258 
pltny's natural history. 
[Book XXVIL 
CHAP. 87. THE ONOPORDON : FIVE REMEDIES. 
The onopordon/* it is said, has strongly carminative effects 
npon asses, when they eat of it. It acts as a diuretic and as an 
emmenagogue, arrests diarrhoea, and disperses abscesses and 
suppurations. 
CHAP. 88. THE OSYRIS : POUR REMEDIES. 
The osyris*^ bears small, swarthy, flexible branches, covered 
with dark leaves like those of flax. The seed, which grows 
upon the branches, is black at first, but afterwards changes its 
colour and turns red. Cosmetics^° for females are prepared 
from these branches. A decoction of the roots, taken in drink, 
is curative of jaundice. The roots, cut in pieces before the 
seed ripens, and dried in the sun, act astringently upon the 
bowels : gathered after the seed has ripened, and boiled in 
pottage, they are curative of defluxions of the abdomen : they 
are taken also by themselves, bruised in rain water. 
CHAP. 89. THE OXYS : TWO REMEDIES. 
The oxys'*''' is a plant with three leaves ; it is given for 
derangement of the stomach, and patients eat it who are 
suffering from intestinal hernia.*^ 
CHAP. 90. THE POLYAI^THEMUM OR BATRACHION : THREE 
REMEDIES, 
The polyanthemum,^^ by some persons called batrachion/'^^ 
by virtue of its caustic properties has an excoriating effect 
upon scars, and restores the skin to its proper colour. It heals 
white morphew^ also. 
Fee suggests that it mayhe identical with the Onop5^xos of E. xxi. 
c. 56. Desfontaines, also, identifies it with the Onopordon acanthium of 
Linneeus, the Cotton thistle or woolly thistle. 
Probably the Osyris alba of Linnaeus, the Poet's cassia. Anguillara 
and Dodonaeiis have mentioned the Chenopodium scoparia of Linnaeus, the 
Summer cypress, or line-leaved goosefoot, but without any good reason, it 
is thought. Holland calls it " toad-flax." 
"Smegmata." 
The "sour" plant. Mostly identified with the Oxalis acetosella of 
Linnaeus, Cuckoo's meat, three leaved sorrel, or wood-sorrel. 
48 " Enterocele." 
*^ The "many-flowered" plant. Probably the Eanunciilus polyanthemos 
of Linnaeus. See B. xxv. c. 109, 
^ The " frog " plant. " YitiliginesJ'^ 
