BOOK XXI. Liv. 91-LV. 93 



called stoebe. Hippopheos" has prickly joints. A 

 peculiar characteristic of the caltrop is that it has 

 also a prickly fruit. 



LV. Of all these kinds the best known is the ^''''««'- 

 nettle, often taller than tvvo cubits, the cups of which 

 in blossom pour out a purple down.'' There are 

 several different kinds. There is the wild, also 

 called female, and the cultivated. One of the wild 

 varieties, called dog nettle, has a sharper sting, 

 even the stem pricking, and fringed leaves. 

 Another, which also gives out a smell, is called the 

 Herculanean nettle.*^ AU nettles have a copious, 

 bhick seed. It is a strange thing that, without any 

 prickly points, the mere down is poisonous, and that 

 only a Hght touch at once causes to arise itching and 

 hlisters Hke those from burns. The well-known 

 remedy for nettle sting is oHve oil. The stinging 

 quahty however does not come at once with the 

 plant itself, but only when this has grown strong 

 through the sun. When young indeed in the spring 

 nettles make a not unpleasant food, which many 

 eat in the further devout beHef that it will keep 

 diseases away throughout the whole year. The root 

 too of tlie wild varieties makes more tender aU meat 

 vvith which it is boiled. The harmless nettle, vvhich 

 does not sting, is called laniium. About scorpio I 

 shaH speak when I come to deal with medicinal 

 plants.<* 



phrastus, IX. 15, 6, says that hippophaes is a driig niade from 

 tithyniallos, bxit Hort suspects tlie text. 



^" Not of course tlie stinging lunugo mentioned latei on. 



" Unidentified, as ail nettles have either a sliglit sniell or 

 none at all. 



" XXII. § 39. 



229 



