Chap. 55.] BARLEY. 445 



the grain 25 of it, however, is hitter, and the leaf more dimi- 

 nutive : it is found growing in sandy soils. Taken in water, 

 it carries off bile, and, with the seed, a liniment is made for 

 erysipelas : it disperses inflamed swellings also. Besides this, 

 there is another 26 sesamoides, which grows at Anticyra, and, 

 for that reason, is known by some as "anticyricon." In 

 other respects, it is similar to the plant erigeron, of which we 

 shall have to speak 27 on a future occasion; but the seed of it 

 is like that of sesame. It is given in sweet wine as an eva- 

 cuant, in doses of a pinch in three fingers, mixed with an 

 obolus and a half of white hellebore ; this preparation being 

 employed principally as a purgative, in cases of insanity, me- 

 lancholy, epilepsy, and gout. Taken alone, in doses of one 

 drachma, it purges by stool. 



CHAP. 65. BARLEY : NINE REMEDIES. MOUSE -BARLEY, BY THE 



GREEKS CALLED PHCENICE I ONE REMEDY. 



The whitest barley is the best. Boiled 28 in rain-water, the 

 pulp of it is divided into lozenges, which are used in injec- 

 tions for ulcerations of the intestines and the uterus. The 

 ashes of barley are applied to burns, to bones denuded of the 

 flesh, to purulent eruptions, and to the bite of the shrew- 

 mouse : sprinkled with salt and honey they impart whiteness 

 to the teeth, and sweetness to the breath. It is alleged that 

 persons who are in the habit of eating barley-bread are never 

 troubled with gout in the feet : they say, too, that if a person 

 takes nine grains of barley, and traces three times round a 

 boil, with each of them in the left hand, and then throws 

 them all into the fire, he will experience an immediate cure. 

 There is another plant, too, known as "phrenice" by the 



25 Sprengel has identified this plant," the " smaller" Sesamoides of Dios- 

 corides, with the Astragalus sesameus of Linnaeus, or else with the Eeseda 

 canescens. Other naturalists have mentioned the Catananche caerulea of 

 Liimceus, the Passerina hirsuta of ^inneeus, and the Passerina polygalce- 

 ofolia of Lapeyrouse. Fee is of opinion that it has not been identified. 



2fi Altogether a different plant; Sprcngel identifies it with the Reseda 

 Mediterranea, but Fee dissents from that opinion, and is inclined to agree 

 with the opinion of Dalechamps, that it is the Daphne Tartouraira of Lin- 

 naeus, which is a strong purgative. 



In B. xxv c. 106. 



28 Fee remarks that this Chapter includes a number of gross prejudices 

 which it is not worth while to examine or contradict. 



