152 
plint's natural histoet. 
[Book XII. 
monds ; all which sophistications may, however, be detected by 
the taste. The price of storax of the best quality is seventeen 
denarii per pound. It comes also from Pamphylia, but this 
last is more arid, and not so ftiU of juice. 
CHAP. 56. — GALBAiaJM. 
Syria produces galbanum too, which grows upon the same 
mountain of Amanus : it exudes from a kind of giant-fennel^^ 
of the same name as the resin, though sometimes it is known 
as stagonitis. The kind that is the most esteemed is cartila- 
ginous, clear like hammoniacum, and free from all ligneous 
substances. Still, however, it is sometimes adulterated with 
beans, or with sacopenium. If ignited in a pure state, it 
has the property of driving away serpents by its smoke. It 
is sold at five denarii per pound, and is only employed for 
medicinal purposes. 
CHAP. 57. (26.) PANAX. 
Syria, too, furnishes panax,^* an ingredient used in unguents. 
This plant grows also at Psophis in Arcadia, about the sources 
of the Erymanthus, in Africa also, and in Macedonia. This is 
a peculiar kind of giant-fennel, which stands five cubits in 
height : it first throws out four leaves, and then six, which lie 
close to the ground, round, and of very considerable size ; those, 
however, which grow towards the top resemble the leaves of 
the olive. It bears its seed in certain tufts, which hang down, 
just as in the fennel. The juice is obtained by incisions 
5^ A shrub of the family of OmbeUiferse, belonging to the genus bubon. 
It is a native of Asia Minor and Syria. 
82 See B. xix. c. 52, and B. xx. c. 75. 
S3 This was a common notion with the Eomans. Virgil, Georg. B. iii. 
1. 415, says : — 
" Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros." 
Though considered to produce a pleasant perfume by the ancients, it is no 
longer held in estimation for that quality, and is only employed in some 
slight degree for medical purposes. 
The produce of the Pastinaca opopanax of Linnaeus, or the Panax 
Copticum of Bauhin, an umbelliferous plant which abounds in the East, 
and is not uncommon in the south of France. The gum called Opopanax 
was formerly used, and its supposed virtues are indicated by its name, 
which signifies " the juice which is the universal remedy." 
