Chap. 91.] THE DEACONTITTM. 57 



with linseed, in astringent wine. The leaves of this plant are 

 applied with polenta for defluxions of the eyes, the part 

 affected being first covered with a pledget of wet linen. Applied 

 to scrofulous sores, they cause them to suppurate, and if some 

 axle-grease is then applied, a perfect cure will he effected. 

 They are applied also to piles, with green oil, and are good 

 for phthisis, in combination with honey. Taken with the 

 food, they increase the milk in nursing women, and, rubbed 

 upon the heads of infants, they promote the rapid growth of 

 the hair. Eaten with vinegar, they act as an aphrodisiac. 



CHAP. 90. THE EGYPTIAN CLEMATIS, DAPHN01DES, OR POLY- 



GON01DES : TWO REMEDIES. 



There is another kind also, known as the "Egyptian" 52 

 clematis, otherwise as "daphno'ides j ' 53 or "polygono'ides:" it has 

 a leaf like that of the laurel, and is long and slender. Taken 

 in vinegar, it is very useful for the stings of serpents, that of 

 the asp in particular. 



CHAP. 91. (16.) DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THE DRACONTIUM. 



It is Egypt more particularly that produces the clematis 

 known as the " aron," of which we have already 54 made some 

 mention when speaking of the bulbs, Respecting this plant 

 and the dracontium, there have been considerable differences 

 of opinion. Some writers, indeed, have maintained that they 

 are identical, and Glaucias has made the only distinction 

 between them in reference to the place of their growth, 

 assuming that the dracontium is nothing else than the aron in 

 a wild state. Some persons, again, have called the root " aron," 

 and the stem of the plant " dracontium :" but if the dracon- 

 tium is the same as the one known to us as the " dracuncu- 

 lus," 55 it is a different plant altogether ; for while the aron has 

 a broad, black, rounded root, and considerably larger, large 

 enough, indeed, to fill the hand, the dracunculus has a 



52 The Vinca major and Vinca minor of Linnaeus, the greater and smaller 

 periwinkle. Fee is at a loss to know why it should be called " Egyptian," 

 as it is a plant of Europe. 



53 "Laurel-shaped" and "many-cornered." 



54 In B. xix. c. 30. 



43 Fee says that the Dracontion of the Greeks and the Dracunculus of 

 the Latins are identical, being represented in modern Botany by the Arum 

 dracunculus of Linnaeus, the common dragon. 



