128 
PLINX'S NATUKAL HISTOET. 
[Book xxy. 
with rounded leaves, and but little elevated above the surface 
of the earth. A third kind,, again, is known as the lychnitis"^^ 
by some persons, and as the thryallis" by others : it has three 
leaves only, or four at the very utmost, thick and unctuous, 
and well adapted for making wicks for lamps. The leaves of 
the phlomos which we have mentioned as the female plant, if 
wrapped about figs, will preserve them most efficiently from 
decay, it is said. It seems little better than a loss of time to 
give the distinguishing characteristics of these three kinds, 
the effects of them all being precisely the same. 
For injuries inflicted by scorpions, an infusion of the root 
is taken, with rue, in water. Its bitterness is intense, but it 
is quite as efficacious as the plants already mentioned. 
CHAP. 75. THE THELTPHONON OK SCOBPIO : OJfE EEMEDY. 
The thelyphonon^^ is a plant known as the ^'scorpio^' to some, 
from the peculiar form of its roots, the very touch of which 
kills^^ the scorpion: hence it is that it is taken in drink for stings 
inflicted by those reptiles. If a dead scorpion is rubbed with 
white hellebore, it will come to life, they say. The thelypbo- 
non is fatal to all quadrupeds, on the application of the root to 
the genitals. The leaf too, which bears a resemblance to that 
of cyclaminos, is productive of a similar efffect, in the course of 
the same day. It is a jointed plant, and is found growing in 
unbrageous localities. Juice of betony or of plantago is a 
preservative against the venom of the scorpion. 
CHAP. 76. THE PHllYNTON, FEUEAS, OR POTESION ; ONE 
EEMEDY. 
Erogs, too, have their venom, the bramble- frog^ in particular, 
Sprengel and Desfontaines consider tke second kind to be the Phlomis 
Italica of Smith ; on insufficient grounds, Fee thinks. Littre mentions 
the Sideritis Romana and S. elegans of Linnaeus. 
88 The " Lamp plant." It is mostly identified with the Verbascum 
lychnitis of Linnseus, the White mullein. Fee is somewhat doubtful on 
the point. It is doubtful whether it is not the same as the Thryallis, men- 
tioned in B. xxi. c. 61. Littre identifies it with the Phlomis lychnitis. 
89 In the last paragraph he is speaking of the Phlomos, here he evidently 
reverts to the Phlomis. 
90 Qj. a Female killer." See B. xxvii. c. 2. 
91 Dioscorides states, somewhat more rationally, that this plant strikes 
the scorpion with torpor, and that the contact of hellebore revives it. 
''Eubetis.'* A kind of toad, probably. See B. viii. c. 48, B. xi, c. 
16, and B. xxxii. c. 18. 
