Natural History, Vol. 3

When drunk in water, they say it cures all diseases. Its seven leaves, very similar to lettuces, emerge from a yellow root. The paeonia is the most ancient in its discovery, and it retains the name of its author; some call it pentorobos, others glycysida. This, too, is a difficulty, that the same things are named differently in different places. It grows on shady mountains, with a stalk between the leaves four fingers long, bearing on the top four or five fruits like Greek nuts. Within these is abundant seed, both red and black. This heals the illusions of the fauns during sleep. They instruct that it be dug up at night, because if the woodpecker of Mars should see it, it would attack the eyes [of the gatherer]. Panaces, by its very name, promises remedies for all diseases, and is manifold and attributed to the gods as its inventors. Indeed, one is surnamed asclepion, because he named his daughter Panacea. It is the thickened juice of a ferula, such as we have described, with a root of many barks and [a taste that is] false. There is a religious custom that when it is pulled up, the pit should be filled with various types of grain, as an expiation for the earth. Where, and in what manner this should be done, and what is most approved, we have taught among the foreign [remedies]. That which is brought from Macedonia they call bucolicon, with herdsmen gathering it as it bursts forth spontaneously; this vanishes most quickly. Moreover, in other kinds, the black and soft is especially disapproved. For that is a sign of adulteration with wax. Another kind they call heracleon, and they say it was discovered by Hercules; others call it wild origanum heracleoticum, because it is similar to origanum, with a useless root; of this origanum we have spoken. A third is surnamed panaces chironeon from its inventor. Its leaf is similar to dock, though larger and hairier. The flower is golden, the root small. It grows in rich soils. Its flower is