Chap. 43.] THE THAr-MA. 205 



■words, on the outside; while, in the interior, in place of wood, 

 there is a fungous kind of pith, like that of the elder; 

 others, again, are hollow within, like the reed. The ferula 

 grows in hot countries and in places beyond sea, the stalk 

 being divided into knotted joints. There are two kinds of it : 

 that which grows upwards to a great height the Greeks call 

 by the name of " narthex," 12 while the other, which never 

 rises far from the ground, is known as the " narthecya." 13 

 From the joints very large leaves shoot forth, the largest lying 

 nearest to the ground : in other respects it has the same na- 

 ture as the anise, which it resembles also in its fruit. The 

 wood of no shrub is lighter than this ; hence it is very easily 

 carried, and the stalks of it make good walking-sticks 14 for 

 the aged. 



CHAP. 43. THE THAPSIA. 



The seed of the ferula has been by some persons called 

 " thapsia;" 15 deceived, no doubt, by what is really the fact, 

 that the thapsia is a ferula, but of a peculiar kind, with leaves 

 like those of fennel, and a hollow stalk not exceeding a walk- 

 ing-stick in length ; the seed is like that of the ferula, and 

 the root of the plant is white. When an incision is made in 

 the thapsia, a milky juice oozes from it, and, when pounded, 

 it produces a kind of juice ; the bark even is never thrown 16 

 away. All these parts of the shrub are poisonous, and, in- 

 deed, it is productive of injurious effects to those engaged in 

 digging it up ; for if the slightest wind should happen to be 

 blowing towards them from the shrub, the body begins to 

 swell, and erysipelas attacks the face : it is for this reason that, 

 before beginning work, they anoint the face all over with a 

 solution of wax. Still, however, the medical men say that, 

 mixed with other ingredients, it is of considerable use in the 



12 The Ferula glauca of Linnaeus. 



13 The Ferula nodiflora of Linnaeus. 



14 It is still used for that purpose in the south of Europe. The Roman 

 schoolmasters, as we learn from Juvenal, Martial, and others, employed it 

 for the chastisement of their scholars. Pliny is in error in reckoning it 

 among the trees, it really having no pretensions to be considered such. 

 It is said to have received its name from " ferio," to " beat." 



u Sprengel thinks that this is the Thapsia asclepium of the moderns ; 

 but Fee takes it to be the Thapsia villosa of Linnaeus. 



16 It was valued, Dioscorides says, for its cathartic properties. 



