Iris

Iris

They are all warming and reduce the intensity of symptoms. They are suitable against coughs and reduce the intensity of thick mucus that is hard to get up. Seven teaspoonfuls of a decoction (taken as a drink in honey water) purge thick mucus and bile. They also cause sleep, provoke tears, and heal suffering in the bowels. Taken as a drink with vinegar they help those bitten by venomous creatures, the splenetic, those troubled with convulsive fits or chilled and stiff with cold, and those who drop their food. Taken in a drink with wine they bring out the menstrual flow. A decoction of them is suitable for women’s warm packs that soften and open their private places; for sciatica (taken as an infusion); for fistulas, and all sores and wounds that it fills up with flesh. Applied as an eye salve with honey they draw out particles. Chewed and applied as a poultice they soften swellings and old hard swellings, and dried they fill up ulcers and clean them. With honey they fill up bare bones with flesh. They are good for headaches applied as a poultice with vinegar and rosaceum. Daubed on with white hellebore and twice as much honey they clean off freckles and sunburn.
They are also mixed with suppositories, warm compresses and fatigue removers, and in general they are of considerable use.

De Materia Medica