168 PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTORY. [Book XIX. 



it throws out its shoots to a very considerable distance. 18 

 Skirrets, however, are best transplanted. 



CHAP. 30. BULBS, SQUILLS, AND ARUM. 



Next in affinity to these plants are the bulbs, 19 which Cato, 

 speaking in high terms of those of Megara, 20 recommends most 

 particularly for cultivation. Among these bulbs, the squill, 21 

 we find, occupies the very highest rank, although by nature it 

 is medicinal, and is employed for imparting an additional sharp- 

 ness to vinegar.: 22 indeed, there is no bulb known that grows 

 to a larger size than this, or is possessed of a greater degree of 

 pungency. There are two varieties of it employed in medi- 

 cine, the male squill, which has white leaves, and the female 

 squill, with black 23 ones. There is a third kind also, which is 

 good to eat, and is known as the Epimenidian 24 squill ; the leaf 

 is narrower than in the other kinds, and not so rough. .All 

 the squills have numerous seeds, but they come up much more 

 quickly if propagated from the offsets that grow on the sides. 

 To make them attain a still greater size, the large leaves that 

 grow around them are turned down and covered over with 

 earth ; by which method all the juices are carried to the 

 heads. Squills grow spontaneously and in vast numbers in 

 the Baleares and the island of Ebusus, and in the Spanish pro- 

 vinces. 25 The philosopher Pythagoras has written a whole vo- 

 lume on the merits of this plant, setting forth its various me- 



18 The same account nearly is given in Columella, De Re Rust. B. xi. 

 c. 3. 



19 Under this general name were included, probably, garlic, scnllions, 

 chives, and some kinds of onions ; but it is quite impossible to identify the 

 ancient " bulbus" more closely than this. 



20 It has been suggested that this was probably the onion, the Allium 

 cepa of Linnaeus. 



21 The Scilla maritima of Linnaeus, tbe sea-squill. 



22 Sec B. xx. c. 39. He might have added that it renders vinegar botli 

 an emetic, and a violent purgative. 



2:5 The leaves are in all cases green, and no other colour; but in one 

 kind the squama3, or bracted leaves, are white, and in another, red. 



24 Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. 13. vii. c. 11, gives it this name. As 

 none of the sea-squills can be eaten with impunity, Fee is inclined to 

 doubt if this really was a squill. 



25 They still abound in those places. The Spanish coasts on the Medi-t 

 terraneau, Fee says, as well as the vicinity of Gibraltar, are covered with 

 them. 



