434 pliny's natural history. [Book XVI. 



fuller's thistle is called the "hippophseston;" 79 it has a thin, 

 hollow stem, a small leaf, and a white root, the juice of which 

 is considered extremely beneficial as a purgative in epilepsy. 



CHAP. 93. THREE VARIETIES OF MISTLETOE. THE NATURE OF 



MISTLETOE AND SIMILAR PLANTS. 



There are three varieties of the mistletoe. 80 That which 

 grows upon the fir and the larch has the name of 81 stelis in 

 Euboea; and there is the hyphear 82 of Arcadia. It grows 

 also upon the quercus, 83 the robur, the holm-oak, the wild 

 plum, and the terebinth, but upon no other tree. 84 It is most 

 plentiful of all upon t\\e quercus, and is then known as 

 " adasphear." In all the trees, with the exception of the holm- 

 oak and the quercus, there is a considerable difference in its 

 smell and pungency, and the leaf of one kind has a disagree- 

 able odour; both varieties, however, are sticky and bitter. 

 The hyphear is the best for fattening 85 cattle with ; it begins, 

 however, by purging off all defects, after which it fattens all 

 such animals as have been able to withstand the purging. It 

 is generally said, however, that those animals which have any 

 radical malady in the intestines cannot withstand its drastic 

 effects. This method of treatment is generally adopted in the 

 summer for a period of forty days. 



Besides the above, there is yet another difference 86 in the 

 mistletoe ; that which grows upon the trees which lose their 

 leaves, loses its leaves as well ; while, on the other hand, that 

 which grows upon evergreens always retains its leaves. In 

 whatever way the seed may have been sown, it will never 

 come to anything, unless it has been first swallowed 87 and 



79 See B. xxvii. c. 68. The Calcitrapa stellata of Lamarck. Fee re- 

 marks tbat Pliny has committed a great error, in making it a parasite of 

 the Spina fullonia. Dioscorides only says that the two plants grow in the 

 same spots. 



80 The Viscum Europseum of modern naturalists. 



81 The Viscum album of Linnaeus ; hut Sprengel takes it to be the 

 Loranthus Europaeus. 



82 Fee questions whether this may not be the Loranthus Europaeus. 



83 The Viscum album of Linnams ; the oak mistletoe or real mistletoe. 

 ki This is not the fact : it grows upon a vast multitude of other trees. 



85 It is no longer used for this purpose. 



86 The mistletoe never in any case loses its leaves, upon whatever tree 

 it may grow. 



*>? This is, of course, untrue ; but the seeds, after being voided by birds, 



