BOOK XX. Lxxxin. 220-Lxxxiv. 223 



Spanish fly, and considered that it might be applied, 

 raw or boiled, with advantage to superficial ab- 

 scesses, incipient boils, and all indm-ations ; with 

 honey, vinegar and soda he used it in this way for 

 erysipelas, and likewise gout. It is said to bring 

 away scabrous nails witliout producing a sore. There 

 are some who give its seed with honey for jaundice, 

 add soda and rub the throat and tonsils, besides 

 using it as a purge, boiled either by itself or with 

 mallows or lentils. They also give it as an emetic. 

 They use wild orache as a hair-dye as well as for the 

 purposes mentioned above. 



LXXXIV. On the other hand, both kinds of Maiiow 

 mallow, the cultivated and the wikl, are highly 

 praised. The two kinds of them " are distinguished 

 by the size of the leaf. Among cultivated mallows 

 the larger is called by the Greeks malope ; the other 

 is called malache, the reason being, it is thought, 

 because it relaxes the bowels. But of the wild 

 kinds, the one with a large leaf and white roots, 

 called althaea, has received from some the name of 

 plistolochia,^ from the excellence of its properties. 

 Mallows make richer every soil in which they are 

 sown. They are efficacious against every sort of 

 stings, especially those of scorpions, wasps and 

 similar creatures, and those of the shrew-mouse. 

 Moreover, those who have been rubbed beforehand 

 with oil and any one of the mallows pounded, or who 

 carry it on their pei-sons, are never stung. A leaf 

 placed on a scorpion paralyses it. Mallows also 

 counteract the poison of white lead. Raw mallow 

 appHed with saltpetre extracts splinters and thorns ; 

 taken moreover boiled with its root it counteracts 

 the poison of the sea-hare, some adding that it must 



129 



