206 plint's natural history. [Book XIII. 



treatment of some diseases. It is employed also for the cure 

 of scald-head, and for the removal of black and blue spots 

 upon the skin, as if, indeed, we were really at a loss for reme- 

 dies in such cases, without having recourse to things of so 

 deadly a nature. These plants, however, act their part in 

 serving as a pretext for the introduction of noxious agents ; 

 and so great is the effrontery now displayed, that people would 

 absolutely persuade one that poisons are a requisite adjunct to 

 the practice of the medical art. 



The thapsia of Africa 17 is the most powerful of all. Some 

 persons make an incision in the stalk at harvest-time, and bore 

 holes in the root, too, to let the juice flow; after it has be- 

 come quite diy, they take it away. Others, again, pound the 

 leaves, stalk, and root in a mortar, and after drying the juice 

 in the sun, divide it into lozenges. 18 Nero Caesar, at the be- 

 ginning of his reign, conferred considerable celebrity on this 

 plant. In his nocturnal skirmishes 19 it so happened that he 

 received several contusions on the face, upon which he 

 anointed it with a mixture composed of thapsia, frankincense, 

 and wax, and so contrived the next day effectually to give the 

 lie to all rumours, by appearing with a whole skin. 20 It is a 

 well-known fact, that fire 21 is kept alight remarkably well in 

 the hollow stalk of the ferula, and that for this purpose those 

 of Egypt are the best. 



CHAP. 44. (23.) — THE CArPARIS OR CTNOSBATON, OTHERWISE 

 OPHIOSTAPHTLE. 



In Egypt, too, the capparis 22 is found, a shrub with a wood 



17 Either the Thapsia garganica of "Willdenow, or the Thapsia villosa, 

 found in Africa and the south of Europe, though, as Pliny says, the 

 thapsia of Europe is mild in its effects compared with that of Africa. It 

 is common on the coast of Barbary. 



18 Pastillos. 19 Nocturnis grassationihus. 



20 It is still used in Barbary for the cure of tetter and ringworm. 



21 The story was, that Prometheus, when he stole the heavenly fire from 

 Jupiter, concealed it in a stalk, of narthex. 



22 The " caper-tree," the Capparis spinosa of Linnams. Fee suggests 

 that Pliny may possibly allude, in some of the features which he describes, 

 to kinds less known ; such, for instance, as the Capparis inermis of Forsk- 

 hal, found in Arabia; the Capparis ovata of Desfoutaines, found in Bar- 

 bary ; the Capparis Sinaica, found on Mount Sinai, and remarkable for 

 the size of its fruit; and the Capparis iEgyptiaca of Lamarck, commonly 

 found in Egypt. 



