The white variety of the eryngium is known in our language as the “centum capita.”[2500] It has all the properties above-mentioned, and the Greeks employ both the stalk and the root as an article of food,[2501] either boiled or raw. There are some marvellous facts related in connexion with this plant; the root[2502] of it, it is said, bears a strong resemblance to the organs of either sex; it is but rarely found, but if a root resembling the male organs should happen to fall in the way of a man, it will ensure him woman’s love; hence it is that Phaon the Lesbian was so passionately beloved[2503] by Sappho. Upon this subject, too, there have been numerous other reveries, not only on the part of the Magi, but of Pythagorean philosophers even as well.
So far as its medicinal properties are concerned, in addition to those already mentioned, this plant, taken in hydromel, is good for flatulency, gripings of the bowels, diseases of the heart, stomach, liver, and thoracic organs, and, taken in oxycrate, for affections of the spleen. Mixed with hydromel, it is recommended also for diseases of the kidneys, strangury, opisthotony, spasms, lumbago, dropsy, epilepsy, suppression or excess of the catamenia, and all maladies of the uterus. Applied with honey, it extracts foreign substances from the body, and, with salted axle-grease and cerate, it disperses scrofulous sores, imposthumes of the parotid glands, inflamed tumours, denudations of the bones, and fractures. Taken before drinking, it prevents the fumes of wine from rising to the head, and it arrests looseness of the bowels. Some of our authors have recommended that this plant should be gathered at the period of the summer solstice, and that it should be applied, in combination with rain water, for all kinds of maladies of the neck. They say too, that, attached as an amulet to the person, it is a cure for albugo.[2504]
CHAP. 10. (9.)—THE ACANOS; ONE REMEDY.
There are some authors, too, who make the acanos[2505] to be a species of eryngium. It is a thorny plant, stunted, and spreading, with prickles of a considerable size. Applied topically, they say, it arrests hæmorrhage in a most remarkable degree.
CHAP. 11.—THE GLYCYRRHIZA OR ADIPSOS: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.
Other authors, again, have erroneously taken the glycyrrhiza[2506] to be a kind of eryngium: it will, therefore, be as well to take this opportunity of making some further mention of it. There can be no doubt, however, that this is one of the thorny plants, the leaves of it being covered with prickles,[2507] substantial, and viscous and gummy to the touch: it has much the appearance of a shrub, is a couple of cubits in height, and bears a flower like that of the hyacinth, and a fruit the size of the little round balls[2508] of the plane. The best kind is that grown in Cilicia, and the next best that of Pontus; the root of it is sweet, and this is the only part that is used. It is gathered at the setting of the Vergiliæ,[2509] the root of it being long, like that of the vine.[2510] That which is yellow, the colour of boxwood in fact, is superior to the darker kind, and the flexible is better than the brittle. Boiled down to one-third, it is employed for pessaries; but, for general purposes, a decoction is made of it of the consistency of honey. Sometimes, also, it is used pounded, and it is in this form that it is applied as a liniment for wounds and all affections of the throat. The juice[2511] of it is also very good for the voice, for which purpose it is thickened and then placed beneath the tongue: it is good, too, for the chest and liver.
We have already stated[2512] that this plant has the effect of allaying hunger and thirst: hence it is that some authors have given it the name of “adipsos,”[2513] and have prescribed it for dropsical patients, to allay thirst. It is for this reason, too, that it is chewed as a stomatic,[2514] and that the powder of it is often sprinkled on ulcerous sores of the mouth and films[2515] on the eyes: it heals, too, excrescences[2516] of the bladder, pains in the kidneys, condylomata,[2517] and ulcerous sores of the genitals. Some persons have given it in potions for quartan fevers, the doses being two drachmæ, mixed with pepper in one hemina of water. Chewed, and applied to wounds, it arrests hæmorrhage:[2518] some authors have asserted, also, that it expels calculi of the bladder.
CHAP. 12. (10.)—TWO VARIETIES OF THE TRIBULUS; TWELVE REMEDIES.
Of the two[2519] kinds of tribulus, the one is a garden plant, the other grows in rivers only. There is a juice extracted from them which is employed for diseases of the eyes, it being of a cool and refreshing nature, and, consequently, useful for inflammations and abscesses. Used with honey, this juice is curative of spontaneous ulcerations, those of the mouth in particular; it is good also for affections of the tonsils. Taken in a potion, it breaks calculi of the bladder.