220 pliny's natural histoet. [Book XXYII. 



benefit ;^^ always understanding that under this name we mean 

 , Nature, that great parent and mistress of all things : and this 

 is evident, whether we come to the conclusion, that these wild 

 beasts make the discovery from day to day, or that they are 

 ■ gifted from the first with these powers of perception. Re- 

 garded in another point of view, it really is a disgrace that 

 all animated beings should have an exact knowledge of what 

 is beneficial to them, with the exception of man ! 



The ancients, openly professing their belief that there is no 

 evil without some admixture of good, have asserted that aconite 

 is a remarkably useful ingredient in compositions for the eyes. 

 It may therefore be permitted me, though I have hitherto 

 omitted a description of the poisonous plants, to point out the 

 characteristics of aconite, if only that it may be the more 

 easily detected. Aconite^® has leaves like those of eyclaminos -' 

 or of the cucumber, never more than four in number, slightly 

 hairy, and rising from near the root. This root, which is of 

 moderate size, resembles the sea-fish known as the " cam- 

 marus,"^® a circumstance owing to which the plant has received 

 the name of " cammaron " from some; while others, for the 

 reason already^^ mentioned, have called it *' thelyphonon."*" 

 The root is slightly curved, like a scorpion's tail, for which 

 reason some persons have given it the name of '' scorpio." 

 Others, again, have preferred giving it the name of " myoc- 

 tonon,"^^ from the fact that the odour of it kills mice at a 

 considerable distance even. 

 \ This plant is found growing upon the naked rocks known 

 |as " aconae y*^^ and hence it is, according to some authorities, 



^5 " Hoc habet nomen" is omitted ; for, as Sillig says, it is evidently a 

 gloss, which has crept into the text. 



"^ The ancients no doubt knew several plants under the common name 

 of Aconitum. The one here described, is identified by Fee with the Do- 

 ronicum pardalianches of Linnaeus, Leopard's bane. 



^' See B. XXV. c. 67. Fee says that neither the leaves of the Doronicum, 

 nor of any plant of the genus Arnica, bear any resemblance to those of 

 the Cyclamen, or the cucumber. He remarks also, that the contact solely 

 of it is not productive of poisonous effects. 



18 A kind of crab. is At the beginning of this Chapter. 



20 " Female-bane," or '« female-killer." See B. xx. c. 23. 



21 " Mice-killer." This assertion is incorrect. 



22 So called from a, "without," and koviq, "dust," Theophrastus 

 says that it received its name from the town of Aconae, in the vicinity of 

 which it grew in great abundance. 



