244 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOBY. [Book XX. 



same author prescribes them, too, for the cure of fractured 

 ears, and collections of crude humours in the testes. 8 



For pains in the joints, bulbs are used with meal ; boiled 

 in wine, and applied to the abdomen, they reduce hard swellings 

 of the viscera. In dysentery, they are given in wine mixed 

 with rain water ; and for convulsions of the intestines they 

 are employed, in combination with silphium, in pills the size of 

 a bean : bruised, they are employed externally, for the purpose 

 of checking perspirations. Bulbs are good, too, for the sinews, 

 for which reason it is that they are given to paralytic patients. 

 The red bulb, mixed with honey and salt, heals sprains of the 

 feet with great rapidity. The bulbs of Megara 9 act as a strong 

 aphrodisiac, and garden bulbs, taken with boiled must or raisin 

 wine, aid delivery. 



Wild bulbs, made up into pills with silphium, effect the 

 cure of wounds and other affections of the intestines. The 

 seed, too, of the cultivated kinds is taken in wine as a cure 

 for the bite of the phalaDgium, 10 and the bulbs themselves 

 are applied in vinegar for the cure of the stings of serpents. 

 The ancients used to give bulb-seed to persons afflicted with 

 madness, in drink. The blossom, beaten up, removes spots 

 upon the legs, as well as scorches produced by fire. Diocles 

 is of opinion that the sight is impaired by the use of bulbs ; 

 he adds, too, that when boiled they are not so wholesome as 

 roasted, and that, of whatever nature they may be, they are 

 difficult of digestion. 



CHAP. 41. BULBINE; ONE KEMEDY. BULB EMETIC. 



The Greeks give the name bulbine 11 to a plant with leaves 

 resembling those of the leek, and a red bulbous root. This 

 plant, it is said, is marvellously good for wounds, but only 

 when they are of recent date. The bulbous plant known as 

 the " emetic" bulb, 12 from the effects which it produces, has 

 dark leaves, 13 and longer than those of the other kinds. 



8 Testium pituitas. 



9 See B. xix. c. 30. Athenaeus, B. ii. c. 26, attributes a similar pro- 

 perty to the bulbs of Megara. 



10 See B. xi. cc. 24, 28. 



11 The Hyacinthus botryoides of Linnaeus, most probably. 



12 " Bulbus vomitorius." The Narcissus jonquilla of Linnseus, the 

 " emetic jonquil." The bulb of the Spanish jonquil acts as a strong emetic. 



13 Dioseorides says, more correctly, a black outer coat or peeling, 



