210 THE CLASSICAL PLANTS OF SICILY. 
'AegóbeXos. Diosc. lib. ii. cap. 199, also of Theoph. lib. vii. 
cap. 12. ‘ 
In Romaic, ’Acgédsiw, or 'Aegowo)Xo, and x«guobu. Sibth. 
See Theocritus, Zdj/. vii. v. 68, and Idyl. xxvi. v. 4. Diosco- 
rides says the Asphodel was well known, and the flower was 
called dx£zxoz; the whole plant was much used in medicine. 
It was fabled to grow in the Elysian fields, or ‘ ever-flower- 
ing meads of Asphodel,” ’AogodeAiv «uz, as Homer calls 
them: hence probably the ancient Greeks were wont to 
place this Asphodel on the tombs of their friends. Thus in 
the Epigram of Porphyry, a tomb is made to say,—* on the 
outside I have the Mallow, and many-rooted Asphodel, but 
within a person.” 
Now ui Marayny re “Aopideroy worverZov, 
Kéry 6: viv delve exon 
See also a like inscription on a funereal vase, (ab. xxxvi. 
Series I. of Millingen’s Unedited Monuments. 
By these the following verse of Hesiod is explained (Op. 
et dies, v. 41). : 
O30 oov i Marcin re xal "AopodzArw miy oving- 
Abundant in pastures, and in the uncultivated parts of the 
island. 
141. Scilla maritima.—Officinal Squill.—Bot. Mag. vol. 
xxxiii. tab. 918. 
ZxDXxe, Diosc, lib. ii. cap. 209. xxi, "Theoph. lib. vii. 
cap. 12. sx^^a, Grec. hodiern. Sibth. Confer Theocritus, 
Ldyl. v. v. 121. 
Ixias iov yzuíag amd odmaros audrina TIAX0Ig. —** Go quick, and 
pluck up the old Squills from the grave." The word ex/A3«6n 
occurs Idyl. vii. v. 107. The Squill is still used, as in the 
time of Dioscorides, for a diuretic in dropsies, à DüpumiX Gi. 
I noticed the large bulbs of this plant in most dry, and 
sandy places in Sicily, but in more abundance near the sea- 
shore. 
