Chap. 62.] THE GALLIDEAGA. 249 



the trachea and stomach, and acts astringently upon the bowels. 

 It is eaten also by beasts of burden, but when wanted for 

 remedial purposes, four drachmae are sufficient. 



The black seed is useful as a preventive of night-mare,^^ 

 being taken in wine, in number above stated : it is very good, 

 too, to eat this seed, and to apply it externally, for gnawing pains 

 of the stomach. Suppurations are also dispersed, when recent, 

 with the black seed, and when of long standing, with the red : 

 both kinds are very useful, too, for wounds inflicted by ser- 

 pents, and in cases where children are troubled with calculi, 

 being employed at the crisis when strangury first makes its 

 appearance. 



CHAP. 61. GNAPHALIIJM OR CHAil^ZELON : SIX REMEDIES. 



Gnaphalium^'^ is called '' chamaezelon" by some : its white, 

 soft, leaves are used as flock, and, indeed, there is no per- 

 ceptible difference. This plant is administered in astringent 

 wine, for dysentery : it arrests looseness of the bowels and 

 the catamenia, and is used as an injection for tenesmus. It is 

 employed topically for putrid sores. 



CHAP. 62. THE GALLIDEAGA : ONE REMEDY. 



Xenocrates gives the name of " gallidraga" ^'^ to a plant 

 which resembles the leucacanthus,^^ and grows in the marshes. 

 It is a prickly plant, with a tall, ferulaceous stem, surmounted 

 with a head somewhat similar to an egg in appearance. When 

 this head is growing, in summer, small worms, ^•^ he says, are 

 generated, which are put away in a box for keeping, and are 

 attached as an amulet, wdth bread, to the arm on the side on 

 which tooth-ache is felt ; indeed it is quite wonderful, he says, 

 how soon the pain is removed. These worms, however, are of 

 no use after the end of a year, or in cases where they have been 

 allowed to touch the ground, 



®^ " Suppressionibus nocturnis." 



^■^ Sprengel identifies it with the Santolina maritima. Sea cudwort or 

 cotton-weed. Fee considers its identification as doubtful. 



^s Identified by Hardouin and Desfontaines with the Dipsacus pilosus of 

 Linnaeus, the Shepherd's rod, or small white teasel. Fee is doubtful on 

 the subject. 



'^^ See B. xxii. c. 18. ^ See B. xxv. c. 28. 



