Latin Texts & Translations

There is one variety of wild poppy known as "ceratitis." ^[Note] It is of a black colour, a cubit in height, and has a thick root covered with bark, with a head resembling a small bud, bent and pointed at the end like a horn. The leaves of this plant are smaller and thinner than those of the other wild poppies, and the seed, which is very diminutive, is ripe at harvest. Taken with honied wine, in doses of half an acetabulum, the seed acts as a purgative. The leaves, beaten up in oil, are a cure for the white ^[Note] specks which form on the eyes of beasts of burden. The root, boiled down to one half, in doses of one acetabulum to two sextarii of water, is prescribed for maladies of the loins and liver, and the leaves, employed with honey, are a cure for carbuncles.

Some persons give this kind of poppy the name of "glaucion," and others of "paralium," ^[Note] for it grows, in fact, in spots exposed to exhalations from the sea, or else in soils of a nitrous nature.