Latin Texts & Translations

The seed of rocket ^[Note] is remedial for the venom of the scorpion and the shrew-mouse: it repels, too, all parasitical insects which breed on the human body, and applied to the face, as a liniment, with honey, removes ^[Note] spots upon the skin. Used with vinegar, too, it is a cure for freckles; and mixed with ox-gall it restores the livid marks left by wounds to their

natural colour. It is said that if this plant is taken in wine by persons who are about to undergo a flogging, it will impart a certain degree of insensibility to the body. So agreeable is its flavour as a savouring for food, that the Greeks have given it the name of "euzomon." ^[Note] It is generally thought that rocket, lightly bruised, and employed as a fomentation for the eyes, will restore the sight to its original goodness, and that it allays coughs in young infants. The root of it, boiled in water, has the property of extracting the splinters of broken bones.

As to the properties of rocket as an aphrodisiac, we have mentioned them already. ^[Note] Three leaves of wild rocket plucked with the left hand, beaten up in hydromel, and then taken in drink, are productive of a similar effect.