The properties of this plant are so remarkably powerful,[672] that the persons engaged in collecting the juices of it are obliged to stand at a considerable distance. The incisions are made with a long pole shod with iron, the juice flowing into receivers of kid-leather placed beneath. The juice has all the appearance of milk, as it exudes, but when it has coagulated and dried, it assumes the form and consistency of frankincense. The persons engaged in collecting it, find their sight improved[673] thereby. This juice is an excellent remedy for the stings of serpents: in whatever part of the body the wound may have been inflicted, the practice is to make an incision in the crown of the head, and there introduce the medicament. The Gætuli who collect it, are in the habit of adulterating it with warm milk;[674] a fraud, however, easily to be detected by the agency of fire, that which is not genuine emitting a most disgusting smell. Much inferior to this is the juice extracted, in Gaul,[675] from the chamelæa,[676] a plant which bears the grain of Cnidos. When broken asunder, it resembles hammoniacum[677] in appearance; and however slightly tasted, it leaves a burning sensation in the mouth, which lasts a considerable time, and increases every now and then, until, in fact, it has quite parched the fauces. CHAP. 39. (8.)—TWO VARIETIES OF THE PLANTAGO: FORTY-SIX REMEDIES. The physician Themiso, too, has conferred some celebrity upon the plantago, otherwise a very common plant; indeed he has written a treatise upon it, as though he had been the first to discover it. There are two varieties; one, more diminutive[678] than the other, has a narrower and more swarthy leaf, strongly resembling a sheep’s tongue in appearance: the stem of it is angular and bends downwards, and it is generally found growing in meadow lands. The larger[679] kind has leaves enclosed with ribs at the sides, to all appearance, from the fact of which being seven[680] in number, the plant has been called “heptapleuron”[681] by some. The stem of it is a cubit in height, and strongly resembles that of the turnip. That which is grown in a moist soil is considered much the most efficacious: it is possessed of marvellous virtues as a desiccative and as an astringent, and has all the effect of a cautery. There is nothing that so effectually arrests the fluxes known by the Greeks as “rheumatismi.” CHAP. 40.—BUGLOSSOS: THREE REMEDIES. To an account of the plantago may be annexed that of the buglossos, the leaf of which resembles an ox tongue.[682] The main peculiarity of this plant is, that if put into wine, it promotes[683] mirth and hilarity, whence it has obtained the additional name of “euphrosynum.”[684] CHAP. 41.—CYNOGLOSSOS: THREE REMEDIES.