BOOK XXVII. VIII. 24-xi. 28 



Especially is it applied to eye fluxes, and with barley 

 meal to sore genitals and ulcers. Its juice is poured 

 into the ears. 



IX. Androsaces is a whitish plant, bitter, leafless, Androsaces. 

 with seed pods in hairy tufts. It grows especially 



along the sea coast of Syria. For dropsy are pre- 

 scribed two-drachma doses of the plant pounded or 

 boiled do^vTi in water, vinegar, or wine, for it is a 

 powerful diuretic. It is also prescribed for dropsy and 

 apphed locally. The seed too has the same properties. 



X. Androsaemon, or, as others have called it, Androsae- 

 ascyron, is not unhke hypericum, about which I have '"""■ 

 ah-eadv spoken," but the stalks are larger, closer 

 together, and redder. Its leaves are pale and shaped 



Hke those of rue ; the seed resembles that of the 

 dark poppy. The stalk tops when crushed give out a 

 juice of the colour of blood. Their smell is resinous. 

 It grows in vineyards ; about the middle of autumn 

 it is dug and hung up. When used as a purge 

 it is pounded with the seed and taken early in the 

 morning or after dinner, the dose being two drachmae 

 in hydromel, wine, or plain water, and the whole 

 draught a sextarius. It brings away bile, and is 

 excellent for sciatica, but ^ on the following day 

 should be swallowed a drachma of caper root well 

 mixed with resin. This dose should be repeated 

 after an interval of four days. After the actual 

 purging wine should be drunk by the stronger 

 patients and water by the weaker. The plant is 

 applied also to gouty Hmbs, to burns, and, as it 

 stanches blood, to wounds. 



XI. Ambrosia, an indeterminate name loosely AmbTosia. 

 given to other'^ plants, is the primary name of one 



in particular, which is branchy and close set, 



405 



