CHAP. 35.—THE BLOSSOM OF THE OLIVE: FOUR REMEDIES.
The blossom,2980 too, of the olive-tree possesses similar properties. The young branches are burnt when just beginning to blossom, and of the ashes a substitute for spodium2981 is made, upon which wine is poured, and it is then burnt afresh. To suppurations and inflamed tumours these ashes are applied, or else the leaves, beaten up with honey; for the eyes, they are used with polenta. The juice which exudes2982 from the wood, when burnt in a green state, heals lichens, scaly eruptions, and running ulcers.
As to the juice2983 which exudes naturally from the olive-tree, and more particularly that of Æthiopia, we cannot be sufficiently surprised that authors should have been found to recommend it as an application for tooth-ache, and to tell us at the same time that it is a poison, and even that we must have recourse to the wild olive for it. The bark of the roots of the olive, as young and tender a tree as possible being selected, scraped and taken every now and then in honey, is good2984 for patients suffering from spitting of blood and purulent expectorations. The ashes of the tree itself, mixed with axle-grease, are useful for the cure of tumours, and heal fistulas by the extraction of the vicious humours which they contain.