BOOK XXV. cvi. 168-CV111. 171 



hand some have given it with wine for jaundice, and 

 as a cure for all complaints of the bladder, heart, and 

 Hver. They have said that it brings away gravel 

 from the kidneys. They prescribed for sciatica a 

 drachma with oxymel after a walk, this dose being 

 also very useful in raisin wine for coHc ; they re- 

 commended it also as a salad with vinegar for the 

 internal organs '^ generally, and they planted it in 

 gardens. There have been some who distinguished 

 a second variety, but without pointing out its quali- 

 ties, prescribing it to be taken in water for snake 

 bite, and to be eaten by epileptics. I myself 

 shall treat of it only in so far as the Romans have 

 found out by experiment how to use it. Its down, 

 with safFron and a little cold water, is applied crushed 

 to eye fluxes and, roasted with a grain of salt, to 

 scrofulous sores. 



CVII. Ephemeron has the leaves of a lily, but ^^¥^1}^?'' 

 smaller, a stem of the same length, a blue flower, a donia. 

 seed of no value, and a single root of the thickness 

 of a thumb, a sovereign remedy for the teeth if it is 

 cut up into pieces in vinegar, boiled down, and used 

 warm as a mouth wash. And the root also by itself 

 arrests decay if forced into the hollow of a decayed 

 tooth. Root of chelidonia is crushed in vinegar and 

 kept in the mouth, dark hellebore is plugged into 

 decayed teeth, and loose teeth are strengthened by 

 either of these boiled down in vinegar. 



CVIII. A plant that grows in rivers they call the Y^eneriuin 

 bath of Venus. In it is a worm which is rubbed 

 round the teeth or plugged with wax into the hollow 

 of a tooth. Care must be taken that the plant 

 does not touch the ground after being puUed up. 



" See note on XXV. § 41. 



257 

 VOL. VII. K 



