Chap. 103.] THE EKIPHIA. 67 



recommends those who wish to become parents to drink this 

 mixture, and says, that females should take it immediately 

 after conception, and during pregnancy.^ If this is done, he 

 says, the infant will be sure to be endowed with the highest 

 qualities, both in mind and body. In addition to what has 

 here been stated, Democritus gives the various names by which 

 all these plants are known to the Magi. 



Apollodorus, one of the followers of Democritus, has added 

 to this list the herb aeschynomene,^'' so called from the shrink- 

 ing of its leaves at the approach of the hand ; and another 

 called *' crocis,"^^ the touch of which is fatal to the phalan- 

 gium. Crateuas, also, speaks of the oenotheris/^ an infusion of 

 which in wine, sprinkled upon them, has the effect of taming 

 all kind of animals, however wild. A celebrated grammarian,'^ 

 who lived but very recently, has described the anacampseros,^* 

 the very touch of which recalls former love, even though 

 hatred should have succeeded in its place. It will be quite 

 sufficient for the present to have said thus much in reference 

 to the remarkable virtues attributed to certain plants by the 

 Magi ; as we shall have occasion to revert to this subject in a 

 more appropriate place. ^^ 



CHAP. 103. (18.) — THE EETPHIA. 



Many authors have made mention of the eriphia,^' a plant 

 which contains a kind of beetle in its hollow stem. This 



' As Fee remarks, it has been a notion in comparatively recent times, 

 that it is possible to procreate children of either sex at pleasure. 



^^ The "bashful" plant. An Acacia, Fee thinks; see B. xiii. c. 19. 

 The Mimosa casta, pudica, and sensitiva, have similar properties : the Sensi- 

 tive Plant is well known in this country. 



^1 Fee queries whether this may not be the Silene rauscipula of Lin- 

 naeus, the fly-trap. ^2 The "wine-tamer." 



^2 Ilardouin thinks that he alludes to the Grammarian Apion, Dale- 

 champs thinks that it is either Apion or Apollodorus. 



^^ The "returning" plant. Fee says that the Sedum Telephium of 

 Linnaeus, or orpine, is called in the dictionaries by this name. He queries 

 whether it may not be the Sedum anacampseros, or evergreen orpine, as 

 Hesychius says that it continues to live after being taken up from the 

 eflrth ; a peculiarity, to some extent, of the house-leek. 



'^ He probably alludes to his remarks upon Magic,in Books xxix. and xxx. 



^^ From ipicpoQ, a "kid." Ruellius has attempted to identify this plant 

 with one of the Kanunculaccae ; but there is little doubt, as Fee says, that 

 both plant and insect are imaginary. 



r 2 



