66 
iPLINT's NATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book XXIV. 
bles wild thyme in appearance. The stem of it is tough and 
ligneous, and it is a palm in height. It grows in stony soils, 
and the leaves are trained regularly around the stem,**^ which 
resembles a bed-post in appearance. This plant is taken in 
drink, for convulsions, ruptures, strangury, and wounds inflicted 
by serpents : a decoction is also made of it, and the juice is 
similarly employed. 
CHAP. 88. THE CLEMATIS CENTUNCULTJS ; THREE EEMEDIES. 
"We shall now have to annex some plants, of a marvellous 
nature no doubt, but not so well known, reserving those of a 
higher reputation for the succeeding Eooks. 
Our people give the name of centunculus,"^^ to a creep- 
ing plant that grows in the fields, the leaves of which bear a 
strong resemblance to the hoods attached to our cloaks. Ey 
the Greeks it is known as the clematis/* Taken in astrin- 
gent wine it is wonderfully effectual for arresting^^ diarrhoea : 
beaten up, in doses of one denarius, in five cyathi of oxymei 
or of warm water, it arrests haemorrhage, and facilitates the 
after-birth. 
CHAP. 89. THE CLEMATIS ECHITES, OE LA.GINE. 
The Greeks have other varieties also of the clematis, one of 
which is known as echites"^^ or **lagine," and by some as 
the little scammony.'* Its stems are about two feet in height, 
and covered with leaves : in general appearance it is not 
unlike scammony, were it not that the leaves are darker and 
more diminutive; it is found growing in vineyards and cultivated 
soils. It is eaten as a vegetable, with oil and salt, and acts as 
a laxative upon the bowels. It is taken^^ also for dysentery, 
basil. It has some useful properties attributed to it ; but what Pliny here 
states respecting it is erroneous. 
This seems to be the meaning of " orbiculato foliorum ambitu." 
*s Turner and C. Bauhin identify it with the Gnaphalium Germanicum 
of Lamarck, and Sprengel with the Polygonum convolvulus of Linnaeus. 
If so, Fee says, the synonym here given by Pliny is erroneous ; for the 
Greek clematis, there can be little doubt, is the Clematis cirrhosa of Lin- 
naeus. See the account given of the Gnaphalion in B. xxvii. c. 61. 
*s All that Pliny states as to its medicinal properties, Fee says, is 
erroneous. 
so Probably the Asclepias nigra of Linnseus, black swallow- wort. 
51 The Asclepias nigra has no such medicinal effects as those mentioned 
by Pliny. 
