Chap. 30.] 
CENTAUlilOK. 
103 
hanging from the extremities, and a black seed. In other 
respects, it bears a resemblance to rue, and is found growing 
in mountainous localities. 
CHAP. 29. THE ETJPATOEIA : ONE EEMBBY. 
The eupatoria^® also is a plant under royal patronage. The 
stem of it is ligneous, hairy, and swarthy, and a cubit or more 
in length. The leaves, arranged at regular intervals, resemble 
those of cinquefoil or hemp ; they have five indentations at the 
edge, and are swarthy like the stem, and downy. The root is 
never used. The seed, taken in wine, is a sovereign remedy 
for dysentery. 
CHAP. 30. — CEl^TAUKIOir OR CHIEONION I TWENTY EEMEDIES. 
Centaury, it is said, effected a cure for Chiron, on the 
occasion when, while handling the arms of Hercules, his 
guest, he let one of the arrows fall upon his foot : hence it is 
that by some it is called " chironion.*' The leaves of it are 
large and oblong, serrated at the edge, and growing in 
thick tufts from the root upwards. The stems, some three 
cubits in height and jointed, bear heads resembling those of 
the poppy. The root is large and spreading, of a reddish 
colour, tender and brittle, a couple of cubits in length, and full 
of a bitter juice, somewhat inclining to sweet. 
This plant grows in rich soils upon declivities ; the best in 
quality being that of Arcadia, Elis, Messenia, Mount Pholoe, and 
Mount Lycaeus : it grows also upon the Alps, and in numerous 
other localities, and in Lycia they prepare a lycium^^ from it. 
So remarkable are its properties for closing wounds, that 
pieces of meat even, it is said, are soldered together, when boiled 
with it. The root is the only part in use, being administered 
in doses of two drachmsa in the several cases hereafter^^ men- 
^ 8o called probably from a king Eupator. Sprengel and Desfontaines 
identify it with the Agrimonia eupatorium, but Fee prefers the Eupatorium 
cannabinum of Linnaeus, relying upon the description given by Dioscorides. 
B. iv. c. 41. 
23 Fee considers this to be the same with the Panaces centaurion or 
Pharnaceon of c. 14 of tbis Book, the greater Centaury. Littre also 
names the Centaurea centaureum of Linnaeus. 
20 See B. xii. c. 15. B. xxiii. cc. 58, 60, and B. xxiv. c. 77, for a pre- 
paration with a similar name, but, as Fee says, of an entirely different 
character. 
31 In B. xxvi. cc. 15, 19, 34, 55, 66, 76, 85, and 91. 
