106 
PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book XXV. 
perties, but it should never be taken by women in a state of 
pregnancy. 
CHAP. 35. — THE LYSIMACHIA : EIGHT REMEDIES. 
King Lysimachus*^ first discovered the plant which fron^, 
him has received the name of lysimachia, and the merits of 
which have been so highly extolled by Erasistratus. This 
plant has green leaves resembling those of the willow, and a 
purple"^"^ blossom : it has all the appearance of a shrub, the 
branches are erect, and it has a pungent smell. It is found 
growing in watery soils. The properties of it are so extremely 
powerful, that if placed upon the yoke when beasts of burden 
are restive, it will be sure to overcome all stubbornness on their 
part.^^ 
CHAP. 36. AETEMISIA, PAETHENIS, BOTKYS, OE AMBEOSIA : 
EIVE EEMEDIES. 
Women too have even affected an ambition to give their 
name to plants: thus, for instance, Artemisia, the wife of 
King Mausolus, adopted the plant, which before was known 
by the name of " parthenis." There are some persons, how- 
ever, who are of opinion that it received this surname from the 
goddess Artemis Ilithyia,*^ from the fact of its being used for 
the cure of female complaints more particularly. It is a 
plant with numerous branches, like those of wormwood, but 
the leaves of it are larger and substantial. 
There are two varieties of it ; one has broader^^ leaves than 
the other, which last is of a slender form, with a more diminu- 
tive leaf, and grows nowhere but in maritime districts. 
A king of Thrace, contemporary with Alexander the Great. Sprengel 
and Desfontaines identify this plant with the Ly thrum salicaria of Linnaeus, 
the purple Willow-herb. Fee, on the authority of Dioscorides, identifies 
it with the Lysimachia vulgaris of Linnaeus, the yellow Willow-plant. 
Littre gives the Lysimachia atro-purpurea of Linnaeus. 
Pliny has probably mistranslated the Greek wvppSv here, " reddish 
yellow." An absurdity, of course. 
*9 Artemis or Diana, the guardian of pregnant women. 
^ Probably the Artemisia chamaemelifolia, Camomile-leaved mugwort. 
The A. arborescens, the Tree-wormwood is named by Littre. 
Either the Artemisia Pontica of Linnaeus, Little wormwood, or 
Eoman wormwood, or else A. campestris of Linnaeus, Field southern- wood. 
