176 
PLINT's natural HISTOET. [Book XXVI. 
being fibrous, and of a grass green colour witbin, about tbe 
thickness of the little finger, and covered with cavernous 
suckers like those on tbe arms of the polypus. This plant is of 
a sweetish"^^ taste, and is found growing among rocks and under 
trees. The root is steeped in water, and the juice extracted; 
sometimes, too, it is cut in small pieces and sprinkled upon 
cabbage, beet, mallows, or salt meat ; or else it is boiled with 
pap,"^^ as a gentle aperient for the bowels, in cases of fever even. 
It carries off bile also and the pituitous humours, but acts 
injuriously upon the stomach. Dried and powdered and ap- 
plied to the nostrils, it cauterizes polypus"''^ of the nose. It has 
neither seed''® nor flower. 
CHAP. 38. — scammony; eight eemedies. 
Scammony,''^ also, is productive of derangement of the 
stomach. It carries off bile, and acts strongly as a purgative 
upon the bowels ; unless, indeed, aloes are added, in the propor- 
tion of two drachmae of aloes to two oboli of scammony. The 
drug thus called is the juice of a plant that is branchy from 
the root, and has unctuous, white, triangular, leaves, with 
a solid, moist root, of a nauseous flavour : it grows in rich 
white soils. About the period of the rising of the Dog- 
star, an excavation is made about the root, to let the juice 
collect : which done, it is dried in the sun and divided into 
tablets. The root itself, too, or the outer coat of it, is some- 
times dried. The scammony most esteemed is that of Colophon, 
Mysia, and Priene. In appearance it ought to be smooth and 
shiny, and as much like bull glue as possible : it should present 
a fungous surface also, covered with minute holes ; should melt 
with the greatest rapidity, have a powerful smell, and be sticky 
like gum. Vhen touched with the tongue, it should give out 
a white milky liquid ; it ought also to be extremely light, and 
to turn white when melted. 
It is for this reason that it is called " reglisse," or liquorice," in 
some parts of France. It contains a proportion of saccharine matter, 
which acts as a purgative. Pulticula." 
""^ This fancy is solely based on the accidental resemblance of the name. 
"8 He very incorrectly says this of all the ferns. See B. xxvii. cc. 17, 
48, and 55. » 
The produce of the Convolvulus scammonia of Linnaeus, the Scam- 
mony bind- weed. The scammony of Aleppo is held in tbe highest esteem, 
and is very valuable. That of Smyrna also is largely imported. 
