BOOK XXVII. Lx. 86-Lxiv. 90 



medicine tbur drachmae are enough. The black 

 grains, taken in wine to the number mentioned, also 

 prevent nightmares, while for stomach ache and for 

 gnawing colic it is beneficial both to eat them and to 

 apply them locally. Suppurations too are dispersed, 

 recent by the black seed and old by the red. Both 

 kinds are good for snake bites, and to cure stone in 

 children when strangury is beginning." 



LXI. Gnaphahum is called by some chamaezelon ; GnaphaUvm. 

 its pale, soft leaves are used as flock ; the two 

 indeed are similar. It is given in a dry wine for 

 dysentery, arrests fluxes of the belly and excessive 

 menstruation, is injected for tenesmus and applied to 

 festering ulcers. 



LXII. Xenocrates calls galUdraga a prickly marsh- Oaiudraga. 

 plant like leucacanthus, with a tall stem Hke fennel- 

 giant, on the top of which is perched an egg-shaped 

 ball. In this, he says, as summer advances, are 

 bred maggots, which are kept in a box and attached 

 with bread, as an amulet, to the arm on the same side 

 as an aching tooth, and the pain disappears at 

 once in a wonderful manner. These maggots, he 

 says, retain their potency for not more than a year, 

 and then only if they have not touched the ground. 



LXIII. Holcus grows on dry rocks. The plant is hoIcus. 

 Hke barley that has grown again after cutting, with 

 ears at the top of a slender straw. Tied round the 

 head or round the arm this plant ^ draws ears 

 (aristas) from the flesh, for which reason some call 

 it aristis. 



LXIV. Hyoseris is like endive, but smaller and Hyoseris. 

 rougher to the touch ; crushed it is a splendid remedy 

 for wounds. 



* Haec might be arisia. 



443 



