88 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY, [BookXXY. 



gods. The discovery of it he attributes to Mercury, who was 

 also the first to point out its uses as neutralizing the most 

 potent spells of sorcery. At the present day, it is said, it 

 grows in the vicinity of Lake Pheneus, and in Cyllene, a dis- 

 trict of Arcadia. It answers the description given of it by 

 Homer, having a round black root, about as large as an onion, 

 and a leaf like that of the squill : there is no 42 difficulty ex- 

 perienced in taking it up. The Greek writers have deline- 

 ated 43 it as having a yellow flower, while Homer, 44 on the 

 other hand, has spoken of it as white. I once met with a 

 physician, a person extremely well acquainted with plants, 

 who assured me that it is found growing in Italy as well, and 

 that he would send me in a few days a specimen which had 

 been dug up in Campania, with the greatest difficulty, from a 

 rocky soil. The root of it was thirty 45 feet in length, and even 

 then it was not entire, having been broken in the getting up. 



CHAP. 9. THE DODECATHEOS I ONE EEMEDY. 



The plant next in esteem to moly, is that called dodeca- 

 theos, 46 it being looked upon as under the especial tute- 

 lage of all the superior gods. 47 Taken in water, it is a cure, 

 they say, for maladies of every kind. The leaves of it, seven 

 in number, and very similar to those of the lettuce, spring 

 from a yellow root. 



CHAP. 10. THE P^ONIA, PENTOROBTJS, OE GLYCYSIDE : ONE 



11EMEDY. 



The plant known as "paBonia" 48 is the most ancient of them 

 all. It still retains the name 49 of him who was the first to 



derives the name "Moly" from the Arabic, and identifies it with the 

 Allium nigram of Linnseus. 



42 Homer says that there is difficulty to men, but not to the gods. 



43 In their pictures, mentioned in c. 4- 



44 Ovid, Galen, and Theophrastus, say the same. 



45 There must either be some error in the reading here, or the physician 

 must have attempted to impose upon our author's credulity. 



46 Or "the twelve gods." 



47 Generally identified with the Primula vulgaris or officinalis of Lin- 

 naeus. Its leaves, however, are of varying number, and not like those of 

 the lettuce. The Dodecatheos Meadia, or Virginian cowslip, it must be 

 remembered, is an American plant. 



4S The Pseonia officinalis of Linnseus, our Peony. 

 49 Paeon, the physician, mentioned in the Iliad, B. v. 1. 401, as healing 

 Pluto, when wounded by Hercules. 



