260 
plikt's natueal history. 
[Book XXYII. 
liaving but a single stem, with numerous joints running into 
one another ; the leaves of it are similar to those of the pitch- 
tree, and the root is never used. This variety, however, is not 
so efficacious as those already mentioned, and, indeed, is used 
exclusively for sciatica. A fourth kind is known as the wild^^ 
polygonos : it is a shrub, almost a tree in fact, with a ligneous 
root, a red trunk like .that of the cedar, and branches resem- 
bling those of spartum,^^ a couple of palms in length, and with 
three or four dark-coloured, knotted joints. This kind, also, is 
of an astringent nature, and has a flavour like that of the 
quince. It is either boiled down in water to one third, or else 
dried and powdered for sprinkling upon ulcerations of the 
mouth and excoriations : it is chewed, also, for affections of 
the gums. It arrests the progress of corrosive ulcers and of all 
sores of a serpiginous nature, or which cicatrize with difficulty, 
and is particularly useful for ulcerations caused by snow. 
Herbalists employ it also for quinzy, and use it as a chaplet for 
head-ache ; for defluxions of the eyes, they put it round the 
neck. 
In cases of tertian fever, some persons pull it up with the 
left hand, and attach it as an amulet to the body ; the same, 
too, in cases of haemorrhage. There is no plant that is more 
generally kept by them in a dry state than the polygonos. 
CHAP. 92. THE PANCKATIITM : TWELVE REMEDIES. 
The pancratium is called by some the little squill, in 
preference : it has leaves like those of the white lily, but 
longer and thicker, and a root composed of a large, red, bulb. 
The juice of it, taken with meal of fitches, relaxes the bowels, 
and acts as a detergent upon ulcers : for dropsy, and diseases 
of the spleen, it is administered with honey. Some persons 
boil it till the water becomes sweet ; the water is then poured 
off, and the root is pounded and divided into tablets, which 
Mare's tail, or female horse-tail ; Littre gives the Equisetum pallidum of 
Bory as its synonym. 
5^ Identified by Fee with the Ephedra distachya of Linnaeus, the Great 
shrubby horsetail. 
58 See B, xix. c. 7. 
59 Scillam pusillam." Fee considers it to be a squill, the variety with 
the red root of the Scilla maritima of Linnaeus, the Sea-squill. Littre 
gives as its synonym the Pancratium maritimum of Linnajus, the Sea- 
daffodil. 
