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CHAP. 74.—HE CYNOSBATOS: THREE REMEDIES.

There is another kind of bramble also,1 which bears a rose. It produces a round excrescence,2 similar to a chesnut in appearance, which is remarkably valuable as a remedy for calculus. This is quite a different production from the "cynorrhoda," which we shall have occasion to speak of in the succeeding Book.3

(14.) The cynosbatos4 is by some called "cynapanxis,"5 and by others "neurospastos;"6 the leaf resembles the human footstep in shape. It bears also a black grape, in the berries of which there is a nerve, to which it is indebted for its name of "neurospastos." It is quite a different plant from the capparis7 or caper, to which medical men have also given the name of "cynosbatos." The clusters8 of it, pickled in vinegar, are eaten as a remedy for diseases of the spleen, and flatulency: and the string found in the berries, chewed with Chian mastich, cleanses the mouth.

The rose9 of the bramble, mixed with axle-grease, is curative of alopecy: and the bramble-berries themselves, combined with oil of omphacium,10 stain11 the hair. The blossom of the bramble is gathered at harvest, and the white blossom, taken in wine, is an excellent remedy for pleurisy and cœliac affections. The root, boiled down to one third, arrests looseness of the bowels and hemorrhage, and a decoction of it, used as a gargle, is good for the teeth: the juice too is employed as a fomentation for ulcers of the rectum and generative organs. The ashes of the root are curative of relaxations of the uvula.

1 The eglantine. See B. xvi. c. 71.

2 He alludes to "bedeguar," a fungous excrescence found on the wild rose-tree, and produced by the insect known as the Cynips rosæ. It is somewhat rough on the exterior, like the outer coat of the chesnut.

3 The fruit, Fée says, of the wild eglantine. See B. xxv. c. 6.

4 Or "dog-bramble."

5 "Dog-strangle," apparently.

6 "Drawn with a string." Fée thinks that Pliny has confused the account given of this plant with that of the Aglaophotis, mentioned in c. 102 of this Book, and that the Cynosbatos is only a variety of the Rubus or bramble. Other authorities identify it with the Rubus caninus, or with the Rosa sempervirens. Desfontaines thinks that it is the Ribes nigrurn, or black currant; and Littré is of opinion that some gooseberry or currant tree is meant.

7 See B. xiii. c. 44.

8 "Thyrsus." Fée thinks that the allusion is to the produce of the caper, while Hardouin says that it is the first cynosbatos that he is speak- ing of. Hardouin is probably right.

9 The blossom, perhaps, of the Rubus fruticosus, or blackberry.

10 See B. xii. c. 60.

11 Fée says that they have no such property, and that the blossoms of the bramble are entirely destitute of any known medicinal qualities. The roots and leaves are somewhat astringent.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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