232 
pltny's natueal history. [Book XXVII. 
is remarkably efficacious, being possessed of agglutinating^ 
properties to such a remarkable degree as to solder pieces of 
meat together with which it is boiled ; to which, in fact, it is 
indebted for its Greek name.^^ It is used also for the cure of 
fractured bones. 
CHAP. 25. (7.) ALGA ETJFA OR RED SEA-WEED : ONE REMEDY. 
Red sea-weed^^ is useful as an application for the sting of the 
scorpion. 
CRAP. 26. ACT^A : ONE REMEDY. 
Actsea^^ has leaves with a powerful smell, rough knotted 
stems, a black seed like that of ivy, and soft berries. It 
grows in umbrageous, rugged, watery localities ; and is used, 
in doses of one full acetabulum, for female complaints. 
CHAP. 27. THE AMPELOS AGRIA, OR WILD VrNE : FOUR REMEDIES. 
Ampelos agria, or wild vine, is the name of a plant with 
leaves of an ashy colour, as already stated in our description 
of the cultivated plants, and long, tough twigs of a red hue, 
like that of the flower which we have mentioned,^^ when speak- 
ing of violets, under the name of flame of Jove.'' It bears 
a seed which resembles the grains of the pomegranate. The 
root, boiled in three cyathi of water, with the addition of two 
cyathi of Coan wine, is slightly laxative to the bowels, and is 
consequently given for dropsy. It is curative also of uterine 
afliections, and of spots upon the face in females. It is found 
a good plan for patients afflicted with sciatica to use the juice 
of this plant, bruised, applied topically, with the leaves. 
CHAP. 28. ABSINTHIUM OR WORMWOOD ; FOUR VARIETIES : 
FORTY-EIGHT REMEDIES. 
There are numerous kinds of absinthium ; the Santonic,^^ for 
^ Hence its Latin name consolida," and its French name " consoude/' 
Fee says that Comfrey still figures in the French Materia Medica, and that 
the lower classes use it in most of the cases mentioned by Pliny ; he states 
also, that it is destitute of energetic properties, in a medicinal point of view. 
SvjLt^vroj/, " consolidating.'* 
S2 See B. xiii. c. 48, and B. xxvi. c. 66. 
83 The Actsea spicata of Linnseus, Herb-christopher or bane-berries, is 
mentioned by Desfontaines ; but Fee is inclined to identify it with the 
Sambucus ebulus of Linnaeus, the Dwarf elder, wall- wort, or dane-wort. 
84 See B. xxiii. c, 14. in B. xxi. cc. 33, 38. 
86 The Artemisia Santonica of Linnceus, Tartarian southernwood. 
