BOOK XX. XIV. 29-xv. 32 



being taken not to let it touch the ground. Celsus" 

 too prescribes a decoction of the root in wine as a 

 liniment for cases of gout vvithout swelling. 



XV. Another kind is staphylinus, which they 

 call stray carrot. Its seed, crushed and taken in 

 wine, soothes a swollen belly, and the hysterical 

 chokings and pains of women, to such an extent 

 that it restores the womb to normal, benefits their 

 abdomen, moreover, if applied in raisin wine, bene- 

 fiting men also when pounded with an equal part of 

 bread and drunk in wine as a cure for belly-ache. 

 It is diuretic also, and if applied fresh with honey, 

 or after being sprinkled dry on flour,'' it stays 

 phagedaenic ulcers. Its root, taken in hydromel, 

 Dieuches prescribes against afFections of the liver, 

 spleen, loins and kidneys ; Cleophantus in cases also of 

 chronic dysentery. Philistion boils it in milk ; for 

 strangury he prescribes four ounces of the root, giving 

 it in water for dropsy, Hkewise for tliose stricken by 

 opisthotonic " tetanus, pleurisy and epilepsy. It is 

 said that those who carry it are not bitten by ser- 

 pents, and that those who have eaten of it, if bitten, 

 receive no hurt ; for bites it is appHed with axle- 

 grease, and its leaves are chewed as a remedy for 

 indigestion. Orpheus said that tliere is in staphy- 

 Unus a love-philtre, perhaps because it is a proved 

 fact that when eaten it is an aphrodisiac ; for which 

 reason some have declared that by it conception is 

 aided. For all other purposes the cultivated kind 

 too is powerful, but the wild plant is more efficacious, 

 especially that growing on rocky soils. The seed of 

 the cultivated kind too is a cure for the sting of 



" The form of tetanus vvhen the sufTerer rests on his heels 

 and the back of his head. See pp. xi and 368. n. a. 



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