BOOK XXVI. xLi.x. 81-L. 83 



good for con*oding ulcers of the genitals. Artemisia 

 too in sweet wine is given for stone and for 

 strangury ; root of nymphaea heraclia in wine re- 

 Ueves pains of the bladder. 



L. The same property is to be found in crethmos, 

 a plant very highly praised by Hippocrates. It is 

 also one of the vvild plants that are eaten — at any 

 rate in CalHmachus the peasant Hecale puts it on 

 the table — and a species of garden elate." It has 

 one stem a span high, and a hot seed, scented Hke 

 that of libanotis, and round. When dried it bursts, 

 and has inside a white kernel, which some call 

 cachrys. The leaves are fleshy, and whitish like 

 those of the oHve only thicker, and salt to the taste ; 

 there are thi-ee or four roots, of the thickness of a 

 finger. It grows in rocky ^ places by the sea. It is 

 eaten, raw or boiled, with cabbage,'^ and has a 

 pleasant, aromatic taste ; it is also preserved in brine. 

 It is especially useful for strangury, the leaves, stem, 

 or root being taken in wine. The complexion also of 

 the skin is improved by it, but too large a dose causes 

 flatulence. A decoction relaxes the bowels, brings 

 away urine and humours from the kidneys, as does 

 the powder of dried alcima taken in wine,*^ and 



' I have adopted Mayhoffs conjecture because (in this 

 chapter at least) the form used is crethmos (fem.). Cruda 

 might easily be taken for crudum, spelt crudu. The MSS. 

 have crudum coctumve without variant, and were it not for 

 lianc and largior one might take the neuters to be careless 

 writing, for there was an alternative form crethmum. 



■^ With the reading of Mayhoff : " taken in wine it relieves 

 strangury more efScaciously if daucum is added." There is 

 some uncertainty about the conjecture alcimae of Jan, 

 accepted by both Detlefsen and Mayhoff, as it scarcely 

 accounts for the confusion of the MSS., which have alcme, 

 ahnae, alme and alce. 



325 



