138 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXV. 



attended with swelling, it will be a good plan to apply worm- 

 wood beaten up with honey, as well as powdered betony. 



CHAP. 93. THE JEGILOPS I TWO BEMEDIES. 



The fistula of the eye, called " eegilops," is cured by the 

 agency of the plant of the same name, 63 which grows among 

 barley, and has a leaf like that of wheat. The seed is 

 pounded for the purpose, and applied with meal ; or else the 

 juice is extracted from the stem and more pulpy leaves, the 

 ears being first removed. This juice is incorporated with meal 

 of three-month wheat, and divided into lozenges. 



CHAP, 94. MANDBAGORA, CTBCJEON, MOKION", OK HIPPOPHLOMOS j 

 TWO VARIETIES OF IT I TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES. 



Some persons, too, were in the habit of employing mandra- 

 gora for diseases of the eyes ; but more recently, the use of it 

 for such a purpose has been abandoned. It is a well-ascertained 

 fact, however, that the root, beaten up with rose oil and 

 wine, is curative of defluxions of the eyes and pains in those 

 organs ; and, indeed, the juice of this plant still forms an in- 

 gredient in many medicaments for the eyes. Some persons 

 give it the name of " circseon." 63 There are two varieties, 

 the white 64 mandragora, which is generally thought to be the 

 male plant, and the black, 65 which is considered to be the 

 female. It has a leaf narrower than that of the lettuce, a 

 hairy stem, and a double or triple root, black without and 

 white within, soft and fleshy, and nearly a cubit in length. 



Both kinds bear a fruit about the size of a hazel-nut, 

 enclosing a seed resembling the pips of a pear in appearance. 

 The name given to the white plant by some persons is 

 "arsen," 66 by others "morion," 67 and by others again, "hippo- 

 phlomos." The leaves of it are white, while those of the other 



62 See B. xviii. c. 44, and B. xxi. c. 63. 



63 Or "Plant of Circe." 



64 Identified by Fee with the Atropa mandragora vernalis of Bertolini, 

 the Spring mandrake. 



65 The Atropa mandragora autumnalis of Bertolini, the Autumnal man- 

 drake. 66 The Greek for " male." 



67 "Dementing." Fee remarks that the "Morion" in reality is a 

 different plant, and queries whether it may not be the Atropa bella- 

 donna of Linnaeus, the Belladonna, or Deadly nightshade, mentioned above 

 in Note 57. 



