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

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

Chapter 379: CHAP. 12. (10.)—TWO VARIETIES OF THE TRIBULUS; TWELVE REMEDIES.
By the Elder Pliny
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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. 12. (10.)—TWO VARIETIES OF THE TRIBULUS; TWELVE REMEDIES.

Of the two2519 kinds of tribulus, the one is a garden plant, the other grows in rivers only. There is a juice extracted from them which is employed for diseases of the eyes, it being of a cool and refreshing nature, and, consequently, useful for inflammations and abscesses. Used with honey, this juice is curative of spontaneous ulcerations, those of the mouth in particular; it is good also for affections of the tonsils. Taken in a potion, it breaks calculi of the bladder.

The Thracians who dwell on the banks of the river Strymon feed their horses2520 on the leaves of the tribulus, and employ the kernels as an article of food, making of them a very agreeable kind of bread, which acts astringently2521 upon the bowels. The root, if gathered by persons in a state of chastity and purity,2522 disperses scrofulous sores: and the seed, used as an amulet, allays the pains attendant upon varicose veins: pounded and mixed with water, it destroys fleas.