Apium montanum, Mountain Parsley, has powers like those of parsley, but stronger.
Commentary. Dioscorides says of this article (Selinum Oreoselinum? or Athamanta Libanotis?), that it is diuretic and emmenagogue, and an ingredient in antidotes, and in diuretic and heating remedies. (iii, 69.) Galen and the other Greek authorities treat of it in general terms along with its congeners; and the Arabians do the same under Apium. See in particular Avicenna (ii, 2, 55); Serapion (De Simpl. 290); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 69.) Serapion’s Arabian authorities represent the Apium montanum as being laxative, carminative, deobstruent, diuretic, and, in some cases, emetic. The Athamanta Libanotis is still to be found in the shops of the apothecaries, where it retains its ancient characters. Gray (Suppl. to the Pharmacop. 81.) Some of the commentators on Dioscorides take it for the article we are treating of.
Ὀροβάκχη,
Orobanche, Holly Rose, belongs to the first order of the desiccative and cooling temperament.
Commentary. It appears unquestionably to be the Orobanche Caryophyllea. See Sibthorp. (Fl. Græca. i, 440.) Dioscorides merely states of it, that it was eaten as a potherb both raw and boiled. The other authorities treat of it very succinctly. We have not been able to discover any traces of it in the works of the Arabians.
Ὄροβος,
Ervum, Bitter Vetch, or Tare, is heating in the first degree, and desiccative in the second. It is also bitter, and therefore is incisive, detergent, and deobstruent. When taken in too great a dose it occasions bloody urine.
Commentary. It is the Ervum Ervilia, Bitter Vetch. Dioscorides enumerates its medicinal virtues at considerable length, recommending it as being good for the bowels, and diuretic, but in large doses inducing bloody discharges from the belly and bladder; as being a cleansing application in obstinate diseases of the skin, and in carcinoma and gangrene; as being alexipharmic and forming a good fomentation for chilblains and pruritus. (ii, 131.) Our author copies word for word from Galen. The Arabians treat of it at much greater length, but add little to what Dioscorides had delivered under this head. When drunk with vinegar, they say it relieves difficulty of urine, tenesmus, and acute pain of the bowels; promotes expectoration, and softens indurated mammæ. See in particular Avicenna. (ii, 342.) Though this plant has long been omitted from our Dispensatory, it is still not wholly unknown in the shops. See Gray (Pharmacop. 96.)