190 
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOET. 
[Book XXVI. 
those of the leek, a stem a palm in height, a purple flower, 
and a twofold root, formed of tuberosities which resemble the 
testes in appearance. The larger of these tuberosities, or, as 
some say, the harder of the two, taken in water, is provocative 
of lust ; while the smaller, or, in other words, the softer one, 
taken in goat's milk, acts as an antaphrodisiac. Some persons 
describe this plant as having a leaf like that of the sqiiill, 
only smoother and softer, and a prickly stem. The roots heal 
ulcerations of the mouth, and are curative of pituitous dis- 
charges from the chest ; taken in wine they act astringently 
upon the bowels. 
Satyrion is also a powerful stimulant. There are two kinds 
of it : the first^ has leaves like those of the olive, but longer, 
a stem four fingers in length, a purple flower, and a double 
root, resembling the human testes in shape. This root swells 
and increases in volume one year, and resumes its original 
size the next. The other kind is known as the satyrios or- 
chis,"^ and is supposed to be the female plant. It is dis- 
tinguished from the former one by the distance between its 
joints, and its more branchy and shrublike form. The root is 
emploj^ed in philtres ; it is mostly found growing near the 
sea. Eeaten up and applied with polenta,^ or by itself, it 
heals tumours and various other affections of the generative 
organs. The root of the first kind, administered in the milk 
of a colonic^ sheep, causes tentigo ; taken in water it produces 
a contrary effect. 
CHAP. 63. SATYRION" : THEEE MEDICINAL PROPEETIES. SATY- 
RION ERYTHEAICON : F0T7E MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. 
The Greeks give the name of satyrion" to a plant with 
cattle. It is the name, no doubt, signifying ^' testicle,'* which originally 
procured for it the repute of being an aphrodisiac. 
6 Identified by Desfontaines with the Orchis pyramidalis, and by 'Fee 
with the 0. papilionacea of Linnaeus. Littre gives the Limodorum abor- 
tivum. 
He is probably speaking of the Crataegonon of B. xxvii. c. 40, which 
Fee identifies with the Thelygonon of c. 91 of this Book. He remarks 
that from the description, the Satyrios orchis cannot have been a Mono- 
cotyledon. 
8 See B. xviii. c. 14. ^ See B. viii. c. 72. 
Littre identifies it with the Aceras anthropophora of Linnaeus ; Des- 
foiitaiaes with the Orchis bifolia, the Butterfly orchis. The Iris florentina 
