BOOK XXV. xviii. 38-40 



XVIII. Linozostis or parthenion was discovered lAnozostUc 

 by Mercury, and so many among the Greeks calP""'^'''"'"'- 

 it " Hermes' grass ", but all we Romans agree 

 in calling it mercurialis. There are two kinds 

 of it, the male and the female, the latter having 

 the more powerful properties. It has a stem which 

 is a cubit high and sometimes branchy at the top, 

 leaves narrower than those of ocimum, joints close 

 together and many hoUow axils. The seed of the 

 female hangs down in great quantity at the joints ; 

 while that of the male stands up near the joints, 

 less plentiful, short and twisted ; the female seed is 

 loose and white.'' The leaves of the male plant are 

 darker, those of the female Hghter ; the root is quite 

 useless and vei-y slender. It grows in flat, cultivated ■ 



country. A remarkable thing is recorded of both 

 kinds : that the male plant causes the generation of 

 males and the female plant the generation of females. 

 This is efFected if immediately after conceiving the 

 woman drinks the juice in raisin wine, or eats the 

 leaves decocted in oil and salt, or raw in vinegar. 

 Some again decoct it in a new earthen vessel with 

 hehotropium and two or three ears of corn until the 

 contents become thick. They recommend the de- 

 coction to be given to women in food, with the 

 plant itself, on the second day of menstruation 

 for three successive days ; on the fourth day 

 after a bath intercourse is to take place. Hippo- 

 crates ^ has bestowed very high praise on these 

 plants for the diseases of women ; no medical man 



TTVKvds), that I hesitate to emend Pliny so as to harmonize ! 



his account with Dioscorides. 



' See Littre's vol. X. pp. 690, 691 for references to the 

 herb mercury in the Hippocratic Corpus. 



165 



