BOOK XXV. xLii. 82-xLvi. 84 



stems that are boiled and eaten. Some call it calchas. 

 This plant with wax added disperses fatty tumours. 



XLIII. Whole tribes too have discovered plants. Scythice. 

 Scythia first found out about the one ealled scythice, 

 which grows x*ound Lake Maeotis. One of its 

 quaUties is great sweetness, and it is very beneficial 

 for the complaint called asthma. Another great 

 merit of it is the freedom from hunger and thirst 

 enjoyed by those who keep it in their mouths. 



XLIV. The same people find the same property in 

 their hippace," which has the unique quality of 

 affecting horses in the same way. It is said that on 

 these two plants the Scythians can fast from food and 

 drink even for as long as twelve days at a time. 



XLV. Thrace found out about ischaemon, which is ischaemon. 

 saidtostanchbleedingwhena veinhas not merelybeen 

 cut but even severed. It creeps along the ground 

 as does millet ; the leaves are rough and downy. 

 The kind that grows in Italy, stuffed into the nostrils, 

 and also when used as an amulet, stanches bleeding.'' 



XLVI. The Vettones in Spain discovered the plant Vetio7iica. 

 called vettonica in Gaul, serratula " in Italy, and 

 cestros or psychrotrophon by the Greeks, a plant 

 more highly valued than any other. It springs up 

 with an angular stem of two cubits, spreading out 

 from the root leaves rather like those of lapathum, ser- 

 rated, and with a purple fruiting-head. Its leaves are 

 dried into a powder and used for very many purposes. 

 From it ^ are made a wine and a vinegar, good for the 



"^ Mayhoffs reading means : " stufiFed into the nostrils it 

 causes bleeding; used as an amulet it stanches it." Farcitus 

 is a very late form, but Pliny may have used it. 



" " The plant with leaves like a saw." 



^ Ea may refer to the plant or to the powder made from 

 the leaves, probably to the latter. 



197 



