CHAP. 65.—CULTIVATED CUNILA; THREE REMEDIES. MOUNTAIN CUNILA; SEVEN REMEDIES.

Cultivated cunila[1] has also its medicinal uses. The juice of it, in combination with rose oil, is good for the ears; and the plant itself is taken in drink, to counteract the effects of violent blows.[2]

A variety of this plant is the mountain cunila, similar to wild thyme in appearance, and particularly efficacious for the stings of serpents. This plant is diuretic, and promotes the lochial discharge: it aids the digestion, too, in a marvellous degree. Both varieties have a tendency to sharpen the appetite, even when persons are troubled with indigestion, if taken fasting in drink: they are good, too, for sprains, and, taken with barley-meal, and vinegar and water, they are extremely useful for stings inflicted by wasps and insects of a similar nature.

We shall have occasion to speak of other varieties of libanotis[3] in their appropriate places.

1. The Satureia thymbra of Linnæus. See B. xix. c. 50.

2. "Ictus," possibly "stings."

3. See the preceding Chapter: also B. xix. c. 62, and B. xxi. c. 32.