BOOK XXVI. Lxii. 95-96 



LXII. But very high on the list of wonders is the Orchu. 

 plant orchis, or serapias, which has the leaves of 

 leek, a stem a span high, and a purple flower. 

 The root has two tubers, Uke testicles, so that the 

 larger, or, as some put it, the thinner," taken in 

 water excites desire ; the smaller, or softer, taken in 

 goat's milk checks it. Some say that this orchis has 

 leaves hke those of the squill, only smoother and 

 smaller, and a prickly stem. The roots cure sores 

 in the mouth and phlegm on the chest ; taken in 

 wine they are constipating. Satyrion is a sexual Satyrion. 

 stimulant. There are two kinds of it : one with 

 longer leaves than those of the olive, a stem four 

 fingers high, pui-ple blossom, and a double root 

 shaped Hke human testicles, which swells and sub- 

 sides again in alternate years. The other kind has 

 the further name of satyrios orchis, and is thought 

 to be female.'' It is distinguished from the former 

 kind by the spaces between the joints, by its more 

 branchy, bushy shape «^ ; also by its root's being Hke a 

 phallus.'* The plant is generally found near the sea. 



' Or, " by its stein's having many branches." The word 

 Jrulex sometimes = caulis, but here I think it means the 

 " skeleton " as it were of a small bush or shrub. 



■* To judge from Mayhoff's critical note the MS. E has 

 fascinis, the vulgate before Sillig fascinis utili, and the other 

 MSS. (radice) fascini. The mcaning is surely that the root 

 is not, like the former kind, ad formam hominis testium, but 

 like a phallus. So the Latin Thesaurus. I think, however, 

 that the MSS. reading, retained without comment by both 

 Detlefsen and Mayhoff, can scarcely be quite right. Perhaps 

 we should add simili, which would explain the fascinis utile of 

 the vulgate, fascini simili being not very unlike fascinis utili. 

 It is strange that this account of satjTion should appear here, 

 just before the chapter (LXIII) in which that plant is 

 described. Commentators think that Pliny has been con- 



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