Chap. 50.] 
THE EEED. 
35 
similar to the ivy : taken in wine, it is good for sciatica and 
lumbago. The berries, it is said, are of so powerful a nature 
as to produce bloody urine. Chamaecissos''^ also is a name 
given by them to a creeping ivy which never rises from the 
surface of the ground : bruised in wine, in doses of one ace- 
tabulum, it is curative of affections of the spleen, the leaves 
of it being applied topically with axle-grease to bums. 
The smilax^ also, otherwise known as the anthophoros/'"^ 
has a strong resemblance to ivy, but the leaves of it are smaller. 
A chaplet, they say, made of an uneven number of the leaves, 
is an effectual cure for head-ache. Some writers mention two 
kinds of smilax, one of which is all but perennial, and is found 
climbing the trees in umbrageous valleys, the berries hanging 
in clusters. These berries, they say, are remarkably efficacious 
for all kinds of poisons ; so much so indeed, that infants to 
whom the juice of them has been habitually administered, are 
rendered proof against all poisons for the rest of their life. 
The other kind, it is said, manifests a predilection for cultivated 
localities, and is often found growing there ; but as for medicinal 
properties, it has none. The former kind, they say, is the 
smilax, the wood of which we have mentioned* as emitting a 
sound, if held close to the ear. 
Another plant, similar to this, they call by the name of 
" clematis it is found adhering to trees, and has a jointed 
stem. The leaves of it cleanse leprous'^ sores, and the seed 
acts as an aperient, taken in doses of one acetabulum, in one 
hemina of water, or in hydromel. A decoction of it is pre- 
scribed also for a similar purpose. 
CHAP. 50. (11.) — THE BEED : NINETEEN REMEDIES. 
We have already treated of twenty-nine varieties of the 
reed, and there is none of her productions in which that 
<^ Ground-iyy." See B. xvi. c. 62, Note 17. M. Fraas adopts 
Sprengel's opinion that it is the Antirrhinum Azarina, the bastard asarum. 
^ See B. xvi. c. 63. " Flower-bearer." 
8 In B. xvi. c. 63. 
9 Sprengel thinks that this is the Clematis viticella, but Fee identifies 
it with the Clematis vitalba of Linnaeus, the climber, or traveller's joy. 
^® The leaves of it, Fee says, are of a caustic nature, and have been 
employed before now by impostors for producing sores on the skin of a 
frightful appearance, but easily healed. 
11 In B. xvi. c. 34. 
D 2 
