The parthenium[1] is by some persons called the "leucanthes," and by others the "amaracus." Celsus, among the Latin writers, gives it the names of "perdicium"[2] and "muralis." It grows in the hedge-rows of gardens, and has the smell of an apple, with a bitter taste. With the decoction of it, fomentations are made for maladies of the fundament, and for inflammations and indurations of the uterus: dried and applied with honey and vinegar, it carries off black bile, for which reason it is considered good for vertigo and calculus in the bladder. It is employed as a liniment, also, for erysipelas, and, mixed with stale axle-grease, for scrofulous sores. For tertian fevers the Magi recommend that it should be taken up with the left hand, it being mentioned at the time for whom it is gathered, care being also taken not to look back while doing so: a leaf of it should be laid beneath the patient's tongue, after which it must be eaten in a cyathus of water.