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CHAP. 32.—SERIS, THREE VARIETIES OF IT: SEVEN REMEDIES BORROWED FROM IT.

The vegetable, too, called "seris,"1 which bears a considerable resemblance to the lettuce, consists of two kinds. The wild, which is of a swarthy colour, and grows in summer, is the best of the two; the winter kind, which is whiter than the other, being inferior. They are both of them bitter, but are extremely beneficial to the stomach, when distressed by humours more particularly. Used as food with vinegar, they are cooling, and, employed as a liniment, they dispel other humours besides those of the stomach. The roots of the wild variety are eaten with polenta for the stomach; and in cardiac diseases they are applied topically above the left breast. Boiled in vinegar, all these vegetables are good for the gout, and for patients troubled with spitting of blood or spermatorrhœa; the decoction being taken on alternate days.

Petronius Diodotus, who has written a medical Anthology,2 utterly condemns seris, and employs a multitude of arguments to support his views: this opinion of his is opposed, however, to that of all other writers on the subject.

1 The kind known as garden endive, the Cichorium endivia of Linnæus.

2 "Anthologumena."

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