ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xv. 1-3 



for thence he says l that Helen brought " things of 

 virtue which Polydamna, the Egyptian wife of Thon, 

 gave her ; there the grain-bearing earth produces 

 most drugs, many that are good, and many baneful." 

 Among these 2 he says was nepenthes, the famous drug 

 which cures sorrow and passion, so that it causes for- 

 getfulness and indifference to ills. So these lands 

 seem to have been pointed out, as it were, by the 

 poets. For Aeschylus too in his elegies speaks of 

 Tyrrhenia as rich in drugs, for he tells of the " Tyrr- 

 henian stock, a nation that makes drugs." 



It seems that almost all places take their share in 

 producing drugs, but that they differ in the extent 

 to which they do so ; for the regions of the North, 

 South, and East have herbs of marvellous virtue. 

 Thus in Ethiopia there is a certain deadly root 3 with 

 which they smear their arrows. And in Scythia there 

 is this and there are also others, some of which kill 

 at once those who eat them, some after an interval, 

 shorter or longer, so that in the latter case men have 

 a lingering death. In India there are many other 

 kinds, 4 but the most extraordinary, 5 if they tell the 

 truth, are these : there is one which has the power 

 to make the blood disperse and as it were to put it 

 to flight, 6 and another which collects it and draws it 

 to itself; these they say were discovered as remedies 

 for the bites of deadly serpents. 



In Thrace it is said there are fairly numerous 

 other kinds, but that about the most powerful is 

 ' blood-stancher,' 7 which stops and prevents the flow 



8 Somali arrow-poison. Index App. (27). 

 4 7tvTj conj. Dalec. ; jue/n; Aid. 



6 TrepiTT^TOTO COnj. W. ; ireptTTOTCtTTJ Aid. 



6 ? add troielv after vTroQevyeiv. 7 Plin. 25. 83. 



2 9 I 

 u 2 



