134 
Pliny's natueal histoet. 
[Book XXV. 
prurigo of the head. The best hyssop is that of Mount 
Taurus in Cilicia, next to which in quality is the produce of 
Pamphylia and Smyrna. This plant is injurious to the 
stomach : taken with figs, it produces alvine evacuations, and 
used in combination with honey, it acts as an emetic. It is 
generally thought that, beaten up with honey, salt, and cum- 
min, it is curative of the stings of serpents. 
CHAP. 88. ^THE LONCHITIS : FOUR REMEDIES. 
The lonchitis ^ is not, as most writers have imagined, the 
same plant as the xiphion^^ or phasganion, although the seed 
of it does bear a resemblance to the point of a spear. The 
lonchitis, in fact, has leaves like those of the leek, of a red- 
dish colour near the root, and more numerous there than on the 
upper part of the stem. It bears diminutive heads, which are 
very similar to our masks of comedy, and from which a small 
tongue protrudes the roots of it are remarkably long. It 
grows in thirsty, arid soils. 
CHAP. 89. THE XIPHION OE PHASGANION I FOUR EEMEDIES. 
The xiphion^^ or phasganion, on the other hand, is found 
growing in humid localities. On first leaving the ground it 
has the appearance of a sword ; the stem of it is two cubits in 
length, and the root is fringed like a hazel nut.^^ 
This root should always be taken up before harvest, and 
dried in the shade. The upper part of it, pounded with 
frankincense, and mixed with an equal quantity of wine, ex- 
tracts fractured bones of the cranium, purulent matter in all 
parts of the body, and bones of serpents,^* when accidentally 
of Linnaeus. Littre states, however, that this last is a stranger to Greece, 
and that M. Fraas {Synopsis, p. 182) identifies the hyssop of Dioscorides 
with the Origanum Smyrnseum or Syriacum. 
Generally identified with the Serapias lingua of Linnaeus. 
The same, most prohahly, as the Gladiolus of B. xxi. c. 67. See also 
the next Chapter in this Book. 
^1 This was a characteristic feature of the masks used in the Roman 
Comedy. 
See Note 30 above. The medicinal properties here attributed to the 
Xiphion, or Gladiolus communis, our common Red corn-flag, are very doubt- 
ful, as Fee remarks. 
23 With the outer coat on, of course. 
^ Dalechamps is probably right iu preferring the reading " carpentis " 
to " serpentis," in which case the meaning would be, " or bones when 
accidentally crushed by the wheels of vehicles.'* 
