BOOK XXVI. XXXIX. 64-xL. 67 



applied locally for lichen ; it is taken internally as a 

 purge, being both an emetic and an aperient ; apart 

 from this it is bad for the stomach. Taken in drink 

 with the addition of salt it brings away phlegm, but 

 to bring away bile saltpetre must be added ; if it is 

 desired that the purging shall be by stool, the drink 

 should be vinegar and water ; if by vomiting, raisin 

 wine or hydromel. A moderate draught is made up 

 with three oboH. It is better taken on a fig, and after 

 food. The juice burns the throat shghtly ; for it is 

 of so heating a nature that, apphed " externally by 

 itself to the body, it raises bhsters as fire does, and 

 so it is sometimes used as a cautery. 



XL. The second kind of tithymallus is called f""''"'' 



1 1 • 1 ■ i_ T_ • hinds of 



myrtites by some, and caryites by others, havmg lUhymaUu 

 leaves hke those of the myrtle, pointed and prickly, 

 but larger, and growing hke the first kind in rough 

 ground. Its heads are gathered when the barley is 

 beginning to swell, dried in the shade for nine days 

 and thoroughly dried in the sun. The fruit does not 

 ripen all together, but a part in the following year. 

 It is called the nut, and for this reason the Greeks 

 have surnamed this tithymallus caryites.'' It is 

 gathered when the harvest is ready, washed, and 

 then dried. It is given with twice the amount of 

 black poppy,'' the dose being one acetabulum alto- 

 gether. It is a less violent emetic than the preceding, 

 as are also the others. Some have given the leaf 

 also in a similar dose, the nut however by itself in 



no neuter noun it eould refer to, but inpositu might have been 

 written by a scribe who was worried by inposita. 



* The Greek word Kapvov means " a nut." 



* Hort on Theophrastus IX, xi, 9, from which Pliny took 

 his account, says that "/iieAaira must here mean ' dark,' i.e. 

 red." 



