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

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

Chapter 202: CHAP. 46.—OLUSATRUM OR HIPPOSELINON: ELEVEN REMEDIES. OREOSELINON; TWO REMEDIES. HELIOSELINON; ONE REMEDY.
By the Elder Pliny
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History - AncientScience - Earth/Agricultural/Farming

About This Book

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. 46.—OLUSATRUM OR HIPPOSELINON: ELEVEN REMEDIES. OREOSELINON; TWO REMEDIES. HELIOSELINON; ONE REMEDY.

Olusatrum,1517 usually known as hipposelinon,1518 is particularly repulsive to scorpions. The seed of it, taken in drink, is a cure for gripings in the stomach and intestinal complaints, and a decoction of the seed, drunk in honied wine, is curative in cases of dysuria.1519 The root of the plant, boiled in wine, expels calculi of the bladder, and is a cure for lumbago and pains in the sides. Taken in drink and applied topically, it is a cure for the bite of a mad dog, and the juice of it, when drunk, is warming for persons benumbed with cold.

Some persons make out oreoselinon1520 to be a fourth species of parsley: it is a shrub about a palm in height, with an elongated seed, bearing a strong resemblance to that of cummin, and efficacious for the urine and the catamenia. Helioselinon1521 is possessed of peculiar virtues against the bites of spiders: and oreoselinon is used with wine for promoting the menstrual discharge.