The xiphion[839] or phasganion, on the other hand, is found growing in humid localities. On first leaving the ground it has the appearance of a sword; the stem of it is two cubits in length, and the root is fringed like a hazel nut.[840] This root should always be taken up before harvest, and dried in the shade. The upper part of it, pounded with frankincense, and mixed with an equal quantity of wine, extracts fractured bones of the cranium, purulent matter in all parts of the body, and bones of serpents,[841] when accidentally trodden upon; if is very efficacious, too, for poisons. In cases of head-ache, the head should be rubbed with hellebore, boiled and beaten up in olive oil, or oil of roses, or else with peucedanum steeped in olive oil or rose oil, and vinegar. This last plant, made lukewarm, is very good also for hemicrania[842] and vertigo. It being of a heating nature, the body is rubbed with the root as a sudorific. CHAP. 90.—PSYLLION, CYNOÏDES, CRYSTALLION, SICELICON, OR CYNOMYIA; SIXTEEN REMEDIES. THRYSELINUM: ONE REMEDY. Psyllion,[843] cynoïdes, crystallion, sicelicon, or cynomyia, has a slender root, of which no use is made, and numerous thin branches, with seeds resembling those of the bean, at the extremities.[844] The leaves of it are not unlike a dog’s head in shape;[845] and the seed, which is enclosed in berries, bears a resemblance to a flea—whence its name “psyllion.” This plant is generally found growing in vineyards, is of a cooling nature, and is extremely efficacious as a dispellent. The seed of it is the part made use of; for head-ache, it is applied to the forehead and temples with rose oil and vinegar, or else with oxycrate; it is used as a liniment for other purposes also. Mixed in the proportion of one acetabulum to one sextarius of water, it is left to coagulate and thicken; after which it is beaten up, and the thick solution is used as a liniment for all kinds of pains, abscesses, and inflammations. Aristolochia is used as a remedy for wounds in the head; it has the property, too, of extracting fractured bones, not only from other parts of the body, but the cranium in particular. The same, too, with plistolochia. Thryselinum[846] is a plant not unlike parsley; the root of it, eaten, carries off pituitous humours from the head. CHAP. 91. (12.)—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EYES.