previous next

CHAP. 32.—THE POPLAR: EIGHT REMEDIES.

We have already1 mentioned, when speaking of the unguents, the use that is made of the berries2 of the white poplar. A potion prepared from the bark is good for sciatica and strangury, and the juice of the leaves is taken warm for ear-ache. So long3 as a person holds a sprig of poplar in his hand, there is no fear of4 chafing between the thighs.

The black poplar which grows in Crete is looked upon as the most efficacious of them all. The seed of it, taken in vinegar, is good for epilepsy. This tree produces a resin also to a small extent, which is made use of for emollient plasters. The leaves, boiled in vinegar, are applied topically for gout. A moisture that exudes from the clefts of the black poplar removes warts, and pimples caused by friction. Poplars produce also on the leaves a kind of sticky5 juice, from which bees prepare their propolis:6 indeed this juice, mixed with water, has the same virtues as propolis.

1 In B. xii. c. 61. The buds of the poplar, Fée says, are still used in medicine in the composition of an unguent known as "populeun." The bark is astringent, and the wood destitute of taste.

2 "Uvarum." Fée thinks that by these berries, or grapes, the blossoms or buds are meant. See Note 91 to B. xii. c. 61

3 See also c. 38, as to the Vitex.

4 This superstition probably applies to persons riding on horseback.

5 "Guttam." This is the substance known to us as "honey-dew." It is either secreted by the plant itself, or deposited on the leaves by an aphis. It is found more particularly on the leaves of the rose, the plane, the lime, and the maple. Bees and ants are particularly fond of it.

6 Bee-glue. See B. xi. c. 6, and B. xxii. c. 50.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Latin (Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff, 1906)
hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide References (2 total)
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (2):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: