512 PROCEEDINGS OF THE A3IEIIICAN ACADEMY. 



In Photius, uiuler the word fxavSpuyopas, we read : 

 A soporific fruit. 



Suidas says, under the same word : 



A soporific fruit, or one capable of producing forgetfulness. " And lie 

 appears to have drunk a great quantity of mandragora. " 



The scholiast ou Plato remarks on the passage from the Republic 

 cited above: 



The fruit of this plant is soporific. 



And lastly Joannes Siceliota says in a note on the Tdeae of Her- 

 mogenes : * 



The mandragora is a soporific and deadly plant. 



References to this property of mandragora are very frequent also in 

 the works of mediaeval and early modern writers. They are, however, 

 in most cases reminiscences of the classic authors, and indicate slight or 

 no knowledge of the plant from personal observation.! 



* Walz, Rhet. Gniec, vol. 6, p. 253. 



t Compare the words of Pierius Valerianus, Ilieroglypli., lib. 58 : Suspicari 

 possum apud scriptores nostros parum de mamlragora liquere antiquissiuumique 

 eius usum et utilitatem esse temporibus nostris incoguitaui. 



Tlie following tliree passages are worth quoting as containing something out of 

 the ordinary about tiie soporific power of mandragora : 



Rliazes (9tli-10th cent.), in Serapion's eliapter on mandragora (ed. Venet., 

 foi. 98) : Dixerunt milii quidam ex antiqiiis Babyloniae quod puclla quaedam co- 

 meditquinque poma mandragorae et cecidit sincopicata et facta est tota rubicunda. 

 Et quidam superveniens effudit super caput aquam nivis totiens donee surrexit. 



I'etrus Victorius (1499-1585), Var. Lect. (Florent., 1553), Hb. 4, cap. 3: Accepi 

 Turcarum regem alere tigrim quae catenis etiam vinetis tuto tractari non possit. 

 Quare cum aliquo conveliere velint curatores ipsius sucura mandragorae praebere 

 solitos. 



Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568), Herb. Bibl. Explic, cap. 2 (ed. Fraukof, 1591, 

 p. 9) : Mihi vero quid de mandragora aecidit obiter enarrabo. Quum autem aestivis 

 mensibus (nam eo tempore poma mandragorae se proferunt) semel atque iterum in 

 nuiseo nostro amabilem ac speciosum eius stirpis fruetum ncghgcnter collocassem, 

 ita somnolentus sum effectus ut aegrc sopor exouti possit. Quum autem obnixe 

 obluctarer somnoleiitiae illamque excusisse conarcr, aegre id obtinui, nee rationcm 

 tanti veterni inire potui ; tandem quum quaquaversum dimovisscm oculos, obtulit 

 se a tergo pomum man(h-agorae, quo amoto atque in ahum locum trauslato factus 

 sum alacrior atque torporem depuli omneuique oscitantiam disoussi. 



To these may be added a rather amusing receipt for a potion calculated to 



