PLINY : NATURAL HISTORY 



longis duobus, flore roseo, radices tritae per se tcei 

 laver erudum.t ^ 



88 LVI. Silaus nascitur glariosis et perennibus rivis, 

 cubitalis apii similitudine. coquitur ut olus acidum 

 magna utilitate vesicae, quae si scabiem sentiat, 

 panacis radice sanatur, aliter inutilis vesicis. calcu- 

 los pellit malum erraticum radicis libra in vini congio 

 decocta ad dimidias — inde heminae sumuntur per 

 triduum, relicum ex vino ^ — et urtica marina et 

 daucum et plantaginis semen ex vino. 



LVII. Et herba Fulviana trita ex vino, et haec 

 nomen inventoris habet, nota tractantibus.^ 



89 LVIII. Urinas ciet scordion, testium tumores 

 sedat hyoscyamum, genitahbus medetur peucedani 



^ cei laver crudum VE : ceu aliquot codd., Detlefsen. 

 Mayhoff ante cei lacunam indicat ; seu vulg. 



^ vino Mayhoff cum plerisque codd. : add. conicio d : 

 cumcio aliquot codd., Detlefsen, qui etiam Pucino coni. XIV 60 

 coll. 



* tractantibus] Usque ad uno ut MayJwff distinguo. 



" This is a locu^ desperatus. I have followed Mayhoff, 

 who marks a lacuna after se. The reading of V and E looks 

 like the ending of a word in -ceum or -ceus, but there is no 

 plant (except chalceos) the genitive of which would end in 

 -cei, and that chalcei is the right reading is most unlikely. 

 The reading ceu (adopted by Detlefsen) is specious ; the word 

 being common in Pliny. The sense, " as it were raw laver," 

 is odd, and so is the grammar, especially as laver is feminine, 

 for radices as it stands is very like a pendent nominative. 

 The vulgate seu is translated by Littre : " comme le laver 

 cru." But this would be ceu. (Laver was a water plant, 

 perhaps water cress. " Pliny may have intermingled drastic 

 purges with mild and suave foods. " A.C.A.) 



* The word occurs here only. Its description is like the 

 account of sion in Dioscorides II 127, and sion = laver, which 

 has just been mentioned. The MSS. show no variants. It 

 may possibly be a " portmanteau " word [si-lau). 



2>Z° 



