220 
Pliny's natural history. [Book XXVII. 
benefit always understanding that under this name we mean 
Nature, that great parent and mistress of all things : and this 
is evident, whether we come to the conclusion, that these wild 
beasts make the discovery from day to day, or that they aro 
gifted from the first with these powers of perception. Ee- 
garded in another point of view, it really is a disgrace that 
all animated beings should have an exact knowledge of what 
is beneficial to them, with the exception of man ! 
The ancients, openly professing their belief that there is no 
evil without some admixture of good, have asserted that aconite 
is a remarkably useful ingredient in compositions for the eyes. 
It may therefore be permitted me, though I have hitherto 
omitted a description of the poisonous plants, to point out the 
characteristics of aconite, if only that it may be the more 
easily detected. Aconite has leaves like those of cyclaminos ^"^ 
or of the cucumber, never more than four in number, slightly 
hairy, and rising from near the root. This root, which is of 
moderate size, resembles the sea-fish known as the cam- 
marus,"^® a circumstance owing to which the plant has received 
the name of cammaron " from some ; while others, for the 
reason already mentioned, have called it thelyphonon."^^ 
The root is slightly curved, like a scorpion's tail, for which 
reason some persons have given it the name of *'scorpio.'* 
Others, again, have preferred giving it the name of myoc- 
tonon,"^^ from the fact that the odour of it kills mice at a 
considerable distance even. 
This plant is found growing upon the naked rocks known 
as aconse and hence it is, according to some authorities, 
15 " Hoc hal3et nomen " is omitted ; for, as Sillig says, it is evidently a 
gloss, which has crept into the text. 
^6 The ancients no doubt knew several plants under the common name 
of Aconitum. The one here described, is identified by Fee with the Do- 
ronicum pardalianches of Linnaeus, Leopard's bane. 
1' See B. XXV. c. 67. Fee says that neither the leaves of the Doronicum, 
nor of any plant of the genus Arnica, bear any resemblance to those of 
the Cyclamen, or the cucumber. He remarks also, that the contact solely 
of it is not productive of poisonous effects. 
IS A kind of crab. At the beginning of this Chapter. 
20 " Female-bane," or female-killer." See B. xx. c. 23. 
21 Mice-killer." This assertion is incorrect. 
^ So called from a, "without," and Kovig, "dust." Theophrastus 
says that it received its name from the town of Aconae, in the vicinity of 
which it grew in great abundance. 
