The cratægonon[1835] is similar to an ear of corn in appearance. It is formed of numerous shoots, springing from a single root, and full of joints. It grows in umbrageous localities, and has a seed like that of millet, with a remarkably acrid taste. If a man and woman, before the evening meal, take three oboli of this seed in three cyathi of water, for forty days consecutively, before the conception of their issue, it will be sure to be of the male[1836] sex, they say. There is another cratægonon, known also as “thelygonos,”[1837] and distinguished from the last mentioned plant by the mildness of the taste. Some persons assert that females, if they take the blossom of this plant in drink, will be sure to conceive before the end of forty days. These plants, used in combination with honey, are curative of black ulcers of a chronic nature; they also fill the concavities made by fistulous ulcers with new flesh, and restore such parts of the body as are wasted by atrophy. They act as a detergent upon purulent sores, disperse inflammatory tumours, and alleviate gout and all kind of abscesses, those of the mamillæ in particular. Under the name of “cratægos”[1838] or “cratægon,” Theophrastus[1839] speaks of the tree known in Italy as the “aquifolia.” CHAP. 41.—THE CROCODILEON: TWO REMEDIES. The crocodileon[1840] resembles the black chamæleon[1841] in shape: the root is long, of an uniform thickness, and possessed of a pungent smell. It is found growing in sandy soils. Taken in drink, it causes a copious discharge of coagulated blood at the nostrils, and in this way, it is said, diminishes the volume of the spleen. CHAP. 42.—THE CYNOSORCHIS OR ORCHIS: FOUR REMEDIES. The cynosorchis,[1842] by some called “orchis,” has leaves like[1843] those of the olive, soft, three in number, half a foot in length, and lying upon the ground. The root is bulbous, oblong, and divided into two portions,[1844] the upper one hard, and the lower one soft. These roots are eaten boiled, like bulbs,[1845] and are mostly found growing in vineyards. If males eat the upper part, they will be parents of male issue, they say, and females, if they eat the lower part, of female. In Thessaly, the men take the soft portion in goats’ milk as an aphrodisiac, and the hard part as an antaphrodisiac. Of these parts, the one effectually neutralizes the action of the other.[1846] CHAP. 43.—THE CHRYSOLACHANUM; TWO VARIETIES OF IT: THREE REMEDIES. COAGULUM TERRÆ: TWO REMEDIES.