106 PLTNY's NATFEA.L HlSTOIiY. [Book XXV. 



perties, but it should never be taken by women in a state of 

 pregnancy. 



CHAP. 35. THE LYSIMACHIA : EIGHT REMEDIES. 



King Lysimaclius^^ first discovered the plant which from 

 him has received the name of lysimachia, and the merits of 

 which have been so highly extolled by Erasistratus. This 

 plant has green leaves resembling those of the willow, and a 

 purple" blossom ; it has all the appearance of a shrub, the 

 branches are erect, and it has a pungent smell. It is found 

 growing in watery soils. The properties of it are so extremely 

 powerful, that if placed upon the yoke when beasts of burden 

 are restive, it will be sure to overcome all stubbornness on their 

 part.^« 



CHAP. 36. AETEMISIA, PAETHENIS, BOTRYS, OS AMBROSIA : 



FIVE REMEDIES. 



Women too have even affected an ambition to give their 

 name to plants : thus, for instance, Artemisia, the wife of 

 King Mausolus, adopted the plant, which before was known 

 by the name of " parthenis." There are some persons, how- 

 ever, who are of opinion that it received this surname from the 

 goddess Artemis Ilithyia,*^ from the fact of its being used for 

 the cure of female complaints more particularly. It is a 

 plant with numerous branches, like those of wormwood, but 

 the leaves of it are larger and substantial. 



There are two varieties of it ; one has broader^" leaves than 

 the other, *^ which last is of a slender form, with a more diminu- 

 tive leaf, and grows nowhere but in maritime districts. 



^^ A king of Thrace, contemporary -with Alexander the Great. Sprengel 

 and Desfontaines identify this plant with the Lythrum salicaria of Linnaeus, 

 the purple Willow-herb. Fee, on the authority of Dioscorides, identifies 

 it with the Lysimachia vulgaris of Linnaeus, the yellow Willow-plant. 

 Littre gives the Lysimachia atro-purpurea of Linnaeus. 



^■^ Pliny has probably mistranslated the Greek wppov here, "reddish 

 yellow." ^^ An absurdity, of course. 



*^ Artemis or Diana, the guardian of pregnant women. 



^ Probably the Artemisia chamaemelifolia, Camomile-leaved mugwort. 

 The A. arborescens. the Tree-Avormwood is named by Littre. 



°i Either the Artemisia Pontica of Linnteus, Little wormwood, or 

 Eoman wormwood, or else A. campestris of Linnaeus, Field southern-wood. 



