ilfte ©octriae of pfant 3'S'^citupe/. 157 



Plants or herbs of a dull blackish colour, or of a brownish or 

 a spotted hue, were held to be serviceable in the treatment of 

 black bile. Some of them had a tendency to increase it, while 

 others assisted in carrying it off. Thus, Smilax, Mandragora, 

 many kinds of Parsley, Nightshade, and Poppies, having partly 

 black, ash-coloured, and spotted flowers, intermixed with pale 

 tints, by causing bad dreams, excite giddiness, vertigo, and 

 epilepsy. Napellus, also, indicates in a most marked manner its 

 poisonous and virulent nature, for its flower represents the skull 

 of a dead man. 



Plants which bear white flowers and have thick juice, which 

 often grow in moist and extremely humid places, and which resemble 

 phlegm or rheum, were thought to increase the very humours they 

 represented. Others of a drier temperament were thought to correct 

 and purify the same. Milky plants, as TithymaUiis, Polygala, Sonchus, 

 and Britahar ^gyptiaca, were supposed to increase and accumulate 

 milk in nurses. 



Some plants of a red colour were believed to increase blood ; 

 some to correct and purify it ; and others to benefit hemorrhoidal 

 and dysenteric affections from a similarity of colour. 



Plants of a mixed colour, as they unite in themselves a 

 diversity of temperaments, were thought to produce a diversity of 

 effects ; whence two-coloured herbs were believed to possess and 

 exercise a double virtue. On this principle, diverse colours were 

 said to cure diverse humours in the human body; for example, 

 Tripoliiim, Panacaa, and Triphera were considered beneficial for all 

 humours. 



Plants whose decoction and infusion, as well as colour and 

 consistence, were like some humour of the human body, were 

 declared to be appropriate for the purpose of evacuating that 

 humour by attraction, or mcreasing it by incorporation. 



' Certain plants were deemed to represent some disease or 

 morbid condition, and were judged to be helpful in its cure. Thus 

 those were administered in cases of calculus which represented 

 stones, such as Milium solis, the root of the White Saxifrage, the 

 shells of Nuts, and Nuts themselves. Spotted plants and herbs 

 were thought to eradicate spots, and scaly plants to remove 

 scales. Perforated herbs were selected for the cure of wounds and 

 perforations of the body. Plants which exude gums and resins 

 were considered available for the treatment of pus and matter. 

 Swelling plants were thought good for tumours ; those that permit 

 the cutting or puncturing of the stem were employed for closing up 

 wounds ; and those that shed bark and skin were thought adapted 

 for the cleansing of the skin. 



Accordingly as plants and herbs exhibited peculiarities in their 

 actions, so were they supposed to operate on man. Thus, sterile 

 plants, such as Lettuce, Fern, Willow, Savin, and many others, were 

 believed to conduce to the procuring of sterility in men ; whilst 



