Chap. 83.] THE IHIS AND THE SALIUNCA, 3?1 



are of a more warming nature than saffron itself ; the best 

 kind is that which, when put into the mouth, stains the teeth 

 and saliva the colour of saffron. 



CHAP. 83. FORTY- ONE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE IRIS I TWO 



REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SALIUNCA. 



The red iris is better than the white one. It is very bene- 

 ficial to attach this plant to the bodies of infants more par- 

 ticularly when they are cutting their teeth, or are suffering 

 from cough ; it is equally good, too, to inject a few drops of it 

 when children are suffering from tape-worm. The other pro- 

 perties of it differ but very little from those of honey. It 

 cleanses ulcerous sores of the head, and inveterate abscesses 

 more particularly. Taken in doses of two drachmae with honey, 

 it relaxes the bowels ; and an infusion of it is good for cough, 

 gripings of the stomach, and flatulency : taken with vinegar, 

 too, it cures affections of the spleen. Mixed with oxy crate it 

 is good for the bites of serpents and spiders, and, in doses of 

 two drachmae with bread or water, it is employed for the cure 

 of the stings of scorpions. It is applied also topically with oil 

 to the bites of dogs, and to parts that are excoriated: employed 

 in a similar manner, too, it is good for pains in the sinews, and 

 in combination with resin it is used as a liniment for lumbago 

 and sciatica. The properties of this plant are of a warming 

 nature. Inhaled at the nostrils, it produces sneezing and 

 cleanses the brain, and in cases of head-ache it is applied to- 

 pically in combination with the quince or the strutheum. 79 It 

 dispels the fumes of wine also, and difficulties of breathing 80 

 and taken in doses of two oboli it acts as an emetic : 'applied 

 as a plaster with honey, it extracts splinters of broken bones. 

 Powdered iris is employed also for whitlows, and, mixed with 

 wine, for corns and warts, in which case it is left for three days 

 on the part affected. 



Chewed, it is a corrective of bad breath and offensive exha- 

 lations of the arm-pits, and the juice of it softens all kinds of 

 indurations of the body. This plant acts as a soporific, but it 

 wastes the seminal fluids : it is used also for the treatment of 

 chaps of the fundament and condylomata, and it heals all sorts 

 of excrescences on the body. 



79 A small kind of quince. See B. xv. cc. 10 and 14. 

 w "Orthopncea." 



B B 2 



