450 In B. xvi. c. 74.

451 “Ridicas.”

452 “Palos.”

453 Thirtieth of December. According to the Roman reckoning, the third day would be the day but one before.

454 Fourth of January.

455 Eighth of January.

456 Seventeenth of January.

457 Twenty-fifth of January.

458 “Regia Stella.”

459 Fourth of February.

460 Or wine-vats; by the use of the word “laminas,” he seems to be speaking not of the ordinary earthen dolia, but the wooden ones used in Gaul and the north of Italy.

461 Sixteenth of February.

462 Twenty-second of February.

463 Fifth of March.

464 On the fifth of March, Ovid says, Fasti, iii. l. 407. Columella makes it rise on the sixth of the nones, or the second of March.

465 Eighth of March.

466 Or, more literally, the “Northern Fish.”

467 Fifteenth of March, the day on which he was assassinated, in accordance, it is said, with the prophecy of a diviner, who had warned him to beware of the ides of March.

468 Eighteenth of March.

469 Twenty-first of March.

470 In c. 46 and c. 47.

471 Seventh of February.

472 In B. xvii. c. 35.

473 FÉe approves of this method of weeding before the corn is in ear.

474 In a day, probably.

475 Georg. i. 63.

476 De Re Rust. 40.

477 See B. xvii. c. 8.

478 Alluding to his quotation from Cicero in c. 61.

479 Or mastich.

480 See c. 7 of this Book.

481 It is not known whence he derived this unfounded notion.

482 Twenty-fifth of March.

483 First of April.

484 This passage is omitted in the original, but was probably left out by inadvertence.

485 Third of April.

486 Fifth of April.

487 Eighth of April.

488 Eighteenth of April.

489 Sixteenth of April.

490 Twentieth of April.

491 Twenty-first of April. See B. xix. c. 24.

492 From ?e??, to rain.

493 “Sus,” a pig.

494 Twenty-fourth of April.

495 Twenty-fifth of April.

496 Twenty-sixth of April.

497 Twenty-seventh of April.

498 Twenty-eighth of April.

499 Second of May.

500 Eighth of May.

501 Tenth of May.

502 “Cuculus.” Sec B. x. c. 11.

503 “PetulantiÆ vales.” Perhaps “indecent,” or “wanton jokes:” at least, Hardouin thinks so.

504 By causing quarrels, probably.

505 See B. xi. c. 34.

506 A quotation from some unknown poet, Sillig thinks.

507 See B. xvi. c. 41.

508 See Virgil, Ecl. iii. l. 111.

509 Eleventh of May.

510 Thirteenth of May.

511 Twenty-first of May.

512 Twenty-second of May.

513 Second of June.

514 Seventh of June.

515 Tenth of June.

516 Fifteenth of June.

517 Twenty-first of June.

518 Twenty-fourth of June.

519 First of June.

520 Columella, B. ii. c. 18.

521 The varieties now known as Trifolium pratense, Trifolium rubens and Trifolium repens.

522 “Gramen.” Under this head, as FÉe says, he probably includes the gramineous plants, known as Alopecurus, Phleum, Poa, Festuca, &c.

523 Probably the Lysimachia nummularia of LinnÆus, which has a tendency to corrode the lips of the sheep that pasture on it.

524 Known to us as “horse-tail;” varieties of which are the Equisetum fluviatile and the Equisetum palustre of LinnÆus.

525 De Re Rust. c. 53.

526 See Virgil’s Georg. i. 289.

527 As to whetstones, for further information, see B. xxvi. c. 47.

528 The word “falx,” “sickle” or “scythe,” is used here as denoting an implement for mowing, and not reaping.

529 Similar in shape to our sickle, or reaping hook, no doubt.

530 “Majoris compendii.” Similar to our reaping-hook, also. FÉe thinks that the former was similar to the “faux faucille,” or false sickle, the latter to the common sickle of the French.

531 FÉe says that this is the case in some parts of France.

532 In c. 59 of this Book.

533 Twenty-fourth of June. See the last Chapter.

534 On this subject see B. xvi. c. 36. See also Varro, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 46, and Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 7.

535 “Tenes Sidus.”

536 Twenty-sixth of June.

537 Fourth of July.

538 There is some confusion, apparently, here. Canicula, Syrius, or the Dog-star, belongs to the Constellation Canis Major; while Canis Minor a Constellation which contains the star Procyon, (“the forerunner of the Dog,”) precedes it.

539 Fourth of July.

540 Fourteenth of July.

541 Seventeenth of July.

542 B. ii. c. 40, and B. xix. c. 25.

543 Twentieth of July.

544 Twenty-third of July.

545 Thirtieth of July.

546 Sixth of August.

547 Eleventh of August.

548 Eighth of August.

549 See B. xvii. c. 37.

550 Carbunculus.

551 Cicero. De Div., B. ii. 201, Aristotle, Polit. B. i. c. 7, and Diogenes Laertius tell this story of Thales the philosopher; Pliny being the only one that applies it to Democritus.

552 In the last Chapter. This passage is corrupt.

553 Mentioned by Seneca, Ep. 59.

554 It was reserved for the latter part of the last century to discover that mildew operated on vegetation through the medium of minute, parasitical fungi. It is mostly attributed to defects in the light or the atmosphere, or else humidity in excess. See c. 44 of this Book.

555 In B. ii. c. 6, for instance.

556 An onomatic prejudice, as FÉe says, solely founded on the peculiarity of the name.

557 In the preceding Chapter.

558 In the preceding Chapter.

559 In B. xvi. c. 42.

560 Twentieth of December.

561 Or festival in honour of Robigo, the Goddess of mildew, on the twenty-fifth of April. See Ovid’s Fasti, B. iv. l. 907, et seq.

562 Robigo.

563 “Nineteen” is the proper number.

564 “Et cui prÆoccidere caniculam necesse est.” The real meaning of this passage would seem to be,—“Before which, as a matter of course, Canicula must set.” But if so, Pliny is in error, for Canicula, or Procyon, sets heliacally after the Dog-star, though it rises before it. Hardouin observes, that it is abundantly proved from the ancient writers that it was the custom to sacrifice a puppy to Sirius, or the Dog-star, at the Robigalia. As LittrÉ justly remarks, it would almost appear that Pliny intended, by his ambiguous language, to lead his readers into error.

565 Twenty-eighth of April. The festival of Flora.

566 Twenty-third of April. This was the first, or Urban Vinalia: the second, or Rustic Vinalia, were held on the nineteenth of August.

567 The same as the Greek ???????a, or “opening of the Casks.”

568 Tenth of May.

569 In B. xvi. c. 42, and in c. 66 of this Book.

570 Second of June.

571 Twenty-fourth of June.

572 Fourth of July.

573 Seventeenth of July.

574 Twentieth of July.

575 Twenty-third of July.

576 Nineteenth of August.

577 Eighth of August.

578 See B. x. c. 45, and c. 50. The popinjay, lapwing, and tit-mouse have been suggested.

579 Virio. See B. x. c. 45.

580 Columella, De Arborib. c. 13, gives similar advice.

581 This absurd practice is mentioned in the Geoponica, B. v. c. 31.

582 As to this fish, see B. ix. c. 17.

583 “Uva picta.” This absurdity does not seem to be found in any of Varro’s works that have come down to us.

584 Nothing whatever is known of him or his works; and, as FÉe says, apparently the loss is little to be regretted.

585 Rubeta rana.

586 De Re Rust. 129. Cato, however, does not mention chalk, but Virgil (Georg. i. 178) does. Poinsinet thinks that this is a “lapsus memoriÆ” in Pliny, but FÉe suggests that there may have been an omission by the copyists.

587 See the last Note. He recommends that it should be turned up with the hand, rammed down with “tenacious chalk,” and levelled with a large roller.

588 Both cow-dung and marc of olives are still employed in some parts of France, in preparing the threshing floor.

589 Palladius gives a long description of this contrivance, which seems to have been pushed forward by the ox; the teeth, which were sharp at the edge and fine at the point, catching the ears and tearing them off. But, as FÉe says, the use of it must have been very disadvantageous, in consequence of the unequal height of the stalks. The straw, too, was sacrificed by the employment of it.

590 In contrarium juncto.

591 “Merges.” Supposed to be the same as the “batillum” of Varro. Its form is unknown, and, indeed, the manner in which it was used. It is not improbable that it was a fork, sharp at the edge, and similar to an open pair of scissars, with which the heads of corn were driven off, as it were; this, however, is only a mere conjecture. By the use of “atque,” it would almost appear that the “merges” was employed after the sickle had been used; but it is more probable that he refers to two different methods of gathering the ears of corn.

592 The roots and the stubble are, in reality, as good as a manure to the land.

593 Called “tribulum;” a threshing-machine moved by oxen. Varro, De Re Rust. i. 52, gives a description of it. FÉe says that it is still used in some parts of Europe.

594 On the contrary, FÉe says, the risk is greater from the depredations of birds, and the chance of the grain falling out in cutting, and gathering in. Spelt and rye may be left much longer than wheat or oats.

595 Columella, B. ii. c. i., gives the same advice.

596 “Palea” seems here to mean “chaff;” though FÉe understands it as meaning straw.

597 The chaff of millet, and not the straw, must evidently be intended here, for he says above that the straw—“culmus”—of millet is generally burnt.

598 Muria dura.

599 Georg. i. 84, et seq. FÉe says that Virgil has good reason for his commendations, as it is a most excellent plan.

600 Palladius, i. 19, says two feet.

601 On account of the damp. Columella, however, recommends a mixture of sand, lime, and marc of olives for the floor; B. i. c. 6.

602 In B. xv. c. 8.

603 This is still done in the Valais, and has the great merit of preserving the corn from house and field-mice.

604 “Ventilare.” On the contrary, the weevil penetrates deep, and does not keep near the surface.

605 De Re Rust. ii. 21.

606 See B. ii. c. 48.

607 Those keep the best, FÉe says, which have a farinaceous perisperm. Millet has but one coat.

608 This, in reality, would tend to make them turn rancid all the sooner.

609 And so repel the attacks of insects.

610 This would not only spoil the flavour, but absolutely injure the corn as well.

612 De Re Rust. i. 57.

613 See B. xix. c. 15: also Columella, De Re Rust. B. ii. c. 10.

614 Twelfth of August.

615 Twenty-second of August.

616 Twenty-eighth of August.

617 Fifth of September.

618 Ninth of September.

619 Twelfth of September.

620 See the Rudens of Plautus, Prol. l. 69.

621 Sixteenth of September.

622 Eighteenth of September.

623 Twenty-first of September.

624 Commissura.

625 Twenty-fourth of September.

626 Mentioned by Virgil, Eccl. iii. l. 38, and by Propertius, Eleg. iv. 1.

627 Twenty-eighth of September.

628 Twenty-ninth of September.

629 Second of October.

630 Third of October.

631 Fourth of October.

632 Eighth of October.

633 Tenth of October.

634 Fifteenth of October.

635 Sixteenth of October.

636 Or Hyades, see c. 66.

637 Second of November.

638 Ninth of November.

639 Eleventh of November.

640 In c. 35 of this Book.

641 “Frondarias fiscinas.” These must have been baskets of a very large size. The leaves were used for fodder.

642 This, FÉe says, is diametrically opposite to the modern practice.

643 The “culeus,” it is supposed, was of the same measure of capacity as the “dolium,” and held twenty amphorÆ. The “pressura,” or “pressing,” was probably the utmost quantity that the pressing vat would hold at one time.

644 “Lacus.”

645 “Mali rugis per cocleas bullantibus.” The whole of this passage is full of difficulties.

646 “Tympana:” literally, “drums.”

647 Grape juice boiled down to one half; see B. xiv. c. 9.

648 Virgil mentions this in the Georgics, B. i. 295. Of course, it is nothing but an absurd superstition.

649 First of January.

650 Piscinis.

651 I. e. before getting in the next year’s crop. Of course, he alludes only to wines of an inferior class, used for domestic consumption.

652 In B. xiv.

653 In B. xv. c. 3.

654 Georg. i. 276.

655 In contradistinction to the two periods of full moon, and change of the moon, the only epochs in reference to it noticed by Pliny.

656 In Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 11.

657 Or “between moons.” The “change of the moon,” as we call it.

658 51¼ minutes.

659 Many of his statements are drawn from Aristotle’s Treatise, “De Mundo.”

660 Our mid-day.

661 From due north to due south.

662 Cardo.

663 “Arbusta.” The trees on which the vines were trained.

664 I. e. the north-west of Africa; the Roman province so called.

665 In the next Chapter.

666 Ventus Auster.

667 In B. ii. c. 46.

668 Incendia.

669 See B. xvii. c. 2.

670 See B. viii. c. 75.

671 He seems to be in error here, as he has nowhere made mention of this.

672 Aristotle, on the other hand, and Columella, B. vii. c. 3, say “males.” See also B. viii. c. 72, where males are mentioned in connection with the north-wind. Also the next Chapter in this Book.

673 In the last Chapter.

674 Very similar to our compass, but describing only eight points of the wind, instead of thirty-two.

675 “Tympanum,” a drum, similar in shape to our tambourines or else kettle-drums.

676 See B. ii. c. 46.

677 Or the “summer” wind.

678 Africus, or south-west.

679 Or, according to our mode of expression, the “second,” or “next but one.”

680 Or, as we say, the “third.”

681 Georg. i. 313, et seq.

682 See the Treatise of Theophrastus on the Prognostics of the Weather.

683 This, FÉe observes, is confirmed by experience. Aratus, as translated by Avienus, states to a similar effect.

684 So Virgil, Georg. i. 427.

685 Coronam.

686 See B. ii. c. 6 and c. 36.

687 In c. 59 of this Book.

688 “Densum.” FÉe says that this is in general confirmed by experience.

689 This results, FÉe says, from the presence of thin, aqueous vapours, which portend a change in the atmosphere.

690 FÉe attributes this phÆnomenon to hydrosulphuric gas, ignited in the air by an electric spark. The notion that these meteors are stars, was prevalent to a very recent period.

691 To which they proceed.

692 This, FÉe says, is confirmed by experience.

693 Or “Little Asses.”

694 PrÆsepia.

695 This, as FÉe remarks, is consistent with experience.

696 This, FÉe remarks, appears to be consistent with general experience.

697 Theophrastus states to a similar effect, and it is confirmed by the experience of those who live in mountainous countries.

698 We still hear of the “white squalls” of the Mediterranean.

699 “‘Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.’——And it came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.”—1 Kings, xviii. 44, 45.

700 The truth of this, FÉe says, he has personally experienced in the vallies of the Alps.

701 Terreni ignes.

702 This, and the other phÆnomena here mentioned, result, as FÉe says, from the hygrometric state of the air. Virgil mentions this appearance on the wick of the lamp, Georg. i. 392.

703 FÉe thinks that this indicates fine weather rather than rain, as showing a pure state of the atmosphere.

704 Sea “lungs.” See B. ix. c. 71.

705 Ludentia.

706 Virgil mentions these indications, Georg. i. 368-9.

707 “Suus fragor.” The winds, FÉe remarks, however violent they may be, make no noise unless they meet with an obstacle which arrests their onward progress.

708 Theophrastus, Cicero, and Plutarch state to a similar effect; and it is corroborated by the experience of most mariners.

709 The ink-fish; Sepia loligo of LinnÆus. See B. ix. c. 21.

710 Virgil says the same, Georg. i. 378.

711 “FulicÆ.” See B. x. c. 61, and B. xi. c. 44.

712 Virgil says the same of the diver, or didapper, Georg. i. 361; and Lucan Pharsalia, v. 553.

713 Both Theophrastus and Ælian mention this.

714 It is not known what bird is here alluded to, but FÉe is probably right in suggesting a sort of sea-mew, or gull.

715 This is still considered a prognostic of rain. FÉe says that the swallow descends thus near to the surface to catch the insects on the wing which are now disabled from rising by the hygrometric state of the atmosphere.

716 This is confirmed by experience.

717 On the contrary, Lucan says (Pharsalia, B. v. l. 549), that on the approach of rain, the heron soars in the upper regions of the air; and Virgil says the same, Georg. i. 364.

718 Indecor lasciviÂ.

719 FÉe suggests that they probably do this to diminish the electric fluid with which the air is charged.

720 Alienos sibi manipulos.

721 This is confirmed by common experience.

722 “Repositoriis.” See B. xix. c. 13, and B. xxx. c. 49.

723 See end of B. vii.

724 See end of B. xii.

725 See end of B. iii.

726 See end of B. ii.

727 See end of B. vii.

728 See end of B. iii.

729 See end of B. xiv.

730 See end of B. ii.

731 See end of B. iii.

732 See end of B. xi.

733 See end of B. x.

734 See end of B. xi.

735 See end of B. iii.

736 See end of B. vii.

737 See end of B. vii.

738 A native of Sulmo, in the country of the Peligni, and one of the greatest poets of the Augustan age. It is most probable that his “Fasti” was extensively consulted by Pliny in the compilation of the present Book. Six Books of the Fasti have come down to us, but the remaining six have perished, if, indeed, they were ever written, which has been doubted by many of the learned.

739 See end of B. xiv.

740 See end of B. viii.

741 See end of B. ii. It is supposed that there were several writers of this name, but it is impossible to say with certainty which of them is the one here referred to. It is probable, however, that it is either L. Ælius Tubero, the friend of Cicero, or else Q. Ælius Tubero, his son, that is alluded to.

742 L. Tarutius Firmianus, a mathematician and astronomer, and a friend and contemporary of Cicero and M. Varro. At the request of the latter, he took the horoscope of Romulus. It is generally supposed that he was of Etruscan descent.

743 The founder of the imperial dignity at Rome. His Commentaries are the only work written by him that has come down to us. His treatise on the Stars, which Pliny frequently quotes throughout this Book, was probably written under the inspection of the astronomer, Sosigenes.

744 See end of B. ii.

745 Nothing is known of this writer. It has been suggested, however, that he may have been the same person as Papirius Fabianus, mentioned at the end of B. ii.

746 See end of B. vii.

747 See end of B. xvi.

748 See end of B. iii.

749 See end of B x.

750 L. Accius, or Attius, an early Roman tragic poet, and the son of a freedman, born about B.C. 170. His tragedies were chiefly imitations from the Greek. He is highly praised by Cicero. The “Praxidica” here mentioned, is probably the same as the “Pragmatica” spoken of by Aulus Gellius, B. xx. c. 3. Only some fragments of his Tragedies are left.

751 See end of B. vii.

752 See end of B. iii.

753 See end of B. ii.

754 See end of B. ii.

755 See end of B. viii.

756 See end of B. viii.

757 See end of B. viii.

758 See end of B. viii.

759 See end of B. iv.

760 Sec end of B. viii.

761 See end of B. ix.

762 See end of B. viii.

763 See end of B. viii.

764 See end of B. viii.

765 See end of B. viii.

766 See end of B. viii.

767 See end of B. viii.

768 See end of B. viii.

769 See end of B. vi.

770 See end of B. viii.

771 See end of B. xiv.

772 See end of B. xv.

773 See end of B. viii.

775 See end of B. x.

776 See end of B. viii.

777 See end of B. viii.

778 See end of B. viii.

779 See end of B. viii.

780 See end of B. xii.

781 See end of B. viii.

782 Of Miletus, the most ancient of the Greek philosophers, and the founder of the Ionian school of Philosophy. He is said to have written upon the Solstice and the Equinox, and a work on Astronomy, in verse, was also attributed to him. It is, however, more generally believed, that he left no written works behind him, and that those attributed to him were forgeries.

783 See end of B. ii.

784 An astronomer of Medama, or Medma, in Magna GrÆcia, and a disciple of Plato. He is said to have written a treatise on the winds, and Plutarch states that he demonstrated the figure of the moon.

785 An astronomer of Cyzicus, and a friend of Aristotle, whom he assisted in completing the discoveries of Eudoxus. He invented the cycle of seventy-six years, called after him the Calippic.

786 Of Colonus, a geometrician, to whom Archimedes dedicated his works on the sphere and cylinder, and on spirals.

787 A grammarian, who is supposed to have written a commentary on Aratus. Varro, De Ling. Lat. x. 10, speaks of him as making the distinctive characteristics of words to be eight in number.

788 A famous astronomer of Athens, to whom the discovery of the cycle of nineteen years has been attributed.

789 There were several learned men of this name, but it appears impossible to say which of them is the one here alluded to; probably it is either the Pythagorean philosopher of ÆgÆ, who wrote on Predestination, or else the historian, a native of Pieria in Macedonia. There was also an astronomer of this name, a native of Naxos, and a friend of Eudoxus of Cnidos.

790 A famous astronomer, a native of Chios. He is said to have claimed the discovery of the obliquity of the Ecliptic.

791 Probably Zenon of Elea, one of the most famous philosophers of antiquity. All of his works had perished at a very early period.

792 An Athenian astronomer, the friend and assistant of Meton, about 430 B.C.

793 An astronomer mentioned by Censorinus, as having corrected the intercalation of Cleostratus. Nothing further appears to be known of him.

794 For HecatÆus of Miletus, see B. iv. For HecatÆus of Abdera, see B. vi.

795 See end of B. iv.

796 See end of B. ii.

797 See end of B. ii.

798 A native of Soli, or else Tarsus, in Cilicia. He was the author of two Greek astronomical poems which have come down to us. He flourished about B.C. 270.

799 Nothing can be said of him with any degree of historical certainty. By the Persians he was called Zerdusht, and was said to have been the founder of the Magian religion. There were several works in Greek bearing his name, but which, no doubt, were forgeries of a later age than that usually assigned to him.

800 He is mentioned in c. 70 of this Book, as writing a letter to Antiochus, king of Syria; but nothing further seems to be known of him.

801 More particularly in B. xvii. cc. 2 and 3, and B. xviii. cc. 57-75.

802 The Linum usitatissimum of LinnÆus.

803 What would he have said to the application of the powers of steam, and the electric telegraph?

804 Possibly Galerius Trachalus, Consul A.D. 68, a relation of Galeria Fundana, the wife of the Emperor Vitellius.

805 Governor of Egypt in the reign of Nero, A.D. 55. He is mentioned by Seneca, QuÆst. Nat. B. iv. c. 2, and is supposed to have written a work on Egypt and his journeys in that country.

806 Or, as Sillig suggests, “after ill treatment such as this, that it arrives at the sea.” The passage is evidently defective.

807 In B. vii. c. 57. He alludes to DÆdalus.

808 He probably has in view here the imprecation uttered by Horace:—

At the present day hemp forms a material part in the manufacture of sails. In addition to flax, the ancients employed broom, rushes, leather, and various skins of animals for the purpose.

809 In c. 76.

810 On the contrary, as FÉe observes, the cultivation of flax is attended with the greatest difficulties.

811 See B. xvii. c. 7. Virgil says, Georg. i. 77, “Urit enim lini campum seges”—but in the sense, as FÉe remarks, of exhausting, not scorching the soil.

812 A light soil, and well manured, is usually employed for the purpose. Columella, B. ii. c. 10, recommends a rich, moist soil. It is sown in March or April, and is gathered, according to the season, from June to September.

813 Though rapid in its growth, there are many vegetable productions that grow more rapidly.

814 This was the time for sowing it with the Romans, though in some countries, at the present day, it is sown so late as the autumn.

815 In B. xviii. c. 72, he has spoken of this method of gathering vegetable productions as injurious to the soil, by withdrawing its natural juices.

816 “Censentur hoc reditu?” There is little doubt that the Gauls, like their German neighbours, cultivated flax for the purposes of female dress, and not mainly for the manufacture of sails.

817 “Quod vocant inane.” He implies that the boundless space of ocean on the Western coasts of Gaul was useless for any purposes of navigation.

818 See B. iv. c. 33.

819 See B. iv. c. 33.

820 See B. xxxiv. c. 48.

821 See B. iv. c. 31.

822 A family of the Atilia gens.

823 It was, and is still to some extent, a prevalent opinion, that the humidity of caves under-ground is favourable to the manufacture of tissues of hemp and flax.

824 In Spain. Sec B. i. c. 1, and B. iii. c. 4.

825 Cluvier takes this place to be the same with Litubium in Liguria, mentioned by Livy, B. xxxii.

826 “Lanugo.” This is not generally looked upon as a merit in linen, at the present day.

827 Now Tarragona. See B. iii. c. 4.

828 “Carbasus.” This was probably the Spanish name originally for fine flax, and hence came to signify the cambrics, or fine linen tissues made of it. It seems, however, to have afterwards been extended to all kinds of linen tissues, as we find the name given indifferently to linen garments, sail-cloth, and awnings for the theatres.

829 See B. iii. c. 4.

830 “SÆtas ceu per ferri aciem vincunt.” This passage is probably in a mutilated state.

831 There must either be some corruption in the text, or else Pliny must have been mistaken. Nets such as these could have been of no possible use in taking a wild boar.

832 See B. iv. c. 33. Now Querci, the chief town of which is Cahors.

833 “CulcitÆ.”

834 “Tomenta.”

835 Exactly corresponding to our “paillasse,” a “bed of straw.”

836 This is doubtful, though at the same time it is a well-known fact that the Egyptian flax grows to the greatest size. Hasselquist speaks of it attaining a height of fifteen feet.

837 Our cotton, the Gossypium arboreum of LinnÆus. See B. xii. c. 21. The terms xylon, byssus, and gossypium, must be regarded as synonymous, being applied sometimes to the plant, sometimes to the raw cotton, and sometimes to the tissues made from it. Gossypium was probably the barbarous name of the cotton tree, and byssus perhaps a corruption of its Hebrew name.

838 Probably the Arundo donax of modern botanists. See B. xvi. c. 66.

839 FÉe says, that the people of Pisa, at the present day, soak the stalks of broom, and extract therefrom a thread, of which cords and coarse stuffs are made.

840 In B. xii. c. 21. He seems there to speak of the cotton-tree, though FÉe suggests that he may possibly allude to the “Bombax pentandrum” of LinnÆus.

841 It is the mucilage of the perisperm that is so useful in medicine. As an article of food, the farina of linseed is held in no esteem whatever. In times of scarcity, attempts have been made to mix it with flour or meal, but the result has been found to be heavy and indigestible, and has caused, it is said, the death even of those who have eaten of it in considerable quantities.

842 There are various other methods employed of dressing flax at the present day; but they are all of them long and tedious.

843 And not feminine or servile.

844 “Vivum.”

845 He evidently considers asbestus, or amianthus, to be a vegetable, and not a mineral production. It is, in reality, a mineral, with long flexible filaments, of a silky appearance, and is composed of silica, magnesia, and lime. The wicks of the inextinguishable lamps of the middle ages, the existence of which was an article of general belief, were said to be made of asbestus. Paper and lace, even, have been made of it in modern times.

846 “Nascitur.” In the year 1702 there was found near the NÆvian Gate, at Rome, a funereal urn, in which there was a skull, calcined bones, and other ashes, enclosed in a cloth of asbestus, of a marvellous length. It is still preserved in the Vatican.

847 On the contrary, it is found in the Higher Alps in the vicinity of the Glaciers, in Scotland, and in Siberia, even.

848 Signifying “inextinguishable,” from ?, “not,” and s?????, “to extinguish.” See B. xxxvii. c. 54.

849 See end of this Book.

850 He evidently alludes to cotton fabrics under this name. See Note 837 to c. 2 of this Book.

851 Pausanias, in his Eliaca, goes so far as to say, that byssus was found only in Elis, and nowhere else. Judging from the variable temperature of the climate, it is very doubtful, FÉe says, if cotton was grown there at all. Arrian, Apollonius, and Philostratus say that the tree which produced the byssus had the leaves of the willow, and the shape of the poplar, characteristics which certainly do not apply to the cotton-tree.

852 Impure oxide of metals, collected from the chimneys of smelting-houses. FÉe says that Pliny on this occasion is right.

853 In B. xx. c. 79, he speaks of the “heraclion” poppy, supposed by some of the commentators to be identical with the one mentioned here.

854 “Vestium insaniam.”

855 “Postea.” Sillig would reject this word, as being a corruption, and not consistent with fact, Catulus having lived before the time of Cleopatra. He suggests that the reading should be “Populo Romano ea in theatris spectanti umbram fecere.” “Linen, too, has provided a shade for the Roman people, when viewing the spectacles of the theatre.” Lucretius, B. iv. l. 73, et seq., speaks of these awnings as being red, yellow, and iron grey.

856 “Carbasina.” Cambric.

857 The cavÆdium is generally supposed to have been the same as the “atrium,” the large inner apartment, roofed over, with the exception of an opening in the middle, which was called the “compluvium,” or “impluvium,” over which the awning here mentioned was stretched. Here the master of the house received his visitors and clients.

858 White would be much preferable to red for this purpose.

859 Il. ii. ll. 529 and 830.

860 Il. viii. l. 63.

861 Il. ii. l. 135. See B. xxiv. c. 40.

862 The Stipa tenacissima of LinnÆus; a kind of broom, called “Esparto” by the Spaniards.

863 Although, as FÉe says, this is still the fact, it is a plant which would readily admit of cultivation. Varro, however, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 23, speaks of it in conjunction with hemp, flax, and rushes, as being sown.

864 This kind, FÉe thinks, may possibly have been identical with the Spartum Lygeum of LinnÆus, false esparto, or alvarde.

865 At the present day it is only in the provinces on the Mediterranean that spartum is found; the other provinces producing nothing but alvarde.

866 It is still used in the southern parts of Spain for the same purposes.

867 The shoes now made of it are known as “espartenas” and “alpargatas.”

868 It is not dangerous in itself, but is too tough to be a favourite article of food with cattle.

869 Fifteenth of May and thirteenth of June.

870 The same word, s??????, signifying both a “rush” and a “rope.”

871 Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 13. AthenÆus, B. ii., mentions it also.

872 FÉe is at a loss to identify this plant, but considers it quite clear that it is not the same with the Eriophorum augustifolium of LinnÆus, a cyperaceous plant, of which the characteristics are totally different. DodonÆus, however, was inclined to consider them identical.

873 On the contrary, Theophrastus does mention it, in the Hist. Plant. B. i. c. 8, and speaks of it as having a bark composed of several tunics or membranes.

874 In B. xiii. c. 13, and B. xv. c. 1.

875 “Tuber.” The Tuber cibarium of LinnÆus, the black truffle; and probably the grey truffle, the Tuber griseum.

876 This callous secretion of the earth, or corticle, is, as FÉe says, a sort of hymenium, formed of vesicles, which, as they develope themselves, are found to contain diminutive truffles. Pliny is wrong in saying that the truffle forms neither cleft nor protuberance, as the exact contrary is the fact.

877 Haller speaks of truffles weighing as much as fourteen pounds. Valmont de Bomare speaks of a truffle commonly found in Savoy, which attains the weight of a pound.

878 Those of Africa are in general similar to those found in Europe, but there is one peculiar to that country, possibly the same that is mentioned in the following Chapter under the name of “misy.”

879 “Jura reddenti.”

880 It is really propagated by spores, included in sinuous chambers in the interior; but, notwithstanding the attempts that have been made, it has never yet been cultivated with any degree of success. In c. 13, Pliny seems to recognize the possibility of its multiplication by germs, where he says that its formation is attributed by some to water.

881 FÉe takes this to be the Tuber niveum of Desfontaines, the snow-white truffle. It is globular and somewhat piriform, grows to the size of a walnut, and sometimes of an orange, and is said to be most delicate eating.

882 These truffles or morels do not appear to have been identified.

883 Juvenal alludes to this absurd notion, Sat. v. l. 116. “The long wished-for thunder will provide a more ample repast.”

884 Theophrastus, as quoted by AthenÆus, B. ii. speaks of this.

885 “Peziza” was a name given by the ancients to a kind of cupuliform mushroom; in which, however, we cannot recognize the “pezica” of Pliny. Some writers think that this was the same as the lycoperdon and geastrum of botanists, our puff-ball: while others take it to be the morel, the Morchella esculenta, Sprengel in the number. FÉe is inclined to be of opinion that an edible mushroom is meant, but is quite at a loss to identify it.

886 Possibly the Ferula asafoetida of LinnÆus; or, according to some, the Thapsia silphium of Viviani, Flor. Lib. It was a plant common, according to ancient writers, to Syria, Armenia, Media, and Libya; but it was the produce of this last country, probably, that afforded the juice or gum resin here mentioned as “laser,” and so highly esteemed by the ancients, as forming a component part of their perfumes. FÉe is inclined to think that the Laserpitium here spoken of was the Thapsia silphium, and to reject the more general opinion that it is identical with the Ferula asafoetida. Pliny has probably caused some confusion by blending the description of other writers with that given by Theophrastus, each having in view a different plant. Indeed, whatever the Laserpitium or Silphium of other countries may have been, it is not improbable that the odoriferous plant of Cyrenaica was not identical with the Ferula asafoetida of LinnÆus. The foliage of the Thapsia silphium is exactly similar to that of the Laserpitium as depicted on medals of Cyrenaica, still extant. We learn from LittrÉ, that Dr. Guyon showed, in 1842, to the AcadÉmie des Sciences, a plant which the Arabs of Algeria employ as a purgative, and which they call bonnefa. It is the Thapsia Garganica of Desfontaines, and is considered by Guyon to be identical with the Silphium of the ancients.

887 See B. xxii. c. 48. In the “Rudens” of Plautus, the scene of which is near Cyrene, frequent allusion is made to the growth of laserpitium there, and the preparation and export of the resin, as forming the staple article of commerce.

888 Scribonius Largus, who lived in the time of Tiberius, speaks of using in a prescription laser of Cyrenaica, “if it can be met with;” “si poterit inveniri.”

889 “In spem nascentis.”

890 FÉe remarks that Pliny has not found this absurd story in any of the works from which he has compiled his account, but that it is entirely his own.

891 This was probably the Ferula asafoetida of LinnÆus.

892 See B. xx. c. 75.

893 A.U.C. 661.

894 FÉe remarks, that if Pliny here alludes to Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 3, he has mistaken his meaning.

895 This, as FÉe says, could hardly apply to the Ferula asafoetida of LinnÆus, the stalk of it being extremely acrid, and the juice fetid in the highest degree.

896 “Vitia his omnibus.” The reading here is probably corrupt.

897 “Root-juice,” and “stalk-juice.”

898 Poinsinet fancies that this name means “staff of the Magi.”

899 Or “laser,” these names being indifferently applied to the gum-resin.

900 The whole of this paragraph has been borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. iii.

901 Sprengel takes this to be the Laserpitium ferulaceum of LinnÆus, but FÉe thinks it is more than doubtful if the identity can be established.

902 From Theophrastus. Dioscorides says, on the other hand, that it grows in Libya.

903 From LittrÉ we learn that M. Fraas has suggested that the Magydaris and Laserpitium are possibly the Ferula Tingitana, and the Ptychotis verticillata of Decandolle, which last he has found upon high mountains in the lower region of pines, on Mount Parnassus, among others.

905 The Rubia tinctorum of LinnÆus.

906 Dioscorides speaks of the madder of Ravenna as being the most esteemed. It is much cultivated at the present day in the South of France, Holland, and the Levant. That of Lille enjoys a high reputation.

907 It is covered with bristly hairs, or rather, fine, hooked teeth. There is, however, no resemblance whatever between it and ervilia or orobus, the fitch.

908 B. xxiv. c. 56.

909 Or “little root;” though, in reality, as Pliny says, it had a large root. Some writers have supposed, that by this name is meant the Reseda luteola of LinnÆus, the “dyer’s weed” of the moderns; but neither Pliny nor any of the Greek writers mention the Radicula as being used for dyeing. Some, again, identify it with the Gypsophila struthium of LinnÆus, without sufficient warranty, however, as FÉe thinks.

910 The Gypsophila struthium grows in Spain, and possibly, FÉe says, in other countries. LinnÆus has “pretended,” he says, that the Spaniards still employ the root and stalk of the Gypsophila for the same purposes as the ancients did the same parts of the Radicula. He himself, however, though long resident in Spain, had never observed such to be the fact.

911 This description, FÉe says, does not correspond with that of the Gypsophila struthium, the stalk of which does not at all resemble that of the ferulaceous plants, and the leaf is quite different in appearance from that of the olive.

912 As FÉe observes, by the word “hortus” the Romans understood solely the “vegetable” or “kitchen-garden;” the pleasure garden being generally denominated “horti.”

913 See B. v. c. 1.

914 A fabulous king of Phoenicia, probably, whose story was afterwards transferred, with considerable embellishments, to the Grecian mythology. Adonis is supposed to have been identical with the Thammuz of Scripture, mentioned by Ezekiel, viii. 14, where he speaks of the “women weeping for Thammuz.” Hardouin considers him to have been a Syrian deity, identical with the Moon.

915 Celebrated by Homer, Od. B. vi. and xiii.

916 “Alio volumine.” As no further mention is made by Pliny of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, it is most probable that he contemplated giving a description of them in another work, an intention which he did not live to realize.

917 See further on this subject, c. 53 of the present Book.

918 The reading, “quam rem,” seems preferable to “quam ob rem,” adopted by Sillig.

919 “Effascinationes.” The effects of the evil eye.

920 “Hortorum.” “Pleasure-gardens.”

921 “Otii magister.”

922 For the purpose of teaching philosophy there.

923 “Hortus.” The “kitchen-garden.”

924 Ironically said.

925 He alludes to the pheasant. See B. x. c. 67.

926 He alludes to Colchis, the country of Medea, the scene of the exploits of Jason and the Argonauts, and the land of prodigies and fable.

927 See B. x. cc. 38 and 67. He alludes to “meleagrides,” or Guinea-fowls.

928 See B. x. c. 37. He alludes to the birds called “Memnonides.”

929 See B. xvii. c. 1.

930 See B. xiv. c. 28.

931 He alludes to the finest and most delicate kinds of wheaten flour. See B. xviii. c. 29.

932 “Uno asse.”

933 As “corruda,” or “wild asparagus.” The Brassica capitata alba of C. Bauhin, or white cabbage, sometimes attains a weight of ten or twelve pounds.

934 This is an exaggeration, probably.

935 He alludes to the artichoke, or Cinara cardunculus of the botanists, which bears some resemblance to the common thistle.

936 Martial and Aulus Gellius speak of ice and snow drinks. The latter must have been very injurious to the stomach.

937 See B. xxxi. c. 23.

938 In this corrupt and otherwise unintelligible passage, we have adopted the proposed emendations of Sillig, who is of opinion that it bears reference to the abolition of the market-dues, or “portorium,” by Augustus CÆsar, and the substitution of a property tax of one twentieth of the land, a method of taxation which inflicted greater hardships than the former one, as it was assessed according to the superficies, not the produce of the land. His proposed emendations of the text are as follows: “mox enim certe Æquabit eos pecunia quos pecunia separaverit. Itaque——ac minore fortunÆ jure, quam cum hereditate datur pensio ea pauperum; his in solo sponsor est,” &c.

939 De Re Rust. cc. 156, 157. He speaks of it as being eaten either boiled or raw, but in the latter case with vinegar. FÉe thinks that even then it would make a very acrid and indigestible diet.

940 “Acetaria.” Salads.

941 He alludes, no doubt, to the words of Virgil, in Georg. iv. l. 6.

though in that instance the poet is speaking of bees.

942 “Tollenonum haustu.” These would be used in the case of well-water; they are still to be seen occasionally in this country, and are very common on the continent. The wheel is also used for drawing well-water, and is frequently employed in Barbary and Spain.

943 By the word “fructus” he no doubt means the edible parts solely, the leaf, stalk, or root, as the case may be.

944 FÉe is surprised to find elecampane figuring among the garden vegetables. It has a powerful odour, is bitter, and promotes expectoration. Though not used as a vegetable it is still used as a preserve, or sweetmeat, mixed with sugar. See further on it in c. 29 of this Book.

945 See c. 28 of this Book.

946 See c. 27 of this Book.

947 FÉe remarks that this juxtaposition of anise and mallows betokens the most complete ignorance of botany on the part of our author; there being few plants which differ more essentially. The field-mallow, or Malva silvestris of LinnÆus, or perhaps several varieties of it, are here referred to. The anise will be further mentioned in c. 74 of this Book.

948 FÉe suggests that the plant here mentioned may have been an annual, probably the Lavatorea arborea of botanists, or some kindred species. In a few months it is known to attain a height of ten feet or more.

949 In FÉe’s opinion this tree cannot have belonged to the family of MalvaceÆ; the Adansonia and some other exotics of the family, with which Pliny undoubtedly was not acquainted, being the only ones that attain these gigantic proportions.

950 There is no resemblance between mallows and hemp, any more than there is between mallows and anise.

951 “Carnosa.”

952 Hardouin thinks that he alludes to the Conferva, or river sponge, again mentioned in B. xxvii. c. 45. FÉe, however, dissents from that opinion.

953 In B. xvi. cc. 11 and 13, and in cc. 12 and 14 of the present Book.

954 In c. 11 of the present Book.

955 The Cucumis sativus of LinnÆus.

956 “Lapis specularis.” See B. xxxvi. c. 45. Columella, De Re Rust. B. xi. c. 3, speaks of this mode of ripening cucumber, and the fondness of the Emperor Tiberius for them.

957 Theophrastus and Columella say the same of the cucumber, and Palladius of the melon, but there is no ground, probably, for the belief. In very recent times, however, FÉe says, it was the usage to steep the seeds of the melon in milk. This liquid, in common with any other, would have the effect of softening the exterior integuments, and thereby facilitating the germination, but no more.

958 Still known as the “green” or “gherkin” cucumber, and much used, when young, for pickling.

959 Probably in the sense of a very dark green, for black cucumbers are a thing unheard of.

960 He is evidently speaking of the pompion, or pumpkin, the Cucurbita pepo of LinnÆus: quite distinct from the cucumber.

961 Cucumbers are not difficult of digestion to the extent that Pliny would have us to believe.

962 As FÉe says, it is a loss of time to combat such absurd prejudices as these.

963 This is conformable with modern experience.

964 FÉe says that this is the melon, the Cucumis melo of LinnÆus.

965 B. xi. c. 3. Columella professes to borrow it from the people of Mendes in Egypt.

966 Theophrastus enumerates these varieties, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.

967 Theophrastus only says that the Laconian cucumber thrives better with watering than the others.

968 It is impossible to identify this plant, as no ancient writer has given any description of it: it has been suggested, however, that it may have been the Plantago Psyllium, or else the Inula pulicaria of LinnÆus. Of course there is no truth in the story here told of the effects of its juice upon the cucumber.

969 This depth would probably have the effect of retarding, or else utterly impeding, the growth of the plant.

970 See c. 44 of this Book. The Parilia was a festival celebrated on the nineteenth of April, the anniversary of the foundation of Rome.

971 First of March.

972 Seventh of March.

973 See B. xviii. c. 56.

974 The “camerarium,” and the “plebeium.” The former, FÉe thinks, is the Cucurbita longior of DodonÆus and J. Bauhin, the long gourd, and other varieties probably of the calabash gourd, the Cucurbita leucantha of Duchesne. The latter is probably the Cucurbita pepo and its varieties. FÉe thinks that the name “cucurbita,” as employed by Pliny, extends not only to the gourd, but the citrul or small pumpkin as well.

975 As FÉe says, he must be speaking of the fruit here, and not the plant, which attains a far greater length than nine feet.

976 The young shoots of the gourd, FÉe says, would afford an insipid food, with but little nutriment.

977 The varieties thus employed, FÉe says, must have been the Cucurbita lagenaria of LinnÆus, and the Cucurbita latior of DodonÆus.

978 This is not the fact. The seed produces fruit similar to that from which it was taken, and no more.

979 The trumpet gourd, the Cucurbita longior of DodonÆeus, is still employed, FÉe says, by gardeners for this purpose.

980 See B. xx. c. 2.

981 In B. xviii. c. 34.

982 Though borrowed from Theophrastus and the Greek school, this distinction is absurd and unfounded.

983 It is not the fact that the seed of the round kind, after repeated sowings, will produce long roots. Pliny, however, has probably miscopied Theophrastus, who says, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4, that this transformation takes place when the seed is sown very thick. This assertion, however, is no more founded on truth than that of Pliny.

984 Also from Theophrastus, B. vii. c. 4, though that author is speaking of radishes, ?afa??de?, and not turnips.

985 Properly radish.

986 Properly radish.

987 Radish.

988 Properly radish.

989 See B. xx. c. 49. FÉe queries whether this radish may not be the Raphanus raphanistrum of botanists. See B. xviii. c. 34.

990 See B. xviii. c. 35.

991 “Nostratibus.” Poinsinet would render this, “Those of my native country,” i. e. the parts beyond the Padus. As Pliny resided at Rome during the latter part of his life, there can be little doubt but that he alludes to the vicinity of Rome.

992 See B. xviii. c. 34.

993 This property extends to most of the CruciferÆ.

994 “Cibus illiberalis.”

995 The variety Oleifera of the Raphanus sativus is still cultivated extensively in Egypt and Nubia for the extraction of the oil. The variety Oleifera of the Brassica napus is also greatly cultivated in Egypt. FÉe suggests that Pliny may possibly confound these two plants under the one name of “raphanus.” It is worthy of remark, too, that the Colza oil, so much used in France and Belgium for burning in lamps, is expressed from the seed of the Brassica oleracea, a species of cabbage.

996 The Raphanus sativus of LinnÆus. This passage, however, down to “crisped leaf,” properly applies to the cabbage, and not the radish, Pliny having copied the Greek, and taken the word ??fa???, properly “cabbage,” to mean “radish;” which in the later Greek writers it sometimes does, though not in this instance.

997 Mount Algidus was near Tusculum, fifteen miles from Rome. Its coldness contributed greatly to the goodness of its radishes.

998 Or “wild.” FÉe suggests that this is the Raphanus rusticanus of Lobellius, the Cochlearia Armoracia of LinnÆus, the wild radish, or horse-radish.

999 Or “white.” From the extreme whiteness of the roots.

1000 Probably meaning, “radish of Armorica.”

1001 FÉe suggests that he is here speaking of the beet-root, in reality a native of the north of Europe.

1002 Thirteenth of February.

1003 The festival of Vulcan, beginning on the twenty-third of August, and lasting eight days.

1004 A natural production, the carbonate of sodium of the chemists, known from time immemorial by the name of “natron.” See B. xxx. c. 46; from which passage it would appear that it was generally employed for watering the leguminous plants.

1005 Dioscorides recommends these puerilities with the cabbage, and not the radish; though Celsus gives similar instructions with reference to the radish.

1006 It was a general belief with the ancients that the phthiriasis, or morbus pediculosus, has its seat in the heart. It was supposed also that the juice of the radish was able, by reason of its supposed subtlety, to penetrate the coats of that organ.

1007 This is said by other ancient authors, in reference to the cabbage and the vine. See B. xxiv. c. i.

1008 There is some doubt as to the identity of this plant, but FÉe, after examining the question, comes to the conclusion that it is the Daucus Carota, or else Mauritanicus of LinnÆus, the common carrot, or that of Mauritania. Sprengel takes it to be either this last or the Daucus guttatus, a plant commonly found in Greece.

1009 The Pastinaca sativa of LinnÆus, or common parsnip.

1010 The marsh-mallow, probably, the AlthÆa officinalis of LinnÆus.

1011 The carrot. The Daucus Carota of LinnÆus.

1012 In B. xxv. c. 64.

1013 “Siser.” The Sium sisarum of LinnÆus. See also B. xx. c. 17. It is said to have been originally a native of China.

1014 It is supposed that this is the same with Gelb, near Neuss, in Germany, mentioned by Tacitus, Hist. B. iv. cc. 26, 32.

1015 The Inula Helenium of LinnÆus. Its English name is derived from Inula campana, that under which it is so highly recommended in the precepts of the School of Health at Salerno. See also B. xx. c. 19. At the present day it is universally rejected as an article of food in any shape.

1016 The School of Salerno says that it may be preserved by being pickled in brine, or else in the juice of rue, which, as FÉe remarks, would produce neither more nor less than a veritable poison. The modern Pharmacopoeias give the receipt of a conserve of elecampane, which, however, is no longer used.

1017 “Defrutum.” Must, boiled down to one half.

1018 The daughter of Augustus CÆsar.

1019 The same account nearly is given in Columella, De Re Rust. B. xi. c. 3.

1020 Under this general name were included, probably, garlic, scallions, chives, and some kinds of onions; but it is quite impossible to identify the ancient “bulbus” more closely than this.

1021 It has been suggested that this was probably the onion, the Allium cepa of LinnÆus.

1022 The Scilla maritima of LinnÆus, the sea-squill.

1023 See B. xx. c. 39. He might have added that it renders vinegar both an emetic, and a violent purgative.

1024 The leaves are in all cases green, and no other colour; but in one kind the squamÆ, or bracted leaves, are white, and in another, red.

1025 Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 11, gives it this name. As none of the sea-squills can be eaten with impunity, FÉe is inclined to doubt if this really was a squill.

1026 They still abound in those places. The Spanish coasts on the Mediterranean, FÉe says, as well as the vicinity of Gibraltar, are covered with them.

1027 In c. 39.

1028 FÉe thinks that this may be the Muscaria botryoÏdes of Miller, Dict. No. I. See also B. xx. c. 41.

1029 A variety, probably, of the common onion, the Allium cepa of LinnÆus.

1030 Some variety of the genus Allium, FÉe thinks.

1031 FÉe queries whether this may not be some cyperaceous plant with a bulbous root.

1032 A white bulb, if we may judge from the name. The whole of this passage is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 11.

1034 The Iris sisyrinchium of LinnÆus.

1035 The Arum colocasia of LinnÆus, held in great esteem by the ancient Egyptians as a vegetable. The root is not a bulb, but tubercular, and the leaf bears no resemblance to that of the Lapathum, dock or sorrel. It was sometimes known by the name of “lotus.”

1036 In Gaul. See B. iv. c. 31.

1037 This passage, and indeed nearly the whole of the Chapter, is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. i. c. 9.

1038 FÉe thinks that by the expression ???????a, Theophrastus means a root that strikes vertically, instead of spreading.

1039 Gramen. See B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xxiv. c. 118.

1040 Atriplex. See B. xx. c. 83.

1041 See B. xx. c. 93.

1042 Poinsinet suggests that this may mean the “mole-plant,” ?sp??a? being the Greek for “mole.”

1043 “Perdicium.” See B. xxii. cc. 19, 20.

1044 “Crocus.” See B. xxi. c. 17, et seq.

1045 This is not the fact. All these assertions are from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 3.

1046 FÉe thinks that the ocimum of Pliny is not the basil of the moderns, the Ocimum basilicum of the naturalists. The account, however, here given would very well apply to basil.

1047 The Heliotropium EuropÆum of botany. See B. xxii. c. 19.

1048 These assertions, FÉe says, are not consistent with modern experience.

1049 See c. 45 of this Book.

1050 “Gethyum.” The Allium schoenoprasum, probably, of botany, the ciboul or scallion.

1051 The Allium cepa of LinnÆus.

1052 The inhabitants of Pelusium, more particularly, were devoted to the worship of the onion. They held it, in common with garlic, in great aversion as an article of food. At Pelusium there was a temple also in which the sea-squill was worshipped.

1053 With some little variation, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.

1054 Supposed to be identical with the Allium Ascalonicum of LinnÆus, the chalotte. Pliny is the only writer who mentions the Alsidenian onion.

1055 To the Ascalonian onion, the scallion, or ciboul, owes its English name.

1056 Owing to the acetic acid which the bulb contains, and which acts on the membranes of the eye.

1057 “Pinguitudinis.”

1058 FÉe queries whether the early white onion of Florence, the smallest now known among the cultivated kinds, may not possibly be identical with the setanian, or else the Tusculan, variety.

1059 From s????, to “divide” or “tear off.”

1060 “Capitata.”

1061 For this reason, FÉe is inclined to regard it as a variety either of garlic, Allium sativum, or of the chalotte, Allium Ascalonicum of LinnÆus.

1062 The Allium porrum of LinnÆus.

1063 This prejudice in favour of the leek, as FÉe remarks, still exists. It is doubtful, however, whether its mucilage has any beneficial effect upon the voice. See B. xx. c. 21.

1064 FÉe says, that it is a practice with many gardeners, more harmful than beneficial, to cut the leaves of the leek as it grows, their object being to increase the size of the stalk.

1065 Martial, B. xiii. Epig. 19, mentions the leeks of Aricia.

1066 FÉe thinks that this may be the wild leek, which is commonly found as a weed in Spain.

1067 M. AnnÆus Mela, the brother of L. Seneca the philosopher, and the father of the poet Lucan.

1068 Though Pliny would seem inclined, as FÉe says, to credit this story, the juice of the leek is in reality quite harmless.

1069 The Allium sativum of LinnÆus. It was much eaten by the Roman soldiers and sailors, and by the field labourers. It is in reference to this vegetable, “more noxious than hemlock,” that Horace exclaims—

1070 It was thought to have the property of neutralizing the venom of serpents; and though persons who had just eaten of it were not allowed to enter the Temple of the Mother of the Gods, it was prescribed to those who wished to be purified and absolved from crimes. It is still held in considerable esteem in the south of Europe, where, by the lower classes, great medicinal virtues are ascribed to it.

1071 Theophrastus says, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4, that this is the largest of all the varieties of garlic.

1072 Second of May.

1073 Seventeenth of December.

1074 The Allium oleraceum of LinnÆus.

1075 FÉe refuses credence to this story.

1076 “Ursinum.” The Allium ursinum of LinnÆus. Instead, however, of having the comparatively mild smell of millet, its odour is powerful; so much so, as to impart a strong flavour to the milk of the cows that eat of it. It is very common, FÉe says, in nearly every part of France.

1077 The whole nearly of this Chapter is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. cc. 1 and 2. It must be borne in mind that what the Romans called the “third” day would with us be the “second,” and so on; as in reckoning, they included the day reckoned from, as well as the day reckoned to.

1078 FÉe remarks, that most of the observations made in this Chapter are well founded.

1079 This statement, FÉe remarks, is entirely a fiction, it being impossible for seed to acquire, the second year, a faculty of germinating which it has not had in the first.

1080 This is true, but, as FÉe observes, the instances might be greatly extended.

1081 FÉe says that basil, the Ocimum basilicum of LinnÆus, is not meant here, nor yet the leguminous plant that was known to the Romans by that name.

1082 A singular superstition truly! Theophrastus says the same in relation to cummin seed.

1083 This is not done at the present day.

1084 This can hardly be our basil, the Ocimum basilicum, for that plant is an annual.

1085 FÉe suggests that Pliny may have intended here to except the Monocotyledons, for otherwise his assertion would be false.

1086 This, FÉe says, cannot be basil, for when cut it will not shoot again.

1087 The radish is not mentioned in the parallel passage by Theophrastus.

1088 The lettuce, as FÉe remarks, will not shoot again when cut down.

1089 This puerility, FÉe observes, runs counter to the more moral adage, that “stolen goods never prosper.”

1090 See B. xi. c. 15.

1091 This variety, FÉe says, is the Apium graveolens of LinnÆus.

1092 Or marsh-parsley.

1093 Pliny has mistranslated, or rather misread, the passage of Theophrastus, who says, B. vii. c. 6, that this kind of parsley is a??f?????, “thinly covered with leaves,” and not ???f?????, “having a single leaf.” Palladius (In Aprili.) translates it, “molli folio,” “with a soft leaf;” but, though FÉe commends this version, it is not correct.

1094 Or “horse-parsley.” Hardouin takes this to be Macedonian parsley, the Bubon Macedonicum of LinnÆus. FÉe, following C. Bauhin and Sprengel, is inclined to identify it with Macerona, the Smyrnium olusatrum of LinnÆus.

1095 Or “mountain-parsley.” Probably the Athamanta oreoselinum of LinnÆus. Some commentators, however, take it to be the Laserpitium formosum of Wilidenow. Sprengel identifies it with the Selinum oreoselinum of LinnÆus.

1096 The Apium petroselinum, probably, of LinnÆus.

1097 The Lactuca sativa of LinnÆus. This account of the Greek varieties is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.

1098 This, no doubt, is fabulous, and on a par with the Greek tradition that Adonis concealed himself under the leaves of a lettuce, when he was attacked and killed by the wild boar. The Coss, or Roman, lettuce, as FÉe remarks, is the largest of all, and that never exceeds fifteen to twenty inches in height, leaves, stalk and all.

1099 This would seem not to be a distinct variety, as the rounded stalk is a characteristic of them all.

1100 “Sessile.” A cabbage-lettuce, probably; though Hardouin dissents from that opinion.

1101 Columella more particularly. There are still varieties known respectively as the black, brown, white, purple, red, and blood-red lettuce.

1102 Martial, B. v. Epig. 79, gives to this lettuce the epithet of “vile.”

1103 It has been suggested that this may have been wild endive, the Cichoreum intubus of botanists.

1104 Or “poppy-lettuce.” See B. xx. c. 26. The Lactuca virosa, probably, of modern botany, the milky juice of which strongly resembles opium in its effects.

1105 For its medicinal qualities, most probably.

1106 “Lac.”

1107 So called, Columella informs us, from CÆcilius Metellus, Consul A.U.C. 503.

1108 Meaning “antaphrodisiac.” The other name has a kindred meaning.

1109 A.U.C. 731.

1110 Antonius Musa. For this service he received a large sum of money, and the permission to wear a gold ring, and a statue was erected by public subscription in honour of him, near that of Æsculapius. He is supposed to be the person described by Virgil in the Æneid, B, xii. l. 390, et seq., under the name of Iapis. See B. xxix. c. 5 of this work.

1111 Vinegar and honey; a mixture very ill-adapted, as FÉe observes, to preserve either the medicinal or alimentary properties of the lettuce.

1112 “Caprina lactuca.” See B. xx. c. 24.

1113 Endive, in fact, belongs to the same family as the lettuce.

1114 This is not the case; unless, indeed, under the name “lactuca,” Pliny would include several plants, that in reality are not lettuces.

1115 The stalk, in fact, is more intensely bitter than the leaves.

1116 “Erraticum.” Wild endive.

1117 From which comes the French “chicorÉe,” and our “chicory,” or “succory.”

1118 In B. xx. c. 29, and B. xxi. c. 52.

1119 The usual times for sowing the lettuce are before winter and after February.

1120 An excess of manure is injurious to the lettuce.

1121 As already stated in a previous Note (p. 179), lettuces when cut down will not grow again, with the exception of a few worthless lateral branches.

1122 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.

1123 Not the Beta sicla of modern botany, FÉe thinks. The black beet of the ancients would be one of the dark purple kinds.

1124 It was only the leaf of beet, and not the root, that was eaten by the ancients. From Martial, B. xiii. Epig. 10, we learn that the leaves were preserved in a mixture of wine and pepper.

1125 Though not positively unwholesome, the leaves would form an insipid dish, that would not agree with all stomachs. Galen says that it cannot be eaten in great quantities with impunity, but Diphilus the physician, as quoted by AthenÆus, B. ix. c. 3, says the reverse. Some MSS. read here “innocentiorem,” “more harmless.”

1126 Columella says the same, De Re Rust. B. xi. c. 3.

1127 FÉe would seem to render this, “when wine has been spoiled by cabbage leaves being mixed with it.”

1128 De Re Rust. cc. 156, 157.

1129 In B. xx. c. 33.

1130 Or “parsley” cabbage, so called from its crisped leaves: the curled colewort, or Brassica viridis crispa of C. Bauhin.

1131 The same as our Brussels sprouts. Columella, however, B. xi. c. 3, and B. xii. c. 7, speaks of the Brassica cyma as a distinct variety of cabbage.

1132 See B. viii. c. 77.

1133 The Brassica oleracea capitata of Lamarck, and its varieties.

1134 The ordinary cabbage, or Brassica oleracea of LinnÆus.

1135 A variety, FÉe thinks, of the Lacuturrian cabbage.

1136 The Brassica oleracea botrytis of LinnÆus, the cauliflower.

1137 Or Calabrian cabbage: it has not been identified.

1138 The Brassica oleracea Sabellica of LinnÆus, or fringed cabbage.

1139 Or “Lake-towers.” The turnip-cabbage or rape-colewort, the Brassica oleracea gongyloides of LinnÆus.

1140 Generally thought to be the Crambe maritima of botanists, sea-cabbage, or sea-kale. Some, however, take it to be the Convolvulus soldanella of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 38.

1141 From ???, the “sea.”

1142 He alludes to the statement made by Columella, probably, De Re Rust. B. xi. c. 3.

1143 FÉe remarks, that probably we here find the first germs of the practice which resulted in the making of sour-krout (sauer-kraut). Dalechamps censures Pliny for the mention of trefoil here, the passage which he has translated speaking not of that plant, but of the trefoil or three-leaved cabbage.

1144 The same as the “chara,” probably, mentioned by CÆsar, Bell. Civ. B. iii. Hardouin thinks that it is the common parsnip, while Clusius and Cuvier would identify it with the Crambe Tatarica of Hungary, the roots of which are eaten in time of scarcity at the present day. FÉe suggests that it may belong to the Brassica napo-brassica of LinnÆus, the rape-colewort. See B. xx. c. 37.

1145 Or cabbage-sprout.

1146 In B. xvi. c. 67. The Asparagus officinalis of LinnÆus.

1147 De Re Rust. c. 161.

1148 Or wild sperage. See B. xvi. c. 67; also B. xx. c. 43.

1149 “Spongiis.” FÉe is at a loss to know why the name “spongia” should have been given to the roots of asparagus. Probably, as Facciolati says, from their growing close and matted together. See the end of this Chapter.

1150 De Re Rust. c. 161.

1151 See B. xvii. c. 47.

1152 On the contrary, Martial says that the asparagus of Ravenna was no better than so much wild asparagus.

1153 In B. xvi. c. 67. See also c. 19 of this Book.

1154 Dioscorides mentions this absurdity, but refuses to credit it.

1155 Probably the artichoke, the Cinara scolymus of LinnÆus. See further on this subject, B. xx. c. 99.

1156 About £24 sterling. “Sestertia” has been suggested, which would make the sum a thousand times as much.

1157 The ass, of course, excepted, which is fond of thistles.

1158 Seventh of March.

1159 Thirteenth of November.

1160 “Si DÎs placet.”

1161 Oxymel.

1162 This is evidently said contemptuously.

1163 See further as to the identity of this plant, B. xx. c. 48.

1164 Twenty-second of April.

1165 Brassica eruca of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 49.

1166 Cresses, or nosesmart, the Lepidium sativum of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 50.

1167 “Quod nasum torqueat.”

1168 The Ruta graveolens of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 51. This offensive herb, though looked upon by the Romans as a vegetable, is now only regarded as an active medicament of almost poisonous qualities.

1170 It so happens that it thrives best on the same soil as the fig-tree.

1171 This practice has no beneficial effect whatever.

1172 This is not the fact; for its branches never come in contact with the ground.

1173 Pliny has derived the greater part of this Chapter from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 5, and Columella, B. xi. c. 3.

1174 For the purpose of separating the seeds, which are slightly joined together; and of disengaging a portion of the perisperm. At the present day this is not done, for fear of bursting the kernel of the seed.

1175 See B. xx. c. 53.

1176 Called by the Greeks ?a?a????, according to Apuleius.

1177 Or “Mentha.”

1178 “Sweet-smelling.”

1179 “SÆpius.” See B. xviii. c. 60.

1180 The Cuminum cyminum of botanists. See B. xx. c. 57.

1181 See B. xx. c. 57.

1182 In Hispania Tarraconensis. See B. iii. c. 4.

1183 Or “black-herb:” the herb Alexander, the Smyrnium olusatrum of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 46.

1184 “Horse-parsley.”

1185 See B. xvii. c. 14, and B. xxi. c. 14.

1186 Hist. Plant. B. ix. c. 1. This story originated, no doubt, in the fancied resemblance of its smell to that of myrrh.

1187 The Capparis spinosa of LinnÆus. See B. xiii. c. 44, also B. xx. c. 59.

1188 In B. xiii. c. 44.

1189 The Carum carvi of LinnÆus.

1190 Caria, in Asia Minor.

1191 The Ligusticum levisticum of LinnÆus.

1192 “Ox cunila.” One of the LabiatÆ, probably; but whether one of the Satureia or of the Thymbra is not known. See B. xx. cc. 60, 61.

1193 See B. xxi. c. 32.

1194 Scribonius Largus gives this name to savory, the Satureia hortensis of LinnÆus. The whole of this passage is very confused, and its meaning is by no means clear.

1195 The Lepidium sativum of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 70.

1196 It is an annual, in fact.

1197 Its leaf has no resemblance whatever to that of the laurel.

1198 The Nigella sativa of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 71.

1199 Or sagapenum. See B. xx. c. 75. It is mentioned also in B. xii. c. 56, as being used for adulterating galbanum. As to laser, see c. 15 of the present Book.

1200 This practice, as FÉe remarks, is not followed; and indeed, unless it is intended to transplant them, it would be attended with injurious results to the young plants.

1201 As to the poppy, for further particulars see B. xx. c. 76 and the Note.

1202 The variety Album of the Papaver somniferum of modern botanists.

1203 The variety Nigrum of the Papaver somniferum. The white poppy has also a milky juice.

1204 The Papaver rhoeas of modern botanists, the corn-poppy, or wild poppy. The seed of the poppy does not partake of the qualities of its capsular envelope, and at the present day it is extensively employed in the South of Europe for sprinkling over pastry.

1205 “Rhoeas,” the “crimson,” or “pomegranate” poppy.

1206 See B. xx. cc. 76-79.

1207 See c. 17 of this Book, also Ovid’s Fasti, B. ii. l. 703, et seq.

1208 “Lad’s love.”

1209 Black mustard, FÉe thinks.

1210 He can hardly mean a pottage made of boiled mustard-seed alone, as FÉe seems to think. If so, however, FÉe no doubt is right in thinking that it would he intolerable to a modern palate.

1211 See B. xx. c. 87.

1212 Perhaps a corruption of its Greek name, s???p?.

1213 Hardouin suggests “thlaspi.”

1214 Its bite being as sharp as the venom of the “saurus,” or lizard.

1215 Hardouin, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 7, suggests a reading, “whence the streams bring down branches of them torn off, and so plant them.”

1216 The plants. FÉe says, that we find in these localities, are nearly always ferns, or else Marchantia, or mosses of the genus Hypnum. FÉe queries whether one of these may not have been the sisymbrium of Pliny. Water-cresses, again, have been suggested.

1217 In B. viii. c. 41. The AnÆthum foeniculum of LinnÆus.

1218 In B. xiii. c. 42.

1219 The Cannabis sativa of LinnÆus. See B. xx. c. 97.

1220 Hemp-seed is never smoke-dried now.

1221 See B. v. c. 29. The same hemp is mentioned as being used for making hunting-nets, by Gratius, in the Cynegeticon.

1222 See B. v. c. 29.

1223 See B. iii. c. 17, and B. xvii. c. 3.

1224 This, as FÉe says, is no doubt erroneous. It is seldom known to attain a couple of inches in circumference.

1225 In B. xiii. c. 42.

1226 These absurd notions are borrowed from Theophrastus, De Causis, c. 8.

1227 See B. xx. c. 91.

1228 Or, according to some readings, “limodorum,” a parasitical plant, probably the LathrÆa phelypea of Sprengel. FÉe suggests that this plant may be the Polygonum convolvulus of LinnÆus, or else one of the CuscutÆ, or a variety of Orobanche.

1229 “Scabies.” A fungous excrescence, FÉe thinks, now known as “puccinia,” or “uredo.”

1230 See B. xvii. c. 47. FÉe says that he has met with persons, in their sound senses, who obstinately defend the notion here mentioned by Pliny.

1231 See Theophrastus. Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 5. Many of these insects, however, do not breed upon the plants, but are only attracted to them.

1232 “Book on Gardening.”

1233 The Heliotropium EuropÆum of botanists. See B. xxii. c. 29.

1234 This may possibly, FÉe says, be efficacious against some insects.

1235 See B. xviii. c. 45.

1236 A mere puerility, of course, though it is very possible that the insects may collect in it, and so be more easily taken. Garden-pots, on sticks, are still employed for this purpose.

1237 See B. xvi. c. 30.

1238 “Culices,” including both flies and gnats, probably.

1239 See B. xii. c. 56.

1240 An almost literal translation of Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 6.

1241 This is certainly not true with reference to the leguminous and gramineous plants. It is pretty generally known as a fact, that wheat has germinated after being buried in the earth two thousand years: mummy-wheat, at the present day, is almost universally known.

1242 Rain-water, if collected in cisterns, and exposed to the heat of the sun, is the most beneficial of all; rain has the effect also of killing numerous insects which have bred in the previous drought.

1243 From Theophrastus, B. vii. c. 5. Evening is generally preferred to morning for this purpose; the evaporation not being so quick, and the plant profiting more from the water.

1244 It should, however, be of a middling temperature, and warmed to some extent by the rays of the sun.

1245 These statements are consistent with modern experience.

1246 See B. xx. c. 85.

1247 He says this probably in reference partly to the large leaves which characterize the varieties of dock.

1248 Dishes made of rice or barley. See B. xviii. c. 13.

1249 See B. xx. c. 85.

1250 He does not give the name of the poet, but, as FÉe says, we do not experience any great loss thereby.

1251 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 6.

1252 See B. xv. c. 32.

1253 “Absinthium.” See B. xxvii. c. 28.

1254 See B. xxv. c. 30.

1255 FÉe remarks, that though rarely to be met with, the salt flavour is still to be found in the vegetable kingdom.

1256 The “cicercula,” or Lathyrus sativus of LinnÆus. See B. xviii. c. 32.

1257 See B. xii. c. 57.

1258 Or pepper-wort. See B. xx. c. 66.

1259 See B. xx. c. 54.

1260 The same, probably, as olusatrum. See cc. 37 and 48 of this Book, and B. xx. c. 46: also B. xxvii. c. 109.

1261 In B. xii. c. 57.

1262 See c. 48 of this Book.

1263 Rosemary, or “sea-dew.”

1264 See B. xx. c. 74.

1265 FÉe suggests, though apparently without any good reason, that this paragraph, to the end of the Book, is an interpolation of the copyists.

1266 See end of B. xiv.

1267 See end of B. ii.

1268 See end of B. xiv.

1269 See end of B. iii.

1270 See end of B. iii.

1271 See end of B. vii.

1272 See end of B. ii.

1273 See end of B. vii.

1274 See end of B. viii.

1275 See end of B. xvi.

1276 See end of B. x.

1277 Beyond the mention made of this writer in c. 57, nothing whatever is known of him.

1278 C. Licinius Macer, a Roman annalist and orator, born about B.C. 110. Upon being impeached by Cicero, he committed suicide. He wrote a History or Annals of Rome, which are frequently referred to by Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

1279 Nothing whatever appears to be known of this writer.

1280 See end of B. xiv.

1281 Nothing whatever is known relative to this writer on Horticulture.

1282 Nothing certain is known of him; but it has been suggested that he may have been the father of the rhetorician Castritius, so often mentioned by Aulus Gellius, and who lived in the time of the Emperor Adrian.

1283 Nothing whatever is known relative to this writer.

1284 The author of a Greek poem on venomous serpents, mentioned in B. xx. c. 96, and B. xxii. c. 40, and by the Scholiast on the Theriaca of Nicander.

1285 See end of B. ii.

1286 See end of B. iii.

1287 See end of B. ii.

1288 See end of B. xi.

1289 Nothing whatever is known of him. His Book seems to have been a compendium of “Things useful to life.”

1290 A physician and Pythagorean philosopher, born at one of the cities called Larissa, but which, is now unknown. He was banished by the Emperor Augustus, B.C. 28, on the charge of practising magic, a charge probably based on his superior skill in natural philosophy. He is frequently mentioned by Pliny in the course of this work.

1291 FÉe remarks, that the commencement of this exordium is contrary to truth, and that Pliny appears to forget that in the Eighteenth Book he has treated, at very considerable length, of the various cereals, the art of preparing bread, pottages, ptisans, &c. He suggests, that the author may have originally intended to place the Eighteenth Book after the present one, and that on changing his plan he may have neglected to alter the present passage. From his mention, however, of man’s “ignorance by what means lie exists,” it is not improbable that he may have considered that the nutritive qualities of plants are really based upon their medicinal virtues, a point of view little regarded by the majority of mankind in his time, but considered by Pliny to be the true key to a just appreciation of their utility.

1292 “Quibus cuncta constant.” See B. xxiv. c. 1.

1293 See B. xxxiv. c. 42.

1294 The “theamedes.” See B. xxxvi. c. 25.

1295 Pliny is the only author who makes mention of this singularly absurd notion.

1296 In B. xix. c. 24: so, too, Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 154. The wild cucumber of Pliny, as FÉe observes, is in reality not a cucumber, but a totally different plant, the Cucumis silvestris asininus of C. Bauhin, the Momordica elaterium of LinnÆus, or squirting cucumber.

1297 Elaterium, FÉe says, is not extracted from the seed, but is the juice of the fruit itself, as Pliny, contradicting himself, elsewhere informs us. Theophrastus commits the same error, which Dioscorides does not; and it is not improbable that Pliny has copied from two sources the method of making it.

1298 Meaning the juice and seed combined, probably. FÉe thinks that it is to this the medicament owes its name, from ??a???, to “drive” or “impel.” It is much more probable, however, that the medicine was so called from its strong purgative powers; for, as Galen tells us, ??at????? was a name given to purgative medicines in general.

1299 Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 154, states to this effect. FÉe remarks that, singularly enough, most of the antiophthalmics used by the ancients, were composed of acrid and almost corrosive medicaments, quite in opposition to the sounder notions entertained on the subject by the moderns.

1300 Dioscorides says the same; and much the same statements are made by Celsus, Apuleius, Marcellus Empiricus, and Plinius Valerianus. The different parts of the plant, dried, have but very feeble properties, FÉe says.

1301 A sort of tetter or ring-worm. Celsus enumerates four varieties.

1302 Itch-scab, probably.

1303 A disease of the skin, in which the scab assumes the form almost of a lichen or moss.

1304 “Panos.” “Panus” was the name given to a wide-spreading, but not deeply-seated, tumour, the surface of which presented a blistered appearance.

1306 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. ix. c. 10.

1307 FÉe acknowledges the truth of this observation, that of a green colour containing feculent matter, and showing that the juice is not pure.

1308 In reality there is no such resemblance whatever. See B. xxii. c. 29.

1309 FÉe says that this is an exaggerated account of the properties of the wild cucumber, as it would require a very considerable dose to cause death.

1310 The Morbus pedicularis, or “lousy disease.”

1311 This has been identified by some writers, FÉe says, with the Cucumis flexuosus of LinnÆus; but, as he observes, that plant comes originally from India, and it is more than probable that it was not known by the ancients; in addition to which, it is possessed of no medicinal properties whatever. He looks upon it as an indigenous plant not identified.

1312 So Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 154.

1313 “Morbus regius;” literally, the “royal disease.”

1314 “Lentigo.”

1315 See B. xix. c. 23. It is but little appreciated for its medicinal properties by the moderns. Emulsions are sometimes made of the seeds, which are of an oily nature. FÉe says that the French ladies esteem pommade of cucumber as an excellent cosmetic; which is, however, an erroneous notion.

1316 The combination of cummin with cucumber seed is in opposition, FÉe remarks, with their medicinal properties, the one being soothing, and the other moderately exciting.

1317 As to the several varieties of the pumpkin or gourd, known under this name, see B. xix. c. 24.

1318 Dioscorides states to the same effect, and, as FÉe thinks, with a probability of being correct.

1319 “Smegmata.”

1320 This assertion, FÉe says, is utterly untrue.

1321 From ?p?, “upon,” and ???, “night.” These are red or whitish pustules, accompanied with sharp pains, which appear on the skin at night, and disappear in the day-time. See c. 21.

1322 Or “many-legs.” See B. xxix. c. 39. Probably one of our millepedes or centipedes: though FÉe suggests that it may have been a large caterpillar.

1323 From s?pe??, “to rot.”

1324 This, FÉe says, is untrue: but it is hard to say on what grounds he himself asserts that the smell of the cucumber is faint, and almost nauseous.

1325 This, probably, is not conformable to modern notions on the subject.

1326 From the Greek s?f??, porous, spongy, or hollow.

1327 It is supposed by some naturalists that this gourd is the variety Pyxidaris of the Cucurbita pepo of LinnÆus, the Colocynthis amara of C. Bauhin. FÉe remarks, however, that this designation is arbitrary; as this plant never grows wild in Europe, and its pulp is so bitter, that instead of proving beneficial to the stomach, it would cause vomiting. From the fact of its comparison to the human finger, he doubts if it really was one of the CucurbitÆ at all.

1328 The Cucumis colocynthus of LinnÆus, or Coloquintida, so remarkable for its bitterness.

1329 It is an extremely drastic, and indeed violent purgative.

1330 Recurring at stated times. The absurdity of this statement does not require discussion.

1331 The cultivated cucumber, FÉe says.

1332 Or “aposthumes,” a kind of abscess, probably.

1333 “Ignis sacer,” literally “sacred fire.” It is sometimes called “St. Anthony’s fire.” Celsus, in describing it, distinguishes it, however, from erysipelas, and divides it into two kinds.

1334 On the contrary, FÉe says, the pulp of the gourd is tough and leathery, extremely insipid, and destitute of any salutary qualities.

1335 A decoction of rape or turnips is still recommended for chilblains at the present day. FÉe remarks that ground mustard is much preferable.

1336 This, as FÉe remarks, he says of nearly all the vegetable productions known.

1337 It is only suited as an aliment to a strong stomach, and it is owing to the property here mentioned that the School of Salerno says,—

and

1338 Dioscorides and Galen say the same, but this property is not recognized in modern times.

1339 “Eruca:” a plant itself of a very stimulating nature.

1340 The Brassica napus, var. a of LinnÆus, the Brassica asperifolia, var. a of Decandolles, the “navette” of the French. An oil is extracted from the seed, very similar to the Colza oil, extracted from the Brassica oleracea.

1341 It is in reality of a blackish hue without, and white within.

1342 See B. xxii. c. 73. Dioscorides speaks of the use of the wild rape for this purpose, B. ii. c. 135.

1343 See B. xviii. c. 35, and B. xix. c. 25.

1344 Dalechamps remarks that Pliny here confounds the bunion with the bunias; the first of which, as FÉe says, is an umbellifera, either the Bunium bulbocastanum of LinnÆus, or the Peucedanum silaus of LinnÆus, and the second is the Brassica napo-brassica of LinnÆus. Dioscorides says that the stalks of the bunion are quadrangular. M. Fraas thinks that the bunion is the Bunium pumilum of modern Botany, and says that the Bunium bulbocastanum, usually supposed to be the bunion of Dioscorides, is a stranger to Greece.

1345 These properties, FÉe says, are not to be found in the Bunium bulbocastanum of modern botanists.

1346 Sillig is of opinion that there is an hiatus here in the text, and that the meaning is that a drachma of the juice is taken with something else: honey possibly, he suggests.

1347 The Brassica napo-brassica of LinnÆus.

1348 See B. xix. c. 26.

1349 The Cochlearia Armoracia of LinnÆus.

1350 In B. xix. c. 26.

1351 FÉe says that the medicinal properties recognized by the moderns in the several varieties of the Raphanus sativus are, that their action is slightly stimulating when eaten raw, and that boiled and eaten with sugar they are soothing, and act as a pectoral.

1352 “Lagonoponon.” Nearly all these asserted virtues of the radish, FÉe says, are illusory.

1353 “Phlegmoni.” Stagnation of the blood, with heat, redness, swelling, and pain.

1354 “Veternosi.” FÉe says that, rigorously speaking, “veternus” was that state of somnolency which is the prelude to apoplexy.

1355 The Coluber cerastes of LinnÆus. See B. viii. c. 35.

1356 Poinsinet warns us not to place too implicit faith in this assertion.

1357 Dioscorides says the same, but the assertion is quite destitute of truth.

1358 Nicander, in his “Alexipharmaca,” ll. 430 and 527, says that the cabbage, not the radish, is good for poisoning by fungi and henbane; and in l. 300 he states that the cabbage is similarly beneficial against the effects of bullock’s blood. Pliny has probably fallen into the error by confounding ??fa???, the “cabbage,” with ?afa???, the “radish.”

1359 Themistocles is said to have killed himself by taking hot bullock’s blood. It is, however, very doubtful.

1360 “Morbus comitialis”—literally the “comitial disease.” Epilepsy it is said, was so called because, if any person was seized with it at the “Comitia” or public assemblies of the Roman people, it was the custom to adjourn the meeting to another day.

1361 From ??a?, “black,” and ????, “bile.” Melancholy, or bad spirits, was so called from a notion that it was owing to a predominance of an imaginary secretion called by the ancients “black bile.”

1362 The coeliac flux, FÉe says, is symptomatic of chronic enteritis; and is a species of diarrhoea, in which the chyme is voided without undergoing any change in passing through the intestines.

1363 “PrÆcordiorum.”

1364 “Enterocele.”

1365 De Morb. Mulier. B. ii. c. 67.

1366 Eating or corroding ulcers.

1367 Hippocrates, De DiÆtÂ, B. ii. cc. 25, 26, says that radishes are of a cold, and hyssop of a warm, nature.

1368 “Moloche agria.”

1369 See B. xix. c. 27.

1370 See B. viii. c. 73.

1371 De Remed. B. iv. c. 24. The parsnip is a stimulating plant, and it is not without reason, FÉe says, that Celsus recommends it for this purpose.

1372 Or “wild.” See B. xix. c. 27.

1373 This seed, FÉe says, is an energetic excitant, and certainly would not be found suitable for any of the purposes here mentioned by Pliny; though equally recommended for them by Galen, Dioscorides, and in AthenÆus.

1374 Tetanus, or contraction of the muscles, in which the head is twisted round or stretched backwards.

1375 “Axungia;” properly swine’s grease, with which the axle-trees of chariots were rubbed. See B. xxviii. c. 9.

1376 Diphilus of Siphnos, as quoted in AthenÆus, B. ix. c. 3, states that the ancients employed this plant as a philtre, for which reason it was called by some persons f??t???.

1377 “Posca.” This was the ordinary drink of the lower classes at Rome, as also the soldiers when on service, and the slaves. “Oxycrate” is the scientific name sometimes given to vinegar and water.

1378 ????? S???? ???a?a. Similar to our proverb, probably, “There is more corn in Egypt.”

1379 The Daucus visnaga of LinnÆus, the Daucus gingidium of Sprengel, the Visnagha, or Bisnagha of other botanists. It is also known as the “wild carrot,” or “French carrot.”

1380 Or “erratic.”

1381 See B. xix. c. 28.

1382 The root and seed, FÉe observes, really are stimulants: there is no perceptible difference between the wild and cultivated plants. For silphium, see B. xix. c. 15.

1383 FÉe thinks that it may be so in a slight degree.

1384 Pliny often speaks of persons having swallowed quicksilver, but never lets us know under what circumstances. As FÉe remarks, it could not be accidentally; nor yet, on the other hand, could it have been done purposely, with the object of committing suicide, it not being an active poison. He concludes that it must have been taken medicinally, and that part of it becoming absorbed in the system, other remedies were resorted to, to counteract its noxious effects.

1385 “Inutile,” and not “utile,” is evidently the correct reading here.

1386 S?s???? the “skirret,” and S?se??, S???, or S???, “hart-wort.”

1387 The Seseli tortuosum of LinnÆus.

1388 Or Marseilles: the Seseli tortuosum. FÉe says that there is great confusion relative to the supposed varieties of this plant. The Bupleurum fruticosum, or Seseli of Æthiopia, has leaves smaller than those of ivy, and resembling the leaves of honeysuckle. That of Peloponnesus, the Ligusticum austriacum, has a leaf similar to that of hemlock, but larger and thicker; and the Seseli of Crete, some species of the genus Tordylium, is a small plant which throws out shoots in large quantities. All these, he says, are so far different plants, that it is quite impossible to unite them with any degree of certainty under one concordance. Indeed, he thinks it very possible that they do not all belong to the genus Seseli of modern botanists.

1389 It is clear that Pliny hesitates to believe this story, and it is hardly necessary to remark how utterly foreign this is to the habits of carnivorous birds.

1390 See B. viii. c. 50. An absurd story.

1391 The Inula Helenium of botanists. See B. xix. c. 29.

1392 Modern notions, FÉe says, do not agree with those of the ancients on the subject of elecampane. The root owes the energy of its action to the camphor which it contains.

1393 This notion of the virtues of the onion is quite erroneous, though it still prevails to a considerable degree. Hippocrates, however, Dioscorides, and Galen, like Pliny, attribute this property to the onion.

1394 This, FÉe says, is not the fact.

1395 A disease of the eye, by which the cornea contracts a whiteness.

1396 A white speck within the black of the eye.

1397 It is of no use whatever for such a purpose.

1398 Fox evil, or scurf, or scaldhead: a disease which causes the hair to fall off the body. It derives its name from the Greek ???p??, a “fox,” from the circumstance that they were supposed to be peculiarly affected with a similar disease.

1399 Or millepedes. See c. 6 of this Book.

1400 So the school of Salerno says—

1401 This is not the case.

1402 “Vermiculis.” Small worms or maggots.

1403 “Porrum sectivum.” See B. xix. c. 33.

1404 FÉe thinks that boiled leeks may possibly, with some justice, be ranked among the pectorals.

1405 This, as Pliny himself here remarks, is a different disease from that previously mentioned in c. 6 of this Book.

1406 From the Greek s???, “a fig.”

1407 “Merum.”

1408 They would be of no utility whatever.

1409 This is an unfounded statement, FÉe says.

1410 See B. xix. c. 33. Aristotle, Sotion, and Dioscorides state to the same effect.

1411 “Porrum capitatum.”

1412 There is no difference now recognized between these two kinds of leeks, so far as their medicinal effects are concerned.

1413 See B. xvi. c. 9.

1414 I. e. gum arabic. For an account of the Acacia Nilotica, see B. xiii. c. 19.

1415 De Morb. Mul. B. ii. c. 89, and De Steril. c. 13.

1416 This is not the fact.

1417 See B. xix. c. 34.

1418 FÉe says that the action of garlic is so powerful, that it is one of the most energetic vermifuges known; but at the same time it is so strong an excitant, that it is very liable to cause worse evils than the presence even of worms.

1419 This serpent is described by Lucan, in the “Pharsalia,” B. ix. l. 708, et seq., where a fearful account is given of the effects of its sting. Nicander, in his “Theriaca,” informs us that those bitten by the hÆmorrhoÏs die with the blood flowing from the nose and ears, whence its name.

1420 Pard or panther-strangle. See B. xxvii. c. 2. The juice of garlic has no such effect as here stated.

1421 De Morb. Mul. B. i. c. 74.

1422 See B. xxix. c. 39.

1423 The Morbus pedicularis. From the frequent mention of it, FÉe says, it would seem to have been very prevalent in ancient times; whereas now, it is but rarely known.

1424 A disease of the skin; supposed by some to be the same as ringworm. The word is employed in modern medicine to signify skin diseases in general, such as itch, lichen, scaldhead, ringworm, &c.

1425 Pintianus suggests “hirudines,” “leeches,” and not “arundines,” arrows. The latter reading is supported, however, by Plinius Valerianus and M. Empiricus.

1426 An expensive kind of fish-sauce: for some further account of it see B. ix. c. 30.

1427 See B. xix. c. 15.

1428 See B. x. c. 78.

1429 “Caprina.” See B. xxvi. c. 39.

1430 FÉe is of opinion that this in reality is not a lettuce, but that Pliny has been led, by the milky juice which it contains, to that conclusion. In B. xxvi. c. 39, he calls it “tithymalum.” Hardouin conjectures it to have been the spurge, or Euphorbia lathyris of LinnÆus, the juice of which is a violent drastic; and FÉe is of opinion that it must have been one of the EuphorbiaceÆ. At the same time, he says, powerful as their properties are, we cannot believe that they exercise the destructive effects on fish here stated.

1431 FÉe thinks that this plant may be looked for among the varieties of the Sonchus or the Hieracium, which belong to the same family as the lettuce.

1432 See B. xviii. c. 14.

1434 Of the lettuce, evidently. FÉe says, who would recognise a lettuce, with its green leaves, and smooth stalk and leaves, under this description? Still, it is by no means an inaccurate description of the wild lettuce.

1435 “Hawk-weed,” from the Greek ???a?, “a hawk.” Under this name are included, FÉe thinks, the varieties of the genus Crepis.

1436 Apuleius, Metam. c. 30, says this of the eagle, when preparing to soar aloft.

1437 This is in some degree true of the juices of the wild lettuces, in a medicinal point of view; but it must be remembered that he has enumerated the Isatis among them, which in reality has no milky juice at all.

1438 “Lactucarium,” or the inspissated milky juice of the garden lettuce, is still used occasionally as a substitute for opium, having slightly anodyne properties, but, as FÉe remarks, all that Pliny says here of its effects is erroneous.

1439 “Adustiones;” “burns,” perhaps.

1440 A kind of spider. See B. xi. cc. 24, 28, 29.

1441 This is consistent with modern experience, as to the medicinal effects of the cultivated plants in general.

1442 In B. xix. c. 38.

1443 The lettuce is not a purgative, nor has it the property here ascribed to it, of making blood.

1444 Sillig is probably correct in his belief that there is a lacuna here.

1445 “Oxypori.”

1446 “Ad intinctum aceti.”

1447 In B. xix. c. 38; the “opium” or “poppy lettuce,” the Lactuca silvestris of modern botany, the soporific properties of which are superior to those of the cultivated kinds.

1448 Or southern-wood. See B. xxi. c. 34.

1449 See B. xxxi. cc. 11 and 12.

1450 There are few plants, FÉe says, which are so utterly destitute of all remedial properties as the beet. See B. xix. c. 40.

1451 FÉe says that the leaves of beet are not at all efficacious except as applications for inflammations of the body.

1452 Dioscorides merely says that the leaves of the limonion are similar to those of beet, but he does not state that it is a kind of wild beet.

1453 Dioscorides says “ten or more.”

1454 FÉe is inclined to identify the “limonium,” or “meadow-plant,” with the Statice limonium of LinnÆus; but looks upon its identification as very doubtful. Fuchs, Tragus, and Lonicerus, have identified it with the Pyrola rotundifolia; but that is not a meadow plant, it growing only in the woods. Others, again, have suggested the Senecio doria, or “water trefoil.”

1455 Divided by naturalists into wild chicory or endive, the Cichorium intybus of LinnÆus, and cultivated endive, the Cichorium endivia of LinnÆus. The name “endive” comes from the Arabian “hindeb;” but whether that was derived from the Latin “intubum,” or vice versÂ, is uncertain. The two kinds above mentioned, are subdivided, FÉe says, into two varieties, the cultivated and the wild. See B. xix. c. 39.

1456 The foundation of the Greek name, ????????, and the Arabic “Schikhrieh.”

1457 The medicinal properties of endive vary, according as it is employed wild or cultivated, and according to the part employed. The leaves are more bitter than the stalk, but not so much so as the root. The juice of all the varieties is very similar, probably, to that of the lettuce; but, as FÉe says, little use has been made of it in modern times.

1458 Or else, “Magi.”

1459 The “useful.”

1460 “The all-powerful.”

1461 The Cichorium luteum of C. Bauhin, the Leontodon palustre of LinnÆus: known to us as the “dandelion,” or by a coarser name.

1462 The kind known as garden endive, the Cichorium endivia of LinnÆus.

1463 “Anthologumena.”

1464 See B. xix. c. 41.

1465 “Crispam.”

1466 “Parsley-like.”

1467 The only use now made of the cabbage, in a medicinal point of view, is the extraction from the red cabbage, which is rich in saccharine matter, of a pectoral, and the employment of the round cabbage, in the form of sour-krout, as an antiscorbutic. The great majority of the statements as to the virtues of the cabbage, though supported by Cato, and in a great measure by Hippocrates, are utterly fallacious.

1468 De Re Rust. 157.

1469 “Scintillationibus.”

1470 See B. xix. c. 15.

1471 Or cancer.

1472 Cato, De Re Rust., 156, 157.

1473 See Note 1301 to c. 2 of this Book.

1474 This absurd notion of antipathy is carried so far by the author of the Geoponica, B. v. c. 11, that he states that if wine is thrown on cabbage while on the fire, it will never be thoroughly boiled.

1475 FÉe remarks, that this fact would surely have engaged the attention of the moderns, if there had been any truth in the statement.

1476 “Crapulam discuti.” “Crapula” was that state, after drinking, colloquially known at the present day as “seediness.”

1477 The contrary is in reality the case, it being a diet only suitable to strong stomachs.

1478 De Morb. Mulier. B. i. cc. 73 and 74. De Nat. Mulier. 29 and 31.

1479 The jaundice.

1480 FÉe is inclined to account for the numerous antidotes and remedies mentioned for the stings of serpents, by supposing that the stings themselves of many of them were not really venomous, but only supposed to be so.

1481 “Repuntinas caligines.”

1482 “Sprout,” or “Brussels sprout.” See B. xix. c. 41.

1483 He is probably speaking of cabbage-water in general.

1484 See B. xix. c. 15.

1485 This bitter or pungent cabbage, FÉe suggests, did not, probably, belong to the genus Brassica.

1486 De Re Rust. c. 157.

1487 FÉe is of opinion that Pliny has here confused the description of two different plants; and that, intending to describe the Brassica arvensis of modern botany, he has superadded a description of the “Crambe agria,” mentioned by Dioscorides, which appears to be identical with the Crambe maritima, or Brassica marina, the “sea-cabbage” of the ancients (see c. 38.), the Convolvulus soldanella of modern botany.

1488 Or “rock-cabbage,” a name given more properly to the Convolvulus soldanella.

1489 See c. 34, and B. xxiv. c. 1.

1490 A description, really, of the Convolvulus soldanella.

1491 See B. xix. c. 41.

1492 The Convolvulus soldanella of LinnÆus, FÉe thinks: not one of the CruciferÆ, but belonging to the ConvolvulaceÆ.

1493 See B. xix. c. 30.

1494 The squill is still regarded in medicine as one of the most energetic of all the vegetable productions, as a diuretic, an expectorant, and, in large doses, an emetic. Squill vinegar is still the form in which it is usually administered. Columella gives a somewhat different account of the mode of preparing it.

1495 Theocritus says that the squill effectually protects statues and tombs from outrages being committed upon them; and it was so customary to plant them about the graves, that it became a proverbial saying, “He is frantic enough to pluck squills from a grave.” Theophrastus states that squills were employed in certain expiatory ceremonials.

1496 As to the identification of the “bulbs,” see B. xix. c. 30. The wild bulbs, FÉe is of opinion, are probably the Nigrum allium or Moly of modern Botany; and the Allium schoenoprasum belongs, in his opinion, to the cultivated bulbs.

1497 Supposing, FÉe says, that the Bulbi of the ancients belonged to the genus Allium or garlic of modern Botany, we may conclude that in a medicinal point of view, they were of an exciting nature, powerful vermifuges, and slightly blistering when applied topically. The other statements here made, as to their medicinal qualities, are not consistent with modern experience.

1498 Testium pituitas.

1499 See B. xix. c. 30. AthenÆus, B. ii. c. 26, attributes a similar property to the bulbs of Megara.

1500 See B. xi. cc. 24, 28.

1501 The Hyacinthus botryoides of LinnÆus, most probably.

1502 “Bulbus vomitorius.” The Narcissus jonquilla of LinnÆus, the “emetic jonquil.” The bulb of the Spanish jonquil acts as a strong emetic.

1503 Dioscorides says, more correctly, a black outer coat or peeling.

1504 Asparagus is recognized in modern times, as exercising a strong action on the kidneys. FÉe says, that according to Dr. Broussais, it is a sedative to palpitations of the heart, an assertion, the truth of which, he says, his own experience has confirmed. The root is also looked upon as diuretic.

1505 Asparagus seed is not used in modern pharmacy, and it is very doubtful if it possesses any virtues at all.

1506 FÉe says that there is no truth in this assertion.

1507 See B. xix. c. 42: the Asparagus tenuifolius of LinnÆus, the wild asparagus, or Corruda of the South of France.

1508 FÉe says that in the South of Europe there is a kind, known to botanists as white asparagus, with a prickly stem: he suggests that it may possibly be the same as that here spoken of.

1509 Or fennel. FÉe says that, till very recently, the roots of asparagus and of fennel were combined in medicine, forming part of the five “major aperitive” roots. The sirop of the five aperitive roots is still used, he says, in medicine.

1510 Chrysippus and Dioscorides were of opinion, that a decoction of asparagus root causes sterility in women; a false notion, which, as FÉe remarks, prevailed very generally in Greece.

1511 This is not consistent with fact.

1512 See B. xix. c. 37. Parsley, though possessed of marked properties, is but little employed in medicine. What Pliny here states respecting it, FÉe says, is a tissue of fables: but it is still used for the cure of sores, and even as an ophthalmic.

1513 This distinction, FÉe says, cannot be admitted.

1514 Or maggots.

1515 This belief in its efficacy, FÉe says, still exists.

1516 See B. xxi. c. 86: this is the Melissa officinalis of LinnÆus, or balm-gentle, from which the bees gather honey, quite a different plant to apiastrum or wild parsley. The Sardinian plant here mentioned, is probably the same as the Ranunculus, mentioned in B. xxv. c. 109, where its identification will be further discussed.

1517 See B. xix. c. 48.

1518 Or “horse parsley.”

1519 Or strangury. No medicinal use is made of this plant in modern times.

1520 Or “mountain parsley,” see B. xix. c. 48.

1521 Or “marsh-parsley,” see B. xix. c. 37. It is possessed of certain energetic properties, more appreciated by the ancient physicians than in modern pharmacy.