Chap. 50.] THE REED. 35 



similar to the ivy : taken in wine, it is good for sciatica and 

 lumbago. The berries, it is said, are of so powerful a nature 

 as to produce bloody urine. " Chamaecissos " 5 also is a name 

 given by them to a creeping ivy which never rises from the 

 surface of the ground : bruised in wine, in doses of one aoe- 

 tabulum, it is curative of affections of the spleen, the leaves 

 of it being applied topically with axle-grease to burns. 



The smilax 6 also, otherwise known as the " anthophoros," 7 

 has a strong resemblance to ivy, but the leaves of it are smaller. 

 A chaplet, they say, made of an uneven number of the leaves, 

 is an effectual cure for head-ache. Some writers mention two 

 kinds of smilax, one of which is all but perennial, and is found 

 climbing the trees in umbrageous valleys, the berries hanging 

 in clusters. These berries, they say, are remarkably efficacious 

 for all kinds of poisons ; so much so indeed, that infants to 

 whom the juice of them has been habitually administered, are 

 rendered proof against all poisons for the rest of their life. 

 The other kind, it is said, manifests a predilection for cultivated 

 localities, and is often found growing there ; but as for medicinal 

 properties, it has none. The former kind, they say, is the 

 smilax, the wood of which we have mentioned 8 as emitting a 

 sound, if held close to the ear. 



Another plant, similar to this, they call by the name of 

 " clematis :" 9 it is found adhering to trees, and has a jointed 

 stem. The leaves of it cleanse leprous 10 sores, and the seed 

 acts as an aperient, taken in doses of one acetabulum, in one 

 hemina of water, or in hydromel. A decoction of it is pre- 

 scribed also for a similar purpose. 



CHAP. 50. (11.) THE HEED: NINETEEN REMEDIES. 



We have already 11 treated of twenty-nine varieties of the 

 reed, and there is none of her productions in which that 



5 "Ground-ivy." See B. xvi. c. 62, Note 17. M. Fraas adopts 

 Sprengel's opinion that it is the Antirrhinum Azarina, the bastard asarum. 



6 See B. xvi. c. 63. 7 " Flower-bearer." 



8 In B. xvi. c. 63. 



9 Sprengel thinks that this is the Clematis viticella, hut Fee identifies 

 it with the Clematis vitalba of Linnaeus, the climber, or traveller's joy. 



10 The leaves of it, Fee says, are of a caustic nature, and have been 

 employed before now by impostors for producing sores on the skin of a 

 frisrhtful appearance, but easily healed. 



11 In B. xvi. c. 34. 



D 2 



