Cliap. 41.] 
THE MTRTCA. 
29 
The seed of tlie plant to which the Greeks now give the 
name of sparton,'* grows in pods like those of the kidney- 
bean. It is as strongly drastic"^® as hellebore, and is usually- 
taken fasting, in doses of one drachma and a half, in four 
cyathi of hydromel. The branches also, with the foliage, are 
macerated for several days in vinegar, and are then beaten up, 
the infusion being recommended for sciatica, in doses of one 
cyathus. Some persons think it a better plan, however, to 
make an infusion of them in sea- water, and to inject it as a 
clyster. The juice of them is used also as a friction for sciatica, 
with the addition of oil. Some medical men, too, make use 
of the seed for strangury. Eroom, bruised with axle-grease, is 
a cure for diseases of the knees. 
CHAP. 41. — THE MYRICA, OTHERWISE CALLED TAMA RICA, OR 
TAMARIX : THREE REMEDIES. 
Lenaeus says, that the myrice,"^*^ otherwise known as the 
erica," is a similar plant to that of which brooms are made at 
Ameria.^^ He states also that, boiled in wine and then beaten 
up and applied with honey, it heals carcinomatous sores. I 
would here remark, parenthetically, that some persons identify 
it with the tamarice. Be this as it may, it is particularly 
useful for affections of the spleen, the juice of it being ex- 
tracted for the purpose, and taken in wine; indeed so marvellous, 
they say, is its antipathy to this part of the viscera, and this 
only, that if swine drink from troughs made of this wood,*^^ 
they will be found to lose the spleen. Hence it is that 
"^^ Fee says that the blossoms and seed of the j unciform genista and 
other kinds are of a purgative nature ; indeed, one variety has been called 
the Genista purgans by Lamarck. None of them, however, are so potent 
in their effects as Pliny in the present passage would lead us to suppose. 
'^^ See B. xiii. c. 37, and Note 96 ; where it is stated that, in Fee's 
opinion, several plants were united by the ancients under this one collective 
name — brooms for instance, heaths, and tamarisks. He thinks, however, 
that under the name " Myrica," Pliny may possibly have intended to com- 
prehend the larger heaths and the Tamarix Gallica of Linnaeus. M. Fraas, as 
Littre states, gives the Tamarix Africana as the probable synonym of the 
Myrica of Pliny. 
Of this broom-plant of Ameria nothing is known. 
This cannot apply to any of the heaths of Europe. The tamarisk 
grows to a much larger size, and barrels and drinking-yessels are made of 
the wood. 
