[2818] In B. xviii. c. 22.
[2819] Dioscorides says, horehound. The Horminum, apparently, has not been identified.
[2820] See B. xviii. c. [44]. Darnel acts upon the brain to such an extent as to produce symptoms like those of drunkenness; to which property it is indebted for its French name of ivraie. It is no longer used in medicine.
[2821] Georg. i. 153; “Infelix lolium, et steriles dominantur avenæ.”
[2822] Fée identifies this plant with the Cuscuta Europæa of Linnæus. Sprengel takes it to be the Panicum verticillatum of Linnæus.
[2823] The Avena sativa of Linnæus; the cultivated oat, and not the Greek oat of B. xviii. c. 42.
[2824] The term “locusta” has been borrowed by botanists to characterize the fructification of gramineous plants.
[2825] In B. xviii. c. 44. The present, Fée thinks, is a different plant from the Cuscuta Europæa, and he identifies it with the Orobanche caryophyllacea of Smith, or else the Orobanche ramosa of Linnæus. The Orobanche is so called from its choking (ἄγχει) the orobus or ervum. It is also found to be injurious to beans, trefoil, and hemp. In Italy, the stalks are eaten as a substitute for asparagus.
[2827] See B. x. c. 95, and B. xi. cc. 24, 28.