214 PLINY'S NATUHAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



and various narcotic poisons ; and there are many persons who 

 attribute to it the properties of an antidote, when taken with 

 wine and oil. 



Democritus has entirely repudiated the use of rape as an 

 article of food, in consequence of the flatulence 47 which it pro- 

 duces ; while Diocles, on the other hand, has greatly extolled 

 it, and has even gone so far as to say that it acts as an aphro- 

 disiac. 48 Dionysius, too, says the same of rape, and more par- 

 ticularly if it is seasoned with rocket ; 49 he adds, also, that 

 roasted, and then applied with grease, it is excellent for pains 

 in the joints. 



CHAP. 10. WILD RAPE I ONE BEMEDY. 



Wild rape 50 is mostly found growing in the fields ; it has a 

 tufted top, with a white 51 seed, twice as large as that of the 

 poppy. This plant is often employed for smoothing the skin 

 of the face and the body generally, meal of fitches, 52 barley, 

 wheat, and lupines, being mixed with it in equal proportions. 



The root of the wild rape is applied to no useful purpose 

 whatever. 



CHAP. 11. (4.) TURNIPS ; THOSE KNOWN AS BUNION AND BUN1AS : 



FIVE EEMEDIES. 



The Greeks distinguish two kinds of turnips, 53 also, as em- 

 ployed in medicine. The turnip with angular stalks and a 

 flower like that of anise, and known by them as " bunion," 54 is 



47 It is only suited as an aliment to a strong stomach, and it is owing 

 to the property here mentioned that the School of Salerno says, 



Ventum seepe capis, si tu vis vivere rapis. 

 and 



Rapa jnvat stomachum, novit producere ventum. 



48 Dioscorides and Galen say the same, but this property is not recog- 

 nized in modern times. 



49 " Eruca :" a plant itself of a very stimulating nature. 



50 The Brassica napus, var. a of Linnaeus, the Brassica asperifolia, var. 

 a of Decandolles, the " navette" of the French. An oil is extracted from the 

 seed, very similar to the Colza oil, extracted from the Brassica oleraoca. 



51 It is in reality of a blackish hue without, and white within. 



62 See B. xxii. c. 73. Dioscorides speaks of the use of the wild rape 

 for this purpose, B. ii. c. 135. 



53 See B. xviii. c. 35, and B. xix. c. 25. 



54 Dalechamps remarks that Pliny hero confounds the bunion with the 

 bunias ; the first of which, as Fee says, is an umbellifera, either the Bun- 



