I am at a loss to imagine why Solo of Smyrna has stated that this plant is cultivated in Italy with the greatest difficulty. Hippocrates[1684] prescribes it with beet, as a pessary for affections of the uterus; and Lycus of Neapolis recommends it to be taken in drink, in cases of poisoning by cantharides. He is of opinion, also, that either raw or boiled, it may be advantageously employed as a liniment for inflammatory swellings, incipient boils, and all kinds of indurations; and that, mixed with oxymel and nitre, it is good for erysipelas and gout. This plant, it is said, will bring away mal-formed nails, without producing sores. There are some persons who give orage-seed with honey for jaundice, and rub the throat and tonsils with it, nitre being added as well. They employ it, also, to purge the bowels, and use the seed, boiled, as an emetic,[1685] either taken by itself, or in conjunction with mallows or lentils. Wild orage is used for dyeing the hair, as well as the other purposes above enumerated. CHAP. 84. (21.)—THE MALLOW CALLED MALOPE: THIRTEEN REMEDIES. THE MALLOW CALLED MALACHE: ONE REMEDY. THE MALLOW CALLED ALTHÆA, OR PLISTOLOCHIA: FIFTY-NINE REMEDIES. Both kinds of mallows,[1686] on the other hand, the cultivated and the wild, are held in very general esteem. These kinds are subdivided, each of them, into two varieties, according to the size of the leaf. The cultivated mallow with large leaves is known to the Greeks by the name of “malope,”[1687] the other being called “malache,”[1688]—from the circumstance, it is generally thought, that it relaxes[1689] the bowels. The wild[1690] mallow, again, with large leaves and white roots, is called “althæa,” and by some persons, on account of its salutary properties, “plistolochia.”[1691] Every soil in which mallows are sown, is rendered all the richer thereby. This plant is possessed of remarkable virtues,[1692] as a cure for all kinds of stings,[1693] those of scorpions, wasps, and similar insects, as well as the bite of the shrew-mouse, more particularly; nay, what is even more than this, if a person has been rubbed with oil in which any one of the mallows has been beaten up, or even if he carries them on his person, he will never be stung. A leaf of mallow put upon a scorpion, will strike it with torpor. The mallow is an antidote, also, against the poisonous effects of white[1694] lead; and applied raw with saltpetre, it extracts all kinds of pointed bodies from the flesh. A decoction of it with the root, taken in drink, neutralizes the poison of the sea-hare,[1695] provided, as some say, it is brought off the stomach by vomiting.