Chap. 18.] BILE, OB IIARTWORT. 221 



CHAP. 18. SILE, OR HARTWORT I TWELVE REMEDIES. 



As the similitude which exists between their Greek names 96 

 has caused most persons to mistake the one for the other, we 

 have thought it as well to give some account here of sile or 

 hartwort, 97 though it is a plant which is very generally known. 

 The best hartwort is that of Massilia, 98 the seed of it being 

 broad and yellow ; and the next best is that of ^Ethiopia, the 

 seed of which is of a darker hue. The Cretan hartwort is the 

 most odoriferous of the several kinds. The root of this plant has 

 a pleasant smell ; the seed of it is eaten by vultures, it is said. 99 

 Hartwort is useful to man for inveterate coughs, ruptures, and 

 convulsions, being usually taken in white wine ; it is employed 

 also in* cases of opisthotony, and for diseases of the liver, as 

 well as for griping pains in the bowels and for strangury, in 

 doses of two or three spoonfuls at a time. 



The leaves of this plant are useful also, and have the effect 

 of aiding parturition in animals even : indeed, it is generally 

 said that roes, 1 when about to bring forth, are in the habit of 

 eating these leaves in particular. They are topically applied, 

 also, in erysipelas ; and either the leaves or the seed, taken fast- 

 ing in the morning, are very beneficial to the digestion. Hart- 

 wort has the effect, too, of arresting looseness in cattle, either 

 bruised and put into their drink, or else eaten by them after it 

 has been chewed with salt. When oxen are in a diseased state, 

 it is beaten up and poured into their food. 



96 Ztaapov, the " skirret," and 2<r*Xc, SsXi, or 2iXt, "hart-wort." 



97 The Seseli tortuosum of Linnaeus. 



98 Or Marseilles : the Seseli tortuosum. Fee says that there is great 

 confusion relative to the supposed varieties of this plant. The Bupleurum 

 truticosum, or Seseli of Ethiopia, has leaves smaller than those of ivy, 

 and resembling the leaves of honeysuckle. That of Peloponnesus, the 

 Ligusticum austriacum, has a leaf similar to that of hemlock, but larger 

 and thicker ; and the Seseli of Crete, some species of the genus Tordy- 

 lium, is a small plant which throws out shoots in large quantities. All 

 these, he says, are so far different plants, that it is quite impossible to 

 unite them with any degree of certainty under one concordance. Indeed, 

 he thinks it very possible that they do not all belong to the genus Seseli of 

 modern botanists. 



99 It is clear that Pliny hesitates to believe this story, and it is hardly 

 necessary to remark how utterly foreign this is to the habits of carnivorous 

 birds. 



1 See B. viii. c. 50. An absurd story. 



