104 
PLINTHS NATUEAL HISTOEY. 
[Book XXY. 
tioned. If, however, the patient is suffering from fever, it 
should be bruised and taken in water, wine being used in 
other cases. A decoction of the root is equally useful for all 
the same purposes. 
CHAP. 31. THE CENTAUEIOK LEPTOIST, OE IIBADIOIT, KNOWIS^ ALSO 
AS PEL TEEE^ : TWENTY-TWO EEMEDIES. 
There is another centaury also, with diminutive leaves, 
known by the additional name of "lepton."^^ By some per- 
sons it is called *4ibadion,*^^^ from the circumstance that it 
grows upon the borders of fountains. It is similar to origanum 
in appearance, except that the leaves are narrower and longer. 
The stem is angular, branchy, and a palm in height ; the flower 
is like that of the lychnis,^ and the root is thin, and never 
used. It is in the juice that its medicinal properties are 
centred: it being gathered in the autumn, and the juice extracted 
from the leaves. Some persons cut up the stalks, and steep 
them for some eighteen days in water, and then extract the 
juice. 
In Italy this kind of centaury is known as galP^ of the 
earth," from its extreme bitterness. The Gauls give it the 
name of exacum from the circumstance that, taken in 
drink, it purges off all noxious substances by alvine evacuation. 
CHAP. 32.— THE CENTAUEIS TEIOECHIS : TWO EEMEDIES. 
There is a third kind of centaury also, known as the 
centauris triorchis.'^^''^ It is but rarely that a person cuts it 
without wounding himself. The juice emitted is just the 
colour of blood.^® Theophrastus relates that this plant is under 
Or "small" centaury. Probably the Chironia centaureiim of Smith, 
Flor, Brit,^ our Felwort. Littre names the Erythraea centaureum of Persoon. 
From XijSadeQj " flowing streams." 
31 See B. xxi. cc. 10, 39, and 98, also c. 80 of this Book. 
35 " Fel terrge." 
A word of Celtic origin, most probably, aild not from the Greek, as 
Pintianus supposes. 
3^ Theophrastus, as stated by Pliny, in B. ix. c. 9, says that centaury is 
protected by the "triorchis '* (see B. x. cc. 95, 96), and Pliny in trans- 
lating the passage has made a mistake as to a third kind. Fee is probably 
right in his conjecture that the Gentaurea centaureum is meant ; though 
Brotier and Desfontaines look upon this as being a distinct plant, and 
identify it with the Rumex sanguineus of Linnaeus. 
The root of the greater centaury, Fee remarks, is of a deep red within. 
