116 PLINY : S NATUBAL HISTOKT. [Book XXV. 



is sufficient to burn the mouth. The persons who gather it 

 are in the habit of enclosing it in a stem of fennel-giant or in a 

 reed, which they close at the ends that the virtues of it may 

 not escape. Some persons say, that both plants grow indis- 

 criminately in numerous localities, the inferior sort being the 

 produce of rich soils, and the genuine dittany being found 

 nowhere but in rugged, uncultivated spots. 



There is, again, a third 14 plant called " dictamnum," which, 

 however, has neither the appearance nor the properties of the 

 other plant so called ; the leaves of it are like those of sisym- 

 brium, 15 but the branches are larger. 



There has long been this impression with reference to Crete, 

 that whatever plant grows there is infinitely superior in its 

 properties to a similar plant the produce of any other country ; 

 the second rank being given to the produce of Mount Parnassus. 

 In addition to this, it is generally asserted that simples of ex- 

 cellent quality are found upon Mount Pelion in Thessaly, 

 Mount Teleuthrius in Eubcea, and throughout the whole of 

 Arcadia and Laconia, Indeed, the Arcadians, they say, are 

 in the habit of using, not the simples themselves, but milk, 

 in the spring season more particularly ; a period at which the 

 field plants are swollen with juice, and the milk is medicated 

 by their agency. It is cows' milk in especial that they use 

 for this purpose, those animals being in the habit of feeding 

 upon nearly every kind of plant. The potent properties of 

 plants are manifested by their action upon four-footed animals 

 in two very remarkable instances : in the vicinity of Abdera 

 and the tract known as the Boundary 16 of Diomedes, the horses, 

 after pasturing, become inflamed with frantic fury ; the same 

 is the case, too, with the male asses, in the neighbourhood of 

 Potnise. 



CHAP. 54. THE ARISTOLOCHIl, CLEMATITTS, CRETICA, PLISTOLO- 



CHIA, LOCHIA POLYEEHIZOS, OE APPLE OF THE EAETH I TWEN'IT- 

 TWO EEMED1ES. 



In the number of the most celebrated plants is the aristo- 



14 Fee is inclined, with Sprengel, to identify it with the Origanum 

 Creticum of Linnaeus. Other commentators have suggested the Origanum 

 Tournefortii, the Thymus mastichina of Linnaeus, and the Marrubium 

 acetabulosum of Linnaeus. 



15 See B. xx. c. 91. 16 " Limes Diomcdis." 



