124 
PLINT's I^ATTJIIAL HISTORT. [Book XXY. 
variety of the daiicus, there is a plant*^"^ of this nature very 
similar to the staphylinos, known as the pastinaca^® erratica/' 
with an oblong seed and a sweet root. Quadrupeds will touch 
none of these plants, either in winter or in summer, except 
indeed, after abortion. The seed of the various kinds is used, 
with the exception of that of Crete, in which case it is the 
root that is employed ; this root being particularly useful for the 
stings of serpents. The proper dose is one drachma, taken in 
wine. It is administered also to cattle when stung by those 
reptiles. 
CHAP. 65. THE THERlOlSrAllCA *. TWO EEMEDIES. 
The therionarca, altogether a different plant from that of 
the Magi,''^ grows in our own climates, and is a branchy plant, 
with greenish leaves, and a rose-coloured flower. It has a 
deadly effect upon serpents, and the very contact of it is suf- 
ficient to benumb"^^ a wild beast, of whatever kind it be. 
CHAP. 66. THE PEKSOLATA OR ARCION ; EIGHT REMEDIES. 
The persolata,'''^ a plant known to every one, and called 
" arcion" by the Greeks, has a leaf, larger, thicker, more 
swarthy, and more hairy than that of the gourd even, with a 
large white root. This plant also is taken, in doses of two 
denarii, in wine. 
Identified by Sprengel with the Daucus Mauri tanicus, and by Brotero 
and Desfontaines with the Daucus carota, var. a, our Common carrot. Fee 
seems inclined to identify it with the Athamanta cervaria of Linnaeus, 
Mountain carrot, or Broad-leaved spignel. The account given by Pliny 
is, however, a mass of confusion. 
68 Or " wild parsnip." See B. xix. c. 27. 
^9 For the purpose of expelling the dead foetus, according to Dioscorides, 
B. iii. c. 83. 
See B. xxiv. c. 102. The plant here spoken of has not been identified, 
but the Epilobium angustifolium, raontanum, tetragonum, &c., varieties of 
the Willow-herb, have been suggested. They are destitute, however, of 
all poisonous qualities. 
"^^ Hence its name — Benumbing wild beasts.'* 
Fee thinks that there is an error in the name, and that it is the per- 
sonata" that is here spoken of, the plant already mentioned in c. 58 of 
this Book. Ilardouin identifies it with the Tussilago petasites — the Butter- 
burr» according to Nemnich — but apparently Avithout any sufficient au- 
thority. 
