Chap. 29.] THE H.EL10T11OPIUM. 413 



never attacked by dysentery, tenesmus, or other affections of 

 the bowels ; hence it is, that this plant is reckoned among the 

 remedies for that class of diseases. 



CHAP. 29. THE HELIOTKOPIUM, HELIOSCOPIUM, OR VERRUCAETA I 

 TWELVE REMEDIES. THE HELIOTROPIUM, TKICOCCUM, OR SCOR- 



PIURON: FOURTEEN REMEDIES. 



"We have spoken more than once 45 of the marvels of the helio- 

 tropium, which turns 46 with the sun, in cloudy weather even, 

 so great is its sympathy with that luminary. At night, as 

 though in regret, it closes its blue flower. 



There are two species of heliotropium, the tricoccum 41 and 

 the helioscopium, 48 the latter being the taller of the two, 

 though they neither of them exceed half 49 a foot in height. The 

 helioscopium throws out branches from the root, and the seed 

 of it, enclosed in follicules, 50 is gathered at harvest-time. It 

 grows nowhere but in a rich soil, a highly-cultivated one more 

 particularly ; the tricoccum, on the other hand, is to be found 

 growing everywhere. I find it stated, that the helioscopium, 

 boiled, is considered an agreeable food, and that taken in milk, 

 it is gently laxative 51 to the bowels ; while, again, a decoction of 

 it, taken as a potion, acts as a most effectual purgative. The 



45 B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xix c. 58. 



46 This apparent marvel is ovring to the necessity of light to certain 

 flowers for the purposes of fecundation, while those which open at night 

 require more moisture than light for their reproduction. 



47 Or " three-drained," probably, Fee says, from the three cells in the 

 capsule. He identifies this plant with the Croton tinctorium of Linnaeus, 

 the turnsole, or sun-flower. 



48 Fee identifies it with the Heliotropium Europaeum of Linnaeus, the 

 heliotrope, or verrucaria. The Heliotropium of Ovid and other poets, 

 with a violet or blue flower, is, no doubt, a different plant, and is identified 

 by Spren^el, Dcsfontaines, and Fee with the Hesperis matronalis of Lin- 

 nseus, rocket or Julian, or, as \vc not inaptly call it, from its pleasant smell, 

 cherry-pie. Pliny speaks of his Heliotropium as having a " blue flower," 

 coeruleum. This is probably an error on his part, and it is supposed by 

 commentators that he read in the Greek text fartmSpfvpoy, "somewhat 

 purple " by mistake for viroTrvppov, "somewhat red, ' us we find it. 



As known at the present day, they grow to a much greater height 

 than this. 



so This, Fee remarks, cannot apply to either the Heliotropium Euro- 

 pium or the Croton tinctorium. He thinks it not improbable that Pliny 

 mav have named one plant, and given a description of another. 



^ The Heliotropium Europium, Fee says, has no medicinal properties. 



