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"[Plin. Nat. 27.23.] - ALECTOROSLOPHOS OR CRISTA: TWO REMEDIES.
Alectoroslophos, or crista, as we call it, has numerous leaves resembling a cock's comb, a thin stem, and a black seed enclosed in pods. Boiled with broken beans and honey, it is useful for cough and for films upon the eyes. The seed, too, is sprinkled whole into the eyes, and so far is it from injuring them, that it attracts and collects the filmy matter. When thus used, it changes colour, and from black becomes white, gradually swells, and comes out of itself.
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(The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)