The chrysolachanum[1847] grows in pine plantations, and is similar to the lettuce in appearance. It heals wounds of the sinews, if applied without delay. There is another kind[1848] of chrysolachanum mentioned, with a golden flower, and a leaf like that of the cabbage: it is boiled and eaten as a laxative vegetable. This plant, worn as an amulet by a patient suffering from jaundice, provided it be always kept in sight, is a cure for that disease, it is said. I am not certain whether this is all that might be said about the chrysolachanum, but, at all events, it is all that I have found respecting it; for it is a very general fault on the part of our more recent herbalists, to confine their account of plants to the mere name, with a very meagre description of the peculiar features of the plant,—just as though, forsooth, they were universally known. Thus, they tell us, for instance, that a plant known as “coagulum[1849] terræ,” acts astringently upon the bowels, and that it dispels strangury, taken in water or in wine. CHAP. 44.—THE CUCUBALUS, STRUMUS, OR STRYCHNON: SIX REMEDIES. The leaves of the cucubalus,[1850] they tell us, bruised with vinegar, are curative of the stings of serpents and of scorpions. Some persons call this plant by the name of “strumus,”[1851] while others give it the Greek name of “strychnon:” its berries are black. The juice of these berries, administered in doses of one cyathus, in two cyathi of honied wine, is curative of lumbago; an infusion of them with rose oil is used for headache, and they are employed as an application for scrofulous sores. CHAP. 45.—THE CONFERVA: TWO REMEDIES. The conferva[1852] is peculiar to running streams, those of the Alpine regions more particularly; receiving its name from “conferrumino,”[1853] to solder together. Properly speaking, it is rather a fresh-water sponge than a moss or a plant, being a dense, porous mass of filaments. I know an instance where a man, who fell to the ground while lopping a tree of considerable height, and broke nearly every bone of his body, was cured by the agency of this plant. The patient’s body was covered all over with conferva, the application being continually sprinkled with water the moment it began to dry, and only removed for the purpose of changing it when the plant gave signs of losing its virtues.[1854] It is hardly credible with what rapidity he recovered. CHAP. 46. (9.)—THE COCCUS CNIDIUS, OR GRAIN OF CNIDOS: TWO REMEDIES. The Cnidian grain[1855] has just the colour of the kermes berry.[1856] It is larger than a peppercorn, and has very heating properties: hence it is that when used, it is taken in crumb of bread, that it may not burn the throat in passing downwards. It is a sovereign remedy for hemlock, and arrests[1857] looseness of the bowels. CHAP. 47.—THE DIPSACOS: TWO REMEDIES.