360 pliny's natueal nisroiir. [Booli XXI. 



should be cooked in hot ashes, and then eaten with salt and 

 oil. It is beaten up also with figs, and forms, as Hesiod as- 

 sures us, a very delicate dish. It is said, too, that the asphodel^ 

 planted before the doors of a farm-house, will act as a preserv- 

 ative against the effects of noxious spells. 



Homer,^^ too, makes mention of the asphodel. The bulbs 

 of it are like moderately-sized turnips, and there is no plant 

 the root of which has more of them, as many as eighty bulbs 

 being often grouped together. Theophrastus, and nearly all 

 the Greek writers, with Pythagoras at the head of them, have 

 given the name of " anthericos " to its stem, which is one cubit, 

 and often two, in length, the leaves being very similar to those 

 of the wild leek ; it is to the root, or in other words, the bulbs, 

 that they have given the name of asphodel. The people of our 

 country call this plant "^ *' albucus," and they give the name 

 of *^ royal '^ spear " to the asphodel the stem of which bears 

 berries, ^^ thus distinguishing two^^ varieties of it. The albu- 

 cus has a stalk a cubit in length, large, naked, and smooth, in 

 reference to which, Mago recommends that it should be cut at 

 the end of March and the beginning of April, the period at 

 which it blossoms, and before the seed has begun to swell ; he 

 says, too, that the stalks should be split, and exposed on the 

 fourth day in the sun, after which, when dry, they should be 

 made up into bundles. 



The same author states, also, that the Greeks give the name 

 of "pistana" to the aquatic plant known to us as the '' sa- 

 gitta ;"^^ and he recommends that it should be stripped of its 

 bark, and dried in a mild sun, between the ides of May ^^ and 

 the end of October. He says, too, that it is usual to cut doAvn 

 to the root, throughout all the month of July, the variety of 

 the gladiolus called ''cypiros," which is a marsh-plant also, 

 and at the end of three days to dry it in the sun, until it turns 

 white ; but that care must be taken every day to carry it under 

 cover before sunset, the night dews being very injurious to 

 marsh plants when cut. 



25 Od. xi. 539, and xxiv. 13. 



26 It is diflBcult to say to what '• illud" refers, if, indeed, it is the correct 

 reading. 



27 *' Hastula regia." -^ " Caulis acinosi." 



29 See B. xxii. c. .32. 



30 " Arrow." The Sagittaria sagittifolia of Linna3us; our arrow-head, 

 or adder's tongue. ^i 15th of May. 



