240 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



CHAP. 36. THE WILD CABBAGE : THIRTY-SEVEN REMEDIES. 



Cato % extols infinitely more highly the properties of wild or 

 erratic cabbage f so much so, indeed, as to affirm that the 

 very powder of it, dried and collected in a scent-box, has the 

 property, on merely smelling at it, of removing maladies of the 

 nostrils and the bad smells resulting therefrom. Some per- 

 sons call this wild cabbage "petraea :" M it has an extreme an- 

 tipathy to wine, so much so, indeed, that the vine invariably 98 * 

 avoids it, and if it cannot make its escape, will be sure to die. 

 This vegetable has leaves of uniform shape, small, rounded, and 

 smooth : bearing a strong resemblance to the cultivated cab- 

 bage, it is whiter, and has a more downy" leaf. 



According to Chrysippus, this plant is a remedy for flatu- 

 lency, melancholy, and recent wounds, if applied with hone}', 

 and not taken off before the end of six days : beaten up in 

 water, it is good also for scrofula and fistula. Other writers, 

 again, say that it is an effectual cure for spreading sores on 

 the body, known as " nomae ;" that it has the property, also, 

 of removing excrescences, and of reducing the scars of wounds 

 and sores ; that if chewed raw with honey, it is a cure for 

 ulcers of the mouth and tonsils ; and that a decoction of it used 

 as a gargle with honey, is productive of the same effect. They 

 say, too, that, mixed in strong vinegar with alum, in the pro- 

 portion of three parts to two of alum, and then applied as a 

 liniment, it is a cure for itch -scabs and leprous sores of long 

 standing. Epicharmus informs us, that for the bite of a mad 

 dog, it is quite sufficient to apply it topically to the part af- 

 fected, but that if used with silphium and strong vinegar, it is 

 better still : he says, too, that it will kill a dog, if given to it 

 with flesh to eat. 



The seed of this plant, parched, is remedial in cases of poison- 



96 De Re Rust. c. 157. 



97 Fee is of opinion that Pliny has here confused the description of two 

 different plants ; and that, intending to describe the Brassica arvensis of 

 modern botany, he has superadded a description of the " Crambe agria," 

 mentioned by Dioseorides, which appears to be identical with the Crarabe 

 maritima, or Brassica marina, the " sea-cabbage" of the ancients (see c. 

 38.), the Convolvulus soldanella of modern botany. 



* 8 Or " rock-cabbage," a name given more properly to the Convolvulus 

 soldauella. "* See c. 34, and B. xxiv. c. 1. 



99 A description, really, of the Convolvulus soldanella. 



