BOOK XXV. xxxix. 80-xLii. 82 



XXXIX. The physician Themiso too has spread The 

 the fame of a common plant, the plantain, having ?''«"''""• 

 pubHshed a treatise aboiit it as though he were the 

 discoverer. There are two kinds of it : the smaller, 

 with narrower and darker leaves, resembles the 

 tongue of a sheep ; the stem is angular and bends 

 downward. It grows in meadows. The other kind 

 is larger and enclosed with leaves as it were with 

 sides. Since these leaves are seven in number the 

 plant is sometimes called heptapleuron. The stem 

 too of this is a cubit high ; when " it grows on wet 

 soils it is much more efficacious. It has a wonderful 

 power to dry and brace the body, having a cauterizing 

 property. There is nothing that checks so well the 

 fluxes called by the Greeks rheumatismoi, that is, 

 catarrhs. 



XL. Akin to the plantain is buglossos, which is Bngiossos. 

 Uke the tongue of an ox. The most conspicuous 

 quahty of this is that thrown into wine it increases the 

 exhilarating effect, and so it is also called euphro- 

 synum, the plant that cheers. 



XLI. Akin too is cynoglossos, which is Hke a dog's Cynogiossos. 

 tongue, and a most attractive addition to ornamental 

 gardens. It is said that the root of the kind with 

 three seed-bearing stems, if taken in water, is good 

 for tertians, and that with four for quartans. There 

 is also another plant Hke this which bears tiny burs. 

 Its root taken in water neutraHzes the poison of 

 frogs * and snakes. 



XLII. Another plant is buphthalmus, which is Hke Buphthai- 

 the eyes of oxen, having leaves Hke those of fennel, 

 a bushy plant gromng around towns, with «... 



' Ranae includes toads. 



"^ Mayhofi suggests mollibus, " tender ", as the missing word. 



