CHAP. 88.—THE CLEMATIS CENTUNCULUS; THREE REMEDIES.

We shall now have to annex some plants, of a marvellous nature no doubt, but not so well known, reserving those of a higher reputation for the succeeding Books.

Our people give the name of "centunculus,"[1] to a creeping plant that grows in the fields, the leaves of which bear a strong resemblance to the hoods attached to our cloaks. By the Greeks it is known as the "clematis," Taken in astringent wine it is wonderfully effectual for arresting[2] diarrhœa: beaten up, in doses of one denarius, in five cyathi of oxymel or of warm water, it arrests hæmorrhage, and facilitates the after-birth.

1. Turner and C. Bauhin identify it with the Gnaphalium Germanicum of Lamarck, and Sprengel with the Polygonum convolvulus of Linnæus. If so, Fée says, the synonym here given by Pliny is erroneous; for the Greek clematis, there can be little doubt, is the Clematis cirrhosa of Lin- næus. See the account given of the Gnaphalion in B. xxvii. c. 61.

2. All that Pliny states as to its medicinal properties, Fée says, is erroneous.