Chap. 72.] CHEKRIES, 511 



sistency of honey. Some persons were in the habit of adding 

 myrrh and cj r press, and then left it to harden in the sun, mixing 

 it with a spatula three times a-day. Such was their receipt for 

 the stomatice, which was also employed by them to promote 

 the cicatrization of wounds. There was another method, also, 

 of dealing with the juice of this fruit: extracting the juice, 

 they used the dried fruit with various articles of food, 11 as 

 tending to heighten the flavour; and they were in the habit 

 of employing it medicinally 13 for corroding ulcers, pituitous 

 expectorations, and all cases in which astringents were re- 

 quired for the viscera. They U&M! it also for the purpose of 

 cleaning 13 the teeth. A third mode of employing the juices of 

 this tree is to boil down the leaves and root, the decoction 

 being used, with oil, 13 * as a liniment for the cure of burns. 

 The leaves are also applied by themselves for the same 

 purpose. 



An incision made in the root at harvest-time, supplies a 

 juice that is extremely useful For tooth-ache, gatherings, arid 

 suppurations; it acts, also, as a purgative upon the bowels. 

 Mulberry-leaves, macerated in urine, remove the hair from 

 hides. 



CHAP. 72. CHERRIES: FIVE OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM. 



Cherries are relaxing to the bowels and unwholesome 14 to 

 the stomach ; in a dried state, however, they are astringent 

 and diuretic. 15 I find it stated by some authors, that if 

 cherries are taken early in the morning covered with dew, 

 the kernels being eaten with them, the bowels will be so 

 strongly acted upon as to effect a cure for gout in the feet. 



11 From the account given by Dioscorides, B. i. c. 181, this appears to 

 be the meaning of the passage, which is very elliptically expressed, if, in- 

 deed, it is not imperfect. 



12 In a powdered state, probably, as mentioned by Dioscorides. 



13 The use of the word '* conluebant" would almost make it appear that 

 he is speaking of a liquid. 



13 * The juice (if. indeed, Pliny intends to specify it as an ingredient) 

 will not, as Fee remarks, combine with oil. Dioscorides says, B. i.e. 180, 

 that the leaves are bruised and applied with oil to burns. 



u Black cherries, Fee says, hignroous, and others, with, a firm flesh, 

 are the most unwholesome. See B. xv. c. 30. 



15 This property, Fee says, is attributed by some, in modern times, not 

 to the flesh, or pericarp us of the cherry, but to the stalks of the fruit. 



