The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 5 (of 6)

We shall now add to these plants, certain vegetable productions to which the Greeks have given names belonging to trees, so that it would be doubtful whether they themselves are not trees as well.

(15.) The chamædrys330 is the same plant that in Latin is called “trixago;” some persons, however, call it “chamædrops,” and others “teucria.” The leaves of it are the size of those of mint, but in their colour and indentations they resemble those of the oak. According to some, the leaves are serrated, and it was these, they say, that first suggested the idea of the saw:331 the flower of it borders closely upon purple. This plant is gathered in rough craggy localities, when it is replete with juice; and, whether taken332 internally or applied topically, it is extremely efficacious for the stings of venomous serpents, diseases of the stomach, inveterate coughs, collections of phlegm in the throat, ruptures, convulsions, and pains in the sides. It diminishes the volume of the spleen, and acts as a diuretic and emmenagogue; for which reasons it is very useful in incipient dropsy, the usual dose being a handful of the sprigs boiled down to one third in three heminæ of water. Lozenges too are made of it for the above-named purposes, by bruising it in water. In combination with honey, it heals abscesses and inveterate or sordid ulcers: a wine333 too is prepared from it for diseases of the chest. The juice of the leaves, mixed with oil, disperses films on the eyes; it is taken also, in vinegar, for diseases of the spleen; employed as a friction, it is of a warming nature.