138 plint's natural history. [Book XXV. 



attended with swelling, it will be a good plan to apply worm- 

 wood beaten up with honey, as well as powdered betony. 



CHAP. 93. THE iEGILOPS '. TWO EEMEDIES. 



The fistula of the eye, called ^' ssgilops," is cured by the 

 agency of the plant of the same name,^- which grows among 

 barley, and has a leaf like that of wheat. The seed is 

 pounded for the purpose, and applied with meal ; or else the 

 juice is extracted from the stem and more pulpy leaves, the 

 ears being first removed. This juice is incorporated with meal 

 of three-month wheat, and divided into lozenges. 



CHAP. 94. — MANDRAGORA, CIRC^Olf, MORION, OR HIPPOPHLOMOS ; 

 TWO VARIETIES OF IT : TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. 



Some persons, too, were in the habit of employing mandra- 

 gora for diseases of the eyes ; but more recently, the use of it 

 for such a purpose has been abandoned. It is a well- ascertained 

 fact, however, that the root, beaten up with rose oil and 

 wine, is curative of defluxions of the eyes and pains in those 

 organs; and, indeed, the juice of this plant still forms an in- 

 gredient in many medicaments for the eyes. Some persons 

 give it the name of *' circEeon."^^ There are two varieties, 

 the white ^^ mandragora, which is generally thought to be the 

 male plant, and the black, ^^ which is considered to be the 

 female. It has a leaf narrower than that of the lettuce, a 

 hairy stem, and a double or triple root, black without and 

 white within, soft and fleshy, and nearly a cubit in length. 



Both kinds bear a fruit about the size of a hazel-nut, 

 enclosing a seed resembling the pips of a pear in appearance. 

 The name given to the white plant by some persons is 

 *'arsen,"®^ by others ^' morion,*'^'' and by others again, **hippo- 

 phlomos." The leaves of it are white, while those of the other 



^2 See B. xviii. c. 44, and B. xxi. c. 63. 



«3 Or " Plant of Circe." 



®* Identified by Fee with the Atropa mandragora vernalis of Bertolini, 

 the Spring mandrake. 



^* The Atropa mandragora autumnalis of Bertolini, the Autumnal man- 

 drake. ^^ The Greek for " male." 



^"^ "Dementing." Fee remarks that the "Morion" in reality is a 

 different plant, and queries whether it may not be the Atropa bella- 

 donna of Linnaeus, the Belladonna, or Deadly nightshade, mentioned above 

 in Note 57. 



