CHAP. 112.—THE RODARUM: THREE REMEDIES.
We have already424 made mention of the rumpotinus, when speaking of the vine-growing425 trees. Near the tree, when not accompanied by the vine, there grows a plant, known to the Gauls as the “rodarum.”426 It has a knotted stem like the branch of a fig-tree, and the leaves, which are very similar to those of the nettle, are white in the middle, though in process of time they become red all over. The blossom of it is of a silvery hue. Beaten up with stale axle-grease, due care being taken not to touch it with iron, this plant is extremely useful for tumours, inflammations, and gatherings; the patient, however, on being anointed with it must spit three times on the right side. They say too, that as a remedy it is still more efficacious, if three persons of three different nations rub the right side of the body with it.