J 70 TLINl's N^ATURAL HISTOET. [Book XIX. 



stated that bulbs are reproduced from seed only, but in the 

 champaign country of Praeneste they grow spontaneously, 

 and they grow to an unlimited extent in the territory of the 

 Eemi.^' 



CHAP. 31. (6.) THE EOOTS, FLOWERS, AND LEAVES OF ALL THESE 



PLANTS. GARDEN PLANTS WHICH LOSE THEIR LEAVES. 



Nearly alP^ the garden plants have a single^' root only, 

 radishes, beet, parsley, and mallows, for example ; it is lapa- 

 thum, however, that has the longest root of them all, it attain- 

 ing the length of three cubits even. The root of the wild 

 kind is smaller and of a humid nature, and when up it will 

 keep alive for a considerable period. In some of these plants, 

 however, the roots are fibrous, as we find the case in parsley 

 and mallows, for instance; in others, again, they are of a 

 ligneous nature, as in ocimum, for example ; and in others they 

 are fleshy, as in beet, and in saffron even more so. In some, 

 again, the root is composed of rind and flesh, as in the radish 

 and the rape ; while in others it is jointed, as in hay grass.^** 

 Those plants which have not a straight root throw out imme- 

 diately a great number of hairy fibres, orage^^ and blite,^*^ for 

 instance : squills again, bulbs, onions, and garlic never have 

 any but a vertical root. Among the plants that grow spon- 

 taneously, there are some which have more numerous roots 

 than leaves, spalax," for example, pellitory,*' and saffron.''^ 



Wild thyme, southernwood, turnips, radishes, mint, and rue 

 bk ssom all*^ at once ; while others, again, shed their blossom 

 directly they have begun to flower. Ocimum^^ blossoms gradu- 



=5 In Gauk See B, iv. c. 31. 



^s This passage, and indeed nearly the whole of the Cliapter, is bor- 

 rowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. i. c. 9. 



^^ Fee thinks that by the expression fxovoppiZa^ Theophrastus means a 

 root that strikes vertically, instead of spreading. 



=8 Gramen. See B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xxiv. c. 118. 



^3 Atriplex. See B. xx. c. 83. 4o g^e B. xx. c. 93. 



41 Poinsinet suggests that this may mean the " mole-plant," dcirdXa^ 

 being the Greek for "mole." 



*- " Perdicium." See B. xxii. cc. 19, 20. 



^^ " Crocus." See B. xxi. c. 17, ci seg. 



" Tliis is not tlie fact. All these assertions are from Theophrastus, 

 Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 3. i- » 



" Fee thinks that tlie 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. 



