The wild myrtle, oxymyrsine,3221 or chamæmyrsine, differs from the cultivated myrtle in the redness of its berries and its diminutive height. The root of it is held in high esteem; a decoction of it, in wine, is taken for pains in the kidneys and strangury, more particularly when the urine is thick and fetid. Pounded in wine, it is employed for the cure of jaundice, and as a purgative for the uterus. The same method is adopted, also, with the young shoots, which are sometimes roasted in hot ashes and eaten as a substitute for asparagus.3222
The berries, taken with wine, or oil and vinegar, break calculi3223 of the bladder: beaten up with rose-oil and vinegar, they allay head-ache. Taken in drink, they are curative of jaundice. Castor calls the wild myrtle with prickly leaves, or oxymyrsine, from which brooms are made, by the name of “ruscus”3224—the medicinal properties of it are just the same.
Thus much, then, with reference to the medicinal properties of the cultivated trees; let us now pass on to the wild ones.
Summary.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine hundred and eighteen.
Roman authors quoted.—C. Valgius,3225 Pompeius Lenæus,3226 Sextius Niger3227 who wrote in Greek, Julius Bassus3228 who wrote in Greek, Antonius Castor,3229 M. Varro,3230 Cornelius Celsus,3231 Fabianus.3232
Foreign authors quoted.—Theophrastus,3233 Democritus,3234 Orpheus,3235 Pythagoras,3236 Mago,3237 Menander3238 who wrote the “Biochresta,” Nicander,3239 Homer, Hesiod,3240 Musæus,3241 Sophocles,3242 Anaxilaüs.3243
Medical authors quoted.—Mnesitheus,3244 Callimachus,3245 Phanias3246 the physician, Timaristus,3247 Simus,3248 Hippocrates,3249 Chrysippus,3250 Diocles,3251 Ophelion,3252 Heraclides,3253 Hicesius,3254 Dionysius,3255 Apollodorus3256 of Citium, Apollodorus3257 of Tarentum, Plistonicus,3258 Medius,3259 Dieuches,3260 Cleophantus,3261 Philistion,3262 Asclepiades,3263 Crateuas,3264 Petronius Diodotus,3265 Iollas,3266 Erasistratus,3267 Diagoras,3268 Andreas,3269 Mnesides,3270 Epicharmus,3271 Damion,3272 Dalion,3273 Sosimenes,3274 Tlepolemus,3275 Metrodorus,3276 Solo,3277 Lycus,3278 Olympias3279 of Thebes, Philinus,3280 Petrichus,3281 Micton,3282 Glaucias,3283 Xenocrates.3284