BOOK XX. i.xwii. 2T6-LXXXIII. 220 



more than tliree to be applied in ointment to the 

 torehead. There are some who believe that it is 

 benefifial to place coriander before sunrise under 

 tlie pillows. The fresh plant has great power to 

 cool inflammations. Spreading sores also are healed 

 by coriander with honey or raisins, Hkewise diseased 

 testes, burns, carbuncles and soi-e ears, fluxes of 

 the eyes too if woman's milk be added, while fluxes 

 from belly or intestines are stayed by the seed taken 

 in water. It is also taken in drink with rue for 

 cholera. Intestinal parasites are expelled by cori- 

 ander seed, taken with pomegranate juice and oil. 

 Xenocrates records a great wonder, if it be a fact : 

 that if women take in drink one grain of the seed 

 the menses are retarded for one day, for two days 

 if she takes two grains, and so on, one day's delay 

 for each grain taken. M. Varro thinks that by 

 sUghtly pounded coriander and cummin, with 

 vinegar, meat of any kind can be kept sweet in the 

 heat of summer. 



LXXXIII. Orache is also found wild," a vegetable Orache. 

 accused by Pythagoras of causing dropsy, jaundice 

 and pallor, and of being very hard indeed to digest ; 

 he adds as another drawback that not even in 

 gardens does anything grow near it without drooping. 

 Dionysius and Diocles have added that very many 

 diseases arise from it, that it must never be boiled 

 without changing the ^vater often, that it is injurious 

 to the stomach, and that it is the cause of freckles 

 and pimples. I am at a loss to understand why 

 Solon of Smyrna has stated that orache is diflicult 

 to grow in Italy. Hippocrates injects it with beet 

 for complaints of the womb. Lycus of Naples 

 prescribed it to be taken in drink for stings of the 



127 



