112 
Flint's natural histort. 
[Book XXY. 
Greece. This is a plant more higUy esteemed thau any other : it 
puts forth an angular stem two cubits in height, and throws out 
leaves from the root, with serrated edges, and closely resembliug 
those of lapathum.®^ The seed of it is purple : the leaVfes are 
dried and powdered, and used for numerous purposes. There 
is a wine also prepared from it, and a vinegar, remarkably 
beneficial to the stomach and the eyesight. Indeed, this plant 
enjoys so extraordinary a reputation, that it is a common be- 
lief even that the house which contains it is insured against 
misfortunes of every kind. 
CHAP. 47.— THE CANTABRICA I TWO EEMEDIES, 
In Spain, too, is found the cantabrica,^^ which was first dis- 
covered by the nation of the Cantabri in the time of the late 
Emperor Augustus. It grows everywhere in those parts, having 
a stem like that of the bulrush, a foot in height, and bearing 
small oblong flowers, like a calathus^^ in shape, and enclos- 
ing an extremely diminutive seed. 
I^or indeed, in other respects, have the people of Spain 
been wanting in their researches into the nature of plants ; for 
at the present day even it is the custom in that country, at 
their more jovial entertainments, to use a drink called the 
hundred-plant drink, combined with a proportion of honied 
wine; it being their belief, that the wine is rendered more whole- 
some and agreeable by the admixture of these plants. It still 
remains unknown to us, what these different plants are, or in 
what number exactly they are used : as to this last question, 
however, we may form some conclusion from the name that is 
given to the beverage. 
CHAP. 48. CONSILIGO : ONE EEMEDY. 
Our own age, too, can remember the fact of a plant being 
discovered in the country of the Marsi. It is found growing 
also in the neighbourhood of the village of JSTervesia, in the 
territory of the JEquicoli, and is known by the name of 
Greeks is a diiferent plant from the Vettonica of the Romans, and identifies 
it with the Sideritis Syriaca. g^e B. xs. c. 85. 
Pliny is the only author that mentions the Cantabrica, and his account, 
Fee thinks, is too meagre to enable us satisfactorily to* identify it with the 
Convolvulus cantabrica of Linnjsus. 
A conical work-basket or cup. See B. xxi. c. 11. 
Mil': 
