BOOK XXIII. XVI. 26-xvni. 29 



otherwise it will cause a bvirn unless immediately 

 washed awav in cold water. The dark vine produces 

 this same efFect more pleasantly, for the white vine 

 causes itching. 



XVII. There is then also a dark vine, which is winte 

 the one properly named bryony, called by some,'^^™/^) 

 Chironia, by others gynaecanthe or apronia, similar 



to the preceding except for the colour ; for that is, as 

 I have said, dark. Diocles preferred its shoots to the 

 real asparagus as a food for promoting urine and 

 reducing the spleen. It is to be found groAving 

 mostly in shrubberies and reed beds. Its root is 

 dai-k outside, but inside of the colour of box-wood. 

 SpUntered bones are extracted by it even more 

 effectively than by the vine mentioned above ; in 

 other respects it has the same properties." It is a 

 special feature of it that it is a specific for the sores 

 that come on the necks of beasts of burden. It is 

 said that if one grows it round a country house 

 hawks keep away, and the poultry are kept safe. 

 It also heals, in beast or man, if tied round the 

 ankles, congestion of blood that may have settled 

 there. So much then for the various kinds of vines. 



XVIII. The natural differences shown by musts Musts. 

 are these. They are white, dark, or of a colour 

 between the two : from some there can be made 

 wine, from others raisin wine. Manufacture makes 

 innumerable differences, so that the general survey 

 that follows will have to suffice. All must is 

 injurious to the stomach but comforting to the veins. 



If drunk rapidly after a bath without taking breath, 

 death ensues. It is an antidote to the poisonous 

 nature of cantharides * and to the bites of serpents, 

 especially of haemorrhois <^ and of the salamander. 



433 



