BOOK XVI. xcii. 244-xcin. 247 



Also a plant that grows on a wild olive aftcr it has 

 been lopped is called phaunos, while one that grows 

 on the fuller's teazel is called hippophaestum ; it has 

 hollow stalks.small leaves and awhite root.the juice 

 of which is considered very useful for purgatives 

 in epilepsy. 



XCIII. There are thrce kinds of mistletoe. One VanfUesoj 

 that grows as a parasite on the fir and the larch is callcd ""*' ** 

 stelis in Euboca and hyphear in Arcadia, and the name 

 of mistletoe is used for one growing on the oak, 

 hard oak. holm-oak, wild pear, turpentine-tree, and 

 indeed most other trees ; and growing in great 

 abundance on the oak is one which they call dryos 

 hyphear. There is a difFercnce in the ca^^e of every 

 tree except the holm-oak and the oak in the smell 

 and poison of the berry and the disagreeably scented 

 leaf, both the berry and the leaf of the mistletoe 

 being bitter and sticky. The hyphear is more useful 

 than tare for fattening cattle; at first it only acts 

 as a purge, but it subsequently fattens the beasts 

 that have stood the purging process, although they 

 say that those with some internal malady cannot 

 stand it. T)iis method of trcatment is employed 

 for forty days in summer. An additional variety is 

 said to be found in mistletoe, in that when it grows 

 on deciduous trees it also sheds its leaves itself, but 

 whcn growing on an evergreen tree it retains its 

 leaves. But universally when mistlctoe seed is 

 sown it never sprouts at all, and only when passed 

 in the excrement of birds, particularly the pigeon 

 and the thrush : its nature is such that it will not 

 shoot unless it has been ripened in the stomach of 

 birds. Its height does not exceed eighteen inches, 

 and it is evergreen and always in leaf. The male 



547 



