246. Spicanardi: hot in the second degree and dry in the third degree; it is the flower of a tree which is found in India. There are two sorts of it, spica nardi, and spica celtica, and it is like an ear of barley, with an aromatic smell. If the powder of spikenard be put in wine and drunk, it will help with swooning and heartburn. If it be boiled in spring water and sugar be put in it, it will help people with fever. If powder be made of it and the smell of it be allowed to the nose, it will comfort the brain. If spikenard be boiled in common oil and put in the nostrils, it will purge the rheum from the brain principally. If the same thing be put in the ear, it will help with deafness. If spikenard be rubbed on the teeth, it will help with bad breath. If spikenard be put in a slender linen purse and put in the vagina, it will induce menstruation, and it will assist with conception. If the same suppository (lit. pessary) be put in the rectum, it will help with tenesmus; the Saracens make an oil of this tree on which the spikenard grows, named oleum nardinum, which greatly relieves the heart, as we have said.