BOOK XXII. XIX. 42-xxi. 45 



for the ears.° It is also applied, with goat suet and 

 Cyprian wax, to gouty limbs. 



XX. Pei'dicium or parthenium or, to give it yet 

 another name, sideritis, is another plant,*" called by 

 some of our countrymen urceolaris, by others aster- 

 cum. It has a leaf similar to that of basil, only 

 darker, and it grows on tiles and among ruins. 

 Pounded and sprinkled with a pinch of salt it cures the 

 same diseases as dead-nettle, all of them, and is ad- 

 ministered in the same way. The juice too taken 

 hot is good for abscesses, and is remarkably good for 

 convulsions, ruptures, bruises caused by sHpping or 

 by falHng from a height, for instance, when vehicles 

 overturn. A household slave, a favourite of Pericles, 

 first citizen of Athens, when engaged in building 

 the temple <^ on the AcropoHs, crawled on the top of 

 the high roof and feU. He is said to have been cured 

 by this plant, which in a dream was prescribed to 

 Pericles by Minerva ; therefore it began to be 

 called parthenium,'' and was consecrated to that 

 goddess. This is the slave whose portrait was cast 

 in bronze, the famous Entrail Roaster.^ 



XXI. The chamaeleon is called by some ixia. Pine ihistie 

 There are two kinds of it. The whiter has rougher ^fiH^j^f^L 

 leaves, and creeps along the ground raising its 

 prickles as the hedgehog does his quills ; it has a sweet 



root and a strong smeH. In some districts it exudes 

 a white viscous substance just where the leaves join 

 the stem, especially about the time the Dogstar/ 

 rises, in the way frankincense is said to form, and this 

 is why it is also called ixia.9 Women use it as 

 chewing-gum. The other name chamaeleon comes 



' See XXXIV. § 8L ' That is 17 July. 



» The name ixia (i^ia) is connected by Pliny with viscum. 



323 



