Chap. 26.] HAWK-WEED. 22.9 



as " caesapon." 41 The leaves of this lettuce, applied as a liniment 

 with polenta, 42 are used for the cure of ulcerous sores. This 

 plant is found growing in the fields. A third kin d, again, 

 grows in the woods ; the name given to it is " isatis." 43 The 

 leaves of this last, heaten up and applied with polenta, are 

 very useful for the cure of wounds. A fourth kind is used by 

 dyers of wool ; in the leaves it would resemble wild lapa- 

 thum, were it not that they are more numerous and darker. 

 This lettuce has the property of stanching blood, and of heal- 

 ing phagedaenic sores and putrid spreading ulcers, as well as 

 tumours before suppuration. Both the root as well as the leaves 

 are good, too, for erysipelas ; and a decoction of it is drunk for 

 affections of the spleen. Such are the properties peculiar to 

 each of these varieties. 



CHAP. 26. HAWK- WEED: SEVENTEEN REMEDIES. 



The properties which are common to all the wild varieties 44 

 are whiteness, a stem sometimes as much as a cubit in length, 

 and a roughness upon the stalk and leaves. Among these plants 

 there is one with round, short leaves, known to some per- 

 sons as " hieracion ;" 45 from the circumstance that the hawk 

 tears it open and sprinkles 46 its eyes with the juice, and so dis- 

 pels any dimness of sight of which it is apprehensive. The 

 juice of all these plants is white, and in its properties resem- 

 bles that of the poppy. 47 It is collected at harvest-time, by 



41 Fee thinks that this plant may be looked for among the varieties of 

 the Sonchus or the Hieracium, which belong to the same family as the 

 lettuce. 



42 See B. xviii. c. 14. 



43 Fee thinks that this is the Isatis tinctoria of Linnoeus in a wild state, 

 and Littre suggests that the one next mentioned is the same plant, culti- 

 vated. Fee says, however, that this plant, employed in dyeing wool, does 

 not contain any milky juice, a fact which should have cautioned Pliny 

 against classing it among tho Lactuoee. 



44 Of the lettuce, evidently. Fee says, who would recognise a lettuce, 

 with its green leaves, and smooth stalk and leaves, under this description ? 

 Still, it is by no means an inaccurate description of the wild lettuce. 



45 " Hawk- weed," from the Greek Upa, " a hawk." Under this name 

 are included, Fee thinks, the varieties of the genus Crepis. 



46 Apuleius, Metam. c. 30, says this of the eagle, when preparing to 

 soar aloft. 



47 This is in some degree true of the juices of the wild lettuces, in a 

 medicinal point of view ; but it must be remembered that he has enume- 

 rated the Isatis among them, which in reality has no milky juice at all. 



