338 plint's natural utstory. [Book XXI. 



Jove, and another kind of lily,^ as also the tiphyon^* and the 

 amaracus, surnamed that of Phrygia. But tlie most reraark- 

 ahle flower of all is the pothos, ^^ of which there are two 

 yarieties, one with the flower of the hyacinth, ^^ and another 

 with a white flower, which is generally found growing about 

 grayes, and is better able to stand bad weather. The iris,^^ 

 also, blossoms in summer. All these flowers pass away, how- 

 eyer, and fade; upon which others assume their places in 

 autumn, a third kind of iily/^ for instance, saff'ron, and two 

 yarieties of the orsinum^^ — one of them inodorous and the other 

 scented — making their appearance, all of them, as soon as the 

 first autumnal showers fall. 



The garland-makers employ the flowers of the thorn^'' eyen 

 for making chaplets ; the tender shoots, too, of the white 

 thorn are sometimes preseryed as a choice morseP^ to tempt 

 the palate. 



Such is the succession of the summer flowers in the parts 

 beyond sea : in Italy, the yiolet is succeeded by the rose, the 

 lily comes on while the rose is still in flower, the cyanus^- suc- 

 ceeds the rose, and the amaranth the cyanus. As to the yin- 



^ Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 7, mentions the " cerinfhus" 

 next after the flower of Jove : Pliny seems to have taken it for a kind of 

 liiy. This flower has not been identified. 



'»* Sprengel takes this to be the Lavandula spica, or Lavender. 



55 Hardouin identifies this with the Lychnis Chalcedonica, or Cross of 

 Jerusalem, with which opinion Fee seems inclined to coincide. Other 

 commentators incline to the opinion that it is the Jasniinum fruticans, a 

 plant in which, beyond its smell, there is nothing at all remarkable. The 

 exotic monocotyledon, known as the " Pothos," has no connection with 

 the plant here mentioned. 



»5'This, according to some, is the Lj'chnis Chalcedonica, the next being 

 the Jasminum fruticans. 



5' As known to us, all the varieties of the iris blossom in spring. 



5^ The purple lily, Fee thinks. 



59 If this is the correct reading, which is very doubtful, this plant is 

 unknown. M. Jan has suggested that Pliny, in copying from Theophrastus, 

 Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 7, has read opcivbq by mistake for optivoq, "moun- 

 tainous," the original meaning being, " Two varieties of saff'ron, one of them 

 growing on the mountains, the other cultivated;" and this last word being 

 rendered by Pliny " hebes," translated above as meaning " inodorous." 



w The Acanthus, probably. See B. xxii. c. 34, and B. xxiv. c. 66. 



51 Forskhal speaks of an acanthus in Arabia, the leaves of which are 

 eaten raw. Fee thinks, that these shoots might be eaten without any in- 

 convenience, but doubts if they would make such a tempting morsel as 

 Pliny describes. ^- Or blue-bell. 



