PLINY: NATURAL HLSTORY 



apparatu comitante. noxii erunt fungi qui in co- 

 quendo duriores fient ; innocentiores qui nitro addito 

 coquentur, utique si percoquantur. tutiores fiunt 

 cum carne cocti aut cum pediculo piri. prosunt 

 et pira confestim sumpta. debellat eos et aceti 

 natura contraria iis. 



100 XLVIIL Imbribus proveniunt omnia haec, imbre 

 et silphium venit primo, ut dictum est. ex Syria 

 nunc hoc maxime inportatur, deterius Parthico, sed 

 Medico mehus, extincto omni Cyrenaico, ut diximus. 

 usus silphii in medicina foliorum ad purgandas 

 vulvas pellendosque emortuos partus ; decocuntur in 

 vino albo et odorato, ut bibatur mensura acetabuli a 

 balineis. radix prodest arteriis exasperatis, col- 

 lectionibus sanguinis inlinitur. sed in cibis conco- 

 quitur aegre ; inflationes facit et ructus, urinae 

 quoque noxia, suggillatis cum vino et oleo amicis- 

 sima et cum cera strumis. verrucae sedis crebriore 

 eius suffitu cadunt. 



101 XLIX. Laser e silphio profluens quo diximus 

 modo inter eximia naturae dona numeratum pluri- 

 mis compositionibus inseritur, per se autem algores 

 excalfacit, potum nervorum vitia extenuat. feminis 

 datur in vino, et lanis mollibus admovetur vulvae ad 



" Perhaps : " knives with amber handles," that is, with 

 luxurious and expensive instruments. It seems more probable 

 that the amber was supposed not to spoil the delicate flavour, 

 or even to be a means of detecting less desirable specimens. 



* Nearly everything Pliny says about toadstools and 

 poisonous fungi is false, and his advice would lead to fatal 

 results if followed. 



' Silphium was probably Ferula lingitana and Ferula 

 marmarica, but cf. Vol. vii. Index of Plants. 



" See XIX. § 41. 

 • See XIX. § 39. 



364 



