ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xiv. 2 -xv. i 



drugs, or to a greater degree than any, it effects a 

 thorough purge upwards : this then is a virtue 

 peculiar to it. 



Those roots which contain any sweetness become 

 worm-eaten in course of time, but those that are 

 pungent are not so affected, though their virtues 

 diminish as they become flabby and waste away. 

 1 No creature coming from without 2 touches a 

 pungent root, but the sphondyle 3 attacks them all ; 

 this then is a peculiarity of this creature. 



4 Any root, they say, deteriorates if one lets the fruit 

 grow to maturity and ripen : and so in like manner 

 does the fruit, if you drain the root of its juice : and 

 in general roots with medicinal properties do not have 

 the juice of their roots taken, and only those whose 

 seeds are medicinal are thus treated. But some say 

 that they use the roots for choice, because the fruit 

 is too powerful for the human body to be able to bear 

 it. However this does not appear to be true as a 

 universal rule, seeing that the people of Anticyra 

 administer 5 doses of the drug G desamodes made 

 from hellebore, which is so called because its fruit is 

 like sesame. 



Of the localities which specially produce medicinal herbs. 



XV. The places outside Hellas which specially 

 produce medicinal herbs seem to be the parts of 

 Tyrrhenia and Latium (where they say that Circe 

 dwelt), and still more parts of Egypt, as Homer says : 



5 i.e. and it is in this case the fruit which is used. The 

 drug in question, as well as the plant, was called <rri(Ta/j.oei$(s 

 or ff-nffafjioeiS^s. cf. 9. 9. 2 n. ; Diosc. 4. 149. 



6 Or (if f\\ff$6pov is sound) ' of the sesame-like hellebore,' 

 i.e. he 'black.' on. . . (rrja-dfj.^ I have bracketed, as a 

 gloss on ffrio'a/j.woovs : e\\ffi6pov is probably also a gloss. 



289 

 VOL. II. U 



