ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. iv. i 3 -v. 2 



even a man, if any drops of it should fall on him. 

 Also they say that in some parts grows a herb under 

 which very small snakes lie coiled up, and that, if 

 anyone treads on these and is bitten, he dies. They 

 also say that, if anyone should eat of unripe dates, 

 he chokes to death, and that this fact was not 

 discovered at first. Now it may be that animals and 

 plants have such properties elsewhere also. 



Among the plants that grow in Arabia Syria and 

 India the aromatic plants are somewhat exceptional 

 and distinct from the plants of other lands ; for 

 instance, frankincense myrrh cassia balsam of Mecca 

 cinnamon and all other such plants, about which we 

 have spoken at greater length elsewhere. So in 

 the parts towards the east and south there are these 

 special plants and many others besides. 



Of the plants special to northern regions. 



V. In the northern regions it is not so, for nothing 

 worthy of record is mentioned except the ordinary 

 trees which love the cold and are found also in our 

 country, as fir oak silver-fir box chestnut lime, as 

 well as other similar trees. There is hardly any 

 other * besides these ; but of shrubs there are some 

 which for choice 2 seek cold regions, as centaury and 

 wormwood, and further those that have medicinal 

 properties in their roots and juices, such as hellebore 

 squirting cucumber scammony, and nearly all those 

 whose roots are gathered. 3 



Some of these grow in Pontus and Thrace, some 



2 I have moved /xaAAov, which in the MSS. comes before 



1 UV &\\UV. 



* i.e. which have medicinal uses. 



3 2 3 



