BOOK XX. Lxxii. 185-LXX111. 189 



Green also or dried, it i^; valued for all such foods as 

 require seasoning or sauce ; it is also put under the 

 bottom crust of a loaf." Placed with bitter almonds 

 on the strainers it improves wine. Moreover, the 

 breath is made more pleasant and bad odour removed 

 if anise be chewed in the early morning along with 

 alexanders and a little honey. the mouth being after- 

 wards rinsed with wine. It makes the face look 

 younger. It relieves sleeplessness,'' if hung on the 

 pillow, so that it may be smelt by the sleepers. It 

 sharpens the appetite, to do which has been added 

 to the arts by luxury, ever since the craving for food 

 ceased to come from toil. For these reasons some 

 have called anise anicetum.*' 



LXXIII. The most esteemed variety is the 

 Cretan ; next comes the Egyptian. This in season- 

 ing takes the place of lovage. To burn it and inhale 

 the fumes through the nostrils relieves headache. 

 Evenor recommends its pounded root to be applied 

 to fluxes of the eyes ; lollas recommends a similar 

 application of the plant itself with safFron and wine ; 

 by itself, with only pearl barley added, he prescribes 

 it for violent fluxes and for extraction of anything 

 which has got into the eyes. Applied in water it also 

 removes a cancerous growth in the nostril. Used as 

 a gargle with hyssop and honey in vinegar it relieves 

 quinsies ; it is poured with rose oil into the ears ; 

 phlegm in the chest is cleared away by parched anise 

 taken with honey. For a cough it is better to pound 

 up in honey fifty bitter almonds, peeled, with an 

 acetabulum of anise. A remedy very easy indeed to 

 make consists of three drachmae of anise and two of 

 poppy mixed with honey and divided into pieces of 

 the size of a bean, the dose being three daily. Its 



109 



