pliny's katural history. 
[Book XXIV. 
as a depilatory, and for the cure of phthiriasis. The blossoms 
too, of all the varieties, taken twice a day in astringent wine, 
a pinch in three fingers at a time, are curative of dysentery 
and looseness of the bowels : they are very useful also, applied 
to burns with wax. The umbels stain the hair black. The 
juice extracted from the root is taken in vinegar for the cure 
of wounds inflicted by the phalangium. I find it stated too, 
that patients suffering from affections of the spleen are cured 
by drinking from vessels made of the wood of the ivy. The 
berries are bruised also, and then burnt, and a liniment is 
prepared from them for burns, the parts being fomented with 
warm water first. 
Incisions are sometimes made in the ivy to obtain the juice, 
which is used for carious teeth, it having the effect of breaking 
them, it is said ; the adjoining teeth being fortified with wax 
against the powerful action of the juice. A kind of gum even 
is said to be found in the ivy, which, it is asserted, is extremely 
useful, mixed with vinegar, for the teeth. 
CHAP. 48. THE CISTHOS: FIVE REMEDIES. 
The Greeks give the name of cisthos" — a word very 
similar to^'cissos," the Greek name of the ivy^ — to a plant 
which is somewhat larger than thyme, and has a leaf like that 
of ocimum. There are two varieties of this plant ; the male,^ 
which has a rose-coloured blossom, and the female,^ with a 
white one. The blossom of either kind, taken in astringent 
wine, a pinch in three fingers at a time, is good for dysentery 
and looseness of the bowels. Taken in a similar manner 
twice a day, it is curative of inveterate ulcers : used with 
wax, it heals burns, and employed by itself it cures ulcer* 
ations of the mouth. It is beneath these plants more par- 
ticularly that the hypocisthis grows, of Avhich we shall have 
occasion^ to speak wiien treating of the herbs. 
CHAP. 49. THE CISSOS ERYTHRANOS : TWO REMEDIES. THE 
CHAM^CISSOS : TWO REMEDIES. THE SMILAX : THREE RE- 
MEDIES. THE CLEMATIS *. EIGHTEEN REMEDIES. 
The plant called '^cissos erythranos by the Greeks, is \ 
1 The Cistus pilosus of Linnoeus, the wild eglantine, or rock-rose. 
- The Cistus salvifolius of Linnaeus. 
3 In B. xxvi. cc. 31, 49, 87, and 90, 
Red-berried" or red-leaved ivy.*' See B. xvi. c. 62. This kind, 
Fee says, appears not to have been identified. 
