184 PLINT's natural history. [Book XXVI. 
praised by Hippocrates.^® This is one of the wild plants that 
are commonly eaten — at all events, we find Callimachus men- 
tioning it as one of the viands set on table by the peasant 
Hecale.^^ It is a species of garden batis/^ with a stem a palm 
in height, and a hot seed, odoriferous like that of libanotis,*^ 
and round. "When dried, the seed bursts asunder, and discloses 
in the interior a white kernel, known as cachry" to some. 
The leaf is unctuous and of a whitish colour, like that of the 
olive, only thicker and of a saltish taste. The roots are three 
or four in number, and about a finger in thickness : the plant 
grows in rocky localities, upon the sea-shore. It is eaten raw 
or else boiled with cabbage, and has a pleasant, aromatic 
flavour ; it is preserved also in brine. 
This plant is particularly useful for strangury, the leaves, 
stem, or root being taken in wine. It improves the complexion 
of the skin also, but if taken in excess is very apt to produce 
flatulency. Used in the form of a decoction it relaxes the 
bowels, has a diuretic efl'ect, and carries off the humours from 
the kidneys. The same is the case also with alcea:^^ dried and 
powdered and taken in wine, it removes strangury, and, with 
the addition of daucus,^* is still more efficacious : it is good 
too for the spleen, and is taken in drink as an antidote to the 
venom of serpents. Mixed with their barley it is remarkably 
beneficial for beasts of burden, when suflering from pituitous 
defluxions or strangury. 
CHAP. 5 I . THE ANTHYLLION ; TWO HEMEBIES. THE ANTHYLLIS : 
TWO EEMEDIES. 
The antliyllion^^ is a plant very like the lentil. Taken in 
wine, it is remedial for diseases of the bladder, and arrests 
haemorrhage. Another variety of it is the anthyllis, a plant 
resembling the chamsepitys,^^ with a purple flower, a powerful 
smell, and a root like that of endive. 
CHAP. 52. CEP^A : Oi^E EEMEDY. 
The plant known as cepsea'**^ is even more efficacious. It 
39 De Nat. Mul. c. 20, and De Morb. Mul. I. 10. 
^0 See B. xxii. c. 44. See B. xxi. c. oO. 
42 See B. XXV. c. 18. gee B. xxvii. c. 6. 
See B. XXV. c. 64. 45 gee B. xxi. c. 103. 
See B. xxi. c. 103. 
The Seduni cepsea of Linnaeus, the Sea purslain. Holland calls it 
Beccabunga,'' or " Brooklime." 
