CAPERS. 1 13 



itself in old walls and the fissures of rocks, 

 generally taking a horizontal direction. 



Pliny directs the seeds to be sown in san- 

 dy ground, and that a bank of stone- work 

 should be raised for it to spread on : he says, 

 those who eat capers daily, need not fear the 

 palsy or the spleen. The Romans used the 

 root, when bruised, to take off the marks of 

 the leprosy, and to remove glandular swell- 

 ings ; the seeds pounded in vinegar were an 

 esteemed remedy for the tooth-ache. Pliny 

 cautions his countrymen to beware how they 

 eat foreign capers, excepting those of Egypt, 

 as he says those of Arabia are poisonous, 

 that the African capers are hurtful to the 

 gums, and those which are grown in Apulia 

 cause sickness, and injure the stomach.* 



Dodoens says, the capers that grow in 

 Africa, Arabia, Libya, and other hot coun- 

 tries, are apt to cause ulcers in the mouth, 

 and that they consume and eat away the 

 flesh even to the bone ; but, he adds, those of 

 Spain and Italy are not so strong, and when 

 brought to us preserved in salt and water, 

 being washed and eaten with vinegar, are 

 both meat and medicine, as they create 



# Book xiii. c. 23, book xix. c. 8, and book xx. c, 15. 



VOL. 1. ] 



