Chap. 40.] 
THE CEAT^GONOIT. 
239 
in three sextarii of wine a day and a night. This potion is 
effectual also for bringing away the after-birth. The seed of 
this plant, taken in wine or hydromel, diminishes the milk in 
nursing women. 
CHAP. 39. THE CIKSION : ONE EEMEDY. 
The cirsion^* is a plant consisting of a diminutive and deli- 
cate stem, two cubits in height, of a triangular form, and 
covered with prickly leaves. The prickles on the leaves are 
downy, and the leaves themselves resemble those of buglos- 
sos^^ in shape, but are smaller, and of a whitish colour. At 
the summit of the plant there are small purple heads, which 
fall off in the shape of down. This plant or the root of it, 
worn as an amulet, it is said, is curative of the pains attendant 
upon varicose veins. 
CHAP. 40. THE CRAT^GOTs^ON ; TWO KINDS OE IT : EIGHT 
EEMEDIES. 
The crataegonon^*^ is similar to an ear of corn in appearance. 
It is formed of numerous shoots, springing from a single root, 
and full of joints. It grows in umbrageous localities, and has 
a seed like that of millet, with a remarkably acrid taste. If 
a man and woman, before the evening meal, take three oboli of 
this seed in three cyathi of water, for forty days consecutively, 
before the conception of their issue, it will be sure to be of the 
male^*^ sex, they say. 
There is another cratsegonon, known also as " thelygonos,''^*^ 
and distinguished from the last mentioned plant by the mild- 
ness of the taste. Some persons assert that females, if they 
take the blossom of this plant in drink, will be sure to con- 
ceive before the end of forty days. These plants, used in com- 
bination with honey, are curative of black ulcers of a chronic 
nature ; they also fill the concavities made by fistulous 
2* Identified with tlie Carduus parviflorus of Linnaeus, the Small-flowered 
thistle. 25 See B. xxv. c. 40. 
Identified by Fee and Desfontaines with the Polygonum persicaria of 
Linnaeus, the Spotted persicaria, red-shanks, fleawort, or lakeweed. Littre 
gives the Crucianella Monspeliaca of Linnaeus, Montpellier petty madder. 
Hence its name, signifying that it strengthens the generative powers. 
2S See B. xxvi. c. 91. 
