BOOK XXIV. xLvii. 78-xLviii. 81 



colic. The whiter clusters of the dark ivy taken in 

 drink make even men sterile. A decoction in wine of 

 any kind of ivy is applied locally to every kind of 

 ulcer, even if it is malignant. The tears of the ivy 

 act as a depikatory and remove phthiriasis. The blos- 

 som of any sort of ivy, taken in dry wine twice a day, 

 a three-finger pinch at a time, corrects dysentery and 

 looseness of the bowels. With wax it is useful as an 

 ointment for burns. The clustei-s turn the hair black. 

 The juice of the root, taken in vinegar, is good for the 

 bite of poisonous spiders. I find also that patients 

 with diseases of the spleen are cured if they drink from 

 a vessel made of this wood. They crush too the berries, 

 then burn them, and in this way apply them to burns 

 that have previously been bathed with warm water. 

 There are also some who make incisions in ivy for 

 the sake of the juice, which they use for decayed 

 teeth ; they say that the teeth break otf, those nearest 

 being protected by wax lest they should be injured. 

 They obtain also a gum from ivy, which in vinegar is 

 recommended as very useful for the teeth. 



XLVIII. The Greeks give the name cisthos, which Cisthos. 

 is very hke cissos (ivy), to a shrub larger than thyme 

 and with leaves hke those of ocimum. There are two 

 kinds of it ; the flower of the male is rose-coloured, of 

 the female, white. Both are good for dysentery and 

 looseness of the bowels, the dose being as much of the 

 blossom as can be taken in three fingers, this quantity 

 to be swallowed in a dry wine twice a day ; for 

 chronic ulcei's and for burns the blossom is appHed 

 with wax, and by itself for ulcers in the mouth. 

 It is especially under these shrubs that there grows 

 the hypocisthis, which I shall describe "■ when I treat 

 of herbs. 



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