BOOK XXIV. XXXIX. 64-XL. 66 



XXXIX. The Greeks Ccall erice (heath) a shrub Erice. ' 

 differing only a Httle from the agnus castus ; " it has 

 the same colour and very nearly the same leaf as 

 rosemary. Report says that it counteracts the 1 



poison of serpents. 



XL. Genista also is used for cords, and has a flower anenweea 

 of which bees are very fond. I wonder whether this 

 is the plant that Greek writers have called sparton, 

 because, as I have mentioned,'' from it the Greeks 

 are wont to make their fishing Hnes, and whethcr 

 Homer had it in mind when he said that " the ships' 

 cords ° {sparta) were loosed." It is certain that 

 the Spanish or African esparto grass was not yet in 

 use, and though ships were made with sewed seams, 1 



yet it was with flax that they were sewed and never 

 with esparto. The seed of this plant, which the 

 Greeks call by the same name, grows in pods Uke 

 those of the cowpea, and purges instead of helle- 

 bore if a drachma and a half with four cyathi of 

 hydromel are drunk on an empty stomach. The 

 branches, together with the leaves, soaked in vinegar 

 for several days and then beaten up, yield a juice 

 beneficial for sciatica in doses of one cyathus. Some 

 prefer to soak them in sea-water and inject as an 

 enema.'' The same juice with the addition of oil is 

 used as an embrocation for sciatica. Some too use 

 the seed for stranguiy. Pounded genista with axle- 

 grease cures painful knees. 



Aulus Gellius XVII. 3, takes aiTapTa to be the cords with which 

 the planks of a ship were bound together, and not the 

 rigging. 



■* See Dioscorides Euporista I. 231 (238): OTrdpTov OaXdaarj 

 jSpe^a? e<f>' iKavag -qfxipas elTa eyKoipag Kal ;^iiAi'aas eves. This 

 shows that pluribus diebits means "for several days." With 

 the reading of Jan, " The ieafy branches likewise." 



51 



