Scordotis,[1133] fresh-gathered and beaten up, in doses of one drachma, with wine, arrests flux of the bowels; an effect equally produced by a decoction of it taken in drink. Polemonia,[1134] too, is given in wine for dysentery, or two fingers’ length of root of verbascum,[1135] in water; seed of nymphæa heraclia,[1136] in wine; the upper root of xiphion,[1137] in doses of one drachma, in vinegar; seed of plantago, beaten, up in wine; plantago itself boiled in vinegar, or else a pottage of alica[1138] mixed with the juice of the plant; plantago boiled with lentils; plantago dried and powdered, and sprinkled in drink, with parched poppies pounded; juice of plantago, used as an injection, or taken in drink; or betony taken in wine heated with a red-hot iron. For cœliac affections, betony is taken in astringent wine, or iberis is applied topically, as already[1139] stated. For tenesmus, root of nymphæa heraclia is taken in wine, or else psyllion[1140] in water, or a decoction of root of acoron.[1141] Juice of aizoüm[1142] arrests diarrhœa and dysentery, and expels round tape-worm. Root of symphytum,[1143] taken in wine, arrests diarrhœa and dysentery, and daucus[1144] has a similar effect. Leaves of aizoüm[1145] beaten up in wine, and dried alcea[1146] powdered and taken in wine, are curative of griping pains in the bowels. CHAP. 29.—THE ASTRAGALUS: SIX REMEDIES. Astragalus[1147] is the name of a plant which has long leaves, with numerous incisions, and running aslant near the root. The stems are three or four in number, and covered with leaves: the flower is like that of the hyacinth, and the roots are red, hairy, matted, and remarkably hard. It grows on stony localities, equally exposed to the sun and to falls of snow, those in the vicinity of Pheneus in Arcadia, for instance. Its properties are highly astringent; the root of it, taken in wine, arrests looseness of the bowels, having the additional effect of throwing downward the aqueous humours, and so acting as a diuretic; a property, in fact, which, belongs to most substances which act astringently upon the bowels. Bruised in red[1148] wine, this plant is curative of dysentery; it is only bruised, however, with the greatest difficulty. It is extremely useful, also, as a fomentation for gum-boils. The end of autumn is the time for gathering it, after the leaves are off; it being then left to dry in the shade. CHAP. 30.—LADANUM: EIGHTEEN REMEDIES.