The batis,[2361] too, relaxes the bowels, and, beaten up raw, it is employed topically for the gout. The people of Egypt cultivate the acinos,[2362] too, both as an article of food and for making chaplets. This plant would be the same thing as ocimum, were it not that the leaves and branches of it are rougher, and that it has a powerful smell. It promotes the catamenia, and acts as a diuretic.
CHAP. 102. (28.)—TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE COLOCASIA.
The colocasia,[2363] according to Glaucias, softens the acridity of humours of the body, and is beneficial to the stomach.
CHAP. 103. (29.)—SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE ANTHYLLIUM OR ANTHYLLUM.
The people of Egypt eat the anthalium,[2364] but I cannot find that they make any other use of it; but there is another plant called the “anthyllium,”[2365] or, by some persons, the “anthyllum,” of which there are two kinds: one, similar in its leaves and branches to the lentil, a palm in height, growing in sandy soils exposed to the sun, and of a somewhat saltish taste; the other, bearing a strong resemblance to the chamæpitys,[2366] but smaller and more downy, with a purple flower, a strong smell, and growing in stony spots.
The first kind, mixed with rose-oil and applied with milk, is extremely good for affections of the uterus and all kinds of sores: it is taken as a potion for strangury and gravel in the kidneys, in doses of three drachmæ. The other kind is taken in drink, with oxymel, in doses of four drachmæ, for indurations of the uterus, gripings of the bowels, and epilepsy.
CHAP. 104. (30.)—EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE PARTHENIUM, LEUCANTHES, OR AMARACUS.
The parthenium[2367] is by some persons called the “leucanthes,” and by others the “amaracus.” Celsus, among the Latin writers, gives it the names of “perdicium”[2368] and “muralis.” It grows in the hedge-rows of gardens, and has the smell of an apple, with a bitter taste. With the decoction of it, fomentations are made for maladies of the fundament, and for inflammations and indurations of the uterus: dried and applied with honey and vinegar, it carries off black bile, for which reason it is considered good for vertigo and calculus in the bladder. It is employed as a liniment, also, for erysipelas, and, mixed with stale axle-grease, for scrofulous sores. For tertian fevers the Magi recommend that it should be taken up with the left hand, it being mentioned at the time for whom it is gathered, care being also taken not to look back while doing so: a leaf of it should be laid beneath the patient’s tongue, after which it must be eaten in a cyathus of water.