72 
PLINY's IS-ATURAT; HISTOIIY. [Book XXIV. 
it grows upon mountains, and that the ashes of it, taken in 
drink, act as an emmenagogue and facilitate expectoration. It 
is stated also, that for this last purpose the root is even more 
efficacious than the stem ; that the juice of it, taken in doses of 
three oboli, cures diseases of the kidneys ; and that the root is 
used as an ingredient for emollient plasters. 
CHAP. 118. GKAMEX : SEVENTEEN EEMEDIES. 
Gramen^"^ is of all herbaceous productions the most common. 
As it creeps along the ground it throws out jointed stems, from 
the joints of which, as well as from the extremity of the stem, 
fresh roots are put forth every here and there. In all other 
parts of the world the leaves of it are tapering, and come to a 
point ; but upon Mount Parnassus^^ they resemble the leaves of 
the ivy, the plant throwing out a greater number of stems than 
elsewhere, and bearing a blossom that is white and odoriferous. 
There is no vegetable production that is more gratefuP^ to 
beasts of burden than this, whether in a green state or whe- 
ther dried and made into hay, in which last case it is sprinkled 
with water when given to them. It is said that on Mount 
Parnassus a juice is extracted from it, which is very abun- 
dant and of a sweet flavour. 
In other parts of the world, instead of this juice a decoction 
of it is employed for closing wounds ; an effect equally pro- 
duced by the plant itself, which is beaten up for the pui^ose 
and attached to the part affected, thereby preventing inflamma- 
tion. To the decoction wine and honey are added, and in some 
cases, frankincense, pepper, and myrrh, in the proportion of one 
third of each ingredient ; after which it is boiled again in a 
copper vessel, when required for tooth-ache or defluxions of the 
eyes. A decoction of the roots, in wine, is curative of griping 
pains in the bowels, strangury, and ulcerations of the bladder, 
and it disperses calculi. The seed is still more powerful as a 
diuretic,^^ arrests looseness and vomiting, and is particularly 
27 Grass. *^ The Triticum repens, or Paspaluiu dactylon of Linnaeus, 
our couch-grass. 
•^^ This is probably quite a different production, being the Parnassia 
palustris, according to Dodonteus ; hut Fee is inclined to think that it is 
the Campanula rapunculus of Linnaeus, bell-flower or rampions. 
33 Fee thinks that this appplies to the plant of Parnassus, and not to 
the common Gramen. 
This property, Fee says, is still attributed to couch-grass. 
