ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xm. 4-6 



1 These then are sweet : other roots are bitter, and 

 some unpleasant to the taste. Of those that are 

 sweet 2 there are some that cause mental derange- 

 ment, as the plant like the golden thistle which 

 grows near Tegea : of this Pandeios the sculptor ate, 

 and went mad while he was working in the temple. 

 Others have fatal effects, as that 3 which grows near 

 the mines in the fields of 4 Thrace : this however is 

 inoffensive and quite sweet to the taste, and the death 

 which it causes is easy and like falling asleep. There 

 are also differences in colour, not merely as to being 

 black or white or yellow, but some are quite wine- 

 coloured and some are red, as the root of madder. 



5 The root of pentaphyllon or pentapetes (ciiiquefoil) 6 

 (for the plant bears both names) is red when it is dug 

 up, but as it dries it becomes black and square : its 

 leaf is like a vine -leaf, and it is small and like it in 

 colour : it grows and fades along with the vine. It 

 only has five leaves in all, whence its name : it sends 

 out long slender stems on the ground, and it has 

 joints. 7 



8 Madder has a leaf like ivy, but it is rounder : it 

 grows along the ground like dog's-tooth grass and 

 loves shady spots. It has diuretic properties, where- 

 fore it is used for pains in the loins or hip-disease. 



Some roots are of ' peculiar shape, as that of the 

 plant called ' scorpion-plant ' (leopard's bane) 9 and 

 that of polypody. For the former is like a scorpion 



6 irej/TaTrerous con]'. Sch. ; n^vra.tr^rov UAld. ; TrevTeireTov M 

 U*. c/. Diosc. 4. 42. 



7 /col Kvn/j.as ex et U*; /cat KV. e. TTVKVO.S Aid.; Kal KV(KO.S exet 

 TTvifvds UM. cf. iro\i>Kvn/j.os, Diosc. 3. 94. Text probably de- 

 fective, as nothing is said of the plant's medicinal vise. 



8 Diosc. 3. 143 ; Plin. 19. 47. 

 <J c/. 9. 18. 2. 



285 



