112 FLINT* 8 NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XX V. 



Greece. This is a plant more highly esteemed than any other : it 

 puts forth an angular stem two cubits in height, and throws out 

 leaves from the root, with serrated edges, and closely resembling 

 those of lapathum. 92 The seed of it is purple : the leaves are 

 dried and powdered, and used for numerous purposes. There 

 is a wine also prepared from it, and a vinegar, remarkably 

 beneficial to the stomach and the eyesight. Indeed, this plant 

 enjoys so extraordinary a reputation, that it is a common be- 

 lief even that the house which contains it is insured against 

 misfortunes of every kind. 



CHAP. 47. THE CANTABRICA I TWO REMEDIES. 



In Spain, too, is found the cantabrica, 93 which was first dis- 

 covered by the nation of the Cantabri in the time of the late 

 Emperor Augustus. It grows everywhere in those parts, having 

 a stem like that of the bulrush, a foot in height, and bearing 

 small oblong flowers, like a calathus 94 in shape, and enclos- 

 ing an extremely diminutive seed. 



Nor indeed, in other respects, have the people of Spain 

 been wanting in their researches into the nature of plants ; for 

 at the present day even it is the custom in that country, at 

 their more jovial entertainments, to use a drink called the 

 hundred-plant drink, combined with a proportion of honied 

 wine; it being their belief, that the wine is rendered more whole- 

 some and agreeable by the admixture of these plants. It still 

 remains unknown to us, what these different plants are, or in 

 what number exactly they are used : as to this last question, 

 however, we may form some conclusion from the name that is 

 given to the beverage. 



CHAP. 48. CONSILIGO : ONE REMEDY. 



Our own age, too, can remember the fact of a plant being 

 discovered in the country of the Marsi. It is found growing 

 also in the neighbourhood of the village of Kervesia, in the 

 territory of the JEquicoli, and is known by the name of 



Greeks is a different plant from the Vettonica of the Romans, and identifies 

 it with the Sideritis Syriaca. 92 See B. xx. e. 85. 



93 Pliny is the only author that mentions the Cantabrica, and his account, 

 Fee thinks, is too meagre to enahle us satisfactorily to identify it with the 

 Convolvulus cantahrica of Linnasus. 



84 A conical work-basket or cup. See B, xxi. c. 11, 



