CHAP. 37.—POLYPODION: THREE REMEDIES.
Polypodion,1185 known to us by the name of “filicula,” bears some resemblance to fern. The root of it is used medicinally; being fibrous, and of a grass green colour within, about the thickness of the little finger, and covered with cavernous suckers like those on the arms of the polypus. This plant is of a sweetish1186 taste, and is found growing among rocks and under trees. The root is steeped in water, and the juice extracted; sometimes, too, it is cut in small pieces and sprinkled upon cabbage, beet, mallows, or salt meat; or else it is boiled with pap,1187 as a gentle aperient for the bowels, in cases of fever even. It carries off bile also and the pituitous humours, but acts injuriously upon the stomach. Dried and powdered and applied to the nostrils, it cauterizes polypus1188 of the nose. It has neither seed1189 nor flower.