ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. vm. 1-2 



1 The properties of ' roots ' 2 are numerous and they 

 have numerous uses; but those which have medicinal 

 virtues are especially sought after, as being the most 

 useful ; and they differ in not all being applied to 

 the same 3 purposes and in not all having their virtue 

 in the same parts of them. 4 To speak generally, 

 most ( roots ' have it in themselves 5 ; or else it is 

 found in the fruits or the juices of the plant ; and in 

 some cases in the leaves as well, and it is to the 

 virtues of the leaves in most cases that the herb- 

 diggers refer, when they speak, as has just been 

 said/ of ' herbs.' 



The collection of the juice from plants from which 

 it is collected is mostly done in summer, in some 

 cases at the beginning of that season, in others when 

 it is well advanced. The digging of roots is done in 

 some cases at the time of wheat-harvest or a little 

 earlier, but the greater part of it in autumn after the 

 rising of Arcturus when the plants have shed their 

 leaves, and, in the case of those whose fruit is 

 serviceable, when they have lost their fruit. The 

 collection of juice is made either from the stalks, 7 as 

 with tithymallos (spurge) wild lettuce and the majority 

 of plants, or from the roots, or thirdly from the head, 

 as in the case of the poppy ; for this is the only plant 

 which is so treated 8 and this is its peculiarity. In 

 some plants the juice collects of its own accord in 



3 ravra conj. Seal, from G ; TO.VTO. Aid. 



4 After Svya/juv U*Ald.* add ftvirep efpTjrat fjuitpQ Trp6repov ; 

 omitted here by Sch.: see below. 5 Sc. in the roots. 



G o&<T7rep . . . irpdrepov inserted here by Sch. : see above ; 



faffTTCp efy>7JTCft Aid. 



7 navXwv Vin.Vo.Cod.Cas.: so also G ; Kapir&v Ald.HM*. 



8 fj.6vris ovrca Kal conj. W. ; ^6vtis /ecu Ald.H ; povov ovrta 

 KCU M*. 



253 



