366 PLINY'S NATURAL uisTOiir. [Book XXI. 



too, in the shade. The black seed is worthless. In cases of 

 tooth-ache, the seed is employed in the form of a liniment ; it 

 acts also as a diuretic, and is used as a topical application for 

 the stomach, as also in cases of erysipelas which are not in- 

 veterate : inhaled at the nostrils, it has the effect of clearing 

 the brain. The heads of roses, taken in drink, arrest looseness of 

 the bowels and haemorrhage. The unglets of the rose are 

 wholesome in cases of defluxion of the eyes ; but the rose is 

 very apt to taint all ulcerous sores of the eyes, if it is not ap- 

 plied at the very beginning of the defluxion, dried, and in 

 combination with bread. The petals, too, taken internally, are 

 extremely wholesome for gnawing pains of the stomach, and 

 for maladies of the abdomen or intestines ; as also for the tho- 

 racic organs, if applied externally even: they are preserved, too, 

 for eating, in a similar manner to ]apathum. Great care must 

 be taken in drying rose-leaves, as they are apt to turn mouldy 

 very quickly. 



The petals, too, from which the juice has been extracted,, 

 may be put to some use when dried : powders, 67 for instance,' 

 may be made from them, for the purpose of checking the per- 

 spiration. These powders are sprinkled on the body, upon 

 leaving the bath, and are left to dry on it, after which the}' are 

 washed off with cold water. The little excrescences 58 of 

 the wild rose, mixed with bears' -grease, 69 are a good remedy 

 for alopecy. 



CHAP. 74. TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES DERIVED FKOM THE LILY. 



The roots of the lily 59 * ennoble that flower in manifold ways 

 by their utility in a medicinal point of view. Taken in wine, 

 they are good for the stings of serpents, and in cases of poison- 

 ing by fungi. For corns on the feet, they are applied boiled 



57 " Diapasmata." 



58 "Pilulae." lie alludes to the galls produced by an insect of the 

 Cynips kind, and known as " hedeguar." They are astringent, hut no 

 longer employed in medicine. 



5 * The efficacy of beats' -grease for promoting the growth of the hair 

 was believed in, we find, so early as Pliny's time. 



69 * See c. 11 of this Book. The bulbs of the lily contain a mucilage, 

 and roasted or boiled they are sometimes employed, Fee says, to bring in- 

 flammations to a head. Employed internally, he thinks that they would 

 be of no use whatever, and there is nothing in their composition, he says, 

 which would induce one to think that they might be employed to advan- 

 tage in most of the cases mentioned by Pliny. 



