In the neighbourhood of Psophis in the same state, the cultivation of the heraclean all-heal[1808] was carried on to a great extent, as Arcadia traded largely in this article of the materia medica. The juice was collected in two ways, and at two different seasons of the year; first from the root when the plant began to germinate in spring. A small trench having been excavated about it, an incision was made in the root and a number of broad leaves spread around to receive the liquor which flowed forth. This, at first white, assumed externally as it dried, a saffron hue. The second method was to make an incision in the stem about harvest-time, when the fluid appears tog have been collected in the same manner as before. Near Nonacris was obtained a poisonous water which distilled slowly like dew from a rock. It was of a sharp and icy coldness, and so bitter and acrid, that no vessel whatsoever could contain it save the hoof of an ass, in which accordingly it was preserved.[1809] ----- Footnote 1808: Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 56. Πανάκες Ἡράκλειον. Dioscor. iii. 55. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 11. 3. Cornel. Cels. v. 19. 3. Cf. Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, t. iii. p. 25. Footnote 1809: Plut. Alexand. § 76. Senec. Quæst. Nat. iii. 5. Plin. Nat. Hist. ii. 106. xxi. 19. ----- Among the poisons of the Peloponnesos was the root of the meadow-saffron,[1810] found chiefly in Messenia, where likewise grew the æthiopis, a plant used by magicians as well as by the children of Æsculapius.[1811] The centaury,[1812] likewise, and the seseli,[1813] were among the exports of this part of Greece. ----- Footnote 1810: Κολχικὸν. Dioscor. iv. 84. Footnote 1811: Dioscor. iv. 105. Footnote 1812: Id. iii. 8. Footnote 1813: Id. iii. 92. Celsus, iv. 18. 29. This plant was employed in preparations to drive away serpents. Geopon. xiii. 8. 2. Nicand. Theriac. 76. Apul. de Herb. c. xcv. ----- From Arcadia were obtained large carbuncles,[1814] which were cut and polished into mirrors, with timber of all kinds,—as deal, larch, and pine, together with the smilax,[1815] which was sawed into thin planks, and used for necessary articles of furniture. The neighbourhood of Mantinea produced an excellent species of radish which was exported.[1816] Arcadia likewise produced, in its rich pastures, fine herds of cattle, together with asses and horses, no way inferior to those of Thessaly.[1817] ----- Footnote 1814: Theoph. de Lapid. § 33. Cf. Anselm. Boet. Gem. et Lap. Hist. ii. 9, p. 141. Footnote 1815: Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 16. 3. Footnote 1816: Athen. i. 6. Footnote 1817: Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 68. Strab. viii. 8. t. ii. p. 226. -----