BOOK XXII. xLiv. 90 xLv. 91 



Boiled in oil and in the skin of a pomegranate the root 

 is also a remedy for complaints of the ears. All these 

 preparations must be made from the vvhite kind. 

 Cleemporus says that the dark kind must not be 

 eaten, because it causes diseases, but he agrees to 

 the use of the white. Agathocles asserts that its 

 juice counteracts even the poison of buirs" blood, 

 yet since it is agi-eed that the dark kind has coohng 

 properties, pearl barley must therefore be added to 

 the application. Zeno recommends the root of the 

 white kind for strangury. 



XLV. Condrion * or condrille has leaves Hke those rondriiie. 

 of endive, eaten away as it were round the edges, 

 a stem less than a foot and moist with a bitter 

 juice, and a root like a bean, occasionally mani- 

 fold. Next to the ground it grows a gum, an 

 excrescence the size of a bean," a pessary of which 

 is said to promote menstruation. The whole '' v\ ith 

 the roots is pounded and divided into lozenges as 

 an antidote for snake bites, for which treatment 

 good reason can be adduced, for field mice wounded 

 by snakes are said to eat it. A decoction of the plant 

 in wine checks looseness of the bowels. The same 

 makes an excellent substitute for gum to keep the 

 eye-lashes tidy, however disordered these niay be. 

 Dorotheus dechires in his verses that it is good for 

 the stomach and the digestion.^ For the rest, it 

 has been supposed to be bad for women, for the 

 eyes, and for the viriHty of men. 



native is probably right here, but later on, where a similar 

 grammatical ambiguity occurs, eculem . . . pilos inordinatissi- 

 mos fro ciimmi regit must surely refer to the gummy mastic. 



' Concoctiones may mean : " maturing of abscesses." 

 Cf. note on § 123. The plural supports this view, but the 

 coutext {stomacho) the meaning " digestion." 



357 



