BOOK XXI. Lxxiii. 123-LXXIV. 126 



As to the seed, the finest is of a saffron colour, not 

 more than a year old, and should be dried in the 

 shade ; the dark seed is harmful. It is used as a 

 liniment for toothache, is diuretie, and may be 

 applied to the stoniach or in cases of erysipelas that 

 is not of long standing. Inhaled by the nostrils it 

 clears the head. Rose heads taken in drink check 

 diarrhoea and haemorrhage. The nails of rose 

 petals are healing for fluxes of the eyes, for eye- 

 sores discharge if the whole rose is applied, unless it 

 is at the beginning of the flux, and then the rose 

 must be dry and mixed vvith bread. The petals 

 indeed taken internally are very good for gnawings 

 of the stomach" and for complaints of the belly or 

 of the intestines, good also for the hypochondria,* 

 and they may be applied externally. They are also 

 preserved for food, in the same way as sorrel. Care 

 must be taken with rose petals, as mould quickly 

 settles on them. Some use can be made of dried 

 petals, or those from which the juice has been ex- 

 tracted. Powders, for example, are made from them 

 to check perspiration. These are sprinkled on the 

 body after a bath and left to dry, being afterwards 

 washed off with cold water. The Httle balls "^ on 

 the wild rose mixed with bears' grease are a remedy 

 for mange. 



LXXIV. Its roots bring great fame to the lily Uedicinal 

 in many ways, being taken in wine for the bites ]t7y^ 

 of snakes and for poisoning by fungi. For corns on 

 the foot they are boiled down in wine, and the plaster 

 is not removed for three days. Boiled down with 

 grease or oil they also make hair to grow again on 

 burns. Taken in honey wine they carry off by stool 

 extravasated blood ; they are good for the spleen, for 



253 



