ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xi. 7-9 



Of the various kinds of tithymallos. 



1 Of the various plants called tithymallos (spurge) 

 that which is called sea-spurge has a round scarlet 2 

 leaf ; the stem (and the size of the plant generally) 

 is about a span long, and the fruit is white. It is 

 gathered when the grape is just turning, and the 

 dried fruit is given in a draught, the dose being the 

 twenty-fourth part of a pint. 



3 That which is called the ' male ' has a leaf like 

 the olive, and the height of the whole plant is a 

 cubit. Of this they collect the juice at the time 

 of vintage, and, after preparing it, use it as oc- 

 casion demands 4 ; and it purges chiefly downwards. 



5 The kind of tithymallos called ' myrtle-like ' is 

 white ; it has a leaf like the myrtle, but spinous 

 at the tip ; it puts out earthward twigs about a 

 span long, and these bear the fruit 6 not all at 

 the same time but in alternate years, so that from 

 the same root grow fruits partly this and partly 

 next year. It loves hill-country. The fruit of it is 

 called a f nut.' They gather it when the barley is 

 ripening and dry and clean it ; (it is the actual fruit 7 

 which they clean) ; they wash it in water and, after 

 drying it again, give it in a draught, mixing with it 

 two parts of ' black 8 poppy ' ; and the whole dose 

 amounts to about an eighth of a pint. It purges 

 phlegm downwards. If they administer the f nut' 

 itself, they first pound it up in sweet wine, or give it 

 in parched sesame to bite up. These plants then 

 have leaves juices or fruits which are serviceable. 



5 Diosc. 4. 164 ; Plin. 26. 66. 6 cf. C.P. 4. 6. 9. 



7 W. adds 8e after a.vr'bv. The treatment of the leaves has 

 perhaps dropped out. cf. Plin. I.e. G's version is even shorter. 



8 /j.f\aiva must here mean 'dark,' i.e. red. See Index. 



2 75 



T 2 



