BOOK XXVII. II. 9-III. II 



view that aconite is also a very health-giving in- 

 gredient of preparations for the eyes, openly declaring 

 their belief that no evil " at all is without some ad- 

 mixture of good. It will therefore be right for me, 

 who have described no poisons, to point out the 

 nature of aconite, if only for the purpose of detecting 

 it. It has leaves Hke those of cyclamen or of 

 cucumber, not more than four, i-ising from the root 

 and shghtly hairy, and a root of moderate size, Uke 

 a crayfish (cammarus), whence some have called it 

 cammaron, and others thelyphono7i, for the reason I 

 have given ah-eady. The end of the root curves up a 

 Httle Hke a scorpion's tail, whence some have called it 

 also scorpion. There have been some who would 

 prefer to call it inyoct07ios,^ since at a distance, even a 

 long distance, its smell kills rats and mice. The plant 

 grows on bare crags which are called aco7iae, and for 

 that reason some have given it the name of aconite, 

 there being nothing near, not even dust,*^ to give it 

 nourishment. This then is the reason for its name 

 given by some ; others have thought it was so 

 named because it had the same power to cause rapid 

 death as whetstones ^ had to give an edge to an iron 

 blade ; no sooner was the stone appHed than its rapid 

 action was noticeablc^ 



III. Aethiopis has leaves Hke those of phlomos, AetMopis. 

 large, numerous and hairy, growing from the root. 

 The stem is quadrangular, rough, Hke that of arction 



cauda radicis incurvatur paulum scorpionum modo. The phrase 

 cauda radicis is peculiar, and suggests that PHny had a Greek 

 text before him in which pt^a and ovpa (or some case of it) were 

 side by side. There is nothing in Dioscorides corresponding to 

 arida, which appears to have arisen from its partial likeness to 

 vauda. 



395 



