248 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XX. 



universally condemned. I speak here of this plant, because 

 I feel it my duty to place before the reader every object which 

 has been classified, among the Greeks, under the same name. 



CHAP. 46. OLTJSATRTJM OR HIPPOSEL1NON : ELEVEN REMEDIES. 



OREOSELINON J TWO REMEDIES. HELIOSELINON ; ONE REMEDY. 



Olusatrum, 28 usually known as hippo selinon, 29 is particu- 

 larly repulsive to scorpions. The seed of it, taken in drink, 

 is a cure for gripings in the stomach and intestinal complaints, 

 and a decoction of the seed, drunk in honied wine, is curative 

 in cases of dysuria. 30 The root of the plant, boiled in wine, 

 expels calculi of the bladder, and is a cure for lumbago and 

 pains in the sides. Taken in drink and applied topically, it 

 is a cure for the bite of a mad dog, and the juice of it, when 

 drunk, is warming for persons benumbed with cold. 



Some persons make out oreoselinon 31 to be a fourth species 

 of parsley : it is a shrub about a palm in height, with an elon- 

 gated seed, bearing a strong resemblance to that of cummin, 

 and efficacious for the urine and the catamenia. Heliose- 

 linon 32 is possessed of peculiar virtues against the bites of 

 spiders : and oreoselinon is used with wine for promoting the ; 

 menstrual discharge. 



CHAP. 47. (12.) PETROSEL1NON ; ONE REMEDY. BT7SELINON ; 

 ONE REMEDY. 



Another kind again, which grows in rocky places, is known 

 by some persons as *" petroselinon :" 33 it is particularly good 

 for abscesses, taken in doses of two spoonfuls of the juice to 

 one cyathus of juice of horehound, mixed with three cyathi of 

 warm water. Some writers have added buselinon 34 to the list, 



gentle, from which the bees gather honey, quite a different plant to api- 

 astrum or wild parsley. The Sardinian plant here mentioned, is probably 

 the same as the Ranunculus, mentioned in B. xxv. c. 109, where its iden- 

 tification will be further discussed. 



28 See B. xix. c. 48. 29 Or u horse parsley." 



30 Or strangury. No medicinal use is made of this plant in modern 

 times. 31 Or " mountain parsley," see B. xix. c. 48. 



32 Or "marsh-parsley," see B. xix. c.37. It is possessed of certain energetic 

 properties, more appreciated by the ancient physicians than in modern 

 pharmacy. 



33 " Rock-parsley :" from this name comes our word " parsley." It is 

 not clearly known to what variety of parsley he refers under this name. 



34 Or " ox-parsley." C. Bauhin identifies this with the Petroselinum Ore- 



