Chap. 77.] 
THE ALISMA. 
129 
and I myself have seen the Psylli, in their exhibitions, 
irritate them by placing them upon flat vessels made red hot/^ 
their bite being fatal more instantaneously than the sting even 
of the asp. One remedy for their poison is the phrynion,'-^* 
taken in wine, which has also the additional names of ''neuras"^^ 
and poterion it bears a small flower, and has numerous 
fibrous roots, with an agreeable smell. 
CHAP. 77. THE ALISMA, DAMASONIOls-, OR LYEON : SEVENTEEN 
EEMEDIES. 
Similar, too, are the properties of the alisma,^^known to some 
persons as the damasonion," and as the lyron to others. 
The leaves of it would be exactly those of the plantago, were it 
not that they are narrower, more jagged at the edges, and 
bent downwards in a greater degree. In other respects, they 
present the same veined appearance as those of the plantago. 
This plant has a single stem, slender, a cubit in height, and 
terminated by a spreading head. The roots of it are nume- 
rous, thin like those of black hellebore, acrid, unctuous, and 
odoriferous : it is found growing in watery localities. 
There is another kind also, which grows in the woods, of a 
more swarthy colour, and with larger leaves. The root of 
them both is used for injuries inflicted by frogs and by the 
sea-hare, in doses of one drachma taken in wine. Cycla- 
minos, too, is an antidote for injuries inflicted by the sea-hare. 
The bite of the mad dog has certain venomous properties, 
as an antidote to which we have the cynorrhodos, of which 
Schneider, on Nicander's Alexiph. p. 277, says that he cannot under- 
stand this passage. There is little doubt that Sillig is right in his con- 
jecture that it rs imperfect, for the pith of the narrative, whatever it may 
have been, is evidently wanting. The Psylli were said to be proof against 
all kinds of poisons* " See B. viii. c. 38, and B. xi. c. 30 ; also Lucan's 
Pharsalia, B. ix. 1. 192, et seq. 
See also B. xxvii. c. 97. Fee identifies it with the Astragalus Creticus 
of Lamarck, Desfontaines with the Astragalus poteriura. 
^'^ The "nerve-plant" and the " drinking-plant," apparently. 
Sprengel identifies it with the Alisma Parnassi folium of Linneeus ; but 
as that plant is not found in Greece, Sibthorp suggests the Alisma plantago 
of Linnaeus, the Great Avater-plantain. It has no medicinal properties, 
though it was esteemed till very recent times as curative of hydrophobia. 
»^ Capita thyrsi." 
See B. ix. c. 72, and B. xxxii. c. 3, 
TOL. V. K 
