124 PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTORY. [Book XXV. 



variety of the daucus, there is a plant 67 of this nature very 

 similar to the staphy linos, known as the " pastinaca 68 erratica," 

 with an oblong seed and a sweet root. Quadrupeds will touch 

 none of these plants, either in winter or in summer, except 

 indeed, after abortion. 69 The seed of the various kinds is used, 

 with the exception of that of Crete, in which case it is the 

 root that is employed ; this root being particularly useful for the 

 stings of serpents. The proper dose is one drachma, taken in 

 wine. It is administered also to cattle when stung by those 

 reptiles. 



CHAP. 65. THE THER10NARCA '. TWO REMEDIES. 



The therionarca, altogether a different plant from that of 

 the Magi, 70 grows in our own climates, and is a branchy plant, 

 with greenish leaves, and a rose-coloured flower. It has a 

 deadly effect upon serpents, and the very contact of it is suf- 

 ficient to benumb 71 a wild beast, of whatever kind it be. 



CHAP. 66. THE PEBSOLATA OR ARCION ; EIGHT REMEDIES. 



The persolata, 72 a plant known to every one, and called 

 " arcion" by the Greeks, has a leaf, larger, thicker, more 

 swarthy, and more hairy than that of the gourd even, with a 

 large white root. This plant also is taken, in doses of two 

 denarii, in wine. 



67 Identified by Sprengel with the Daucus Mauritanicus, and by Brotero 

 and Desfontaines with the Daucus carota, var. a, our Common carrot. Fee 

 seems inclined to identify it with the Athamanta cervaria of Linnseus, 

 Mountain carrot, or Broad-leaved spignel. The account given by Pliny 

 is, however, a mass of confusion. 



es Or " wild parsnip." See B. xix. c. 27. 



69 For the purpose of expelling the dead foetus, according to Dioscorides, 

 B. iii. c. 83. 



70 See B. xxiv. c. 102. The plant here spoken of has not been identified, 

 but the Epilobium angustifolium, montanum, tetragonum, &c., varieties of 

 the Willow-herb, have been suggested. They are destitute, however, of 

 all poisonous qualities. 



71 Hence its name " Benumbing wild beasts." 



72 Fee thinks that there is an error in the name, and that it is the " per- 

 sonata" that is here spoken of, the plant already mentioned in c. 58 of 

 this Book. Hardouin identifies it with the Tussilago petasites the Butter- 

 burr, according to Nemnich but apparently without any sufficient au- 

 thority. 



