BOOK XXIV. xcii. 148-XCIV. 151 



beneficial for snake-bites if one takes aron in a draught 

 of dark " wine. It is said that cheese keeps very 

 well if wrapped in leaves of aron.'' 



XCIII. The dracunculus I have referred to is dug 

 up when the barley is ripening and the moon is 

 crescent. Merely to have it on the person keeps away 

 serpents. All the more beneficial a draught is it said 

 to be to those who have been bitten ; and its potency 

 to be greater if iron does not touch the plant. Ear- 

 ache too is reheved by its juice. 



That plant, however, which the Greeks call dracon- Dracontium. 

 tium has been pointed out to me in three illustra- 

 tions ; the first '^ has leaves like those of beet, a 

 thyrsus and a purple flower ; this is hke the aron. 

 Others have pointed out a kind with a long root, 

 which is as it were stamped and knotted, and with 

 three stems in all, prescribing a decoction of its 

 leaves in vinegar for the bite of serpents. The 

 third plant pointed out had a leaf larger than that of 

 the cornel and a root hke that of a reed, the knots on 

 it being, they said, as many as the plant is years old, 

 the leaves too being also equal in number. They 

 prescribed this plant in wine or water for snake-bite. 



XCIV. There is also a plant called the aris, which aHs md 1 

 too is a native 01 ligypt. It is similar to the aron, 

 only itself and its leaves are smaller, as is also the root 

 in pai-ticular, though it is as big as a fuU-sized oHve. 

 The white kind puts out twin stems, the other kind 

 one only. Either is good for running sores as well as 

 for burns, and for fistula also if a suppository made 



" For the identifications see Index of Plants. Pliny in XXV 

 § 8 refers to painted effigies of plants in herbals. He imphes 

 here that he had never actually seen dracontium, but only 

 such coloured drawings. 



107 



