BOOK XXII. XXXI. 66-xxxii. 69 



XXXI. Picris " is so called because of its remarkable ricns. 

 bitterness, as I have already stated,'' and has a 

 round leaf. It is excellent for the removal of warts. 

 Thesium too is of a like bitterness, but is a strong r/iesmm 

 purgative, for which use it is pounded in water. 



XXXII. Asphodel is one of the most famous A.tj,hodei. 

 plants, so that some have styled it the plant of the 

 herocs ; Hesiod said that it also grows in woods, Dio- 

 nysius that it may be male or female. It is agreed 



that its bulbs boiled down with barley water are very 

 suitable for wasting bodies and consumptives, and 

 that kneaded with meal they niake a very whole- 

 some bread. Nicander " too prescribed for tlie poison 

 of snakes and scorpions either the stalk which I have 

 called '^ anthericum, or the seed, or the bulbs, the 

 dose being three drachmae taken in wine, and he 

 would have them spread under the sleeping place, 

 shoukl there be any fear of venomous creatures. It 

 is also prescribed for poisoning by sea creatures and 

 by \and scolopendras. It is strange how in Cam- 

 pania the snails seek its stalk and by sucking shrivel 

 it up. The leaves too in wine are applied to the 

 wounds of venomous creatures. The bulbs are 

 pounded and appUed with pearl barley to the sinews 

 and joints. It is a good plan to chop them up and 

 to rub lichen * with them in vinegar ; also to put 

 them in water on putrescent sores, and on inflam- 

 mations too of the breasts and testicles. Boiled 

 (lown in lees of wine and dabbed on from below with 

 a piece of lint, they cure fluxes of the eyes. In 

 nearly every disease the bulbs are usually boiled 

 before use, but for foul sores on the shins, and for 

 craoks in any part of the body they are dried and 

 reduced to powder. Autumn is the time they are 



341 



