Chap. 40.] 
BUGLOSSOS. 
109 
the mouth, which lasts a considerable time, and increases every 
now and then, until, in fact, it has quite parched the fauces. 
CHAP. 39. (8.) — TWO YARIETIES OF THE PLAFTAGO : FOETY-SIX 
REMEDIES. 
The physician Themiso, too, has conferred some celebrity 
upon the plantago, otherwise a very common plant ; indeed he 
has written a treatise upon it, as though he had been the first 
to discover it. There are two varieties ; one, more diminu- 
tive^^ than the other, has a narrower and more swarthy leaf, 
strongly resembling a sheep's tongue in appearance : the stem 
of it is angular and bends downwards, and it is generally found 
growing in meadow lands. The larger'''^ kind has leaves 
enclosed with ribs at the sides, to all appearance, from the 
fact of which being seven'''^ in number, the plant has been 
called ^' heptapleuron"^^ by some. The stem of it is a cubit in 
height, and strongly resembles that of the turnip. That 
which is grown in a moist soil is considered much the most 
efficacious: it is possessed of marvellous virtues as a desiccative 
and as an astringent, and has all the effect of a cautery. There 
is nothing that so effectually arrests the fluxes known by the 
Greeks as rheumatism!.' * 
CHAP. 40. — ^BTTGLOSSOS: THEEE BEMEDIES. 
To an account of the plantago may be annexed that of 
the buglossos, the leaf of which resembles an ox tongue.'''^ The 
main peculiarity of this plant is, that if put into wine, it pro- 
motes''* mirth and hilarity, whence it has obtained the additional 
name of euphrosynum,""^^ 
The Plantago lagopus of Linnaeus, according to Sibthorp ; but 
Sprengel identifies it with the Plantago lanceolata of Linnseus, or else the 
P. maritima. 
"0 The Plantago altissima or major of modern botany. 
1. e. the ribs, nerves, or sinews of the leaf. 
■^'^ " Seven-sided." 
Whence its name, from the Greek. Sprengel and Desfont'aines iden- 
tify it with the Borrago officinalis of Linnaeus, our Borage. Littre gives 
the Anchusa Italica. 
''^ Though Pliny's assertion is supported by the authority of the School of 
Salerno, Fee treats it as entirely unfounded. Leaves of borage still form 
an ingredient in the beverages known as Copas and Cider-cup at Cam- 
bridge. See this usage, and the identity of the Buglossos 'discussed at 
some length by Beckmann, Hist. In v. Yol. ii. p. 340, JBohn's Ed. 
75 " Promoting cheerfulness." 
