224 
flint's natural histoet. 
[Book XXVII. 
or else it is put over the fire in a pipkin, and stirred with a 
feather from time to time, that the whole of it may be equally 
warmed. 
CHAP. 6. — ALCEA : ONE EEMEDT. 
Alcea^*^ is a plant with leaves, resembling those of vervain, 
known also as " peris tereon," some three or four stems 
covered with leaves, a flower like that of the rose, and white 
roots, at most six in number, a cubit in length, and running 
obliquely. It grows in a soil that is rich without being dry. 
The root is given in wine or water, for dysentery, diarrho3a, 
ruptures, and convulsions. 
CHAP. 7. THE ALTPON: ONE EEMEBT. 
The alypon^^ has a small stem, with a soft head, and is not 
unlike beet in appearance. It has an acrid, viscous taste, 
extremely pungent and burning. Taken in hydromel, with 
a little salt, it acts as a purgative. The smallest dose is two 
drachmas, a moderate dose, four, and the largest, six. When 
used as a purgative, it is taken in chicken broth. 
chap. 8.- — alsine, a plant used foe the same pueposes as 
helxine: eive eemedies. 
Alsine,*^ a plant known as '^myosoton to some, grows in the 
woods, to which fact it is indebted for its name of " alsine."'*^ 
It begins to make its appearance at mid- winter, and withers in 
the middle of summer. When it first puts forth, the leaves 
bear a strong resemblance to the ears of mice. We shall have 
^'^ Identified by Fee with the Malva alcea of Linnaeus, the Vervain 
mallow, an emolUent and, comparatively, inert plant. Littre gives as 
its synonym the Malope malachoides, Marsh mallow. Sibthorp identifies 
it with the Hibiscus trionum, and Anguillara with the Althaea cannabina 
of Linnaeus. It is probably the same plant as the Alcima, mentioned several 
times in B. xxvi. ^8 gee B. xxv. c. 59. 
39 Identified with the Globularia alypum of Linnaeus, the Three-toothed 
leaf Globularia, or Turbith. 
Identified by Sprengel with the Cerastium aquaticum, and by other 
authorities with the Alsine media of Linn^us, the Common chickweed. 
Desfontaines suggests the Stellaria nemorum, the Broadleaved stitchwort, 
but Fee prefers the Parietaria Cretica of Linnaeus, Cretan pellitory, as its 
synonym. *i Mouse-ear." 
^ From the Greek dXaog, a " grove. 
