ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xm. 6-xiv. 2 



and is also useful l against the sting of that creature 

 and for certain other purposes. 2 The root of polypody 

 is rough and has suckers like the tentacles of the 

 polyp. It purges downwards : and, if one wears it 

 as an amulet, they say that one 3 does not get a 

 polypus. It has a leaf like the great fern, and it 

 grows on rocks. 



Of the lime for ivhich roots can be kept without losing their 

 virtue. 



XIV. 4 Some roots keep a longer, some a shorter 

 time. Hellebore retains its usefulness for as much 

 as thirty years, birthwort five or six, the black 

 chamaeleon for forty, feverwort 5 (whose root is thick 

 and compact) for ten or twelve. Sulphur-wort keeps 

 five or six years, the root of the ' wild vine ' 6 (bryony) 

 for a year, if it be kept in the shade and not 

 damaged : 7 otherwise it rots and becomes spongy. 8 

 Others keep for various periods. But, to speak 

 generally, of all plants used as drugs the ' driver ' 9 

 keeps longest, and, the older it is, the better it is. 

 At least a certain physician, who was no boaster nor 

 liar, said that he had some which was 200 years old 

 and of marvellous virtue, and that it was a present 

 to him from some one. The cause of its keeping so 

 long is its moisture : 10 for to secure this, as soon as 

 they have cut it, they put it among ashes without 

 drying it, and not even so does it become dry, but 

 up to fifty years it will put the lamp n out if it is 

 brought near it. And they say that alone of all 



8 ffo/j.<f><i!)8r]s conj. Sch. ; (ro-y/caSSTjs Ald.H. 



9 A manufactured drug. cf. 9. 9. 4. 



10 Diosc. 4. 150 ; Plin. 20. 5. 



11 \vxvovs conj 8ch. : so Vin.Cod.Cas.GPlin. I.e. ; avx/J-ovs 

 U*Ald.; xpArs UM. 



287 



