Chap. 24.] ALUM. 231 



leaves resembling a cock's comb, a thin stem, and a black seed 

 enclosed in pods. Boiled with broken beans and honey, it is 

 useful for cough and for films upon the eyes. The seed, too, is 

 sprinkled whole into the eyes, and so far is it from injuring 

 them, that it attracts and collects the filmy matter. When 

 thus used, it changes colour, and from black becomes white, 

 gradually swells, and comes out of itself. 



CHAP. 24. (6.) ALUM, ALSO CALLED SYMPHTTON PETEJEON '. 



FOFETEEIT REMEDIES. 



The plant which we call ''alum,"^^ and which is known to the 

 Greeks as " symphyton" petraeon," is similar to cunila bubula'^ 

 in appearance, having a diminutive leaf and three or four 

 branches springing from the root, with tops like those of thyme. 

 It is a ligneous plant, odoriferous, of a sweet flavour, and pro- 

 vocative of saliva : the root of it is long and red. It grows 

 upon rocks, to which circumstance it is indebted for its addi- 

 tional name of " petraeon ;" and is extremely useful^^ for afiec- 

 tions of the sides and kidneys, griping pains in the bowels, 

 diseases of the chest and lungs, spitting of blood, and eruptions 

 of the fauces. The root is pounded and taken in drink, or else 

 a decoction is made of it in wine ; sometimes, also, it is ap- 

 plied externally. Chewed, it allays thirst, and is particularly 

 refreshing to the pulmonary organs. It is employed topically 

 for sprains and contusions, and has a soothing effect upon the 

 intestines. 



Cooked upon hot ashes, with the follicules removed, and 

 then beaten up with nine peppercorns and taken in water, it 

 acts astringently upon the bowels. For the cure of wounds it 



78 Identified by Desfontaines with the Symphytum officinale, or Great 

 comfrey. Fee, however, considers it to be the Coris Monspeliensis of Lin- 

 naeus, Montpellier coris. Lobel identifies it with the Prunella vulgaris of 

 Linnaeus, Common self-heal, and Casalpinus with the Hyssopus officinalis 

 of Linnaeus. See B. xxvi. c. 26. 



'^ Fee reiterates his assertion here that this " rock " Symphytum is a 

 totally different plant from the Symphytum officinale, or Comfrey, though 

 they appear to have been generally considered as identical by Scriboniua 

 Largus, Plinius Valerianus, Apuleius, and other writers. 



^^ See B. xxvi. c. 26. 



'^ This account of its medicinal properties applies properly to the Sym- 

 phytum officinale, or Great comfrey, a plant which would appear to have 

 been confounded by Pliny with the Alum, if Fee is right in his conjecture. 



