CHAP. 35.—THE BLOSSOM OF THE OLIVE: FOUR REMEDIES.
The blossom,[2980] too, of the olive-tree possesses similar properties. The young branches are burnt when just beginning to blossom, and of the ashes a substitute for spodium[2981] is made, upon which wine is poured, and it is then burnt afresh. To suppurations and inflamed tumours these ashes are applied, or else the leaves, beaten up with honey; for the eyes, they are used with polenta. The juice which exudes[2982] from the wood, when burnt in a green state, heals lichens, scaly eruptions, and running ulcers.
As to the juice[2983] which exudes naturally from the olive-tree, and more particularly that of Æthiopia, we cannot be sufficiently surprised that authors should have been found to recommend it as an application for tooth-ache, and to tell us at the same time that it is a poison, and even that we must have recourse to the wild olive for it. The bark of the roots of the olive, as young and tender a tree as possible being selected, scraped and taken every now and then in honey, is good[2984] for patients suffering from spitting of blood and purulent expectorations. The ashes of the tree itself, mixed with axle-grease, are useful for the cure of tumours, and heal fistulas by the extraction of the vicious humours which they contain.