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CHAP. 92.—PLANTS THAT HAVE NO PECULIAR SPOT FOR THEIR GROWTH: OTHERS THAT GROW UPON TREES, AND WILL NOT GROW IN THE GROUND. NINE VARIETIES OF THEM: CADYTAS, POLYPODION, PHAULIAS, HIPPOPHÆSTON.

It is a well-known fact that trees are killed by ivy.1 The mistletoe also has a similar influence, although it is generally thought that its injurious effects are not so soon perceptible: and, indeed, this plant, apart from the fruit that it bears, is looked upon as by no means the least remarkable. There are certain vegetable productions which cannot be propagated in the ground, and which grow nowhere but on trees; having no domicile of their own, they live upon others; such, for instance, is the case with the mistletoe, and a herb that grows in Syria, and is known as the " cadytas."2 This last entwines around not only trees, but brambles even; in the neighbourhood of Tempe, too, in Thessaly, there is found a plant which is called "polypodion;3 the dolichos4 is found also, and wild thyme.5 After the wild olive has been pruned there springs up a plant that is known as "phaulias;6 while one that grows upon the fuller's thistle is called the "hippophæston;"7 it has a thin, hollow stem, a small leaf, and a white root, the juice of which is considered extremely beneficial as a purgative in epilepsy.

1 See c. 62.

2 Sprengel says that this is the parasitic plant, which he calls Cassyta filiformis. Fée says that this opinion, though perhaps not to be absolutely rejected, must be accepted with reserve.

3 It does not seem to have been identified.

4 See B. xviii. c. 35.

5 Serpyllum. See B. xx. c. 90.

6 A mistletoe, apparently, growing upon the wild olive. Fée says that no such viscus appears to be known.

7 See B. xxvii. c. 66. The Calcitrapa stellata of Lamarck. Fée remarks that Pliny has committed a great error, in making it a parasite of the Spina fullonia. Dioscorides only says that the two plants grow in the same spots.

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