ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IX. xix. 2-4 



Of plants said to have magical properties. 



On the other hand what is said of amulets and 

 charms in general for the body or the house is some- 

 what foolish and incredible. 1 Thus they say that 

 tripoKon 2 according to Hesiod and Musaeus is useful 

 for every good purpose, wherefore they dig it up 

 by night, camping on the spot. So too what is said 

 of good or fair fame as affected by plants is quite as 

 foolish or more so : for they .say that the plant called 

 snapdragon 3 produces fair fame. This plant is like 

 bedstraw but it has no root : and the fruit has what 

 resembles a calf's nostrils. The man who anoints 

 himself with this they say wins fair fame. 4 And they 

 say that the same result follows, if he crowns himself 

 with the flower of gold-flower, sprinkling it with 

 unguent from a vessel of unfired gold. The flower of 

 gold-flower is like gold, the leaf is white. The stem 

 also is white 5 and hard, the root is slender and does 

 not run deep. 6 Men use it in wine against the bites 

 of serpents, and to make a plaster for burns after 

 burning it and mixing the ashes with honey. Such 

 tales then, as was said before, proceed from men who 

 desire to glorify their own crafts. 



A problem as to cause and effect. 



Now since the natural qualities of roots fruits and 

 juices have many virtues of all sorts, some having 

 the same virtue and causing the same result, while 



of a plant. Plin. I.e. seems to combine Diosc.'s account of 

 Tr6\tov (3. 110) with his account of rpnr6\iov (4. 132). 



3 rb avripptvov conj. St. from Diosc. 4. 130 ; Plin. 25. 129 ; 

 rb avrippifrv Aid. H. ; r~bv avr. UM ; rJ> avripi^ov U*. 



4 Diosc. 4. 57 ; Plin. 21. 66. Cited also by Athen. 15. 27. 

 6 \cvxbv conj. Sch. ; Xfirrbv UMU*Ald.G. 



6 Diosc. I.e.-, Plin. 21. 168 and 169. 



313 



