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

Chapter 406: CHAP. 39.—THE IASIONE: FOUR REMEDIES.

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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. 39.—THE IASIONE: FOUR REMEDIES.

The iasione,2655 which is also looked upon as a wild vegetable, is a creeping plant, full of a milky juice: it bears a white flower, the name given to which is “concilium.” The chief recommendation of this plant, too, is that it acts as an aphrodisiac. Eaten with the food, raw, in vinegar, it promotes the secretion of the milk in nursing women. It is salutary also for patients who are apprehensive of phthisis; and, applied to the head of infants, it makes the hair grow, and renders the scalp more firm.