Latin Texts & Translations

Potamogeton, ^[Note] too, taken in wine, is useful for dysentery and cœliac affections: it is a plant similar to beet in the leaves, but smaller and more hairy, and rising but little above the surface of the water. It is the leaves that are used, being of a refreshing, astringent nature, and particularly good for diseases of the legs, and, with honey or vinegar, for corrosive ulcers.

Castor has given a different description of this plant. According to him, it has a smaller leaf, ^[Note] like horse-hair, ^[Note] with a long, smooth, stem, and grows in watery localities. With the root of it he used to treat scrofulous sores and indurations. Potamogiton neutralizes the effects of the bite of the crocodile; hence it is that those who go in pursuit of that animal, are in the habit of carrying it about them.

Achillea ^[Note] also arrests looseness of the bowels; an effect equally produced by the statice, ^[Note] a plant with seven heads, like those of the rose, upon as many stems.