232 PLINY'S NATTJBAL HISTOET. [Book XXVII. 



is remarkably efficacious, being possessed of agglutinating 80 

 properties to such a remarkable degree as to solder pieces of 

 meat together with which it is boiled ; to which, in fact, it is 

 indebted for its Greek name. 81 It is used also for the cure of 

 fractured bones. 



CHAP. 25. (7.) ALGA RUFA OK RED SEA- WEED : ONE REMEDY. 



Red sea- weed 82 is useful as an application for the sting of the 

 scorpion. 



CHAP. 26. ACT^lA : ONE REMEDY. 



Actaea 83 has leaves with a powerful smell, rough knotted 

 stems, a black seed like that of ivy, and soft berries. It 

 grows in umbrageous, rugged, watery localities ; and is used, 

 in doses of one full acetabulum, for female complaints. 



CHAP. 27. THE AMPELOS AGRIA, OR WILD VINE : FOUR REMEDIES. 



Ampelos agria, or wild vine, is the name of a plant with 

 leaves of an ashy colour, as already 84 stated in our description 

 of the cultivated plants, and long, tough twigs of a red hue, 

 like that of the flower which we have mentioned, 85 when speak- 

 ing of violets, under the name of " flame of Jove." It bears 

 a seed which resembles the grains of the pomegranate. The 

 root, boiled in three cyathi of water, with the addition of two 

 cyathi of 'Coan wine, is slightly laxative to the bowels, and is 

 consequently given for dropsy. It is curative also of uterine 

 affections, and of spots upon the face in females. It is found 

 a good plan for patients afflicted with sciatica to use the juice 

 of this plant, bruised, applied topically, with the leaves. 



CHAP. 28. ABSINTHIUM OR WORMWOOD ; FOUR VARIETIES I 



FORTY-EIGHT REMEDIES. 



There are numerous kinds of absinthium ; the Santonic, 86 for 



80 Hence its Latin name "consolida," and its French name "consoude." 

 Fee says that Comfrey still figures in the French Materia Medica, and that 

 the lower classes use it in most of the cases mentioned by Pliny ; he states 

 also, that it is destitute of energetic properties, in a medicinal point of view. 



81 2u/i0vroi>, " consolidating." 



82 See B. xiii. c. 48, and B. xxvi. c. 66. 



83 The Actaea spicata of Linnaeus, Herb-christopher or bane-berries, is 

 mentioned by Desfontaines ; but Fee is inclined to identify it with the 

 Sambucus ebulus of Linnaeus, the Dwarf elder, wall- wort, or dane-wort. 



84 See B. xxiii. c, 14. 85 In B. xxi. cc. 33, 38. 

 86 The Artemisia Santonica of Linnaeus, Tartarian southernwood. 



