[2778] Altogether a different plant; Sprengel identifies it with the Reseda Mediterranea, but Fée dissents from that opinion, and is inclined to agree with the opinion of Dalechamps, that it is the Daphne Tartonraira of Linnæus, which is a strong purgative.
[2779] In B. xxv c. 106.
[2780] Fée remarks that this Chapter includes a number of gross prejudices which it is not worth while to examine or contradict.
[2781] “Hordeum murinum.” Anguillara, Matthioli, and Sprengel identify it with the Lolium perenne of Linnæus; but, as Fée says, it is clear that Pliny had in view the modern Hordeum murinum, mouse-barley.
[2783] At the present day, as Fée says, oatmeal is preferred to barley-meal.
[2784] Being our “barley-water,” in fact.
[2785] Our “starch” probably. See B. xviii. c. [17].
[2786] A prejudice, Fée says, which is totally without foundation.
[2787] Bread, as made at the present day, is but little used in modern medicine, beyond being the basis of many kinds of poultices. A decoction of bread with laudanum, is known in medicine, Fée says, as the “white decoction.”