BOOK XXVII. Lxxx. 105-LXXXIV. 108 



heals lacrimal fistulas. The Egyptians say that if, on 

 the twenty-eighth day of the month they call thoti 

 (a day generally falling in oiir August), you rub 

 yourself over in the morning with the juice of this 

 plant before speaking to anyone, you will not in that 

 year " suffer from ophthahnia. 



LXXXI. Myagros is a plant Hke fennel-giant, with Mijagros. 

 leaves Hke those of madder ; it is three feet high. 

 The seed is oily, and from it is extracted an oil. This 

 juice, used as Uniment, is good treatment for an ulcer- 

 ated mouth. 



LXXXII. The plant called nyma, with its three Nyma. 

 long leaves like those of endive, makes a liniment 

 that restores the colour of a skin disfigured by scars. 



LXXXIII. Natrix is the name of a plant the root of Natrix. 

 which, when pulled up, gives out the foul smell of he- 

 goats. In Picenum they use this plant to drive away 

 from women what are, with a strangc creduUty, called 

 Fatui.^ I myself should beUeve that it is the haUu- 

 cination of minds deUrious in this way that is helped 

 by such a drug.*^ 



lyXXXIV. Odontitis is classed as a hay with close- odontms. 

 set stalks growing from the same root, jointed, 

 triangular and dark. At the joints it has small leaves, 

 longer however than those of polygonum, seed Uke 

 barley in the axils, and a tiny, bright red flower. It 



* Fatui, " clowns," were kept by some Romans. Here it 

 means " night-demons," referring to some kind of nightmare. 

 The Delphin editor has : qui viros aggredi existimati simt, ii 

 Fauni, qui rnulieres, Fatui dici consueverunt. 



' I take species to mean " vlsions." Literally, " those 

 who need such a remedy are the visions of minds sufFering 

 from such hallucinations." Professor Andrews thinka that 

 this cannot be so, as it is the species that are said to be 

 " relieved ", according to my construe. 



455 



