CHAP. 50.—CRETHMOS: ELEVEN REMEDIES. CACHRY.
A similar property belongs also to crethmos,1249 a plant highly praised by Hippocrates.1250 This is one of the wild plants that are commonly eaten—at all events, we find Callimachus mentioning it as one of the viands set on table by the peasant Hecale.1251 It is a species of garden batis,1252 with a stem a palm in height, and a hot seed, odoriferous like that of libanotis,1253 and round. When dried, the seed bursts asunder, and discloses in the interior a white kernel, known as “cachry” to some. The leaf is unctuous and of a whitish colour, like that of the olive, only thicker and of a saltish taste. The roots are three or four in number, and about a finger in thickness: the plant grows in rocky localities, upon the sea-shore. It is eaten raw or else boiled with cabbage, and has a pleasant, aromatic flavour; it is preserved also in brine.
This plant is particularly useful for strangury, the leaves, stem, or root being taken in wine. It improves the complexion of the skin also, but if taken in excess is very apt to produce flatulency. Used in the form of a decoction it relaxes the bowels, has a diuretic effect, and carries off the humours from the kidneys. The same is the case also with alcea:1254 dried and powdered and taken in wine, it removes strangury, and, with the addition of daucus,1255 is still more efficacious: it is good too for the spleen, and is taken in drink as an antidote to the venom of serpents. Mixed with their barley it is remarkably beneficial for beasts of burden, when suffering from pituitous defluxions or strangury.