92 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOHT. [Book XXV. 



employ, as also that with, a red seed. 75 Sometimes, however, 

 the white seed turns of a reddish colour, if not sufficiently 

 ripe when gathered ; in which case it is rejected as unfit for 

 use : indeed, none of these plants are gathered until they are 

 perfectly dry. Hyoscyamos, like wine, has the property of 

 flying to the head, and consequently of acting inj uriously upon 

 the mental faculties. 



The seed is either used in its natural state, or else the juice 

 of it is extracted : the juice also of the stem and leaves is 

 sometimes extracted, separately from the seed. The root is 

 sometimes made use of; but the emploj'ment of this plant in 

 any way for medical purposes is, in my opinion, highly dan- 

 gerous. For it is a fact well ascertained, that the leaves even 

 will exercise a deleterious effect upon the mind, if more than 

 four are taken at a time ; though the ancients were of opinion 

 that the leaves act as a febrifuge, taken in wine. From the 

 seed, as already 76 stated, an oil is extracted, which, injected 

 into the ears, deranges the intellect. It is a singular thing, 

 bat we find remedies mentioned for those who have taken 

 this juice, as though for a poison, while at the same time we 

 find it prescribed as a potion among the various remedies. 

 In this way it is that experiments are multiplied without end, 

 even to forcing the very poisons themselves to act as an- 

 tidotes. 



CHAP. 18. (5.) LINOZOSTIS, PARTHTOION, HERMUPOA, OB MER- 



CURIALIS ; TWO VARIETIES OE IT : TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES. 



Linozostis 77 or parthenion is a discovery attributed to Mer- 

 cury : hence it is that among the Greeks it is known as 

 " hermupoa" 78 by many, while among us it is universally 

 known as " mercurialis." There are two varieties of this 

 plant, the male and the female, the last possessing more 

 decided properties than the other, and having a stem a cubit in 

 height, and sometimes branchy at the summit, with leaves 

 somewhat narrower than those of ocimum. The joints of the 

 stem lie close together, and the axils are numerous : the seed 

 hangs downwards, having the joints for its basis. In the 



75 The third kind mentioned above. 



' 6 In B. xv. c. 7, and B. xxiii. c. 49. This cannot have been a fixed oil. 

 77 The Mercuralis anmia of Linnaeus, male and female ; the herb mercury. 

 < 8 " Herb of Hermes." 



