CHAP. 48.—THE CISTHOS: FIVE REMEDIES.
The Greeks give the name of “cisthos”—a word very similar to “cissos,” the Greek name of the ivy—to a plant which is somewhat larger than thyme, and has a leaf like that of ocimum. There are two varieties of this plant; the male,203 which has a rose-coloured blossom, and the female,204 with a white one. The blossom of either kind, taken in astringent wine, a pinch in three fingers at a time, is good for dysentery and looseness of the bowels. Taken in a similar manner twice a day, it is curative of inveterate ulcers: used with wax, it heals burns, and employed by itself it cures ulcerations of the mouth. It is beneath these plants more particularly that the hypocisthis grows, of which we shall have occasion205 to speak when treating of the herbs.