Appendix to the Books on Plants and Peripatetic Questions

The shrub is dense with many shoots, having leaves narrower and softer than those of the olive, among which are dry, white, and angular thorns at intervals. The flowers are clustered like the clusters of Ivy original: "Hederæ Corymbis", with clustered berries that are quite soft and white, partly turning red. The root is thick, soft, bitter, and dripping with a milky sap, which is collected in the same manner as that of the Deadly Carrot original: "Thapsiæ". Hippophestum likely a variation of Hippophaes, or Sea Buckthorn grows in the same places and is similarly useful for cleaning cloths. It creeps along the ground with tiny thorny leaves and thorny heads without a flower or a stem. The root is thick and soft; from it, as well as from the leaves and the head, a juice is extracted which, when dried, purges "waters" excess fluids or dropsy and phlegm. Theophrastus, in the 9th book of his History of Plants, chapter 15, says: The medicine Hippophus is extracted from a certain kind of Spurge original: "Tithymalo"; that which is produced in Tegea is highly valued. From these accounts, it is clear that these plants agree with the Euphorbia genus, for they are thorny plants of the Spurge family.

Soapwort original: "Struthium" must also be placed in this class; it was used for cleaning wool, and for that reason was called the wool-plant original: "lanaria herba". It grows on the seashore, specifically in Andros, as Hippocrates writes in his book On the Nature of Women. He notes that its root, crushed and ground—as much as can be held between three fingers—and applied with honey as a suppository, provokes menstruation and cleansings after childbirth, and draws out water. Dioscorides does not describe Soapwort because it is so well known; he notes it has the power of purging and is in common use for provoking sneezing. We see this same very strong faculty in Euphorbia, as well as the power to draw out water.

Concerning the tree similar to the Turpentine tree, Sumac, Mechoacan, Horse-parsley, Fleabane of Hippocrates, Bulbous plants, Holoconiti, and white Dodder. Chapter V.

A certain foreign tree grew in Rome from a seed in a certain garden of the Colonna family original: "horto Columnensi". It is similar to the Turpentine tree original: "Terebintho" but with narrower leaves on a long, thin stalk; it bears scattered branchlets at the tips of the twigs, and oblong, somewhat round berries. From the bark there flows a whitish, somewhat fatty tear resin, which they use as a mild purgative medicine.