken twice a day in astringent wine, 

 a pinch in three fingers at a time, are curative of dysentery 

 and looseness of the bowels : they are very useful also, applied 

 to burns with wax. The umbels stain the hair black. The 

 juice extracted from the root is taken in vinegar for the cure 

 of wounds inflicted by the phalangium. I find it stated too, 

 that patients siiff'ering from afiections of the spleen are cured 

 by drinking from vessels made of the wood of the ivy. The 

 berries are bruised also, and then burnt, and a liniment is 

 prepared from them for burns, the parts being fomented with 

 warm water first. 



Incisions are sometimes made in the ivy to obtain the juice, 

 which is used for carious teeth, it having the effect of breaking 

 them, it is said ; the adjoining teeth being fortified with wax 

 against the powerful action of the juice. A kind of gum even 

 is said to be found in the ivy, which, it is asserted, is extremely 

 useful, mixed with vinegar, for the teeth. 



CHAP. 48. THE CISTHOS: FIVE REMEDIES. 



The Greeks give the name of " cisthos" — a word very 

 similar to'*cissos," the Greek name of the ivy — to a plant 

 which is somewhat larger than thyme, and has a leaf like that 

 of ocimum. There are two varieties of this plant ; the male,^ 

 which has a rose-coloured blossom, and the female,^ with a 

 white one. The blossom of either kind, taken in astringent 

 wine, a pinch in three fingers at a time, is good for dysentery 

 and looseness of the bowels. Taken in a similar manner # 

 twice a day, it is curative of inveterate ulcers : used with 

 wax, it heals burns, and employed by itself it cures ulcere 

 ations of the mouth. It is beneath these plants more par- 

 ticularly that the hypocisthis grows, of which we shall have 

 occasion^ to speak when treating of the herbs. 



chap. 49. the cissos erythranos : two remedies. the 



chamy^cissos : two remedies. the smilax : three re- 

 medies. THE clematis : eighteen remedies. 



The plant called ** cissos erythranos "* by the Greeks, is 



^ The Cistus pilosus of Linnanis, the wild eglantine, or rock-rose. 

 ' The Cistus sulvifolius of Liunseus. 

 a In B. xxvi. cc. 31, 49, 87, and 90. 



■* "Red-berried" or "red-leaved ivy." See B. xvi. C 62. This kind, 

 Fee says, appears not to have been identified. 



