BOOK XX. xLii. 108-.XL111. III 



as intestinal trouble, wine being added when it is 

 being cooked. For pains in the loins and kidneys 

 asparagus seed is taken in drink in doses of three 

 oboH, an equal quantity of cunimin being added. 

 It is aphrodisiac and very useful as a diuretic, except 

 when the bladder has been ulcerated. Very many 

 recommend that the root be pounded and taken in 

 white wine, when it also disperses stone, and reheves 

 pains of the loins and kidneys. Some also prescribe 

 this root to be taken in sweet wine for pain in the 

 womb. This root boiled down in vinegar is good for 

 elephantiasis. If a man is rubbed with a mixture 

 of pounded asparagus and oil it is said that he is 

 never stung by bees. 



XLIII. Wild asparagus is called by some corruda, 

 by others Libyan, by the Attics orminus. For all 

 the purposes mentioned above its properties are 

 more efficacious than those of the cultivated as- 

 paragus, and those of the whiter kind are the more 

 powerful. Both reUeve jaundice. As an aphro- 

 disiac, the water in which it has been boiled is 

 recommended to be drunk in doses up to a hemina. 

 Its seed has the same effect mixed with dill and 

 taken in doses of three oboU of each. A decoction 

 of the juice is also given for the bites of serpents. 

 Its root, mixed with the root of fennel, is among 

 our most efficacious aids. In cases of haematuria 

 the seed of asparagus, of parsley, and of cummin is 

 prescribed by Chrysippus in doses of three oboU in 

 two cyathi of wine. He goes on to say that thus 

 prepared, although it is diuretic, yet it is bad for 

 dropsy, as it is for venery, and also for the bladder 

 unless it is boiled in water ; that this water kiUs 

 dogs if they drink it; that the juice of the root 



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