They speak also of another[600] sideritis, with a stem two cubits in length, and diminutive branches of a triangular shape: the leaf, they say, resembles that of fern, and has a long footstalk, the seed being similar to that of beet. All these plants, it is said, are remarkably good for the treatment of wounds. The one with the largest leaf is known among us by the name of “scopæ regiæ,”[601] and is used for the cure of quinzy in swine.
CHAP. 20.—THE TEUCRION, HEMIONION, OR SPLENION: TWO REMEDIES.
At the same period also, Teucer discovered the teucrion, a plant known to some as the “hemionion.”[602] It throws out thin rush-like stems, with diminutive leaves, and grows in rugged, uncultivated spots: the taste of it is rough, and it never blossoms or produces seed. It is used for the cure of affections of the spleen,[603] and it is generally understood that its properties were discovered in the following manner:—The entrails of a victim having been placed upon this plant, it attached itself to the milt, and entirely consumed it;[604] a property to which it is indebted for the name of “splenion,” given to it by some. It is said too, that swine which have fed upon the root of this plant are found to have no milt.
Some authors give this name also to a ligneous plant,[605] with branches like those of hyssop, and a leaf resembling that of the bean; they say too, that it should be gathered while in blossom, from which we may conclude that they entertain no doubt that it does blossom. That which grows on the mountains of Cilicia and Pisidia is more particularly praised by them.
CHAP. 21.—MELAMPODIUM, HELLEBORE, OR VERATRUM: THREE VARIETIES OF IT. THE WAY IN WHICH IT IS GATHERED, AND HOW THE QUALITY OF IT IS TESTED.
The repute of Melampus, as being highly skilled in the arts of divination, is universally known. This personage has given a name to one species of hellebore, known as the “melampodion.” Some persons, however, attribute the discovery of this plant to a shepherd of that name, who remarked that his she-goats were violently purged after browsing upon it, and afterwards cured the daughters of Prœtus of madness, by giving them the milk of these goats. It will be the best plan, therefore, to take this opportunity of treating of the several varieties of hellebore. The two principal kinds are the white[606] and the black;[607] though, according to most authorities, this difference exists in the root only. There are some authors, however, who assure us that the leaves of the black hellebore are similar to those of the plane-tree, only darker, more diminutive, and more jagged at the edges: and who say, that the white hellebore has leaves like those of beet when first shooting, though at the same time of a more swarthy colour, with reddish veins on the under side. The stem, in both kinds, is ferulaceous, a palm[608] in height, and covered with coats like those of the bulbs, the root, too, being fibrous like that of the onion.[609]
The black hellebore kills horses, oxen, and swine; hence it is that those animals avoid it, while they eat the white[610] kind. The proper time, they say, for gathering this last, is harvest. It grows upon Mount Œta in great abundance; and the best of all is that found upon one spot on that mountain, in the vicinity of Pyra. The black hellebore is found growing everywhere, but the best is that of Mount Helicon; which is also equally celebrated for the qualities of its other plants. The white hellebore of Mount Œta is the most highly esteemed, that of Pontus occupying the second place, and the produce of Elea the third; which last, it is generally said, grows in the vineyards there. The fourth rank is held by the white hellebore of Mount Parnassus, though it is often, adulterated with that of the neighbouring districts of Ætolia.
Of these kinds it is the black hellebore that is known as the “melampodium:” it is used in fumigations, and for the purpose of purifying houses; cattle, too, are sprinkled with it, a certain form of prayer being repeated. This last plant, too, is gathered with more numerous ceremonies than the other: a circle is first traced around it with a sword, after which, the person about to cut it turns towards the East, and offers up a prayer, entreating permission of the gods to do so. At the same time he observes whether an eagle is in sight—for mostly while the plant is being gathered that bird is near at hand—and if one should chance to fly close at hand, it is looked upon as a presage that he will die within the year. The white hellebore, too, is gathered not without difficulty, as it is very oppressive to the head; more particularly if the precaution has not been used of eating garlic first, and of drinking wine every now and then, care being taken to dig up the plant as speedily as possible.
Some persons call the black hellebore “ectomon,”[611] and others “polyrrhizon:” it purges[612] by stool, while the white hellebore acts as an emetic, and so carries off what might otherwise have given rise to disease. In former days hellebore was regarded with horror, but more recently the use[613] of it has become so familiar, that numbers of studious men are in the habit of taking it for the purpose of sharpening the intellectual powers required by their literary investigations. Carneades, for instance, made use of hellebore when about to answer the treatises of Zeno; Drusus[614] too, among us, the most famous of all the tribunes of the people, and whom in particular the public, rising from their seats, greeted with loud applause—to whom also the patricians imputed the Marsic war—is well known to have been cured of epilepsy in the island of Anticyra;[615] a place at which it is taken with more safety than elsewhere, from the fact of sesamoïdes being combined with it, as already[616] stated. In Italy the name given to it is “veratrum.”