Chap. 74.] 
THE LITHOSPEEMUM. 
253 
cubit in length; the flower is diminutive, and of a purple colour ; 
it grows in champaign localities. In combination with barley- 
meal, it is used as an application for erysipelas : the juice of 
it, mixed with warm water, is employed as a sudorific, in 
fevers. 
CHAP. 74. THE LITHOSPEEMUM, EXONYCHOl^, DIOSPYKON, OB 
HEKACLEOS : TWO KEMEDIES. 
Among all the plants, however, there is none of a more 
marvellous nature than the lithospermum,^^ sometimes called 
exonychon," diospyron,"^^ or **heracleos." It is about five 
inches in height, with leaves twice the size of those of rue, and 
small ligneous branches, about the thickness of a rush. It 
bears close to the leaves a sort of fine beard or spike, standing 
by itself, on the extremity of which there are small white stones, 
as round as a pearl, about the size of a chick-pea, and as hard as 
a pebble. These stones, at the part where they adhere to 
the stalk, have a small cavity, and contain a seed within. 
This plant is found in Italy, no doubt, but that of Crete is 
the most esteemed. Among all the plants, there is none that 
I ever contemplated with greater admiration than this ; so 
beauteous is the conformation, that it might be fancied that the 
hand of an artist^^ had arranged a row of lustrous pearls alter- 
nately among the leaves ; so exquisite too the nicety in thus 
making a stone to grow upon a plant ! The authorities say 
that this is a creeping plant, and that it lies upon the ground ; 
but for my own part, I have only seen it when plucked, and 
not while growing. It is well known that these small stones, 
taken in doses of one drachma, in white wine, break and 
expel urinary calculi, and are curative of strangury. In- 
deed, there is no plant that so instantaneously proclaims, at 
Identified by Fee and Desfontaines with the Lithospermum officinale 
of Linnaeus, Gremil, gromwell, or stone-crop. Littre mentions the Lithos- 
permum tenuiflorum of Linnaeus. 
11 "Jove's wheat," or the ^' plant of Hercules." 
12 This description applies to the variety of Gremil, known as the Coix 
lacryma of Linnaeus, Job's tears, originally an Indian plant ; but it may 
have been known in Italy in Pliny's time. 
1^ A poor compliment to Nature, as Fee remarks. 
1"* It has in reality no medicinal properties to speak of ; but its name, 
" stone seed," and its appearance, would, of course, ensure its reputation as 
an ^cient cure for calculus. 
