BOOK XXIV. Lxiv. 106-LXV11. 109 



are good for stone when taken with raisin wine. They 

 are espeeially useful for the eyes and for wounds. 



LXV. The Arabian thorn — I have mentioned" the jrabian 

 merits of the Egyptian thorn in my section on scents 

 — even by itself by its thickening nature checks all 

 fluxes, spitting of blood and excessive menstruation, 

 and there is even more potency in its root. 



LXVI. The seed of the white thorn is a help whUeihc 

 against the stings of scorpions, and a crown of it 

 when worn lessens headache. Like it is the plant 

 called acanthion by the Greeks, but this has much 

 smaller leaves, which have prickly points and are 

 covered \Aith down like cobweb. In the East this is 

 even gathei*ed to make a silk-Uke cloth.'' The 

 leaves by themselves,<^ or the roots, are taken in 

 drink as a cure for opisthotonic tetanus. 



LXVII. A gum also is produced in Egypt from the Acacias. 

 acacia-thorn, from a pale tree and a dark, and hke- 

 wise from a green tree, which is far better than the 

 former two.'^ Gum is also produced in Galatia ; it is 

 very inferior, and comes from a more thorny tree than 



povv •yvvaiKeZov koX TTpos dvaYUjyrjv alfiaros Kal TTpos aXXovs pev- 

 fxaTiafiOvs rj ol^a TTapaTT\r}aiws evOiTel (of the aKavOa ApajSihrij). 

 For spina see Index of Plants. 



* Not real silk, but obtained from the caterpillar of Lasio- 

 campa otus, from which vesfes Coae were made. 



' Ipsa seems here, as often in Pliny, to mean that no other 

 ingredient is added to the remedy. It is uncertain, however, 

 whether the leaves are to be swallowed, perhaps beaten up, in 

 water or wine, or whether an infusion is to be made of leaves 

 or root. The latter way of preparing the medicine would be 

 more natural, but the usual verb for it is decoquere. 



"* The text seems to be corrupt here beyond reconstruction. 

 I print Mayhoff's text. Detlefsen's would give : " An acacia 

 thorn grows in Egypt, both with a palo and with a dark tree : 

 and also a green one, which is far superior to the others." 

 Acacia can mean either the tree or the gum from it. 



79 



