356 PLINX'S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book XXI. 



lanthes,^' the anemone, and the aphace :^ the crepis,^'' again, 

 and the lotus,^^ have a foliated stem. 



CHAP. 60. PLANTS CLASSIFIED ACCOEDING TO THEIE LEAVES. 



PLANTS WHICH NEVEE LOSE THEIE LEAVES: PLANTS WHICH 

 BLOSSOM A LITTLE AT A TIME : THE HELIOTEOPIUM AND THE 

 ADIANTUM, THE EEMEDIES DEEIVED PEOM WHICH WILL BE 

 MENTIONED IN THE FOLLOWING BOOK. 



The leaves of plants, as well as those of trees, differ from 

 one another in the length of the footstalk, and in the breadth 

 or narrowness of the leaf, and the angles and indentations per- 

 ceptible on its edge. Other differences are also constituted in 

 respect of their smell and blossom. The blossom remains on 

 longer in some of those plants which flower only a little at a 

 time, such as the ocimum,^^ the heliotropium,^^ the aphace, and 

 the onochilis,^^ for example. 



(17.) Many of these plants, the same as certain among the 

 trees, never lose their leaves, the heliotropium,^* the adian- 

 tum ^^ and the polium,^ for instance. 



^' It has not been identified with any degree of certainty : the Cen- 

 taurea nigra and the Campanula rapunculus have been named. 



^^ See B. xxvii. c. 21 : also c. 52 of this Book. The name appears to 

 have been given to both the Leontodon taraxacum and the Lathyras 

 aphaca of modern botany. 



«3 Theophrastus has Picris in the parallel passage, Hist. Plant. B, vii. 

 c. 9, the Helminthia echioides of Linnaeus. If *' Crepis" is the correct 

 reading, that plant has not been identified. 



^0 The herbaceous kinds are no doubt those alluded to, 



51 See B. xix. cc. 31, 36, and 44 ; and B. xx. c. 48. The ocimum of 

 the Greeks has been identified by some with the Ocimum basiiicura of Lin- 

 naeus, our basil. That of the Romans seems to have been a name given to 

 one or more varieties of leguminous plants of the vetch kind. 



^2 The Heliotropium Europaeum. See B. xxii. c. 29. 

 ^^ This plant has not been identified, but Fee is inclined, from what 

 Dioscorides says, B. iv. c. 24, to identify it with either the Litliospermum 

 fruticosum, or else the Anchusa Italica of Linnaeus. 



'^^ This is not the case, if this plant is identical with the Heliotropium 

 Europaeum, that being an annual. 



°^ The Adiantum Capillus Veneris of Linnaeus, or the Asplenium trich- 

 oraanes of Linna}us. " Venus hair, or coriander maiden hair ; others name 

 it to be well fern."— T. Cooper. The leaves of these plants last the whole 

 of their lives. 



'•^ The Teuerium rolium of Linnaeus, our poley ; the leaves of which 

 are remarkably long-lived. 



