BOOK XXVII. Lxv. 91-LXV111. 93 



LXV. Holosteon (all-bone) is a plant with nothing Hoiosieon. 

 hard about it, the name being an antiphrasis coined 

 by the Greeks, just as they call gall sweet. Its root 

 is so slender as to look like hair. Four fingers long, 

 the plant has naiTow leaves like grass and an astrin- 

 gent taste, growing on hills with deep soil. Taken in 

 wine for sprains and ruptures it also closes wounds, 

 for it even fastens together pieces of meat when 

 boiled with them. 



LXVI. Hippophaeston is to be found " among the Hippo- 

 tliorns out of which fullers' pots are made up, having ^ "'* "'"' 

 no stem, no blossom, but only Httle, hollow heads and 

 many small leaves of the colour of grass. Its httle 

 roots are whitish and soft.* Their juice is extracted in 

 summer ; the dose to open the bowels is three oboU, 

 being used especially in epilepsy, palsy, dropsy, and 

 to treat giddiness, oi-thopnoea, and incipient paralysis. 



LXVII. Hypoglossa has leaves shaped Uke those of Hypogiossa. 

 wild myrtle, concave, prickly, and on them as it 

 were tongues, small leaves growing out of the leaves 

 proper. A chaplet made from these and placed on 

 the head reUeves headache.' 



LXVIII. Hypecoon grows in cornfields and has Hypecoon. 

 leaves Uke those of rue. Its properties are those of 

 Poppy juice. 



' Dioscorides has (IV 129) : daixvloKOs eWt fxvpaivr) dypia 

 Kai XeTTTTJ exciiv tcl cf^vXXa o/xota, Koyurjv §e aKavOwSr] Kal en' 

 aKpov Oiovel yXo^TTiSas, Ttapa^vaeis pi.iKpd'; Trapd. toIs (fivXXoLS. 

 So/cet 8e ij Kofxri T7epiap.ua elvai XPV'^'-!^^^ KC<f)aXaXyovai. The 

 reason why Mayhoff emended concava to covia is clear, but 

 the Greek and the Latin, although very aUke, have some 

 diffcrences, the greatest perhaps being Pliny's corona where 

 the Greek has KOfirj. The Latin coma, and also koixt], are 

 difficult words, and there is no English word that will serve 

 as a translation on every occasion. Some remarks on them 

 will be found on pp. 482—483. 



445 



