Chap. 37.] DTFFEEENT KINDS OF PLANTS. 179 



Others, again, throw out offsets, though not from a bulbous 

 root, such as parsley and beet, for instance. When the stalk 

 is cut, with the exception *** of those which have not a rough 

 stem, nearly all these plants put forth fresh shoots, a thing that 

 may be seen in ocimum,^^ the radish,^ and the lettuce,^ which 

 are in daily use among us ; indeed, it is generally thought that 

 the lettuce which is grown from a fresh sprouting, is the 

 sweetest. The radish, too, is more pleasant eating when the 

 leaves have been removed before it has begun to run to stalk. 

 The same is the case, too, with rape ; for when the leaves are 

 taken off, and the roots well covered up with earth, it grows 

 all the larger for it, and keeps in good preservation till the en- 

 suing summer. 



CHAP. 37. PLANTS OF WHICH THEEE IS I^UT A SINGLE KIND. 



PLANTS OF WHICH THEEE AKE SEVERAL KINDS. 



Of ocimum, lapathum, blite, cresses, rocket, orage, coriander, 

 and anise respectively, there is but a single kind, these plants 

 being the same everywhere, and no better in one place than 

 in another. It is the general belief that stolen^® rue grows 

 the best, while, on the other hand, bees ^^ that have been stolen 

 will never thrive. Wild mint, cat-mint, endive, and penny- 

 royal, will grow even without any cultivation. With refer- 

 ence to the plants of which we have already spoken, or shall 

 have occasion to speak, there are numerous varieties of many 

 of them, parsley more particularly. 



(8.) As to the kind of parsley ^^ which grows spontaneously 

 in moist localities, it is known by the name of " helioselinum;"^^ 

 it has a single leaf ®^ only, and is not rough at the edges. In 



8* Fee suggests that Piiny may have intended here to except the Mono- 

 cotyledons, for otherwise his assertion would be false, 



^5 This, Fee says, cannot be basil, for when cut it will not shoot again. 



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



^"^ The lettuce, as Fee remarks, will not shoot again when cut down. 



^'^ This puerility, Fee observes, runs counter to the more moral adage, 

 that " stolen goods never prosper." 



^9 SeeB. xi. c. 15. 



^ This variety, Fee says, is the Apium graveolens of Linnasus. 



9^ Or marsh-parsley. 



^- Pliny has mistranslated, or rather misread, the passage of Theo- 

 phrastus, who says, B. vii. c. 6, that this kind of parsley is fiav6(pvX\ov, 



K 2 



