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.