Chap. 9.] THE ERTXGIUSr. 397 



ment, for wounds, and is found to be particularly efficacious 

 for those inflicted by Avater-snakes or frogs. The physician 

 Heraclides states it as his opinion that, boiled in goose-broth, 

 it is a more valuable remedy than any other known, for aco- 

 nite"^* and other poisons. ^^ Apollodorus recommends that, in 

 cases of poisoning, it should be boiled with a frog, and other 

 authorities, in water only. It is a hardy plant, having much 

 the appearance of a shrub, with prickly leaves and a jointed 

 stem ; it grows a cubit or more in height. Sometimes it is 

 found of a whitish colour, and sometimes black,*^ the root of it 

 being odoriferous. It is cultivated in gardens, but it is fre- 

 quently to be found growing"*^ spontaneously in rugged and 

 craggy localities. It grows, too, on the sea-shore, in which case 

 it is tougher and darker than usual, the leaf resembling that of 

 parsley.^^ 



CHAP. 9. (8.) — THE EErXGIUM, CALLED CENTUM CAPITA I THIRTY 

 REMEDIES. 



The white variety of the eryngium is known in our lan- 

 guage as the "centum capita."*^ It has all the properties above- 

 mentioned, and the Greeks employ both the stalk and the root 

 as an article of fbod,^ either boiled or raw. There are some 

 marvellous facts related in connexion with this plant ; the root^' 



^* See B. xxvii. c. 2. 



*5 By the word "toxica," Poinsinet would understand, not poisons in 

 g-eneral, but the venom of the toad, which was called, he says, in the 

 Celtic and Celto-Scythic languages, toussac and tossa. Fee ridicules the 

 notion. 



^^ Or rather. Fee says, deep blue. He identifies this with the Eryngium 

 cyaneum of Linnaeus, the eringo, with a blue flower. 



^'' This, as well as the next, is identical, probably, with the Eryngium 

 maritimum of Linnaeus ; our sea-holly. The species found in Greece, in 

 addition to the above; are the Eryngium tricuspidatum, multifidum, and 

 parviflorum. 



^^ Pliny probably makes a mistake here, and reads ctKivov, " parsley," 

 for aKoXvf^LOQ, a " thistle." Dalechanips is of this opinion, from an ex- 

 amination of the leaf; and Brotier adopts it. 



^^ Or " hun(h-ed heads," the ordinary Eryngium campestre of Linnaeus. 

 It is still called panicaut a cent tetes, by the French. 



^*' It is no longer used for this purpose ; but Fee is of opinion that it 

 owes its French name of " pnnicaut," from having been used in former 

 times as a substitute for bread — pain. 



*^ It is not improbable that this plant is the same as the mandrake of 

 Genesis^ c. xxx. 14 ; which is said to have borne some reseniblanccj to the 

 human figure, and is spoken of by the commentators as male and femule. 



