BOOK XX. Lvii. 162-LIX. 166 



with honey, raisins and vinegar, for black freckles 

 in vinegar. 



LVIII. There is a phmt very Hke cuinmin which the Ami. 

 Greeks call ami." Some authorities however consider 

 that it is Etliiopian cummin. Hippocrates called it 

 royal cummin, doubtless because he thought that it 

 was more efHcacious than the Egyptian. Most people 

 think that it is of an entirely different nature from 

 cummin, because it is thinner and whiter. Yet its 

 use is similar to that of cummin, for it is put under 

 loaves of bread ^ at Alexandria and included among 

 the ingredients of Alexandrian sauces. It dispels 

 riatulence and griping, promotes urine and men- 

 struation, reheves bruises and fluxes of the eyes, 

 and taken in wine with hnseed in doses of two 

 draclimae it is good for the wounds of scorpions, 

 and with an equal proportion of myrrh it is espe- 

 cially good for the bite of the cerastes/ Like 

 cummin it produces pallor in the complexion of those 

 who drink it. A fumigation of it with raisins or 

 resin acts as a purge upon the womb. It is believed 

 that those women more easily conceive who smell 

 the plant during sexual intercourse. 



LIX. I have said enough about the caper in the caper. 

 treatment of foreign plants.<* The caper growing 

 overseas is not to be used ; that of Italy is less 

 harmful. They say that those w-ho eat capers daily 

 run no risk of paralysis or of pains in the spleen. Its 

 root, pounded and rubbed on the skin in the sun, 

 removes white eruptions. The skin of the root is 

 good for troubles of the spleen if it be taken in wine 

 in doses of two drachmae, but the patient must give 

 up the use of the bath ; it is said that in thirty-five 

 days by urine and by stools the whole spleen is 



97 



