BOOK XXII. LX.wii. i6o-L.\.\xii. r64 



of honey ; the right proportion is to take three 

 sextarii of this mixture and boil down with it two 

 sextarii of darnel meal until it reaches a certain 

 consistency, and then it should be applied warm to 

 the painful limbs. Darnel meal is also used to draw 

 out spHnters of bone. 



I>XXVIII. Miharia is a plant so called because it MiHarin 

 kills millet. Pounded and poured with wine into a 

 horn " it is said to cure gouty pains in beasts of 

 burden. 



LXXIX. Bromos is the seed of an ear-bearing Hromos 

 plant, growing among the weeds of the corn crop, 

 in fact a species of oat, with leaves and stalk like 

 those of wheat, and having as it were little locusts 

 hanging down at the head. The seed is as useful 

 for plasters as is that of barley and similar grain. 

 A decoction is good for coughs. 



LXXX. Dodder I have mentioned ^' as a plant Doddei^ 

 that kills vetches and leguminous plants ; some call 

 it cynomorion from its likeness to a dog's genitals. 

 Its stem is leafless, fleshy and red. It is eaten by 

 itself or, when young, boiled in a saucepan. 



LXXXI. There are poisonous insects, a species of 

 venomous ant,*^ that breed in leguminous plants, 

 stinging the hand and endangering life. For these 

 stings the same remedies are good as have been 

 mentioned for spiders and the phalangium. These 

 then are the cereals that are used in medicine. 



LXXXII. From the cereals are also made bever- neers. 

 ages : •* zythum in Egypt, caelia and cerea in Spain, 



* Book XVin. § 155. 



* According to Solinus, IV. 3, 6, a spider. 



^ These are the various kinds of beer brewed by the 

 ancients. 



409 



