leontopetalon alii rapadion vocant, folio brassicae, caule semipedali. alae numerosae, semen in cacumine in siliquis ciceris modo, radix rapo similis, grandis, nigra. nascitur in arvis. radix adversatur omnibus serpentium generibus ex vino pota, nec alia res celerius proficit. datur et ischiadicis.
The leontopetalon is called “pardalion” by some: it has a leaf like that of the cabbage, and a stem half a foot in height, with numerous lateral branches, and a seed at the extremities of them, enclosed in pods like those of the chick-pea. The root resembles that of rape, and is large and black: it grows in plough lands. The root, taken in wine, neutralizes the venom of all kinds of serpents; indeed, there is nothing known that is more speedily efficacious for that purpose. It is given also for sciatica. ― translation from: John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, The Natural History (1855), book XXVII: “A Description of Plants, and of the Remedies Derived from Them”, chapter lxxii: ‘The Leontopetalon or Pardalion: Two Remedies’
