Pliny: Natural History
menstrua ac secundas partus et, si foveantur semine decocto, suggillata reddit colori. cum ovi albo inlitum aut ex aqua coctum potumque renibus medetur, in frigida tritum oris ulceribus. semen cum vino vel radix cum veteri vino vesicae calculos frangunt. semen datur et arquatis ex vino albo.
116XLV. Apiastrum Hyginus quidem melissophyllum appellat, sed in confessa damnatione est venenatum in Sardinia. contexenda enim sunt omnia ex eodem nomine apud Graecos pendentia.
117XLVI. Olusatrum, quod hipposelinum vocant, adversatur scorpionibus. poto semine torminibus et interaneis medetur, idem difficultatibus urinae semen eius decoctum ex mulso potum. radix eius in vino decocta calculos pellit et lumborum ac lateris dolores. canis rabiosi morsibus potum et inlitum medetur. sucus eius algentes calefacit potus. quartum genus ex eodem aliqui faciunt oreoselinum, palmum1 alto2 frutice recto, semine cumino simili, urinae et menstruis efficax. heleoselino vis privata contra araneos, eo3 et oreoselino feminae purgantur e vino.
118XLVII. Alio genere petroselinum quidam appellant in saxis natum, praecipuum ad vomicas, coclearibus binis suci additis in cyathum marrubii suci atque ita calidae aquae tribus cyathis. addidere quidam
Book XX
diuretic, aids the menses and the after-birth, and restores bruises to their natural colour if they are fomented with a decoction of the seed. Applied with white of egg, or boiled in water and drunk, parsley cures kidney troubles, and ulcers in the mouth when pounded up in cold water. The seed with wine, or the root with old wine, breaks up stones in the bladder. The seed is also given, in white wine, to jaundice patients.
XLV. Hyginus gives the name of apiastrum toApiastram. melissophyllum, but by general consent the Sardinian variety is condemned as poisonous; I must however include in the same class all plants so placed by Greek writers.
XLVI. Olusatrum (alexanders), also called hipposelinumAlexanders. (horse parsley), is antipathetic to scorpions. Its seed taken in drink cures colic and intestinal worms. The seed too, boiled and drunk in honey wine, cures dysuria. Its root, boiled in wine, expels stone, besides curing lumbago and pains in the side. Taken in drink and applied as liniment it cures the bite of a mad dog. A draught of its juices warms those who have been chilled. A fourth kind of parsley is made by some authorities out of oreoselinum (mountain parsley), a straight shrub a palmmMountain parsley. high, with a seed like cummin, beneficial to the urine and the menses. Heleoselinum (wild celery) is wadcelery. especially valuable for the bites of spiders; this variety and oreoselinum taken in wine promotes the menses.
XLVII. Another kind of parsley, which grows onRock parsley. rocks, is called by some petroselinum (rock parsley); it is especially good for abscesses, two spoonfuls of the juice making a dose with one cyathus of juice of horehound and three cyathi of warm water.