BOOK XXV. VI. 19-21 



shape, and is an amazing plant in other ways ; for 

 when snakes begin to cast their slough it springs up 

 to the height of about two feet, and then buries itself 

 in the ground when snakes do so, and while it is con- 

 cealed no snake at all is anywhere to be seen. This 

 by itself would be a kindly service of Nature, if it 

 only warned us and pointed out the time of danger. 

 Nor is it beasts alone that are guilty of causing 

 injury; at times waters also and regions do the ^'j^J^^"'^'^^ 

 same. When Germanicus Caesar had moved for- tcatcrs am 

 ward his camp across the Rhine, in a maritime dis- "^ions. 

 trict of Germany there was only one source of fresh 

 water. To drink it caused within two years the 

 teeth to fall out and the use of the knee-joints to 

 fail. Physicians used to call these maladies stoma- 

 cace " and scelotyrbe.^ A remedy was found in the 

 plant called britannica, which is good not only for 

 the sinews and for diseases of the mouth, but also 

 for the reUef of quinsy and snake-bite. It has dark, 

 rather long" leaves, and a dark root. Its juice is 

 extracted even from the root. The blossom is called 

 vibones ; gathered before thunder is heard, and 

 swallowed, it keeps away the fear of quinsy for a 

 whole year. It was pointed out to our men by the 

 Frisians, at that time a loyal tribe, in whose terri- 

 tory our camp lay. Why the plant was so called I 

 greatly wonder, unless perhaps, Uving on the shore of 

 the British ocean, they have so named the britannica 

 Ijecause it is, as it were, a near neighbour of Britain."* 

 It is certain that the plant was not so named because 

 it grew abundantly in that island : Britain was at 

 that time an independent state. 



confines oceano and propingiuie (" being as it were a 

 neighbour "). 



151 I 



