Latin Texts & Translations

Of the two ^[Note] kinds of tribulus, the one is a garden plant, the other grows in rivers only. There is a juice extracted from them which is employed for diseases of the eyes, it being of a cool and refreshing nature, and, consequently, useful for inflammations and abscesses. Used with honey, this juice is curative of spontaneous ulcerations, those of the mouth in particular; it is good also for affections of the tonsils. Taken in a potion, it breaks calculi of the bladder.

The Thracians who dwell on the banks of the river Strymon feed their horses ^[Note] on the leaves of the tribulus, and employ the kernels as an article of food, making of them a very agreeable kind of bread, which acts astringently ^[Note] upon the bowels. The

root, if gathered by persons in a state of chastity and purity, ^[Note] disperses scrofulous sores; and the seed, used as an amulet, allays the pains attendant upon varicose veins: pounded and mixed with water, it destroys fleas.