189 PLINl'S NATUEAL HISTORY. [Book XIX. 



dry places, we find growing the kind known as " hipposeli- 

 num,"*^ consisting of numerous leaves, similar to helioselinum. 

 A third variety is the oreoselinum,^^ with leaves like those of 

 hemlock, and a thin, fine, root, the seed being similar to that 

 of- anise, only somewhat smaller. 



The differences, again, that are found to exist in cultivated 

 parsley, ^^ consist in the comparative density of the leaves, the 

 crispness or smoothness of their edges, and the thinness or 

 thickness of the stem, as the case may be : in some kinds, again, 

 the stem is white, in others purple, and in others mottled. 



CHAP. 38. — THE NATUKE AND VAUTETIES OF TWENTY-THREE 

 GARDEN PLANTS. THE LETTUCE ; ITS DIEFERENT VARIETIES. 



The Greeks have distinguished three varieties of the lettuce ;^ 

 the first with a stalk so large, that small garden gates, ^' it is 

 said, have been made of it : the leaf of this lettuce is some- 

 what larger than that of the herbaceous, or green lettuce, but 

 extremely narrow, the nutriment seeming to be expended on 

 the other parts of the plant. The second kind is that with a 

 rounded^ stalk ; and the third is the low, squat lettuce,^ gene- 

 rally known as the Laconian lettuce. 



" thinly covered with leaves," and not fiovofvWnv, " having' a single 

 leaf." Palladius {In Apr Hi.) trmslates it, " molli folio," "with a soft 

 leaf;" but, though Fee commends this version, it is not correct. 



93 Or "horse-parsley." Hardouin takes this to be Macedonian parsley, 

 the Bubon Macedonicum of Linnaeus. Fee, following C. Bauhin and 

 Sprcngel, is inclined to identify it with Macerona. the Smyrnium ^olusa- 

 trum of Linnaeus. 



94 Or "mountain-parsley." Probably the Athamanta oreoselinum of 

 Linnjeus. Some commentators, however, take it to be the Laserpitium 

 forniosum of Wilidenow. Spreugel identifies it with the Selinum oreose- 

 linum of Linnaeus. 



'■^=' The Apium petroselinum, probably, of Linnseus. 



5^^ The Lactuca sativa of Linnagus. This account of the Greek varieties 

 is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4. 



^' This, no doubt, is fabulous, and on a par with the Greek tradition 

 that Adonis concealed himself under the leaves of a lettuce, Avhen he was 

 attacked and killed by the wild boar. The Coss. or Roman, lettuce, as 

 Fee remarks, is the largest of all, and that never exceeds fifteen to twenty 

 inches in height, leaves, stalk and all. 



3S This would seem not to be a distinct variety, as the rounded stalk is 

 a cnaracteristic of them all. 



^ *' Sessile." A cabbage-lcttuce, probably ; though Hardouin dissents 

 from that opinion. 



