72 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIV. 



it grows upon mountains, and that the ashes of it, taken in 

 drink, act as an einmenagogue and facilitate expectoration. It 

 is stated also, that for this last purpose the root is even more 

 efficacious than the stem; that the juice of it, taken in doses of 

 three oboli, cures diseases of the kidneys ; and that the root is 

 used as an ingredient for emollient plasters. 



CHAP. 118. GRAMEN I SEVENTEEN [REMEDIES. 



Gramen 37 is of all herbaceous productions the most common. 

 As it creeps along the ground it throws out jointed stems, from 

 the joints of which, as well as from the extremity of the stem, 

 fresh roots are put forth every here and there. In all other 

 parts of the world the leaves of it are tapering, and come to a 

 point ; but upon Mount Parnassus 38 they resemble the leaves of 

 the ivy, the plant throwing out a greater number of stems than 

 elsewhere, and bearing a blossom that is white and odoriferous. 

 There is no vegetable production that is more grateful 39 to 

 beasts of burden than this, whether in a green state or whe- 

 ther dried and made into hay, in which last case it is sprinkled 

 with water when given to them. It is said that on Mount 

 Parnassus a juice is extracted from it, which is very abun- 

 dant and of a sweet flavour. 



In other parts of the world, instead of this juice a decoction 

 of it is employed for closing wounds ; an eliect equally pro- 

 duced by the plant itself, which is beaten up for the purpose 

 and attached to the part affected, thereby preventing inflamma- 

 tion. To the decoction wine and honey are added, and in some 

 cases, frankincense, pepper, and myrrh, in the proportion of one 

 third of each ingredient; after which it is boiled again in a 

 copper vessel, when required for tooth- ache or defluxions of the 

 eyes. A decoction of the roots, in wine, is curative of griping 

 pains in the bowels, strangury, and ulcerations of the bladder, 

 and it disperses calculi. The seed is still more powerful as a 

 diuretic, 40 arrests looseness and vomiting, and is particularly 



37 u Grass." The Triticum repens, or Paspalum dactylon of Linnaeus, 

 our couch-grass. 



33 This is probably quite a different production, being the Parnassia 

 palustris, according to Dodonaeus ; but Fee is inclined to think that it is 

 the Campanula rapunculus of Linnaeus, bell-flower or rampions. 



39 Fee thinks that this appplies to the plant of Parnassus, and not to ' 

 the common Gramen. 



40 This property, Fee says, is still attributed to couch-grass. 



