CHAP. 70.—PEUCEDANUM: TWENTY-EIGHT REMEDIES.
But in the very first rank among these plants, stands peucedanum,[787] the most esteemed kind of which is that of Arcadia, the next best being that of Samothrace, The stem resembles that of fennel, is thin and long, covered with leaves close to the ground, and terminating in a thick black juicy root, with a powerful smell. It grows on umbrageous mountains, and is taken up at the end of autumn. The largest and tenderest roots are the most esteemed; they are cut with bone-knives into slips four fingers in length, and left to shed their juice[788] in the shade; the persons employed taking the precaution of rubbing the head and nostrils with rose-oil, as a preservative against vertigo.
There is also another kind of juice, which adheres to the stems, and exudes from incisions made therein. It is considered best when it has arrived at the consistency of honey: the colour of it is red, and it has a strong but agreeable smell, and a hot, acrid taste. This juice, as well as the root and a decoction of it, enters into the composition of numerous medicaments, but the juice has the most powerful properties of the two. Diluted with bitter almonds or rue, it is taken in drink as a remedy for injuries inflicted by serpents. Rubbed upon the body with oil, it is a preservative against the attacks of those reptiles.
CHAP. 71. (10.)—EBULUM; SIX REMEDIES
A fumigation, too, of ebulum,[789] a plant known to every one, will put serpents to flight.
CHAP. 72.—POLEMONIA: ONE REMEDY.
The root of polemonia,[790] even worn as an amulet only, is particularly useful for repelling the attacks of scorpions, as also the phalangium and other small insects of a venomous nature. For injuries inflicted by the scorpion, aristolochia[791] is also used, or agaric, in doses of four oboli to four cyathi of wine. For the bite of the phalangium, vervain is employed, in combination with wine or oxycrate: cinquefoil, too, and daucus, are used for a similar purpose.
CHAP. 73.—PHLOMOS OR VERBASCUM: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.
Verbascum has the name of “phlomos” with the Greeks. Of this plant there are two principal kinds; the white,[792] which is considered to be the male, and the black,[793] thought to be the female. There is a third[794] kind, also, which is only found in the woods. The leaves of these plants are larger than those of the cabbage, and have a hairy surface: the stem is upright, and more than a cubit in height, and the seed black, and never used. The root is single, and about the thickness of the finger. The two principal kinds are found growing in champaign localities. The wild verbascum has leaves like those of elelisphacus,[795] but of an elongated form; the branches are ligneous.