66 
PLIi^Y's NATUllAL HISTOIIT. 
[Book XXIV. 
banus in Syria, Tipon the chain of mountains called Dicte in 
Crete, and at Babylon and Susa in Persis. An infusion of it 
in drink, imparts powers of divination to the Magi. The 
gelotophyllis^ too, is a plant found in Bactriana, and on the 
banks of the Borysthenes. Taken internally with myrrh and 
wine, all sorts of visionary forms present themselves, and 
excite the most immoderate laughter, which can only be put 
an end to by taking kernels of the pine-nut, with pepper and 
honey, in palm wine. 
The hestiatoris,^ he tells us, is a Persian plant, so called from 
its promotion of gaiety and good fellowship at carousals. 
Another name for it is pratomedia, because those who eat of it 
will gain the highest place in the royal favour. The casignetes^ 
too, we learn, is so called, because it grows only among plants 
of its own kind, and is never found in company with any 
other; another name given to it is dionysonymphas,"* from 
the circumstance of its being remarkably well adapted to the 
nature of wine. Helianthes* is the name he gives to a plant 
found in the regions of Themiscyra and the mountainous parts 
of maritime Ciiicia, with leaves like those of myrtle. This 
plant is boiled up with lion's fat, saffron and palm wine being 
added; the Magi, he tells us, and Persian monarchs are in 
the habit of anointing the body with the preparation, to add 
to its graceful appearance : he states also, that for this reason 
it has the additional name of heliocallis."^ What the same 
author calls hermesias,"'^ has the singular virtue of ensuring 
the procreation of issue, both beautiful as well as good. It is 
not a plant, however^ but a composition made of kernels of 
pine nuts, pounded with honey, myrrh, sajffron, and palm wine, 
to which theobrotium^ and milk are then added. He also 
1 Laughing leaves.'' Possibly, Fee- thinks^ the Ranunculus pbilonotis, 
the Herba Sardoa or Sardonic plant of Virgil, known by some authorities 
as the Apium risus, or " laughing parsley." Desfontaines suggests that 
hemp (prepared in the form of hasheesli) is meant. 
2 Convivial " plant. Desfontaines identifies it with the Areca catechu, 
which is chewed in India for the beneUt of the teeth and stomach, and as a 
sweetener of the breath. 
^ " Erother " plant. * " Bride of Dionysus or Bacchus." 
^ " Sun-flower." Not the plant, however, known to us by that name. 
^ " Beauty of the sun," apparently. 
Mixture of Hermes," apparently. 
^ Previously mentioned in this Chapter. 
