Fennel has been rendered famous by the serpent, which tastes it, as already[1758] stated, when it casts its old skin, and sharpens its sight with the juice of this plant: a fact which has led to the conclusion that this juice must be beneficial, also, in a high degree to the human sight. Fennel-juice is gathered when the stem is swelling with the bud; after which it is dried in the sun and applied as an ointment with honey. This plant is to be found in all parts of the world. The most esteemed preparation from it, is that made in Iberia, from the tear-like drops which exude[1759] from the stalk and the seed fresh-gathered. The juice is extracted, also, from incisions made in the root at the first germination of the plant. CHAP. 96.—HIPPOMARATHRON, OR MYRSINEUM: FIVE REMEDIES. There is, also, a wild[1760] variety of fennel, known by some persons as “hippomarathron,” and by others as “myrsineum;” it has a larger leaf and a more acrid taste than the other kind. It is taller, also, about the thickness of a walking-stick, and has a white root: it grows in warm, but stony localities. Diocles speaks, too, of another[1761] variety of hippomarathron, with a long narrow leaf, and a seed like that of coriander. The seed of the cultivated fennel is medicinally employed in wine, for the stings of scorpions and serpents, and the juice of it, injected into the ears, has the effect of destroying small worms that breed there. Fennel is employed as an ingredient in nearly all our seasonings,[1762] vinegar[1763] sauces more particularly: it is placed also beneath the undercrust of bread. The seed, in fevers even, acts as an astringent upon a relaxed stomach, and beaten up with water, it allays nausea: it is highly esteemed, also, for affections of the lungs and liver. Taken in moderate quantities, it arrests looseness of the bowels, and acts as a diuretic; a decoction of it is good for gripings of the stomach, and taken in drink, it restores the milk. The root, taken in a ptisan,[1764] purges the kidneys—an effect which is equally produced by a decoction of the juice or of the seed; the root is good too, boiled in wine, for dropsy and convulsions. The leaves are applied to burning tumours, with vinegar, expel calculi of the bladder, and act as an aphrodisiac. In whatever way it is taken in drink, fennel has the property of promoting the secretion of the seminal fluids; and it is extremely beneficial to the generative organs, whether a decoction of the root in wine is employed as a fomentation, or whether it is used beaten up in oil. Many persons apply fennel with wax to tumours and bruises, and employ the root, with the juice of the plant, or else with honey, for the bites of dogs, and with wine for the stings of multipedes. Hippomarathron is more efficacious, in every respect, than cultivated fennel;[1765] it expels calculi more particularly, and, taken with weak wine, is good for the bladder and irregularities of the menstrual discharge.