BOOK XXVII. XX. 37-xxiv. 41 



therefore some have called the plant andi'osaemon." 

 Two-drachmae doses of the seed, taken in a sex- 

 tarius of hydromel, are used for sciatica. It loosens 

 the bowels, brings away bile, and is appHed to burns. 



XXI. Aphaca has very slender and tiny * leaves. Aphaca. 

 Taller than the lentil it also bears larger pods, in 

 which are three or four seeds, darker and smaller 

 than those of the lentil. It grows in cultivated fields, 



and has bracing*^ quaUties more powerful than those 

 of the lentil, its other uses being the same. A de- 

 coction of the seed checks fluxes of the stomach and 

 bowels. 



XXII. In my authorities I have found no descrip- Akibimn. 

 tion of alcibium, but only that its pounded root and 

 leaves are applied locally, and taken in drink, for 

 snake bite ; a handful of the pounded leaves with 

 three cyathi of neat wine, or three drachmae by 

 weight of the root with the same measure of wine. 



XXIII. Alectoros lophos, which we Romans call Aiecioros 

 " comb " (crista), has several leaves Uke a cock's comb, '^p'"'^- 

 a slender stem, and black seed in pods. Boiled with 

 ground beans it is useful for cough, and with the 

 addition of honey for film on the eyes. The seed is 



cast whole into the eye ; it does no harm but 

 attracts the film to itself. Changing colour it begins 

 to turn from black to white, swells, and works out by 

 itself. 



XXIV. We Romans call alum what the Greeks call Aium. 

 symphyton petraeum. It is Uke ox cunila, with 

 small leaves and three or four branches gromng from 



<f>aKov vtprjXorepos, AeTrrdc^uAAo?. The Greek suggests that 

 pusilla may be an addition (either by Pliny himself or by a 

 scribe) to explain tenuia, but Pliny may have had before him 

 a different Greek text. 

 •^ Or " astringent." 



413 



