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CHAP. 74.—THE PHLOMIS: ONE REMEDY. THE LYCHNITIS OR THRYALLIS.

There are also two1 varieties of the phlomis, hairy plants, with rounded leaves, and but little elevated above the surface of the earth. A third kind, again, is known as the "lychnitis"2 by some persons, and as the "thryallis" by others: it has three leaves only, or four at the very utmost, thick and unctuous, and well adapted for making wicks for lamps. The leaves of the phlomos which we have mentioned as the female plant, if wrapped about figs, will preserve them most efficiently from decay, it is said. It seems little better than a loss of time to give the distinguishing characteristics of these three3 kinds, the effects of them all being precisely the same.

For injuries inflicted by scorpions, an infusion of the root is taken, with rue, in water. Its bitterness is intense, but it is quite as efficacious as the plants already mentioned.

1 Fée identifies these two kinds with the Phlomis fruticosa of Linnæus; Sprengel and Desfontaines consider the second kind to be the Phlomis Italica of Smith; on insufficient grounds, Fée thinks. Littré mentions the Sideritis Romana and S. elegans of Linnæus.

2 The "Lamp plant." It is mostly identified with the Verbascum lychnitis of linnæus, the White mullein. Fée is somewhat doubtful on the point. It is doubtful whether it is not the same as the Thryallis, mentioned in B. xxi. c. 61. Littré identifies it with the Phlomis lychnitis.

3 In the last paragraph he is speaking of the Phlomos, here he evidently reverts to the Phlomis.

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