28 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIV. 



ment, it cures chaps of the rectum; and employed with salt, 

 nitre, and wax, it is good for sprains. The seed and leaves 

 are used as ingredients also in emollient plasters for diseases 

 of the sinews, and for gout ; and a decoction of the seed in oil is 

 employed as a fomentation for the head in cases of phrenitis 

 and lethargy. Persons 70 who carry a sprig of this plant in the 

 hand, or stuck in the girdle, will be proof, it is said, against 

 chafing between the thighs. 



CHAP. 39. THE ERICA J ONE REMEDY. 



The Greeks give the name of " erice," 71 to a shrub that is but 

 little different from the myrice. 72 It has the colour, and very 

 nearly the leaf, of rosemary. It neutralizes 73 the venom of 

 serpents, it is said. 



CHAP. 40. THE BROOM; FIVE REMEDIES. 



The broom is used for making withes ; 74 the flowers of it 

 are greatly sought by bees. I have my doubts whether this 

 is not the same plant that the Greek writers have called 

 "sparton," and of which, in those parts of the world, as I have 

 already 75 stated, they are in the habit of making fishing-nets. 

 I doubt also whether Homer 76 has alluded to this plant, when 

 he speaks of the seams of the ships, " the sparta" coming 

 asunder ; for it is certain that in those times the spartuni 77 of 

 Spain or Africa was not as yet in use, and that vessels made 

 of materials sown together, were united by the agency, not of 

 spartum, but of flax. 



70 Travelling on horseback, probably. A similar superstition is mentioned 

 as to the poplar, in c. 32 of this Book. 



71 Probably the Erica arborea of Linnaeus ; see B. xiii. c. 35. It has 

 not, however, a leaf similar to that of rosemary, with the sole exception, 

 Fee says, of the Erica cinerea of Linnaeus. 



72 See B. xiii. c. 37. 73 It has no such effect, in reality. 



74 See B. xvi. c. 69. The kind here alluded to is the Spanish broom, 

 Fee thinks. In B. xix. c. 2. Vol. IV. p. 135. 



? 6 Iliad, B. ii. 1. 135. See B. xix. c. 6, where Pliny states it as his 

 opinion that in this passage Homer is speaking of flax, 



77 See B. xix. c. 7. Fee thinks that the plant, under consideration in 

 this Chapter is the Spanish broom, Genista juncea of Lamarck, the Spar- 

 tium junceum of Linnaeus, a different plant from the Spartum of B. xix. 

 c. 7, the Stipa tenacissima of Linnaeus. He is of opinion also, that Homer 

 in the passage referred to alludes, not to flax, but to the Genista juncea. See 

 this question further discussed, in the additional Note at the end of B. xxvii. 



