140 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



instantly changed into a plant bearing flow- 

 ers, which received her name.* 



It is a curious circumstance, that the first 

 person who appears to have praised and re- 

 commended this herb in medicine, lived to a 

 very advanced age without ever knowing a 

 day's illness. Asclepiades pledged himself 

 to cease to act as a physician if he should 

 ever be known to be sick. Mithridates, king 

 of Pontus, entertained so high an opinion of 

 his skill, that he sent ambassadors to him with 

 great offers of reward to tempt him to reside 

 at his court, but which proposal was rejected 

 by the Bithynian, who gave the preference 

 to Rome ; where he became the founder of 

 a sect in physic which bore his name.-f* 



The ancient physicians considered the 

 flowers and leaves of the chamomile as a 

 diuretic which was salutary in cases of stone 

 and gravel. They made them into trochischs 

 or lozenges, which were for spasmodic dis- 

 orders, as well as for the jaundice and com- 

 plaints of the liver, and they pounded the 

 leaves with the roots and flowers as a remedy 

 against the sting of serpents and other rep- 

 tiles. The Romans preserved the dried 



# Liger. f Plin. b. vii. c. 37, and b. xxii. c 21. 



