358 plen-y's NATUEAL HISTOBY. [Book XXI. 



provided with three or four other offsets attached to it. It is 

 generally used boiled in pottage." 



CHAP. 63. rLAKTS WHICH ONLY MAKE THEIH APPEARANCE AT 



THE EXD OF A YEAK. PLANTS WHICH BEGIN TO BLOSSOM AT 

 THE TOP. PLANTS WHICH BEGIN TO BLOSSOM AT THE LOWER 

 PART. 



It is a remarkable thing that the herb lotus^" and the segi- 

 lops^^ never make their appearance above ground till the end of 

 a year after the seed has been sown. The anthemis,^- too, offers 

 the singular peculiarity that it begins to blossom at the top, 

 while in all the other plants which flower gradually, it is at 

 the lower part that the blossom first makes its appearance. 



CHAP. 64. THE LAPPA, A PLANT WHICH PRODUCES WITHIN ITSELF. 



THE OPUNTIA, WHICH THROWS OUT A ROOT FROM THE LEAF. 



In the lappa," too, which clings so tenaciously, there is this 

 remarkable peculiarity, that within it there grows a flower, 

 which does not make its appearance, but remains concealed 

 and there produces the seed, like those among the animals 

 which produce within themselves. In the vicinity of Opus 

 there grows a plant ^"* which is very pleasant eating to man, 

 and the leaf of which, a most singular thing, gives birth to a 

 root by means of which it reproduces itself. 



CSAP. 65. THE lASIONE. THE CHONDRYLLA. THE PICRIS, WHICH 



REMAINS IN FLOWER THE WHOLE YEAR THROUGH. 



The iasione^^ has a single leaf only, but that so folded and 

 involved, as to have all the appearance of being several in 

 number. The chondrylla^^ is bitter, and the juice of the root 



'. "Puis." 



10 Trobably the Mclilotus coerulea of liinnaeus, Fee says. Desfontaines 

 mentions the Melilotus Crctica or Italica. 



11 The A vena fatua or sterilis ; the barren oat. See B. xviii. c. 44. 



12 See B. xxii. c. 26. 



13 The Gallium aparinc of Linnaeus. See B. xviii. c. 44. 



1* The Opuntia. The Cactus Opuntia of Linnaeus ; the cactus, or 

 Indian fig. 



1= Perhaps the Convolvulus sepium of Linnoous; though Fee dissents 

 from that opinion. See B. xxii. c. 39. 



16 See c. 52 of this Book. 



