362 PLINY'S NATURAL HiSTOET. [Book XXI. 



the more liglit and elegant kinds of basket-work, and the 

 wicks of lamps, for which last purpose the pith is more par- 

 ticularly employed.*^ In the vicinity of the maritime Alps, 

 the rushes grow to such a vast size, that when split they mea- 

 sure nearly an inch in diameter ; while in Egypt, on the other 

 hand, they are so extremely fine, that the people there make 

 sieves of them, for which, indeed, there can be nothing better. 



Some authors, again, distinguish another kind of rush, of a 

 triangular shape, to which they give the name of cyperos,^^ 

 though many persons make no distinction between it and the 

 '' cypiros," in consequence of the resemblance of the names ; 

 for our own part, however, we shall observe the distinction. 

 The cypiros, as we have already *^ stated, is identical with the 

 gladiolus, a plant with a bulbous root, the most esteemed being 

 those grown in the Isle of Crete, the next best those of IS^axos, 

 and the next those of Phoenicia. The cypiros of Crete is 

 white, with an odour stronglj^ resembling that of nard ; th 

 produce of Naxos has a more pungent smell, that of Phoenicia 

 but little odour of any kind, and that of JEgypt none at all ; 

 for it grow3 in that country as well. 



This plant disperses hard tumours of the body — for we shall 

 here begin to speak of the remedies derived from the various 

 flowers and odoriferous plants, they being, all of them, of very 

 considerable utility in medicine. As to the cypiros, then, I 

 ghall follow Apollodorus, who forbids it to be taken in drink, 

 though at the same time he admits that it is extremely useful 

 for calculi of the bladder, and recommends it in fomentations 

 for the face. He entertains no doubt, however, that it is pro- 

 ductive of abortion, and he mentions, as a remarkable fact, 

 that the barbarians,*^ by inhaling the fumes of this plant at 

 the mouth, thereby diminish the volume of the spleen. They 

 never go out of the house, he says, till they have inhaled these 



41 It has descended in our time to the more humble rushlight; and 

 even that is fast " going out." 



42 Fee identifies it with the Cj'perus longus and Cyperus rotundus of 

 Linngeus, the odoriferous or round souchet. 



^•^ In c. 67 of this Book. The bulb, liowever, of the gladiolus is in- 

 odorous ; for which reason Fee is inclined to think that Pliny, witli all 

 his care, is describing a cyperus, perhaps the Cyperus esculcntus. 



J^ It would be curious to know who those barbarians were, who thus 

 smoked cypirus as we do tobacco. Fee queries whether they were Ger- 

 mans or Gauls, people of i\jiia or of Africa. 



