BOOK XXI. xci. i59-.\cii. 162 



by its use they gain a kind of attractiveness and sex- 

 appeal. To this plant when taken in wine is 

 attributed the power of stimulating gaiety, the 

 power possessed by the fanious nepenthes extolled 

 bv Homer '^ of banishing all sorrow.'' It also has a 

 very sweet juice. The root of it, taken in water 

 fasting, is good for asthma ; inside it is white and 

 sweet. It is also taken in wine for snake bites. 

 Pounded it is said further to kill mice. 



XCII. Of southernwood authoritics mention two v.ies oj 

 kinds : the field and the mountain. The latter, they X';^f" 

 would have us understand, is female, the former 

 male ; both are as bitter as wormwood. The SiciUan 

 is the most highly praised, next comes that of 

 Galatia. While some use is made of the leaves, the 

 seed is more useful for warming, for which reason it 

 is good for sinews, cough. asthnia, convulsions, 

 ruptures, lumbago and strangury. Some handfuls 

 are boiled down to one third, and given to drink in 

 doses of four cyathi. The pounded seed also is 

 given in water, a drachma at a time. It is also 

 beneficial to the uterus. With barley meal it brings 

 to a head superficial abscesses, and it is appUed as a 

 Uniment for inflammation of the eyes, a quince being 

 boiled with it.'' It keeps snakes away, and for their 

 bites is either taken or appUed with wine, being very 

 eflTective against those creatures whose venom causes 

 shivering and chills, scorpions for instance and 

 poisonous spiders ; taken in drink it is good for other 

 poisons, taken in any way it is good for chiU fits, and 



' A most odd ablative absolute, the sense however being 

 clear. The Bohn translation reads as though the original 

 were cum cotoneo malo coclum. 



275 



