CHAP. 60.—THE GLYCYSIDE, PÆONIA, OR PENTOROBOS: TWENTY
REMEDIES.
The glycyside,
1 by some called "pæonia" or "pentorobos,"
has a stem two cubits in length, accompanied by two or three
others, and of a reddish colour, with a bark like that of the
laurel. The leaves are similar to those of isatis,
2 but more
unctuous, rounder, and more diminutive; the seed is enclosed
in capsules, some being red and some black, there being
two varieties of the plant. The female plant is generally
thought to be the one to the root of which some six or eight
bulbs are attached, of an elongated form; those of the male
plant
3 being more in number, as it throws out more roots than
one, a palm in length, and of a white colour: it has also an
astringent taste. The leaves of the female plant smell like
myrrh,
4 and lie closer together than those of the male.
Both plants grow in the woods, and they should always be
taken up at night,
5 it is said; as it would be dangerous to do
so in the day-time, the woodpecker of Mars being sure to
attack the eyes
6 of the person so engaged. It is stated also
that the person, while taking up the root, runs great risk of
being attacked with procidence of the anus: all this, however,
I take to be so much fiction, most frivolously invented topuff
off their supposed marvellous properties. Both plants are used
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for various purposes: the red seed, taken in red wine, about
fifteen in number, arrest menstruation; while the black seed,
taken in the same proportion, in either raisin or other vine,
are curative of diseases of the uterus. The root, taken in vine,
allays all kinds of pains in the bowels, and acts as a purgaive;
it cures opisthotony also, jaundice, nephritic diseases, and affections of the bladder. Boiled in wine, it is used for diseaes of
the trachea and stomach, and acts astringently upon the bowels.
It is eaten also by beasts of burden, but when wanted for
remedial purposes, four drachmæ are sufficient.
The black seed is useful as a preventive of night-mare,
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being taken in wine, in number above stated: it is very good,
too, to eat this seed, and to apply it externally, for gnawing pains
of the stomach. Suppurations are also dispersed, when recent,
with the black seed, and when of long standing, with the red:
both kinds are very useful, too, for wounds inflicted by serpents, and in cases where children are troubled with calculi,
being employed at the crisis when strangury first makes its
appearance.