84 
plint's natueal histoey. 
[Book XXV. 
the mother of a soldier who was serving in the praetorian guard, 
received a warning in a dream, to send her son the root of 
the wild rose, known as the cynorrhodos,-* a plant the beauty 
of which had attracted her attention in a shrubbery the 
day before, and to request him to drink the extract of it. The 
army was then serving in Lacetania, the part of Spain which 
lies nearest to Italy; and it so happened that the soldier, 
having been bitten by a dog, was just beginning to manifest a 
horror of water when his mother's letter reached him, in 
which she entreated him to obey the words of this divine 
warning. He accordingly complied with her request, and, 
against all hope or expectation, his life was saved ; a result^^ 
which has been experienced by all who have since availed them- 
selves of the same resource. Eefore this, the cynorrhodos had 
been only recommended by writers for one medicinal purpose ; 
the spongy excrescences, they say, which grow^^ in the midst of 
its thorns, reduced to ashes and mixed with honey, will make the 
hair grow again when it has been lost by alopecy. I know too, 
for a fact, that in the same province there was lately discovered 
in the land belonging to a person with whom I was staying, a 
stalked plant, the name given to which was dracunculus.^^ This 
plant, about an inch in thickness, and spotted with various 
colours, like a viper's skin, was generally reported to be an 
effectual preservative against the sting of all kinds of serpents. 
I should remark, however, that it is a different plant from the 
one of the same name of which mention has been made in the 
preceding Book,^^ having altogether another shape and appear- 
ance. There is also another marvellous property belonging to 
it : in spring, when the serpents begin to cast their slough, it 
shoots up from the ground to the height of about a couple of 
feet, and again, when they retire for the winter it conceals 
itself within the earth, nor is there a serpent to be seen so long 
as it remains out of sight. Even if this plant did nothing 
else but warn us of impending danger, and tell us when to 
be on our guard, it could not be looked upon otherwise than 
as a beneficent provision made by ^^"ature in our behalves. 
Dog-rose, or eglantine. See B. viii. c. 63. 
25 An unwarranted assertion, no doubt. 
26 He alludes to a substance known to us as bedeguar,'' a kind of 
gall-nut, produced by the insect called Cynips rosse. 
27 Or " little dragon." The Arum dracunculus of Linnaeus. See B. 
2xiv. cc. 91, 93. 28 In c. 93. 
