Chap. 40.] BUGLOSSOS. 109 



the mouth, which lasts a considerable time, and increases every 

 now and then, until, in fact, it has quite parched the fauces. 



CHAP. 39. (8.) — TWO VARIETIES OF TEffi PLANTAGO : FORTT-SIX 



REMEDIES. 



The physician Themiso, too, has conferred some celebrity 

 upon the plantago, otherwise a very common plant ; indeed he 

 has written a treatise upon it, as though he had been the first 

 to discover it. There are two varieties ; one, more diminu- 

 tive^^ than the other, has a naiTower and more swarthy leaf, 

 strongly resembling a sheep's tongue in appearance : the stem 

 of it is angular and bends downwards, and it is generally found 

 growing in meadow lands. The larger^'' kind has leaves 

 enclosed with ribs at the sides, to all appearance, from the 

 fact of which being seven'^ in number, the plant has been 

 called " heptapleuron"''^ by some. The stem of it is a cubit in 

 height, and strongly resembles that of the turnip. That 

 wdiich is grown in a moist soil is considered much the most 

 efficacious : it is possessed of marvellous virtues as a desiccative 

 and as an astringent, and has all the effect of a cautery. There 

 is nothing that so effectually arrests the fluxes known by the 

 Greeks as '' rheumatismi." 



CHAP. 40. — BUGLOSSOS I THREE REMEDIES. 



To an account of the plantago may be annexed that of 

 the buglossos, the leaf of which resembles an ox tongue."^ The 

 main peculiarity of this plant is, that if put into wine, it pro- 

 motes'^ mirth and hilarity, whence it has obtained the additional 

 name of *' euphrosynum."'^ 



^^ The Plantago lagopus of Linnaeus, according to Sibthorp ; but 

 Sprengel identifies it with the Plantago lanceolata of Linnaeus, or else the 

 P. maritima. 



'•^ The Plantago ^altissira a or major of modern botany. 



'^ I. e. the ribs, nerves, or sinews of the leaf. 



""' " Seven-sided." 



'■^ Whence its name, from the Greek. Sprengel and Desfontaines iden- 

 tify it with the Borrago officinalis of Linnaeus, our Borage. Littre gives 

 the Anchusa Italica. 



"* Though Pliny's assertion is supported by the authority of the School of 

 Salerno, Fee treats it as entirely unfounded. Leaves of borage still form 

 an ingredient in the beverages known as Copas and Cider-cup at Cam- 

 bridge. See this usage, and the identity of the Buglossos discussed at 

 some length by Beckmann, Hist. Inv. YoL ii. p. 340, Bohti's Ed. 



'•^ " Promoting cheerfulness." 



