The wild[1380] skirret, too, is very similar to the cultivated kind,[1381] and is productive of similar effects. It sharpens[1382] the stomach, and, taken with vinegar flavoured with silphium, or with pepper and hydromel, or else with garum, it promotes the appetite. According to Opion, it is a diuretic, and acts as an aphrodisiac.[1383] Diocles is also of the same opinion; in addition to which, he says that it possesses cordial virtues for convalescents, and is extremely beneficial after frequent vomitings. Heraclides has prescribed it against the effects of mercury,[1384] and for occasional impotence, as also generally for patients when convalescent. Hicesius says that skirrets would appear to be prejudicial[1385] to the stomach, because no one is able to eat three of them following; still, however, he looks upon them as beneficial to patients who are just resuming the use of wine. The juice of the cultivated skirret, taken in goats’-milk, arrests looseness of the stomach. CHAP. 18.—SILE, OR HARTWORT: TWELVE REMEDIES. As the similitude which exists between their Greek names[1386] has caused most persons to mistake the one for the other, we have thought it as well to give some account here of sile or hartwort,[1387] though it is a plant which is very generally known. The best hartwort is that of Massilia,[1388] the seed of it being broad and yellow; and the next best is that of Æthiopia, the seed of which is of a darker hue. The Cretan hartwort is the most odoriferous of the several kinds. The root of this plant has a pleasant smell; the seed of it is eaten by vultures, it is said.[1389] Hartwort is useful to man for inveterate coughs, ruptures, and convulsions, being usually taken in white wine; it is employed also in cases of opisthotony, and for diseases of the liver, as well as for griping pains in the bowels and for strangury, in doses of two or three spoonfuls at a time. The leaves of this plant are useful also, and have the effect of aiding parturition—in animals even: indeed, it is generally said that roes,[1390] when about to bring forth, are in the habit of eating these leaves in particular. They are topically applied, also, in erysipelas; and either the leaves or the seed, taken fasting in the morning, are very beneficial to the digestion. Hartwort has the effect, too, of arresting looseness in cattle, either bruised and put into their drink, or else eaten by them after it has been chewed with salt. When oxen are in a diseased state, it is beaten up and poured into their food. CHAP. 19.—ELECAMPANE: ELEVEN REMEDIES.