The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)

Chapter 172: CHAP. 16.—GINGIDION: ONE REMEDY.

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The text compiles practical and encyclopedic guidance on crop cultivation and plant uses, beginning with cereals and farm management — types of grain, sowing and harvesting schedules, ploughing, seed selection, storage, and maladies — plus weather and stellar prognostics for agricultural timing. It proceeds to flax and garden plants, detailing varieties, planting and processing methods, garden layout, and pest and disease remedies. The final section assembles medicinal preparations and numerous remedies derived from vegetables and herbs, listing applications and recipes for treating ailments using garden-grown plants.

CHAP. 16.—GINGIDION: ONE REMEDY.

The Syrians devote themselves particularly to the cultivation of the garden, a circumstance to which we owe the Greek proverb, “There is plenty of vegetables in Syria.”1378

Among other vegetables, that country produces one very similar to the staphylinos, and known to some persons as “gingidion,”1379 only that it is smaller than the staphylinos and more bitter, though it has just the same properties. Eaten either raw or boiled, it is very beneficial to the stomach, as it entirely absorbs all humours with which it may happen to be surcharged.