BOOK IX 



OF THE JUICES OF PLANTS, AND OF THE MEDICINAL 

 PROPERTIES or HERBS. 



Of the various kinds of plant-juices and the methods of collecting 

 them. 



I. * Moisture belongs to plants as such and some 

 call it the ' sap/ to give it a general name ; and 

 it plainly has 2 special qualities in each plant. 

 This moisture is attended by a taste, in some cases 

 more, in some less, while in some it would seem to 

 have none, so weak and watery is it. Now all plants 

 have most moisture at the time of making growth, 

 but it is strongest and most shows its character when 

 the plant has ceased to grow and to bear fruit. 

 Again in some plants the juice has a special colour ; 

 in some it is white, as in those which have a milky 

 juice ; in some blood-red, as in centaury 3 and the 

 spinous plant which is called distaff-thistle ; in some 

 green : and in some of other colours. And these 

 qualities are more obvious in annual 4 plants and 

 those with annual stems than in trees. 



Again in some plants the juice is merely thick, as 

 in those in which it is of milky character ; but in some 

 it is of gummy character, as in silver-fir fir terebinth 

 Aleppo pine almond kerasos (bird-cherry) bullace 

 Phoenician cedar prickly cedar acacia elm. 5 For 



4 fv inserted here by W. instead of before Tols firerdois. 



5 irrcAe'as after /ce'Spou P 2 Ald.; transposed by Sch. after 

 Tobias Aldinus. c/. Plin. 13. 67. 



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