260 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTOBY. [Book XXVII. 



having but a single stem, with numerous joints running into 

 one another ; the leaves of it are similar to those of the pitch- 

 tree, and the root is never used. This variety, however, is not 

 so efficacious as those already mentioned, and, indeed, is used 

 exclusively for sciatica. A fourth kind is known as the wild 57 

 polygonos : it is a shrub, almost a tree in fact, with a ligneous 

 root, a red trunk like .that of the cedar, and branches resem- 

 bling those of spartum, 58 a couple of palms in length, and with 

 three or four dark-coloured, knotted joints. This kind, also, is 

 of an astringent nature, and has a flavour like that of the 

 quince. . It is either boiled down in water to one third, or else 

 dried and powdered for sprinkling upon ulcerations of the 

 mouth and excoriations : it is chewed, also, for affections of 

 the gums. It arrests the progress of corrosive ulcers and of all 

 sores of a serpiginous nature, or which cicatrize with difficulty, 

 and is particularly useful for ulcerations caused by snow. 

 Herbalists employ it also for quinzy, and use it as a chaplet for 

 head-ache ; for defluxions of the eyes, they put it round the 

 neck. 



In cases of tertian fever, some persons pull it up with the 

 left hand, and attach it as an amulet to the body ; the same, 

 too, in cases of haemorrhage. There is no plant that is more 

 generally kept by them in a dry state than the polygonos. 



CHAP. 92. THE PANCRATIUM I TWELVE REMEDIES. 



The pancratium is called by some the " little squill," 59 in 

 preference : it has leaves like those of the white lily, but 

 longer and thicker, and a root composed of a large, red, bulb. 

 The juice of it, taken with meal of fitches, relaxes the bowels, 

 and acts as a detergent upon ulcers : for dropsy, and diseases 

 of the spleen, it is administered with honey. Some persons 

 boil it till the water becomes sweet ; the water is then poured 

 off, and the root is pounded and divided into tablets, which 



Mare's tail, or female horse-tail ; Littre gives the Equisetum pallidum of 

 Bory as its synonym. 



57 Identified by Fee with the Ephedra distachya of Linnaeus, the Great 

 shrubby horsetail. 



58 See B, xix. c. 7. 



" Scillam pusillam." Fee considers it to be a squill, the variety with 

 the red root of the Scilla maritima of Linnseus, the Sea-squill. Littre 

 gives as its synonym the Pancratium maritimum of Linnaeus, the Sea- 

 daffodil. 



