258 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXVII. 



CHAP. 87. THE ONOPORDON : FIVE KEMEDIES. 



The onopordon, 44 it is said, has strongly carminative effects 

 upon asses, when they eat of it. It acts as a diuretic and as an 

 emmenagogue, arrests diarrhoea, and disperses abscesses and 

 suppurations. 



CHAP. 88. THE OSYRIS I POUR REMEDIES. 



The osyris 45 bears small, swarthy, flexible branches, covered 

 with dark leaves like those of flax. The seed, which grows 

 upon the branches, is black at first, but afterwards changes its 

 colour and turns red. Cosmetics 46 for females are prepared 

 from these branches. A decoction of the roots, taken in drink, 

 is curative of jaundice. The roots, cut in pieces before the 

 seed ripens, and dried in the sun, act astringently upon the 

 bowels : gathered after the seed has ripened, and boiled in 

 pottage, they are curative of defluxions of the abdomen : they 

 are taken also by themselves, bruised in rain water. 



CHAP. 89. THE OXYS I TWO REMEDIES. 



The oxys 47 is a plant with three leaves ; it is given for 

 derangement of the stomach, and patients eat it who are 

 Buffering from intestinal hernia. 48 



CHAP. 90.; THE POLYANTHEMUM OR BATRACHION : THREE 

 REMEDIES. 



The polyanthemum, 49 by some persons called " batrachion," 50 

 by virtue of its caustic properties has an excoriating effect 

 upon scars, and restores the skin to its proper colour. It heals 

 white morphew 51 also. 



44 Fee suggests that it may be identical with the Onopyxos of B. xxi. 

 c. 56. Desfontaines, also, identifies it with the Onopordon acanthium of 

 Linnaeus, the Cotton thistle or woolly thistle. 



45 Probably the Osyris alba of Linnaeus, the Poet's cassia. Anguillara 

 and Dodonaeus have mentioned the Chenopodium scoparia of Linnaeus, the 

 Summer cypress, or line-leaved goosefoot, but without any good reason, it 

 is thought. Holland calls it " toad -flax." 



46 "Smegmata." 



47 The " sour " plant. Mostly identified with the Oxalis acetosella of 

 Linnaeus, Cuckoo's meal, three leaved sorrel, or wood-sorrel. 



48 "Enterocele." 



49 The "many-flowered" plant. Probably the Ranunciilus polyanthemos 

 of Linnaeus. See B. xxv. c. 109. 



50 The " frog " plant. 51 " Vitiligines." 



