BOOK XXII. IX. 22-xi. 25 



with salted axle-grease and wax ointment it heals 

 scrofulous sores, parotid tumours, superficial ab- 

 scesses, and the falling away of flesh from the bones ; 

 fractures also. Taken beforehand it keeps oif the 

 after-effects of wine, and checks looseness of the 

 bowels. Some of our countrymen have recommended 

 it to be gathered near the summer solstice and to be 

 applied with rain water for all affections of the neck. 

 Some have recorded that alijugo " also of the eyes is 

 cured by using it as an amulet. 



X. Some with eryngium class acanus also, a thorny, 

 short and broad plant, with rather broad thorns. An 

 apphcation of it is said to be wonderfully good for 

 checking haemorrhage. 



XI. Some have incorrectly thought that erynge 



is the same as liquorice, which therefore should come Lhj,, 

 immediately after erynge in my discussion. The 

 plant itself is undoiibtedly among the spinous ones, 

 with prickly, fleshy, gummy leaves, bushy, two 

 cubits high, with a flower like the hyacinth, and 

 fruit the size of the little balls of the pkine tree. 

 The finest grows in Cilicia, the next best in Pontus ; 

 it has a sweet root, the only part to be used. It is 

 dug up at the setting of the Pleiades,'' and is as long as 

 lycium root, the boxwood-coloured being superior to 

 the dark *" and the pliant to the brittle. To be used as 

 a suppository <^ it is boiled down to one-third, for other 

 purposes to the consistency of honey, though occa- 

 sionally it is pounded, in which form it is applied to 

 wounds and for all affections of the throat. Merely 



" With Mayhoffs reading : " of the colour of boxwood, 

 the dark being superior, and the pliant being superior to tlie 

 brittle." 



•* Perhaps, " pessary." 



3" 



