ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xi. 5-6 



denoted by the name. 1 Of the plants called strykhnos 

 one induces sleep, the other (thorn-apple) causes 

 madness. The first-mentioned has a root which be- 

 comes red like blood as it dries, but when first dug 

 up it is white ; its fruit is a deeper orange than 

 saffron, 2 its leaf like that of tithymallos or the sweet 

 apple ; and it is itself rough, and about a foot high. 3 

 The ' bark ' of the root of this they bruise severely, 

 and soaking it in neat wine give it as a draught, and 

 it induces sleep. It grows in water-courses and 011 

 tombs. 



4 The kind which produces madness (which some 

 call thryoron b and some peritton Q ) has a white 

 hollow root about a cubit long. Of this three 

 twentieths of an ounce in weight is given, if the 

 patient is to become merely sportive and to think 

 himself a fine fellow ; twice this dose 7 if he is to go 

 mad outright and have delusions 8 ; thrice the dose, 

 if he is to be permanently insane ; (and then they 

 say that the juice of centaury is mixed with it) ; 

 four 9 times the dose is given, if the man is to be 

 killed. The leaf is like that of rocket, but larger, 

 the stem about a fathom long; the 'head' 10 is like 

 that of a long onion, but larger and rougher. And 

 it also resembles the fruit of the plane-tree. 



briorem G. Plin. I.e. seems to have read epvQpbv ; Diosc. I.e. 



Ald.H., i.e. 'violent'; pittsum G ; Plin. I.e. peris- 

 son; Diosc. I.e. iTfpcriov. 



7 SpaxfJ-ai conj. Sch.; Spax/J-as Aid. 



8 /col . . . </miVecr0ai om. UM : ungrammatical, and possibly 

 a gloss ; but cf. Diosc. and Plin. I. c. 



J rerrapes conj. Sch.; Tfrrapas Aid ; reVaapos U*. 

 10 7. 4. 10 it was said that yydvov has no 'head,' i.e. bulb; 

 here the ' head ' seems to be the inflorescence, cf. Diosc. and 

 Plin. I.e. 



273 

 VOL. II. T 



