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

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

Chapter 242: CHAP. 86.—CULTIVATED LAPATHUM: TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES. BULAPATHUM: ONE REMEDY.
By the Elder Pliny
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History - AncientScience - Earth/Agricultural/Farming

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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. 86.—CULTIVATED LAPATHUM: TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES. BULAPATHUM: ONE REMEDY.

As to garden lapathum,1715 it is good in liniments on the forehead for defluxions of the eyes. The root of it cures lichens and leprous sores, and a decoction of it in wine is remedial for scrofulous swellings, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and calculus of the bladder. Taken in wine it is a cure for affections of the spleen, and employed as a fomentation, it is equally good for cœliac affections, dysentery, and tenesmus. For all these purposes, the juice of lapathum is found to be even still more efficacious. It acts as a carminative and diuretic, and dispels films on the eyes: put into the bath, or else rubbed upon the body, without oil, before taking the bath, it effectually removes all itching sensations. The root of it, chewed, strengthens the teeth, and a decoction of it in wine arrests1716 looseness of the stomach: the leaves, on the other hand, relax it.

Not to omit any particulars, Solo has added to the above varieties a bulapathon,1717 which differs only from the others in the length of the root. This root, taken in wine, is very beneficial for dysentery.