40 PLFNY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIV. 



beverage." 39 Taken with honey, it is a sovereign remedy for 

 cough ; and it is used for hardness of breathing, in doses of a 

 spoonful. Applied with polenta and vinegar to the parts 

 affected, it removes leprous sores. Used with panax and root 

 of the caper-plant, it breaks and expels calculi, and a decoction 

 of it in wine with barley-meal disperses inflamed tumours. It 

 is used as an ingredient in emollient plasters and eye-salves 

 for the sight, and is found to be one of the most useful sternu- 

 tories known ; it is good too for the liver and the spleen. Taken 

 in hydrorael, in doses of one denarius, it effects the cure of 

 asthma, as also of pleurisy and all pains in the sides. 



The apocynum 40 is a shrub with leaves like those of ivy, but 

 softer, and not so long in the stalk, and the seed of it is 

 pointed and downy, with a division running down it, and a 

 very powerful smell. Given in their food with water, the seed 

 is poisonous 41 to dogs and all other quadrupeds. 



CHAP. 59. ROSEMARY I EIGHTEEN REMEDIES. 



There are two kinds of rosemary ; one of which is barren, 

 and the other has a stem with a resinous seed, known as 

 "cachrys." The leaves have the odour of frankincense. 43 

 The root, applied fresh, effects the cure of wounds, prolapsus 

 of the rectum, condylomata, and piles. The juice of the 

 plant, as well as of the root, is curative of jaundice, and such 

 diseases as require detergents ; it is useful also for the sight. 

 The seed is given in drink for inveterate diseases of the chest, 

 and, with wine and pepper, for affections of the uterus ; it 

 acts also as an emmenagogue, and is used with meal of darnel 

 as a liniment for gout. It acts also as a detergent upon 

 freckles, and is used as an application in diseases which 

 require calorifics or sudorifics, and for convulsions. The plant 

 itself, or else the root, taken in wine, increases the milk, and 

 the leaves and stem of the plant are applied with vinegar 

 to scrofulous sores ; used with honey, they are very useful for 

 cough. 



3 ' J " Aureum poculum." 



40 Desfontaines says that it is the Periploca angustifolia ; Fee gives the 

 Apocynum folio subrotundo of C. Bauhin, round leafed dogsbaue. 



41 This is the fact ; and hence one of its names ** cynanche," or " dog- 

 strangle." 



42 This, .Fee says, is the fact. The plant is rich in essential oil, and is 

 consequently a powerful excitant. See B. xix. c. 62. 



