Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF WILD PLANT, CHAP. 20.—THE TEUCRION, HEMIONION, OR SPLENION: TWO REMEDIES.

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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."¹ 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,² 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;³ 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,⁴ 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 moun- tains of Cilicia and Pisidia is more particularly praised by them.

1 Or "mule-plant." It is identified by Fée with the Asplenion ceterach, or Ceterach officinarum of Linnæus, the Ceterach, a fern, and a different plant from the Teucriunm of B. xxiv. c. 80, or Germander.

2 Hence its name, "Aspleniurm."

3 "Exinanisse." A fable, of course.

4 The Teucrium lucidum of Linnæus: though, as Fée says, there is little similarity between it and hyssop, or between its leaves and those of the bean. See B. xxiv. c. 80.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 20.—THE TEUCRION, HEMIONION, OR SPLENION: TWO REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 20.—THE TEUCRION, HEMIONION, OR SPLENION: TWO REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.