BOOK XXII. XIII. 28-xv. 31 



black eyes. It is injected into tlie bowels for 

 haemorrhage and dysentery. 



XIV. Hippophaes grows on sandy soils and by the .iea-spurge. 

 sea. It has pale thorns, and clusters, like those 



of ivy, with berries partly white and partly red. Its 

 root is rich in a juice which is either dispensed by 

 itself or niade up into lozenges with vetch meal. 

 An obolus by weight carries ofF bile, most health- 

 fully if taken with honey wine. There is another 

 hippophaes, consisting only of very small leaves 

 without stem or flower. The juice of this also is 

 wonderfully good for dropsy. They must be well 

 suited to the constitution of horses too, and must 

 also have received their name for this and no other 

 reason. The fact is that certain plants are created 

 to be remedies for the diseases of animals, the Deity 

 being bounteous in producing protections for them, 

 so that it is impossible to admire enough his wisdom, 

 which arranges the aids according to the type of 

 disease, the cause of it, and its season. Each period 

 of the year has its own appropriate remedy, and 

 scarcely can any day be found that is without its 

 safeguards. 



XV. What can be more hateful than the nettle ? Usesojihe 

 Yet this plant, to say nothing of the oil which I have " 



said " is made from it in Egypt, simply abounds in 

 remedies. Nicander ^ assures us that its seed coun- 

 teracts hemlock, and also the poison of fungi and of 

 mercury. Apollodorus says that with the broth of 

 boiled tortoise '^ it is good for salamander bites, 

 and as an antidote for henbane, snake bites and 

 scorpion stings. Moreover, its pungent bitterness 

 itself, by the mere touch, forces to subside swoUen 

 uvulas, restoring prolapsus of the uterus, and of 



315 



