Chap. 44.] THE GUCUBALUS. 241 



CHAP. 43. THE CHRYSOLACHANUM ; TWO VARIETIES OF IT : 

 THREE REMEDIES. COAGULUM TERRJE I TWO REMEDIES. 



The chrysolachanum 38 grows in pine plantations, and is 

 similar to the lettuce in appearance. It heals wounds of the 

 sinews, if applied without delay. There is another kind 39 of 

 chrysolachauum mentioned, with a golden flower, and a leaf 

 like that of the cabbage : it is boiled and eaten as a laxative 

 vegetable. This plant, worn as an amulet by a patient suffer- 

 ing from jaundice, provided it be always kept in sight, is a cure 

 for that disease, it is said. I am not certain whether this is 

 all that might be said about the chrysolachanum, but, at 

 all events, it is all that I have found respecting it ; for it is 

 a very general fault on the part of our more recent herbalists, 

 to confine their account of plants to the mere name, with u 

 very meagre description of the peculiar features of the plant, 

 j ust as though, forsooth, they were universally known. Thus, 

 they tell us, for instance, that a plant known as " coagulum 40 

 terra3," acts astringently upon the bowels, and that it dispels 

 strangury, taken in water or in wine. 



CHAP. 44. THE CUCUBALTJS, STRUMUS, OR STRYCHNON I SIX 

 REMEDIES. 



The leaves of the cucubalus, 41 they tell us, bruised with 

 vinegar, are curative of the stings of serpents and of scorpions. 

 Some persons call this plant by the name of " strumus," 42 

 while others give it the Greek name of " strychnon :" its ber- 

 ries are black. The juice of these berries, administered in 

 doses of one cyathus, in two cyathi of honied wine, is curative 

 of lumbago ; an infusion of them with rose oil is used for head- 

 ache, and they are employed as an application for scrofulous 

 sores. 



3S " Golden vegetable." Supposed to be identical with the Atriplex of 

 B. xx. c. 38, our Orage. 



rfy Cultivated orage, probably. 



40 " Earth rennet." This plant has not been identified. Lobelius has 

 made a guess at the Serapias abortiva of Linnaeus, the Helleborine. It is 

 pretty clear that it was unknown to Pliny himself. 



41 The same, probably, as the Trychnon of B. xxi. cc. 52, 105, Solanum 

 nigrum or Black nightshade. In the former editions the reading is "cuculus." 



4 ~ The " strumous " or "scrofula" plant. 



VOL. V. li 



