The Vettones, a people of Spain, were the original discoverers of the plant known as the “vettonica”[700] in Gaul, the “serratula”[701] in Italy, and the “cestros” or “psychotrophon”[702] in Greece. This is a plant more highly esteemed than any other: it puts forth an angular stem two cubits in height, and throws out leaves from the root, with serrated edges, and closely resembling those of lapathum.[703] The seed of it is purple: the leaves are dried and powdered, and used for numerous purposes. There is a wine also prepared from it, and a vinegar, remarkably beneficial to the stomach and the eyesight. Indeed, this plant enjoys so extraordinary a reputation, that it is a common belief even that the house which contains it is insured against misfortunes of every kind. CHAP. 47.—THE CANTABRICA: TWO REMEDIES. In Spain, too, is found the cantabrica,[704] which was first discovered by the nation of the Cantabri in the time of the late Emperor Augustus. It grows everywhere in those parts, having a stem like that of the bulrush, a foot in height, and bearing small oblong flowers, like a calathus[705] in shape, and enclosing an extremely diminutive seed. Nor indeed, in other respects, have the people of Spain been wanting in their researches into the nature of plants; for at the present day even it is the custom in that country, at their more jovial entertainments, to use a drink called the hundred-plant drink, combined with a proportion of honied wine; it being their belief, that the wine is rendered more wholesome and agreeable by the admixture of these plants. It still remains unknown to us, what these different plants are, or in what number exactly they are used: as to this last question, however, we may form some conclusion from the name that is given to the beverage. CHAP. 48.—CONSILIGO: ONE REMEDY. Our own age, too, can remember the fact of a plant being discovered in the country of the Marsi. It is found growing also in the neighbourhood of the village of Nervesia, in the territory of the Æquicoli, and is known by the name of “consiligo.”[706] It is very useful, as we shall have occasion to mention[707] in the appropriate place, in cases of phthisis where recovery is considered more than doubtful. CHAP. 49.—THE IBERIS: SEVEN REMEDIES.