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CHAP. 2. (2.)—THE LOTUS OF ITALY: SIX REMEDIES.

We have already1 spoken in their appropriate places of the herb called lotus, and of the plant of Egypt known by the same name and as the "tree of the Syrtes." The berries of the lotus, which is known among us as the "Grecian bean,"2 act astringently upon the bowels; and the shavings of the wood, boiled in wine, are useful in cases of dysentery, excessive menstruation, vertigo, and epilepsy: they also prevent the hair from falling off. It is a marvellous thing—but there is no substance known that is more bitter than the shavings of this wood, or sweeter than the fruit. The sawdust also of the wood is boiled in myrtle-water, and then kneaded and divided into lozenges, which form a medicament for dysentery of remarkable utility, being taken in doses of one victoriatus,3 in three cyathi of water.

1 In B. xiii. c. 32. and B. xvi. c. 53. Pliny ascribes here to the Lotus of Italy, the Celtis Australis of Linnæus, the same medicinal properties that are given by Dioscorides, B. i. c. 171, to the Egyptian bean or Nymplæ Nelumbo of Linnæus. Galen gives the same account as Dioscorides it is not improbable, therefore, that Pliny is in error.

2 See B. xvi. c. 53, Note 55.

3 Half a denarius. See Introduction to Vol. III.

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