396 PLINY'S KATURAL .HISTORY. [Book XXII. 



dies for our use in the most despised even of the vegetable pro- 

 ductions, medicaments in plants which repel us with their 

 thorns. 



It is of these, in fact, that it remains for us now to speak, as 

 next in succession to those which we have mentioned in the 

 preceding Book ; and here we cannot sufficiently admire, and, 

 indeed, adore, 41 the wondrous providence displayed by Nature. 

 She had given us, as already 42 shewn, plants soft to the touch, 

 and agreeable to the palate ; in the flowers she had painted 

 the remedies for our diseases with her varied tints, and, while 

 commingling the useful with the delicious, had attracted our 

 attention by means of the pleasures of the eye. Here, how- 

 ever, she has devised another class of plants, bristling and re- 

 pulsive to the sight, and dangerous to the touch ; so much so, 

 indeed, that we fancy we all but hear the voice of her who 

 made them as she reveals to us her motives for so doing. It is 

 her wish, she says, that no ravening cattle may browse upon 

 them, that no wanton hand may tear them up, that no heed- 

 less footstep may tread thorn down, that no bird, perching there, 

 may break them : and in thus fortifying them with thorns, and 

 arming them with weapons, it has been her grand object 

 to save and protect the remedies which they afford to man. 

 Thus we see, the very qualities even which we hold in such 

 aversion, have been devised by Nature for the benefit and ad- 

 vantage of mankind. 



CHAP. 8. (7.) THE EE.YNGP: OR ERYNGIUM. 



In the first rank of the plants armed with prickles, the 

 erynge 43 or eryngion stands pre-eminent, a vegetable production 

 held in high esteem as an antidote formed for the poison of ser- 

 pents and all venomous substances. For stings and bites of 

 this nature, the root is taken in wine in doses of one drachma, 

 or if, as generally is the case, the wound is attended with 

 fever, in water. It is employed also, in the form of a lini- 



41 " Amplecti." i n t h e Twentieth Book. 



** It has been thought by some that this is the Scolymus maculatus of 

 Linnaeus; the spotted yellow thistle. But the more general opinion is 

 that it is the eringo, or Eryngium campestre of Linnaeus. It derives its 

 name from the Greek tpfvytiv, from its asserted property of dispelling 

 flatulent eructations. It is possessed in reality of few medicinal proper- 

 ties, and is only used occasionally, at the present day, as a diuretic. See 

 B. xxi. c. 56. 



