Chap. 46.] 
THE CESTEOS. 
in 
Mseotis. Among its other properties, this plant is remarkably 
sweet, and extremely useful for the affection known as 
asthma." It is also possessed of another great recommenda- 
tion—so long as a person keeps it in his mouth, he will never^ 
experience hunger or thirst. 
CHAP. 44. — THE HIPPACE ! THREE HEMEDIKS. 
The hippace,^^ another plant that grows in Scythia, is 
possessed of similar properties : it owes^^ its name to the 
circumstance that it produces the like effect upon horses. Ey 
the aid of these two plants, the Scythse, they say, are enabled 
to endure hunger and thirst, so long as twelve days even. 
CHAP. 45. THE ISCHiEMON : TWO EEMEDIES. 
The Thracians were the first to discover the ischsemon,^ 
which, it is said, has the property of stanching the flow of 
blood, not only when a vein has been opened, but when it has 
been cut asunder even. This is a creeping plant ; it is like 
millet in appearance, and the leaves of it are rough and lanugi- 
nous. It is used as a plug®^ for the nostrils. The kind that 
grows in Italy, attached to the body as an amulet, has the pro- 
perty of arresting haemorrhage. 
CHAP. 46. THE CESTEOS, PSTCHOTEOPHON, VETTONICA, OR SERRA- 
TULA : EORTY- EIGHT REMEDIES. 
The Yettones, a people of Spain, were the original discoverers 
of the plant known as the vettonica"^^ in Gaul, the serra- 
tula"^ in Italy, and the cestros'' or psychotrophon"^^ in 
Liquorice certainl)'' palls the appetite, but it is very apt to create thirst. 
In copying from the Greek, Pliny has mistaken hippace," a cheese 
made from mare's milk, for a plant ! It is very likely, however, that it 
would tend, like any other cheese, to appease hunger, though, probably, 
not thirst. 
^ He has probably invented this reason himself, as it is hardly probable 
that the Scythians would feed their horses with cheese, even though made 
from mare's milk. 
Sprengel identifies it with the Andropogon ischsemon of Linnaeus, the 
"Woolly andropogon. Fee expresses his doubts as to its identification. It 
derives its name ''ischsemon," from its property of stanching blood. 
^ To arrest epistaxis or bleeding at the nose. 
^'^ The Betonica alopecuros of Linnaeus, the Fox-tail betony. 
'•^ The little saw." 
"Nurtured by breei^es.'' M. Fraas thinks that the Cestros of the 
