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

Chapter 354: CHAP. 97. (26.)—EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HYACINTH.

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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. 97. (26.)—EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HYACINTH.

The hyacinth 2353 grows in Gaul more particularly, where it is employed for the dye called “hysginum.”2354 The root of it is bulbous, and is well known among the dealers in slaves: applied to the body, with sweet wine, it retards the signs of puberty,2355 and prevents them from developing themselves. It is curative, also, of gripings of the stomach, and of the bites of spiders, and it acts as a diuretic. The seed is administered, with abrotonum, for the stings of serpents and scorpions, and for jaundice.