[888] Scribonius Largus, who lived in the time of Tiberius, speaks of using in a prescription laser of Cyrenaica, “if it can be met with;” “si poterit inveniri.”
[889] “In spem nascentis.”
[890] Fée remarks that Pliny has not found this absurd story in any of the works from which he has compiled his account, but that it is entirely his own.
[891] This was probably the Ferula asafœtida of Linnæus.
[893] A.U.C. 661.
[894] Fée remarks, that if Pliny here alludes to Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 3, he has mistaken his meaning.
[895] This, as Fée says, could hardly apply to the Ferula asafœtida of Linnæus, the stalk of it being extremely acrid, and the juice fetid in the highest degree.
[896] “Vitia his omnibus.” The reading here is probably corrupt.
[897] “Root-juice,” and “stalk-juice.”