BOOK XXVII. Lxxii. 96-Lxxiv. 99 



ends, in pods like those of chick-peas," is the seed. 

 The root is like a turnip, large and blackish. It grows 

 on cultivated ground. Taken in wine the root 

 neutralises the poison of serpents of every kind,** 

 and no other remedy acts more quickly. It is also 

 given to sufferers from sciatica. 



LXXIII. Lycapsos has longer and coarser leaves Lycapsus. 

 than those of lettuce, a long stem, with many sub- 

 sidiary others, hairy and a cubit long, and a small, 

 purple flower. It grows in flat, meadowy land. 

 With barley meal it makes a local application for 

 erysipelas. The j uice with hot water added promotes 

 perspiration in fevers. 



LXXIV. Among all plants nothing is more wonder- utho- 

 ful than Hthospermum, called by some exonychon, ^^^™""- 

 by others " Juppiter's corn," and by others " corn of 

 Hercules." The plant is about five inches high, with 

 leaves twice as big as those of rue, and Hgneous little 

 branches of the thickness of a rush. Near the 

 leaves it grows as it were Httle beards, which are 

 single, and on tlieir tops Httle stones, white and round 

 as pearls, as big as a chick-pea but as hard as a stone. 

 Where they are attached to pedicels these jewels 

 have Httle holes, in which is the seed. The plant 

 grows indeed in Italy, but the most highly vakied in 

 Crete, and I have never seen anything among plants 

 that filled me with greater wonder. So charming the 

 adornment that one might think that the jeweller's 

 art had arranged gleaming white pearls symmetrically 

 among the leaves ; so elegantly solved is the problem 

 of causing a gem to grow from a plant ! The authorities 

 say that it lies and spreads over the ground; / have 

 seen it only when gathered, not when so growing. It is 



* My conjecture: " of the bites of all serpents." 



449 



VOL. VII. Q 



