BOOK XXVII. Lv. 78-80 



other ferns exceeding even two cubits in length, 

 with a not unpleasant smel]." This is considered 

 male. The other kind the Greeks call thelypteris, 

 some nymphaea ptei-is. It has only one stem, and 

 is not bushy, but shorter, softer and more compact 

 than the other, and channelled with leaves at the 

 root. The root of both kinds fattens pigs. In 

 both kinds the leaves are pinnate on either side, 

 whence the Greeks have named them " pteris." * 

 The roots of both are long, slanting, and blackish, 

 especially when they have lost moisture ; they should, 

 however, be dried in the sun. Ferns grow every- 

 where, but especially in a cokl soil. They ought to 

 be dug up at the setting of the Pleiades. The root 

 must be used only at the end of three years, neither 

 earher nor later. Ferns expel intestinal worms, tape- 

 worms when taken with honey, but for other worms 

 they must be taken in sweet wine on three consecutive 

 days ; both kinds are very injurious to the stomach. 

 Fern opens the bowels, bringing away first bile, 

 then fluid, tapeworms better with an equal weight of 

 scammony. To treat catan-hal fluxes two oboH by 

 weight of the root are taken in water after fasting 

 for one day, with a taste of honey beforehand." 

 Neither fern should be given to women, since either 

 causes a miscarriage when they are pregnant, and 

 barrenness when they are not. Reduced to powder 

 they are sprinkled over foul ulcers as well as on the 

 necks of draught animals. The leaves kill lice and will 

 not harbour snakes, so that it is well to spread them in 

 suspected places ; by the smell too when burnt they 

 drive away these creatures. Among ferns also 



was a remedy ; it is naturally, in spite of the order of words, 

 rheumatismi. 



437 



