Chap. r03.] 
THE ERIPHIA. 
67 
recommends those who wish to become parents to drink this 
mixture,, and says, that females should take it immediately 
after conception, and during pregnancy.^ If this is done, he 
says, the infant will be sure to be endowed with the highest 
qualities, both in mind and body. In addition to what has 
here been stated, Democritus gives the various names by which 
all these plants are known to the Magi. 
Apollodorus, one of the followers of Democritus, has added 
to this list the herb a3schynomene,^° so called from the shrink- 
ing of its leaves at the approach of the hand ; and another 
called **crocis,"" the touch of which is fatal to the phalan- 
gium. Crateuas, also, speaks of the oenotheris,^^ an infusion of 
which in wine, sprinkled upon them, has the effect of taming 
all kind of animals, however wild. A celebrated grammarian,'^ 
who lived but very recently, has described the anacampseros,^* 
the very touch of which recalls former love, even though 
hatred should have succeeded in its place. It will be quite 
sufficient for the present to have said thus much in reference 
to the remarkable virtues. attributed to certain plants by the 
Magi ; as we shall have occasion to revert to this subject in a 
more appropriate place. 
CHAP. 103. (18.)-— THE EEIPHIA. 
Many authors have made mention of the eriphia,^^ a plant 
which contains a kind of beetle in its hollow stem. This 
* As Fee remarks, it has heen a notion in comparatively recent times, 
that it is possible to procreate children of either sex at pleasure. 
10 The "bashful^' plant. An Acacia, Fee thinks; see B. xiii. c. 19. 
The Mimosa casta, piidica, and sensitiva, have similar properties : the Sensi- 
tive Plant is well known in this country. 
11 Fee queries whether this may not be the Silene rauscipula of Lin- 
naeus, the fly-trap, ^'^ The •' wine- tamer ." 
13 Hardouin thinks that he alludes to the Grammarian Apion. Dale- 
champs thinks that it is either Apion or Apollodorus. 
1^ The returning " plant. Fee says that the Sedum Telephium of 
Linnaeus, or orpine, is called in the dictionaries by this name. He queries 
whether it may not be the Sedum anacampseros, or evergreen orpine, as 
Hesychius says that it continues to live after being taken up from the 
earth ; a peculiarity, to some extent, of the house-leek. 
He probably alludes to his remarks upon Magicjn Books xxix. and xxx. 
1^ From €pt0of, a "kid." Euellius has attempted to identify this plant 
with one of the Eanunculacese ; but there is little doubt, as Fee says, that 
both plant and insect are imaginary. 
